iPhone v Xserve

After the weekend that saw the US-wide introduction of iPhone, we were treated to an equally long-awaited technical marvel of our own. A cluster of nine 3.0 GHz Xserve machines arrived. With 18 dual core CPUs, a 7 TB RAID and oodles of RAM, this was a piece of equipment that would serve us well for the next years. Scientific computing as we do it needs a lot of oomph.

But as genuine geeks and technophiles, we were of course aware of all the hoopla surrounding the iPhone. I myself had watched the January Macworld Keynote, and being an avid reader of DaringFireball, along with all the other reputable sources of Mac related news (CARS first among them), the excitement certainly didn't go unnoticed. Then came the finally days of buildup, on TWiT, on DF, on the Wallstreet Journal, and by Pogue. This was getting unreal, the whole tech world was getting swept up by this phenomenon.

Still, we had our job to do and had been looking forward to our own special XDay for several months. So when I got the message that the final parts had been delivered, I stormed home from work, packed up some essential tools, some buns and a large bottle of soda, my wife and daughter and met up with my co-conspirator to start unpacking the goods.

We soon started discussing the iPhone. What were it's real merits? Was it worthy of all the sound and fury? The specs surely look impressive on paper. Or on the web, to be more accurate. We continued along these lines as we schlepped the boxes - three Xserves at a time - through the narrow corridors of the department, from the IT offices to the small shack that would house the rack-mounted servers.

The iPhone certainly compares well to the likes of a Blackberry, a Treo or any other smartphone. Absolutely, that was evident, my colleague agreed, as we slid the penultimate 1u machine into place. While connecting the fiber-optic cables from the RAID to the top server node, I said that it would soon be compared to every other gadget on the market. Every mp3 player, every other phone, camera or small handheld internet device. Sure.. yes. The green and blue diagnostic lights started to flicker into action after we plugged in all the power cables and booted our cluster for the first time. The iPhone is better than just about everything on the market to date. Was it really better than.. .. well.. I looked at my friend. How would it compare to... I asked. He slowly shook his head, you can't suggest... A teraflop cluster with 36 cores ? 64 gigs of RAM and 24 installed hard drives ? How would the beloved iPhone compare to one of these puppies ? We had to know!

We decided to start where all Apple product descriptions start. The unpacking experience. I should preface the following by saying that all the information I have on the iPhone comes exclusively from the web - be they descriptions of sorts or movies on youTube. That just as a cautionary caveat.

So then.. the unboxing experience. The iPhone comes in a cute small box, which most buyers have commented very positively on. It easily fits into one hand and shows off the sleek and beautiful exterior of Apple's newest offering. Our toy came in twelve large boxes, each weighing upwards of 28 kilograms.

Unpacking the iPhone takes about twenty seconds, if you are very excited, don't mind scratching the box with your car keys and are desperate to upload your video of the procedure to youTube. Our unpacking procedure took a solid hour, mainly because moving boxes in and out of the small shack where we were setting up the cluster is an exercise in advanced logistics. The verdict: clearly the iPhone beat us hands down here.

Next is setup. To setup your iPhone, all you need to do is place it in the supplied cradle, and iTunes 7.3 walks you through all the steps. Activation requires, as everyone now knows, an AT&T account, costing between 59 and 99 US$ a month, only then can you use it to make a call. The Xserve does not come with a cradle, but all the software is pre-installed, and the IT department had issued us with ten IP addresses beforehand. So if you want to make a call - as we are on a very fast University internet connection - Skype can be downloaded in a few seconds and you are ready to go! There is also no price-plan attached to an Xserve -although two part time support staff have to be paid to keep it running (one of them being yours truly, the other my friend opposite). As more infrastructure is required to operate an Xserve cluster, here again the iPhone is the winner.

When comparing other features, things get even more interesting. The iPhone includes an iPod. As the storage capacity is either 4 or 8 GB, this translates to being able to hold upto 800 or 1600 songs, respectively. The storage on our Xserve RAID is currently 7 TB, which means it can hold roughly 1.5 million songs. This equates to roughly half of the total catalog of the iTunes Music Store. Clearly, the cluster spanks the iPhone here.

