Test server

Bought a laptop last year for this years FS but I have had so many problems trying to make the Firewire work in Linux that I've pretty much given up with it.

Problem with FS is that I download vast amounts of data each, well, by vast I mean between 35G and 80G. This year it may be a little higher. The biggest issue by far is getting that data off the card in the evenings in any meaningful time. The workflow is such that when you have any downtime whatsoever in the processes (downloading card, creating watermarked minatures, uploading those minature photos etc) that if you get behind - you REALLY get behind.

And as anyone who knows me for the last couple of years, technology of FS has been my repeated bugbear.

So the solution to at least one of these problems is a Firewire CF card reader. It'll download about a gig per minute which is about 4 times faster than USB seems to achieve reliably (trust me - I've tested this repeatedly on different machines).

After I decided that Linux just wasn't going to play ball, it lead me back to thinking about Macs again as they run Firewire perfectly. Enter stage left an old single core Mac Mini off Ebay!

Arrived earlier today, and already run the first test with CF card and it's as fast as the core duo Macs I've used before. I'll run a speed test for the minatures crunching but I don't have much hope there. If it does work nicely, then great, if not, this just becomes my testbed machine.

Alternatively, I could rip it open and put a faster processor in. Which seems like fun.