Linux Stuff
Blog entries imported from backups of the old WordPress install.
Software RAID versus hardware RAID -- are there any discernible differences? I can see the merits of both: hardware RAID could be much faster (in theory) since all RAID functions are performed in specialized, secondary hardware (i.e. outside of the main data processing bus). Software RAID has the flexibility of integration with logical volume management (LVM) and daemon-based monitoring . . .
I recently learned that my brand new 200 GB Maxtor drive is already starting to fail (thank you, smartd!), and that this is a pretty normal thing for this particular hard drive model. I'm going to earmark some money for a replacement, which will likely be one of those super-silent Seagate drives, and I'm just trying to decide whether I should invest in some sort of RAID array (or just use the KISS array I've already implemented).
For the record, I'm quite pissed that my brand new Maxtor drive is already starting to fail, but at least I have this chance to prepare for the worst, rather than have it happen unexpectedly (and, consequently, without time to back up). I suggest none of you buy Maxtor in the future.
I'm also quite impatient with my 1.2 GHz processor. It is dreadfully slow in transcoding the DVDs to xvid4. If I hadn't already invested in this motherboard (buying the DDR PC2700, for instance), I would upgrade . . . but upgrading now would be an expensive undertaking (relatively speaking). So then I'm considering building a second server, which is even *more* expensive and even *more* unnecessary, but I'm just that brand of crazy.
In truth, I'm very happy with my mythTV box, and although it took me the better part of two weeks to assemble, configure, and test, it's doing quite well. It is far from a TiVo replacement at the moment, but in a pinch I think I could do without my precious TiVo. . . I know, I know, "for shame" for even mentioning the thought . . .
One of these days I'll write up a comprehensive howto. It's really not that difficult -- most of the tricky stuff is getting the kernel modules to play nice -- and if you're at all interested in geeking out for hours at a time, I highly recommend it.
