Windows 7 (Again) And Other Stuff

My son, who is into gaming, has been pestering me to build him a windows box. I finally arranged to get it all set up, having downloaded a Win7Pro64 disk on the advice of windows using friends of mine.

 This is when I found that a 2.4GHz quad core Intel processor is considered mildly obsolete. It also has a Radeon 4870 and 8GB of ram. The specs are fairly low by modern standards, but they should do. However, Asus, the motherboard manufacturer, no longer provides drivers.

I have found the network drivers, and Windows Update seems to be installing other drivers right now.
Anyway, that project is going swimmingly. I also have a decaying linux box, with a motherboard that periodically refuses to boot. I have found some 10krpm SFF SAS disks (2.5"), five of them, and am going to add them to my system, possibly adding three more later, as raid0, to improve my performance, as I have adopted KVM and need fast storage.

 I am going to have to address the machine performance as well. The processors are fast enough, 8 2.9GHz cores, but the ram, 14.7GB, is not enough. It is 14.7GB because of interleaving. Anyway, with two VMs running 4GB each, I'm running out of space.

 I also need to address my main storage array, which has precipitated my need to investigate Linux MD raid, which now supports RAID6, online level migration and online capacity expansion.

I have enough ports on my motherboard to connect 14 devices, 8 sas and 6 sata, and I have an 8 port sas controller as well. With 6 sas ports used by the sas hardware, going up to as many as 14 in the future, I will need at least 9 ports for the sata array, for a max of 23. Right now, I am looking at 15 ports, which can easily be done with the higher speed sas controller. I suppose when I get it set up, I will post some performance numbers for both the raid6 software raid array and the raid0 scratch/VM disks.

The Trouble With Linux

I have Linux boxes, several of them. My day job is supporting Linux boxes. On my desk here is a dual 1207 Opteron with two Barcelona CPUs running Debian. At work, I have a Xeon quad core and a HT P4, one running Debian and the other running Mandriva. I also have a Myth box in the other room.

I have been using Linux for a while, and am pretty competent with it, is what I'm trying to say. I have even used Linux as my only system for stretches of time, normally ending up with some sort of Apple laptop sooner or later, because Linux just doesn't seem to work.

I switch between Debian and Ubuntu mostly, while work demands that I use Mandriva where possible. I switch between Debian and Ubuntu mostly because the underlying Aptitude package system is the best system configuration tool I have used.

While using Debian, I begin to pine after the desktop-like features of Ubuntu, when, for instance, my Debian system fails to play a DVD because the codec is invalid or missing or something. Also, Flash doesn't work well or often.

Then I switch to Ubuntu for a while. First off, I can't use my software raid main volume that I use with Ubuntu. The Ubuntu installer knoweth nothing about software raid. Well, put it on the SSD and worry not. Everything goes on so slickly; even Flash works and works fairly well. There is a really nice front end for the package manager and Ubuntu happily suggests packages when you try to execute a command that doesn't exist.

However, after a while, the automatics in Ubuntu make the system get weird. None of the configuration is in the correct place. I spend hours tracking down how to fix the simplest things. I don't like messing with GUIs to fix problems. Even when I fix something, it gets fixed back. It can get tiring.

I get to wondering, also, whether I really need all that UI stuff, and get to pining for Ubuntu's XFCE simplicity. Seriously, XFCE loads in less than a blink after login.

Anyway, right now, as I said, I'm using Debian right now, and exploring the wasteland that is GTK, using FreeCiv to do it. GTK has gotten so piggish that this monster Opteron machine running 2.4GHz is slow. It takes minutes for each move. It is so bad I am speccing out a new computer based on a much faster single CPU in order to achieve faster single-thread performance. There is really nothing wrong with this machine, but I need faster GTK performance.

Linux on the desktop is adrift. Debian is pretty much excused, as its focus has always been on the server, not the desktop. Ubuntu and Mandriva are both desktop efforts. Mandriva 2010 is providing, shall we say, a certain level of job security, and that is all I'm going to say about that. Ubuntu, however, is so very close.

GTK, Gnome, KDE are all pigs. They chew through CPU cycles and ram like rampant hogs. When you are done configuring a decent desktop system, you are looking at a VM footprint of around 2GB. Look at XFCE4 on Debian, with a minimalist system, and the VM footprint runs around 512MB or so.

