Buying a Linux laptop in 2007
It’s time for a new laptop, as I’ve detailed, I’ve ripped apart, inserted coins and duct-taped the old iBook back together again enough times, and it’s no longer viable. It’ll work fine on a flat surface, but if you try to use it as a laptop the minor flexing must loosen the video chip, because you quickly find your video locked, with a hard reboot the only fix. The wildcards are me as a buyer, since I’m hardly ordinary with my expectation that any laptop or desktop I’m going to buy is only going to run Linux, and the recent announcements by HP, IBM/Lenovo and Dell about their Linux support (some even pre-installed), I knew I’d finally have choices to consider. In the end I came up with a pretty current system, that Debian or Ubuntu will be 100% compatible with, and will be proud to call home. The detailed specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, 1.6GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2M L2 Cache
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD display
1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) Mini Card
Integrated 2.0 mega pixel webcam
Integrated Bluetooth
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
This is more system that I originally spec’d out, but the price was right, so I’m very happy. Before I reveal which brand I picked, I’ll tell the interesting story of how I ended up with the ‘top I did, and how things compare for laptop Linux options these days, it’s an interesting ride.
NOTE: feel free to Digg this article if you like it.
Software support must evolve with Open Source
As a IT contractor I’m enjoying giving my opinion when asked, and sometimes even when I’m not asked; I have the confidence to be open and honest with everyone and want them to know that. Because of this I’ve been getting to do things I otherwise would not have since they would not have known I was interested or experienced in such things. One of the things I was hired for was to setup Apache on Linux to work with their web instances. It’s been fun, and while I’ve used Apache for over 10 years, there’s always new things to learn. Recently they asked for my opinion on ’support’ options for Apache. Keeping in mind, they already have support for the hardware and support for the Linux distribution, they still think they need another support channel for Apache. To me this a big waste of money and have somewhat made my case to them. While I understand their position that this support is a way to cover themselves if Apache ‘breaks’, the fact that this software is Open Source has to change the way they have traditionally considered support.
80G Black iPod classic FTW!
UPDATE: Hold the phone here, before going too gaga over the new iPods, it’s been revealed that they’ve been ‘re-engineered’ to lock out folks trying to sync their iPods using 3rd party apps, or (gasp) Linux! That’s right, they want you to use ONLY Windows or OSX and iTunes…this is ridiculous. See my post on our sister site Left to chance to learn more. This is what we talk about when we say Digital Rights, we can’t give them up now and expect to have them in the future!
If you didn’t see, hear, or read the announcement on the new iPods, go to Apple now and check them out. While refreshing the entire line, they made the (useless in my opinion) shuffle different colors, the Nano shorter and fatter (to allow for video), re-branded the traditional looking iPods to iPod classic, and revealed the hotly anticipated iPod Touch, basically an iPhone without a phone, but with Wifi and Safari. All in all, very cool, but the Touch is just silly, it seems far more the novelty/status symbol, with the real sweet spot for me being the iPod classic. They did away with the shinny plastic (that only serves to collect scratches) of the old iPods for brushed metal, and it looks very cool in the silver (white?), but for me, it’s Black FTW! Damn that’s nice, and here I am listening to the latest release from The Shins (name dropped because it’s such a great CD) on my old 20G click wheel! I have tons of music at home, so larger capacity would be nice, but damn, with that much space I could slap vids of unreleased live shows I’m gathering via bitorrent, and even shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Yeah, that has me written all over it (no, I would not get my name engraved on the back, still trying to think of something witty I would put on there though…’you don’t have to kick it’ would be nice!)
Dell’s Linux support numbers
I’ve read a few posts online that review Dell’s Linux support, and most complain that they have to call the ‘regular’ number first, only to get the “What version of Windows are you running?” support. After redirected to the correct number for Linux support, they get excellent support. So, to try and help propogate the Linux support numbers, I present them here. Dell’s Linux support number for hardware is 866-622-1947, and for software it’s 866-982-8688. Additionally, the online Linux Community Support forum will likely solve most problems for you even before you’re done dialing.
Confessions of SpammerX
A former spammer comes forth to tell his story, an amazing look at how easy something like this is to get away with. “Ed,” a retired spammer, built a considerable fortune sending e-mails that promoted pills, porn and casinos. At the peak of his power, Ed says he pulled in US$10,000 to $15,000 a week, storing the money in $20 bills in stacks of boxes.“ In his last year he pulled in $480,000.
