What happened?
Twelve years!
You hit me with a cricket bat!
Ha! Twelve years!
Tuesday, November 11
Yay For Non-Globalisation!
A couple of weeks back, I
whined about the lack of CD-printing printers in Australia. Epson sell such beasties just about everywhere else in the world, but not in Oz, because the ink used is dye-based in will destroy the ozone layer or something.
Anyway, it appears that Canon have come to the rescue with not one, not two, but three shiny new models. Of course, the one I want* doesn't seem to be available anywhere...
But the really amusing thing is that the models sold in America can't print on CDs - apparently due to a patent dispute. Ha ha!
* The most expensive one.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:46 PM
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Infectious Suckness
Telstra have stuffed their DSL network statewide. In a rather interesting way: packets up to 1144 bytes in size will get through; packets of 1145 bytes or more, basically, won't. Packet loss is 7% at 1000 bytes,
97% at 1200 bytes.
So ping and traceroute work, ssh mostly works, but http, ftp, smtp, pop, nntp and BitTorrent - in other words, all the good stuff - don't.
When I get home, if it's not fixed, I'll try fiddling with the MTU and see where that gets me. Probably the yacht will sink.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:04 PM
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A Poll Thingy!
So I've pretty much decided that I'm going to get a new computer. The only question is: What colour should it be? Oh, yeah, black. Makes it go faster.
Well, with that sorted, there are only little unimportant details left to decide, like what processor I should get. (Mac fans note: I'd love to buy a Dual G5, but it's just not on the cards this year.)
So, let me know what you think. AMD? Intel? Zilog?
Update: Oh, yeah. The machine will be running Windows XP, and will be used for web browsing and email... And graphics editing and web design. And video editing. (Video encoding is painfully slow on my current system.) And music editing (Sonic Foundry's Acid). The occasional bit of programming. (Most of my programming is done on Linux). Word processing. Watching videos. And games, of course.
In fact, mostly games. I already have a GeForce 4 4600 Ultra, so I'm waiting out the current confusion in the video card market. Wake me when the GeForce 6 is out. (Or the FX2 or the GX or whatever it turns out to be.)
I'm also thinking of upgrading my Linux box. That will almost certainly be an Athlon.
The reason I'm asking is that the last four or five systems I've bought have all been AMD - right back to the K6-2. I have a P3 box at work, and it's not particularly impressive. So I've never spent much time on a P4, and I don't know how they stack up.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:51 AM
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1
You didn't say what you are going to use the computer for. That's kind of important.
If it's a server running Linux, then you can get away with an AMD xp1900+ and spend your money on memory and hard drives (get a few spares since you seem to break them frequentely).
If you are getting a workstation, what types of programs are you going to be running?
If 3D rendering, then the fastest AMD processor you can afford (not the 64-bit one) and a butt-load of memory.
For games, video card performance is more important than processor performance.
If you just use office applications and/or do web browsing, screw performance. You can get away with something cheap like the xp1900+ (about US$50).
BTW, if you are going for pure geek bragging rights, then you need an AMD 64-bit dual processor system and several gigs of memory. You won't ever need this kind of power, but who cares? At the moment, the 64-bit processors don't offer a lot of benefits over the 32-bit processors. That will change over the next year (or so) as programs are rewritten to take advantage of the 64-bit architecture.
Posted by: Rossz at Tuesday, November 11 2003 05:28 PM (43SjN)
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Speedspeedspeedspeedspeed!
Posted by: Victor at Tuesday, November 11 2003 06:11 PM (L3qPK)
3
Good point, Ross.
The Athlon 65 FX 51 currently has the highest SpecInt 2000 score of any processor. Also the second highest :) (32 bit mode with Intel compilers and 64 bit mode with GCC respectively.)
So it will be interesting to see what happens as the 64-bit compilers improve.
And yes, what I really want is a quad Opteron, but it's not in the budget right now :(
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, November 11 2003 10:11 PM (LBXBY)
4
Athlon 65? I guess that one is having a bit on the side...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, November 11 2003 10:15 PM (LBXBY)
5
BTY- get Western Digital HDs; quality counts.
Posted by: CPT. Charles at Wednesday, November 12 2003 05:54 PM (Hgn8p)
6
no point in getting a 64 bit chip if you're using Windows XP - i'd wait until longhorn to jump on that bandwagon.
I'm running Athlon XP2800 with 2gb ram and UW scsi drives and it kicks the carp out of my work's P4 2.8ghz. Plus you can really push the Athlons provided you have enough heat extraction ... remember OverClocking is fun!
