Tech Review: Big Data: Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hardware Size Review (Computer Storage Devices)

Expansion 3TB SuperSpeed USB 3.0 External Desktop Hard Drive ($145)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0392921

• $0.48 per GB ($48 per TB)

Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 120GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) with SandForce 2281 Controller ($85)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364780

• $0.71 per GB

DVD-R 16x 4.7GB/120 Minute 100 Pack

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0327199

• $0.03 per GB

Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model CT12864BA1067 ($9)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148147

• $4.88 per GB

Tech Review Big Data: Thursday, June 21, 2012

An Overview of Apache's Hadoop

http://linux-news.org/index.php/2012/06/14/an-overview-of-apaches-hadoop/

3 takeaways from Amazon's latest cloud outage

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking-tech/3-takeaways-from-amazons-latest-cloud-outage/12101?tag=nl.e550

Tech Review Cloud: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

5 ways the public cloud can go wrong for DOD agencies

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/06/18/5-risks-to-dod-agencies-adopting-cloud.aspx?s=gcndaily_200612

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Security and privacy
• functionality
• records and compliance
• Support

"Beast of Breed" commercial solution may not be good defense environment solutions.

Tech Review Big Data: Thursday, June 20, 2012

Pogoplug Office Secure Private Cloud Solution - POGO-V4-A4-01 ($90)

http://www.buy.com/prod/secure-private-cloud-solution/228249327.html

Tech Review NAS: Monday, June 11, 2012

Fantom Drives Diamond 1.5TB 64MB Cache USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - FDD1500U64 ($80)

The price of external drives is coming down.

Tech Review NAS: Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Western Digital Elements 3TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive -Refurbished - WDBAAU0030HBK-NESN

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-elements-3tb-usb-2-0-desktop-external-hard-drive/220582891.html?listingid=195165060

• $139
• less than $50 per TB
• USB 2.0
• Standard size

Tech Review NAS: Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Toshiba Canvio HDTC610XS3B1 1TB USB 3.0/2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Silver ($110)

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-canvio-hdtc610xs3b1-1tb-usb-3-0-2-0-portable-hard-drive-silver/224614721.html

• Sweet little drive
• $50 per TB
• USB 3.0

Tech Review: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Army to march with Androids, and other feds could follow

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/16/army-mobile-secure-android-authentication.aspx?s=gcndaily_110112

• security
• authentication
• logistics
• identity verification
• services (Army) want to reduce cost
• $1 trillion in potential budget cuts
• access to unclassified info
• SPAWAR (?)
• hardened kernel for Android mobile operating system (sic.)
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
• http://www.nist.gov/index.html
• George Mason University
• Google
• allow soldiers to connect their smart phones to tactical and mission command and control systems
• secure Android kernel
• evaluated by NSA
• issued a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification
• Dec. 2011
• Allows Suite B encryption certification
• Plan to moved to next level to connect into military networks at the secret level
• April 2012

"A key driver for project is the need to access information stored within military mission command systems such as the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) and the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), he said. FBCB2 is the Army and Marine Corp's mobile command and control system and AFATDS is the DOD's primary tool for battlefield fire support."

• Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA)
• http://www.arcic.army.mil/csda.html
• avoid being locked into one kind of hardware
• {Apple}

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/11/motorola-unveils-encrypted-smart-phone.aspx?s=gcndaily_120112

• Motorola's AME 1000 Secure Mobile Telephony Solution 

Air Force wants wearable computers

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/10/agg-air-force-wearable-computers.aspx?s=gcndaily_110112

• {unless the is combined to some battle armor or exoskeleton, no way it will work.}

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/air-force-wearing-computers/

• {Sure give me some money and I will try to develop it too.}
• {Unless the is some sort of battle armor, i.e. protects the solder or helps the move faster, no way.}
• list some of the problems the Army had and why they have move to smart phones.

