marcelk.org

Call me old school, but I like having a thick client for my email. Thunderbird is a great email client, I prefer it to a web browser. I also like being able to work while offline.

I also like being independent of my ISP for email services: should I ever change ISP I’d like to keep my email address. And gmail is a reliable (enough) service with tons of storage at the right cost (free). My ISP rejects my attempt to send email while traveling on a different network, but gmail doesn’t.

So how to put these things together? IMAP.

IMAP is a protocol for leaving your mail messages on the server, but still access those messages from your client as if they were downloaded locally. It’s a much richer protocol than POP3. And it can handle folders. Make a change on the client and it is immediately stored on the server. So I can use Thunderbird but everything is handled on the gmail servers.

I’m not sure how popular the IMAP service is on gmail, but I think it is pretty cool. My own ISP offers only a web interface and POP3.

Here’s how to enable it: Login to the gmail web interface. Select “Settings” then “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” and click “Enable IMAP”. It is disabled by default, but so easy to turn on. Don’t forget to click the “Save Changes” button. Now you need to configure Thunderbird to connect to the gmail servers for both receiving new mail (IMAP server) and sending outgoing mail (SMTP server). Here are the instructions for Thunderbird, or just click on the “Configuration Instructions” link in the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab. Make sure that in Thunderbird’s “Security Settings” for the IMAP server that you select “SSL” so traffic flows encrypted on port 993. And in the “Security and Authentication” settings for the SMTP server make sure that you select “Use name and password” and “TLS”. This will enable all your Thunderbird traffic to be secure for when you are in the hotel or conference center or coffee shop, both incoming and outgoing mail.

But what if I want to access my email from multiple computers? The nature of configuring multiple clients to hit the same IMAP account is that a change made via one client immediately appears on all the other clients. So IMAP is the perfect way to do this. As an added benefit, I can still use the gmail web interface and see the same inbox and folders: I just got another client for free.

Are address books handled via IMAP? No. But there is a Thunderbird plugin, AddressBooks Synchronizer, to handle that. It can sync your Thunderbird address books across multiple Thunderbird instances using your IMAP account. This is how I keep my Thunderbird address book synch’d across all my clients. It doesn’t make my Thunderbird address book available in the gmail web interface, but someone is working on a Thunderbird plugin to do that too.

Maybe someday I’ll give up my old ways and use a pure browser-based email client. But in the meantime this is how I do it.

I have a Canon PowerShot pocket camera. I’m not a fancy photographer, but it works for me. I saw mention of a way to load a firmware addition in the camera that opens up all kinds of new features. This works on lots of different Canon models. Take a look at the features to see if they are interesting.

The net is that you download a file, unzip it to your SD card, put the card in the camera, press a special button sequence, and there it is. If you don’t like it, just power cycle your camera and don’t do the special button sequence, as it needs to be loaded each time. I think this is pretty cool. Just having a decent battery meter is a big help.

It’s called CHDK, and it’s free. Take a look if you have a Canon camera.

After helping multiple people set up a gmail account, I noticed that SSL is disabled by default for the gmail web interface. The login is encrypted, but the rest of the browser traffic including your email data isn’t. Why Google did that makes no sense, I recall seeing something about them saying it will slow down users’ computers. I think this is one of the few stupid things that Google is doing. I say I don’t mind a minor slow down (frankly, I don’t think the slowdown is noticeable anyway) to secure my email traffic. Do you mind your email flowing between your browser and the gmail servers in the clear on a hotel or conference center or coffee shop wifi network? Not only could others read what you are reading, but they could also copy your session cookie and hijack your login session without knowing your password. Of course you don’t mind an unnoticeable slowdown to encrypt your email traffic. Duh!

Fortunately, this is really easy to fix. In gmail web interface, go to “Settings” and then go to the “General” tab. At the bottom select the radio button “Always use https”. Don’t forget to click “Save Changes”. There, fixed. Now all your web traffic to the gmail servers will be encrypted.

Google, there really is no excuse for avoiding SSL as the default. Yes, it will put a bit more load on your servers, but security is our friend.

[Note: this applies only to the web interface, not the IMAP or POP interface.]

This is a review of version 2 of the SG31G2 platform. I’m not sure how it differs from version 1, other than version 1 was no longer available from my vendor. [Update from Jerry: the difference between v1 and v2 includes updated rev of ethernet controller, different IEEE1394 controller, removed floppy interface and cable, one less USB header, added 2 serial port headers, added 4-pin Molex-to-SATA power converter.] I found the tech specs on the Shuttle site a little lacking. Since I was building it entirely from mail-order parts, I didn’t want to be short a cable or similar. So for anyone else doing it, here are the details.

