Rack mount server

Rack mount server – another followup

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment
Build Log:

So where I last left things, I said that I had ordered a replacement northbridge cooler for the mainboard. I replaced the 40mm fan that came with that northbridge cooler with a Noctua 40mm fan as well to help things get a little more quiet.

Along with that, we had device upgrades at work — basically trading in my older laptop to get a new one. The one I had was a Lenovo W520, which is a great laptop. And one thing I both liked and hated was its 128GB SSD. Liked it because of its speed (initially), but hated its capacity — when you’re an engineer, storage is your friend.

But I was given the option of purchasing my old laptop, and I did. First order of business with it after getting everything configured and updated was to swap out the SSD for a 1TB HDD. It boots slower as a result, but I wanted the storage space. I took the SSD and moved it into the server since it’s smaller than the 3½” HDD that was in there previously while having double the storage space. Storage isn’t as huge a deal with this system, but the SSD just freed up a ton of space in front of the two 60mm fans, allowing for much better airflow onto the power supply.

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And if it weren’t for the PSU fan, the server would probably be dead silent. Perhaps I’ll remedy that later. For now it’ll have to do. It was all the other noise that I alleviated that absolutely had to go, since all of that in concert was too much to bear. But at least the fans on the mainboard match.

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Follow-up (May 21, 2015): I replaced the power supply with the Seasonic SS-250SU. The power supply was advertised as having a 25 dB/A fan, meaning it would be quiet — and it’s supposed to also have a zero-RPM mode. After replacing the PSU, the first boot on the server was barely audible with the Noctua and Enermax fans plus the PSU. Pulling up Prime95 to get some kind of heavy load on the CPU still didn’t cause the PSU to get any noisy.

As I write this I’m sitting a few feet away from the server with it running and can barely hear it over the fans on β Ori. and Absinthe.

Dress codes/Feminism

It’s not about your daughter’s shoulders

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

A recent blog article is getting a bit of press by yet another person who is declaring that dress codes are… misogynist with a lovely article titled “The Apparently Immoral Shoulders of my Five Year-Old“. Take it away Mr Rouner…

Last Monday morning was a little colder than I expected, so I made sure that there was a warm change of clothes in my daughter’s backpack in case she wanted to change. She’d had her heart set on wearing her rainbow sun dress since the weather warmed up so I finally acquiesced and let her. Still it wasn’t too surprising to me to see her walk out of school that afternoon with her T-shirt on over the dress and her jeans on under it.

Okay, so at first it wasn’t surprising to see her wearing a T-shirt — albeit the how on that is a little odd. But when your daughter says the reason is that the dress she did wear was against the rules, this is what you wrote:

I’m not surprised to see the dress code shaming come into my house. I have after all been sadly waiting for it since the ultrasound tech said, “It’s a girl.” I didn’t think, though that it would make an appearance when she was five years old.

Here is the dress code from the student handbook you linked in your article (page HB-37):

Students are not to wear clothing that is tight, loose, sagging, baggy, revealing, spaghetti-strap, backless, low cut or short.
…
Dresses – must not reveal underclothing, midsection, torso, back, chest, breasts, or cleavage and must be mid-thigh in length or longer

So the dress is clearly in violation of the dress code. So what’s the complaint about?

Have you ever stopped to think how weird a school dress code really is? I went and checked out the one for my daughter’s school district and it’s amazing in how hard it tries not to say what it actually means. There are literally no male-specific guidelines anywhere on that list. I mean prohibitions against exposing the chest or torso could hypothetically apply to boys except that they don’t. Not really. They don’t sell boys clothes that do that. There’s nothing that is marketed to boys that is in anyway comparable to a skirt or a sun dress. Essentially, a school dress code exists to prevent girls from displaying too much of their bodies because reasons.

So basically he is alleging that there is nothing that boys can wear “normally” that would violate the dress code for the district. And if he is actually going to stick to that claim, he’s extremely short sighted since there is something rather common for boys and men to wear that would violate this dress code without a problem: a tank top!

The dress code frowns on sandals as well, preferring closed-toe or tennis shoes. Send a kid to school wearing sandals showing advanced foot fungus and they’ll likely have him change — and yes I meant to say “him” since boys do actually contract foot fungus more than girls. Pants must be “fitted at the waist or upper hip and must not reveal underclothing”. Gee, I wonder who typically wears pants in a fashion that deviates from this? It certainly isn’t girls. Head coverings aren’t allowed as well — again something worn more by men and boys than women. And all students “must wear appropriate underclothing”. It ain’t only girls who like to go commando — though that would also apply to bras for women.

And when thinking of gang members, who typically comes to mind? I’m going to guess men. In particular, black men. So dress code provisions that prohibit gang-related paraphernalia will apply virtually exclusively to men. Sure women can be gang members as well, but they are certainly a small minority, outnumbered by as much as 9 to 1.

In actuality, what I wear to work would actually violate the dress code. I wear a collared shirt with a t-shirt underneath. Technically the t-shirt is “underclothing”, so if I wear a crew-neck t-shirt and don’t have the collared shirt buttoned up entirely to hide the t-shirt, I’m technically in violation of the dress code. A V-neck t-shirt with an unbuttoned collar shirt would also violate the dress code. But given how common that attire is in business and professional settings, they’d likely let both slide.

But you then go from calling all dress codes sexist to the dress code, in not allowing certain forms of dress, implying your daughter’s dress came from a sex shop:

I didn’t pick up my daughter’s dress at My First Stripperwear. It’s not repurposed fetish gear from a store for very short people. It’s a dress from a mall chain store in her size.

