iDude.org

As I’ve stated in the past, I’ve used a lot of different hosting providers and still have services remaining at most of them in some capacity.  With Rackspace Cloud (formerly Mosso), I still have Cloud Files CDN service on standby in case I need it.   On 2-2-2010, I got an email notifying me that they have started offering Windows VPS for beta testing.  This is very exciting for me as it was one of the main features I wanted in Slicehost (which I still have 1 256mb Slice).

I setup a 512mb Windows 2003 Server to test. So far it seems to be quite excellent and fast. On speedtest.net, I got 67mb down, 27mb up. Not bad. It looks like the Windows 2003 Servers are running under XEN and the 2008 are most likely under Microsoft’s Hyper-V.  The new machine I setup did have SP2 on it, but was unpatched otherwise.  First thing I did was update everything.  The Windows Firewall is completely closed off by default at least.

I’m definitely going to keep testing it on Rackspace, but it would be nice to have one control panel and have them available via Slicehost.com as well. Even it if is an extension to the Slicehost control panel accessing Rackspace Cloud’s API. Better integration of the Slicehost offerings with the Rackspace Cloud services would help both entities since they should be one big happy family now. ;-)

I almost wish they would merge completely and integrate all the features from both sides of the house.  I’m sure that’ll happen in time as the old loyal power users move off to Linode (I moved 4 VPS to Linode) and it’ll have the least impact, churn-wise, if done smoothly.

My setup, if anyone is interested, is the following:

• 1×256mb Slicehost VPS running Cherokee/MySQL hosting ~25 sites.
• 3×360mb Linodes + 1×540mb Linode.  3 Servers are dedicated to individual customers, the other is for more sites I maintain.  Mostly running Cherokee/MySQL or Apache/MySQL.
• 1×1024mb CrystalTech VPS  running Windows 2008 for hosting email and websites for a number of customers
• 1×2048mb SingleHop Server running Windows 2003 for a few sites that wouldn’t work correctly under 2008 for a number of reasons.  This is an Intel ATOM based Server w/ 320gb HDD.  Not bad for $99.
• 2xMedia Temple Grid accounts for customer sites that need higher scalability.

If the Rackspace Windows VPS works out well, I’ll probably move the stuff off SingleHop since the Rackspace pricing is much better for me and SingleHop’s server is overkill memory and HDD wise for a few relatively basic websites and apps.

But I will say SingleHop’s services have been EXCELLENT in the year or so I’ve been using them.  No complaints at all, 0% downtime that I, or my monitoring software, have observed.  Good customer service and GREAT prices for dedicated servers.  I just don’t need dedicated servers at the moment.  If I did, SingleHop would be the place I’d go for both Linux and Windows dedicated.

CrystalTech has also been extremely reliable and fast, but the pricing is way too high, in my opinion.  $149 (including backups) for a 1024mb VPS w/ 60gb HDD when I can get a dedicated for not much more at SingleHop.

I’ll post more on Rackspace Cloud as I start using it more.

Cloud Computing, General, Microsoft, Review, Technical, Technology API, ATOM, CDN, cherokee, Cloud Files, CrystalTech, Hyper-V, Intel, MediaTemple, Microsoft, Mosso, MySQL, Rackspace, SingleHop, SliceHost, Windows Server 2003/8, XEN

I have never been as disappointed in Apple as I am with the new iPad.

Here’s why:

AT&T as the only carrier
AT&T SUCKS!  Need I say more?  Those Verizon commercials about AT&T are all 100% correct.  AT&T’s 3G coverage is sad, Verizon’s is amazing.  Until AT&T is gone, the only version I’ll ever get is the WiFi only and use my MiFi 2200 on Verizon for data on the move.

No front-facing camera
ALL of Apple’s computers and monitors come with webcams these days, even the iPhone has a camera in the back.  Why did they not do this? AT&T probably had some say in it, because they SUCK so badly, and wouldn’t be able to handle video conference over 3G.

No Multitasking
They touted this device as something “better” than a netbook, yet it cannot even multitask like a netbook.  ANY netbook is better than this device for this one simple feature.  This feature is “crucial” for a multi-function device like this for it to have any kind of usability outside of basic apps.