Posted by: rob at Thursday, November 13 2003 10:13 AM (kXZI6)
7
If the Athlon 64s were cheaper, it would be reasonable to spend a little extra to get one. But they aren't, so it isn't...
Interesting to hear your results on the XP 2800+ against the P4 2.8. How did you get 2GB of memory, though? 1GB dimms?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, November 13 2003 11:24 PM (LBXBY)
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258,941 Down
108,671 to go. Or thereabouts. Then I just have to reformat the external drive and
copy all of those files back again. I hope that runs a bit faster than the file recovery process. Stellar Phoenix seems to be thorough and reliable, but it is
not fast.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Ouchie!
I'm getting prices on upgrading or replacing all of my main computers. Although the individual parts are nice and cheap, when you add them all up the number is surprisingly large. Particularly when you start specifying RAID-5 with a hot spare as the standard storage configuration...
But it would be very nice to have everything working properly for a change. Or at least, to have enough parts around so that anything that plays up can get swapped out and sent back without having to juggle things endlessly.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Monday, November 10
Another Day
Another dead drive. IBM GXP-27 leaves behind the other three members of its RAID-5 set and all of its files. Thank G-d.
Look, you laws of physics/evil spirits/karma/planned obsolescence (delete where not applicable) this isn't funny anymore!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
07:39 AM
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1
You did remember to sacrifice the chicken, didn't you?
Posted by: Matt Navarre at Monday, November 10 2003 05:11 PM (n/wkr)
2
are you sure you were facing north when you were juggling the squirrels at midnight?
Posted by: Ted at Monday, November 10 2003 08:50 PM (2sKfR)
3
Seriously, what are you doing to kill all those drives? I have never heard of that many drives going out this close together.
Are they all in the same box? could there be something wrong with that box? Do the drives continue to be bad if plugged into another box?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward at Tuesday, November 11 2003 02:58 AM (8+XGc)
4
One drive was brand new and just plain didn't work. That's not that rare. But still annoying.
One drive suffered a filesystem corruption, but the drive itself is working fine.
The other two are getting on in years, and now that the weather is warming up, I think they just decided to take a holiday. Actually, I'm not entirely sure that they are dead; they may have just hiccuped and been failed out of the RAID set.
None of the drives have had a controller failure - they are all still recognised by BIOS.
Two drives are in one box (my Linux server) - but the other drives in that box are fine.
One drive wouldn't format when I installed it - in a different machine (my Windows box).
The corrupt filesystem drive is an external Firewire thingy.
I'll tell you some time about my six failed Deathstars.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, November 11 2003 03:13 AM (LBXBY)
5
EMAIL: pamela_woodlake@yahoo.com
IP: 62.213.67.122
URL:
DATE: 01/21/2004 03:47:21 PM
Believing in God does not require believing in religion.
Posted by: SeikalyJones Roula Seikaly at Monday, December 13 2004 07:00 AM (vvcuS)
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Saturday, November 08
Bleah
Well, at least this one was brand new and didn't have any files on it when it died.
Also, it's under warranty.
Still: Bleah.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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1
I think I'm going to have to start sending you condolence cards if you loose one more hard drive or whatever geekly thing it was....
Posted by: Susie at Sunday, November 09 2003 01:07 AM (0+cMc)
2
it's beginning to sound like some ancient curse :)
Posted by: Ted at Sunday, November 09 2003 01:37 AM (2sKfR)
3
Man, you're quite the hard drive destruction bunny, aren't you.
Posted by: Matt Navarre at Sunday, November 09 2003 01:43 AM (n/wkr)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, November 09 2003 02:45 AM (jtW2s)
5
You had it easy. I lost everything on my server's two hard drives (one was brand new) when the power supply blew. I just set up the new server and I'm in the process of adding content. I plan on getting an external USB 2.0 DVD burner for backups. I decided on an external model so I can move it from system to system as needed. Can anyone recommend a decent model? I'll be using it with both Linux and Windoze.
BTW, don't ever trust a Seagate Traven tape drive. They are "write-only".
Posted by: Rossz at Sunday, November 09 2003 02:31 PM (43SjN)
6
My mom, at times when things went consistently tits-up, would say that I wasn't holding my tongue right.
I don't know how helpful this might be.
Posted by: LeeAnn at Sunday, November 09 2003 04:31 PM (HxCeX)
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Unleashed, Unfound
Bum.