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You know what really grills my cheese about it? It’s not even the shirt they made her put on over her top, it’s the pants they made her wear underneath. It’s a full-length dress that she has to hold up to keep from getting wet in uncut grass. She even had a small set of shorts underneath because it was gym day. But because the top part of her dress apparently exposed the immoral sinfulness of her bare shoulders she also had to pull on jeans even though her legs remained completely covered as part of her punishment.

Perhaps she forgot to mention she had shorts on under the dress, or perhaps they never asked her about it. To think that school professionals are trying to sexually shame a 5 year-old is beyond absurd, Mr Rouner. You’ve completely lost it by that point in your article. Plain and simple the onus is on you to know the dress code (as the student handbook states), just as the onus is also on you to know the dress code for where you work.

This is still going in 2015. It really is. We still live in a country where someone can decide the shoulders of, and I can’t stress this enough, a five-year-old girl are so distracting that they must be sent away and decently hidden. God knows what could possibly happen to her if not.

No. Those were rules that were established as a base standard over the entirety of the school district. Get over yourself! They’re not trying to shame your daughter. They’re not trying to say that her shoulders are “immoral”. Their dress code specifically says no spaghetti straps, so rather than creating exclusions for certain age groups or grade levels, they just apply it to the entirety of the district. That’s typically how these things work, and it’s how they worked when you and I were in school.

But given the lengths to which you’ve gone in your article, sir, the fact you’re implying they are trying to sexually shame a prepubescent girl… Give me a fucking break.

So hey, go ahead and act like an annoying brat of a child if they try to turn your daughter away again. I’d love to read about how many nights you spend in jail for it — particularly if you also show up in a dress. You’d really be setting a lovely example for your child. Actually you already are, by basically teaching her that dress codes are sexist, so she doesn’t have to abide by them.

Beta Orionis

Beta Orionis – Part XVIII: New power supply and quieting things down

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment
Build Log:

The new power supply is installed and so far has been running steady without any problems. The only minor concern about the EVGA power supply is its PCI-E power connectors in that they include only two 6+2pin PCI-E cables instead of four, and I would also prefer the single-connector cables be full 8-pin connectors as well instead the 6+2pin. Getting that, however, appears to require going completely custom, whether I do it myself or pay someone else to do them.

Given the direction graphics cards are going, however, and the reputation EVGA has among enthusiast builders, it’s something they should consider doing. Continue including the 2×6+2pin PCI-E cables, which I currently have connected to my graphics cards, but also include 8-pin PCI-E cables with a single connector and 6-pin PCI-E cables with a single connector.

At the least, make them a purchase option so I don’t have to buy complete cable kits to get what I want. Currently it appears I’d have to do just that or go completely custom — and currently Ensourced appears to be the only place through which I can order the custom cables I want, to the tune of about $36 per pair, provided the G2 cables work with the GS power supplies.

So now it’s a matter of figuring out what to do with the AX860.

* * * * *

In building out the HDD enclosure project, I used an NZXT Grid to control the fans. To make the fans virtually inaudible, I modified the 4-pin Molex to 3-pin female connector to be a 7V step-down, making the fans virtually silent.

Liking the result, I decided to try something like this for Beta Orionis.

It made the system virtually inaudible, but I wasn’t comfortable with the temperatures. The CPU temperature climbed over 70C running Prime95 on small FFT, and the copper tubing was becoming very noticeably warm to the touch, telling me the coolant temperature was easily in the upper 40s — note the pump has a maximum rated temperature of 60C. Interestingly the GPU temperatures didn’t go up all that much compared to running the fans at stock voltage while running a Bitcoin miner in benchmark mode.

So a higher voltage was needed. 7V would be great for the system at idle, but not under load, but 12V is loud when you’ve got a lot of fans — you know, like having 9 of them in my system (and I know of those who have still more). My thoughts settled on 9V, which should undervolt them enough to keep the system quiet but also cool enough under a decent load. An initial test on that was a 9V battery, or it would’ve been if a 9V battery could supply the proper current (~1.2A for all of the fans) — but even if it could supply the current, it would discharge so quickly that I wouldn’t be able to adequately test things.

So instead I would have to order a voltage regulator. I bought this one by DROK to test various voltages to find the ideal voltage that would give quiet fans but still good cooling before ordering a static voltage regulator for a 12V input and the proper voltage output.

Now I can already hear this question: why not just use a fan controller? I considered it. Fan controllers, though, come in two varieties: you either have to manually change the fan speed, or program it to automatically change it. I didn’t want to do either, so I went for some kind of middle ground. I still have the Phobya fan controller that was originally in my wife’s build. On the front of automatic controllers, I looked at the Aquacomputer poweradjust 3 Ultra, and I still might ultimately end up buying one since it can be used with a temperature sensor — such as a coolant temperature sensor.

I might look at creating something from an Arduino or equivalent if I decide to go that direction — I’ve considered it in the past. With fans that aren’t PWM, voltage regulation is still needed to control the speed.

But for now, I wanted something inexpensive that would allow for a silent running that would still keep temperatures reasonably under control. And an inline voltage regulator was the best way to do this, once I found the right voltage that would give me a good balance, and it’s something I don’t have to muck with after it’s installed.

Now testing things was pretty straightforward. I took a spare fan adapter (4-pin Molex to 3-pin) and modded it to cut off the 3-pin part, split the wires apart and stripped the ends. With the voltage regulator between the PSU and the fans, the voltage is tuned using a small flathead screwdriver. For the first test, I took the fans to my intended target voltage of 9V and opened up Prime95 with HWMonitor running alongside to watch the temperatures. I also backed off my overclock as for some reason Prime95 was giving errors trying to run initially.

