Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B
Thanks to Innocent Smoothies, I’ve come across a nice animated GIF (1.1Mb in size) showing the Earth in perspective: how large it is compared to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Betelgeuse and various other stars.
Original source: http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f351/dabears1020/1202609635165.gif
Sorry I’ve been absent from blogging for a while – my old Dell Dimension 4550 PC (which has lasted me just 2months shy of 5 years) practically failed. The power fan had been making funny noises for nearly 2 years on and off (rectified by just blindly plunging a screwdriver into the back of the power unit when it made a noise – not at all recommended) and the primary hard drive started failing. Yes, I know I could have just replaced the hard drive (at a cost of around 70 GBP for over 200Gb), but I couldn’t run certain large photo-editing applications on it as it had a measly 3/4Gb of RAM 🙁
So I splurged out with a combination of a new widescreen TFT Samsung SyncMaster 2032BW monitor from PC World – £180 (my old CRT was still in perfect working order after the nearly 5 years usage, but took up so much desk space), an extra 2GB kit (1GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM RAM from Crucial (£49.99) and the biggest purchase of all – a Dell Dimension XPS 420 with an Intel Viiv Q6600 Quad Core 2.40Ghz Processor, 2Gb RAM (giving a total of 4Gb), 16x DVD+/- RW drive (at long last – the old Dimension could never write DVDs for some reason), 512MB Nvidia Geforce 8800GT card, 2x 500Gb Hard drives and Microsoft Vista Ultimate. Total price (including VAT and delivery) – £760.75.
Was I disappointed and what did I think of Vista?
Are you looking at starting a new project but can’t afford the domain name? Well, my other half may well be able to help you free of charge. She’s got around 20 domain names (some registered and paid for until August 2009) available free of charge – with names ranging from aubrey-maturin.co.uk (for fans of the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels), through the “Microserf”eque Chixor.co.uk, through to me strange ones such as Retronerd.org , WhipTang.co.uk and TheWebMonkey.info .
Check out her list of domain names and drop her an email (or comment) if you are interested!
Via The Register, here’s a funny YouTube video on the downfall of HD-DVD. It’s a shame Blu-Ray has won as I’m trying to avoid Sony hardware as much as possible 🙁
I recently assisted somebody in deciding whether to move from a dedicated server to a co-location provider (a “co-lo” is where you purchase the hardware, install it etc etc: the “co-lo” provider provides the physical space in a secure environment, links to the internet, power, cooling etc) and I thought my thoughts on the matter may help anybody else who is thinking of moving from a dedicated server at at a Datacenter to a co-location company:
Don’t forget that a dedicated server company isn’t just offering you the hardware, the software, the IP addresses, the multiple provider bandwidth (some co-lo’s will only provide one provider), and as much electricity and cooling is needed: they also provide you with “humans”.
Ok, you can automate remote reboots (as most major dedicated server providers now offer), KVM over IP (as a few dedicated server providers and datacenters offer) to provide most remote administration: but what happens if your hard drive fails, PSU or even mother board fails?
Most dedicated server providers guarantee replacement within 4 hours – how long will it take you to purchase a new HD/PSU/motherboard/SCSI controller etc (dedicated server provider hardware replacements are free: with co-locaiton you’ll have to account for the replacement costs), drive to the datacenter, get access to your cage/rack (some require 24 hours notice for security), open the server up, replace the parts and then get things running again…
I know some co-lo providers provide “on site hands and eyes” and “free hardware replacement” (IF you use the hardware they specify), but then the costs start equally or going over the dedicated server cost AND you may not have the network the dedicated server provider provide.
Of course, if you’re within 10 minutes drive of a major datacenter (such as Telehouse or Redbus) AND you have backup staff within the same drive-distance (for when you are unavailable) AND you have a couple of hundred servers you can afford to buy “outright” straight off with spares (and maybe account for a couple of “hot-spares” for critical servers) AND are willing to commit to an 12-24 month contract with the datacenter then it may be worth considering…