Xen's performance overhead is about 3-4% of the CPU. So sure things could be improved. But even if VMWare had no overhead (which it probably does) the performance difference is not something you'd really notice unless doing technical benchmarks.
In our hosting setup we have found that Xen is reliable, performs well, and the VPSs are about as functionaly identical as a 'real' dedicated server as you can get.
If your needs happen to be running Linux virtual machines and you're comfortable with the Xen tools then Xen is a great product. Glad to hear VMWare is also improving their products. Competition = good.
Re:The Big Secret of User Mode Linux
on
User Mode Linux
·
· Score: 3, Informative
UML Works great with Java apps. We've been hosting Java user's on UML VPSs since 2003 (latterly we are using Xen).
The version of UML we are using does not have NPTL (/lib/tls) support. This is probably what you're referring to. I've seen patches for NPTL support, so this is either fully supported now or 'on its way'.
I recently hired two guys based primarily on their online presence.
I was looking for a couple of people to do support. Both of them applied. I googled them. They both had blogs. Their blogs demonstrated that a) they could write well (their jobs involve providing support via email) b) that they had a bit of personality and c) that they were smart people, passionate about Linux (which is our focus).
I hired both these guys without ever meeting them face-to-face. Being able to google them, see what projects they've been involved in, get a feel for how they deal with other people (e.g. in mailing list posts, etc) helped me start getting a handle on them. These guys got their jobs over dozens of other candidates who had great resumes, but were 'invisible' on the web.
I manage a bunch of Linux servers. When out and about I've had to just rely on whomever else was on call to respond whenever there is a problem. Or I've had to lug around my 12kg Athlon 64 notebook then head for the nearest phone plug and desk whenever there was a page.
Recently, (ok it was an xmas present to myself) I picked up a PPC HTC Apache. It runs WM5.
I've loaded it up with a few choice pieces of software to help get me the tools I need to manage or assist with pretty much any issue that would arise. Those apps include:
Pocketty for ssh2 (twisted their arm to give me a beta, I wish they'd take my money...)
agile messenger for IM (we co-ordinate between staff and communicate with customers via IM). IM beats sms for brief conversations any day.
an imap client - using the one provided with WM5 for now. It handles the inbox and sending. I haven't managed to get it to display the contents of other folders yet.
sms alerts (using the standard messaging software on the phone)
IE for browsing - but no tabs (in fact only one open page at a time), and poor enough javascript support that ajax-based websites aren't a happening thing.
With these tools I'm often sorely tempted to leave behind my shoulder breaking laptop in favor of slipping the 200g HTC into my pocket when day tripping somewhere.
Now if only I could get tabbed web browsing, a 1024x768 screen, and a touch typable keyboard that then laptop could be relegated to being a dedicated Age of Mythology client for the kids.
The instant migrations are based on the vps being migrated between two host servers sharing the same storage system/SAN.
If you don't have a shared storage system holding your domU file system then you'd have to move that over as well (e.g. 15 minutes or so for a 4GB file system).
Oh and if you can't route the IPs betweens the two different hosts then you'd have to change the IPs to boot.
The publically available summary of the research doesn't give much information on whom was surveyed. Perhaps the survey group was primarily composed of small businesses, which make up the largest number of enterprises here. Those businesses would likely not be using servers, which is where you'd expect to find more Linux users (cf. the desktop).
The survey aside, there are lots of companies using Linux in New Zealand (including yours truly). In a week's time we are hosting one of the three biggest Linux conferences right here in Dunedin. And even companies like Microsoft are making the most of Linux down here.
Got an email from one of the data centers we use (highly recommended dc, btw) yesterday. They report their electricity rates have risen 50% since 2002. Effective from 1 December they'll be charging an extra $6/server (for individually co-loed servers) or $1.25/amp on cabinets/racks.
You wouldn't want to be a $29/month dedicated server provider soaking up that kind of cost increase.
We happen to use mostly dual Xeon servers. They come with 500W power supplies and I'm pretty sure they soak up a good proportion of that power. The power price increases appear to be yet another reason to switch to AMD (with their CPUs' lower power consumption).
