Everybody Staze…

In late January, I was able to upgrade my server to a Mac Mini Server. This is a pretty sweet little box. 2 500GB HDs, 4GB of ram, Intel C2D 2.53ghz. No optical drive, but that’s fine with me, since you can use remote drive, or purchase one of the USB optical drives for the MacBook Air.

Initial setup was quite easy, once I found a copy of “Remote Install” to run on my PowerMac G5. This utility is basically “NetBoot” in an extremely simple interface. It allows the Mini Server to netboot the install DVD. I then changed the HDs to be in a RAID1, and installed 10.6. That took a bit, but other than that, it was quite painless.

bonnie++ reports look like:
/usr/local/sbin/bonnie++ -d / -s 8G -u root:wheel -qfb
server.example.com,8G,,,58807,12,27984,5,,,110101,8,212.3,0,16,12352,59,+++++,+++,
8137,47,543,5,+++++,+++,231,3

Which, isn’t bad at all for dual 5200rpm drives. The machine shipped with two Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02.

Upgrading from the previous server (a Powerbook G4, 1.67ghz, 2GB of RAM, and a single 80GB HD) to this new machine was, to put it simply, breathtaking. The average load on this new machine is consistently less than 0.05, yet on the old PB, it was often upwards of 0.50. So, by that regard, about 10x the performance (realistically, probably more like 6-8x as fast). =) Also, there is a noticeable improvement in performance of the Drobo. I’m pretty sure the FW800 port on the Powerbook is flakey. Added bonus is the 64-bit nature of the new machine… which is really quite nice (really the main time I’ve encountered it is playing with bigint’s in PHP). Also means I can upgrade the ram to 8GB when the prices come down on DDR3 SO-DIMMs.

Add to that the fact that I can now run 10.6, and am not suck with the PPC OS’s, it’s great.

The only thing Apple could have done better? Remove the Mini-DVI port and add a second gig-E port. If they did that, I could probably start using these things at work rather than Xserves. =) Especially if I had an iSCSI SAN.

The machine is very quite. I can only hear the HD’s access occasionally. The fan is near silent. The Mini really is one of the greatest computers Apple has ever designed/made. Other than the dumb single RAM slot the PPC mini’s had, they all have been great machines. I still have a 1st Generation Mac Mini running strong (1.25ghz G4, 1GB RAM, single 80GB HD, 10.5.8 client) at work (it runs Intermapper to monitor various devices around the building. Works great).

Verdict: 9.0/10. Only changes would be the second gig-E port, and it would be sweet if you could buy without the OS (if this was for work, I wouldn’t need even MORE copies of 10.6 (already have spares)). I’d give it a full 10, but I can’t think of anything that’s perfect. =)

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

*Image lifted from Apple website.

I have been facinated by the Vibram FiveFingers since I first read about them online almost a year ago. Since then I have been checking the local REI every so often to see if they have them in. This week, they finally had them.

First, I’ll say, trying them out is a process. If you can find them in a local store, go to that store prepared to spend probably an hour trying them on. First, go here and mainly, figure out the sizes you SHOULD be. Go to the store with that knowledge, and you will be much better off than just randomly trying on different things. Also note, different models fit differently. At the local REI, they have 3 models in Mens and 3 in womens (Classic, Sprint, and KSO). They all fit a bit differently, so basically, try on your size in one, then the size above and below. And maybe even the opposite gender version (if they offer the size you need) if the fit is a bit off on your gender (the difference between the gender’s is the womens are supposedly narrower at the heel, and ball of the foot… though I didn’t notice). Also note that feet change size/shape throughout the day. Especially if you work standing up all day.

All that said, my experience was a trip to REI on Tuesday night with my wife and a friend. We spent probably an hour or so trying them on, testing them out, etc. After all was said and done, I went home with some 41 Men’s, KSO’s. Once home, I tried them on again, and came to the conclusion they might have been too big. So, we jumped back in the car, and headed back to REI, where I tried on the 40 Men’s KSOs. They were too tight. So, I decided to wait through the night, and try again the next day (mainly because my big toe was upset at being in the 40’s).

