Nabble - Hardware - Rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T15:10:32Z

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jonathan Katz" <jon@...>

>
> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 4:45 PM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:
>
> > The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
> > > knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the brand,
> > > you may need information only available to factory-trained technicians, and
> > > expensive equipment available only to authorized service shops.
> > >
> > LOL. If you only knew the car hacking going down :-)
>
>
> The cost of entry isn't too bad. Just something like an ODB-II scanner that
> turns off your check-engine light is $60.
>
> If you have a VW or Audi (or Skoda or Seat) you can invest about $200 and
> get a VAG-COM setup which lets you play with all kinds of things. I know a
> lot of folks here and on geeks were commenting about their Audis at one
> point.
>
> Also, for about $100 you can score the Bentley (publisher, not car) service
> manual on CD-ROM.

Unforch, in NJ, any reset shows on inspection and they automatically fail you because the computer can't be read until you run the car a certain number of miles and the system resets. Sometimes a "disconnected the battery" might get you by but they are getting wary of that.

Bob
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T15:01:04Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 5:57 PM, <wa2egp@...> wrote:

> > Usually the various forums have good info...
> >
> > No experience here, but it could help you out...
> >
> > http://mazdaforum.com/
>
> That looks company sponsered. They are not going to let anything out. :)
> Too many MPVs from 2000-2006 have the same problems that it looks like a
> recall was in order but they are not going to do it. Our mechanic got so
> frustrated that he asked if he could use the car as a guinea pig to find the
> problem and he did not charge anything for parts and labor for the last
> problem (leak in the evaporative emission control system). After a few
> thousand, my Protege is working find. :)

Anything is possible, but sign up and get a post deleted, first! Also,
http://forums.mazdaworld.org/index.php (found via google.)

I learned all my Audi stuff from audiworld.com.
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rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T14:57:39Z

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jonathan Katz" <jon@...>

>
> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 5:40 PM, <wa2egp@...> wrote:
>
> > Gee, point me in the right direction. After all the crap we've gone
> > through with my wife's MPV. Would you believe the factory misprogrammed the
> > car computer and one cylinder was injecting fuel during the exhaust part of
> > the cycle. Took out the catalytic converter and we had to buy a new
> > computer (luckily we got one from some one (who crashed their MPV and was
> > parting out the car) for peanuts compared to a new one.
>
>
> Usually the various forums have good info...
>
> No experience here, but it could help you out...
>
> http://mazdaforum.com/

That looks company sponsered. They are not going to let anything out. :) Too many MPVs from 2000-2006 have the same problems that it looks like a recall was in order but they are not going to do it. Our mechanic got so frustrated that he asked if he could use the car as a guinea pig to find the problem and he did not charge anything for parts and labor for the last problem (leak in the evaporative emission control system). After a few thousand, my Protege is working find. :)

Bob
"Bought a Mazda, got a Ford." - me
_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T14:42:51Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 5:40 PM, <wa2egp@...> wrote:

> Gee, point me in the right direction. After all the crap we've gone
> through with my wife's MPV. Would you believe the factory misprogrammed the
> car computer and one cylinder was injecting fuel during the exhaust part of
> the cycle. Took out the catalytic converter and we had to buy a new
> computer (luckily we got one from some one (who crashed their MPV and was
> parting out the car) for peanuts compared to a new one.

Usually the various forums have good info...

No experience here, but it could help you out...

http://mazdaforum.com/
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T14:40:31Z

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...>
>
> > The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
> > knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the brand,
> > you may need information only available to factory-trained technicians, and
> > expensive equipment available only to authorized service shops.
>
> LOL. If you only knew the car hacking going down :-)

Gee, point me in the right direction. After all the crap we've gone through with my wife's MPV. Would you believe the factory misprogrammed the car computer and one cylinder was injecting fuel during the exhaust part of the cycle. Took out the catalytic converter and we had to buy a new computer (luckily we got one from some one (who crashed their MPV and was parting out the car) for peanuts compared to a new one.

