The collected works of mapesdhs - Page 1

I get sound from the file I want to play, but the picture is grey. This is on an Octane
MXI. How can I be sure the system is in a double buffered video mode? xsetmon
suggests the system is using (DX) 1280x1024_72 from:

/usr/gfx/ucode/MGRAS/vof/2RSS

I notice there is a 1280x1024_72_32db in the directory above, but setmon complains
when I try to use that.

Note that the DivX file plays fine on my O2.

The mplayer.conf has:

vo=gl2
vf=format=RGB24
ao=sgi
framedrop=1
zoom=no
osdlevel=2
monitoraspect=4:3
cache = 8192

I'm guess the video isn't running in 32db, but I'm not sure how to force it.

Oh, the example file is on my site if anyone wants to replicate things:

http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/ ... movie1.avi

Thanks for any assisstance!

Ian.

SGI Depot: http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/sgidepot/
Email: mailto:[email protected]
Backup email (send copy to this too): mailto:[email protected]
Home: +44 (0)131 477 1142 (best to call this number first)
Mobile: 07743 495403 (usually off; leave a message and I'll call back)

SGI/Future Technology/N64: http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/
Mirror site: http://futuretech.mirror.vuurwerk.net/
Doom Help Service (DHS): http://www.gamers.org/dhs/

Alver wrote: I bet he placed a comma wrong

Hmm, smells more like a scam to me anyway. For such a sale, why so little info? Why
no hinv? Why no swmgr output? Screenshots? And in the US expecially, would Discreet
regard the lics as transferable?

I know there have been some fake high-spec SGI auctions in recent months. Probably
just another one.

Ian.

mcblack writes:
> They have discussed this internally and then sent me the patch via e-mail.

If you get it, feel free to send it to me and I'll put it on my Depot Resources page
for all:

http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/depot/

Ian.

regan_russell writes:
> WTF? I just turned esp back on in chkconfig rebooted and everything is mystereousily
> work fine again... even with logging on.

You don't need ESP. Turn it off.

ESP is for automating support calls for those with service contracts. Ordinary error
logging to SYSLOG operates as normal without it.

Plus, if it's off, a system will boot up a full minute faster because without being
configured ESP times out for 60 seconds.

Other things can usually be turned off too, including sendmail, pmcd, tfxd,
sesdaemon/fcagent (if you're not using FC), xlv (if you're not using disk volumes),
webface, webface_apache, cluster, and so on.

I also edit MSGTIME in /etc/init.d/network to be 0 (speeds bootup by 10 seconds
if the host name is still IRIS), and change the sleep time in /etc/init.d/filesystems
to 0 (if a file system doesn't mount, display an error but don't then wait 5 secs).

On older versions of the OS, check if there is a '&' symbol at the end of the
newaliases line in the mail startup script:



If it's there, good. If not, then add the symbol. Without it, unconfigured
sendmail will time out for 60 secs on bootup. The symbol was omitted by mistake
at some point, but is back in there now, at least it's there in 6.5.22 and later.

Ian.

PS. Did you receive my last email? Feel free to email or PM.

Dear All,

I finally had a chance to finish off the Octane SCSI software RAID tests I was doing
a couple of months back, so here are the results.

Btw, is this a record for Octane? Not seen numbers this high before...

1920 x 1080 HD, 4:4:4:4 (4 bytes per pixel):



That's about 2X faster than real-time for HD. 8) And I broke past 500MB/sec! Woohoo!! :D

The results for HD 4:2:2 (2 bytes per pixel) are:



Here's the system spec (note that one of the QLA12160s in the PCI
cage was not used for any of these tests - no point as the XIO connection
is already maxed out with just one card; using both would actually slow
things down):

Dual-R14K/600 Octane2, 3.5GB RAM, 73GB disk, V12 graphics
PCI cage with 2 x QLA12160 cards + Gbit Enet
2 x XTalk Adapter, each with QLA12160
3 x dual-channel JBOD RAID unit, 12 x 73GB disks per unit, 2.45TB total space.

Here's the hinv (controllers 4 and 5 not used for these tests):




In case anyone's interested, here are the results for using the same array for
uncompressed PAL and NTSC in both 4:2:2 and 4:4:4:4. Overall the results
are always at least 10X faster than real-time:

Summary (MB/sec):




Now for some other interesting info...

If using just 6 x 73GB disks on 2 controllers (3 disks per controller), with one
QLA12160 card, it gives 161/169 write/read speed. These are older model drives,
max speed about 35MB/sec each.

If using 6 x 146GB disks in the same way, but newer drives (U320 Seagate,
more like 75MB/sec in theory), the results are identical (161/169 write/read sped).

Next, if one uses 6 x older 73GB on 2 controllers but this time with 2 different
QLA12160 cards in different XIO slots (eg. 2 x XTalk, or PCI cage = XTalk), using
just 1 contoller from each card, then the speed does go up to 181/214 write/read,
ie. faster, but only by 12%/26% respectively. Are the disks maxing out? Well...

