Gaming in the modern age
By sparky | February 5, 2010
I’ve been thinking for a while about writing an article pertaining to computer/console games.
Originally, I wanted to talk highly about the ’shift’ in the developers goals of creating mindless, violent First-Person Shooters where you go around killing anything that moves – to that of more ‘thought-inducing’ strategy based learning teaching games.
Back when I first started playing games, I wasn’t allowed to play Doom or Wolfenstein 3D – which were the original FPS’s of the time. Instead, I grew up playing games like The island of Dr Brain, and The castle of Dr Brain, along with The Incredible Machine, Hugo’s House of Horrors, Kings Quest, Day of the Tentacle and even Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, (Sam and Max, and The Adventures of Willy Beamish also were in my fav’s list – which goes on and on….)
I’m not sure how many of these games you’ll recognise or know, but they were ‘classics’ in my mind, and bring a nostalgic flair to my memory. What was different about these games is that you had ‘puzzles’ you had to solve. Be it having to go between 4 or 5 different characters to get the rope you needed to swing across the chasm, or working out that you had to mix 6 different items in your ‘bottomless backpack of inventory items’ to create the one item you need to get that shiny ring.
It was all in the name of good fun – and a lot of humour, subtle or otherwise.
Recently, Portal provided a similar experience, one that was different from the ‘norm’. Sure, we had the 3D engines, and everything looks really schmick on screen – but that’s only 10% of what makes a game. A good storyline is critical. I know I always get criticism from people when I harp on about this, but I stand by my ‘guns’. Movies and Books are the same – I don’t enjoy many modern ones because like many modern games, they lack this crucial element.
Mirrors Edge was a game I thought had a unique game-play style, backed by a positive and solid story. It was only when I reached the end that I was quite disappointed; primarily due to the lack of ‘fulfillment’ of where the story ended up, and also because I wanted to do some more tricks; Like so many ‘chick flicks’ – the main issues are discovered, and the dilemma of the protagonist is related to the viewer. However, the resolution seems to come to quickly and swiftly. Perhaps it’s because they feel the audience has been left on the edge of their seats for long enough – or they just ran out of ‘intermediary’ people and sub-plots to place between the ‘plateau’ of the issues and the final point of resolution.
Another game I’ve started in recent months (and yet to finish) is Assassins Creed. This one is an interesting mix between FPS and a more puzzle-based game, with goals and quests – not always requiring killing people, sometimes you have strange tasks such as picking pockets, or collecting a set number of ‘flags’ within a time limit. The more interesting elements is the main story plot, and then sub plots within the characters. Scientifically speaking, it’s mostly none sense: But when has anyone let that get in the way of a good story? You get ’sound’ in space on shows like Star Wars and Star Trek – but not in Firefly.
In comparison, games on Wii are different again – primarily due to the controls. I know, there are FPS’s and various other games on there, but some of the ‘Wii Fitness’ games are just plain fun! I love the Tennis and Golf that comes with Wii Sport – partially because it is a ’sporting’ game, but also because it’s something different.
The future of gaming is interesting. Microsoft’s latest attachment for the Xbox-360, an interactive camera nicknamed Project Natal, should be an interesting shift in how games are played – and may even prompt a new interface for computing (though, that one is being actively targeted by touch-screen systems).
Apart from the controls, the environment is the next part that developers are working on – though that is harder; allowing users to fully interact with their environment (read: destroy everything they can) provides a challenge and a freedom – which can be fun at times, but definitely not primary to the main story or purpose of the game.
Let’s watch and see what the next 10 years of gaming will bring us to our respective gaming ‘console’ of choice!
Topics: General | No Comments »
Apport integration
By insanity | December 25, 2009
So for the last day or two I have been attempting to add support for bug reports from within the application. In the spirit of open-source, I have searched around and found that Apport seems to be heavily used in Ubuntu, and has clean integration with http://bugs.launchpad.net/, which is my chosen bug tracking system for these projects.
Unfortunately, in the other spirit of open-source, the simple documentation is lacking a bit, so this blog post will hopefully help pave the way for people who might follow in my footsteps.
Intended Use
Basically, within one of the applications, I desired to have a link available in a menu that simply says “Report a problem”, which then submits a prefilled report to a bug tracking system including important information such as which version is being run, OS details etc. My experience with Ubuntu has taught me that Apport is an ideal system that already supports the intended use-case, and is integrated into some existing apps in the same way that I’m looking for.
