Throwing AMD Bulldozer A Bone
AMD - Bulldozer or Bobcat?
So the reviews are in, and it’s not a pretty picture. AMD Bulldozer has hit the street and reviews across the board show the new flagship CPU from AMD barely keeping pace with Intel’s “consumer tier” i5-2500k in performance benchmarks, while having the high end Intel i7 line of processors stomp it is almost every benchmark.
Tom’s Hardware had a retrospective on the AMD Bulldozer release and poised the question, “Did we expect too much from AMD Bulldozer?”. The writer takes the position that AMD marketing set expectations too high for performance and competitiveness in the marketplace by stunts such as the Guinness World Record for a processor hitting 8.4Ghz overclock.
So is it all doom and gloom for AMD? Can nothing positive come from the release of the AMD Bulldozer architecture? In this blog, my goal is to outline a couple important points we should all take from AMD Bulldozer and perhaps a give silver lining to the clouds currently gathering above AMD.
Did your Minecraft Redstone Circuit Stop Working?
Posted by eric in Uncategorized on October 5, 2011
I was playing Minecraft recently on a Survival Multi-Player (SMP) server running the latest Minecraft Beta (1.8.1) and noticed after I logged in that Redstone circuits that had been working fine previously had just stopped working. It appeared that the “NOT Gates” would stop working on the seventh cycle, at which point the “NOT Gate” would stop working and the Redstone Torch wouldn’t re-light.
I scoured the inretnets for a while and couldn’t find an answer, if only because the search term was probably tough to parse. An example being: “Minecraft NOT Gates not working” 
THAT BEING SAID, I finally was able to source a video by a user on YouTube by the name of “Moleculor” in which he demonstrates the same issue.
Luckily, this YouTube Video finally pointed to me at the official bug report on the issue here.
Essentially the issue is caused when a Server Admin uses the “/time set” command, which mucks with the internal timers when the time gets shifted. The only way to fix the Redstone circuits is to restart the server and to prevent it from happening again, your server admins will need to stop using the “/time set” command until this defect is fixed.
Hope this helps other folks out there as well.
Cheers! 
Why alternatives to Bitcoin are Pyramid Schemes
Scrooge loves alt blockchains
I’m sure you’ve all heard the news swirling around the usual Bitcoin (BTC) related news outlets that there are a myriad alternative Crypto-currencies available now (referred to colloquially as “alt blockchains”). Popular ones being IXcoin, I0coin and Solidcoin to name a few, all touting the reasons why users should jump the Bitcoin ship over to their new ark on the path to cash laden greener pastures.
So what’s the catch?
If you’re currently working, mining or trading on any of these Bitcoin alternatives and haven’t asked yourself that question, then please read on with an open mind. If you’re currently looking into these new alternatives but are unsure, I hope the information I’m able to provide gives you enough knowledge to make your own informed decision.
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Why the idea of FPGA Bitcoin Mining is stupid
Posted by eric in Bitcoin, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Opinion on August 23, 2011
SKYNET BITCOIN MINER: ONLINE
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) have been around for quite some time now and have seen wide deployment as a middle ground between utilizing an existing platform (ARM comes to mind) or investing to have a custom ASIC created. Since Bitcoin Mining has boomed, there has been whispers of a fabled “great FPGA grid” that was going to ruin the Mining marketplace and dominate the Bitcoin economy.
The problem is that FPGA’s are terribly inefficient. Let me explain why, then let you all in on a little secret.
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On the subject of Bitcoin and creating free Money
The All-MIghty Bitcoin (BTC)
I don’t want this blog entry to be about explaining Bitcoin (BTC), so I’ll point you folks looking for more information over to Wikipedia where they have a very in-depth article on the topic. What I will talk about in this post is a story of my involvement in the whole Bitcoin shenanigans that are happening on the net and where I think I’ll go with, or leave it.
In early June of this year I caught wind of Bitcoin really taking off through a friend who had started experimenting with solo mining using his CPU. At the time, I had thought nothing much of it and brushed it off as just another distributed project along the lines of SETI@Home or Folding@Home.
Over the course of a week or two, through bloggers and twitter feeds the whispers in the wind of Bitcoin had turned into a full on fog horn! Bitcoin was a modern day gold rush and if you weren’t in on it, you were missing out! The numbers at the time were ridiculous and it sounded like you’d be stupid not to get in on it. Earnings for miners being upwards of $2000 per month, people investing thousands of dollars in new hardware and obviously the news media coverage of the less glamorous use of Bitcoin… that of the drug trade through the Silk Road.
I didn’t want to be the last person to the party, so I jumped in.
Continue reading “On the subject of Bitcoin and creating free Money” »
Did LulzSec poison Google’s search results?
Posted by eric in Internet, Reverse Engineering on June 10, 2011
I was looking for some more information on LulzSec this afternoon and while poking around Google, my search results went funky (and albeit, more colorful than normal):
LulzSec poisons Google?
I thought this might have been some funny business either with my SSH tunnel or Firefox, but I was able to replicate the results using IE and a different proxy altogether:
LulzSec poisoned Google Results in IE
The poison itself looks like a CSS or Javascript injection where it creates a rainbow connected to the search button. The rest of the search results are skewed.
So essentially I was able to replicate the poisoned results multiple times across multiple browsers. You have to search for the term “LulzSec” and F5 until you happen to get the result. I imagine this is a case where the Google Index with the poisoned results hasn’t propagated across the ENTIRE Google farm yet, so you’ll have to play search results roulette until you get it.
