While researching at work, I ran into this “balletbot” story on Gizmodo. Later, I found the same video on YouTube:
There is something very unnerving but I haven’t figured out what it is yet.
Obviously, there are quite a few mismatches:
1. The elder Japanese dancer dressed in kimono in the background vs. the ageless non-Asian-male-figured (square shoulder and long limbs) machine
2. The well-manicured (I suppose) and well-covered dancer vs. the metalic and naked robot
3. The robot stands with knees bent–reminded me of apes
But they are not quite “it” … I mean I’d be OK if the robot boxes or shoots a rifle since there is this “mechanicality” in both humanly activities. But to dance? Man, the half-baked “gracefulness” is just so wrong!
Problem statement:
1. My 1/2-T network storage has only 90 gigabytes left
2. The Linux box hosting that storage was built 5 years ago and has Giga-Ethernet compatibility and USB support problem
3. My Win-Tel box runs on an old Dell “space-saver” box with a 3.25″ disk and zero expansion slot
4. The Win-Tel box has only an mid-level graphics card that is not going to support video-editing and raw image processing
5. My daily backup job routinely fails because the Redhat-USB external hard disk issue
Proposed solution:
1. Build a new mid-level Win-Tel box
2. Convert the Dell box to a barebone Linux server
3. Use FreeNAS to build a NAS server with 1-T capacity
Budget:
1. PC: case, motherboard, graphics card, CPU, memory, XP Professional. Should use EIDE board so to reuse existing HDD. About $500 ?
2. Linux: nothing. Not sure latest Fedora has all the drivers though. If not … very very bad.
3. NAS: 1 SATA card, 2x 1-T sata HDD. 1 Giga-Ethernet NIC. total $750.
Risks:
1. I have an old IDE-board. But the new HDD are SATA. If I put in a SATA PCI card, does FreeNAS recognize it?
One user posted on 7/18/07: this card and this one both work with the latest freeNAS version.
2. What Giga-Ethernet card does freeNAS support?
According to freeNAS support page, “Any NIC controllers supported by FreeBSD FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).are supported by FreeNAS ”
The FreeBSD site lists the following NIC: 3Com 3c996-T (10/100/1000baseTX), Netgear GA302T, Intel PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter (82541PI),
Candidates:
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145167&ATT=22-145-167&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3watch-_-Hard+Drives-_-Hitachi+Global+Storage+Technologies-_-22145167
SATA card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124020
Just read the news that the condition in Aral Sea is improving. I read the story of Aral Sea several years ago and it was the first time environmental degradation became tangible/shocking/scary to me.
Some of the facts are well-known by now. In short, Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland water body in the world. Because human ignorance (abusive agricultural practice), it has lost half of the size or 3/4 of the volume. In the process, many fish in the lake went extinct and the population suffered from many diseases as a result of deterioriating water and air condition–in fact I now remember I saw the story at Doctors Without Border’s website. I remember vividly the picture that caught my eye was a fishing boat–clearly in working condition–resting on top of a sand dune like a ghost.
The good news is that today, after years of human effort, the condition is improving.
I am also excited at this news because a rejuvenated Aral Sea may help to reduce the Asian Sand Storm that has been a fixture of Beijing since the 1990s.