Buy and read the New Scientist magazine. They cover complex scientific topics. And they convey them in clear (even readable) language. You will soon find that good science and good writing are not mutually exclusive.
It was great to read the 'market for lemons' post. It takes a fair bit of experience in the 'industry' to be able to pick the good hosts from the bad. And unless hosting customers are savvy enough to tell a good host apart from a bad one the good ones will indeed be driven out of the market.
Here is my advice for finding a good host.
Ignore the 'review sites'. Or at least take them the reviews with a major grain of salt. Most 'review' sites are indeed just paid advertising sites. 'Top Hosts' are typically just the hosts that paid the most for the listing.
Look for a host with a few years in the business. It means the host has gotten past the first 6 month hurdle were probably 99% of all webhosts just up and disappear (losing money, getting bored of the job, selling out to a bigger outfit, etc). Obviously a new business may be good, but you will improve your odds by picking an older business. In addition to proving themselves survivors they will likely have gotten their procedures and server setups nicely tuned, plus they will have a bit of experience behind them.
Look for multiple contact details on their site. Phone, email, tickets. Most webhosts will work from home, so you may or not see a physical address (which isn't necessarily bad). A physical (office) address may indicate a larger organisation (which isn't necessarily good).
Look for forums or some way of users making public comments/questions about a site. It indicates the host has some confidence in their ability. And it is likely you'll see problem reports (quite normal, no need to get alarmed) and how the host deals with them (which is what you should really be interested in). A lack of forums may not indicate a bad host (they could just be shy).
Google for the prospective host. You'll find people recommending them, or hosted by them. You may find positive/negative comments about the host. As has been mentioned, research them on web hosting talk. Take any comments with a grain of salt: host enough people for long enough and _someone_ is going to be unhappy about how they were treated. Look for common themes in what people are saying about the host.
If you have the time setup some kind of uptime monitoring on the host. Preferably try to figure out the server they are setting up new customers on. It may not be the same server as their domain.
Pop in a pre-sales question. Ask a few intelligent questions. See what response you get. The response may be well written or may indicate the author is a l337 h4xor kid trying out the hosting biz. The response should indicate the host knows what they are talking about. Good questions to ask: what do you do about server failures? what network outages have you had? And describe your backup setup. Problems happen, denial could very well be an indication of dishonesty.
Check their prices. Deals that are too good to be true probably are. Look for middle of the road and up pricing (and be aware that there are plenty of high priced hosts that have pretty bad reputations).
Check their resource allocations. 'Unlimited' is bad (or rather it is not really possible despite what the host will say). 'Unmetered' is the more honest phrase (it typically mean, when applied to bandwidth that the server is on a fixed bandwidth pipe and you can use as much as you can get. When the bandwidth is maxed out your transfers will just be throttled.
The only satellite based internet access I'm aware of is where the satellite brodcasts (i.e. you download from it) and your connection uploads via your phone line (typically via a slow line since if you had an adsl capable line then you would probably be the cheaper and faster ADSL connection/cable provider).
So when they report that a cell phone can communicate with the satellite at 10Mbps, surely they are meaning the cellphone can download at that rate. And presumably it'll be doing that rate with the local cell tower acting as the satellite proxy. Either that or satellite phones are more common place over in nihon than I'd imagined.
After a few hours of messing around with xorg.conf, I managed to get my CRT/LCD display up and running in dual headed/Xinerama mode on my Radeon9600pro.
Fast foward a few months and I upgrade from FC3 to 4. X performance is now not even usable. I grab the latest ati drivers. After a few hours more in xorg.conf I get X starting up, but no matter what I try dual headed displays elude me.
The solution I eventually found was a cheap nvidia card purchase on trademe. I still needed a few more hours in xorg.conf, but ultimately I did get that dual headed setup back.
Until there is some change to the driver status quo I'll be buying nvidia over ati on my Linux systems.
