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I caught the end of a reality show and saw the legalese at the end saying that the $1,000,000 prize was in the form of a 40 year annuity or current cash value. So, I did a quick calculation in Excel to figure out what that annuity would be. $220/month over 40 years earning 9% interest is $1,037,615.

If you put a lump sum in now and never add anymore money, you’d need $70,000 at 9% interest to grow to $1,031,140 over 40 years.

Could you save $220 per month with an understanding that after 40 years, it would be likely to be at least $1M?

Another example, shorter time frame: $400 a month over 30 years at 9% is $737,000. Compound interest and lots of time rocks! Use it!

Is there any good excuse not to become a millionaire when it is sooooo easy? 9% interest isn’t very much. This is about what the US Stock Market does annually over any 20 year period. You don’t have to be a good investor, just put the money in monthly and do not pay attention to it. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

How are you doing on your $1M? Check it with this simple calculation that happens to work in 2006 (it won’t work in later years due to inflation):
Multiply your age times your realized pre-tax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by 10. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.

So, if you’re 40 years old and earn $95,000 in salary and $5,000 from investments pre-tax, then your net worth should be $400,000 (40 times 100,000 divided by 10). If this test shows you’re an "under accumulator of wealth," then you might want to think hard about making some changes.

1. Good character, good work habits, good education (human capitol always comes first)
2. Liquid Assets are freedom
3. Live within your means

October 2010 Update

This article has been getting hit a bunch, so I thought an update might be helpful. The array built below is still working nicely. I’m still using it as a NAS, NFS, CIFS Server, Samba Server, DLNA server and for protected storage to the local machine. The local machine is now a Core i5-750 with lots of RAM that also runs a few virtual machines. The machine also runs compute processes since it has plenty of excess CPU and excess RAM available.

The hardware RAID card was removed when the motherboard was replaced. The new CPU/MB has 6 SATA connectors internally, so those are being used. No complaints. For more information on Migrating Software RAID.

The Infiniband cable just works and has never had any issue.

The machine has an Intel PRO/1000 NIC ($25 @ newegg) to be certain of reasonable GigE network performance and possible future compatibility with VMware ESX/ESXi.

I’ve tuned both the disk cache and network buffers available to improve performance for large file transfers.

I’m considering adding AoE, ATA over Ethernet, and iSCSI servers to this machine so others on the network can access the storage too. AoE seems like a more efficient solution available for block storage access.

The RAID5 setup hasn’t had any issues in years. No dropped disks due to vibration or any other issues … besides being nearly full most of the time. I guess that’s the way of all storage.

Original Article Follows:

Ok, after months of research and finally finding all the parts at "reasonable prices", the array has been ordered, delivered, built, tested on multiple OSes and brought into production use. I’m mostly happy and will outline what I’d do differently this time.

Parts:

• Addonics Array w/ Infiniband port – $139
  http://addonics.com/products/raid_system/mst4.asp
  http://addonics.com/products/raid_system/images/amst_front_large.gif
• Addonics Infiniband Cable – $80
  http://www.shopaddonics.com/mmSHOPADDONICS/Images/aaib4c150.gif
• Addonics Infiniband 2 quad SATA bridge (inside computer) – $50
  http://www.shopaddonics.com/mmSHOPADDONICS/Images/ad4saml-pci.gif
• 4x Seagate 320GB perpendicular drives (running quiet and cool) – $400
• Promise TX4310 4xSATA2 Hardware RAID PCI card (RAID5 capable) – $115
  http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=RAID%205%20HBAs&product_id=165

Step 1. Put the 4 drives into the array and connect all the power and SATA2 connections.
Step 2. Connect the Infiniband cable to the array.

Step 3. Install the Infiniband-2-SATA in the computer; leave room for the SATA cables that will waste 2 card slots – yes, this design sucks. I connected the SATA cables before installing this inside the computer.

Step 4. Install the Promise card in the computer, connect the SATA cables from the converter to the RAID card. Test the drives with Spinrite.