During the testing the ambient temperature was about 25C.

As expected, 9V kept the system quiet — the hard drive was louder than the fans. And the temperatures while running Prime95 climbed up to the 50s relatively quickly, but once it hit 55C the climb slowed down, hovering at each one above that for at least a minute. When the temperature hit 56C, I decided to drop the voltage to 8V. Now the system was virtually inaudible. It reached 59C (138F) at about 8 minutes into the Prime95 test and held at that temperature for about 5 minutes more before poking to 60F and then going back and forth between the two.

To throw more heat into the coolant, at about 15 minutes into the Prime95 test, I pulled up a Bitcoin miner and ran it alongside Prime95. The GPU temperatures soared into the mid 40s fairly quickly while the CPU temperature stayed at 60C. The extra heat caused the CPU to start climbing toward the mid 60s while the GPUs held at around 50C. At about 18 minutes into Prime95, the CPU reached 65C while the GPUs sat at 52C. I turned the fans back up to 9V.

The temperature on the CPU topped out at 67F after 20 minutes of Prime95 combined with about 8 minutes of the Bitcoin miner before I stopped Prime95. The copper tubing had started to become noticeably warm to the touch. The CPU dropped down to 53C and held.

9V fan speed running Prime95 and BFGminer

I stopped the Bitcoin miner after 10 minutes and let the system cool down, turning the fans all the way up to bring the temperatures down a little quicker — the regulator has a max output voltage of 11V. When the CPU bottomed out at around 40C, I dropped the voltage back down to 8V, reset the temperatures in HWMonitor, and fired up F.E.A.R. Online while waiting for Bioshock Infinite to download and install.

The CPU topped out at 45C during F.E.A.R. Online — the game isn’t SLI enabled, so only one of the graphics cards saw a temperature increase to 44C. In Bioshock Infinite, after about 30 minutes, the CPU temperature topped out around 54C. I turned the fans backup to 9V during the play as well.

9V after Bioshock Infinite

So that’s pretty good given how quiet the system is now running, so I think I’ll lock the fan voltage at 9V. And I’ll be doing a similar experiment on my wife’s machine, Absinthe. But in the mean time, I’ll be doing some more temperature monitoring with the fans set at 9V, possibly 8V, to make sure this is how I want to leave things.

Espresso/Product and service reviews

Breville Infuser espresso maker

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment
Breville Infuser

It’s been about 18 months that I’ve owned my Breville Infuser espresso maker. At $500, it’s a great mid-range option for home espresso. It is more capable than the lower-tier options from DeLonghi and Saeco, but not quite up there with options from companies like Rancilio, Nuovo Simonelli, and Rocket — oh how I wish I could own a Rocket espresso maker…

But similar to my review on the DeLonghi EC-155 (a great low-budget option, especially when you pair it with the steam wand and basket mods), I’m going to go over some of the things to keep in mind, some points that are good to know if you decide to go with this espresso maker. One thing to note up front is that the user manual is available from Breville’s website, so if you’re considering this machine, definitely give it a read.

1. No warm-up time.

That’s right, there is no warm-up time with this espresso maker. Okay, not 100% true as there is an initialization cycle that runs when you turn the machine, but it’s brief.

This is due in part to the Infuser’s thermocoil — the initialization cycle is for an initial warm-up on this. For those not in the know, a thermocoil is where water is passed through a coil (duh!) which has a heating element running alongside it to heat it. The cold water going into the coil should be the desired temperature coming out. A thermocoil can also be used to chill liquids, as Adam Savage demonstrated on an episode of Mythbusters. Thermocoils and thermoblocks are typically used in full-automatic espresso machines, and the Infuser is one of only a handful of semi-automatic espresso machines using one.

Contrast this with the many boiler espresso makers out there. The larger the boiler, the longer the warm-up time. A machine as small as the DeLonghi EC-155 has a 10 to 15 minute warm-up, while a machine like the Rancilio Silvia is looking at 30 to 45 minutes. Yikes! At least the EC-155 could warm up while you’re in the shower. If there’s a lot of metal in the machine — i.e. Rancilio Silvia and virtually everything in the prosumer lines — then the warm-up time is increased as well so all of that metal can come up to temperature. While there are “short cuts” you might be able to take to get the machine warmed up faster, there are trade-offs to doing this.

But again, the Infuser’s thermocoil means there is virtually no warm-up time. This is significant if you typically make espresso or a latte/cappuccino in the morning before work. For me it was the main selling point that pulled me away from the Rancilio Silvia and toward the Breville Infuser.

2. Automatic clean cycle

There is a nagging light that comes on to remind you to run the clean cycle on the machine. This is actually a good thing, as regular cleaning (and the reminder to regularly clean it) helps keep the brewhead clean and free of crap that an accumulate over time.

The machine comes with a couple Breville cleaning tablets and a special insert for using them. The insert creates back pressure simulating a loose espresso puck, which helps the cleaning tablets do their job. The Breville tablets are expensive though, and the more coffee you make, the more often you’ll need them. But you can save a little money and go with the Cafiza cleaning tablets instead. I typically use three tablets for a cleaning cycle — even with using that many you’re still coming out ahead.

The cleaning cycle typically uses about 16 fl.oz. (~473 mL) of water, so it’s not necessary to have the tank completely full, but make sure it’s at least half full when doing the clean cycle and you’ll be fine.

