FreeBSD RAID

I just finished reconfiguring my network file server - a long process.  I'm running FreeBSD, and the geom utilities for RAID configuration.

I have four disks - 3x 320GB, 1x 1TB.  I placed the 3 matching disks into a stripe, or RAID0.  This RAID0 disk is then in a mirror/RAID1 with the 1TB drive.

Configuring the stripe & mirror is done with the gstripe and gmirror commands.  Since the array is also a boot/root disk, I have entries in /boot/loader.conf:

geom_stripe_load="YES"
geom_mirror_load="YES"

These instantiate the stripe & mirror prior to reading fstab and completing boot.  Also /etc/fstab is set to the array device:

/dev/mirror/gm0b        none            swap    sw           0       0
/dev/mirror/gm0a        /               ufs     rw           1       1
/dev/mirror/gm0e        /tmp            ufs     rw           2       2
/dev/mirror/gm0f        /usr            ufs     rw           2       2
/dev/mirror/gm0d        /var            ufs     rw           2       2

The 1TB drive, ad7, contains 1 slice ad7s1.  The gm0 mirror is between the stripe, st0, and that slice.  I suppose I could have added the entire ad7 to the mirror instead.  ad7 is larger than st0, so in that situation gm0 would have been created with st0, and then ad7 would be inserted.

gmirror bases the size of the mirror on the first device it is created with:

gmirror label -v -b prefer gm0 /dev/ad7s1

In this case, I built gm0 with ad7s1, then inserted the stripe:

gmirror insert gm0 stripe/st0

One caveat is, when building a mirror on a slice (like ad7s1) it must be mounted read-only or not at all.  If you build it on a device (like ad7) then you can simply use

sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=17

The system will then let you write to the disk metadata.
To build on the root slice, I rebooted into single user mode, which mounts root as read-only.

I like this setup.  I've got RAID1 redundancy, and the 3-disk stripe is quite peppy.  Lastly, to take advantage of the speed of the stripe, I set the priority of the stripe in gm0 higher than ad7s1.  Since gm0 uses a 'prefer' balance mode, it will read from the stripe first.  I believe writes complete on the stripe as well, but I'm not certain.  I'm getting decent write speeds with dd commands.  I'll have to do a more thorough performance test some time in the future.

judgin'

alot of judgements that are made by judges are controversial;  some say you find the right judge, and you can have whatever ruling you desire.

how about we replace the judge with some crowdsourcing.  take the facts of the case, and devise them into a test.  present the facts on a website as they are to the judge, and allow potential "judges" to take the test.  if they pass, proving understanding of the case, then they can submit their judgement.

multiple judgements can be statistically combined to arrive at a final judgement.  of course these "judges" would have to have equal familiarity with case law to make comparable judgements.  the system could be applied to non-technical judgements.. or only basic, straight-forward questions can be asked.

this could work well for something like patent processing.

now that i think about it, crowd-sourcing has so many applications.  it seems ripe for an open architecture to be developed for specific applications to build on.  wonder if such a thing already exists.

barriers to entry

there are many barriers to entry in any sector of the economy, and those hinder competition.

a universal barrier is money, and its availability in most cases is dependent on lenders.  someone with an idea must make a proposal to a lender, and the odds of lending to a legitimate prospect depends on the risk and potential return in the lender's view.

an accurate prediction of the involved risk requires a comprehensive analysis of factors in both the involved sector and the proposed idea.  perhaps a NDA (non disclosure agreement) is utilized at this juncture to secure the entrepreneur's intellectual capital, but the lender has to agree to be bound to secrecy of whatever is revealed.  some lenders may not be willing to take that risk, as then they can't utilize any of that information in making future decisions (i think, though i don't know the legal intricacies)

plus, the entrepreneur has to trust the lender to abide by the NDA.  who's monitoring the lender?  perhaps if the government facilitated these exact exchanges, it would foster confidence in approaching lenders and encourage more innovation in the economy.

pizza and tires

katie & i shared our 5 year anniversary yesterday.  we went to pizza hut last night.  mm pizza.

