<![CDATA[brycv.com]]>2013-03-14T06:51:51-07:00http://brycv.com/Octopressbrycvhttp://feedburner.google.com<![CDATA[Netflix now Working on ARM Chromebook]]>2013-03-14T07:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/netflix-now-working-on-arm-chromebook<p>In a move that I hope is a sign of things to come, Netflix has added a special HTML5 interface to its streaming video survice to support <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">Samsung’s ARM-based Chromebook</a> (per <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/samsung-chromebook-netflix-html5-streaming/">Engadget</a>). I hope this is the writing on the wall for Netflix’ use of Silverlight but time will tell. This move could also open the door to being able to use Netflix on various Linux flavors and other operating systems like <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a> or <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> using <a href="http://www.chromium.org">Chromium</a>.<!--more--></p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/chromebook-arm-big.jpg" width="500"></a></p>
<p>I have always liked ARM devices due to their low power usage and, <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/chromebook-pixel-an-odd-play/">as I previously mentioned</a>, I am very interested in running Ubuntu 13.04 on the ARM Chromebook once it is released on April 25. This new development makes the <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">ARM Chromebook</a> far more interesting for home use. Netflix is the best source of documentaries we have found and being able to play them on a compact device that is relatively inexpensive is a great option.</p>
<p>As another benefit, our daughter enjoys playing some educational web-based games that don’t work on an iPad or similar and the <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">ARM Chromebook</a> might just be a good solution for this as well. Using Mommy’s MacBook Air while Mommy needs to work doesn’t really work out.</p>
<p>It seems that the $249 <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">ARM Chromebook</a> is getting more and more potentially useful.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/netflix-now-working-on-arm-chromebook/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/TfoxMWpJBNo" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2013/netflix-now-working-on-arm-chromebook/<![CDATA["Why don't MacBooks come with cellular networking?" →]]>2013-03-04T20:00:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/why-dont-macbooks-come-with-cellular-networking<p>Marco Arment made some <a href="http://www.marco.org/2013/02/26/why-no-4g-macbooks">excellent comments</a> as to why Apple is not including any sort of cellular data connectivity in any of the MacBook lines. This is one of the only major things lacking from Apple’s laptop lines.</p>
<blockquote><p>“With LTE, you can burn through a 5 GB data cap in an hour if you’re downloading big video files, and it would be easy to burn through the cap in just a few days if you’re streaming HD video — which, in 2013, is commonplace.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Back in January, I had some major problems with my Verizon FiOS business connection where only the Verizon-provided ActionTec router would work. The rest of the details are for another post but I ended up using my Verizon 4G LTE USB data card as a stopgap until Verizon could do a truck roll. I only had the 4G LTE USB data card and router as our connection for about 36 hours and many of those hours were while we were sleeping. Using YouTube and a little bit of Netflix from our Apple TV units during that time we easily burned through 8GB of data. I had to upgrade our Share Everything plan with another 2GB so we didn’t go over that month.</p>
<p>I have been using 3G EV-DO since around 2005 just like Marco. The advent of 4G LTE has really transformed the way I use cellular data. I would absolutely love to have it built-in to a MacBook of any sort. As it is, I currently either have some sort of router in the car, occasionally use a MiFi device, or tether (actually using Personal Hotspot via WiFi for the most part) to one of our 4G LTE iPads. Marco also makes some good suggestions about what could be done.</p>
<blockquote><p>“To start, Apple could just put cellular-connection detection and responsible-usage logic into iTunes and Software Update. That would be sufficient to launch with new 4G MacBook models at WWDC, then they could have a session on the new API and start enforcing responsible practices in the Mac App Store. Along with maybe working something out with Netflix, they’ll have addressed the biggest accidental bandwidth hogs that most people will face.”</p></blockquote>
<p>It would be very disturbing to have the latest HD TV show episode, which easily tops 1.5GB, download in the background. Unlike with 3G, you might not even notice because 4G LTE is so fast. As Marco points out, it would also be essential to disable automatic software update downloading. As a technical professional, I would be willing to deal with these issues manually but most consumers would not want to be bothered and would not have any idea there would even be an issue until they started receiving data usage alerts or, even worse, a massive cell phone bill.</p>
<p>Built-in cellular connectivity in laptops is also mostly aimed at business users except in the case of the various <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">Chromebook models</a>. The Chromebook is unique in that everything is web-based and not very much data is transferred except for streaming media. Apple may not be including cellular data because of the focus on consumers rather than business users. In any case, I think Apple needs to create a new API for OS X as Marco suggested sooner rather than later. Apple can obviously implement 4G LTE cellular data just fine in the iPhone and iPad lines so I hope the MacBook lines are the next frontier. The next generation MacBook Air seems like the perfect candidate to me.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/why-dont-macbooks-come-with-cellular-networking/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/QMZCdiwH_R4" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.marco.org/2013/02/26/why-no-4g-macbooks<![CDATA[Nexus 7 Becomes Interesting with Ubuntu Tablet →]]>2013-03-04T18:00:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/nexus-7-becomes-interesting-with-ubuntu-tablet<p><a href="http://bry.vc/106NlOf"><img class="right" src="http://brycv.com/images/Nexus-7-200x200.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Due to my use of iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPad mini, I have not been interested in any Android devices. None of the available devices have had any advantages over whatever iOS devices I have been using at the time. That appears to be changing but it has nothing to do with Andriod. I still have no interest in Android at all but I do have an interest running Ubuntu on a tablet. As was announced a couple of weeks back, Ubuntu is pushing into the <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone">phone</a> and <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet/">tablet</a> markets.</p>
<p>A couple of days ago I discovered the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7">Ubuntu installation instructions</a> for the <a href="http://bry.vc/106NlOf">Nexus 7 tablet</a>. I’m interested in any feedback from someone who has tried this process. I will probably wait until after Ubuntu 13.04 is released on April 25, 2013 but running Ubuntu on a Nexus 7 might just be worth it.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/nexus-7-becomes-interesting-with-ubuntu-tablet/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/g_IleBdA4b8" height="1" width="1"/>https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7<![CDATA[elementary OS Looks Promising]]>2013-02-21T18:07:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/elementary-os-looks-promising<p>Last night, I was investigating some alternative operating systems to the <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/lenovo-thinkpad-x230-for-openbsd-and-linux/">instability</a> I have experienced with Ubuntu 12.10 on my Lenovo ThinkPad X230. Because of virtualization software, I need some form of Linux that works well with Intel HD 4000 graphics and is pretty stable. I installed <a href="http://linuxmint.com/">Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon</a> two days ago on my X230 and I am somewhat impressed. On a forum post, I discovered something even more interesting.<!--more--></p>
<p>Like Linux Mint 14, quite a few other distros are based on a <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> core. One I had never heard of before is <a href="http://elementaryos.org/">elementary OS</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://elementaryos.org/"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/elementary-os-pantheon.png"></a></p>
<p>The above screenshot of a Pantheon desktop sure looks like what I like in Apple’s <a href="http://www.apple.com/osx/">OS X</a>. The dock at the bottom and menubar at the top is great. I’m tired of the Windows-modeled taskbar at the bottom that <a href="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</a>, <a href="http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/">Cinnamon</a>, and most other desktop environments employ. I also just discovered that version 4.10 of <a href="http://www.xfce.org/">Xfce</a> appears to have some similarities to OS X as well.</p>