Kinect for Windows, free software kit to drop Feb. 1

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/10/ecg-windows-version-of-kinect.aspx?s=gcndaily_120112

• $249
• free SDK

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/

• development kit available today

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/01/microsoft-bets-big-on-kinect-for-windows-but-splits-its-community.ars

• natural user interfaces sensor
• 18 million devices sold
• Xbox 360

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/johnny-lee-kinect-hacking/

• open source drivers

http://openkinect.org/wiki/Main_Page

• free, open source libraries to enable Kinect to work with Windows, Linux and Mac.

http://openkinect.org/wiki/Getting_Started#Please_read_this_before_you_start

• nice Ubuntu install instructions

Androids that Support Skype

http://blogs.skype.com/en/2011/08/skype_21_for_android.html

• list of phones
• Android 2.2 and above
• install
• "enable video calling"
• if the phone doesn't have this option
• doesn't meet requirements to make Skype video calls
• Skype 2.1

http://blogs.skype.com/en/2011/08/lion_support_hd_video_calls_wi.html

• Skype Mobile
• work with Verizon Phones

Archos Arnova G2 10" Tablet, ARM Cortex A8 (1.0GHz), 4GB Storage, webcam, microSDHC slot, Android 2.3 Gingerbread - 501766

http://www.buy.com/prod/archos-arnova-g2-10-tablet-arm-cortex-a8-1-0ghz-4gb-storage-webcam/223314208.html

• This is what I should have bought for Dolores

Western Digital Elements 2TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive -Refurbished - WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-elements-2tb-usb-2-0-desktop-external-hard-drive/212218326.html?listingid=175709010

• a 2TB drive back in the $50 per TB range.  
• A welcome sight

Linux Kernel 3.2 Officially Lands in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Linux-Kernel-3-2-Officially-Lands-in-Ubuntu-12-04-LTS-245405.shtml

• better support of large files
• up to 1MB  on EXT 4
• I/O-less dirty throttling
• cross memory attach

Motorola: Carriers 'don't want' stock Android phones

• running stock Android
• unaltered Android
• carriers don't want stock phones
• most changes to stock are requested by carrier
• different each carrier from the competition
• Motorola not shipping unlocked bootloaders

Case Logic VHS-101 Portable Hard Drive Case: $8.84

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Case-Logic-Portable-Hard-Drive-Case/10983394?findingMethod=rr

• should fit my new drive

Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures (Xbox 360): $119 ($250 for PC)

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kinect-Sensor-with-Kinect-Adventures-Xbox-360/15066156?povid=cat482412-env193369-module011112-lLinkRR1KinectValue

• what are the implications of this technology?
• is the camera resolution really good enough to do something with?

How ads undermine Android security

Almost all free aps are major info grabbers.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/how-ads-undermine-android-security/17685

• put on system by
• manufacturer
• carriers 
• Adds on app have same permission as app.

Virtualization doesn't fix all of Android's ills

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/virtualization-doesnt-fix-all-of-androids-ills/17502?tag=content;siu-container

• Problems virtualization might fix:
• Android fragmentation
• update lag
• Problems it wont fix
• forward compatibility
• {not sure why virtualization would not help for this}
• performance
• virtualization has a small performance hit
• OEM branding and crapware
• Carriers branding and crapware
• things Google should do
• virtualization
• expected in 2012
• minimum hardware spec
• I don't really think this is important
• I have changed my mind, this could really help if you know what hardware meets specs and what doesn't.
• Get OEMs and carriers out of the picture
• discourage locking bootloaders 
• discourage branding and crapware
• so long to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook

iPhone cannibalizing Android sales

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/iphone-cannibalizing-android-sales/17668

• October/November sales of iPones soared from 26% to 43%.
• that is huge
• Android dropped from 60% to 47%
• that is huge also
• Does Google need to wake up?

Tech Review: Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Western Digital 4TB My Book Studio Edition II - Quadruple Interface (USB 2.0, eSATA & FireWire 400/800) External Hard Drive - WDH2Q40000N

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-4tb-my-book-studio-edition-ii-quadruple-interface-usb/211190835.html?listingid=45553526

• $331
• Guessing that it has 2 TB drives in it

Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 3.0/2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Midnight Black)

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-Portable/dp/B0041OSAZS

• bought for $65
• hope to install linux on it

DISA OKs secure Android mobile system for DOD

http://gcn.com/articles/2012/01/05/disa-okays-secure-andriod-mobile-system-for-dod.aspx?s=gcndaily_060112

ZAGGkeys Flex Bluetooth keyboard for iOS and Android (review)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/zaggkeys-flex-bluetooth-keyboard-for-ios-and-android-review/5384?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