i also had pizza yesterday for lunch at the pizza palace with my parents.  checking out the place before deciding to use it for a wedding rehearsal dinner.

i also had pizza the day before yesterday for dinner.  with my parents, since i was in smyrna picking up a package.  lots of pizza.

that package was a camber kit for my civic.  im going to correct the excessive stock camber in the hopes of achieving proper wear on my next set of tires.  the current set is incredibly, horribly loud at highway speeds.  quality engineering, honda.

the next set of tires are sitting in my truck currently.  the camber kit will be installed tomorrow, then i'll get the new tires mounted & balanced, and get an alignment.. so we should have a nice quiet ride to virginia for our honeymoon next month.

positive perspective on the context of this thought train

i find myself seeking guidance in my own state of mind and arriving at my consciousness repeating this sentence over and over.. not certain it has a deeper significance, but i suppose i must trust myself to some extent..

i must maintain a positive perspective on the context of this thought train..

knowledge acquisition

Maybe it would be possible to structure the development of concepts and ideas in the human mind to a manner such that it would permit the communication of other concepts and ideas in a nontraditional form of communication.  Such a form could be in some kind of technology integrated into our bodies.  Thus, rich communications could be automated and fed into a human mind.  Perhaps simply repeated input would allow memorization, so such a system could be used to efficiently infuse knowledge into people.

Talk about speeding up development of humankind.  That would be revolutionary.

universal symbols

Further consideration led me to the idea that there are many universal symbols in existance.  Such as a heart for love, a peace sign, etc.  Many corporate logos are universal in the companies they represent.  I wouldn't consider corporate logos characters per se, as they can't be combined to communicate many thoughts.

Interesting.  It seems the more ways a given symbol can be utilized, the more likely it is that I would consider it part of a language.  For instance, I could make up a word.  But since noone uses it but me, I wouldn't consider it part of the English language.  A popular word, on the other hand, I would.  A corporate symbol has too few legitimate uses in communication, so I wouldn't consider it part of language.  But yet there are words in the English dictionary with very few useful situations.  These probably shouldn't be considered part of the language either, but these guys printing the dictionary are quirky, aren't they.

There is an interesting parallel to all of this in the concept of data compression.  The goal is to create a minimal character set to represent data in the smallest space.  Ahah, this realization makes my earlier blog's consideration of ways to make communication more efficient rather special.

It seems the idea of making communication more efficient is a very good goal.  So then, the embedded nature of culture and language is seen to be a bad thing.  Culture resists change, but more efficient communication requires the language to change.

I bet there are dudes that research what an optimal form of language is.  Commence www search..

universal concepts

Upon further thought concerning the efficiency of human communication, I realized the distinction given to numbers, with their unique character set, is seemingly arbitrary.  I suppose it was simple to make a universal language for numbers, or rather more simple than making a universal language for everything else we try to communicate.

It is ultimately more efficient to have a universal language of communication, but the breadth and depth of language and its level of entrainment within society makes the selection and conversion to such rather difficult.  So, it is understandable that a single, universal language has yet to develop.  It is also interesting that numerical values have yet managed to achieve this.  Perhaps this is due to the necessity of trade for survival, and how essential numbers are to such a function.

Regardless, my initial premise was that there is no need for numbers to be represented in an alternative character set to the rest of our language.  This fact makes me wonder what other concepts or ideas could be represented in an alternative, universal character set..

thinking

The linearity of human communication is a rather frustrating limitation on our ability to share and exchange thoughts and ideas.  Indeed, this form with which we progress through thoughts in our own minds is an inherent limitation on our ability to build upon existing thought paradigms and improve the social, economic, scientific, spiritual, political, and other systems used and depended on by all humankind.

Further examination of the limiting properties of linearity is a frustrating exercise in itself.  It is also interesting to be aware of the recognition of such a limitation while still being bound by it.  Nonetheless, I suspect useful insight may be gained by analysis of such.

