International Open Solutions Centre » Mobile

Project CORE Server

boyd — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:59:16 +0000

This summer I found out that my working enviroment just got too many computers and generated too much heat too (of course the electricity bill is a bit too high). This is the time to talk about Green Power and Save the enviroment hah

I will be getting rid of my current server which is

AMD Sempron (just because it’s cheap)
nVidia C51 Motherboard (for 3D testing)
1GB DDR533 Memory (RAM is expensive when I built this)
Total of 1.2TB storage (4 HDD with different size)
400W PSU (just too much)
Running on Centos 5 with XEN (I love YUM)

The current server mainly is for NAS Storage, PHP/MySQL Development server and to practice more on SSH + UNIX

OK, let’s talk about new thing now.

I am going to build my new tiny Green Powered Server which I will name it as usual – CORE Server (maybe I should call it 2nd generations?)

The aim for this new CORE server is mainly because

I will be bringing it along for my long term travel from UK to Malaysia and back
Small in size (to comply with the above) which can fit in my bag
I want a less power consuming server (to save the bills)
I want to try out the new Intel Atom Duo Core (Virtualizations with XEN and VMWare)
I want to build a beautiful server with facilities such like NAS, LAMP, Media Streaming, Media Player, FTP, SSH + etc (of course, this is a SERVER)

Here are the specs of my CORE Server

Hardware

Product	Specs	Price	Remarks
Mini-ITX Casing	120W Internal PSU Internal 1 x 3.5″ HDD Space + 1 x 2.5″ HDD Space on the same rack 1 x 5.25″ External Space	£60	-
CPU + Motherboard	Intel Little Falls 2 Mini-ITX Motherboard Intel Atom N330 Dual Core Processor Intel 945 chipset Built in Intel XMA Graphics with D-Sub and S-Video Out 6 channel AC97 Audio	£60	17cm x 17cm
Memory	2.0 GB DDR2 667 (1 x Dimm maximum)	£18	CL5
Data Harddisk	2 x 1.0 TB Western Digital 7200rpm Green Power SATA II HDD	£140	Low Power Consumption
OS Harddisk	1 x 20GB 2.5″ Hitachi HDD	£0	Used HDD from old laptop

Software

Operating System	CentOS 5.3 64 bit Server Edition Gnome Desktop (for LAN remote VNC) WindowsMaker Desktop Manager (for WAN remote VNC)	£0	Running on ext3
Virtualization	VMWare Server 2.0 XEN kernel (Optional Boot for Testing)	£0	-
LAMP	Apache 2.0 PHP 5.0 MySQL 5.0	£0	-

Now I am waiting for my Intel Little Falls 2 to come on Wednesday and will continue this post

12/June/2009

Finally the Intel Little Falls 2 arrived!!!

It really a headache when trying to put this motherboard into the tiny casing. I have to remove the HDD racks and power supply in order to fit the board in. I even have to take off the bottom part of the casing (No wonder this tiny casing so expensive, the design is really user friendly )

The second problem is the cables after fit in the board and every other parts. SInce the space will be super compact, I have to squeeze all the power and data cables into the sides. The CPU Fan only remains about 3cm height of space just under the 5.25″ HDD rack on top.

Just after completing the assembles, the first thjing I need to check will be the temperature of the CPU. It shows around 40 celsius in the BIOS with the CPU fan running at about 2800rpm and the casing big fan which draws out hot air running at around 4500rpm.

Since the server will not be fit with any optical drives, so I have to temporary plug in the DVD-RW drive to install the CentOS 5.3 Final. The installation went off smoothly and then after around 30 minutes I have the OS up and running!!! It takes long for installing because I want to customised all the installations. I only choose the Server-GUI version with customized packages to keep the overall system file size below 2GB.

If you are interested in the system process details, please leave me a comment so I can tell more. At the moment let me test the server first and moving all my data files into it.

updated: by using “smartctl” command, 3 HDDs detected running at around 30 to 36 celcius, not bad huh!!!

Samsung NC10 Netbook around £299 (RM1600)

boyd — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:28:39 +0000

http://waterblowing.com/2008/10/29/samsung-nc10-netbook-around-299-rm1600/

Samsung NC10 Netbook

Among all the hot netbook in the market now, I found that the Samsung NC10 Netbook comes with the most competitive specifications and also, a good price. The NC10 comes with all the features that maybe you can not even find on an expensive laptop. The only things to disadvantages compare to expensive mobile laptop maybe just the speed of processor. I have not yet tested any Intel Atom based computer yet but I believe that you do not need a super powerful processor for a laptop now a days. If I am not with my MacBook now, I definitely will get this one for travelling.