• $80
• Nice blue tooth key board for both android and iOS

Kingston 16GB microSDHC Card w/Full Size SD Adapter - SDC4/16GB

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-16gb-microsdhc-card-w-full-size-sd-adapter/216757949.html

• $15
• Need the extra space for my Android
• Looks like the good deals are about $1 per GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313195&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL010512&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL010512-_-EMC-010512-Index-_-FlashMemory-_-20313195-L09B

Boss Electric 2802 8" Android Tablet

http://www.jr.com/boss-electric/pe/BOE_2802/

• $110
• I have been very disappointed with the bargain Androids.  I wonder if it is even worth buying them at all.
• runs Android 2.2
• gives access to a large segment of apps
• 1.1 GHz CPU
• should run most apps
• really 
• 800 mhz CPU
• 300 mhz DSP
• this could be a problem
• Which way is the camera facing?
• Can it run Skype?
• Another China Android

Why Ice Cream Sandwich won't be able to save Android tablets

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/why-ice-cream-sandwich-wont-be-able-to-save-android-tablets/19584?tag=nl.e539

• kind of a dumb article
• I didn't know that Android tablets needed saving
• His complain about interface in comparison to Apple might be correct, but I don't think his conclusions are

Should Amazon, Google & Wikipedia "nuke" the Web to stop SOPA?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/should-amazon-google-wikipedia-8220nuke-8221-the-web-to-stop-sopa/1848?tag=nl.e539

• How big of a threat is the SOPA?
• does it hurt us competing internationally?
• is there danger of it law being used inappropriately 
• strong arm for political reasons
• ?
• blocking Web sites that share media
• what are the ramifications?
• would be use to kill personal use
• like iPad
• Article simply says it it bad and everyone hates it without saying why is bad and why everyone hates it

Get a 1.5TB external hard drive for $99.99 shipped

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-57355056-58/get-a-1.5tb-external-hard-drive-for-$99.99-shipped/?tag=nl.e796

• I missed the good old days when I could find a 2TB drive for $80.
• USB2
• eSATA

Dell Precision M4600 Mobile Workstation

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bwmd33a&m_2=IX72960&m_3=4G2D3&m_6=M5950&m_8=750G72&m_10=HD&m_11=W7PN61E&m_16=8XDVRTN&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&model_id=precision-m4600

• $3009
• Extreme Quad Core 2.70GHz
• Win7 Pro 64 bit
• 16 GB memory
• 32 GB 
• $5,000 more
• slower memory
• DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM
• AMD FrePro M5950 Pro Graphics
• 750 GB 7200 rmp Drive
• Blue tooth
• Camera/mic
• Can add Mobile Broadband for $125

Cloud Storage

http://gizmodo.com/5828035/the-best-way-to-store-stuff-in-the-cloud

Really good article on cloud storage.

May want to take a look at the Google storage.

Tech Review: Thursday, July 21, 2011

How to build your own 135TB RAID6 storage pod for $7,384

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/90634-how-to-build-your-own-135tb-raid6-storage-pod-for-7384

• About $54 per TB
• With Raid 6, that is really $63 per TB
• This is a single unit.  
• Speed within it is good
• Raid 6:  1-2/15= 85%
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
• 85% of 135TB is about 117 TB
• $7384/117 = $63 per TB
• Redundant
• 45 3TB drive
• groups of 15 drives grouped together using RAID6 to create 39TB partition
• ext4 has a 16TB limit
• used logical volume manage (LVM) to access the full 39TB as a unit

IBM's Watson charts new frontiers for computer science

http://gcn.com/articles/2011/07/20/watson-opens-new-horizons-for-computer-science.aspx?s=gcndaily_210711

• David McQueeney, VP of software
• keynote speech at FOSE
• "a long-standing challenge in artificial intelligence to emulate a slice of human behavior"
• Understanding unfiltered language hard for computers
• Jeopardy
•  statistical analysis approach
• did not work
• uses structured data only 15% of the time
• built-in temporal reasoning
• find data through time and geospatial calculations
• weight evidence
• pre-loaded data
• not connected to internet
• Watson in 2007 could only answer Jeopardy questions 50% of the time
• DeepQA
• massively parallel probabilistic evidence-based architecture
• made of off-the-shelf components
• not technically a supercomputer
• 80 teraflops of processing power
• Won 71 percent of the time in 55 sparring matches

Mono, open-source .NET for Android, Linux and iOS, lives on

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/mono-open-source-net-for-android-linux-and-ios-lives-on/9265?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE

http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

• support for SUSE-Attachmates' Linux Branch
• given mono new life

minicom

Using to connect to the serial cable to my test pogobox.  Let's me see what is going on in a plugbox boot up.

