Remember that desktop machine that I assembled way back when? My paranoia led me to arrange the disk layout as follows: 2 drives in a mirror that will hold the primary system, and 4 drives in a RAID 5 for storage. The mirror was arranged by partitioning each of the drives into three sections: one for root, one for swap, one for /home. The root and /home sections were each placed into their own mirror RAID. I’m now quite glad that I’m so very paranoid.

Last week, while I was working on re-writing that compiler, I decided to upgrade my system (I felt oppressed by my software). I usually advise all my friends: “Don’t upgrade your computer, it will break everything.” It would have been good to follow my own advise. After the upgrade, grub was all wonkers and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it easily and get back to the compiler work. So, I figured the quickest solution was to completely re-install the system.

Easiest path to getting a new system, that has close to the same functionality of the old system is quite simple when you don’t have to worry about making extra backup copies of your stuff! I broke the mirror RAID, and installed a new system on one of the drives! Then any settings that I don’t quite like, or configurations that need to be maintained (such as the one for this website, and for Xorg) I can copy over when I identify the problem. When everything is all hunky-dory, then I can also re-establish the RAID.

Best part about splitting the root from the /home, is that all my user preferences and settings don’t have to be touched during the entire process! As soon as all the packages I wanted were installed in the new system (via dpkg --(get|set)-selections) I could simply login and pick up where I left off.

The total time before I could get back to programming: 1/2 day. I love Linux!

It’s become somewhat a habit of mine to purchase for myself some sorta technology each Xmas. I’m usually the one to make the purchase myself, because I’m pretty much the only one that knows what I want and need. One of the curses of being so introverted, is that nobody knows what gifts to give you. The situation is complicated by the the plethora of options available in the tech industry and its very rapid change, my family just isn’t inclined to keep up. They shouldn’t get all the blame though, as every time they ask what I want, I haven’t kept up with the industry enough either.

Last year I bought myself a nice quad-core desktop machine, that required its own assembly. I had to get a specific case, so that would hold 6 HD’s, 4 in a RAID5 and 2 in a RAID1. I remember spending probably about 2 weeks going through all the options and choices, doing price/performance comparisons, etc, etc. My desires are really too specific for anyone but myself to buy a good Xmas present. That machine, is still working today, serving up this website, and hosting a large collection of media. Since I purchased it I’ve wanted to run use the quad core for heavy-duty computing, but only wound up doing that once. I still have (long dated) plans to do stock market calculations though!

So, today and yesterday I spent several hours browsing the netbook offerings. I’m pretty sure that I want one of these things now. Last year, the market didn’t quite fit my needs. What I’d really like to have is

• a decent keyboard
• HD screen 1366×768 resolution, with LED backlight
• Long battery life
• Built-in GPS
• Wifi, 802.11a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth, even though I have no bluetooth devices
• magnetic power plug, but Apple seems to have the monopoly on these, and isn’t licensing
• Internet everywhere, without paying hideous $30+/mo. service charges
• a Solid State Drive, because 5400rpm makes virtual memory paging take too long
• a processor that can actually do work

It seems that enough of these requirements are fulfilled by the Acer Aspire as1410-8414. While HD video playback isn’t as good as a normal desktop, it’s really the screen size that I care about. I need that space for plenty amounts of text. I assume that if the provided HD is too slow for my tastes I can upgrade in 6months to a SSD, and more RAM. My current laptop, Toshiba Satellite U205-S5057, has a Core 2 Duo, and has held up quite nicely for 3 years now. It’s unfortunate drawbacks are some finickiness with suspend/sleep, and battery life. I think that the season is right for an upgrade. I’ll be downgrading to a Core 2 Solo, but the higher number of pixels, and longer battery life make it all worthwhile.

There are many things associated with a high-tech lifestyle. Most of these things are electronic: cellphone, kindle, PDA, laptop, video-conferencing, etc. I think it’s the more subtle things that actually matter more. The things that aren’t visible, that are often overlooked, but which actually have a large impact.

Today an article came out on slashdot about a Bacterial Computer that can Solves the Hamiltonian Path Problem This article, of course, led me awander on the internet, whereupon I read about Antibubbles! and a company called Zubbles.

Zubbles are fascinating. Colored bubbles. The idea is deceptively simple, but let’s think about how color in bubbles is formed. Bubble typically have a rainbow shine to them because of variations in the bubble film, that resonate with different frequencies of light. Suppose that you wanted only a single color instead of an ever-changing rainbow.

