10 posts tagged “computers”

Cost effective and low power home network server

Up until a few months ago, we'd been using a tower system as our network server.  Not only was it too loud, it ate a lot of power. 

 

This is our solution:

• Notebook computer with energy saving maximized
• USB external drive with sleep enabled
• Laser printer with sleep enabled
• Energy Star router and ethernet switch

 

"Resistance is Futile" - An unnamed Microsoft spokesperson

With more bandwidth available to users all over the world, migration from static web pages to Rich Internet Applications (RIA) makes the web not only a more visually appealing place, RIA gives Digital Media Developers a more effective way to deliver meaningful content.

I've been programming in Flash/Actionscript since FlashMX and while I have yet to come across too many things where Flash has 'let me down', I'm pleased to see that our friends at Microsoft have put together what initially looks like a very competitive alternative to Flash: Silverlight. 

Silverlight is promising out of the gate some things that make it look very appealing: .NET integration, support for AJAX and easy to use video delivery, all on a cross-browser plugin.  The biggest problems with making it cross-browser capable are rendering and being resistant to crashing (a problem especially on non-Windows OS's).  With pure HTML, a web page can usually have a cross-browser problem without causing the web page to be rendered so improperly that it cannot be used.  However, I am deeply concerned that Silverlight is going to have the expected growing pains that all applications from Redmond have, making it slow to adopt. 

I'm totally cool that Silverlight has a free to download SDK.  I'm also cool with having to learn a new interface and potentially a new language (or more likely flavor of a language we all know and love).  But, I don't have tons of time to work on my current projects and learning a whole RIA delivery tool without knowing if the thing is even going to be popular. 

It doesn't help that installing the plugin on my Dell Latitude froze and made me reboot:

 

Merry Christmas to me ..

It was time for a new computer.  My last computer purchase was a Toshiba notebook, but it just couldn't handle most of the new apps or any new games (necessary for being a good father of a gaming son).  The old notebook's fan siezed, its hard drive is too small for anything, and the battery lasts for exactly 18 seconds before dying.  So, we replaced its groaning fan with one from eBay for $20 and retired it to the role of print server.  It is handling that job fine, so I'm thinking of setting it up as a VPN portal for our LAN. 

 

However, the fact remained that I didn't have a computer, besides the work-provided notebook.  I like my work notebook, but the last thing I want to do is sit behind the same computer I use while I am at work.  

While I was a systems analyst for the University of California, I was responsible for making purchase decisions on computer hardware.  I was going to be purchasing over 100 desktop computers, so I wanted to be sure I was making the right choice.  I ordered one Gateway and one Dell, both equipped identically, and evaluated them for suitability with my needs.  The Gateway won out on several points, so from then on I was a 'Gateway person'. 

Then one of my co-workers pointed out the new Dell Inspiron 531 system.  My notebook is a Dell, and since its been a reasonably good system I figured I would give Dell another chance. 

I was really impressed with both the features and the value, so I ordered one.  From the moment I clicked "Build my system", I was pleased with my choice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally, the system was to be delivered on December 3, which would have been one week from when I ordered it.  However, the system arrived at my door on November 28 - five days ahead of schedule!  Now that I've had it for a few days, and have upgraded the RAM and video (onboard just doesn't cut it), I have to say that this system has officially turned me into a 'Dell person'.  Other than the value, what had really sold me are:

• The optical drive is a DVD +/- RW, which is fairly standard, but what is really nice is that its SATA like the hard drive!
• Excellent flat panel standard in the package.
• 2GB stock RAM and 320GB hard drive (more than others in this price bracket).
• Absolutely silent.
• Decent onboard video (GeForce 6150 - plenty of power for Aero).
• Windows Vista Home Premium (rather than Home Basic).
• 80MM fan on the CPU heatsink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Specifications (after upgrades):

