Smell that?

[eohrnberger]

I used to build all kinds of systems but I got out of it around the time XP expired and Vista took its place so I'm a dinosaur now, but along the way I also did build a few boxes with Linux or Lindows. For me it was the hardware, not the software.
I enjoyed maxxing out a machine with as much computing horsepower as possible.
I built quite a few of the old Pentium dual processor enterprise grade workstations back when having two 733 mHz CPU's really meant you were hot rodding to the limit. :lol:

It's been well over twelve years since I "built" anything but I still do install goodies in my existing machines.
Of course these days a nine year old will do that, too.

Yeah, I remember those days. Every 18 months to 2 years or so you had build a machine up from the ground up, as CPUs were evolving a generation at a time, memory speeds and density were doing the same, and hard disks were doing the same. Since then, the evolution rate of 1 to 2 steps down from the bleeding edge have become really inexpensive.

Storage capacity became a priority once I was able to network my TiVo and able to transfer digital video between TiVo land and PC land. Like a nice series on the TiVo, it'd find all the episodes for you, and PC based software could download it to the PC's hard disk storage. Also nice is to be able to pick movies off of the TiVo menu and play them on demand from the library.

Several evolutions of Linux storage solutions and file systems later, I've arrived at using ZFS on Linux, having 7 TB of mirrored hard disk storage across 12 drives that can be grown as needed (swap pairs of smaller drives for larger ones). Since there are that many physical drives being accessed in parallel, the data transfer speed is darn good, and I've have seen 600 MB/sec or slightly higher transfers on many multiple of occasions. That's a 4 core 3.0 GHz i5 with 32 GB RAM, the main storage machine, along with 2 more PC with 4 cores at the same speed for running VirtualBox VMs, which is where I'm doing nearly all of my 'playing around' (these also have mirrored storage for the large VM hard disk files).

Should one of the mirrored drives start to develop an issue, such as dropping the data connection or a growing number of bad sectors, it's nothing to remove the bad drive from the storage pool, unplug it, plug in it's replacement, re-add it as a mirror or the functioning drive, and then have the mirror re-establish itself in the background. No down time. No lost data. Still amazed at this capability for consumer PC components.

Even this has gotten really inexpensive compared to earlier years, as you can always find the bits and pieces you need at bargain prices on eBay.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Yeah, I remember those days. Every 18 months to 2 years or so you had build a machine up from the ground up, as CPUs were evolving a generation at a time, memory speeds and density were doing the same, and hard disks were doing the same. Since then, the evolution rate of 1 to 2 steps down from the bleeding edge have become really inexpensive.

Storage capacity became a priority once I was able to network my TiVo and able to transfer digital video between TiVo land and PC land. Like a nice series on the TiVo, it'd find all the episodes for you, and PC based software could download it to the PC's hard disk storage. Also nice is to be able to pick movies off of the TiVo menu and play them on demand from the library.

Several evolutions of Linux storage solutions and file systems later, I've arrived at using ZFS on Linux, having 7 TB of mirrored hard disk storage across 12 drives that can be grown as needed (swap pairs of smaller drives for larger ones). Since there are that many physical drives being accessed in parallel, the data transfer speed is darn good, and I've have seen 600 MB/sec or slightly higher transfers on many multiple of occasions. That's a 4 core 3.0 GHz i5 with 32 GB RAM, the main storage machine, along with 2 more PC with 4 cores at the same speed for running VirtualBox VMs, which is where I'm doing nearly all of my 'playing around' (these also have mirrored storage for the large VM hard disk files).

Should one of the mirrored drives start to develop an issue, such as dropping the data connection or a growing number of bad sectors, it's nothing to remove the bad drive from the storage pool, unplug it, plug in it's replacement, re-add it as a mirror or the functioning drive, and then have the mirror re-establish itself in the background. No down time. No lost data. Still amazed at this capability for consumer PC components.

Even this has gotten really inexpensive compared to earlier years, as you can always find the bits and pieces you need at bargain prices on eBay.

I moved away from SANS a few years back and I've been getting what I need from a trio of Buffalo network storage boxes and I have three internal 6TB disk drives and a 1TB SSD for the OS.

And...a bookshelf filled top to bottom with a ton of disk drives.
Several HDD toasters fit the bill if I need anything off of them.

I'm a recovering analog dinosaur. This is where I used to be back when dinosaurs reigned over the earth.