UbuntuOne Apport Configuration
The existing documentation that I referenced most heavily was found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport/DeveloperHowTo. The first thing that struck me was that there seems to be no simple uses cases for what I thought would have been a reasonably commonly required use case, i.e., how to integrate with an app being released from a launchpad-hosted ppa. The existing apport configuration makes apport-bug prevent reports being generated for non-Ubuntu packages (i.e., packages that are not in the main Ubuntu repositories). This creates a hassle if releasing from a private or team ppa.
Fortunately, through browsing /etc/apport/ I found that the ubuntuone-client already uses apport with a non-genuine Ubuntu package. This is done by placing a config file in /etc/apport/crashdb.conf.d, and an apport hook in /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_ubuntuone-client.py.
Basic Configuration
So, from all this, the most simple example I can come up with is the following. To configure Apport to behave with an application, the following steps are required.
1. Configure the CrashDb
Place a CrashDb config file in /etc/apport/crashdb.conf.d called <package-name>-crashdb.conf (note: you can actually called it whatever you want… but for sanity’s sake I’d keep it as package-name 
). Inside this file place something similar to the following:
<package-name> = {
'impl' : 'launchpad',
'project' : '<package-name>',
'bug_pattern_base' : None,
}
2. Install an apport hook to specify the CrashDb
Place a file in /usr/share/apport/package-hooks called <package-name>.py or source_<package-name>.py. This file should contain the following, which simply sets the CrashDb to use the correct configuration:
import apport def add_info(report): """add report info""" if not apport.packaging.is_distro_package(report['Package'].split()[0]): report['ThirdParty'] = 'True' # replace <package-name> with the crashdb config defined in the previous step report['CrashDB'] = '<package-name>'
Testing the settings…
Assuming all has been correctly set up, you should now be able to report bugs against the custom package by entering the following command in a terminal (or using alt+f2):
ubuntu-bug <package-name>
This will open up a window allowing you to send a report. If you click submit, you should be taken to launchpad, with a new bug being logged against the specified application.
Topics: General, Linux, Programming | 2 Comments »
If it’s not broke, sometimes it just can’t be broken.
By sparky | December 4, 2009
As part of my work, I was required to do a demonstration / instructional on an introduction to Windows 7. My main interest was getting people to understand how Windows 7 has changed from Windows XP (since many people avoided Windows Vista, and now have heard how great Windows 7 is) and also to see the benefits in moving to Windows 7.
One of the things I really wanted to demonstrate was the compatability mode, showing how old programs can be forced to run in a environment that pre-dates Windows 7.
It’s quite useful for older programs that worked fine under Windows XP, but seem to struggle / have issues (for whatever reason) under newer Operating Systems.
So, I hunted around my office, and found a copy of Lotus Smart Suite 9.6.
I figured that since this program came about in 2000/2001 it should break enough to require Compatability Mode.
However, sadly (or goodly, as it may be) it didn’t need to. When installing, I did have to run the setup.exe as an Administrator (because otherwise it couldn’t write to the registry). It prompted that there was an incompatability with Lotus 1-2-3 printing certain formats, but you clicked through that, and it installed OK. And then – it ran fine. No problems.
I even tried an old version of Winamp. That worked fine too.
I’ve only ever had to force Compatability Mode for playing older games, and they work fine under that.
I’m keen to find an actual program that WONT work in Compatability Mode, and that requires the Windows 7 Professional ‘XP Mode’ Virtual Machine.
So far, all I can say is that Windows 7 is freakin’ awesome.
Topics: OS, Software, Windows | 2 Comments »
Sharing sound between Pulseaudio instances in Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
By insanity | November 9, 2009
The goal of this post is to respond to a query about how to synchronize soundcards across several Ubuntu-based computers together using pulseaudio. I will present two methods, demonstrating the GUI tools that are available, before showing how to come up with the manually-edited files. In theory, at the end of this post you will have multiple linux computers able to play sound from a single source using Pulseaudio’s Multicast/RTP abilities.
