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• 50 Years of LEDs: An Interview with Inventor Nick Holonyak [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The man who powered on the first LED half a century ago is still around to talk about it; read on to watch an interview with LED inventor Nick Holonyak. The most fascinating thing about Holonyak’s journey to the invention of the LED was that he started off trying to build a laser and ended up inventing a super efficient light source: Holonyak got his PhD in 1954. In 1957, after a year at Bell Labs and a two year stint in the Army, he joined GE’s research lab in Syracuse, New York. GE was already exploring semiconductor applications and building the forerunners of modern diodes called thyristors and rectifiers. At a GE lab in Schenectady, the scientist Robert Hall was trying to build the first diode laser. Hall, Holonyak and others noticed that semiconductors emit radiation, including visible light, when electricity flows through them. Holonyak and Hall were trying to “turn them on,” and channel, focus and multiply the light. Hall was the first to succeed. He built the world’s first semiconductor laser. Without it, there would be no CD and DVD players today. “Nobody knew how to turn the semiconductor into the laser,” Holonyak says. “We arrived at the answer before anyone else.” But Hall’s laser emitted only invisible, infrared light. Holonyak spent more time in his lab, testing, cutting and polishing his hand-made semiconducting alloys. In the fall of 1962, he got first light. “People thought that alloys were rough and turgid and lumpy,” he says. “We knew damn well what happened and that we had a very powerful way of converting electrical current directly into light. We had the ultimate lamp.” How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference How To Troubleshoot Internet Connection Problems 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows

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• Fiber-Optic Cable Trick Brings Remote Triggering to Older Flashes

