Saturday, December 22, 2007

Hillary Clinton?

“I was motivated to take action when I found out that there was embedded illicit sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board was unaware of the embedded content. I called on the FTC to investigate the source of the content and, as a result, the company issued a recall of the game. When I am president, I will work to protect children from inappropriate video game content.”


So she wants to make us all a bunch of mediocre lemmings? Seems like she if falling right in line with all the imagery knuckle dragging red-necks conjour when describing females. I don't play computer games but that doesn't mean I want to censure them.

Hillary makes me sick. Though she's a woman she's no different than the others. She's right there with Bush and the others who are out to destroy all that's great about America so a few fat cats can get even fatter.

May she have a heart attack and leave us in peace.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

My Power Supply Died

I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure it's the power supply. I'll switch it out with a spare when I get the time. I believe I have a spare power supply ready to stick in it. However if it is I'll probably buy a new one. I saw a review on 8 1000W powersupplies at http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3173 which I'll go through. The computer that died has quite a few hard disks in it which may have contributed to the power supplies death.

The alternative is to go out and buy a server. I saw a $500 one tonight, 2nd hand of course, that's awesome. I need to upgrade. I need more time to figure out what is wrong though.

Linux Podcasts Rock

I came across this site http://www.linuxreality.com/ this afternoon and it's great. I have not listened to many of them but the ones that I've listened to are good. They make excellent background noise.

It's so good that I started following the podcast references to other podcast shows that were mentioned. It's like a never ending string that is interesting to follow. I keep adding new stations to my RSS feed under a separate category called "podcasts". I'm up to nearly 10 now.

I recommend everybody follow these.

M$ FUD: Get The Facts!

So I sat with about 150 other "technical decision makers" in a very
plush hotel in Holborn while representatives from Microsoft tried their
best to convince me that I should not be considering moving to Linux.
To run the discussion Microsoft had employed a fake-tan horror who had
clearly escaped from daytime TV. He was by turns chummy and
condescending. However being a reasonable man I will not hold Microsoft
responsible for his failings.

http://www.hlynes.com/get-the-facts/

I'm getting tired of seeing M$ talk about it's wonderful products. I know it's crap. This article exposes that crap.

However before you leave the M$ world be prepared for the Linux world. For the most part the linux world is dominated by script kiddies who can't be held down to complete a serious task if their lives depended on it. However there are decent people in the linux world. If you look hard enough.

Templates

With all the stumbling I've been doing, perhaps getting close to 20 hours worth this week, some sites stand out as being more beautiful than others. A brief header at the top, the content on the left, an index on the right, and maybe some administrative stuff at the bottom seems to be the most pleasant. More importantly it seems to be backed by empirical data this is what most users want. See http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html for how this was determined.

So today I rearranged this blog to coincide with what has become obvious with useage.

That reminds me of the pathways throughout the world. Many were built upon the Roman roads. Or the campus at UCI before it became overgrown with buildings. The sidewalks were not put in until the dirt paths were trampled in by enough students to know which paths would be best.

Sqlite

I was reading up on Sqlite and it looks fantastic. Supposedly faster than MySql at many things and it is file based instead of having to have a separate server up and running to access a database. This means backups are as simple as coppying the file somewhere else.

So in my world all scripts are written in PHP and all database stuff might be done with SqlLite. This would give the ability to universally run a script on any system whether it be windows, linux, hp-ux, bsd, osx, etc.. No setup and no fuss.

Stumbleupon is great!

For a long time I've been using bloglines to keep myself informed. I have it set up with news sources from various countries from various perspectives for general news and plenty of specialized feeds too.

However it takes me a good hour to go through them each morning as I sip my coffee before the workout and to be quite candid I get bored with it. Not much seems to be new. However I have started to use stumbleupon and wow, what a difference, the internet has become much more fascinating. I keep finding new and interesting material every day.

Here's how stumble upon works. You put in your interests and then press the stumble upon key. It shows you what other people with similar interest find interesting. I'd recommend you use foxmarks and organize those interesting sites in your bookmarks. I'm not too organized but I've got folders and subfolders up the ying yang now. Stuff that might be interesting sometime in the future.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Best video card available

This is PASSIVELY cooled so no fans to make noises and eventually wear out. Costs in the upper $200 range. Has all the fastest hardware in it by far. It's the obvious choice if you are looking for the fastest.

However probably none of it's cool features are supported by linux. Notice the link to the downloadable manual and drivers for the card. Notice there are 4 drivers for the board:
1) Windows 2000/XP 32 bit
2) Windows XP professional 64 bit
3) Windows Vista 32 bit
4) Windows Vista 64 bit
None of these drivers cover any version of BSD, LINUX, or even Apple. That means I'll have to wait a while, as in years, before I can expect to see this card fully supported by Ubuntu 32/64 bit. If even then. You'd think they'd come out with drivers for the major Operating Systems so to make their card a no-brainer to buy. :(



Model number : SF-PX86GT512U2-HP Passive
Graphics Processing : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Core Clock : 540 MHz
Memory Type : 512MB DDR2
Memory Interface : 128-Bit
Shader Clock : 1190 Mhz
Bus Type : PCI-Express 16x
RAMDAC : 400 MHz

NVIDIA® unified architecture:
Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs.

GigaThread™ Technology:
Massively multi-threaded architecture supports thousands of independent, simultaneous threads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs.

Full Microsoft® DirectX® 10 Support:
World's first DirectX 10 GPU with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects.

NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology1:
Delivers up to 2x the performance of a single graphics card configuration for unequaled gaming experiences by allowing two graphics cards to run in parallel. The must-have feature for performance PCI Express® graphics, SLI dramatically scales performance on today's hottest games.

NVIDIA® Lumenex™ Engine:
Delivers stunning image quality and floating point accuracy with ultra-fast frame rates:
16X Anti-aliasing Technology:
Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.

16X Anti-aliasing Technology:
Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.

128-bit Floating Point High Dynamic-Range (HDR) Lighting:
Twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting effects-now with support for anti-aliasing.

NVIDIA® Quantum Effects™ Technology:
Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable a new level of physics effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU-all the while freeing the CPU to run the game engine and AI.

NVIDIA® ForceWare® Unified Driver Architecture (UDA):
Delivers a proven record of compatibility, reliability, and stability with the widest range of games and applications. ForceWare provides the best out-of-box experience for every user and delivers continuous performance and feature updates over the life of NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs.

OpenGL® 2.0 Optimizations and Support:
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for OpenGL applications.

NVIDIA® nView® Multi-Display Technology:
Advanced technology provides the ultimate in viewing flexibility and control for multiple monitors.

PCI Express Support:
Designed to run perfectly with the PCI Express bus architecture, which doubles the bandwidth of AGP 8X to deliver over 4 GB/sec. in both upstream and downstream data transfers.

Dual 400MHz RAMDACs:
Blazing-fast RAMDACs support dual QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic refresh rates-up to 2048x1536@85Hz.

Dual Dual-link DVI Support:
Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600.

Built for Microsoft® Windows Vista™:
NVIDIA's fourth-generation GPU architecture built for Windows Vista gives users the best possible experience with the Windows Aero 3D graphical user interface, included in the upcoming operating system (OS) from Microsoft.

NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD Technology2
The combination of high-definition video processors and decoder software delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for all video content to turn your PC into a high-end home theater.

Discrete, Programmable Video Processor:
NVIDIA PureVideo is a discrete programmable processing core in NVIDIA GPUs that provides superb picture quality and ultra-smooth movies with low CPU utilization and power.

Hardware Decode Acceleration:
Provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.

HDCP Capable3:
Designed to meet the output protecttion management (HDCP) and security specifications of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays.

Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing:
Sharpens HD and standard definition interlaced content on progressive displays, delivering a crisp, clear picture that rivals high-end home-theater systems.

High-Quality Scaling:
Enlarges lower resolution movies and videos to HDTV resolutions, up to 1080i, while maintaining a clear, clean image. Also provides downscaling of videos, including high-definition, while preserving image detail.

Inverse Telecine (3:2 & 2:2 Pulldown Correction):
Recovers original film images from films-converted-to-video, providing more accurate movie playback and superior picture quality.

Bad Edit Correction:
When videos are edited after they have been converted from 24 to 25 or 30 frames, the edits can disrupt the normal 3:2 or 2:2 pulldown cadence. PureVideo uses advanced processing techniques to detect poor edits, recover the original content, and display perfect picture detail frame after frame for smooth, natural looking video.

Noise Reduction:
Improves movie image quality by removing unwanted artifacts.

Edge Enhancement:
Sharpens movie images by providing higher contrast around lines and objects.

1 - NVIDIA SLI certified versions of GeForce PCI Express GPUs only.
2 - Feature requires supported video software. Features may vary by product.
3 - Requires other HDCP-compatible components

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Newegg doesn't carry server boards?