I must warn, the sound quality is VERY dependant on your network speeds and CPU loads at either end. If you are running a lot of programs on either the server or the client, the sound will be erratic. See the bugs on the pulseaudio website. I was unable to get the sound to run very smoothly for any length of time on between two Ubuntu VM’s on pulseaudio version 0.9.19-0ubuntu4. The specific bugs are:
Either way, it is a fun exercise in pulseaudio configuration. In order to demonstrate this I have set up two Ubuntu VM’s using VirtualBox on a local network.
Graphical Setup
The first step is to install the tools we’re going to use to configure this. Install PulseAudio Device Chooserm PulseAudio Volume Control and PulseAudio Preferences. Select these items from the Ubuntu Software Centre. You can easily reduce the list to these items by searching for pulseaudio in the search bar as shown in the following screenshot:
Screenshot of Ubuntu Software Center installing Pulseaudio
Once this is installed, you can launch it by selecting it from Applications menu.
Open the Pulseaudio Device Chooser
This will put an audio plug icon up near the clock. Left-click (or primary click) . Select “Configure local Sound Server” and change to the Multicast/RTP tab in the Preferences window:
PulseAudio Preferences
Server Computer
The first computer set-up will be the server. This is the computer you will be controlling & playing the sound from. On this computer you will need to open up rhythmbox or your chosen audio program that supports pulseaudio output. Totem or VLC also fit this prescription.
On the server computer you will want to “Enable Mutlicast/RTP sender”. If you want to play the sound out this server computer’s speakers, select “Send audio from local speakers”. If you want to be more specific about what is sent, I would recommend you select “Create separate audio device for Multicast/RTP”. For my setup, I want to be able to send only music to the stream when I want it, so I am going to chose the second option.
Client Computer(s)
The client computers will all need to be set up with the “Enable Multicast/RTP receiver” option enabled. Assuming the networks are working properly, you should immediately start hearing music on all the client computers!
Manual Configuration
If you don’t have the benefits of a running Xserver, or want to configure these settings to work on a headless machine, you will need to be manually configuring the pulseaudio config files. The pulseaudio config files are stored in /etc/pulse/system.pa if you’re running in daemon mode, and /etc/pulse/default.pa if you’re running in a per user setup (this is the default method in Ubuntu). I’m going to write this assuming you are using daemon-mode, so we will be editing /etc/pulse/system.pa.
Server Computer
To setup the server computer, you need to edit the configuration. In a terminal or on a console with admin access type the following:
sudo nano /etc/pulse/system.pa
In this file, find and uncomment the lines that look like:
load-module module-null-sink sink_name=rtp format=s16be channels=2 rate=44100 description="RTP Multicast Sink" load-module module-rtp-send source=rtp.monitor
(If these don’t exist, just add them to the end of the file)
Once this is done, restart the pulseaudio server by running:
sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio restart
Client Computer(s)
The client computer will be done by editing /etc/pulse/system.pa (alternatively, you can copy this file to ~/pulse/default.pa). Edit this file by typing:
sudo nano /etc/pulse/system.pa
In this file, find and uncomment the lines that look like:
### Load the RTP reciever module (also configured via paprefs, see above) #load-module module-rtp-recv
Again, if this doesn’t exist, just add them to the end of the file.
Once you’ve saved this, apply the changes the same way you did previously… by restarting pulseaudio:
sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio restart
Once again, assuming the network is behaving correctly, you should be hearing sound out both ends.
Troubleshooting & More Information
Troubleshooting guides are well written on the pulseaudio site. If you have any issues I would suggest reading the wonderful article at http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/HowToListenToTheRtpStream. The key thing is to check that you can see the broadcast packets (see the tcpdump section in the article).
Another good tip is to start the pulseaudio server in non-daemon mode. This will allow you to see and interact with the pulseaudio from the command line. To do this, stop any existing pulseaudio servers with the following command:
sudo /etc/init.d/pulseaudio stop # in system or daemon mode orpulseaudio -k # for single user mode
To start pulseaudio server, run the following:
sudo pulseaudio --system -Cv # in system or daemon mode orpulseaudio -Cv # for single user mode
Take note of any errors you see when starting this. Once the server is started, you can list the modules loaded by typing the following in the pulseaudio console:
list-modules
For more information on how to load modules see http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules, and specifically http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules#RTPSDPSAPTransport.
