Building a Raspberry Pi Cluster

Slow internets got you down? Keep getting pwnd in-game because of choppy video rendering? Thinking about a new computer? Should you buy one or just build a quick fast setup?
I had the same questions 3 years ago and I ended up just building a cheap setup with the fastest components at the time, also was able to salvage some leftovers from a previous purchase.
I ended up with the following items for about $300 shipped from Newegg:

PowerColor AX4650 1GBK3-H Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

PNY Optima 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

RAIDMAX Tornado ATX-238B Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Case 

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W

BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar SE RFHWD3200JS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

Almost all of those items were refurbs or open-box discounted (2011) I already had a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and I was going to use it as a Linux box so I didn't need the extra $100 for an OS. This was an easy and cheap build to get online and do what I needed. Eventually I was able to upgrade the video card and even got to run Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, DOTA2, and other medium load games on it with low settings.

The motherboard and processor are the bottleneck on this system.
Anyway, the point is that you can build a decent computer very cheaply now if you have the main peripherals already. It's been this way for a while, but a new piece of hardware has emerged to help us build even cheaper than before: The Raspberry Pi

I'm a little late to the scene here but I'd like to write about it anyway, because I plan on building a small Pi cluster in the near future.
From my understanding of a simple Pi Cluster (let's say 5 nodes), you'll need:

5x Raspberry Pi = $210

Pi Power Hub = $30
Wi-Pi wifi dongle = $10
5x  Cat6A Ethernet Cables (1-Foot lengths) = $25 (this is one exception where you could go with quality-tested cables for a total of closer to $60)

Don't forget the typical desktop peripherals you'll need too: keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet cables, etc. (Think of this project as an extension of your existing desktop setup)

Items above are priced at MCMelectronics.com and BlueJeansCable.com
 
For a custom-built rack, sized to whatever specifications and dimensions you can think of, check out  Sheep Plastics, very affordable and very customizable pieces of acrylic to mount your Pi onto.
Heck, you could probably even build a full-size tower from them too.

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Sources:

Blue Jeans Cables

MCMelectronics.com

A 32-node Pi cluster

How-To build a Raspberry Pi server cluster

40-core cluster with 20GB RAM & 5TB Storage

Mini-Cluster Setup

Small cluster from Southampton

Custom-cut acrylic

The Swallowable Pill-Cam

Introducing the Pill Cam! Brought to you by Given Imaging , this little bugger floats through your gastro system, taking snapshots of your intestines, and sending the images back to a device you can wear on your chest or belt, and turn in the device to your physician for further examination. This pill-cam is already in use in over 80 countries, and the FDA finally approved it for use here in the United States.

The hardware involved is:
Two Energizer 399 1.55V, 54-mAhr silver-oxide coin cells
One Aptina CMOS image sensor
Four LEDs on each end of the pill
One microelectricomechanical system switch 

The software involved is:
RAPID Reader v8

This is great technology because it's bridging the gap between macro-tech and nano-tech. We're able to ingest technology now, and send it through our digestive system. It's sort of like sending a satellite into outer space, or a submarine down into the depths of the Mariana's Trench. Sure we can observe and study our intestines with other methods, but this is right up close and personal. It gives us a much better perspective, it even allows us to visually experience the path that food or medication might take through our system. We might be able to discover more unknown behaviors of the human body this way than in studying static images and data.

Future applications for this technology could include delivery of medication directly to the site of the problem, instead of putting the whole body through the stress of delivering the medication, and recruiting more organ systems than necessary. I imagine this same pill with a remotely controllable cap or delivery system. I imagine this pill technology getting smaller and smaller, to the nano level we've been dreaming of, and battling with cells of all types at the cellular level.

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Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/04/fda-approves-pillcam-colon-colonoscopy/

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/default.htm

Pillcam Colon 2 Technical Specs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_MEMS

PillCam Software 

Bitcoin

****Update 9/30/2019: Yes I realize I'm an idiot****

I originally had drafted a nice little entry about what bitcoins are, how they work, why it's so popular, etc. but I couldn't get excited enough about the topic, and I really thought bitcoin was going to just fade away like any other internet fad. Then I saw Google Trends this week, and it's still the top-searched subject. I can't and won't ignore the fact that bitcoin is hugely popular now, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Since everyone still seems to be interested, I decided to post the entry after all. I'm still getting used to blogging, and realizing that I can't always pick and choose the topics, I need to go with what's popular, so I can reach the most people possible and help them out any way I can.
Hope you like it.

Simplest version of how Bitcoin works

More technical explanation

Some bitcoin terminology:

Block -A record that contains and confirms a waiting transaction

Chain - The public group of blocks (transactions) in chronological order

Double Spending - Spending the same bitcoin in 2 places at the same time, in hopes they will process before either transaction is confirmed.