Now use 6 x fast 146GB disks, 2 controllers, 2 cards, different XIO slots, etc.,
one gets 248/273 write/read speed - a huge increase!

This proves the typical maximum XIO-to-PCI bandwidth is about 166MB/sec
per XIO channel. It varies a bit, and can peak at 175MB/sec, but 166 seems to be
about average for a sustained rate.

Thus, if going for mega speed, it makes more sense to use as many different XIO
channels as possible, with a smaller number of disks on each channel. The same
applies to anyone using FC, eg. to go beyond a PCI cage with a QLA2342
installed, get an XTalk adapter with another FC card, rather than put an extra
FC card in the PCI cage.


As a matter of interest, the above means that the maximum storage bandwidth
Octane could ever provide is probably about 650MB/sec (actually 665 to be precise),
ie. by using a 1-slot MGRAS gfx board and installing another XTalk+QLA12160 in
the top-right XIO slot. This speed is not far off the maximum speed possible through
any of the crossbar links (800MB/sec) so if it could do it that would be pretty
impressive. Might try it some time just for the hell of it...

Right, that's all for now, time for some zzzz...

Cheers!

Ian.

ipaddict wrote: :shock: Nice numbers! Let's see 600 now, eh?

I'll have to change the gfx to 1-slot MGRAS, but will see what I can
do. Might be a few days before I can look into it though.

I ran a couple more tests, some interesting extra info. Reveals more
about how the speed limits of older drives affect overall
performance, and suggests spending more to get a smaller number of
newer faster disks is a better initial approach.

Thus, compare the following...

18 x 73GB, 3 SCSI cards on 3 XIO channels, using just 1 controller from each
card, 6 disks per controller, HD 4 bytes per pixel:




Next, just 6 x 73GB, 3 SCSI cards on 3 XIO channels, 1 disk per controller,
HD 4 bytes per pixel:



The write speed is maxing out the drives perfectly, but I don't know why the
read speed isn't better. Probably something to do with the drive parameters.

Anyway, the most interesting result is this last one...

6 x modern 146GB, 3 SCSI cards on 3 XIO channels, 1 disk per
controller, PAL 3 bytes per pixel (my goof, will rerun and edit
later for HD 4 bytes/pixel):



This shows it's better if possible to start off with a smaller number
of faster drives, despite the higher cost, as it means better expandability,
in this case up to 5TB. On the other hand, fewer drives means less
flexibility for including parity drives, multiple file systems, etc.

Ian.

frood wrote: I've been waiting for an Indy to appear on ebay UK for what feels like forever!

Has anyone who lives in the UK got an Indy they're willing to sell me?

I have loads of Indys available, haven't put any on eBay as I don't have the time (wanted
to put up some R4600PC/133 systems to begin with).

What do you need? Shipping for anything would just be 10 for PF48, and _nobody_ packs
better than me. The last Indy I sold went to Poland.

Do you want a really basic system, or something with a bit of oomph and a decent disk?

Ian.

sincil writes:
> Just browsing the web this evening and I stumbled upon a site created to remember a British TV kids show from the
> mid 90s: "Bad Influence".

Blimey, I remember watching those. And talk about timing - I think it was only shortly after the 1st
article was aired that I was able to go and see an Onyx RE2 rack in action at Marconi Simulation in
Dunfermline (Scotland), where it was running a tank simulator, though they let me try the same demos
on it, projected onto an 8' screen, or shown on a superwide monitor. That was it, I was hooked.
It was one thing to watch the Performer Town demo on TV, quite another to see it live at high-res.
Hehe, now I have a mountain of SGIs and can barely move (oddly enough, one current project is to
upgrade an Onyx RE2 rack to IR, if it has the later backplane - don't know yet). Though you might be
shocked when I say I sold an Onyx RE2 deskside last week (quad-R10K/195, RE2 2RM4, 1GB RAM,
73GB disk); if you'd told me back in '93 that one day I'd be doing such a thing, I'd have probably fainted... 8|

Strange, watching the 1st article, I could still remember what the guy says even after all this time. Hmm,
I probably still have the VHS tape I recorded the same program on. Not sure if I ever taped the 2nd
article though.


> ... and I remember some of the episodes from when I watched them first time round

Wierd isn't it?

Ian.

I need to get a gbit switch that has mostly copper connections, but also at least
a couple of fibre ports aswell. Any suggestions as to a suitable model? Looking
for between 8 and 16 ports.My Octane has a copper card, while my O2 has
a fibre card.

Ian.

fieldframe writes:
> At the office I use Netgear GS724TS switches. The 'S' on the end is for stackable, something you might not need...

Looks ideal, but beyond my price range.


