EPH

Computer enthusiast

Summer’s End

August 17, 2019 0 Recent Posts

As the end of summer approaches in late August – (not officially the end of summer, but for practical purposes – in the north, it’s over at the end of August)
I start to think about winter. This time of year you realize that you may only have a few opportunities to get ready for the cold weather, shorter daylight hours, and snow. This is especially true if you have a lot of work to do outside before the weather turns bad. While I’m writing this a Tornado warning has come across every phone in the area. It’s raining again, so we are already losing time for any outdoor work that I should be doing in preparation for a long winter. Lately the winters haven’t been as brutal as they normally are, but what is normal anymore?
Aside from regular day to day living preparation for winter, there are also a few things I can do to prepare for any down time should the weather limit travel. Along with making sure my computers are all running their best – which is a continuous challenge, I like to have a few good books on hand to read.
This usually consists of a few up to date Linux books – which there seems to be fewer released each year. Nevertheless I have a few that are still relevant and use for reference on occasion if I come across noteworthy challenges. Of course there is always the Internet that everyone seems to rely upon for information, but I still prefer using books for any research I may wish to do.
If the Internet connection is down, a book will still work – even by candlelight.
I don’t necessarily believe everything I see on the Internet, or on television for that matter.
I usually have a few laptops loaded with various Linux distributions to tinker with. I’ll usually have one laptop to run the latest Windows release on, but it’s not something I would use for much more than running a few Windows versions of similar applications I use on Linux – mostly for comparison.
I have a few tools for any minor repairs I might need to attempt in a pinch, and a nice little workshop to work, or just read in.
In the winter I can still work here in the shop provided it’s not too cold outside. A thermos of hot coffee makes everything seem perfect. If it gets too bitterly cold I go back to the house and work by the fireplace. This is also not so bad. At least it won’t be as humid as the summer has been. The last few years have been cold and wet most of the year. The nice warm summers we all look foreword to in the winter tend to go from cold and damp spring to hot humid summer with very few super nice days. There are a few each year and we try to make the most of those days, but it’s a given that we will see some colder weather soon enough. I suppose it’s best to get ready for another cold autumn and winter.

I’m sure I still have a few trips to the local hardware store for all sorts of miscellaneous stuff, and I’m certainly planning on stocking up on chicken soup as usual. If the weather is bad, I like having the option of staying in.

The old adage of not going out in a storm if you don’t have to is good advice. New tires for my truck is also not a bad idea. Who thinks about picking up wool socks in late August when it’s hot out? Well I do, and while I’m at it, it might be time to get some new hoodies.

If retail stores can start advertising for Christmas, then I can start thinking about getting ready for snow.

    Minding the Machine

    August 16, 2019 0 Recent Posts

    Most computer systems aren’t much good if they are not provisioned, maintained, or applied effectively to perform a task or set of objectives.
    For the most part this can all get very complicated or simplified depending on how everything is coordinated from data in to data out. A lot of human intervention still prevails as the norm in such a way that human error often becomes the weak link in the chain. The opportunity for human error must be minimized in many different operational applications. Simplified – it’s not too unreasonable to think a human could impact a system in such a way as to render it unstable or unreliable.
    It is true that bad applications can be built on poorly structured code, but usually that code was written by an individual or individuals that could impart one’s ineptness onto the final instruction set. It is also true that data transport into and out of a system – via a network supported connection – often built upon human designed networks that data loss from external and internal factors could be mitigated, but often aren’t can diminish a good computer system’s reliability.
    Data latency and packet loss give the impression that a system is not working correctly. System resource burdens that impact instruction completion can give the impression that a network constraint is at fault for reliability or that the network is creating the “possible” negative performance.
    Aside from weather, security issues, and unavoidable power loss issues which are equipment and/or component stability related, backup and redundancy mitigation or lack thereof are other areas where human error comes into play.
    Error checking, security, network health monitoring, and system implementation require thoughtful planning and execution from effective management systems which ultimately (for now) rely on individuals with proven skill sets.
    One of these skill sets is leadership.
    I disagree with the premise that effective leadership is a subset of time management alone. Leadership is a multifaceted mechanism that can either produce positive results or allow negative outcomes. Team leadership is another loosely used acronym that often borders on empty promises and hollow abstract references such as “High Level view” , a totally useless approach to understanding the nuts and bolts of complex operation or system. Great for a “macro” approach, useless for detailed understanding of critical inter-workings of anything much more complicated than sharpening a number 2 pencil. It’s a popular buzz word phrase, but I usually Interpret such noise as either a lack of interest, or a lack of understanding about whatever subject is bantered about in context to any immediate topic in need of serious review. Yes BS only wastes time and resources.
    Great computer systems need great support teams, who require great leaders, who require vision, courage, and the ability to support such values in their team members and stakeholders.
    Communication among all team members is critical to distilling any resolutions that might not develop in an information vacuum. It is true that there will always be the rare individuals who can do it all, but why not combine efforts to always look for alternative views which often lead to improvement.
    I myself prefer to work alone when practical, but that isn’t always practical or productive. I know that I can fix some things, but not all things.

