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).