Want better Linux driver support? Vote for Linux friendly vendors using your checkbook at your local computer store.
Kinda relevant, but somehow missed from the main slashdot post:
The man had been selling modified Xbox consoles which he fitted with a big hard drive containing 80 games.
There are legitimate reasons to chip consoles, e.g. to run your own OS on them. I wonder how the case would have gone had the guy just been selling modded console sans illegal software. Anyone want to turn themselves in and find out?
Right now the main character has just met with Netwon and they are discussing the disappearance of a certain volume of gold with certain special qualities. (Not to mention going into the conflict between Newton and Leibniz). Meanwhile the other protaganist in the story is making weapons - using 'alchemy' - in hindoostan out of urine.
This is one of the more compelling novels I've picked up for years. Highly recommended.
One in a million? So telecom says. But you're talking about a loop going around the whole North Island. That's a lot of cable. At any point in the loop it is subject to being dug up, eaten by rats, or affected by an equipment malfunction. The odds of any of those are, what?, once every 30 days. You probably never notice any single outage because of the redundancy. But the odds of a dual failure, hence are 1/30days*1/30=1/900days=1/2.4 years. Hardly one in a million. For it to be that there would be a fault only once every thousand days. And that is not the telecom I know and, well, have to use.
Even the most advanced terraforming techniques would not produce an environment as pleasant (for the most part) as Earth's. e.g. You'll have issues of different planet mass resulting in different gravities.
Over the next few decades our understanding and mastery of genetic engeneering will make it possible to modify plants animals and humans to make them better suit the native environment.
e.g. a higher gravity planet could be accompanied by stockier and stronger genetic stock. e.g. different atmospheric compositions could be accompanied by modified respitory systems.
With a xenomorphing approach you could save on shipping out all the heavy terraforming equipment. Instead you can ship out a few kilograms of genetic material and assembly equipment. And grow the passengers on the other end. The lighter mass and simpler nature of the payload would mean it would be require less fuel to power the flight and higher accelerations would be possible meaning that more trips can be made for less cost in less time. That would beat having to ship out humans for multi-generational voyages.
I have a Canon S520 printer. I bought it when I was working happily in Windows land with no eye to Linux compatability.
After I switched to Linux I found no exact driver match. After a few hours of fiddling I found a driver match that seemed to work with a few driver options tweaked.
Fast forward several months, it suddenly won't print. The power light just blinks balefully at me. Actually, just to annoy me it will occasionally output a test page as requested. Just to tempt me to fiddle more with Linux. As if to say "No it's not hardware, its software. You can get this working if you keep trying. Just one more afternoon. Go on. You'll enjoy it."
I mess around with this for a couple of hours, then realise: hell, what a waste of time.
The next morning I have an el cheapo HP Deskjet 3745 on my doorstep. I'd checked this one out for Linux compatability before buying it. And it works fine.
Moral of the story: Linux can be a pain. Sometimes its easier to swap your hardware than argue with it.
The best comparison of the dual core reviews I've read is over at the great anandtech site.
AMD's push with dual core into the server markets half a year before Intel's dual core Xeon arrives is going to tempt a lot of IT departments out there.
On the desktop side, we are extremely excited about the Athlon 64 X2. The 4400+ that we compared here today had no problem competing with and outperforming Intel's fastest dual core CPUs in most cases
The real problem is that AMD has nothing cheaper than $530 that is available in dual core, and this is where Intel wins out. With dual core Pentium D CPUs starting at $241, Intel will be able to bring extremely solid multitasking performance to much lower price points than AMD will. And from what we've seen, it looks like that price advantage will continue for quite some time. It all boils down to economics, and in the sense of manufacturing capacity, Intel has AMD beat - thus allowing for much more aggressively priced volume dual core solutions.
Conclusion: AMD have better chips. But they don't have the manufacturing capacity to bring them out in volume. So they focus on their higher margin chips. Meanwhile Intel keeps from losing face by selling at the volume, lower-priced end of the market. At least until AMD get some new fab plants up and running.