It loses out on not having a number of other goodies. There is no ambient light sensor. We are not that fussed, because the lighting conditions hardly vary in the tiny room we are in. If the lights are on, you can see, if the lights are off, it is very dark. We always work with the lights turned on. Also, there is no accelerometer. Its function is to indicate to the iPhone if it is being held in portrait or landscape mode. On the cluster though, this is not a major downside, as it is not recommended to operate the rack-mounted server in landscape mode at all. But the lack of gee-whiz sensors hands another win to iPhone.

Let's talk about important tech stuff such as IO. These features could hardly be more different. The iPhone has a headphone jack for audio-out, and one 30-pin iPod connector as it's main interface with the computer or peripherals. That's it, two ports. Contrast this with the cluster: it has two independent Gigabit ethernet connectors, two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports and one mini-DVI port per unit, of which there are nine. This adds up to 72 ports in total. Our cluster is also equipped with a dual channel fiber-optic PCI card for ultra-fast IO. Alas, there is no headphone jack anywhere in sight, even though many of the small holes at the back of the unit look like one (but they're not - we checked). Upshot - if you like lots of ports, go with an Xserve, if you don't want lots of holes, take an iPhone. Verdict: even par.

The iPhone does have the upper hand in terms of wireless. It supports WiFi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth, EDGE and has access to the cellular network. In actual fact, the iPhone itself can be completely wireless if you buy a bluetooth headset. Very sleek. This is totally different on the cluster. At the back of the unit, when you have everything plugged in, there are wires absolutely everywhere and it looks a total mess. In terms of pure elegance, the iPhone wins by a large margin. We were getting trounced.

Next up is everyday use and mobility. Both machines are designed for everyday usage. We expect to run our servers 24/7, most days of the year. People also expect their phones to be working whenever they are. This is either all day (if you are on call), or between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm, if you work in our IT department. Mobility is high on the list of priorities for the iPhone. It weighs in at 135 g. You can take it just about anywhere, as it easily fits in a shirt pocket or handbag. The assembled cluster weighs more than 175 kg. It can be moved a few inches if you manage to point all four wheels of the rack-mount in the same direction. This is harder to do than on an average shopping trolley, so beware. In this category, again the iPhone comes out top. This was getting worrying.

The last comparison deals with price and running costs. The iPhone costs either US$ 499 or 599 up front. Add to that a two year contract worth at least US$ 59 a month, and you arrive at a grand total of US$ 1915 in the cheapest case, or 2975, if you go with the 8 gig model and the 99 bucks a month plan. This sort of money will be available in most average household budgets. To finance our baby, we had to write a grant application to a government funding agency, wait months on their decision and fret if it was going to be approved or not. The total amount we needed was upward of 250.000 US$, covering hardware, warranty and part time staff. This is serious money. An iPhone can be had at less than one percent of that cost. This iPhone was good! We were beginning to regret our purchase.

We had to regroup. And focus. There is no coverflow on the cluster, as it still runs OS 10.4 Server. No visual voicemail, no multitouch to pinch and zoom, no one finger scrolling, no swish sliders to unlock the unit! This was serious, we were getting desperate! Why again did we spend that quarter of a million dollars ? What were those killer features of the server OS ? We hastily leafed through the manuals and looked for reassurance. Why don't we have Google maps, this thing isn't even quad-band and where is that cleaning/polishing cloth ?! Ah.. yes! Here...Xgrid for distributed computing, access control lists and multihoming, as well as all the admin tools you will ever need to manage this thing from off-site. And not to forget those 18 dual core 3 GHz processors... and the terabytes in that RAID. Whoa, we could breathe again. That was close.

Alive again!

This has been inactive for nearly a year. A year ! Holy s.. mokes. And sure enough, things have happened. Will update soon.. (right..! ). In any case, I need to revive something here. Let's get started.

