I’ve moved everything over to Linode.com because Redwood Virtual never responded to my second email (see my earlier post about my troubles with them). Fuck them, if they can’te ven respond to my emails they don’t deserve my business. So far, Linode offers 1000% better tools and much better visibility into what the physical machine is doing (load level graph for the machine, console access to my virtual machine, etc).
A must read by David Wong and Haimoimoi: A Gamers’ Manifesto. He goes into detail about many frustrations almost all gamers have experienced with things gamemakers do. Even with its long length, it will keep you well entertained with lots of witty quips and insightful observations about the gaming world.
Exciting stuff happening here at ClintSharp.com. I can finally announce to you that Akimbo will be syndicating my videoblog content. This is incredibly exciting! It’s been a pleasure working with the people there. I’m expecting a demo unit sometime in the near future, so I’ll let you know what I think about the service. Rocketboom, Steve Garfield, and Shai Coggins of Freshwave.TV were also picked up in the first round. Look for them to expand their videoblog content greatly in the next few months. Videoblogs on TV, check! What’s next?
Alright, so I coughed up the money. Personal money. I need an employer that’ll pay for this shit. Anyone hiring? 
Can’t wait to see Eric Rice, Steve Garfield, and Sean Gilligan there, among others. It should be a blast. I’m also fortunate enough to not need to travel. If anyone needs transportation while you’re here, let me know.
If you’re not reading Rick Segal’s Post Money Value, you should be. Every time I click on his feed I read something incredibly insightful. Today, he was writing about his friend Matt’s experience with Independence Air. He talks about empowering employees to be innovative and make deals. I only wish an airline would do this. They’d win my business for life.
For some reason ANT for the Mac seems to lock up randomly depending on whats in my feed. Based on earlier research, changing just about anything about the feed corrects the problem, so I’m trying a test post to see if this corrects it.
The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. This is a drive into Seattle day before yesterday.
Virtualization as a technology is incredibly empowering. Currently, a lot of hardware sitting in corporate datacenters is sitting mostly idle (by some estimates, 80% of all processor cycles in large corporate datacenters go unused). The reason for this is mainly administrative. For instance, in my case, I could easily host almost all of my services on a larger 8 way or 16 way machine with storage on the SAN without affecting what’s probably a mostly idle machine purchased by another department, but there’s no way for us to functionally share administrative duties on that machine, so instead I’m forced to buy a series of smaller 2-way machine to break up the administrative load (meanwhile, they have larger budgets and they purchase the larger machines and leave them mostly idle). What this has done is cost the corporation what amounts to probably a 30 to 40% premium on hardware merely to solve the administrative burden of having me administer my machines and another administrator administer his.
I probably don’t need to expound upon the benefits of virtualization both from a management and resource utilization perspective. Basically, it stands to revolutionize the way hardware is provisioned. It’s the basis for the utility models that HP, Sun and IBM have been selling us (ineffectively, due to large overarching marketing efforts that try to sell us “Grid Computing” or “Adaptive Infrastructure” or “Utility Computing”, which even to most people at the companies selling those ideas means nothing).
Currently, in the commodity hardware virtualization space, which is completely different from what IBM and Sun are selling on their high-end UNIX machines, the solution has largely been VMWare ESX. I haven’t used their product, but I’ve been told it’s excellent. Microsoft has entered this space with Virtual Server 2005. Microsoft’s solution is based around a host OS of Windows 2003, and requires a CAL for every client accessing a virtual machine in Windows 2003 as well as a CAL for the Guest OS. OS Licenses for the Guest OS instances are also required.
With all the licensing required to consolidate machines on Virtual Server, with Microsoft winning dollars on the Host OS and the Guest OS, why does Virtual Server cost money at all? They’re going to make money on the additional Host OS CAL for every user accessing a virtual machine. Virtual Server technologically is still inferior to VMWare ESX’s Hypervisor micro-kernel based approach to virtualization. Virtual Server guest machines are limited to one processor, which is quite limiting if you’re planning on true consolidation. With these limitations and costs, Microsoft should give away Virtual Server 2005 free with a licensed copy of Windows 2003 Server, thusly encouraging adoption of virtualization, reducing hardware expenses for lightly used machines, destroying the low-end market for server virtualization that really shouldn’t exist anyways, and giving the higher market to VMWare while they improve Virtual Server. This would immediately remove the barrier to entry to virtualization and solve a lot of administrative issues at a lot of companies.