Mining - A way for bitcoin users to earn bitcoins by using their hardware's processing power to confirm transactions in the block chain

Wallet - The virtual container for private keys & signatures

Signature -The mathematical algorithm used to prove ownership of a bitcoin

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Steps to start working with bitcoin.

1. Get the software.

2. Get the wallet.

3. Start mining.

4. Start spending.

5. Monitor the economy.

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My personal problems with Bitcoin, and why I won't invest until they're resolved: I have considered buying bitcoin just to reverse-engineer the system to learn how it works, but honestly after doing some research for this blog entry, that's not necessary. I know enough to steer clear of it. It may be great for short-term investment (if you're lucky) but here are the reasons I won't invest in Bitcoins for long-term:

1. Bitcoin is 100% dependent on technology and computer systems. You need it to create a bitcoin, send a bitcoin, and receive a bitcoin. What happens when our internet protocols change or evolve? What happens if a worldwide crisis (or local crisis) occurs where we lose connectivity? What happens when someone figures out how to counterfeit bitcoins? It's these reasons that make bitcoin unpredictable both long-term and short-term. This also cancels out the argument that people use regarding the "value of the U.S. dollar declining" because at least deflation is predictable. Bitcoins are not, there is no precedent for a digital economy of this scale, and there are no economic indicators to warn people when to sell or rumors that might benefit mass purchase. This tech dependency also precludes the poorer households or economies from buying bitcoins. This will expose contradictions in the people crying about government control and the 1% because not many people in the 99% will either afford or care about investing in bitcoin. The labor theory of value also comes into play here. Would the average person be willing to work as hard for 1.5% of one bitcoin as you would for $12 cash? No, they wouldn't.

2. Hard currency will always be better (more valuable to the most people) than a representation of the same currency (reserve notes, certificates, stock, bitcoin). Sure, you might not make $1,000 on an ounce of silver in 1 year, but guess what? You won't lose it either. There's less risk and more stability with hard currency, because the value is within the physical material itself, not the cost or risk of transferring that value to another form.

3. Most of you will scoff and stop reading after this sentence, but we need a government at some level. You can substitute "government" for whatever word you want here, but some system has to be in place for checks & balances. The control does not have to be as high and invasive as it currently is, but we do need a government in place to help guide and manage the economy. Alot of people are looking to bitcoin as the government end-all, or a government "work-around". Governments are meant to be social guardians. Not all of them in the world are, but in the United States, it is our social guardian. The fact is that even if we're able to build up bitcoin to become the primary economy, there will still be structure, control, and rules in place. Guess what those things are collectively known as? A Government. Some might say "No it's not, it's a self-governing system" well, you might be right, but there's that word again right in the middle of your rebuttal: Government. Until people stop crying about the government and start working together to solve problems, I'm not investing. Same with DOTA2.

4. There is no way to safeguard your bitcoins. Over $1M was stolen from a company in 2013 because someone was able to pull off some simple social networking people have been using since the early 90's to gain access to unauthorized areas online. If you have cash in your hand today, who do you depend on? Who do you have to trust? Yourself only. If you have bitcoins stored online who do you have to trust? You have to trust the company hosting your bitcoin wallet, and all of the people involved with that company, along with the company you're spending your bitcoin on. Sure there's risks with cash, but it's much easier to mitigate than the wild wild west of the internet. It's not as bad as it used to be, but there's still more problems online than offline.

Sources:

Bitcoin Guide from Instructables

Risk factors

Quantum Teleportation & Potential Role of the 3D Printer

Updated Article November 2014: http://www.naturalmachines.com/

Updated Article July 2014:  http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-explains-quantum-computing-so-even-you-can-understand/

Updated Article May 2014:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/science/scientists-report-finding-reliable-way-to-teleport-data.html?_r=2

Updated Article * http://io9.com/physicists-say-energy-can-be-teleported-without-a-limi-1511624230

The basic idea of quantum teleportation is this:

1. Scan & disassemble an object (at the molecular/atomic level). Disassembly of the object is imperative here, otherwise it would only be a clone or copy.

2. Transport the disassembled "material" to another location (without traversing physical space). The disassembled object needs to be transported to another location. The object cannot be destroyed, that would mean the transported object is different than the original. The transportation method cannot use air, sound, light, or any other physical medium.

3. Reassemble the "material" at a target location, in the exact form it was broken down previously.

I had a fleeting through recently about 3D printers, and how they seemingly can create an object out of thin air, and I thought about teleportation, and whether the two would ever intersect. I realized that it's possible, but there are several giant problems currently keeping the two incompatible.

Today we have 3D printers, which are capable of performing the last step of teleportation: re-assembly. The reason we may not be able to utilize 3D printers for this experiment is because 3D printers are only able to create objects based on a blueprint or plan of some type. These printers can be used someday to manifest the object, however they will still need the core ability to "receive" the teleported item before printing it.