Bob
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T14:11:39Z

No to mention all the ECU and wastegate hacking, notably on the 5000/200
turbo quattros, simple mods that turn a family car into a screamer.

erie

Jonathan Katz wrote:

> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 4:45 PM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:
>
>
>> The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
>>
>>> knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the brand,
>>> you may need information only available to factory-trained technicians, and
>>> expensive equipment available only to authorized service shops.
>>>
>>>
>> LOL. If you only knew the car hacking going down :-)
>>
>
>
> The cost of entry isn't too bad. Just something like an ODB-II scanner that
> turns off your check-engine light is $60.
>
> If you have a VW or Audi (or Skoda or Seat) you can invest about $200 and
> get a VAG-COM setup which lets you play with all kinds of things. I know a
> lot of folks here and on geeks were commenting about their Audis at one
> point.
>
> Also, for about $100 you can score the Bentley (publisher, not car) service
> manual on CD-ROM.
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T13:48:51Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 4:45 PM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:

> The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
> > knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the brand,
> > you may need information only available to factory-trained technicians, and
> > expensive equipment available only to authorized service shops.
> >
> LOL. If you only knew the car hacking going down :-)

The cost of entry isn't too bad. Just something like an ODB-II scanner that
turns off your check-engine light is $60.

If you have a VW or Audi (or Skoda or Seat) you can invest about $200 and
get a VAG-COM setup which lets you play with all kinds of things. I know a
lot of folks here and on geeks were commenting about their Audis at one
point.

Also, for about $100 you can score the Bentley (publisher, not car) service
manual on CD-ROM.
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T13:45:43Z

> The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
> knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the brand,
> you may need information only available to factory-trained technicians, and
> expensive equipment available only to authorized service shops.

LOL. If you only knew the car hacking going down :-)

--
05 REM Signature
10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
RUN
_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T13:45:08Z

I'll second that, as long as my wife isn't looking. The commute every
other weekend for a few months (1,000 miles) took it's toll on me, and I
ended up moving from New England to the Midwest.

erie

Robert Darlington wrote:

> It's the mileage man. Never date girls you meet on IRC! Everybody
> thinks I'm in my 40s.
>
> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:
>
>>> Do it! I'm 33, my buddy I take classes with is in his 50s. It's
>>>
>>>
>> Damn Prof, I thought you were a bit older than me (32).
>>
>>
>> --
>> 05 REM Signature
>> 10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
>> 20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
>> 30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
>> 40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
>> RUN
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T13:34:43Z

Robert Darlington wrote:
> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon@...> wrote:
>> Plus, when my car is under warranty, tinkering voids the warranty.
>
> The consumer protection act disagrees with you.

The big problem these days is that you often need so much specialized
knowledge to just "tinker with" many modern cars. Depending on the
brand, you may need information only available to factory-trained
technicians, and expensive equipment available only to authorized
service shops.

--
Phil Stracchino, CDK#2 DoD#299792458 ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
alaric@... alaric@... phil@...
Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
_______________________________________________
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Re: x86 vs. SPARC BIOSes (was: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100))

2008-05-13T12:56:43Z

On Tue, 13 May 2008, Jonathan Katz wrote:

> "Mainframe power in the size of a pizza box!" I remember that ad campaign
> from when i was a little kid... Was never 100% sure what DG box was being
> referenced in the ad, though. Anyone remember?

That was one of the later Motorola quad-88k AViiON machines. I,too,
forget the exact model number. I had one of the printed pizza-box
marketing promos for a while until a plumbing leak in the basement
did it in.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:crfriend@... +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T12:18:58Z

> It's the mileage man. Never date girls you meet on IRC! Everybody
> thinks I'm in my 40s.

Ha! A year or two ago I'm looking at the #hack sex chart, and I see this
local dude connected to this girl. Then on the other side (her only other
connection) is this guy who works with a friend in California (We are in
Virginia). The both happened to be in the same IRC channel on our server,
so I was like "hey person A?" "Yea?" "Hey person B?" "Yea?" You both
remember XXXX? SMALL WORLD MAN!

--
05 REM Signature 10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
RUN
_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T12:11:49Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 3:08 PM, Robert Darlington <rdarlington@...>
wrote:

> It's the mileage man. Never date girls you meet on IRC! Everybody
> thinks I'm in my 40s.

I was worried you were going off topic but then I remembered dating girls
from IRC is a rescue of a whole differnet kind and puts on all kinds of
mileage.

I'm still 3 years younger than you, too. Maybe we should all get together
and enroll in the same on-line degree program at U of Phoenix or something.
I know I still need to finish my undergraduate.
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T12:08:01Z

It's the mileage man. Never date girls you meet on IRC! Everybody
thinks I'm in my 40s.