I shall contrast linearity with other forms of development in order to produce properties that can be referenced for examination.  It's an interesting endeavor, as there are multiple ways to proceed.  I could consider various incarnations of tree structures, such that each node is a parent of a number of children.  There could be a fixed number of children for each node, or a variable number.  The variable number could have constraints dependent on any abstract thing.

It seems the definition of thoughts/ideas should be refined to allow more complex structures to encapsulate them.  Further, this realization leads me to the idea that such representations of thoughts could then be digitized and transferred between entities with great efficiency, far surpassing real-time human capability.  Eek, I fear any approach on an artificial intelligence.  Perhaps I should calm this thought train for now and allow the implications to percolate in my subconsciousness.

space, the final power plant

Imagine a view from space, with the earth circling the sun in its annual cycle.  Now imagine a tether from the earth to a giant object that is pulled along behind the earth.  Then, another object is tethered between the earth and the first, then another, etc.  A long string of objects dangles behind the earth, trailing it in its annual trek around the sun.

So how about these objects are giant solar panels collecting energy from the sun and transmitting it along the tether back to earth.  Lots of energy without taking up precious land space, and without obstructing our sky view.  Just have to hope no asteroids break the tether.. Although they could have some kind of embedded backup propulsion to maintain trajectory for exigent circumstances.  And robotic repair bots could be on standby on the tethers to fix things on demand.

Additional giant panels can be added to the tether as investments in the system are made.  I like it.

third world infrastructure

these poor third world areas need basic infrastructure.  they need communication, roads, plumbing, electricity..  probably in that order of precedence too.

communication can be handled by solar powered cell towers and cheap cell phones.  eventually that can upgrade to high bandwidth wireless data networks.

roads, well dirt roads are good enough.  you just need a crew and equipment for clearing roads, and a supply chain for them to sustain their bodies and equipment.  and a planning team to determine what routes are most important.

plumbing includes both water supply and drainage.

on the supply side, rainwater harvesting allows distributed access without requiring a distribution network to be installed.  perhaps small communities can install small distribution networks, with a centralized rainwater processing station, to centralize and minimize maintenance requirements.  the fixtures themselves can probably be easily manufactured locally using clay.

on the drainage side, a small community distribution network may again be workable.  another option may be a centralized toilet location for a small area.  so showers, tubs, and faucets could be drained into the ground, and for toilet use, you go to the public, central depot.  this depot could include either a simple sanitary disposal system, or possibly a power generation plant.  you know, since you can burn shit to make energy (isn't this common knowledge?)

and finally electricity.  running wires everywhere is the damn problem.  energy generation sites are typically few and large, like a large hydroelectric dam, or coal plant.

one possible solution is again, small community distribution with a small central plant.  for this, you'd need a constant supply of whatever feeds the power plant (poop, coal, etc) which will likely cause the electricity availability to be unpredictable.  this is not acceptable.  a central solar generation system, with batteries and maintenance, might work, but the capital investment may be too high.  (although solar panel prices continue to plummet)

wireless power distribution would be ideal, as a few power generation plants could feed multiple communities at a low installation cost.  each community would have a reception station that distributes power locally.  unfortunately, as far as i know, wireless power distribution is an undeveloped technology.  my guess is the technology is so easily converted into an extremely powerful, versatile weapon, that its development is stifled by.. who knows.  which is a shame, and may not be true.. but i wouldn't be surprised if it was.. power is heat, after all.

electricity seems the most difficult to solve.  i wonder if you can use streams/rivers to distribute alternating current?  water is a conductor, after all.  perhaps not terribly efficient.. and could it pose a danger to those using the water?  i suspect it can be done safely.  i recall pictures of Tesla holding a lightbulb, with the power travelling through his body to power it.  perhaps some way of using resonance as a key to unlock access to a distributed power source..?  i'm not sure.. makes we wish i'd gone through and studied electronics engineering further than two years..

po people

we shouldn't be giving money to poor people in third world nations, we should be using them.

most people in 1st world countries are "used" by govts and corps, and that's where our wealth is derived.  the key is to use these poor people, but keep the derived wealth in their country.  instead it seems a bunch of 1st world corps are the only ones using these people.  and guess where the stockholders live..

you'll never inject enough wealth through charity, you need to build a healthy economy..

