The Screaming Viking

After months, years…eons of complaining and fighting with the old stuff…the time has finally come that I can look to the future! I’m expecting to order parts and start construction on a new server box (code name: mjollnir) within a month. I would expect construction to take 2 days (I’ll be taking my time), windows stress testing to take a week, loading and configuring debian 2 weeks, then finally letting her go live. So about 3 weeks to a month between the time I order parts and you can expect it live. I’m going to load Win XP SP 2 on it, and loop 2 instances of prime95 with one instance of 3dmark2k(x) for about 5 days. If it does this stable with no hiccups I’ll pronounce the construction sound without hesitation…if she pukes, I’ll have to investigate to see if it’s hardware or drivers. Since it’s a server box I won’t be over clocking it in the conventional fasion. I will screw with the multiplier and FSB to gain the most favorable combination at the rated speed.

I’m going to go with Debian (etch) again, so as far as the user is concerned how things function shouldn’t change. Anything that is bandwidth limited you won’t notice a gain on, but anything that is system dependant (SQL queries especially) will be quicker. I will fire off an email notice about a week before I switch boxes. All a user should have to do is log into squirrel with the default password (It will be supplied in the email) go to options and change your password to whatever you want…and you’ll be ready to roll. I plan on moving all the mail and so forth over. If it goes smoothly, the system will be down for a few hours. If it doesn’t….it’ll be down for a few hours as I’ll direct everything back to valhalla and try to finger out what’s going on. At that point I’ll leave valhalla functional but not live for a week so users can verify all their stuff is transferred. Then I’ll tear valhalla apart, build a “new” desktop machine (code name: dirt), expand the capacity of my TiVo (2 120’s muhahahahahaha!) and throw away or give away ALL MY OLD COMPUTER HARDWARE! Every last circut board is going out the door in one fasion or another. I’ve got so much stuff that of course “you can’t throw it away!” but it’s just not good for anything anymore.

So that’s what’s on tap for my network. I’m pretty stoked up. By upgrading the server I end up with 2 machines and an expanded Tivo out of the deal. I’ll list off some of the parts below I’m figuring on going with for the server. I wanted to end up with 1tb of raw storage but due to price concerns I might not be able to push that. I’ll try and work a few parts around and find some deals to see if I can get there.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2
GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 Socket AM2
Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 x2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA x4
Rosewill R5601-BK ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Along with some other misc stuff I don’t have access to right now. I might go with 4 400 gig drives…we’ll have to see how the money works out. I want it to come in under a grand.

I’ll throw up a full parts list after I make the order.

I’m so stoked!

Ok, maybe I just don’t get the way things work in the world of business…but why in the hell is it so difficult and taking so long to bring downloadable T.V. shows to life? Everybody bickers about price, bickers about DRM, bickers about a delivery system…I just don’t get it. Almost every show out there worth watching on a weekly basis is already available for download for absolutely nothing, why can’t the TV studios just throw out unDRM’d content and charge a nominal fee. You’re cashing in on what’s already there and can’t be stopped in the first place. Lots of people would pay a buck or two for a missed episode of their favorite series…Sara’s sister constantly misses ER and I’m sure would cough up a couple of bucks to be able to download it. The pricing model for this is so simple, offer it for a premium 24hrs before the show airs on TV with commercials, after the show airs offer it for a discounted price with commercials and the same premium price with out commercials. How is this difficult to understand? It’s already floating around out there an hour after airtime for absolutely nothing without commercials… How exactly are people going to be able to pirate it more with it coming directly from the studio? Anyone who knows…already does, those who don’t know…we’ll it’s highly unlikely they’d figure it out or frankly even care. With my cable connection maxed out, it takes about 1.5 hrs to download 45min worth of a TV show (350 meg). With studio driven developers, I’m sure the compression/quality could be increased to a point where it could be streamed in almost real time. It would kinda suck to watch this on my computer though…so lets make this option available through a set top box. Lets call it…oh I dunno…”kodyskickassmediaidea” for example. Now I can’t think of a show right now that I would pay ahead of time to watch, but…if I was able to do so with a subscription…maybe a few bucks tacked on to my cable bill for X credits a month or something….who knows really. Christ, I wouldn’t need txt messaging if it wasn’t for the woman, but she can’t live without it. It’s people that get hooked on utterly useless technology that would keep this thing going and thriving. WHY IS IT SO DAMN DIFFICULT!