<p>I am put off somewhat by elementary OS Luna’s status as Beta 1. There still appears to be some work to do to get to a stable release but once it does, elementary OS looks like it might be a very attractive option. If elementary OS interests you, now is a great time to <a href="http://elementaryos.org/get-involved">get involved</a>.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/elementary-os-looks-promising/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/Y3hv0EbvMlc" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2013/elementary-os-looks-promising/<![CDATA[Chromebook Pixel an Odd Play]]>2013-02-21T17:35:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/chromebook-pixel-an-odd-play<p>I am rather surprised by Google’s interesting move into the high-end laptop space with its new <a href="https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_pixel_wifi">Chromebook Pixel</a>. The specs resemble the entry level <a href="http://bry.vc/YK6Upq">13-inch Retina MacBook Pro</a> in some respects but the Chromebook Pixel has a touchscreen, slower processor, less storage, less memory, and the option of built-in LTE. I’m impressed with the design and would buy one immediately if I knew I could run <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> or at least <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> on it. Why is Google moving into this space?<!--more--></p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_pixel_wifi"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/chromebook-pixel.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Google is quite literally targeting business users with the Chromebook Pixel. Most consumers will not spend $1299 for a WiFi Chromebook or $1449 for a Chromebook with LTE. <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/enterprise/apps/business/">Google Apps for Business</a> is now used by many, many businesses and much of what typical computer users do is covered by a Chromebook and Google’s array of services. Another advantage of the Chromebook Pixel is that companies do not need to worry about lots of software upgrades and system management as would typically be true of a regular PC system.</p>
<p>The hard sell is for power users. I would never buy a Chromebook Pixel for $1299 just to run Google web apps. The latest <a href="http://bry.vc/VQUelC">ARM-based Samsung Chromebook</a>, on the other hand, is a much easier sell for $249. I can definitely understand buying one for the kids or just to do some browsing and writing around the house or out and about. In my opinion, the true interesting use case of the ARM Chromebook will be <a href="http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=samsung_chrome_a15&num=1">running Ubuntu 13.04 for ARM</a> when it comes out in April.</p>
<p>Hopefully installing alternate operating systems on the Chromebook Pixel will not be too difficult since it uses a standard Intel Core i5 instead of a different architecture like the ARM Chromebook. I’m glad to see Google making such an interesting Chromebook in the Chromebook Pixel. Perhaps other companies will follow suit with excellent designs that might pose options if you want to run open source operating systems with design similar to Apple’s excellent designs.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/chromebook-pixel-an-odd-play/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/5jY3h3T4i5c" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2013/chromebook-pixel-an-odd-play/<![CDATA[BSDCan 2013 Coming up in May →]]>2013-02-21T17:00:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/bsdcan-2013-coming-up-in-may<p>If you haven’t, like me, been to a BSDCan Conference before, this might be the year to go. The schedule looks great with lots of excellent presentations. This is also the 10th annual conference and the schedule looks excellent. All the details are available from the <a href="http://www.bsdcan.org/2013/">BSDCan web site</a>. I’m not sure if we will be there yet but we shall see how the next few months pan out.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bsdcan.org/2013/"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/bsdcan-300x250.png"></a></p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/bsdcan-2013-coming-up-in-may/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/0oZEz3U1YF8" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.bsdcan.org/2013/<![CDATA[New Things in 2013]]>2013-01-01T20:52:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2013/new-things-in-2013<p>Today marks the start of 2013. This year will contain an amazing number of changes to our lives. As I mentioned a few days ago, we will give more details as to what the <em>major change</em> will be in the next several months as everything falls into place. As far as technology goes, the coming changes are requiring me to be more mobile and less tied to a desk so more articles are coming about working in mobile settings and without the typical peripherals and advantages of a desktop computer.<!--more--></p>
<p>There will also be more articles about photography, videography, camera bags (like <a href="http://www.thinktankphoto.com/">Think Tank Photo gear</a>), and related media technology. Storage technologies have been getting better. More articles are coming about SSDs, moving away from hard drives, and offsite backup.</p>
<p>A few months back I became a <a href="http://www.vmware.com/certification/">VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 - Datacenter Virtualization</a>, better known as a VCP5-DV. I have been working on some datacenter solutions that I will be writing about shortly. Virtualization also plays a big part in allowing us to embark on our major new project.</p>
<p>Check back for more exciting articles in the pipeline and the launch of a new web site related to the <em>major change</em>. I will also be following up on some questions I have received over the last few months. I think 2013 is shaping up to be an unforgettable year!</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2013/new-things-in-2013/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/TuXl0X8-nvw" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2013/new-things-in-2013/<![CDATA[Thoughts about the iPad mini for Photographers →]]>2012-12-27T17:33:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/thoughts-about-the-ipad-mini-for-photographers<p>Jeff Carlson’s <a href="http://ipadforphotographers.com/2012/11/12/thoughts-about-the-ipad-mini-for-photographers/"><em>Thoughts about the iPad mini for Photographers</em></a> points out some great points about how the iPad mini is an excellent tool for photographers just as the iPad with Retina Display is. The lack of a Retina Display is helped by the smaller physical pixels in the iPad mini’s 1024x768 resolution display as opposed to the iPad 2 with its larger 1024x768 resolution display.</p>
<p>Which to buy? It’s a hard choice. In every way but the display, I would prefer the iPad mini. I expect that in the next revision or two, the iPad mini will also get a Retina Display. Once that happens it will be no contest and I would definitely recommend the iPad mini for nearly all scenarios. For my uses, the iPad mini will be my choice. I am currently using a 3rd generation 32GB iPad with Verizon 4G LTE. This will shortly be replaced by a 64GB iPad mini with Verizon LTE.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/thoughts-about-the-ipad-mini-for-photographers/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/XE-EIvVlLoI" height="1" width="1"/>http://ipadforphotographers.com/2012/11/12/thoughts-about-the-ipad-mini-for-photographers/<![CDATA[Lenovo ThinkPad X230 for OpenBSD and Linux]]>2012-12-27T17:00:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/lenovo-thinkpad-x230-for-openbsd-and-linux<p>Back at the beginning of September, I ordered a Lenovo ThinkPad X230. I have been using mostly desktop systems but decided to get back to using laptops more due to some changes coming next year. I chose the X230 for a few different reasons. I also picked exactly the options I wanted since this laptop will be used for OpenBSD and Linux and will not see Windows at all.<!--more--></p>
<h4>Configuration</h4>
<p>I <a href="http://bry.vc/YRGqHy">configured the X230</a> with the following options direct from Lenovo:</p>
<ul>
<li>Intel Core i7-3520M (2.9GHz with 4MB of Cache, up to 3.6GHz Turbo, HD 4000 Graphics)</li>
<li>12.5-inch Premium IPS HD LED Screen (1366x768) with 3x3 Antenna</li>
<li>4GB of 1600MHz DDR3 (the minimum)</li>
<li>Backlit Keyboard</li>
<li>UltraNav without FingerPrint Reader</li>
<li>320GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM</li>
<li>9 Cell ThinkPad Battery X44++</li>
<li>Bluetooth 4.0</li>
<li>Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN Wireless</li>
</ul>
<p>As is obvious from my system choices, 4GB of memory will not be enough but astronomical memory upgrade prices from Lenovo make third party memory the only reasonable choice. The hard drive is also likewise useless to me and was never even powered on before its removal from the X230. Due to the slim size of the X230 I also elected not to have a webcam built into the display bezel and instead chose the 3x3 Wireless Antenna option which allowed me to choose the Intel 6300 AGN Wireless card. I have other systems to use for video conferencing and I would rather have better wireless performance.</p>
<h4>Memory</h4>
<p>I ordered the <a href="http://bry.vc/S2Nld5">Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz Laptop 16GB (2 x 8GB) memory kit</a> which maxed out the memory capacity of the X230. This makes more sense for my virtualization projects. I just make it a practice to max out the memory on whatever system I purchase these days.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/S2Nld5"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_18.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>SSD Storage</h4>
<p>After the memory, the next major upgrade is storage. Since I had already removed the 320GB drive, I needed to put two SSDs into the system. When I removed the 320GB drive I discovered it was a Seagate Momentus Thin drive. This means it has a 7mm z-height. The majority of 2.5-inch drives have a z-height of 9.5mm. Some older, high-capacity drives had a z-height of 12.5mm and a few oddball large storage 2.5-inch drives have a z-height of 15mm.</p>
<p>The 7mm z-height posed an immediate problem. I was planning to install my 512GB Crucial M4 or my 240GB Intel 520 SSD in the X230 but neither would fit properly. The 240GB Intel 520 SSD could be made to fit by removing the plastic bumper but this also required removing the screws which hold the SSD’s cover on. Within the X230’s hard drive bracket this posed no issue but I wasn’t really comfortable with that solution. The Crucial M4 SSDs I had were all 9.5mm. At this point I discovered that there are 7mm versions of the Crucial M4 SSDs in the form of the SSD1 models. The 512GB I had was model CT512M4SSD2. The very similar but 7mm z-height version is model CT512M4SSD1.</p>
