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Titan Blue – Server Development & Experimentation Project
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/31/07 at 12:03:35 am
Titan Blue, is an IBM Intellistation Z Pro, a 43 Lbs, 2.66 Ghz Intel XEON workhorse that will become my new project over the next few months. I wanted to come up with a name that matched the new machine’s primary purpose. Titan, being something of exceptional importance or reputation, and Blue being derived from all that is IBM, I think the name is perfect, and here’s why…
Titan Blue will be more than a run of the mill SOHO file server. In fact the reason I’m calling this a project over and over is because it will be just that. I want to venture into potential that I have barely had the chance to graze in the past, I want overkill with this thing.
The Titan Blue project is all about functionality, and how that functionality is developed. My goal for this is not only serving up and backing up all of my essential data. I want to see how far I can bring this, what I can use it for and what it could be used for.
Some of the projects you will see posted in the projects section include - Remote file access, remote management, network diagnostics, VPN radius, network security management, and LAN domain/workgroup control. That’s not even scratching the surface, Titan Blue will be self contained, it will host itself with DNS and database support such as SQL and possibly Ruby containers. I think it would be neat to eventually see Titan Blue host it’s own development blog.
Here’s a breakdown of the server itself –
Intel Xeon processor at 2.66 GHz
512 MB PC2100 DDR RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4 AGP 8x
40GB Ultra 320 SCSI HDD
Make sure to check out My Projects Category for updates and more information.
It’s time for a new project…
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/30/07 at 10:03:37 pmOver the past few years I have had a file server of sorts in my home office, nothing too special. Cerebellum, my first file server was a 600 MHz AMD K6 with a 40 GB hard drive. I used it to back up basic things such as software, music, photos etc. As its use and demand increased it was later upgraded with more storage and everything to meet my needs. I started using Cerebellum for a wider array of purposes like AV Mgmt and network diagnostics and more recently it was put on the web so I could access backed up data from anywhere.
This past winter I decided to go for a little upgrade by using my 1.2Ghz 1st Gen Apple Mac Mini as the new file server – Minibellum. You would think that a UNIX based file server would be rock solid, and with an operating system like OSX it would be chock full of features and flexibility, at least that’s what I thought.
The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was doing, or I wasn’t setting it all up correctly. It was the overall reliability of the applications and everything I was using. When they worked, they worked well but there would be a lot of issues. Another huge problem was my VPN connection with Minibellum. Although the VPN client I was using for OSX worked, the cross compatibility with my Windows network, and the features I wanted to utilize with the VPN I could never get to work as well as expected.
The Mac Mini has found a new home with a family member in need of a new machine, and I’m staring at the FedEx tracking information for what will be my new Windows based network server.
It’s time for a new project… This time it’s going to be big.
Motor….Cycles?
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/25/07 at 03:03:15 pmI spent most of yesterday at the Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show & Parts Expo being held at the River Centre in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I can tell you right now that going to this event was surely not my idea, I really don’t have any interest in motorcycles and such. However, it did give me a chance to get out of the house for a while and see something new.
I snapped a few really neat pictures while I was there which you can see in This Set. I also added some photos and created an all new St. Paul, MN Photoset. Check ‘em out.
The Tools Behind It All
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/23/07 at 10:03:54 pmI was talking to a co-worker today about the development applications I use. I realized that I don’t upgrade often, I’ll find an application that works for me and I’ll stick with it and get experienced with using it…
A good example of this would be Photoshop, for any design work I use Photoshop 7.0 which was released back in 2002. I have used CS, CS2 and even beta tested CS3 and I have stuck with 7 because it’s super-lean, it works, and it offers all of the essential features I need. For FTP I use SmartFTP 1.0.9 which also just so happens to be released in 2002 and for an editor I just upgraded to Dreamweaver 8 just to check out what it has to offer, but I’ve been using MX for years.
It seems that a lot of people out there will update their apps not because of the additional features or completely changed functionality (notice I didn’t say better functionality) but because they want to have latest in software that has hardly changed from the version before. This concept can apply to any software too; operating systems, office applications, or something online such as a BBS or CMS.
On Tuesday, Adobe will announce the prices for the upcoming of Creative Suite 3.0 (CS3). As I mentioned I tried out Photoshop CS3 for a few weeks and there was almost no difference in features when compared to CS2. The worst part however is that the base functionality is identical to PS 7, all of the old features are there, unchanged, and very few new ones were added. For the people out there that pay for these $ 300-700 development applications this is a huge expense and companies are making a fortune off releasing old code over and over. I was reading a blog the other night which was authored by a programmer from Microsoft. He was talking about the work he did with early versions of IE and such and he went on about what kinds of code he has seen go into the modern Microsoft operating systems such as Vista and how a lot of it, for the OS itself dates back as far as Windows 3.1.
