Quick update on (mostly) non-brewing related stuff.

Video Streaming
After somehow missing that gstreamer XML pipelines have been deprecated, and after futile attempts several months ago to get them working - I had a chance to pick it up again and start trying to use the library directly.

It works really well either wrapped up with something like the CPAN wrapper for Perl (yeah, I know, I know) - or directly via C/++. Or, if you install the tools package, from the commandline (sheepish grin).

So for encoding and streaming stuff it works quite well, but is useless for transmission to the client (I was hoping for an end to end gstreamer solution for the sample project I was playing with) - so you still need something to repackage the stream into RTP/RTMP, as the gstreamer RTP stuff doesn't really cut it.

ffmpeg would make a good overall solution, and the ffmpeg server will repackage on the head end - but the overhead is higher than gstreamer's if you're generating multiple streams from the same source. You could get around this by writing a custom binary around ffmpeg perhaps. Food for thought.

Someone has suggested Wowza Media server is great for this type of deployment, as it does no encoding work but will repackage RTP/RTMP for clients - but the licensing prices are pretty abysmal - there should be an open source alternative... this isn't that interesting to me to go down that path though, and I think I've reached what I can reasonably do.

Storage Box
After a bit of a delay with changing jobs and making space for the rack in the garage - the storage box is up and running again. I haven't really had time to test the controller issues, it's been so inconvenient without it.

At least now it's sitting on a UPS and I've built the old array's disks into a RAID6 array for my personal docs, and presenting NFS to my VMWare server - which is a whole different story involving the disk controller in the x336 and VMWare's Linux driver interface. Basically, I'll get orders of magnitude better performance switching to it, and that makes me happy.

Brewing stuff
In the short time I'll have at home today, I'm hoping to blend together my liqueurs and get $partner to give me some more feedback.

I've also bought some mint to re-create the mint liqueur I did, after a leaky spirits bottle saw it empty itself all over the floor *sadface* I'll also throw on a chilli liqueur.

Also, instead of posting a list of things that I want to brew each post, I've put them on my wiki here:
http://wiki.autodeist.com/public:2brew

Some new additions however, which I think are worthy of a mention here:

Bee Pollen I saw a container of this at the shops today, really interesting stuff... but it contains enough natural sugars and whatnot - and apparently a few people have brewed it. So I'll give it a go and see how it goes... could be interesting.

Whey Wine After being tortured by final pictures of Shay's Milk Liqueur - I went on a bit of a Google to see if there were other Milk/Whey based drinks... the Whey Wine mentioned on Wikipedia seems worth a shot... again, could be interesting.

Software Messaging
Having been exposed to TIBCO's JMS implementation at work, a few of the things I've been rolling around in my head for a few years about software messaging and middleware are starting to make a bit more sense.

Whilst I've been looking at building a few fairly tightly coupled framework libraries - the idea of using generic messaging interfaces over a generic messaging bus makes things so much easier. When you're not rolling your own, you can also really leverage a lot of the 'solved-problems'.

To that end, I'm hoping to throw together a VM running Apache ActiveMQ - a different JMS implementation, and have a play around with that, but I have other code to bust out before I get to that.... it's kind of breathed new fire into a few projects that have been on the back burner though - keen to clear my plate and get cracking...

Which lastly takes me on to...

Work & Motivation
Without putting too fine a point on it, things are a lot better work-wise than they have been for a long time. Not being actively prevented from doing your job, and having meaningful and constructive work to do makes a huge difference - and it really helps you engage with the work that you do have going on.

... and being engaged means I'm starting to get back into the swing of things personally. Now I'm not spending my evenings recovering from a mental mind-fuck, I'm finding that I'm a lot more interested in the technical projects I've had on the backburner for a while now.

So things are good, and despite a shortage of sealed glass jars (hint, hint - to anyone reading who wants to offload any)... all is well. More updates to come!

The fine folks over at Techbuy have confirmed that they have the new hardware revision of the Norco RPC-4220 in stock, and that my modifications to the chassis shouldn't be a problem for RA.

Time to pack up the server and book a Pack and Send appointment for tomorrow methinks!

Hooray

I just received an email from the place I bought my NorcoTek RPC-4220 storage chassis regarding my problem...

Dear Will,
We are sending you an e-mail to confirm that your request to return your Norco RPC-4220 Rackmount Server Chassis, No PSU - 4U
Inc. 20x Hot-Swap SATA/SAS Drive Bays (BackPlane Included w. 5xSFF-8087 Mini SAS Connectors) has been approved.
Your RA Number is: XXXXX
We have contacted Norco and it turns out that the backplanes that you have in your case are not compatible with 2TB drives.
A revised backplane in the new version of the RPC-4220 allows for larger drives. Unfortunately the revised backplane is not compatible with the old RPC-4220 chassis (the one that you have).
Your revision will support upto 1.5TB drives.
Please return the chassis for further investigation to correct your problem.

Uhh okay guys - the SAS/SATA interface doesn't change for different drive sizes, and there's no controller on the backplanes - they're just lanes back to the connector for the SFF-8087 cable...

I'm guessing at this point there's been a miscommunication between my retailer and the supplier, maybe they've said my 2TB drives are sensitive to the electric properties of these backplanes.... but I'd have expected the RA guys to question the email as they've described it to me.

Also, IPC Direct (Norco's online storefront) list all their storage backplane cards as compatible with the RPC-4220 - but I'm guessing the new RPC-4220 chassis is similar to the latest revision RPC-4224 which uses a completely different mounting system.

But I guess that means that I have to unpack the chassis and pack and send it back for a few months while they sort their shit out. I hope they have their bloody replacement in before I do though...

sigh

UPDATE: I have emailed back with the following:

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the update - that's a bit confusing, as the SAS/SATA interface doesn't differ between drives of different sizes, and I can't think of any reason why there would be any smarts on the backplane whatsoever.
In any case, can you please advise on the following:
* As noted in my original RA, I have pulled back some of the
backplane supporting bar (as the unit as it arrived would not
accept an SFF-8087 compliant cable) - is this going to affect the
RA process even though it has no bearing on this issue? I can
provide details and photos if necessary?
* What are the potential outcomes of this RA? Is the product likely
to be replaced with the newer version of the RPC-4220 that *does*
support drives correctly? I would be supremely unhappy if the
solution was a full refund - as the next cheapest alternative is
over four times the cost.
* How long do you anticipate the RA process will take? If it's a
case of waiting for a replacement product while the chassis sits
in your RA office, I'd rather wait until the replacement has
arrived in your office until I have to power down the unit here
(as I have no other chassis to put the system into).
Thanks again for the help so far, if you're able to answer the above questions that would be greatly appreciated. If it's easier to explain over the phone, you can reach me on XXXX XXX XXX.
Cheers :)

Hopefully they'll replace it with the newer revision RPC-4220, which resolves the SFF-8087 cable issue as well as this problem (apparently):

Mmmmm, shiney!