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Many older flashes lack for a jack to input a sync cable and rely exclusively on a simple slave mode triggered by the primary flash. This hack uses a piece of scrap fiber optic cable to trigger the flash in bright conditions. Using a flash as an optical slave indoors isn’t much of a problem, but if you introduce bright light (such as outdoor lighting conditions), the ambient light can overpower the small on-camera flash and render the optical slave function useless. To overcome this, Marcell over at Fiber Strobe (a blog dedicated to cataloging experiments in incorporating fiber optics into photography) came up with a simple work around. By using some foam crafting materials and tape, he whipped up a simple mount for a strand of scrap fiber optic cable to connect between the on-camera flash and the sensor on the slave flash. Once attached it works exactly like as sync cable would, except it’s transmitting a pulse of light instead of a pulse of electricity. Hit up the link below for more pictures and a build guide. DIY Fiber Sync Cord [via DIY Photography] HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 20, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 20, 2012Popular ReleasesP1 Port monitoring with Netduino Plus: V0.3 New release with new features: This V0.3 release that is made public on the 20th of October 2012 Third public version V0.3 A lot of work in better code, some parts are documented in the code S0 Pulse counter logic added for logging use or production of electricity Send data to PV Output for production of electricity Extra fields for COSM.com for more information Ability to enable or disable certain functionality before deploying to Netduino PlusMCEBuddy 2.x: MCEBuddy 2.3.3: 1. MCEBuddy now supports PIPE (2.2.15 style) and the newer remote TCP communication. This is to solve problems with faulty Ceton network drivers and some issues with older system related to load. When using LOCALHOST, MCEBuddy uses PIPE communication otherwise it uses TCP based communication. 2. UPnP is now disabled by Default since it interferes with some TV Tuner cards (CETON) that represent themselves as Network devices (bad drivers). Also as a security measure to avoid external connection...Pulse: Pulse 0.6.2.0: This is a roll-up of a bunch of features I've been working on for a while. I wasn't planning to release it but Wallbase.cc is broken in any version earlier then this! - Fixed Wallbase.cc provider - Multi-provider options. Now you can specify multiple input providers with different search options. - Providers have little icons now - More! Check it out and report any bugs! Having issues? Check the Known Errors page for solutions to commonly encountered problems. If you don't see the ...Orchard Project: Orchard 1.6 RC: RELEASE NOTES This is the Release Candidate version of Orchard 1.6. You should use this version to prepare your current developments to the upcoming final release, and report problems. Please read our release notes for Orchard 1.6 RC: http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Orchard-1-6-Release-Notes Please do not post questions as reviews. Questions should be posted in the Discussions tab, where they will usually get promptly responded to. If you post a question as a review, you wil...Rawr: Rawr 5.0.1: This is the Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!For web-based version see http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php You can find the version notes at: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes Rawr Addon (NOT UPDATED YET FOR MOP)We now have a Rawr Official Addon for in-game exporting and importing of character data hosted on Curse. The Addon does not perform calculations like Rawr, it simply shows your exported Rawr data in wow tooltips and lets you export your character to Rawr (including ba...Yahoo! UI Library: YUI Compressor for .Net: Version 2.1.1.0 - Sartha (BugFix): - Revered back the embedding of the 2x assemblies.Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching and Merging Guide: v2.1 - Visual Studio 2012: Welcome to the Branching and Merging Guide What is new? The Version Control specific discussions have been moved from the Branching and Merging Guide to the new Advanced Version Control Guide. The Branching and Merging Guide and the Advanced Version Control Guide have been ported to the new document style. See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2012/10/17/alm-rangers-raising-the-quality-bar-for-documentation-part-2.aspx for more information. Quality-Bar Details Documentatio...D3 Loot Tracker: 1.5.5: Compatible with 1.05.Common Data Parameters Module: CommonParam0.3H: Common Param has now been updated for VS2012 and NUnit 2.6.1. Conformance with the latest StyleCop has been maintained. If you need a version for VS2010, please use the previous version.????: ???_V2.0.0: ?????????????Write Once, Play Everywhere: MonoGame 3.0 (BETA): This is a beta release of the up coming MonoGame 3.0. It contains an Installer which will install a binary release of MonoGame on windows boxes with the following platforms. Windows, Linux, Android and Windows 8. If you need to build for iOS or Mac you will need to get the source code at this time as the installers for those platforms are not available yet. The installer will also install a bunch of Project templates for Visual Studio 2010 , 2012 and MonoDevleop. For those of you wish...WPUtils: WPUtils 1.3: Blend SDK for Silverlight provides a HyperlinkAction which is missing in Blend SDK for Windows Phone. This release adds such an action which makes use of WebBrowserTask to show web page. You can also bind the hyperlink to your view model. NOTE: Windows Phone SDK 7.1 or higher is required.Windawesome: Windawesome v1.4.1 x64: Fixed switching of applications across monitors Changed window flashing API (fix your config files) Added NetworkMonitorWidget (thanks to weiwen) Any issues/recommendations/requests for future versions? This is the 64-bit version of the release. Be sure to use that if you are on a 64-bit Windows. Works with "Required DLLs v3".CODE Framework: 4.0.21017.0: See change log in the Documentation section for details.Magelia WebStore Open-source Ecommerce software: Magelia WebStore 2.1: Add support for .net 4.0 to Magelia.Webstore.Client and StarterSite version 2.1.254.3 Scheduler Import & Export feature (for Professional and Entreprise Editions) UTC datetime and timezone support .net 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012 migration client magelia global refactoring release of a nugget package to help developers speed up development http://nuget.org/packages/Magelia.Webstore.Client optimization of the data update mechanism (a.k.a. "burst") Performance improvment of the d...JayData - The cross-platform HTML5 data-management library for JavaScript: JayData 1.2.2: JayData is a unified data access library for JavaScript to CRUD + Query data from different sources like OData, MongoDB, WebSQL, SqLite, HTML5 localStorage, Facebook or YQL. The library can be integrated with Knockout.js or Sencha Touch 2 and can be used on Node.js as well. See it in action in this 6 minutes video Sencha Touch 2 example app using JayData: Netflix browser. What's new in JayData 1.2.2 For detailed release notes check the release notes. Revitalized IndexedDB providerNow you c...VFPX: FoxcodePlus: FoxcodePlus - Visual Studio like extensions to Visual FoxPro IntelliSense.Droid Explorer: Droid Explorer 0.8.8.8 Beta: fixed the icon for packages on the desktop fixed the install dialog closing right when it starts removed the link to "set up the sdk for me" as this is no longer supported. fixed bug where the device selection dialog would show, even if there was only one device connected. fixed toolbar from having "gap" between other toolbar removed main menu items that do not have any menus Fiskalizacija za developere: FiskalizacijaDev 1.0: Prva verzija ovog projekta, još je uvijek oznacena kao BETA - ovo znaci da su naša testiranja prošla uspješno :) No, kako mi ne proizvodimo neki software za blagajne, tako sve ovo nije niti isprobano u "realnim" uvjetima - svaka je sugestija, primjedba ili prijava bug-a je dobrodošla. Za sve ovo koristite, molimo, Discussions ili Issue Tracker. U ovom trenutku runtime binary je raspoloživ kao Any CPU za .NET verzije 2.0. Javite ukoliko trebaju i verzije buildane za 32-bit/64-bit kao i za .N...Squiggle - A free open source LAN Messenger: Squiggle 3.2 (Development): NOTE: This is development release and not recommended for production use. This release is mainly for enabling extensibility and interoperability with other platforms. Support for plugins Support for extensions Communication layer and protocol is platform independent (ZeroMQ, ProtocolBuffers) Bug fixes New /invite command Edit the sent message Disable update check NOTE: This is development release and not recommended for production use.New ProjectsADFS 2.0 Attribute Store for SharePoint: ADFS 2.0 Attribute Store for SharePointALM Kickstarter: A simple Application Lifecycle Management Kickstart application written using ASP.NET MVC.Building iOS Apps with Team Foundation Server: An iPad sample project used for building iOS Xcode projects using a Team Foundation Server and the open source Jenkins build system. gyk-note: WTFHello World Fkollike: Test Project for fkollikeInnovacall ASP.net MVC 4 Azure Framework: Windows Azure Version of Innocacall ASP.net MVC 4 Framework. Intercom.Net: Intercom.Net is a C# library that provides easy tracking of customers to integration with the intercom.io CRM application. No need to learn yet another trackingjosephproject1: creating my first projectJust4Test: The project is just created for test.KBCruiser: KBCruiser helps developer to search reference or answers according to different resource categories: Forum/Blog/KB/Engine/Code/Downloadkp: store usernames/passwords from the commandline. ** Semi-secure, but by no means robust enough for production usage ** Troy Hunt would be disgusted.Neuron Operating System: Neuron Operating Systemnewelook: onesearch Pedestrian Simulation: Pedestrian simulationPTE: Using template Excel to generate UI for Prototyping.RequestModel: RequestModel is a simple implementation of typed access to a ASP.NET web forms request parametersSap: Sap is free, open-source web software that you can use to create a blog. Sap is made in ASP.NET MVC 4 (Razor). Sap is still pre-alpha and heavily in developmentSgart SharePoint 2010 Query Viewer: Windows application, based on the client object model of SharePoint 2010, that allows you to see the CAML query of a list view. Silverlight SuperLauncher: The Silverlight SuperLauncher project base on SL8.SL an Micosoft NESL.SL8.SL: The SL8.SL is a set of extension for silverlight. include mvvm,data validate,linq to sql, custom data page,oob helper etc. SL8.SL make easier to develop sl appSPDeployRetract: Easily Deploy and Retract SharePoint solutions using PowerShell. System Center Service Manager API: This API is for System Center Service Manager. It is written in C# and abstracts the more difficult aspects of service manager customization.TestingConf Utilities: This Framework will be helpful for testing and configuration purpose, so it has some methods that will be used as utilities that developers may need.The Veteran's Image Memory: his Project is been built for Educational purposes only . its not our Intention to offend anyone.Viking Effect: Viking Effect is a Brazilian website for the nerd people. We will offer news, tales and the Viking Scream, our take on the Podcast.Weather Report Widget: WPF-based application for displaying temperature, wind direction and speed for the selected city.WorldsCricket: WorldsCricket is a website which gives information on Cricket history with different cricket format, World’s cricketers, International Cricket Teams etc...XendApp - API: XendApp is a eco system for sending messages from a computer/application to a device. A device could be a phone or tablet for example.

