Invisible wrote:

>>> Does one exist?
>>
>> C# Maahahaahh ... hahaah.. hah.. <cough> heh.
> 
> Isn't that based on C? (And hence inherantly "not easy".)
> 

OK, then, VB.Net!

>>> (E.g., if you wanted to do something compute-bound, now the GUI stops 
>>> responding until the compute task finishes.)
>>
>> Huh? Do it on a background thread!
> 
> And now you have to manage thread coordination problems. :-}
> 
> But yeah, maybe I'll get to have a go at this some day... when I'm 
> feeling brave.
> 

Not too bad, if you don't have multiple threads sharing the same data

> 
> Nooo - the hardest part is drawing thousands of tile images to make the 
> game work. :-P

How so? Especially in C# ... That's really the simple part.

-- 
~Mike

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>>> C# Maahahaahh ... hahaah.. hah.. <cough> heh.
>>
>> Isn't that based on C? (And hence inherantly "not easy".)
> 
> OK, then, VB.Net!

IT BURNS!! >_<

>> Nooo - the hardest part is drawing thousands of tile images to make 
>> the game work. :-P
> 
> How so? Especially in C# ... That's really the simple part.

Really?

Are *you* good at drawing stuff? Because *I* suck at it! :-P

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Invisible wrote:
>>>> C# Maahahaahh ... hahaah.. hah.. <cough> heh.
>>>
>>> Isn't that based on C? (And hence inherantly "not easy".)
>>
>> OK, then, VB.Net!
> 
> IT BURNS!! >_<
> 
>>> Nooo - the hardest part is drawing thousands of tile images to make 
>>> the game work. :-P
>>
>> How so? Especially in C# ... That's really the simple part.
> 
> Really?
> 
> Are *you* good at drawing stuff? Because *I* suck at it! :-P

Somewhat ... But the designs aren't that tough:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/MahjongTiles.JPG

OK, The chinese characters would be a challenge to get right but the 
dots, etc... are fairly simple.

-- 
~Mike

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Invisible wrote:
>>>> C# Maahahaahh ... hahaah.. hah.. <cough> heh.
>>>
>>> Isn't that based on C? (And hence inherantly "not easy".)
>>
>> OK, then, VB.Net!
> 
> IT BURNS!! >_<
> 

Oh, then C# then ;) Maybe J#? Or Managed C++?


-- 
~Mike

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Invisible wrote:
> 
> Mental, eh?

Yes, we have bunch of those at work.

> - 1U rack-mount form factor. (It's bloody heavy BTW.)

No, it's not. DL380G5 on 2U in size.

> - It comes with sliding rails and a bendy cable arm to automatically
> fold or extend the cables as you slide the server into or out of the
> rack. Completely tool-less installation. Everything snaps into place. (I
> have *no idea* how the hell you take it apart again, should you want to.)

It's actually pretty easy, if you'll think it a bit. Those rails really
*are* designed.

> - When mine arrived, I had to open it up and install the optional extras
> myself. In particular, it is highly non-obvious how to remove the air
> baffle. (And I don't want to break a £4,000 server in five minutes!) I
> had to install the second CPU and the second pair of RAM boards.

You grab a hold on the baffle and take it out upwards. Yes, you'll need
to sort out the SAS cables and possibly RAID-controllers battery, but
it's no big deal.

> - The CPU chip comes inside a "processor installation tool". This
> consists of a handle to hold it by, and when you press down it's
> supposed to release the chip [but doesn't]; The chip itself doesn't
> appear to have any pins, which is kinda weird.

Yes, the installation tool sucks. I've always removed the processor from
it and installed the proc by hand.

> - There's a button on the front that turns on a light at the back. So if
> you have a rack with 10 of them, you can figure out which one to plug
> your cables into.

1) If you already have 9 of them, they're probably already plugged in,
so just plug in the one that hasn't.

2) The "blue makes you happy" -button need power, so you'll first need
to attach the power cables anyway ;). At work we hit dymo stickers to
both ends of a server, so it's even easier to know which machine is which.

> - Front-mounted hot-swap drive bays. (I've got 6 drives - and you know
> what? Each one is tiny, yet arrived in a really huge box!)

The earlier huge ones (3,5") arrived at even huger boxes :).

> WHAT THE HELL MORE DO YOU WANT?!?!! >_<

Free tea? :)

> Seriously. This is the puppy.