CPU: AMD X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.6GHz
RAM: 4GB (not '4MB' as originally posted) DDR2 667MHz (originally 2GB)
Hard drive: 320GB SATA
Optical drive: DVD +/-RW SATA
Video: GeForce 8600 GT PCI Express (originally GeForce 6150 on board)
Power supply: 450 W dual rail 12 V with 120mm fan (originally 300W with 80mm fan)
Networking: 10/100 onboard
Memory reader: 25-in-1 flash reader (originally none provided)
Keyboard: Dell USB
Mouse: Dell optical USB
Display: 19" Widescreen Dell Flat Panel
Speakers: Rocketfish 2.0 (originally none provided)
Lighting: Rear fan and front bezel (originally non-lit rear fan and 'standard' front power light)

Price as upgraded: $786.00

Bottom line: Decent system out of the box, and with a few aftermarket upgrades is a powerful and very cost effective system!

Our main desktop PC finally had its much-needed upgrade.  We added another GB of RAM, a new video card, a new CPU and some extra cooling.  Jeremy is a budding "computer guy" and so he did all the work in getting these new parts installed.

 

 Planning our attack.

Popping the old CPU out.

 

We needed to upgrade our Windows 2000 Professional system.  I'm not what you could say "in love" with XP, so I thought Vista was worth a try.  Getting it up and running was a brutal nightmare.  It took an entire day, mostly because it didn't support our SATA drive on the first installation.  This required us to bulldoze over Vista and re-install Win2K, back up our data, and once again install Vista.

The installation wasn't extremely long, as other Windows installations have been, but once it was going all the "Allow/Deny" confirmation started to make me really twitch.  Finally, we disabled all the crap (like the sidebar nonsense and the user controls), which made it almost tolerable. 

Still, however, the display has gone just plain blank (the app is still running, because I can hear it) and several times the browser has shut down in the middle of reading a page, and even worse near the end of a giant download.  How has Microsoft not figured out how to resume downloads?? 

More to the point, why does Microsoft still get away with releasing marginal software?

Our system has 1.5GB of RAM, 180GB of HDD space and a really fine video card.  And still, it chugs and groans.  I still haven't figured out how to share out our big SATA drive so we can access it from all our PC's.   I would happily trade in Vista for Windows 2000 Professional, but those rat-bastards have us over a barrel: every app we want to run requires at least XP and one actually requires Vista.

Very dismayed.

This is some of the fun things Laurie, Jeremy and I have done in his first few days here..

 

 

We had a "late" Father's Day extravaganza!  He gave me a new photo-mug from our New Years '07 party, Forza 2 and Call of Duty III for XBOX 360!

Jeremy installed a new CPU and a new video card into one of our computers!  This was, of course, required in order to play the hoard of high-tech games he brought with him!

Riding in Battleground Park

 

 

Stompin' up the hill.

Checking out the "six-pounders".

Show us the game you're addicted to at the moment.
Submitted by Lena Katrin.  

"Thief - Deadly Shadows" - Promoting Positive Family Values (kinda)

When "Thief - The Dark Project" was released for PC it literally invented the "First Person Sneaker" genre.  The game's philosophy of hiding in the shadows instead of rushing into a room full of baddies guns-a-blazin' was not only a welcome departure from Quake and its clones, it made for an acceptable game to play when my 5 year old son wanted to sit on my lap and watch me play.  With mission goals which include "Don't kill anybody", it made something that I could play and have fun with while giving him a look at games that were more advanced than "Teddy's Big Adventure".

The latest iteration, "Thief - Deadly Shadows", is far from a new title.  In fact, my son gave it to me as a PC title quite awhile back as a gift.  We've all played it before, but now that we have our Xbox360, I had to pick it up to enjoy it on the big screen and with Dolby Surround Sound. 

The lighting and shadow effects are quite impressive, with muliple light sources and rendered shadows.  I've programmed these effects in "C" with OpenGL, and its pretty tricky stuff.  Flickering candles cast shadows that weave and bob with the dancing flames, but don't sit and look at them too long because the game's title is, after all, "Deadly Shadows"!  Guards are watching for you and they will notice the shadow on the ground or the wall and are very eager to run you in for your thieving deeds.