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• Oracle in Romania - 1: Brand new office, "Greenest in Bucharest"

  - by Steve Walker

  The importance of Romania within Oracle's global operations was underlined the other day as a marvellous new office building was opened at Floreasca Park in Bucharest.  The importance of the new facility was further underlined by presence of Oracle President Safra Catz, who participated in the opening ceremony. Seen here opening the building alongside Oracle Romania country leader Sorin Mindrutescu, Safra Catz said, "Our presence in Bucharest is significant and the work our teams are doing here is hugely valuable to our company and to our customers and partners. Our expansion in Bucharest signals our success in the region and commitment to making a positive contribution to the Romanian economy." The office itself looks very impressive, as the photos above show.  But more importantly, it is a cutting edge "green" office building in Bucharest, offering modern, environmentally friendly solutions such as a geo-thermal pump for heating and cooling, eco-friendly and chemical free materials used in walls and floors, a complex shading system, a bio diversity garden, and water and electricity saving equipment throughout the building. Floreasca Park is styled "the greenest office building in Bucharest" and its environmental credentials are laid out in full in a comprehensive infographic. Finally, Oracle's commitment to its Romanian operation was recognised as the company is proud to have been voted the most desired employer in Romania in surveys conducted by Catalyst Solutions and Brainspotting Consultancy. So, here's to the success of the Romanian operation, an important part of Oracle's global business and further testament to the importance of EMEA's contribution to the company's success. Further links: Photos from the opening ceremony Press release Infographic about the Floreasca Park building

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• Does immutability entirely eliminate the need for locks in multi-processor programming?

  - by GlenPeterson

  Part 1 Clearly Immutability minimizes the need for locks in multi-processor programming, but does it eliminate that need, or are there instances where immutability alone is not enough? It seems to me that you can only defer processing and encapsulate state so long before most programs have to actually DO something. If a program performs actions on multiple processors, something needs to collect and aggregate the results. All this involves multi-process communication before, after, and possibly during some transformations. The start and end state of the machines are different. Can this always be done with no locks just by throwing out each object and creating a new one instead of changing the original (a crude view of immutability)? What cases still require locking? I'm interested in both the theoretical/academic answer and the practical/real-world answer. I know a lot of functional programmers like to talk about "no side effect" but in the "real world" everything has a side effect. Every processor click takes time and electricity and machine resources away from other processes. So I understand that there may be more than one perspective to answer this question from. If immutability is safe, given certain bounds or assumptions, I want to know what the borders of the "safety zone" are exactly. Some examples of possible boundaries: I/O Exceptions/errors Interfaces with programs written in other languages Interfaces with other machines (physical, virtual, or theoretical) Special thanks to @JimmaHoffa for his comment which started this question! Part 2 Multi-processor programming is often used as an optimization technique - to make some code run faster. When is it faster to use locks vs. immutable objects? Given the limits set out in Amdahl's Law, when can you achieve better over-all performance (with or without the garbage collector taken into account) with immutable objects vs. locking mutable ones? Summary I'm combining these two questions into one to try to get at where the bounding box is for Immutability as a solution to threading problems.

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• Dim (NEARLY blank) laptop screen, secondary screen works - why?

  - by LIttle Ancient Forest Kami

  My laptop screen is (almost) black while my secondary screen is fine. I believe it to be backlight / brightness related. Problem description it starts when I start the laptop system loads and works fine, just screen has problems I can see the screen though very faintly / dimly - it's hard to see anything which ain't very white e.g. starting screen has big Thinkpad logo in white, large font - I can see it, though very dimly second screen works very well Official backligtht debugging: using acpi setting as prescribed there for Thinkpads didn't help I can see an entry in /sys/class/backlight/ and it changes when I press hotkeys for brightness (current backlight power for instance goes up or down) acpi-off didn't helpm neither did acpi_backlight=vendor Hardware data Laptop is Thinkpad Edge with glossy screen. 4 processors, 2 cores, exemplary CPU data from cat /proc/cpuinfo reports Genuine Intel i5 (M 480 @ 2.67GHz). OS is Ubuntu Lucid, 10.04 LTS, 64-bit, with Linux generic kernel (2.6.32-44) and GNOME 2.32.2 (though I doubt there lies the problem). $ lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series] $ lshw -C display *-display description: VGA compatible controller product: M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series] vendor: ATI Technologies Inc physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=radeon latency=0 resources: irq:33 memory:c0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0300000-f030ffff memory:f0320000-f033ffff(prefetchable) Driver I was NOT running any proprietary drivers, just checked with "Hardware drivers". There is one for ATI that is suggested there, though I didn't need it so far. UPDATE: changing the driver to proprietary one (ATI/AMD FGLRX) didn't help. Tried and failed Resetting / running on power or battery / charging / getting rid of static electricity / warming up *doesn't help* This is NOT a blank-screen problem, at least it isn't following official Ubuntu black-screen diagnostics - I can see my screen, though barely. What I will try next: - check last updates I've made - IIRC I am running on nomodeset already, but will verify this Any ideas how to proceed best? What is most probable cause?

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• Smart Phones Shockingly Energy Efficient; Lead to Decreased Household Power Consumption

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Given how often our smart phones and tablets spend plugged in and topping off their battery reserves, it’s easy to assume they’re sucking down a lot of power. Analysis shows the lilliputian but powerful devices are surprisingly efficient and may be decreasing our overall power consumption. Courtesy of energy-centric blog Outlier, we’re treated to a look at the power sipping habits of popular smart phones and mobile devices. The simple take away? They use shockingly little electricity over the course of the year–you can charge your new iPhone for a year of regular usage for under a buck. The more complex analysis? The proliferation of tiny and energy efficient devices is displacing heavier energy consumers (large televisions, desktop computers, etc.) and driving a more efficient gadget-to-consumption ratio is many households. Hit up the link below to read the full post. How Much Does It Take to Charge an iPhone [via Mashable] 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows HTG Explains: How System Restore Works in Windows HTG Explains: How Antivirus Software Works

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• php soapclient responds as 'null' but xml response is ok using __getLastResponse