There are two options:

1. produce a film that has a specific thickness that’s the color you want.
2. add a colored dye to the soap solution.

The Zubbles company chose option (2), but still had a great deal of technical details to work out. The chosen dye must be soluble, non-toxic, can’t interfere with surface-tension properties necessary for bubble formation, and shouldn’t get colored dye all over everything the bubbles might land and pop on. Remarkably, bright chemists were able to solve these problems. The found a set of dye’s that remain in-tact until the bubble pops. The popping has enough energy that it causes a carbon ring within the dye to open up. When the ring is broken the dye loses its color.

About ten years of experimenting, for a deceptively simple children’s toy. Science is awesome!

I’ve seen much recently piggy-backing on the Wisdom of Crowds. Much of the Web 2.0 seems highly focused on exploiting this phenomenon:

• Datamining the crowd: Yahoo and Google both have an Answers service that purports to harness the wisdom explicitly.
• Ranking results: Digg, Newsvine, Technorati all use forms of distributed social voting to determine quality.
• Finding the Diamond: StackOverflow uses ranking to filter the ‘most useful’ answers to the top.
• CrowdSorcing (use the crowd to do your work): Image Search has been turned into a labeling game
• Web Search is dominated by Sergey and Brin’s PageRank algorithm which uses hypertext links as the voting system.
• Google’s new Book Search (quotation finder), which is geared to work across languages, correlates text samples across different media, counting the number of occurrences of a phrase.
• Prediction Markets, fundamental Democracy, etc…

I’m sure that there are many more examples that I’ve neglected to mention.

Unfortunately, the effectiveness of Crowd Wisdom relies heavily on some assumptions which may prove shaky in the real world:

• Independence of participants. The crowd is wisest when it’s composed of independently thinking individuals. Lemmings and mobs make very foolish crowds, aka herds. If each of the participants uses the popular reasoning “what’s good enough for everyone else is good enough for me,” we have a crowd with very many inter-dependent voices.
• Diversity of Opinion. The crowd is wisest when it can draw upon widely varied knowledge and experience.

Wikipedia readily identifies what I see as the fatal flaw:

Surowiecki studies situations (such as rational bubbles) in which the crowd produces very bad judgment, and argues that in these types of situations their cognition or cooperation failed because (in one way or another) the members of the crowd were too conscious of the opinions of others and began to emulate each other and conform rather than think differently.

So, what happens then when the world’s knowledge is aggregated by these algorithms? Our collective knowledge becomes stricken by a dangerous positive feedback loop. Due to time constraints we prefer superficial syncophantic opinions to in-depth analysis. Everyone will use the results of these tools to form their own opinions, which undermines the assumptions the tools are built upon. Because of this self-inconsistency the Wisdom of Crowds algorithms should be looked upon with reservation and skepticism.

The Wisdom of Crowds is too unstable and should find itself becoming the tool for the Misinformation of Crowds.

Aside: Already we have evidence of real-world damage caused by such algorithms and social psychology. United Airlines stock crashes because Google News posted a six-year old story about bankruptcy as if it were current.

I’ve kinda been looking at the computer market recently, So I decided to goto Fry’s today, just to look around. While there I saw on the display of motherboards, some tiny Mini-ITX systems. They were all a bit underpowered, but had nearly everything integrated on the motherboard; some were even fanless. At first I thought they were rather quaint, possibly for a grandmother’s internet pc. But then I realized, that due to their small size, they’d be perfect platforms for an in-car pc.

Looking online I found I was right! Of all the spots that talked about car-pc mods, the best was the Coolest Car in the World. He detailed nearly complete construction, and lists all the software he uses.

Software is probably the most important issue regarding a CarPC. I’d want to at least

1. Voice Command

I’d want it to respond to “Computer” ala Star Trek, or “Kitt” ala Night Rider. But mostly I should be able to work the computer without using my hands, because it’s much less distracting that way.

2. GPS Navigation

We should be able to do all the stuff that current GPS units do. Street navigation, auto route change based on current position, search for nearby gas/food stations, all voice-controlled of course.

3. MP3 playing

What’s the point in having a Hard Drive in your car, if you don’t load it full up with music? Should support shuffle, mood-based selection, specific song/artist collection, and tell you what’s currently playing if asked through the voice-control.