AT&T DSL plan for $10/month
I’m in no way endorsing AT&T, but I’m encouraged when I see a more ‘tiered’ approach from ISPs, and DSL for $10/month is a great choice for consumers. It seems that this tiered or ‘naked DSL’ is only being offered up by AT&T as part of the “…concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last 
December.” The speeds are what you’d expect for the price, 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, but this is far and away fast enough for 90% of subscribers I bet, the ’speed’ that they try to sell is not something a normal user is going to bump up against. In what makes it seem even more of a concession instead of a new marketing initiate is that, “The plan was not mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T’s DSL plans, and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn’t mention it, but clicking a link for “Term contract plans” reveals it. It’s also presented to customers who go into the application process.” Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come, America trails most other countries in high-speed internet usage, and with so much going on online, you really need a high-speed connection to really take advantage of it. A $50/month 1.5/768 is really not needed by most, it’s a rip-off for them, but $10/month is something they would get great benefit from without being fleeced.
Windows XP to be phased out by year’s end despite customer demand
Microsoft is set to phase out Windows XP by the end of this year, even though the majority of businesses have no reason or desire to update to Vista, since most of those updates would require new hardware. It’s just another example of Microsoft not listening to their customers, just to their shareholders. “Computer makers have been told they’ll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems. By early 2008, Microsoft’s contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. “The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January,” said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. “At that point, they’ll have no choice.” Sure, I can throw in my “let’s hope for a major Linux migration”, but I won’t. It won’t happen on the scale it should, but still, some companies are going to start waking up; it has to happen. Hell, if I have to get a job at some small company where I’m tasked with supporting a network of Linux workstations and servers, I’ll do it. It can be done, companies will save money; it’s just a matter of hiring a competent employee that really knows his stuff. (paper MCSE admins, I’m looking at you)
NO CARRIER (Speakeasy bought by Best Buy!)
I’ve long sang the praises of Speakeasy (Why I Love Speakeasy), and loved that I actually had a choice when it came to selecting DSL, which I needed because I’m pretty picky about such things. I need static IPs and I need support to help me diagnose line issues, NOT OS issues. From them to my DSL modem, that’s all I need help with; please don’t ask me to reboot again! Speakeasy provided me with that excellent service, but today it comes down that Best Buy has bought Speakeasy. Forums over at Broadband Reports echo my sediment with universally negative comments after their posting the news. It sums things up perfectly, and spells out why I’m very pessimistic about this being a good thing for Speakeasy, or their customers (aka me). “Speakeasy this morning has announced that the broadband provider has been acquired by electronics retail giant Best Buy for $97 million. Founded in 1994, Speakeasy started in Seattle as an Internet cafe, and made a name for themselves as a customer-focused and community-friendly broadband provider. [...] “Best Buy, like Speakeasy, is known for its high level of customer service,” insists Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley in an e-mail to customers. That statement probably terrifies Speakeasy users aware of the recent scuff-up over a secret internal Best Buy website used to scam customers out of advertised deals. Best Buy so far is insisting that little will change. Post-acquisition, the company will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy. “We have a high regard for Speakeasy’s employees, their culture, and their valued relationships with customers and vendors,” says Best Buy CFO Darren Jackson. “They have a strong customer service-oriented approach, which is an excellent fit with Best Buy’s culture and direction.” So there you go, I was unable to get a small ISP that actually had good customer service when I lived in Texas, we were always outside of the lines for Speakeasy. During that time we had SBC (which bought out Prodigy when I worked there!), since we had no choice, which was OK as long as we didn’t have any problems. Customer service was the normal, not my problem let me transfer you to the hold queue until you got some kid who read a statement of non-support once I mentioned we ran Linux, FreeBSD and OS X at the house in response to his, “Ok, what version of Windows do you run?”. When you call Speakeasy you get someone on the phone immediately, and that person would help you the whole time. Also, they understood that they provide data transfer from THEM TO MY DSL MODEM, and after that it was just TCP/IP from there; OS be damned. We’ll see what happens, but at this time I’m thinking harder about colo’ing the server and getting some cheap cable modem if (when?) things go south with Speakeasy. To the Speakeasy CEO: Please don’t let us down.
