Friday, 6 November 2009
Blog Time
Really should spend more time doing this. Just don't get the time. Spent all day just brushing up on all these sites and all the nonsense on them
64Bit on Snow Leopard
Is it worth booting into 64Bit?
As everyone seems to know now Apple OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is 64bit, that means it can access huge amounts of memory and take full advantage of the latest processors power, especially in complex mathematical computation. However, by default 10.6 actually boots in to a 32bit kernel even though the 64bit version is sitting right there along side. The reasons are that not all applications ight be 64bit aware and some drivers will not work under 64. If you are running a Core2Duo or Xeon then give it a go at your own risk.
To boot into 64bit mode simply hold down the 6 and 4 keys whilst booting. To go back to 32bit just hold down the 3 and 2 keys at next boot. The way to tell it has worked is to go the Apple Menu>About this Mac>More info then look in the Software>Extensions to see that all the drivers are 64bit compatible if so look under Software to see if it says: 64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes if so you are in 64bit mode.
I would say that the iMac 24 3.06 I'm running it on is faster and there seem to be less 'sticky' delays in the finder, disks are ejecting faster, apps appear to launch faster and all seems good.
As everyone seems to know now Apple OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is 64bit, that means it can access huge amounts of memory and take full advantage of the latest processors power, especially in complex mathematical computation. However, by default 10.6 actually boots in to a 32bit kernel even though the 64bit version is sitting right there along side. The reasons are that not all applications ight be 64bit aware and some drivers will not work under 64. If you are running a Core2Duo or Xeon then give it a go at your own risk.
To boot into 64bit mode simply hold down the 6 and 4 keys whilst booting. To go back to 32bit just hold down the 3 and 2 keys at next boot. The way to tell it has worked is to go the Apple Menu>About this Mac>More info then look in the Software>Extensions to see that all the drivers are 64bit compatible if so look under Software to see if it says: 64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes if so you are in 64bit mode.
I would say that the iMac 24 3.06 I'm running it on is faster and there seem to be less 'sticky' delays in the finder, disks are ejecting faster, apps appear to launch faster and all seems good.
Ubuntu 9.10
Recent impressions on Ubuntu 9.10 and other recent Linux distributions.
Ubuntu 9.10
Here we run a mix of Macs and Linux boxes. There was a time not long ago when I was going to go over to Linux for everything, it would become the system of choice, the free alternative. Having used linux since about 1998 starting with LinuxPPC I'd been through the lot, you name it and I'd probably installed it somewhere.
Then recently it started to break. I use Blender the OpenSource 3D application. Whist it is difficult to use, and that is half the challenge, Blender works across Linux, OS X and Windows (not used). So for me it is a good choice to have on all machines. Up till recently it all worked. Then someone nobbled the video drivers in X.Org Server and machines using the flaky IntelGraphics just stopped working with Blender. Because Blender makes use of OpenGL for drawing all elements of it's interface and as the code and size of Blender has been gradually increasing over the last few years as new features are added the demands on graphics infrastructure were being increasingly stretched.
I know one should not run graphics intensive applications on IntelGraphics equipped hardware, but sorry, this is the real world where money & resources are scarce and I feel there is an obligation to 'sweat the assets', both in terms of business sense and not wanting to add to the pile of computer land fill.
In order to get graphics performance back up to where it had been a couple of years ago I tried everything on this one machine. Fedora 11, failed miserably. SuSE 10.x nope, even PCBSD, how could BSD not be perfect. Well it wasn't the interface drew more slowly than I can with a pencil and paper. Nothing would run on this bog standard Dell box.
Ubuntu, which had been running fine until 9.4 bogged down. And there lays the story of just leave alone. The grass will not always be greener with the next upgrade. Ubuntu were touting the countdown to v9.10. With improved XUL implementation of the X.org drivers to counter problems on InteGraphics. Great, I'll have that.
The install was clean, at least in that it cleaned off my long standing WinXP install which had not been used but was there for testing and had survived some 20 other installs, that went in the flash on an eye. After first boot all was fine. Subsequent boots though. No display, swap monitors, boot again sometimes helps, not often though. Install again, works, next boot, no graphics.
Linux is never going to get to the stage of acceptance if they can't sort out the install and configuration. If I had a pound for every time I've had to dig round to get networking, graphics, printers or something working after a botched install I wouldn't have to be writing this now. OS X and even Windows just installs. With the OS X upgrades I don't even consider that it might fry everything on my disk. There may be minor issues but it just works the way things should just work.
One of the most fantastic features of Ubuntu 9.10 is the free UbuntuOne cloud. It's a great service. Will sync ubuntu machines registered with the cloud via the desktop and is accessible from a web browser to other machines, If you want more storage than the 2Gb included just flash the plastic and 50Gb is yours. I uploaded a photo to test it, went to a client who said "have you got that photo I asked you to look out?" "Yes, it's on my cloud, I'll get it". Bugger, 'This server is temporarily unavailable' Apache message said. Not all clouds have silver linings. Some are little black ones.
Once I did get Ubuntu 9.10 up and running (and who knows if it will boot tomorrow) Blender does indeed run just like it used to so thanks for the XUL men. Just a pity I've had to endure months of it not working. But as Blender always works well on OS X one of the few reasons for my continuing to invest time in Linux is also being removed. I like the look of Gnome and Windowmaker, hate KDE with a passion, it looks like it was designed by a 12 year old (which it probably is). The world has moved on. OS X has settled down as a mature system and even Windows 7 looks pretty great and is no longer attracting the brick-bats of Vista.