<p>At this point, I decided to sell both my Intel 520 SSD and the 512GB Crucial M4. I started researching the best large 7mm SSDs. I came to the conclusion that the Plextor M5 Pro would be a superb option. Plextor has done a great job with their M3 Pro series of SSDs and the M5 Pro would be even better.</p>
<p>I ended up ordering the <a href="http://bry.vc/Rdj2km">PX-512M5P</a> SSD which is a 512GB 7mm z-height SSD. I’ll have some followup on this SSD in a future article but so far I think Plextor has done a fantastic job with the M5 Pro series.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/Rdj2km"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/Plextor-M5P-512GB-500.jpg"></a></p>
<p>I mentioned that I was going to install two SSDs rather than just one. Very few slim laptops support two SSDs but the X230 has the advantage of a Mini-PCIe slot that also supports mSATA SSDs. This slot is normally intended for 3G/4G mobile broadband cards such as the Gobi 3000 or Gobi 4000 cards offered by Lenovo. Since I am not running Windows, the usefulness of such a card would be diminished. I already have several mobile broadband routers from CradlePoint and a MiFi unit as well.</p>
<p>Since the mSATA/mPCIe slot is unused, I decided it would be a perfect place to install a Crucial M4 mSATA SSD. The largest available size is the 256GB size which is model number <a href="http://bry.vc/YCk5O5">CT256M4SSD3</a>. I wish a 512GB version were available but perhaps one will come as flash chips shrink.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/YCk5O5"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/Crucial-M4-mSATA-300.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>Operating Systems</h4>
<p>I have never been a fan of multi-boot installations on one storage device. The risks of corrupting one or both installations is very high as upgrades are done. On systems where I have been using multiple operating systems, I always dedicate a storage device to each operating system. The ability to install a 2.5-inch SSD and an mSATA SSD in the X230 allows me to do the same thing with this system.</p>
<p>I immediately installed OpenBSD on the 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD. As I’ve noted before, OpenBSD is my favorite open source operating system and the operating system I would use nearly full time if I were able to.</p>
<p>Because of my virtualization work, I need to use an operating system that can run VMware Workstation 9. This means one of the Linux distributions for now. (I wish VMware would support FreeBSD again as they did in the past.) I initially installed <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu Desktop</a> 12.04 LTS which seemed to work all right at this start. Within a few days I started running into problems with system freezes due to the 3.2 kernel not having very mature support for Intel HD 4000 Graphics. This forced me to move to Ubuntu Desktop 12.10 Beta which brought its own sets of problems including an incompatibility with the 3.5 kernel and VMware Workstation 9. This has since been corrected in <a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT">VMware Workstation 9.0.1</a>.</p>
<p>As is typically expected with a beta, I also experienced many crashes of various programs. After the final release of Ubuntu Desktop 12.10, I erased the SSD and reinstalled. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I still experienced crashes in various elements of the Ubuntu install. Most were just annoying but I got tired of the dialog boxes popping up indicating a crash had happened. I also found that system settings did not stick across reboots and the init scripts for VMware Workstation stopped the login screen from loading unless I disabled the VMware scripts and started them manually after login.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago I decided enough was enough. I have used <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux</a> in the past but wasn’t sure I wanted to sign up for that many hours of compiling. I also didn’t want to put in the time to figure out exactly what optimized set of USE flags I needed. I had briefly installed <a href="http://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a> in a virtual machine but had heard it offered many of the advantages of Gentoo but without quite as much work.</p>
<p>I went ahead and installed Arch Linux with the December install media. This installed kernel 3.6.9 to begin with and has now been upgraded to 3.6.10. One of my favorite parts of OpenBSD is using the cwm window manager and I can do the same with Arch by <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cwm-git/">installing cwm from the AUR</a>.</p>
<p>My OpenBSD and Arch environments are now nearly identical for desktop tasks. My shortcuts are the same, my applications are the same, and everything looks almost identical. My typical environment includes running multiple xterms with <a href="http://www.vim.org/">vim</a>, <a href="http://tmux.sourceforge.net/">tmux</a>, and <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a>. <a href="http://www.chromium.org/Home">Chromium</a> is running in my second workspace and then additional applications in my third and fourth workspaces. <a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT">VMware Workstation 9</a> is running in my third workspace with my OpenBSD install on the mSATA SSD running as a VM.</p>
<p>I am actually writing this article from a terminal session in my OpenBSD install that I accessed via SSH from my Arch Linux install. There are a few things to get used to with Arch like systemd but I’m pretty happy with my choice. As I use it more I will get more familiar with its quirks.</p>
<p>I am actually pretty disappointed in Ubuntu. I thought Ubuntu might be a viable alternative to OS X on the desktop but, at least in my case, it is so unstable that I could never depend on it for my work. Perhaps it is because the X230 is using the latest Ivy Bridge integrated graphics rather than a discrete graphics card or an older integrated graphics chipset but, whatever the issue, the constant crashes are a show stopper for me.</p>
<p>Arch, on the other hand, has not crashed in any way since I installed it. Battery life is superb since I’m running a very low resource window manager rather than a complete desktop environment and still everything works great for my needs. No, I don’t have a fancy file manager to drag and drop files in but I don’t need it. The tried and true <em>mv</em> command works just fine for me.</p>
<p>I should note that it is possible to configure an Arch Linux system with a full desktop environment similar to what Ubuntu uses but I have no interest in this configuration since I prefer cwm.</p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>In the end, the <a href="http://bry.vc/YRGqHy">ThinkPad X230</a> is a superb system that I am very happy with. Running both <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> and <a href="http://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a> has turned out to be a great combination. The X230 will not supplant my <a href="http://www.apple.com/osx/">OS X</a> systems for media and other related tasks but for system administration and writing, the X230 setup works perfectly. <a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT">VMware Workstation 9.0.1</a> also works perfectly and allows me to run a variety of other environments without fully committing to the operating system by directly installing it on a storage device. I am especially happy that I can use the same OpenBSD install on the mSATA SSD natively and also through VMware Workstation. I highly recommend the <a href="http://bry.vc/YRGqHy">Lenovo ThinkPad X230</a>.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/lenovo-thinkpad-x230-for-openbsd-and-linux/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/hi1dnyumWdo" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/lenovo-thinkpad-x230-for-openbsd-and-linux/<![CDATA[Merry Christmas and Exciting New Plans]]>2012-12-25T21:00:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/merry-christmas-and-exciting-new-plans<p>Today marks the first Christmas for our fourth and youngest child. I remember each Christmas since my wife and I were married a few days short of five years ago. I’m in a different place in my life as I appreciate the quiet time with our kids more than I have in the past. Each year is precious. They grow up so quickly.</p>
<p>I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope that all of you have been able to focus on family, friends, and God, the source of all our blessings. In the next few days as 2012 winds to a close, remember the things that have been most important to you over this year and each year before it. Cherish the most important things in life.<!--more--></p>
<p>We have some amazing new plans for 2013 that we will reveal as the time gets closer. Look for updates over the next three months as everything falls into place. I will continue writing more articles as well. Some personal events in the last few months have kept me from writing very often but that will be changing as we go into 2013.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/merry-christmas-and-exciting-new-plans/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/Mc9p2oNZrts" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/merry-christmas-and-exciting-new-plans/<![CDATA[Build and Analyze Podcast Ended →]]>2012-12-23T11:40:00-08:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/build-and-analyze-podcast-ended<p>Altough this is old news now, <a href="http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze">Build and Analyze</a>, the excellent iOS and mobile development podcast with <a href="http://alpha.app.net/marco">Marco Arment</a> and <a href="http://alpha.app.net/dan">Dan Benjamin</a>, ended on December 17. I’m disappointed it ended for several reasons but especially because the podcast gave some insight into iOS development from a successful developer’s perspective. Marco’s <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a> app and service has been a favorite of mine for several years now. I use it daily to save articles and information to read later.</p>