4. Video playing

I may not want this, but it might be nice anyway.

5. Note taking

The car should remind you when it next needs service, what chores you planned to do today, and all that jazz.

6. WiFi plotting

aka WarDriving. Plot wireless access points via GPS.

7. Talk to other cars

It’s about time someone create a protocol whereby the cars on the road can talk to each other. This way they can advise drivers of which lane is best (coordinated routing, if the GPS nav knows where you’re headed), and distribute network/internet service. Possibly we’d want collision control via radar/laser ranging as well.

Next to that is the hardware. I’d want an unobtrusive display system, and don’t absolutely need access to the embedded engine computer. Though it might be nice for the pc to know about gas level, engine temp, and all that, even if only to give you an audible warning. Also, we want to avoid a keyboard of any kind because of the distraction it would cause. Touch-screens might be forgivable. HUD would be sweet.

Looking at this further, stealing hardware from the VIA Openbook would probably be the cheapest way to go (once they come out). Mount the screen on the visor, and setup the software. Otherwise the VoomPC would be a nice way to go. Linux CarPC software is lacking a coalescence right now. I almost hate to say it (because there are so many already), but we really need another distro to fit this rather niche market.

So Google has recently released a new browser, Chrome, which must have been named to remind us that the company is still shiny and new. I must of course commend them for certain features:

• Relocating the address bar.

Just like Opera the address bar is now located below the tabs.

• Incognito mode.

The ability to browse the web without tarnishing your computer or leaving traces of where you’ve been. Just like IE8’s Privacy mode, and long available Firefox plugins. Unfortunately, with the web as it currently stands, Google (and other advertisers) still know where you’ve been (through Analytics and other tracing services). When browsing in this mode, it’s only your computer that won’t record your browsing habits, all the other recorders remain fully operational. So, feel free to be lulled into a false sense of security, and reveal the details of your fetishes, preferences, likes and dislikes for full targeted advertising (or worse).

• Confined Popups.

It sounds convenient, to confine a popup to a little box at the bottom of your page; but, if the browser actually goes to the trouble of rendering the contents of that window in the background, it becomes a delightfully innocuous looking place to stash nefarious javascript. Just running the page through the renderer will cause leakage of all sorts of information, yet the user is kept blissfully unaware, because they never see the rendered result.

• Phish warning.

Yes, it’s very useful to let Google tell you wether you’re visiting a phishy site. But if your browser asks, at every page load, is this url a phish? then Google most assuredly knows your browsing history and habits. Even if you use the privacy mode, Google knows where you’ve been today. Not only is it easier to compile these requests into a browsing history than trying to interpolate through Analytics data, but the information thus gathered will be much more complete.

• Omnibox.

Copied from Firefox’s Awesome Bar.

• Draggable Tabs.

Konqueror has had this feature for awhile now, though in my opinion it’s rather incomplete. In Chrome’s case, since each tab is run as a separate process, dragging the tab is akin to creating a continuation and passing it to another window. This means the entire tab and all its state pass through unaffected. While Konqueror simply loads a new window with the address of the dragged tab, so you wind up at the same site, but all the state has disappeared. It doesn’t work so well webapps.

• Task Manager.

Since each tab is now a separate process, the browser, like the Operating System before it, now requires its own task manager.

• Crash prevention.

Isolating tabs as separate process improves security and user experience. It makes it more difficult for separate pages to communicate sensitive information to each other, and it prevents badly formed javascript from killing the entire browser.

• Personalized Start Page.

Inspired by Mozilla’s Ubiquity project, the zero-configuration interface places links and shortcuts to places you visit often; so really, really make sure to use Incognito mode for porn, lest it ‘conveniently’ be placed on your start page.

• Cartoon Introduction.

I loved both it, and the parodies it inspired.

Despite the fiasco with a cut-n-pasted license agreement, and reports of bugs, I still think that the Chrome Browser is more securable than other browsers because of the underlying process architecture.

It also begins to look like Google isn’t so much innovating new stuff as they are desperately pushing for a different browsing experience. They commissioned a new Javascript engine, V8, with an explicit focus on execution speed for Google computationally intensive web applications and services. I’m sure they don’t plan on profiting much from Chrome directly (information harvesting is indirect), but they’ve got developer’s attention on improving standards compliance, user interface and better javascript performance.