I didn’t have a wrist grounding strap. So I touched any anti-static wrapper I had to the metal frame of the case before opening the wrapper, touched the inside of the wrapper to the case after opening it, and didn’t move myself until the part was installed. I wanted to take special care with the CPU and memory.

With Newegg, be aware of the return policies for the case, CPU, memory, and Windows OS, they are not the standard return policies. Once you’ve opened the box, no changing your mind. I suspect other retailers aren’t much different.

The SG31G2v2 includes the case, power supply, motherboard, cables, drivers, and other miscellaneous parts. What you need to add is a CPU, memory, and hard disk. And any other accessories you want, such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, card reader, DVD drive, etc.

I really like the small form factor of the Shuttle case. That’s why I paid a bit extra for the case, versus a full-size desktop.

It has an LGA775 CPU socket. I chose to install an Intel E7400 CPU, which is a Core 2 Duo running at 2.8GHz. I didn’t want to pay significantly more money for a slightly higher clock speed, the price/benefit ratio for that falls out of whack. I think the performance constraint is going to be with the disk I/O anyway. Align the triangles and very carefully place it in the socket. The pins are in the socket instead of the CPU die. The E7400 comes with an Intel CPU fan, you won’t need it because the Shuttle has a built-in cooler named ICE2 than runs a liquid-filled coil across the CPU and into the chassis fan. The benefit of that is only 1 fan in the case but still having CPU-specific cooling. The Shuttle also comes with thermal paste to seal the cooler to the CPU, the Intel CPU does not come with thermal paste.

There are 2 DIMM slots for a 2GB module in each, for a max total of 4GB. It’s best to remove the drive bay to reach the DIMM slots. The DIMMs just pop right in as you would expect. At 4GB for $50, it’s a no-brainer to put in as much memory as possible. I selected G.Skill 240-pin DDR2 800. I’m amazed at how far the RAM prices have dropped over the last couple years. Some of the RAM gets used by the video, so I really get 3.24GB of usable RAM in Windows.

There is a removable drive bay which can take a total of 3 drives: an internal 3.5 inch, another 3.5 inch with optional external faceplate (such as a floppy drive, another internal hard disk, or in my case a multi-function card reader), and a 5.25 inch slot with optional external faceplate (such as a DVD drive).

Internal hard drive: I selected a Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM SATA drive. The price is right, the capacity is great, and it is basically silent even during high use. There are 3 internal SATA data connectors on the motherboard, and the case comes with 1 SATA data cable (locking). So if you are using an OEM hard drive that didn’t come with a SATA data cable, you are set. Shuttle even provides 2 sets of screws for the drives. One set can be used for the 3.5 inch hard disk, and the other for the DVD drive. Shuttle provides a power cable with two SATA power connectors, so no Molex-to-SATA converter is needed for up to 2 SATA drives. Even if such a converter is needed, Shuttle provides one in the accessory box, so you could run a total of 3 SATA devices using the included parts. I used the SATA data cable provided by Shuttle for the hard drive.

Card reader: I selected a Rosewill RCR-IC001 which is the size of a floppy drive. It exposes the front of the reader right below the DVD drive. It connects to the motherboard via USB for both data and power. It uses a USB header connection which is different than the usual external USB A/B connector. The Shuttle has 1 USB header port on the motherboard. The reader has a USB header cable permanently attached to it, and it plugged right in to the header connection on the motherboard. The power to this reader is supplied by USB, so no separate power connection is required. Since this is a retail package instead of an OEM package, Rosewill provided screws to secure the reader to the drive bay. It’s a little weird that SD cards go in the reader upside down, but that’s not a big issue.

DVD drive: I selected a Samsung SH-S223L dual-layer SATA DVD burner with LightScribe. I wanted this PC to be legacy-free, so I chose SATA instead of IDE. If your hard disk is SATA, you will need to acquire another SATA data cable (such as this one) for a SATA optical drive, Shuttle provides only one. An 18 inch SATA data is the perfect length. Luckily, Shuttle provides not 1 but 2 SATA power native connectors. So you can run 1 power connector to your SATA hard drive, and the other power connector to your SATA optical drive. Thank you Shuttle! Even though this DVD drive comes in OEM packaging (as opposed to retail, meaning there is no screws, cables, manuals, or box, it’s just a raw drive wrapped in bubble wrap), it does come with a CD that contains Nero burning software and firmware updates. Be careful when installing Nero, it will try to own just about every possible file extension for audio and video files. Yuck! I clicked “Deselect All” in the Nero installer so that those file extensions will continue to be owned by Windows Media Player and iTunes.

