CardMeeting Dispatch

Huzzah cardtacular CardMeeting users,

I just finished my purchase order for the new CardMeeting hardware!

Ooh, exciting times! I've finished the hardware research I started at the beginning of the year and just put in an order for the first node of the new CardMeeting ultra-dense computing cluster! The focus of this cluster is storage, storage, and more storage using cheapo hard drives.

Green computing is also the name of the game here. The hardware I am selecting barely needs cooling fans, it draws so little power and generates so little heat. I'm not much of a tree hugger myself and my love of Gaia isn't behind my choices. The reason I'm sipping instead of gulping power is because I'm still operating CardMeeting in homebrew mode. As such, I still need to be able to develop and test my cluster hardware using residential power systems. I'd prefer not to blow any transformers on my street or have a 4-digit power bill every month, hehehe!

The other reason I choose vastly underpowered servers is sortof a deeper philosophical cheapskate one. I recognized around 2003 or 2004 that the budget/commodity hardware available at that time was far more powerful than the servers running (big!) internet sites in 1999. Moore's law and economies of scale were laying fine internet server hardware in my hands! Additionally, since 1999 new programming techniques coming into vogue like Comet and non-blocking IO were allowing me to more efficiently leverage the CPU and network than the 1999 programmers typically could. The bottom line, it's feasible for a cheapskate goofball like me to host more and more concurrent users with less and less costly hardware resources as time wears on.

So, would I like to build a hydroelectricity-powered WoldiePlex mega-cluster with P4's and SAN's and a bunch of those big reel-to-reel tape drives that spin back and forth all the time? Of course, that's a sexy rig that I can show off to all my geek friends! But, do I NEED that kind of power for CardMeeting? I think at some point I may need bigger iron if CardMeeting gets into more computationally expensive operations like media processing or document rendering. For now though, CardMeeting is just about shuffling cards and other fairly cheapy operations.

Of course, where I continuously flop on my face is in the internet connectivity department. Over the last couple of weeks, there have been a couple of TERRIBLE multi-hour internet outages in town here. I'm so sorry if you had trouble getting into your meetings. Sigh... There's just no getting around it, if you want a fast, clean, reliable line in the states, you've gotta fork over the cashola.

Once I get the cluster working and the code ported over, I'll move it out to a proper hosting facility and finally get a decent connection. The current freebie hosting for CardMeeting will continue to stay free, so if you can't/don't want to pay, you just get to keep plugging along on the crummy connection.

The real work on CardMeeting begins now, but I am jazzed about the trajectory. It's happening. Progress is still glacially slow, but it is happening. We WILL do business!

Thanks for using CardMeeting, it is a pleasure to serve you,
Dave Woldrich