3. Portafilter and baskets

The double basket is tapered. For most machines this isn’t the case and I’m actually looking around to see if there’s a basket from another machine I can substitute into this. I also wish there was a bottomless portafilter available like the one for the Breville Double Boiler.

This machine comes with two sets of baskets: pressurized and non-pressurized. This is great for beginners as you can go from the pressurized baskets to the non-pressurized baskets as you progress. The single-cup pressurized basket is used for the cleaning cycle.

You do need a separate grinder for the non-pressurized baskets, and you need to grind for each shot. The Breville Smart Grinder is about perfect for this machine, but go higher-end if you can afford it. The grinder actually matters more than the machine. I currently use the Breville Smart Grinder, but I’m looking at upgrading to something better later this year.

4. Descaling and water quality

The cleaning cycle is relatively automatic. Descaling the machine, on the other hand, is far from. Like with all coffee makers, espresso included, you will need to descale this machine on regular intervals. The manual recommends once per month. This will vary based on water quality — harder water = more frequent descaling.

Now in my setup I have been using a Brita pitcher to filter water. The water tank in the machine is filtered as well. So I’m basically using dual-filtered water. This can cut down on how often you need to descale the machine, but not by much.

The manual recommends vinegar, and I’ve been using that to descale the machine while looking at other options. Descaling does include the steam wand as well, but hot water does not come out the steam wand like it would on the Rancilio Silvia. This makes de-scaling a little more time consuming, not to mention it makes the rinse cycle a little more involved. Basically prepare for your home to smell like vinegar when you descale it — on the plus side, if you’re having sinus problems, this could help alleviate congestion.

I typically buy coffee in 2lb bags, and that lasts about 5 or 6 weeks with how often I typically make espresso. So I time the descaling with each new bag. It’s just easier to remember.

5. Included milk pitcher

The included pitcher is about 16 oz, which is perfect for a larger latte with a double-shot of espresso. If you typically make single-shot lattes or cappuccinos, I’d recommend picking up a 12oz pitcher. If you’re upgrading from another espresso machine and already have a 16oz or 20oz pitcher, the extra can be helpful if you typically make lattes or cappuccinos for multiple people — a little more to clean, but less preparation time.

6. Programmability and dialing in the machine

Espresso machines, of course, need to be dialed in with your grinder. It’s just the nature of the beast. The beauty of this machine is the fact you can program it, but it’s both a blessing and a curse. You program the machine by starting and stopping a shot, but it records water volume, not timing. Water volume is only one variable in the entire espresso shot. The coffee mass and grind plus the tamp make the other parts. So while the machine is handling one variable, consistency still falls entirely on your shoulders.

Again, a blessing and a curse.

Variances in your grind or tamp could alter the fluid volume of the shot and/or the timing of it. The coffee in the puck will absorb some of the water. A looser grind or lighter tamp will allow more water through faster. Tighter grind or harder tamp will cause the puck to retain more water and travel through slower.

So this can be great for learning how to be consistent with each shot, but can be a pain if you’re not experienced with making espresso. Weighing your beans with each shot will help you keep things consistent.

To get the best result dialing in your machine, you need to brew espresso the way you intend to do so regularly. This means that if you typically have a hot basket when brewing espresso, you need to have a hot basket dialing it in. You basically need to maintain as much consistency on all applicable variables while dialing in to avoid variances during routine use after you program it.

7. Steam wand

The Infuser has a traditional steam wand, but you can buy a “froth enhancer” to turn it into a panarello-type wand.

When you first turn the machine to steam, there will probably be water squirting through the steam wand, so make sure it’s pointed toward the drip tray to avoid having a little clean up. As the light is blinking it’s going to be coming up to steam temperature, and you’ll start hearing steam coming out of the steam wand. When it reaches temperature, you’ll hear the tell-tale marching steps as water is pushed through the thermocoil — this is so it can maintain a level of pressure through the steam wand. When you turn the machine back off of steam, it will auto-fill the thermocoil with water as the temperature on it is brought back down — meaning you don’t need to go through any kind of “temperature surfing” like on other single-boiler espresso makers.

As water can come out of the steam wand before steam, you don’t want the steam wand in your milk from the outset. Now some would suggest letting it come up to steam, turning off the steam, letting the auto-fill happen, then turning the steam right back on. That’s not necessary.

Here’s what to do instead. Let the water push through the steam wand and come up to temperature. When the steps start, count about 10 of them and turn off the steam. The machine should not go through it’s auto-fill at this point, allowing you to put the wand into the milk, turn the steam back on and steam the milk. If you let the stepping go for too long, the machine will do it’s auto-fill, which means you’ll need to wait longer to steam your milk.

Can you get latte art from this machine? I don’t really try for it, but I think you should still be able to do so.

Now one thing to bear in mind is that this machine is slower than other mid-range machines for steaming milk. But this also allows you to gain a bit of control over it as well, making it a lot easier to learn — and if you want to practice steaming milk without going through a ton of milk, use soapy water.

Rack mount server

Rack mount server project, revisited

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Build Log:

It’s been some time since I wrote about the rack mount server I put together. There’ve been a couple modest changes to it that I should point out to anyone looking to build such a server.

First is the CPU cooler. The fan that came with the ThermalTake CPU cooler I purchased was loud. Prohibitively so. ThermalTake rates it at over 34 dB/A — note the threshold for what is considered a “silent” fan is 20 dB/A. Add into this the low-profile chassis and it actually made the problem worse. But I wasn’t entirely sure what other options were out there. Then somehow a Noctua low-profile cooler was in my Amazon recommendations.