 

[eohrnberger]

I moved away from SANS a few years back and I've been getting what I need from a trio of Buffalo network storage boxes and I have three internal 6TB disk drives and a 1TB SSD for the OS.

And...a bookshelf filled top to bottom with a ton of disk drives.
Several HDD toasters fit the bill if I need anything off of them.

Hey, whatever works best for you. I've found what works for me, and I enjoy 'playing' around with it. To each their own.

I'm a recovering analog dinosaur. This is where I used to be back when dinosaurs reigned over the earth.

View attachment 67269137

Yeah, I remember when you posted that pic last time. A recovering analog finding his way in today's digital world.

 

[AProudLefty]

I moved away from SANS a few years back and I've been getting what I need from a trio of Buffalo network storage boxes and I have three internal 6TB disk drives and a 1TB SSD for the OS.

And...a bookshelf filled top to bottom with a ton of disk drives.
Several HDD toasters fit the bill if I need anything off of them.

I'm a recovering analog dinosaur. This is where I used to be back when dinosaurs reigned over the earth.

View attachment 67269137

You been to ATS?

 

[poweRob]

True, Sun was incredibly open source friendly, and in fact, a lot of their forks from their SW products went open source before Oracle purchased them. Even so, Oracle hasn't been able to manage to kill off the open source version of MySQL, and I hope they don't!

Another SW product that gets little press but is exceedingly good is the ZFS (Zetabyte File System), a vastly superior way of handling hard disk storage.

I think the OS community still shuns oracle and MySql started losing ground to Postgres SQL.

 

[poweRob]

Ahh a man of taste I see (posting from his manjaro computer)

A man of few choices via 32 bit actually. :lol:

But I like Debian.

 

[poweRob]

Right? :lol: That's part of the reason I didn't continue and take it further. It was a turn-off just asking a dumb question.
Hey, for ME it wasn't a dumb question, because I didn't know the answer.
And I kept getting responses that sounded an awful lot like this guy:

View attachment 67269134

So, I got sick of it and turned to other pursuits.




Maybe I'll give it a go and see how the Linux community is nowadays.
I would really like to try putting together some minimalist "blade" type boxes, maybe set up a render farm node or something with them.

Sounds like you should talk to eohrnberger.

 

[poweRob]

This is an ongoing project in a "reaction" to Microsoft windows.
Front Page | ReactOS Project

Not sure what that means. They are saying "It's not only open but free". All open source is open and free. But for those who want to migrate from Windows to Linux, the front end that seems most easily adapted to is Linux Mint. It's debian based for more software and the front end seems more familiar to windows users.

 

[eohrnberger]

I think the OS community still shuns oracle and MySql started losing ground to Postgres SQL.

Yeah, I suspect you are spot on that point.

That being said, PostgresQL is a full featured, ACID compliant RDBMS, something that MySQL was just short of being.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

You been to ATS?

Help an old fart out, what is ATS?
I can think of several acronyms.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Sounds like you should talk to eohrnberger.

I used to "hire eohrnbergers" to build systems.
I'm more of a power user, not a software systems guy.
I'm the film editor that uses this stuff and that's the reason I didn't get more involved in the bits and bytes.
Eohrnberger seems like he knows his stuff, and is passionate about it.
My passions lie in production and post production...use these tools to make the pretty pictures.

I appreciate his knowledge and talent but for me, it's always been using the tools more than getting into the nitty gritty of the software. I know enough to stay out of trouble and enough to know generally where a problem lies.
Eohrnberger is a software engineer.
My "engineering" consisted of earning an FCC license to operate and maintain commercial broadcast transmitters.
And that was a lifetime ago. I still know my Ohm's Law but you know the old saying, use it or lose it and the last time I delved into anything like that was in the 1980's. I might be able to pass the Amateur Radio ham license tests without cracking the book but I am sure I'd probably fail the A+ tests, whereas Eohrnberger probably picked up his MSCSE without a sweat, am I right, E?

Give me the right tools and I'll build you a nice edit bay or a nice studio, but I got more enjoyment (and money) out of working there, than anything else.

 

[eohrnberger]

I used to "hire eohrnbergers" to build systems.
I'm more of a power user, not a software systems guy.
I'm the film editor that uses this stuff and that's the reason I didn't get more involved in the bits and bytes.
Eohrnberger seems like he knows his stuff, and is passionate about it.
My passions lie in production and post production...use these tools to make the pretty pictures.