<p>I’m happy that Marco is still planning to be involved in podcasting as he stated in his <a href="http://www.marco.org/2012/11/18/build-analyze-ending">November 18th post</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>After Build and Analyze ends, I’d like to take a few weeks off for the holidays, be a guest on other shows, and then experiment with new shows, topics, and formats to try to figure out what I want to do next in the world of podcasting.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m looking forward to what’s next in the new year.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/build-and-analyze-podcast-ended/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/D3oF2mdYltA" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.marco.org/2012/11/18/build-analyze-ending<![CDATA[Encryped Root Filesystem using softraid(4) on OpenBSD with an SLC SSD]]>2012-09-17T10:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/encrypted-root-filesystem-using-softraid-4-on-openbsd-with-an-slc-ssd<p>On Monday, my <a href="http://bry.vc/SsyN1A">ThinkPad X230</a> arrived. One of my goals for the system is to run <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> with an encrypted root filesystem. Fortunately, the support exists in <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> but it wasn’t immediately clear how to accomplish this and allow the system to boot properly. Through a bit of trial and error, I figured it out and it works very well.<!--more--></p>
<p>I have used OpenBSD for almost 15 years now and have always enjoyed its simplicity, security, and robust feature set. I have also been a Mac user for even longer. Due to my work, I can’t switch to OpenBSD entirely on the desktop but I can use it for much of what I do.</p>
<p>I came across a few different articles on the subject of encrypted <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> for the root filesystem but all seemed to cover aspects that didn’t entirely fit my goals. One <a href="http://b.rontosaur.us/2012/04/10/howto-openbsd-disk-encryption/">softraid article</a> has much of the information needed but does not encrypt the entire system, only one filesystem.</p>
<p>In my own personal, non-server systems, I rarely separate out all of the different directores into their own filesystems like <em>/var</em>, <em>/usr</em>, <em>/home</em>, etc. On my <a href="http://bry.vc/SsyN1A">ThinkPad X230</a>, this is further compounded by the fact that I am using a relatively small SLC SSD which means I really don’t want to limit my options with unnecessary filesystem complexity.</p>
<p>My goal is simple. I want the entire root filesystem which encompasses everything on this system to be encrypted with <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a>. I will have a very small swap partition on the SSD since swap is always encrypted in OpenBSD anyway.</p>
<p><em><strong>Warning: I should also note that the process of creating an encrypted <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> partition on your drive will destroy whatever data you have on there already so make sure you backup everything before starting this process in a way that you are prepared to restore from. Even better, buy a new SSD and start from scratch.</strong></em></p>
<h4>Choosing the SSD</h4>
<p>In a future article, I will cover what configuration of <a href="http://bry.vc/SsyN1A">ThinkPad X230</a> I purchased but for now I will just mention storage. Rather than pick the ridiculously overpriced storage available direct from Lenovo for the X230, I simply purchased the system with the cheapest storage available which was a 320GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch laptop drive. It wasn’t spelled out clearly during the configuration stage but this is a 7mm 2.5-inch drive, not the typical 9.5mm 2.5-inch hard drive form factor that we have become accustomed to for laptops. This doesn’t bother me at all since HGST and Seagate both make plenty of 7mm options now and SSDs are also readily available in the 7mm form factor.</p>
<p>The particular drive my X230 shipped with is a Seagate Momentus Thin 320GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch drive. As I have done with all my non-Apple system for a number of years, I had no intention of using the original drive at all and so without even booting up the system, I removed the 320GB drive and set about installing another storage device. As I’ve covered extensively in past <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/categories/ssd/">articles on SSDs</a>, I use SSDs exclusively for my main systems and only use actual hard drives for bulk media storage, backups, and server arrays.</p>
<h4>SandForce is Out</h4>
<p>When choosing an SSD for software encryption, a number of parameters change in how you should pick the best SSD for your system. First off, any SSD that uses a controller that does compression in order to achieve its performance is out of the question. This is because any software encryption solution causes the data written to disk to be essentially random in nature and completely unable to take advantage of any compression.</p>
<p>The major SSDs on the market using compression are using the LSI SandForce line of controllers. The list includes many of the popular SSDs and one of my favorites that I highly recommend, the <a href="http://bry.vc/N1yJZD">Intel 520 SSD series</a>. While I still use and recommend the Intel 520 SSD series as my laptop, desktop and workstation top choice, they are a poor choice for software encryption.</p>
<h4>mSATA and 7mm 2.5-inch SSDs</h4>
<p>There are a number of other good choices on the market now but one particular consideration stood out in my mind for this system. The <a href="http://bry.vc/SsyN1A">ThinkPad X230</a> features a single 7mm 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD bay but also has a mini PCIe slot that also accepts mSATA SSDs. In some configurations, the mini PCIe slot is taken up by a 3G or 4G WWAN card such as the Gobi 3000 or Gobi 4000. For this system I elected against a built-in card for now until I have some time to test OpenBSD 4G LTE support.</p>
<p>My plan for the X230 has been to have two different SSDs installed, one in the 2.5-inch bay and another in the mSATA slot. One of the two would house an Arch, Gentoo, or Ubuntu install and the other SSD would contain my OpenBSD install. The 7mm restriction changed my plans somewhat and so far I am only using OpenBSD on my X230.</p>
<p>Since software encryption can be even more write-intensive than typical SSD use and cannot take advantage of compression to minimize write amplification I decided to look for an SLC SSD. The benefits of SLC over MLC flash have been extensively covered by many articles but for the sake of simplicity the major benefits of SLC are exponentially higher write endurance, lower power consumption, and increased speed in similar configurations. The final benefit has been reduced by more and more advanced controller configurations that have allowed MLC to meet or exceed the typical performance of SLC-based SSDs.</p>
<p>I started looking around at my mSATA SSD options and SLC options in general and only one contender emerged as my best choice. Intel has consistently made excellent and very stable SSDs since the beginning of readily available SSDs in the retail market. I have been extremely happy with the Intel 520 SSD series so it was only natural to start looking at the <a href="http://bry.vc/Ue9wKh">Intel 313 SSD series</a>.</p>
<h4>Intel 313 SSD Series</h4>
<p>The 313 series is the successor to the 311 series and is designed as a cache SSD for the Intel Rapid Start Technology present in some Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge motherboard chipsets. As such, the 313 series uses SLC flash memory since any type of cache drive will see extensive writes. As expected, the 313 series offers relatively small capacities. Only two Intel 313 SSD capacities are available. The first is a 20GB model and the second is a 24GB model. Both capacities are available in both a 7mm 2.5-inch and an mSATA form factor.</p>
<p>This makes for a total of four different configurations available in the Intel 313 SSD series. Since I would prefer to have as much capacity as possible while still using SLC flash memory, I elected to purchase the <a href="http://bry.vc/Ue9CkT">24GB mSATA model</a> which, while not particularly large, is quite adequate for my OpenBSD use.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/Ue9CkT"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/Intel-313-mSATA-SSD.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Installing any mSATA SSD in the X230 is a challenge but proved to be quite interesting and enjoyable. I will not cover the details in this article but I am glad to have it installed and will likely not touch it again. One major caveat is that nearly all mSATA slots are SATA 3Gb/s and not 6Gb/s. This means that the Intel 313 SSD’s limitation of SATA 3Gb/s is really not a limitation at all.</p>
<h4>The softraid(4) Install</h4>
<p>In order to do your <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> crypto install, the first step is to boot into the OpenBSD installer with bsd.rd and select the <em>Shell</em> option. Once in the shell, you need to create the softraid volume but first you need create some additional devices. I should make note that all of this is on <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/amd64.html">OpenBSD/amd64</a> 5.2-current. In the shell, run the following commands assuming your SSD shows up as <em>sd0</em>:</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># cd /dev
</span><span class='line'># sh MAKEDEV sd1
