Before moving last week, my wife and I packed away all of our belongings.  Since my Mac Mini and custom built PC were packed away along with our CRT TVs, we decided to use my monitor, a Samsung T260HD, as a television.  Long story short; we loved this monitor as a TV.  I’d bet that the T260H isn’t a particularly “good” LCD TV, but it was a huge step up from a little 18″ CRT whose place it took.
 
If my current monitor would be our new TV, I needed a new monitor, and I decided I wanted one with 2560X1440 or 2560X1600 resolution.  The monitors I researched were:
 
1. Apple Thunderbolt Display
2. Apple LED Cinema Display
3. Samsung SyncMaster S27A850D
4. HP ZR2740w
5. Dell UltraSharp U2711
 
Each needed to attach to a 2011 Mac Mini Server, a 2010 MacBook Pro, and a custom built PC.  The Mini and the PC needed to be attached at all times, while the MacBook Pro was transient.
 
I should note that I am not an expert in monitor hardware and would never claim to be one. This is just an exploration from the perspective of a layman who works mostly in Xcode, does some amateur Photoshopin’, and a dabbles in 3D modeling from time to time.
 
The Apple Thunderbolt Display was the first monitor I took a look at.  Having everything pumping through that single thunderbolt cords sounds awesome; so clean, and neat.  Unfortunately things get less than ideal when you have more than one Mac.  Things get downright impossible when you add a non-Mac in the mix.
 
Macs without a thunderbolt port are unable to use this monitor, so that eliminated the MBP.  Since there are currently no thunderbolt video cards at the time of this writing for the PC, it couldn’t use the Thunderbolt Display as well.  The Mac Mini was the only machine I had that could utilize this display.
 
Even if I had to two thunderbolt Macs, there is no KMV switch available to conveniently switch between them.  I would have had to physically plug and unplug the machines when I wanted to alternate which machine was driving the display.
 
Not being able to use 2 out of my 3 machines with this display was a deal breaker, to say the least.  It seems pretty clear that the Thunderbolt display is really meant to be a MacBook docking station with a screen.
 
With the Apple LED Cinema Display, Apple, once again, limited itself with input port options.
 
The ACD uses a single Mini DisplayPort which actually would work with all three of my machines.  For about $150 I could have picked up a  PC video card with a Mini DisplayPort output.  So what’s the problem with this one?  Well, the only Mini DisplayPort KVMS available are expensive and are (for the most part) poorly reviewed.
 
Apple seems to build monitors with the assumption that one monitor is exclusively tied to one machine.  I suppose this might be the case 99% of the time, but it is not my situation.
 
It looked as if the non-Apple monitors were my only options.
 
The Samsung SyncMaster S27A850D has seen mostly favorable reviews.  However, it is not an IPS panel and is apparently prone to horizontal color shifting issues per the reviews on amazon.com.  My current monitor has color shift issues, and I wanted to avoid this with the next monitor.
 
The HP ZR2740w has been favorably reviewed.  It also features a similar (same?) panel than what dwells in Apple’s monitor offerings.  Unfortunately, The input connections are limited with only a DVI, and a DisplayPort input available.  This means that a DVI or DisplayPort KVM would be necessary to access all three of my machines.  Like the Apple Cinema Display, finding an inexpensive KVM for the DisplayPort or DVI port (that supports the 2560X1440) is currently impossible.
 
The Dell UltraSharp U2711, like the ZR2740w, has been favorably reviewed.  Beyond being a high resolution monitor, its claim to fame has been a wide color gamut.  The only downside to this monitor is that it still uses CCFL backlighting, which means it has to “warm up” before reaching its full brightness.  Other than that, it has just enough connections for my needs that can drive the monitor at its full resolution (2 DVI, 1 DisplayPort).  It’s also comparably priced to the HP and Samsung, and priced lower than the Apple monitors (of course).
 