I went looking through their site, www.newegg.com, trying to find MBs with 64GB ram support. Nothing. Went looking for 32GB ram support. I found only 4 boards. I looked at each of these 4 boards. They all had just 4 memory slots! Like I'd waste my money buying 8GB memory cards, if they are even available, at astronomical prices. I want to buy my memory at the sweet spot which appears to be 2GB sticks. And I want ECC ram. So I want lots of memory slots on my next board. I left them a message saying something similar to what I've said here. That they have a product gap basically and they probably don't want to miss that market. I'll see what they have to say if they ever reply. I don't know if I'd want the s5400sf unless it were more than $250. I think that's my cutoff. Maybe they'll figure out some better solution with a CPU combo or something that makes my life easy. I'm confused when it comes to what works with what.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

www.1and1.com bad support and tricks

Ok, so I have now got two domain names with www.1and1.com and some experience with them.

First off they required me to call them to verify I was who I was. That was ok. I like them to be thorough. I spoke with a guy who sounded like he was gargling the whole time. He was polite and understood what he was talking about though.

Today I called tech support because I could not get a second mail account going for my second domain name. This time the support was an Indian lady who hadn't a fucking clue technically and very limited verbal skills. She was one of those yes people who always said yes and then started talking about something else. I kept telling her to stop and listen to the words I said. That she needed to understand the customer instead of rambling. And her rambles I could not understand either. She'd start going on with words so badly mis pronounced I had to ask her to spell them. Her name was Jeraline (sp?) Jacalan. She kept trying though I kept asking for a supervisor or somebody who spoke English and had a technical clue. Finally I got somebody else despite her best efforts to be a hindrance.

The next guy tried to shove me down the road of only one email account per customer despite the customer owning multiple domains. I explained to him that I wanted a 2GB email account for each domain name I purchased. He kept playing stupid but eventually told me I had to transfer ownership of my second domain to a new account. And that because it was being done internally I could disregard the $7 charge the web page makes you agree to. I don't trust him so I'll check at the end of the month my bill. (He said he'd check it himself in a few hours and correct it but I don't trust him.)

So then I get an email stating I have to do a few additional steps. The email makes no sense what so ever. Written by somebody who doesn't understand English obviously. Or maybe understands English but has not got a fucking clue. I tried improvising as best I could but nothing was similar to what was described in the email. I'll call tomorrow morining when I have the time to go through the hold pattern again.

Well, godaddy did have excellent american speaking technical support. Their web admin site could have been better but it worked. As long as you logged in with windows and IE. (They later fixed it.) However I will never go back to them. I hate Bush too much to ever give business to a rabid Bush supporter like the owner of godaddy is...

They are willing to spend 1,000,0000 rather than 130,000 just to burn hydrogen. And where are they going to get they hydrogen? It's likely to cost them 10x more than the cost of gas or diesel. Is this suppose to help their tourism?

On the positive it will help focus attention on hydrogen and possibly help set up an industry to supply hydrogen.

London buys hydrogen-fuelled red buses
Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:46am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - London's mayor said on Tuesday he had signed a 10 million-pound ($20.7 million) deal for ten hydrogen-powered buses to help reduce pollution and CO2 emissions in the UK capital.

Five of the traditional red buses, to be built by U.S. manufacturer ISE Corp, will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and five will burn hydrogen in conventional internal combustion engines.

"London is now the first city in Europe to commit to a hydrogen bus fleet of this size, which will match traditional diesel buses in terms of performance," London Mayor Ken Livingstone said.

"This represents a huge step forward from the previous hydrogen trials in the capital and is an important step towards my target of having five per cent of all public sector fleet vehicles powered by hydrogen by 2015," he added.

Mike Weston, Operations Director for London Buses, told Reuters the diesel buses they would replace would normally cost around 130,000 pounds each, but the hydrogen buses produced no emissions beyond water vapor and were worth the extra cost.

The hydrogen vehicle industry needs an initial commitment from cities like London to help drive down costs in future, he added.

The buses will be operated by FirstGroup and join a fleet of 8,000 in London, many of which are diesel hybrids.
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL1320605720071113

Monday, November 12, 2007

24 hour fitness problems

Conflicts Regarding Use: Please don't linger on the equipment because other members may want to use it. No member should monopolize the equipment or weights. If there is a sign-up list for the use of the equipment and a maximum time limit on its use, 24 Hour Fitness expects all the members to follow the Rules. In short, observe gym etiquette. If there is a conflict over use, let 24 Hour Fitness Management resolve it.


Normally I work out early in the morning when there is no conflict with machines. However today I was feeling wimpy and told myself I'd get my upper body in the evening. So today I went in to do a little upper body. The place was packed. And full of little whiner military kids. One of which was watching tv while leaning against the weight machine I wanted to use. I went up to him, got his attention, and told him I wanted to use the machine. I noticed he was wearing those t-shirts that are slashed down the sides to show definition and had big arms. He said he was in the middle of his reps. Well he hadn't moved in 3 minutes while I had been on the other machines. I asked him kindly to move again but then the identical machine that was getting use opened up and they offered it to me. So I used it.

I have no idea what's wrong with kids but they are so fucking stupid they need to be put off on their own island. Or perhaps sent to Iraq. If they survive that then maybe they'll get a SUV and hopefully drive it around a turn too quickly and remove themselves from the human race. Idiots.

It's not really just him. It's the human race. You get kids like him who have definition and muscles until their early 30s if they are lucky before they lose it. And the women until their late 20s before they lose it. And they aren't that strong even in their prime. Then they lose it and all you want to do is throw up when you look at them. It's a rare human who maintains their body their entire life. Some of us do though. Some better than others.

Wall Street Journal reports...

According to Democracy Now the Wall Street Journal published today the plans we have of building our new Naval Headquarters on top of the Iraqi Oil Terminal which also overlooks Iran. Didn't Greenspan just publicly say we are in Iraq only for the Oil. Now we may leave Baghdad but we will not ever give up control of the Iraqi oil...

This all looks great. I'm interested in the "15 server dual-core and quad-core 45nm Hi-k Intel Xeon processors" but the article does not go into them at all. I'm imagining a board that can take two quad core Xeon processors with a 128GBs of cheap ECC ram which could be populated with the least expensive per GB sticks for a total of 64GBs. And I'm looking to find one on ebay or craig's list from a business going under that will sell it on the cheap...

Intel's 45nm Penryn desktop expected to pack a big wallop
Sharon Gaudin

Click here to find out more!

November 12, 2007 (Computerworld) Intel Corp.'s new 45-nanometer chip for the desktop, part of the newly released Penryn family, should give gamers, researchers and serious multitaskers a significant performance boost, according to analysts.

And that is not good news for rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which recently started shipping its quad-core Barcelona processor -- built using a 65nm manufacturing process. AMD isn't expected to move to 45nm technology until the second half of 2008.

The release of Intel's Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor came as part of a larger release of Penryn processors, including 15 server dual-core and quad-core 45nm Hi-k Intel Xeon processors. To make the move from 65nm to 45nm processors, Intel designed a new transistor, stemming leakage and improving energy efficiency. With 820 million of these newly designed transistors in just one chip, Intel is calling it one of its biggest advancements.

On the desktop side, all of this should add up to a major performance boost.

Dean Freeman, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said he expects Penryn will be 20% to 50% faster than Intel's previous chip releases in general purpose applications and 10% to 40% faster in technical applications, multimedia and games. For example, someone using Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint should see a 20% to 50% boost, while an Adobe Photoshop user should see a 10% to 40% increase.

"It's going to mean a faster desktop. It's a more powerful tool, operating applications faster," said Freeman. "Basically, it means that for those of us who are concerned about the speed at which applications work on our desktop, the good news is that it will work faster."

Boyd Davis, a general manager at Intel, said a larger L2 cache and support for new SSE4 media instructions are part of the chip's performance boost.

And while no one will be expectantly lining up around the block for the new chips, Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc. in Hayward, Calif., said that Penryn is a "step up" from previous Intel designs and should appeal to the high-end gamers and workstation customers.

"The Penryn architecture blends notably high performance with significant steps forward in power efficiency," he added. "It's a bit like a new sports car that hits a higher top speed than previous models, while simultaneously delivering better gas mileage."

Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc., said the Penryn desktop won't just appeal to the gaming community. Power users with more than 10 applications open at once, video editors and researchers are going to be eager for a performance boost.

Olds added that with this "big step forward" for desktop performance, he's not sure what AMD has to respond with.

"AMD has their work cut out for them," he said. "[Penryn] will be hands-down the fastest desktop chips in existence ... And it's not just this generation. Intel will just crank this thing faster and faster, and it will be a challenge for AMD to respond."

Intel last month opened a new $3 billion manufacturing facility in Chandler, Ariz., kicking off mass production of its new 45nm microprocessors. Freeman has previously noted that the opening of the new Arizona facility, named Fab 32, is expected to boost production of 45nm wafers from 5,000 a month in the pilot program at an Oregon facility to 25,000 to 30,000 wafers a month. Davis added that two other new 45nm fabrication sites -- one in Israel and one in New Mexico -- are expected to go online, boosting 45nm production over Intel's 65nm production by the second half of 2008.

