Imagine It Productions Blog
The PC Builder, The Gamer, The Developer
Doubleshot Monday/Tuesday – Automation & Tips
Nov 23rd
Today is a combined Automation Monday and Doubleshot Tuesday Tips. So, without further ado, here’s a small, but very useful automation tool for your home.
Home Security Made Easy
This week, I set up the webcam atop my HDTV as a security camera. This was very simply accomplished via the software Yawcam (Windows only), and very easily monitored using Dropbox. Yawcam gives you the ability to upload a picture on an interval to a file server, FTP a snapshot, allow seeing the image over HTTP to a web browser, stream the webcam in a web browser, and even allow for motion detection.
Since the file, FTP, and HTTP are more for simple viewing, I’ve turned those features off. The streaming and motion detection are what make this software perfect for security. The streaming can be received by the client browser either by Javascript refresh or Java Applet. The motion detection has a lot of intuitive features including sensitivity and threshold where it can take action. Yawcam can drop a snapshot in a folder when the threshold is reached and can also email the notification. If you combine this functionality with Dropbox, you can get the pictures on your phone/computer from anywhere, and an email will let you know that your webcam has detected motion. The scheduler for this app helps to make sure you don’t have unwanted pictures flowing into your Dropbox at hours when you may be home.
The only drawback is the inherent insecurity of the streaming server. It has password security, but without any SSL certifying built in, which means no encryption. To solve this issue, if you are brave enough, you will need to set up an SSH server to which you can log into and forward the port that the server is running on (research more on SSH port forwarding). This will give you the desired encryption so that no one can eavesdrop on your home security cam. For more on this automation idea head over to Yawcam’s site. [Yawcam]
Doubleshot Tips for Tuesday
- Black Friday tip – look out for the good online deals. Many start around the same time brick & mortar stores do, but from the convenience of your home. Get online early and start clickin’! [Newegg]
- Game console/Router tip – most routers these days come with Universal Plug and Play functionality which your game console needs to easily see past the router’s inherent firewall properties. Make sure you can find the functionality on your router and activate it for faster gaming.
Computer Builders’ Friday – The “Core” Upgrade
Nov 19th
This “core” is not to be confused with the 2003 thriller in which Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank try and restart the Earth’s core. That was far less exciting than this topic, of course. This core refers to your computer’s core parts, or your CPU, motherboard, and memory.
Though, one could argue that every part in a computer is an integral piece in making it work, the core is usually separated from the rest simply because upgrading it yields the largest increase in performance without necessarily needing to upgrade any other individual part.
Things not to look out for
The PCI Express video card has had the same slot attachment for the past 5 years (even after 2.0 release which is backwards and forwards compatible) with no immediate changes to the specification in sight. The power supply usually relies on what video card(s) and hard drive(s) you decide to use. And the video card, hard drive, and optical drive are fairly interchangeable in any computer today.
Match it up
The secret to the core upgrade is matching all 3 components to each other correctly, and matching the motherboard to the components that you aren’t upgrading right now. You’ll want to take into account that you will probably need a new OS installation (whether it be re-installing Windows 7 or Ubuntu Linux, for example), so backup NOW and often. It’s rare that you will be able to keep your current OS when switching between a number of different chipsets and drivers; conflicts can occur among certain combinations.
Things to look out for
You will want to make sure that the pin type matches between the motherboard and CPU. For instance, an LGA 1366 pin Core i7 CPU must be put onto a LGA 1366 pin motherboard. In terms of price point, be aware that small amounts of frequency increase (e.g. between 2.4GHz and 2.63GHz) are not worth the extra $$. A larger number of cores and amount of L2 cache, however, is worth it. Many know the benefits of quad and even hexa-core processors already, but L2 cache is the second-in-line memory bank your system hits and is about 20x less latency than regular DDR RAM (Gustavo Duarte).
As for memory, type must match (DDR2, DDR3, etc.), channel requirements should match (dual channel or triple channel), and it optionally needs to be able to handle the default speed requirements of the motherboard (e.g. 1066MHz) for optimal performance and stability. Make sure to reference your new motherboard for the qualified vendor list (QVL) of supported memory vendors and models.
There’s a number of considerations for the motherboard, as this is the master controller for the computer. Chipsets, on-board video (or not), GPU slot(s) with Crossfire and/or SLI, SATA and IDE ports, and external port needs are all items that need to be examined before upgrading. Make sure to have enough USB ports and/or headers, if you want them to hook up to the front of your case. Also, within the last six months, USB 3.0 has come to the commercial scene. Many new motherboards now come with a couple of these ports. As for video, If you already have a video card, make sure to search out a motherboard with no on-board video and at least one PCI Express x16 slot. Audio is a consideration, as well. If you can live with on-board audio, most have it, but if not, then make sure you either have a PCI or PCI Express x1 slot for an audio card. Finally, make sure you find a board with enough SATA ports and IDE channels to serve your hard drives and optical drives.
When performed correctly, the core upgrade can be the best performance boost for your computer, and does not require a lot of money to accomplish. A modest core upgrade today could be as cheap as $400 without needing any additional hardware. Consider that the next time you say, “hey, my computer is just too slow.”
