Even seen a 404 error before? It means you made a typo, or a page has been deleted.

Often they are purely functional, but there is now a bit of a vogue to have cool looking error pages amongst web designers. Many twitter users will be familiar with the #whalefail, for example. For a few months now, all our hosting on Salt and Light Solutions sites has had the branding of the company we buy our server time from.

But I have finally got round to replacing the boring hosting branded error pages with something a little more “zingy”. View it below, or just visit http://allaboutchris.co.uk/megatypofail. In honour of this, I have also replaced my facebook profile picture with a similarly 404 theme picture. Add me on http://www.facebook.com/bigonroad to see it!

ECPEZ5KEZMXA

On Sunday, myself and my wife were in London, seeing my family. We went for a curry, and were tucking into it, talking about various things.

At one point, I remembered the amusing story about the law firm Ferreth and Jobs. I explained to my family how the firm had registered a website, and that, to their horror, it had come to light the double meaning of the domain name, ferrethandjobs.com. I even spelled it out, so everyone got the joke, saying “The website is Ferret H And Jobs Dot Com”.

We all laughed, and the conversation moved on, until about 2 minutes later, when my mum suddenly cried out “It’s Ferret Hand Jobs!”

Needless to say, we spent longer laughing at mum than we had done at the joke.

The pre-budget report just got announced, and tax on smoking and drinking has gone up. Some people seem pretty annoyed about the 10% rise in cost of cider. However, I noticed cigarettes are another 15p more expensive.

This intrigued me, so I thought I would look up how much more expensive smoking has got over the years. This graph is based on figures from the Tobacco Manufacturers Association.

The brown is the actual cost of the fags, the white is the tax on top.  20 a day now costs you £2,220 a year. Definitely not worth it.

Making a home file server

For several years now, I have wanted an automated backup system for my home computers. Something that can keep track of a desktop and 3 or 4 different laptops, and keep all the files centrally stored for remote access, and media streaming.

Here I am going to take you through how I went about this, and how you can too.

Incidentally, I named my machine “The Boss”. After my wife.

First things first.

There are four key stages

• Planning
• Buying the kit
• Putting together the hardware
• Sorting out the software (to be covered in Part Two)

Planning

You need to ask yourself some questions:

What do you want your server to do?

I have five aims:

1. Provide a continuous, up to date backup of files on all our computers.
2. Act as a media hub for music and films.
3. Allow ftp access, so files can be downloaded remotely when out and about.
4. To be as energy efficient as possible.
5. Ideally, nice and cheap.

What do I need to achieve this?

1. To provide a continuous, up to date backup, you are probably going to need some sort of server based processing. It also needs to be networked. In other words, you need a thing with a brain, on a network. So a USB hard drive ain’t gonna do it. You could probably get by with some kind of advanced NAS system: these tend to be expensive, and limited if you want to take control. I need to build a computer.
2. A media hub is going to have a lot of large files. Since my server will also be backing up all the computers, I’m going to need a lot of space. You need to decide if you want multiple backups, if so, you may need a little more space. All our computers added together have about 1Tb of hard disk, so a 1.5Tb hard disk should do the trick.
3. FTP access is a software issue, but it confirms the need for a very adaptable system.
4. Energy efficiency is something that some people don’t consider a lot, but my server is going to be left on all day every day. Let’s just briefly do some maths. My desktop pc uses about 300W. Leave that on for an hour, that’s 0.3kWh. Leave that on for a week, that’s 50.4 kWh. A year? That’s 2620.8 kWh. At 16p a unit, that will cost you £419 a year. If I can get a MiniITX machine, with a low power processor, I could cut that to 40W. That’s £55 a year. An annual saving of £350 a year.
   A fair number of articles about servers advise you just use an old PC you have laying around. I would advise you buy something new, with a modern efficient processor, because it will save you its outlay cost in a single year. I’m getting a MiniITX with an Atom processor!
5. Cheapness is a hard one. One man’s cheap is another man’s luxury. I begged for a year, and eventually my loving wife allowed me to go ahead. Ultimately, how much are all your videos, photos, documents and other files worth to you? To me, £300 as an outlay may actually save me money, if it means I leave my desktop turned on less often. I am going to spend about £300-£350.

Buying

Once you have organised the details of what you want, its time to actually chose what and where to buy your bits. I eventually decided, with some excellent advice from the guys at LinITX, who basically told me for free exactly what to buy, within my budget and to my specifications.