The other day when I was looking for Chobits 2, I mentioned that during my excavation I discovered the latest Sims expansion pack. As it happens, there is now a new latest Sims expansion pack: Makin' Magic. This allows you to turn your neighbours into frogs, which does much to explain the popularity of the Sims franchise.
Unforunately, my Sims installation fell victim to the Great Storage Crash of '03, so I need to install it all over again. Now, let's see:
The Sims. Check.
Livin' Large. Check.
House Party. House Party? Anyone seen House Party? Aha! Check.
Hot Date. Check.
Vacation. Check.
Unleashed. Check.
Superstar. Check.
Makin' Magic. Well, duh. Check.
So off I go, install install install, only -
This copy of The Sims Unleashed seems to be missing something. Like, one of the CDs.
Rats! I do this from time to time. The problem is, after you install a game, you have to keep the CD in the drive to keep the copy protection crap happy. So the game box gets put away, you play the game for a while, and then you need to use the CD-ROM drive for something else. So you take the game disk out and put it somewhere safe™. And you never see it again.
Now, I can either turn my study upside down looking for the damn disk, or I can pop out tomorrow morning and buy another copy. Guess which one is more likely?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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I was finally going to update to Windows 98--but I needed to put the Windows 95 CD in the CD drive to do it. Hmmm....when did I last see that? Sometime before the turn of the century, I'm pretty sure.... needless to say, I still have 95 running...
Posted by: Susie at Sunday, November 09 2003 01:15 AM (0+cMc)
2
Two words:
bit torrent
Who knows -- might not even be illegal if you already bought the software. I had to replace a Sims House Party CD due to leaving it "somewhere safe" -- still had the box, so I knew I'd bought it; found it on a bittorrent tracker, and by the next day I'd burned myself a nice shiney new replacement disk.
Posted by: Craig at Sunday, November 09 2003 11:50 PM (W2tsW)
3
Hey, it's just a backup!
I love BitTorrent. In the platonic sense.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, November 10 2003 07:43 AM (jtW2s)
4
This is why I have 3 48-CD folders full of software disks. And a 2 stands of slim-line jewel cases ($10 at costco for 100, why not ^_^) And a stack of empty game jewel cases mixed in with old game boxes.
Of course, this didn't save my Empire Earth CD which seems to have picked up a nice looking spiral scratch running from the inner ring almost out to the outside edge.
Posted by: Chris C. at Wednesday, November 12 2003 11:46 AM (BD9lG)
5
I picked up a 256-CD folder at lunch time. Now I just have to round all of them up.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, November 13 2003 01:30 AM (LBXBY)
6
Have you seen this before? It's a number guessing game: http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/guessthenumber.html. I guessed 26782, and it got it right! Pretty neat.
Posted by: Merideth Carleton at Tuesday, May 16 2006 01:37 PM (QEdJl)
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Friday, November 07
G Is For...
Web site of the day is
Googirl.
'Nuff said.
Update: No doubt due to the flood of traffic I just sent their way, Googirl seems to have gone down.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:33 AM
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Posted by: Susie at Friday, November 07 2003 07:45 PM (0+cMc)
2
Apparently not.
Go for it, Susie!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 07 2003 11:24 PM (LBXBY)
3
Well... one of 'em was kinda pretty, I guess..
Posted by: Tuning Spork at Saturday, November 08 2003 02:30 AM (w5iBD)
4
You still using that old burnt-out monitor, Spork?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, November 08 2003 03:12 AM (LBXBY)
5
Obviously Spork's screen steamed up too much.
Posted by: Simon at Saturday, November 08 2003 10:39 AM (aEuMK)
6
I guess so, 'cause he didn't notice that it's all the same girl. Sofia Vergara... (Drifts off into happy Pixy dreams.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, November 08 2003 11:14 AM (jtW2s)
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Quokka In A Red Hat
The first release of the
Fedora Project, the new home for the free version of
Red Hat Linux, is out. I'll be giving it a whirl as soon as I've backed up the remaining 2.5 million files currently scattered around Pixy Central.
But from a quick scan of the package list, it would seem that Fedora suffers from one of Red Hat's major flaws: No Nethack. Dudley will realise how much of a problem this is, even if no-one else does.
There is good news on the Nethack front to be found here, at least.
Speedy and fearsome Q's, eh? What are they going to do, steal my K-Rations and throw up on my boots? Aiee! The worst attributes of nymphs and rust-monsters combined!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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