Author Archives: tim

Oracle Adds License to oracle-java7-installer and Now It Fails

Posted on March 15, 2014 by tim

For automatic provisioning that installs the official Oracle Java package, many paths lead to WebUpd8Team/java PPA and www.webupd8.org. Currently, the apt-get-install oracle-java7-installer command will fail, leaving a file at /var/cache/oracle-jdk7-installer/jdk-7u51-linux-*.tar.gz that is a plain .html file that contains “Sorry! In … Continue reading →

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Groovy Badness: Turn a List into a Map

Posted on October 27, 2013 by tim

I’ve always enjoyed finding bugs in languages. I still fondly recall finding a bug in Perl concerning the “while () { .. }” construct and file names that evaluate to ‘false’, like a file named “0”, for example. More recently, … Continue reading →

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Core 4770K Build

Posted on September 29, 2013 by tim

Some facts on the CPU: it is currently #24 on PassMark [10,121] cpubenchmark.net. Ahead of it are the Xeon E5-2xxx, the AMD FX-9590, and a few Core i7s (48xxK, 49xxK and 39xxK). A short while ago the 4770K was #17 … Continue reading →

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Custom build specifications for Amazon EC2 cr1.8xlarge

Posted on September 9, 2013 by tim

Ever wonder what the big Amazon instances would cost if you bought one (instead of rented)? Here is an attempt to answer that question. Note: Amazon EC2 provides more than just the hardware (e.g. network connectivity and bandwidth, for starters), … Continue reading →

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Amazon EC2 PassMark per ECU

Posted on August 18, 2013 by tim

Ever wondered what an Amazon ECU is worth in terms of a PassMark-CPU Mark value? (see cpubenchmark.net for PassMark scores). One way to calculate the PassMark per ECU value comes directly from Amazon’s information where they describe the hardware behind … Continue reading →

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AMD Server

Posted on July 6, 2013 by tim

After a ten+ year hiatus, I built another (inexpensive) AMD Server machine. That first AMD machine cost less than $400. I didn’t quite match that cost, but I got pretty close. The CPU and the RAM were $20 off each. … Continue reading →

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ZFS Machine

Posted on March 10, 2013 by tim

I finally got around to building a highly reliable storage system. Currently, that requires two disk drives and ZFS. And ZFS, in turn, requires something other than Linux. I ended up with FreeNAS. With mirror (RAID 1), ZFS will “self … Continue reading →

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Portable Power Build

Posted on March 23, 2012 by tim

Using pieces from upgrades and from good deals, I put together a new “portable computing platform” machine. It started with an employee discount on the Core i7. It gained momentum after the 12GB to 24GB upgrade of the 920 left … Continue reading →

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Tim’s Rule on Agile

Posted on February 29, 2012 by tim

Tim’s Rule on Agile: If you read a description of Agile practices and do not find at least one thing wrong per page, then you do not have enough experience to make Agile work. Tim’s first corollary to the Rule … Continue reading →

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Core i7 Upgrade

Posted on January 5, 2012 by tim

The youngest and I upgraded the core i7 machine from 12GB (6×2) to 24GB (6×4) of RAM tonight. Although hard drive prices remain x4 expensive, the RAM is x4 less expensive. The upgrade means I’ll be running a few more … Continue reading →

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