Here is what I ordered:

As a brief explanation for why I got what: Atom processors are very energy efficient, but the dual core should also give me any oomph that I need. 2gb of Ram is probably overkill, but it future proofs nicely. A 1.5TB HD is nice and big, and should last me several years. The NOAH case is small, robust and well priced, and I decided to have Wifi as well as Ethernet to give me more options in the future. Obviously, for large scale transfers I will mostly be using cable.

In the end, I shopped around a little, but still bought the key items from the LinITX store. I can also recommend Mini-ITX.com and ITX warehouse. My final total came to £320.98. Not bad!

Hardware

Now comes the exciting bit. The payment is made, the days have passed, all the exciting boxes have arrived. It is now time to build your new server.

1. Get your kit together

Open up all the boxes, get all your kit into one place. You are also going to want a very small flat head screw driver, and a variety of sizes of cross heads.

Listening to Punk Radio Cast continuously whilst doing it might be a plan also.

2. Read the manual

Your motherboard comes with a manual. You are now going to read it. This is pretty important, so take 5, and check it out. The most important page is the one at the front (usually), which details what is what on the motherboard.

There is also a guide for the best way to build your machine. I have slightly altered it due to constraints due to our case, but this can give you very helpful advice if you get confused.

3. Get the motherboard out

Whilst you are doing this, you should take a little care to get rid of static. The easiest way to do that is to go touch a tap, since metal taps are connected to the water main, and thus earthed. You do not want to accidentally put a spark into your new pc. I generally pop to the bathroom and destatic myself every 20 mins or so during PC building.

Anyway, pop the motherboard on the table, and compare it with the manual until you know what everything does. You are ready for the next step, which is…

4. Work out how the case works

Look at the case intently, from the front, from behind, from above, from the side.

Play around, unscrew bits, take bits off. It is a lot easier to do this before you put the motherboard in, and there is nothing more annoying than, when putting in the final component realising you need to unscrew something that is only accessible by taking everything else out.

I would remove the cover to the PCI hole on the case now (I forgot when I did mine, and its a pain in the bum – see this picture!), remove the drive tray on top (see point 16), and unclip the front of the case, in order to unscrew the plate covering the port for the optical drive.

5. Chuck in the Motherboard

Carefully, and non-statically, place the motherboard in, making sure not to get any cables caught under it.

Put in screws at the corners delicately: don’t put them in too tight otherwise you might damage the board.

It’s more fiddly than difficult. A magnetic screwdriver is very useful on the 19 occasions you will drop the tiny screw down the cable between board and case.

6. Plug in your first cable!

This is the power for the fan for the CPU. You should see how the manual in step one tells you exactly what should be plugged in here.

I put it in first for two reasons. Firstly, its very small and fiddly, and will be hard when there is other stuff in the way. Secondly, the manual tells you to.

Both good reasons!

7. Pop the RAM in

I’ve got two sexy sticks of ragingly fast 533MHz DDR2 RAM (for “fast”, read “slow, but power efficient”). You need to pop them into the sockets, and push pretty hard.

Very hard in fact. Check carefully they are in right, with the gap lined up with the RAM and the socket, then push just slightly harder than feels comfortable considering the springyness of the motherboard.

When they are in, there will be a click, and the white clips will hold the sticks of memory in place. Now it won’t fall out when you take it with you on that bungee jump you keep meaning to take a server with you on.

8. Put your optical drive together

This system needs an optical drive; since installing operating systems is effort on other media, and, you never know, this may end up as a kitchen media player at some point.

The slimline DVD drive here (read “slimline” as “slow, but tiny, and power efficient”) connects with the old school IDE cables, and thus needs this weird looking convertor attached. So go attach it. I was pretty worried that this wasn’t there at first, I even rang LinITX, but eventually I found this weird little plastic bit, and my worries ceased.

9. Plug in the IDE cable

You need to plug the IDE cable into the back of the optical drive, and into the motherboard. Its pretty obvious, just make sure you get it the right way round.

Now make sure that the drive is out of the way so you can still get at the motherboard. Don’t worry about the power cable yet, that comes later.

Still listening to the punk radio? Exactly!

10. Plug in the SATA cable

The SATA interface is much more modern than the old IDE setup: the cables are smaller, easier to fit, and much faster. I definitely wanted a fast hard disk access, so SATA was the way to go.