> ... The GS716 switch might suit you. It has two SFP ports for those pesky fibre cards.

That's more like it, though they seem to just come with the module slots empty.

Couldn't find either of them 2nd-hand though.


> However, you can pick up Intel 510Ts on ebay uk with gig fibre port modules for loose change. The 510T switches

I remember MPC in London used those.


> ... don't readily support copper gig ethernet though. ...

Really? That's odd, the ones I saw were all copper, at least at the front.


> copper 10/100 ports via their built in ethernet so had no need of anything faster. It was uplinked to a huge
> Foundry Networks switch via the fibre port.

Ah, now what I want is a switch that can run gbit on all ports, not a 10/100 that just has a couple of gbit ports.


> My most recent ebay purchase was a brand new Octane card cage (still in box!) from Ebay AU (and got a pukka SGI
> gig copper card bundled in)

Ditto. Got 5 a coupla weeks ago, just the cages. Totally unused.

Thanks!!

Ian.

Thanks for all the recommendations everyone!!

joerg writes:
> The 2nd. way is to buy somethink like the netgears GS716/GS724TS. We have a dozen of these modells
> and also the bigger ones with 48 ports. The offer standard RJ45 copper based slots and up to 4 SFPs
> which are the successor of GBICs.

Overall, I think the GS716T is the most sensible choice, but the price new is a bit high for me (really
need 2nd-hand I think) and I guess I would also need to get the AGM731F fibre gbit 1000BaseSX module
aswell.


> All el'cheapo gigE switches comes only with 8-16 Copper slots.

Oh I dunno, compared to Cisco/3Com, the GS724T is only 200+ UKP. and the GS748T is 400+.


Btw, the O2 appears to see the card ok, though of course I can't configure it yet, nothing to connect to:



So it's like the EISA card, ie. not seen by hinv. Comes with the command pge_control to set the duplex mode.

Am looking forward to seeing just how fast the O2 can push the thing.

Ian.

joerg writes:
> And the Longshine costs only 100UKP.

I can't bid, will be away by then for the holiday break. To be honest, I've also
never heard of Longshine before.

I'd rather not rush this, will leave it until '08.

Ian.

fieldframe writes:
> Makes you wonder where these pristine card cages have been hiding all this time, no?

Probably stored away and forgotten in a company's spares/parts cupboard.


> Mind you, mines coming from Australia. Where are yours from?

Germany.

Ian.

jan-jaap writes:
> Dunno, but even at 195MHz they weren't very reliable when they just came out.
> I had an account on a (then) brand new PowerChallenge (simple user) with ~ 12 x R10k's
> and during the first year the system was down quite often because a CPU had failed.

Many probs with Onyx/Challenge boards tend to be cache-related. Whatever it was, I think it
must have been sorted by the time R10K/195 was used in Indigo2 because bad R10K I2 CPUs
are very rare. I think I've only ever encountered just the one over the years.


> 4D/35's were dangerously close to the limit, thermally speaking. Maybe an underclocked 40MHz
> chip ran a little cooler? Maybe they didn't have any 36MHz chips left at some point? Who knows ...

I can see it now, people overclocking the PS1s to 40MHz.

Ian.

My thanks to Jirka Tolvårige (omelett) for helping with this (he supplied the modified kenel file).

Here is an O2 with a dual-channel Adaptec 3940UW SCSI card, made possible by modifying the
adp78.o kernel file in /var/sysgen/boot. The replacement file is now available on my Depot Resources
page for download (backup the original somewhere before installing the new file).



By default the Adaptec card only has one of its channels presented externally, so to make use of it one could
simply route a cable from the other channel to an external socket rigged to fit in the slot normally occupied by
the 1600SW adapter or dual-head board, or one could cut the casing in some other manner. Using a simple
cable extender, I found that for an R5K system I had to cut away one of the thin metal strips from the edge
of the PCI tray (this is easy to do, just wobble it bac & forth with a pair of pliers and it will fall off), while for
an R10K system I didn't need to make any changes, though routing the cable must be done carefully so as not
to impede the cooling of the CPU.

Either way, this is a simple method of having better disk I/O, ie. three external channels for storage.

A warning though: be careful about buying a 3940 card as some of the ones advertised are not what
they seem, usually misdescribed by sellers. The card should look like this .

Cheers!

Ian.

radrob wrote: got two
so just time to wait come from canada and i'll try it out inside my o2's
thx all

I hope they're the right model!

Hey, with respect to your 600MHz O2, any chance you could run the Blender test on your
system please? I'd really like to know how it compares to an R12K/400 and the R7K/350. See:

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/blender.html

Test files:

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/depot/blender ... ips.tar.gz
http://www.eofw.org/bench/test.blend

Thanks!!

Ian.

