BlogAllAlong » Hardware

Did you know Javascript could do that?

Bashar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:25:05 +0000

Chrome Experiments is a library of cool and complex javascript experiments that were made by people from all around the world, combined to show and test the browser capabilities, mainly Chrome in this case, but you can compare it to the other browsers. Here is one example that worked on my Firefox on Mac, but started flickering and working slowly as the Monster evolved.

Ofcourse, these experiments can only be truly fair if they’re hosted by a 3rd non-related party, or if it was made like a public community driven site. But it’s not, and while you can always submit complicated Chrome embarrassing Javascript experiments, you can never be sure Google will gladly post these Chrome failing experiments on their site. Still though, it’s a fun way to test different browsers.

The Gift of NAS

Bashar — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:09:09 +0000

NAS, or Network Attached Storage is probably the now most personal reliable, and afforadable backup and central storage solution that is both easy to use and setup, as opposed to regular back external hard drives which needs to be connected every time you want to backup, and can only talk to limited number of computers at once. Worse, my experience and from what I saw and read, most these external hard drives have a tedency of failure after 1 or 2 years. So much for a backup ehh?

For several years I waited for the right backup solution to come, after my terrible Maxtor experience. The concept of NAS was so appealing to me, however lacked the good implementation of it. This was until my friend and I found the 1 TB Netgear ReadyNAS Duo.

1 Tb of Gigabit ethernet network attached SATA storage, with a secondary optional slot for a mirror one, giving you extra data availability. Unfortunately however, the secondary disk does not seem to add anything to read performance. The price tag was really what kept me thinking for a couple of days, until my friend called and said his PC drive was dead. This is when price tag becomes no issue. There were 5 pieces left only at the time on Amazon, later that day, 2 were already sold.

And if you’re getting a Gigabit ethernet device, you might as well utilize the G side of it and get your self a Gigabit switch. Mine was the D-Link 8 Port Desktop Switch, while my friend went for the NetGear one. It’s hard to tell them apart without seeing them both in action, but when reaching out for the NAS folder, I do notice a slight tiny delay which he says does not occure to him. Not sure though. Either ways, file transfer remains pretty fast and reliable.

So What’s So Good About this NAS?

1- Backup solution for unlimited number of home desktops and laptops. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

2- Central shared data among all devices. Use less storage for same amount of data, with central advantage. Useful for media files and documents you want available across different devices.

3- Streaming: The NAS comes with built-in streaming capabilities that could allow you central storing of your videos and photos, then go and enjoy them on your favorite player device. I have personally not utilized this feature enough yet, and friends tell me streaming off their PC remains faster.

4- Quick Recovery: Say primary SATA drive fails. If you have taken the step of the secondary drive, simply pull out the primary drive, and replace it with the secondary one. In few minutes, you’re good to go.

5- QUIET: As opposed to external drives I’ve seen, this one is so quiet, personally I like it.

6- Primary Documents Storage Location

This last point is what made most of the difference to me, and while it applies better to desktops rather than laptops, it still is the best thing I’m getting of my NAS. Shortly after using the NAS for backup, I took my friend advise and made the NAS the default Documents folder for all my work, so that My Documents folder would point to the NAS storage rather than my PC. It’s automatically mirrored, and centrally stored to be read by other devices. No need for schedule backup and sync tasks. Much of a relief.

To do so, you will first need to do Directory Mapping. Simpy go on Windows to any directory window, clicks Tools -> Map Network Drive. From there, simply specify the drive name you want to use, say V:, and the file path it maps to, which should be the relative documents directory at your NAS as shown below:

Next step is to make the My Documents folder on Windows point to that location. Simply while in the My Documents folder, right click on any empty area and select properties. From there, change the Target Folder Location to the new Mapped Drive, V: in our case.

There is a nice article about mapping Mac drives here.

Now, your documents are directly written to the NAS, and if you have a secondary drive, you got your self double the reliability. You will need also (if you want) to change settings of some programs to point to the new location. For example iTunes, or any other download program that takes default location. Make sure you change it to your liking, and you can aslo create separate folders at the NAS for separate purposes. Say Media, documents, backup (for laptops for instance).

Does It Really Help?

I got it back in August, and just last Thursday, my PC finally decided to quit living. It would simply restart everytime I reboot, after a glimpse of a blue screen, I couldn’t read it in ten times. I had to video record the screen, replay it in slow motion and pause to read it! Mr. Bean stuff, but it does the job.

Blue screen message wasn’t very helpful (as usualy), and nothing worked and I thought reformat is fastest resolution. For the first time ever I was totally ready for it, and except for the programs I had to reinstall, I just mapped the netowork drive and targeted My Documents to it, and almost all my data was back. I thanked God I got it, and thought of sharing it thus with you.

Does it have problems?

NO. Just kidding. Ofcourse it does. Here are some issues I face from using the NAS:

1- Minor slight delay in accessing files as opposed to when they are stored locally. Pretty minor stuff for me.