More inroads for Linux
While it seems every year someone proclaims *this* will be the year of Linux on the desktop, there are always a steady stream of those who ‘get it’ and are reaping the benifits of freeing themselves from the upgrade and licencing cycle, making it feel as if a tipping point is indeed at hand. Here’s a roundup of some very interesting news in that regard from this week. First up, a California school district aims 5,000 desktops at Linux. “Windsor, Calif. School District IT administrator Heather Carver is migrating most of the district’s 70 servers and most of its 5,000 desktop machines from a mostly-Windows environment that is quickly becoming obsolete to a new mixed environment that includes PCs running SUSE Linux, Wyse Linux thin-client terminals, and a smattering of Mac and Windows machines. When all the phasing-in is completed sometime next year, the district will be operating about 2,000 SUSE Linux desktops, 50 SUSE Linux servers, 2,700 Linux thin clients, and a few hundred Mac and Windows machines for special purposes, Carver said. Additionally, she expects to save thousands of dollars each year in hardware and software costs by doing it. “One key to all this is that we’re using Citrix (as the bridge) to run Windows apps on thin-client terminals — which the adults are most used to — on the new SUSE Linux 10.1 servers,” Carver told DesktopLinux.com. “The kids, well, they adjust to new operating systems and applications very quickly, so a changeover to Linux is no big deal.”
Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
A nice overview of what the Web 2.0 term means/could mean/will mean. My take? A moving target with no center, dot.com_v2 – but with ideas that can/could/will actually make money.
TJX Companies data breach reveals credit card data
Ah, nothing new, just another big corporation leaking credit card and issuers personal data. “The TJX Companies, a large retailer that operates more than 2,000 retail stores under brands such as Bob’s Stores, HomeGoods, Marshalls, T.J. Maxx and A.J. Wright, said on Wednesday that it suffered a massive computer breach on a portion of its network that handles credit card, debit card, check and merchandise transactions in the United States and abroad. The company does not know the extent of the breach, which was first discovered in December 2006. However, hackers may have made off with credit and debit information from transactions in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico in 2003 as well as transactions between May and December 2006, according to a company statement. [...] In the end, the hack may affect a wide range of credit card companies and thousands of consumers in America and in countries like the United Kingdom and Ireland, experts say.” I fail to understand how this could have been happening since 2003 — and then again for half of this past year! We need more detail, but again, how could this go on for so long? Why is this happening? It’s always the weakest link in the chain, but we need to know what it is so it can be plugged (so a new breach can appear later). A losing battle? Me thinks online payment and CC only transactions are only making things worse thanks to security that is bought by a company, instead of developed and understood in house. Seems like a good time to check back in with our friendly updated list, A Chronology of Data Breaches, which has already been updated with this recent fun.
UN warning on e-waste ‘mountain’
There is a warning out from the UN about the huge amounts of e-waste that is being generated and distributed overseas. Currently e-waste including old TVs, CPUs and phones are being shipped off to China, India and more recently, Africa. It’s estimated that up to 50 million tons of waste from discarded electronic goods is generated annually, and of that up to 75% of the shipments are defunct – in other words e-waste. The article states the amazing statistic that, “A recent study by the Basel Action Network concludes that a minimum of 100,000 computers a month are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos alone.” Some of the chemicals in computers called out in the article are lead, arsenic, antimony trioxide, polybrominated flame retardants, selenium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt and mercury; all nasty stuff. If dumped the chemicals can leech into the earth, contaminating land and water, or if burnt, which is the more common disposal method, they release toxic fumes and leach chemicals such as barium and mercury into the soil.
This is completely on topic for me, right now I have 6 old computers in the trunk of my car, destined for EPC, a place in town that does proper disposal of e-waste at the cost of 5$ per computer. I’ve gathered these boxes from old jobs when they’d clear out outdated hardware, and I’d buy them to play with and learn from. Most are ~200Mhz systems, so these have gotten the cut while I still have 4 computers at home to play with, build servers from, geek out with, to keep me going. Still, think about what you’re doing when you’re done with a computer, most of the time you can pass it down to a relative or a child to use, since these users generally don’t need the latest and greatest, but if it’s too old, do some research and find out where you can properly dispose of your system. Greenpeace lists some overall solutions, while major computer manufactures like Apple and Dell have programs of their own to help deal with the issue, but it’s up to us as consumers to be educated about this, and to use this knowledge on future computer purchases.