Six hours or so for 35 seconds of video. It was well worth it I think. I’m pretty proud of this. Let me know what you think and tell me if I should be or if it’s total crap (I’ll accept either answer, or anything in between). I’m hoping to use this when it comes time to promo clintsharp.com. Eric Rice was my inspiration for this clip. His 38 second promo video for his podcast rocks.
My wife did a hysterical birthday video for me. If you don’t watch and read her blog, you should.
I think I made a mistake in choosing hosting providers for my Linux Virtual Machine. Currently, as you can tell if you visit my actual site, my site is performing incredibly poorly. It’s been better today, but there’s someone on the same physical machine as I am (or multiple people) who are sucking the physical processor dry. Doing simple things like removing files can suck up the processor for seconds at a time, leaving the website and email unresponsive.
I chose Redwood Virtual as my hosting provider because they were cheap. I suppose that was my first error. I’ve always been a believer in you get what you pay for, but in this case my expectations were not high. My site is not high-traffic, I run email for 3 active users. I could run this on a P200 just fine, but I’m not even getting that kind of performance. Very frustrating.
Here’s the email I received back from, two days, after I sent it. Obviously, the bar for customer service is pretty low there.
Clint Sharp
wrote: Hello,
I’m again experiencing very poor performance on my LVM. Last time, you told me I was probably swapping, which I am, but not enough to make it the problem that I’m experiencing. One web page load is currently maxing out my CPU for 30 seconds or more. I’ve done everything I can from the web server side to maximize performance (caching on Wordpress, etc), but there’s nothing I can do if the CPU is behaving like low-class pentium. Obviously, this must be because I’m fighting for resources with other LVMs which are using more than their fair share of processor (or perhaps I’m using more than my fair share, I’m not sure, this is my first Virtual Machine experience). I’d be happy to upgrade to the $20/mo LVM if it would improve my service (it would eliminate the swapping issues I do have, which would help performance, although, with the amount of swapping I’m having now, it wouldn’t help much).
Pentium performance is probabaly what people get on a shared Xeon.
If upgrading is going to cause much downtime, please let me know, as I’d like to know before you do it.
I don’t think upgrading will help much. Other people run web sites with no problems. I don’t know much about wordpress, but if it is doing disk writes on every page load (ie, caching), that is probably more of a detriment than a benefit.
To maximize performance on a shared server like this, it is best to keep disk writes to a minimum and use the CPU in spikes, instead of at a constant rate.
Keep in mind that if you _or_ others continuously load the CPU, then your (or their) particular virtual server is limited CPU wise - so, the rule is simple, if someone plays nice and doesn’t harm others’ performance,
then the performance of your server is also not degraded.Sincerely,
Jeremy Goldstein
support@redwoodvirtual.com
http://www.redwoodvirtual.com
As you can see, I offered to spend more money with them, but apparantly more money does not equal better performance. This is my response from them. I guess I shouldn’t expect something for another couple of days (heaven forbid they actually respond and give me a chance to make a decision before the end of the month and they automatically bill me again). I’ve removed the portions where I was responding to him line by line, as the majority of the content was at the end of the email.
Exactly my point! I play nice. I have no extensive CPU intensive tasks running other than log analysis, which runs every day during the evening while I’m asleep. In every interaction I’ve had with your support organization, you’ve simply brushed me off. You must assume that all your customers are some sort of newbies, but I’ve been administering UNIX-like systems for 10 years. I know what I’m doing.
Is this what you call customer service? Thankfully you didn’t use the “you’re probably swapping” excuse your company used the last two times I complained. I have absolutely no facts to give you other than my experience on my VM, but the performance sucks and you don’t seem to care. I have no tools to tell me what the physical machines statistics are, and I have doubts that you have any tools to tell me what VMs are using what portions, because if you did I think it’d be in your interest to make sure people are playing nicely so customers like me won’t think you’re offering a poor service. Your response basically told me that somebody might be using more than their fair share of the CPU, but you don’t know, and it’s obviously too late to check because you took two days to respond to my email. I ran this exact same software configuration (except for some minor differences) on a Pentium III 600 for well over a year before I moved the service here. I was sharing the machine with two other friends (shared root) and their services, and never once did the site I’m running for web and email ever come close to even using 5% of the CPU continously. Based on my experience there and my experience here, I’m getting incredibly poor performance. I’m not asking for much, but if I’m getting the equivalant 100 mhz guaranteed of CPU I’d be surprised.