Step 5. Fight with the Promise drivers (not included b.c. they are complete idiots), you’ll need to update the firmware, windows drivers and web management software. Promise doesn’t include any of this software on the CD that comes with the card. Worse, they use a proprietary extension to the ZIP format that only a current WinZip supports. After all the zipping is done, they saved 4K from a self-extracting EXE. Stupid, stupid. Long story short – HW RAID works under WinXP, not Ubuntu Edgy. Promise support answers email with – that’s an old card and we don’t support that kernel.

Step 6. Curse … a lot.

Step 7. After spending 3+ weeks fighting to get HW RAID working under Linux, give up and use software RAID – ‘mdadm’.

Step 8. Good news – under current Linux kernels, the Promise controllers are recognized as JBOD controllers, so software RAID can be used.

Step 9. Partition each drive with an "autoRAID filesystem", use mdadm to create a RAID5 array (chunk size 128K), mkfs -t jfs /dev/md0 (or whereever the mdadm tells you the device is located), use mdadm to pull the array info needed for the /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf file, update the /etc/fstab with the /dev/md0 device and mount point, create the mount point, mount /dev/md0 /raid5, and start using your array with some test data.

Step 10. reboot your box and verify that it comes up and the array is automatically assembled and mounted. If not, start reading the man pages.

What I would do differently:

• Don’t buy Promise RAID card (I really wanted an PCI-X1 card anyway)
• Pick a hw RAID w/ XOR engine that is supported by the Linux kernel (no proprietary drivers without complete source).
• Don’t use Infiniband cables. Don’t get me wrong, the cable is great and solid connection. My problem is the $80 for it and the $50 for the converter into SATA2 connector I needed. I’d try the eSATA-MP cable next time and find a RAID card that can accept it. There are very few Infiniband RAID cards (I gave up looking). The converter design really bugs me. They should have "end-mounted" the sata connectors, not side-mounted them.
• Don’t bother with LVM2 unless you really need it. I learned this lesson a few years ago and I won’t make that mistake again.
• Use either XFS or JFS file systems. These are the highest performance general purpose file systems that are included with standard kernels. Don’t use a file system that isn’t part of your normal kernel – another lesson I learned a few years ago. I really would like to use ZFS, but it isn’t included in any kernels to my knowledge. I’ve been a fan of JFS since 1996 running AIX. I’m still a fan, it has never let me down. Some dated file system benchmarks. Some newer RAID benchmarks that show hw raid is often faster. However, here’s an article from a Linux kernel developer as to why software RAID should almost always be used for internally connected disks.
• Run Spinrite on all drives before making them part of any RAID config. Best to find any issue before getting everything up and RAIDing.
• Double check all your connections – a loose SATA connection in the array caused me to waste about a week assuming the Promise controller was bad hardware, not bad software.

A few links:
http://addonics.com/
http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8874
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=387769
http://www.howtoforge.org/archive/2007/1/14?s=988d6534035fb8aea0a7793bb3318eb7&
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2002/12/05/RAID.html

The Amazing JDPFu.com GPS Application. It is simply uncanny and will tell you exactly where you are!

Ok, the other Senator responded to my Thoughts On Immigration that I forwarded to his office. The response follows:

Dear Mr. P:

Thank you for contacting me regarding immigration reform. It is good to hear from you.

Illegal immigration is a problem in this country that must be solved. I became involved with the immigration reform bill because it was clear to me that this issue touches the lives of Georgians on a daily basis. Moreover, I believe the people of Georgia elected me to represent them and to work constructively to meet the difficult challenges facing our nation.

From the early development of this legislation, I fought for the inclusion of a border security first provision. I felt strongly that this issue should go to the floor of the Senate for a free and open debate with all Senators having the opportunity to offer amendments and have them voted on. That has not happened. For that reason and because certain amendments have been adopted that make the bill unacceptable, I cannot support the bill in its current form.

Due to the tremendous response from Georgians, I am now convinced that many people do not believe our government will enforce the border security provisions in the legislation. Therefore, Senator Isakson and I communicated to President Bush that Congress must pass, and he should sign, a supplemental appropriations bill to fully fund the necessary expenditures to secure our borders.

I will continue to approach this issue by tackling border security first and separately from any other immigration measure and I will oppose comprehensive reform unless and until that is done. That is why I voted against cloture twice on the immigration bill.

This is the most important domestic issue facing our nation today. The Senate should not limit the traditional amendment process or the custom of unlimited debate. We should take as much time as necessary to openly and thoroughly debate the bill.

