Ubuntu revisited

I've mentioned my tribulations getting Ubuntu working on PC with the BioStar P4M900-M4 motherboard before. Recently Ubuntu v 9.0.4 downloaded an update (or I installed new software) that corrupted a bunch of files - to the point where the system wouldn't work well enough to repair itself.

With a nuke & pave of the hard drive, it is working again today - I tried 5 different ISO CDs burned on at least 2 different drives, and I tried both the CD & the DVD on the host PC - I could never get a clean install. Sometimes GRUB would fail during the boot-up process, and sometimes I would get the GUI installed, but FireFox wouldn't run (preventing downloads of of updates etc.).

In the end, I got a system working well enough to get a command line (terminal mode) and used that to download some updates. They repaired the install well enough to boot into the Ubuntu desktop (GUI) with a working FireFox, and from there it has been busily downloading and installing fixes and software that should have installed from the CD.

Next, I get to go through 10 pages documenting installation of the required BioStar video drivers, and then I need to figure out a backup strategy - I don't want to be without this PC for multiple weeks the next time I download an update...

PS: this motherboard now boots from the SATA drive as long as it is the only hard drive installed. Probably time to start looking for another PC or motherboard before it flakes out again.

BTW - this update was created using FireFox 3.0.12 within Ubuntu 9.0.4 :-)

Blue Dye Treats Spinal Injuries

This is why pure research needs to be funded. Using a food additive to treat medical conditions isn't something that is likely to turn up in a for-profit laboratory.

The Blue Dye in M&Ms Cures Spinal Injuries | Popular Science:
"The candy gets its color from a compound called Brilliant Blue G (BBG), a food dye that's used in Gatorade and other products -- and turns out to also be medically useful. Building on earlier research, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that injections of BBG can relieve mice of secondary spinal cord injuries. In September, they will start conducting human clinical trials."

The funding doesn't need to be from the Federal government, but some corporations, institutions, or charities need to be funding research in a variety of arenas without the intent to produce marketable products (just knowledge). From such research, great things frequently come.

Dealing with hazardous space debris

As I've written before, trash collection is space has the potential to be a profitable business for some bright entrepreneurs.

Building an Electronic Fence to Track Space Junk | Popular Science:
"Thousands of manmade pieces of space junk orbit the Earth, threatening astronauts and unmanned missions alike. Now the U.S. Air Force Space Command wants an electronic 'space fence' that could track any orbital object larger than two inches in width.

Such a surveillance system would require a global network of sensitive S-band radar stations that operate in the gigahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The U.S. Air Force currently relies on a system dating back to 1961, which only covers the continental United States, and can only track objects 20 inches in width or larger.

The growing cloud of space debris in Earth orbit includes more than 16,000 pieces of debris larger than four inches in width. And that only seems likely to grow . . . "

Beyond tracking the debris, some folks are coming up with a variety of methods to destroy or collect it. I'm in favor of collecting the debris to sell as souvenirs, but that technology may be too pricey.

Taking Out the Space Trash | Popular Science:
"Scientists at NASA and private companies have devised several ways for clearing the sky. Although some methods are admittedly outlandish, says Nicholas Johnson, the chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, a few are possible with today’s technology.

One early idea was to have robotic trash collectors shove large pieces of junk through the atmosphere so that they mostly burn up before hitting the ground. But the fuel costs for destroying a significant amount of debris with such craft has quashed this approach.

A more feasible plan is to attach miles-long “electrodynamic tethers,” wound on a spool, to all new satellites. Once a satellite ends its mission, it would deploy the cable and Earth’s magnetic field would induce an electric current in it. This interaction imparts a force on the craft that pushes it through the atmosphere until most of it burns up harmlessly,"

Real time recreation - trip to the Moon

Celebrating this month - the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's trip to the Moon.

On my monitor, some of this site's text is a bit hard to read - gray on black, but lots of interesting Apollo things here & there. As I type this, it is mostly spacecraft based white noise - still pretty different than what I would be playing on a normal day :-)

I imagine this site is best enjoyed on a separate monitor - as my home system only has 1 monitor attached right now, I put it up on full screen when I'm not using the system for other things.

Things to Do on the Way to the Moon | GeekDad | Wired.com:
"If you’re following the 40th anniversary recreation of the Apollo 11 mission on We Choose the Moon (a you-are-there, moment-by-moment immersion in the first lunar mission) you know that the mighty Saturn V rocket lifted off its pad at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16th. Twelve minutes later, the astronauts were in orbit around the earth, docked the command module with the lunar lander, and are now on their way to the moon.

You can follow the progress of the mission at the website, or on Twitter:
Capcom transmissions
Spacecraft transmissions
(and eventually the landing craft -) Eagle transmissions"

The Smithsonian is also following the mission on Twitter.

Reaching Energy Limits to Computing Power

We've reached a technological point where essentially any amount of computing power can be purchased (in comparison to decades past), and other considerations (such as the cost of energy) limit what can be done.

This means that any problem that can be understood and solved by computational means can now be attacked (assuming some organization is willing to fund this). It will be interesting to see what problems don't fit that category.

NSA plans massive, 65MW, $2bn data center in Utah • The Register:
"The ultra-secretive National Security Agency plans to build a 1-million-square-foot data center in Utah as it seeks to decentralize its computing resources and tap regions with ample supplies of lower-cost electricity.

When completed, the facility will require at least 65 megawatts of power and cost $1.93bn, according to news reports. The 120-acre data center will be located in Utah's Camp Williams, which borders Salt Lake and Tooele counties. Two major power corridors already run through the spot, a major reason the NSA chose it.

The plans help demonstrate how power is emerging as one of the biggest costs in building and running today's data centers.
. . .
In 2006, the Baltimore Sun reported the agency's Fort Meade location maxed out the capacity of the Baltimore area power grid, preventing the installation of new supercomputers that had been planned."

Among others, Goggle has recently located new data centers based on the availability of energy. Here's an even more interesting idea:

Google makes waves and may have solved the data center conundrum | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com:
"Google is pondering a floating data center that could be powered and cooled by the ocean. These offshore data centers could sit 3 to 7 miles offshore and reside in about 50 to 70 meters of water.

The search giant filed for a patent in February. The patent outlines a concept that would not only be savvy engineering, but deliver great returns.
. . .
Google points out the painfully obvious for anyone in the data center business: “It can be expensive to build and locate data centers, and it is not always easy to find access to necessary (and inexpensive) electrical power, high-bandwidth data connections, and cooling water for such data centers.”
. . .
Google is talking about a self-contained unit (excluding bandwidth connections) that would sit offshore much like an oil rig.
. . .
As Miller points out Google’s idea uses the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter units to create a wave farm Google reckons that it can cobble together enough units to create about 40 megawatts of power. Seawater would cool these data centers."

Pre-Order Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade: $49.99

The most reliable PCs in our house run Windows XP SP-3. We skipped Vista, but at this price, I think I'll upgrade a couple of them to Windows 7.
Update - the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor ran for hours before I canceled it - maybe I'll pass on Win-7 until I get a new system after all.

Note that this price is only good until 11 July, 2009.

Windows 7 Home Premium Pre-Order, $49.99 Upgrade, $199.99 Full | PCMech:
" . . . if you pre-order Windows 7 as an upgrade, the Home Premium Edition (which is what most people would go for) is just a tick under $50."