    At some point it may become common for computers to design and build other systems without the plausible limitation of human intervention. There would be no need for support groups or managed leaderships based on rank or assigned importance. All decisions reduced to algorithms and soft coded deductive parameters. In the meantime we still need bright hardworking people to oil the levers, adjust the springs, and care for the error free operation of many computer systems currently deployed into service for a wide variety of operations. Computers are a wonderful resource and a powerful tool, but so is the human mind – and the human heart.
    Together the future can be an amazing journey.

    Turing In-Complete (part 2)

    August 10, 2019 0 Recent Posts

    From the ABC (First digital electronic computer) named after it’s creators John V Atansoff and Clifford Berry to the fictional Multivac written about by the great science fiction author Isaac Asimov there is a lot of development that would need to take place. We started the first computer revolution with vacuum tubes and switches using the concepts of binary arithmetic and logic, progress to integrated circuits and chips, and push modern silicon limitations beyond today’s 5 GHz peak. Here we approach the possible saturation limitation of Moore’s law (double number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit every 18 months).

    If we reach the limitation in modern manufacturing techniques we would theoretically slow the rapid advancements in computer technology and probably never build the ultimate computer we are destined to create. Today’s super computers built with many processors running custom variations of Linux are incredibly powerful when compared to today’s consumer and enterprise systems, but they will be much more powerful in years to come because we are never satisfied. We look back at early vacuum tube technology and re-apply it in modern engineering techniques to push processing speeds to 1000 times that of today’s current silicon based designs. Development moves from GHz measured processing speeds to approach Terahertz speeds thanks to Air Channel Transistors and Graphine Nanoribbon technology which can use magnetic fields to control current flow, and on to light-induced super circuits which potentially brings quantum computing into play.

    If you’ve been out looking for a new laptop recently you might suspect that Moore’s Law already has hit a wall. Dennard scaling law based on the theory that as transistors get smaller, their power density stays constant. That didn’t really pan out, so in the last decade we’ve seen the move to increase performance of modern computers with increases in processing frequencies and multiple cores. You would think that more cores would equal faster more efficient computers, but that doesn’t always work out due to power dissipation which causes heat, and workloads that don’t actually get divided among all cores. This is why you don’t see the 18 month doubling of computer power in the selection of available consumer products like you may remember just a decade ago.

    The idea that computers would continue to get smaller and faster at a constant rate indefinitely may need some revising. Some components will benefit from advancements in nano technology and allow smaller intelligent devices to perform many functions much larger systems once did. This also will allow larger assemblies of these tiny computer components to work together in forms that may resemble the first and second generations of digital computers. In effect computing systems have already gotten much larger, an example being today’s server farms used for cloud computing. The combined computing power of multiple servers still has limitations. A glimpse of this will be seen as the IOT (Internet of Things) devices and 5G technology already impacting modern networking designs becomes more common place. This won’t necessarily result in smarter computers, but it could result in better services. It will also result in more noise and more power consumption.

    All this amazing technology thanks to the “triode” an improvement on the early diode valve vacuum tube designs. We can thank Lee De Forest for inventing the “audion” in 1906. This was the vacuum tube design that enabled development of the early digital computers. The transistor wasn’t invented until 1947, and even then the vacuum tube was still widely used for quite a while on into the late Twentieth Century. Now Vacuum Transistors may usher in the next generation of computers. The early designs of the past make it possible to build the more improved components that could accelerate modern computer development. In some ways, whats old is what may be redesigned for the near future.

