Holidailies 2007

My project last weekend was to build a Linux storage server for my network. Sunday, I discussed benchmarking SATA controllers under Linux. Yesterday, I discussed some considerations for using Linux software RAID. I explained why a mirrored disk drive array (RAID level 1) might best suit my needs, but I had concerns about the performance.

So, I thought I'd run some benchmarks to determine whether the mirrored configuration would be a good choice. Today, I'll discuss the results.

Here are my test conditions:

• SIIG SC-SAT212-S4 dual-port SATA controller
• two Seagate ST3500631NS 500GB SATA disk drives
• ASUS A8N-VM system board
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (dual core 2.4GHz)
• Ubuntu 7.10 Linux
• bonnie++ disk benchmark program

Here is the procedure I used to run the tests:

My project last weekend was to build a Linux storage server for my network. Sunday, I discussed benchmarking SATA controllers under Linux, and my discovery that a cheap SATA controller actually performed a smidge better than the one built into my system board. The add-on controller gave me enough ports to proceed and build the RAID. Today, I discuss my considerations for building the RAID.

As I mentioned previously, I had a pair of server-grade Seagate ST3500631NS 500GB SATA disk drives to use. My goal was to build the storage server using the Linux software RAID capability.

My performance needs were modest. My home network is primarily wireless. Even if I do go wired, which is my eventual plan, it doesn't take a lot of disk performance to keep an Ethernet connection filled up.

Therefore, my priorities, in order, were: reliability, cost, and performance as a distant last.

As quick review, Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) is a technique for arranging multiple hard disk drives for either increased performance, increased reliability, or a combination of both.

My project for the weekend was to build a Linux storage server for my network.

I picked up a pair of ST3500631NS (server-grade 500GB SATA) disk drives from Newegg at a very good price ($119 apiece). I want to add them to chinacat, my main workstation, preferably in a redundant mirror.

Unfortunately, when I opened the computer case I discovered my system board only had two SATA ports. I needed one port for my system disk, two more for the new drives. For some reason I had thought my system had four ports, but it didn't. I was coming up short.

So it was time for plan B. I decided to try adding more SATA ports with an add-in controller card.

I picked up an inexpensive SATA controller at Fry's for $40, a SIIG SC-SAT212-S4. This is a PCI card with two internal SATA ports.

I debated between this card and a more expensive alternative. I was concerned that the bottom-of-the-line card would result in lower disk performance and higher CPU overhead. I decided to give this card a shot. I could run some benchmark tests and return it if it proved unsuitable.

Cable and broadband video markets are in a period of transition. Until recently, video services were franchised by local municipalities. Some rates, such as basic cable rates, have been regulated, and the municipality had to review and approve increases.

Three years ago, the Texas legislature took franchise authority away from local municipalities, grandfathering existing franchise contracts until the end of their term.

At the same time, many of the incumbent cable video providers have been petitioning the FCC to determine there is "effective competition" in their service areas. That determination would release a locally franchised video provider from rate regulation.

Last March, the FCC returned a determination that there is "effective competition" in the Austin video market. This means that Time Warner Austin, even though it still has to operate under its franchise agreement with the City, was now released of the regulation of its rates.

Time Warner responded by imposing a massive rate increase. The cost of basic cable service was nearly doubled, from $10.50 to $19.95 a month.

Time Warner Austin and The NFL Network are battling like two burly tackles over televised football. Time Warner has pulled the NFL Network from their cable lineup. The NFL and football fans are furious, and the Texas legislature has been dragged into the melee. The NFL wants back on the air, of course, but if they get their way it will be bad news for everybody—including football fans.

The American cable market is structured as a basic subscription service, and the subscriber adds the premium content they want with extra-cost packages. The NFL Network is premium content, but the NFL wants to push it into the basic service package. That way they can collect fees for every single cable subscriber in the system—not just those who want an extra football channel.