Cell customers want simple phones: survey
As far as cell phones, this is what I’ve been saying all along; make simple phones that are easy to use, drop the idea of making some all-in-one camera, instantmessanger, emailchecker, websurfer, gamesystem and just give me a phone to call home with. ”Most cell phone customers don’t use the camera, email, or gaming options offered by their wireless providers. According a survey by JD Power and Associates, most are satisfied when they can simply place a call efficiently. The organization surveyed 18,740 wireless users who’ve had their current cell phone for less than two years. While overall satisfaction was up four per cent from 2005, most people said that the physical design of their phones and the ease-of-use are the most important factors for positive user experiences. “As more services are added to mobile phones, the ability to navigate the handset in an easy and straightforward manner becomes paramount,” says Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. Despite the endless ads pushing us to use our phones for everything from playing games to snapping photos, only 19 per cent of people say they use the camera on their mobile and a mere 16 per cent opt to play.” I can currently play games, check the web, download a ton of crap, AIM with friends and more on my two year old handset, but the UI sucks for dialing, and it’s too small to use for any length of time. I’m ready for something better and simplier; enough of these “Where you at?” ads.
Sun to support Ubuntu Linux
Ah, so my very first accepted story submission to the venerable Slashdot.org occurred today, and it’s a dozy. ”Sun today announced that they are putting their weight behind Ubuntu Linux. While Ubuntu has been many people’s desktop Linux choice for a few years now, with its Debian heritage, you can see what kind of server it could be. Slap that on the new Sun 1Us with the new Niagra T1’s CPU, the one that will have four, six or eight cores each, and go to town.” Strange that the editors changed the URL I gave with one to ZDNet, but hey. Also, sharp readers caught on to my misspelling, which was kinda funny really. I wrote Niagra versus the ‘real’ name of the new Sun CPU: the UltraSparc T1 Niagara. Opps. Can you tell I’m currently rebuilding a mail server with all sorts of anti-spam features?
Mac Mini doing fast OS switching
Wowser, here’s vid of a Mac mini Duo, doing some fast OS switching. It’s running OS X with Parallels and Virtue Desktops which allows it to run Windows XP and Red Hat 4 ES all at the same time. The switching between the 3 OSs uses the ‘cube effect’ just like the fast user switching of OS X, and looks to be just as swift. I think that’s about all I need to see, if I can have a Mac Mini Duo running a triple boot like that, I think I’ll be all set (for a few weeks).
UPDATE: it looks like it would only cost an additional about 78$ for a 512Meg RAM chip to bring this puppy up to 1G total. OS X seems to ‘need’ at least 1G RAM in my experience, plus this would be way more than enough to run a few OSs at once, or at least the ones I need; OS X and Linux. Looking around it seems that replacing the RAM is quite the adventure! Time to find my tweezers.
Run Windows on Intel Macs with Apple’s blessing
First let’s recall after Apple announced it was moving to Intel chips this quote, ”We haven’t done anything to explicitly prevent it, but we haven’t done anything to encourage it either,” Apple Senior Product Line Manager Wiley Hodges said of running Windows on Macs. If this was ever true, it is no longer. After all the talk about how to get Windows XP running on the new Intel Macs, and the subsequent contest that made some hacker 13,000$USD richer, Apple has gone ahead and released Boot Camp, software that sets up and allows for dual booting of OS X and Windows XP. They even released a ‘firmware update’ so that Macs will have the native BIOS support boot other OSs (like Windows, Linux, BSD, Beos, etc) on all of their present Mactels, and we suspect future releases will just include this ‘update’, making Boot Camp unnecessary for Linux/BSD fans. But get this, once you install the BIOS update, boots of your Mac will include ”…a very loud, un-Mac-like system beep is normal at the start of this process.” Ekk! As you can tell I’m unsure of how to feel about this, so of course first let’s go to Apple’s sales pitch, ”More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.” Of course this will fan the flames of conspiracies promoting the theory that Apple is going to base its next major OS upgrade on Windows, but I think it’s just what it seems; another way of Apple trying for a bigger piece of the pie. I don’t know if I think it’s a good or bad idea, or if Apple envisioned this before or during the switch to Intel chips from PowerPC; but regardless, this changes everything. The tradional Mac user’s “You run Windows? Yuck” comment will be turned on it’s side now as more and more will opt for the beautifully designed Macs instead of the standard/drab Dell boxen that are so prevalent, but I’m sure at the heart of the matter is the enterprise, where Windows has always reigned supreme. Would Apple really want to sell more Macs to companies just so they can run Windows on them? I doubt it, I suspect Boot Camp will provide the ‘virtualization’ that everyone is talking about, and yes, Boot Camp does support running both OSs side by side, but look to the future where you can click on an icon and have a Windows app come up in OS X just like OS 9 (classic) apps do now. Strange times? Yes, but hey, Apple stock holders will be happy, many more people will consider and buy Macs now; but long term what will it mean for the Apple experience? That indescribable feeling of being outside of the mainstream? I know the Mac faithful will say this is another, “Brilliant move!” by Steve Jobs, and I truly hope it is, but I don’t know right now. I want it to be, but my gut says it’s not. Please quote me on this, as I so much want to be wrong.
