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I just built a new PC server from an old AMD XP+ 1800 (running at 1.5GHz). It has an old Seagate Barracuda 80GB hard drive. Apart from this server, I have a custom built workhorse with tons of memory, Linux software RAID and other stuff. If you’re wondering how this compares in terms of raw performance here it is:


Server 1 - CRUISE

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 1028 MB in 2.01 seconds = 512.45 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 120 MB in 3.04 seconds = 39.48 MB/sec


Server 1 specs:
AMD 2.1GHz
2GB DDR 800 RAM
Ubuntu 7.10
Linux software RAID - 2×500GB Seagate SATA drives

Server 2 specs:
AMD 1.5GHz
512MB RAM
ClarkConnect 4.1 SP1
Seagate Barracuda 80GB HD

As you can see from the numbers. There is quite a performance difference. Power management is active on Server 1, so the numbers can potentially be higher. It most runs in 1GHz which is fine, to lower electricity costs.

Not sure if anyone is old enough to remember .D00 / .D01 files from the 90’s, but I just found a stash of these files from my old hard drive. The archive linked has a DOS player in it as well. You’ll need DOSBox to play it, however. Let me know how it goes.

Download

Excellent resource on getting Ubuntu working nicely on your MacBook Pro. I had trouble with getting wireless to work. After following the guide, it works, but only connects to 802.11g routers — refuses to connect to Apple Extreme 802.11n.

If anyone has a solution, I’d love to know.

Thanks.

While I am not very religious, I found this interesting article on 10 misconceptions about Islam. Everyone owes it to themselves to read it, whether you belong to the faith or not. Comments are welcome.

If you ever wondered how fast is Aurora cable in real life, then, wonder no more:

I’ve never seen this much snow in my entire life. We got almost 4 feet of snow. Try shoveling that… Yeesh.

Excellent article on how to deal with abusive people. Worth reading it in its entirety as well as the comments that follow.

I have recently acquired the Sony LocationFree base station. It decided in favour of it to be able to watch TV in my upstairs bedroom since there is no COAX connection available. I had thought that using my PS3, I may be able to get stream via the PS3. But my lack of research resulted in that dream being shattered.

Nonetheless, there is a Mac player for it but it costs extra money and does not come with the device. The Mac software is actually quite good, so no complaints there. It also is compatible with Leopard.

Let’s hope that Sony updates PS3 to support LocationFree, until then, the true value of this device is somewhat limited.

Here’s a quick and safe way to delete :2eDS_Store files from network shares. These annoying and fairly useless files are created by your beloved Mac, because they still insist on creating metadata files separately.

WARNING: Use at your own risk. Provided as is, and without warranty!
find . -name ":2eDS_Store" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v
These files can also be called “.DS_Store.”
find . -name ".DS_Store" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v

Enjoy.

Yay! Hurray!

Ratatouille won the Oscar for best animation! Sadly, the Michael Moore documentary called Sicko did not win.