Today, Intel is coming out with one Core 2 Extreme processor, which is geared to the high-end gaming and research market. The company is slated to unveil Core 2 Quad processors and Core 2 Duo processors in the first quarter of 2008, pushing the new chips from the high-end desktop market out to the general market.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Movie Review: Blades Of Glory

I put off seeing this movie for a long time. I've never liked anything Ferrel has done. However this movie didn't make me heave like all his others. It was actually a good parody of ice skaters. Obviously I'm not a fan of ice skating. To me it's a bunch of thunder thighed women dressed like hookers moving their hands about artistically. Of course I'm a guy and just don't get ice skating and horse riding. Maybe women become such big slobs and bloat out that the only time they can feel like they are moving is when they slide on ice. Women in general are so sad. And unfortunately guys will plug anything that lets them so we are just as sad.

It sure would be nice if the human race quit breeding every chance it got.

wwww.1and1.com much better than www.godaddy.com

One of the emails I received full of veterans propaganda was from www.godaddy.com. This set me off. I did a search on this company and discovered the owner is a right wing war hawk. So I went looking for alternatives thinking I would have to pay more and get less to avoid this nut case...

... Not at all. Much to my surprise www.1and1.com offers much more at a much better price. For instance with a .biz domain name you get:
Private domain registration free instead of having to pay $7
You get ICANN free instead of paying $.20
You get 2,000MBs of email space instead of only 25MBs for free
You get the domain name for either $3 or $7 rather than a flat $10.

I don't know if 1and1 are right wing war hawks but a quick google search didn't find anything about them. I think I'll get a new domain name from 1and1 and try it out. I'll do another search on their political views first. If they aren't war hawks I'll move all my domain names to them.

I did another google search and found nothing. I did find that godaddy advertises in football games. And they do sexy adverts that get banned. I kind of like them but oh well. I don't like their political views.

Veterans Day

Well it's that time of the year again. We all have to put up with emails and broadcast propaganda about why we should support our vets. It's not like the vets did anything but support our crooked politicians help their parent lobbyist companies get rich. I don't normally encourage that type of thing. It used to be they were drafted and had no choice. I could have sympathy for that. However that's not the case for most of the vets these days. And if they were at some point forced to join they can now quit at any point they want. Sure they might get a "dishonorable discharge" but should they give a damn. They should just say they are gay and get kicked out. Plain and simple. They could then run up a flag saying gay, proud, and discharged because of it and stand tall. But due to greed and such they stay in. Not my problem. And I certainly have no plans on supporting them. The older generation should have taken care of themselves by now and do not need my help. Again it's not my problem.

Sure I feel sorry for all the poor and badly educated kids who go in to the armed forces. However I can't be responsible for everybody. Let the politicians do something useful and keep these kids out. Put them in to college for free. Put them in programs that actually help America. Not bring it down.

Movie Ideas

While in blockbusters waiting in line I watched the preview of "Back To The Future" on the monitors. I noticed how the kid was way cooler than the parent and that this theme probably always plays out to the younger movie going generation. Here the kid goes back in time and helps out his dad, who is now the same age as the kid, get past his peeping tom tendencies and bad case of nerdishness.

Now lets grab the idea by the ears and flip it upside down. How about the parent invents the time machine. Much more likely. And how about the parent knows much more than the stupid kid. Again much more likely. How about the parent goes back in time, brings his younger self back to the future, in the hopes of his cool younger self helping out his stupid kids.

Plot complications? Hmmm. Having a kid who is cool and follows the rules could be very entertaining. Imagine the kid who implicitly trusts the parent. By following the parents choice he keeps avoiding the problems his "relative" falls into. On the other hand he has the freedom to make the individual choices that make him "cool" and popular. This could, with enough imagination, be made in to a fantastic movie. Maybe a series...

Friday, November 9, 2007

Water boarding should have been used on Michael Mukasey

I have a solution. If our new puppet judge has no problem with wateboarding and does not think it is torture then congress should have used waterboarding on him to help determine when and when he was not speaking the truth. Damn we missed a perfect opportunity.

And if he still didn't think it was torture then we should have used it on the 53 senators who voted for him. It really is time to stamp out hypocrisy in our government.

New US attorney general confirmed
Human rights groups have opposed Mukasey's appointment [AFP]

Michael Mukasey, a retired judge who has refused to denounce interrogation methods viewed worldwide as torture, has been confirmed as the new US attorney general by a divided senate.

Mukasey's election on Thursday by 53 to 40 votes was split mosty on party lines. Democrats opposed him due to his resistance to declare simulated drowning unlawful.

He has been appointed as the country's chief law enforcement officer after his predecessor Alberto Gonzales resigned under pressure in September.

Gonzales had been critcised as a political tool of the Bush government.

Mitch McConnell, the senate Republican leader, defended Mukasey, saying: "Tonight, a clear bipartisan majority of the US senate voted to confirm Judge Mukasey because he is one of the most qualified candidates ever nominated to the position of attorney general".

Waterboarding furore

Mukasey had been given initial support from senators who saw him as a fair and independent-minded nominee.

But the former judge was criticsed after he told the senate judiciary committee at his confirmation hearing last month that torture violated the US constitution, but he was unsure if waterboarding was unlawful.

In a follow-up letter Mukasey said that he finds waterboarding "repugnant", but would be unable to determine its legality until he examined classified US interrogation policies.

Harry Reid, the senate Democratic leader, expressed doubts concerning Mukasey: "Judge Mukasey's answer to the waterboarding question was important in itself, but it also raised for me serious doubts about whether he is prepared to be the truly independent voice that the justice department so desperately needs.

"If he cannot stand up to the president on such a question of profound importance with a clear legal answer, how can we be sure that he would be more than just another mouthpiece for an administration that treasures secrecy and loyalty above all?" Reid asked.

Mukasey's confirmation promises included the enforcement of any new laws that specifically bans waterboarding.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EBA32F1D-5E70-4DBD-9BE1-D7E4E8F666BC.htm

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Motherboards that can take 64GBs thread

I'm going to use this thread to keep track of those boards that can handle 64GBs. There should not be too many which hopefully will make it easy.

http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.php?product_item_number=10024003225

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Howto make a ramdisk in ubuntu

I would like to make a huge multi gigabyte ramdisk to hold everything I do. I found this code:

Things Linux Can Do That Some Idiots Think It Can't Do

lol... remember my post earlier on about how you can't create big ramdisks on Linux? It was under the title "Things Linux Can't Do". Well, I wanted to make a huge ramdisk for some reason, and I found that the HOWTOs on the web only told me how to create small ramdisks of a couple of megabytes each.

Linux Format magazine has just run a feature on little tricks you can use in Linux, and one of them is about how to create a ramdisk of any size! Here's the code they give for creating a 64 megabyte ramdisk:

sudo mkfs -t ext3 -q /dev/ram1 65536
sudo mkdir -p /ramdisk
sudo mount /dev/ram1 /ramdisk -o defaults,rw

Alter the number "65536" for a larger or smaller ramdisk, alter /dev/ram1 to another RAM device if you are creating multiple ramdisks, or for an extra speed boost you could probably alter "ext3" to "xfs".

Now, I've just got to find some reason to use it... :-)
http://bigbolshevik.blogs.friendster.com/a_man_and_his_penguin/ubuntu/index.html

Ok, like most things in the computer world, the above was bullshit. The guy never tested it. Larger sizes came back with an error of:
sudo mkfs -t ext3 -q /dev/ram2 1048576
mkfs.ext3: Filesystem larger than apparent device size.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
mkfs.ext3: Invalid argument while zeroing block 262128 at end of filesystem

And trying xfs did not help either

sudo mkfs -t xfs -q /dev/ram2 1048576
mkfs.xfs: No such file or directory

I wish people were more thorough.

In search of the perfect workstation/server

So I'm pretty much over RAID. Now I'm thinking bootable thumb and or dvd drives and RAM disks with no hard drives in the picture at all. That way you are safe from viruses.

I'm thinking 8GBs is adequate for the OS and apps. Certainly a 16GB thumb drive is adequate. MBs now support 64GBs of ram. Fill up a 64GB unit with 32GBs of ram for $130*16=$2000.

Get a fast graphics card for $800 and a 1920x1200 LCD screen.

A symmetric 20 or 30Mb internet connection.

The system would rock!

Except the noise from the fans. Power, CPU, and grapic fans. I can get away without a graphics fan if I don't play games. Which I don't. The power fans are almost totally noiseless. So then it comes down to the CPU fans. I'd best start paying attention to them.

Friday, November 2, 2007

learning

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00500.x

Current Directions in Psychological Science

Volume 16 Issue 4 Page 183-186, August 2007

To cite this article: Doug Rohrer, Harold Pashler (2007)
Increasing Retention Without Increasing Study Time
Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 (4), 183–186.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00500.x
Prev Article Next Article
Abstract
Increasing Retention Without Increasing Study Time

* Doug Rohrer11University of South Florida and and
* Harold Pashler22University of California, San Diego

*
1University of South Florida and 2University of California, San Diego

Address correspondence to Doug Rohrer, Department of Psychology, PCD4118G, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620; e-mail: drohrer@cas.usf.edu.
Abstract

ABSTRACT—Because people forget much of what they learn, students could benefit from learning strategies that yield long-lasting knowledge. Yet surprisingly little is known about how long-term retention is most efficiently achieved. Here we examine how retention is affected by two variables: the duration of a study session and the temporal distribution of study time across multiple sessions. Our results suggest that a single session devoted to the study of some material should continue long enough to ensure that mastery is achieved but that immediate further study of the same material is an inefficient use of time. Our data also show that the benefit of distributing a fixed amount of study time across two study sessions—the spacing effect—depends jointly on the interval between study sessions and the interval between study and test. We discuss the practical implications of both findings, especially in regard to mathematics learning.