The iPhone’ish Operating System
I would’ve preferred something more of a hybrid between the iPhone OS and Mac OS X, I know that would’ve probably required more power and therefore shortened the battery life, but add only 1-2mm thickness and a lot more battery could fit in if shaped correctly.  Having a “fuller” OS probably would’ve solved the multitasking issue and would allow people to run more apps therefore making it that much more of a “usable” device.  Even with this robustness, it would most likely NOT cut into the Laptop market since it doesn’t have a mouse and sometimes you just need a mouse.

No Removable Memory Options
Apple should have simply created 2 versions, a WiFi Only and a WiFi+3G, have some onboard memory, maybe 16 or 32GB, then allow us to expand with it SD cards.  SD Cards are getting bigger all the time and would allow much greater flexibility for expansion.   Of course that would cut into Apple’s profit margins when they want everyone to buy the 128GB version coming out next year.

More Codecs
As much of a “media company” as Apple is, they still need to support the needs of the public as a whole.  Everyone, or at least most, has DiVX AVI or MKV movies that they’ve downloaded or gotten from friends.  It would be really nice if these videos could be natively viewed on this device.

Overall, complaints aside, it is still a nice device.  For the price, it’s still, in my opinion, a much better value than the Amazon Kindle line.  The Kindle is too “plain jane” and black and white while the iPad is the Kindle’s hot younger sister that still has some growing up to do. :-)

I will watch the iPad over the next year or so and if they do make some of these improvements, especially the carrier, multitasking and front-facing camera, I’ll buy 2-3 for me, the kids, and around the house.

Apple, Gadgets, General, Review, Software, Technical, Technology, iPad 1st gen, 3G, Amazon, Apple, AT&T sucks, AVI, complaints, ipad, iPhone, Kindle, Mac, MiFi 2200, MKV, Review, SD, Verizon, webcam, WiFi

Over the past few years, I’ve become a big fan of Virtualization technologies like VMWare, VirtualBox, XEN, Microsoft Hyper-V, etc. So much so that I moved ALL my hosting operations (20+ clients) to providers like Slicehost, Linode and CrystalTech for Hyper-V.

At home, I tend to use VirtualBox from Sun. It seems to be perform the best for both Windows and Linux, although I lost the ability to Bridge the VM’s NIC after upgrading to Windows 7.

At work, I initially used VMWare Server to setup numerous VMs for software testing and platform integration testing and other fancy stuff like that. I tried for about a year to get our IT staff to start using it, and FINALLY, they decided to go completely virtual running VBox on the Solaris platform. I still use VMWare Player for a couple VMs I have left from the past, but VBox is my favorite.

XEN I did not have so much experience with since I *thought* it was more of a IT Backendish type of Virtualization software and more arcane. Perhaps it was at one time.

But regardless of my misconception, I decided to download XenServer last night and install it on one of my spare boxes. XenServer is full virtualization “OS” that you install and all the guest machines are built inside it.

Won’t go through all the details, but the XenServer was a breeze to install, only asking basic questions and for the IP address of the server. It’s best to put it on a decent machine with lots of hard drive space and  plenty of RAM and processor power (Virtualization Extensions on the CPU is a BIG plus and allows you to run Windows VMs).

On older machines, like my old Pentium D (Dual Core) machine, it does not have processor virtualization extensions, so it was not able to run my Windows virtual machines.  The Linux (Ubuntu) servers worked just fine.

For Windows ones, I used a newer Quad Core Phenom box and put 4 Windows Server 2003’s on it by using the VMWare to XEN conversion program.  Was a little buggy getting it converted, but the Citrix XEN forums helped.

There are some sites out there you can google that have XEN ready images you can upload through the XenCenter software into the server and boot.

Overall, I’ve been extremely happy with the performance of XenServer and don’t think I’ll go back to desktop type virtualization solutions like VirtualBox and VMWare Server which has a crappy, buggy web interface (last time I used it) and requires you to already have an existing OS.  XenServer is OS+Virtualization solution all-in-one.