I appreciate his knowledge and talent but for me, it's always been using the tools more than getting into the nitty gritty of the software. I know enough to stay out of trouble and enough to know generally where a problem lies.
Eohrnberger is a software engineer.
My "engineering" consisted of earning an FCC license to operate and maintain commercial broadcast transmitters.
And that was a lifetime ago. I still know my Ohm's Law but you know the old saying, use it or lose it and the last time I delved into anything like that was in the 1980's. I might be able to pass the Amateur Radio ham license tests without cracking the book but I am sure I'd probably fail the A+ tests, whereas Eohrnberger probably picked up his MSCSE without a sweat, am I right, E?

Give me the right tools and I'll build you a nice edit bay or a nice studio, but I got more enjoyment (and money) out of working there, than anything else.

Err. More like a Software Engineer + Systems + Infrastructure + Networking + Project Management + Leadership
Master of Science in Business Information Technology.
In the industry since 1984 or so, so I've seen it grow up and go through a great deal of evolution.

The first computer that actually input data into was one where my dad brought home a 300 baud dial up teletype to some sort of mainframe, which I suspect was a Xerox. He had me inputting data for mechanical engineering program for a machine tool production transfer line (only I didn't know it until much later).

Awhile later my Dad got me this 'toy' computer while I was in high school, Sinclair ZX81.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"][SIZE=+1]Sinclair ZX81[/SIZE][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"]

Introduced:	March 1981
Price:	US $149.95 assembled
	US $99.95 in kit form
How many?	500,000 in first 12 months
Weight:	12 ounces
CPU:	NEC Z-80A, 3.25MHz
RAM:	1K, 64K max
Display:	22 X 32 text
	hooks to TV
Ports:	memory, cassette
Peripherals:	Sinclair thermal printer
OS:	ROM BASIC

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

I figured out how to program it to calculate all the prime numbers - until it ran out of memory to store the results. It literally took days (primitive programming logic - but untaught at that time).

 

[AProudLefty]

Help an old fart out, what is ATS?
I can think of several acronyms.

Above Top Secret. I was banned there. LOL. For some reason, your picture reminded me of someone there.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Above Top Secret. I was banned there. LOL. For some reason, your picture reminded me of someone there.

Nope, never been there.
I thought it might be a film-TV professional group of some kind.

I am not in those pictures, because I was the one taking them

The guy in the red shirt is John, who was a shooting partner...we met because we'd both purchased the same cameras. He worked for me for two years.
The other guy, cannot remember his name, a client from God knows how many years ago.
I really can't even remember what year this is, I thought maybe the 80's but it can't be.

 

[beefheart]

That's the smell of a fresh Operating System baby! Just breathed life back into my very old 32 bit system. Running like a champ. I love installing a new OS. It's getting harder to find any OS that supports 32 bit anymore though.

I rebuilt about a year ago, actually bought a fresh windows 10 on USB (last one was a convoluted college upgrade of win 7). All new memory, new motherboard and drives. It is really nice having everything clean and new.

 

[eohrnberger]

I rebuilt about a year ago, actually bought a fresh windows 10 on USB (last one was a convoluted college upgrade of win 7). All new memory, new motherboard and drives. It is really nice having everything clean and new.

Indeed it is.

 

[poweRob]

I used to "hire eohrnbergers" to build systems.
I'm more of a power user, not a software systems guy.
I'm the film editor that uses this stuff and that's the reason I didn't get more involved in the bits and bytes.
Eohrnberger seems like he knows his stuff, and is passionate about it.
My passions lie in production and post production...use these tools to make the pretty pictures.

I appreciate his knowledge and talent but for me, it's always been using the tools more than getting into the nitty gritty of the software. I know enough to stay out of trouble and enough to know generally where a problem lies.
Eohrnberger is a software engineer.
My "engineering" consisted of earning an FCC license to operate and maintain commercial broadcast transmitters.
And that was a lifetime ago. I still know my Ohm's Law but you know the old saying, use it or lose it and the last time I delved into anything like that was in the 1980's. I might be able to pass the Amateur Radio ham license tests without cracking the book but I am sure I'd probably fail the A+ tests, whereas Eohrnberger probably picked up his MSCSE without a sweat, am I right, E?

Give me the right tools and I'll build you a nice edit bay or a nice studio, but I got more enjoyment (and money) out of working there, than anything else.

Yeah. I'm an end user as well and less of a gears, nuts, and bolts guy.