How to get music for free.

I haven't read the following article. However I wouldn't be surprised if it gets pulled very quickly because it's like waving a red flag, blowing a loud horn, and throwing a rock at a bull. In this case the bull is probably the record industry with their army of attorneys. So here's the article in all it's glory: http://howto.wired.com/wiredhowtos/index.cgi?page_name=cheat_the_music_industry_never_pay_for_music;action=display;category=Play

When I get the time to listen to music I'll read it.

Despite the continual legal pursuit of music file-sharing "criminals" by the "RIAA ( )"<>, the ability to find great music and create a significant music library at virtually no cost is still quite feasible. So we'll start by dividing this into categories and giving a few examples of what we know. But it's up to you to fill in the blanks.
THE GOOD (Legal and Somewhat Free)
Amie Street

Offers music downloads with a very innovative fee structure - tracks start out free, and the price scales with the number of people who download them, capped at 98 cents. There is even the possibility of making money - if you recommend a track before it rockets up in price, you are rewarded with store credit. Has a large and growing selection, including the Barenaked Ladies, Tiesto, Jonathon Coulton, etc. Also recently announced a large amount of funding from Amazon.
Lala.com

Lala.com launched in June 2006 as a membership service that facilitated CD swaps. The site lets music fans list the CDs they own and the CDs they want, and then it arranges trades. Each transaction costs $1.75, which pays for a nifty Netflix-like envelope, 75 cents in shipping, a roughly 20-cent honorarium deposited into a trust fund for artists, and, of course, a fee for the middleman. Lala.com's founder, Bill Nguyen says a portion of this fee goes to the performers. This may also temporary assuage the suit-happy RIAA. The arrangement exploits a loophole in copyright law: While distributing duplicates is verboten, it's perfectly legal to trade your own property. (And there's nothing to prevent Lala users from ripping a copy of a disc before they send the original off to someone else.) In February 2007, Lala added CD sales to its offerings.

Starting in November, Lala will offer unlimited on-demand streams of music from two of the four major labels (the company's still negotiating with the other two) using the internet radio station that Lala.com owns, WOXY. Users can immediately buy any track they hear on WOXY.
Last.fm

Last.fm is a social music site that allows users to subscribe to radio stations based on their tastes and favourite artists. It is possible to use the service from within popular music players on Windows, Linux or OS X, though it does rely on having a decent internet connection with no caps or limits. The range of music available is very good, and the intention behind the site is to expose listeners to stuff they may not have experienced. Major label artists are well represented, but it's also pretty simple to add and tag your own content to the site if you're a producer.
Deezer.com

A free radio site, with excellent selection.
Spiralfrog.com

Spiralfrog offers free music downloads from a large library, in exchange for clicking through a certain number of ads per month.
THE BAD (Mostly Legal & Mostly Free)
THE UGLY (Illegal & Free, unless the catch you)

Torrents, torrents, torrents. Without a doubt, torrents can be the easiest way to share music (as well as other media formats) without cost and the center of the latest attack by the recording industry on the "free from fee" community. In case the use of the BitTorrent protocal momentarily escapes you, check our rather thorough How To Use BitTorrent.

The way files are shared using the BitTorrent protocol is through torrent trackers. The list of torrent trackers seems to be growing daily but here's a few of the most notable ones.
The Pirate Bay - BOiNK

Indisputably the most notorious of torrent trackers, these Swedes constantly thumb their noses at legal threats and stern warnings alike. In addition their main website, they also maintain music specific site BOiNK, a descendant of OiNK, a site that was most recently, shuttered.
"The success of BOiNK will mainly depend on the former OiNK community, who will be asked to upload their old OiNK torrents," says TorrrentFreak's Ernesto, the Pirate Bay's blogging Voice To The World.
Blin.com

Thomas Crampton, who writes for the New York Times and others, has posted an interesting interview Kaiser Kuo of Ogilvy, a Chinese PR firm. Kuo talks about up and coming Chinese web services, specifically Blin.cn, which Kuo claims offers streaming downloads at 50 times the speed of BitTorrent and can play DVD quality video in near real time.
Albumbase

This site allows users to download entire albums for free. Rather than sharing files from their own computers, users upload compressed folders containing entire albums to sites like Rapidshare that host sub-100MB files for free. Then, they submit the temporary Rapidshare URL to Albumbase. Their motivation? Users who submit links earn points that can be redeemed for cash prizes.

Once the albums' URLs are in the Albumbase system, other users then browse or search those albums and download them from their temporary locations. When the links expire, users can notify the system easily, so dead links get weeded out and replaced by live ones in near-real-time.

The site requires confirmed email registration (for the advanced version of the service, cellphone number confirmation), and the file hosting sites that provide the backbone for the service might keep logs of the IP addresses of uploaders and downloads. The RIAA has a potential trail to follow in order to sue users of the service, but rather than providing subpoena-ing an ISP with an IP address in order to identify an alleged infringer the way they normally do, the RIAA lawyers would have to use the service to get a temporary link for a file and then subpoena the service providing the link. These companies are often located abroad, which could turn Albumbase into a major headache for the record industry (but a potential source of solace for ousted OiNK users).

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Movie Review: Evan Almighty

Is this what goes through the minds of religious folk? Or is the movie an attempt to poke fun at the whole idea of a God and Moses and those who believe in the stuff?

Either way I would not recommend watching the movie. However I think Steve Carell and the President of Iran could use each other for shaving mirrors. Take a look and see what I mean http://www.president.ir/fa/

Maybe. Just maybe... There can be some comical movies made with Steve Carrell playing the president...

I'd like to see him calling Bush Satan in the U.N. and then doing a little dance...

Sunday, October 28, 2007

I'm sooo sorry... NOT

This is incredible. Those poor gamblers getting their jackpots yanked out from under them. I can't say I feel bad about it though. I don't like gamblers and I don't like casinos. It makes me feel quite good to see this happen.

Now if SUV owners got taxed through the roof next I'd be even happier.

Yet Another Casino Yanks Jackpot Prize, Claiming Faulty Software
from the unlucky-sevens dept

Apparently faulty slot machines that always seem to malfunction when someone wins big are becoming more popular at casinos -- and they're now not awarding larger sums. Last year, we wrote about two guys in Canada who thought they had won $209,000 using a slot machine, only to be told that they didn't win and it was all a computer glitch. Earlier this year there was a similar story of a man apparently not winning $102,000 at a new casino in Pennsylvania. In that case, the negative press coverage convinced the casino to pay up. The latest such case takes place at the Sandia Resort and Casino in New Mexico, where a guy was told that his $1.6 million slot machine win was actually a computer malfunction. He's suing, but he might not have much of a case -- especially since the casino is on an Indian reservation, and not subject to the US court system. Also, in this case, it's a little more reasonable to understand why the guy might not have a strong case: apparently the machine clearly stated that the payouts were limited to $2,500. Still, it makes you wonder: for all these slot machines with faulty software that's suddenly discovered after people win... what happens when machines screw up the other way? Somehow, we doubt that the casinos call them up to a room in the back (as always seems to happen in these cases) and tells them the machine screwed up and they actually won.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20071026/022323.shtml

M$ does it again

People are surprised? This is M$ people. They are the ones who build in backdoors to all their OSs. They are the ones that force you to register again if you upgrade hardware. This latest development should not be a surprise to anybody.

However despite this I hear they are capturing the server market. Taking it away from Linux. You'd think people would be smarter than this.

I am never amazed at how stupid the world can be.



Windows Update Screws Up Again; Pissed Off Users Discover Desktop Search Auto Installed
from the not-what-the-IT-admin-ordered dept

A month ago, there was a story that made that rounds about Microsoft Windows' auto-update feature automatically installing stuff, even if people had turned off the auto-install option. This pissed off a lot of people, but we didn't write about it at the time, assuming it was a one-off glitch. Apparently not. Now reports are coming out that plenty of folks who had auto-update turned off are discovering that a recent patch automatically installed and began running Windows Desktop Search. Once installed, the app started indexing everything, chewing up resources. On top of that, if you want to uninstall WDS, you need to reboot your computer, which is quite a nuisance for many people. Needless to say plenty of folks are pissed off. The specific problem appears to be that this patch simply looked at whether or not a person had approved an earlier (from February) patch -- and if that had been installed, then this one was automatically installed as a "revision." It just so happens that it also included WDS -- even if it wasn't wanted. While the article notes that the Windows Server group had admitted it made a mistake, it doesn't read much like an admission or an apology. Rather, it's just an explanation, which doesn't seem to be placating pissed off users everywhere.

McCarthy era all over again. I'll bet if I'm not on it now I will before it's over with. The only thing they don't realize is that when they do things like this it makes the public even more unhappy. And soon they will be spying on everybody. Even their coworkers. Finally it will topple. It's just a matter of when.

