saitir

I'm a hobby programmer, who happens to do some programming for a job as well. My life is great. Three points I'd like to raise: 1) Learn to program, don't learn a language. That sounds wrong, I know, but the core mechanics of programming are mostly the same (so long as you're not switching between procedural and functional languages). If you know the rough syntax of C like languages, you'll stand a great shot of getting your mind around C, C++, Java, C#, ObjectiveC and javascript. Don't get me wrong, these languages aren't inter-compatible except in the smallest of ways and their are subtleties there that will trip you up if you think you know more than you do. BUT, once you know how to break a problem down into steps and sub procedures, how to handle state (or not) and interact with some other libraries to do things like create user interfaces (usually graphical these days, but you can still code them manually, and certainly you'll be manipulating them in code). 2) Get used to throwing your code away and starting again once you think you're finished. Technically it's called refactoring, but unless you embrace this, your code style will take a lot longer to mature. Essentially the idea is that once you've struggled through coding your problem once and made it work, you actually understand the problem so much better than when you originally started. So, starting again from scratch you'll very often find your new solution is more elegant and uses less temporary variables as your logic flow is better. 3) Occasionally re-invent the wheel While it can speed things up considerably to use a prebuilt library, sometimes you need to stretch yourself and not assume someone else has done the best implementation already. Usually you only want a fraction of the functionality of any given library and the process of writing your own code base gives you an early insight into bigger projects. For example, don't use jQuery if all you want to do is animate a div opening up. That adds a huge download and compile overhead to a project that may not need it. In the process of learning to do things like that yourself, you'll learn a lot about javascript, DOM manipulation and asynchronous code. You'll be a better programmer at the end of it. And yes, I mean occasionally, not always. No one has that amount of time. Most of all, pick early projects that just enthral or make you laugh. You have to thoroughly enjoy the early work in order to find the strength to get past the inevitable difficult bits. Good luck!

But 5Ghz overclocked dude! ;-) Seriously, you're right, I completely agree with everything you say. Originally I was waiting for Kaby Lake, purely to get the maximum 'gen' lifespan between purchase and obsolescence. However, given that for almost everything my 2600 is still serviceable, you're really right.

Ok, my current rig is somewhat dated, but pretty satisfactory generally speaking. Recently putting a GTX 1070 in didn't do it any harm certainly. However, it's i7-2600 is looking a little long in the tooth and with my personal plans for the next few years, we're probably getting close to the 'last chance' for a decent rebuild. My current idea is just to wait for kaby lake and go with an i7 7700k, and some 'x270' or whatever motherboard and so on. I'll live with 1070 for now as that's an easy replacement. So far, so normal and nothing weird. Obviously with a 'k' the idea is over clocking. I'd initially intended to just go with a noctua twin tower 3 fan beastie that pretty much out performs a H100 aio. But, then I realised I'd agreed to build a water feature... So my feeble imagination caught fire and I came up with the following: No real case, board mount the components, build a custom loop (include the gpu more out of completeness than expected performance increases). Encase the whole thing in a 750mm (about 2' 6") diameter acrylic hemisphere, with a 1 - 2mm gap inside the shell that will contain the reservoir and, if built correctly, add the water feature I was intending to build anyway. I figure this will give a reservoir of about 1.5 litres, and some colouring/opacity will probably give the best aesthetic results. Internal lighting will be via a Hue connected system, so I can control the 'rgb' along with the full room ambience. The whole thing will be mounted on a robust steel/cast iron floor stand (a circular or semi circular loop at the base, rising to a single post on which the 'system back board' is mounted). Cables leading to power and Ethernet, and a discreet USB hub will flow down the inside of the stand tubing. Acrylic hemispeheres are readily available (if not exactly cheap), and appropriate build quality and sealants, not to mention coupling will be make or break on the one hand, as will a pump with enough flow for decorative purposes without being overkill for the cooling system. Additional pumps/bubblers might be needed for the decorative element, but with the pump being fed from the bottom, the air bubbles shouldn't be a problem... Or.. .am I just batshit crazy? Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so on the one hand, screw you! On the other, is the amount of fluid in the reservoir too much for practical cooling? is the potentially excess aeration going to cause issues later on? Obviously making sure hinges and/or easy removal of the water shell are important, as will be ease of flushing the system - given the prominence we don't want to give to gunky water. Other problems, practical issues I'm missing? Seriously any feedback and/or ridicule very much appreciated.

Well I do completely agree with that, except that it's becoming more and more difficult to avoid javascript at some point of a programming career these days. From a mixture of management assumption, to growing number of nodejs and similar javascript server backends, plus more and more desktop and mobile apps being written in some form of js & html before converting and on and on... Plus there's a losing battle for people who know how to work with javascript vs people who only know how to use their favourite set of js libraries. So yeah, avoid javascript as long as you can, but I don't think it will be forever...

So, to the team @ LMG: While all things youtube are usually celebrated around subscriber levels (although I remain sceptical of the meaning of subscribers for anything other than youtube's algorithm for advertising videos, and I don't know if you get better stats for subscriber views vs non-subscriber views) it looks like within 6 months you'll hit 1 billion views on your videos. Considering the (relatively ;-) ) low click-baitiness of your videos and wide ranging themes that's got to be considered impressive. Any thoughts on celebrations/meet ups/giveaways/a special series of 'Linus/Luke - Build me a PC!' prizes/video builds and what not? Or is it just another stat that proves google makes waaaay more money from your videos than you do or some other depressingly cynical truth? Yours nosey and bored now I've run out of backlog to watch...

