ThinkServer TS140 Build

As my old server is 5 years old (2008-12) and been showing its age, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

Hardware:

1x Lenovo  ThinkServer TS140 70A4001LUX  -  $399.99 - $50 rebate (newegg)

• Intel Xeon E3-1225v3 3.2GHz
• 4GB DDR3 1600
• No Hard Drive
• Gigabit Ethernet 

2x Western Digital Red 3 TB  -  $114.99 a piece (newegg)
1x Old Western Digital Caviar 250 GB w/ sata cable  -  Already had
1x 18 inch Monoprice Sata III cable with 90 degree angle plug  -  $2.66 (amazon)
1x Trendnet USB to PS/2 adapter (TU-PS2)  -  $8.99 (amazon)
1x Small zip tie  -  Already had

Software:

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS 64bit  -  Free (xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/)

Total Cost: $591.62 + tax

Hardware Installation:

1. Opened up the case
1. Removed Thumb screws (had to use screwdriver to get it started)
2. Pressed in the side release button
3. Removed side panel
2. Installed the 250GB primary drive (in what Lenovo calls the tertiary drive slot)
1. Pressed the quick release button
2. Pushed the 5.25 to 3.5 adapter out from the inside
3. Be careful as the fan power cord is not long!
4. Placed the hard drive in the adapter
5. Flipped over while supporting hard drive
6. Aligned screw holes and fastened screws (make sure to use included screws as they are longer due to anti-vibration gaskets)
7. Pushed adapter back into place and assured that quick release snapped back into place
8. Attached Sata
1. Removed front USB motherboard connector
2. Moved existing Sata cable from Sata0 to Sata1
3. Reattached front USB motherboard connector
4. Attached Sata cable to Sata0 ran thru cord fastener on motherboard side and attached to HD
9. Attached Power
1. Clipped zip tie holding power cable in place
2. Un-did loop in power cable so it could reach HD
3. Attached power cable to HD
4. Zip tied all cables back into place
3. Installed the 2x 3TB drives
1. Pulled out the drive caddy
2. Installed pegs into one side of the HD
3. Stretched caddy so that pegs would go into other side of the HD
4. Pushed HD + caddy back into place
5. Attached sata (Sata1 and Sata2) and power cable

Testing:

I wanted to do an extended drive test on all the drives to ensure they were in good working order before proceeding with my software install. I used the Western Digital DOS diagnostic tool (wdc.com). It took about 7 hours for each of the 3TB drives and just over an hour for the 250GB drive.

Software Installation:

1. First I created a linux live USB from the ISO
2. Booted from the USB in Try Xubuntu mode
3. As I was recycling a drive from an old FakeRaid array, I had to delete the raid metadata. I opened up a terminal window and ran:
• sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdX
• where X is the letter of the old raid array drive
4. Ran the install Xubuntu icon on the desktop
5. Followed the prompts to install to the 250GB drive
• Used advanced partition setup:
• /boot: 537MB
• /: 100GB
• /home: 139 GB
• swap: 8GB
6. Remove USB and Reboot 
7. Installed Updates
• sudo update-manager
8. Reboot 
9. Made sure Red Drives had WD Load/Unload update installed
• http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=619&sid=201&lang=en
10. Setup the ZFS mirrored raid 
1. sudo apt-get install zfs-fuse
2. ls /dev/disk/by-id/
3. sudo zpool create storage mirror /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-SERIAL#1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD30EFRX-68EUZN0_WD-SERIAL#2
4. sudo zpool status

Thoughts:

• The server is dead quiet which is one of the major reasons I bought it
• With the Trendnet for some reason the scroll on the mouse causes the mouse to jump instead of scrolling, but as I plan to use this as a mainly server this is a small issue

Ikea Dimmable LED Light Bulb Review

Ikea Dimmable LED Light Bulb Review

Model:
LEDARE - E26 - LED1207G11

Link:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20266225/

Key Specs:
10 watt
600 lumens (~60 watt equivalent)
2700 kelvin
25000 hours


From Energystar.gov, here is a quick reference chart that shows approximate lumens for old incandescent light bulbs:

Old Incandescent Bulbs (Watts)	ENERGY STAR Bulb Brightness (Minimum Lumens)
40	450
60	800
75	1,100
100	1,600
150	2,600

We used 4 of them to replace 60W incandescent bulbs in a ceiling fan.

Pros:

• Despite being lower lumens, the lights actually appear brighter, in fact we normally only have to turn the dimmer half way up to get enough light!
• Use only 10 Watts at max brightness, so we are saving over 75%
• Price, was $10-12 when we bought them and have dropped in price to $7.49

Cons:

• They are "instant on", but I have noticed at lower dimmer settings they do take longer to come on, and it works best to turn them on fully and then dim them.
• Hang out slightly farther in the light fixture than the bulbs they replaced

Other Thoughts:

• Does not dim as low as the lights they replaced, but maintains a constant white (old bulbs would become redder as they dimmed)
• Come in both frosted and clear

Review ASUS AC66R wireless router

Review ASUS AC66R wireless router

  I picked up a refurbished ASUS ACC66R wireless router in June 2013 for 119.99 from newegg. The only difference between the AC66R and AC66U is that the R version is sold in brick and mortar retail stores and the U version is sold thru online channels.

  It had been running great until I moved it in Feb 2014 and then it did not like to stream 5GHz thru 3 walls (2 outside ones). However, upgrading the firmware to the latest and upping the 5Ghz transmit power to 110 mW stabilized the connection.