It all starts when you don't give people enough time to be with the family. Forcing both spouses to work usually more than 40 hours a week, not counting preparation time, 50 weeks a week, is a recipe for a societies downfall. Soon you get an Orwellian society like we have now.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-23-Watchlist_N.htm

Terror watch list swells to more than 755,000
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.

The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

"It undermines the authority of the list," says Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies. "There's just no rational, reasonable estimate that there's anywhere close to that many suspected terrorists."

The exact number of people on the list, compiled after 9/11 to help government agents keep terrorists out of the country, is unclear, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Some people may be on the list more than once because they are listed under multiple spellings.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who plans a hearing on the report today, says "serious hurdles remain if (the list) is to be as effective as we need it to be. Some of the concerns stem from its rapid growth, which could call into question the quality of the list itself."

About 53,000 people on the list were questioned since 2004, according to the GAO, which says the Homeland Security Department doesn't keep records on how many were denied entry or allowed into the country after questioning. Most were apparently released and allowed to enter, the GAO says.

Leonard Boyle, director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list, says in testimony to be given today that 269 foreigners were denied entry in fiscal 2006.

The GAO report also says:

•The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) could not specify how many people on its no-fly list, which is a small subset of the watch list, might have slipped through screening and been allowed on domestic flights.

•TSA data show "a number of individuals" on the no-fly list passed undetected through screening and boarded international flights bound for the United States. Several planes have been diverted once officials realized that people named on the watch lists were on board.

•Homeland Security has not done enough to use the list more broadly in the private sector, where workers applying for jobs in sensitive places such as chemical factories could do harm.

Boyle also urges that the list be used by for screening at businesses where workers could "carry out attacks on our critical infrastructure that could harm large numbers of persons or cause immense economic damage."

But the sheer size of the watch list raised the most alarms.

"They are quickly galloping towards the million mark — a mark of real distinction because the list is already cumbersome and is approaching absolutely useless," said Tim Sparapani of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says "creating and maintaining a comprehensive terrorist watch list is an enormous endeavor fraught with technical and tactical challenges."

The report, she says, "underscores the need to make the watch lists more accurate, to improve screening procedures at airports and the ports of entry, and to provide individuals with the ability to seek redress if they believe they have been wrongfully targeted."

San Diego FEMA Fire Propaganda

Why isn't this getting the coverage it should? Because it worked! It worked so well that nobody is questioning why most of our firefighting equipment is in Iraq. That all which is left here in CA is the stuff that was too old to be taken.

Effective propaganda is great. Never mind the fact that we were not able to tell where the fires were. That the websites were all down. Just put a happy face on it and say it was all run perfectly. The lemmings will believe it.

Basically you've got to protect your own property from fires. The fire departments have a proven track record of not doing it. The insurance companies have so many small print clauses to let them back out. It's totally up to the owner now to take care of what's his.

It's a shame what our government has become.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-102507-femabriefing,0,7426549.story?coll=chi_news_opinion_ugc
chicagotribune.com
FEMA sorry for fake news briefing

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post

6:33 PM CDT, October 26, 2007

WASHINGTON

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's No. 2 official apologized Friday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.

"We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent," Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA's deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.

"We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," Johnson said, a view repeated Friday by press officers at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, who criticized the event.

FEMA announced the news conference at its headquarters here about 15 minutes before it was to begin Tuesday afternoon, making it unlikely that reporters could attend. Instead, FEMA set up a telephone conference line so reporters could listen.

In the briefing, parts of which were televised live by cable news channels, Johnson stood behind a lectern, called on questioners who did not disclose that they were FEMA employees, and gave replies emphasizing that his agency's response to this week's California wildfires was far better than its response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

"It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly ... I should have stopped it," said John "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's director of external affairs. "I hope readers understand we're working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday that "it is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House. We certainly don't condone it. We didn't know about it beforehand. ... They, I'm sure, will not do it again."

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke called the staged briefing "totally unacceptable," adding, "While it is an isolated incident, that does not make it any more tolerable." He said reprimands are "very probable." FEMA is part of DHS.

"Trying to manipulate the press and the public will only tarnish their (FEMA's) current success," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said.

Philbin's last scheduled day at FEMA was Thursday. He has been named as the new head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines said.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

All Government Whistleblowers Exposed

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/27/1128243&from=rss

You should never be a whistleblower. If you do become one you open yourself up to things like this. And even if they didn't make incredibly stupid incompetent mistakes like this they'd still be sending information to the VP. It's like inviting the fox in to eat the defenders of the chickens.

If you are ever in a position to be a whistleblower you'd best think twice. What you really want to do is find a plausible way of denying you ever knew anything. Hopefully as you are taking a job somewhere else so that you can get away from whatever is going on that shouldn't.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Where will the war on terror go?

We had the war on drugs, the war on education, the war on blah blah blah. Now the figure they can get their kicks on the so called war-on-terror. All of these wars start with lots of fan fare but the fizzle. This one could be different but will it?

Here's why it may not continue. The public is fed up with us torturing people. Everybody is aware of how Bush and company has made a fool of our country. There hasn't been one successful case against any of the terrorists. That I'm aware of. This week the latest group of terrorists were exonerated. Again it was our government lying to us. We can't afford to continue. When the democrats take power their funding will be dropped. There are more important things for us to do. Like fix our educational system, our courts, our streets, our economy. All these factors conspire against the real terrorists, our country, continuing their evil ways against the world.

So in about 4 more years this mess should dry up and we will start working on getting ourselves out of the big economic depression we will be in.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

HPs Data Center in India

Hmmm. I wonder if this is the HP place I visited back in the late 90s when we worked closely with HP. It was fun working there between the power outages. And the crap in the air from all the pollution was, uh, breath taking. Too bad the article doesn't show pictures of the outside.

Lessing says 9/11 not so bad

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7057601.stm

Can't agree more. The IRA was real. I remember bombs going off everywhere there and train trips being constantly delayed.

9/11 was just one attack, probably totally created by our administration. If we got rid of Bush and company we wouldn't be at risk any longer. If Bush never got into office then he would never have been able to set it up.

Anyway, that's my belief. 9/11 was totally an inside job. If it wasn't carried out by right wing republicans it was done with their help. The whole thing has let our war time president to make huge profits for all the republicans at the expense of our future. And probably there are many of them ready to leave our country and live abroad away from our laws as soon as Bush leaves office.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

SSD Drives again

This anandtech article, http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3133, got me thinking again.

Wouldn't it be great to have a raid 6 set up using SSDs? I think I'll go this route if I need a quiet workstation.

The normal problem with a large raid array is that each disk must move it's heads into place. This requires a huge delay. Once there it can stream the data very quickly. Once there. With SSD there would be almost no latency. It would be immediate 800MB/s streaming. Well, given enough disks. Since SSD disks are slow you'd probably need 16 of them to give 800MB/s streaming. Maybe even 24. But 2.5 inch disks are so small, require little or no power, and are so totally silent, it might be an option even in a single tower. Say 2x12, 3x8, or 4x6. Something must be doable.

Hmmm, once again it might be better to use thumb drives rather than SSDs.

Maybe I'm once again off target. I should be thinking about large ram disks that get preloaded with the OS and all relevant files. These files should then get written back to the disk as background tasks.

I know you can buy server boards that hold 32GBs. I wonder if any hold even more RAM?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Football players shave their legs?

What the hell! HS football players get super bug infection because of shared razor. A razor for their legs?! This was on NPRs Saturday Weekend Edition.

I'm so impressed. They make lots of grunting sounds. They wear tight pants. They are always patting each others butts. They stick their hands next to some guys balls and say hut hut hut. They get into huddles. And they are all about bumping each other.

I guess it's ok to be gay but if you are straight would you ever want to play football? Not me. I don't get turned on with a bunch of guys shaving each others legs with one razor.

Is nothing safe?

The Evil Within

I just listened to Diane Rehm interview Cheney's wife. This evil witch is the perfect example of what has taken over the World. She sounds so down to earth and reasonable. By gosh she's just a hard working person who believes in no fences and blue skies.

She says she is the balance. That NPR funding should be cut because they are not balanced. That who could have imagined no more attacks after 9/11 but thanks to men like her husband there have not been any. That Saddam harbored terrorists within Iraq. We did the right thing going in to Iraq. That the justifications we used to get into Iraq were not skewed. She does all this lying with sincere sounding integrity. However anybody who knows the facts knows she is lying through her teeth. She's the holier than thou preacher who leads the KKK at night. Or in this case the preachers wife.

But with America unwilling to remember what was said before only the latest round of bold faced lies will be believed. And as long as everybody is stuck in the rat race they don't have time to stop and think about just what was said before and note all the contradictions. It's all about how sincere and persuasive you can spin lies. No need to worry about fact checking. So we will have to tolerate more Hitlers, Cheneys, and future blights on humanity in the future.

When will history look back and sadly point out it was Cheney who was responsible for the deaths of some million Iraqis. The mass exodus of probably 5 million Iraqis to other countries. And the robbing of our governmentss treasury to make a few very rich CEOs even richer.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

SSD again, exposing the lies this time.