The above is absolutely true. While their are some weirdness's that will mess with your noodle when it comes to languages with pointers (C/C++) and other things, most of the languages people will recommend (C#, Java, PHP, Perl, Python, whatever) are extremely similar in structure, and once you're properly competent in one language, moving between languages should be relatively 'easy'. Biggest bit of advice I can give though, is have an idea for a small-ish project you really want to do and find the cheapest way to do that. Here cheap means learning overhead as well as cost. If breeding birds is your thing, design a database to track parentage and stuff, if physics floats your boat, do a 2 body simulator, if you get a kick out of understanding the basics or the internet write a chat program. So if it's not highly complex, but needs some UI - HTML/JavaScript is fine. If you need more structured back end stuff, try php or c# - both have a huge amount of low end jobs available if a career is your goal and you can migrate upwards fairly easily if you have any aptitude at all. Whatever you choose, your first programs will be awful! Even 2 or 3 programs later you'll look back and want to rewrite them. Just try not to become a 'stack overflow developer' who just cut and pastes solutions from the internet. That's fine when you're stuck on something, but don't let it erode your own ability to problem solve and think! I'd personally stay away from JavaScript for complex programming until you have more experience with project planning and design, some of the structures can be somewhat... confusing.

Honestly, I don't think that that's possible for your budget. Used HDs on ebay are going for around £20 - £25/TB, so that would put your minimum cost at around £350 - assuming you can get a 4 bay NAS for about £150 or so and 4 x 2TB drives. There are some second hand ones on Ebay for around that much, but it's pretty hit and miss. Some NAS boxes have web servers, others don't, so you'd have to research that a fair bit. Alternatively, any old PC with a mid-tower case, throw mint or Ubuntu on it and you can probably get a similar pricing... However, for your stated budget, you're not going to beat a Pi and a USB HD, probably around 1TB. Don't get fooled by £10, 1TB USB sticks - they're just 8GB drives with compression software - i.e. unless you've got 1TB of text documents, it's an outright lie.

Yeah... no. Not really. Again, unless you get really lucky on ebay with an old desktop. The Pi is surprisingly powerful and you listed needs as storage and Web server. It will do that. If you envisage other needs, be more precise. Also, the Pi will likely be on a constant upgrade curve while it remains as popular as it currently is, and it's ARM architecture is only going to improve over time. So once in a while you'll upgrade by buying the latest Pi. Way less hassle than other options.

Hi dude Really need to know more about your storage expectations really. As Isvan says, a Raspberry Pi is almost certainly the way to go, but then it's a decision about 256GB memory card vs a cheap ebay 1 - 2TB usb drive. I'm assuming you have basic infrastructure? i.e. a router/switch with a spare port and some USB power wall warts lying around? If not things will get more expensive quickly. There are plenty of articles on how to setup the Pi as a storage server, and Web server side of things won't take up much resource at all.

Just for 'fun' I thought I'd throw the SAN I'm using at work (I just upgraded our infrastructure systems from an old VMware nightmare to a shiny new HyperV beastie that doesn't fall over if you look at it too hard). So yes, this is a just for fun, because, well, this is small/medium business/enterprise grade stuff: Hardware HP MSA2040 2 x Controllers Each with: 1 x 1 Gbit Ethernet (management), 4 x SPDF+ Adaptors (populated with 2 x 16 Gb Fibre Channel and 1 x 1 Gbit iSCSI) Redundant power supplies 24 SFF SAS drive ports - connecting to 12Gb/sec SA controller. Controller has super capacitor and flash memory backup for writes during power loss. Bays 1 - 16: HP 2.5" 600GB SAS 15K Drives. Bays 17 - 24: HP 2.5" 1.2TB SAS 10K Drives. Software and Configuration: HP MSA Storage Management Utility v3 (Web based). I think it's BSD based, but it might be linux. Bays 1 - 8 Configured as a storage volume, RAID 5 for about 4.2TB Bays 9 - 16 Configured as a storage volume, RAID 5 for about 4.2TB Bays 17 - 24 Configured for remote archive (from our DR system) for about 8.4TB. Total storage about 16.8TB Controllers are cross connected (no FC switch) to 2 x HP ProLiant DL 360p Gen8 servers running Windows Server 2012 R2 (each server has 1 connection from controller A and one from controller B) using 16Gb Fibre Channel HBAs. Usage: Storage for HyperV of 14 Windows servers, including failover clustering/AlwaysOn for SQL Server 2016, Exchange 2016, IIS and so on. It also remotely clones itself to our DR data centre once an hour to an identical device. Photo's: I thought I had some on my phone, but apparently I don't! All told it's good, solid, stable and deals with all of the bandwidth needs we can throw at it. It's difficult to properly bench something like this (While it's in a live environment anyway), but I've seen iops over 4000, and a 5GB file copies at about 300 - 500MB/second - obviously more than enough to saturate our 1Gbit network. Anyway, that config (without servers, just the SAN + Drives) comes in at around $12,000USD (at today's exchange rate anyway). Thought you guys might enjoy seeing how much cheaper and probably more capable your builds are compared to that! The price we pay for 'zero' down time...