Tuesday 30 November 2004 at 07:01 am
A glimpse at IBM's new 'Cell Processor' - this will power the new Playstation 3. The BBC also have a brief article on it. "capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations, or calculations, every second"
Monday 29 November 2004 at 9:33 pm
Wired is running a Whatever happened to SGI ? story. Nice comparison with the Mac community.
Introduction to 64-bit Windows on Opteron/Itanium hardware.
An insight into the IBM Power Architecture. Also some very brief details on Power7 - it looks like IBM really will smoke the opposition in the Unix (primarily Sun and HP) marketplace.
Fan of classic cellphones - Retrofone has something to meet all your needs.
Quick backup solution - Rsync Snapshots.
The ongoing hunt for the perfect Windows - Sticky. Having come back to Outlook I can safely say that its 'Notes' feature is terrible compared to the flexibility offered by Mac OS Stickies.
Useful - WordWeb is a free 'lite' Dictionary/Thesaurus for Windows.
Tuesday 23 November 2004 at 7:46 pm
Steven Bink has an invaluable guide to creating bootable Windows 2000 and Windows XP installation CD's. If you slipstream in the most recent service packs and script a few post OS package installs you can end up with a no fuss minimal interaction restore CD to standardise your PC's with.
Hand in hand with the bootable CD is the customised winnt.sif file which specifies as much or as little of the initial install information as you require. There are plenty of good articles on creating and customising this file.
There is also a freeware tool to help strip-out and select the components you need for installation - nLite.
Tuesday 23 November 2004 at 06:50 am
This open-source tool provides similar functionality to Salling Clicker on the Mac - FMA for Windows. It allows you to access your Bluetooth enabled phone (particularly the T610) from your Windows PC.
A pretty simple article but the juicy stuff is in the links to running partitioned Linux servers alongside AIX - take a look - Installing Linux on an IBM pSeries server.
Interesting but not surprising - Novell Linux Desktop review indicates its not quite ready for primetime with a few rough edges. If you didn't already know Novell bought SuSE. I guess it'll take a few iterations before it has that slick look to it that users are accustomed to in a 'corporate' product. And that enormous 'N' has to go . . .
A good introduction to Open Firmware. I'd originally thought this was just an Apple invention but it appears to have originated at Sun.
Emulation - a little light on detail but this brief article shows you how to Emulate CP/M and OpenVMS on Linux.
This is cool example of why a mainframe class OS still has life left in it yet - Simulate OpenBSD on a Vax using SIMH.
This story has been linked by many many sites but its to good to miss so - The Audion Story. A glimpse into the workings of a small Mac developers product from conception through to the release of Audion as freeware.
Audio recordings of somewhere else - One Minute Vacation.
Nifty and simple web based whiteboard - Webnote. The cool thing about it is that it also supports an XML feed so you can use it as a common 'post-board' which people can subscribe to and receive updates from.
Filched from Gizmodo - a small database of Japanese Consumer Design. Nice pictures of Nakamichi, Onkyo, Yamaha and other brands through the ages. The 70's weren't so tasteless afterall but I still maintain the vertical record player was a bad idea.
Friday 19 November 2004 at 07:28 am
The official Sony PSP site is up. Sony still have the best design/ergonomics even if Nintendor did beat them to the market with the Nintendo DS.
Friday 12 November 2004 at 08:02 am
Irix 6.5 is the current base OS. It is possible to update 6.5 'live' while the system is running and then reboot for changes to take affect. Irix OS installs prior to this will require an offline OS upgrade by booting off an external CD or trying a network boot. Pre-Irix 6 (many old Indigo and Indy machines have 5.3/5.4 installed) the disk will need to be reformated so any data will be lost unless its backed up.
Overlays (like Windows Service Packs and SUS Updates) keep the Irix OS up to date with new features and patches.
At the time of writing Irix 6.5 Overlay 26 is current (often referred to as just 6.5.26).
The most recent updates can be obtained from the SGI support site.
Odd things happen to some of our products when you update beyond 6.5.18 so be very wary of updating beyond this level unless specifically requested. The problems tend to relate to changes in particular Fortran calls in newer overlays - these seemed to have happened between 6.5.18 and 6.5.20 onwards.
Another big change of note specifically to IT is that autofs became a peer service - no need to mess around with amd. Autofs stabilised around 6.5.14 so where possible we should convert machines to using this in place of amd.
What I tend to do is download each CD and uncompress the contents to our IT SGI in vema:/export/sgi_install seperate from the core 6.5 CD's. Where possible I try to keep an older Overlay set around for compatibility reasons (6.5.16 is the old Overlay on vema:/export/sgi_install). If we had enough SGI machines we might automate updates with Roboinst.
There is an installation 'gotcha' - if you get these errors when opening an overlay for installation
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 172 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 520 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 636 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 1878 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 1879 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
WARNING: Invalid filetype "X" at line 1880 of x_eoe_6524m.idb
You need to install Patch 5086 if you make the jump from a pre 6.5.20 install to a current Irix Overlay (eg installing from 6.5.16 to 6.5.24 -> install the patch first). The patch is in /export/sgi_install/patches on vema.
