Hacking the Gibson

When all else fails, read the manual

--Unknown

It turns out, and maybe I've mentioned this before...a trillion 3-SAT problems is actually a lot of problems.  Its hard to describe my exact rational for picking that number, but I know I was staring at a page with things like 10^200 and 10^48 on it and when I realized that a trillion might be in the realm of possibility (that is, I might solve that many before my attention span expires) I wrote 10^12 on the paper and it was, like, settled then.  For no reason.  I make great decisions.

Its taken longer than I'd like, but I have one Foxconn NTA350something up and running.  I've spent hours screwing around with booting off USB drives in an attempt to avoid spending $70 on a hard drive.  Turns out no one makes a live-USB image with mono, sshd, and the WPA key of my wireless network.  However, if you want to run a permanent installation from a USB stick (and not just a "livecd") I found the trick is to use a USB stick with the livecd on it to install the operating system onto a second USB stick.  Ridiculous but simple.  This thing has two cores, so it can generate two million problems in slightly more than a day.  If only I had 49 more of these.  Also, note:  the Foxconn manual makes it look like you have to buy and install a wifi card, when, in fact, it comes with one already installed.  So, whatever.

Next, I experimented with the Mini Android PC.  I had high hopes for this device, and was especially excited that is was so cheap and small.  I had dreams of constructing a super computer out of these things.  Unfortunately, there is something wrong about the implementation.  The HDMI output didn't work with my monitor, and the screen was corrupted and clipped on the TV.  It has some kind of wifi card that kept dropping the connection, and running one instance of Firefox and two terminals taxed the thing beyond its abilities.  Also the USB mouse I had stopped working for no reason.  Also, it has no power switch.  It just switches on when you plug it in.  Also, the manual is written in broken English.  I gave up on any hope of using this computer, but, fortunately, the little green box it came in is pretty and looks great on my shelf.

I ordered a second Foxconn machine today.  There are a dozen barebones PCs made by that company listed on Amazon and Newegg and I can't tell the difference between them so I just ordered the exact one I have because I know it works.  I want to order more but quick estimates show that buying these machines is only cheaper than Amazon's EC2 if I run them for 100 days straight, and I would really like to wrap up this little trillion-instance stunt by November.  Of course, then again, I get to keep the machines when I'm done.

So, I guess its on to the EC2 instances.  This is typically the stage where I discover the flaws of whatever algorithm I'm using, so I guess the fun is almost over.  Actually, no.  November is the deadline for creating the samples.  I'm not even talking about actually running them yet.