Next night, we went back. I tried on every model/gender they had in my size (took probably another hour). The 41 Men’s KSOs fit the best. But, being über paranoid, I decided to wait again, and went home. Next morning I woke up, and realized I wanted to take the plunge. So, my wife went and picked up the 41 Men’s KSOs again, and brought them to me at work. I put them on, loved them, and wore them all day. It was a blast. On a tactile level, they make walking a pleasure. I’ve never done ecstasy, but I can imagine that it would be absolutely amazing with these on. Everything you want on feels like something different. Shoes, you get “squishiness”, but you don’t feel the surface of what you’re on. Steel Plate, you could feel the diamond shapes. Pebbles felt like pebbles. Bark mulch was absolutely amazing to walk on (felt like being barefoot in the woods).

Alas, it was short lived. After the day of wearing them, I noticed something troubling. The shoes were pressing on my bit toenail rather awkwardly. Kind of a mix of pushing it back into the toe, and upward (like trying to rip it off). It didn’t hurt, but it was uncomfortable. And being as I have a history of ingrown toenails, I didn’t feel comfortable cutting it any shorter. So, alas, I had to return the shoes =( (I did find at least one other instance of someone having the same issue with their big toe toenail on the amazon website. So, I’m not crazy! =)).

All that said, I really loved them. While I didn’t really get to run in them, I can imagine it feels great. All and all, they’re an extremely liberating shoe for someone that isn’t a big barefoot person (I’m too paranoid about stepping on something, and my feet aren’t overly callused). The build quality was extremely good, and from talking with friends that have them, they last a pretty long time (over a year day in/out use in one case)… which is good for ANY shoe, let alone one that is hardly a “shoe” and more like a tough bottomed toe-sock.

Would I be worried about stepping on something in them? Maybe… but given the bottom, while I think something like an up-ended tack might penetrate the sole, I don’t think it would make it all the way through, or seriously hurt your foot. Glass I don’t think would penetrate either. The sole really is quite tough… yet flexible. I’d compare it to my Gatorskin bike tires. Though a kevlar backed VFF might be cool. =P

All and all, as I said, I loved them. They really are the best thing to happen to footwear since Bill Bowerman (though obviously that’s a contrary statement to barefoot running, but, he was revolutionary… as I think these will be/are). And, I’m going to continue trying on/out new models until I find one that works for me. They have a new model, the Bikila coming out in Spring 2010. I’m certainly going to try it out… though given it’s style, I’d imagine it’ll be similar to the KSO’s in toenail tension. =/

So, go try them on already! If they don’t change your life, they’ll at least change your attitude about the notion of “shoes”.

Notes:
KSO stock image taken from REI’s website.

Links of interest:

• Vibram’s FiveFingers Website
• Birthday Shoes
• Begin to Dig

Part 1 – TED Signal Sink
After a week’s wait from ordering it, my UPS arrived on 2/19/10. You’re never quite ready for how heavy these things are. Yay Lead. After bringing it home, and plugging it into it’s new home, I immediately noticed something. My TED (Review) RDU stopped receiving a signal from the transmitter down in the breaker box. Just what I was afraid of since I’d read about things like this in the past. UPSes can act as X10 sinks (the TED uses something similar to X10 signaling to communicate). Basically, X10 (and the TED) communicate at 120khz and 132khz (respectively) on the power lines. UPSes have noise filtering build in that basically shunts all frequencies other than 50-60hz to neutral. So this basically acts like a “short” for those X10 and TED frequencies, thereby draining them out of that phase (or the house if I had a phase coupler), since energy flows the path of least resistance.

So, damn. I plugged the UPS into an outlet on the other side of the house (which is on another phase on my power system) so I could at least make sure it worked, and get it charged, and went about ordering an X10 filter (this one). Now I get to wait another week until that arrives before I can actually put this UPS through it’s paces.

Part 2 – Post Filter
The filter arrived on Friday, and after putting it between the UPS and the wall, my TED signal no longer “disappears”. The extra cool part is that by putting the UPS behind that, and all my computer equipment on the UPS, I’ve now removed a big source of “noise” that can interfere with the TED. But, this review isn’t about that.

