Ok so one Palm Pre might suffice but I will always welcome a spare should mine break! There has been a lot of talk about the ‘iPhone Killer’ made by Palm named the Pre. What makes this device so special, and why is it the ‘iPhone Killer’?

To start things off let’s look at the features of this wonderful device. It is a CDMA phone released in June on the Sprint network. Palm has plans to release a GSM variant in the next 6-7 months. The phone has a 3.1” 24-bit color touch screen with a resolution of 320×480, physical keyboard, push email, integrated IM, SMS and MMS, GPS, 3 megapixel camera, LED flash for the camera, a plethora of sensors, built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 8GB storage, Bluetooth tethering and a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack running WebOS.

Comparing the specs of this phone to the new iPhone 3Gs you will see that most all components match with the exception of iPhone’s built-in compass. The Plam Pre has features that are often not listed in these comparisons such as a built-in sensor to turn the screen off whenever you’re talking on your phone, multi-tasking capabilities, and free cloud syncing on all phones.

The cloud sync ability dubbed Synergy is a web-based storage solution that stores your contacts, apps, messages, emails and anything else you tell it to store. All this data is stored on a cluster of servers and can be pulled any time you wipe your phone, upgrade it or get an entirely new WebOS-based phone. This is a great feature for those who upgrade phones constantly or break their phones. Most iPhone users do not have this issue unless they Jailbreak their phone as iTunes will back up all their information locally. Jailbroken iPhones do not backup their application data so they lose all their applications any time the phone is restored. The iPhone restoration process is also restrictive because if you are away from your computer and your phone breaks you’re out of luck until you can sync your phone back up with your computer.

Synergy goes further to also link together almost all forms of communication. For instance if I were talking to you over SMS and you decided to send me a MMS or an instant message, it will all be located in the same threaded conversation as if we never changed mediums. Calendars can be combined from multiple locations so you do not overbook a vacation outing while work requires you. Searching your phone is integrated across every part. There is one search bar to search the internet, search your emails, search conversations as well as music.

Palm Pre has multi-tasking capabilities which mean you can run more than one application at a time. Each application is opened up on what is called a “card” and you can switch between cards with the swipe of a finger. Should you wish to close an application all you need to do is flip the card out of the line of cards and the application closes. If you start to overload the phone you will receive a notice stating the phone is low on memory and that you must close some applications. Very rarely will the phone slow down due to applications before running out of available memory.

WebOS is a new operating system developed by Palm with phone capabilities in mind. The entire operating system is run off the WebKit engine which is used in many popular browsers today. All applications are written in a combination of html and javascript which is efficient due to how fast javascript is executed by the WebKit engine. This reduces application overhead and increases overall usability of the phone since the necessity of loading a binary has been reduced to rendering a web page.

The largest complaint of most reviewers that compare the Pre to the iPhone is that the application store is lacking in comparison. While this is true it is an unfair comparison. The iPhone application store has been out for a few years now and has had time for developers to submit applications while the Pre app store opened this month. The sdk for the pre will be released in August and will be available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. The iPhone sdk only runs on MacOS which is very restrictive from a development standpoint considering the amount of the marketplace share MacOS has in comparison to the other operating systems. The Pre requirements to submit an application to their repository is much less aggressive over Apples which means a shorter wait from when the application is developed to when the application is available to end users.

Why do I want the Pre? First in the area I live in AT&T isn’t available at all. The only carriers are Verizon, Alltel and Sprint. While the Pre is a Sprint-only phone for the time being it will soon be available to all carriers which allows for me to choose who I want to use my phone with. The multi-tasking capabilities will allow for me to do more from my phone. For instance should a SSH client come out I could work from my phone on the side of the highway should your server go down while still being in communication with you, my coworkers and twitter all at the same time. While I don’t think the phrase ‘iPhone Killer’ is appropriate, I think the Pre is a great alternative to consider if you are a power user. So Santa, please bring me one or two Pres for Christmas. I would greatly appreciate it.

What’s the Deal with Core Power vs Clock Speed?

So what is the deal with processor cores and clock speed?  As trivial as this may sound to the average techy, and latent life virgins, I have received this question many times during sales conversations with new prospecting clients.  Although it is generally a safe bet to go for the more robust solution with the higher specs in any situation, when it comes to processors, the larger the numerical digit measured in Hertz is not always the best in performance.  That’s right; the Ghz value you often see at the end of a processor label does not necessarily dictate it to be a faster processor if it only has a single core.