Yes, quite nice, I like them too.

> ...although, having just said all that, the cable arm isn't as nice as
> the Dell one. It's a bit flimsy, and bends in planes it shouldn't. 

Is it attached properly? It is flimsy if it's attached poorly, but
pretty good when properly in place.

> Also,
> the automated installer doesn't support Windows 2000 Server, which is
> what the company IT department wanted me to use. Wasted a few hours on
> that one. But that's about all I can actually find to complain about.

Try 7-series Smartstart:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=fi&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1121516&prodNameId=3288134&swEnvOID=181&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-38d443ae75914124807c7cf066
(or http://tinyurl.com/smartstart790)

> PS. What *the hell* is a "PPM"? And why is it 80% heatsink??

Processor Power Module. It regulates the power for the processor (that's
why it's 80% heatsink).

-Aero

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>> - 1U rack-mount form factor. (It's bloody heavy BTW.)
> 
> No, it's not. DL380G5 on 2U in size.

Really? It seems to be the same size as all the other 1U equipment. 
(Unless I got the model number wrong or something...)

>> - When mine arrived, I had to open it up and install the optional extras
>> myself. In particular, it is highly non-obvious how to remove the air
>> baffle. (And I don't want to break a £4,000 server in five minutes!) I
>> had to install the second CPU and the second pair of RAM boards.
> 
> You grab a hold on the baffle and take it out upwards. Yes, you'll need
> to sort out the SAS cables and possibly RAID-controllers battery, but
> it's no big deal.

It's more that it seems to be fixed in place, and you seem to need a 
surprising amount of force to get it to move.

OTOH, putting it *back* was way harder...

> Yes, the installation tool sucks. I've always removed the processor from
> it and installed the proc by hand.

Heh. Damned thing...

>> WHAT THE HELL MORE DO YOU WANT?!?!! >_<
> 
> Free tea? :)

LOL! That's about all that's missing...

>> ...although, having just said all that, the cable arm isn't as nice as
>> the Dell one. It's a bit flimsy, and bends in planes it shouldn't. 
> 
> Is it attached properly? It is flimsy if it's attached poorly, but
> pretty good when properly in place.

Well, there's a little catch that's supposed to make the arm stop and 
retain it in place. But it's so flimsy the arm easily rides over the top 
of it. :-/

(The fun part was that you can "invert" the arm, so it doesn't look like 
in the drawings. Took ages to figure that one out - especially as the 
springs hold it in a position that looks different to the manual.)

>> Also,
>> the automated installer doesn't support Windows 2000 Server, which is
>> what the company IT department wanted me to use. Wasted a few hours on
>> that one. But that's about all I can actually find to complain about.
> 
> Try 7-series Smartstart:

We tried an older version, but it didn't like our Windows CD. (The CD 
contains Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 
2000 Professional on the same CD. It seemed to not like that.)

>> PS. What *the hell* is a "PPM"? And why is it 80% heatsink??
> 
> Processor Power Module. It regulates the power for the processor (that's
> why it's 80% heatsink).

Um... OK. That's pretty weird tho.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> - 1U rack-mount form factor. (It's bloody heavy BTW.)
>>
>> No, it's not. DL380G5 on 2U in size.
> 
> Really? It seems to be the same size as all the other 1U equipment.
> (Unless I got the model number wrong or something...)

Really :). I've installed 6 DL380G5's and 1 DL385G2 (which is pretty
common to DL380G5, just with AMD technology) within 2 weeks. There
usually are little triangles at racks, 2U has two of them and six square
holes within its size.

> It's more that it seems to be fixed in place, and you seem to need a
> surprising amount of force to get it to move.

Well yes, it's a bit tricky at first, but not *that* hard.

> OTOH, putting it *back* was way harder...

True :). But when you find the way, it just click to its place.

> Well, there's a little catch that's supposed to make the arm stop and
> retain it in place. But it's so flimsy the arm easily rides over the top
> of it. :-/

True.

> (The fun part was that you can "invert" the arm, so it doesn't look like
> in the drawings. Took ages to figure that one out - especially as the
> springs hold it in a position that looks different to the manual.)

True, it's a bit tricky at first (am I repeating myself?), but when you
get it sorted out, it's ok.

> We tried an older version, but it didn't like our Windows CD. (The CD
> contains Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows
> 2000 Professional on the same CD. It seemed to not like that.)