Pros:

• Simultaneous Dual Band (2.4 and 5GHz)
• Gigabit LAN
• Supports draft AC
• Has guest networks that are isolated from your network
• 2.4GHz range is much better than my old E2000
• Stable, has needed very little rebooting (I think twice in 6 months)
• Sleek looking
• 3 adjustable external antennae (recommend 45, 90, 45 degree oreintation)
• Supports IPv6

Cons:

• Not final AC

Other thoughts:

• Have not tested AC streaming as I don't have any clients

Review Canon Powershot s110

 Canon Powershot s110

  I was looking for a higher end point and shoot that works better in lowlight than our older models. I had a couple choices that I narrowed it down to:

• Canon Powershot s110
• Nikon Coolpix P7700
• Sony DSC-RX100

  However Amazon and Bestbuy put the s110 on sale for $219.99 including a 32GB and a carrying case. This was enough to seal the deal.

Pros:

• Flash is bright, but does not give our dogs zombie eyes
• Camera starts up quickly
• Touch screen works well
• Zoom is quick

Cons:

• Flash pops-up right where you want to put your left hand.
• Lots of controls, made finding the timer shot difficult

Other thoughts:

• WiFi requires an app installed on the phone
• I used this website to help pick: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canon-powershot-s110/

Windows CD Rip to MP3

Windows CD Rip to MP3

As I bought my first cd in a long time thanks to Pandora :-) I needed to get some software to create MP3s out of it so that I could transfer them to my phone and audio players. iTunes would have been the obvious choice, but I do not use that so here is what I used.

I chose Exact Audio Copy: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
I also needed to download LAME from here: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php

It worked like a charm.

Review Sony Blu Ray Player BDP-BX110

Review of Sony Blu Ray Player BDP-BX110

Here is my review of the Sony Blu Ray Player BDP-BX110. The only difference between this model and the BDP-S1100 is the inclusion of a HDMI cable. Also similiar are the BDP-BX310 and BDP-S3100 which include Wi-Fi and the BDP-BX510 and BDP-S5100 which include 3D playback.

Pros:

• I got it for $40 refurbished from Newegg (about the price of a new DVD player)
• DVD playback is very quick to start
• Blu Ray playback takes longer to start, but is still fairly fast
• Internet apps include: Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, and Hulu Plus (among others)
• Amazon Instant Video works well (don't have Netflix or Hulu Plus account to try) and is easy to navigate on the TV using the remote
• Nice looking small enclosure
• Only the power button lights up in a non-obtrusive white 

Cons:

• Ethernet Only. I really wish I shelled out more cash for the Wi-Fi version ($78 on Amazon new)
• Had to sign up for a Bravia account to use Amazon Instant Video - however, it easily allows you to sign up for a free account right through the Blu Ray player
• Battery door on remote squeaks when pressing buttons for me (my wife does not have this problem)
• Remote is not universal, but can turn on the TV and adjust the volume, it just does not allow you to scroll up and down through the channels

Other Thoughts:

• Includes a quick start mode that increases the start up speed, but requires more power when "off" (I do not use this mode)
• Did have to apply approximately 100MB of updates before the internet apps would work

Installing perl in a User Directory

Here is the procedure that I went thru to add perl into a user directory:

1. Setup the directories:

• cd 

• mkdir perl5 

• mkdir perl5/bin 

• mkdir perl5/lib 

• mkdir perl5/man 

• mkdir perl5/man/man1 

2. Download the source (See this link for URLs: http://www.cpan.org/src/README.html)

• wget http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.10.1.tar.gz 

3. Unpack it

• tar zxvf perl-5.10.1.tar.gz 

4. Install it

• cd perl\-5.10.1 

• ./Configure -des -Dusethreads -Dprefix=$HOME/perl5

• make test && make install 

5. Configure PERL5LIB (add to .profile)

• export PERL5LIB=$HOME/perl5:$HOME/perl5/site_perl 

6. Install cpanm

• $HOME/perl5/bin/cpan App::cpanminus 

7. Install LWP

• $HOME/perl5/bin/cpanm LWP 

Install XML::Parse and Expat:

1. Download Expat: http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/files/expat/

• wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/files/expat/2.1.0/expat-2.1.0.tar.gz/download 

2. Compile Expat

• tar -zxvf expat-2.1.0.tar.gz 

• cd expat-2.1.0 

• ./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr 

• make 

• make install 

3. Install XML::Parser

• cd 

• perl5/bin/cpan 

• o conf makepl_arg "EXPATLIBPATH=/prod/user/home/boz604/usr/lib EXPATINCPATH=/prod/user/home/boz604/usr/include" 

• o conf commit 

• install XML::Parser 

• quit 

Install Net::SSLeay and OpenSSL and Zlib:

1. Download OpenSSL

• wget http://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.1e.tar.gz 

2. Compile OpenSSL

• tar -zxvf openssl-1.0.1e.tar.gz 

• cd openssl-1.0.1e 

• ./config shared --prefix=$HOME/usr --openssldir=$HOME/usr/openssl

• make 

• make test && make install 

3. Download Zlib

• wget http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.8.tar.gz 

4. Compile Zlib

• tar -zxvf zlib-1.2.8.tar.gz 

• cd zlib-1.2.8 

• ./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr 

• make 

• make test && make install 

5. Install Net::SSLeay

• cd 

• OPENSSL_PREFIX=$HOME/usr perl5/bin/cpan Net::SSLeay 

6. Install LWP::Protocol::https

• cd 

• perl5/bin/cpanm LWP::Protocol::https 

Here is how to set custom Include and Lib directories:

•  In CPAN:

• perl5/bin/cpan 

• o conf makepl_arg "LIBS=-L$HOME/usr INC=-I$HOME/usr/include" 

• o conf commit 

• When running perl:

• perl -I $HOME/perl5/lib/site_perl 

• Inside your perl script

• use lib "/home/user/perl5/lib/site_perl";