26 manz

tuesday, i ran sprints again, 1 minute sprint, 1 minute walk, repeat.  not sure how far/long i went, i made a small loop.  maybe six repetitions?

this morning i ran for 26 mins.  i would make a quick google earth estimate of distance, but it doesn't want to run now.  google, you suck.

23 minz

i only ran for 23 minutes this morning, but it looks like i ran just under 3 miles, so my pace is much better than my 24 minute run.  yep.  that's all.

poor attempt at economic modeling

our economy has a single kind of coin.  give every person on the planet ten of these coins.

pretend every person has a job, and produces some service or good.  pretend every person wants/needs ten services/goods per day.  for each of these things, they pay one coin.

imagine after one day, a person has spent ten coins, and earned one coin.  now the person only has 1 coin for the next day, so they are broke.  everyone is broke.  this economy fails.  obviously, a person needs to earn as much as they spend every day for the economy to succeed.

so pretend again a person spends 10 coins on 10 things per day, but this time the person earns 10 coins the same day.  now this economy will succeed.  if every good/service sells for 1 coin, then each person must sell to ten people a day.

so our successful economy is each person buys 10 things/day, and sells 10 things/day.

now, let's pretend, instead of goods and services, the things are simply widgets.  assume a person survives and is happy simply by consuming 10 widgets/day.  then this system works perfectly.  everyone is buying & selling 10 widgets/day.  no one gains more than the other, no one has less than the other.

in this system, we can initialize the economy at the outset by issuing 10 widgets per person, and then it will sustain itself.

-- good/service life cycle --

what if the widgets don't last forever, though?  what if they slowly get used up, and need to be replaced?  (you know, like any physical object in the real world.)  let's assume a widget is all used up after 10 days.  so, on average, 1 out of 10 widgets must be replaced every day.

a simple solution is before any widget is sold, it is inspected.  if it's no longer good, then at no cost the holder throws it away and creates a new widget.  then that widget is sold.  this keeps the system running just as it was before, same number of buys & sells per day per person.

but, we assume a widget can be discarded and created at no cost.  we know by analogy that no physical object is neither thrown away nor created at zero cost.  these both cost money.

let's explore a possible solution.  we can allow the price of a widget to decline as it ages.  say the price of the new widget is 1 coin.  the next sale it's 0.9 coin.  then 0.8 coin. etc.  until it's bought for 0.1 coin by the last person.

in this system, that last person got a great deal.  they have a working widget, and only paid 0.1 coin!  however, once they are done using it for the day, it's too old to be sold the next day.  so, now they must expend 0.9 coin to throw out the old widget and produce a new one.  then they sell the new widget for 1 coin, and recoup their initial 0.1 coin expenditure.

now, what about all the other sales during the life of the widget except the aforementioned case?  each time, the widget is sold for 0.1 coin less than it was purchased.  statistically, each person will experience this 0.1 coin loss 9/10 days, and then will make a new coin 1/10 days.  if the profit of the 1/10 days covered the cumulative loss of the other 9/10 days, then it would equalize the losses and gains.

this means when a widget is purchased for 0.1 coin, thrown away, recreated, and sold for 1 coin, the profit must be 0.9 coin -- thus again, logic says the coin must be discarded and created for free!  this possible solution will not work.

perhaps we can redefine how coins are exchanged for widgets to clarify things.

every day, per person:

• 9 used widgets are sold
• 1 new widget is sold
• 1 new widget is created
• 1 old widget is thrown away
• 10 widgets are purchased

simple enough, once we define the system in terms of time.

so the price of all these transactions must sum to zero for balance to be maintained.