</span><span class='line'># sh MAKEDEV sd2</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>Now that you have some additional <em>sd</em> devices, it is time to create partition your SSD for maximum efficiency. In order to boot from any softraid(4) partition other than a RAID 1 on OpenBSD/amd64 5.2 or later, you need a small <em>a</em> partition to hold your kernels. Here are the needed steps to prepare your SSD.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># fdisk -iy sd0</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>This command initializes your MBR with an OpenBSD primary partition in preparation for <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=disklabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">disklabel(8)</a>. The next step allows you to create the needed partitions for OpenBSD.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># disklabel -E sd0</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>At this point using the built-in editor for <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=disklabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">disklabel(8)</a>, you should be able to add several partitions. The first, <em>a</em>, should be large enough to hold the three kernels typically used for any system, <em>bsd</em>, <em>bsd.mp</em>, and <em>bsd.rd</em>. I use <em>64M</em> for the size of the a partition which ended up being rounded to about 70MB. I added a swap partition of about 32MB and then dedicated the rest of the SSD to the <em>RAID</em> parition. Here are the partitions for my SSD as viewed from <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=disklabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">disklabel(8)</a>:</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
</span><span class='line'> a: 144512 64 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
</span><span class='line'> b: 64257 144576 swap # none
</span><span class='line'> c: 46905264 0 unused
</span><span class='line'> d: 46684902 208833 RAID </span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>In order to have a <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> crypto root filesystem work at bootup, you must use a keydisk. Unfortunately, there is no way to assemble the softraid volume by prompting for a password. To this end, I used an SDHC card I had lying around. It happened to be a 4GB Lexar Professional SDHC card but any card will do. I added a very small (1MB is fine) partition to it using <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=disklabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">disklabel(8)</a>. I used the rest of the SDHC card for an <em>a</em> partition. In this case, I used the <em>d</em> partition for the keydisk and created it at the beginning of the SDHC card. Here is the output of <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=disklabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">disklabel(8)</a> for <em>sd1</em>, the device name of my SDHC card.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
</span><span class='line'> a: 8032448 16096 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
</span><span class='line'> c: 8057856 0 unused
</span><span class='line'> d: 16001 64 RAID
</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>Now that I have both a prepared SSD and a prepared keydisk, it is time to format the <em>a</em> parition on the SSD for the kernel, and create the softraid volume which will utilize the keydisk.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># newfs /dev/rsd0a
</span><span class='line'># bioctl -c C -l /dev/sd0d -k /dev/sd1d softraid0</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>You should now see output on the screen something like this for your new SR CRYPTO volume.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>sd2 at scsibus3 targ 1 lun 0: <OPENBSD, SR CRYPTO, 005> SCSI2 0/direct fixed
</span><span class='line'>sd2: 22795MB, 512 bytes/sector, 46684374 sectors</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>At this point you can also format the <em>a</em> volume of your SDHC card but you can always do that later. The next step is to continue with the OpenBSD installer.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># cd /
</span><span class='line'># install</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>Proceed through the whole process but use <em>sd2</em>, or whatever your SR CRYPTO volume shows up as, as the root disk. In my case, I only created an <em>a</em> partition on <em>sd2</em> that encompasses the entire SR CRYPTO volume since I already have a small swap partition on the SSD itself. Once the install is completed, you have two final steps.</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># mount /dev/sd0a /mnt2
</span><span class='line'># cp /mnt/bsd* /mnt2/
</span><span class='line'># /mnt/usr/mdec/installboot -v /mnt/boot /mnt/usr/mdec/biosboot sd2</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=installboot&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">installboot(8)</a> command will generate output similar to the following:</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
<span class='line-number'>2</span>
<span class='line-number'>3</span>
<span class='line-number'>4</span>
<span class='line-number'>5</span>
<span class='line-number'>6</span>
<span class='line-number'>7</span>
<span class='line-number'>8</span>
<span class='line-number'>9</span>
<span class='line-number'>10</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'>boot: /boot proto: /usr/mdec/biosboot device: /dev/rsd2c
</span><span class='line'>sd2: softraid volume with 2 disk(s)
</span><span class='line'>sd2: installing boot loader on softraid volume
</span><span class='line'>/boot is 3 blocks x 16384 bytes
</span><span class='line'>sd0d: installing boot blocks on /dev/rsd0c, part offset 208913
</span><span class='line'>master boot record (MBR) at sector 0
</span><span class='line'> partition 3: type 0xA6 offset 64 size 46893671
</span><span class='line'>/boot will be written at sector 64
</span><span class='line'>sd2d: installing boot blocks on /dev/rsd2c, part offset 80
</span><span class='line'>master boot record (MBR) at sector 0</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>With those steps completed, your <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> crypto install is done and you should be able to boot from your system as long as the keydisk is available. Remember that if you somehow do not have your keydisk, you cannot access your data. It is a good idea to backup your keydisk if possible as mentioned in an older <a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20110530221728">OpenBSD Journal article</a>. In my case I only backed up <em>sd1d</em> and not <em>sd1c</em> like the article suggested.</p>
<h4>Final Thoughts</h4>
<p>The whole process went rather smoothly once I discovered that a keydisk is required for a bootable <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">softraid(4)</a> crypto root filesystem. Normally, you would have to assemble the softraid volume which then asks for your password by just running the following after booting up your system:</p>
<figure class='code'><div class="highlight"><table><tr><td class="gutter"><pre class="line-numbers"><span class='line-number'>1</span>
</pre></td><td class='code'><pre><code class=''><span class='line'># bioctl -c C -l /dev/sd0d softraid0</span></code></pre></td></tr></table></div></figure>
<p>The keydisk is what makes all the difference for allowing a bootable encrypted root setup. My attempts without a keydisk always ended in a kernel panic. So far performance seems excellent although I haven’t done any major testing. For my needs the system is extremely responsive and everything is encrypted.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you use the <em>softdep</em> and <em>noatime</em> flags in your fstab for your filesystem since <em>softdep</em> will increase your filesystem’s performance and <em>noatime</em> will cut down on unnecessary writes to your SSD. For details of both options and how to use them, read the <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=fstab&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=amd64&format=html">fstab(5)</a> and <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mount&sektion=8&arch=amd64&apropos=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current">mount(8)</a> man pages.</p>
<p>I would caution anyone considering this type of setup to only use it with a machine where the processor supports AES-NI or your processor will have to work very, very hard to do the encryption on the fly. Any recent Core i5 or Core i7 does support AES-NI as do Xeon E3 chips and a few others as well. Celeron, Pentium, and Core i3 chips do not have support for AES-NI as an almost universal rule.</p>
<p>I am enjoying my ThinkPad X230 with OpenBSD so much that I will likely just keep it an OpenBSD-only system instead of the dual-SSD OpenBSD and <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> system that I had originally planned.</p>
<p><em><strong>Update:</strong> tedu@, one of the OpenBSD developers, provided some additional insight in a <a href="https://lobste.rs/s/jigc21/encryped_root_filesystem_using_softraid_4_on_openbsd_with_an_slc_ssd/comments/n37j5k">comment on Lobste.rs</a>. He pointed out that for file sizes less than around 1GB, AES-NI hardware acceleration makes little difference. Essentially, normal desktop tasks without large file copies will not benefit very much from AES-NI. He also pointed out that the buffer cache is not encrypted so frequently used programs do not have to be decrypted each time they are used.</em></p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/encrypted-root-filesystem-using-softraid-4-on-openbsd-with-an-slc-ssd/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/PPh-1Wd1XFU" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/encrypted-root-filesystem-using-softraid-4-on-openbsd-with-an-slc-ssd/<![CDATA[To C We Go]]>2012-08-31T17:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/to-c-we-go<p>I’ve been wanting to learn a major programming language for years now but I’ve always been too busy with other projects. I’ve decided that now is the time to start learning. To that end I picked up an introductory book on C called <a href="http://bry.vc/Q8R8mV"><em>Head First C</em></a>. I also decided to look for a few other good books and ask some developers what they would recommend.<!--more--></p>
<p>I asked <a href="http://kyleisom.net">Kyle Isom</a>, an experienced C programmer, if he had any recommendations. He suggested a few more good resources. The gold standard for C books is <a href="http://bry.vc/PImxsT"><em>The C Programming Language</em></a> by Kernighan and Ritchie. This is often abbreviated as <em>C by KNR</em>. Another excellent introduction was put out by Stanford in the form of a 45 page document called <a href="http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/101/"><em>Essential C</em></a>.</p>