Cloud Computing, Cool Stuff, General, Linux, Microsoft, Review, Software, Technical, Technology, Ubuntu

First Install

I am usually not big on Microsoft releases, but since Vista was a disappointment and XP was getting so… old …I decided I would do something I’ve never done before.  I actually purchased a version of Windows.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have technically purchased older versions, but they were all pre-installed or re-installed through restore CDs and the like.  Basically I was good and paid the “Microsoft Tax”.

Since there are quite a few workstations in my home, I chose to buy the Family Pack, which gives 3 licenses, and installed first on my dad’s computer (No, I don’t live at home)…  Figured if Dad was ok with it, then it’ll probably be ok for the rest of the family.

His machine is an older HP a1430n purchased from the local Office Depot,  it only had 1GB of RAM, AMD 64 3800 processor, integrated nVidia video, 250GB SATA drive, a printer, Microsoft fingerprint reader, and a few other misc peripherals.   Since he was running XP on it, I was required to do a “Clean install” instead of upgrading it, which was expected.  It did put everything from XP into the C:\Windows.old folder and did a nice, fast install of Windows 7.  No problems and it was noticeably faster installing than even the 2009 RC1.

Got him booted in and went to manually copy a thumbdrive backup of his My Documents into the new Documents folder.  Nicely, Windows was smart enough to realized what I was doing and proceeded to place the My Pictures, My Videos, etc. from the old My Documents into the correct locations that Windows 7 puts them.   Nice!

Fired up IE 8, nothing new there, basically the same as IE 8 on XP.  Downloaded Firefox and Chrome and setup his Google Apps icons for email, docs and so on.

For a 60 year old, Dad is pretty savvy on the PC primarily just from using them casually over the years, so I plan to let him install his software and misc printer drivers and so forth.

The only thing that really won’t work on his setup is his Microsoft Finger Print reader for logging in.  Microsoft did not seem to write a driver for it and I didn’t try using the XP one.

I did also yank some RAM from an old machine and upped him to 3GB RAM and he’s good to go.  No complaints so far.

Second Install

Second install, it was my turn.   I have a Gateway Quad Proc AMD Phenom, 8GB RAM, nVidia 9800GT w/ 500 watt PSU, Blueray ROM drive along with a normal CD/DVD RW.  running Windows Vista Home Premium 64 that came with it.  Fired up the install and it was for the most part non-eventful although it did end up taking around 4 hours since I upgraded instead of clean installing.  It gathers all settings and files from the old OS and “moves” them into the new.  That takes forever and at times it seems like it is “locked” up or frozen at certain percentages of the process.  I just let it go, it rebooted a few times and came up.

Once in, I was sure to check for updated versions of all my utility software and Open Source things I run to ensure maximum compatibility.

A few minor annoying things I’ve noticed, in no particular order:

• Windows got sluggish a few times, which I believe was my Tortoise SVN process updating the working copy of my Repo.  Once done, I upgraded it to the latest 64 bit version and it has been fine.
• My USB ports on the front of my machine cut out a few times, not sure what the cause was, but everything seems to be ok now.
• My Multimedia card reader doesn’t seem to be working.  Windows 7 used a generic driver for them, so it may just need to be updated.
• When plugging in a USB card reader, Windows recognized it, but it could NOT read a FAT32 formatted Sony Memory Stick and it insisted on me to format it.  Luckily I did NOT, put it on my Mac and it worked fine.  Pictures SAVED!  Yay!
• External hard drives (I got 4 of them) are working OK.  One of them has been dropping out occasionally (my bittorrent drop) and Vuze gets angry.

Most of these annoyances don’t bother me too much.  Overall, World of Warcraft (WOW) seems to be noticeably faster loading and exiting, program loading is fast and I have no other complaints.

Next Install, the wife’s machine.  More to come.

General, Microsoft, Review, Software, Technical, Technology, Windows 7 7, Backups, card, Card Reader, generic driver, HP a1430n, Microsoft, Microsoft tax, Multimedia reader, PC, SVN, Tortoise, USB, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 7 Family Pack, Windows XP, XP

I ran across a webserver called Cherokee a week or so ago while looking around for “light” alternatives to Apache on VPSes.  It looked pretty nice, so I downloaded it and compiled the latest version 0.99.9 and started it up.