• 9 old sold, (+wallet)
• 1 new sold, (+wallet)
• 1 new created (-wallet)
• 1 old trashed (-wallet)
• 10 bought (-wallet)

in other words:

• 10 sold = 1 created + 1 trashed + 10 bought

and we can see the average purchase price must be less than the average sale price.  this is a problem.  for any given transaction, the purchase price is the same as the sale price.  that is, both buyer and seller agree to the same number.  if every person is selling to every person buying, then the average sale price must equal the average buy price.

once again, logic tells us the creation & destruction of widgets must occur for free.  but this isn't practical.

a solution to this dilemma would be to balance the equation:

• 10 sold + ??? = 1 created + 1 trashed + 10 bought

which can be reduced to

• ??? = 1 created + 1 trashed

sales of widgets, as shown above in the per person budget, adds money to a person's wallet.  so the ??? in our above equation must add money to a person's wallet.

how about each person performs the service of creating and trashing a widget for another person.  so now:

every day, per person:

• 9 old sold, (+wallet)
• 1 new sold, (+wallet)
• 1 new creation performed (+wallet)
• 1 new trash performed (+wallet)
• 1 new creation purchased (-wallet)
• 1 old trash purchased (-wallet)
• 10 bought (-wallet)

now this fixes the math, but it's silly.  why pay another person to do a service you'll also do for someone else in the same day?  just do it yourself.  hence, creation & trashing is done by yourself, and must be done for free!! argh.

conclusion

free exchange of widgets is simple to model economically.  but as soon as you start throwing out & creating new widgets, i run into problems.  it seems, since all monetary exchanges involve equal prices on the part of the buyer and seller, that there is no "extra cash" in the system to create new widgets or throw away old ones.

i think my model is flawed.  especially considering, in the real world economy, very few physical products are exchanged much.  most products are created, sold, used, and trashed.

the sprint

this morning, instead of running for X number of minutes, i decided to do a sprint routine.  my goal was to sprint, all-out, as fast as i can, for 1 minute, then walk for 1 minute, and repeat.  10 times total.

i think i only managed perhaps 6 rounds of that.  my hamstrings were extremely tight by the time i got back to the house.  i haven't sprinted like that in a while, so it wasn't very easy.  i ran out of steam pretty fast...

oh, and monday i ran 22 minutes and wednesday i ran 24 minutes.  but my distance didn't seem to increase much, my pace just slowed.  hence the whole sprinting thing...

your change, sir

i like paying with cash when i buy stuff.  it's fun because i can often times slightly confuse the cashier.  say the total comes to $18.07.  i might pay with a $20, three $1s, and a dime.  this is when the cashier pauses for a moment, wondering why the heck i gave her all this excessive cash.  a twenty would've been plenty.

but then they plug the numbers into the register, and it spits out $5.03 in change.  and maybe perhaps, the cashier figures out that i didn't want the $1s, nor the 93 cents in coinage.  i'm not sure how many figure that out.  but it's fun nonetheless. :)

time management

a minimal evaluation of my current work-efficiency dilemma would indicate proper time management could yield much-needed results.  let us quickly consider how such a plan could be implemented.

the first management item in the daily schedule is the time of awakening.  my recent excursion to philadelphia for a sleep study provided a reminder of the importance of a consistent sleeping schedule in the form of an informative pamphlet in the waiting area.  quality, healthful sleep is essential to my well-being and a rigid schedule is the first step in achieving this.  my fiance's varying work hours keep her schedule constantly changing, but perhaps if I enforce a consistency she will follow my lead.

her work hours are the dominating constraint in selection of appropriate sleep times.  her earliest work hours have her up at 5am, and her latest have her home at 830pm.  5am seems a good time for wake-up then, as it can be met consistently all week without getting up any earlier than required on the constraining work-day.  an allocation of 8 hours for sleep is a good starting point, and if after some time i decide it is not appropriate i can change it.  8 hours puts our bed-time at 9pm.

additionally, a half-hour of reading before bed will help calm my senses and alleviate them from any overt stimulation.  that is reading starting at 8:30pm.  i suppose then, showering & dressing for bed would be at 8pm. ugh seems so early.  so then, we have:

• 5am: wake-up
• 8pm: prepare for bed
• 8:30pm: reading
• 9pm: lights out

also we need to allocate exercise time, and then slice up the day for time devoted to multiple tasks that are on my plate.  tasks such as

• completing work on vinnie
• designing the next project
• preparing for the wedding

mm ok then.  i'll have to work out these details.