There's a site at http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html which pretends to be non biased yet isn't. They do present good information. They just spin it like FOX News does.

Here he eloquently muddles the picture talking about how things are complicated but the vendors have your best interests at heart. That they have done all sorts of work but won't tell you because they are afraid others will steal their great algorithms. Then he talks about the hypothetical nightmare scenario from hell. He figures worst case scenarios and concludes a disk will last 55 or maybe 80 plus years. And that's worst case. Well if you managed to make it down to where he starts off his BS you probably were jaded and half asleep. I'll cut to the chase.

He assumes a write is done evenly across the whole disk. Well to write across the whole disk rather is not worst case. Lets get real. People fill their disks up to capacity and then your paging and data file get rewritten to the same spot over and over again. Not across the whole disk.

Lets take the paging/cache file. It's going to hit the same part of the disk over and over. So all of a sudden you have taken it down from their 64GBs down to 1/2GB. All of a sudden you are working with a life span of half a year.

Now if we want to say they have good algorithms then they must be a lot of behind the scene disk management. Like it must have it's own OS that intelligently keeps track of what data is not getting rewritten often and what is. Kind of like a real time disk defragger. Do any of these SSD devices have that. I don't think so. So basically the redistribution is only being done when file space is returned and available for redistribution.

As your imagination can hopefully deduce now only open standard real time defrag programs, running on their own chip on their own OS on the SSD drive has the ability to spread the data evenly like the author claims happens. Until then you have to have the smarts to know whether a SSD disk works for you. Maybe they'll start shipping this, along with cache, to utilize the SSD properly. But it's still years off.

I'd like to know why this author is so biased in favor of SSD. Though it does not matter.

James Watson, another Mensa idiot?

I've noticed people are about the same everywhere. "Dumb" people are often quite smart. "Smart" people are incredibly stupid. Usually people get good in whatever they do. Period. That's it. However when somebody spends time in a field that's suppose to be reserved for intelligent people their heads swell. Look at chess masters. Or doctors. Rocket scientists. And everyone of the 20 or so mensa members I've known. They all want you to take the mensa test. Tell you your mensa material. And then say the stupidest bullshit you ever heard. The last time was in a meetup group. This lady was telling me how incredibly smart she was, lived most of her adult life in South America, approved of the right wing death squads and how we had to forcefully keep world population down.

Now if this Watson guy looked at some studies and found black people did not do as well in those tests he might have wanted to ask some questions. Especially if those tests were administered in the United Racist States of America. Where everything is about keeping the black person down. I hope he is allowed to do what he is good at. However I hope he learns to keep his mouth shut about things he has no experience in. Fucking idiot.

Or is he? Do we have proof he said that? Could he be like that Iranian president who reputedly said there were no Gays in Iran. Only to discover later he said no gays in Iran suffer. So unless it can be verified with context I'll take back my remarks about Watson and assume the best.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gABa4j54SO7AOYzd43DWHwZhocJg

Top US scientist suspended by lab for "racist" remarks

1 day ago

NEW YORK (AFP) — A US Nobel Prize-winning scientist who triggered a storm with reportedly racist comments canceled his British book tour Friday to return home, where his lab has suspended him from duty.

"The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Board of Trustees decided to suspend the administrative responsibilities of Chancellor James D. Watson, PhD, pending further deliberation by the board," the lab said in a statement.

Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962 for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, had been in London for a book tour when an interview he gave to the Sunday Times sparked a furore.

He had been the number two at the Long Island laboratory, just outside New York. But the lab said Watson was suspended "after the board's public statement yesterday disagreeing with the comments attributed to Dr Watson in the October 14, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times."

Watson told the British weekly he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."

Lab president Bruce Stillman said the board of trustees "vehemently disagree with these statements and are bewildered and saddened if he indeed made such comments."

Such remarks were Watson's "own personal statements and in no way reflect the mission, goals, or principles of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Board, administration or faculty," he said in a separate statement.

"Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory does not engage in any research that could even form the basis of the statements attributed to Dr. Watson."

Earlier Friday, Watson said in a statement that he was "mortified about what has happened."

"More importantly, I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have.

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

His publicist revealed that Watson, who arrived in London this week and had been due to take part in several events until October 25, had pulled out of the British book tour Friday and gone home.

Kate Farquhar-Thomson, head of publicity in the academic division of publishers Oxford University Press, said Watson left because he "felt that he needed to go back to the States" for discussions with his laboratory.

Watson, the 79-year-old chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, had been due to give a series of lectures promoting his new book "Avoid Boring People: Lessons From A Life In Science."

But the Science Museum in London on Thursday canceled his scheduled Friday talk, saying Watson's comments had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."

And the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a leading US scientific organization, said it was "outraged" by the remarks attributed to Watson, describing them as "racist" and "vicious."

Professor Steven Rose, a neurobiologist from the Open University, told the BBC that Watson was "notorious over a long history of his life in shooting from the hip and making remarks which are racist, sexist, homophobic, profoundly offensive."

Watson reportedly whipped up a storm when he said women should have the right to abort their babies if tests could determine that their child carried homosexual genes.

And the scientist considered "the grandfather of DNA" has also argued that one day it might be possible to modify the genetic code to make people more beautiful -- especially women.

Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay


She said she regarded her novels as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority".

But she added that not everyone likes her work. Christian groups have alleged the books promote witchcraft. The author said her revelation about Dumbledore would give them one more reason.



Wow. To be honest I lost interest in her series halfway through book six and skimmed the last half. And I haven't had the desire to start the last book. (I did read the last chapter on the day it came out, but well, that genre just does not interest me.) This changes everything. Before I had thought she was a money grubbing meanie. This prolonged argument for tolerance, questioning authority, and disregard for Christians puts her in my respected camp.

But how is it she is only 42 and looks like she is 68? I'm older than her but I would not have interest in her unless I was 70. It's a shame to see people prematurely age. Especially people I respect.

Movie Review: Transformers

Looks like our Government has decided that the best way to get its recruiting numbers back up is to load movies up with American propaganda. This movie is a prime example of our Governments best attempt at it this year.

We have a nerd with a sex drive that just won't stop. We have the wholesome girl next door who has blossomed at an early age and will look like your ugly grandmother by 30 as lust material. We have the cool Latin marine who has ESP and can't stop talking mexican. He's there for a role model for the Latin faction of our military. We have the white marine as a role model for sex starved nerd kids. They too can mate with beautiful women and have beautiful children and he's proof. And we have the aliens.

Now the aliens are much more advanced technologically advanced than us. And the movie starts off by 10 minutes of demonstrating how just one could probably wipe out our entire planet. Once this has been demonstrated the rest of the movie goes down hard and leaves a crater so deep you wish you could have said you died while watching it.

Somehow it turns out that the aliens must hack into the the most sensitive databases our nation has in order to complete their mission. (Though a simple 10 second ebay search would have given them all the info they needed.) This however gives them a chance to introduce a blond HS bimbo with glasses who can hack into anything. And a fat black who pretends to be addicted to dance dance revolution but obviously isn't or else he wouldn't be the tubby he is. Somehow he's the world best hacker. He must be the role model for Blacks. I think she's just more bimbo material to attract nerds.

So for some reason one of the good robots decides to be his personal car. Why the hell doesn't the robot just say I need the map on your grandfathers glasses and I'll pay your asking price. The robot doesn't. Instead it makes situation comedy. Turns out that all the robots have to show up. Then they have to explain in long dialoges why courage is so important. Why the human race is so important. Blah blah blah. The parents demonstrate why the kid would want to join the military. The mom talks about why he shouldn't be ashamed of masturbating. (Apparently that's what most of the kids in Iraq do with their spare time right there in the bunks with their buddies.) They are elated to find a girl in the room with him. This is probably a good thing because otherwise he'd probably turn out to be a druggy. This way there's a chance he'll be an easily controlled piece of white trash with a trailor full of kids he has to support by the time he's 25. Prime military material. Whoa be it to any film to introduce the wild idea that the kids go to college, start a business, become an asset to society and the world, and all the while have fun before getting a bimbo and rug rats.

As the movie goes along the robots become less and less a threat. The one protecting him can actually be tied up and hauled away with no problem. And the ones after him no longer are much of a threat either. The military becomes the good guys. And the robots give him stupid military tasks that he might get if he were in the military. Never mind they could easily accomplish any of the tasks given to him much faster. Not that any of the tasks were needed in the first place. Why for instance would he need to take the cube to the top of a building to hand it off to a chopper? These mindless tasks that don't get accomplished and have no purpose are so mind numbingly stupid.

However the movie may get some new military recruits. And that, unfortunately, is what this movie is all about.Actually that may not be a bad thing. We don't need idiots in America. Though I do think there must be better things for them to do than join the military...

Finally a politician makes an honest remark

During a debate on children's health care Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark accused Republicans of sending troops to Iraq to "get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."


I wish more politicians would have the courage to say the truth. Of course Nancy Pelosi, who's in bed with the lobbyists, condemned him. I wish she'd just shrivel up and go away. Who would have imagined she would turn out to be so ownable.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Raid market wide open

I like Ubuntu as my primary OS. However lots of things are not supported well. Like RAID cards. Sure my 3Ware card *works*. However that's about it. None of the fancy software to configure the disks and monitor their health works with Ubuntu. If I want to do something I have to write a host of utilities to issue and parse their low level command api. I probably should do that but I don't. Instead I reboot the system and use the bios to check things. I am not pleased.

