Most amazing computer in the world.

Wow. @_@ like I'm going to read all that. Although that computer would be perfect for me, because I use autocad , prodesktop , and photoshop.

[DarkPacMan77]

You're a very likable person Stefan. Is it possible that we could chat more easily on an instant messenger like AIM or MSN? If so, please send me a PM with your contact information instead of us continue this chat in this forum where we are rambling on about things nobody is interested in lol.

I think I can learn a lot from you and I think I just might have a few tricks up my sleeves too. Still trying to find a way to take that ZX81 off of your hands though lol

-DarkPacMan77-

ok well

(request lock from thread maker)

cuz there is to much info for me to read and its just kinda turning into a spam chat room thanks.

[DarkPacMan77]

ok well

(request lock from thread maker)

cuz there is to much info for me to read and its just kinda turning into a spam chat room thanks.

I've requested to talk with him in private. There is no need to lock this. In fact, this should be left open for the simple fact that since he was kind enough to join our forum in the first place and be so kind with explaining to me why my reasoning was wrong, we should leave this open. If anybody else has questions about this sort of thing, Stefan seems like a very reliable source and I think we should honor that a little more. There's some great information here if you just take time to sift through it.

-DarkPacMan77-

You seem to have done your homework... even on me.

What can I say, I'm a fast researcher.

Virtualization is your key... I'm noticing that. I understand fully now, and must admit that I am wrong in many aspects and tha it isn't a waste of money... perhaps. Everything

A real waste of money would be if I had to buy a workstation for each of the VM's to have them run natively instead of virtually. The current cost of my virtualization is less than $20.000 in the virtualization software whereas having to buy upto 70 workstations at an average of $3000 each that would well over 200 grand. Not taking into account the additional space required, power and electric, heat output and cooling, maintenance, etc. And it would be less practical in terms of backups and redundancy as well in such a situation.

Now, before I say my age, I have to let you know that your extra years of experience over me have given you the optimal time to grow up as a programmer (learning as it was all being developed). I'd like to point out that I have

True. Most of the computer industry was still forming itself. Though the programming languages like "C" date back from just before I was born, though.

studied pretty much by myself and my knowledge has yet to expand into programming or larger networking systems. I can admit that easily. The

That's the only way to learn... do-it-yourself style. Back when I was in school I had already given up on learning anything practical that I wanted to learn and these days the education system seems even worse. Though I guess I'm not going to recommend dropping out of school and only taking the exams and passing them and then simply starting up your own gig like I did, especially since these days they do pay attention to truancy.

knowledge I do know deals with system components/ operating systems/ building/ repairing computers. Now, I am an 18 year old senior in high school. The

Ah, that is indeed younger than I thought. I first thought "late 20's" but then sort of guessed mid to early 20's.

chances I know all of that stuff at my age is a little rare. If I were to know programming on top of that I would have to take far too much time away from my friends and social life. I originally thought that I wouldn't be online again until around 9 b/c of my friends but I have a class with computer right now so I am posting back.

Do it like I did... pick up C/C++, spend a day on it, throw the book into a corner after day (since at that point it all looks like voodoo anyway), go have fun and socialize, then a few days later try it again, repeat the process and keep tossing the book into a corner until a few months later things start to make sense. C/C++ have a very steep learning curve from the initial steps but once you're over that initial curve it tends to become more logical. Of course, this does require a few years of only sleeping 3-4 hours per day. But, it can be done. Then when you hit your 30's you simply start taking things slower and catch up on some of that sleep you've missed out on.

In MY opinion... I would have bought the parts individually. I like system

They are, actually. Just not from individual suppliers but from a single dealer that gets me everything I ask for. I pick the parts and they do the boring work of putting it together and making sure everything works and is reliable.

helium and halon by the way... kind of a side note... but yea. Also, For any type of graphic rendering you do including video work or syncing audio to video or just gaming... for any type of that work I would recommend anything better than the 800x onboard graphics for some of the systems Wink. Then again... that opinion comes from someone that is more interested in building rather than in networking.

