Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
Here are the pics as promised 
No one knows who is reading these posts..
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Building your own File and Media Server, on the cheap! – Part 3
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Building your own File and Media Server, on the cheap! – Part 2
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Chapter 1 – The Ordnance
Part 1 can be found here. It deals with the reasoning behind having a file and media server in the first place. Part 2 goes into choosing the hardware and how it was chosen.
When we decided to put a server in our home, we needed to decide what it would end up doing. This is important in any context, the right tool for the job, so to speak. Our needs were as follows
1. A central repository of all our files – mp3s (around 50 GB), movies and tv shows (around 100 GB but keeps on increasing) and documents (including photos right from the days i was wearing nappies,around 20 GB)
2. Downloading torrents 24×7. We have a 256 kbps (yeah its measly) connection, with no b/w limits as far as i can tell. So in order to maximise bang for the buck and in order to provide the entertainment we find hard to get on TV, we download 24×7, every day, all week, no sabbath! A previous laptop of mine had already suffered an untimely death due to being on continuously and we wanted to move this critcal function to a desktop which wouldnt generate too much heat and be able to handle torrents in an always on environment.
3. Play media in the living room. Some kind of video output of halfway decent quality and 6 channel audio to output to the 5.1 system we have was mandatory
4. Transcode and Stream Media. I have a PSP right now. This may expand to an XBOX 360/PS3/Wii in the future and the serve rmust be up to transcoding and streaming on the fly with performance drops
Now, a lot of people think servers are some esoteric alien machines which have nothing to do with the computer we use everyday to check our mail. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Servers are merely specialized computers designed to do some compuing jobs exceedingly well (which makes them suck at others). Underneath all the jargon, their parts are mostly the same as the laptop this post is being written on!
With that concept in mind and a ridiculously low price point of Rs. 7000 in mind, I set out researching for the ordnance I would need for the battle, so to speak 
This is how my needs translated into hardware requirements.
A.Processor Generally speaking, any processor launched in the last 5 years would do the job, as the activities i had in mind for my server are not processor intensive. Even Windows 7, the latest version of Windows requires only a 1 Ghz processor!
B. RAM, however is a different story. Windows 7 requires a minimum of 1 GB RAM. Servers require a lot of RAM when multiple users connect to them (which wouldnt be the case iner well, my case!). Even so, I needed to future proof the machine a bit and decided not to settle for anything less than 2 GB RAM. Luckily, RAM is dirt cheap nowadays, with 2 GB costing around Rs. 1250.
C. Video Memory I will never play any games on this computer. However, todays HD content would benefit from a decent video card / video memory of atleast 128 MB (which by the way is what Windows 7 requires for fancy Aero effects).
D. Motherboard. Would have to be extreme bang for the buck, with a good complement of ports and a chipset which doesnt suck too much.
E. Hard Drive. Since content always expands till your current HDD is filled and putting in new stuff means deleting new stuff, I needed the biggest drive I could afford. And it had to be SATA (not only are read write speeds are better, the cable is thinner and lends to more elegant innards when it comes to assembling the system)
F. Display – None! Servers dont need monitors! My server is a zombie!
G. Input Devices – None! Servers only need keyboards and mice while initial config is done. Just borrow from your desktop or neighbour and return when your server’s online!
H. Case – The smallest case to be found locally, with its own power supply, must be black in color!
A lot of googling and sifting through various reviews and multiple visits to Newegg. I finally decided on the following combination of hardware for my server.
Processor – Intel – Atom 330 (1.6 Ghz Dual Core with HyperThreading)
Motherboard – Intel – D945GCLF2 – Based on the Intel 945 chipset
RAM – Kingston – 2 GB
Hard Drive – Samsung – 1 TB
Case – Zebronics – Nick Micro ATX
The beauty of the Atom 330 has to be seen (read about, rather) to be believed. The processor and motherboard are assembled by the manufacturer and shipped as 1 unit. Even though the 945 chipset negates the power savings achieved by the ultra low voltage Atom processor, the price point of the package is too attractive to ignore!
A review and bench mark of the Atom 330 can be found here. I’ll simply say this – Pentium 4 beating performance, Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video Out, Onboard video memory which is expandable in BIOS, with a PCI slot thrown in for good measure, at a price point of $ 85 (Rs. 4250) ? ION can be ‘fully-capable’ all it likes, but my server’s running the 330!