Ok, so enough of my ‘what if’ babble, back to my passion of ‘what if Linux’ babble! Clearly many geeks are holding out on their next computer purchase waiting to see when Linux distros will not only successfully boot on Intel Macs (alas, you could boot Linux on an Intel Mac before it could boot XP, and runs the standard Gnome desktop on Linux now too) – but after today’s Boot Camp / new firmware release, people already have Ubuntu Linux running on Mactels without any funny tricks (picture). The cat, as they say, is out of the bag. Even though I’m highly allergic to cats, my next computer will likely be a Macbook to replace my aging G3 iBook and it’ll run at least OS X and Linux, with Windows as an option if I work somewhere that allows me to run my own laptop, but not a non-win OS – and then FreeBSD just because I can. Quad-boot. Cool? Sure, but I feel weird, it’s the kind of weird I felt when I heard Apple was going Intel; it’s like, where’s the punchline? Of course in the geek community this story is moving at the speed of light, just now there’s a new Slashdot article that includes comments from a PC World (!?) review which includes comments like, ”…preferences page that Boot Camp installs to ensure that XP was set as the default OS” and ”I’d think I was working on a standard Windows PC with a wide-screen monitor. And that’s exactly what you’d want from a usable dual-boot system.” I am starting to worry that Apple *is* going the way that all the na-sayers said, more mainstream, less unique and perhaps in the future less focused on the OS, and just on hardware. If OS X slips away and people are just buying Macs to run Windows on it the whole dynamic is lost. I’ve already slept on it, and I’m still conflicted. Oh well, what else is new! And this whole thing has me thinking, I wonder what I can get if I wanted to sell a 3.2Gig Pentium 4 Dell with a 6600GT Nvidia card…and how much one of those new iMacs go for? So, to close with a Wall Street Journal’s comment, ”All in all, Boot Camp works really well. Whether you want to run Mac or Windows programs, an Apple computer may be the only computer you’ll need.” Indeed.
Pocket server
Ok, picture this; a 400MHz PowerPC, 64MB RAM, fingerprint scanner, SD/MMC slot, and either 256MB or 512MB storage, powered by host USB 2.0 interface, the size and weight (a 3.5″ x 1.75″, 1.6 ounce) of a pack of playing cards, yes smaller than an iPod Nano! Yes, it’s the world’s smallest Linux server, BlackDog, and it can be had for ~$200. It runs a flash-based Debian Linux distribution with a 2.6.10 kernel, and comes with Firefox (web browser), Abiword (word processing), an email client, and a toolchain and development libraries. In researching it, I came across this blog that presented the question, “Is there a technical need for BlackDog that I’m missing or is it just a cool geek tchochky?“, and he hit the nail on the head for me; would it really be useful after the novelty wore off? Sure, coming to work, plugging it into my XP (blah) laptop and being able to pull up top would be fly, surfing/emailing/chatting only from that would be more secure than leaving traces of incriminating logs on my work box would be cool, but long term…would I keep using it? So, I’m not sure I would be able to justify teh purchase. I’ll have to think a bit more about what it’s actually good for. For now it feels like a cool answer in search of a problem. “The BlackDog team is apparently looking for ideas as well. They’re starting a developer contest in September when the product is shipped, with a $50,000 prize. A lot of money for a product that appears to be in the “interesting-linux-hacker-widget” category. Turns out they’re part of Realm Systems, which received $8.5 million in funding last January, which is why they can afford a huge booth that doesn’t tell anyone what they’re doing, and offer $50K for a developer contest.” So since they have money to burn it seems like they’ll be around for awhile, and maybe a really cool use would be thought of. I could transfer documents to and fro via a Wiki running on the webserver of the Blackdog, but I could also just post things on a password protected/encrypted section of my main webserver. So you see my problem here, I’d love to have one of these, but would I use it? Hmm…let me sleep on it, stay tuned.