Referenced in the plugbox link:

http://plugapps.com/index.php5/Hardware:_Pogoplug_Pro_Serial

The log notes on June 6 and 7, 2011 talk about how I used it.

This is being used to work with running iRODS under plugbox for the NARA Advance Language Processing (ALP) work the Bill Underwood.

There should also be something

There are some other links I should have saved that clued me in that the power was coming from Pogoplug and not the USB port.

Not for a Pogoplug, but does go into some good detail:  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CCwQFjAAOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neolics.com%2Fpdfs%2Fdku-5.pdf&ei=BUECTu2VDJOitge20aHIDg&usg=AFQjCNE6q5HNSrRW58jfsSvfdpOWKMHRqQ&sig2=uPCVDWt6LqxFwlzKb5ARxA

Just a short not at the bottom: http://www.pogoplugged.com/forum/thread/11515/How-To-Find-mkfs-jffs2-and-other-tools-on-Pogoplug/?page=2#1692

I was unable to find the article that I was looking for :-(

3TB Drive for $140 (< $50 per TB)

http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-my-book-essential-3tb-usb-3-0-external-desktop-hard/q/loc/101/217438518.html

The sweet spot seems to be moving to the 3TB drives.  With free shipping this is at $47 per TB.  Also this would increase our current system from  8TB per plugbox to 12TB per plugbox.

Pics for Mike

Mike said it didn't happen unless there are pictures.  So here are the pictures:

Five Hacked Pogoplugs

24 TB of disk storage

Drive to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BH4ONE/ref=pe_133010_19472470_pe_epc_t7

Seagate Expansion 2.0 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST320005EXA101-RK

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-External/dp/B002QEBMCI/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Arch Linux: ntpdate 4.2.6-1 / rdate / date

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=19145

Package is flagged out of date.

rdate should be replaced with ntpdate.

http://www.computerhope.com/unix/udate.htm

date

Linux: Creating Hard Disk and ISO images

http://www.backuphowto.info/linux-backup-hard-disk-clone-dd

• dd if=/dev/sda of=~/disk1.img

This work for an win2k disk to pull the ISO.  I was able to used the pulled ISO to build a virtual machine.

Pogoplug Mounting a stock Image as RW

http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5/PlugApps:Pogoplug_Pro_Chroot

The command is:

• mount -t ubifs -o rw,remount,relatime /

Re: Pogoplug V2 Hardware Description

Memory can be found in MB using:

 [root@Plugbox Vault]# free -m              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached Mem:           247         31        215          0          3         13 -/+ buffers/cache:         15        231 Swap:            0          0          0 [root@Plugbox Vault]#  

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 1:23 PM, Stan Hughes <hughes.stan@gmail.com> wrote:

General description of plug type hardware.

http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5/Portal:Hardware

Memory:  256M

Internal Storage:  128M

Description of Pogoplug V2 hardware.

http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5/Hardware:_Pogoplug_2

External

• 1 Front-Facing USB 2.0 Port
• 3 Rear USB 2.0 Ports
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port
• Regular Power cable (Not a brick)
• Power/Activity LED

Internal

• 256MB RAM
• 128MB NAND (32MB root partition, 92MB mtdblock3 partition)
• Marvell Sheeva CPU, 1.2GHz
• Serial port

iRODS seems to be running pretty well on this.  Run as server only without iCAT.

Pogoplug V2 Hardware Description

General description of plug type hardware.

http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5/Portal:Hardware

Memory:  256M

Internal Storage:  128M

Description of Pogoplug V2 hardware.

http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5/Hardware:_Pogoplug_2

External

• 1 Front-Facing USB 2.0 Port
• 3 Rear USB 2.0 Ports
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port
• Regular Power cable (Not a brick)
• Power/Activity LED

Internal

• 256MB RAM
• 128MB NAND (32MB root partition, 92MB mtdblock3 partition)
• Marvell Sheeva CPU, 1.2GHz
• Serial port

iRODS seems to be running pretty well on this.  Run as server only without iCAT.