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Ethan O'Toole <ethan@...> wrote:

>
> > Do it! I'm 33, my buddy I take classes with is in his 50s. It's
> >
>
> Damn Prof, I thought you were a bit older than me (32).
>
>
> --
> 05 REM Signature
> 10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
> 20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
> 30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
> 40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
> RUN
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

_______________________________________________
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T12:05:27Z

> Do it! I'm 33, my buddy I take classes with is in his 50s. It's

Damn Prof, I thought you were a bit older than me (32).

--
05 REM Signature
10 PRINT " Ethan O'Toole "
20 PRINT " FLICKR ", " http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole "
30 PRINT " YOUTUBE ", " www.youtube.com/user/telmnstr "
40 PRINT " HOMEPAGE ", " users.757.org/~ethan "
RUN
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T11:54:18Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon@...> wrote:
> On May 8, 2008, at 11:45 , Robert Darlington wrote:
>
>
> > One of the classic questions I put out for interviewees is "Do you
> > work on your own car?"
> >
>
> Hopefully you are joking, since a lot of tinkerers don't work on their own
> car.

No, I'm not joking at all. The answer tells me a lot about the person.

> Not everyone tinkers on the same things.
>

I agree, that's why there are more questions.

> Plus, when my car is under warranty, tinkering voids the warranty.
>
> :)
>

The consumer protection act disagrees with you.

>
>
> > I personally can't imagine going for a CS degree. It's incredibly
> > boring, not very challenging (unless you count all the crap homework
> > assignments),
> >
>
> That depends highly on the school you go to.

I agree. I go to UNM.

>
>
>
> > and I really don't see much change in the field since
> > Knuth laid the groundwork in his books in the 60s. In other words,
> > it's not for me. (I'm going for EE currently, specializing in antenna
> > design, fields and waves, and signal propagation -most likely boring
> > to most!)
> >
>
> EE is one of the easiest degrees to get in some schools.
>

Agreed. I don't know many EEs that are comfortable around high energy
systems. I don't know any that have any practical experience working
with high voltage except perhaps those that are ham operators. A
buddy of mine designs accelerators (ham) and another designs sputter
coating equipment (ham). The guys at work call me (ham) in when they
need to do something they consider dangerous because they just weren't
trained in school.

> It depends heavily on where you go to school, and what use you make of the
> facilities of course.

Agreed.

>
> I took some EE courses in college, and found them easier than most of my
> computer science classes because the engineering work was a lot more
> pragmatic and the theory was far easier.
>

The challenge in CS for me was dealing with the homework. Writing the
software was the easy part, but test plans were always the killer.
Way too tedious for my short attention span. 1 hour of coding, 20 of
documentation. I'm not cut out for that line of work.

> I actually like the "computer engineering" degree some schools offer, but
> it was too late for me to switch by the time it came around to my school.

Ya, it's cool stuff. I considered going in this direction but I'm
more into antennas than designing a new PC.

>
> If I got back to school (meaning, if I ever get the money) I'm not totally
> sure what I'd go after. I'm just as likely to go for an engineering degree
> or something as continue in computer science.

Do it! I'm 33, my buddy I take classes with is in his 50s. It's
never too late, although I do know it can be a challenge when raising
a family, going to work, and dealing with classes all at the same
time.

> A lot depends on what they can offer me.
>
> Of course, with $11-50 thousand dollars masters degree programs, I don't
> know when I'll ever have the money, and going for a 4 year engineering
> degree is pretty much impossible right now.
>
>
>
> --
> "Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T10:59:46Z

Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> If I got back to school (meaning, if I ever get the money) I'm not
> totally sure what I'd go after. I'm just as likely to go for an
> engineering degree or something as continue in computer science.
>
> A lot depends on what they can offer me.
>
> Of course, with $11-50 thousand dollars masters degree programs, I
> don't know when I'll ever have the money, and going for a 4 year
> engineering degree is pretty much impossible right now.
>

If you're serious about wanting to do this, you could do it in evening
classes. The hardest part is getting started. I told myself a few
years ago that the next 5 years were going to pass weather i took
evening classes or not, and that if i wanted the degree it wouldn't be
that big of a deal to give up a couple nights a week for class. You
also have the benefit of spreading out the cost of the classes over more
time. $500-$1200 (state school) for one or two classes per semester
isn't too bad to stomach.