    Will advancements in speed, memory, and processing power eventually bring about the one great computer that will be tasked with solving any and all great mysteries? Nope, it will probably encourage or stimulate continued competition among many different computer designs if other factors don’t create any undesired impediments. Creativity and determination will be paramount to moving forward, but we will also learn from what has already been done if we take the time to look back.

    Turing In-Complete (part 1)

    August 3, 2019 0 Data Science Hardware Recent Posts Software

    Before man-built machines that could be used to manually calculate all the same mathematical problems we now regard as computation, we – humans were regarded as the “computers”, not the artificial machines. This explains the label “manually” calculated. Man built the machines. This has only been true for a relatively short period of time when compared to the timeline man has existed in the current evolutionary state.

    This technology goes back much farther than the existence of our most popular desktop pc, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Major developments in the twentieth century progressed at a very rapid pace, not with the help of Extraterrestrial beings, but by some very brilliant humans. Maybe you could make a case for “math” from outer space in ancient history, and you’d be technically close when you factor in the influence of the orbit of planets and positions of stars that inspired the desire to figure out what was seen in the skies.

    The abacus was the first device currently known for crunching numbers. The Sumerian abacus is thousands of years old and noted throughout ancient history. This isn’t what I would regard as an early computer, but it was and still is an impressive design.

    The Analytical Engine an improvement over the Difference Engine – both designed by Charles Babbage in the early 1800s could be considered the foundation of modern computing. Ada King, countess of Lovelace created the first computer program for the Analytical Engine – if it had been completed. The design was, but not the fully functional machine. So the idea or design for the device came before the actual machine – as did a program that could have run on the machine.

    I always felt that this part of history was a bit murky, but within the fog, there was a spark. The point is that this was a starting point that others could build upon.

    Could the Analytical Engine be categorized as the first Turing Complete machine?

    If we consider all modern programming languages Turing-compatible, then could it have run a program that would solve any calculation initially performed manually? In theory – possibly, in practical application, I am skeptical.

    To consider the current concern about Artificial Intelligence taking over every aspect of man’s future in both positive and negative light, you should look back through its short history of advancements. Computers have come a long way not fully envisioned by the early creators, but it is still a very short time compared to man’s intellectual development.

    Turing Completeness requires a system to make a decision based on data manipulated by rule sets. Remember those “If”, “and”, “goto” statements from BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). Maybe you remember (90s version) QBasic. If you don’t, no problem. Just know that there was some amazing progress in computer development from the 1950s and 1960s that used instructions which could be considered Turing-Complete -theoretically – not always in practice. This may not be the best way to explain this, but I think I’m in the ballpark.

    I’m not disregarding Turing’s calculating machine design of from the ’30s, but things started to ramp up in the ’50s.

    Consider the fact that we still use Fortran and LISP programming, both from the 1950s. Yes, I should mention assembly language which dates back to the late ’40s.

    You can look back at the Rand Corporation’s Math-Matic AT-3 from 1957 used as a compiler and programming language for the Univac 1. Charles Katz led a team tasked with developing “Math-Matic” programming language under the direction of Grace Hopper who was notable in the movement towards “machine-independent” programming languages which helped lead to the development of high-level programming languages.

    This was all done in the 1950-1960s. This is the era of Big computers like the DATATRON 200 series weighing in at over 3000 lbs. Big computers working with word size 10 decimal digits. All this incredibly amazing computer development which would later lead to the machines we now fear. It’s amazing to think we would later spin up the development of AI – which initially required the development of sophisticated computer code which came from these early systems. The history of computers and programming languages is very interesting and usually not referenced enough when we look at our current state of affairs with how much we depend on them. Man built these with the intent to improve his condition, and in most cases they have. What may be getting lost through time is the appreciation of all those who contributed over the last two centuries to the existence and development of all this amazing technology. It continues today, and it still requires some very brilliant minds to continue the advancement for the good of man. This is just the beginning. We are still in the early stages of computing, and we are still the computers.