If you have yet to read the 25-page FA, may I present the precis:
Database hits are expensive. Reduce them where possible. For example, cache static lookup data.
The simplicity of the point however is lost in the complexity of the article. It covers web.xml settings, servlet classes, list value loaders, persistence backends for said loaders, data source 'helpers' for said loaders, custom object classes for the loaders, several subclasses for said object classes, and a jsp page (to boot). Phew.
The author refers to this design as a quick and easy approach. It is not. If you are not familiar with Java and read this article, please do not be put off. He could have demonstrated the point with a far simpler example. E.g. static variable, sql statement, jsp code, done.
[The author] has worked with IBM Global Services for one year, and has five years of experience in J2EE-related technologies. And it shows. I dread to think how much a fully realized IBM Global Services project would cost should all its consultants apply this sized sledgehammer to each small task. Hopefully the article was not written up on the client's dime as well.
Quick Review
on
Iron Council
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I had previously read Perdido Street Station. PSS was a little hard to get into. But Mieville's writing is such that you can't help but be drawn into the strange milieu of New Crobuzon. I ended up liking it enough that I bought Iron Council on the spot when I saw it.
I am reading Iron Council now. Again, it is quite hard getting into. The story at the start jumps around temporally and in location. About a third of the way in it settles into a more linear narrative which I find easier to get involved in. After reading PSS I am probably getting more out of the writing than someone hitting New Crobuzon for the first time. With the second book I think Mieville is better able to 'toss off' a fleeting reference to something and for that to actually mean something to the reader.
Right now I'd say I'll persevere to the end. I like Mieville's writing style. I like the setting. I would prefer I cared a bit more about the characters. And it would be nice if the plot felt like it were building somewhere. I'm driven to finish mostly to find out where the story is going. And a little by wanting to find out more about New Crobuzon. 6/10 so far....
But we will be hosting lots of servers for our customers with some RHEL4-based distro.
I want to make sure that when an update comes out from the source, that I am not wholly dependant on a middleman that not be able to or capable of a prompt update release.
I'm still testing our recompile version. If it works out, then great. Otherwise, I'm confident now that even running a non-North American Enterprise Linux Vendor version of RHEL4 I can always compile and distribute the errata udpates I need. (Well maybe except for a few kde packages, dbus and iproute which are spitting out heinous c++ errors at the mo).
It has Eclipse 3.1, dovecot, bash 3 (with debugger), Tomcat 5 (but only 5.0, not the declared stable 5.5.7), Xen 2. And that is about all that caught my eye.
Having just been recompiling the RHEL4 sources I'm struck by how similar the versions all are. I'm presuming that rhel4 split off fc4 or vice versa a month or two back. I'd be curious how/if they co-ordinate all the patches and source code between the two different brands.
Budget at least several hours sys admin work per server you manage each time a new version comes out to perform the upgrade.
Allow for the odd issue to creep in. e.g. pre-existing functionality not working, or not working the same.
And add in a bit of hair loss for the odd problem that crops up during the new distro upgrade. e.g. FC2->FC3 introduced udev which seems to cause the odd hassle.
So, if you are 'hosting' with a distro that changes every several months, then be prepared for the extra work.
We offer a choice of distros for our VPSs. And some advice on choosing between them.
We recommend people use Fedora if they like the latest versions of software and want to upgrade their software frequently. If follows that if you are running a hosting operation where you don't want to interrupt/change a working setup then FC is probably not the right distro for you.
We recommend WBEL if they want an enterprise distribution that is stable, widely supported and will have updated RPMs for fix bugs and security issues for the next several years. WBEL is derived from RHEL sources. WBEL alternatives include CentOS. Or rpmbuild --rebuild your own (just got a few udpates SRPMS to go on my own RHEL4 recompile...).
We recommend Debian for people that prefer it. i.e. if you are familiar with Debian then you'll know whether it suits you or not. If you are not familiar with debian then you'll probably find things 'easier' on a RedHat based distro.