So, in the end, I decided on the Dell U2711. Did I actually buy the Dell? Nope. I retained the Samsung T260H as my monitor and I returned to the CRT world for TV watchin’.  My samsung 1920X1200 monitor works fine, and it turns out that I don’t really care about TV.  A high resolution monitor would have been nice, but it isn’t worth ~900 dollars when I have a perfectly fine monitor already.

Recently while setting up a Hadoop cluster, I wanted to verity gzip compression was being used during the map output phase. I couldn’t find anything online on how to do this, so I discovered the following method. BTW, if anyone knows of a better way to go about this, let me know; this is less than slick.

In Hadoop intermediate compression is turned on in the following way:

JobConf conf = new JobConf(getConf(), myApp.class);
…
conf.set(“mapred.compress.map.output”, “true”)
conf.set(“mapred.output.compression.type”, “BLOCK”);
conf.set(“mapred.map.output.compression.codec”, “org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.GzipCodec”);

I verified gzip compression was enabled in the map output stage in the following way:

1) In your conf/core-site.xml file (or hadoop-site.xml in version < 0.20.0) you may have defined your temporary data directory for hadoop. This will be specified as the value for the hadoop.tmp.dir name. I don’t believe it’s required that you define the location of this directory, but if you haven’t defined it you’ll have to determine its default location.

2) While a job is executing you will want to copy the contents of the hadoop temporary folder to a another temporary directory.

3) From this directory navigate to mapred/local/taskTracker/jobcache/job_*/attemp_*_m_*/output/. You should see a file called file.out. If compression is enabled, this file should be compressed. I used hexedit on this file to verify that the gzip header was indeed present ( the gzip header will start with 1F 8B 08).

4) Additionally the job.xml located at taskTracker/jobcache/job_*/attemp_*_m_* should have a field called mapred.compress.map.output which will be set to true. Obviously if you’ve already observed a compressed file, this field ought to be set true; if the file was not compressed you should see false for that mapped.compress.map.output field.

I bought the 2011 Mac mini server to replace the lowest end 2007 Mac mini. My 2007 Mac mini had been maxed out with 2GB of memory (though technically you can install 4GB and address a maximum of 3GB) and a third party 160GB drive (originally it had a little 80GB drive), but the machine had become painful to work with when running applications like Photoshop, and Xcode simultaneously with a few Chrome tabs open. I might have tried to wring another year or two out of it, had it not been for the inability to increase the memory.

Before even turning the 2011 Mac mini server on for the first time, I replaced one of the HDDs with a SSD (OWC 120GB Mercury Pro 6G) and used the recovery mode to reinstall Lion. I set the SSD to be the system disk and the other drive to be used as additional storage. As a result I never got a feel for the performance of the system without the SSD. Had I know that I would be writing a review, I might have done a comparison; I don’t write reviews that often unless I’m deeply disappointed or exceptionally pleased.

With the 2011 quad core Mac mini server, I’m exceptionally pleased.

Before I go on and talk about my likes and dislikes about this computer, I’ve got to say that this thing has a gorgeous design. Like most Apple products, it’s got a clean industrial shape. I’m sure you already knew this, and it contributes nothing to what it throws up on your monitor, but it is a nice looking “thing”. It seems like such a waste to hide it away, as is often done with small form factor computers. If I could change anything about its appearance I would remove the apple logo; I hate how Apple (and nearly every other company…to be fair) plasters their logo on everything they make.

But I digress….

The 2011 quad core Mac mini seems like an entirely different beast when compared to the 2007 low end model. I didn’t realize how glacial my old machine was until I got this one. This thing does not so much as stutter with anything; I’m beginning to forget what the spinning beach ball looked like. The 64-bit geekbench score I recorded for the 2011 mini server was 9489, while the 2007 mini achieved a score of 2774. See the end of this post for details on those scores.