Citation Circle

Now that Gruber has gone mainstream (and many congratulations to that, John ! ), all I need to do is wiggle myself into that cosy citation circle as well. John, gentleman that he is, has of course reciprocated, and quoted a worthy news article of the elevating site on his fireball. It was on the issue of booting windows. Boot Camp reverberations abound. Impossible to say who went first. Most certainly, and by his own admission, Siracusa was fairly late. His pointing to Grubers article was early indication that John (G.) is on his way up. The small 'via aim' references at DaringFireball already hinted at an ever closer connection between John and John (S and G). The BootCamp issue made it official. But final confirmation came when J.G. (as he signs his emails to yours truly) quoted said article of the website that made him mainstream: Boot into Windows, published online on April 11th. A month earlier, the journalists made first mention of him, on their regular 'Friday Help Desk' feature. Here it is verbatim:

"Don’t go to Chris Breen or John Gruber or Rob Griffiths if you want help on any of those subjects, either."

That was it. A short but inclusive mentioning of Gruber. Alongside Chris Breen and Rob Griffiths. What more can an aspiring author hope for ? So, in all fairness, Gruber quotes them back. Full Circle. I say, you've made it if you're mentioned by CARS. Forget Digg, technocrati, even John Siracusa. None of this beats a throwaway remark at the Q&A about Trojans (as it was in this case). And no, I'm not talking about the rubber sort.. sheesh.

Oh! Two dot Oh!

Newsweek knows it, and has made a lovely wordplay out of it ("Putting the 'We' in Web"). Bloggers fear it, or endear it, or simply always hear it. We should just embrace it and get over it. As much as everyone hates taglines and buzzwords, it is here. And despite pundits everywhere insisting that the 2.0 moniker actually means nothing, it does.

Saying that 2.0 is used because people want the buzz again, is true. Saying that 2.0 is just what 1.0 wanted to be, is true. Saying that hearing 2.0 makes you want to puke is.. well, understandable. Well, then puke. People with a sense of perspective, like Tim O'Reilly, don't find 2.0 so hard to understand. And why should it be ? 1.0 was primarily one-way, 2.0 is equally two-way. What's so hard about that ?

Things follow from that, obviously. Eddies of complexity will appear and are doing so. Great ! Flickr, mySpace, Digg. Maybe it makes you giddy trying to classify everything at once, shoehorning things into a single cage. Then don't! Or if you insist, let the explanation be longer than one sentence.

It used to be 'the big three-oh' that everyone was afraid of. Now, the next generation is staring at two dot oh with equally frightful eyes.

Don't fret. Once you hit it, you'll see it's not painful at all.

Windows User Calibration

Reading about Windows Vista(tm) is a bit like watching a gory movie. I do it just for kicks, for the shivers, the joy of listening nails screech down a blackboard. So when John Gruber made Andre da Costa his 'Jackass of the Day', I had to read it. Head over to da Costa if you want to read at length (and I mean at length!) about what's new about Vista.

Da Costa's post got me thinking, and I headed over to PT's site (another gory stop), the 'Internet Nexus', one of Paul Thurrotts many web ventures. He mentioned that the next version of Windows will be offered in at least six flavours. Eight, if you count the European Versions separately, and even more if you make allowances for the 32 / 64 bit differences. That's heavy into the double digits. For one operating system. One - in theory.

The list currently is: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. All except Starter come in 32 and 64 bit versions, and Home Basis and Business will have said separate EU versions. Everyone will have their taylor-made version of Windows, it seems.

Imagine customer calls to your favourite ISP in the near future. As if the poor support personnel at the other end of the hotlines didn't have enough compatibility issues to tend with. Apart from XP, ME, 2000 et al., they will require you to specify which flavour of the current OS you are running.

I seriously think Microsoft is going down the wrong avenue here. If this trend continues, can you imagine where this will leave users for the next major revision ? How do you decide which version is the right one for you ? I suggest MS incorporate a query before each installation.

I call this "Windows User Calibration". Before you are allowed to install the OS, a program determines your computing needs. It finds out how advanced your computer knowledge is and gauges its installation accordingly. It will start by asking you simple questions about your basic understanding of computer technology. This will determine how - in future situations - it will go about giving you advice when troubleshooting.

If you come across as a real novice, you get the 'Starter Version'. If you know the difference between GB and GHz you are allowed to install the Home Basic Version. If you know what IEE1394 refers to, the speed of your USB 2 port, and what BIOS and MSDOS stands for, you get Home Premium. Anything to do with ROI, FTSE or NAFTA, you are clearly headed for one of the Business packs. This way the system knows exactly who you are and what software components need to be on your computer. It will be able to classify you easily, and calibrate all of the components adequately to your abilities.

