For Sale – Poseidon and Atlantis

Posted on 13/09/2012 by Craig

I’ve made the difficult decision to sell my Poseidon and Atlantis rigs – they’re currently sitting at my parents’ house unused and neglected after I moved out in May this year. I originally intended to go back for them but space restrictions mean I don’t have room for them.

Poseidon – £1000 - Photos

Poseidon

i7 2600K (clocked at 4.5GHz)
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz (4x4GB)
ASUS P8P67-Pro
HIS 6970 2GB IceQ Turbo
120GB Vertex 3
2 x 1TB Samsung F3
Corsair Obsidian 800D case
LG BluRay drive
Samsung DVD-RW
Antec HighPower 750W modular PSU

Monitors – £65 each

2 x Samsung 24″ 24B TN panels
1 x Samsung (model escapes me)

Atlantis – £800 - Photos

Atlantis

Xeon E3-1230
4GB Kingston 1333MHz DDR3 ECC (2x2GB)
Supermicro X9SCA-F
2 x 1TB Samsung F3
LSI 9260-4i
2 x Samsung drives
Coolermaster Sileo (minus internal 4-bay drive caddy)
Coolermaster PSU (550W from memory – non-modular)
2 x StarTech 3-bay hotswap caddies (taking up four drive bays) – I have the original bay covers if needed.

Caveat: I have a very sneaky feeling that the board has a duff RAM channel. I’ve tried another 2x2GB sticks (to total 8GB) of the same RAM in the second channel and it doesn’t POST. Haven’t returned it as I didn’t need the extra RAM but just to make people aware in the name of transparency. The board should still be under warranty with Scan though.

Additional Kit

Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W PSU - £80 posted
Corsair F120 120GB SSD - SOLD

Postage/Collection

Collection is greatly preferred due to size – postcode area CM8. If postage is needed, the buyer will need to arrange and pay for the required courier and check with me beforehand.

New Design!

Posted on 28/11/2011 by Craig

After three years with the previous design, I have decided to give the site design a much-needed refresh! I will also be refreshing and updating the content in the next few weeks.

The new design should be a lot cleaner, lighter and more professional so should make for better reading.

I’m also consolidating my freelance web development portfolio into this website as I now have a full-time job and have less time to dedicate to web development.

If anyone has any comments regarding the site, please feel free to email me at craig@cwatson.org, leave a comment below or tweet me @craigwatson1987.

Project Poseidon – It’s Alive!

Posted on 05/10/2011 by Craig

… [ insert evil laughter and pinkie-pose here ] …

My latest PC build – Project Poseidon, so named after the Greek god of the sea – is now alive and kicking. Details are on the project page and photos are on the gallery, so please check them out!

One remark I’ll make is that Corsair should put their assembly line workers in for World’s Strongest Man (or reduce the torque on their assembly line machines) – removing the backplane for the SATA hot-swap bays of the 800D was far harder than I’d have liked – I even had to snap most of the PCBs to get them to budge!

I’m planning to liquid-cool the build at some point in the not-too-distant future (what’s the point in having a project called Poseidon if you don’t involve a bit of water?) – hopefully within the next two months if budget allows. Long live Poseidon!

Project Discovery – Inception Plans

Posted on 31/08/2010 by Craig

I have started planning my next computer build – codenamed Discovery – to replace my current Galileo rig. The plans are at the inception stages at the moment but I’m hoping to have some more concrete plans in the next few weeks.

I aim to build Discovery more as a customisation and modification project as well as a new computer build, and as such hardware choices have yet to be made. However, Discovery will be subtly themed along the lines of NASA’s own Space Shuttle Discovery.

Colours and general design will be kept as clean as possible, with a white/silver pearl outer colour and black/white internals. The case in question will be the Coolermaster ATCS 840, with a custom side-panel window and an LCD display housed within the panel. Below is a very rough mock-up of what I hope the finished project will look like:

Hopefully I’ll have some progress in the next few weeks!

iOS4 / iTunes 9.2 Voice Memo Sync Workaround

Posted on 11/07/2010 by Craig

I recently did a couple of recordings using my new iPhone 4, and ran into a problem that others have been having regarding syncing Voice Memos to/from iTunes from Apple devices running iOS4. I have managed to work around the problem, without resorting to deleting the memos in question. Hopefully this can be useful to some. The main caveat is that this will only work for users running Windows.

You must make sure that your device is not syncing with iTunes when using this guide. Close iTunes completely before follwing any of the steps below.

Update 16th July 2010

Some users are reporting that the files appearing in the iPhone Browser window are M4A as opposed to MOV detailed below. If this is the case, then you should be able to transfer the voice memos directly from the device as detailed below without any conversion. I would suggest that you check each voice memo all of the way through before deleting it from your device to check that it hasn’t been corrupted or mis-converted. If all memos play correctly, then you can remove them within the app.

Step 1 – Download iPhone Browser

iPhone Browser Connected

iPhone Browser bypasses iTunes, allowing you to access the files directly on your device rather than going through iTunes. It should be noted that this is third party software and is not supported in any way by Apple, and is provided with no warranty, however I have used it and tested that it works.

Download iPhone Browser and install it. Connect your device, and start iPhone Browser. It should automatically connect to your device and show its contents. The screen should look like the one on the left (click the image to view a larger version).

Step 2 – Save the Memos

Navigate to the Recordings folder in the list on the left – you will then see a list of files. From here, I suggest that you save all of the files to a temporary folder on your hard drive. If you want to select multiple files, hold the “Control” key and click on the files to save. When you have the files selected, right-click on any highlighed file and click “Save As“, and choose a location to save to – for simplicity, I suggest creating a folder called Temp in your user’s home folder (you’ll see why later).

Even though iTunes saves voice memos as M4A files, the files you need to save are the MOV files (QuickTime video). I believe that iTunes transcodes these into m4a when syncing, which could explain the high CPU usage and “hangs” that users are reporting – in fact iTunes is still working, but transcoding the files into M4A.

Once the files have transferred, you can then close iPhone Browser, delete them from your device within the Voice Memo app, re-launch iTunes and the device should sync properly.

Step 3 – Converting MOV to MP3/M4A

Playing the MOV files in any player will not give you usable audio. You then need to extract the audio data from the file. The command-line utility FFMPEG is a very handy tool for manipulating multimedia, you can download a Windows version here (I have uploaded it to my own webspace for ease of access, as the distributable version is .

Download FFMPEG, and move the file into the same folder as your MOV files. Open a command prompt by pressing Windows+R and typing “cmd” into the box. By default, the window should have the path to your home directory loaded. Type “cd <foldername>” (without quotes) to move into that folder. For example “cd Temp” will move into the Temp folder. Now run the following command to extract the audio from the MOV file:

ffmpeg -i file.mov audio.mp3

FFMPEG Output

Substitute file.mov for the filename of the MOV file, and FFMPEG will convert the audio into a file called audio.mp3.

If you would like the audio in m4a format, just replace “audio.mp3″ with “audio.m4a” and FFMPEG will automatically convert it. The output should look something like the image on the left (as before, click for a larger version).

You can then move the MP3/M4A files into your iTunes library to sync with the rest of your music if you like.

Hope that’s been some help! If you have any questions or queries, please comment

WordPress NextGEN Gallery – SEO Permalink Patch

Posted on 06/07/2010 by Craig

After converting my gallery from Coppermine to NextGEN, one of the only downsides was the non-SEO friendly nature of NextGEN’s default permalink structure.

After searching through Google, its seemed others had also raised the issue, but the feature was as-yet unimplemented by Alex Rabe, NextGEN’s developer. Undaunted by this, I set about dismantling NextGEN’s code to implement it myself.

So, after several hours of coding, hacking and bug-fixing, I have released the changed files for anyone who wants to implement the feature in the future. Just download the patched version of NextGEN (tar.gz | zip | changed files only) and replace your current NextGEN plugin files. You will need to update your permalink structure once after activating the SEO settings in the NextGEN Options page.

Disclaimer

Obviously there is a risk in using this as it I haven’t tested on anything other than my own website. Remember to backup your current nextgen-gallery plugin folder, as well as any customised CSS files you have.

I have submitted the changes to Alex, so hopefully they should be integrated into the next release of NextGEN.

If you have any questions/comments, please by all means ask

Update 21:00 BST, 8th July 2010

I have been testing the changes and have found a couple of minor bugs, mainly relating to the use of European characters and quotes in gallery/album names. These bugs have now been fixed, and a proof-of-concept for European characters is here.

The archives above have been updated to include these changes. If anyone can provide feedback (even a “it works!”) it would be much appreciated – I’m trying to save Alex as much testing as possible

Degree Results and Graduation

Posted on 04/07/2010 by Craig

Aberystwyth, May 2009

So, after four years of work, I finally have the legal right to add three letters to the end of my name.

After gaining an Upper Second Class Honours BSc (in non-academia, this translates to a 2:1 honours degree) from Aberystwyth University, it’s a strange feeling knowing that the last four years of your life are now officially over.

I will be graduating along with around a hundred of my peers within the Computer Science department at a ceremony in Aberystwyth in two weeks time, and although the ceremony itself will be a celebration of the previous four years, it will also be a celebration of the beginning of the next chapter.

Hopefully I can find a job among the millions of other graduates vying for the same opportunity, and start anew, although the fact that I am now (technically, at least) in the “real world” is a bit of a scary thought! I have definitely emerged from university a changed person from when I started in September 2006, and as I wrote in my farewell post from Aberystwyth, it is an opportunity I am lucky enough to have had and even luckier to have succeeded in.

I can only hope that success will carry forward!

iPhone 4 – Full Review

Posted on 24/06/2010 by Craig

As discussed in my earlier post, I have been playing with Apple’s newest toy today – the iPhone 4. After playing with the device for the best part of the day.

I won’t be doing a step-by-step teardown, because if you’re reading this, you’ll already have a good idea of the capabilities of the device, but I’ll pick out my favourite features and give an overall idea of how it fares.

Design

The iPhone 4

As has been widely publicised, the design of the iPhone 4 is the biggest overhaul since the original was released back in 2007.

It takes many hints from the latest lines released by Apple, including the all-aluminium MacBooks, iMacs and the iPad.

In terms of feel, this makes the iPhone feel a touch hefty but this translates into “quality” rather than “heavy” – you actually feel like you’re holding £450 of handset, which you should, because you are!

The lines are clean, minimal and uncluttered, and it really does bring the iPhone into line with Apple’s current trend, while also being a statement itself. It doesn’t matter whether you are a massive Apple fan or a style-concious newbie, the phone will fit.

Retina Display

The other much-discussed feature of the iPhone 4 is it’s Retina Display – so-called because Apple claim that the human eye cannot distinguish between individual pixels on its screen.

I have to say that the display is one of the device’s finest points. It’s sharp, bright and vivid, and definitely something that should be admired.

Software and Apps

One of the drawbacks that has stopped me short of having an iPhone before now was the dependence on iTunes to sync with the device. This limitation still stands, however my own stance towards iTunes has softened slightly since buying a MacBook in October 2008, so it isn’t much of a drawback for me personally.

As you would expect from Apple, the software does work seamlessly, and there’s no negatives that really stand out – as yet anyway.

Overall

Overall, I really have to say that the iPhone 4 is in a class of it’s own. Apple’s many detractors can point to any number of handsets that claim to rival it – the HTC Desire and BlackBerry are two – but for me, it really is an achievement of engineering and design – disciplines that Apple excel in, even though as a Free Software advocate I would like to see a bit more software and development openness.

Of course it remains to be seen how it will fare in the long term, there have already been reports of yellowing/discoloured screens and loss of signal, however I have (thankfully, touch wood) not run into these problems so far.

[ Full Flickr Photostream ]

iPhone4 – First Impressions

Posted on 24/06/2010 by Craig

My iPhone 4

So, I am the proud owner of a shiny new iPhone 4! I’ll give my first impressions here.

First off, the device feels very hefty and very solid in-hand, and it’s got a nice feeling of quality about it.

Not having used an iPhone properly before, the iOS4 software feels responsive, and the much-discussed Retina display looks amazing, it re-defines what a mobile device should be capable of.

I will be writing an in-depth review later, once I’ve had a chance to play with the iPhone properly, but it’s looking like a very promising purchase!

Photos are on my Flickr photostream.

How To: Backup with SSH and Rsync

Posted on 18/06/2010 by Craig

My websites (hosted with EvoHosting) are incrementally backed up to a server running on Atlantis – my VMware ESXi host – for the dual purposes of offline development and data resilience. I’m fairly sure that there are numerous guides out there already to accomplish this, but hopefully this will be useful for some.

For ease of explanation, I will skip any network configuration, though if anyone would like detailed configuration on NAT, port forwarding and dynamic DNS, please by all means leave a comment or email me.

SSH Key Configuration

The first thing to do is to configure SSH key authentication, so that your source server can login to your backup server without being prompted for a password. Run the following command on your source server:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Copy this key into your authorized_keys file (usually in /home/$USER/.ssh) on your backup server and set permissions to 700 so that nobody else can read or edit the file – these permissions are explicitly required for most SSH installations, so double-check that they are correct.

Rsync Configuration

After looking around for help on rsync for a while, this is the rsync command I have come up with:

rsync --delete  -ae 'ssh -p999' /home/craig/public_html/ backup.network.local:/home/craig/public_html/

The “delete” option tells rsync to delete files on the backup that aren’t in the source, and the -p999 option tells SSH to use port 999 for the transfer – I used this as I use a non-standard port for SSH for security, however if you run SSH on its standard port (22), you can remove the -p option.

MySQL Backups

Although Rsync will copy my public_html directory, it won’t backup my MySQL databases. To do this, I used the mysqldump utility. Unfortunately my file permissions wouldn’t allow me to use the more efficient mysqlhotcopy utility, so I have had to make do with a slightly crude full backup, which is gzipped to keep the file size minimal:

mysqldump --all-databases | gzip > ~/databases.sql.gz

This full backup is then imported back into the backup server’s MySQL databases.

Automation via Cron

All that was left to do after this was to schedule the backups automatically via each server’s cron scheduler. The MySQL database imports take place 45 minutes after the Rsync copy to give the backup time to complete.

Where needed, I have written simple Bash scripts to simplify the process and to remove the backup SQL scripts after transfers and imports.

Hopefully that has been educational, please feel free to comment if you have questions/suggestions