-Dan Sikorski
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T10:28:05Z

der Mouse wrote:
>> It's actually pretty easy to make serious algorithm mistakes.
>
> One of my "favourite"s:
>
> for (x = 0; x < strlen(s); x ++)
> ...

yeah. I've seen boneheadednesses like that.

--
Phil Stracchino, CDK#2 DoD#299792458 ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
alaric@... alaric@... phil@...
Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: FW: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100]

2008-05-13T10:08:30Z

On May 8, 2008, at 04:05 , Michael C. Vergallen wrote:

> Was not clear to me what you where implying ... in that context yes
> I agree with you.
> However personaly I dont see the point to it on anything besides
> the latest 64 bit hardware ...

It ran pretty well on ten year old 64-bit hardware for me, but I did
finally get rid of that hardware for other reasons.

> also becuase it is still not supported by other OS4s .

That's temporary. It is already running on Mac and FreeBSD, and
probably will run on FUSE on Linux soon.

There are rumors that Apple will use it for their primary filesystem.
They've needed something like it for a long time.

> So in a mixed environement it can be a hassle. Like when you
> need to export
> nfs mounts etc it causes hassle I dont need at the moment...

Just curious, what sort of hassles didi you find there?

I've not had any so far, though I am still bothered by the idea of the
filesystem storing all configuration rather than it being in files.

Too many years of doing it in /etc/fstab and /etc/exports I guess.

--
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T10:03:58Z

On May 8, 2008, at 11:45 , Robert Darlington wrote:

> One of the classic questions I put out for interviewees is "Do you
> work on your own car?"

Hopefully you are joking, since a lot of tinkerers don't work on their
own car.

Not everyone tinkers on the same things.

Plus, when my car is under warranty, tinkering voids the warranty.

:)

> I personally can't imagine going for a CS degree. It's incredibly
> boring, not very challenging (unless you count all the crap homework
> assignments),

That depends highly on the school you go to.

> and I really don't see much change in the field since
> Knuth laid the groundwork in his books in the 60s. In other words,
> it's not for me. (I'm going for EE currently, specializing in antenna
> design, fields and waves, and signal propagation -most likely boring
> to most!)

EE is one of the easiest degrees to get in some schools.

It depends heavily on where you go to school, and what use you make of
the facilities of course.

I took some EE courses in college, and found them easier than most of
my computer science classes because the engineering work was a lot
more pragmatic and the theory was far easier.

I actually like the "computer engineering" degree some schools offer,
but it was too late for me to switch by the time it came around to my
school.

If I got back to school (meaning, if I ever get the money) I'm not
totally sure what I'd go after. I'm just as likely to go for an
engineering degree or something as continue in computer science.

A lot depends on what they can offer me.

Of course, with $11-50 thousand dollars masters degree programs, I
don't know when I'll ever have the money, and going for a 4 year
engineering degree is pretty much impossible right now.

--
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T10:00:23Z

> It's actually pretty easy to make serious algorithm mistakes.

One of my "favourite"s:

for (x = 0; x < strlen(s); x ++)
...

(when the string is not actually mutated inside the loop). In a few
cases a really good compiler might be able to prove s is not mutated
and hoist the strlen, but in most cases I've seen the loop is too
complex (calls out to externally-compiled functions, just plain too
big, mutates the string but happens to never do so in ways that change
its strlen, whatever).

/~\ The ASCII der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
X Against HTML mouse@...
/ \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T09:58:26Z

On May 8, 2008, at 11:29 , Sridhar Ayengar wrote:

> J. Alexander Jacocks wrote:
>> I couldn't possibly disagree more. Sure, some folks with CS degrees
>> are good admins, and some lacking degrees aren't. But the degree,
>> itself, is neither here nor there. What is required to make a good
>> admin is the right mindset. I have found that people are either
>> logically and systematically thinking, or they are not, and no amount
>> of instruction can change from one to the other. Another thing that
>> is required to be a good admin is someone who is dedicated enough to
>> spend the time that the job requires. Not only the maintenance
>> windows, on-call, etc., but also the time at home spent keeping up
>> with the technology and the current best thought, in the field. 9-5
>> SA's are useless, IMO.
>
> I've been called to interview people in the past. I've found that
> many computer science graduates from schools with good reputations
> and high GPAs tend not to be useful for anything. The people who
> have computer science degrees and do good work tend to be those who
> *didn't* get good grades, because they were too busy tinkering in
> the lab.

I would agree with that.

