All of the components of my new development server have finally arrived. This server will be serving (no pun intended) more than one purpose in my office.

Before this equipment got here, I had quite a few different computers running 24/7.  Along with providing a more reliable dev server (one that won’t melt down for a long time), I will also be setting this server up with an iTunes share, my (legal) torrent downloads, and my file storage.  This used to be four separate computers performing this task, and all four were on 24/7.  In the future, these computers will be strictly used on an as-needed basis.

The timing of all of this is really fortunate.  After being able to move all of the processes around, I will be turning off those computers.  And, since it is the end of the month, I will be able to see what kind of impact this has on our electricity bill.  I would imagine that it would have a decent impact, but we’re going to find out for sure.

If only there were a way for me to subtract this from our gas bill

Server Specs:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
• 4 GB DDR2 800 RAM
• ASUS M3A-H/HDMI Motherboard
• Rosewill RX750-D-B 750W Power Supply
• CyberPower 900W UPS
• Highpoint RocketRaid133 PCI IDE Card
• 120Gb Primary Hard Drive
• 4 x 250Gb LVM Hard Drives (1 Tb of Storage)

I have named it Omnius.  All of the (Windows or Linux) computers on my network have been named after Dune Universe names.  First was Caladan, then Arrakis, Corrin, Bela (Tegeuse), Highliner (my Toshiba laptop), and Kaitain (Dad’s computer).  I know it’s kind of a dorky thing, but you have to have a good theme so that you can easily remember the network names of your computers.

So, over the next two or three days, I will be completing these tasks in the background while programming.

Tags: Announcements by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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I added a Gallery Page to showcase some photos and other stuff.

I have a lot of artwork that I should put up, but I need to find the time to make those changes.

Tags: Announcements by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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As noted in my last post, we spent the weekend in Ohio.

We left Cumberland at around 1:30pm on Friday, and stopped to eat at a Longhorn Steakhouse, which if you haven’t eaten there before, has extremely large portions of high-calorie foods.  The food was quite good, but not nearly on par with the Outback Steakhouse (my personal favorite).

After eating there, we went on to a Border’s book store to have a look around.  Of course, we can never spend time in a bookstore without spending lots of money.  Luckily, we had a short time on Friday to actually look around, so no purchase was made.

We went to our hotel to check in, and pretty much collapsed until the next morning.

After our complimentary breakfast, we headed to Cleveland to spend some time at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I hadn’t been their since I was a kid, and I realised that the place did seem a good bit bigger earlier in life.  They had a few interesting featured exhibits, and we finally got a copy of Help! on DVD.

Once we were finished mulling over celebrity’s personal effects, we headed to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.  This is apparently the sixth that I’ve been to in the world (Montreal, London, Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington DC and New York City).

We stuffed our faces and were onto the Cleveland Natural History Museum.  As with most museums of this type, there wasn’t enough time.  We had to leave by 4pm in order to make it back to our hotel, get dressed up and go to our dinner-theatre show.

We saw The King and I at the Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron.  The show was amazing, and the food was divine.  Myriah and I had never been to a dinner theatre before, but we were very excited and pleased with our experience.  We got back to the hotel at midnight, and slept like babies until Sunday Morning.

We once again ate the complimentary breakfast, and went back to the Border’s Book Store.  We spent a good bit of time, and a nice chunk of my father’s money.  We got some good books for Benjamin, as well as some more reading material for us.

We ate at Quizno’s and had desert at the local Cold Stone Creamery.  This is by far my favorite ice cream venue, and I certainly ate a good bit.

We took the 4 hour drive home, and finally got to see our son after a 3 days.  He was excited we were home, and we were too, and we went to bed fairly early.

Overall, it was a fun and eventful weekend, and I’m certainly glad we went.  We’ll be going again in a few weeks, to see Damn Yankees.  I’m truly excited.

Tags: Travel by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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Today we’re leaving on a weekend trip to Ohio. I’m really excited because I get to go back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Last time I went, I was 10 or 11, and I really wasn’t into all of the bands there. Now, I’m a big Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, etc. fan. This is going to be pretty cool.

We’ll be taking Myriah’s laptop, so expect to be hearing from us every night with some good details of everything that happened.

Tags: Announcements, Travel by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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The blog over on Overneath.net has been officially launched.

The Overneath Project is a set of creative works that I have been brewing up for more than 7 years.  The percentage of my attention that I’ve devoted to these works is such a small amount that I was ashamed to be tasked with getting the ideas out to the world.

This blog is going to be a few things.  It is going to be a way for me to get my work out there to an audience that would never have even seen it.  Also, it is going to be a way for me to create some accountability, and force me to get on with the process of writing and designing.

Without saying too much more, and spoiling some surprises, the works contained within are going to weave a tangled web of intrigue and explosive action.

So, if you have a few spare moments, head on over to the Overneath Project and take a look at the first release, and leave some feedback if you feel so inclined.

Tags: Announcements by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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I came across a wonderful article via Digg entitled “Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm”.

The title is a most alluring one, but inside the 7-page article lies a nugget of true wisdom.  Although the goal in life is to know and remember things you come across, where is the line drawn between social interaction and intellectual study?

The man in the article, Piotr Wozniak, created a piece of software named SuperMemo, which allows the user to remember tidbits of information indefinitely using a spacing reminder technique.  As wonderful as infinitely-long term memory sounds, it comes at a price.

When one learns a new bit of information, there is a certain amount of time that passes before that piece of information is forgotten.  The software helps you get a refresher right at the moment you would forget, thereby increasing the amount of time you can remember that information.  This sounds wonderful, but if you misuse the software by skipping a session (which is determined by the software), you could be doing more harm then good when it comes to remembering that information.

The idea behind this isn’t new, and the article goes into the specifics, but it certainly isn’t going to catch on with students or teachers anytime soon.  While it’s great to think that you will never again forget any information that you place in the hands of this software; giving your life over to a piece of software–often shunning your social relationships in the process–just doesn’t seem like a grand idea overall.

While the pursuit of knowledge does weigh heavily on me, I don’t think I could give myself over to something of this sort.  Having a wife, child, normal sleeping habits and a job doesn’t lend well to seemingly random study sessions that can’t be missed.

Tags: Article Review by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
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