Phil Bayfield

Considering suicide?

Feb 5

There are plenty of ways to do it that you may wish to consider…

Jumping from a window…
Drug overdose…
Cutting yourself…

In fact there is even a Wikipedia page which you can read through:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_...

However the 1000’s of London commuters ask that you show them a little consideration and DON’T JUMP IN FRONT OF TRAINS (and the tube), especially during rush hour. It just leaves a bloody mess all over the tracks and some poor bastards have to pick up the pieces (of you) and it just holds everyone up. We get up really early and spend 3 hours a day travelling to and from work, these kind of hold ups are very frustrating for us. So if it’s the last thing you do, show some consideration for others.

Read this? Still feel like jumping in front of a train?

Yes I know your probably thinking the survival rate of 10% is pretty good odds however I have to ask… Please make sure it is not my train, feel free to contact me via the contact page of my website to find out which trains I will be travelling on and when.

How much does it cost to cancel a BT broadband order?

Jan 30

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

This morning in the post I received the following letter, addressed to one of my businesses, after making a few calls I discovered it related to a BT Business broadband order I had placed in September last year and cancelled before it was activated in October!

Apple iPhonePad in action!

Jan 29

Posted by Phil in General | No Comments

Here is a great demo of the new iPad in action!

http://theflashblog.com/?p=1703

Apple iPad…. Really not very exciting at all….

Jan 27

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So the apparently long awaited Apple slate ‘PC’ has been announced, the latest proclaimed ‘revolutionary’ device from Apple.

Despite being a die hard Windows user when I see the next generation Apple release announcements there is usually at least something cool about them. First was the iPod, which is constantly being revamped with bigger and better features, secondly is the iPhone which when it was first released looked awesome. When reading the specs for the new iPad, the only thing I wonder is why???

The processor is a mere 1Ghz, offering no more than a high end mobile phone, a 1024×768 screen which again offers little more than a high end mobile phone, 3G is an optional extra and there is no camera. It also appears to run a modified iPhone OS with a limited number of applications (not including the app store obviously).

So you want a giant sized iPhone that doesn’t even fit in your pocket? The Apple iPod is for you, revolutionising pocket sizes!

Which RAID is best?

Dec 27

Posted by Phil in Computers, Hardware, Servers | Comments off

There are many sites with various RAID comparisons on and many more making various claims as to which RAID type is the best for various purposes/fastest/etc.

The 2.5Tb storage partition on my Xen box decided to pack up recently (or at least Xen decided it no longer wanted to read the partition) so after backing up the data decided to run some tests.

Drives: 4x Western Digital RE 1Tb

RAID 5:

This was the original configuration of the array, despite having fast drives in my desktop and 1Gbit network the read speeds were slower than expected (around 35Mb/sec).

The hdparm results were inconsistent:

Timing cached reads: 10118 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5064.59 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 224 MB in 3.02 seconds = 74.24 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10020 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5016.71 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 148 MB in 3.03 seconds = 48.83 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10126 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5068.86 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 200 MB in 3.03 seconds = 65.94 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10086 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5049.90 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 234 MB in 3.02 seconds = 77.55 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10042 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5027.45 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 210 MB in 3.01 seconds = 69.80 MB/sec

Average over the 5 tests: 67.27 Mb/sec

RAID 10:

As an alternative I switched the array to RAID 10, the downside of this configuration is that there is 1Tb less space than RAID 5.

Timing cached reads: 10170 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5091.34 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 320 MB in 3.01 seconds = 106.46 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10094 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5052.71 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 316 MB in 3.02 seconds = 104.59 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10072 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5041.96 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 314 MB in 3.01 seconds = 104.29 MB/sec

RAID 10 results are much more consistent.
Average over the 3 tests: 105.11 Mb/sec

RAID 6:

Another configuration offering 2 disk redundancy.

Timing cached reads: 10172 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5091.87 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 202 MB in 3.01 seconds = 67.06 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10052 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5031.76 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 202 MB in 3.01 seconds = 67.18 MB/sec

Timing cached reads: 10102 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5057.17 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 206 MB in 3.00 seconds = 68.59 MB/sec

RAID 6 results are also fairly consistent.
Average over the 3 tests: 67.61 Mb/sec

It seams that with this configuration that RAID 5/6 perform at roughly the same speed, however RAID 10 seams to win out on the speed test with over 50% improvement over RAID 5/6.

Confirmed!!!! RATM beats X-Factory!!!

Dec 20

Posted by Phil in General | Comments off

Update: BBC News confirm the leaked figures were correct!

“The band’s single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainm...

RATM vs Pop Shite Update!

Dec 20

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According to leaked sales figures for tonight’s chart RATM have beaten X Factor by 50k sales!!!

Here are the figures:

1 KILLING IN THE NAME RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE 502672
2 THE CLIMB JOE MCELDERRY 450838
3 BAD ROMANCE LADY GAGA 61677
4 THE OFFICIAL BBC CHILDREN IN NEED MEDLEY PETER KAY’S ANIMATED ALL STAR 52605
5 STARSTRUKK 3OH3 FT KATY PERRY 40742
6 YOU KNOW ME ROBBIE WILLIAMS 38435
7 3 WORDS CHERYL COLE 36232
8 RUSSIAN ROULETTE RIHANNA 34094
9 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ JOURNEY 33337
10 MEET ME HALFWAY BLACK EYED PEAS 32517
11 TIK TOK KESHA 26571
12 YOU ARE NOT ALONE X FACTOR FINALISTS 2009 24404
13 DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING ALICIA KEYS 23415
14 DECEMBER SONG (I DREAMED OF CHRISTMAS) GEORGE MICHAEL 22243
15 LET THE BASS KICK IN MIAMI GIRL CHUCKIE & LMFAO 21556
16 MORNING AFTER DARK TIMBALAND/NELLY FURTADO/SOSHY 19687
17 FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE CHERYL COLE 18859
18 FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK POGUES FT KIRSTY MACCOLL 18457
19 WHATCHA SAY JASON DERULO 18278
20 LOOK FOR ME CHIPMUNK FT TALAY RILEY 17775

Currently from 20 – 12 have been 100% correct!

Update: 11 – 9 are also correct!

Update: 8 – 5 are correct, only 2 more songs till the official result!

Update: No surprises 4 and 3 were correct. 1 song away from the result!!!

Rage Against The Machine vs Manufactured Pop Shite for Christmas number one!

Dec 18

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Just 2 days to go till the chart show!

Join the Facebook group and buy the record to make RATM the Christmas number 1!!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid...

First commercial space craft unveiled by Virgin Galactic

Dec 8

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After several years of talk, Virgin have unveiled their commercial space craft the VSS Enterprise! Now we can all go into space for a mere $200,000 a ticket!