Please note in my argument I said "good comp-sci", not "comp-sci with
good grades."

I had a really hard time maintaining a good GPA, because if I spent
the time needed to learn, I didn't have time to study for the tests.

The tests generally had little to do with either applied science or
theoretical science. They were basically just exercises in rote
memory and little else.

My school actually started out with very, very good tests. They were
difficult, but anyone who had worked for real could pass them.

However, some local military brats bitched to the administration that
they were too hard, so they were replaced with rote memory tests.

Almost overnight the clueless started making perfect test scores, and
the really good students started having trouble.

> The tinkerer's attitude seems to be common among those who end up
> being good workers, even if they don't have a degree or if they have
> a degree in some unrelated subject.

Yes, but they also tend to learn the same things you learn in comp-
sci, so either way you need a comp-sci training, regardless of how you
end up getting it.

If you never learn the science, you do eventually run into problems
you cannot solve, because the simple fact is there are some that
require more thank "tinkering".

Likewise there are some theoretical pursuits that require tinkering.

I think it is silly to assume one method fits every problem.

--
Shannon Hendrix
shannon@...
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T09:51:19Z

On May 8, 2008, at 10:45 , J. Alexander Jacocks wrote:

> I couldn't possibly disagree more. Sure, some folks with CS degrees
> are good admins, and some lacking degrees aren't. But the degree,
> itself, is neither here nor there. What is required to make a good
> admin is the right mindset.

In that case, you don't disagree with me completely.

The right mindset will lead a non-compsci admin to learn what he needs
to learn, which is what I already said.

--
Shannon Hendrix
shannon@...
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Re: x86 vs. SPARC BIOSes (was: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100))

2008-05-13T09:49:55Z

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 12:44 PM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon@...>
wrote:

> That's what a Data General MV20000 supermini I worked on had. It had a
> small computer that ran the big one, and you could talk to it without
> booting the big one.
>
> Very useful.

"Mainframe power in the size of a pizza box!" I remember that ad campaign
from when i was a little kid... Was never 100% sure what DG box was being
referenced in the ad, though. Anyone remember?

-Jon
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Re: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100)

2008-05-13T09:49:47Z

On May 8, 2008, at 07:11 , Phil Stracchino wrote:

> Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>> One of the best performance charts I have ever seen is in
>> "Programming Pearls".
>> They show a TRS-80 and a DEC Alpha doing the same job, but the
>> TRS-80 code is better written.
>> The DEC is hundreds of times faster... until the problem size
>> increases to a point at which the DEC would take 400 years to do
>> what the TRS-80 does in fifteen minutes.
>
> My first reaction is that the code being run on the Alpha had to
> have been frighteningly, perhaps even implausibly, bad to produce
> that vast of a throughput difference between hardware so hugely
> different in speed and capability while the problem size was still
> in a range the TRS-80 could handle at all. (And I suspect the
> problem was very carefully chosen.)

Actually, I've seen far worse cases in every day work, so the example
was not in any way out of line.

When I worked for Bank of America, it was not uncommon for me to
rewrite a simple C data filter and have it run 20 times faster.

In SQL, I frequently found queries so badly written, that I once got a
program to run well over 1000 times faster with relatively simple
modifications.

It's actually pretty easy to make serious algorithm mistakes.

I've found them in my own code, particularly when working with high
level tools where mis-use is pretty easy.

I had a shell script which sorted photos from my camera into
directories and renamed the files by date and sequence.

After using it for 6 months, I made a change in how I used exiftags
and sped the script up about 10 times faster.

All I did was change from a loop to a pipe, and it made worlds of
difference.

--
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."
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Re: x86 vs. SPARC BIOSes (was: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100))

2008-05-13T09:44:48Z

On May 8, 2008, at 23:53 , Ian Finder wrote:

> What I'd like to find is a server with an always available embedded
> supervisor processor that provides ethernet and serial connections for
> configuration, and unlike some SPs I've seen (like in the SunFire

[ snip ]

That's what a Data General MV20000 supermini I worked on had. It had
a small computer that ran the big one, and you could talk to it
without booting the big one.

Very useful.

It's 2008, 20 years later... surely we have the ability to do this so
cheaply it should not matter.

Normal users will never see it, so what?