Specifically it’s the Noctua NH-L9a, which is 37mm tall (about 1½”) and uses Noctua’s 92mmx14mm fan — this one is made specifically for AMD processors, but they do make one for Socket 115x Intel processors as well. It’s designed for a 65W maximum TDP (such as the Athlon X2 being used), meaning it cannot be used for any kind of overclocking. And given the total height is 37mm tall, it is perfect for a 2U chassis as it leaves nearly an inch of clearance above the cooler which should allow for much better airflow compared to the ThermalTake cooler while remaining reasonably silent.

Running Prime95 from the command line for almost a half hour, the reported temperature on the CPU cores topped out in the upper-40s C, and the CPU temperature dropped off pretty quickly after ending the torture test. Not bad for a low-profile CPU cooler with a relatively silent fan. I may have to try with the low-noise adapter.

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Next up were the front fans. The case comes with two 60mm fans. That wasn’t enough for me so I originally added two more 60mm fans to the case, “attached” to the 5¼” drive bays. Those turned out to also be prohibitively loud, so I changed them out for a single 80mm fan. But I didn’t like how I was attaching that, so I purchased an Evercool Armor HDD cooler. Getting it fitting in the chassis with a full-size ATX mainboard was interesting as I had to remove the HDD bracket from it, along with the front fan filter (which I planned to do anyway since the server chassis has a front filter anyway). But I also had to mount it upside down.

I bought the bracket intending to move the HDD over to it as well, but that’d require chopping it down, and I didn’t feel like doing that right now. Perhaps in the future.

I also didn’t use the stock fan that came with it. I instead opted for the 80mm Enermax TB-Silence fan that had been mounted in place of the dual 60mm fans originally used. It’ll just be a little more silent in the long run, plus it’s rated to provide better airflow. I also mounted it to the bracket using anti-vibration mounts, which should further reduce any potential for noise.

The fan controller that comes with the chassis isn’t that great either. It’ll kick the fans on when a certain internal temperature is reached, then turn them back off when the temperature falls just below the trigger temperature — meaning the fans were kicking on and off, on and off continuously. That’s not good for the fan motors. Ideally what it should be doing is turning the fans back off when the temperatures are several degrees below their threshold temperature — by default they turn on at 38C, and should kick off at 32C or even 30C instead of turning off at 37C only to turn back on at 38C.

Alleviating that was pretty simple: disconnect the fans from the controller and power them straight from the power supply. I still kept the fan controller as well since it has a temperature display — something that actually would’ve been a “nice to have” on the HDD enclosure project.

Having the front fans on full-blast though certainly produces a loud system. The 60mm fans in the front are Yate Loon DB60SM-12 fans, which are rated at 3200RPM and 18 ft³/min, with 30 dB/A of noise. The Noctua 60mm fans I ordered for the HDD enclosure project are rated at 3000 RPM and 17 ft³/min, but a little under 20 dB/A, about the same noise level as the Enermax fan. And the low noise adapter will cut the airflow to about 14 ft³/min, but cut the noise pressure to 14.5 dB/A.

So I think it’s quite obvious what I did next — ordered more Noctua fans for the front.

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Unfortunately this didn’t quiet things down as much as I would’ve liked as I discovered as well that the northbridge fan was making a hell of a lot of noise — a telltale sign that it’s dying or in need of repair — and so will be replaced. I actually needed to do something similar on a previous mainboard I owned, so I’m glad that my current mainboard doesn’t have any active cooling on the mainboard.

So now I need to order in a new heatsink for the northbridge since my local Micro Center doesn’t carry one right now — and the one they do carry would interfere with the graphics card. I ordered this one from Enzotech, along with another Noctua 40mm fan to again have a quiet fan. That’ll mean that all but 2 of the fans in this system will be Noctua — the 80mm fan in the 5¼” drive bays and the 40mm fan on the power supply (and I’m not going after that one). And the 80mm fan I’m likely not going to change over to a Noctua fan since it won’t be much better than the Enermax fan I currently have.

Speaking of the graphics card, originally I had a full-size PCI-Express x16 card on a riser, and it was practically touching the northbridge heatsink and fan. But I recalled that I had another graphics card lying around, one that used to be in my wife’s system, and was also a low-profile PCB — a Radeon HD5450. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the main low-profile bracket — I found the one for the VGA connector but not the DVI and HDMI connectors.

I did discover that XFX actually makes low profile brackets — an entire kit that can be had for about $5, and my local Micro Center carries it. Problem solved. And then later in the evening I found the missing bracket that originally came with the card — after the card had already been installed in the server.

Oh well…

So that’s basically it. The server is running Fedora 21, and will be used for various things to be determined later. Well one of the things is a Minecraft server, but whether it’ll be used for anything else beyond that we’ll have to see.

Please read the followup to this.

Due process

Holmes and Tsarnaev – revisiting due process

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Watch the comments to any article detailing the trials of James Holmes — the accused in the Aurora theatre shooting — and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. You will see some rather disgusting statements that pretty much boil down to “Why aren’t they dead yet?” In short, I think most have forgotten that in the United States we don’t execute the “obviously” guilty without trial.

Another thing often forgotten: due process.

Stemming from the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Constitution of the United States requires that any person who is accused of a crime have a day in Court — even the “obviously” guilty Tsarnaev and Holmes. It is rather sickening how easily others are willing to completely abrogate due process rights… for people other than themselves. Numerous times, in the case of both Holmes and Tsarnaev, many have said the equivalent of “Don’t waste taxpayer money on a trial. Just take ’em out back and shoot ’em now.”