  - by Roger S

  I'm looking for help with a php soapclient call: The call is to a remote panel and I want to pull off the log data. There are various services published via the WSDL and I am able to use several with no issues. Here's the list: array(12) { [0]=> string(77) "GetGPTimerChannelsResponse GetGPTimerChannels(GetGPTimerChannels $parameters)" [1]=> string(74) "GetGPTimerChannelResponse GetGPTimerChannel(GetGPTimerChannel $parameters)" [2]=> string(74) "SetGPTimerChannelResponse SetGPTimerChannel(SetGPTimerChannel $parameters)" [3]=> string(47) "GetSlaveResponse GetSlave(GetSlave $parameters)" [4]=> string(71) "GetLogDataInlineResponse GetLogDataInline(GetLogDataInline $parameters)" [5]=> string(71) "GetLogItemInlineResponse GetLogItemInline(GetLogItemInline $parameters)" [6]=> string(59) "GetAlarmListResponse GetAlarmList(GetAlarmList $parameters)" [7]=> string(50) "GetSyslogResponse GetSyslog(GetSyslog $parameters)" [8]=> string(47) "SetSlaveResponse SetSlave(SetSlave $parameters)" [9]=> string(53) "GetVersionResponse GetVersion(GetVersion $parameters)" [10]=> string(53) "GetTDBInfoResponse GetTDBInfo(GetTDBInfo $parameters)" [11]=> string(53) "GetLogItemResponse GetLogItem(GetLogItem $parameters)" } I am trying to use the GetLogDataInline service which requires four parameters - these I'm passing as an array and all seems OK when doing the connection (the request/response takes around 30 seconds to process). When I look at a var_dump / print_r of the result, it returns NULL, whereas when I do a call to the __getLastResponse all of the data I need to populate my local database is there. Below is the code for the soapclient call: $client = new soapclient ("http://192.168.1.126/cgi-bin/cgi.cgi?WSDL", array("trace" => 1, "exceptions" => true, "cache_wsdl" => WSDL_CACHE_NONE, "features" => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS )); $params = array ( "ResponseType" => "Xml", "Step" => 15, "Start" => "2012-06-14T12:00:00+01:00", "End" => "2012-06-14T23:59:45+01:00" ); $result = $client -> GetLogDataInline ($params); An extract from the var_dump / __getLastResponse is: var_dump($client) object(SoapClient)#1 (4) { ["trace"]= int(1) ["_features"]= int(1) ["_soap_version"]= int(1) ["sdl"]= resource(4) of type (Unknown) } var_dump($result) NULL __getLastResponse 15 2012-06-14T12:00:00+01:00 2012-06-14T23:59:45+01:00 External Temperature Workshop Lux Level Electricity Pulse 100wh Workshop PIR Active Boiler Flow Temp Outside Lux Workshop_Light_Override_Hours Water Consumption (Litres) Electricity kWh Consumption Water Consumption M3 Gas kWh Consumption Outside Lighting Heating Effective Setpoint Router Reset Workshop Lighting State Heating Run Hours Heating On Receptin Percent RH Reception Temp Reception RH Reception Temp 2012-06-14T12:00:00+01:00 -85.6 2.1 -1.0 Off -91.5 13.8 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 -0.1 Off 21.0 Off Off 0.0 Off 53.0 22.0 53.0 22.0 2012-06-14T12:00:15+01:00 -85.4 2.1 -1.0 Off -91.8 13.8 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 -0.1 Off 21.0 Off Off 0.0 Off 53.0 22.0 53.0 22.0 2012-06-14T12:00:30+01:00 -85.4 2.1 -1.0 Off -91.8 13.8 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 -0.1 Off 21.0 Off Off 0.0 Off 53.0 22.0 53.0 22.0 2012-06-14T12:00:45+01:00 -85.4 2.1 -1.0 Off -91.5 13.7 0.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 -0.1 Off 21.0 Off Off 0.0 Off 54.0 22.0 54.0 22.0 (this should be xml but doesn't appear to have copied correctly) If you've got this far, thanks for taking the time. Any help would be much appreciated.

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• How can you toggle between two sets of values per data series in flot?

  - by Jedidja

  flot has built-in support for multiple data series (sample code) and also dual-axis (sample code). Assuming multiple data series (water, electricity, etc) that each have an amount (usage) and a dollar value (charge for that usage), what would the best way be to to use flot to display either the amount or dollar values for all the data series, while still supporting toggling display for each individual series? The idea is to send down all the data in one GET request and then let the client take care of everything else in Javascript. Ideally we could use triplets somehow {date, amount, charge}, and then possibly split that into two arrays for flot.

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• Creating a computer with pencil and paper [closed]

  - by Justian Meyer

  This concept has been brought to my attention before, but many people might know it from this popular comic here, where he uses stones instead of points on a paper. This concept is so abstract to me. A full-functioning computer that can manage algorithms, input, output, etc. without electricity? Surely, it's difficult to visualize because my definition of a computer is not exactly what the word sounds like COMPUTE-ER. Can someone help me bring the concept to light - the understanding, how to make one, etc? It seems like it'd be an interesting read, although I think I wouldn't be able to make it do anything. Many thanks in advance for responses. I've tried searching Google, but all I got were ways to diagram code and chart ideas. -.Justian.

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Infrastructure Limits

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Physical hardware components take up room, use electricity, create heat and therefore need cooling, and require wiring and special storage units. all of these requirements cost money to rent at a data-center or to build out at a local facility. In some cases, this can be a catalyst for evaluating options to remove this infrastructure requirement entirely by moving to a distributed computing environment. Implementation: There are three main options for moving to a distributed computing environment. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) The first option is simply to virtualize the current hardware and move the VM’s to a provider. You can do this with Microsoft’s Hyper-V product or other software, build the systems and host them locally on fewer physical machines. This is a good option for canned-applications (where you have to type setup.exe) but not as useful for custom applications, as you still have to license and patch those servers, and there are hard limits on the VM sizes. Software as a Service (SaaS) If there is already software available that does what you need, it may make sense to simply purchase not only the software license but the use of it on the vendor’s servers. Microsoft’s Exchange Online is an example of simply using an offering from a vendor on their servers. If you do not need a great deal of customization, have no interest in owning or extending the source code, and need to implement a solution quickly, this is a good choice. Platform as a Service (PaaS) If you do need to write software for your environment, your next choice is a Platform as a Service such as Windows Azure. In this case you no longer manager physical or even virtual servers. You start at the code and data level of control and responsibility, and your focus is more on the design and maintenance of the application itself. In this case you own the source code and can extend or change it as you see fit. An interesting side-benefit to using Windows Azure as a PaaS is that the Application Fabric component allows a hybrid approach, which gives you a basis to allow on-premise applications to leverage distributed computing paradigms. No one solution fits every situation. It’s common to see organizations pick a mixture of on-premise, IaaS, SaaS and PaaS components. In fact, that’s a great advantage to this form of computing - choice. References: 5 Enterprise steps for adopting a Platform as a Service: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidmcg/archive/2010/12/02/5-enterprise-steps-for-adopting-a-platform-as-a-service.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0  Application Patterns for the Cloud: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kashif/archive/2010/08/07/application-patterns-for-the-cloud.aspx