LAMP Thursday – SNI
Nov 18th
Recently, my company decided to point two different domain names at the same web server with two separate SSL certificates. Normally, Apache can handle such requests as long as certain requirements are met. These requirements include:
- Having each domain name point to 2 different IP addresses on the same computer. This also requires having two different network cards on the same computer.
Listen 80 <VirtualHost 172.20.30.40> DocumentRoot /www/example1 ServerName www.example1.com </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 172.20.30.50> DocumentRoot /www/example2 ServerName www.example2.org </VirtualHost> - Having each domain point to the same IP, but to different ports (for instance, 80 and 8080).
Listen 80 Listen 8080 NameVirtualHost 172.20.30.40:80 NameVirtualHost 172.20.30.40:8080 <VirtualHost 172.20.30.40:80> ServerName www.example1.com DocumentRoot /www/domain-80 </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 172.20.30.40:8080> ServerName www.example2.com DocumentRoot /www/domain-8080 </VirtualHost> - SNI or Server Name Indication [SNI]
You can obviously rock a wiki on this term (I even gave you the link above), but I’ll at least point out here a small definition and the application of SNI to our server. Server Name Indication is the ability of the server and client to map two separate domain names with two different SSL certificates to the same IP address on the same port (i.e. IP address 192.168.1.100, port 443).
Normally, this situation wreaks havoc on web servers, and they are forced to ignore the separation and serve up the first SSL certificate it sees in a configuration file. However, if you navigate to the domain that does not match that default certificate, the browser will give you an SSL error (see below).
When Apache released their HTTP Server version 2.2.12, the software auto-corrected this issue, but it takes a while for browsers, especially old and unsupported ones, to catch up, if they ever do. KDE Konqueror, IE on Windows XP, Safari on Windows XP, Windows Mobile older than 6.5, and namely Blackberry browser (all versions) suffer from this issue.
The main concern for my company is Blackberry Browser, as we have just started working on a mobile version of our website which uses the SSL certificates. Our only other option is to use #1 from the list above. This alternative is advantageous because it will also provide some redundancy to our system, as well.
It took me a little while to research this on the Internet, even in our Google-infested day and age. I hope this helps anyone with a similar issue, or even anyone just looking to learn more about Apache.
Cheers!
A New Agenda – Daily Tech Updates
Nov 18th
After much consideration, I want to reboot this blog into something I update daily with small fun facts or little hints for anything technology, since that is my specialty. My hope is that you can at least find one day out of the week you might want to read it (see Monday’s topic, for instance), and so enrich your life with my ramblings. Here’s the schedule (not set in stone, but I wanted to at least start to formulate a plan for this):
- Monday – Automation in Daily Life
Information about simply making life easier. From setting up your webcam at home as a security camera to using your phone as a remote to your TV. - Tuesday – “Doubleshot” Tips
It’s your (and my) chance to shout out technology tips to people. If you got any, send them my way, and I’ll post 2 of the best ones. [syardumi at gmail dot com] - Wednesday – Mobile Devices & News of the Week
I know everyone has something to say about their favorite mobile device whether it be iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, or other, if you don’t prefer the popular devices. This is also a blerb about any BIG news of the week that needs discussion. - Thursday – LAMP Server
This could be a bit advanced for a few, but if it’s your cup of tea, you won’t be disappointed. LAMP Server (or Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP Server) is the term used to describe a server built on a Linux operating system using Apache Webserver, MySql Database, and PHP Scripting. In layman’s terms, a server used to host a website or any other information for the entire Internet . I’m hoping to show some tidbits on the entire range of those 4 items. - Friday – Computer Building
A big passion of mine is building computers, as it is with many tech junkies out there. Keeping up with the latest and greatest hardware can be at least difficult, if not daunting. This day will try to make sense of the constantly changing hardware world in which we live. - Saturday/Sunday – Anything We Want!
It’s a free-for-all! Anything we want to talk about is on the table. It’s a chance to catch up on the week’s happenings, or just talk about how awesome Big Bang Theory was last week.
So, let me deviate from the schedule and start today, “LAMP-day”, with News of the Week followed by a useful LAMP tip.
Apple announced on Tuesday at 10AM EST that The Beatles are now on iTunes! If you hadn’t already decided that they sound better on vinyl, you are in luck. The Abbey Road Four came to iTunes just in time for Apple to make a whole lot of cash before the year closes. From Gizmodo:
It’s the Beatles Box Set which is the big one. With 256 songs, documentaries, and other videos (including their first-ever US concert), it costs $150, which must be the priciest purchase on iTunes. Other albums, including Help!, Abbey Road, and my favorite the Magical Mystery Tour, cost $12.99, with the songs available for individual purchase at $1.29 each.
AT&T has caught up with the rest of the mobile carriers, and now offers a Mifi for getting your Internet anywhere…well anywhere they have a cell tower. And by judging by my iPhone reception, this idea is a day late and
[AT&T]
The Kinect, Microsoft’s new “controller” for Xbox 360, was hacked this week. For an informative article on how to hack it yourself, check this out: [Hack Kinect]
Since this post has gotten long already, I’ll post up Thursday’s LAMP fact in a couple hours. Stay tuned.