The Samsung HDD cost almost as much as the motherboard+processor itself! I somehow landed a deal which got me a 7200 RPM, 3 GBPS drive for $ 75
Total cost
Motherboard + Processor – Rs. 4250
RAM – Rs. 1250
HDD – Rs. 3750
Total – Rs. 9250
Yes, I overshot my budget quite a bit, but thats the price you have topay for future proofing the machine. If I had toned down my HDD size to 250 GB, I would have been well under budget!
Note: I ordered all the above parts on Newegg and had them shipped to inside the US. I got them a month later when an Indian returned home! The Atom 330 is not available in India as of today. DO NOT buy the Atom 230, it sucks hairy balls.
I bought the case on Ritchie Street, and it cost me Rs. 1250, ratcheting the total cost to Rs. 11,000 ($ 220). Thats cheaper than an iPod!
Part 3 – Pics of the assembly process. Coming Soon..
Building your own File and Media Server, on the cheap! – Part 1
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Prologue – The Imperative & The Cognisance
Recently me and my sis decided to switch to Windows 7, as the Release Candidate was out and Badri raved about it. I was naturally the sacrificial goat (being more tech-savvy AND more patient). I found myself in the most ghastly situation. Both our laptops had only one partition and Windows 7 doesnt allow you to upgrade from Windows XP. It has to be a clean install. Which means the entire hard drive needs to be formatted. It wouldnt do at all to lose my entire 20+ GB music collection and assorted movies now, would it?
I managed to get through the installs after jumping through a million hoops. Imagine transferring almost 100 GB of data onto other computers (yes, plural there), installing Windows 7, hunting for audio and video drivers that were released like 3 days prior to my installing the OS, then transferring all the media back to my computer, to get a fully functional Windows 7 installation.
Trust me, its worth it! Windows is the best thing to come from the belly of the beast in the last decade. The last time i was so pleased with an OS was when the XP beta started floating around in mid 2001. It was called Whistler then, and ran gloriously on my then cutting edge machine (800 Mhz P3, 128 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD!). Ah the good old days..
But this is not a nostalgic piece, neither is it a review of Windows 7. You can find plenty of those two on the interwebs.
What I realized during this painful transition is that every home should have a centralized repository of their files, photos, music, videos. The huge convinience of not having to move around data when upgrading PC’s, regular backups of all data to ensure availability and reliability, and the instant streaming of all music and video to any device on the home network is not only cool, its mandatory in this day and age!
As a victim of a failed laptop whose day came all too soon because it was subjected to the pressures usually reserved for hardy desktops, I came to the conclusion – Never send a laptop to do a server’s job!
With this in mind, and an extremely tight budget I began to do the research that would culminate in ATLAS – my media + file server ( I love giving fancy names to my devices, my personal laptop is called PROMETHEUS).
Part 2 – Servers are cheap! Coming Soon..
The war begins
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Today the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of a petition seeking decriminalization of homosexuality (filed by the Naz Foundation). It is a great victory, in the most conservative and ‘moralistic’ of countries, where less than 6 months ago a Hindu extremist group violently attacked people for just going to a pub.
However, the fight has just begun. Many battles are still to come, the big fight with the Hindu and other religious extrmists, laws to prevent discrimination at workplaces, recognition of same-sex partners as a family unit and that unit’s rights in Indian society, many more.
I am warmed to the core to be living in a time like this, when India is throwing away the shackles that prevent it from reaching its true place in the world order.
Will this be just a small step forward igniting and uniting religious leaders into regressive steps that will take India back to the Victorian Age (when Article 377 was formulated) or will it be the first of many baby steps, which will define the nature of the society India seeks to be, which it always been, the fount from which all the wisdom of the world flows, the one true cultural superpower remaking the world in its own multicultural, tolerant image?
Time will tell.
The Perfect Moment Theory
Thursday, June 18th, 2009A hypothesis, atleast, maybe.
There are many times in life, when I wonder about the meaning, purpose of life. When I think, whats the point of being born? Whats the point of living life the way I do? What is the answer to the question?