I've bought hundreds of SGI and other items on eBay, but (any of you noticed?) I've
never sold anything on eBay. It used to be lack of time was the main problem, but for
the last year or so it's been because of concerns about security/fraud, and the way
eBay has changed its policies in recent months (the new feedback system, forced use
of PayPal, etc.) In Apr/07 I and eight other people fell victim to a fraud involving job
lots of AthlonXP CPUs that turned out to be junk (I lost about $400). It took months
and dozens of emails totaling 60000 words to get my money back, which really only
happened because (following PayPal's own dismissive advice) I eventually said ok,
I will indeed begin legal action. I figure at that point somebody finally bothered to
check on the things I'd been saying and realised that I would win any case I brought,
so PayPal gave me a full refund (not just the basic $200 one is normally entitled to).
Most of the victims didn't get their money back though; the fraudsters got away with
about $1500 I reckon.

However, last week a friend told me about eBid , an alternative auction site. Why
I've never seen this site mentioned before is beyond me. Either way, I read through a
lot of their online docs and IMO it's a much better service.

So, just to let you all know that I've finally felt able to put some of the mountain of
SGI items I have up for auction, but on eBid, not eBay. I'll still use eBay to buy
things (with care), but I will only use eBid for selling.

There are too many examples I could list to as to why eBid is better - just read the
online help FAQs , you'll see what I mean. Key thing is: no listing fees, just a final
value fee, yet even that is zero if one has the better 'Seller+' account and chooses
not to include a thumbnail image. Best of all, buyers have the option of paying by
Escrow , ie. 100% safe purchasing. One can still use PayPal to pay aswell (along
with the other usual methods), but the Escrow option means fraud should be much
less common - perfect for those buying something from a seller with a low rating,
or when buying something that is costly (would have prevented the fraud I fell
victim to last year). I especially like the option to have auctions whose countdown
durations do not begin until the first bid is made, and the option to have auctions
auto-extend for an extra 60 seconds if someone bids in the last 60 seconds. Much
fairer and it gets rid of a lot of the psychological nonsense that plagues the way
eBay auctions are done, ie. proper, sensible bids are encouraged in the first instance.
These issues and others are why I rarely bid on anything valuable that's in a different
country, whereas using eBid and Escrow is a much safer option.

It's also worth stating that eBid seems to be adhering to the law way better than
eBay/PayPal do. Their Q&A page on legal rights for buyers & sellers correlates
much more closely with all that I was told by UK Trading Standards, the police, etc.
when I was trying to sort out the scam I was hit with. eBid even refers to the UK
Sale of Goods Act, a piece of legislation which eBay/PayPal just ignored completely
despite my repeated complaints, the support of Trading Standards and even the
support of AMD UK. I find eBid's summary of rights and statement of what is & is not
acceptable to be very reassuring. I expect eBid sites for other global regions have
equivalent information listed.

Not many SGI items/sellers on eBid yet (just me atm I think), but I hope that will change.
Certainly for companies/dealers that sell SGI items on eBay, eBid would be way
cheaper. Note that I'm posting in this forum because it has a wider audience than
the For Sale forum. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've certainly been
burned on eBay in the past; not so often with SGI items, except examples such as
O2 systems that arrive in a zillion pieces, but many things I look for are common
to non-SGI systems aswell (SCSI disks, PCI cards, etc.) so I'm glad there is a
way to buy & sell items with a much greater degree of safety & assurance for
both buyer and seller. I remember last year I won an eBay auction for a 2GB RAM
kit for Octane that never arrived; it took ages to get the refund through PayPal,
whereas on eBid, paying by Escrow, that wouldn't have been a problem since a
seller is not paid until the buyer receives the item and confirms they're happy with it.
Right now, I'm in the middle of dealing with an eBay auction for seven 50pin disks,
only 5 of which work ok; I'm in the stage of waiting for a refund with all the usual
uncertainties, whereas via eBid/Escrow this would not be an issue [EDIT: I did get
the refund btw].

Oh, the list goes on. All I can say is, go have a look , and see you there! (I hope)

Cheers!

Ian.

PS. I have another half dozen or so items to add tonight, then more a the days go by.
The items I've listed so far are here . UK residents register here .

cybercow writes:
> but like any other politics this one sucks alota because is missing proper background for protecting
> modest buyers from cases like urs...

And of course PayPal have a reputation for simply locking accounts and grabbing the funds when
things go wrong. Worse, one's money is not protected anyway and it's very hard to get it back if
they lock an account (180 days or more). Many people have had their accounts cleaned out. I'm
sure you've read paypalsucks.com.

Since eBay won't allow sellers to state that buyers must cover the PayPal fees, IMO eBay is forcing
the use of PayPal because it means they end up winning twice on every auction - the eBay fees
and the PayPal fees (if the buyer pays by that method). Meanwhile, sellers continue to be charged
listing fees even if the item doesn't sell; by contrast, eBid has no listing fees at all and there is nothing
to pay if an item doesn't sell.