20 mins

thursday, I ran 19-1/2 minutes.  my goal was 18 mins, but the first 9 minutes or so was a fairly slow pace, as I was keeping pace with a rare jogging partner ;)  I considered it essentially an 18 minutes run.

this morning, I ran 20 minutes.  I made the complete circuit, same as tuesday, but made it just about back to the house.  my pace was a bit slow because I started a bit fast, so I was just kind of hanging on for the latter half of the run.  2.23 miles according to google earth, 20/2.23 = 9 min/mile pace.  meh.

I should devise a different jogging path for my 22 minute run.

16 mins

this morning i ran east along 4th street again, heading north up 14.  when i hit business 1, i was still under 8 minutes in, so i decided i'd just follow 1 business west back around the graveyard and school.  my estimation of distance was slightly off, as i hit the 16 minute mark before reaching the school.  i walked for a few mins, then ran for a few, before reaching the house.

google earth says i ran 1.98 miles, before i stopped, so that means i've got a flat 8-min mile pace.  it's 2.36 miles all the way around, so i should be able to make the entire round trip during my 18 minute run, if i keep a similar pace.

14 mins

i ran for 14 minutes today.  went down 4th street, east.  hit rt 14 and jogged around there a bit.  i could see a foot bridge over the mispillion from there, and tried to find where/if it reached the road.  didn't have luck before i hit 7 minutes and needed to turn around.

i haven't been steadily jogging/running for quite a long time now.  the past few days i've started easing back into a routine.  first a 10 minute jog, then a day rest, then 12 minutes, then rest, and now 14 minutes.  i'm giving myself at least 1 day of rest between runs.  i know i'll need to start taking supplements for my knees, and my back's been sore the past few days.

it will be worth it.

sickness

katie & i moved into the house in milford (vinnie) almost a month ago, at the beginning of january.  i'm still finishing a few trim items on the house, slowly.  the past few days i've been sick and haven't accomplished much of anything.

katie's started an exercise & diet program of sorts.  i'm not privy to the details, but i believe she's preparing for the wedding.  hard to believe in less than five months we'll be married!  i need to find a tux.

i put together some organizational systems after we moved into the house.  that is, a task schedule for maintenance items, such as home/car maintenance, bill payments, etc.  i also developed a spreadsheet to define our budget as clearly as possible.

i have an idea to acquire a few credit cards and dedicate each to specific types of spending, such as one for gas, one for groceries, one for dining out..  this way, category spending can easily be monitored without keeping & sorting through receipts.  the only problem is, we're afraid if we apply for a bunch of credit cards it will hurt our credit rating..  not sure if this is true, but it probably is.

i also prepared a car inspection sheet to guide monthly car inspections.  it felt odd at first, but i realized car safety is important, statistically speaking, and cars are also expensive.  inspections improve safety and save money.  win-win.

hmm, i forgot to eat breakfast.  that's uncommon.

rants defined

a given stream of thoughts occasionally cross my mind, which i may consider exciting or intriguing.  these will likely come across as a rant or a general rambling.  i know these can be annoying or exhausting to drag eyeballs across, so i'm going to tag these as a rant, so they can be selectively viewed by anyone out there.

and i'll consider this my first rant, although it's not technically a rant per se (is that redundant?), but i just want to tag something as a rant to set the standard, so to speak (should that be hyphenated?).  am i the only person that finds themselves bombarded with questions, daily, that could be searched and answered, but must be ignored because there's only so much time in a day?  mm.

first post

my plan is to make this blog a window into my life and thoughts.  separate blogs for my projects should be kept.  that's the plan.  and i like to keep things informal.  hence the lack of capitalization and improper grammar.  :P