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• In the Cloud, Everything Costs Money

  - by BuckWoody

  I’ve been teaching my daughter about budgeting. I’ve explained that most of the time the money coming in is from only one or two sources – and you can only change that from time to time. The money going out, however, is to many locations, and it changes all the time. She’s made a simple debits and credits spreadsheet, and I’m having her research each part of the budget. Her eyes grow wide when she finds out everything has a cost – the house, gas for the lawnmower, dishes, water for showers, food, electricity to run the fridge, a new fridge when that one breaks, everything has a cost. She asked me “how do you pay for all this?” It’s a sentiment many adults have looking at their own budgets – and one reason that some folks don’t even make a budget. It’s hard to face up to the realities of how much it costs to do what we want to do. When we design a computing solution, it’s interesting to set up a similar budget, because we don’t always consider all of the costs associated with it. I’ve seen design sessions where the new software or servers are considered, but the “sunk” costs of personnel, networking, maintenance, increased storage, new sizes for backups and offsite storage and so on are not added in. They are already on premises, so they are assumed to be paid for already. When you move to a distributed architecture, you'll see more costs directly reflected. Store something, pay for that storage. If the system is deployed and no one is using it, you’re still paying for it. As you watch those costs rise, you might be tempted to think that a distributed architecture costs more than an on-premises one. And you might be right – for some solutions. I’ve worked with a few clients where moving to a distributed architecture doesn’t make financial sense – so we didn’t implement it. I still designed the system in a distributed fashion, however, so that when it does make sense there isn’t much re-architecting to do. In other cases, however, if you consider all of the on-premises costs and compare those accurately to operating a system in the cloud, the distributed system is much cheaper. Again, I never recommend that you take a “here-or-there-only” mentality – I think a hybrid distributed system is usually best – but each solution is different. There simply is no “one size fits all” to architecting a solution. As you design your solution, cost out each element. You might find that using a hybrid approach saves you money in one design and not in another. It’s a brave new world indeed. So yes, in the cloud, everything costs money. But an on-premises solution also costs money – it’s just that “dad” (the company) is paying for it and we don’t always see it. When we go out on our own in the cloud, we need to ensure that we consider all of the costs.

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• Hardware and Software Working Together - What Does LJE say?

  - by Stephen Slade

   IDG News Service - Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Oracle will continue to bet on selling high-end custom hardware for its software products, even amidst a growing trend toward roomfuls of cheap, generic servers. "You have to be in the hardware business and the software business, to get the best possible system," he said during a keynote speech at Oracle's OpenWorld conference in Tokyo. "We believe it's the right idea, we believe it's the next generation of computing, we believe all the pieces have to fit together." Ellison, as he has often done in the past, repeatedly referred to Apple as his "favorite example" of such tight integration. He was a close friend of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs and previously served on Apple's board of directors.He said sales of Oracle's advanced servers were booming and generating around a billion dollars a year in revenue for the company, which has until recent years focused almost exclusively on its software offerings. With the explosion of popular online services and the increasing number of mobile devices that access them, demand is high for databases that can quickly respond to high numbers of relatively simple queries. While Oracle is pitching its expensive, finely-tuned machines to meet this requirement, Internet behemoths like Google, Facebook and Microsoft increasingly rely on armies of low-cost, easily replaceable servers. Ellison emphasized the high specifications of Oracle's servers, which come packed with multiple terabytes of RAM and flash-based storage for speed. Such machines are superior to large server farms, he said, because they require far less electricity and floor space, and are also cost competitive. When asked about whether purchasing such products would lock customers in to expensive hardware from Oracle, he promised that the company's software would always run on "multiple hardware sources."  Ellison, who spoke from Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, was shown live online via webcast. The Oracle founder has a fondness for Japanese architecture and is staying in his large garden residence in the city Source: Ellison: Hardware-software integration key, Apple is best example. Oracle's founder and CEO reaffirmed his commitment to custom hardware for its software products  LINK to Computerworld article Apr 5, 2012 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9225858/Ellison_Hardware_software_integration_key_Apple_is_best_example?source=CTWNLE_nlt_entsoft_2012-04-09&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fs%2Ffeed%2Ftopic%2F173+%28Computerworld+Databases+News%29#disqus_thread

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• Salt River Project Identifies US$500,000 in Cost Reduction Opportunities Through Unified IT Portfolio Management

  - by Melissa Centurio Lopes

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Salt River Project (SRP) includes two entities serving the Phoenix area: the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District and the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association. The SRP district operates various power plants and generating stations to provide electricity to nearly 956,000 retail customers. The SRP association maintains an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, and irrigation laterals to deliver nearly 1 million acre-feet of water annually. Salt River Project implemented Oracle’s Primavera Portfolio Management to unify management of its extensive IT portfolio, including essential utility systems, like work and asset management, as well as programming frameworks and development tools. With the system, SRP discovered almost US$500,000 in cost-reduction opportunities by identifying redundant or low use software, including 150 applications that are close to being unsupported. The company retired 10 applications in the last year and upgraded 34 systems. SRP also identified preferred technologies and ensured that more than 90% of applications are based on standard technologies—reducing procurement costs, simplifying maintenance support, and lowering total cost of ownership. Solutions: Provided approximately 70 users in the IT support group with detailed insight into the product lifecycle of each piece of IT infrastructure and software in the entire portfolio Discovered almost US$500,000 in cost reduction opportunities by identifying redundant or low use software that could be eliminated or migrated to alternative solutions Identified approximately 150 applications that are close to being unsupported and prioritized them to begin modernization Click here to view more Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management solutions for SRP. Why Oracle Salt River Project chose Oracle’s Primavera Portfolio Management after evaluating it against four other solutions. “Oracle’s Primavera Portfolio Management offered the most functionality to support our diverse needs,” said Eileen Ahles, IT portfolio manager, Salt River Project. Read the complete customer success story Access a list of all Primavera customer success stories