It's Holidailies time, and as I mentioned in a previous blog posting we're reorienting a bit this year. One goal is to recapture the idea that Holidailies is a gift ("the gift of our prose") from the Holidailies participants to the people who visit and support our personal web sites.

In years past we solicited people to be Holidailies sponsors and buy banner advertisements. Our goal was to raise enough money to cover server costs for the Holidailies period. Each year the community would come through and we'd meet that goal.

We aren't doing that this year. Jette and I are fortunate to have jobs that are stable, pay us well, and won't give us black lung disease. It hasn't been that way every year, but it is this year, and we're grateful. We're in the enviable position of being able to support it all ourselves.

My cell phone is an old Samsung SPH-i500 smart phone. I like it a lot in spite of its deficiencies—which are startlingly significant. I've been watching for a replacement, but so far I haven't found it.

Here is why my current phone is so awesome:

• It has smartphone functionality and Internet capability.
• It runs PalmOS, which is an open platform for developers and has a rich software ecosystem.
• I can sync the contacts and calendar to my Linux desktop.
• My phone looks and feels and works like a phone, not a brick.
• It uses the Palm Graffiti system so I do data entry with a stylus, not one of those micro keyboards.

Here is what's so awful about it:

• The SMS is crippled. It receives text messages but doesn't tell you who the messages are from. It can't send SMS at all (without purchasing add-on software).
• It's a WAP web browser, not full HTML.
• PalmOS is a dead product.
• No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
• My phone is five year old technology. All the cool kids laugh at me when they see it.

HTML templates allow presentation to be abstracted from control. Abstraction, like water, is good—but be careful or you'll drown.

Take sidebar blocks. HTML templates make it easy to abstract the sidebar, but what about the individual blocks?

You could make each block its own template, but you end up juggling so many miniscule pieces you lose track of all the bits. Do you really need a dedicated template just to put an RSS icon in a box?

On the other hand, if you eschew templates and code the blocks all up in the sidebar, you get a large unstructured mess of HTML.

What we need to do here is abstract the structure, not all the little bits of content.

The Smarty template system for PHP has a good solution. You can use the plugin mechanism to create a custom template tag such as {block}. That makes it easy to place blocks in a sidebar template in a structured fashion. I did this for the Holidailies web site.

Here is how a sidebar block looks on Holidailies:

Yesterday marked the start of both Holidailies 2007 and my new blog. Yesterday I talked about Holidailies. Today, it's the blog.

In an unrelated coincidence (as opposed to those other kinds of coincidences), my five year blog anniversary just passed. My enthusiasm for blogging remains as high as ever—in the theoretical sense. In practice, my web site was growing crufty and so to was my posting.

Holidailies 2007 gives me an opportunity to address both.

First, I hope the "one post every day" goal of Holidailies will rekindle the regular posting habit. I'm a firm believer in not saying anything when you have nothing to say, but I think I've got more than one or two posts a month in me. I hope Holidailies will reintroduce me to the blogging habit.

Second, the last major change to my web site was five years ago, when I added a Movable Type blog to my static site. The blog opened up my web site to a torrent of new content. The pace, however, has slackened this past year. I hope that modernizing my site by moving to a complete content management system (CMS) will have a similar effect.

Today marks the start of both Holidailies 2007 and my new blog. Today, I'll talk about Holidailies. Tomorrow, the blog.

Jette founded the annual Holidailies project seven years ago. I joined in four years ago, developing a web portal interface for the project. It's grown significantly each year.

I crashed and burned on Holidailies last year. We put a lot of work into the promotion and development. Sold a lot of ads. Had more participants than ever before. It was the most successful—and most difficult—Holidailies iteration ever.

Even worse, with all the growth and success, it seems like Jette's original purpose may have been lost.

The original tagline for Holidailies was, "The gift of our prose." Holidailies was suposed to be something that participants did in appreciation for the regular readers of their online journal. (And back then it was a journal. The blog movement was just building.)