Øblog

Forfatter: Øyvind Lasse Høysæter

  • Y2K7 this weekend

    This weekend we will see the consequences of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 where the USA daylight saving time will start march 11th instead of April 1st. Some says its a new Y2K event and some shrugs and laugh it away. Have we mapped all consequences?

    Microsoft and Apple has released patches for this but my opinion is that desktop computers is the least source of worries. Routers, switches, servers, cellular trancievers/receivers, satellites, servers and servers applications will also be touched. Have everyone upgraded their firmwares on GPS based systems? Many were told to wait til january 2007, some beta-firmwared their chipsets and a large portion is beginning to feel the headache today as they realize they have to ship new ROMs today. The poor souls that upgraded their firmware in august 2006 to prepare themselves had to downgrade again and wait til november.

    Applications that runs old versions of JRE (Java Runtime Environment) may report wrong time after this Sunday, since JRE stores every daylight saving time rule around the world. Fun? And if you run IBM’s websphere you might want to look at this.

    How will Kerberos behave in all this? Did you update your HP-server? 🙂

    All of the above have been background activity the last couple of years, no need to worry the consumers. The biggest worry for many americans is «will my Blackberry calendar work?», «will my VCR tape the wrong shows»? etc. 🙂

    Good luck this weekend, and don’t forget to visit Standard Time. heh

  • New external graphic cards

    ATI/Amd and Asus are about to release external graphic cards. Asus’ is ready this spring but unfortunately we wont be able to purchase the component seperately, it will be sold with new portables only. For now. ATI/Amd’s new device code named ‘Lasso’ takes the unit to the next step, it will be possible to bind more than one graphic card to the unit.

    The GPU (Graphical Prosessing Unit) is not just a graphic card, it is a master of math, graphic is all math. The GPU will relief the main CPU of heavy mathwork. Which bring me to Distributed Computing. It is already possible to download a GPU-client for Folding@Home and hopefully many will follow. A GPU client can speed up crunching x30/x40 compared to a CPU on certain operations. Not all GPUs are supported, and not all math operations are fitting the GPUs architecture. Folding@Home is currently supporting ATI/Amd’s X1600, X1800 and X1900 class. The Processor R580 in the X1900XT card is recommended since it has 48 pixel shaders. You will need the Catalyst drivers, which means there is no Linux client yet, but this wil be possible in near future.

    There is also activity on Cure@PS3 project, where you can use your PS3 to crunch Folding@Home packages. Here is a link to the PS3 Faq at Standford.

    Picture having a bunch of dull Linux-servers with no monitors connected, hooking on a few ‘Lasso’s on it and start crunching, I really hope more Distributed Computing projects will follow in Stanfords footsteps.

    Check out this page for an image of an early ‘Lasso’. 🙂

  • Sony digs its own grave

    Sony delayed the release of the european version of the PS3 because they desperately needed to cut the cost. Now Sony has released information that the european version has been modified. The PS2 hardware compability has been removed and have been replaced with a software emulation. Good grief, on this page (http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc/) you will be informed what games you can’t use on the EU PS3. It will be updated the same day of the release because they hope people won’t check this before they hurry to buy it.

    This means that you will be forced to buy PS3 releases, and they will push prices up. The european PS3 is allready more expencive than the US and JP versjon.

    All of this are well known issues with Sony, compability were reduced with the slim PS2, so I guess this is not a shock to gamers around the world.

    There are already teams out there who develop chip-systems for PS3, I have a feeling the market for chipped PS3 will be bigger than what we’ve seen with the PS2. Sony is too greedy, using 600 on a crippled version of PS3 is too much. And having to pay 50 for 1 game is a crime.

    Good luck Sony, The Pirate Bay will have to expand its bandwith when people start to download PS3 games for real..

  • 50Mbit/s on copper

    50Mbit/s on copper

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=»yes» overflow=»visible»][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_en]Lump of copperMany of us struggled years ago to achieve stability and good enogh line-quality to get ADSL. Desparate queries on Kapax gave grief reports like «you are 301m too far away from nearest central» and the equipment was some old ALCAUD boxes. One were happy when they upgraded central and got a 2Mbit adsl but after a few weeks the central got overloaded and they had to reduce it to 1MBit because of line-noise. Many struggled for weeks to get connected and some of them got happy messages like «we’ve routed you through a neighbor central and increased your line speed, will not cost you anything», but then after a couple of months that central too went bananas because of overload. Sounds familiar?

    Now Cybercity (Telenor) announces that they will challenge the market with a 50Mbit/s product, via existing coppernetwork. Sounds fun? 🙂 I say recycle all copper!



    [/lang_en]
    [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_nb-no]Lump of copperMange av oss strevde for ikke så mange år siden med å oppnå stabilitet og gode linjer via ADSL. Desperate henvendelser mot Kapax gav grimme rapporter som «du er 301m for langt ifra nermeste sentral» og utstyret der var noen gamle ALCAUD bokser. En var lykkelig når de oppgraderte sentralen og kunne få 2Mbit ADSL men etter noen uker ble sentralen overbelastet slik at mange måtte ned i hastighet igjen. Mange strevde i flere uker for å få det til, og noen fikk hyggelige meldinger om at de nå har rutet en gjennom en nabosentral slik at linjekapasiteten kunne økes igjen. Men så etter noen måneder gikk sentralen bananas igjen pga overbelastning. Høres det kjent ut?