> p.s. what u are doing with $400 of athlonXP`s ?

(this was at a time when a 3200+ on its own would go for $140+)

Can't speak for the other buyers, but in my case I was looking for a Barton 2.2GHz 3200+ to upgrade my
brother's existing 2400+ PC. Each job lot consisted of 12 or 13 AthlonXP CPUs, mix of models, but
between two and four 3200+ CPUs were in each lot aswell. I expect everyone had the same idea: keep
one, sell the rest.

Every single chip received by all the buyers was faulty. One guy even had his mbd fried, and really
lost out as he'd bought two lots (don't know if he got anything back). Key thing is, the "Untested, sold
as seen" cop-out is not legal in the UK, according to Trading Standards, police, etc. PayPal just
ignored this for months on end, but I won eventually.

With Escrow payments, such a fraud could not happen. It was a clever fraud though, involving at least
two people (perhaps as many as 3 or 4) in two different countries.

Irony is, in the month following the scam, I was able to obtain a much better mbd/CPU/RAM bundle anyway
(Asrock Socket754 K8Upgrade-1689 with a 2.4GHz Athlon64 3400+) via the very economic route of
swapping a lowly GF4-MX440 AGP card for it all (my brother's old gfx card). I bought a better cooler, oc'd
the CPU to 2.74GHz (way beyond what a working Barton could have been pushed to), and bought a new
X1950Pro AGP to replace the MX440 (paid for by selling off a Dell-650 for 2X what it cost me). Got a 2GB
OCZ DDR400 kit off eBay, was faulty (seller was a creep), but had the kit replaced by OCZ under their
lifetime warranty (good bunch at OCZ btw). The final setup Oblivion/Stalker very nicely! Funny old world...

Btw, a friend tells me eBay is now booting off people who receive more than two negatives out of every 100
feedbacks. Seems like they're going full steam ahead with their to-hell-with-the-seller policies.


Meanwhile, I've had a bid on the Octane2 motherboard , so I'm happy, which is how one's existence
anniversary is supposed to be.

Ian.

andyjpb wrote: Happy birthday!

Thanks! I'm impressed you got that one, hehe...

Ian.

PS. Have sent off for my free eBid T-shirt aswell.

stuart writes:
> I've looked at eBid a few times - and the problem's always been that there's not actually anything of interest on there!

Depends what you're looking for. Recently a PS3 went for 140 UKP on eBid, so somebody was happy.


> I guess it's a critical-mass thing... but if enough people start to move to eBid, then I'd be more than happy to abandon
> eBay and PayPal!

I wouldn't say abandon is the right word; I will still buy things on eBay, but only very carefully. For me, the key point is,
having a lifetime account and not using a thumbnail image for auctions on eBid means the total listing cost is zero. If
one is listing a fixed price item, this is clearly very beneficial, and compared to eBay's fees will quickly pay for itself,
especially with respect to not having to pay anything on eBid if an item doesn't sell. For sellings items I'll only be using
eBid; I've already listed a few bargains . I have maybe another hundred or so to add, but it'll take a while.

I've asked eBid if there can be a dedicated SGI category. If they say yes, that will make having a thumbnail image
largely unnecessary, whereas at the moment on eBay searches for SGI bring back results for Stargate, Audi car parts,
Bosch drill components and other things. But even with a thumbnail image included, the final value fee is only 2 or 3
percent, there are no listing fees at all and nothing whatsoever to pay if an item doesn't sell. Note that by thumbnail I
mean the mini-image that's shown for each item in search results; each auction would still have its own full size image
of course.

In other words, using both sites is logical, but for something that's fairly specific like SGI items, eBid is a safer system by
far. None of eBay's crazy feedback changes would be necessary if they had an Escrow payment service. Clearly eBid
has a smaller viewership just now in general terms (which means genuine bargains if fewer people are looking!), but for
SGI items Nekochan is the main forum these days, so it shouldn't take long for people to learn there is a second place
worth checking. I will be updating my site pages to mention eBid, etc.

So far I've listed a couple of motherboards, RAM kits, Extreme set, etc. Got loads more to put up. The 1GB RAM
for Octane I've listed (4 x 256MB DIMMs, ie. two 512MB kits) has a 3 UKP starting price, no reserve, finishes 7 days
after the first bid is made; the RAM will work in all types of mbd for Octane. It's fairly typical of the kind of thing I will
be listing and I hope people will agree this is good value. Sure, eBay has lots of items, but what's the point when it's
full of auctions such as Octane2/Onyx/Origin parts with a tiny start price but a very high reserve (waste of time, eg.
on one occasion not a single item out of more than a dozen on offer from a particular SGI dealer met its reserve) or
fixed-price high-end systems at company-style prices? If systems like that do sell, they must be paying huge fees.
And of course, buying something valuable on eBay from a foreign country is a dodgy business, whereas eBid's
Escrow service makes it safe for both buyer & seller.