So I was thinking of buying a new card. One with better Ubuntu support. Real Ubuntu support. I decided I'd find every manufacturer and search their website for the word Ubuntu. Out of the 9 sites only 2 had the word Ubuntu on their site. 3Ware and Adaptec. You'd think one of these 9 companies would realize that if they catered to the 3rd largest market out there, behind M$ and Apple, they'd get lots of money.

It seems to me if I were to take the time to make a nice interface to the 3ware card and market it I'd make oodles of money. I'll just store that idea here and maybe come back to it at sometime in the future.

Here are the URLs for anybody interested in checking out how badly RAID card manufacturers support Ubuntu. You might want to bookmark them all as a single tabbed entry so you can pull up the entire bunch in one click to easily monitor any changes:

3Ware

ARECA
HighPoint
Promise
CIPRICO
Adaptec
ENGEN
LSI
TEKRAM

Thursday, October 18, 2007

If I had a news show

I would not show any talking heads. These freaks that dominate our news make me puke. And the bullshit that comes out of their mouths makes me immediately switch. Not only that but the material they cover is not important. I don't care about what they think is important.

Now if I did a news show I'd have insightful information. I'd divide the screen into four sections. The top left would be the latest news. Below that would be a one line summary heading and below that the text of what the person was saying. So you wouldn't have to have the volume up. On the right hand side I'd have the opposing view. And the bottom square would be the summary and text.

So if Bush is saying he doesn't know why Congress would bring up the Turkish genocide 90 years later other than as a political move to undermine his presidency I'd show it on the left hand side. On the right hand side I'd have him giving his campaign promises that if he were elected president the first thing he'd do would be to condemn Turkey and label their atrocities a mass genocide.

Most of today's political news could be handled like this. Showing what they are saying now on the left and what they promised on the right. I bet this would leave the bible thumpers who are too fucking stupid to remember yesterday or any facts flabbergasted. Maybe they might be so disgusted they would do the right thing and kick these politicians out of office forever.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

First A380 Monday: BBC owned by Airbus

The first A380 will be delivered on Monday.

BBC spends the entire article talking about why it was delayed by a mere 18 months. Like it is a big thing. They really should be talking about the safety of the airline. And what steps are being put in place to safeguard the public. The fact that they totally ignore this is in keeping with their bias for all things monetary. As can be seen by their support of M$ too.

How can the public monitor this? Are scheduled maintenance and costs public along with actual empirical maintenance, cost, and unexpected emergency repair? I suspect before the year 2015 we will start seeing major problems if not unexplained major accidents. I can hardly wait to say I told you so. Regardless of how bad that sounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7043812.stm

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Computer World: A worthless rag

I can't say enough bad about ComputerWorld. Maybe I should concentrate on the positive. It's much easier to cover. They do bring up interesting topics which gives you the opportunity to research. Kind of like watching the Bush administration. Can't get anything right. Or, probably more likely, they are out to dupe you so they can make profits through the back door. Doing good doesn't pay because it's expected. To cover for the thief doing the wrong thing you can always expect a pay back.

Lets check out this article from Computerworld taken from the link in the title above and break it down to salient points:


  • 64GB solid-state disk! Very nice. Very interesting.

  • Dell owns Alienware. (So you can probably expect the same bad Indian support crew.)

  • "Unlike traditional hard drives, solid-state drives contain no moving parts that can be damaged or worn over time." With this bad information it starts to go downhill. Flash drives wear out in less than a million reads or writes making them only good for things that rarely get accessed. Like cameras, MP3 players, backup storage, etc.. Normal hard disks outlast solid-state drives by huge margins.

  • "improved power consumption and speed of solid-state drives leapfrogs hard drive technology". More bullshit. Speed is usually much slower. It's a mixed bag heavily weighted against solid-state disks. However there are specialized cases where it is faster. I'm going to assume they got it right on the power but I probably should verify it considering the source.

  • "the flash-based technology's steep price point continues to hamper adoption, analysts say." Uh huh. This analysts says that's not the only factor that limits it. The steep price is what allows companies to pay for glowing reviews in magazines like Computerworld. It is not what keeps it from being adopted.

  • 'Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid approach to solid state," said Diana. "Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right now."' Uh, she obviously is looking for a career at M$ or in politics. A HD with a GB of cache on it will certainly handle most market niches far far better than any solid-state disk on the market. Or in development currently. If there were a fundamental change in the physics behind solid-state disks that allowed them not to wear out after a hundred thousand writes or a million reads it might be a different story. Then they could work on the speed. But as it stands right now it is buyer beware. Solid state disks are only good for niche markets with very specific access patterns. And Computerworld readers need to understand what Computerworld offers...




Here's the article in all its glory:

Alienware supercharges desktop with 64GB solid-state drives
Plans to add drives to other PCs next year; stays mum on parent Dell's plans
Brian Fonseca
October 09, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Alienware Tuesday introduced a 64GB solid-state storage option for its Alienware Area-51 ALX and Aurora ALX desktop computers.

Marc Diana, product marketing manager at Miami-based Alienware said the company plans to add solid-state functionality to its other desktop offerings by mid-2008.

Diana would not say whether Alienware's parent firm, Dell Inc., also plans to use the solid-state storage options in its personal computers. Dell officials could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, Dell announced a 32GB solid-state option for its Latitude D420 and D629 ATG notebook computers. The PC vendor has been relatively silent on the solid-state front ever since.

Unlike traditional hard drives, solid-state drives contain no moving parts that can be damaged or worn over time. While the reliability, improved power consumption and speed of solid-state drives leapfrogs hard drive technology, the flash-based technology's steep price point continues to hamper adoption, analysts say.

"Using solid-state drives completely as a primary solution right now is a significant price premium to traditional hard drives," said Jeff Janukowicz, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

Still, IDC foresees growing interest in the emerging storage technology. A report released by the IT research firm in July predicted that sales of solid-state drives will skyrocket from $373 million in 2006 to $5.4 billion in 2011.

Despite admitting solid-state technology is "very expensive" and isn't yet "mature enough" for the mainstream market, Diana downplayed swirling interest in hybrid flash memory/disk drives, such as the new Seagate Technology LLC offering announced on Monday.

"Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid approach to solid state," said Diana. "Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right now."

Friday, October 5, 2007

Evil Religion: Death Penalty

According to democracy now there are some 30 or so states that "still have the death penalty". They were talking about how these people on death row are there unfairly. That the drugs they use to kill these unfairly convicted people are inhumanly painful and how these states are going to delay further executions.

I see no reason for killing these people in a painful manner. Why not just kill them with carbon monoxide so they just go to sleep comfortably and never wake up. Why is this so difficult. This is probably due to bible thumpers wanting to punish.

The next problem I see is how corrupt our system is. Our judicial system is totally corrupt. It needs a total overhaul. Unfortunately it's the bible thumpers that just want to hate that keeps this system going.

The last problem is the prison system. The prison system is just like the military industrial complex. It has a big lobby that keeps itself going. The people who run it can act like mini-gods and they don't have to do anything to keep the money going. It's to their benefit not to kill people, if we were able to find people deserving death, and keep their prisons filled. We need to change the system so people who cheat others are put in jobs that pay back our society. Say cleaning beaches, highways, etc.. Not something that just keeps a prison system going. However they are using religion to keep from executing people so that they can have fuller prison systems and make more money. Again religion is the problem.

Movie Review: Knocked Up

So what's the point of this movie? It's suppose to be humorous and done in a respectful way. However I have issues about the respectful way part. I don't have the time to go into it.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Movie Review: Death Proof

Imagine nine year old kids at a go-kart range with the boys and the girls bumping it out. Now imagine the bully boy taking on the girls by himself. Imagine the bully turns into a 40 year old white trailer trash candidate, i.e., Kurt Russel, and he's still trying to hit girls with his grown up go-kart. That's all there is to this movie. He wins the first round, the second set of girls win in the second round.

Very boring and I hate myself for watching it.

I find it amazing people pay to see Kurt Russel. He turns my stomach. I suppose that makes him perfect for all those roles requiring creeping bottom feeders of society.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Dubai is where it's at!

http://www.oddee.com/item_88597.aspx

Dubai is incredible. Apparently it's like the new world mecca. All the richests of the rich gather to live there free from worries about laws in America, taxes, and legal woes. Dubai does not appear to honor any other countries laws. It's a haven for all the scoundrels in the world that have made obscene amounts of money and now want to live the good life. So companies like Cheney's Haliburton have fled our shores along with many other questionable companies to seek refuge there.