    Nå har Cybercity (Telenor) annonsert at de vil utfordre markedet med et 50Mbit produkt, via eksisterende kobberlinjer, høres det morsomt ut? Jeg sier bare : Resirkuler all kobber!



    [/lang_nb-no][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • No more spam

    [lang_en]Yay! I received a _lot_ of spam on my hoysater.net domain and I’ve tried lots of different attack angles against the spam. My mom on her 56k modem struggled when she popped the mail account, not fun to watch the counter reading ‘downloading 3 of 754’ unread mails. I’ve tried server based mail washers, whitelists, blacklists, blacklist services, dictionaries but none of them have solved the problem entirely.

    A few days ago I talked with someone who recomended Google Apps, I researched a bit and dived into it. Now I have changed my MX records to Google’s and activated mail hosting. Google’s spamfilter is working very well and now all of my family have 2.8GB, and still counting upwards, mailboxes. The calendar is pretty fun too.

    I wish we soon can organize mailservices a bit better than now, too many open relays, bad configured mailservers out there. And those who have proper configured mailservers, well – many of those are spammers…[/lang_en]
    [lang_nb-no]Yay! Vi mottok _masse_ spam på hoysater.net domenet vårt og vi har prøvd en mengde forskjellige løsninger. Min mor stakkar på sitt 56k modem kunne bli sittende i flere timer og laste ned mail, meldingen «laster ned mail nr 3 av 754» er ikke noe pent syn. Vi har prøvd server basert mail-vasking, hvitlister, svartelister, svarteliste-servere og filtrering vha ordlister men ingenting har løst problemet skikkelig.

    For noen dager siden snakket jeg men en som anbefalte Google Apps, jeg testet litt og hoppet i det. Nå har vi aktivert Google Mail hosting og endret MX postene på DNS slik at de peker på Google. Googles spam filter fungerer kjempeflott, og alle i familien min har fått en 2,8GB (stiger fortsatt) konto hver! Kalenderen er ganske morsom også.

    Jeg håper snart vi kan gjøre noe med mailsystemet på internet, det finnes altfor mange åpne servere der ute som kan misbrukes, rett og slett for dårlig konfigurerte servere. Mange av de som har satt opp serverne sine skikkelig, ja de er ofte spammere…[/lang_nb-no]

  • Distributed Computing

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=»yes» overflow=»visible»][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_en]I’ve joined Team-Norway, a group of vikings berserking DC-projects. Its very fun and it has reinspired me to continue with Boinc and other fun projects like PI Segment, Major 12, DPAD, Dimes etc. I have to admit that I prefer the Boinc’ed ones like Seti, Rosetta, Einstein, Climate Prediction etc but the special clients are worth a study.

    They are a cheerful group of people, visit them at http://www.team-norway.org. Maybe you would like to join?[/lang_en]
    [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_nb-no]Jeg har blitt medlem av Team-Norway, en gruppe vikinger som berserker en rekke DC-prosjekter. Det er kjempeartig og det har inspirert meg til å fortsette med Boinc og andre morsomme prosjekter som PI Segment, Majestic 12, DPAD, Dimes etc. Jeg må innrømme at jeg foretrekker Boincede prosjekter som Seti, Rosetta, Einstein, Climate Prediction, Spinhenge, Malariacontrol etc men de spesielle klientene er verd en titt.

    De er en gjeng med flotte mennesker, besøk dem på http://www.team-norway.org. Kanskje du har lyst til å bli medlem?[/lang_nb-no][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • Predictable Yom Kippur|Forutsigbar Yom Kippur

    Predictable Yom Kippur|Forutsigbar Yom Kippur

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=»yes» overflow=»visible»][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_en]Its the time for it again, Yom Kippur trends on Google. Pretty predictable. What is yom Kippur?

    Updated it today.[/lang_en][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=»1_1″ background_position=»left top» background_color=»» border_size=»» border_color=»» border_style=»solid» spacing=»yes» background_image=»» background_repeat=»no-repeat» padding=»» margin_top=»0px» margin_bottom=»0px» class=»» id=»» animation_type=»» animation_speed=»0.3″ animation_direction=»left» hide_on_mobile=»no» center_content=»no» min_height=»none»][lang_nb-no]Det er dags for den igjen, Yom Kippur trender på Google. Ganske forutsigbart. 🙂 «What is Yom Kippur»?

    Var innom og oppdaterte den i dag.[/lang_nb-no][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • English

    [lang_en]I’ve redecided to write in english, again. Maybe Google soon will offer translation from english to norwegian. I’m trying to activate a translation plugin but I don’t like the look of it. Those flags keeps spreading all over the place. :)[/lang_en][lang_nb-no]Jeg har ombestemt meg, igjen, for å skrive på engelsk. Kanskje Google en gang i fremtiden vil tilby oversetting fra engelsk til norsk. Jeg prøver å aktivere en plugin for oversettelser men jeg liker ikke helt måten den gjør det på. Flaggene blir plassert i hytt og pine. :)[/lang_nb-no]