Ian.

noisetonepause writes:
> ... For anything that costs
> more than I can afford to lose, I really prefer to have a look first.

That's what eBid's Escrow payment option effectively allows you to do. The seller doesn't
get the money from the 3rd party (pppay.com) until the buyer is happy.

Buying things on eBay, whether via an auction or a fixed price item, has always been a
judgement of risk. The nature of the item, the seller's supposed reputation, where the seller
is in the world, how much money is involved, etc. As I understand it, Escrow removes much
of this risk. One can still make instant payments on eBid if preferred of course, including via
PayPal.

Ian.

Note that one does pay a fee to pppay.com for using the Escrow service, which is a fixed
99p no matter what the payment amount is.


rothers writes:
> In the case of eBid Escrow what triggers the release of the buyer's funds to the seller ?

See:

http://uk.ebid.net/help_payments.php

If the buyer isn't happy, they'd enter the details into the eBid/Escrow system (eBid uses pppay.com
for the Escrow service), which would mean the funds would not be released until the problem is
resolved, or at all if the buyer decides to have the item returned (and hence, safety for the seller, the
buyer wouldn't get their funds returned until the seller receives the item back ok, ie. better for both
parties in all ways). Note that eBid makes it clear on their legal page that, under UK law anyway, a
buyer is entitled to have the delivery costs refunded (how many eBay auctions say this?), though
the seller is also entitled to expect the buyer to cover the return delivery costs.

After the buyer has received the item, signed for it, etc., the Escrow service releases the funds to
the seller 24 hours later automatically if there have been no issues logged. The item must be sent to the
buyer using a trackable delivery service with proper insurance. Part of the procedure involves the
seller filing the tracking number with the Escrow system so that the delivery process can be followed
automatically.

Of course, if the seller is someone who the buyer trusts/knows/etc., then the delivery process can be
handled in whatever way the parties decide. The eBid FAQ says:




The pppay.com site has a more detailed explanation here , with some examples of how it works in
different scenarios.

Ian.

kramlq writes:
> In the EU, paypal is actually registered as bank operating from Luxembourg. AFAIK, only accounts held in the
> EU are under its jurisdiction.

Uh huh, Luxembourg, the home of honest banking. ;D

PayPal doesn't operate like a bank. Their terms & conditions mean you waive your normal rights and the sole
function of any employee that replies to any claim against a decision they've made is to simply say, "No."
See http://www.paypalsucks.com for plenty of horror stories. If you get scammed, they treat you like dirt, completely
ignore the law and any evidence you might present in your favour. Ye gods, for the item I was scammed on,
I had the very company that made the item (AMD) on my side, yet PayPal didn't care. Dozens of times my
requests for specific reasons & details of their decisions were ignored, as were my requests that I know the
full name of whoever it was I was dealing with each time. I could go on, the list of outrgaeous things they said
is huge. Like I said, it took me months and tens of thousands of words in emails to finally get my money back.
Real banks don't operate in such a dispicable manner; I should know, my fiance has worked for a proper
bank for more than 20 years, so I hear all the tales of woe.

And if eBay had an Escrow payment option, the feedback changes they've made would not be necessary,
because the seller pressure they cite as one reason for the changes wouldn't have been a problem in the first
place.


Btw, thanks to humble moi, there are now more normal auctions for SGI items on eBid UK than on eBay UK.
Update: my 1st auction, an Octane2 mbd , went for 5 UKP, so someone got a real bargain. My next two
auctions (1.5GB RAM, 6 x 256MB DIMMs for Octane) went for a total of 23 UKP to someone in Australia -
another bargain. Further items to list, XBow 1.4, Cherokee PSU, more RAM, etc.

Ian.

Jacques writes:
> V12...no reserve...£0.99 starting price!

Oh look, little piggies at 20000 feet!

Heh, if I listed a V12, I'd end up bidding myself! :}

It's unlikely I'll ever list items like V12 sets, etc. as ordinary auctions since they're worth too much to company
buyers (sold a V12 two weeks ago to a company in Hong Kong for $1K), but the items I'll list will still have
pretty low starting values, and BuyItNow prices no more than half the normal amount I'd sell them for. Just
listed some more items, see my advert in the for-sale forum.


ramq writes:
> rather a misconfigured(?) Apache webserver that denys access to any webpage on that site.

So it's the site itself that is at fault? I'm confused, how does that result in users in certain locations not being
able to access the site, while it works ok for everyone else?

Ian.

sybrfreq wrote: the whole global search thing would be interesting for craigslist... it is more like a big garage sale than something per se ebay or ebid.

I guess tha's why it didn't initially appeal to me, ie. I would want to search worldwide, and advertise worldwide, eg. this
week I'm sending three PSUs for Indigo2 to the Kingdom of Bahrain (Gulf Air Simulator Centre), a 1600SW to France, etc.

