About the PC Vive banner on the main forum page

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rick752
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About the PC Vive banner on the main forum page

Post by rick752 »

The banner on the main forum page is for a project that Rich Sterling (this site's owner) is becoming involved with and testing for that company's developer. Rich is a systems tech for the State of New York. The banner really really isn't an ad ... it's more like a promotion for a project that Rich is involved with (figured I'd put that out there :) )

The following info is as I understand it ... I stand to be corrected :)

Rich (not to be confused with Rick) is very excited about this PC Vive HARDWARE technology for keeping systems clean at the boot level using an overwriting pre-boot function. It uses a pci card to 'capture' all the 'good' boot info at its binary level and load it during boot up. The hard drive boot sector can never become corrupt as the boot-up binary files can be 'overwritten from' or 'loaded as' a pre-boot function served off of the non-corrupt storage from the pci card (goodbye Sony-type rootkit problems?). I personally have never seen this kind of technology before, but he seems to think that it is amazing and talked about it with me last night.

This could end up becoming a new topic in these forums if Rich finds out that it does all it says it does. Rich now has a card to test and will be trying it for the developer soon. Any system tech people who would like to read a little about this technology can just click on the main forum page banner to see what it is all about.

... I am also a bit curious how it will work too. Sounds great on paper! Have to see how Rich evaluates it at first as he does stuff like this for a living.

You should be able to follow Rich's progress here:
http://www.richsterling.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3627
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
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rbsterli
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Post by rbsterli »

I just purchased a Compaq ProLiant server which I'll be using to host this site as well as fiddling with a few other site. Hopefully I'll receive it in time and it will be next weekend's project! It should run the forum much better than the 800Mhz Duron we're running on now :D

I got a really good deal on an older server on eBay. Not bad for $120, delivered...

Product/Model/Rev ProLiant ML330 Pentium(r) III 1133 MHz /A /Rev. A
CPU 2 Intel Pentium(r) III
Hard Disk Drive Compaq 18.2 GB 10K RPM Wide Ultra3 SCSI; 18.2 GB; Wide Ultra3SCSI
Host Bus Adapter Compaq Embedded IDE/ATA; ATA/IDE
Compaq Integrated Dual-Channel Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 Controller; Wide UltraSCSI
Video Adapter ATI Technologies Embedded 3D Rage IIC; 8 MB
BIOS D10 9/25/2001
Bus Type 1 PCI 32-bit/33MHz
4 PCI 64-bit/33MHz
Computer Type Mid Tower
RAM 2048 MB
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Sheepy
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Post by Sheepy »

I almost went to post the forum address as having missing ad. Glad I read this first. :D

Yes, that server is a bargan. I wish I had found a deal like that when I was fishing for mine...
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

Leave it to Rich to always find a great deal on eBay. Rich is the "master trader".

I bow in your presence "Master Rich" :D
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
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rbsterli
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Post by rbsterli »

Ahhh yes.. Master Trader.. But I am not an expert fisherman! (baitor)

:mrgreen:
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

I didn't see THAT one comin'. Looks like I set MYSELF up for that :lol:

ps Rich ... did you try the PC Vibe card yet? Is it "PC Vibe" or "PCVibe"?
P[ontia]C Vibe? :D
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
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rbsterli
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Post by rbsterli »

Not yet. Still waiting for the server to arrive. I was hoping to get it today, but hopefully tomorrow.

PC Vive - as in "revive"

If it doesn't come soon, I'll be installing it in a PC at work to do some testing as that was its first purpose. Problem is, I have nothing but a random desktop or server class machine to test it in and I'll get much more testing "results" by using it on an active machine.
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

PC Vive :roll:

Geez, I can't even remember the right letters. Duh!
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
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rbsterli
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Post by rbsterli »

Well, I haven't installed the PC Vive chip yet. As luck would have it, and without going into great detail, the server arrived Friday. Took it out of the well packaged box and booted it immediately to see if it was what I though it was going to be. Unfortunately, it was. I knew the ad and price had to be a little too good to be true.

Needless to say, it only came with ONE 1.0 GHz processor and 3438MB ram. Not the dual processors I expected and 2 gb RAM. Anyhow, I removed the (2) 20gb 7200 rpm Maxtor IDE drives and replaced them with (2) WD 400's both also 7200rpm. Then on side two of the controller I installed a single Seagate 40GB 7200 drive along with a Seagate 40gb 5400 drive. Configured it RAID 0+1 and now have a total of 80GB that us usable.

I went back on eBay and purchased (2) 256mb 133 Registered ECC ram chips for $38 with shipping. I mildly told the seller of all my woes and reminded her of my previous request prior to her shipping the server asking her to confirm the specs.

The specs she used to post the ad were copied fom another website based on product model, not this particular PC!! Anyhow, she was very understanding about it and she refunded my money for the cost of te RAM I just bought.

So, bottom line is it is on its way up and running now. Doing some OS updates and I even tested migrating the forum over to the new box earlier. All looks well..

That's all for now. I apologize for any brief outages as I switch over to the new box.

Rich
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