More information about the commands that can be run in the pulseaudio console, see http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/CLI
Topics: General, Linux, Networking, Software | No Comments »
Windows 7 & Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” – Dual Boot Install
By sparky | November 1, 2009
Windows 7 is fresh out in the wild.
Following close behind is Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.
What better oppertunity to
1. Do a clean install of Windows 7 and
2. Test the dual-booting ‘ease of setup’ inbuilt into Ubuntu.
I started with Windows 7. It installed in 15 minutes quite happily. One Criticism: It didn’t ‘automatically’ find and install drivers for my Broadcom PCI-Gigabit Network Card; but it was ok – I simply plugged in the onboard network and Windows downloaded the drivers for the Gigabit Network Card in 30 seconds.
Next, I tried the “Wubi Installer“. I tried the default “Download and fetch Ubuntu from the internet” option. It started to download the AMD-64 bit version. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was the typical 64 Bit version of Ubuntu, but because I read ‘AMD’ in the name, and I’m running an Intel system, I thought this could potentially lead to a bad outcome. I now understand that the Ubuntu labeling of this distribution as AMD-64 is merely a reference to the 64 Bit Extension set that was developed by AMD – and fully compatible with Intel systems. If I’d known that at the time, I probably would’ve proceeded with it.
As it was, I cancelled the auto download, and booted the system from the 9.10 Karmic bootable disc which I’d burnt earlier.
When it booted, I was faced with the standard questions:
I was after the second. After selecting it, it went through the usual motions of asking where you lived, time zones, keyboard type: But then the big, hairy one – How do you want to install Ubuntu?
There are a few options:
Now, here was where it became tricky, and this is only from a User Interface perspective – At the bottom is the slider to decided what percentage of the drive you want to allocate to the first partition (in my case, dedicated to Windows 7 use), but so far as I can tell, that has to do with the FIRST point Install them side by side, choosing between them at startup.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I would’ve put the slider under this particular option, so as to show a link between them; particularly since neither of the other two options have any relevance or association with the slider.
Insanity encouraged me to report it as a ‘bug’ – so I did. It’ll be interesting to see the comments, and what comes of it.
Once it had finished the installation and the computer rebooted, I was presented with a newer GRUB bootloader to what I have seen in the past. It’s up to GRUB-2 version 1.97 Beta 4.
Ubuntu is set to the default first boot (though this can be changed in the GRUB settings), along with the other alternate boot options, with Windows coming in at the bottom. When you first boot Windows after this installation process, it runs a CHKDSK to ensure the consistency of the system files, and disk drive. This is because when Linux does it’s partitioning, it messes with Windows mind (basically, Windows remembers the original size of the drive, and suddenly things have changed – so it makes sure that everything is still intact).
Edit: I replicated the install process and the setup on my laptop: To my surprise, Windows did not require a CHKDSK upon it’s first boot post Ubuntu install / GRUB writing to the boot record. I thought that was most interesting.
I’ll be following up with some reviews and thoughts on how the two systems behave, and a comparison / contrast of the two in the coming days. Stay tune!
Topics: General | 3 Comments »
Tablets Revisited
By sparky | October 2, 2009
At the start of this year, I was introduced to a podcast called “TWiT” – This Week in Tech. It’s run by a famous American radio host Leo Laporte, and it involves him inviting various tech-celebs (people renowned in the tech industry) to talk about issues and news from the last week to do with technology.
One of the common panelists is John C Dvorak – and I generally like what he writes, he makes sense, and often is right – admittedly I relate to his cynical undertones.
However, recently he wrote an article on what would make the perfect tablet. I’m not too sure I agree.
My main reason is it all depends on what you want the tablet to do, or achieve.
John’s ‘list’ follows:
1. The machine should be about the thickness and size of a standard clipboard. It’s a size we are used to and a device this size would fit wherever a clipboard fits.
2. It should weigh about a pound. The weight of today’s Kindle e-book reader should be the same weight.
Agreed. The device does have to be relatively thinner than a notebook, and perhaps not as bulky. But until they find a better power source to batteries, I think this will remain a slight pipe dream. The truth is most notebooks are quite light – even with the battery inserted.
3. It should have a digital ink or MEMS display-technology screen. There are many versions of this so-called digital ink technology and there must be one that would be ideal for this application. This low-power technology does not have to be powered up to display. The image is permanent until it is powered up and erased. Most e-book readers will use this sort of technology since it has a high contrast ratio, thus increasing readability.