    Lemon-Lime on Ice

    July 30, 2019 0 Blog Recent Posts Windows

    Lemon-Lime Gatorade and crushed ice is (almost, coffee still #1) my new favorite beverage. I know it seems wrong, but it’s pretty nice on hot humid days – especially when I’m waiting for Windows 10 Update Assistant to finish upgrading Windows 10 on my Lenovo ThinkPad. So slow, I know I should be patient, so I finish some other work I’m chipping away at on another Linux laptop. I downloaded the latest Win 10 64 bit iso also just in case I have to build from scratch, but I wanted to have my current configuration updated by the Update Assistant so I could experience the method many users would choose.
    Thus, the cold beverage on such a hot day. (Which I just spilled)
    This entire exercise started this morning as a plan to play around with the new Windows Command line. The iso I had on hand was version 1809. That’s how I installed Windows 10 back on my Linux test laptop.
    Once I had Windows up and running I tried to download the new Command Line “Test preview” from the Windows Store I discovered I needed the latest Windows May 2019 build. That seemed appropriate – thus my long drawn out process trying to build a bootable usb.
    This does take a relatively long time for each step.
    I wanted to use the Windows media creation tool to make a bootable usb like my previous 1809 build.
    Unfortunately I was greeted with error code 0x80042405-0xA001B.
    I reformatted and partitioned a blank usb but then I gave up after a few unsuccessful attempted and used Rufus to build a bootable usb with the iso image I downloaded from the Microsoft Download Windows 10 page.
    That was fairly easy and worked very well. I built the usb, but I ended up using the Update Assistant – saving the usb for future testing.

    Now when I hit the Windows key & R to bring up the “Run” text field, enter “winver”  I see that I am running version 1903. This version was made widely available earlier this summer, but I didn’t feel the need to upgrade from 1809 at that time. Now it’s probably a good time to get familiar with all the changes. I’m seeing an uptick in users upgrade from Windows 7 ( a little late for some, but right on time for others). There will always be those who wait to the 11th hour, so I expect the end of the year will be exciting. I’m sure retail sales will attempt to capitalize on the last minute stragglers.

    I’m going to focus on using the new Windows build as my daily driver for a while. So far, I like the new updated look.

    The “updated” command line terminal has decent color support, but it still looks like the old command line terminal.

    It was not as impressive as I had hoped, but for the most part everything seems to be working fine. I’m not having any issue doing basic tasks, and Ill be using Windows Subsystem for Linux and Powershell.

     

    Consolidated command line did allow me to upgrade my Linux Distro fairly easy. Managing the Distro from the command line is a nice option and I’m sure Ill use it more in the future.

     

    Everything feels very “new” and smooth. I don’t see a huge learning curve that would intimidate users moving up from Windows 7, so I would expect more positive than negative experiences from users just being introduced to a “necessary update” This is of course if 1903 is the version most users upgrade to.

    I can also see how duel booting Linux or using a Virtual machine would no longer be necessary for me. The Linux support appears to do everything I would want from a linux terminal, and a GUI isn’t a deal breaker. I would like to see where Microsoft takes the Linux support in the future. I can work with this version of Windows 10. My laptop actually feels faster and more responsive with just the update.

    Even the Windows Security looks like it got a tuneup. Maybe I don’t need a supplemental Antivirus. Before I get too carried away remember this is all just a test. In the end I’m sure I’ll revert back to MX Linux or just my Chromebook as my long term daily driver – but you never know. This is a very impressive first take.

    I always seem to get dragged back into the Windows world for one reason or another. This version is not bad, I can see how a lot of users will fall in love with it.

    On a side note, I knocked over my glass of ice cold Gatorade and almost ruined my laptop. I’m not even sure how I did it. I would have stopped writing right about now. Luckily all is well and my laptop is still operating nicely with Windows 10. 

    The next issue to deal with will be application compatibility. If your a Windows user who relied on Virtual XP for some older software, than maybe it’s time to upgrade your software.  If you need to backup all your files before you do an upgrade from Windows 7, than a external drive or Microsoft’s “OneDrive” would be a possible solution. Upgrading from Windows 10 1809 to 1903 was not an issue for what few files I had on this laptop. If you have something critical, than backing up is usually worth the effort.

    I think Ill enjoy using this laptop as my daily driver running Windows 10 1903. Ill have to do an update in a few weeks to let you all know how things go. This is only a test.