Wow…

I’ve made it no secret that I defend due process and the right to a trial by jury, even for those many seem to believe don’t “deserve” it, as if your due process rights are earned or abrogated by your actions. Due process is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and must be provided to everyone. But due process can be problematic, which is why I feel it is coming under attack. After all it is due process that led to the high-profile acquittals of OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman.

And many seemed to fear the prospect that Tsarnaev or Holmes would walk. So they demand that we avoid that possibility by… executing them without trial. On Yahoo! I said this to someone advocating exactly that:

So if you were to get a speeding ticket, we should just lock you in jail rather than giving you the chance to plead on it? The interesting thing about rights is how willing people are to throw them aside for *someone else* but still demand them for themselves. Either we all have the right to due process, including Holmes, or none of us do. Which would you have?

Some months later, to another article on Tsarnaev, I wrote this:

Another article about Tsarnaev, and once again, people are willing to just throw their own rights out the window. If you’re so willing to just ignore Tsarnaev’s rights, why do your rights deserve any protection? If you want your rights protected, you must be willing to protect his, meaning if you take seriously this whole idea of executing him without trial and executing his family and acquaintances without trial, then should the same apply to you, regardless of whether you are actually provably guilty of anything?

The assertion that Tsarnaev is “obviously guilty” does not nullify his right to due process, yet many assert such should be the case. The assertion that Holmes is also “obviously guilty” does not nullify his right to due process either, yet, again, many assert such. In instances like these, it is rather disgusting how easily many enter the mob mentality, the “torches and pitchforks” mindset.

And the fact that individuals many have asserted are “obviously guilty” have walked out of Court acquitted on charges has led many to attack due process and the jury system, and assert that there exist situations in which the system should be bypassed.

Let’s make this clear. Even the “obviously guilty” enjoy the right to be presumed innocent. They enjoy the right of due process, to have the accusation against them and the supporting evidence heard in a Court of Law by an impartial jury. To so easily abrogate such rights for others, for the “obviously guilty”, is to jeopardize that right for everyone.

If you are unwilling to defend those rights for those who you feel don’t deserve them, then you don’t deserve those rights either.

Debt/Law

Disputing a debt

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

One topic that gets intermittent discussion with regard to debt collections is debt validation. And lesser discussed still is how to exercise this statutory right. Well it comes down to the letter you send. When you receive first contact through the mail of an alleged debt, you have 30 days to fire off a letter disputing the debt and requesting they validate it. To aid you in this, here is the template I have used previously for this:

[Date]

[Name and address of collection agency]

Dear [Name of collection agency],

Re:    [Debt account information provided in the letter]

NOTICE OF DISPUTED DEBT

On [date letter received], I received the first communication regarding this alleged debt. In accordance with 15 USC § 1692g(b), part of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are hereby notified that this debt is disputed in its entirety.

Thus in accordance with Federal law, you are required to cease any collection attempts or efforts with regard to this alleged debt until you can obtain and forward to me documentation that shows that I have any legal obligation to pay you the amount you have alleged as quoted above. In accordance with the above-quoted Federal statute, I also request that you provide to me the name and address of the original creditor.

Further, in accordance with 15 USC § 1692c(a), you may not contact me at my place of employment as my employer does not permit such communications to take place, and you may not contact me at any other time or any other place, except in writing, as no time or place can be considered convenient.

Any attempt to collect on this debt without first satisfying this validation request is a violation of Federal law that may subject you to civil penalties in accordance with 15 USC § 1692k. Your cooperation on this matter is anticipated and appreciated.

Thank you,

[Your signature]

And when you send the letter, use a service that provides tracking and/or delivery confirmation — return receipts are recommended as well. If you are currently unemployed, remove the statements regarding an employer.

I highly recommend against using the letter template provided by the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For one, it says “Please supply the information below so that I can be fully informed” instead of outright stating that you dispute the debt, which the statute requires [15 § USC 1692g(b)]: “If the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing … that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed…” Requesting information about the debt is not the same as disputing it, in whole nor in part, and unless you say you are disputing the debt, they may presume you are not disputing the debt and do not intend to dispute the debt.

Whenever you are invoking statutory rights, you need to stick with the statutory language so there is no doubt what you are doing.

The CFPB template also demands a lot more information than creditors are required to provide. The creditor is required to provide you evidence that the debt is valid, the amount claimed is accurate (itemized details are not required to fulfill this), they have the authority to collect it, and the name and address of the originating creditor if you request it. That’s it!

The disclosure with the CFPB template even says this:

A debt collector may not have a legal obligation to provide some or all of the information you seek, even if you request it within the 30-day period. If the collector doesn’t give you what you request, that doesn’t necessarily mean the debt collector has broken any laws or has given up a legal right to collect from you.

Amazing how many people think that one misstep by a debt collector and the debt is no longer collectable. In the case of the CFPB’s template, though, the letter requests information that should be readily available with the first contact, such as:

  • whether they are contacting you from out of state (check the addresses on the letter you receive)
  • name of the original creditor — virtually every initial contact I’ve received from a collector included at least the name, with the address provided through a validation request
  • name of the current creditor — again, typically given in the initial letter if different from original creditor

along with details that they are not required to provide you, such as the details regarding their license. If the matter goes to Court, that’s a different scenario, and an attorney should be able to provide the specifics.

And one question that is asked in the CFPB template that should never be asked directly to a debt collector is with regard to the statute of limitations.