I don't do much audio and video anymore. I used to back in the 80's when I had a full production studio and staff but in those days it wasn't PC's that were used. The ATI X800 in the VM host is rather specific though... it's completely overkill, in fact. I needed an ATI card matching the limited driver support that happened to have two DVI outputs. The lower end card I originally planned was out of stock so instead of waiting I had them add the X800 instead.

If I need to test graphics specific things I usually pop out a graphics card in one of the machines and pop in one of the FireGL, Quadro, or WildCat Realizm professional OpenGL boards that I've got sitting around for those situations.

1. I don't like that the whole network is in the same room

If they were all in a rack or two then those still would lump all the hardware together. And spreading the systems around the house would probably be worse... more wires, monitor cables, etc. that would run from all those points all throughout.

2. I don't like that the workstations weren't all built from the ground up.

But they are. I usually do some research on what I need and what is a good match and set the parts and specs, then I hand that list over to my dealer with two questions; how much, and when. Then in a day or two I get the two answers and I tell them to go ahead. A few weeks later they come by and drop it off (and sometimes I pop in to check up on how things are going). If any hardware poses an incompatibility issues we decide on something else, like in the case with Argon where we went through 3 different RAID controllers and five different BIOS versions before we had one that actually worked up to spec and worked fluently. I prefer the dealer charges me for their time and effort instead of me having to spend that time and have it come out of business or social time (on top of that, it coming from one place is better for reliability since there's only one party to deal with that is responsible for any unforseen problems).

3. I don't like that each system is not the ABSOLUTE best quality that it can be. You have money... and they could be a lot better.

Money isn't an issue, true. What would you change, and why?

Now, you teach me more about visualization and I will teach you more about the psp Wink

Deal.

I'd say start out by checking out http://www.vmware.com/products/home.html and their core line of virtualization solutions. The top of the line stuff is http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/ "Infrastructure 3". On a system like Argon you can easily create the kind of configuration of systems that puts the IT infrastructure in a mid-sized company to shame in a jiffy. The other main product is http://www.vmware.com/products/labmanager/ which they aren't being too shy about. Virtualization has shaved off many months of development work here, resulting in lower cost for clients and thus more time to take on interesting projects and be able to be picky about it. If you want to give things a try on a smaller level, get an eval version of VMWare Workstation at http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/

Those VM's have also saved a lot of on-location time and effort. Every now and then we get a client with a very specific setup or using specific network policies within their domain that causes problems with our software. In the old days that meant flying out to the client, examining the problem on location, getting the IT department to allow us to hook up some laptops and grant privileges and rights to get around, etc. These days we just have the client create one or more system images that they can Fedex out to us on HD's or DLT and I can then easily turn those images into fully functional VM's and have a complete duplicate of the client's actual systems running locally for testing and debugging purposes. And if clients are paying for service and you don't have to spend money to fly out, that then turns into additional profit in the end.

The other really wonderful thing about it all is... the home office now has fewer machines running than in previous years (at the very peak after I decided to only work from home and dropped the concept of a separate business office there were as many as 20 systems up and running). So the past 3 years I need fewer systems but instead need larger and more heavy duty systems instead. The next thing I'm looking at as a replacement for Argon (or rather, one older workstation will get moved out and Argon gets assigned a new purpose) are the APEXX series of Boxx; http://www.boxxtech.com/Products/APEXX/apexx_series.asp though given that I know what Boxx uses inside their systems I'm going to have it duplicated by my own dealer with a few minor changes (because that case they are using is a serious dust-sucker-and-collector).

Stefan

http://www.darkpacman.justgotowned.com/

cuz there is to much info for me

Wow. Too much info? First time I've heard someone complain about having access too *too much* info. I did hear that there's this company building an internet that is a subset of the entire internet but will only contain about 0.0001% of the full internet. I wondered what their target market was and didn't understand it. I think I understand it now; for people who don't like having too much info.

Stefan

lol we might have a future Mod!!

[DarkPacMan77]

Happy Early Birthday Mailas!!

-DarkPacMan77-