by ·0 Comments

The transfer from the Q6600 running at 2.66 GHz to the Core i7 at 2.66 GHz went smooth. Overclocking the core to 4.2 GHz was effortless but I’ve settled for 3.6 GHz to increase hardware lifetime and allow me to run quieter by not needing to crank up the fans and 8 hours of searching for Mersenne primes over 8 threads has verified system stability. I think the austerity of Windows 7 may help.

Such is my loss. My war against slowness and crapware and unnecessary registry keys defined my relationship with my computer. Much like a couple that breaks up and misses the arguing the lack of conflict in my computing life is disconcerting.

Or at least that’s how I felt until I was in my kitchen, booted up my laptop and tried to make a quick photo edit in Photoshop. After waiting for Photoshop’s startup which I assume involves calculating Graham’s number from first principles followed by the flipbook effect of applying a mask my computation ennui passed.  Just in case I ever again miss technological knuckle dragging I’ve made a user on my new computer that’s identical to my main one except it runs SETI@Home, Folding@Home CPU and GPU apps, Einstein@Home and GIMPS at once.

by ·3 Comments

As the office nerd I’ve created stock speeches for purchasing home electronics.  My tablet vs. non-tablet essay was used by an entire sales department and my Mac vs. PC and XBox 360 vs. PS3 polemic has become stock office conversation for my elightened position of ‘use what all your friends use’.  Today, I purchased an entire computer via courier:

Coworker: So, do I go with Vista 32 or 64?
Me: Go with 64, it’s more secure and most of the bugs have been worked out.
*Coworker leaves and later returns*
Coworker: Does the case size matter?
Me: Not much, mid-tower cases are easier to upgrade and replace parts on if you plan on having it for a while.
*Several visits later*
Coworker:  How much RAM should I go with?
Me: Just get two gigs and buy more from a cheaper provider.
*Coworker leaves and later returns*
Coworker: How should I have them…*I cut him off*
Me: Get two 1 gig DIMMs rather than four 512 meg DIMMs.
Coworker: What about…*I cut him off*
Me: As long as the clock speed of the extra RAM is above or equal to the stuff that comes with it you’ll be fine.
Coworker: Who…*I cut him off*
Me: Doesn’t really matter, but I’m a fan of Mushkin, Corsair, OCZ, or Crucial.

by ·3 Comments

We’re switching from Thunderbird to Outlook at work.  Why, I don’t know, probably because some executive accidentally installed it when using a Student copy of Office 2007 and was attracted to the bright color and total lack of functionality.

So, I had to take a two hour training on how to use Outlook going through such tricky things as how to open email, what the preview pain is, how to send email and using advanced options like changing from one poorly rendered font to another (I’m confident that I could remove all fonts except for Calibri, Comic Sans and Impact and no one woudl notice).   The rollout was supposed to come automatically but something didn’t work out.  I was confused when a man came around to “deploy it” simply by inserting a thumb drive into my machine and running a shortcut to a network location.  I’m not sure what’s more tragic, a rollout failing because people somehow failed to click a link and type their name into a prompt or that a Microsoft certified System Engineer had to come around to “fix” it.

by ·0 Comments

My previous reasonably nice PC at work was taken for a validation process that requires four identical computers to the point that one candidate PC was rejected its RAM having come from two different lots.  So my 3.2 GHz Xeon was replaced with  something having a 1/3 the processing power, 1/2 the RAM and a video card that could maybe power Q*bert.  The low RAM’s killing me as I normally leave an instance of Firefox open as well as each of the programs I use in my workflow and it chokes if open an instance of Notepad beyond that.  I’m seriously considering breaking into my bosses office, stealing the case key, installing an extra gig of RAM and installing my spare NVidia 7900.   Could I be fired for improving the assets at work?

Boss: Terry, we’re going to let you go for messing with company property
Me: But everything I did improved my throughput.
Boss: You think you can just waltz into your workplace and increase your productivity?  We live in a society of laws, Mr. Robinson.