I guess humankind will never answer the question, but we will better our existence by striving to answer it.
Here is my pico contribution to that process. I am sure a lot of people who work at all the various jobs in the world wonder whether they are really doing something useful. Wondering whether they are really happy.Wondering whether doing some other job, being someone else in some other organization will make them happier. Maybe its why people quit. I certainly think its why I quit..
Ruminating on these topics, and smoking some excellent weed, I stumbled upon a simple, but effective theory to help people decide what they want to do with their life. Here it goes.
Have you ever had a perfect moment in your life? A moment where time stood still? A moment you thought you could live in forever? Or at least a long long, long time?
Seize that moment, dear reader! Whatever enabled that moment for you is what you should be doing with your life!
Now you must be thinking, thats not practical Scudie! We do things we dont like, so we have some time and barely enough money to do things we like! Its called spare time and middle class living!
To that I only say, you haven’t fulfilled your potential. Trust me, there is more where that analysis of life came from!
Once you find that one thing which enabled you to have a perfect moment and build your career and life around it, I believe you will find that the other things, the time, the money, everything will fall into place automatically.
Maybe this theory of mine has already been around in other forms for many years or decades. Never hurts to say these things again!
So, I will take leave of you now, dear reader, I need to find my perfect moment. It might be in the past even! Crap..
Introducing.. Sporadic!
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Acidic, sexy, livewire, intelligent.. All that and more! Check out Sporadic, a dear friend..
The prodigal blogger returns
Saturday, June 6th, 2009Hello there, denizens of the recession generation!
After a looooooooooong time, your least favorite blogger is baaaaaaack!
I can safely say that none of my ex readers encouraged me to come back, but that should never stop the intrepid writer, should it now!
Whats up on the life front, you might ask? Nothing! No job, no income, just living off my parents! All you people who are living off the state, wonder how that feels..
Lets hope I stay the course this time and start writing regularly again.
Coming up are some short stories too, just to punish my regulars
Engineering was my second choice – Part 1
Saturday, February 21st, 2009Vk recently wrote this post on choosing higher education options. I can relate to it so bad! Usually the poor students who finish their 12th in Tamil Nadu have blinkers tied to them and are led into the engineering horse race without fail. My story was a wee different!
The year I finished my 12th with the usual above-average-but-far-from-spectacular marks, was the year my mother’s Bhakti engine had gone into Overdrive. The months leading up to my 10th (passed out in 1996)had been chock-full of visits to perumal koils, donating twigs of exotic plants to farting pundits, personal aarti services with kartikeya, and the pleasing of all other sundry gods and goddesses who pepper the Hindu belief system. This was followed by consultation with the numerous saamiyars, astrologers and other assorted fortune tellers, including a Kali mama, and an ex bank employee to whom Hanuman had started giving nightly darshans.
She finally came to her senses when the ex bank employee asked for a donation of Rs. 10,000 in 24 hrs as Hanuman was in a credit crunch. Of course this decision was greatly helped by my dissapointing 10th mark sheet. So she decided to eschew mainstream religion alogether and got all spiritual instead.
Mesmerised by a certain godman’s phallic extrusion antics, she decided to do the craziest thing a new convert to his brand of spirituality can do. She made her son join His college.
Part 2 – The part where I studied at Bangalore, but never knew it!
Whats with women and sun signs????
Saturday, December 6th, 2008It shocks you when you first encounter it. A well read, progressive, liberal, open minded woman asks you what your sunsign is. How the fuck does it matter woman? How does it matter where the Sun was when I was born?
And dont even get me started about the ‘horoscope’ columns in newspapers / news magazines. Everyone knows that anyone can write a horoscope prediction without knowing shit about the stars, sun, atronomy, astrology etc.
In fact, let me try to write one off the cuff, just to prove a point. Here goes..
‘You will face many challenges today. Money is an important goal, and you will have help from your peers in achieving this. Your partner will remain distant, romantic involvements will cause tension’
See? Its like a piece of cake eaten during a walk in the park!
Why dont these dumb things understand that there’s more to me than the position of the Sun on the day I was born. I demand to be treated like the complex, interesting individual I am.
In the immortal words of Sivaji, The Boss, VAANGA PAZHAGALAAM!!!