After that, we attack the movie rental industry. I’m not sure how downloading movies would work. Obviously there is more to be made by burning a movie onto a DVD then a single episode of some show. And since it’s a “rental’ much like with todayâ??s rental system, I don’t have the right to keep it forever and watch it where ever I want….so maybe there’s some timed deletion routine that can be coded into the client…what I do need to be able to do though is watch it wherever I please during the time I’ve rented it. Just like you can now anywhere that has a DVD player, you need to be able to anywhere (on your own little network) that has these set top boxes.

I’m beginning to really dislike renting movies. We’ll go pickup two movies, watch one then return them late without ever watching the second one. It would be so much nicer to just decide to watch a flick and “pay per view” it. Granted that’s already an option, but your chained with start times and all that. Obviously this functionality isn’t so vital for movies.

ISP’s need to be on board for this as well. They always bitch and moan about users actually using what they paid for. I have 3mbit down and 300 up, I expect to be able to fully saturate that connection 24/7 without any restrictions. I’m not paying for the speed not to use it…otherwise DSL would have been fine. ISP’s need to upgrade their infrastructure and get with the times….

Damn dinosaurs, I was born a century early.

wtf?

…. their eyes met across the garage, his muscles rippling under his white grease stained cut off tee shirt. She glided around the Dupont, M&M, Auto Zone, KFC, Wal-Mart, Childress Chevrolet and threw her arms around his four-barrel Holly 780 Double-Pumper….

This book just wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors, I’d like to thank cingular, cat, and busweiser. We had an all-star crew out there today, they really got this Kamori Printing Press hooking up. We were solid through 346 pages, had a little hicup around 347 but we changed ink and she was purring right to the end.

What the fuck indeed….

Yes, itâ??s trueâ?¦I am semi sucked into Idol. Itâ??s not my fault though!!!!

Last year was the first year Iâ??d ever sat down to watch the damn thing. Sara is an Idol fan and she wanted to watch all the preliminary horrible singers and all that jazz. I watched and it was pretty interestingâ?¦then I heard Chris Daughtry sing. I was very impressed with his rocker style and the break from the pop or country norm that seems to be prevalent through the show. I watched up until he got voted off (a travesty) and then didnâ??t watch the final two episodes of that year. So I donâ??t think itâ??s so much that Iâ??m an Idol fan as it was I am a Chris fan. (btw, I acquired his debut albumâ?¦disappointing. Too many ballads and not enough rocker).

So this year again we watched all the preliminary stuff, and they are now working into the regular rounds. Weâ??ve watched the men from Tuesday perform and the women on Wednesday, but havenâ??t seen the results show from Thursday yet. I must say Iâ??m quite disappointed in the men this year. There isnâ??t a single one of them worth watching again. The women werenâ??t that much better. Why Why Why does everyone try and go with a ballad? Come out there and just belt out a rocker songâ?¦get the crowd going and the emotion will carry you into the next round. Maybe then look to take it down a notch and show some range, but right off just hit it hard and fast like a one nite stand.

For whatever reason (Sara mentioned this last nite not me damn it!) the black women seemed to come out with all kinds of energy and up beat songs but the other girls were just flat. The last lady (Iâ??m horrible with names) has a pretty good set of lungs on her, right on key with a powerful voice. She is a bit larger woman though, so itâ??s entirely possible sheâ??ll lose out because she doesnâ??t have the idol â??lookâ?.

This show, as lame as some of us might think it is, does exactly what itâ??s designed to do. Finds what person America finds most appealing to the market and gets them out there to be sold.

I wonâ??t really be watching this year; no one has a captivating voice that I look forward to hearing. Kind of disappointing, but reallyâ?¦thereâ??s other things to do lately.