Will the Crash-box 360 lead to a Revolution?
While the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 (PS3) are going to ‘redefine’ game consoles from something that can play games to something that you can also watch movies on, chat, view pictures, etc, I’ll be sticking with the company that has always focused on making games that are fun to play; Nintendo and their upcoming console Revolution. From the wiki, the talk about the backwards compatibility sounds very promising. Think about it, Nintendo has some of the best games ever, and that goes back 20+ years; why not make them *all* available instead of locking them out? The fact that GameCube controlers, memory sticks, etc. will work too is very cool. “Nintendo has announced that Revolution will have the ability to play all the Nintendo-produced Nintendo 64, SNES/Super Famicom, and Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom games; the software may be recompiled or emulated but will be offered via the Nintendo online download service. Satoru Iwata refers to this feature as the “Virtual Console”.
According to a Japanese press release, “all downloaded games will be stored on the 512 Meg flash memory built into the system.” … Nintendo announced that the downloadable games may be redesigned. It was also said that although the gameplay would stay the same, it would be possible “that with Revolution, we may be able to see the old games with new looks.” Some 3D games may “look sharper when played on Revolution.” (this may be compared to the 1993 SNES release Super Mario All-Stars, a single cartridge containing several classic Super Mario Bros games with updated graphics). If the technical aspects of Revolution also go well, “Nintendo is discussing the possibility of having older games like Mario Party playable online.” With Meanwhile the Xbox 360 is starting to look like it was rushed out, as it has only been out a day, there are already plenty of screenshots and video of the console crashing! Again, trying to make something do everything takes time, perhaps more than they gave it. I’m willing to wait for fun games from Nintendo, vs the latest graphics and Grand Theft Auto style ‘kill everything’ games. I mean hell, I love playing Mario Kart Double Dash on the Gamecube as much as my kids, and if you throw the red turtle shell at the other player, he’ll get knocked down for a second losing all of his speed. It’s not focusing on gore, it’s focused on fun gameplay, which lots of Nintendo games have in spades.
UPDATE: apparently MS is going with their old plan of running the game console as a loss leader, with the thought of it gaining marketshare and recouping money from game sales. According to a report, Microsoft is losing an estimated $126 per Xbox 360 unit.
95,899 hits in one day
I’m still posting on my Slashdot thread about Friday’s slashdotting of fak3r.com as well as learning what worked, and where the bottleneck occurred. First of all the all important numbers; visits, pages, hits and transferred data for 2005-10-15, as reported by Awstats:
Date Pages Hits Bandwidth
10-14-2005 18092 95899 644.47 MBHoly smokes, 95,899 hits for the day while transferring almost a cd’s worth of data. Again, not a huge number for a colo’d webserver with a big audience, but for a home built rig behind a 384/1.5 ADSL line, pretty cool. Other interesting data gathered was:
Operating Systems (Top 10)
Operating Systems Hits Percent
Windows 80112 63.6 %
Linux 25319 20.1 %
Macintosh 14305 11.3 %
Unknown 5034 4 %
FreeBSD 741 0.5 %
Sun Solaris 278 0.2 %
OpenBSD 37 0 %
NetBSD 20 0 %
WebTV 1 0 %This was expected since it’s a tech site, but it was still nice to see Linux so well represented (when I hit the site from work I’m coming in via XP unfortunately)
Browsers (Top 10)
Browsers Grabber Hits Percent
Firefox No 84168 66.8 %
MS Internet Explorer No 17268 13.7 %
Safari No 9715 7.7 %
Mozilla No 4509 3.5 %
Opera No 4011 3.1 %
Unknown ? 2867 2.2 %
Konqueror No 1278 1 %
Camino No 555 0.4 %
Galeon No 405 0.3 %
Netscape No 307 0.2 %
Others 764 0.6 %Again, same disclaimer, but it would be nice if Firefox were the rule, and not the exception for the general public.
