Improve your relationship with your consultant

1. Never use the phrase “it’s not rocket science”  in reference to computers or computer science.   You will be correct.   Computer Science requires a much higher level of dedication and personal time invested in learning than rocket science does.  The principles of physics that govern rocket science have changed very little in 100 years.  Gravity… Continue reading Improve your relationship with your consultant

My criterion for valid benchmarks.

Recently I have fielded many inquiries related to building the fastest servers available. So, in reply. I am publishing the list of criterion I adhere to. These are requirements for the server systems that I build and sell for production web or file servers. My standards of quality and moral values in this regard will… Continue reading My criterion for valid benchmarks.

New Toy oh oh oh!

I built a new workstation Tuesday, February 23, 2010.   I built the last one starting in June of 2008, upgraded April of 2009.  It was time for something entirely new. The system is a very capable mid ranged workstation, comprised of: ASUS P7H55-M Pro  Motherboard  mATX Intel Core i5 660 3.33Ghz Processor 4G Corsair DDR3-1333 2X2048… Continue reading New Toy oh oh oh!

Rawhide nears Alpha

I have recently been putting the Fedora rawhide software through it’s paces. This is the software that will become Fedora 13 in June. At this point it is nearly feature complete. While it runs very smoothly on most platforms, the latest update of the glib2 package creates real problems with Nvidia chipset based motherboards. The… Continue reading Rawhide nears Alpha

Windows 7 is finally released

Windows7 is now available. I am not terribly impressed. I have been using the Release Candidate Technical Preview of Windows7 Ultimate 64bit edition for about 7 months. A few comparisons: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit takes 20 minutes to install and approximately 4 hours to get all the “right” stuff installed. Fedora 11 x64 takes… Continue reading Windows 7 is finally released

High Performance Computing. Part 2 of 2. Multiple Core advantages and disadvantages.

There are numerous myths even in the technical community related to the advantage of multiple cores and multi-threading. In part 1 of this article I used my car/highway analogies for simplification. I will use some of that same analogy in this article. Most current applications are written for 32 bit application and only use one… Continue reading High Performance Computing. Part 2 of 2. Multiple Core advantages and disadvantages.

High Performance Computing. Part 1 of 2. Why 64 bit operating systems outperform the 32 bit versions.

Some people that try to explain 64 bit performance will simply say “64 bit is faster”. That is incorrect. Though the actual results may make that appear to be accurate. Think of your computer as a multi lane highway. The I/O path (Processor, System bus and RAM) limit the number of lanes (32 or 64bit)… Continue reading High Performance Computing. Part 1 of 2. Why 64 bit operating systems outperform the 32 bit versions.

Technology costing analysis. Why you pay for Sparkling wine, instead of the draft.

I have formal training and certifications including: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, US Government certified Terminal Area Security Officer, with various other lesser certifications. I have 25 years of data technology experience. I build some of the fastest servers. The fact that my profession requires more of my personal time than most other professions to be… Continue reading Technology costing analysis. Why you pay for Sparkling wine, instead of the draft.