There was a window of opportunity which lasted for several years for Linux to establish it's self on the desktop market, sadly that time has now gone.
Ubuntu 9.10
Here we run a mix of Macs and Linux boxes. There was a time not long ago when I was going to go over to Linux for everything, it would become the system of choice, the free alternative. Having used linux since about 1998 starting with LinuxPPC I'd been through the lot, you name it and I'd probably installed it somewhere.
Then recently it started to break. I use Blender the OpenSource 3D application. Whist it is difficult to use, and that is half the challenge, Blender works across Linux, OS X and Windows (not used). So for me it is a good choice to have on all machines. Up till recently it all worked. Then someone nobbled the video drivers in X.Org Server and machines using the flaky IntelGraphics just stopped working with Blender. Because Blender makes use of OpenGL for drawing all elements of it's interface and as the code and size of Blender has been gradually increasing over the last few years as new features are added the demands on graphics infrastructure were being increasingly stretched.
I know one should not run graphics intensive applications on IntelGraphics equipped hardware, but sorry, this is the real world where money & resources are scarce and I feel there is an obligation to 'sweat the assets', both in terms of business sense and not wanting to add to the pile of computer land fill.
In order to get graphics performance back up to where it had been a couple of years ago I tried everything on this one machine. Fedora 11, failed miserably. SuSE 10.x nope, even PCBSD, how could BSD not be perfect. Well it wasn't the interface drew more slowly than I can with a pencil and paper. Nothing would run on this bog standard Dell box.
Ubuntu, which had been running fine until 9.4 bogged down. And there lays the story of just leave alone. The grass will not always be greener with the next upgrade. Ubuntu were touting the countdown to v9.10. With improved XUL implementation of the X.org drivers to counter problems on InteGraphics. Great, I'll have that.
The install was clean, at least in that it cleaned off my long standing WinXP install which had not been used but was there for testing and had survived some 20 other installs, that went in the flash on an eye. After first boot all was fine. Subsequent boots though. No display, swap monitors, boot again sometimes helps, not often though. Install again, works, next boot, no graphics.
Linux is never going to get to the stage of acceptance if they can't sort out the install and configuration. If I had a pound for every time I've had to dig round to get networking, graphics, printers or something working after a botched install I wouldn't have to be writing this now. OS X and even Windows just installs. With the OS X upgrades I don't even consider that it might fry everything on my disk. There may be minor issues but it just works the way things should just work.
One of the most fantastic features of Ubuntu 9.10 is the free UbuntuOne cloud. It's a great service. Will sync ubuntu machines registered with the cloud via the desktop and is accessible from a web browser to other machines, If you want more storage than the 2Gb included just flash the plastic and 50Gb is yours. I uploaded a photo to test it, went to a client who said "have you got that photo I asked you to look out?" "Yes, it's on my cloud, I'll get it". Bugger, 'This server is temporarily unavailable' Apache message said. Not all clouds have silver linings. Some are little black ones.
Once I did get Ubuntu 9.10 up and running (and who knows if it will boot tomorrow) Blender does indeed run just like it used to so thanks for the XUL men. Just a pity I've had to endure months of it not working. But as Blender always works well on OS X one of the few reasons for my continuing to invest time in Linux is also being removed. I like the look of Gnome and Windowmaker, hate KDE with a passion, it looks like it was designed by a 12 year old (which it probably is). The world has moved on. OS X has settled down as a mature system and even Windows 7 looks pretty great and is no longer attracting the brick-bats of Vista.
There was a window of opportunity which lasted for several years for Linux to establish it's self on the desktop market, sadly that time has now gone.
Snow Leopard Issues
Whilst all is great with Snow Leopard there have been a few issues… see over at macandlinux.blogspot.com
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Wind farms & 'The Curve'
I've recently been shooting some interesting material on wind farms and on a new theatre in Leicester called 'The Curve'. Some of the images are n the site but I need to work on more.
On the wind farm I managed to shoot stills, video, time lapse and some panoramic images so managed to pretty well cover that. The
new generation of wind turbines are truly majestic monoliths stretching some 100m into the sky, with towers of 60m. These new agro-crops also create very little noise. I really cannot see why so many people seem to adopt the nimby stance when theses sites are proposed and built. The fact that they are not apparently very efficient in terms of pure power generational
efficiency is neither here nor there compared with their aesthetic qualities.
As for the curve designed by Rafael Viñoly
it is a new theater space and performing arts centre in the new 'cultural quarter' slotted nicely between some of the best urban decay and disfunctional people I've seen in a while. There was a real sense of menace on the streets. There is a good article from the Guardian all about the new developments here. Whist I was shooting inside the building a couple were coming to blows outside on the pavement. Viñoly's huge glass sweep providing a pleasant slatted view of 'the other half' of new Brits.
Back to the positive; The Curve is a gre
at space and with it's removable sides to the stage and shared stage between two auditoriums should provide a truly innovative performance space. Hope to have some more of the photos up and time lapse soon.
Friday, 12 September 2008
Server issues
Having managed to sort out the web site I found that the access to our ftp server from the ISP had developed permission problems and I was unable to either upload or remove old files. The cpanel tools on the remove server simply didn't do what they said they would. No permission changes, no auto redirects. All very frustrating. Will have to wait for the server monkeys to get in and sort it out.
Updating Web
Now that hols are over, children back at school and it's raining (again) I get to spend part of the day getting the supposed website up to speed. Problem is I've been working on so many projects recently I've not had chance to do any work for the site. Lame excuse I know but true.
Still idle hands and all that.
Still idle hands and all that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