If you are certain the debt is beyond the statutory time limit, wait for them to return with validation materials, and write back stating you refuse to pay the debt and leave it at that. Do not mention the statute of limitations. When you do that, under 15 USC § 1692c(c), the collector is barred from contacting you except to say they are ceasing collection attempts, to advise you that a specific “remedy” will be sought, or that they are seeking a specific “remedy” — i.e. they may or will sue.

Only if they sue do you counter with the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations applies only to legal actions through the Court — i.e. it is grounds to immediately dismiss with prejudice any lawsuit they do file against you. It doesn’t stop them from continuing collection attempts unless you tell them in writing to not contact you — again, see 15 USC § 1692c(c) — and it doesn’t stop them from assigning the debt to someone else.

So again, keep the letter short and sweet, like the template I have above, and you should be golden on exercising your statutory right of validation. If you have any reason to believe the information they provided you is inaccurate, you can dispute it further, but never bring up the statute of limitations in any communication with a debt collector. The only time to mention the statute of limitations, if applicable, is with regard to Court actions.

Bear in mind, however, once they satisfy validation, they can file a lawsuit against you.

Due process/Second Amendment

Who is actually racist?

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Anyone who tries to tout that the NRA doesn’t like the idea of blacks carrying guns is absolutely ignorant. For one, the NRA News has a commentator by the name of Colion Noir. He’s black. And he’s had a YouTube channel since before he joined up with the NRA as a commentator. And in one of his videos, he stomped over the idea of the NRA picking him as the “token black guy” (or in one case, he was called the NRA’s “porch monkey“):

Beyond that, the NRA is about defending everyone’s right to carry a firearm. It’s the anti-gunners who seem to have a problem with blacks being armed. So let’s play a game.

Who is the real racist: the NRA and other gun rights organizations who readily welcome black and other minority members, or the law enforcement agents who deny the issuance of a concealed carry permit to black persons with clean records, while issuing to whites with less than clean records?

Who is the real racist: the biracial president who says that “Saturday night specials” are a problem, or the gun rights advocates who say that such firearms allow our poorest people to arm themselves and defend themselves in some of the more crime-ridden parts of the country — i.e. the “inner cities”? Now contrary to the President’s assertion, “cheap handguns” aren’t being used in crimes. The FBI’s own statistics and studies contradict that notion.

Who is the real racist: the gun rights advocates who fight hard for ammunition availability, even going so far as to “rally the troops” against the ATF’s attempted ban on a popular rifle round, or the people who call for banning bullets and like seeing prices go up and availability go down, apparently not realizing that the poorest people who need inexpensive guns will be the first affected when that happens? After all, if you have to choose between buying food and buying the ammo to keep up practice at the firing range on the off chance you have to defend yourself with your pistol, I think all of us would choose buying food. And so the economically disadvantaged are the ones who are first affected when ammo prices go up with increased demand and decreasing supplies and availability. This is known as “being priced out of a market”.

Not everyone can afford to pay $10 for a box of 50 9mm rounds. .22LR ammo used to be very inexpensive and very available. A lot of people use it for self defense because the ammo and pistols were both inexpensive, affordable even for the poor. Now, not so much thanks to the ammo scares following Sandy Hook.

Just like free speech means that messages with which you disagree are still protected, the right to keep and bear arms means those who you don’t want owning guns (excluding those convicted of felonies or involuntarily held in a mental hospital) also have the right to own them. And the entire history of gun control in the United States has very racist overtones. Indeed the Gun Control Act of 1968, which established the FFL system, implemented a points system regarding the importation of firearms. Some of the firearms excluded under this new system were firearms owned primarily by lower-income minorities.

Back in 1999 the NRA-ILA posted a set of bullet points regarding “Saturday night specials”. One point is rather key:

A law against “Saturday Night Specials” would disproportionately affect poor citizens by reducing the availability of defensive handguns to low income Americans. (Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns, 1997.) The violent crime victimization rate is highest among people in households with annual incomes below $7,500. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization 1997, Changes 1996-97 with Trends 1993-97, Dec. 1998)

And the poverty rate is highest among blacks, meaning blacks would be affected at a far greater rate than whites. And in larger urban areas, the need for firearms for self defense is even more acute. Detroit’s police chief even openly advocated for it, knowing that public confidence in the police to actually respond when people dial 911 just isn’t there.

Yet anti-gun advocates, like the late Sarah and James Brady, have routinely said that firearms for home defense are unnecessary because… police. What they fail to forget is that the Courts have also routinely said that you are not entitled to police protection. Law enforcement is about enforcing laws, apprehending those who break them and providing evidence a prosecutor can use against the apprehended in Court. If they get there in time to stop a crime in progress, great. But that is not their job.

So who are the real racists: those who support gun rights, or those who target them?

What is even more sickening is the willingness to abrogate due process, especially when it comes to anti-gun advocates. After Tuscon, Aurora and Sandy Hook, many asked the same question: how did these “obviously” mentally ill people get their guns? What they probably realize behind the scenes is that the only way someone can be stripped of their right to a firearm is to first put them through the system. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require this. Setting aside Adam Lanza, since he didn’t actually legally acquire the firearms he used, the only way Jared Loughner and James Holmes could’ve been blocked through an NICS background check is if they were first adjudicated through the system and their information provided to the NICS system.

Without the Court record, any attempt to block them from acquiring a firearm would’ve been a violation of the Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Suspecting a person should not be able to acquire a firearm is quite different from proving it, and the Constitution requires proving it.