So, I moved everything around in the office, and installed the Mini, Drobo, airport, cable modem, and LCD monitor on the “backup” section of the UPS. The laser printer, my weather station base, and the cordless phone are all installed on the non-battery backup section of the UPS. See the picture to the left. You’ll notice that all that stuff on the “battery” side of things, only draws 54w. Which means I’ll get about 40 minutes of backup time with that load. Running the CPUs at full load on the mini results in 75w of draw. Still very respectable. I believe if the Drobo was fully loaded, it’s supposed to draw upwards of 40w on it’s own, but I can’t imagine that’s the case given it’s current load.

Looking at how 10.6 sees the UPS, I’m quite happy. The only odd thing is the “unknown time remaining” up on the menu bar, but if you go into the Energy Saver system preference, you can see 100% charge, and set all the settings like, power back on after outage, spin down the disks, put the display to sleep, the computer to sleep, etc. As well as telling the machine to shutdown either after any of the following:

• Being on UPS for x amount of time
• When the UPS has x amount of time remaining
• When the UPS charge is at x or below

Extremely cool. It would be cool if the UPS reported remaining runtime to the OS regularly, and maybe it does and 10.6 doesn’t know to look at it. But, it doesn’t overly matter. Just like on a laptop, you can’t see battery life remaining while you’re plugged into AC.

All told, I’d give this UPS a 9/10. The only problem with it is that it emits a high pitch clicking sound. I’m not sure if that will fade with time, or if it’s just a byproduct of the consumer level APCs. Searching online seems to indicate it’s not completely unheard of, but it is a bit annoying. If I ever have a problem with the UPS, I’ll certainly mentioned that issue when I go to have it serviced. But all and all, it’s a great investment, and it’s nice to have that “piece of mind” incase of a random power outage (though they’re rather rare in this area given underground power, and a reliable power company).

So, I purchased a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit back shortly after they were released due to a wonderful “error” on Toys’R'Us’s part that allowed coupon stacking. So, I got the kit for $125, when it had just been released. And while I haven’t played with it nearly as much as I should have at this point, I have really been annoyed with how crappy the box is that it came in (the educational set comes with a case, the retail version comes in a really shoddy box).

So, after hanging new shelves in my office, and seeing that ugly box on the shelf, I decided to finally get around to finding a good storage solution for my NXT set.

First stop was google, and I found people had good luck with Plano cases, and the Stanley cases. Knowing the local hardware store had Stanley stuff on display, I drove over and picked up a Stanley 014725R, which has nice removable trays. The problem is, the NXT brick doesn’t fix in any of them. I could remove one of the large boxes, and shove the NXT in it’s spot, but this seemed hokey, so I returned the case, and started looking elsewhere.

On the way home, I stopped by Fred Meyer (a supermarket chain that started here in Oregon, and has since been bought by Kroger). In their hardware department, I found the “standard” non-oem case that people use, the Plano 5231.

I knew things would fit in it because people had put up pictures of what they had managed to sort them into. After getting home, I set about organizing everything into the various slots.

All and all, it probably took about an hour to an hour and a half. And while the Plano case doesn’t have removable trays, it should be okay for a single person doing a build as opposed to a group project. If I ever start really working with the NXT set, I may pick up another one of these for my other Technic legos, as they’re currently in an ancient Lego branded, non-segregated plastic box.

The only issue I can really see is moving back and forth between the top and the bottom of the case to get parts. Ideally, the two halves would come apart easily so one could have them on the table separately and allow for easy retrieval. I can see why Plano doesn’t do this, since the case is really meant for storing random shop related stuff, not really legos. A lot of people purchase the Stanley cases, but have two, one like the one I bought for normal parts. The other that has the deep containers to hold the NXT, cables, etc. This really allows for spreading out and building. And while that would be great for multi-person builds, or in educational settings (apparently the Lego branded cases for education even have holes in the bottom of the trays so you can wash and drain the pieces!), I don’t think it’ll be as big a deal for me. Heck, the main reason I did this, at this point, is to get the ugly torn up box off my shelf.