Real geeks, of course, will head for the Ultimate Edition. Or they will just install Linux and be done with it.

You should be able to do at least this....

At the moment, I'm really quite happy with things in my life. I like my new job, things are going nicely, the other people in the group are all great, without exception. I have my own space in the lab, and a corner desk (not yet quite the corner office;-)). I like the desk, and there would be even more space for myself and all the accouterments of doing science (papers, folders for results, lots of catalogs... stuff, in less words), if I didn't have to share my desk with one of the communal Dell PCs.

For people who know me, this must be a bit of a shock. I try not to be as ardently outspoken as many other Mac fans, but I do pride myself in the knowledge that I've been lucky enough to have always had a Mac at work. It's just standard in my part of science. This has been the case in each and every lab I've worked in so far, and in many labs I know around at different universities. But now, there is a Dell on my desk. Fine. I've learnt to deal with hiccups. We can make this work. How hard can it be.

Turns out, it isn't hard. A few minor details are different. Imperceptibly so, or annoyingly so. I asked our lab IT person to let me install Firefox, I have the login password, I can do stuff. Hey, Windows kinda does it. It crashed the first time I inserted my (Mac formatted) USB stick, and couldn't reformat it for the life of it. But hey, that's like asking an American to understand a sentence in French. No can do. Fine, I'll deal with it. Removed the USB stick, plugged it into my PowerBook, and asked the Mac to reformat it. It does so. Being a member of a smaller nation, it is invariably multilingual. The PC now accepts the memory stick without a struggle.

There are a few things I haven't mastered yet. Like getting a new Windows Explorer window with a keystroke (akin to command-N in OS X). I use the mouse. Works ! New folders, ditto. I miss the ability to view the contents of folders by having collapsable hierarchies



(this is what I mean), and can't for the life of me understand why Windows won't calculate the size of a folder, even if the 'size' column appears in list view. Surely, a Pentium IV must have enough oomph to perform sums.

I like the task bar at the bottom, but that sidebar thingy in each window has yet to provide me with any appreciable use. Of course, I severely miss Exposé. Yesterday, I ended up with five, yes, five, windows of the desktop open, because I hadn't realised there was another one open behind the browser window already. Or another two, or three, or actually four.

I admit, these are all very basic tasks. It should be able to do them well, after all, the system has been in development for over two decades. I was therefore a little suprised when I encountered something else which I had considered a basic task until then. At least (and now I'm entering full 'the Mac can do this eeaasily' mode..), I've never had any problems with something like this before. What I was trying to do was to move a folder from one location to another. Filesystem stuff. Basic. The one complication was that one of the files contained in the folder was open. I was viewing the file. While trying to move it. Aah, well. Ok, now we have a problem. Windows started the job. It ran into said problem, and, ... yes. It notified me of the issue. Good! It told me that it was having a hard time with something that I had asked the filesystem to do.

The results were a bit confused. As probably everyone in Windows world knows, you end up with two folders. And, again, as probably everyone has been taught to live with, the contents of the folders differ, and represent a job half finished. The file which is open remains at the source location, whereas the others have been moved to their intermittent destination (I say intermittent, because I was trying to move the folder to an altogether different location, and chose the desktop just as a halfway point in its short voyage across the filesystem).

Now, this is just plain silly. I got the impression that Windows was being prissy here. I asked it to do something fairly simple, maybe overlooking some of the hidden complexity of the task, and what I ended up with was a message saying: 'Can't do that, that's way to hard, I'm going', and it leaves me with a half finished job I have to clear up. Look, this is really your job, Windows. Move an item from A to B. You should be able to do this. Isn't this the prime purpose of a filesystem ? To keep files (and, by logical extension, folders) organised and to respond to user input when changes in this organisation are required ? This is the umpteenth iteration of Windows, and this issue must have arisen before, at some point. I'm actually pretty sure John Gruber wrote about this a while ago (I wish I could link to his article directly, but, as I said, it was a while ago, I can't remember the heading of his piece, and his headlines are just about as opaque and unhelpful as mine). Others must be aware of this, too.

Be a Pill

David Pogue, love the man ! :) How to be a curmudgeon ... read on
here.