+1 to parent. We recommend lftp for use with our backup service (link includes commands for enabling/disabling tls support) since it supports all the goodies like tls, scripting, and mirroring in both directions.
An advertisement is an invitation to treat. Not an offer. You do not need to stand by it.
Under the Fair Trading Act you need to ensure your advertisement is truthful. And correct it if it is not.
I think you'll find that the consumer in NZ is well protected from unscrupulus advertisers. We aren't any stupider than anywhere else.
Actually, while people are quite critical about our politicians the laws they have made follow common sense.
The fair trading act is a good example. It pre-dates the www as we know it. But it legislates the fundamentals. And those apply equally online and real world.
Consumers by and large know what to expect - and get it (Fair Go guests notwithstanding).
And NZ businesses, one of which I am happy to run, work within a pretty straight forward framework. There isn't that much paper work to deal with (GST returns a few times a year and tax returns). Employment law is pretty much common sense (and easy to comply with when you have great staff and a good working relationship with them). There are no special licenses I need to operate my business. I can buy and sell products and services internationally without restrictions.
I've worked other places *cough*US*cough* and I would be nowhere near as comfortable working within their legal frameworks. Not without an army of accountants and lawyers behind me.
Slashdot Mirror
Xen's performance overhead is about 3-4% of the CPU. So sure things could be improved. But even if VMWare had no overhead (which it probably does) the performance difference is not something you'd really notice unless doing technical benchmarks.
In our hosting setup we have found that Xen is reliable, performs well, and the VPSs are about as functionaly identical as a 'real' dedicated server as you can get.
If your needs happen to be running Linux virtual machines and you're comfortable with the Xen tools then Xen is a great product. Glad to hear VMWare is also improving their products. Competition = good.
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Xen-based Linux hosting and proud of it
UML Works great with Java apps. We've been hosting Java user's on UML VPSs since 2003 (latterly we are using Xen).
The version of UML we are using does not have NPTL (/lib/tls) support. This is probably what you're referring to. I've seen patches for NPTL support, so this is either fully supported now or 'on its way'.
-- /lib/tls)
Great Java Hosting (with or without
On the other hand...
I recently hired two guys based primarily on their online presence.
I was looking for a couple of people to do support. Both of them applied. I googled them. They both had blogs. Their blogs demonstrated that a) they could write well (their jobs involve providing support via email) b) that they had a bit of personality and c) that they were smart people, passionate about Linux (which is our focus).
I hired both these guys without ever meeting them face-to-face. Being able to google them, see what projects they've been involved in, get a feel for how they deal with other people (e.g. in mailing list posts, etc) helped me start getting a handle on them. These guys got their jobs over dozens of other candidates who had great resumes, but were 'invisible' on the web.
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We're hiring Linux geeks
I manage a bunch of Linux servers. When out and about I've had to just rely on whomever else was on call to respond whenever there is a problem. Or I've had to lug around my 12kg Athlon 64 notebook then head for the nearest phone plug and desk whenever there was a page.
Recently, (ok it was an xmas present to myself) I picked up a PPC HTC Apache. It runs WM5.
I've loaded it up with a few choice pieces of software to help get me the tools I need to manage or assist with pretty much any issue that would arise. Those apps include:
With these tools I'm often sorely tempted to leave behind my shoulder breaking laptop in favor of slipping the 200g HTC into my pocket when day tripping somewhere.
Now if only I could get tabbed web browsing, a 1024x768 screen, and a touch typable keyboard that then laptop could be relegated to being a dedicated Age of Mythology client for the kids.
--
Got yourself your own Linux server yet?
The instant migrations are based on the vps being migrated between two host servers sharing the same storage system/SAN.
If you don't have a shared storage system holding your domU file system then you'd have to move that over as well (e.g. 15 minutes or so for a 4GB file system).
Oh and if you can't route the IPs betweens the two different hosts then you'd have to change the IPs to boot.
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Xen-based VPS hosting
The publically available summary of the research doesn't give much information on whom was surveyed. Perhaps the survey group was primarily composed of small businesses, which make up the largest number of enterprises here. Those businesses would likely not be using servers, which is where you'd expect to find more Linux users (cf. the desktop).
