Throw another Apple on the bandwagon?

Thought I’d join the rush. It looks like Microsoft are going to be making the prime low-cost PowerPC server candidate (XboX-360) and Apple are going to become technically boring by shipping Intel CPUs. Why not AMD CPUs? Bring on the Quad-Opteron-Mobile Laptop! How long before someone hacks FreeBSD-derivative "OS x86" to run on random whitebox PCs, d’ya reckon? Or bolts the shiny bits plus an interface layer to real FreeBSD?

And of course, the newly-released Sarge (pair of red and black ice skates shipped with every copy) will run on all of them. One CD-set to bind them all... or whatever.

Meanwhile, back at the retail shelves, I notice new laptops being sold by both BigW and OfficeWorks for $997. They’d fit in a 1RU space, they have a screen and keyboard handy, they’d be low-power and independently brownout-proof. What better to use for a light-duty server?

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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.

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...

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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