Thanks though!!

Ian.

ramq wrote: And I still can't access the site! Pity, cause I was in a buying-mood all of the sudden. Argh.

Not heard back yet on this, will enquire again today.

As for Escrow, as I understand it, the idea is that the seller isn't paid until the buyer is happy with the time,
ie. files the appropriate confirmation online and with eBid. I don't see how the seller can get round that.

And the funny thing about W.U. is that I've never had a problem with it. I guess it depends on what kind
of item is being sold, probably not so much fraud with SGI stuff.

Either way, the Escrow service makes perfect sense to me, though I do have the advantage of a prior
good reputation anyway.

Ian.

Indyboy wrote: ... but unfortunately the diamond of my collection is still missing

If it wasn't for the lack of working PSUs, I'd put a number of Indigos on eBid, low start, no reserve. I must have
nearly 30 Indigos, but nowhere near enough working PSUs, R3K or otherwise, so in my garage they must stay for
the moment. :\ ( pic 1 , pic 2 ; taken after new shelves purchased back in January. More Indigos are stored elsewhere)

I do have a number of CPU/gfx boards which I'll list soonish, but no systems to list until I can find some more PSUs.
That's a real problem with Indigo now: the TOD battery can be replaced, but finding more PSUs is a pain. However,
I heard from someone who's rigged up a normal ATX PSU inside the original PSU case, but it's a lot of work.

Ian.

I meant to say - ten years ago I started to put together a custom demo video of SGI and AliasWavefront material,
was to be a combination of many other demo videos collated onto a single 4 hour tape, with my own 5 minute
intro piece at the start. Alas, lack of time, work issues, etc. meant I never finished it (not yet anyway; will one day),
but I did create the first version of the 5 minute intro sequence, which in many ways nicely sums up some of the
things which over the years have made me an SGI fan. The movie file is on my UK site here as an early experimental
48.5MB DivX conversion (so apologies for any frame skipping; probably best played with a PC/Mac; current version of
IRIX mplayer with VPro doesn't like it so much). It's not the final version, and was at that point done with just VHS-
quality material while I worked out relevant techniques, etc. All done on an R5K/200 O2 using only the supplied video
tools (MovieMaker, dmrecord, etc.). Hmm, I should redo the DivX conversion I guess, was probably only DivX V3
back then.

NB: my mirror site in Holland has the movie file here , and the US mirror has it here . Enjoy!

Ian.

Arti77 writes:
> Hey Ian, that was a great reel you put together, pretty much sums it up. ...

Thanks!

How did the file play btw? What system did you use? I've not setup the codecs on my updated PC setup yet (new mbd
and gfx ), so I haven't done any further DivX work for ages.


> ... I can't wait to see the full one

Hehe, that might take a while. My O2 video setup is kinda disassembled atm, pending the construction of a custom O2 unit
with various upgrades (eg. Gbit NIC) and lots of 300GB drives. I just received a 48-port Gbit switch today, so getting
there slowly.


>... Do you have any more interesting video clips?

Loads. Hours and hours. I intend to capture & digitise all of them eventually. Quick check... must have about 35 vids
overall, from SGI & AliasWavefront demos through to system installation & training videos for Challenge/Onyx/Origin/etc.

Ian.

scottE writes:
> Say, you wouldn't happen to have an Alias|Wavefront promotional video for A|W's product line (includes PowerAnimator--7? 8? Can't remember)
> which includes interviews with Richard Edlund (Boss Film Studios), folk from DreamQuest and VIFX, would you? My copy is long gone, and I mourn
> that loss quite a bit.

Yup, got that, one of my favourites.


> It was a pretty distinctive tape. Had some mariachi music set to some wind-up Godzilla toys near the end, as well as the obligatory clips from vfx
> films scattered throughout (Casper, Species, and pretty much everything made up to that point).

I have their later demo videos aswell.

Ian.

Arti77 writes:
> Hey Ian, well played well on my core 2 duo work laptop, ...

Excellent!!


> ... I'll have to try it on my o2 R10 195 and let you know. ...

I suspect it will suck... (better on any VPro system, processed in hardware).


> ... Can't wait until you digitise them all. These videos are rare and are the only way we can travel back in time to relive the 'glory' days

Alas it has to wait until my time doesn't have to be taken up so much with earning a living. *sigh*


> Please let us know when you finish digitising some of them.

Wilco!

Ian.

rturja writes:
> Looks like they are for some reason blocking Sweden ...

I have an answer, but alas it's not good news for Swedish residents and those in various other
nations (seems that atm eBid is no panacea as a general alternative to ebay): I didn't realise eBid
was strictly only available to certain countries at the present time. The response from eBid was:



I said they should sort out a global launch in 2 months tops, not 2 years. :} And I said that at the
very least the site should be viewable from everywhere, even if the registration and use of the site
is limited to a subset of places. That way, at least anyone can see what the site is all about, even if
they can't use it. Kinda breaks the basic concept of the web IMO to have a hard block on certain
countries.