Ah yes, I think it needs the "real" CD at hand (or an ISO image, for
that matter).

>>> PS. What *the hell* is a "PPM"? And why is it 80% heatsink??
>>
>> Processor Power Module. It regulates the power for the processor (that's
>> why it's 80% heatsink).
> 
> Um... OK. That's pretty weird tho.
> 

Why? That way it's replaceable, if it should ever break down.

-Aero

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>>>> - 1U rack-mount form factor. (It's bloody heavy BTW.)
>>> No, it's not. DL380G5 on 2U in size.
>> Really? It seems to be the same size as all the other 1U equipment.
>> (Unless I got the model number wrong or something...)
> 
> Really :). I've installed 6 DL380G5's and 1 DL385G2 (which is pretty
> common to DL380G5, just with AMD technology) within 2 weeks. There
> usually are little triangles at racks, 2U has two of them and six square
> holes within its size.

Hmm, OK. Maybe I was wrong then... :-S

>> It's more that it seems to be fixed in place, and you seem to need a
>> surprising amount of force to get it to move.
> 
> Well yes, it's a bit tricky at first, but not *that* hard.
> 
>> OTOH, putting it *back* was way harder...
> 
> True :). But when you find the way, it just click to its place.

More like, it makes a loud *snap* - as in "OMG, I think I broke it!"

...or, maybe I *did* break it?? o_O

>> Well, there's a little catch that's supposed to make the arm stop and
>> retain it in place. But it's so flimsy the arm easily rides over the top
>> of it. :-/
> 
> True.

The Dell arm has a bracket that's the full height of the arm. No way 
it's going to ride over that. It also has sprung-loaded folding clips to 
hold the cables, rather than (non-reusable) cable straps like HP supply.

>> (The fun part was that you can "invert" the arm, so it doesn't look like
>> in the drawings. Took ages to figure that one out - especially as the
>> springs hold it in a position that looks different to the manual.)
> 
> True, it's a bit tricky at first (am I repeating myself?), but when you
> get it sorted out, it's ok.

Heh. I just love the way I spent ages strapping down all the cables, and 
*then* noticed the power cable anchors in the box... ;-)

>>>> PS. What *the hell* is a "PPM"? And why is it 80% heatsink??
>>> Processor Power Module. It regulates the power for the processor (that's
>>> why it's 80% heatsink).
>> Um... OK. That's pretty weird tho.
> 
> Why? That way it's replaceable, if it should ever break down.

Yeah, but... why do you need to regulate this at all? Why does it need 
to be a seperate device? And why does it get so hot?? (Also, why do no 
other computers have these?)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Invisible wrote:
>  Which is great if you just want something to happen when the
> user presses a button, but becomes problematic if you want things to
> happen while the user isn't pressing anything. (E.g., if you wanted to
> do something compute-bound, now the GUI stops responding until the
> compute task finishes.)

That's why the computer gods invented threads.

Seriously, it's the only sane way to do something compute-bound AND have a
GUI.

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> 
> Hmm, OK. Maybe I was wrong then... :-S

Apparently yes, but don't worry about being wrong, just learn more :).

> More like, it makes a loud *snap* - as in "OMG, I think I broke it!"
> 
> ...or, maybe I *did* break it?? o_O

I don't think so. So far I haven't found a single way to break it
without intention to do so.

> The Dell arm has a bracket that's the full height of the arm. No way
> it's going to ride over that. 

So did earlier HP's (4U ones), but it's easier to fit on the cables when
you can turn the arm backwards.

> It also has sprung-loaded folding clips to
> hold the cables, rather than (non-reusable) cable straps like HP supply.

That's a real fail with HP :/. We're using reusable Velcro-tape on that.

> Heh. I just love the way I spent ages strapping down all the cables, and
> *then* noticed the power cable anchors in the box... ;-)

:)

> Yeah, but... why do you need to regulate this at all? 

Because the PSU won't provide the exactly correct voltage?

> Why does it need
> to be a seperate device? And why does it get so hot?? (Also, why do no
> other computers have these?)

They do, but on your desktop computer it's welded on the mobo, along
with other parts there, so you won't notice it as easily. And it doesn't
usually get so hot, but they (AND you) want to be sure to be sure it has
enough cooling area (even in extreme circumstances with 2-3 fans failed)
- that's why it's so big and heavy.

-Aero

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