The survey aside, there are lots of companies using Linux in New Zealand (including yours truly). In a week's time we are hosting one of the three biggest Linux conferences right here in Dunedin. And even companies like Microsoft are making the most of Linux down here.
The end is perhaps not quite nigh.
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One of those rare antipodean companies using Linux
Got an email from one of the data centers we use (highly recommended dc, btw) yesterday. They report their electricity rates have risen 50% since 2002. Effective from 1 December they'll be charging an extra $6/server (for individually co-loed servers) or $1.25/amp on cabinets/racks.
You wouldn't want to be a $29/month dedicated server provider soaking up that kind of cost increase.
We happen to use mostly dual Xeon servers. They come with 500W power supplies and I'm pretty sure they soak up a good proportion of that power. The power price increases appear to be yet another reason to switch to AMD (with their CPUs' lower power consumption).
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Powerful and Power efficient VPSs
Buy and read the New Scientist magazine. They cover complex scientific topics. And they convey them in clear (even readable) language. You will soon find that good science and good writing are not mutually exclusive.
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VPS Hosting Anyone?
It was great to read the 'market for lemons' post. It takes a fair bit of experience in the 'industry' to be able to pick the good hosts from the bad. And unless hosting customers are savvy enough to tell a good host apart from a bad one the good ones will indeed be driven out of the market.
Here is my advice for finding a good host.
--
Disclaimer: Take all this advice with a grain of salt, since I happen to run a VPS hosting outfit.
The only satellite based internet access I'm aware of is where the satellite brodcasts (i.e. you download from it) and your connection uploads via your phone line (typically via a slow line since if you had an adsl capable line then you would probably be the cheaper and faster ADSL connection/cable provider).
So when they report that a cell phone can communicate with the satellite at 10Mbps, surely they are meaning the cellphone can download at that rate. And presumably it'll be doing that rate with the local cell tower acting as the satellite proxy. Either that or satellite phones are more common place over in nihon than I'd imagined.
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VPS Hosting using good old fashioned wires for connectivity
After a few hours of messing around with xorg.conf, I managed to get my CRT/LCD display up and running in dual headed/Xinerama mode on my Radeon9600pro.
Fast foward a few months and I upgrade from FC3 to 4. X performance is now not even usable. I grab the latest ati drivers. After a few hours more in xorg.conf I get X starting up, but no matter what I try dual headed displays elude me.
The solution I eventually found was a cheap nvidia card purchase on trademe. I still needed a few more hours in xorg.conf, but ultimately I did get that dual headed setup back.
Until there is some change to the driver status quo I'll be buying nvidia over ati on my Linux systems.
Want better Linux driver support? Vote for Linux friendly vendors using your checkbook at your local computer store.
--
Linux Friendly VPS Hosting
Kinda relevant, but somehow missed from the main slashdot post:
There are legitimate reasons to chip consoles, e.g. to run your own OS on them. I wonder how the case would have gone had the guy just been selling modded console sans illegal software. Anyone want to turn themselves in and find out?
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DNS Checking Tool
Oh, and also Neal Stephenson's novel Con-fusion.
Right now the main character has just met with Netwon and they are discussing the disappearance of a certain volume of gold with certain special qualities. (Not to mention going into the conflict between Newton and Leibniz). Meanwhile the other protaganist in the story is making weapons - using 'alchemy' - in hindoostan out of urine.
This is one of the more compelling novels I've picked up for years. Highly recommended.
Incorrect. Eclipse 3.0 has always run just fine on a java5 jvm. And it gets the small speed increase that VM imparts.
JDK 5 support means that the editor 'knows' about the new java5 langauage features. And moreover the editor can refactor code using that knowledge.
