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.

After several months of planning, and a number of very late nights from the dedicated staff at SingleHop, we’re happy to announce the expansion of our footprint in the Chicagoland area! The initial phase of this expansion includes space for over 2,000 servers, which we plan to grow to 10,000 servers in the facility.

Highlights:

-Building environmentals provided by DuPont Fabros Technology (www.dft.com), with insuite services provided by ServerCentral.

-Onsite, 24×7 SingleHop NOC

-N+2 redundancy on critical systems, minimum N+1 on all systems

-HVAC, parallel electrical bus feeds

-Rotary UPS power systems each with 1300KW of critical output (n+2)

-16x 2,2500 KW capacity Diesel Generators (n+2)

-10,000 square feet of raised flooring

-Laser-based Very Early Smoke Detection (VESDA)

-500,000 gallon thermal storage (chilled water) for emergency cooling if needed.

-2 Utility Feeders

-8 Power Transformers

-100,000 Gallons of diesel

As part of our set-up, we have provisioned a diverse ring back to our downtown Chicago facility to be used for private network use, as well as 10-gigabyte circuits from nLayer. SingleHop clients located in our downtown facility will immediately be able to securely transfer data across the network, between the two facilities. The facilities are also located 30 miles apart, intended to suit clients disaster recovery needs.

As you can imagine, we’re excited to have opened this chapter in our company’s history. Over the past year we have grown exponentially, 673% growth in 2008, and 400% growth in Q1 09 over Q1 08. I largely attribute these kind of results to the high standards we set out to achieve. The selection of this facility is a continuation of those high-standards, featuring more redundancy than any of our competitors, as well as a 100% Power SLA that will be extended to clients in the coming weeks.

We are determined for our growth to always benefit our customers; as such, we are very excited to continue serving you through this new facility.  Thanks for your business!
Best,

Zak Boca

To read the Official Press Release: www.singlehop.com/about/press/
To view images of the datacenter: www.singlehop.com/datacenter/

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,

Good Clean Fun.

Ok, so in my adventures on twitter (@SingleHopChris), I found @foiledcupcakes. She just started up a company that makes and delivers cupcakes in the Chicago area. Cupcakes? Naturally I was intrigued. We chatted a bit and I found out that she was planning a contest for Admin Day on April 22nd, not sysadmins day, but close enough…

Quite a few people here at SingleHop are into videogames and a constant argument is what the best video game ever made. While sleeping last night I had dreams of dysentery and fording rivers and it came to me: Oregon Trail is the best game ever.

What other game is there that you can learn history and hunt buffalo while enjoying a great gaming session I ask? There are none. Number Cruncher or perhaps Castle of Dr. Brain could be a close second to the best game ever but the absolute best game ever is Oregon Trail.

For those who are not “in-the-know” Oregon Trail is a videogame first published by MECC in 1985 for the Apple II. Many of the people here at SingleHop grew up playing this game when recess was rained out in elementary school and we got unfettered access to the Apple IIs and would spend the next 45 minutes playing the most amazing game ever.

With high resolution graphics you really felt you were on the great plains of Middle-America hunting pixel-perfect buffalo and with a herd of trusty Oxen to lead you nothing could go wrong. That’s what everyone thinks in the beginning but once you get out past Independence Rock you realize you aren’t in America anymore but the great Wild West. Your party would start developing sicknesses such as dysentery, cholera, measles, typhoid or breaking arms and legs and slowly they would die one by one. The last time I picked up this game was in recess back in 2^nd grade. My daughter Paula contracted cholera I thought that my world was going to end. Nothing amounted to the distress I felt. Not even when Aerith dies in Final Fantasy VII which many people consider being the most emotional scene in any video game to date. I had to put Oregon Trail down for a week after this traumatic event only to find 10 miles down the road a patch of wild fruit was on the side of the road. These must have been magic glitter berries because instantly Paula was cured! Sadly though my son Billy had contracted measles from exhaustion and he died 15 miles later. A tombstone was made in his honor that read “Almost as cool as Paula” and I continued my trek towards Oregon City.

Things were going great until I reached Snake River Crossing. Having no money I decided to ford the river which was the worst idea I ever had. My wagon broke and all was lost. I lost my wife Patty, 4 oxen, all my food and all my wagon tongues. I created a tombstone for Patty which read “A little cooler than Billy” and decided it was time to try to get some wagon tongues to repair it. Being stuck past the river and no town in sight I had to trade with the natives who were less-than-happy to deal with me. All they wanted was food and they wouldn’t believe me that I had no food with me. To the fields I went and hunted some high-resolution buffalo and replenished my food supply. Once I returned to trade with the natives they scorned me and told me then they wanted clothing which was a great relief. I had tons of clothes to give away and soon my wagon was repaired and I was back on the trail.

Along the way to Fort Boise the worst thingever happened. Paula got the measles. I knew this was the end for Paula because nobody survives the measles. I tried everything within my power to save Paula including bumping our pace to steady and taking it easy for Paula. Around 30 miles down the trail we hit a storm and all was lost. Paula passed in the night and I cried myself to sleep after school. I marked her tombstone “And then there was one” saved my game and quit for the day. The next recess I picked up again and was determined to make it to Oregon City. Things couldn’t have gone smoother. I made it to Fort Boise and restocked on all my necessary supplies. I headed onwards to the Blue Mountains and contracted cholera myself. I rested for a few days and soon I was cured of my disease and resumed my trek. I made it to the Blue Mountains and was soon given an option: I could pay for the ferry to get to Oregon City or I could put my wagon on a raft and float down the Columbia River. For those of you who haven’t played Oregon Trail, Columbia River is the best sequence ever. You float down a river full of rapids, rocks and logs trying to avoid everything so you can make it to Oregon City. With luck on my side this recess I made safe passage through Columbia River!

Seconds later I was greeted with happy music and my screen stated I had made it to Oregon City! I jumped for joy and my teacher yelled at me. I then reminisced on the perilous journey and remembered all the loved ones I had lost. My wife Patty, my son Billy and my daughter Paula could not see this brave new land I had arrived to. I was a stranger in a strange land with no one to share my soon-to-come wealth with. The emotions this game brought out in me I have never felt in any other game to this day. When the flood were released in Halo I was mildly upset but later on you save the day. My family was gone! Nothing is more important than family. No other game to this date robs you of your loved ones and puts you through such trauma. This is why Oregon Trail is the best game ever made.

-Sam