The nicest thing, I think, about this server is the simple Web configuration UI (cherokee-admin).  When you start it, it generates a one time hashlike password that you then use to log into the web config.  From there, you can configure virtually (no pun intended) all aspects of the web server, including virtual hosts and many other settings.

The reason primarily for my use is serving up my static HTML sites and light PHP ones as well, light meaning minimal DB calls for things like contact form entry, single simple “SELECT * from where whatever = whatever” type querys with small recordsets and so on.  I moved about 20 of my customer sites to it and so far so good.  That is the level of confidence I had in Cherokee.  100% stable so far.

Compiling it from source may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it really isn’t that difficult.

Here’s how I did it from a new VPS.

apt-get install nano htop build-essential mysql-server php5 php5-cgi php5-mcrypt php5-mysql gettext

This installs nano (a simple text editor), htop (top on steroids), build-essential which is a meta package containing necessary packages to compile crap, mysql, PHP, a few extensions and gettext which the ./configure told me it needed and I’m surprised it wasn’t part of the build-essential.

If this is a fresh ubuntu build, you’ll probably get a locales error… Use this to correct.

sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
sudo /usr/sbin/update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Download the latest cherokee source.

Untar it and enter the folder.

Now run these commands, modify the paths to your liking.  This runs the pre-compile config, makes then installs it, it then copies the init script to that folder and changes the permissions to allow it to execute.

./configure –localstatedir=/var –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –with-wwwroot=/var/www
make
make install
cp contrib/cherokee /etc/init.d/
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/cherokee

to Autostart the init script on boot… Run this…

update-rc.d -f cherokee defaults

That’s about it, read the documentation for specific information on features and have fun.  It is a VERY fast and light webserver that is very well suited for basic websites running on minimal memory VPSes.

Cloud Computing, General, Linux, Review, Software, Technical, Technology, Ubuntu, Web Apache, cherokee, HTML, Lighttpd, PHP, VPS, web daemon, web server

Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 8.0  is just downright pitiful…  To the extreme.  After spending so much time “improving” IE8 to make it more standards compliant, it failed miserably.

Screenshot (in native IE 8 mode)

So I figured I’d try the IE 8 compatibility mode to see if it would fair any better…

Actually, quite a bit worse…

On the other hand, Safari 4 did perfect.  Granted, it is a beta, but a very functional one.  Firefox (3.0.7), Opera (9.64) and Chrome got up into the 70’s and 80’s, but still did not get it.  At least they’re trying.  Here are the screen shots for the 4 other aforementioned browsers.

Microsoft, Review, Software, Technical, Technology, Web Acid3, Beta, Chrome, Firefox, IE, IE8, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Opera, Safari

Left Slicehost, joined Linode

I moved my sites (2 servers) from Slicehost to Linode due to no 32-bit support at Slicehost and am VERY happy with the service I am receiving from Linode.  They have been excellent at answering the few questions I had during setup and everything has been flawless ever since.  The 32bit Linodes have been running much more efficiently for me than the 64 bit.

Mosso CloudServers

Since moving, the other day Mosso came out with their “version” of Slicehost’s system running straight through the Mosso control panel.  I setup a small 256mb instance for .015 cents per hour (~10.95/mo) which is cheaper than SH, but it doesn’t include any bandwidth… Bandwidth is bill seperately at .22/gb out and .08/gb in.  Which isn’t too bad if you are a relatively low bandwidth user like I am, but it’s still only 256mb.

Also, Mosso’s DNS control panel is nowhere near as good as Slicehost’s, which is a big negative for me using them long term.  Even though I’m on Linode primarily now, I still keep a 256mb Slice active on Slicehost just for their DNS since it has a very nice web interface and there’s an iPhone App for Slicehost’s control panel, including DNS.