So, all and all, I’d easily give this case a 4.8 out of 5 stars. It would be cool if the bottom section had removable trays, but given the price point, and my goals, it’s hardly a deal killer. It would also be nice if the top separated from the bottom easily, in lieu of the separate containers. But, again, for $10, this is so much better than the box. I really wish Lego would have just included a case with the set.

Thanks for reading!

<Disclaimer>I will admit, first and foremost, that this review is a bit later than I would have liked. Since the time I started wanting to review the TED 1001, the 5000 has been released that offers a few major advantages. Mainly, bang for your buck. The TED 5000 allows you to upload power data to Google Powermeter, which gives real time power graphing, much like I had to hack together on my own on my website here. With all that said, let’s get on with it.</Disclaimer>

The TED 1001 is probably the first widely available whole house energy monitor device that allows someone to see how much power their home is using instantly (1 second time resolution). The display unit is accurate to 10W. Very few items in the house draw less than 10W when they’re on, so this will generally give you a pretty good idea what kind of power your home uses.

Installation of the TED is fairly simple, if not hair raising. The CTs have to be installed around the primary power feed for the breaker panel. Which, unless you have a master shutoff between the meter and the panel, or you pull the meter itself, means you’re potentially interacting with a 200AMP, 240V feed. But, you don’t actually have to touch those, and if you’re concerned, an electrician could do the job in about, 10 minutes, max. Once the CTs are installed, you hook those up to the MTU, and the MTU to a new breaker. The most difficult part of that is figuring out what phase to install the new breaker on, since it has to be the same phase as what the display is going to hook to. Which brings up basic home power…

Your home power is generally supplied by two 120V phases (why there’s the two big power feeds coming into your breaker panel). Combined, this gives us a 240V 2-phase system. If you look at a breaker panel, it kinda looks like two ladders on top of each other. One of these ladders is one 120V phase, the other is the other 120V phase. Normal breakers attach of just one of these ladders, and therefore supply 120V. Breakers for stuff like water heaters, stoves, HVAC, dryers, etc all connect to a “double pole” breaker, which connects to both ladders. So, you get 240V. So, those two phases that come into your house come from a transformer somewhere that breaks them out into single phase lines (power coming down the poles is much higher voltage, and usually 3-phase).

So, with that in mind, from breaker to breaker in your panel (going top to bottom on one side), you get alternating phases. So, when you go to plug in your MTU to a new breaker, you have to figure out what phase the outlet you plan to plug your display into is on. Otherwise, the MTU talks to the opposite phase, which goes out to the street transformer and then crosses to the other phase and comes back to the Display. Potentially hundreds of feet. This is bad. You can get a phase coupler that goes into your panel, or plugs into a dryer outlet, but it’s just easier to hook it to the right phase.

Once that’s all done, you can turn on that new breaker, and plug in the display. You should start seeing good data once you configure the TED display. It’s pretty cool all and all.

All things considered, if the 1001 was the only option from TED (assuming the 5000 was not yet released), I’d say BUY ONE! They’re a wonderful tool to figure out where and when you’re using power. If you want more specific power usage, pick up a Kill-a-Watt. You plug individual 120V items into them, and they’ll tell you how much power they’re using.

My biggest complaint about the TED 1001 is the cost of unlocking the USB port on them, $45. Thats even if you don’t use their software (which I don’t, I just use a Python script written by someone else).

All and all, 4.5 out of 5 stars. That .5 deduction is simply the cost of the unlock, mixed with how poor the software is (windows only, doesn’t help).

Here are some links of interest:

-TED 1001 Purchase : http://www.theenergydetective.com/store/teds/ted-1001.html
-Google Power Meter: http://www.google.org/powermeter/
-Energy Circle (great website about energy usage): http://www.energycircle.com/
-Youtube video showing install of TED 1001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgcvvJPX46M
-Python Script to poll TED: http://www.bananabend.net/energy_detective/ted5.py