Consistency of modern hardware supply

I recently built two identical servers, Bob and Helen, which use heartbeat and STONITH to provide a “virtual” server named Mirage. I’ll see if I can rename the remaining Windows 2000 server “Syndrome”.

I watched the stocks arrive at Navada’s Greenwood store still in the sealed cartons. I watched David break two (or four) of everything out of the bigger cartons and place it all on the counter, so I can verify that there was no mixing of new with old stock between manufacturers’ cartons and customer. I took it all home to assemble.

The first (ATI Radeon X300) video card had a square, black heatsink, the second had a silvery, arched one.
Some of the front-panel wires were a different colour on the second 4RU case and the hard-drive brackets fitted slightly differently.
The second (ThermalTake TR2) PSU had a six-pin 12V power plug not present on the first.
The second (ASUS DRW-1608P) DVD burner wouldn’t read the boot CD much past the splash screen until I cleaned it (the first didn’t even flinch).
AFAICT, the (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) motherboards and their BIOS settings are identical, but the Mandriva 2005 boot CD couldn’t see the USB devices attached to the second mobo during installation, and that mobo arrived with two more coarse-threaded screws (for dogging down daughter cards) than the first.

The RAM and hard drives do actually seem to be identical. It feels a bit whiney listing this all out, but I was amazed that so mcuh adjacent/consecutive hardware could be markedly different.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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