Will 3D printers have a role in teleportation at all?
Physicists at ETH Zurich performed teleportation successfully on a 7x7mm chip. They were able to do this without any type of re-assembler, the material simply appeared out of thin air. It may be that 3D printers have no role in teleportation at all, and will remain a neat piece of hardware with no potential contribution to the teleportation industry.

For example, there is a laboratory in North Carolina which is currently able to synthesize vaccines for a specific virus on-demand. A lab in California could report a virus at 1:00PM, and the lab in North Carolina could send them the digital "plans" (or blueprints) by 1:30PM. The lab in California could upload the digital data to the physical machine that is capable of synthesizing the vaccine, having it ready for injection by 2:00PM. 

1st Teleportation violation: The vaccine received & "re-assembled" is not the same material that was scanned at its origin source, it was simply cloned at another location using plans from somewhere else.

2nd Teleportation violation: The digital information traverses the physical space between the origin and the destination, via physical communication cables. Once again, the goal is to send the object directly to its destination, invisibly, without traversing physical space. Disappearing, reappearing.


In any case of quantum teleportation, there is no reassembler involved at all, the item just...... appears.  So what medium is used to transport the object? The answer lies in Quantum Entanglement, when two independent particles interact with each other in real-time, without physical connection, and with response times faster than the speed of light.

Once quantum teleportation is solidified and we can transport human beings consistently, without issue, there will be a few regulatory & practicality issues to contend with. First, we can't just have people teleporting whenever and wherever they want to. We would need a finite number of assigned teleport pads to receive and send people. What if the pad is taken?  Problems arise.
What would the energy cost or monetary cost be to the user?
What if two people tried to teleport to the same place at the same time?
What if the teleporter crashed or lost power during transmission?
Would there be a system in place to control who can go where?

At the end of the day, no, I don't believe 3D printers will ever have a role in teleporting objects.

Sources:

Realization of Deterministic Quantum Teleportation with Sold-State Qubits

Why don't we have teleportation? 

Facebook's Innovation

Let's examine why Facebook is leading the pack in the following areas of the web today:

• Hardware & Open Source Technologies
• Online Marketing & Social Networking
• Job Creation & Job Security

Hardware / Open Source Technology

Facebook has always been a pioneer for its own technologies and business strategies, including forming the Open Computer Project, and setting up data centers in the arctic circle.
Facebook uses ODMs (original design manufacturers) in Taiwan and China, rather than OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like HP or Dell. This way, they are able to save themselves money by stripping out what they don't need. This saves the company approximately 24% during initial purchase phases, and 38% during overall operational maintenance costs.

Engineers at Facebook have also worked hard on finding ways to save the company money in maintenance and power costs, and they're not just hogging the ideas all to themselves, they're sharing the schematics with everyone. In this way, Facebook isn't only keeping the world connected (for free) but also enhancing and upgrading the experience for everyone at the same time. They're basically telling the world, this is how we're connecting everyone, and this is the set of tools and exact plans we're using to do it, go have fun. What other giant company can say that? Microsoft and Apple tend to bottleneck and pigeon-hole their customers into using specific products and following their own timeline and plan. They do have their own sets of development tools and share some of their technology with us, but it just isn't the same.

Networking / Marketing

Without going too far into the internet privacy debate, I would ask you what better option you have for a social network right now? A lot of people out there complain and cry about being spied on, or marketed to, but what else is there? When the marketing goes away, so will these types of tools, unless we step up and build them ourselves, with our own money, for free, and never ask for a dime. Facebook is the best social network available right now, and should be supported as far as possible until the next best rival appears, if ever.
One problem I do have, is with the inflated unique-user count. I would venture to say that at least 1/3 of all Facebook accounts are either alternate accounts, or created for fictional characters. For instance, one genuine user might have 2 additional accounts for their pets (like I do). I'm not saying it's wrong or bad, it just makes it harder to analyze the user base.

Job Creation & Job Security

Some voluntarily-submitted salary info from glassdoor show us why people love working there. It's a fun working environment coupled with a very healthy pay structure. Since Facebook is using cutting-edge technology and even creating its own in some cases, the company tends to attract younger graduates and more advanced engineers and technicians. This creates a desirable workplace for more serious professionals looking to push their careers to the next level. The company also has a very tight stranglehold on the above talking points, which ensures that the employees will be needed and utilized for more years to come.

Sources:

Oregon data center

Hardware

Shifting into ARM servers

Time Control Technology

I will be discussing concepts and methodologies of controlling objects in time. I am sourcing multiple sites to support the theories and proofs that it is possible. Everyone scoffs and laughs at the concept of Time Travel, but I don't hear many people discussing Time Control, which is why I wanted to outline some of the pros and cons of it here. Time control is the concept or method used to execute time travel, however in time travel we always think about the whole world being moved through time, instead of just a single object. What if we could control a small area of space, and control time only within that small area, placing objects in or out of that small, contained field? Guess what? We can!

