The e-Book progress

I was initially using google docs to write the e-book, but then was too lost in formatting the book, or proof reading it again and again. Also I could not update it using my phone, which is pretty much my hand held computer now. I was reading someone else's book online, when using the blog as an ebook sounded reasonable, so I've gone ahead and ported some chapters over to a new blog.

http://startupastartup.blogspot.com/

As of now the access is restricted, but if you want access, just comment to this post and I shall be glad to add you as a proof reader to my book.

Book progress

I've finished the first chapter and have been able to rope in a few friends help me proof read and correct me along the way. I had never thought writing a book would be so much fun, but there is a lot of thought process also put in to make it as simple yet professional for anyone and everyone to understand.

There are many references from wikipedia for definitions of certain terms and terminologies. For those who don't trust wikipedia can search up their favourite reliable resources for further explanation and review.

Another interesting problem I'm facing as I go ahead is, how much detailed should the explanation be. What is the level of assumption I should consider while explaining a topic. Hopefully my friends will be able to point that out, if you are interested to participate in the proof reading, just drop me an email and I'll be glad to send you an invite.

My first E-Book: Kick Start a software start-up

Ok after all the configuration and working of the VM server with 4 virtual machines, I found it too much info to blog (lazy me..) with all the steps and configuration (I have some 3 posts still as draft yet to be published). There were some random thoughts on how this process and infrastructure can be used by others (start-ups or low budgets) for thier benefit.

Since most of the blog postings are enlightenments that occured to time once in a while, I've decided to consolidate all this information and jott them down like a step-by-step guide on how can we use the VM infrastructure for small shops or small projects in large shops. The table of contents for this book will look something like this.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Who should read this book
• What are the technologies we'll cover
• Introduction
• Analyzing & Building the server
• Software selection.
• RAID & LVM
  
• Setup & Configure your first VM
• VPN Applicance
• Creating more Appliances I: Webserver, Database
• Creating more Applicanes II: Version Control, Continious Integration Servers
• Timed VNC sessions (iTalc or vncthumbnailviewer)
• Appendix A: Configure your Linksys router with DDNS

If you have anything else you would like to consider let me know if practically possible I'll try to include it into the book. I hope to get the book out in 2-3 months (provided I can give it one hour a day). People volunteering for proof-reading are most welcome.

Virtualization: The Practical Implementation - I

I'm helping my friend Nitin at his firm Star4ce Technologies put up a virtualization server as their in-house development environment. To begin with we went ahead and ordered some hardware from newegg.

Here is a brief on the hardware we've picked;

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
• ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
• (5) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• (2) CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) SDRAM Dual Channel
• LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe SATA
• Antec 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
• Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• ZOTAC GeForce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
• Logitech USB + PS/2 Cordless Standard Desktop EX110 Mouse Included

Now the bill fits to around $1,500.00 as of the day this article was written. Hopefully by next week we shall receive the components and we shall go ahead and assemble the system.

A few after thoughts about the hardware choices

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
45nm consumes less power compared to predecessors and can be over clocked to 3.2GHz.

ASUS P5K-E
It's not a high end server, but can be used for a low end server. We did see a few other motherboards but opted for this, as they had SLI and were more geared towards being gaming PC's.

Why no Server Motherboards
This is an interesting find we dug into, we decided to hit the server motherboards for the system, as they supported 32GB of RAM quite easily as compared to the 8GB max of the above mentioned. The price was not that different approx $150.00 higher (with dual processors -physical) but it had FB-RAM which took the toll on the price of the system. 4GB on FB-RAM goes to approx $250.00 to $550.00 for 8GB. Yes now that's a whopping high number we are talking about.

So we are back to reality with a lower end system (recall the first article) it was aimed towards start-ups and low budget development teams.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS
32MB cache, and I trust Seagate. 5 pieces: 1- OS and 4- RAID 01

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
Nice & reliable.

ZOTAC GeForce 7300GT 256MB
There was no onboard video, this was the lowest and best

So we wait and watch for the parts to arrive. I'll be posting in intermittently the progress, issues & accomplishments along the way.

UPDATE: The shipping was quick, the parts should be arriving today afternoon.