I thought that was interesting because it really makes you wonder how much you’re really getting out of that big $$ software upgrade.
Hardware Review: Acer Aspire 5610z
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/19/07 at 05:03:30 am
I picked up a new Acer Aspire 5610z Notebook about a month ago now. When I purchased it I briefly posted my initial thoughts of the laptop, however I noticed an extreme lack of real reviews about this notebook around the internet. I thought I would jot down a few more notes about the computer to maybe be of some use to potential buyers.
First off, the 5610 is a great notebook for the price; I got mine for about $750.00 US at a local retailer. I’m the last person you would see buying a major piece of hardware at a retail store but for the specs this thing has I really couldn’t pass
up the good price. The configuration I purchased has the 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 memory, 120 GB HDD, DVDRW, and 15.4 Widescreen Acer CrystalBrite™ display with the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics. It has built in 802.11g, Bluetooth, modem, media card reader, and a slick rotatable webcam at the top of the screen. The notebook was preloaded with Microsoft Windows Vista – Home Premium.
I wanted to get what really bothers me about this laptop out of the way first. It’s cheap, and I’m not talking the price… The quality of the plastic on the 5610 is disappointingly cheap quality, and the key word there is plastic, unlike many modern ultra-portables there is no fancy aluminum or titanium to be found on this rig, its 100% plastic.
The plastic isn’t very well put together either, on my 5610 I was sad to find slight warping from the right to left side of the mouse pad area, It goes up at a slant… it’s not oblivious but now that I know where it is I can see it a mile away. Also, the plastic on the left side of the notebook doesn’t line up perfectly, again this is barely noticeable from any normal angle of viewing, but I expected better. The clips for the LCD on this notebook are very strong and secure, too strong in fact. The clips actually pull the center of the screen down and the rest of the notebook, namely the edges are not securely fastened, again causing a slight warping when the notebook is closed. When open, very little if any warping in the plastic is to be seen, but it still concerns me.
While we’re on the subject of cheap build quality, I’ve had the laptop for about 4 weeks now and the paint around the edges of the keyboard trim is starting to ware and chip, again barely noticeable, but it’s only been 3 weeks. I was tempted to RMA the laptop due to these little cosmetic issues, but because none of this affects the runability of the laptop in any way, I know Acer won’t be able to do much for me. Also, the weeks to months of wait time for the RMA wouldn’t be worth it.
The laptop is light, very light in fact at about 6.5 pounds. I know that wouldn’t be considered ‘Ultra-Portable’ by any means with the 4 > Lbs laptops running around out there. However for a person like me who lugged around an older Dell Inspiron 5100 desktop replacement that was nearly 10 pounds, the 5610 is a lifesaver on the back. It really doesn’t feel like 6lbs, it’s light.
The performance of the 5610 is impressive, even with the not-so-great Intel GMA 950; it runs Vista’s Aero glass without a hitch. Because Aero looks so nice, I have all of the bells and whistles turned on with it, I can’t help myself. Unfortunately due to the little time I have and the fact that I use this laptop primarily for business purposes, I have had a chance to run any games on it. I do know that Vista is an extremely demanding operating system, and it eats up a good amount of the memory on its own, so my guess is that this thing won’t do great if you’re looking to play modern or graphically intense games on it. But for all of the apps I’ve ran on it, I haven’t noticed any performance issues at all.
Getting back to the hardware itself, namely the LCD display on the laptop, I must say it really is stunning. I knew that Acer made great displays and the 5610 is no exception. The 5610 features Acer’s CrystalBrite™ technology, which in other words is the really glossy type of screen that’s also seen on some of the Sony and Toshiba notebooks. The glossy finish of the screen, combined with the solid resolution really puts on a show with the crisp visuals. It would appear that the glossy screen would scratch easily, but surprisingly I haven’t had any issues as of yet.
The built in webcam is really neat, I’m not sure how often I will actually use it but I guess it could be nice to have. The laptop also has everything else you would expect built into it, as I mentioned before it has a nice media card reader on the side which will be useful for getting stuff off my camera, it has a modem I will never use, 4 USB ports, S-video, VGA, PCMCIA, LAN, and ports for audio, WLAN and Bluetooth switches on the front. It doesn’t have legacy ports such as LPT1, a lot of the rear of the notebook is used for venting and such with the sides being used for a majority of the ports, the DVDRW takes up most of the right.
Initially I thought the slight warping issue the laptop had was due to some heat related problem, and that’s why I didn’t notice it when I purchased it. However the laptop shows no signs of getting significantly hot, let alone even real warm. The notebook’s slightly slanted design and thick rubber feet allow it to be slightly raised in the back, when combined with the amount of venting the 5610 has, I can’t see any heat issues happening with normal use.