There also is an IDE bus on the motherboard, and the case is wired with an IDE cable that can connect 2 devices (master and slave). Although there are 3 SATA data connectors on the motherboard, the middle SATA data connector is a bit hard to reach when the IDE cable is present at the same time. The IDE cable collapses from a full-width ribbon to a layered reduced-width cable right there near the connector, so it is crowded. Since I don’t have any IDE devices, I removed the IDE cable from the case. This definitely helped it be less crowded. If you want to use an IDE optical drive, there are a total of three 4-pin Molex power connectors. And there is an audio-out cable for the optical drive, in case you want that. I don’t bother with that since I rip my old audio CDs to MP3. The SATA DVD drive didn’t have an analog audio-out interface anyway.

I don’t have any PCI or PCI Express cards. Just using the built-in video. I’m not a gamer.

So after I was done, there was 1 SATA data port, 1 IDE data bus (that could run both a master and slave device), and three 4-pin Molex power connectors unused. The Molex-to-SATA power converter provided by Shuttle also went unused. All the drive bays were full. The PCI and PCIe slots were unused. I had all the screws I needed, and ordered just a single SATA data cable.

For the OS, yes, I picked Windows. But XP. I wish I could run Linux, but the family has applications that are Windows only. I don’t like sending money to Redmond. No need for Vista, XP Home works fine, and I already have all the peripheral drivers I need. I got the system builders version. It does come with media and a license sticker for your case. Just boot the CD and follow the on-screen wizard. It did take about 3 hours to do a full format of my hard drive.

Since I wanted to let the family use this computer, and I’ll take over the old one, we now have 2 computers in a small space. No room for a 2nd monitor/keyboard/mouse. I wanted a KVM switch to reuse the monitor in our small desk space. I got a Startech SV215MICUSBA. I like the wired remote control that I can put next to the monitor to switch between the 2 PCs, no need for a keyboard sequence. And I like that it includes audio out for speakers and mic in that connects to both computers. It expects a USB keyboard and mouse, and analog VGA video output and monitor. When you switch from one computer to the other, the keyboard and mouse get disconnected from the non-selected computer: you hear the audio cue that Windows is disconnecting USB devices. And the selected computer sounds about finding new USB devices. But it all seems to work fine.

The original keyboard I had was PS2 connected, I wanted to replace it with a USB one. I found a Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Standard Eclipse keyboard that had lots of recommendations. I like that the keys are backlit (in blue), as the desk is in a room that doesn’t have much natural light. The backlight has 3 settings (bright, dim, off) that are controlled from a small button on the keyboard. Even with the backlight novelty, I think the keys move OK. I also like the built in wrist rest.

And during installation, Windows hardware detection would hang until I discovered that my existing USB mouse was flaky. It wouldn’t hang if I disconnected the mouse. It had been acting a bit weird on the old computer. I replaced it with a simple Logitech SBF-96. You can’t get much more simple than that.

Total parts list:

Shipping costs for everything was $39 extra.

It is fast and quiet. Niiiiice.

There is a blue power LED on the front of the Shuttle case. It is really bright. So bright that at night it bathes the room in a blue glow. I need to close the doors of the computer desk at night.

I tried a Microsoft Comfort Curve keyboard, and eventually decided that for the Curve to really work you have to consistently use that keyboard. I spend most of my computer time on a regular laptop keyboard, so the Curve keyboard would be the exception. For the little bit of time I used this one I had to look at where I was typing, which I don’t typically do. I gave up on it and went with the Saitek keyboard.

For a while, I was rather displeased with the video quality from the analog VGA connection. It looked blurry, and the contrast appeared too low and the saturation too high. I spent a bunch of time fiddling with the color correction settings on the card via Windows Display properties. When I finally remembered that my LCD monitor had its own settings, I selected the monitor’s “auto config” and it’s much better. Just a teeny bit less clear than my old computer, but now it is OK.

The Shuttle web site says it has 7.1 surround sound. Be aware that there are several 1/8″ headphone-style connectors for analog, not a single S/PDIF optical or coaxial digital output.

It’s kind of amazing to do a “dir c:\” and see only 3 entries: “Windows”, “Documents and Settings”, and “Program Files”. No junk installed by the manufacturer.