I’ve offered to pay you more money to improve the service and you’ve basically told me that won’t help. Paying you for a higher class of service doesn’t put me on a machine where I share the CPU with less virtual machines? Do you have any options for me that don’t involve switching my stuff to another service?
Honestly, I don’t know if you’re the owner or you can speak with absolute authority for your organization, but it took you TWO DAYS to respond to this email. I’m not expecting world-class customer service for what I’m paying, but a response in 24 hours isn’t too hard to manage I wouldn’t think. If you have a superior, I’d definitely like to speak with him before I go shopping for some other service. I suppose I get what I pay for, and I went with the cheapest option available, but you have far underperformed my already low expectations with totally poor customer service. You could have easily made up for my problems with the service by actually seeming to care. Please put me in contact with your superiors if you have them, if you don’t then please let me know so I can start shopping for other options.
Clint
One thing I neglected to mention is that I do Wordpress development on a G3 300 running Gentoo (and before you say something, no I barely compiled anything on it, so I’m not doing it for super-l33t optimization). It runs things significantly better than this VM does. Anyone who reads this actually use a Virtual Machine provider? Unfortunately, I like to control my own destiny so to speak in terms of software, so I’m looking for somewhere that offers me a Linux or other UNIX-like (BSD, Solaris, etc) virtual machine at around $20 a month. Any recommendations?
It had to happen. I’ve been harping on about this for a couple of days on the list, and I figured it was time to do a Vlog entry about it. Use media how it works best, and lets make sure the tools fit that. Sorry it’s so choppy, I apparantly say “you know” a whole fucking bunch, so I relentlessly cut that phrase out.
I found out about this site from Steve Garfield’s post on Off On A Tangent. These guys are really trying to be hip and cool, but honestly it’s pretty retarded. I’m not on their list (wouldn’t expect to be), but just because you create a list doesn’t mean anyone will care. I’ll go on record as saying they’ll be largely ignored, but of course, I could be wrong.
I’m not much into podcasting, but this could still be pretty cool.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed a few things around here. For one, I’m no longer Typhoon.org, I’m ClintSharp.com! I spent a long time thinking about things over the last week, after David at Mediatuner brought it up to me, that I really should be branding my online presence under my name, instead of Typhoon.org which means nothing. I considered it, forgot about it, considered again for about an hour, decided he was right, and here we are at ClintSharp.com. All the links to typhoon.org will still work, both the sites are the same. I spent far more time redoing the theme for the site. It’s a modified Kubrick (default Wordpress) theme. I already got one email saying they liked it and wanted to know where they could get it. I guess I should publish it somewhere.
I hope you enjoy it here. Vlog entry containing my deliberation process will probably be up tonight.
Secondly, I’m going to start posting entries to the blog for my readers that aren’t into video in the Watch This category, pointing them to interesting Vlogs I watch. I figure these people should probably be getting some link love from me, and I’m on a quest to encourage videobloggers to not forget about old-fashioned text blogging.
Thirdly, I know the site is gawd-awefully fucking slow right now. Sorry. I’m working with my provider, Redwood Virtual to make it suck less. I’m sure they’ll come back and just tell me I’m swapping again, because they give me no credit for administering UNIX boxes for the last 10 years. They assume, like all tech support people, that I’m a fucking moron and pass me off with nary a bit of help. I’m going to try upgrading to the next highest class of VM before I go looking for someone else. I may move the site over to DreamHost or something else and leave the email and stuff here. I sent them an email two hours ago and still haven’t seen a response though, so things aren’t looking too good for them. Something tells me they don’t get Web 2.0 and immediate customer feedback. Of course, I did go with the cheapest hosting provider available…
OK, so everyone’s writing about it. Google has launched a new homepage/portal project, akin to My Yahoo.
Google isn’t a content company. This is pretty obvious by taking a look at their homepage. Obviously, it’s in the early stages, but let’s all be honest with ourselves. Why does everyone love Google so much? Sure, they do search well, and they’re developing cool web-based applications, but a personalized homepage is a content-based exercise. Yahoo is the leader here, and I think Google has quite a ways to go before they catch up.