It is important to note that the Ghz in a processor is simply the frequency rate that a processor in a particular model family functions at when processing data.  While a higher clock speed might be ideal if you are operating a single core solution, it does not necessarily match a lower clock rate in a multi core server.  Here is why:
•    A P4 3.2Ghz processor (single CPU and single core) has a single wave rate of processing data at a frequency of 3.2Ghz.
•    When compared to P4 Dual Core 2.8Ghz model you will find that the clock speed might be less but the processing power of a dual core server will run much faster than the single core 3.2Ghz solution. 

This is because a multi-core solution has two independent cores to process information which gets relayed to a shared cache (an area that stores frequently accessed data for quick relay).  Thus allowing quicker processing time at a slower clock rate with better results in comparison to single core solutions.
So based on the above, a multi-core processor can process and transmit information at a faster and more efficient rate, while using a smaller frequency rate than that of a single core server.  One thing to mention and be aware of, is the specific applications or software you use on a multi-core processor.  Most modern software and applications are equipped to recognize and harness the power of a multi-core machine while older legacy apps cannot.

Multi-core processors are extremely useful when running a MS SQL database, and what makes this even better is that licensing fees for MS SQL are on a per CPU basis.  So, if you are looking to run a standard MS SQL 2005 Workgroup database, a single processor dual core machine will run more efficiently and productively than that of a single core solution with a higher clock speed.  This is because the multi-core processor will operate almost as if it was a dual cpu solution. You have the additional benefit of only having to pay for one CPU license that harnesses the power of the dual core technology.  This should not deter anyone from getting a multi-CPU processor if that is what you will require.  But it certainly is a shortcut if you are looking or debating between dual CPU processor with single core technology as oppose to a single CPU server with multi-core capabilities.  And that is sexxxy

Forever yours Migzzy,

This morning between 2:45 and 3:55am some SingleHop customers may have experienced connectivity issues due to router error messages. Our engineers responded and were able to resolve the issue in about 45 mintues. About 40% of our customers may have been affected by this issue, and as of right now we are 100% up.

Going forward:

- We’ll let you know all the details of what happened as soon as we know them

-We’ll provide you a timeline for what we are doing to prevent this from happening again.

-We’ll will let you know when the repair work is done.

We apologize for any and all convenience this has caused you. We promise that we will work hard to make sure this type of event does not happen again, and we will be transparent with everything that occurred. We hate outages, but when they do happen you can trust we will give you all the info we have, no bull.

Thanks for your patience, and you can look forward to getting more info later today about this.

Daniel Salcedo- Communications Manager

It’s been a few months since we’ve launched LEAP and the response has exceeded our original expectations one thousand million times over Clients have praised the automatic server provisioning and multi-server management features and we’ve heard the word “wow” a lot.

We decided that it would now be a good time to give free demo accounts out to anyone who wants to try LEAP out first hand.

That said, and without further delay, please feel free to get your own LEAP demo account for 72-hours by visiting this page:

www.singlehop.com/poindexters_lab/leap_landing.php

BTW, in an entirely unrelated note, our CEO, Zak Boca and I will be in London this week meeting with some clients. If you’re around the area drop us a note and say hi

Enjoy the demos,

Dan

At SingleHop, we have always been environmentally conscious, as we like to do our part to decrease the carbon footprint left by data centers worldwide. A new report was recently presented at the Green Enterprise Computing Symposium by McKinsey and Co. using data from the Uptime Institute. The data that this report presents is a bit unnerving, however there are fairly simple solutions to combat the rising emissions of Data Centers.

There are many concerns involved in reducing emissions from data centers worldwide, though there are solutions to be implemented. Currently, a comparison of CO₂ emissions as a percentage of total emissions is as follows:

Data Centers: .3%
Airlines: .6%
Shipyards: .8%
Steel Plants: 1%

Although these percentages seem small, there are, of course, many industries with high emissions, the focus on data centers is due to the fact that they are rapidly expanding and will soon eclipse the airline industry in terms of emissions. They are a vital component of a networked global economy, so much so that it is now expected that emissions from data centers will quadruple by the year 2020. It is projected that there will be, by the year 2010, 41-43 million servers in operation. Also, 90% percent of companies/public sector data centers will need to build more power and cooling in the next 30 months due to expansion. This may seem unbelievable, but the green house gases emitted from data centers already exceeds that of Argentina as a whole.

There are several suggestions now regarding how to combat a hugely and possibly damaging rise in emissions in data centers for the future. In the US, there is now discussion of implementing unified standards for data centers modeled after the CAFE standard for the automotive industry, in essence a miles per gallon for data centers. The EPA is also required to now submit a yearly report to Congress regarding this issue. The EU is also beginning to look into new strategies that target data center emissions by developing a code of conduct describing energy efficiency best practices.

