Somewhere out there!

The review of four Linux softphones has a useful table of the various codecs and their bandwidth requirements.

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A simple Opteron vs. Xeon
benchmark using slamd comparing a dual core Sun v20z and an IBM x345.

Result: Opteron server is 1.6x faster then Xeon server. Turning additional cores on and Opteron server is 2.62x faster then Xeon server.

My new v20z is sitting at the warehouse today. I’ll probably have to find my ear plugs while I’m building it up, but I’m looking forward to seeing how well the Opteron is going to perform.

Running my persistent desktops via NX I’ve noticed that my long run (week+) Firefox processes often get into memory trouble. It seems this is not the fault of Mozilla. Check the link for a couple fixes.

So if you’ve used Firefox you’ve probably noticed that it suffers from what can be described as a fairly harsh “memory leak”. The main cause of the problem appears to lie within the plugin for Flash content. There are 2 workarounds that I’ve located.

With a little bit of google here is some extra detail on this.

Firefox Tweak Guide [Page 8] Advanced Tweaking:

browser.cache.memory.capacity [Integer] (32768) – This setting determines whether Firefox uses system RAM to cache itself, improving performance. A value of 0 turns off caching into RAM (not recommended), while a value of -1 tells Firefox to automatically determine the amount of RAM to use. I suggest you manually specify the amount of RAM to be used (in bytes) to prevent Firefox from blowing out too much. For example, I recommend a value of 32768 (32MB) for systems with 512MB of RAM or more. For those with less RAM, try a value of 16384 (16MB). If you have any problems, set this value to -1.

Hacking Firefox: Speed Up Your Browser: Installed Memory vs Memory Cache Allocations suggestions.

I’ve just moved into a new center, combined with this change I’ve fixed a Xen configuration [1] bug that has been plaguing this site with timeout errors. The addition of SunFire V20z at the end of the month should also improve performance, and also allow me to take my Xen/NX desktop testing to the next level.

[1] vif configuration error where 00:01:00:101 and 00:01:00:01 resolve to the same 00:01:00:01 MAC. The former should be 00:01:01:01.

I’ve been using nxat to redirect ALT-TAB when running the NX Client on Windows. However the latest 1.5 client broke nxat. Today another developer, Srini, has released nxutility which does work with the 1.5 client and is even better than nxat as it runs in the systray. Good job!

On Friday my NX desktop started playing up a little. So I rebooted. Kernel root VFS mount error! Very nice. After some testing, it was the first time I’d seen a faulty HDD bring down the Linux kernel even when booting from a Live CD rescue disk. Damn!

Luckily, I was using NFS home directories and avoided “where is that month old backup” mode.

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Back in June I decided I’d try out NX and my MiniMac as a possible active working desktop solution. The genesis for this was mainly based on my decision back in March that iBooks were the best portable solution. Reasonable battery live, hardware/software combination that just works, together.

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One of my goals with NX and Xen is to achieve Thin Guy‘s level of desktop support. Zero!

Sun Ray = Office Supplies. You can’t “Fix” a Sun Ray. Out of the 33,000 Sun Ray desktops inside of Sun, how many “desktop” techs do you think are required to manage that install base? How does the number zero grab you? On the ultra rare occasion that something happens to your Sun Ray (let’s say a power supply failure), you replace it and send it back for a warranty replacement (5 years on the SR1g). In the meantime you walk to the closet, grab a spare and plug it in and pick up exactly where you left off. Anyone who can replace staples in a stapler or replenish their supply of post-it notes can replace a Sun Ray

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I was exploring some SunRay thinclient information when I happened on this interesting blog entry. Quiet racking systems for the home!! Very nice.

After read this blog, I’m wondering how well NX and the SunRay technology compare with each other.

An interesting set of stats pulled from: Mac Forums – Pentium M and Yonah Processors in Upcoming Macs?

With HT enabled, I can run two copies of the job, but they each take 3 CPU hours (and the two finish in 3 wall clock hours).

So, in a day, I can run 12 jobs without hyper-threading, or 16 jobs with hyper-threading. My Opterons do about 13 per day per CPU. (3.6 GHz/1MiB Xeon, 2.6GHz Opteron)

Is it slower with HT – by one measure, yes. Is it faster with HT – by a different measure, yes.