--
Shannon Hendrix
shannon@...
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Re: x86 vs. SPARC BIOSes (was: Small servers (was Re: WTT: 1.5G of PC2700 for 1G of PC100))

2008-05-13T09:41:44Z

On May 8, 2008, at 09:55 , Ethan O'Toole wrote:

>> However, the reality is that x86 boxes are built to run Windows,
>> and Windows
>> assumes a keyboard, mouse, and hi-res bitmapped display. So the
>> x86 BIOS
>> writers can assume the same I/O will be available. This is a major
>> reason
>> why I favour SPARC machines -- they were never designed under this
>> assumption.
>
> How come no one has hacked together a "command line" BIOS?
>
> In the modern days, once a machine is setup I can't think of needing
> to go into the BIOS from remote. The OS handles things once it
> starts booting, and all of the Unixes have serial bios support.

...which does you no good in the frequent situation where a machine
will not boot.

One major problem with PC BIOS is that it changes things even when you
don't tell it to.

For example, a momentary error condition can cause PC BIOS to alter
the drive boot order. This can happen after a power failure, or even
just a temporary drive failure on some RAID BIOS.

Your machine will not come up until you enter BIOS and fix the drive
order.

Of course, one must ask: why can't the BIOS just take your settings
and not change them if you didn't ask?

That's just one example.

> I think they all use direct VGA writes too.

The other day you said they didn't.... :)

> Well, in defense of the PC probe-scsi would be facilitated by the
> SCSI add in card. I think EISA had some sort of system where each
> card provided an extension to the BIOS or something... but I've seen
> it on Suns where an add-in card couldn't be probed.

In that case, the add-in card was broken.

As far as I know, probe-scsi just sends standard SCSI commands, so it
should work with any compliant adapter.

>> OK, enough now. Back to work. Sorry, I get carried away...
>
> What about a port of OBP to PC?

...or even just a command line interface that can talk serial or video.

Of course, the manufacturers would have to start following standards...

--
Shannon Hendrix
shannon@...
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Re: 3.5" bay, 2x2.5" disks

2008-05-12T12:36:21Z

Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Like this: http://www.addonics.com/products/mobile_rack/doubledrive.asp
>
> Dual sled for external drive access, but nothing would stop you from adding it internally, AFAIK.

That'd work, yeah, and at about $30 less than the next best I've found.
Thanks for the pointer.

--
Phil Stracchino, CDK#2 DoD#299792458 ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
alaric@... alaric@... phil@...
Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
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Re: 3.5" bay, 2x2.5" disks

2008-05-12T12:21:51Z

>From: Phil Stracchino <alaric@...>
>Date: 2008/05/12 Mon PM 01:21:19 CDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue@...>
>Subject: [rescue] 3.5" bay, 2x2.5" disks

>Does anyone know of a reasonably-priced simple internal mounting bracket
>to install two 2.5" disks in a 3.5" internal bay? All but one of the
>products I've been able to find are either hot-swap removable housings,
>or internal housings with built-in RAID0/1 controllers. (The exception
>is a 2x2.5" mounting plate found on a UK mini-ITX site, but it's not
>clear from looking at it quite how it's supposed to be used, and I'm not
>convinced it'd leave me clearance to connect cables.)

Like this: http://www.addonics.com/products/mobile_rack/doubledrive.asp

Dual sled for external drive access, but nothing would stop you from adding it internally, AFAIK.
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Re: Help the ailing Frankenmac

2008-05-12T11:51:33Z

On 12 May 2008, at 19:41, Mike Hebel wrote:
>
> Curiosity question - is a 9500 case able to take a 9600 system board?

I'd say an unqualified No. The board are dimensionally different IIRC.
The stuff on the board is almost identical, but they won't swap cases
IIRC.

--
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
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Re: Help the ailing Frankenmac

2008-05-12T11:41:24Z

I got an Ugh Level grumpy message from: Mark

> On 12 May 2008, at 16:32, Steve Hatle wrote:
>>
>> That's true- I've had it bring machines back from the dead, and I've
>> had it
>> do absolutely nothing.
>>
>> Like Bill's experience, the CUDA button along with battery pulling,
>> NVRAM
>> resets, PRAM resets and the dead chicken are all effective tools in
>> combination to get a Mac back on it's feet :-)
>
> I tell ya, you'll still not get a better factory reset then pulling
> the power and battery and leaving it to sulk. It's worked for me on an
> uncountable number of previous occasions. I wonder if pulling the
> battery and pushing the CUDA switch for 10 secs actually accelerates
> the process? It's hard to tell with diagnosing Mac hardware, as
> there's a lot of folklore and contradicting information, 90% of which
> is total Bullshit that Mac hardware techies conclude from this one
> time when they did something hey can't actually remember what they did
> and it worked so that's how EVERYONE ELSE should do it in future. Some
> of them are almost as bad as the users... :\

I will agree with most of this statement. And I've used the power-off/no
battery technique before myself.