FSCKVPS.COM

Another new place I found is FSCKVPS.COM… They are a little “rougher around the edges” than the Slicehost or Linode offerings, but their prices are quite amazing. This is most likely due to this being a “totally unmanaged” service.  Basic tickets related to network uptime and machine uptime is supported, but other things probably are not.  FSCK is a subsidiary of a larger UK based provider VAServ/A2B2, so I feel better about them not being a “fly by night” company. (Of course not implying that Slicehost or Linode is)

I setup a 32bit 512mb VPS (1024 burstable) in their Atlanta, GA data center for only $9.95 with 50% off the first month to test it out.  The control panel runs on a non-standard port (8887) so if you have a firewall at work, you may have trouble getting into it.

The setup was painless, but defaulted to CentOS which I rebuilt into Ubuntu 8.04 (8.10 in 32bit was not available).  The image was “minimal”… Even the source.list for apt needed to have all the repos added to it to get all the updates (it only had 1).  I then proceeded to do all updates and upgraded to 8.10 via commandline.

I upgraded to 8.10 using the instructions here…

http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-8.04-to-ubuntu-8.10-desktop-and-server

As stated before, the memory use of the default image was only 10mb, here’s a screenshot of htop

A2B2’s dedicated U.S. Server pricing is also VERY nice…

Intel Core2Duo E8300
2×2.83GHz, 6MB L2 Cache CPU
4GB DDR2 RAM
2×250GB SATA-II Disk
2000GB Monthly Transfer
5 IP’s
Price: $109.00/month

Normally you’d have to pay at least twice this much for something like this.  I’d probably switch my windows server here if Windows 2003 server wasn’t $30 more per month.  It would be nice too if they offered a machine like this with half the specs (2gb RAM, 2×120gb HDD, etc) for half the price.  That’s more within my pricing sweet spot.

I’m gonna keep testing this VPS throughout the month and see how it holds up.

Cool Stuff, Linux, Review, Software, Technology, Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, A2B2, CENTOS, Dedicated, FSCKVPS, htop, Linode, Server, SliceHost, Ubuntu, VAServ, VPS

Google released their new Chrome web browser shortly before the end of a video announcement about it at 11am PST.  I had the download page ready at the beginning of the video (http://www.google.com/chrome) and was only getting a “404 – not found” error.  At around 11:45a I hit refresh on it and there it was.  

The install was amazingly fast and simple.  Didn’t even require a file that needed downloaded to my HDD and run from there.  The install launched directly out of my Firefox and was done in less than 1 minute. 

It is very heavily based on Apple’s Safari Webkit engine.  Here is the HTTP_USER_AGENT from a test PHP page I made:

“Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13″

Overall, I’ve always sort of liked Safari, but always had issues with minor glitches and random lagginess.  I’ve not encountered any issues at all with Chrome so far.  Google has probably done massive internal testing to insure that there are no obvious glitches and/or bugs.  The GUI is very simple and seems fully functional and the memory usage is EXCELLENT compared to Firefox.  

I’ve had Firefox take up to 400-500mb RAM without much even going on.  Even just after starting Firefox is the Google homepage, it takes up 62mb RAM.  On my system, Chrome only consumed around 25mb.  

The only thing I’ve run into when it comes to rendering is my company’s Intranet.  It is only optimized for IE and Firefox and looks pretty bad with Chrome/Safari but is still usable.

All other sites I frequent are just fine, loading faster than ever.

UPDATE 5pm EST:

After running some memory tests, I opened up 4 tabs in Firefox, IE8, Chrome, Safari and Opera, which included logging into 2 of the sites and just displaying two others.

Tab 1: My company’s ticketing system
Tab 2: My personal GMail (Google Apps for Domains)
Tab 3: This blog’s admin section login page only
Tab 4: MSN Money Stock quotes with 6 stocks on it

Firefox 3.0.1: 124.5mb RAM (1 thread)
Firefox loaded everything pretty well, was a bit sluggish on GMail tab.

IE8 (version 8.0.6001.17184): 95.5mb RAM (2 threads)
IE8 loaded everything that it loaded pretty quick too, but completely failed to load GMail, getting stuck on the loading <Email adress> progress meter…  Rendering on the front page of my company’s site was screwed up, but was fine in all other browsers tested.