Immigration reform is a process and we are nowhere near the finish line. The President and Congress must work together to secure the border first. Once this is done , we can work to resolve the collateral issues. I believe we can get there, but we are not there yet .

High Tech Workers Unavailable in USA? …. Here’s a legal team describing the techniques to ensure they comply fully with the law, yet don’t select a US worker who is qualified. This lets them get a cheaper, H-1b visa worker.

Summary from youtube:
Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. See what Bush and Congress really mean by a "shortage of skilled U.S. workers." Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week.

Many of my friends started here on H-1b visas … my beef, isn’t with the workers from foreign countries, rather, it is with the employers and our elected representatives who tweak the system to allow these abuses.

Lou Dobbs did a story on this too.

Ok, I’ve been looking for a replacement for this TiddlyWiki solution that I’ve been using for 2 years. There are many good things about this tool and a few bad.
The Good

• Easy to use
• Everything is stored in a single .HTML file
• Simple Wiki Syntax
• Search
• Journals
• Tags
• No database backend

The Bad

• HUGE file – over 210KB today
• JavaScript isn’t split from the main HTML file
• No remote updates allowed, only local file access allows edits
• Everything is stored in a single .HTML file
• Limited scalability
• No multiuser capability
• JavaScript for everything? Perl/Ruby would be better.
• No images, limited format control
• No database backend
  ‘’The Replacement Candidates’’
• ServerSideWiki – a take-off from TiddlyWiki
• LesserWiki – - a take-off from TiddlyWiki
• SoloWiki – a take-off from TiddlyWiki
• Typo – RoR-based wiki
• MediaWiki

News media bias? Really? No way? Follow the money ….
Journalists dole out cash to politicians

Here’s the summary:
MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

Ok, one of my Senators responded to my Thoughts On Immigration that I forwarded to his office. The response follows:

Dear Mr. P :

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Senate debate on comprehensive immigration reform. I appreciate hearing from you and appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Many have asked why I became involved in a process to work towards a comprehensive reform bill in the Senate. I did it for two reasons. First, in my travels throughout the State of Georgia in the past three years, I had heard loudly and clearly from Georgians that they wanted us to end illegal immigration in America right now, plain and simple. We cannot leave it for future generations to solve. And second, quite frankly, the 2006 elections changed the landscape in Washington and put Democrats in charge of the legislative process. Had I not sat at the table and fought for conservative principles, Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi would have had the votes to pass last year’s horrendous Senate bill and send it on to the President. I could not let that happen. Therefore, I stood strong with other conservative colleagues in the Senate and worked towards a process by which we could to start the immigration debate in the Congress.

I started this process seeking to accomplish three main goals in this debate – to truly secure our borders, to prohibit a new pathway to citizenship and to stop the current climate of amnesty whereby millions of illegal immigrants are breaking our laws and facing no punishment for doing so. As a result of a severely flawed immigration law passed in 1986, some 12 million to 20 million immigrants have been allowed to enter this country illegally and remain indefinitely. They work tax-free, get free health care in our emergency rooms and educate their children for free in our schools. Our nation’s policy today is amnesty, and it must end.

The immigration bill we debated for the past two weeks differed dramatically from the one signed into law in 1986 and it is also very different from last year’s Senate bill. The 1986 law granted amnesty but failed to secure the border, and our country has been paying the price ever since. Last year, the Republican-led Senate repeated the same mistake of 1986 by passing a bill to grant legal status to illegal immigrants without securing our nation’s borders and without imposing any punishment for those here illegally. I voted against that bill last year because it was amnesty and because it failed to secure the border.

This year, I led an effort to ensure that any proposal contain the essential foundation for successfully reforming our immigration system – a requirement to truly secure our borders first before any reform of our temporary worker system takes place. This became known as the "Isakson trigger," and it mandated that Congress must fund, put in place and make operational true border security before any temporary work program could begin. As it currently stands, the bill states that border security must include at least 20,000 border agents, 31,000 detention beds, four unmanned aerial vehicles, 105 radar towers, and 300 miles of vehicles barriers. In addition, a minimum of 370 miles of the fencing mandated in last year’s Secure Fence Act must be constructed. I firmly believe that these security measures would finally provide comprehensive border security and would ensure that we have operational control of our southern border.