> On the subject of helping ailing Frankenmacs...
>
> I need help to revive my 9600. It killed a perfectly good Radeon 7000,
> then a few months later it upped and stopped working. It's been in a
> total sulk, and won't boot up (power but no chime). I've tried
> **everything** and concluded it may actually be the logic board that's
> knackered. Shame, I really like the 9600. It's a joy to work on
> (unlike it's replacement). Anyone (in the UK) got a 9600 or 8600 board
> skulking around they know works? I've got all the other parts sat here
> in a 8550 WGS at the moment (horrible, horrible Mac, but it works
> pretty well).

Curiosity question - is a 9500 case able to take a 9600 system board?

--
Mike Hebel

See with eyes unclouded, think with mind uncluttered, act with heart
unchained!
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Re: Help the ailing Frankenmac

2008-05-12T11:29:17Z

On 12 May 2008, at 16:32, Steve Hatle wrote:
>
> That's true- I've had it bring machines back from the dead, and I've
> had it
> do absolutely nothing.
>
> Like Bill's experience, the CUDA button along with battery pulling,
> NVRAM
> resets, PRAM resets and the dead chicken are all effective tools in
> combination to get a Mac back on it's feet :-)

I tell ya, you'll still not get a better factory reset then pulling
the power and battery and leaving it to sulk. It's worked for me on an
uncountable number of previous occasions. I wonder if pulling the
battery and pushing the CUDA switch for 10 secs actually accelerates
the process? It's hard to tell with diagnosing Mac hardware, as
there's a lot of folklore and contradicting information, 90% of which
is total Bullshit that Mac hardware techies conclude from this one
time when they did something hey can't actually remember what they did
and it worked so that's how EVERYONE ELSE should do it in future. Some
of them are almost as bad as the users... :\

On the subject of helping ailing Frankenmacs...

I need help to revive my 9600. It killed a perfectly good Radeon 7000,
then a few months later it upped and stopped working. It's been in a
total sulk, and won't boot up (power but no chime). I've tried
**everything** and concluded it may actually be the logic board that's
knackered. Shame, I really like the 9600. It's a joy to work on
(unlike it's replacement). Anyone (in the UK) got a 9600 or 8600 board
skulking around they know works? I've got all the other parts sat here
in a 8550 WGS at the moment (horrible, horrible Mac, but it works
pretty well).

--
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
_______________________________________________
rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

3.5" bay, 2x2.5" disks

2008-05-12T11:21:19Z

Does anyone know of a reasonably-priced simple internal mounting bracket
to install two 2.5" disks in a 3.5" internal bay? All but one of the
products I've been able to find are either hot-swap removable housings,
or internal housings with built-in RAID0/1 controllers. (The exception
is a 2x2.5" mounting plate found on a UK mini-ITX site, but it's not
clear from looking at it quite how it's supposed to be used, and I'm not
convinced it'd leave me clearance to connect cables.)

--
Phil Stracchino, CDK#2 DoD#299792458 ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
alaric@... alaric@... phil@...
Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
_______________________________________________
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Re: Help the ailing Frankenmac

2008-05-12T08:32:30Z

On 5/12/08 10:21 AM, "Bill Bradford" wrote:

> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:17:24AM -0400, William Enestvedt wrote:
>> It appears I was (comprehensively) mistaken.
>
> its best to summarize it as:
>
> CUDA button = waving a dead chicken
>
> 8-)
>
> Bill

That's true- I've had it bring machines back from the dead, and I've had it
do absolutely nothing.

Like Bill's experience, the CUDA button along with battery pulling, NVRAM
resets, PRAM resets and the dead chicken are all effective tools in
combination to get a Mac back on it's feet :-)

Steve
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Re: Help the ailing Frankenmac

2008-05-12T08:21:40Z

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:17:24AM -0400, William Enestvedt wrote:
> It appears I was (comprehensively) mistaken.

its best to summarize it as:

CUDA button = waving a dead chicken

8-)

Bill

--
Bill Bradford
Houston, Texas
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