AtomicInternet Archived News

I recently acquired an old Dell Poweredge 2400 system from my work and decided to compare this legendary SCSI RAID to my Serial ATA RAID. To be fair, the Perc2/Si controller is a full 2 generations behind what's current, but with four 15,000 RPM SCSI drives vs. the two 10,000 RPM SATA drives I was expecting a fair fight. The Perc2/Si also supports RAID 5 (parity) and RAID 10 (striped mirror) which my SIL3512 does not, so for an enterprise environment the setup I tested would be suicide (no redundancy on RAID 0). Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, on to the results:

RAID 0 (Striped)	NEUTRON SIL3512 SATA	Poweredge 2400 Perc2/Si SCSI
Burst	122.1 MB/s	51.7 MB/s
Average	113.9 MB/s	44.1 MB/s
Random	7.8ms	7.0ms
CPU	8%	2%

The Serial ATA almost tripled the burst rate and more than doubled the average of the SCSI. However, the random access was faster on the SCSI meaning my free Poweredge will be ideal for the upcoming LAN party (in addition to the fact that it has three 10/100 LAN ports). Aside from the disappointing benchmarks, it's friggin cool having a 4 drive SCSI RAID machine (6 if you count the RAID 1 OS container). It weighs over 80lbs and is louder than my furnace so LAN duty is probably all this machine will ever see, but you just can't beat the price! Finally, what you've all been patiently waiting for: the famous animated benchmark!

The second round of airsoft games was today. Running around in remote woods in 16 degree weather trying to shoot grown men in the ass isn't a popular idea of fun, but it was for 7 friends and I today. With two more people than the last event we can officially say it's growing. My tech advantage from last game was quickly overtaken by the new 300+ feet per second rifles being used. My puny 150fps was no match for the longer range and more painful shots. Subsequently I was regularly used as target practice and a general entertainment device. Nevertheless I had alot of fun getting welts and screaming like a banshee while running madly for various flags and objectives.

Excited about this weekends Airsoft Event, and subject to the organizers obsession, I gave in and bought the Lorcin Well G3 SAS AEG airsoft rifle. The key feature to this gun is the 410fps firing speed: probably one of the fastest electric guns available, and of course all the TECH! Unfortunately, on arrival it was inoperable and had plastic pieces falling out of it. I promptly generated an RMA that will most likely take a month to complete, meaning I'm back to my 150fps for this weekend. I'm not worried though, nobody has nearly as much tech as my current model, and as has been proven in the past, tech = victory!

Back in April I got my first comment spam and decided to change my comment system to block certain characters from comments. I refuse to require a login for comments since at least 1 of the 5 people that post comments here are constantly under government surveilance (yes, they do wear an aluminum hat). The blocking system I wrote seemed to work extremely well, and comment spam instantly went to zero. Fast forward to today and while fixing MYRN's photo link in the last update I saw some very strange spam on a very old entry. Spam that apparently has no purpose whatsoever. You just can't fight something so meaningless, so today the spambot authors have won a small victory. The meaningless spam will remain, and serve to make it appear as though I'm more popular than I really am. Unfortunately it's usually broken English, so my popularity will appear to be strongest with Plymouth-Canton high school graduates.

During my daily deal check on Sunday I ran across the Hanns-G HN199D on sale for $189 after a $70 rebate. I promised myself I'd make my move when I found a 19" LCD with a 16ms response time or less that had both Analog and DVI inputs. Well this one fits the bill, with an impressive 8ms response time (perfect for fast-moving images like gaming). After reading a ton of probably pre-selected reviews on TigerDirect I was convinced it wasn't a piece of crap and ordered it. Fast forward to today: I have it hooked up via DVI at the native 1280x1024 resolution and must say it looks sharp (not as gumpy looking as it seems from the photos). A quick game of FarCry at the native resolution proved the 8ms response time wasn't just made up. No blockiness or ghosting whatsoever. As for brightness I had to crank it down to 40% since the default 100% was blinding. I also noticed the change in brightness as you move your head around and get different angles, but it's only apparent on bright white screens (like this webpage) and not enough to complain about. I haven't used the speakers yet, but I'm guessing they work sufficient enough for LAN gaming. Obviously the primary reason I bought this was to bring my required monitor lugging weight down from 75lb to 10lb, and open up more desk space, both requirements it meets nicely. Well? What are you waiting for? Get out there and consume!

Und nochmal tausend Meilen voran Über den Laufsteg Auf dem ein Stern entsteht Der über dem Meer aufgeht
Vorbei an toten Galaxien Lassen wir uns treiben Wo man die Zeit vergisst Wo alles kälter ist
So, komm und warte nicht Dies ist der Anfang Komm und warte nicht Dies ist der Anfang
Und nochmal tausend Meilen von hier Sind wir wie Götter So strahlend schön Ein Phänomen Kein Wunder, dass uns niemand mehr glaubt: Wir sind vollkommen Wir sind ein Kunstprodukt Von dir verlangt und aufgebauscht
So, komm und warte nicht Dies ist der Anfang Triff die Entscheidung Dies ist der Anfang Von deinem Ende Ich bin es nicht Ich bin es nicht
Und nochmal tausend Fragen von dir Die nichts bedeuten Ich kann dich nicht mehr hören Willst du dich selbst zerstören?
Dann komm und warte nicht Dies ist der Anfang Triff die Entscheidung Dies ist der Anfang Von deinem Ende Ich bin es nicht Ich bin es nicht
Vielleicht sind tausend Meilen zu weit Über den Laufsteg Auf dem nichts heilig ist Und man sich selbst vergisst
Denn nochmal tausend Jahre von hier Fällt die Entscheidung Und es wird weitergehen... weitergehen... weitergehen...

Contrary to what the weather station may be reporting lately, my house has not been surrounded by a wind-proof bubble. Saturday night I noticed the lack of wind readings and filled my trusty super soaker with hot water in an attempt to unfreeze my anemometer. 12 shots and 3 loads later my arm was hurting from the intense pumping action (normally not a problem) so I was forced to let winter keep it's victory. I had hoped it would unfreeze on it's own but this has not happened. If you have access to a fire engine with an articulating ladder or power hose stop by for a few.

I recently bought an *original* xbox off eBay (they're about $100 now) to act as a media center extender. I'm not cool enough or rich enough to get a 360 so this is the next best thing. Since the xbox is just a specialized PC I decided to get myself a mod chip to open up possibilities such as making it a web server or ftp box via linux. The mod chip replaces the system BIOS with a more friendly and flashable one. Unfortunately after 3 hours of trying to align the chip properly I declared my attempt with the spiderchip version a failure. It looks like later model xbox machines might have better luck with this chip, but the chip I got was either fried or I'm unable to perform basic electronic modifications. Oh well, it still makes a great media center extender. Now I can finally watch Knight Rider in my bedroom, where it was intended to be enjoyed.