This is either something weird going on at Google, or LulzSec is indeed the most badass group of hackers this world has ever known. Poisoning the Google Search results is like the Holy Grail of awesome hacks!
.NET Remoting and F5 Load Balancers
Posted by eric in C# Programming, Networking on April 6, 2011
.NET Remoting + F5 Load Balancer == *headdesk*
Some of the topics I post on here are usually only of my interest, but once in a while I’ll give back to the community on issues that had me ripping my hair out. 
Recently I was working on an application that utilized .NET Remoting to access the middle tier of the application through an F5 Load Balancer. For whatever reason, the .NET Remoting application kept dropping the connection with errors such as:
“An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host”
Through trouble shooting we were able to determine that it was definitely and issue with the F5 Load Balancer handling the connections being established by the .NET Remoting host.
We were able to resolve the issue by disabling the OneConnect profile on the F5 Load Balancer for the .NET Remoting VIP. Once the OneConnect profile was disable, the .NET Remoting application was able to hit the Remoting Service behind the VIP without issue.
Hope this helps anyone out there having the same issue!
Cheers!
Google TV — Another stop in my quest to find my Home Theater Unicorn
Posted by eric in Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews on February 21, 2011
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been using a home theater PC/Media player in one form or another over the last couple years to stream videos off my network to my home theater.
Devices I’ve used at length:
- HTPC running Windows Media Center
- Western Digital TV Live!
Both of those devices were OK, but I felt that both had their limitations. Either lacking in features or usability. Both required use of their own inputs on my home theater and thus, were not very well integrated into the whole experience. Issues such as occasionally having to plug in a keyboard to the HTPC to address an issue, or the Western Digital TV Live not having certain features, like a web browser or Netflix (which I believe the newer models have).
My only expectation for a HTPC/Meida player really are:
- Ease of Use
- Integration into Home Theater
- Ability to stream many media formats (up to 1080p) and play back smoothly
- Ability to stream online content (specifically, Netflix)
- Web Browser
I recently was in San Diego visiting friends and one of them had the new Logitech Revue Google TV based device hooked up! I was intrigued because I’m a bit of a gadget guy and anything home theater related immediately catches my eye. After poking around with it for a half hour or so, I decided once the funds became available that I would purchase one myself and give it a whirl.
What really set the Google TV apart for me is that it’s not just another home theater component, but more an extension of your current DVR/STB by living “in-line” between your STB and your Television. In my eyes, this is what makes it a more valuable addition to any home theater.
So let’s dive into my expectations and how they were met:
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ApocBot v0.0 — Open Source Magic Online Automated Trade Bot Released!
Posted by eric in C# Programming, Gaming, General Programming, General Software, Internet, Magic Online on December 11, 2010
For everyone who’s been waiting and searching, here it is:
ApocBot v0.0
ApocBot v0.0 — The First (not completely working) Open Source MTGO Trade Bot written in C#/.NET!
Now that the fanfare is over, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
What was with the delay?
The truth of the matter is that life just has a way of happening. My desire to play Magic The Gathering: Online waxes and wanes through the years and I started this project shortly after moving across the country. So you can say it was the product of my being bored in the evenings Over the course of a few months my interest in this project started to fade as I settled into my new job and had to travel a bit.
I had debated in my mind on how to handle the bot. I know over time it would be a maintenance nightmare as people would require support and updates, which is honestly why I decided to go Open Source with it. For some reason people feel that paying for software implies some form of support! In the end, I just stopped working on it because (a) MTGO is just a hobby, so I wasn’t looking to make money off the bot and (b) I didn’t want to have to constantly maintain and update the code to work with new versions/UI changes as they come out. That’s just the lazy bastard I am
That being said, I still feel this is an important project because it gives the community at large the ability to finally be more open about automation on MTGO (and possibly other games).
So what shape is the code currently in?
Out of the box, the code isn’t going to work. I’ll go into the details below on why/what needs to be updated to get it in running shape.
Other than updating some of the code to work with any UI/screen changes, it should still work pretty well! I know it worked the last time I tried to use it (six months ago?).. so I’m sure with some TLC, someone can get it up and running again.
And it’s free?!
Yep! Anyone is free to download and use the code for ApocBot in their own Magic Online Trading Bots as long as they adhere to the BSD License terms. If anyone is feeling giving, links back to my blog and some Magic Online gratitude would be appreciated! (My MTGO user name is “WndrBr3d“)
Download:
ApocBot and the source code are released under the BSD License. Please review the included “license.txt” file for terms and conditions. For more information on the BSD Licenses, click here.
ApocBot v0.0 (Source)
Requirements: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0
And now.. the very rough technical details on how it works…
Continue reading “ApocBot v0.0 — Open Source Magic Online Automated Trade Bot Released!” »
6 Reasons the new AppleTV is a Floppy Turd
Posted by eric in Apple, Multimedia, Opinion on September 1, 2010
New AppleTV
I’m not an Apple insider nor have I actually used the new AppleTV which was revealed today by Steve Jobs. What I am though is an avid user of multimedia devices on my Home Theater. My current toy of choice is the spectacular Western Digital TV Live!, which literally plays everything*.
So I was a bit excited today to hear that Apple was rolling out a new model of their somewhat lame duck that is AppleTV. What they delivered was a big, fat, floppy turd on the chest of everyone at the conference. I was let down during the demonstration and even more let down after actually reading the technical specifications posted to Apple’s site.
And on that note, I present my Six Reasons why the new AppleTV is a Floppy Turd.
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