This one makes sense. You want a technology that is vivid and crisp enough to replicate print on paper, whilst ensuring longevity in battery life.
4. Multitouch screen. I do not think I have to explain why this is necessary. I’m sure Apple will feature this for sure.
I’m not entirely sure how this would be useful – maybe for that gimmicky ‘zoom in / zoom out’ trick with four fingers. Though, you don’t realistically need ‘multi-touch’.
Perhaps in some primary school applications, or medical fields it could be useful – but you can’t enforce this as a ’standard’. So, back to my key argument: Depends on the application for which the tablet is being designed.
5. Massive I/O. As a PC user I like my machines to have a lot of I/O and connectivity options. This means Wi-Fi, WiMAX as well as all sorts of USB connectivity. If the machine is to be thin it may have to be done with a dongle, although I can see the device having a lip on one side with room for connectors. I hate losing dongles.
This one is a big wrong in my books. Excessive I/O may seem ‘cool’ and ‘handy’ – but how many people realistically need to have firewire, usb, audio in/out, external video, etc. on a device that has limited applications?
It makes designing a case complex, and makes designing the board even more complex- along with the additional cost factor for components to make the I/O work.
An alternative would be to have a narrow connector at one side of the device which ‘docks’ into a docking station. This docking station would allow for:
Charging, Connectivity (USB, FireWire, E-Sata,etc), External Video (HDMI, VGA / DVI), Gigabit LAN.
Though, that said, you might be able to get away with a mini-HDMI connector on the unit itself for presentations, or even an SDHC slot for storage of files.
Besides, with the way things are going, we may end up having a wireless ‘charging station’.
The unit itself could have Wireless Networking (N-Standard should be more than enough for most people), as well as BlueTooth connectivity.
6. Built-in GPS so the whole thing can be used as a car navigation system.
Interesting thought: but maybe not. A 12 or 15 inch display is hard to mount adequately for using as a guidance system. Stick to the 3 or 5 inch navigators.
7. Built-in Apple TV and full screen video-processing capability. It could be used as a small hi-def television in the kitchen, perhaps.
That’s just silly. At some point we’re forgetting the purpose of tablets.
A tablet, I see, should be used much the same way as the ‘Data-Pads’ in Star Trek. Replacing pen & paper with a digital, more re-usable form.
Modern tablet computers are wasted on gimmicky solutions. Let’s start thinking of real useful applications where these devices can be used – such as hospital’s to replace patients charts, where the records are being stored on a local server, rather than fragile paper.
Topics: Hardware, Hype, Public Perception | 1 Comment »
The Personality of Computers
By sparky | September 3, 2009
I was reading an article by John C Dvorak about the difference between Apple & Microsoft – and, critical as he usually is, he raises some good points.
He made a single point that I thought relatively brilliant:
Where is the Microsoft personality?
In summary, he’s referring to how Apple has played the marketing game brilliantly. It’s never been afraid to push itself. They make snide (albeit true) comments about the PC and Windows systems in their I’m a Mac advertisments.
Steve Jobs is a passionate man. A little too passionate at times, if the rumours are to be believed. However, if you have a dream – a goal – and have no burning passion, the likelihood of reaching that dream is slim-to-none.
Whilst I’ve had my fair share of Apple related problems (From a hardware – and always a hardware level), they’ve always sold themselves as being ‘better’.
And, as basic psychology tells you – if you’re told something enough, you’ll start to believe it.
Sure there are forums, and groups out there that criticise Apple because their iPhone blew up, or because they wont replace the casing that seems to crack from normal use over time – but these people bought an Apple product – either to be different, or because they firmly believed that the product was superior in some way.
The other issue is that most other non-Apple companies marketing departments don’t know how to sell something with a subtle push. Microsoft has recently sent out advertising posters claiming “Windows Vista: Now Future Proofed“:
As you can see, it’s nothing more than offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 for computers bought between 22nd July 2009 and 31st January 2010.
A similar thing happend before Vista was released with people who bought computer with windows XP (However, I’m sure many people went back to XP after they found their systems to be inadequate for Vista, or had issues with Vista’s performance and/or operation).
So, tell me Microsoft: Why are you ‘better’ than Apple? Is it because you’re cheaper? Because, if you sincerely believe that – you’re misguided. Apple at least has multi-System licenses for their operating system, because they realise many people have more than one computer.
