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After Yesterdays post about how I wanted a Mac to do cross-platform development work on I thought it might be fun to write about what my dream home office, aka The Laboratory, would be like.

Before I begin have to admit I’m a Microsoft fan.  I know it’s uncool to like Microsoft and the real “hackers” are all about Linux.  However, I do like Microsoft.  They don’t always do the right thing and can be a bit of a brute sometimes but they are a business after all.  They have to try to stay on top of a rather large and complex market.  That’s not to say I’m some anti-opensource or anti-unix person.  I’m all for opensource software and in fact if you take the time to look you’ll see this site is running on Linux!

First, lets get down to the nitty gritty of the core of “The Laboratory.”

To start with I would run a pure gigabit network.  There would be no 10/100 or other such slow backbones in my home!  I would need the raw speed capable only from a gigabit network.  Now unfortunately I could never get away with a pure wired gigabit network.  I would have to include some wireless capabilities.  I would use only 802.11g networking equipment.  First off the speed increase would be welcomed and secondly the added security that 802.11g offers over 802.11b.

There would be a router setup to provide network access from DSL, Cable, or whatever else I may use.

The main hardware would consist of 3 systems.

Server 1(core services): Windows 2003 Server. Basically it would handle all the core needs like Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, file storage, backup services, etc.

Server 2(windows web test server): Windows 2003 Server. This would be the Windows web test server.  It would run IIS and SQL Server.

Server 3(Unix web test server): FreeBSD 4.10.  This would be the unix web test server.  It would run your basic Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, Perl, Python servers and software.

All three systems would be built identically.  I would start with dual top of the line Xeon processors then load them with 4 gigabytes of ram.  The core services would be the only one a bit different.  Because it plays the role as a file server I would build a very large Raid-5 array in the terabyte+ size range.

There would be four basic workstation/desktop systems on the network.

System 1(general usage):  This would be sort of a general usage system to cover basic office and web needs.  Things like word processing, spreadsheets, email, browsing, chat, IM, etc.  As a result this would be a very small low powered system.  I would build it around the Via Epia platform and run Windows XP Pro.

System 2(main development): This would be the main system for doing development work from software coding to website work.  It would be a windows XP Pro system.  It’d be very similar to the servers with dual Xeons and 4 gigs of ram.  The big plus would be that this system would have multiple monitors.  At least two but maybe as many as three.

System 3(secondary development): This is where the Mac would show up.  I’d get a nice dual G5 Mac OS X system for doing cross-platform development work.

System 4(gaming): This would be the powerhouse in the lab.  Windows XP Pro again.  Top of the line Pentium 4 cpu, 4 gigs of ram, fastest video card, etc.

Beyond this there would end up several more systems as time went on I’m sure.  Test boxes I’d build to try out new OSes or do test installs of software.

Besides that there would be atleast one tablet PC.  I really like the idea behind tablet PCs and would want one with full wireless roaming access.  I could sit down anywhere in my lab or house for that matter and remotely access my systems or just goof off and surf the web.

So this is just some things I’ve always dreamed about.  In reality most of the systems are pretty overpowered for my needs but hey I can dream!

I was just checking out the Apple website and ventured over into their preview page for the next release of Mac OS X v10.4 aka Tiger.

Most of the stuff isn’t that thrilling to me like say the new version of Safari, the Apple browser, or iChat AV.  I could really care less about those things.

What does interest me and peak my geek radar are the core technology advances in the OS.  There are 3 things specifically that caught my attention and have made Tiger stand out to me.

1) Enhanced UNIX Support
OS X is built from a UNIX core and with Tiger they bring in even more of the features.  Most of these features actually come from FreeBSD 5.x.  I’m a major fan and supporter of FreeBSD so to know OS X has a lot in common with FreeBSD makes me know their using a solid and reliable core.  They point out several features including improved Optimized Kernel Resource Locking, 64-bit Compatibility, Access Control Lists, and Enhanced UNIX APIs.

The kernel locking is really the big there becuase it means they’ve improved system performance on SMP (dual cpu) machines.

2) Improved 64-bit Compatibility
The underlying Mac hardware are actually 64-bit cpus but really until now Mac OS X has just been a 32-bit OS with a few 64-bit tweaks.  Tiger now provides more 64-bit compatibilty for applications.  Basically they’ve added support for 64-bit pointers and now provide a 64-bit version of libSystem.

3) Xcode 2.0
This is the one thing that I wish Microsoft would do.  Apple gives away a complete full featured developer platform for free!  There are two improvements to Xcode.  First is the use of the gcc 3.5 compiler and second is the support for the new 64-bit features in Tiger.

Apple has slowly but surely kept making OS X better and better.  With a few more releases I have to admit that I might just end up breaking down and getting myself a Mac.  Who knew I’d every say that?!?

It would never be my main rig, sorry I’ll always be a Microsoftie at heart, but I would like a nice G5 with a big Apple Cinema Display to do cross-platform development work on.

