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Apple New Announcements

Last week they announced the Video iPod. I personally have nothing against it. However, today, Apple made some announcements about new PowerBooks and PowerMacs. It’s today’s announcement that really bothers me, specifically the new “quad” processor PowerMac. Normally, I’d be all about it, it sounds like a beast. I’m not even going to talk about anything else from here on out. I just want to show “the people” how overpriced Apple products truly are, but first, some background.

I had mentioned my home setup at home to a coworkers before. It’s nothing really that great hardware wise, but it’s more how I utilize it, and the price I got it when it was new. Anyways, I’ve got VMWare ESX server installed on it which allows me to run multiple “virtual” machines on top of the one machine. This way I can have a machine dedicated to specific tasks, instead of everything on one. Obviously this helps for when something goes wrong. Now, everything doesn’t go down if I accidentally mess something up.

Anyways, he realized how great of an idea this was, so he wanted to get a server machine up and running that could do the same thing. Well, he’s a developer, so he didn’t really know what to look for, so I priced out a machine for him. Basically I priced him out a beast of a machine for $2500. The specs of it are listed below.

Supermicro H8DAE ($356)
One Dual Core Opteron 265 ($728)
4GB PC-3200 Reg ECC RAM ($516)
MegaRAID 150-4 SATA Card ($235)
3 Seagate 200GB SATA Drives in RAID 5 for 400GB of redundant space ($327)
Case with 645W PSU ($266)

Now that, plus a plain CD-ROM drive and floppy comes to just under $2500. Now, lets look at the Apple Store to see what you get with their “quad” machine for $3300.

Two dual-core G5 Processors
512MB 533 DDR2 NON-ECC RAM
250GB Harddrive (not redundant and not on dedicated hardware controller)
Dual Layer 16x DVD Burner
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB Video Card

Shall we compare the differences? Yes, we shall.

If I were to get my machine up to all the specs listed on the mac (without reducing any of the components), I’d have to add another processor (+$728), add a dual layer DVD burner (worst case +$100), and add a video card (+$110). Let’s see, adding that all up gets us to $3404. Shoot, just over what the PowerMac costs.

But wait, let’s do a similar thing for the PowerMac.

We’d have to add 4 1GB ECC Dimms (+$1500), and increase the harddrive space, oh wait, they don’t have a redundant solution, so we’ll just go with the 500GB option they offer, even though it’s insanely inferior (+$500). After adding on those, we’re at $5099.

Wow, for a whole 1.5 grand less, you can have a superior machine. That’s really all I wanted to show.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday Dad and Lori! I hope you guys do something fun on your special day.

Taxes

Wow, so I just received my State Tax Refund. I love how we have a deadline or else we’re penalized for submitting them (and even paying). However, the government can wait 9 months before it feels like cutting me a check. Of course, I don’t get reimbursed interest on them holding my money for that long either.

Lame.

Typical Friday

Note, I did not say Friday night, just Friday. And just in case you missed the sarcasm, this is in no way typical.

The day started out in regional meetings at a hotel, but then around noon we all broke out and had a corporate picnic at the Windy City Fieldhouse. We were shuttled there by bus from the hotel, and there was food, beer, and activities. Having beer was definitely a change from the University life, that’s for sure.

So, we’re having a good time, things are winding down, one of the buses has left, and we start playing flippy-cup with the remainder of the 2 kegs. Talk about a team building experience 🙂

Anyways, on the way back (sometime around 4-4:30) we decide to hit Octoberfest downtown. Somehow (actually, I know exactly how), a good chunk of us ended up wearing wigs. Coworker Joel and I were sporting sexy mullet wigs the whole night. In fact we may actually get in the paper, and the band at Octoberfest acknowledged us (along with a good part of the crowd at the same time). Needless to say the debauchery continued with wigs until around 1am. Good times, that is, until I was called at 7:30 this morning for work related things. Doh!

iPod Nano

Well, I’ve been wanting to buy something for my walk/ride to work in the morning. At first I was tempted to just get a miniSD card for my phone, but I never really went through with that, especially since 1GB miniSD cards are expensive and hard to come by.

And then we all saw the release of the iPod Nano. I definitely admired the size and cost of the device, but I wanted to see it in person. So, on Friday, me and a couple of guys from work headed to the Apple store to check out this new iPod.

What’s funny is that they didn’t even have any on the floor. The only way you knew it exists was because a floor salesman was carrying one around showing it off. We were all impressed with the size and the screen. However, I was really grooving the black one online, and the guy was showing off a white one. I asked if he had 4GB black ones, and sure enough, he said they had all of the in stock.