Microsoft was clever in bringing out a 3-PC License for Microsoft Office Home and Student, but will they do a similar thing with Windows 7? And will it be just as cost effective?
The computer may be cheaper, but the software isn’t.
Apple operates in reverse: It’s software is cheaper, but the hardware isn’t.
So, if the old addage goes “You get what you pay for” – Which is the ‘better’ product?
Topics: Blind-leading-blind, Hardware, OS, Personal, Software | 2 Comments »
License to Compute
By sparky | August 29, 2009
An Australian criminologist, Russel Smith, thinks that ‘first time’ computer users should have to get a license:
“There’s been some discussion in Europe about the use of what’s called a computer drivers licence – where you have a standard set of skills people should learn before they start using computers,”
This has been something I’ve discussed with a number of people in the past.
My main drive was frustration at people’s ignorance, or just lack of knowledge of how to use the tool that they either want – or have – to use.
The other reason was that people seemed to not want to learn, or didn’t know how to learn.
I’m in two minds about this.
Mind 1: I think making people study for a license could be beneficial: Both for the individual, but also for society in general. It would make these people understand a little more about how computers really work – and that it isn’t just a heap of ‘voodoo’ in the ether that makes their electronic message get to their long lost relative across the globe.
However, who decides on the things that are needed to be taught, and subsequently graded? How shallow or deep would such a training go. Would you have a series (like with a car license – Learner and Probationary)? How would you enforce it? And what would be the ‘punishment’ for someone browsing without a license?
Mind 2: Computers were designed by highly intelligent people – scientists, mathematicians, physicists – for use by the very same people. They were originally designed as scientific instruments, to process ‘data’ and spit out answers. Their workings are complicated, and only became more common place in the late 80’s / early 90’s due to the shift in form factor (size).
How they are used now, and what they’ve been ‘made’ to become is different from their original intended purpose. They can now be used by anyone to do any number of things.
It’s important to raise at this point the idea of systems. A system that is open and flexible to being changed is better suited to those who know what they’re doing, and wish to ‘improve’ parts of those systems: But in the hands of the unknowing, this can cause more problems than good.
However, a system that is more locked down [better suited to the dim-witted and unknowing] will provide the functionality that is needed, but limits what can be changed by the ones who know what they’re doing.
Conclusion – We need two systems.
System 1: This one is simple, unbreakable – Safe. Where a user can browse the web without fearing that by accidentally clicking on a banner they will unwittingly download a virus. Or, in the case that they do – the virus cannot be installed or executed due to the restricted nature of the system. More like the current Apple Operating System – only even further restricted.
System 2: This one is more complicated, open to modifications, and can only be sold to people with half a brain. The system wouldn’t be vastly different to what is available now (Windows / Linux) however, you will need to prove that you’re up to the challenge of using it.
This would solve 90% of the technological problems of the world. Possibly.
Topics: General | No Comments »
Virtual Machine’s are not the answer to everything
By farseeker | May 15, 2009
I love Virtual Machines. Consolidating servers, saving space, saving electricity, saving emissions, saving the world.
There are dozens of virtualisation products at the server end of the market. SuSE and Novell have one, there’s the venerable VMWare ESX, Microsoft Virtual PC, HP and Dell even ship servers with VMWare ESXi HyperVisor installed on a flash chip. There’s VirtualBox, Parallels, Virtuozzo, the list goes on.
At our datacenter, our sysems administrator started making the move to virtualisation 12 months ago. He moved four terminal servers and two web servers onto his first application server (A dual-quad-core Xeon with 24gb of RAM for those who were wondering). Since then we’ve moved countless terminal servers, web servers, backup domain controllers, certificate authorities, DNS servers, nameservers (yeah they’re the same thing I know), and backup databases onto Virtual Machines, over about 6 application servers (all similar specs to the one above).
From four fully-packed racks down to less than one rack. Which has meant that he’s been able to afford the rack space in a better co-location faculity and thus we’ve gone from a 2Mb copper link to a 1000Mb fiber link directly into a major backbone and MAN network in Sydney. Brilliant.
When I was on holidays recently (see my post about my trip to Adelaide a few weeks ago), our primary database server (which was not a virtual machine, it was a dedicated dual-quad-core Xeon with 4Gb of RAM and RAID10 SAS drives) went to hell in a handbasket, and it took everything with it.