You need to be root to run 'inst' the Irix software installer - here you can see a) becoming root, b) mounting the sgi_install directory and c) checking its contents d) running inst
bash-2.00$ su
Password:
octagon# bash
# cd /
# ls
CDROM/ debug/ etc/ hw/ lib64/ ns/ proc/ sbin/ tmp/ unix* var/
Desktop/ dev/ export/ lib/ mnt/ oSYSLOG root/ stand/ tmp_mnt/ usr/ web/
bin/ dumpster/ hosts/ lib32/ mnt_tmp/ opt/ s/ t@ u/ v/
# cd /export
# ls
octagon/ temp/
# ls temp
# mount vema:/export/sgi_install temp
# ls temp
6.5.16_Inst_Overlay1/ 6.5_Aug2002_Apps/ 6.5_Found1/ 6520_Inst_Overlay1/ 6524/ FW_Nov2002_Pt4/
6.5.16_Inst_Overlay2/ 6.5_Dev_Found/ 6.5_Found2/ 6520_Inst_Overlay2/ FW_Nov2002_Pt1/ MIPSpro_7.3/
6.5.16_Inst_Overlay3/ 6.5_Dev_Found_1.2/ 6.5_NFS/ 6520_Inst_Overlay3/ FW_Nov2002_Pt2/ oracle/
6.5.16_Inst_Overlay4/ 6.5_Dev_Lib/ 6519_Apps/ 6520_Inst_Overlay4/ FW_Nov2002_Pt3/
# cd temp
# cd 6524
# ls
6524_Apps/ 6524_Comp_Apps/ 6524_Overlay1/ 6524_Overlay2/ 6524_Overlay3/
# inst
The inst installation routine begins
Default distribution to install from: /export/temp/6.5_Found2/dist
For help on inst commands, type "help overview".
Inst 4.1 Main Menu
1. from [source ...] Specify location of software to be installed
2. open [source ...] Specify additional software locations
3. close [source ...] Close a software distribution location
4. list [keywords] [names] Display information about software subsystems
5. go Perform software installation and removal now
6. install [keywords] [names] Select subsystems to be installed
7. remove [keywords] [names] Select subsystems to be removed
8. keep [keywords] [names] Do not install or remove these subsystems
9. step [keywords] [names] Interactive mode for install/remove/keep
10. conflicts [choice ...] List or resolve installation conflicts
11. help [topic] Get help in general or on a specific word
12. view ... Go to the View Commands Menu
13. admin ... Go to the Administrative Commands Menu
14. quit Terminate software installation
Inst>
Select 1 to select the install source - we've copied all the cd's to vema so you'll see this particular machine already has some of the paths listed from previous upgrades.
Be sure to select the Overlay 1 CD first - that way inst knows to expect other CD's
Previous installation sites:
1 /export/temp/6.5_Found2/dist
2 /export/temp/6.5_Found1/dist
3 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist/dist6.5
4 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist
5 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist
6 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5
7 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist
8 /export/temp/6.5_Aug2002_Apps/dist
9 /export/temp/6.5.16_Inst_Overlay4/dist
10 /export/temp/6.5.16_Inst_Overlay3/dist
11 none (no distribution, view installed products)
12 quit (no additional distributions, return to inst prompt)
Install software from: [/export/temp/6.5_Found2/dist] /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay1/cd1
Feed inst the path for all of the other CD's which you'll need - inst will open each one and read its contents and then allow you to give it the path to another CD
Install software from: [/export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist/dist6.5] /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist
Reading product descriptions .. 0%
Setting distribution to /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist
Reading product descriptions .. 100% Done.
If you plan to install from another distribution, either choose from the
list below or enter the name of a different distribution.
This will allow you to make selections from two or more distributions
before starting the install.
Enter "done" if you are ready to proceed with the installation now.
1 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist
2 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist/dist6.5
3 /export/temp/6.5_Found2/dist
4 /export/temp/6.5_Found1/dist
5 /export/temp/6524/6524_Apps/apps
6 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay3/cd3
7 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay2/cd2
8 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay1/cd1
9 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist
10 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5
11 done (distribution information read, return to inst prompt)
Install software from: [/export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist] /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5
Reading product descriptions .. 0%
Setting distribution to /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5
Reading product descriptions .. 100% Done.
If you plan to install from another distribution, either choose from the
list below or enter the name of a different distribution.
This will allow you to make selections from two or more distributions
before starting the install.
Enter "done" if you are ready to proceed with the installation now.
1 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5
2 /export/temp/6.5_Dev_Lib/dist
3 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist/dist6.5
4 /export/temp/6.5_Found2/dist
5 /export/temp/6.5_Found1/dist
6 /export/temp/6524/6524_Apps/apps
7 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay3/cd3
8 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay2/cd2
9 /export/temp/6524/6524_Overlay1/cd1
10 /export/temp/6.5_NFS/dist
11 done (distribution information read, return to inst prompt)
Install software from: [/export/temp/6.5_Dev_Found/dist/dist6.5] done
When you're done (either '11' or 'done' as above) - check for conflicts via 'c' - this will list all conflict - you can use 'c'