I think the more interesting piece in this announcement has to do with the melding of labels for Internet companies. A year ago, Google was a search company, Yahoo was a content company and Microsoft was a software company. Now all three are becoming Internet companies, with the lines between the three genres blurred beyond distinction. This is the beauty of the free market at work, and we as consumers can just sit back and watch as our lives are improved by these three companies throwing all their efforts at beating each other out for our attention. Whichever company you find yourself backing, you’re still a winner.
But for now, there’s not much to see here. If you want a personalized home page, use My Yahoo and wait until Google improves.
So, I use Bloglines to do all my text-based feed reading (for video, I use FireANT). However, I’ve tried left and right to find my feed in their directory, and I’ve been unsuccessful. Can anyone else find me? I’ve tried searching for “Clint Sharp”, clint sharp (no quotes), Typhoon.org, etc. Typhoon.org I’ve decommissioned just recently, so it should still be there. I don’t know, I’ve never been able to find anything in their search. So far, it’s returned nothing relevant. For relevance, I go to PubSub and Technorati, how about you?
Mark Cuban suggests charging a tax on copyright holders to help mitigate court costs incurred by the taxpayers for copyright enforcement. He makes a strong case. If you don’t read Mark Cuban, you really should. It’s easy to see why he’s been so successful. Some Support for the RIAA - A Music Tax - Blog Maverick
Looks like Matt got iMovie working to import the video from his camcorder. Who knew it, he can actually sing! Check this out: Real Matt: At the Ballpark
I just read Rick Segal’s post The Anatomy of Noise (link originally both from Scoble’s blog and Winer’s blog). This whole thread starts with Amit Malhotra quoting Steve Ballmer as saying RSS isn’t the end all and be all (it’s actually not). It escalates with Dave Winer saying:
Ballmer, Ballmer, Ballmer, just when I was beginning to think that Microsoft possibly saw the benefit in working with the rest of the world, he sprays a thick coat of FUD on RSS.
Too simple? Feh.
Scoble responds in his normal jovial way. At this point, I figured things were pretty much over. It wasn’t that interesting to begin with. It only really got interesting with Rick Segal’s post. I first want to point out a fallacy with Rick’s logic. Rick says:
1. Somebody writes something they heard from CEO. Not verified yet.
2. Still unverified, employee comments and cranks it up a notch. That’s strictly my opinion of Scoble’s comments regarding what Ballmer knew, who he talked, and the witty ‘come on channel 9′ invite. You have to read it and be your own judge of his style.
This is missing an important key step. Dave Winer, who’s well read, pointed everyone to Amit’s post (I believe he got it via Steve Rubel, who’s also well read, to give credit where credit’s due). At this point, there’s no controlling the conversation. People like me, who aren’t incredibly well read (I’m much more watched than read), could link to this and add the same commentary as Dave Winer and not receive close to the same reaction. At this point, Scoble has to respond, or everyone’s going to be having a conversation about Microsoft without anyone from Microsoft being involved at all. In the zero day PR world of the blogosphere, if you’re not out there responding, you’re much more likely to take a huge hit than if you can help be part of the conversation, especially if you’ve got someone like Robert Scoble out there writing for you.
And finally, I’d like to point out that this conversation, which I had been following, was largely uninteresting up until this point. The only reason it even reached the point where Robert Scoble was interested was because of Dave Winer’s personal attachment to anyone’s comments where someone might insinuate that RSS isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. In my opinion, Ballmer misses the simplicity point of RSS, but I think he responds the same way any CEO should, with moderation. Rick could have chosen a dozen other interesting conversations from Robert in the last month alone to choose, but I think he chose this one because of his obvious attachment to Dave Winer. His analysis throughout the entire article is tempered by obvious admiration for Dave, and I think attempting to pass off defending your friend as an objective analysis of the dangers of “Corporate Blogging” and transparency is shameful. I’m obviously defending Robert here, but I’m at least being honest about my intentions.
Also, in my defense, if you made it this far, I just read all of Scoble’s post (I originally clicked on the link to Rick’s post and started my response) and I see he said a lot of what I’ve said here. It’s 4 AM, my points are valid, and I don’t feel like rewriting. Sorry if it seems as if I’m just toeing the Scoble line, but I actually did write this stuff without reading his first.
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