The most important question in my mind... Why the fuck am I not filthy rich and living the good life in Dubai? For that matter why am I so damn poor I can't even buy a decent server and have a bit more spare time on my hands? Damn, living in America sucks.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Hardware planning

1) Get my KVM switch back that I lent.
2) Hook in my old box I'll convert over to a dual wan firewall.
3) OCTOBER: Buy a new server box I can start throwing things into including 12 3.5 disks and 2 DVDs.
4) NOVEMBER: Buy a super power supply for it.
5) DECEMBER: Buy a MB/CPU for it capable of holding 16GBs of ECC.
6) JANUARY: Buy a RAID card. I need to make sure it fully supports ubuntu.
7) FEBUARY: Start buying disks. System should be totally usable now as my server.

iPhone Nerds

The news today is all about Apple updating the firmware to prevent people from hacking their gadgets. Apparently hacked iPhones will turn into expensive bricks and Apple is bragging about that. Then there are teams of lawyers who say this may be illegal. Naturally. And iPhone hacker teams saying it's ok, they'll figure out a hack for the firmware.

Don't these people have something better to do? Even if you were a nerd and turned on by iPhones don't you have other things to do? Why support Apple? Why not support the free linux iPhone versions. Then you can modify you nerd toy to do useful things without paying that evil empire called Apple a cent. And if you say MS is the evil company just remember they own Apple. Kind of like the lobbyists own the Democrats and Republicans. So can you guys just get out of my face? I don't want to see anything more about iPhones.

While looking through the news today I saw this article too.
http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/features/0,1000002000,39289595,00.htm

Monday, September 24, 2007

Greenspan

Alan Greenspan talks on DemocracyNow.Org today at http://ia341210.us.archive.org/0/items/dn2007-0924/dn2007-0924-1.ogg.

He says kids in America do well compared to the rest of the worlds kids. However by the time they are in 12th grade they are far far behind the rest of the world. His solution is to let in all the better educated people in the world so the wages of skilled people can go down to the level found in third world countries. This is good capitalism according to him.

Why don't we better our educational system? And why is it good to lower the wages of higher skilled people to that of third world nations? Who gains by this? CEOs? I don't get it.

No wonder Wall Street loved this guy. He seems to be saying it's ok to rape America. No wonder CEOs started at 40x the average salaries pay and now makes over 400x the average employees.

Apparently this guy talks about how he would talk gibberish to the press for his entire time in office so nobody could take him apart. Why can't we immediately get rid of people who make no sense and replace them with people who do. Maybe Greenspan is responsible for most of the countries downfall...

Sunday, September 23, 2007

So many cases...

http://www.tagan.com/index.php?c_id=36&products_id=157&p_cata_id=86
http://www.directron.com/csblackpearl.html#caption
or
http://www.directron.com/pcv2000bplusii.html#caption
http://www.directron.com/fullall.html

It's good to know I don't have to wait for Antec for a quiet case. However I don't have $300 for a case. Not to mention the cost of a top end power supply to run the disks. Or the mother board. And it's memory. And the CPU. And the graphics card. Does the list ever end?

I guess with cases like these I'd be more concerned about making it into a SAN. Extra RAM might be good. I'd move my RAID card over to it and be done.

VisionTek X1050

I ended up going to Frys twice. The first card did not work properly in the linux or xp system. So I took it back and bought the VisionTek 1050. It works in both my linux 1680x1050 LCD and my 1600x1200 XP CRT. It's an AGP 8x with 256MBs, no fan, and a lifetime warranty. I paid $94 or so for it.

I see from here http://computers.pricegrabber.com/video-cards/visiontek/m/36761617/sort_type=bottomline
I could have bought the card for much less. I'm just happy to have found such a good card on short notice. This will be my new AGP card of choice until I move to PCIe cards when I get a new MBs.

Graphics card death

The graphics card on my main computer died this morning. It's lasted me a few years. Unfortunately it had a fan on it that from time to time make noises. I think it finally quit working. So I need to buy a new card. Hopefully much less than the $250 I spend on the old one.

This time around I'm looking for a under $100 graphics card that can handle huge resolutions in full color and has no fan. That is supported by linux too. That takes little power though if it doesn't have a fan it probably takes little power already. I don't play computer games so I don't need anything fancy.

I'll start by looking at tom's hardware reviews.

There's really not much to say about the Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB except that it's incredibly powerful for the price.

Compared to its 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS 640MB brethren, the only notable performance difference appears at resolutions 1600x1200 and above. This does not mean that the 8800 GTS 320MB can't handle some 1920x1200 gaming mind you, the GTX will just be faster.

For $280, there's no better videocard you can put in your machine, period.


Yikes. $280 and a fan. This is from his low cost build it yourself article. Must be a low cost gamer rig or something.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/17/sbm_low_cost_system/page5.html#video_card_evga_geforce_8800_gts_320mb



This one looks much better and it's only $85!:
We chose Gigabyte's Radeon HD 2600 Pro. It has 256-MB GDDR2 memory running at 800 MHz, a 600-MHz chip clock speed and dual-DVI interfaces. You can always convert DVI interfaces to attach an analog S-Sub display, but you will be thankful to get two DVI ports if you ever want to hook up two TFT displays. Lastly, this graphics card requires little idle power and is passively cooled, which is important if you want the system to be quiet and energy efficient. Make sure your case is properly ventilated to ensure stable operation. If you cannot or if you live in a really hot environment, we recommend investing in a graphics card that has a fan.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/10/the_500_gaming_machine_2007_edition/page4.html

I see it advertised on google for about $50 more than expected and it has a big hunking fan. What's going on?

Finally found it at newegg. It is not compatible with my system. Grrr. I guess this is going to be harder than I expected. I need an older card...

Friday, September 21, 2007

Gutsy entrails, i.e., the shit

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3700666

I have been hearing lots of bad things about Ubuntu's latest release. This article, which I haven't yet read, may be summarizing them.

I hear the next release will have fancy windows that giggle when moved. Well, use compiz by default, and lots of other foo foo bullshit, uh nerdshit, turned on by default. Having hung around the Ubuntu IRC channels I expect the worst in this release. Ubuntu is run by a bunch of kids who for the most part don't know how to use vi, edit a web page directly, and think reading Hex would make them cool beyond their wildest dreams. Few have experience coding in C or C++ or any other language. In other words they are losers who only know how to use high level applications. Hopefully they have added some functionality but I fear it will only be UI crap that hopefully can be turned off.

I posted about the dreamliner here questioning its safety, http://seobm.blogspot.com/2007/07/dreamliner.html, and at the time I think I was the only one doing so. It seemed obvious to me. Now others are starting to look at things instead of glossing over them:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/dan-rather-make.html which though reads as a paid by Boeing article refers to others. They keep talking about how particular parts are stronger than older materials. They fail to mention that because they are stronger they use far less of them. They mention some parts are used in other aircraft and such. They fail to mention the nightmareliner, my new name for Boeing's dreamliner, is using the materials in sizes never before tested.

Boeing is being very gutsy. Not many companies would risk everything by trusting lab boy theory without a solid track record grounded in reality. Boeing has. With America spiraling down the toilet in respects to almost all other industrialized countries this is probably a gamble they have to take. Or go out of business. I wish them the best of luck.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Robert Jordan dies, two books unfinished

I can't help but laugh at the Robert Jordan fans who will be heart broken that their favorite series has been left unfinished. The series was basically a sadistic love affair. Readers just wanted to bog down other readers in trying to keep millions of worthless details. I quit reading it after the first few books when I realized it was an unfinished time sink unlikely to ever get finished.

Maybe his readers will be forced to get a life and lose their sadistic ways.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Mission Bay Boat Race

This weekend they have blocked off most all beaches facing the bay. Putting up fences and forcing people to pay to get in. I did not realize it was possible to do this. Yet as I biked around the bay and through Fiesta Island most all the beaches facing the race were blocked with fences. Despite this the sounds of huge boat engines blotted out even the road noise of all the big SUVs with their RVs towed behind. So many flags too. They all seemed to have big beer bellies and have families so fat and ugly you'd think they'd want to do something other than put lawn chairs up and watch boats race. I don't really get it. Despite their poor physical health and taste they must be doing something right financially to be able to afford all the play toys they have. Big RVs and pickup trucks to haul them along with the assorted toys don't come cheap.

The saddest thing about these slobs and their wasteful ways are what they do to the native birds. I lost count of the injured seagulls with broken wings hiding away from the tourists who damaged them. I wish the people who organized the races would pay for the care of these birds. Judging from the crowd though they'd more than likely just break the birds necks and throw them in the dumpsters justifying it by saying they are mercy killing the birds.

Maybe these spectators are in some way the best of what America has to offer. I just don't get it though.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Netgear FVS124G Review: Dual WAN, Gigabit LAN, 25 tunnels

My main concern is a fast dual WAN system.
I'm not sure if this would best be accomplished via a Linkysys/netgear/cisco solution or a BSD solution.
Probably the BSD solution is the most robust.
However I'd like to know the options.

THE GOOD
Dual WAN
Gigabit LAN ports

THE BAD
Lousy suppor
Slow Failover on Dual WAN
No Jumbo frame support
12MB/s max throughput

UNKNOWN
QOS up and down?
SPI Firewall? (Stateful Packet Inspection)
Max VPN connections?
Act as a DHCP server?
Supports SNMP?
Anti-virus software?
Where is support located?
What does Newegg and Amazon say?


ALTERNATIVES:
Cisco ASA 5505.
Netgear FVX538 ProSafe VPN Firewall 200