 

[poweRob]

I rebuilt about a year ago, actually bought a fresh windows 10 on USB (last one was a convoluted college upgrade of win 7). All new memory, new motherboard and drives. It is really nice having everything clean and new.

Agreed but it makes me feel even better when the install if fresh and devoid of bloatware.

 

[poweRob]

Err. More like a Software Engineer + Systems + Infrastructure + Networking + Project Management + Leadership
Master of Science in Business Information Technology.
In the industry since 1984 or so, so I've seen it grow up and go through a great deal of evolution.

The first computer that actually input data into was one where my dad brought home a 300 baud dial up teletype to some sort of mainframe, which I suspect was a Xerox. He had me inputting data for mechanical engineering program for a machine tool production transfer line (only I didn't know it until much later).

Awhile later my Dad got me this 'toy' computer while I was in high school, Sinclair ZX81.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"][SIZE=+1]Sinclair ZX81[/SIZE][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"]

Introduced:	March 1981
Price:	US $149.95 assembled
	US $99.95 in kit form
How many?	500,000 in first 12 months
Weight:	12 ounces
CPU:	NEC Z-80A, 3.25MHz
RAM:	1K, 64K max
Display:	22 X 32 text
	hooks to TV
Ports:	memory, cassette
Peripherals:	Sinclair thermal printer
OS:	ROM BASIC

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

I figured out how to program it to calculate all the prime numbers - until it ran out of memory to store the results. It literally took days (primitive programming logic - but untaught at that time).

Dude. You should find one of those and do a kick assed retro mod build. Throw some USB and HDMI ports out the back side and just plug it into a modern monitor... just because.

 

[beefheart]

Agreed but it makes me feel even better when the install if fresh and devoid of bloatware.

Yup, that is why I assemble my own machines....so much nicer.

 

[beefheart]

Err. More like a Software Engineer + Systems + Infrastructure + Networking + Project Management + Leadership
Master of Science in Business Information Technology.
In the industry since 1984 or so, so I've seen it grow up and go through a great deal of evolution.

The first computer that actually input data into was one where my dad brought home a 300 baud dial up teletype to some sort of mainframe, which I suspect was a Xerox. He had me inputting data for mechanical engineering program for a machine tool production transfer line (only I didn't know it until much later).

Awhile later my Dad got me this 'toy' computer while I was in high school, Sinclair ZX81.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"][SIZE=+1]Sinclair ZX81[/SIZE][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: lightyellow"]

Introduced:	March 1981
Price:	US $149.95 assembled
	US $99.95 in kit form
How many?	500,000 in first 12 months
Weight:	12 ounces
CPU:	NEC Z-80A, 3.25MHz
RAM:	1K, 64K max
Display:	22 X 32 text
	hooks to TV
Ports:	memory, cassette
Peripherals:	Sinclair thermal printer
OS:	ROM BASIC

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

I figured out how to program it to calculate all the prime numbers - until it ran out of memory to store the results. It literally took days (primitive programming logic - but untaught at that time).

I started with a Vic-20, then to the Commodore 64. I even swapped out a motherboard on my 64.

After that, it was building my own IBM clones. I really wished I could afford the Atari 800, or the amazing Amiga computer, but you choose your side and evolve from there.

 

[beefheart]

I think the OS community still shuns oracle and MySql started losing ground to Postgres SQL.

Oracle has been beerry beerry good to me.

Just sayin.

 

[poweRob]

Oracle has been beerry beerry good to me.

Just sayin.

You are akin to the debil!

 

[eohrnberger]

Dude. You should find one of those and do a kick assed retro mod build. Throw some USB and HDMI ports out the back side and just plug it into a modern monitor... just because.

:lamo

Nawww. Not nearly that good at electronics or assembly which would be required to do all that.
I think I might have to heist a museum to get one to start with.

 

[eohrnberger]

I started with a Vic-20, then to the Commodore 64. I even swapped out a motherboard on my 64.

After that, it was building my own IBM clones. I really wished I could afford the Atari 800, or the amazing Amiga computer, but you choose your side and evolve from there.

The Commodore 64 was an 8 bit machine. But there was another 32 bit machine from a gaming console manufacturer that had a preemptive OS, sound, vector graphics (I think) way before anyone imagined them, but I can't think of the name of the machine. Now that was a machine that was far, far ahead of its time, but it didn't win the PC wars.