Anyway, it’s pretty simple, plug the red cable into the hard disk, and into the motherboard. Any of the motherboard slots will do: I put it in number 1.

Once you have it in, move the hard disk out of the way, as with the optical drive.

11. Sort out your jumpers

Jumpers are basically a little manual switch on a motherboard. They used to be a lot more prominent when using drives, having to set which ones where the “Master” or “Slave”. SATA has made that a thing of the past, and it is now just used for a few bits and pieces.

In this case, these tiny jumpers decide whether or not the USB has slightly extra power, for stuff like USB wake. I have left it in the standard position, because I don’t need USB wake, which uses slightly extra power.

I am also not 100% whether the inbuilt power to the case would be able to support the extra power draw. Fairly certain it would be fine, but still.

12. Start the Lightning baby!

That title heralds the introduction of our chunky ATX power cables. We leave this until towards the end as it starts making stuff messy. Simply take the large cables and plug them in, one side into the PSU (power supply board), the other into the motherboard.

The thing to confuse you is that the motherboard socket is designed for 24pin power, and our lead is only 20pins. This is fine, simply leave the yellow “For 24 Pin Connector” sticker in place, and just use the remainder of the socket.

13. Turning the (PCI) corner!

When I first looked at my PCI wifi card, I was a little worried, because plugging it in straight was not going to fit in the box. Then I discovered that the awesome folks at LinITX provide a convertor that turns your PCI slot 90 degrees, and lined it up neatly with the case slot.

Simply take it and plug it into the PCI slot. You shouldn’t have to push as hard as with the RAM. You should take a moment just to appreciate how annoying it would be to have to remove that case slot cover now, rather than in step 4 when I told you to. If you want, you can see a picture of me having to do just that, with a screwdriver *through* the CPU fan.

14. Insert your Wifi card

Fiddly, but not difficult, you are now going to plug in your PCI card. Its fiddly because you have to get it through the case slot, and into the PCI extension, and screw it in place.

But I’m sure you can manage, and I have great faith in you. I dropped screws at this point about 6 times. Irritating, but I managed to get it in eventually.

We are nearly done…!

15. Head(er)s up!

I am afraid I haven’t got a perfect photo for the audio and case power connectors, since its hard to take without seeing it from 6 angles, but they are your next attachment. It is quite simple, find the labelled leads, and plug them in according the instructions in the manual.

Each case will have differently labelled leads, but it is usually simple to work out. If you get it wrong you will know, because later on, when you press the On button on the motherboard, the PC will turn on. If you’ve got it wrong, those buttons won’t work yet.

The sound headers are the same: if you end up with sound, you probably got it right. You won’t damage your board getting these the wrong way round.

16. Drives in place

Very near the end now. You need to carefully fit the HDD and the optical drive into the drive tray that screws into the case. The optical drive is a tight squeeze, and you have to take it in through the front of the case, after the drive tray is in place, but with the cables already in place. You may need to unplug the optical drive, then plug it in again.

The HDD fits more easily, although it will only fit one way round due to the protruding cables. Once you have that in place, you can screw the drive tray down, although I would recommend leaving it until you know that everything underneath is working fine.

17. Let’s try it out

You can now try it out. Plug in a keyboard, mouse, monitor and power cables, and let it roar. Frankly, if it turns on, you have probably got it right, but I chose to install my operating system straight off, to check if the wifi card and optical drives were working. You can also do this to check the sound.

However, more about OS stuff in the next instalment of this tutorial. If it’s working, you can move onto the final step…

18. Tidy your cables, and put the cover on

Because it is a a very tight fit inside the case, protruding wires will make it difficult to get the top on. You also want to make things neater, and reduce the risk of accidentally unplugging something, so get some cable ties, and bundle together your cables.

Now chuck the cover on top, and Voila! – you’ve built you a server. You can probably stop listening to the punk radio now as well.

Software

That’s enough for now. To find out about what software I used, you will have to wait until the next article. Keep your eyes peeled for Part Two!

I am taking part in a course in Pregnancy Counselling. Part of the course involves writing a journal:  I, in my characteristically extroverted way, have decided to do this on this blog. I am keeping any personal information, or things said by other members of the group strictly confidential.

Obviously, feel free not to read on unless you are interested!