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Tomcat Hosting
One in a million? So telecom says. But you're talking about a loop going around the whole North Island. That's a lot of cable. At any point in the loop it is subject to being dug up, eaten by rats, or affected by an equipment malfunction. The odds of any of those are, what?, once every 30 days. You probably never notice any single outage because of the redundancy. But the odds of a dual failure, hence are 1/30days*1/30=1/900days=1/2.4 years. Hardly one in a million. For it to be that there would be a fault only once every thousand days. And that is not the telecom I know and, well, have to use.
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Working to provide reliable VPS hosting
Why terraform?
Even the most advanced terraforming techniques would not produce an environment as pleasant (for the most part) as Earth's. e.g. You'll have issues of different planet mass resulting in different gravities.
Over the next few decades our understanding and mastery of genetic engeneering will make it possible to modify plants animals and humans to make them better suit the native environment.
e.g. a higher gravity planet could be accompanied by stockier and stronger genetic stock. e.g. different atmospheric compositions could be accompanied by modified respitory systems.
With a xenomorphing approach you could save on shipping out all the heavy terraforming equipment. Instead you can ship out a few kilograms of genetic material and assembly equipment. And grow the passengers on the other end. The lighter mass and simpler nature of the payload would mean it would be require less fuel to power the flight and higher accelerations would be possible meaning that more trips can be made for less cost in less time. That would beat having to ship out humans for multi-generational voyages.
I have a Canon S520 printer. I bought it when I was working happily in Windows land with no eye to Linux compatability.
After I switched to Linux I found no exact driver match. After a few hours of fiddling I found a driver match that seemed to work with a few driver options tweaked.
Fast forward several months, it suddenly won't print. The power light just blinks balefully at me. Actually, just to annoy me it will occasionally output a test page as requested. Just to tempt me to fiddle more with Linux. As if to say "No it's not hardware, its software. You can get this working if you keep trying. Just one more afternoon. Go on. You'll enjoy it."
I mess around with this for a couple of hours, then realise: hell, what a waste of time.
The next morning I have an el cheapo HP Deskjet 3745 on my doorstep. I'd checked this one out for Linux compatability before buying it. And it works fine.
Moral of the story: Linux can be a pain. Sometimes its easier to swap your hardware than argue with it.
The best comparison of the dual core reviews I've read is over at the great anandtech site.
Conclusion: AMD have better chips. But they don't have the manufacturing capacity to bring them out in volume. So they focus on their higher margin chips. Meanwhile Intel keeps from losing face by selling at the volume, lower-priced end of the market. At least until AMD get some new fab plants up and running.
-- :)
VPS Hosting on Dual Xeon Hardware - but just for the time being
If you have yet to read the 25-page FA, may I present the precis:
The simplicity of the point however is lost in the complexity of the article. It covers web.xml settings, servlet classes, list value loaders, persistence backends for said loaders, data source 'helpers' for said loaders, custom object classes for the loaders, several subclasses for said object classes, and a jsp page (to boot). Phew.
The author refers to this design as a quick and easy approach. It is not. If you are not familiar with Java and read this article, please do not be put off. He could have demonstrated the point with a far simpler example. E.g. static variable, sql statement, jsp code, done.
[The author] has worked with IBM Global Services for one year, and has five years of experience in J2EE-related technologies. And it shows. I dread to think how much a fully realized IBM Global Services project would cost should all its consultants apply this sized sledgehammer to each small task. Hopefully the article was not written up on the client's dime as well.
--
Java Hosting
I had previously read Perdido Street Station. PSS was a little hard to get into. But Mieville's writing is such that you can't help but be drawn into the strange milieu of New Crobuzon. I ended up liking it enough that I bought Iron Council on the spot when I saw it.
I am reading Iron Council now. Again, it is quite hard getting into. The story at the start jumps around temporally and in location. About a third of the way in it settles into a more linear narrative which I find easier to get involved in. After reading PSS I am probably getting more out of the writing than someone hitting New Crobuzon for the first time. With the second book I think Mieville is better able to 'toss off' a fleeting reference to something and for that to actually mean something to the reader.