<p>Some more advanced books which are excellent are <a href="http://bry.vc/OOwWW9"><em>Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment</em></a> and <a href="http://bry.vc/T1zwfv"><em>The Linux Programming Interface</em></a> often abbreviated as <em>TLPI</em>. I had already purchased <em>TLPI</em> based on the recommendation of <a href="http://www.biscade.com/">Mitch Haile</a>, another experienced developer. The author of <em>TLPI</em>, Michael Kerrisk, contacted me on Twitter after I discussed the book with Mitch. Michael is very, very nice and I appreciated his comments and suggestions.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/T1zwfv"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/TLPI-front-cover.png"></a></p>
<p>Kyle’s final recommendation was the ever useful <a href="http://bry.vc/N4fNJL"><em>C Pocket Reference</em></a>. My intention in this process of learning C is to do some <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> development. I will be documenting this process here all along the way.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/to-c-we-go/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/3dd4Nbe9WhM" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/to-c-we-go/<![CDATA[The Trouble with USB 3.0 →]]>2012-08-30T20:20:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-trouble-with-usb-3<p>An OpenBSD developer by the name of Ted Unangst recently wrote a post entitled <a href="http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/USB-3-back-compat"><em>USB 3 back compat</em></a> in which he refers to how it is difficult or impossible to use USB 3.0 ports if the operating system does not yet have an XHCI driver. (<a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> lacks an XHCI driver at this time.)</p>
<p>The confusion partially stems from there being multiple different XHCI host controllers. The ones by ASMedia and other third parties do not function at all without an XHCI driver. The new Ivy Bridge chipset native Intel USB 3.0 controller is a different story.</p>
<p>On my <a href="http://bry.vc/NAimES">Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe</a> Mini-ITX board there is a BIOS option to set the Intel USB 3.0 XHCI controller to several different modes. As long as legacy USB is still enabled those ports usually function just fine as USB 2.0 ports. Although this varies from operating system to operating system, the default setting of <em>Smart Auto</em> may work just fine for USB 2.0 only operation if there is no XHCI driver taking control of the USB 3.0 ports. If <em>Smart Auto</em> doesn’t work, try the other three XHCI settings and see if one works for you.</p>
<p>Watch out for the Sandy Bridge motherboards with USB 3.0 ports because they are always a third party controller that does not operate as USB 2.0.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-trouble-with-usb-3/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/K1hkQFdrLeQ" height="1" width="1"/>http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/USB-3-back-compat<![CDATA[The Case for Thin Mini-ITX and the Intel DQ77KB]]>2012-08-30T09:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-case-for-thin-mini-itx-and-intel-dq77kb<p>If you have been following this blog, you have seen that I have a particular interest in the <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/categories/mini-itx/">Mini-ITX form factor</a>. I own or have owned numerous Mini-ITX boards including models from Intel, Foxconn, and Gigabyte. I have recently added a new board to the list which is quite intriguing. The advantage in this newest board is its slim form factor and excellent on-board options.<!--more--></p>
<h4>The Thin Mini-ITX Standard</h4>
<p>A little over a year ago, Intel came up with a new standard that they call <em>Thin Mini-ITX</em>. If you see a Thin Mini-ITX board, the first thing you’ll likely notice is 204-pin SODIMM memory slots rather than the typical 240-pin DIMM memory slots on most motherboards. You will likely also notice that none of the rear panel ports are stacked on each other. If you look closely you will also not see any 24-pin ATX power connector on the board but rather a power connector on the rear panel.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_5.jpg"></p>
<p>The purpose in these slightly unusual configurations is so a Thin Mini-ITX board can fit in a space which would normally be too small. Lian Li has responded to this potential market with a special <a href="http://bry.vc/MBhpun">Q05 case</a> that is specifically designed to only work with Thin Mini-ITX motherboards.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/Lian_Li_Q05B.jpg"></p>
<h4>Early Thin Mini-ITX Boards</h4>
<p>The first (as far as I know) Thin Mini-ITX motherboards was the <a href="http://bry.vc/NhOaOR">Intel DH61AG</a>. Intel has also made at least one Intel Atom-powered board (<a href="http://bry.vc/SoHCx0">Intel DN2800MT</a>) that also fits the Thin Mini-ITX standard. I never looked very closely at the Atom board(s) due to my performance needs on the desktop and I never investigated the DH61AG because of its H61 chipset which meant no SATA 6Gb/s ports. A few other companies have also produced and continue to produce Thin Mini-ITX boards but they tend to be harder to obtain than Intel’s models and tend to have features that I refuse to deal with (i.e. Realtek LAN).</p>
<h2>Intel DQ77KB</h2>
<p>All of these limitations have changed with the release of the <a href="http://bry.vc/PhdPpj">Intel DQ77KB board</a>. Rather than being based on the low-end Sandy Bridge H61 chipset, the new DQ77KB uses the Ivy Bridge Q77 chipset. As with the Q67 before it, the Q77 chipset is targeted at business and corporate users who rely on some of the advanced security and management features only or primarily available on the Q-series chipsets. In addition, the Q67 and Q77 chipsets support and are certified for VT-d. With consumer chipsets, VT-d support is hit and miss and primarily up to the board manufacturer.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/PhdPpj"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_4.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>Video, VT-d, and USB 3.0</h4>
<p>Although none of the enhanced security and management features of the Q77 chipset make any difference to me, VT-d support is very nice. The DQ77KB also has both DisplayPort and HDMI video output for dual monitor support. Other display options exist in the form of headers for LVDS and eDP. The DQ77KB is also the only board I have seen which has four native USB 3.0 ports on the back panel powered by the Intel Q77 chipset. What is lost is any USB 3.0 header on the board. This is a small sacrifice since the cases designed for Thin Mini-ITX have no room for any additional ports anyway.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/PhdPpj"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_11.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>Network and Audio</h4>
<p>On the network side, the DQ77KB also shines. Two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports are available on the back panel, one powered by an Intel 82579V controller and the other by an Intel 82574L controller. For audio, the excellent ALC892 HD Audio codec has been utilized.</p>
<h4>CPU Cooling</h4>
<p>In order to facilitate such a slim standard, Intel has made available a specially designed Thin Mini-ITX CPU cooler in the form of the <a href="http://bry.vc/P1JhF0">Intel HTS1155LP</a>. All thin Mini-ITX boards have the CPU socket in a precise spot so that a case can also provide holes to fit this special cooler. The <a href="http://bry.vc/MBhpun">Lian Li Q05</a> is exactly this type of case.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/P1JhF0"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_15.jpg"></a></p>
<h2>Why Thin Mini-ITX</h2>
<p>The standard may seem unusual and superfluous to some but it has some very unique strengths. For one, many of the all-in-one systems from PC makers are now actually using a Thin Mini-ITX board internally. This simplifies manufacturing and parts. Although not an exact Thin Mini-ITX board, the boards in Mac minis are similar to this design.</p>
<p>Another advantage is very slim systems. The Lian Li Q05 case that I used for my system is 1.85 inches or 47 mm thick. Having an external power supply makes a huge difference. The downside is that the external power brick is rather large. I purchased a specially designed power brick for this purpose as well. It is the <a href="http://www.mini-box.com/19v-8-4A-160-Watt-AC-DC-Power-Adapter">AC-DC 19V, 8.4A, 160W Switching Power Adapter from Mini-Box.com</a>. It is listed as being compatible with the DH61AG board but works just as well with the DQ77KB board.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mini-box.com/19v-8-4A-160-Watt-AC-DC-Power-Adapter"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_34.jpg"></a></p>
<p>As should be obvious, Thin Mini-ITX boards do not easily allow for PCI Express graphics cards. In the case of the DQ77KB, only a PCI Express x4 slot is available but two mini PCI Express slots are located on the board, one of which is full size and supports mSATA devices. This essentially means that integrated graphics is your only option. Intel’s HD 3000 Graphics were not all that great but Intel’s HD 4000 Graphics are a huge improvement for integrated graphics.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/PhdPpj"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_10.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>Choosing the Right Processor</h4>
<p><em><strong>Update: I just acquired a Core i7 3770T and will write some updated thoughts about the system soon.</strong></em></p>