The sound produced by the fans from the 2007 mini and the 2011 mini server is also quite a bit different. As I sit here writing this review both of these Macs are idling, the 2011 is three feet to my right and the the 2007 mini three feet to my left. By comparison, the 2007 mini sounds like a wind turbine (ok, that’s a little exaggerated). That is not to say that I can’t hear the 2011 mini; I just have to turn off the 2007 mini to do so. Under load, however, the 2011 mini sounds louder than the 2007 idling. I should clarify that the 2007 is not loud at all; the 2011 mini is just less so.

I can’t speak to how well games run on this, but I’d imagine this wouldn’t be the machine you’d buy if gaming was important, as the machine does not have a discrete video card like the other 2 core Mac mini models. The integrated Intel HD 3000 video chipset seems fine for what I do which is photoshop, coding, web browsing, watching youtube etc, but then again, the GMA 950 in my old 2007 mini did those things fine as well.

Regarding connectivity there are plenty of usb 2.0 ports (4 ports), and the single firewire 800 port will likely be sufficient (since you typically chain firewire devices together). There is also a SDXC card slot on the back, but because it’s on the back (i.e. a pain to use) I’ll never use it. There is also one of those new-fangled thunderbolt ports on the back. I’ve yet to test the thunderbolt port with anything, but I have a 12″ Wacom Cintq that I’ll eventually plug in, at which point I’ll update this review. From other online accounts of people trying this, it should work with a displayport to dvi adapter.

Like other reviews have noted, the lack of a DVD drive is a bummer. If you want to get around this issue and have another computer (Mac or PC) you can remotely “share” that DVD/CD drive over your network with the mini. You can also, obviously, purchase an external usb DVD drive if the idea of your mini being dependent on other machines bugs you or have no other computer.

Another thing I dislike is the unnecessarily difficult process required to replacing the hard drive(s). Check out a video on youtube of the procedure involved and you’ll know what I mean. Apple, clearly, did not intend for end users to swap the hard disks. At least the memory is easy to replace.

Speaking of disks, If you end up buying your mini “built to order” with an SSD on Apple’s website, you might want to reconsider paying for Apple’s SSDs. Apparently (from what I’ve read) the Apple SSDs run at SATA II speeds, even though the mini’s SATA controller can support SATA III. I bought my SSD through Other World Computing (OWC). This is the first product that I’ve purchased from them and so far I haven’t had any issue. I will certainly update this review if that changes.

Overall I’m very pleased. A DVD drive and improved accessibility to the hard drives would have been nice, but the bliss of moving from a low end 2007 Mac mini to a high end 2011 overshadows those disappointments by many orders of magnitudes.

Pros:

• Fast, 4 core processor (Intel Core i7-2635QM)
• Capability to drive dual monitors
• HDMI port and sufficient USB ports
• Memory replacement/upgrade is easy

Cons:

• No DVD/CD drive
• Expensive
• All ports are on the back. Would have been convenient to have the SDXC slot and/or a single usb on the front.
• Hard disk replacement is not easy.

….
….
….
Geekbench 2.1.4 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) Benchmarks:

2007 Mac Mini (Macmini2,1 / MB138*/A ):
Processor integer performance: 2503
Processor floating point performance: 3968
Memory performance: 1808
Memory bandwidth performance: 1484
Geekbench Score: 2774

2011 Mac Mini Server (Macmini5,3 / MC936*/A ):
Processor integer performance: 8278
Processor floating point performance: 14615
Memory performance: 4911
Memory bandwidth performance: 4949
Geekbench Score: 9489

Performance Multiplier : 2007 Mac Mini to 2011 Mac Mini Server:
Processor integer performance: 3.30
Processor floating point performance: 3.68
Memory performance: 2.72
Memory bandwidth performance: 3.34
Geekbench Score: 3.42

For fun I fashioned this table to chart the evolution of the power and battery capabilities (as estimated by Apple) of all of the iPhones available today through Apple. All units are in hours.