Overall I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I was basically quite surprised at how well everything came together. Part of that credit should go to Shuttle, they did a nice job. I had been looking at a pre-built system from a well-known manufacturer for about the same amount of money, but they had a smaller disk drive but included an LCD monitor. Between 5 iPod users and 3 camera owners sharing this PC, we need the disk space. Even though the specs looked similar, I think I ended up with a higher quality system. I understand that in the razor-thin-margins of the PC industry, finding the cheapest components is what it is about. And as in most places, you get what you pay for. I think I ended up with a good balance of price and quality/performance. I’d do it again.

If you are a J2EE developer, you should be interested in this. The IBM WebSphere Application Server runtime is being made available to developers at no cost. Developers can use the development runtime test environment that is identical to the WebSphere Application Server (WAS) production runtime environment on their desktop at no charge for development and testing. And this is the recent version 7 of WAS. If you are considering a J2EE server, this is a great way to try out WAS.

(Disclaimer: yes, I am employed by IBM.)

I’ve been doing some work in the server virtualization area recently. I used to think that virtualization was a niche that would never really catch on for the big time. However, the more I learn the more I am amazed. I think we are at an inflection point, right now, where virtualization is going to grow and never look back. I believe that in 5 years we will look back and say, “I can’t believe that I used to install most of my applications on bare metal. We were so short-sighted then.” It’s similar to how we view Linux and OSS today compared to the proprietary systems of yesteryear.

There are multiple reasons the line is inflecting:

• the overhead cost of virtualization (as compared to bare metal) is becoming acceptable. Commodity hardware can run with enough cores and enough RAM that it isn’t horribly expensive anymore. The benefit is coming in line with falling cost.
• the maturity of the hypervisors has gotten to be quite good. The field has lots of players, and the competition is beneficial for consumers.
• the cost of the hypervisors has dropped dramatically. In many cases, what can be better than “free”? (I mean gratis, not libre.)
• management tools for hypervisors and virtual images are arriving and improving. As an example, look at what VMware is doing. Other vendors are trying to do similar.

I also see lots of talk about desktop virtualization. It’s interesting, but that’s not where the first wave and big wave will be at. The action, the adoption, and the money (both in savings for consumers, and profit for suppliers) will be in server virtualization. Just as desktop Linux has followed server Linux, desktop virtualization will follow server virtualization. Virtualization will be the next “big thing” in computing.

Technology Review has a very interesting set of pictures that show how computer chips have progressed from a single transistor in 1958 (yes, just one) to almost a billion transistors today. The jump from just 4 transistors in 1961 to 5000 transistors in 1974 is impressive.

Wow, we have come a long way. The computing power in my old iPod would have blown away early systems. I can’t wait to see what will be commonplace in 8 more years.

Take a look at this video.

Here is a nice list. Not only do I laugh, but I agree.

There have been several articles in the industry press recently about “problems” with cloud computing services, specifically Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. Basically it comes down to outages.

Cloud computing is not a silver bullet, just like anything else is not a silver bullet. The way a lot of people talk about cloud computing, at least the way it is used today, it is just another name for consuming externally hosted services. Consuming externally hosted services will always have these flaws: (1) the Internet is inherently an unreliable network, (2) service providers can have temporary interruptions in their service, (3) service providers can betray the customer in big ways such as compromising sensitive customer data or by going out of business entirely.

So how to deal with these issues? Try the following:

• create an SLA (service level agreement) with the service provider, so expectations are set with both parties, and the service provider can incur penalties for breach of be encouraged to keep the agreement.
• have an offline/sync capability for the service so your business process can keep running during a temporary outage of the service provider, and merge non-destructively when they are back up.
• keep local backups of your cloud data in case the cloud gets corrupted. Usually storage is cheaper than transaction processing to replicate locally.
• run your piece of the cloud internally, so you maintain control of the infrastructure. In effect, you become part of the cloud, with the only customer being you.

Not every business process is business critical, and all have different risk elements/levels. I use Mozy for backup, keep things in the Google cloud, and others. But I don’t run drop-dead business-critical processes in someone else’s cloud. In the end, you are responsible for your I/T. Cost management and risk management always go together. If you want to reduce the cost by shifting the ownership/management to someone else (the service provider), be prepared for increased risk, or at least the perception of increased risk, because you no longer control the infrastructure for your business process. I/T is still a balancing act.

I think there is more to cloud computing than simply consuming externally hosted services.