<p>Choosing a processor with Intel HD 4000 Graphics would be my recommendation and is what I purchased. Although my thoughts in the <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/ivy-bridge-processor-guide/">Ivy Bridge Processor Guide</a> still apply, I did end up going with the <a href="http://bry.vc/IKdWIP">Intel Core i7 3770S</a> since the Intel Thin Mini-ITX CPU cooler (Intel HTS1155LP) only supports up to a 65W TDP processor. I would have preferred and still intend to purchase the Intel Core i7 3770T (45W TDP) but have thus far been unable to source this part. From what I’ve read, the Core i7 3770T should be more readily available toward this end of this month and the beginning of next but time will tell.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/IKdWIP"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_20.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Due to the limitation of a 65W TDP processor or less, your only options for Intel HD 4000 Graphics are the Core i7 3770S (65W), Core i7 3770T (45W), Core i5 3475S (65W), and Core i3 3225 (55W). Unfortunately, all of these processors except for the Core i7 3770S are either difficult to obtain or not yet released as of this writing.</p>
<p>I suspect that, long term, the Core i7 3770T and Core i5 3475S will be difficult to obtain similar to the previous generation Core i5 2405S. The Core i3 3225 will likely be readily available and an excellent option for <em>standard</em> desktop tasks. The only real downside to the Core i3 chips is no AES-NI.</p>
<h4>Xeon E3 1265Lv2</h4>
<p><em><strong>Update: Apparently, according to the an update to the processor specifications, the Xeon E3 1265Lv2 only has Intel HD 2500 Graphics and not Intel HD 4000 Graphics like I originally wrote. This section has been updated to reflect this.</strong></em></p>
<p>There is another processor that might be a good solution but does give up some graphics performance. This processor is the <a href="http://bry.vc/PgHxMS">Intel Xeon E3 1265Lv2</a>. This processor is very similar to the Core i7 3770T with a couple of important differences. Both processors have a 45W TDP, 8MB of L3 cache, four cores and eight threads, and a standard clock speed of 2.5 GHz but the top turbo boost speeds differ by 200 MHz. The Core i7 3770T will go up to 3.7 GHz while the Xeon E3 1265Lv2 will reach 3.5 GHz. The Core i7 3770T has the superior Intel HD 4000 Graphics while the Xeon E3 1265Lv2 has Intel HD 2500 Graphics.</p>
<p>As is also typical of Xeon E3 processors, additional PCI Express lanes are available although this is irrelevant to the DQ77KB. The Xeon E3 1265Lv2 also supports ECC memory, which cannot be used with the DQ77KB, and supports additional advanced security and virtualization features such as VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT).</p>
<p>I think the Xeon E3 1265Lv2 is a great processor as long as Intel HD 2500 Graphics are adequate for your purposes. The big advantage to the Xeon is that it is currently available from <a href="http://bry.vc/PgHxMS">Amazon third party sellers</a> and through <a href="http://bry.vc/Qj6qXV">Newegg</a> right now. The Core i7 3770T is nowhere to be found and may stay that way for months or permanently. This may be due to the Core i7 3770T likely making its way into OEM system while this is much less likely for the Xeon E3 1265Lv2.</p>
<h4>Memory</h4>
<p>Since the Thin Mini-ITX standard features two 204-pin SODIMM memory slots, you are limited to laptop memory kits. Fortunately, there is an excellent <a href="http://bry.vc/S2Nld5">Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz Laptop 16GB (2 x 8GB) memory kit</a> available that works perfectly and is what I purchased. It would be great if a 16GB SODIMMs or even DIMMs existed for desktop memory which would allow the maximum Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge of 32GB of memory with only two slots. At the present time, I don’t believe this option exists but, if I locate it, I will update this article accordingly.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/S2Nld5"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_18.jpg"></a></p>
<h4>The Lian Li PC-Q05 Case</h4>
<p>I’m not aware of any other high quality Thin Mini-ITX cases available on the market other than the <a href="http://bry.vc/MBhpun">Lian Li PC-Q05</a>. As you would expect, a Thin Mini-ITX board will work in any Mini-ITX case but that somewhat diminishes the value of the Thin Mini-ITX standard to begin with.</p>
<p>The Q05 is a rather simple case in that it features no USB or other ports in the case itself. The thin rectangle simply provides space to mount a Thin Mini-ITX board, two 2.5-inch drives (preferably SSDs), and the Intel HTS1155LP CPU cooler. Since the power supply is external, no space is needed for it either in the case.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_3.jpg"></p>
<p>The Lian Li PC-Q05 comes in both black (<a href="http://bry.vc/MBhpun">PC-Q05B</a>) and silver (<a href="http://bry.vc/R5zVvz">PC-Q05A</a>).</p>
<h2>Putting it All Together</h2>
<p>Building a system based on the Intel DQ77KB, Core i7 3770S, and Lian Li PC-Q05B proved to be an interesting project. Opening up the Q05B case for the first time shows the support bar and the extra hardware like screws.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_2.jpg"></p>
<p>Another nice feature of the DQ77KB is that it comes with two rear I/O panel covers.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_12.jpg"></p>
<p>One is the standard height and the other is the Thin Mini-ITX height. I installed the CPU and memory on the motherboard and then set it in the case.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_22.jpg"></p>
<p>I realized that I need to install the special HTS1155LP CPU cooler before putting the board into the case. Flipping the board over, I held the CPU cooler backplate in place with the fingers and then installed the CPU cooler.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_24.jpg"></p>
<p>Here is the CPU cooler installed and everything placed into the Lian Li Q05.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_26.jpg"></p>
<p>I utilized my standard SSDs for this system which are a <a href="http://bry.vc/N1yJZD">240GB Intel 520 SSD</a> for boot and primary storage and a <a href="http://bry.vc/N1yP3F">512GB Crucial M4 SSD</a> for additional storage. As a nice touch, both 2.5-inch drive bays are shock mounted with rubber.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_27.jpg"></p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_28.jpg"></p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_31.jpg"></p>
<p>Right before the final closing of the case, everything is in place. Cable management is tight as would be expected but everything just fits.</p>
<p><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/DQ77KB/DQ77KB_System_33.jpg"></p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>One of my potential goals for this system is a portable VMware ESXi demo system. I think it would work quite well for this and would still support VT-d with a CPU that support VT-d. If I were to use it as an ESXi demo system, I would likely change the CPU to a Core i5 3470T or Core i5 3570T since HD 4000 Graphics is not necessary.</p>
<p>A future addition to this system will likely be an mSATA SSD such as one of the <a href="http://bry.vc/Ue34oh">Crucial M4 mSATA SSDs</a>. That would allow the two drive bays to be utilized for up to 1TB laptop drives such as the <a href="http://bry.vc/SVziqe">1TB HGST Travelstar 5400RPM 2.5-inch hard drive</a>. Two 1TB drives in a RAID 0 might make a good media store.</p>
<p>So far, I’m quite impressed with the system. What you lose is discrete graphics and more than two drive bays. What you gain is a very powerful and very portable system. I’ll write up a full parts list with prices in a day or two.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-case-for-thin-mini-itx-and-intel-dq77kb/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/cZMQfH3KI24" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-case-for-thin-mini-itx-and-intel-dq77kb/<![CDATA[Observations on Errors, Corrections, & Trust of Dependent Systems →]]>2012-08-23T22:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/observations-on-errors-corrections-and-trust-of-dependent-systems<p>This is a very good article that covers some of the significant advantages of ECC memory and the perils of running critical systems without it. This article was written by James Hamilton, one of the Vice Presidents of Amazon Web Services. Thanks to <a href="http://twitter.com/maximdim/">@maximdim</a> for originally sharing this article with me many months back. Based on this and other data, I would tend to run anything that’s really important with ECC memory. I only wish laptops had ECC options available.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/observations-on-errors-corrections-and-trust-of-dependent-systems/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/QHyR8GFbbHo" height="1" width="1"/>http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2012/02/26/ObservationsOnErrorsCorrectionsTrustOfDependentSystems.aspx<![CDATA[Anyone Know the Difference Between the S1200KP and S1200KPR?]]>2012-08-23T16:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/anyone-know-the-difference-between-s1200kp-and-s1200kpr<p>I’ve written quite a bit about the Intel S1200KP motherboard and I’ve been pretty happy with it overall. The original board I tested actually failed on me but I might have been at fault. I’m planning to replace it now and I noticed that Intel has released the new <a href="http://ark.intel.com/products/67346/Intel-Server-Board-S1200KPR">S1200KPR</a> <em>but</em> I have been unable to find out how it is different from the original S1200KP. Does anyone have that information?</p>