And the fact that blacks are more likely to end up in the system also shows that blacks are very, very disproportionately targeted by gun laws. So who’s the real racist? In trying to answer that question, bear in mind that Otis McDonald, the lead plaintiff in the McDonald v. Chicago case at the Supreme Court, is also black.

Free speech and press

Wal-Mart is not censoring Ronda Rousey

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

MMA champion Ronda Rousey apparently fancies herself an author enough to have written a book called “My Fight/Your Fight“. And apparently Wal-Mart is deciding they will not carry the book at their stores. Now this decision is quite significant, as that means none of Wal-Mart’s 5,163 locations (as of January 31, 2015) just in the US alone will carry it.

And in response to it, the book’s publisher, Judith Regan, is calling it “censorship”. I wish I was joking.

Let’s make this clear: one retailer deciding to not carry a particular book is NOT censorship. I mean there are a shit-ton of books, literally, that Wal-Mart does not carry on their store shelves. Have you seen the book section at a Wal-Mart Supercenter? It’s tiny! They typically decide on the basis of projected and actual sales which books they’ll carry. And in this age where getting a book is as easy as clicking a button on an e-book store and having it within minutes without the need to go to brick-and-mortar store, that’s something that’s becoming more difficult.

Censorship is when the government says no one can sell copies of the book. Amazon is carrying the book. Barnes & Noble will likely carry it in their stores. Same with Target and other retailers. And the government of the United States cannot, under the First Amendment, ban any book for any reason — contrary to what Senator Feinstein wants to assert with regard to the Anarchist Cookbook. The same applies to the States and territories under the “incorporation doctrine”.

Regan is complaining and accusing Wal-Mart of censorship because Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Revenues from the book could be significantly lower than expected. But that’s not censorship. She’s only saying it is censorship as a means of trying to push Wal-Mart to reverse their decision. People don’t like the idea of censorship, but Regan’s assertion is also a symptom of a greater problem.

And that problem is this sense of entitlement.

Recently with Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (IN-RFRA), a lot of people acted like it was a license for discrimination. Indeed when a pizza parlor announced that they will not host gay weddings, they received a lot of harsh feedback, harsh enough that they decided to temporarily close up shop. And we’re all familiar with the stories of bakeries refusing to make cakes for gay weddings, and the various lawsuits that have resulted from those — and recently there was a bakery that refused to put an anti-gay message on a cake, and was also sued.

The idea seems to be that if a service exists, the service must be provided to anyone and cannot be denied for any reason except, perhaps, availability (not every shop can accommodate everyone who comes calling) or the ability of the patron to pay. And that is the case in greater than 99% of instances, something many seem to not realize. It’s only the outliers that draw attention.

And now add to this the sentiment given by Judith Regan: if a retailer exists, they must sell my book, or it’s censorship. Seriously?

Ms Regan, if you happen across this article, let this be the takeaway: you are not entitled to Wal-Mart’s shelf space. You are not entitled to any retailer’s shelf space. You aren’t entitled to a listing on Amazon or any other online retailer. Their decision to provide a space for you to sell the book does not mean you are entitled to anyone’s space for the purpose of selling the book. Stop acting like that is the case.

You are not being censored by Wal-Mart. The fact you are accusing them of censorship, likely in an attempt to goad them into giving you shelf space, is despicable. As such you should publicly retract your statement and also apologize to Wal-Mart for accusing them of censorship.

But I’m not going to hold my breath on you doing that.

Product and service reviews/Technology

Corsair AX860: Giving up on it

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Note: This review is RETRACTED IN FULL. Read the details here.

First let’s talk specifications: I have an AMD FX-8350 overclocked to 4.4GHz with an ASRock 990FX Extreme6 mainboard and two PNY GTX 770 4GB graphics cards in SLI. My system is also watercooled. If you were to evaluate how much wattage this configuration draws, most evaluations will put it in the ballpark of 650W to 700W maximum draw, something an 860W power supply should be able to handle.

The first AX860 unit, the one I bought through Amazon, was RMA’d in November 2014, about two months after purchase. Corsair sent back a full retail packaged replacement unit — with a cable kit and everything. That power supply lasted another 3½ months before I replaced it.

The concern? The system wasn’t remaining stable under any significant load. With the first unit, the system would randomly power down — not power off, but just power down such that the monitors would go blank but the fans, lights and keyboard and mouse would still be on. The reset button wouldn’t work in such a situation. The only option is to hard power off the system with the switch on the back.

With the second unit, the problem was a little more subtle: graphics would freeze, the sound would go all weird, and eventually the system could completely lock up and I’d have to press the reset button to get things working again. It actually got to the point where it wouldn’t remain stable under *any* load — merely browsing the web for a few minutes off a cold boot caused the system to lock up completely. In both instances I had to hook up a spare power supply to run my system — a Corsair GS800 that had no problem keeping the system stable, meaning the power supply was certainly the problem.

In the interim I also changed out the mainboard — original was a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 — due to not liking how it functioned with overclocking enabled. That still could not keep the system stable with this power supply.

I have no idea what happened, but I’m done with it. When one unit goes bad, you blame the unit. When two units go bad, you blame the design, especially when it is the only common denominator in the problems you have. When an 800W power supply can better keep a system stable than an 860W power supply, there’s a problem with the power supply, especially when it cannot keep the system stable under the kind of load every online evaluation says it should be able to sustain.

I replaced it with a unit from a different brand — only been running that new unit a few days as of this writing — so now it’s a matter of what to do with the unit I currently have.