* Posts by Hel

6 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Dec 2008

Is it a NAS? Is it a SAN? No. It's Synology's Rackstation 'NASSAN'

Hel

Re: Err, No

If those use the same crap LSI-made controllers as the MD3000, don't bother. I have an MD3000i hooked up to 4 ESX servers (Dell R610s), and the SAN degrades performance (I/O times spike into the 500-900ms) semi-hourly. Sometimes, the delays will be so long that the drives disconnect altogether, and I'm in the office at 2:30AM on a Sunday morning cleaning up the mess. Oh, and it says it supports jumbo frames up to 9000 bytes, but I have to leave my setup set at 4088 bytes because any increment higher than that, and the performance is horribly slow - 1/10th the IOPS, and even worse than 1/10th the transfer speeds. They've pulled VMWare certification from the MD3000 series starting with version 5.0. The Dell "support" guy was extremely happy when I mentioned I was using 5.1, told me "that's not supported", and hung up in the middle of my protests. It was happening when I was running 4.1 before I upgraded, so maybe I should have just lied and told him 4.1. Our older SAN (an AX4-5i) is still supported up through ESXi 5.1, despite being EoL. We inherited an IBM DS3300 (same garbage LSI controllers), and it does the same thing. IBM stuck it out till ESXi 5.0 before pulling VMWare certification, though. Stay far, FAR away from that junk.

Netbooks were a GOOD thing and we threw them under a bus

Hel
Linux

Netbooks

I bought my netbook based on size and functionality. Price was a lesser consideration because I wanted it to be my only mobile device, beside my cell phone. I got the then brand-new Dell Inspiron Duo (with the cool convertable touchscreen). It's not perfect, but it's a great size for use on an airplane, and battery life is adequate now, and pretty good compared to competition back then. If I was looking for a replacement, I'd probably go with one of Samsung's ATIV PCs http://www.samsung.com/global/ativ/ativ_pc.html . Totally agree with your price comment. There's really nothing available on the market anymore that is cheap first and feature-filled second. Certianly nothing like the EEEs of (long) ago.

Dell Inspiron Duo

Hel

Finally, a level-headed review of the Duo

(Full disclosure -- I own one.)

Good job, Reg! Every review of the Duo I read either comes at it as if it were a tablet, and says it's too bulky, or as a laptop and says it's not powerful enough. It's neither.

Yes, the battery is terrible. Yes, it needs video out (at least). Yes, it's a bit awkward to use as a tablet. Yes, you should remove all Dell-branded software before you do anything else with it. Everything other issue mentioned has been a non-issue for me.

There's several different marks that hardware is designed to hit (desktop replacement, laptop, netbook, tablet), and the Duo hits right between several of these. If you think of it as a very nice netbook with a gimmicky screen, it starts to make sense. Also, that touchscreen works in laptop-mode, too, which comes in useful in several cases.

If Dell can address the 4 problems I've mentioned (or just the first 3 -- I'll be removing their software anyway) in the next version, they'll have a real winner.

Hel

I'd wait for the second iteration

I own one. pre-ordered it, actually. You're right about the battery life, and the reviewer is right about the lack of ports. If Dell makes a second iteration, you can bet those 2 issues will be addressed. What I'm interested in is a spin of Android 3.0 for it. There's a build of Android 2.1 for it that boots almost instantly, and is quite snappy, and would be perfect for use for a quick webbrowser. Anything more, windows 7 loads in about a minute.

Satellite-hacking boffin sees the unseeable

Hel
Joke

There is no spoon.

---Laurie has also developed software that analyzes hundreds of channels to pinpoint certain types of content, including traffic based on TCP, UDP, or SMTP. The program offers a 3D interface that allows the user to quickly isolate email transmissions, web surfing sessions, or television feeds that have recently been set up.

There's too much information to view it decoded. After awhile, you don't even see the code, all you see is Blonde, Brunette, Redhead...

Rock-solid Fedora 10 brings salvation to Ubuntu weary

Hel
Linux

You're mistaken on the X.org Nvidia comment

First off, if you had been correct, then you should have also stated that you'd just be losing support for the nvidia LEGACY driver that powers kit over 4 years old (roughly).

Second, as of 10/29, Nvidia released a 32 and 64 bit version of the legacy driver that's compatible with X.org -> http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=1826678