The final, key piece of my trigger was a biometrically secure identification card that will allow employers for the first time to instantly verify whether an immigrant is legal. Employers today must guess whether documentation provided by immigrants is fraudulent or not. A biometrically secure ID would replace this guessing game with certainty and would hold employers accountable with much stricter fines for hiring illegal workers.

Although opponents of the bill have suggested that there was nothing worthwhile in this bill, I would suggest that it contained several critical and necessary changes to fix our broken immigration system. It would have secured our borders first. It would have ended our current system of amnesty. It contained no new pathway to citizenship and would have forced illegal immigrants to go home before they could be eligible for a green card or for citizenship. It would have ended chain migration. It would have given employers a fraud-proof system to verify whether workers are legal. It would have forced immigrants to learn English. These are the kind of conservative Georgia principles that I brought to the table and fought for and was able to include. Even though these principles were included, I recognized it was still an imperfect product and that is why I worked through the amendment process to make it even stronger.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Bingaman to limit the temporary worker visa quota for the proposed Y-1 visa to a "hard cap" of 200,000 per year. The bill as originally drafted provided for 400,000 Y-1 visas for the first year, and that number could have risen to 600,000 in following years. This amendment passed and that number was instead capped at 200,000.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Graham to impose mandatory jail sentences for those who crossed the border illegally after being deported – at least 60 days in jail for the first offense and no less than two years for the second offense. Everyone needs to know that America is changing its immigration laws, and that if you break our laws, you will lose your freedom. This amendment passed.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. McCain to require illegal immigrants to pay back taxes on their earnings for the time they had been in the United States . This amendment passed.

I cosponsored and voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Coleman to close a loophole in existing immigration law to allow local law enforcement to acquire information about the immigration status of a person they have probable cause to believe is not lawfully in the U.S. There are several "sanctuary cities" around the United States that have prohibited their law enforcement to inquire about a person’s immigration status. In certain cities, a person can be charged and even tried without the local authorities ever inquiring about whether the person is in the United States legally. The amendment would make it clear that state and local governments may not prohibit their law enforcement from checking a person’s immigration status when they have probable cause to believe that the person is in the United States illegally. Unfortunately, this amendment failed.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Hutchison to prohibit anyone who worked here illegally from obtaining social security benefits based on earnings obtained while here illegally. This amendment passed.

I cosponsored and voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Inhofe to require that English be declared the national language of the United States . It also provided that the English language is the default language for government communication, and that no person has a right to have the government communicate in any language other than English, unless "specifically stated in applicable law." If an exception is made, then only the English language version of any government form can have legal weight.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Demint to require that temporary workers maintain a minimum level of private health insurance to keep them off public assistance such as Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, this amendment failed.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Sessions to prohibit anyone who is not a green card holder in the United States from being able to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit. This amendment passed.

I voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Cornyn to permanently bar about 635,000 "alien absconders," or immigrants who have received deportation notices, from obtaining visas. Unfortunately, this amendment failed.

I also voted to defeat all cloture motions designed to cut off debate on the immigration bill. The Democratic leadership in the Senate refused to allow up or down votes on additional Republican amendments that would further strengthen this bill. Among these critical initiatives that I supported but was not allowed an up or down vote on was an amendment mandating spending for border security as well as an amendment to require illegal immigrants to return home in order to participate in the Z visa program. The Democratic leader’s refusal to allow votes on these additional amendments was unacceptable.

As I have said throughout the debate, I would reserve judgment on the final bill until deliberations were complete on the bill. At the time the Democratic leadership moved to end debate on the bill, it was my view that this bill was not good enough yet for the people of Georgia .

I recognize the lack of trust that a majority of Georgians have in the federal government’s ability to follow through on its promise to secure the border. For that reason, I recently sent a letter to the President calling on him to use his emergency funding powers to fully fund the border security measures in this legislation as well as all outstanding border security measures that have previously been passed but not yet funded .

I have been working hard to address the number one domestic issue in the United States . I will continue my efforts because I believe it is absolutely critical to our state and to this nation that we secure the borders and restore credibility to our immigration system.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please visit my webpage for more information on the issues important to you and to sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator