I've been asked to help out my sister's boss working on their store server. This is a little mom and pop place, but they try to handle their IT intelligently. Their last computer guru moved out of town, so this may lead to some extra cash for me on a semi-regular basis. I'm looking to do a good job.
          There are several things he's looking for, but the main request right now is to upgrade the hard drives. They have a Dell Poweredge server, with two 40 GB IDE drives in a RAID 0 configuration. They're running out of space, and they've bought two 80 GB drives to upgrade with.
          I haven't worked with RAID before. I understand RAID 0 (Oops. I meant RAID 1) is simple mirroring, and I see from their computer's specs that they have a hardware RAID controller. My initial thought was to open the case, pull one of the existing drives (just as if it had gone bad) and place the new drive in the old drive's place. After a rebuild, everything should be fine. Then, same process with the remaining old drive, and a new rebuild. At the end of this process, I expect to have everything working as before, but probably still at the 40 GB capacity. From reading some Dell docs online, I think I can then go in and expand the logical drives to take the full capacity.
          First question, does this sound like it will work? Am I missing something major?
          Second question: There is some reference to adding a hot swappable backup to the RAID 0 configuration. The one concern I have with the steps outlined above is that during the rebuild we don't have a full backup available. Of course, if the rebuild fails, and we haven't made any changes to the data, then we can just pop the old drive back in (I think). Still, if there's a way to alleviate the risk, I'd like to take it. What I'm thinking is putting in a new drive on a third channel, configured as the hot swap. Let it rebuild, then shut down and pull one of the old drives. Put the other new drive in, set as the new hot swap, and wait for the rebuild again. Finally, pull the last old drive, and set the two new drives up with no hot swap. Is this better or worse than my first thought? If better, am I missing anything on this end? I assume that I'd still have to expand the drives after the process to take advantage of the larger space.
          Third question: Am I just crazy, and there's a much simpler solution I've overlooked?

        Any help appreciated

This won't significantly affect most of you, but we have been working on some meta mod changes. The most user visible change is that the UI we used to use was thrown out, and instead we are using one based on the firehose. Subscribers will see it when they go to the old metamod link although users can see it by going to this version of those hose

The first real change is that we've changed the meanings of the UI around. The old system is 'Fair' and 'Unfair' and the new system is '+' and '-'. The meanings are subtly different. You are no longer rating individual 'Insightful' or 'Troll' or whatever... you are now stating basically "Is this comment good or bad for you". Personally, since I find very few Score:5 funny comments to be actually really funny (and not just cliche memes) I '-' most of them. You are encouraged to be harsh if you don't actually think something is insightful or funny, call it such. The system encourages more of what you + and less of what you -.

You are also welcome now to do more than 10 m2 per day... however we internally have diminishing returns after 10, so you can do more, but they start to matter less and less.

There will undoubtedly be bugs so feel free to email me or vroom at slashdot if you find them. Probably next week or so we'll move this out to everyone, so your assistance is appreciated.

Well, for subscribers only this week at least. We have a half dozen minor bugs left in the TODO list, but if you are a paying subscriber you can test it out. It works best if you are using the keybindings to navigate. Pressing 'f' takes you to the next unread comment respecting thread order... so you can press that over and over again.

We also added a thing to 'collapse comments after reading' which I think I might turn of as a default setting soon. This is only usable for subscribers atm as well. But basically, as you navigate through a discussion, it collapses the comments you've read after you move on. This makes it really easy to navigate large discussions without having to scroll over 150 comments you've already read.

we're aware of a number of annoying bugs, but hopefully most of them will be squashed by Pudge for this weeks code refresh. If things are stable, we hope to roll this out for everyone rsn.

also my baby cut his first tooth yesterday. My furniture will never be ungnawed upon again.

My wife and I were excited to see that Disney was bringing back 'family movie night' on ABC this Summer. For both of us that brings back memories of youth watching a movie with (our respective) families after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, or 60 Minutes had ended.

However, apparently families with young kids are not the target audience Disney Corp. has in mind. For Saturday June 7th, they will have Finding Nemo, which runs just 100 minutes if you watch it uninterrupted. But if you don't own the DVD and want to watch it on ABC instead, you'd better give the kids a can of cola with dinner, because the movie will start at 8 PM Eastern Time and run until 11 PM. I can only assume that the additional 80 minutes will include some cast commentaries, as well as a preview of WALL-E, but what is the point if the kids fall asleep while Marlin and Dory are still stuck in the belly of a whale? You're just going to have to try and rent it or add it to your NetFlix queue so the kids can see the rest of it.

I had such great hopes for Disney when Steve Jobs became it's largest shareholder, I guess my trust was misplaced.

So, later this year I'm having a birthday due to a new age that ends in a zero. This seems to be a popular time for sorrow and wallowing, but I see it as a chance to have fun for a change. Having recently been through my own wedding and being a part-time wedding photographer, I'm tired of attending other people's parties.

So, this year I have asked for a Transformers party. Now, everyone to be invited will be of an adult age, but we're all still kids at heart.

The reason I am posting this is for quirky party suggestions.

Like, pin the $item on the $creature. Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, should we pin the AllSpark on the Optimus Prime? If were inviting less guys and more girls, it might be fun to play "put some clothes onto that girl from the movie" game. Pfft, like girls would willingly come to a Transformers party in the first place.

What about Transformers-themed adult beverages? Can you think of some good drinks (please include at least a basic outline of the ingredients) with a great Transformers name? Like, I'm thinking something with lemonade and calling it a Bumblebee. Should we mix the Everclear into something and make it a Megatron?

"ME GRIMLOCK, ME DRINK BEER."

I'm asking for all of the Transformers party things like plates and napkins and of course the cake, but can you think of any other items that will be needed to make the party a success?

I'm aware links such as these already:

http://transformers.awestores.com/ttc/transformers-party-supplies/cPath/10251.html

http://www.prettypartyplace.com/kid-birthday-party-supply-transformers.html

http://www.parties4kids.com/birthday_partysupplies_cat/transformers_mtv-Transformers.html

And this set available at target, seems like a perfect place for us to start from, but none of these really tell you how to have a party other than to just buy some stuff and let the party happen. Thus, I'm seeking out the nerdiest bunch I know: slashdot.

Suggestions don't have to be limited to the recent theatrical live-action Transformers, the first generation is great, too.

You've got the touch! Now, make the suggestions.

So as we've been migrating the system from the tired old D1 to the exciting and awesome new D2 a number of complaints have come up. I'm going to talk about a couple of them here because I'm really looking for feedback on THESE issues. Please only talk about these points or I will mod you offtopic or troll or something.

The issue is about the use of Flat/Threaded/Nested modes. D2 cleanly replaces both threaded and nested modes- you effectively get nested mode by bringing the 2 sliders together. And threaded mode is vastly more flexible because you can choose the level at which comments are abbreviated or displayed in full text. So users of those modes should be set (obviously there are other reasons not to use D2, I'm just talking about the layouts here tho)

What's left is flat mode, which has a number of sort options. Now flat mode is used by roughly 4% of our active population. When i think about flat mode, I think about 2 reasons you would have to use it:

1. I hate indenting and whitespace. I want a big vertical column now this isn't my bag, but I can understand it and even consider supporting it in D2. I think you sacrifice legibility, but this is a personal preference. It also would be easy to support in D2. Hell, you could probably do it in a greasemonkey script no problem.
2. It's easier to remember your place in flat mode This to me is the only reason to use flat mode- you can reload your page an hour later, find the last comment you read, and pick up where you left off.

Now I Would think that the only reason to use flat mode is #2... except that only a couple hundred Slashdot readers have the 'ignore threads' sort order enabled. So either they don't understand what they are doing, or #1 above is the real reason that they use flat mode.

So in a nutshell, the question I am asking in this journal is 'Why do you use flatmode?' Is it cosmetic? To more easily keep your place in a discussion? Something I'm just missing? We have plans to implement a read/unread state retention for discussions, so maybe would you migrate to a threaded view if that function exists? Or is it purely aesthetic... an irrational hatred of scrollbars and whitespace? :)

The reason this matters is that simply formatting the page flatly is easy. Probably a simple greasemonkey hack or maybe a few lines of CSS. But re-implementing the alternate sort is gonna take some work. And I'm ok with that... except that the logs say that nobody actually USES that sort... they ONLY are using flat mode for the cosmetic reasons.

Speak out! Stay on-topic or you WILL be moderated down.

In-Place Posting is now live for all logged in users. Hopefully there are no surprises. We've found a number of very tiny bugs, but nothing show stopping. We'll leave the link up to the 'classic' reply form for a few weeks. Next week anonymous coward will get the new posting form... hopefully there are no surprises with that.

A few new keybindings aren't documented yet... v (end) t (top) [] change upper threshold and ,. change bottom threshold. Also 'r' opens the new reply box, m opens the mod total thingee.

The only major complaint so far is that the design changes consume a lot more whitespace. I have mixed feelings on the subject, but am aiming to strike a balance. We noticed 2 very clear places where the whitespace is excessive and hopefully that will be fixed RSN. But on the other hand, making deep threads visually clear, and drawing some attention to the 'reply' buttons is beneficial to everyone, so bare with us as we work to strike some sort of balance.

Timely emails from the future. Just the thing for us procrastinators. (archive)

Discussion2 rolls on... the most recent addition to the system is in-place comment posting. Essentially, little dynamic ajaxy slideout boxes to post directly within the thread, without going to a stand-alone page. This is great because you don't have to lose your place within the thread to post.

this functionality is currently only available to paid subscribers, and several hundred of them have tested it out already. We still need to make it look pretty and add a few minor things (like the CAPTCHA for anonymous posting) but it's almost done.

Also worth noting is that logged in users can click on the 'Score' field of comments to view the moderation information on the comment. This information was previously not visible within D2, unless you navigated outside the d2 system (opening a comment in a new window did it). I doubt most people really care about this info, but it's available.

We also have one (perhaps minor) thing to get in... right now if you visit a comment directly via a CID link you can navigate within that thread, but navigating 'up' the comment hierarchy results in a new page, and a new discussion... this makes context a pain to maintain. So pudge is going to change that page to display the parent posts in an abbreviated format. This will mean that you can climb back up the thread easily, even if you entered the forum via a link deep into a thread.

A few minor items left on the todo list (keybindings for threshold changes... maybe press 'r' to open the reply slideout from the current comment, and a bunch of small design issues to make the threads a little more visually clear and easily navigatable) and we're ready to call D2 finished.

We have no plans to remove D1, so those of you who hate D2 are welcome to stay on the old system, but obviously new moderation tools and whatever else we think of will be attached to D2, not D1, so you've been warned ;)

A group of researchers from UCLA Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed an artificial muscle made of carbon nanotubes, capable of healing itself. From the article: "The researchers used flexible, ever-more ubiquitous carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of other films, often metal-based, that fail after repeated use. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the fault from spreading to other areas." I don't know about you, but whenever I hear stories like these, my first concern is always whether I can use this technology to charge my iPod. Turns out, I can, as evidenced by Discovery Channel news report Artificial Muscle Heals Itself, Charges IPod.

MIT Technology Review describes a new Wi-Fi router from Intel capable of sending Wi-Fi signal at tens of miles away with somewhat decent 6 Mbps performance, which makes it perfect for rural Internet-less areas, and a number of countries interested in developing their Internet infrastructure, but no means to lay expensive cable or fiberoptics. The cost is roughly $500, and you need two such routers to create a point-to-point connection, Intel says: "Intel's RCP platform rewrites the communication rules of Wi-Fi radios. Galinvosky explains that the software creates specific time slots in which each of the two radios listens and talks, so there's no extra data being sent confirming transmissions. "We're not taking up all the bandwidth waiting for acknowledgments," he says. Since there is an inherent trade-off between the amount of available bandwidth and the distance that a signal can travel, the more bandwidth is available, the farther a signal can travel."

Acer is considering introducing an open, or standards-based gaming console into the market, company's sernior vice-president told BetaNews: "Wong said that, beyond "openness," all of the Acer-branded systems being eyed right now, including the game machine, are envisioned as offering new and innovative form factors and applications." Currently global gaming market is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with $480 million worth of gaming hardware sold in the United States in a single month, with projected 2008 spending of $6.4 billion just in the US.

ExtremeTech is running a review of 9 terabyte-sized hard drives. They take a look at Seagate 7200.11, Seagate Barraduda ES.2, Western Digital WD10EACS, Western
Digital WD1000FYPS, Hitachi 7K1000, Hitachi A7K1000, and Samsung HD103UJ. The verdict? "HDTach measures raw performance, such as transfer rates, access times, and CPU utilization. It's a very low level test that works best on unformatted drives. As we can see from both the read and write tests, Samsung's higher platter density gives it a substantial edge in raw data transfers. The Seagate drives come in second, while the Western Digital drives, with their slower rotational speeds, take up the rear."

Wal-Mart will discontinue stocking $199 Linux PCs made by Taiwanese company Everex, due to the lack of interest from Wal-Mart shoppers, company said. Company will sell gPCs through its online store at Walmart.com: "Walmart.com now carries an updated version, the gPC2, also for $199, without a monitor. The site also sells a tiny Linux-driven laptop, the Everex CloudBook, for $399."

Gary Gygax, July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008

This is an odd one for me -- depending on how you look at it, I was in the RPG world for many years, but not of it, or of it, but not in it. Most of my friends are gamers, some of them quite hardcore for years. When I was a teenager, I wrote a paper RPG. (In retrospect, it seems as though what I was reaching for -- completely independently of anything, since I didn't know the people involved and they didn't know me, and there was a lapse of several years involved -- was what someone else eventually wrote as Vampire: The Masquerade, although what I came up with was closer to GURPS and, admittedly, ultimately unplayable. At least I got class credit for it.) I had a front-page entry in the Daily Illuminator (under the name of the person whose e-mail I was borrowing at the time, since I didn't have one of my own -- scroll down to October 2). I even owned a set of dice. (I've since given them away.)

However... Aside from a few abortive attempts at LARPing in the mid-90s, I've never actually played a pen-and-paper RPG.

However again, if it hadn't been for the RPG culture, in which I was at least an interested bystander if not an out-and-out participant, I never would have become the (geeky-but-at-home-with-it) person I am today.

So I owe one to Gary Gygax. Thanks, man. I've never even played your game, but you still changed my life.