Now, we’re not stupid. We had live mirroring to our backup servers, and it only took them a few minutes to take the backup servers out of recovery mode and flick the switch to turn them into production machines (we don’t have the licenses for the version of MSSQL that does this for you, as a few mins of downtime is not the end of the world).
Boy though, were we in for a surprise. Even though it was only for a few days, and technically the application servers were superior in specs than the database servers, we fielded countless complains about the speed of EVERYTHING. And of course with the database server under load, it stole resourceses from the other machines on that server.
After the replacement server arrived, we moved everything back to that server (except for one database) and everyone was happy again. Why did we leave one database? I don’t know – I think we just forgot. It’s not a heavily used database, however yesterday someone who was using it complained of incredible slowness when saving records. According to the profiler it was taking FOUR SECONDS to execute a single “update” command.
We thought, rather than take it offline and move it in the middle of the day, I’ll see if I can bandaid it and find the query that’s obviously screwing it up. Well, I found the query, analysed it, and it was perfect. Indexes were OK, it wasn’t waiting on any locks, SQL analyser found nothing wrong with it.
So, after 20 minutes of farting around with the query, I decided to just bite the bullet, kick everyone off, and move the database to where it was meant to be in the first place. So I did, people were grumpy while it was offline (it may have been slow but at least it worked), but I think we’ll survive.
The result? The statement that took 4143 milliseconds to run on the virtualised server – took 45 milliseconds on the proper server. Thats almost a 100x (or 10,000%) increase in speed. On a machine with less ram (4gb vs 24gb) and slower processors.
Topics: General | 1 Comment »
The hip bone has millions of transistors in it
By sparky | May 5, 2009
Health practitioners learn anatomy; IT practitioners learn computer architecture
This was part of the opening line that my Computer Systems lecturer began with.
Too many times people don’t understand the problems they’re having, or experiencing. They may see the symptoms, but can’t actually work out what is the cause of them.
Back when I worked in a Helpdesk & Support role, I’d often get phone calls saying “I can’t connect to the internet – is it down?”. On occasion, it was accurate that the fault lay with the proxy server, or the internet connection itself; however, up to a quarter of the time it was simply because the wireless switch that was on the front of the notebooks being used by the staff, had been switched off.
It is possible to understand – and even expect – that the average end user does not know how their wireless works, or how to increase the systems virtual memory (For those playing in the Windows world).
The bare minimum one would hope is that they know that there is a switch that turns the wireless on and off – just like a car has a switch to turn the lights on and off.
Many geeks out there have a fascination with Science Fiction writings, television shows, and films. This isn’t a ‘given’, but it’s a natural part of being interested with computers, science and technology. These artistic representations talk about and deal with elements that appeal to these individuals.
In a discussion with a fellow systems administrator once, he noted that as time goes on, the things that are once taught at the higher academic levels, becomes more ‘common knowledge’, so that the learning becomes more and more complex.
This would appear to be true – to a point.
In the case of my course, we went back to the very basic level of computer architecture; looking at how computers developed from simple counting machines, through to the theorising of ‘logic’, which resulted in boolean algebra – and with the transistor, allowed for the creation of logic gates for circuit design and construction…
And all this is very important, because you need to know and understand where you’ve come from, to know where you currently are, and where you are heading – or may end up.
It appears not everyone in society feels this way.
There’s no denying that people have it easy these days – speaking of course for the ‘Westernised’ world here. As a result of that ease, they no longer thing or struggle with certain concepts. They live their lives day-to-day, getting by, doing their work, and then go home, do whatever, and then get up and continue the cycle. There doesn’t appear to be that ‘thirst for knowledge’ or wanting to understand how or why things are done. People seem to just accept it.
A large part of this would defintely be a personality trait; and it would be what makes people like us (the writers on this blog, and various others in the computer field) the way we are. It’s knowing that through learning and understanding we can increase our ‘usefullness’, putting us in better positions to help others – which is often an intrinsic part of our makeup – and ultimately, slowly allowing the change in society to happen.
If only there was a way to get others interested – but perhaps they wont, because they have no need. “The path of least resistance” is too often the one that is chosen.
Truely a testament to how lazy our society has become!
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