Although that’d be an awesome interview story “why were you fired from your last position?”, “I was too efficient”.  Although that comes close to the phenomenon of “what’s your biggest handicap?”, “I work too hard” or “I don’t let go until everything’s perfect”.  Boy does that anger me.  Should I ever encounter that as an interviewer I’d reject them for failing to understand the word “handicap” and thus not meet workplace communication standards.

by ·0 Comments

After my desktop reinstall farce I was caught bewildered when my laptop BSODed me on startup.  It couldn’t possibly be related to removing the hard drive while the computer was still on during a RAM upgrade.  No, not at all.  Boot CD after recovery disk failed to circumvent the BSOD until I hit up that it could be problems with the boot loader and that I should try another file system.  So I installed Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibix) and the format went splendidly.  Ubuntu was up and running in a jiff with no noticable errors, prancing about digital fields as per its namesake.  Then I inserted the Vista disk and I could see the computer frown “so soon?” it said.  Inviting me with prompt boot time, the freedom of an open source OS that I could cock-up to my hearts content, and really a much nicer default background than Vista.  But alas, I wanted my tablet interface I never used to work, and support for an office suite that I often replace with Notepad, and finally the knowledge that it’s slow but so is everyone elses.

Edit: Looks like the Ibex shit in the punch bowl.  It’s replaced boot loader, and now my computer’s shitting out something about GRUB errors.  It appears Linux can play hardball when it wants to.  I’ll get the best of him, I’ve yet to meet a hard drive that can resist the allure/destructive field lines of a neobdynium rare earth magnet.

by ·0 Comments

Team Interrobang has had a spate of people (we think) using wall hacks (ways to see through things you’re not supposed to, like concrete) to cheat in Team Fortress 2.  I talked to a high school friend about what he did to track cheaters when he ran a server he said he’d use a coordinate tracker to help make demos showing impossible shots and such.  I follow his instructions, jump into a game, he tells me the start command and suddenly I can see through everything.  His solution to dealing with wallhacks, was to run a better wallhack.  Shit.  Team Fortress has built in software that generates hashes of game files to find cheaters, I think I could hear his hack humping and ravashing the EXEs and DLLs that Valve monitors so, knowing I couldn’t wait for a normal shut down before I received the irrevocable title of “cheater”.  I ripped the power cord out of the wall.

Guess who’s got two thumbs and is going to spent Turkey Day scrubbing his hard drive with a rare-earth magnet?  This guy!

If the above was a little too technical for your taste, here’s a video of a warthog running into a lion.

by ·0 Comments

Intel’s Atom processor intrigued, nay, called to me.  A 8 watt draw for a 1.6GHz dual core CPU making it the most efficient dual core processor for the desktop.  I changed the processor in my home server from the Pentium D.  The Pentium D was the least efficient processor ever created for home use pulling in a whopping 133 watts.  Legend has that systems that fluid used to watercool a Pentium D could poach eggs and fish.   Each Pentium D required its own coal-fired power plant and 3 fans to cool.  Mine was slung in a 45 lb behemoth that was 12″ x 24″ x 28″ and could be used as a fall out shelter.  Had I not opted for a four drive RAID array I could have put the entire new server in something the size of 2 math text books.

I’m not sure what to do with the old system.  It still works, much like one’s gas guzzling JEEP but I can’t think of much that could justify its continued existence.  Maybe it’s time to finally try Ubuntu.

by ·0 Comments

I’ve recently learned that I can engage a “turbo mode” on SuburbanAdventure, where users that have Google Gears enabled can get a specially rended version of the web page for apparently “wicked fast rendering”.  Of all things on the Interwebs, I think the blog is quite possibly the least resource intensive with the exception of Eudora webmail or IRC.  If you find that my awesome content is so mind-blowing that it’s brings your Altair 8800 to its knees, I’ll engage “TURBO MODE” so you can strap in and feel the Gs on your 4MHz chip.

by ·0 Comments

The Office 2007 interface has been much maligned despite what I think is its GUI splendor.  Despite having some installation problems, I’ve come to love the way the ribbon interface rewards exploration and cuts click-paths from 1-7 clicks to 2-3.  At the lodge executive board meeting, the uphill battle faced by UI designers hit home as I was trying to help someone change some things about the lodge minutes.  He’s a normally sharp kid but apparently had been enraptured by the hatred of the ribbon.

Him: How do I change the margins this way?  Everything’s so hard.
Me: Click over a tab.
Him: What tab?
Me: See that thing at the top.
Him: Yeah.
Me: Where there’s a bunch in a row that correspond to large categories of document modification.
Him: Yeah.
Me: Where if you hit tab you move over one.
Him: Yeah.
Me: That’s a tab.
Him: Oh.  Okay.  So how do I change the margins in this “print tab” (he actually used air quotes)
Me: Click margin.  And pick the one you want, you can even preview what it’ll look like by doing a mouse-over.
Him: Oh.  Why didn’t I know this before.
Me: Fear.  Fear of the unknown, fear of the new.  Embrace it, and you shall become an Office Ninja.
Him: One day, Terry.  One day.