Some other clever AI programming is how the game uses sound so extensively to both help you monitor the movements of guards and also to help them find you.  Don't knock over a box, or they'll come running and you'll be "spending the night downtown"!

Its a lot of fun to play Thief again.  I will always remember how my son would duck and dodge to avoid the gaze of a guard while we hid in a dark doorway.  And when the zombies showed up, well that was it.. he would dive for the level-skip command! 

He's older now, but still likes to play all three Thief games.  And I know he'll enjoy this one on the Xbox, too, when he is here for the summer.

Worst practices in Software Engineering..

• Migration of customer data on the same day as a major User Interface (UI) release
• Releasing a new version of the software without testing
• Failing to provide up to date user manuals for the new software
• Removing valued and useful features
• Increasing time for users to complete common tasks while reducing usability
• Making major changes to operational workflow
• Inconsistent labels on buttons and menus from one screen to the next
• Provided online help that is two versions old
• No online help where it should be
• Last but not least.. failing to recognize that a rollback should have been done

The process of Software Engineering is a very plastic science.  I mean, there is no way to calculate the solution to a software problem like there is to calculate how much steel to use in a bridge or how much thrust to use when launching rockets. 

 

Are the problems listed above major problems?  They are in one sense, but in the world of Software Engineering, they really aren't that bad.  I mean, look at this list of software problems that had far-reaching negative effects:

• Software for radiation therapy miscalulates the doctors intent and overdoses patients.  Eight patients die and 20 others are injured
• Particle accelerator used for medical purposes incorporates software that permits a "race condition" error.  The race condition allows a safety interlock to be ignored which causes the death of five patients and many other injuries.
• Ariane 5 rocket explodes during ascent due to old software being used on new rocket.  An error in converting a 64-bit number to a 16-bit number causing the engines to over-throttle, causing the loss of a $370 million dollar vehicle and payload.
• Mariner I space probe is destroyed by Mission Control after it diverts from its launch path.  The cause is traced to improperly transcribing a calculation done with pencil and paper into the guidance computer.
• A new software release in AT&T telephone switches causes a domino-effect failure in 114 long-distance switches.  For over nine hours, 60,000 people are without telephone access.  The problem is fixed with a software revision roll-back.

Now, nobody is going to die if the software that my company provides goes squirrley.  Nor will a rocket explode during launch and cause fire to rain down upon the Earth.  That being said, while I have anything to say about it, I am not going to have any part of software that gets released with a complete lack of error testing, usability testing and absolutely no user documentation or online help.

 I would also recognize when it's time to say "we were wrong" and would call for a software rollback.

"Foundation ActionScript Animation" - Dull title, but excellent book!

 

This is a textbook-style book on maximizing the potential of Flash 8 animation through manual coding with ActionScript.  It covers everything that one needs to create great excellent custom animation, without relying on Flash's limited and somewhat unpredictable 'tween engine'.  Important topics such as:

• Kinematics
• Physics
• Collision detection
• User interation
• Introduction to 3D (including lighting and backface culling)

Although Flash does not really support 3D rendering, it can be done without too much pain.  This book covers the basics quickly, but effectively and even includes some 3D perspective and scaling theory to back up the formulae. 

Pros:  Fast paced book that doesn't talk too technical for first-time ActionScript programmers; introduces everything needed to start making games or applications; good code examples and summaries at the end of chapter.

Cons:  I like color and this book could have used some, although it is fairly inexpensive ($39.99), so maybe this is a 'Pro';  no accompanying CD - I don't want to have to hunt for downloads and I'm too lazy to type in examples so I can play with them; you need to get another book like "Object-Oriented Actionscript for Flash 8" if you want to see 'The Big Picture'

What could be better?

I am very pleased to announce that Laurie and I have both accepted positions with SilkRoad Technogy!  We are truely inseparable and the fact that we both got offered positions with the same company just reinforces that.

We are both very excited to be a part of this company and see big things for us with them in the near future!