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-07-11

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Is the future of retail showrooming? | GigaOm "The digital shopper isn’t just digital and she expects to be served seamlessly across all channels, physical and digital," reports GigaOm. Twenty years into the Internet era and the changes just keep coming. Solution architects take note... Agile Bureaucracy: When Practices become Principles | Jim Highsmith.com "Principles and values are a critical part of keeping individuals in organizations aligned and engaged," says Agile guru Jim Highsmith, "but the more pseudo-principles are piled on top of principles, the less and less organizations are able to adapt." Oracle Fusion Applications 11g Basics | Michel Schildmeijer "We are trying to build up a Oracle Fusion Apps environment on a Exalogic system, though still on bare metal, because officially there still is no Oracle VM available yet on Exalogic," says Michel Schildmeijer, an Oracle Fusion Middleware Architect at Qualogy. "It is a bit of a challenge, but getting to know the basics and which components the install, build and configure phase use, might bring you a step further on the way." Process Centric Banking: Loan Origination Solution | Manish Palaparthy This interesting, detailed post by Manish Palaparthy explains the process behind the execution of a proof-of-concept for a Fusion Middleware-based loan-origination solution for a bank. The solution incorporates Oracle BPM Suite, Webcenter, and ADF technolgies in a SOA infrastructure. How eBay and Facebook are Cleaning Up Data Centers | Amy Gallo - HBR The Cloud has needs! As reported by Amy Gallo in an article in the Harvard Business Review, "The electricity demand of data centers and the telecommunications network is rivaling that of most nations. If the cloud were itself a country, it would rank fifth in the world on energy demand behind the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan." Do WebLogic configuration from ANT | Edwin Biemond "With WebLogic WLST you can script the creation of all your Application DataSources or SOA Integration artifacts( like JMS etc)," says Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond. "This is necessary if your domain contains many WebLogic artifacts or you have more then one WebLogic environment. If so, you want to script this so you can configure a new WebLogic domain in minutes and you can repeat this task with always the same result." Oracle Special-Edition E-Book: Cloud Architecture for Dummies Learn how to architect and model your cloud implementation to drive efficiency and leverage economies of scale with Cloud Architecture for Dummies, a free Oracle e-book. (Registration required.) Thought for the Day "One of the best things to come out of the home computer revolution could be the general and widespread understanding of how severely limited logic really is." — Frank Herbert Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• Chargeback and showback...both a 'throw back'

  - by llaszews

  Been getting asked again by customers and partners about chargeback and showback in the cloud so thought I would blog on my response to this question. Charge Back background, information and industry analysis: Cloud computing is all about shared resources. These shared resources are computer servers (including memory and CPU), network devices, hard disk storage, database servers, application servers, cooling, floor space, electricity and more. These resources are shared by departments within a company, or by a number of companies, when resources are hosted in the public or hybrid cloud. Currently, hosting providers that run other companies on their cloud platforms do not have an accurate way to measure the shared computing resources used by a specific user let alone used by a specific customer. Additionally, companies running their own cloud data centers, for private or hybrid clouds, have no way of measure and charging back the departments in the company that are using these shared cloud resources. In both cases, the lack of determine shared resource costs and to charge them back to the company, department or user that is using this resources is limited a clear measure of business benefit and impacting company’s ability to measure the Return on Investment (ROI). An IT chargeback system is an accounting strategy that applies the costs of IT services, hardware or software to the business unit in which they are used. This system contrasts with traditional IT accounting models in which a centralized department bears all of the IT costs in an organization and those costs are treated simply as corporate overhead. Showback involves showing the IT costs to a department or customer but not actually charging them for their IT usage. Showback is a gradual method of introducing chargeback into an enterprise. Most companies implement a show back mechanism before a full chargeback system is put in place. Oracle chargeback product: Oracle Enterprise Manager provides tools for defining detailed Chargeback plans spanning different metrics collected for each type of resources as well as defining Cost Centers for grouping costs across multiple developers. Chargeback plans can use not only usage based costs, but also configuration based costs (e.g. version of the platform) or fixed costs (e.g. flat-rate management fee). Chargeback has rich out of the box reports. Trending reports show how charge and resource consumption varies over time, while Summary reports show the breakdown of charges or usage by different dimensions such as Cost Center or Target Type. These reports help consumers in understanding how their charges relate to their consumption and also assist the IT department with budgeting and planning activities. With BI Publisher, the reports can be made available in a variety of formats such as PDF, HTML, Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

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• RPi and Java Embedded GPIO: Sensor Connections for Java Enabled Interface

  - by hinkmond

  Now we're ready to connect the hardware needed to make a static electricity sensor for the Raspberry Pi and use Java code to access it through a GPIO port. First, very carefully bend the NTE312 (or MPF-102) transistor "gate" pin (see the diagram on the back of the package or refer to the pin diagram on the Web). You can see it in the inset photo on the bottom left corner. I bent the leftmost pin of the NTE312 transistor as I held the flat part toward me. That is going to be your antenna. So, connect one of the jumper wires to the bent pin. I used the dark green jumper wire (looks almost black; coiled at the bottom) in the photo. Then push the other 2 pins of the transistor into your breadboard. Connect one of the pins to Pin # 1 (3.3V) on the GPIO header of your RPi. See the diagram if you need to glance back at it. In the photo, that's the orange jumper wire. And connect the final unconnected transistor pin to Pin # 22 (GPIO25) on the RPi header. That's the blue jumper wire in my photo. For reference, connect the LED anode (long pin on a common anode LED/short pin on a common cathode LED, check your LED pin diagram) to the same breadboard hole that is connecting to Pin # 22 (same row of holes where the blue wire is connected), and connect the other pin of the LED to GROUND (row of holes that connect to the black wire in the photo). Test by blowing up a balloon, rubbing it on your hair (or your co-worker's hair, if you are hair-challenged) to statically charge it, and bringing it near your antenna (green wire in the photo). The LED should light up when it's near and go off when you pull it away. If you need more static charge, find a co-worker with really long hair, or rub the balloon on a piece of silk (which is just as good but not as fun). Next blog post is where we do some Java coding to access this sensor on your RPi. Finally, back to software! Ha! Hinkmond