However, as data centers become a global fact, absolute solutions become less clear. Although, in terms of principle alone, companies and governments should do all they can to reduce emissions, these solutions can, in the beginning, be costly. Redesigning and reconstructing a data center for greater efficiency isn’t a small task or a cheap one. Putting more emphasis on lowering the costs of newer, more energy efficient servers would make this technology more easily available not only to established companies, but to startups and smaller businesses. Also, a global initiative to strengthen environmental standards for the tech community would greatly help reducing emissions and fight the disparities between different countries and their various environmental policies. Whether this is done by governments themselves or through economic forums, like Davos, the impact could be significant.

There is a lot of confusion these days with all the new processor technology that has come out over the last few years. Intel has released a great amount of different technologies such as Hyper-Threading, the Core series, as well as VT technology. Now, I’m sure after reading these terminologies that Intel has coined you’re thinking “what does that mean for me?” Well I am so glad you asked!

As is universally acknowledged, fires in buildings are pretty awful things. But something truly awful, is a fire in a data center. I previously wrote a blog post about how America has the 4th most network integrated economy in the world. A fire in a data center can truly be catastrophic. The possible loss of data and equipment damage, plus the lives put in danger are truly frightening prospects.
Although, to move out of dark territory, there are amazing prevention methods to avoid this:

There are a few methods of waterless fire protection in data centers, as well as strategic structure preparation. The most common reasons for data center fires are:
- Accumulations of underfloor combustible materials, such as unused wiring insulation and connectors
- Paper storage and supplies within data center space
- Tape storage materials stored outside of the designated storage space
- Improper storage and maintenance of fuel for emergency generators
- Failure of personnel to adhere to stated guidelines
- Fuel system piping leaks
These are things that are easily remedied by not running wiring under the floor, but rather where it is visible and then basic vigilance in terms of data center maintenance and staffing. We are proud to say that at SingleHop, we absolutely demand all of these safety measures, as well has having a truly awesome (as in inducing gasping awe) generator system in the event of power disruption.

Also, there are state of the art and not quite so state of the art fire suppression systems. The older waterless fire suppression system was known as Halon. It was introduced in 1973 and was one of the first gaseous fire suppression agents. These systems are still around in some places, though not too much anymore considering it was banned in 1994, as it is an ozone depleting substance and requires a breathing apparatus (gas mask) when it is released in high concentrations.

We definitely don’t use Halon at SingleHop. We take pride in using a data center that is as up to date as possible and environmentally friendly. We use a gaseous fire suppressant known as FM-200 (Heptafluoropropane), which looks like this:

And:

This compound prevents this:

FM-200 is a great fire suppression agent used in more than 70 countries. FM-200 is insanely fast at suppressing fire, often in 10 seconds or less, and can stop ordinary combustible, electrical, and flammable liquid fires before they cause significant damage that make buildings look like this:

FM-200 is the fastest fire protection available, meaning less damage, lower repair costs, less disruption, and, most importantly, the protection of human life.

FM-200 can also be safely stored and used where people are present. It doesn’t require a gas mask like Halon. It’s stored in cylinders as a liquid and pressurized with nitrogen, meaning that it saves huge amounts of storage space.

To read about the consequences of data center fires and lack of adequate fire prevention mechanisms, check out these articles:

http://www.hostsearch.com/news/camer…_news_7073.asp
http://torrentfreak.com/prq-fire-tak…-sites-080216/
http://www.thewhir.com/features/alabanza-blackout.cfm

And the most extreme in lack of fire prevention, a two part series of articles regarding the before and after:
Before: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven.html
After: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5110244.stm?ls
http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content…A01%3A43%3A230

Hello All,
We have recently re-introduced our Pentium D 945 machines and because we have had a lot of questions about them, I wanted to go into some of the big differences between that Pentium D 945 and the Core2Duo E6320, which we have already been offering for a while. On the face of it, the P-D945 looks to be a faster processor, both include Dual-Core Technology, but the 945 clocks in at 3.4Ghz per core, while the Core2Duo clocks in at 1.86Ghz per core, so why is the Core2Duo more expensive?

Hello all,

I wanted to write a short post about one of our newer services. We recently added a hardware load balancer, specifically a Foundry Networks ServerIron 4G Series Switch, to our network. The idea behind adding this appliance is to make a hardware load balancing service available to our customers.

We have chosen the new Core 2 Duo bleeding edge processors for our new dedicated servers for a variety of reasons. One major reason for picking these processors is that they are faster than their predecessors, and will create a more enjoyable experience while using the server.

The other major reason for choosing the new processors is power consumption. They use significantly less power than the previous processors we were using. The previous generation of processors, the Pentium D series, used about 130 watts of power. The current generation of Core Duo Processors uses around 60 watts. This means there is about a 50% reduction in power being used by the new processor.