Oh well, my apologies to those in Sweden & elsewhere who would otherwise have been keen to use the
service to bid on my or other items. The only thing I can do to help sidestep this somewhat is mention
what my listed starting and BuyNow prices are when I post an auction advert. This won't help for normal
bidding (unless of course a fellow Neko member is willing to bid on their behalf, something I know that
already happens a lot with eBay), but if someone in a place like Sweden (or wherever) is happy to buy
something for the fixed price option, then as long as there have been no bids yet I can cancel the relevant
auction and just sell the item normally for the BuyNow price; those in nations where the eBid service is available
would have to purchase via the eBid system in the normal way of course. Until eBid is more widely
available, maybe this will help a bit. I'll update my auction advert just now...

Ian.

nekonoko writes:
> Then one day he died, and his entire collection went with him. None of it was stored on the Internet, so there were no
> mirrors. Lots of one of kind software sets are now apparently lost, perhaps forever.

I've heard of that happening before with print media; someone dies and their vast collection of whatever ends up being pulped.


> Not to be a downer (mortality is a touchy subject), I just hope that one day you do take the time to get these videos out there
> so they won't suffer a similar fate

Easy solution: I do one of those "Send 1 pound a month" adverts, for the Ian/SGI charity (sic), then I could work on all this stuff
and the site full-time instead of having to spend all my time covering the rent, etc. If everyone sent me 50c/week...

I've been planning on constructing a mega-O2 for a while, to do all this video archiving, but it's slow going. Most weeks I don't
have any spare time to work on it. The end setup will include an Octane2 with VPro + Octane Compression to deal with VHS
tapes of poorer quality (Cosmo2 handles bad signals better than O2 ICE). Last stage is my PC for final format video conversion,
which was the most recent thing I was able to work on (new mbd / gfx paid for by gf/family as it was my bday in May).

This planet spins too damn fast, at least for me anyway. Can hardly believe I obtained a quad-600 O300 in February but wasn't
able to finally cable it up & try it out until June...

Ian.

I managed to obtain a Netgear 48-port Gbit switch rather cheaply (GS748T), but it's surprisingly loud. Anyone
have some ideas about suitable replacement fans? They look like normal 4cm fans (rough measurement, I've
not opened the case), but by default are running at max speed. I'll never be using more than 3 or 4 ports
on the switch (for the moment) so the fast airflow is kinda overkill. Recommendations? Quieter fans I can use,
or a way of slowing down the existing fans? Or I suppose I could just disconnect 1 or 2 of them...

I want to link up some of my SGIs that have optical ports, but right now this thing's like having a miniature
hurricane in the room. It's not my main switch and will be off most of the time (main switch is a DLink
silent 8-port Gbit), but will be used whenever I'm accessing one of my SGIs that has optical Gbit.

Thanks!

Ian.

fieldframe writes:
> You did well!

Yup!


> ... Surely the moment you power up an Octane the noise of the switch becomes inconsequential.

Nope, it's much louder, perhaps because the fan noise pitch is a lot higher. Besides, my Octane2 is under
the desk at the back by the wall, so I don't really hear it that much.

Ian.

Dr. Dave writes:
> You can use a voltage-dropping resistor or diode in-line to slow the fans down. Also, don't overlook something like the Zalman Fan-Mate, ...

Thanks for all that! Come to think of it, I think I have a couple of those Zalman widgets, came with some Zalman fans I bought.

Cheers!

Ian.

Dennis Nedry writes:
> http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5299/ ... ?tl=g34c17
> http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5298/ ... ?tl=g34c17

Thanks for the info & links! I'll see if I can find a UK source for those items. However, I'd still like to replace the fans with
low-noise versions anyway if I can.

Ian.

schleusel wrote: Actually even 4 double precision FLOPs/cycle if you include the SIMD units i think (2 x87 + 2 SSE2/3), i.e. 48 GFLOPs/s theoretical peak for the 3GHz Quad Core.

And yet for some codes IA64 can be 100% faster than a 3GHz XEON. As always, it depends what you're doing.
Comparing based on peak fp ops is far too simplistic, way too many other issues involved, from cache to mem
bw, etc.

SPEC results show IA64 to be quite strong for fluid dynamics and QCD, easily beating XEONs with 2X higher clock speeds.
For other tests the XEON is better, still others about the same. Here's a table of results (not updated for since Jan/08, must
plough through the data again soon):




In the end though, cost is likely to be the deciding factor, just as it was for SGI, which would be ironic given it was
the IA64 programme which pretty much killed off SGI's future CPUs in the 1st place (staff moving to Intel, etc.)

Ian.