2- Lack of some program support. Some programs like Sony Vegas studios refused to work with network drive locations, and only worked with mapped network drives. Some others even refused the mapped network drives for some reason.

3- Some programs run slow when trying to access and list files from the NAS. For instance, GIMP takes a long time to list folder files before savin when accessing a NAS folder. iTunes Library browsing also seems to get extremely slow when using NAS for it’s storage. The famous Mac Time Machine also does not allow NAS drives for backup by default, and even when I tried the solution, it also failed to back in my case. Sure there is way, but didn’t give it much thought yet. I expect it needs time for companies to give full attention to this technology, and support it better.

4- Executing some tasks like Unzipping large files will take enormous time if done on NAS. For me, unzipping 70 MB of intensily zipped files took over an hour (and failed eventually). In such cases, simply move the zip file to your local machine and do the unzipping.

5- As mentioned above, it would’ve been much better if this mirrored disk was used for reading improvements rather than just a backup. But it doesn’t seem to be the case.

WATCH IT: The Amazon page of NetGear NAS has a Watch It In Action link you can follow for nice demonstration of the product.

160GB solid-state drives coming, Intel says

Bashar — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:34:29 +0000

That’s good news to hear. Intel is promising soon the shipping of laptops and notebook PCs with 160GB solid-state flash drives. Solid-State drives if you haven’t heard about it before are new candidate replacements for current mechanical hard-drives, known for being much faster and more reliable. They are also much less noisy for not having a mechanical head spinning inside it. For more information about the drive, see the Wikipedia article. The price and limited storage has been what’s keeping it from taking over so far, but as Moore’s Law states, prices drop to half and performance doubles in technology every 18 months. So this seems to be happening now.

The ultimate wish of mine is to have it as an external drive for backups. But compared to current external and NAS storages in Tera bytes today, the wait is pointless I believe, as it needs 2-3 more years to reach that stage at least. I can’t risk my data that long can I! But if you’re looking for new laptops, hold down your horses for a while. This is expected 2nd quarter this year.

ATI Radeon Video Card Review

Bashar — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:49:59 +0000

Isn’t it annoying when something goes wrong with your beloved computer? Be it software or hardware. One should always take care in buying robust stuff that doesn’t wear out quickly. But how can you tell? And how possible is it for a piece of hardware to crash in few years time, after which, the computer is going to be replaced anyways! In my experience with ATI Radeon X600 PRO 256 MB in less than 3 years, 3 out of 3 have crashed! I should be fair and note, they were all using the same PC brand, HP Pavilion, but I don’t see how the box can relate to this type of failures.

First, my PC started rebooting and was not able to run for more than 10 minutes. I did all types of update, followed all Windows advise until they suggested Disable 3D Graphics to fix the problem. Thanks! So I tried to contact ATI Radeon. First register, then specify the problem in very detail. I went through a hell lot of questions, it was like interrogating. The type of questions that tells you go bother someone else. I am talking about questions like:

What were you doing when problem happens? (Playing game)
Game from which manufacturer? (Umm… actually it’s more than one game, but I selected one for example)
What is the name of the game? (Ahhh… I can see where this is going)
Did up try to update? (YES I Swear)

And the list went on and on. At the end, I explained I did all kind of updates, read all articles and knowledge base, etc etc. and the problem is happening with more than one game so it’s not game specific. Submit. Soon after, I got this polite reply:

“Greetings!

Based on our experience, games issues are usually due to improper system configurations, driver issues, faulty hardware or a known issue with the game and the hardware or drivers that you are using.

First ensure your system meets the minimum requirements of the game and that you have any patches from the game vendor installed.

If your computer meets all of the system requirements, please check our Knowledge Base and the release notes of the driver you are using to see if there are any known issues or solutions for the game you are playing. If you are unable to find information on the specific problem you are having in our Knowledge Base, please check with the software vendor for any known issues or problems. If the problem persists, review the full details for trouble shooting game related issues at the link provided below:

http://www.ati.com/online/customercare/solutions/gamesrevised.html

If these suggestions don’t help to resolve your issues, please respond to the ticket and one of our qualified support representatives will assist you. To respond to this ticket you must visit http://support.ati.com and login to My Support.

Thank you for choosing ATI!”

Obviously, they did not take care to read any of all the information they asked for, or else, they chose to pretend not to have read. All the hardware specs were there, it’s not bad at all, and if you are not gonna compare it to game specs, why did you ask for the game name then? Also, I did mention I updated to latest driver and gave them the driver version so there is no way to be wrong about it. I already went through your knowledge base as well, I couldn’t find any information that helps and that’s why I am contacting you. But they have to jump and blame the game manufacturer first, who were so kind and offered a compensation (hear that?) instead of reaching out for help. When the level of support reaches that level, I can hope no more and find my own way out. As one guy said “When there is something that is bad, don’t take the time to see how bad it is”. I took out the video card and later found out the fan is completely jammed and does not move a bit. Blame it on someone else! So I got my self an nVidia wonderful 512 MB Video card with HDMI output and it’s working just fine.

