Connecting with Reality
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 23, 2010 under General | 
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Sometimes,
I told her
You have to drive the highways
with the windows down
moving at seventy miles per hour
Feel the air, smell the road
I felt like a hypocrite this morning
Driving the highways
Window rolled up against the rain
I cried, feeling my age
So, I rolled the windows down
And smelled the rain
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 11, 2010 under BrickCase, Videos | Be the First to Comment
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 9, 2010 under Videos | Be the First to Comment
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 2, 2010 under Technology | Be the First to Comment
I built a new server. Here is a quick rundown of the stats.
Case:
Mrs. Springer convinced me to buy this case. Why? She knows how much I like it. She likes me and stuff. Go figure.
Pros: Style blows anything else out of the water. This is a piece of art as much as it is a case. It comes with a mini power supply more than powerful enough for this application. Antec means quality. If you don’t believe me, look it up in the dictionary. No, I kid. However, I have only had minor complaints about their cases; for me, that’s extraordinary. It’s whisper quiet to the point that I had a hard time knowing if it was on without turning on the fan’s lights.
Cons: Size. Original intent was to use two 300Gb hard drives, but the case can’t handle full size drives. In its defense, it can handle four 2.5″ drives, which is amazing. Difficult to route cables with my sausage-like fingers
Final verdict: I want more of these. Or cases like it. Maybe my next computer will be based on the bigger Skeleton.
Motherboard:
It’s an old VIA EPIA-LN that I bought some time ago for another project. I never completed the project, but the motherboard was still in perfect working order.
Pros: Mini-ITX, so, small and lower power consumption. Up to eight USB ports. Built in processor, networking, video, SATA and the like.
Cons: Only two SATA ports. 1ghz processor. One memory slot.
Final verdict: Fine for now, but slated for a future upgrade.
The rest of the setup:
Two drives, one 160gb and the other 120. The 160 is partitioned so that 120gb can be used as a RAID 1 with the other drive. As the server expands, I may change the RAID to a RAID 5 or 1+0. We’ll see how drive prices go. I’d like to replace the DVD drive with a RAID centric laptop drive mount, like this one or this one. Another option is an external drive frame or something like it, maybe this or this.
1GB DDR2 memory. DVD Burner. SATA cables. Not much more to it than that.
Operating system:
Ubuntu 9.10, Server with Gnome for a GUI and Webmin for remote administration. Installation was… interesting. Took a few hours to get everything the way I wanted it.
Total cost:
~$350, two hours build time (Did it while watching a movie… took a little longer). Four hours setup time.
Final thoughts:
The server has been running flawlessly for two days with about 25% physical memory load, and rarely over 1% CPU load. It’s currently not much more than a NAS unit, but I might extend it’s functions at a later date. I’m happy with it, and I am sure it’ll be a good looking PVR when I am ready to move it into that function with a newer motherboard, some additional hardware and bigger drives.
Theme:
Balance of Blue
by Brandon Cox.
