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