For me, netbook will be good for email, web conferencing, voip, messenger, photo organizing, music, movie (even HD) and of course, working

Let’s look at the spec

Processor

Intel® Atom™ Processor N270 (1.6GHz)
533MHz FSB with 512KB Cache
Chipset: Intel 945GSE + ICH7M

Memory

1GB (1 x 1GB) DDR2 667MHz
Memory Slot 1 x Slot SODIMM

Hard Drive

160GB SATA

Software

Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home (SP3)
Samsung Magic Doctor
Samsung Update Plus
Easy Display Manger
Easy Battery Manager
Easy Network Manager
Easy Speed Up Manager
Adobe Acrobat Reader

Display

10.2” WSVGA (1024 x 600) SuperBright© Gloss LED Display

Graphics

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
128MB Integrated Graphics

Audio

HD (High Definition) Audio
Multimedia Player
EDS (Enhanced Digital Sound) Effect
2 Watts Stereo Speakers (1W x 2)

Input Devices

84 Key with Silver Nano technology (Anti-Bacterial Keyboard)
Touch Pad (Scroll Scope, Flat Type)

Networking

Wired Ethernet LAN (RJ45)
10/100
Wireless LAN
Atheros® Wifi 802.11b.g
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Dimensions

261mm (W)
185.5mm (D)
30.3mm (H)
Weight: 1.33kg

Power Supply

60 Watt AC Adapter
6 Cell Lithium ion Battery

Interfaces

1 x VGA D-Sub Out
1 x Headphone-out
1 x Mic In
1 x Internal Mic
3 x USB 2.0
3 in 1 Card Reader (SD, SDHC, MMC)

Warranty/Miscellaneous

1 Year Warranty
Samsung Recovery Solution III
McAfee Virus Scan
BIOS Boot Up Password / HDD Password
Kensington Lock Port

iPhone 3G Useless Backup And Restore

boyd — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:42:25 +0000

All the photos I took using my new iPhone 3G gone

This morning, I found my iPhone 3G (firmware 2.0.1) looks like something wrong, all the music on it seems missing. I have been trying to re-sync it for so many times, it seems the files are there but just not showing on the iPod on iPhone.

Finally in the afternoon I saw there is a firmware 2.0.2 for update, so I try to update it but the problem stay the same, no music at all.

Then I start to do the restore, I thought the backup is working all right so I didn’t go and backup my photos (which actually the backup process will not back it up anyway, I have to use Picasa to copy the photos but I forgot to do it), the restore seems going all right.

The next thing my nightmare came, the backup set actually not working (which is only for 2.0.1) and now I lost all my SMS and Photos (contacts, calendar and email is all right because real copy are in my Outlook).

Damn it stupid Apple, what kind of backup and restore you are doing…you make me feel so unhappy

iPhone 3G 2.01 updated

boyd — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:31:40 +0000

Just updated to the latest 2.01 firmware (250MB), can’t see any changes yet, after few days try out should have some news here

stay tuned….stupid iTunes

New iPhone 2.0, It’s here NOW!!!

boyd — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:44:03 +0000

The conference is still on and I just making a quick shout first

The new iPhone still comes with the 3.5 inch screen but have more features now

- 3G Enabled

- GPS

- Compatible Audio Jack

This time the phone look a bit fat at the back (black plastic) with smaller edges with nice chrome buttons

I definitely will buy one and try on after trip to Japan. Let’s see will O2 UK give away the phone for free like the BBC website stated (if you are on the high monthly contract payment)

more updates here in a social way (my personal social blog site)

iPhone2 for £100???

boyd — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:01:08 +0000

iPhone 2 will be selling for only £100 in the UK? Sounds possible…let’s wait for the 9th June announcement

If it’s true then I will be ready to get one to try.

news from http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/29957/Apple-prepping-low-price-iPhone

Installing AppLocale on Vista

boyd — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:39:23 +0000

Today I just try to install the apploc.msi (MS AppLocale Utility) to support some chinese software on to my new Laptop running MS Vista Home Premium and found out that Vista did not permit me to do so. The message displaying you need Administrator right to install the software. I looged in as a administrator user but still cannot install it. Finally after searching through the MSDN documents, I found the solution.

Click on Start and then at the Search Box (for Run as well), type in

msiexec /ju c:\apploc.msi

which msiexec is the utility to run MSI Package file

and /ju means

j stand for advertise and permit to
u stand for current user

and interesting, I found the Applocale successfully added to my Programs Menu.

Hope you can get it through!!! Feel free to email me or drop a message in the forum

Apple iPhone

boyd — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:02:56 +0000

LG Chocolate White

boyd — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 18:15:14 +0000

Today we went into a phone shop in SoHo London and my girlfriend grabbed this phone for FREE!!! of course, by pay monthly plan more technical information coming soon after I review it tomorrow…the battery is still charging now…