Session Five

This session is called “Parenting”. It covers the subject and idea of God as Father, the biblical basis for this, and thus an understanding of His heart for parents and families. We then looked at the secular side of things, with statistics, the law and trying to get into the mindset of the mother and the father.

The second half of the session looked at Infertility, and the effects this might have on a couple, and then finally the role of the pregnancy advisors in all of this.

How did you find the course content, exercise and group work?

Our first set of work was looking at ways that God is Father. There were an amazing number of verses that supported this, with two whole pages of references. The ones that jumped out at me are below:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Matthew 10v29

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

1 John 3v1

Our Father in heaven,
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

Matthew 6v9-13

Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Genesis 3v21

These all spoke to us in various ways, but we felt the Old Testament especially shows the Fathering nature of good, not through explicit use of the word “Father”, but through the love and discipline shown as a father. For example, in Genesis 3v21, God is angry, has thrown them out of Eden, and yet still stops to lovingly clothe his children; disciplining them, yet still loving them.

As we moved onto mothers and fathers, and what role each should play, we realised that, just as Christ is the head, and the Church is the nuturing, supportive wife, our model for parenting follows that, with the man as the head, and the wife nuturing and supporting. Not to say that the man is in control, and must be obeyed, just that in many areas he will lead.

What are you reacting to and learning from the trainers, methods and members of the course?

I think we are all of a similar mind when it comes to the role of parents, and the family. When asked the question: “What pressures fall on one parent when the other is absent”, we all agreed that the pressure probably more than doubles: since there is twice as much work and responsibility, but now without the physical and emotional support of another. We all agreed, to an extent, on the role of a man and a woman within a relationship, and especially agreed on that to an extent that many of the “feminists” I met during my years in Union politics would not have.

I would have been intrigued to bring up the topic of gay couples: whilst I think there might be a more wide ranging debate here, I still think the general consensus would fall that two loving parents are going to be more easily able to provide a stable environment for children than one parent, regardless of gender.

What are you learning from your interpersonal encounters outside the course?

Hmm. Not a lot at the moment? I’m learning that the real world is hard work, that I cannot always choose large amounts about my life and careers, and that I need to develop perseverance:

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5v3-5

What relevant personal reading have you completed?

I have had a look at some pregnancy complications websites, such as ARC Antenatal Results and Choices, which aim to help mothers when difficult tests occur in the pregnancy. They aim to help those:

• Having to make difficult decisions about continuing the pregnancy
• Having to make difficult decisions about ending the pregnancy

All in all a difficult, sensitive and valuable service that they provide. I also visited the Miscarriage Association website which was quite an emotional experience. Whilst I have never experienced miscarriage myself, the whole site has clearly been put together with such love, aimed at those grieving for a baby that only briefly existed.

When you visit that site, and then consider the widespread acceptance and occurrence of abortion (188,000 in the UK last year), it seems so incongruous. How can we see people legitimately needing to grieve the loss of a foetus they had for a few short weeks, and yet society consider that state sanctioned destruction of similar foetuses is acceptable?

What aspects of your personal growth have been challenged?

• Attitude – I have gained a little objectivity on the role of a parent. When counselling people, it is important to be able to inform of the potential increased hardship of single parenthood. That said, information of the grief potentially caused by abortion is key too.
• Knowledge – I would not say I have learnt vast amounts, just more had it confirmed to me the role of the Father, both in our lives, and as a model to us.
• Skills - We did not do any role plays in this session, although I am still fighting to shut my mouth enough during small group work.

I am a proud user of Adobe Fireworks. I would argue that there is no software so well aimed at the web development market. Sure Photoshop does cool stuff, and I use that for advanced graphics, but for mocking up a GUI, nothing comes close.

Sadly, there are a lot of (fairly massive) bugs in the newest release, CS4, but according to the Fireworks blog, there are some bug fixes coming…

Which is nice. After a year and a half. After I’ve sent 5+ detailed emails to Adobe, yet recieved no response. Now, I bought CS4 under the student license for £400, so I don’t have quite as much right to be annoyed as those who spend £2000 on the suite. But still, when users complain about text bugs, and Adobe say “What are you using text for in a graphics program?”, it doesn’t inspire confidence that the company even understands their product.

Apparently, Adobe are trying to change this, with their new Design and Web blog. Let’s just hope the patch sorts things! FIREWORKS!