Time reactors have been patented and spherical fields in which time can be slowed down or accelerated have already been created and repeated. This is no longer future technology, it's here, it just need more funding and acceptance into society.

For example, a spherical field, a "self-contained time-warped field" (about 1 foot diameter) can be generated with a very low energy level, in which time will move slower or faster inside the field than it does outside the field. Imagine placing one clock within the field, and another clock outside of the field, both set to the same times. After an hour, the clock within the field would be showing a time earlier or later than the outside clock, depending on the configuration of the field.

Expanding on this idea, if a human being were to sit in the field, and the time-warp was accelerated to 400x normal, the person would step out of the field after 2 days, and his environment around him would have aged over 2 full years. This could be considered "time travel" however not in the sense that Hollywood would have us believe. There would be no dramatic tunnel effect, no rocket ships or deloreans flying through space, you would simply have to remain within the affected field. Also, you would need to ensure that the field stays up and running for those 2 years outside of the field, or the warp would be interrupted.

• Frame-Dragging

 As stated by NASA - "Frame dragging is like what happens if a bowling ball spins in a thick fluid such as molasses. As the ball spins, it pulls the molasses around itself. Anything stuck in the molasses will also move around the ball. Similarly, as the Earth rotates, it pulls space-time in its vicinity around itself. This will shift the orbits of satellites near Earth."

Applications of this field technology include medical research and treatment. For instance, someone with cancer or a fast-growing tumor could enter a time-field chamber, and it would greatly extend their life by shortening the aging process. We could also study these things more carefully if we are able to slow them down to a rate we could test with.

Organ transplants would benefit because the fresh organ could be placed into the field, slowing down cellular death or environment effects on it during transportation to the new recipient.

Food could be placed in the field, keeping it fresher as it's transported to the market or selling point.

You could purchase a CD or invest in stocks, climb into the chamber, set it at 500x, climb out at the same age and with some extra money, and hopefully inflation and the government didn't take it all yet!


Sources:

The Anderson Institute

Time Control Technologies and Methodologies

David Lewis Anderson interview on Coast to Coast AM

Another interview with Dr. Anderson

Time Travel Paradoxes

OCR Technology

Optical Character Recognition is the conversion of scanned or photographic images into editable, machine-readable text that can be searched.

OCR works by submitting an image to an OCR engine. The engine works by matching pieces of the image provided to shapes it is instructed to recognize. For instance, if you were to make the letter "V" with your index and middle finger (also known as a 'peace sign') and submitted that photo to an OCR engine, the engine would identify that image as the letter "V", because the shape of your fingers best matches the letter "V", (assuming the engine is using the English alphabet.) The engine would then return the letter "V" as editable, plain text.

License plates can also be read using OCR technology

One major use of OCR technology can be found in any text-to-speech application, which are used by people with visual disabilities. They aren't able to read text from the screen, so the computer reads it out loud for them. The OCR engine goes through any given web page or document, converts the words into text, and runs it through another program as input, and then outputs the text as audible speech.

Some companies have also mastered the concept of OCR check deposits, allowing bank users to deposit checks into their accounts simply by taking a photo of the check with a cell phone, and uploading that image to the bank's server. As with the text-to-speech, there are two steps involved here, first is submitting the image of the check as input to the OCR engine, and then handing off the output of the engine as input into the bank's server where it can run the text against their internal database and handle the data like it normally would.

When filling out forms or entering secure areas online, you may have noticed those annoying confirmation boxes that force you to read something from an image and enter in the text as confirmation that you're a human being and not some type of web-bot. The reason these are in place is because of brute-force hacking. A brute-force hack, or multiple hack attempt would be someone setting up an automated macro process that repeatedly tries to log in to an area with a username thousands of times. It would have a dictionary with thousands of common passwords, and it would not stop until the list was depleted. Another reason is because there are automated "spiders" (or bots) patrolling the net for web pages to index. The confirmation box you see is called CAPTCHA, and it ensures that you are not a bot. By being able to read the text from the image with your eyes, and manually typing it into the box, you are essentially acting as a human OCR engine. You are converting an image into machine-readable text.

An example of a CAPTCHA

The annoying thing about them is that they are hard to read sometimes, and sometimes it takes multiple attempts to crack what should be an obvious entry code. They throw in symbols and break up the text to confuse bots that are OCR-capable, it's purpose is to confuse the engine and render the bot useless, forcing it to move onto another area.

Sources:

1. An Introduction to Optical Character Recognition

2. CAPTCHA