But, the new browser also represents an important new step in Google’s quest for ownership of all the world’s information (and they aren’t even subtle about it!). Not only will it assist in personal data-collection, but it will certainly encourage greater use of associated Google web services (for a better web experience). Vendor lock-in on the web happens as a result of data ownership, just as lock-in on office happens because of file formats. Google understands this better than most people realize. Nobody forces you to use Google services; but your past self that decided some years ago that these services were convenient, and didn’t consider the related privacy issues that concern you today, when it’s too late.

The company needs a new motto (apologies to Max Headroom):

We make everything you need and you need everything we make.

Alright, I’m dissatisfied with my current computer setup, and am thinking about purchasing myself a desktop/server. To start off, Jeff Atwood has recently spec’d a nice machine for one of his friends. I began with his list, and modified it to suit my tastes.

• COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro 550 RS-550-ACAA-A1 550W ATX12V
  An 80Plus certified power supply, because efficiency is important.
• COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
  A case, purchased in combo with the power supply, that supports a large number of 5.25 drive bays, and places the PSU at the bottom, because the PSU I chose has a 120mm fan on it’s top.
• iStarUSA BPU-340-SA- BLUE 3×5.25″ to 4×3.5″ SATA2.0 Hot-Swap Backplane Raid Cage
  I know, this is splurging a bit, but I’d like to have something convenient to put my RAID in, and this fits the bill.
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
  I decided to get an Intel Core 2 Quad of some kind, and a nice comparison of features from wikipedia helped me decide what features fit me best. I decided that I like to conserve cash and can deal with using slightly older technology. The larger cache size on the Kentsfield models is more important to me than the higher clock rate obtainable on other models (including Core 2 Duo, and Core 2 Solo). I’d like a higher FSB, but, again, I’m really cheap.

  Model Number	Frequency	L2-Cache	Front Side Bus	Mult	Voltage	TDP	Socket	Release Date	Price
  Kentsfield (65nm) supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EIST, x86-64, XD bit, iAMT2, Virtualization, Trusted Execution.
  Core 2 Quad Q6600	2400 MHz	2 x 4096 KiB	1066 MT/s	9x	1.1 — 1.372 V	95 W	LGA 775	Apr 20, 2007	$190
  Core 2 Quad Q6700	2667 MHz	2 x 4096 KiB	1066 MT/s	10x	1.1 — 1.372 V	95 W	LGA 775	Apr 20, 2007	$270 (or $198 Open Box)
  Yorksfield-4M (45nm) supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EIST, x86-64, XD bit, iAMT2.
  Core 2 Quad Q8200	2333 MHz	2 x 2048 KiB	1333 MT/s	7x	0.85V x 1.3625 V	95 W	LGA 775	August 31, 2008	$225
  Yorksfield-6M (45nm) supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EIST, x86-64, XD bit, iAMT2, Virtualization, Trusted Execution
  Core 2 Quad Q9300	2500 MHz	2 x 3072 KiB	1333 MT/s	7.5x	0.85 x 1.3625 V	95 W	LGA 775	March 10, 2008	$260
  Core 2 Quad Q9400	2667 MHz	2 x 3072 KiB	1333 MT/s	8x	0.85 x 1.3625 V	95 W	LGA 775	August 10, 2008	$270

  The rest of the processors start getting to expensive for me to even consider.

• A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
  I noticed that this RAM can be purchased in combo with the chosen processor above. It has decent reviews, and unlike Jeff’s chosen memory, this model has a heat spreader.
• Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve “NINJA MINI” CPU Cooler
  Even though our CPU came with a cooling block, it’s best to buy a better one. I opted not to go for the Scythe SCNJ-2000 because I’m worried that it’s sheer bulk and weight might cause undue stress on the motherboard.
• SAPPHIRE 100236L Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
  Since all I really do is surf the net and write programs, I like to have a dual-monitor setup. I also like to watch movies, and maybe want to run Compiz/Beryl, so I still need that 3d acceleration. It was a bitch to find a card that I think has a reasonable chance of working under GNU/Linux. If this one doesn’t work I’ll kick myself for not getting the Sapphire HD2600XT (I’m more certain it works under GNU/Linux).
• MSI P7N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
  I now need a motherboard that has a PCI-E 2.0 16x slot, 775 Intel socket with 1066MHz FSB and support for DDR2 800 RAM. I’m also looking for at least 6 SATA 3.0GBit connectors for a (software) RAID, and the presence of black, gold, and green audio out connectors for my existing speaker set. Using Newegg’s Power Search for motherboards with these features, I discovered that these requirements have overconstrained my system, I’ve therefore had to settle for only 4 SATA connectors, and a more expensive board than I’d originally hoped for.