…
Though the iPhone 4s gives up a little with regard to WiFi use and standby, it bests the iPhone 4 on talk time by an hour. Overall, the new iPhone 4s looks to be roughly on par with the iPhone 4 with regard to power and battery capabilities alone. This evaluation of being “on par”, of course, doesn’t account for the fact that the 4s ought to be considerably more powerful than the 4.

-James

Well, I just finishing watching the Apple keynote for the new iPhone 4s. I must say I’m a little underwhelmed. I don’t know what I was expecting but I thought it might be more spectacular than what was witnessed today. Based on the last four iPhones it looks like Apple is following Intel’s “tick tock” release model; a big improvement, followed by a refinement, followed by a big improvement, followed by a refinement etc.

In case you’re living under a rock, after about a year and half of milking the iPhone 4 cow Apple announced an October 14th release of the same phone with the iPad 2′s CPU and a better camera and called it the iPhone 4s.

Then there’s this Siri thing. Siri looks intriguing, but in all honestly I don’t like talking to a computer in a public place; I’m a bit too self consequence about looking like a dork.

Though the iPhone 3gs I’ve been rocking since 2009 still serves my needs, the battery life has become a bit lacking. A fresh battery would be nice. A better camera and 64 GB of disk space wouldn’t hurt either.

Despite my disappointment, I might just bite anyways.

Here is the primary reason I switched from using my iPhone 3GS with the Nike+ GPS to the Garmin Forerunner 305 for recording my runs:

In both scenarios, I am running down Latah Trail on the map above. As you can see the Garmin is much more accurate.

I also am getting heart rate information with the Garmin. The Nike+ GPS does not currently support a heart rate monitor.

Definitely an upgrade.

If you are are one of the three or four people who occasionally visit this blog, you may have noticed there haven’t been many posts lately. Sorry….that is to say I’m sorry I haven’t given you more free blog posts. BTW, clicked on an ad recently? Didn’t think so. That is not to say I would click on them, they are typically uninteresting.

I’ve been consumed with two things lately and those have been a new iOS app I’ve been working on, as well as trying to improve my digital painting skills (which is highly related). The app is going pretty smoothly so far, and as always, is a learning experience. You really can’t expand your knowledge of objective-c and the iOS SDK without actually planning a project, writing the code, and testing it out.

With regard to the artwork for my new iOS app, there is just so much to do; it is a bit overwhelming when I step back and look at the workload, and then look at how much time I can devote to it around my day job. I would probably be best served by improving the speed at which I can produce graphics. I would be even better served by hiring out the work, but I’m cheap and a control freak. This is a combination that will not let that happen until I’m working on a project much larger in scope.

The artwork is where my new app will need to shine as it’s not the first of its kind. Like Robodamus (which I feel is the best fortune teller in the app store right now…not that I’m biased in any way ), I hope it can be the best of its kind. If it’s not, then I’ll just proceed with the Seppuku.

Making a few more sales wouldn’t hurt, either, but I’m not sure how I’m going to approach this yet. I do know that I can’t do what I did last time marketing Robodamus and expect a lot of sales. With Robodamus I burned a lot of calories with very little to show for it. I did, however, discover which sites where charging people in exchange for reviews (presumably positive ones). Scumbags…

With regard to marketing, analytics will be something I insert into the app this time around. I would love to know how people were navigating through the app, where they were spending their time, and how often they were using the app in general. Beyond a natural sense of curiosity, I’d like to improve and add to the graphics and animations on the pieces of the apps that people use the most. If people are using the app consistently, maybe I’d like to modify the graphics for when holidays come around (so the app would enter Halloween mode in October, for instance). If most people use the app once and then never use it again (a failure on my part), then I would have the information to decide whether to bother with special holiday graphics. If most users start using the app and then the use begins to slow, I would be able to create an update and gauge whether it has reinvigorated use. It’s like I want to be a helpful version of a “Peeping Tom”; I’ll creepily peer into your living room at night, but once a month I’ll shampoo your carpet while you’re out. Win-win!