So what did I learn? I learned that my FreeBSD 6.0 box is setup well enough to handle *at least* 100,000 hits a day. I learned that using Apache2 -> mod_proxy -> lighttpd -> fastcgi powered by Typo for blogging is a good enough combination to easily handle the traffic thrown it’s way. Still, while my server was only running the Ruby process around 35%:
51469 fak3r 1 99 0 38632K 32832K RUN 14:50 34.47% rubystatic pages were still taking ~60 seconds to refresh during peak load. Thankfully my ssh tunnel held up, so I was watching top and tailing the logs in real time. From this I could see that everything was setup to handle the traffic, with headroom to spare, expect for my ADSL line, which still performed as expected. It was indeed the bottleneck, but the fact that pages were still being severed (albeit slowly) showed it handled the traffic and served pages to all that would wait for them. In the future I will likely use my OpenBSD firewall running pf to limit the traffic to the websever to still allow internal clients the bandwidth to surf, but with the same configuration this would only decrease our numbers. So, better test would have this box on a bigger pipe (Speakeasy has a 1.5/6.0 line, as well as T1 options) which probably won’t happen in the confines of my home network, but would likely really push the server to its limits. Perhaps one day, in a colo’d location, my new FreeBSD powered 4U server on a T1 will notice a spike in traffic; seconds after my recent post to Slashdot…
A minor Slashdoting!
This morning on Slashdot there was a story about Ruby on Rails and my comment turned out to the the second post. I took the opportunity to plug this site…err…I mean used this site as an example of Ruby on Rails via Typo and suggested people take a look and try out the ‘live search’ to give the database a workout, and did they ever. Logfiles were just scrolling along, httpd was throwing up pages, Ruby was driving all database queries via fastcgi. Top showed Ruby pushing upwards of 18%, so I killed Hulaweb, which was eating more, and watched Ruby take over, running at 34% at one point:
51469 fak3r 1 99 0 38632K 32832K RUN 14:50 34.47% rubyDuring one of the peak load times a full page reload from my client took just over 60 seconds, which is a very long time, but the DSL was the bottleneck, not the server or any of it’s processes. Tailing the logs I watched it continuously spitting out pages to other clients in the queue before me, so Lighttpd was doing its job as it should, and it had plenty of RAM/proc overhead (even though I saw it peak around 34%! at times), so the delay was simply my home DSL (1.5/384 down/up); which performed adminrable condisering the abuse. Thanks Speakeasy! Once things calmed down a bit three hours later (ruby was still using ~18%) I could hit pages and have them reload as if nothing was happening, database searches as well.
So, for some very *rough* numbers; my ’second post’ to Slashdot occured at 9:15AM, and at roughly 12:15AM /var/log/http-access.log showed 50,000 mod_proxy requests. So, requests that Apache handled via mod_proxy to Lighttpd:
50,000 / 03 = 16666.6666 pageviews/hour16,666 / 60 = 277.7777- pageviews/minute277 / 60 = 4.629- pageviews/secondSo my home server that I built by hand, running behind a standard ADSL line, served up an average of ~5 pages per second for over three hours. Fuckin’ A! Later, at 6 hours (3:15PM):
mod_proxy calls (page requests)
grep 14/Oct /var/log/httpd-access.log | wc -l
78741DB Calls
awk '/^"action"=>"search"/' /usr/local/typo/log/production.log
grep Oct 14 production.log | wc -l
13478Successful DB Results
awk '/^Completed/' /usr/local/typo/log/production.log
| grep Oct 14 production.log | wc -l
13478I’ll do more numbers once I learn if the way I pulled them were accurate, but as it stands the box handled almost 80,000 page requests today, and the logs are still rolling. Stay tuned.
Hi, I'm fak3r and I've been online for over 15 years, blogging for 10. I work with open source software, various hardware and whatever else that I can hack on. I enjoy learning by doing, painting infrequently and listening to more music than the law allows. Feel free to follow me and comment on my thoughts and ideas; we're all in it together kid.