Well its official, the Diablo II expansion ladder is going to be reset.

From the Blizzard website at www.blizzard.com.

quote:

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End of a Season
The Diablo II 1.10 Ladder Season 1 will soon come to an end and Blizzard would like to thank all the players—New, Returning and Veteran alike—for making this a great Season. As a special treat to reward the Top Players from around the world, we will be immortalizing the Top 10 Expansion and Expansion Hardcore Characters in each of the 7 Classes on the Blizzard website. That’s 140 players from each Realm!

Season 1 Ladder Characters will be moved to their own 1.10+ population when the season ends. Be sure to check back here for details on future Ladder Seasons.

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This will bring and end to season one of the ladder, which has been running since the release of the 1.10 patch back on October 28th, 2003. Blizzard says that they will be placing the current ladder characters in their own season one population separate from the rest. This is a dumb move in my opinion and I believe that they should be placed in the non-ladder realm with the rest of the characters. It is bad enough that we have a ladder and non-ladder but then we will have separate seasons of ladder, in the following year or two we are talking about having all of the players on b.net divided amongst 4 or even 5 different sections per realm.

However if we can just get past the loss of our characters and the horrible waste of our time the reset isn’t really all that bad. I know that in the past month or so the dupes on USEast were out of control. Andy Bot killed the value of the Soj, trade hacks were ripping people off and numerous other programs were tearing apart this supposable “hack” free game. The reset will bring everyone back on the same playing level but it wont last long. The programs along with new ones will still be there with the reset. They really should take the time and release another quick patch.

I only wish I had just a little more time to get a character on the ladder, I have a level 95 sorceress that’s a little over 50 million exp away from being number 1000 L. But hey, all I can say is good luck to all of you in the next ladder season, hopefully you will be one of those 140 characters that will get immortalized next time!

Well Intel will be releasing their first, ok technically it is their second, 64-bit CPU to fight back against the AMD Opterons.  The codename is Nocona and this new CPU will be the new Xeon chip.  It does 32-bit/64-bit very similar to how AMD has done it.

The Xeon chips like the Opterons are for workstation and servers so they still haven’t really released a consumer level CPU to match the AMD Athlon 64s.  The Opterons and Athlon 64s are actually identical chips.  The Athlon 64s are just handicapped to only run in single CPU systems and run with slower memory performance.  This is done on purpose in order to make the Opterons look better for the workstation/server crowd.

Of course there are some major differences between the Xeons and Opterons.  The major differences are that the Opterons have a built in memory controller that the Xeons don’t which makes data access faster.  The Xeons however will be faster in raw clock speed although the Opterons are probably a bit more efficient at what they do so they can usually compete pretty closely even if they run at a slower clock.  Plus the Xeons have Hyper-Threading which the Opterons don’t.  Hyper-Threading is a technology that lets a single CPU act like it’s actually two CPUs.  That means that a workstation that has two Xeon CPUs will look to the operating system like it’s actually a computer with four CPUs!

So I’m sure looking forward to the reviews to see how the Xeons stack up.  I’ve wanted to build a dual Xeon workstation for some time so I would like to see if the new 64-bit versions of these will be worth the wait.  A dual Xeon system with Hyper-Threading is just as thrilling for a geek like me as a supercharged big-block engine for a car lover.

The one major issue with these new 64-bit CPUs are that there really aren’t operating systems or the software to take advantage of the 64-bits.  Someday there will be but right now most 64-bit software just isn’t out there.  There are 64-bit versions of Linux and FreeBSD but not for windows yet. 

Then there just isn’t really the need for 64bits for most user software.  Database systems and heavy duty computing software that do things like calculate weather forecasts will benefit but the “Joe User” applications like office applications, email, web browsing, etc just don’t need 64-bits.  So for the foreseeable future 64-bits really will just be something you see in servers and workstations.  I really don’t think home users will need 64-bits for at least another 5+ years.

Anyways, for those interested start checking out the usual tech news sites tomorrow as I’m sure reviews will start popping up.

As you may or may not have seen I have a guest poster on my site.  I’ve noticed a large influx of visitors coming from search engines to my Diablo II: LOD 1.10 Necromancer Guide as of late. 

I figured I might as well take advantage of the situation and start posting more entries about Diablo II. That single post brings in a dozen or so people a day on average.  Just think what a bunch of posts about Diablo II could bring in.

However, I’m no expert and I barely play the game anymore so I wouldn’t know what to write about.  I decided to ask Spartikis to be a guest poster and create entries about Diablo II for me.  He’s been playing Diablo II original and the Lord of Destruction (LOD) expansion since they were released.  He eats, sleeps and breathes D2 and is a bon fide expert when it comes to the game. I figure there’s probably nobody better I could ask to help me out.

I created a new Diablo II category and told him to go wild!  He’s free to write about anything he wants.  Of course I get final say before it’s published!

So welcome aboard Spartikis!  I can’t wait to see what great topics you come up with.