In summary my new system spec’s look like this:

And even with some extras (like that Raid house, and the computer case) I still beat the price of Atwood’s machine. Although, I have leftout a DVD burner and Hard Drive, because I already have them.

Addendum: If I were willing to go with a more expensive chip (Core 2 Quad Q8200) I could get a cheaper (yet more capable) motherboard: the ASRock P43Twins1600 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard for $70. This changes the subtotal to $690 and the total to $680. An interesting savings! Actually, that board supports the older chips, so I don’t have to forgo my large 4MB cache.

Something that I will have to look out for next machine I get: Error Correcting Code in memory. 4GB is probably the limit for not having ECC.

Today I spent a considerable amount of time trying to install git on my Terastation.

First I discover that all the git-core ppc debian and rpm packages are compiled against a different version of libc. So I get the source for git, and attempt to compile it myself. I find that the Terastation doesn’t have a compiler. So, I go online and find that there’s a ppc development environment for the Linkstation. Once I unpack that, and setup my PATH, I try to compile git again, but run into problem with libraries and missing core-utils programs. Eventually I get that sorted out, and find problems with Perl. Finally, I was able to grab some perl packages that correspond to the version already on my Terastation, and unpack those, and compile git. Lastly I wrote up, and installed a script to run git-daemon. I’ve yet to set up a project that needs hosting, because I ran out of time yak shaving. The plan is to host my home directory, so I can manage stuff across several computers.

In the future I might one day setup a cross-compile environment, or (better yet) install a package manager on the thing. Either solution would make maintenance much, much easier.

My moleskine has been holding on to a rather provocative idea for quite some time. On 7^th Aug. of 2006 I wrote about a television system with no moving parts. The idea is that you use an LED laser together with a couple of prisms made out of a material that changes refractive index based on an applied voltage. One prism does the horizontal scan, the other does the vertical scan. This may not work for room-sized projectors because the power output of an LED laser would be too small, but it would work well for near-field projectors; including glasses. The primary advantage of no moving parts isn’t that they can be manufactured cheaply, but that it can be made small enough to mount one on each lens of your glasses.

Though I’ve been sitting on this idea for quite some time, it was only last night that I asked myself an interesting question: What would you do with a different picture being fed to each eye? It then dawned on me: Holography, of course. Virtual objects could be painted into the real world!

Alright, So I’ve been thinking about keeping my home directory in git recently. I have a machine that I can dedicate to storing a ‘master copy’ and I’ve no problem with creating scripts and minor utils to help things along. I haven’t done it yet, but things have gotten to the point where I can’t function outside my environment. There are some relatively large hurdles that I’d have to mount before keeping my life in a version control system would work. The first is that my native environment is completely and totally useless on toy operating systems like Microshit Winblows. Honestly, I don’t see how anybody can function on a system that’s so user-friendly it does stuff on its own that you’d rather it didn’t. The second is that I touch type Dvorak, and hunt-n-peck Qwerty. The third is that I can only edit with Vim and can’t stand systems that ignore those keybindings that’ve now migrated to muscle memory.

So what is a *nix person to do in a world of windows? Taking my environment around just isn’t going to be enough. So let’s take a lesson from Portable Firefox. Some people are so addicted to their browsers, that they can’t stand to be without their carefully configured settings, sculpted behavior, long-gathered bookmarks, and specialty plugins. Indeed, once you’ve set up your browser, using someone else’s is neigh impossible. So, there’s now a way to take all that with you on a thumb drive everywhere you go.

With virtualization coming along at a very rapid pace, this should be doable with GNU/Linux. It shouldn’t be that hard. You get a big thumb drive and partition it with a FAT32 bootstrap partition, and a *nix partition. You put all the system files on the *nix partition, and run a pseudo-kernel underneath. Ideally, to minimize disk writes and extend the life of the thumb drive, the bootstrap mechanism will load as much as it can (as a continuous read into memory) and start executing from there. So you double-click, and viola! you’re in a window that has everything they way you’re used to it. Only the bootstrap mechanism and pseudo-kernel have to be host-system aware. And, It should not require the re-booting of the host system.

I’m thinking of something almost exactly like this.