Why does all this matter? Well, CPU performance is as much about bandwidth as anything else, and, keeping the VM size down leads to less bandwidth usage, meaning more efficient usage of clock cycles. Keeping most of the code the size of the L3 cache would be ideal, but unlikely.

Anyway, there is an old adage that the XFCE guys seem to get, that Debian has long fought to retain, that Apple occasionally rediscovers, that Microsoft has never seemed to get, which is that 'software does something'.

Linux developers need to understand that the strength of the platform is efficiency and reliability. This is important, because the fancy graphics is pretty much the strength of the professionals, Apple and Microsoft. Fancy graphics don't matter in the long run. What matters is rock-solid performance.

Anyway, that's my opinion; the trouble with Linux is that they seem to be trying desperately to match the architecture of the for-pay systems. They need to go back to the simple ideas that hatched the revolution.

HP Veer vs. Dell Streak Mini 5

So, next month, my contract is finally up for renewal. I have become annoyed with the iPhone (3gs) and don't really want to pay for a 4, even tho it might, in theory, fix some of my complaints. I want to move on, if for no other reason that variety is the spice of life.

So, to survey the field, there are currently iOS (Apple), Blackberry, Android, WebOS and Windows Mobile 7. I'll deal with the ones I'm not looking at first.

I have had a Windows Mobile device, running 6.5, and it was horrid. I hear 7 may be better, but am not yet willing to find out. Blackberry is in the same boat, although I did look long and hard at the Torch. I currently have an iOS device, and my problems with it are by now well known.

So, that leaves Android and WebOS. I was pretty much set on the HP Veer until I picked up a Dell Streak Mini 5, which is a 5" Android handset. Sure, it's massive, but I'm pretty large, so the size never bothers me. It also doesn't have a hardware keyboard, which is a major reason to not be interested. It will, however, run flash very well, has a large screen and will soon run Netflix. It would be a unified device, giving me little reason to buy an iPad.

However, on the other hand, there's the HP Veer, which is a very small smart phone that is nearly on overgrown feature phone, providing a select set of services, such as email, messaging and facebook, while missing some of the other things, such as Netflix. It does, however, have a serviceable slide out keyboard.

I guess it broke down to HP vs. Dell. I have never liked Dell machines, generally preferring HP in any bracket where they compete. I think, more than anything, that is what is tipping the scales. That and the fact that the HP Veer does only messaging pretty much. When I'm carrying my phone, messaging and light browsing are all I do with it. I will eventually get an iPad if I get a Veer. The iPad will take over the media jobs and the heavy web browsing.

Don't like the iPhone anymore

It really revolves around the thing being a lousy messaging phone. The onscreen keyboard hasn't gotten any better (I was assured it would), the autocorrect is really annoying, as it makes me check every word to make sure it didn't change to something horrible (check damnyouautocorrect.com), and the email application is just as annoying as ever.

On the Blackberry Bold, an incoming mail, or any message, was added to the master message queue for you to see, in order it was received. The email subject was shown, at least what fit, and hitting the backspace key deleted the message. No muss, no fuss, the occasional accidentally deleted email, but, overall, quite usable. The iPhone, however, pretty much requires you click on the email, as the other options are 'edit' followed by touching each one you want to delete, followed by 'delete'. Or you can try the swipe to delete thing, sick, horrid joke that it is.

Then there's the keyboard. I now use a bluetooth keyboard at work to type messages rather than try to use the keyboard. I've ended up working on my laptop rather more, something I'd pretty much quit doing when I had the Blackberry.

Anyway, I'm off to buy a Palm Pre Plus, refurbished, and see how annoying that will be...

An iPhone as a Personal Computer

I have an iPhone. I broke down and bought one. I know, I have caved in to the crowd, but the thing is just so useful and entertaining.

Of course, there are problems with it, like how the master volume affects the ringer volume, or how the messaging system is such a mess, what with having to go into three separate applications to check three separate messaging types, voice, mail, email...

Gripes aside, the quest is to discover if this sort of device is adequate for my normal day-to-day non work-related computing, such as blogging, surfing the web, reading email, watching netflix and playing games.

