Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Lua.js
Friday, April 26th, 2013
I thought it might be cool to try to convert the Lua VM over to js using emscripten. Turns out someone already did it. Pretty neat.
SimCity is buggy!
Sunday, March 31st, 2013
I was pretty excited about this release, but the game as it currently stands is so riddled with bugs it’s practically unplayable. I’ve had multiple cities go down as a result of the dreaded “your city is not processing correctly” error, I’ve had one city simply disappear off the server it was supposed to be saved on, and last night I lost a city after it went nuclear despite a high education level for all the workers. The potential here is great, but this game is currently not worth the effort since you are pretty much guaranteed to lose your work after a few days of playing.
Maybe in six months once they work out all the bugs, but currently I just don’t feel like playing knowing something will eventually go wrong and I’ll have to start over.
SimCity is back
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
Check out the video. One of my all time favorite desktop games. Can’t wait.
Surface RT Jailbreak
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
I’ve been experimenting with getting Firefox running on the RT. VS 2012 has full support for ARM development, and the ARM version of Windows 8 supports the Win32 API. Amazing really, Microsoft obviously thought about allowing 3rd party development, but backed out at some point. The tools though are there and work.
Windows 8 Storage Spaces perf
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
Interesting –
Sequential Read : 40.028 MB/s
Sequential Write : 24.254 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 25.066 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 24.446 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 0.624 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 2.037 MB/s
Using Seagate USB 3.0 5400 rpm drives for storage.
Hard Drive Perf
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
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WD, 7200 rpm
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Sequential Read : 88.048 MB/s
Sequential Write : 69.699 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 40.149 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 69.042 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 0.554 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 1.007 MB/s
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OCZ Vertex3, solid state
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Sequential Read : 221.362 MB/s
Sequential Write : 220.076 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 202.623 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 199.977 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 21.914 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 57.040 MB/s
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WD, USB 2.0, 7200 rpm
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Sequential Read : 27.620 MB/s
Sequential Write : 28.172 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 20.949 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 25.942 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 0.612 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 0.770 MB/s
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Seagate micro, USB 3.0, 5400 rpm
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Sequential Read : 29.525 MB/s
Sequential Write : 30.093 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 21.548 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 29.557 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 0.667 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 3.777 MB/s
Solid state drives rock. Interesting too that a USB 3.0 5400 rpm beat a USB 2.0 7200 rpm drive.
With various tweaks to settings for the solid state drive:
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no write caching
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Sequential Write : 189.780 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 193.286 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 58.288 MB/s
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with write caching, write buffer flushing
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Sequential Write : 220.076 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 199.977 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 57.040 MB/s
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with write caching, no write buffer flushing
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Sequential Write : 228.540 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 196.989 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 57.035 MB/s
Write caching helps, but turning off flush isn’t needed for the best performance.
Update – adding data from a new Microsoft Surface Pro – this is pretty mind blowing. The integrated Micron RealSSD C400 is freaky fast -
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Surface Pro Micron RealSSD C400
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Sequential Read : 492.928 MB/s
Sequential Write : 114.242 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 385.979 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 114.220 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 20.494 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 43.988 MB/s
Compare that to my OCZ Vertex3 above. Wow.
How does this compare to expanded storage with a 64GB Kingston MicroSD?
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Surface Pro Kingston MicroSD expansion
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Sequential Read : 37.170 MB/s
Sequential Write : 13.813 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 33.336 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.030 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 4.162 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 0.482 MB/s
blech.
Taxes go up in California again
Friday, November 9th, 2012
* Raises California’s sales tax to 7.5% from 7.25%, a 3.45% percentage increase over current law
* Imposes a 10.3% tax rate on taxable income over $250,000 but less than $300,000
* Imposes an 11.3% tax rate on taxable income over $300,000 but less than $500,000
* Imposes a 12.3% tax rate on taxable income over $500,000 up to $1,000,000
* Imposes a 13.3% tax rate on taxable income over $1,000,000
I don’t think people who live there realize just how much they pay for the privilege. When I moved down to Florida I was blown away by the difference in cost of living, and the costs just keep going up. Not my problem! 
Netgear WN3000 Universal WiFi Range Extender Review
Friday, July 6th, 2012
Short summary: I can’t get this thing to work and will likely return it. Updated, it’s sort of working now. See updates below.
This is unfortunate because the device has most of the features I was looking for – easy router config and connect, MAC address filtering, and all the normal forms of connection encryption.
I was unsuccessful in connecting an XBox 360 and two different tablets (Win8 and Android). All devices failed to aquire an I.P. address. The extender also does something funky with virtual mac addresses I was never able to figure out. (Speaking of which, what the heck is a virtual mac address? The internet doesn’t have a good definition.) Another complaint, the web based admin interface seemed buggy, clicking on the main sectional nav links didn’t spin the throbber in my browser, and sometimes the interface I selected simply didn’t come up. One last complaint, the documentation through the web based admin interface wasn’t very good. One of those classic cases where the person who wrote the docs didn’t have good english skills.
Overall Netgear has a useful little device here if they work out the connection problems. The device had strong signal from various parts of my house, it connected to my WPS router with zero effort, and it had the security features I wanted. However getting a pc, tablet, or xbox connected to it should “just work”. It didn’t, and the support docs and support web site were of little help.
Update – I managed to get this working by performing a system reset. Basically, plug the device in, wait for green lights, then hit the device reset button using a paperclip. I then went through the same process of getting it connected to my router using WPS. After which I was able to connect via a Windows 7 laptop and the XBox 360. (However, I received a warning from the xbox about NAT issues which concerns me. Does this device have issues with UPnP?) Also, the xbox test connection process was very slow. I’ll run with this for a bit and see how things go. If the connection speeds are bad or I have issues with games, I’ll likely still ditch the unit. Linksys sells a similar model, I might try that product out if the Netgear extender totally fails to impress.
Update 2 – More connection problems, this time with an android tablet. The tablet connects and attempts to get an IP address which it seems to accomplish, but then it immediately loses the address, and attempts again. This cycle goes on continually. With all the issues I’ve had, I think in the end this device is going to be a waste of money. I am not impressed.
I did figure out the virtual mac address thing – the device maps a virtual address to the address of a device connected to it. If you use mac address filtering you’ll need to set up filters for both addresses on your router and the device itself. Kind of a pain really, since you have to maintain two lists. For devices connected to the extender, you’ll need to add the device address and then add the virtual address to your router. If you want to be able to connect to both access points simply add both addresses to both lists.
PRO:
1) easy router set up
2) mac address filtering and encryption
CON:
1) major issues with getting clients connected
2) Mysterious NAT warning on the xbox
3) Android connection cycling
4) buggy web based administration interface
5) crummy web site support
pdf.js is awesome!
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
I just uninstalled Adobe Reader X. Man that felt good.
Collusion by Mozilla
Monday, March 5th, 2012
Collusion is an experimental add-on for Firefox and allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web. It will show, in real time, how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers.
www.mozilla.org/collusion – go get it.
One thing that isnt clear in the demo, you can grab the little circle web sites and drag them around to better see relationships.
