Finally a program that will sync my Firefox settings across computers. I have been waiting so long for a program like this. It will synchronize and encrypt your cookies, saved passwords, bookmarks, history and tabs/windows. Unfortunately it will not synchronize your plugins/addons.
Grab it now from:
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/
As you can clearly see below, there is a mock up of the original XBOX “ZBOX”. What I find interesting is that someone in Japan knew about the first XBOX, and actually included it in a cartoon. This was taken from one of the ‘Educational’ books from my schools library. I didn’t bother getting the title or anything though.
UPDATE: Thanks to Brian Ashcraft (Kotaku) I now know the title; Kochikame
I have spent the last few weeks organizing a change for my domain registrar (websitespot.com) so I can have full control over the name servers for the domain. I have done this because I was previously unable to host websites due to the dynamic nature of my IP address.
No problems anymore. I have purchased custom dns services from dyndns.org and by using their name servers, I can update the IP address for the domain name when needed using their client.
Total cost for one year (not including my own internet, server costs) around $32. Thats the .com domain for about $6.95 and the custom DNS for about $25 (US$)
Next up (after saving enough) I’m planning on getting a couple UPS’s to make sure that turning on the microwave and jug at the same time doesn’t kill the power to the servers – and the rest of my house.
I have recently purchased two Dell servers (via Yahoo Auctions Japan). I have a Poweredge 650 and a Poweredge 850. I have set the 650 up as a router (I know, complete overkill) running pfsense – a great free firewall system that supports a huge variety of hardware. I tried some other firewall systems, but none would detect the raid card, so I really had no choice.
To go into a bit more detail regarding the ‘overkill’ – The system (650) is running a 2.4ghz Pentium 4, with a gig a ram and four gigabytes of raid0 hard drive space. The system is usually running with about 4% cpu and 12% memory usage, but I’ve had it jump up to 60% sometimes. Now I wont have a problem with the router dying with all that P2P traffic over my fiber (100mbps) connection.
The other server (850) I have setup as a domain controller / mail server / web server (apahce) with the usuals PHP, MYSQL and so on. It is currently running this website. Only problem is I haven’t (as of yet) setup a backup routine. So if this dies, I’m going to be very sad. Its currently running a dual core 3ghz Pentium 4 with two gigs of ram and around 40gb of hard drive space.
The overall cost was very reasonable. The 650 set me back about 10,500 yen ($100) and the 850 was around 16,000 yen ($150) . Only problem was that I was orignally trying to build the servers myself. I had picked up a 650 and 850 server chassis for about 2000 yen ($20) and ordered the motherboard and other parts from the US.
The cost of the motherboard and backplane board cost more than buying the whole second hand 850. So now I have alot of unused second hand parts for the servers. If you are interested in purchasing them (in Japan) pop me an email.
Well, not really. Even after following all the links to the supposed yellow dog Linux dist for the PS3 I didn’t really find much. I then assumed that the latest version would install, but it didn’t. So just gonna have to wait until version five comes out.
I did format the hard drive again though to set up a 10gb partition for Linux when its ready. This way I wont need to back up all my stuff by the time it comes out.
I have spent over two days playing around with OSX and managed to get it running on an external USB2 drive connected to my new laptop. Tiger is so much prettier than windows, but alas, as it wasn’t made for wintel machines not everything works. I did manage to get the on board sound, video, on board network and most things working. What do not work are the Intel Wireless, DVD Video, Microphone and on board Camera. I’m not complaining tho, it’s a great operating system. For those of who might be interested in doing the same, head over to osx86project (Google it) and have a look. 3 Months to go until I leave for Japan and I have yet to organize anything yet 
. I will probably get around to contacting IRD regarding tax etc sometime next month after I find out where I will be working. Also as I have yet to hear back from jet about where I will be working, I haven’t been able to sort out my visa. All in due time.
