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Hate is a strong word, but here’s how you irritate your sysadmin

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 21, 2013November 27, 2018IBM, mainframe, Windows Server

IT World published something with the inflammatory title of “9 reasons your sysadmin hates you.”

I’ve seen most of these things, but I haven’t seen my personal pet peeve, which is something my management structure calls “shadow IT.”

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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SSDs are getting a boost

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 18, 2013June 17, 2013intel, PCI Express, pcie, samsung

This year’s high-end laptops (such as the Macbook and Intel Ultrabooks) are going to be sporting SSDs that connect straight to the PCI Express bus, bypassing SATA altogether.

Although the speed increase will be less jarring than the move from discs of spinning rust to memory chips was, it will be noticeable.

Dave Farquhar

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AMD hits 5 GHz

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 12, 2013June 11, 2013amd, intel, Intel Core

So, AMD announced a new 8-core CPU running at 5 GHz this week. It’s a bit of a hollow victory, since it basically will match the highest-end Intel Core i7 in performance, in spite of its much higher clock rate and wattage. I’m not sure what the appeal of a 220-watt CPU is, and I’m also not sure why AMD is giving Intel a few months to respond to it, because I’m sure Intel could create a 5 GHz CPU with a comparable thermal rating to compete against it, given the desire.

Also note this is the design that shares a math unit with each pair of integer cores. For some people, this won’t matter at all, but for others, it can be a deal breaker. It’s part of the reason that AMD has to crank the clock rate so high in order to compete. The problem is that Intel can play this game too. AMD scored major points a decade ago by releasing chips that were much more power efficient than Intel’s power-hungry P4. The resulting war was good for us, since now we’re getting good, fast CPUs that use 20 watts. But Intel is winning that war right now. So that means if AMD wants to play that game, Intel has more headroom to climb. If AMD can deliver 5 GHz at 220 watts, all Intel really has to do is deliver 5.1 GHz at 220 watts.

So AMD is taking a chance here. But I suppose it means that, for a time, they’ll be able to sell some CPUs to people who insist on having the fastest-clocked CPU, whether it really means anything performance-wise or not. And they probably can use the money.

Dave Farquhar

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Advice on building your own PC on the cheap

Dave Farquhar Hardware June 5, 2013June 4, 2013DIY, kingston, lifehacker, saving money

Lifehacker published a guide yesterday on saving money on DIY PCs. I agree with most of it, and violently disagree with one very important part of it. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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No, this doesn’t mean Ubuntu and Linux are giving up

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Software June 1, 2013January 6, 20251980s, amd, amiga, android, apple, atari, commodore, compaq, IBM, intel, ipad, Libre Office, macintosh, Microsoft Office, motorola, Packard Bell, red hat, ubuntu, unix, windows 8, XT

This week, Mark Shuttleworth closed the longstanding Ubuntu bug #1, which simply read, “Microsoft has majority market share.” Because Microsoft didn’t lose its market share lead to Ubuntu, or Red Hat, or some other conventional Linux distribution, some people, including John C. Dvorak, are interpreting this as some kind of surrender.

I don’t see it as surrender at all. Microsoft’s dominant position, which seemed invincible in 2004 when Shuttleworth opened that bug, is slipping away. They still dominate PCs, but PCs as we know it are a shrinking part of the overall computing landscape, and the growth is all happening elsewhere.

I have (or at least had) a reputation as a Microsoft hater. That’s a vast oversimplification. I’m not anti-Microsoft. I’m pro-competition. I’m also pro-Amiga, and I’ll go to my grave maintaining that the death of Amiga set the industry back 20 years. I have Windows and Linux boxes at home, my wife has (believe it or not) an Ipad, and at work I’m more comfortable administering Linux than Windows right now, which seems a bit strange, especially considering it’s a Red Hat derivative and I haven’t touched Red Hat in what seems like 400 years.

What Shuttleworth is acknowledging is that we have something other than a duopoly again, for the first time in more than 20 years, and the industry is innovating and interesting again. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Notes on the Compaq Presario SR2011WM

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 12, 2013December 11, 2016compaq, garage sale, hp, micro atx, pentium d, windows 7, windows 8, Windows XP

I’ve been working on a Compaq Presario SR2011WM. It’s a basic, low-end, single-core Celeron D system from 2006 or so. It can take up to 2 GB of RAM, runs Windows XP adequately, and has SATA ports, so you can put an SSD in it if you want. But don’t be fooled by the name–the Celeron in this machine is single core, and has a Prescott-era Pentium 4 core in it at that, not a low-TDP, Pentium D-style core.

In case you’re wondering, the easiest way to get it to boot from USB is to plug in a USB drive, hit ESC as the system runs POST, then select your USB drive from the menu.

Now let’s talk about options for upgrades. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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PC Magazine’s tips for buying your own cable modem

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 22, 2013July 5, 2018pc magazine

PC Magazine published a few tips for people looking to buy their own cable modems and ditch the monthly rental fee It’s also helpful if your existing modem quit working and you need a new one. Modems don’t last forever. It also contains a reminder: Make sure you know whether your modem is just a modem, or a combination device that routes as well.

Dave Farquhar

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Lenovo’s phone is ringing again. And it’s IBM. Again.

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 21, 2013November 3, 2025Ars Technica, IBM, lenovo, mainframe, x86

When IBM sold its desktop and laptop PC business to Lenovo nine years ago, it held on to its x86-based server business. But now, IBM doesn’t see the x86 server business as a growth area anymore, and now they’re interested in selling that to Lenovo, too. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The 1 TB-ish SSD: The Micron M500

Dave Farquhar Hardware, security April 14, 2013April 3, 2025AES, anandtech, micron, performance penalty, windows 8

Anandtech has a review of the Micron M500, which is the first 960 GB SSD to retail for less than $600. Micron had to make some decisions to get that combination of capacity and price, so it’s not truly a no-compromises SSD, but like the article states, it’s a not-quite-a-terabyte capacity at the price that the best 80 GB drive was selling for in 2008. That’s a long way to come in five years. At $599, the price is high, but it’s not out of reach. If you really need that much high-speed capacity, you can probably come up with that sum.

And the drive’s reception has been very good. It’s backordered everywhere I’ve looked. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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