One of the guys bought a 4GB white one for his wife, and I asked about the 4GB black ones. The guy at the checkout said they didn’t have 4GB black ones. Well, I wasn’t going to settle for something that wasn’t even what I really wanted. I mean, I’ve waited this long. Turns out they did have one, so, well, I bought one.

The thing is awesome. It shows up as a removable harddrive, has an awesome screen, and the sound quality is pretty darn good (for mp3s). However, iTunes, sucks. I’ve got around 55GB of mp3s, and they’re stored on a network attached storage device. I had some time on my hands, so I decided to add all of these mp3s to iTunes library. Wow, was that a mistake. First of all, it took forever, and then to select songs, or even to sync a CD to the iPod, it took forever.

I’m looking at anapod to use with it. At least I can use drag and drop, and even have a shell explorer “send to.” Plus, I can actually sync albums easily, unlike with iTunes. I can tell that iTunes is definitely built around single songs and not full albums. It’s just a shame though, but at least there are other alternatives to it.

Now, I just need to get it to work in my car correctly. There are many options. However, for the best bang for the buck, I’m looking at the VW02/PC-POD. This way it will work with all of my radio controls (don’t have to use the iPod at all), and it charges for those long trips. The plan would be to wire it to the center arm rest. But that’s another purchase and project. Maybe if I actually used my car more than 3x a month.

Elevator Hot Wiring

Today was another day in my life that I was thankful for having an engineering mind.

To give those of you that don’t have any idea the layout of my apt and accompanying elevator, I’ll now go into that. Aaron and I have a private elevator that goes from the garage to our floor (the fourth), with an intermediate stop at the second floor, where the building patio is at. The elevator is key controlled, so no one can just come up and visit us. Now, for some reason, it never dawned on me why people couldn’t do this from the patio. This is the story about how the “dawning” occurred.

This morning, Erin and I went down to the patio via the elevator to enjoy the nice day with a cup of tea. While we were outside, enjoying the beautiful weather, Aaron and Jen left to some party, via the elevator. After enjoying the outdoors for an hour or so, unplugging the fish pond pump, and playing with a neighbors new puppy, we decided to head back up.

Clink Clink

That’s the sound of the elevator door not opening. At the time, we didn’t know that Aaron and Jen had left. No big deal, we’ll just push the button and wait for the elevator. Pushing the button didn’t do anything. There wasn’t a key in this panel, and it was set to off. Well, we couldn’t call the elevator, and neither of us had keys, phone, or shoes. Great, just great.

So, we go sit back on the porch, realizing that we were locked out, and without shoes, we couldn’t even go for a walk anywhere. We had the windows open last night, so both of us started thinking of way we could get to the open windows. Granted, we were currently on the second floor, and the windows were on the fourth. Once that idea fizzled, we moved on to something more serious. We asked to use the neighbor’s phone who had the puppy. In fact, she even had the Landlords cell and home phone numbers. Not like it mattered, both numbers went unanswered, and I have no idea what Aaron’s number was.

Then we thought we could pry open the doors if someone had forgotten to throw the deadbolt. However, all we have for tools are garden tools. Well, it was the best we had, so we went into the building and up to my door. Because the door swung in, it meant that the seam was on the outside, plus it looked as if the deadbolt was thrown. Maybe we could push the doors in, since they’re just French doors? I remembered that the unused door was actually nailed shut, and as much fun as repairing that sounds, along with possibly breaking the stained glass windows from the force, we decided against that. However, we still had the other door down at the garage. Erin manned the front door of the building so I could get back in, and I ran around to the alley and attempted to pry the door open. This door was the same as our other, it swung in, so it wasn’t possible. I ran back around and Erin let me in.

Dejected, we headed back to the patio. I started fumbling around with the door while Erin sat in the shade for a bit. Both of us were thinking, “WWMD (What would McGuyver do)?”

We looked at the faceplate to the elevator controls, but the screws holding it in weren’t phillips or flathead. Instead, they were some strange contraption with two holes, definitely used to deter people from tampering with it. Well, we really didn’t have any other options, so we started looking for tools to try to unscrew the faceplate.

There was this old, rusted, what looked like scissors, but weren’t, things that we were going to use to jimmy the doors open. It had the two points from the shears, and low and behold it worked like a charm getting the faceplate off. Once we had the plate off we were faced with 3 live wires running to the plate, one to the key lock and two to the button, and one wire running from the key lock to the button. As soon as I saw that I figured that the key lock shorts between the one wire and the one running between the lock and the button, and then we’d just have to push the button.

So, Erin holds the faceplate, I short the connection with a spade with a wooden handle, and she pushes the button.