Right now I'd say I'll persevere to the end. I like Mieville's writing style. I like the setting. I would prefer I cared a bit more about the characters. And it would be nice if the plot felt like it were building somewhere. I'm driven to finish mostly to find out where the story is going. And a little by wanting to find out more about New Crobuzon. 6/10 so far....
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Your Own Linux Server for $20/month
Presuming you're not trolling...
But we will be hosting lots of servers for our customers with some RHEL4-based distro.
I want to make sure that when an update comes out from the source, that I am not wholly dependant on a middle man that not be able to or capable of a prompt update release.
I'm still testing our recompile version. If it works out, then great. Otherwise, I'm confident now that even running a non-North American Enterprise Linux Vendor version of RHEL4 I can always compile and distribute the errata udpates I need. (Well maybe except for a few kde packages, dbus and iproute which are spitting out heinous c++ errors at the mo).
Just been poring over the new RPM versions...
I see FC4 includes MySQL 4.1.10 a nice wee jump up from 3.23. Apparently RedHat are now happy with the MySQL licensing terms.
It has Eclipse 3.1, dovecot, bash 3 (with debugger), Tomcat 5 (but only 5.0, not the declared stable 5.5.7), Xen 2. And that is about all that caught my eye.
Having just been recompiling the RHEL4 sources I'm struck by how similar the versions all are. I'm presuming that rhel4 split off fc4 or vice versa a month or two back. I'd be curious how/if they co-ordinate all the patches and source code between the two different brands.
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FC3 (now!) and RHEL4-based (soon!) VPSs
Budget at least several hours sys admin work per server you manage each time a new version comes out to perform the upgrade.
Allow for the odd issue to creep in. e.g. pre-existing functionality not working, or not working the same.
And add in a bit of hair loss for the odd problem that crops up during the new distro upgrade. e.g. FC2->FC3 introduced udev which seems to cause the odd hassle.
So, if you are 'hosting' with a distro that changes every several months, then be prepared for the extra work.
We offer a choice of distros for our VPSs. And some advice on choosing between them.
We recommend people use Fedora if they like the latest versions of software and want to upgrade their software frequently. If follows that if you are running a hosting operation where you don't want to interrupt/change a working setup then FC is probably not the right distro for you.
We recommend WBEL if they want an enterprise distribution that is stable, widely supported and will have updated RPMs for fix bugs and security issues for the next several years. WBEL is derived from RHEL sources. WBEL alternatives include CentOS. Or rpmbuild --rebuild your own (just got a few udpates SRPMS to go on my own RHEL4 recompile...).
We recommend Debian for people that prefer it. i.e. if you are familiar with Debian then you'll know whether it suits you or not. If you are not familiar with debian then you'll probably find things 'easier' on a RedHat based distro.
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Which distro do you want on your shiny new VPS?
+1 to parent. We recommend lftp for use with our backup service (link includes commands for enabling/disabling tls support) since it supports all the goodies like tls, scripting, and mirroring in both directions.
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Linux VPS Hosting
An advertisement is an invitation to treat. Not an offer. You do not need to stand by it.
Under the Fair Trading Act you need to ensure your advertisement is truthful. And correct it if it is not.
I think you'll find that the consumer in NZ is well protected from unscrupulus advertisers. We aren't any stupider than anywhere else.
Actually, while people are quite critical about our politicians the laws they have made follow common sense.
The fair trading act is a good example. It pre-dates the www as we know it. But it legislates the fundamentals. And those apply equally online and real world.
Consumers by and large know what to expect - and get it (Fair Go guests notwithstanding).
And NZ businesses, one of which I am happy to run, work within a pretty straight forward framework. There isn't that much paper work to deal with (GST returns a few times a year and tax returns). Employment law is pretty much common sense (and easy to comply with when you have great staff and a good working relationship with them). There are no special licenses I need to operate my business. I can buy and sell products and services internationally without restrictions.
I've worked other places *cough*US*cough* and I would be nowhere near as comfortable working within their legal frameworks. Not without an army of accountants and lawyers behind me.
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An NZ-based Linux webhost