On a related note, I’ve started a small business, Pixel Cloud Studios. It seemed prudent to take advantage of the tax benefits afforded to small businesses since I do actually create things that I sell to the public and am attempting to make a profit. So far, I’m only selling Robodamus in the app store, but with the second app on its way the time is nigh to pay the government for a piece of paper and claim my name.

This blog will eventually also be the blog of Pixel Cloud Studios. I don’t expect anything to change with regard to this blog as a result of this.

-James

Now that I’ve had an iPad 2 for over 3 months, it’s time to give it a review.

Back on March 17th I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the 3G 16GB iPad 2 from my local AT&T store. On March 17 the projected wait time before the device shipped was 4-5 weeks. Lucky for me, the iPad 2 arrived in less than two weeks from the purchase date. Definitely a case of under promising, and over performing; one of the rare times that AT&T had made me very happy.

1. Why Not Buy a Xoom, or Galaxy Tab, Instead of an iPad 2?

I should preface this review with the fact that I have never tried any of the competing tablets nor have I even considered buying them. With the enormity of Apple’s app store, I don’t see how, even with superior hardware, a competitor is going to capture my business…well, I guess there might be a “killer app” that might come along and do exactly that, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Software is what drives me to buy hardware, not the other way around. I currently have an i7 desktop with 6GB of RAM so that I can render quickly in 3ds Max, and work with large images in Photoshop and Painter. I bought a Mac Mini in 2008 so that I could code in Xcode for the iPhone. I don’t have either of those pieces of hardware just because they are powerful (in the case of the i7) or small and quiet (in the case of the mac mini). The software that the computers are capable of running is the only reason I would buy either of those two boxes.

For me, software drives hardware purchases. Whenever I’ve bought hardware for the sake of owning cool hardware, I have seen that hardware collect copious amounts of dust. Witness my Wii, which hasn’t been turned on in months, and pouts in a blanket of dust. Next, check out the PS3. I bought this thing because my DVD player died and I convinced myself that I might as well get a Blu-Ray Player , and since I was getting a Blu-Ray Player I might as well get one that was attached to a game system. I’m sure you know how this line of logic goes; we’ve all done it, and it always involves spending more money than one needs to.

Anyways, I did use the PS3 during my rock band phase, but for the most part this machine is for watching Netflix. The problem with the PS3, however, is that every once in a while I try to watch Netflix and I end up having to download and install an update which seems to have the effect that after the system or software update has completed I have to retype the user name and password for the Netflix account. Sure it sounds trivial, but when you sit down with a meal and want to watch an episode of “Arrested Development” only to be greeted with an ultimatum to update the system, it becomes highly annoying. You’ve typically finished your meal by the time the system has updated. If I didn’t have all those RockBand accessories, I would have sold the PS3 by now.

So, in a long winded way, all I’m trying to say is “I like the software that is available for the iPad”.

2. The iPad 2 Hardware

My first impression was that the iPad 2 is very thin and has a gorgeous screen. My second impression was that the iPad 2 is still pretty heavy.

As strange as it sounds, the iPad should not get any thinner unless Apple make it lighter. I don’t have particularly large hands, but holding the screen with one hand, unsupported would eventually give me a hand cramp; holding something with a little more girth would probably be more comfortable **insert joke here**. You’ve really got to place this tablet on your lap or a pillow to use it for an extended period of time. I hadn’t really thought through the ergonomics of a tablet before buying it, and found it to be not as comfortable to use as I had expected.