ZAP ZAP

Erin drops the faceplate, and I drop the spade. Hmmm, that didn’t seem to work. It was as if the whole device became electrified when I shorted it. Hopefully a breaker wasn’t thrown, so we aren’t SOL and can try again once we look it over some more. I look it over for awhile, and for the life of me can’t see how else this thing can possibly work, other than the way we just did it.

So, we try again like silly monkeys. This time, we wedge the faceplate into it’s holder so that we have an extra hand free, and we aren’t actually touching it. Erin uses another spade’s handle to actually push the button this time, instead of doing it with her hand. We both use frisbees to keep the faceplate from sliding around, instead of using our hands. And, instead of shorting the connection with the spade, I just take the wire off from one end of the key lock, and touch it to the other end.

SUCCESS! The elevator started coming up to us. I kept the circuit shorted until the elevator arrived, since we didn’t want to do that again. As we were putting everything back together, of course, my hand slips and decides to short out the connection, again.

ZAP ZAP

That one was definitely a lot worse that the first time, but it’s good to see I have enough salts in my to properly ground a wire.

Thankfully, that time didn’t throw a breaker either. To have worked all that much only to screw up when putting it all back together.

So, I’m tempted to call my landlord and inform him that the elevator isn’t really all that secure. I mean, if someone could get on the second floor, and spend the 10-15 minutes it took us to hot wire it, they’re up in our apt no time. Granted, I don’t’ really have that much faith in humanity that someone of that caliber would take the time, or have the knowhow to pull that off. But, I’m glad that Erin and I were able to get off the porch.

VLAN Trunking with Virtual Server 2005

Getting VLAN trunking working on a Virtual Server 2005 host with Intel NICs can be problematic if done on host that already has Virtual Server installed. The problem arises with the Virtual Machine Network Services that is installed on each NIC. In order to get everything working, make sure you have the latest Intel Drivers and that you uncheck “Virtual Machine Network Services” under the NIC properties. You can then add your VLANs that you want trunked to the card under the NIC’s properties. The new VLANs will then appear as separate Network Connections, and each of the new Network Connections will have the Virtual Machine Network Services installed and checked.

Now, if you don’t uncheck the “Virtual Machine Network Services”, after you add the VLANs to the NIC properties, nothing shows up. Talk about wasting a lot of time. Also, all of this should be done from the console session, otherwise you may or may not see the tab on the NIC properties to add VLANs.

I hope this helps someone else out there, because there was a lot of time wasted on this here.

Hidden Peaks

On Monday I swung by Hidden Peaks and climbed for a few hours. Now, the pictures that I pointed out in the last entry are a little misleading. It appears much larger than it really is. In fact, it’s essentially just a bouldering cave. I’m not sure how sold I am on it, since there’s no place to really traverse, but it’s better than nothing as of right now.

Also, most of the routes are hard, really hard. There are very few V0s and V1s, and those are on the 45 degree wall. I suppose it’ll get me strong in a hurry though. The only downside, though, is that I’ll end up being a 4-5 move person, and so it will make actual wall climbing that much harder.

Ugh, decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh, and I ripped up my hand pretty good when I went too. I can tell that I haven’t done any hard climbing in awhile because the pads on my fingers definitely don’t have the calluses they used to.

Joining a Gym

Ever since I moved up here (about 5 months ago), I haven’t been working out regularly. Amazingly I have noticed it that much, but that could be because I’m still walking to and from work around twice a week (30 mins each way) or climbing around once a week with Erin. However, I’ve realized that it’s time to get back into a semi-regular routine.

When I was down in Champaign, I was usually working out at the gym (cardio and weights) three times a week, plus I was climbing at least once a week, usually twice. Going from that to no weights, running maybe once every couple of weeks, and climbing maybe once a week when I can, is a huge change. What bothers me the most is that I’m finally starting to see the differences between how I was and how I am now.

This is why the last two weeks I’ve been looking at Gyms in the area. I was really hoping to find a gym with both a climbing wall and pool in addition to the regular equipment. Unfortunately there are really only two places that offer that, and both are more than I want to pay, in addition to other factors. One of the places is Gold Coast Multiplex. Well, actually, that place doesn’t have the climbing wall, just the pool and other equipment. However, if you join Gold Coast Multiplex, you also become a member of the Old Town Fitplex. Now, the Fitplex has everything, pool, climbing, and regular equipment, but the pool is outdoor and shared (so no real lap swimming) and the wall is horrendously small. For those reading that know of Vertical Plains in Champaign, think smaller, less bouldering, but better molded walls. Plus, there’s the fact that parking is non-existent and it’s not within easy walking distance of my place. If I lived within walking distance, I’d probably join there in a heartbeat. However, I could join the Multiplex and then I get the pool and parking (parking garage that costs $2 every time), but it’s also over $100 a month, which seems a bit excessive.