Moving back to the part I should have started this review with, the packing, documentation and bundled software… The notebook came well packed, as expected. It came with a couple books including a traveler’s warranty, just in case you want to send it in when away from the home I guess. The laptop actually had a surprisingly low amount of bundled vendor junk. I think there was only a trial of Norton’s Internet Security and some AOL thing. It also comes with an Acer utility for managing wireless, video, and backup. Most of it I ditched right away, except for the backup utility which came in useful. Like most modern computers the laptop didn’t come with any operating system or even restore disks of any sort. However, the backup utility that comes on the Acer allows you to very easily create factory restoration DVDs.
There you have it, a full review on the Acer Aspire 5610z Notebook Computer, with 4075 configuration. The performance, and feature packed sleekness of the 5610 make it a great notebook for development and business use. It’s definitely a great laptop for the price, despite some surprisingly poor build quality issues I would say it’s still worth looking into. I personally take very good care of my equipment so I don’t expect any problems to come from its minor imperfections, but if you’re looking for a more solid desktop replacement that you can slam around and accidentally drop onto something, the 5610 isn’t the laptop you’re looking for.
Photo Collections
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/18/07 at 01:03:23 amI don’t know if you noticed the fairly new ‘Del.icio.us Articles’ section I have on the left side there. Basically any articles or cool links I come across and want to share with other folks I will add to my del.icio.us under the Articles tag. Anyway, you may notice something about Flickr’s new ‘Collections’ feature posted in there, and I just wanted to jot down a short rave about how cool the feature really is.
The only reason I’ve shied away from using Flickr as my online photography gallery in the past is due to the poor organization features it had to offer. I mean if you weren’t a Flickr Pro member you were limited to a lame 3 photo sets, so I joined Flickr pro and then I was unable to upload all of my photography with as many Sets as I like.
The organization just got better with the Collections feature, my photos are now sorted into true folders according to the genre I deem necessary. Everything will be easier to browse and find with the addition of collections of my photo sets.
Check out my new photo collections on Flickr.
St. Patrick’s Day
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/17/07 at 01:03:40 am
At work yesterday I was reminded that today is St. Patrick’s Day. I didn’t realize this, I suppose it’s due to the fact that I’m not Irish and I never paid much attention. I mean, my mother would say I’m part Irish but I’m part many things, so I never thought much of it. I’m not the kind of person where my heritage has a strong effect on my overall appearance or personality, I’m like a mutt really, an average American.
However at times it’s depressing, I mean all of the heritage influenced cultures out there have their own way of living, even if it’s diluted by the medley of current society. They still have their own celebrations, their own beliefs and ways of doing things that will never change… I guess I’ve never had that.
Tonight I thought I would learn a bit more about the whole tradition behind St. Patrick’s Day, what it’s all about and such. I was reading a few articles and I stumbled upon some amazing vintage photography of various Irish celebratory settings, one of which you can see headlining this post, I definitely suggest taking a look.
Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone.
Learning Something New
Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/09/07 at 11:03:46 pm
For a while now I’ve been wanting to get into a particular development platform and really focus on it. I’ve been a member at Dream.In.Code for nearly 6 years now and although I have learned just about everything I know when it comes to web development and programming from DIC, I still have a lot to learn to even consider calling myself a professional in any development field. I never wanted to be a “programmer” per-se; I’m not big into staring at code for hours at a time. However if I could find a language that’s very dynamic, fresh, and easy to work with and implement… I just might be able to learn it well enough to use it, professionally.
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting into Adobe ColdFusion. However the problem with CF is that it’s hard to come by a host that supports it these days. My current host, (mt) MediaTemple did support CF until they launched the (gs) Grid Server platform. Another problem with a language such as CF is that it’s very proprietary. It may be easy to work with but it seems the overall support and user base behind it would be very limited. So I was looking for something that was easy to get into, easy to use, and has a solid community backing it, also it would be helpful if my current webhost supported my new platform of choice.
I’ve been looking into Rails, namely Ruby and Ajax on rails and the amazing stuff that can be easily done by them. I really think it could be precisely what I’m looking for, I mean it’s a fresh newly adopted technology and (mt) just so happens to support ROR Bins. So this week I’ve been looking around on Amazon for a couple books I could pick up to dive into Ruby on Rails, I also joined Working With Rails a ROR resource and development community I came across. I mainly did it to set up a profile for later use, you can check that out Here.
I’m actually very interested to see how much I get into this, perhaps 5 years from now I’ll look back at this post and remember the start of my path to becoming a Ruby guru? I’ll stick to the ‘Ruby on Rails for Dummies’ for the time being.
If any of you have book suggestions, ROR resources you would like to share with me, Drop me a line.
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