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• Investing in Servers by Intel

  - by Koushal Deshpande

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/BizTalkAndOtherTechs/archive/2013/10/31/investing-in-servers-by-intel.aspxA nice article reference from Intel, refer here. Referees to cloud as well. Choose correctly what you need. 1 Do determine right server for your company. There is no use getting a server that has redundant services but still add to the costs. 2 Do get servers that can be upgraded. A server with limited memory and storage may not be able to keep up with your business growth. The basic memory and storage options might not be sufficient. Consider at least 8GB of RAM and 1 terabyte of hard disk space. 3 Do check the server has at least one Gigabit Ethernet port. This allows high speed transferring of files and increases productivity for your employees. USB and Firewire ports may not be enough as their transfer speed is too low and will affect the productivity of your company. Infinite Technologies is ready to help perform this upgrade. Contact Infinite Technologies now View our other resellers » 4 Do verify that the server comes with documentation. Documentation allows you to make a claim when your server breaks down and is supported by a warranty. 6 Do check the support options for the server from the manufacturer. Different manufacturer has different support options such as maintenance plans and software upgrades. 5 Do always look into the warranty. Get an enhanced warranty that guarantees response and repair time to avoid disruption. 7 Do get server management tools that can be used on any computer. Server management tools should be cross compatible across different operating systems to take into account future PC replacements. 8 Do check the power usage of the servers. Get the right power supply to avoid damaging server hardware and consider the Intel® Xeon® E3 processor to help save on your electricity bills. 9 Do check what built-in security packages are available. Ensure that your server is protected. Built-in security1 helps you save on getting add on security packages.

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• Getting Server 2008 R2 to ignore all traffic from Internet-facing NIC, leaving it to a VM

  - by Wolvenmoon

  I got in to Server 2008 R2 via Dreamspark and would like to start learning on it. I don't have much option but to put it on a system sitting between the Internet and my home LAN due to electricity bills and the fact that 3 computers in an 11x11 space in 102 degree weather is pretty stygian. Currently I use a ClearOS gateway to manage everything, what I'd like to do is take my server 2008 R2 box, which has two NICs, and drop it at the head of my network. I'd want Server 2008 R2 to ignore all traffic on the external facing NIC and pass it to a virtual ClearOS gateway, and to put all its Internet traffic through its other NIC - which will face the rest of my network and be the default gateway for it. The theory is to keep the potentially vulnerable Server 2008 R2 install as tucked behind a Linux box as possible, without sacrificing too much performance. This is a home network that occasionally hosts dedicated game servers and voice chat servers, so most malicious activity is in the form of drive by non-targeted attacks, however, I don't trust Windows Server because I don't know the OS well enough, yet. So, three questions: How do I do this, am I going to be reasonably more secure doing this than if I just let the Server 2008 R2 rig handle all the network traffic and DHCP (not an option), and should I virtualize the Server 2008 R2 rig instead and if so in what? (Core 2 Duo e6600 w/ 5 gigs usable RAM)

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• Performance of Virtual machines on very low end machines

  - by TheLQ

  I am managing a few cheap servers as my user base isn't large enough to get much more powerful servers. I also don't have the money lying around to invest in a server to prepare for the larger user base. So I'm stuck with the old hardware I have. I am toying with the idea of virtualizing all the current OS's with most likely VMware vSphere Hypervisor (AKA ESXi) Xen (ESXi has too strict of an HCL, and my hardware is too old). Big reasons for doing so: Ability to upgrade and scale hardware rapidly - This is most likely what I'll be doing as I distribute services, get a bigger server, centralize (electricity bills are horrible), distribute, get a bigger server, etc... Manually doing this by reinstalling the entire OS would be a big pain Safety from me - I've made many rookie mistakes, like doing lots of risky work on a vital production server. With a VM I can just backup the state, work on my machine, test, and revert if necessary. No worries, and no OS reinstallation Safety from other factors - As I scale servers might go down, and a backup VM can instantly be started. Various other reasons. However the limiting factor here is hardware. And I mean very depressing hardware. The current server's run off of a Pentium 3 and 4, and have 512 MB and 768 MB RAM respectively (RAM can be upgraded soon however). Is the Virtualization layer small enough to run itself and a Linux OS effectively? Will performance be acceptable (50% CPU overhead for every operation isn't acceptable)? Does it leave enough RAM for the Linux OS? Is this even feasible?

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• Getting rid of your server in a small business environment

  - by andygeers

  In a small business environment, is it still necessary to have a central server? Speaking for my own company (a small charity with about 12 employees) we use our server (Windows Server 2003) for the following: Email via Microsoft Exchange Central storage Acting as a print server User authentication / Active Directory There are significant costs associated with running a server like this: Electricity, first for the server itself then for the air conditioning required (this thing pumps out a lot of heat) Noise (of which there is a lot) IT support bills (both Windows Server and Exchange are pretty complicated, and there are many ways they can go wrong) I've found ways to replace many of these functions with cheaper (better?) alternatives: Google Apps / GMail is a clear win for us: we have so many spam related problems it's not even funny, and Outlook is dog slow on our aging computers You can buy networked storage devices with built in print servers, such as the Netgear ReadyNAS™ RND4210 that would allow us to store/share all of our documents, and allow us to access printers over the network The only thing that I can't figure out how to do away with is the authentication side of things - it seems to me that if we got rid of our server, you'd essentially have a bunch of independent PCs that had no shared pool of user accounts / no central administrator. Is that right? Does that matter? Am I missing any other good reasons to keep a central server? Does anybody know of any good, cost-effective ways of achieving the same end but without the expensive central server?