Chrome: 112.5mb RAM (6 threads)
Perfect loading of all tabs, very fast, no issues.

Safari 3.1.2 (Windows): 98mb RAM (1 thread)
Loaded all sites, a bit sluggish, but not as bad as Firefox. 

Opera 9.52: 75.5mb RAM (1 thread)
Loaded all sites, little slow on GMail, but it came up. All other sites where just as fast as Chrome.

In conclusion, I like the feel of Chrome the best.  Very simple and easy to use, I really like the multiple thread/tab paradigm.  Safari has that nice “Appley” interface I like.  Opera is Ok, but does have more rendering problems, on sites not tested above, than the others.  IE8… Bleh… no comment…  

And as for Firefox, and I thought I’d never say it, it falling behind on both memory usage and speed.  I’ve also encountered quite a few Firefox crashes when shutting down the browser.  This is happening occasionally on all my machines on all operating systems I use, Mac, Linux and Windows.

Apple, Cool Stuff, Review, Software, Technical, Technology browser, Chrome, Firefox, Gecko, Google, IE, Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari, Webkit

Later today Google is expected to release a new web browser based on Webkit (what Safari uses) and Firefox.   I feel that it will be a welcome addition to the browser wars.

I used Firefox, but have notice a lot more browser crashes with 3.x than previous versions and it feels quite laggy sometimes even on a Quad processor machine with 3gb RAM.  It gets to the point sometimes where I just load up Safari or Opera to surf sometimes.

IE just sucks.  I ONLY use IE for site testing during web development and for the “best” experience accessing my day job’s Outlook Web Access (OWA) for email.  Other than that, IE is not a part of my day to day browser use.

If this Google takes the best of Webkit and Firefox and makes it “better, faster, stronger”, then I will use it.  Of course I will be frank on my review of it and will do my best not to be biased since I use Google almost exclusive for my search needs, Email (Google Apps for Domains), Analytics for stats, etc.

I will post up a review once I get my hands on it and can put it through it’s paces.

I think Google will have more downloads of this browser in the first 24 hours than Firefox did on it’s 3.0 launch day if it posts up something on the front page of Google.  This could be huge.

Apple, Cool Stuff, General, Review, Software, Technical, Technology 3.0, Analytics, Apple, browser, Chrome, engine, Firefox, Google, Google Apps for Domains, IE, Laggy, Microsoft, Outlook web access, OWA, RAM, Safari, search, war, Webkit

What a complainer… Sure, there are going to be bugs, lots of them sometimes in the case of a new product of this type… People should almost expect them.

We all knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time. A lawsuit has been filed against Apple over what the plaintiff is referring to as the “Defective iPhone 3G,” which she hopes will become a class-action complaint. Alabama resident Jessica Alena Smith filed the complaint yesterday against the iPhone maker, alleging that the new iPhone’s 3G performance and reliability has been subpar, despite the claims made by Apple’s aggressive marketing campaign. Considering that a true fix has yet to be issued for users’ 3G problems, this could just be the tip of the iPhone lawsuit iceberg. More >>

But now, this woman wants to file a class action lawsuit against Apple due to 3G not living up to her expectations.  Even though the Infineon 3G chipset may be a bit flawed, it’s still not completely Apple’s fault.  AT&T is the provider and that can cause the dropcalls, coverage (or lack of) issues and so on.

I live in Kentucky and don’t even have 3G where I live, so I cannot really vouche for the quality, but I did get a chance to travel to Lexington KY this past week and had NO problems whatsoever… Actually my 3G was much faster on my phone that one of my friend’s tethered BlackBerry.  I brought up pages much faster on my phone than he did on his laptop.

Some people just don’t have anything better to do… Just ask for a refund and get a different phone… geesh.

Asinine, Cell Phones, Gadgets, Review, Technical, iPhone 3G, Apple, Blackberry, Class action, coverage, Defective, dropped calls, Infineon, iPhone, Jessica Alena Smith, Kentucky, KY, Lawsuit, Lexington