<p><strong>Update: Thanks to the comment to this post, which references this <a href="http://communities.intel.com/thread/30150">Intel Communities thread</a>, we now know that the purpose of the S1200KPR is to support Ivy Bridge processors. Apparently there are two additional resistors on the S1200KPR that are not on the S1200KP. Although users are still using Ivy Bridge processors with the S1200KP, it is not recommended or supported.</strong></p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/anyone-know-the-difference-between-s1200kp-and-s1200kpr/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/-ZYE6sCh-eM" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/anyone-know-the-difference-between-s1200kp-and-s1200kpr/<![CDATA[In-App Remove Ads, Please]]>2012-08-23T15:30:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/in-app-remove-ads-please<p>I’ve noticed that some apps I have downloaded on my iOS devices from the App Store are supported by ads. Although I used to be 100% anti-ad, I see the value since I use ads in a limited capacity myself. I have also noticed a few apps that offer the option to remove ads with an in-app purchase. If you’re an app developer and you use ads, <em>please</em> offer an option to remove them with an in-app purchase. That would be wonderful. If it’s not there, I probably won’t use your app. I’m happy to pay for no ads.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/in-app-remove-ads-please/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/Efz6h84238g" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/in-app-remove-ads-please/<![CDATA[VMware Fusion 5 and VMware Workstation 9 Released]]>2012-08-23T15:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/vmware-fusion-5-and-vmware-workstation-9-released<p>VMware introduced two new products this week, one is <a href="http://bry.vc/MPg7fm">VMware Fusion 5</a> and the other is <a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT">VMware Workstation 9</a>. Both products add some great new features but the most interesting is a new flavor of VMware Fusion in the form of VMware Fusion 5 Professional. As expected, a new addition to either variety of VMware Fusion 5 is Mountain Lion Support. Also as expected Windows 8 is supported in both flavors of VMware Fusion 5 and also VMware Workstation 9.<!--more--></p>
<h2>VMware Fusion 5</h2>
<p>The Mountain Lion support for VMware Fusion 5 extends not only to host support but also guest support. This is a nice addition and I’m planning to do some tests with the newly-named OS X Server that pairs with Mountain Lion as a result.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/MPg7fm"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/VMware-Fusion-5/Lion-VM-580x363.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Other changes such as Retina Display Support and USB 3 Connectivity are nice additions as is <em>Improved Support for Large Memory Macs</em> that VMware bills as <em>better use of memory on Macs equipped with 16GB or more</em>. Also on the performance front, VMware is touting <em>Near-Native Performance</em> and <em>Long Life to Your Battery</em>. According to the graphs VMware Fusion 5 is 1.45x better at power management than VMware Fusion 4.</p>
<p><em>Faster 3D Graphics</em> comes in the form of <em>support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 graphics</em>. This is intended for applications such as AutoCAD 2012. On the graphics front, a new enhanced driver for Linux has been submitted to X.Org which allows for full 3D desktops in a few Linux distros, notably Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.</p>
<h2>VMware Fusion 5 Professional</h2>
<p>VMware Fusion 5 Professional adds some additional features particularly useful to business and professional users. In a great addition, you can now deploy a Virtual Machine to a Mac, Windows, or Linux system using VMware Player. There are also new Mass Deployment features including volume licensing.</p>
<p>The new features intended for professional users are a new Network Editor which allows you to modify and create virtual networks for testing purposes. This is an absolutely wonderful addition that should have been here a long time ago! OVF Import, Virtualized VT-X/EPT, and VIX (Perl and Apple Script scripting support) round out the features and make VMware Fusion 5 Professional an essential upgrade for me.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/MPg7fm"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/VMware-Fusion-5/Professional-Network-Editor.jpg"></a></p>
<h2>VMware Workstation 9</h2>
<p>VMware Workstation 9 builds on the VMware Workstation 8 upgrade and adds <em>Best in Class Windows 8 Support</em>. The same great new better 3D graphics support in VMware Fusion 5 also comes to VMware Workstation 9 which allows application like AutoCAD 2012 to run.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/VMware-Workstation-9/Workstation9-AutoCad-tn.jpg"></a></p>
<p>New support for accessing virtual machines over a web interface is also included that appears to work with any HTML5 web browser that support WebSockets. Similar to VMware Fusion 5 Professional, VMware Workstation 9 adds the same Nested VT-X/EPT support.</p>
<p>Another important new addition for a professional like myself is the ability to both upload and download from your workstation to vSphere. The ability to upload a virtual machine was already added in VMware Workstation 8 but there was no ability to download until now.</p>
<h2>Upgrade</h2>
<p>I’m looking forward to getting the <a href="http://bry.vc/MPg7fm">VMware Fusion 5 Professional</a> upgrade and also purchasing a copy <a href="http://bry.vc/T00xeT">VMware Workstation 9</a>. VMware Fusion 5 is available for $49.99 and VMware Fusion 5 Professional is available new for $99.99 and as an upgrade for $49.99. VMware Workstation 9 is available new for $249.00 and as an upgrade for $119.00.</p>
<p>See VMware’s site for the full details on <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html">VMware Fusion 5</a>, <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop_virtualization/fusion/professional.html">VMware Fusion 5 Professional</a>, and <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/new.html">VMware Workstation 9</a>.</p>
<p><a rel="bookmark" href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/vmware-fusion-5-and-vmware-workstation-9-released/">∞ Permalink</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brycv/~4/vB0L2H2JpRY" height="1" width="1"/>http://brycv.com/blog/2012/vmware-fusion-5-and-vmware-workstation-9-released/<![CDATA[SilverStone ST45SF-G is First Gold Rated Modular SFX Power Supply]]>2012-08-20T15:00:00-07:00http://brycv.com/blog/2012/silverstone-st45sf-g-is-first-gold-rated-modular-sfx-power-supply<p>A power supply is always a critical part of any system. My experience in the last year with Seasonic X-series Gold-rated power supplies has been excellent but there is one deficiency in Seasonic’s lineup. SilverStone has been making very good power supplies but I have been holding off on purchasing one until now because a new model perfectly fits a need I have.<!--more--></p>
<p>My <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/categories/mini-itx/">interest in Mini-ITX systems</a> has forced me to consider some more compact power supplies. Many ATX power supplies are 160 mm long or longer and just do not fit in small cases. Some cases even require an SFX power supply like the <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/silverstone-ft03-mini-set-to-be-mini-itx-case-to-beat/">SilverStone FT03-Mini</a> I wrote about recently.</p>
<p>Some Micro ATX cases require a power supply with shorter depth like the SilverStone ST50F-P which is only 140 mm deep. The problem is that I have decided to stick with 80 Plus Gold rated power supplies for my systems due to the increased efficiency. Up to this point I have not had any smaller power supply options that are 80 Plus Gold Rated.</p>
<p>SilverStone has had their well regarded <a href="http://bry.vc/OSl9Je">ST45SF 450 watt SFX power supply</a> out for some time but this was once again only an 80 Plus Bronze rated power supply and is not modular in any way.</p>
<h2>ST45SF-G</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://bry.vc/Rcis4L">SilverStone ST45SF-G</a> changes everything! This new 450 watt SFX power supply is not only 80 Plus Gold rated but also fully modular.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/Rcis4L"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/ST45SF-G/ST45SF-G-1.jpg"></a></p>
<p>The ST45SF-G features one silent 80 mm fan and an impressive array of connections for such a small power supply. Along with the typical 20/24-pin motherboard power connector and 4/8-pin EPS/ATX 12V connector, this power supply features one 8/6-pin PCIe power connector and one 6-pin PCIe power connector which together support nearly any graphics card on the market. There are also three SATA power connectors, two 4-pin molex power connectors, and one 4-pin floppy power connector.</p>
<p><a href="http://bry.vc/Rcis4L"><img class="center" src="http://brycv.com/images/ST45SF-G/ST45SF-G-2.jpg"></a></p>
<p>The connectivity options are great although it might have been nice to one or two more SATA power connectors. What I intend to investigate as soon as my power supply arrives is whether it is possible to use the <a href="http://bry.vc/Ah1t3q">SilverStone PP05 Short Cable Set</a> with this power supply which would also have the added benefit of allowing you to use a different selection of cables so that you could perhaps support four SATA power connectors instead of having a floppy power connector. I will report back on this once I have a unit in hand.</p>
<p>One other very nice feature is that an SFX to ATX power supply bracket is included with the ST45SF-G so you can use this compact power supply in place of a larger ATX power supply as a drop-in replacement.</p>
<h4>Availability</h4>
<p>As of this weekend, the SilverStone ST45SF-G is now available to order from <a href="http://bry.vc/POQPPN">Newegg</a> and also for pre-order from <a href="http://bry.vc/Rcis4L">Amazon.com</a>. I have two units on order from Amazon.com and I received a notification that they will ship by the end of August or beginning of September.</p>
<p><em>Update: The ST45SF-G is out of stock from Newegg again.</em></p>
<p>I expect this power supply to be very popular and most likely difficult to obtain after the initial stock sells out. There really is nothing like it on the market and I am very much looking forward to receiving my units.</p>
<p>It is a perfect fit for SilverStone’s own <a href="http://brycv.com/blog/2012/silverstone-ft03-mini-set-to-be-mini-itx-case-to-beat/">FT03-Mini</a> as well as the <a href="http://bry.vc/NcSP4A">BitFenix Prodigy</a>. I am working on a new compact Mini-ITX system that still has space for a decent graphics card and this power supply will almost certainly power it. It will also likely be a good fit for the upcoming SilverStone SG09 Micro ATX case as well.</p>
<p>I will be writing up both the ST45SF-G when it arrives and my experience with it in several different builds as I complete them. Check back soon for more coverage.</p>
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