Hardlimit Museum

[cobito]

This time, we go to 91 to delve into the exciting world of file compression, with options for all tastes. We can see Mr. PK showing off his PKZIP, hardware acceleration in file compression and digital video editing still in its infancy:

[Fassou]

I miss the ICE progress bars

[_Neptunno_]

@fassou I think I know what you mean but just in case... ICE progress bars?

Best regards!!

[Fassou]

@_neptunno_ A file compressor, which disappeared in favor of others that were more configurable and flexible like ARJ or LHA

Salu2!

[_Neptunno_]

@fassou thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that kind of compression format

ICE: Ergonomic Compression Interface.

Greetings!!

[cobito]

The "videoteca" section has been created in the museum's library, where the subtitled videos have been compiled along with an introduction.

As for the file search engine, it is almost finished with the TDC. After that, the CDROMs of all the magazines except PCManía will be left, and after that, the official launch will take place. For now, there are 2.1TB distributed in more than 9 million files.

[Fassou]

@cobito said in Museo Hardlimit:

For now, there are 2.1TB distributed in more than 9 million files.

9 million files...

[cobito]

I bring you another chapter, this time about artificial intelligence. In 1984 this technology was still in its infancy and the programs that came out were quite simple, but they were the first steps. It was based exclusively on logical tests and was very far from what is seen today. But that's where it all began. We see a couple of representative characters, like the creator of Lisp.

[cobito]

Well, I think the file search engine has reached a sufficiently mature level. In the end, it didn't turn out as I had imagined because of the enormous size it has reached.

It can be accessed from here.

Only the CD-ROMs of PCManía and Total DOS Collection have been indexed. I think it's an acceptable selection of programs, tools, drivers and games.

The search results are divided into these sections:
· Thumbnail: a thumbnail image of the file, if available.
· Location: places where the file was found. From here, you can navigate the directory tree using the museum's file explorer.
· Downloads: options to download the file. Normally, you will have to download a larger file (an iso, a zip, etc.) to get to the file you are looking for.
· Content: a snippet of the ascii content of the file. In binaries, you will often see meaningless content mixed with character strings.
· Other details: Size, MIME, date, specific details and an MD5 hash.

One thing to keep in mind is that the search time is quite high. It's a chore, but for now I can't do much to improve it.

If I see that the topic has moderate success, I will look for ways to expand the content and improve the speed.

[Sylver]

@cobito Many thanks for the piece of work, mayor

A question, the elevated search time ¿is it due to the storage medium used? ¿Or is it a more complex issue? To think of ideas that could help...

Best regards!

[cobito]

@sylver The main reason is that the server has been busier than usual for a few weeks now because of the video section.

The index is quite large and resides entirely in RAM. When there are no transcoders running, the wait time is acceptable, but when there are a couple of them, it becomes too slow. Looking at the behavior of the processes when there are one or the other, what I see is that there is a lack of bandwidth to memory.

I think this is one of the cases where DDR5 (despite its high latencies) would come in handy, but it will have to wait.

[Sylver]

@cobito I understand... Thank you very much for the explanation.

Maybe @jordiqui could donate one of his almighty servers to the cause...

Best regards!

[Yorus]

What a marvel!. I don't even want to imagine the amount of time it takes you to do all these things.

As for the necessary hardware, I imagine that at a certain point it is difficult for a single person to handle, whether it's the level of hardware needed, bandwidth, power consumption, noise...

[cobito]

Yes, in the end the hardware is limiting. I had to stop indexing due to lack of RAM but if I had more, the speed would be even worse, so with DDR3 in particular or a conventional machine in general, you can't scratch much more.

Thinking about it a bit when I've come across the limits during development and indexing, I think a "rig" of Raspberry Pis would be a viable option. Something like that would be relatively inexpensive, relatively simple and very scalable. But of course, there is always a significant initial outlay that has to be justified by intensive use of the tool.

For now, let's see how it's received because in the end it still has a niche audience.

[jordiqui]

@sylver Don't doubt it - If needed, I grant remote access and voila. I just read it, sorry for the delay.

[cobito]

@jordiqui said in Museo Hardlimit:

@sylver Don't even doubt it - If needed, I grant remote access and voila. I just read it, sorry for the delay.

Thanks for the offer. It won't be necessary, even though I'm envious of your 64GB of RAM

[jordiqui]

@cobito

[cobito]

[Sylver]

@jordiqui Jejejee I would go and set up a hosting service and offer it to websites like this one, you can make a lot of money from that great server

Best regards!

[_Neptunno_]

@jordiqui said in Museo Hardlimit:

@cobito

Buah!! you already have us all more "excited" than a child in a candy store hahaha

Greetings!!