Games it does, and how. That is perhaps the most entertaining thing it does. If you haven't played games on an iPhone or iPod, go do it and see if you don't enjoy yourself.

Watching netflix it does as well. It gets five or six hours of video in, which is simply spectacular.

With the new email client that puts all my email in one place, I am willing to say it does email well enough.

The test, really, is the lightweight writing, the blogging, my novels and, lately, my resume. That is what I am after right now, and, so far, it is fairly positive.

I don't know why apple has not released pages for the iphone; that would seem to be such a natural thing to do. I am using a Microsoft Word compatible office product, office2, which has a pretty good spreadsheet, and tonight, after I finish getting it squared away, I will start using that to actually write a story. For now, though, I am blogging, and, with the apple bluetooth keyboard, this thing may work well enough for that.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

A week or so on with an iPhone

A few minutes with a screwdriver removing a broken bit of plastic from the Logitech DiNovo Mini has really improved its usefulness. I did have the occasion to type on work's Blackberry Bold, and I miss that keyboard. The iPhone's keyboard is just usable enough for the occasional texting but nothing more. During the day I'm often reaching for the Mini to bang something out, as I'm doing now.

So, I guess I ought to get the complaints about the Mini out of the way first. The tick key, so often used in contractions, is not illuminated, so, in the dark, I have to remember it's fn-/, while dash is fn-o. Oh, and why, oh why, in the name of all that is holy, do they turn the illumination of the regular keys off when you hit backspace? Make a mistake, lose all ability to correct it.

Once again, the Mini is a superior media remote, but is mildly annoying as a portable keyboard. I will have to get a real one at some point.

Back to the iPhone. Having one has changed my habits slightly. For instance, my laptop stays firmly in its bag most nights, as I use my iPhone for most simple computing tasks. Having had a Blackberry, I was already accustomed to reading mail on my mobile device, and the reading of mail is superior on the iPhone, while the managing of messages in general is not. For instance, Apple forwent the nearly universal flashing LED indicator for new messages, with the result that I've missed some important messages by dint of stepping away for a bit or having it in my pocket. I have had to learn to check it often.

Also, the Blackberry puts all messages into the same list so you can see at a glance you have a text message, two emails and a voicemail to deal with, while those are three separate unrelated things on the iPhone. Also, seriously, modal dialogs, now, in the 21st century? Even worse, swiping that evil swipe to unlock thing causes the alerts to go away so you have to wander formlessly looking for what the alert was, instead of being taken right to all your messages, as does the Blackberry.

I guess most iPhone users are constantly attached to their phones by wired headsets, but I hate wired headsets. I will have to figure out some way around the wired headset in the future. Until then, I will miss the occasional annoyance, erm, phone call.

One thing I found out about having a Blackberry is that the excuses went right away. The Blackberry felt smaller and less of a big deal to carry. It wasn't playing music or games, and you never browsed the web with it except in an emergency, so taking it with you was as easy as slipping it into the holster it came with, which automatically put it to sleep and locked its keyboard. That is one trick the iPhone could stand to learn. And, could it kill them to put an alert LED on it?

One more minor gripe about the iPhone is the flaky cover flow in the iPod app. Some times, when I advance to the next tune in shuffle, the cover flow does not update to the new album art. If I let the song finish, it starts updating again. Weird.

Overall, the experience remains positive, but we shall see. So far, the Bold owns the record, as I was mostly happy with it for well over eight months. I already have some major annoyances with this thing, and I haven't been watching much mobile video, one of the major reasons I got it.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I Got an iPhone

I finally replaced my aging and decrepit Blackberry Bold with an iPhone 3gs. I got a refurb unit as I was concerned it would not suit me and the Bold entered nirvana months before cheap upgrade time for me.

So, anyway, first impressions are quite positive. The iPhone edged out the Samsung Captivate as it does the things I want to do now, such as stream hulu and netflix. Right now I am blogging while listening to music, using a logitech DiNovo mini to peck this entry out.

I will have to get a better keyboard and the wired headset is driving me to distraction snagging on everything, and the battery life is fairly poor, but the capability is there, and I keep finding new uses for it. more later when I have a decent keyboard...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]