Few months later, my in-law had problem with a similar HP PC and he couldn’t resolve it. Taking it to the store they said you have to replace the video card! (That’s # 2). Then just last week, my family started facing restart problems with a similar PC. Now I’m smart and for once do not have to blame Windows for it. Do you want a new video card I said? Again they went through all types of troubleshooting, and for few hours the game went on. I told them you’re gonna need a new card, and the next day, they did. Problem came back and it’s obviously the same problem.

So that’s 3 failures out of 3. I have another friend with a similar PC but I don’t know if it still works or not. I will just use my logic and assume not. Or else, if he is reading this blog, give us your thought about it. With that rate of failure, and the terrible level of support they have, any PC that comes with ATI, and ofcourse Vista, now is not an option. Is it gonna be hard to pick my next computer then? Hopefully not as MacBook Pro comes with NVIDIA I’m happy to say.

Apple Flash Laptops Coming? Let’s Wait

Bashar — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:58:18 +0000

If this news is true, Apple is planning to release Flash laptops later this year. A technology that should bring hard disk drives down and computer speed way up. LG are also expected to hit the market with such a laptop in a few weeks. If this news is true, it’s sure worth to put on hold the $1,700 deal for new MacBook pro laptop. Unless money grows on trees where you live, it is worth to wait. Alas, the tree outside our door only grows pigeons who dirt the car every day. So here is a hint for you when you look for a house, carefully pick location nearby money growing trees. Good luck!

Tip For Windows Users: Check The Optional Updates

Bashar — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:20:25 +0000

A while back, I posted the Bye Bye Windows article, which got the most views and unique comments so far. The problem I had was that suddenly, my computer went on restarting every few minutes. I had no time to update, backup or do anything. Even Check Volume for errors could not finish successfully for most of the time. I am still looking for Leopard release of Mac Book Pro to move away from Windows, however for people who will keep using Windows, I got my part of the story to share for end user benefit. After several attempts of restore, and update, Windows Error Reporting finally gave back useful hints. I think they had it with my Send Error every few minutes so they decided to help me out. The problem turned out to be a conflict with my ATI Radeon X600 PRO video card. There was an optional update on Windows Update that was more crucial than all other critical updates, at least to me, and possibly other thousands of users around the world. Getting the update, after knowing it was tough by it self, since my PC kept restarting all the time, until I managed to get it right, and after then everything went fine.

This is awkward however. I had this PC for almost two years with no such incident, not that obvious at least. Why all of a sudden it started hammering me? Was it something I installed? Not manually definitely for the past few weeks. Checking the logs I noticed that one week back, Windows had two automatic mass critical updates, and logic conclusion is that, only those updates must have caused the problem. I had a habit of disallowing automatic updates, but using Firefox seems to have kept me safe so I let it go this time, and this was the result. The problem is, the only critical updates are Microsoft security patches, and Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), which is an anti-piracy program for Microsoft products. Question mark on why is that marked as critical, big question mark. They even give you an option to show you why this is useful upon installation! Anyhow, the problem is that, those critical service affecting updates are not marked by Windows as critical, but rather as optional, which most people will ignore. Specially those who has Windows set on automatic update. Right now, I switch it back to alert before install. I suggest all users to check all updates before installation, and see what they might affect. See also if there are related optional updates that might be needed.

The funny side of the story is, once I restored my PC to a working state, and had automatic Windows update disabled, Windows started threatening me that your computer might be at risk. Well I prefer to be at risk rather than safely offline!

Dell Laptop Burns Down A House?

Bashar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 05:59:53 +0000

A guy named Dan writes about his house being burned down, and how the most probable reason for the fire could be the laptop, according to fire Marshall investigator. The guy did have a Dell Inspiron Laptop, unfortunate for both him and Dell. Having tried to contact Dell for informing them (He is too kind yet to sue them!) he could not get hold of anyone who speaks native English to explain the problem to. More from The Consumerist.

I hope this story isn’t true. We were making jokes of how Dell could be a terrorist tool to hijack airplanes, now more and more I am getting convinced it’s true!

Intel & IBM new chips, the secret revealed…

Bashar — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:44:21 +0000

The Register have revealed her the mystery behind the shocking same time announcement by Intel & IBM about their new chips. As it seems Intel was ahead of IBM, and leakage from the press went to IBM, and they wanted to spoil the Intel show with a counter attack. Read the whole story here for more details.

Intel and IBM claim breakthrough in transistor design

Bashar — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:36:25 +0000

DigiTimes writes about claims from Intel and IBM (separately) that a new breakthrough in transistor design has been made and that the new design will help minimize electric power leakage that will open the door for improved sub-micron process technology. No great advancements has been made in the past few years and this seems to be the wheel, that if true, will push the technology forward once again.

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Did you know Javascript could do that?

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