The iPad 2 desperately needs to get lighter if one is to hold it as comfortably as a magazine or a book. It would be great to hold this with one hand, lying on my back in bed like I would with a book. Unfortunately the heft of the device makes this situation implausible. Besides the issue of hand fatigue, if you dropped it on your face, you’d be likely cause some damage. **I’ve got a really pretty face, and I can’t have that.**

On the positive side, the screen is gorgeous. I can see why the resolution wasn’t improved in this iteration of the product; the screen looks great. This is actually the first glossy screened computer I’ve owned, not counting my iPhone 3gs. I don’t care for highly reflective screens, but so far I haven’t found it problematic. I should point out that I haven’t tried to use the iPad outdoors. I would imagine it would suffer as much as the iPhone does on a bright sunny day.

As far as the performance boost of this iteration versus the last, I have no way to gauge the improvement. I don’t own the previous model, or know anyone who does. What I can say is that I haven’t seen lag with any of the apps I’ve used so far.

3. The Apps

The most used app on my iPad 2 thus far is the Timer Warner Cable app. It allows me use of my iPad as a television in my office (where there is no television). The channel selection on the app is limited, but I usually only watch CNN, or HLN when I want some background noise, and both of those channels are featured in the app.

The second most used apps on my iPad are the Kindle app and Flipboard app. Both of these apps are for reading; Kindle is for reading books (as I’m sure you can imagine), while Flipboard is used to aggregate news and social media into a really slick interface. Flipboard is really a very nice experience which is hard to describe (at least for me); you’d be better served by checking it out yourself.

Another app I use to create background noise is Stitcher. Stitcher is an app which streams podcasts, so that you don’t have download and store them on itunes.

For games, I have been playing Death Rally, and Reckless Racing. Both are top down off road racers with impressive graphics. Where they are differentiated is that Death Rally has a heavy emphasis on out gunning your fellow racers whereas Reckless Racing focuses on out cornering your opponents. Both are equally fun, though I find Reckless Racing to be more challenging, especially when you’ve maxed out your guns and armor in Death Rally.

With regard to content creation, I have really enjoyed using an app called Blueprint. Blueprint is an app which is used to design mock ups (a.k.a wireframes) for iphone and ipad apps you wish to develop. I had originally been looking for a tool to do make mock ups on the desktop, but found the prices a bit high, ranging from $40 to $80. The only reason I considered Blueprint was that it was only $15 (apparently on sale from $20). I’d still prefer to use something like Blueprint on a desktop, but the app is about as perfect as you could expect on the iPad. It is also worth mentioning that the dropbox integration built into the app is brilliant. If you are an iOS developer this is the killer app for your iPad.

4. Should You Buy an iPad 2?

Right now the iPad 2 is primarily a toy to me. There are some apps which make it a useful tool, but for the things that I do, a laptop will always be the preferable way to go about those tasks. I would have been better off buying a MacBook Air if I had wanted something that was ultra portable and still capable of content creation. This is not to say it isn’t an awesome toy! I have really enjoyed my iPad and use it everyday. I’m just saying, it’s a toy … a really fun toy which you shouldn’t expect to run Xcode on.

Should you buy and iPad 2? If you want a fun toy that can occasionally be useful, I would buy one; I’m really enjoying mine. If you expect to use your iPad as a ultra portable business tool or a content creation tool, I would opt for MacBook Air.

For kicks I’ve been taking an animation course at the University of Idaho (VTD 266). So far the assignments have been fairly restrictive with regard to the use of tools, and characters. The tasks only allowed for the use the 3d letters “V”, “T”, and “D”.  We were allowed the use of the 3X3 FTD modifier as well as the scale, move, and rotate tools.  No IK, no bones, just the basics. Anyways, here is one of my assignments:

To resolve errors regarding X11 forwarding open /etc/default/ssh and set:

SSHD_OPTS=

to

SSHD_OPTS=-4

Next you’ll need to restart ssh

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

After ssh has restarted your issues will have been resolved.  Things like gvim, xterm, synaptic, or firefox are now possible over an ssh connection.

The sort of errors that this alteration will fix look like the following:

xterm Xt error: Can’t open display:

xterm: DISPLAY is not set.

E233: cannot open display

Gtk-WARNING **:  cannot open display

Error: no display specified