The other place that has everything I want is actually downtown, fairly close to my office. The Illinois Center, again, has everything I want, but look at that wall, bouldering is non-existent, which means I either need to have a partner all the time, or someone will have to belay me. Both of which means that I’d probably never actually use it, since I enjoy climbing on my own a lot too, just to get a good workout. Granted, I haven’t actually visited this place, but I’m guessing it’s at least as expensive as the above Multiplex, if not more.

I was in a pickle, of all the choices, I was definitely going to go with the Fitplex, and just deal with the parking. I mean, street parking is a pain, but I could deal with it. In fact, I got a free two week trial membership to try it out. However, I decided to do some more research on climbing walls within the area. Turns out there’s a place just up the street from me, within walking distance, or just the next stop on the L. I tried to go there last week, but apparently they were closed for the week, so I plan on heading there either tomorrow or Tuesday. Now, if this place is like the pictures they have on the less-than-stellar website, this could definitely be the place.

Since I started giving up on the all-in-one gym, I looked at the gym right down the block from me. I stopped in after I found out that Hidden Peak was closed, and got some more information. West Loop isn’t a large gym by any stretch, but it has everything else I want (minus a pool), and has very nice equipment. Being so small, I ask about how busy it must get, and if there are wait times on the equipment, etc. I was told there wasn’t any, but it does get full during normal peak times, 4-7. They also gave me a free two week trial, and so I’ve gone the last three days. Granted, I’ve been there on non-peak days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), but the maximum amount of people I’ve seen there at any one time is four. It is a little bit more than I really want to spend, but the fact it’s so close and I don’t have to worry about parking (even if I were to get that lazy and drive) is a nice bonus, plus the people that work there are incredibly nice. Now I just need to go tomorrow to find out how busy it really gets.

Now, the way I see it, I’m going to end up spending under $100 a month between both the gym and the climbing if I end up going with both of these places. However, that will get me unlimited use of both facilities, plus, hopefully, a much better climbing gym, and not having to worry about parking. I really wish that West Loop had a pool, just for a change of pace, but I guess it’s not that big of a deal. I mean, I’ve not belonged to a place with one before, so it won’t be like I’m losing anything. And, well, if this other gym doesn’t work out, I can always go back to the Fitplex and save myself about $20 a month.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Stir-Fry

Yesterday I received my Calphalon Stir-Fry pan from Amazon.com. I was so excited to use it, and had little to no other food in the house, that Erin and I stopped by the grocery store on the way back from UPS. We snagged some Lo Mein noodles, Teriyaki sauce, Wok oil, chicken, sugar snap pees, broccoli, and water chestnuts (plus some other stuff for pad Thai) in order to whip up something quick.

Erin took care of the noodles, while I cleaned out the new pan and prepped the rest of the ingredients. Ten to fifteen minutes later we were enjoying some awesome Chicken Lo Mein. I definitely would do things a bit differently next time though. Stir-frying individual portions is a must. I had already cooked the chicken, then added in the veggies, then attempted to add in the noodles. Way too much going on in the pan. So, next time it will be more of a Mongolian BBQ, or Flat Iron Grill kind of meal, where each serving will have its own mise en place, and that way I don’t overcrowd the pan.

Tonight, I may attempt Pad Thai if I can find the rest of the ingredients I need. The Dominick’s by us has a horribly small “Asian” section. Actually, I think it’s just a double-wide end cap. I’m not scared though, we have a bunch of specialty groceries around us. I’m sure I’ll find what I need nearby.

Oh, and this new pan is just the start. I basically wanted to get a “tester” to see how well I enjoyed cooking with this type of Calphalon line. Basically, I’m looking at getting a whole set sometime in the near future. Actually, the set is also listed on Amazon. Funny thing about that, though, is that by going to the Calphalon store page on Amazon, you can’t actually get to that set, only the same priced set that has fewer pieces. Go figure.

Bottom line, is the pot got crazy hot, and it seemed pretty evenly. The sides seemed to get about as hot as the bottom of the pan, which is good, and it wasn’t too heavy to flip the stir-fry one-handed. The only downsides I saw was that the handle did get warm (that could’ve been because of the insane amount of heat my burner was outputting though), and getting it to the same shine as it was brand new may take some work, but cleaning it, even after it sat while we ate, was not a problem. All in all, it was a great experience, and I look forward to actually buying the rest of them.