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• Is a Hyperthreaded CPU more powerful and more efficient than a Dual-core CPU? [closed]

  - by user1811864

  which computer to choose with Pentium processor hello they are getting rid of the old computer equipment in the office and i have to choose the computer to take home i get first choice to pick. -15 inch lcd screen 4 gb of ram core 2 duo dual Core E8400 3.00 GHz dvd writer windows vista/ linux -15 inch crt monitor with 2 gb ram and pentium 4 2 ghz single core HT technology windows xp hardisks both 250 GB my friend is telling me to choose the second one Pentium single core HT because he told me it runs faster becuase of HT technology and cooler and consumes less current electricity so it wont get overheated because it has HT technology so it's high definition for encoding and watching HD movies and HD sound and is like a gaming pc to play internet games. And also he said the dual core 8400 runs at 3 ghz compared to the 2 ghz so it heats very much because of the two extra cores so it takes more current raising electricty bills and is not good for gaming and watching HD movies and internet flash animations and games because of getting heated everytime. And he wants to choose and take the E8400 because he has air conditioning at home so it will be safe from heating. So which one computer should i take is it really faster because of the HT High definition technology and will i be able to play internet flash card games better and watch good HD movies Youtube etc and play all the music and songs.

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• How far should we take the N+N redundancy craziness ?

  - by Brann

  The industry standard when it comes from redundancy is quite high, to say the least. To illustrate my point, here is my current setup (I'm running a financial service). Each server has a RAID array in case something goes wrong on one hard drive .... and in case something goes wrong on the server, it's mirrored by another spare identical server ... and both server cannot go down at the same time, because I've got redundant power, and redundant network connectivity, etc ... and my hosting center itself has dual electricity connections to two different energy providers, and redundant network connectivity, and redundant toilets in case the two security guards (sorry, four) needs to use it at the same time ... and in case something goes wrong anyway (a nuclear nuke? can't think of anything else), I've got another identical hosting facility in another country with the exact same setup. Cost of reputational damage if down = very high Probability of a hardware failure with my setup : <<1% Probability of a hardware failure with a less paranoiac setup : <<1% ASWELL Probability of a software failure in our application code : 1% (if your software is never down because of bugs, then I suggest you doublecheck your reporting/monitoring system is not down. Even SQLServer - which is arguably developed and tested by clever people with a strong methodology - is sometimes down) In other words, I feel like I could host a cheap laptop in my mother's flat, and the human/software problems would still be my higher risk. Of course, there are other things to take into consideration such as : scalability data security the clients expectations that you meet the industry standard But still, hosting two servers in two different data centers (without extra spare servers, nor doubled network equipment apart from the one provided by my hosting facility) would provide me with the scalability and the physical security I need. I feel like we're reaching a point where redundancy is just a communcation tool. Honestly, what's the difference between a 99.999% uptime and a 99.9999% uptime when you know you'll be down 1% of the time because of software bugs ? How far do you push your redundancy crazyness ?

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• VGA Cable gave me an Electric Shock when connecting a Projector to a Laptop

  - by Felipe Luarte

  Yesterday I was trying to connect a Viewsonic Projector to my Samsung RC420 laptop... I followed this steps: I Plugged the Projector to a power source, in parallel I did the same thing with the laptop. Then I turned on the laptop, but not the Projector (this one turns a bright light when is connected to a power source). I put the VGA Cable to the Projector (this one being still turned down) and then when I was getting close to the VGA port of the Laptop... BAM! A big spark appear between the port and the cable! Immediately the whole electricity of my floor went off. A part of the port in my laptop kind of... melted down. It seems to be where the spark started. The same thing happened to the part of the cable involved. Now I'm using the laptop, and it seems that there is no problem in it, I haven't connect anything to the VGA port yet. And the projector is still working to, well... it turns on, and I haven't connect anything yet too. The projector was connected to the power source by a homemade electric extension.

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• Backing up my Windows Home Server to the Cloud&hellip;

  - by eddraper

  Ok, here’s my scenario: Windows Home Server with a little over 3TB of storage.  This includes many years of our home network’s PC backups, music, videos, etcetera. I’d like to get a backup off-site, and the existing APIs and apps such as CloudBerry Labs WHS Backup service are making it easy.  Now, all it’s down to is vendor and the cost of the actual storage.   So,  I thought I’d take a lazy Saturday morning and do some research on this and get the ball rolling.  What I discovered stunned me…   First off, the pricing for just about everything was loaded with complexity.  I learned that it wasn’t just about storage… it was about network usage, requests, sites, replication, and on and on. I really don’t see this as rocket science.  I have a disk image.  I want to put it in the cloud.  I’m not going to be be using it but once daily for incremental backups.  Sounds like a common scenario.  Yes, if “things get real” and my server goes down, I will need to bring down a lot of data and utilize a fair amount of vendor infrastructure.  However, this may never happen.  Offsite storage is an insurance policy.   The complexity of the cost structures, perhaps by design, create an environment where it’s incredibly hard to model bottom line costs and compare vendor all-up pricing.  As it is a “lazy Saturday morning,” I’m not in the mood for such antics and I decide to shirk the endeavor entirely.  Thus, I decided to simply fire up calc.exe and do some a simple arithmetic model based on price per GB.  I shuddered at the results.  Certainly something was wrong… did I misplace a decimal point?  Then I discovered CloudBerry’s own calculator.   Nope, I hadn’t misplaced those decimals after all.  Check it out (pricing based on 3174 GB):   Amazon S3 $398.00 per month $4761 per year Azure $396.75 per month $4761 per year Google $380.88 per month $4570.56 per year   Conclusion: Rampant crack smoking at vendors.  Seriously.  Out. Of. Their. Minds. Now, to Amazon’s credit, vision, and outright common sense, they had one offering which directly addresses my scenario:   Amazon Glacier $31.74 per month $380.88 per year   hmmm… It’s on the table.  Let’s see what it would cost to just buy some drives, an enclosure and cart them over to a friend’s house.   2 x 2TB Drives from NewEgg.com $199.99   Enclosure $39.99     $239.98   Carting data to back and forth to friend’s within walking distance pain   Leave drive unplugged at friend’s $0 for electricity   Possible data loss No way I can come and go every day.     I think I’ll think on this a bit more…

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