Centerfield

Glad you got it done. Now, for a real challenge, try installing Linux on a dead badger!

Or, if a badger is not available, how about a dead beaver?

Don't miss the PROCESS slideshow!

Lady Bird's Wildflower Center is a must see if you're in Austin. She did some really great work there.

I've been watching the Whole Foods-Wild Oats possible merger wondering why it was being challenged. Then I saw where Mackey did that really stupid stuff and I realized where the opposition was coming from. Why hasn't he been fired?

I just built a new computer this week which is a first for me. I do Microsoft development so I'm stuck with Windows but I put XP on it instead of the hugely bloated Vista. Finished the burn in last night and I'm looking forward to playing on it this weekend. I also bought 2 22 inch ViewSonic widescreens and they are sweet.

XP Pro, I hope? With you on Vista. I never install an OS until it's old enough to be housebroken. Beta testing should come BEFORE release. And that umpty-different-versions thing annoys me, especially when the basic version is both bloated AND lacking.

Gimme details! What specs on the hardware? And did you build it inside a dead beaver?

Yup, XP Pro. I work in a MS shop and when even the diehards around here are ignoring Vista, I figure that's a fairly large warning sign.

Specs:
Antec Sonata II case and power supply
Intel Core Duo 6600 processor
2GB Crucial 6400 DDR2 RAM
ASUS P5N-E SLI Mobo with Nvidia 650i chipset
Seagate Barracuda 320GB hard drive
MSI Geforce 7600 GS PCI Video Card with dual DVI (Useful for when I buy one more monitor for the ultimate 3 monitor set up)
Basic Pioneer DVD-RW

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and my experience. I'm a software guy by trade but it's fun to get down into the guts of the hardware.

Oh and I couldn't find a dead beaver so I had to make do with a furry feline supervisor.

I built one up for Mama for XMas using a P5B with an E6400 and a 7900GS PCI-E. No need for more than two monitors there. And the %$#@ 7900GS is back at PNY on RMA. Worked for a few months, went TU. Toasted the GPU despite much more than adequate cooling. Not the usual cause, as Mama don't allow no overclockin' on her unit. She has to live with a lesser PCI-E card until it comes back.

My own most recent build is an E4400 on a plain-vanilla P5B with a 7800GS. Only slightly OC'd--I told it ignore that silly chip ID on the CPU telling it that it was supposed to be at 800FSB, that 1066FSB was the correct figure. Dead easy to manage all the timings that way with the other hardware, so I won't diddle for more. Has run cool and quiet without a hiccup for a couple o' months now. The new Core2 chips have actually managed to get me to quit cursing them for the Prescott, a chip that drove me to install some serious liquid cooling on the previous build.

Computers should not need Toyota radiators...

Given that this was my first build, I'm not playing around with the overclocking even though all the ASUS documentation basically says it's built for it.

This thing runs silent as can be, did a burn in using Passmark software last night for 5 hours and it never once sounded strained.

I hear you on the radiators, have you seen some of the aftermarket chip coolers, like the Scythe Ninja? Holy crap. That thing wouldn't even fit in the Antec case I have with its passive air cooler tube.

I was just reading this fascinating exchange and I wonder if I could imagine President Bush conducting this kind of negotiations with Putin. Nope, I have more faith in Cartman. If you read throught the archive it is interesting to see what was decided regarding information the American people would get. The entire framework of what constitutes a threat and the role of such threats in South and Central America are laid out here. Note the remark about Pentagon generals being under the control of the administration. The CIA was used to verify missles were actually removed in Russian ships. The DOD stuck to war plans and declaring the world was safe from Russian responses to an attack on Cuba should the Soviets go back on their deal. Now more than sixty years later Russia is selling silent subs to the Castro replacement to defend nations aganst the dominating America. And the same SAM systems go up around Iranian facilities. At least Chavez has the money to pay. I wish Democrats read this history and see what Liberal principles Kennedy was advocating. He claimed that America wasn't palnning to invade Cuba anymore, but of course, did not reveal CIA plots against Castro.

One other interesting note. See how Eisenhower discusses the situation with Kennedy. I guess this is all old school and what we have today is new school.

Well, Tully, I think that should be easy next to computing on a water bottle. Though I knew a computer theory guy who, for fun, was working on an idea of something like how to use a pond and a bunch of rectangular tiles as a computing device.

Oh, and forgot, a few days after my kid was born, Ladybird checked into the same hospital to have her final illness seen after. But she went home (I guess preferred to die there?).

The Austin City Council is now considering renaming Town Lake, the river that runs through Austin, after Lady Bird.

Lady Bird Lake?

I hear you on the radiators, have you seen some of the aftermarket chip coolers, like the Scythe Ninja? Holy crap. That thing wouldn't even fit in the Antec case I have with its passive air cooler tube.

Even one of those is still air-cooling. On the Prescott I put in one of these, with TWO 12cm radiators with adjustable-speed fans for a three-radiator solution, complete to CPU and GPU cooler blocks.

Yeah, if you're going to clock, don't start with anything you can't risk. When I first started clocking I got a Celeron 300A up to 540, and stable. But it fried in under four months, despite massive cooling. There are people getting 100% OC's (3.6gb) out of the E4300, but they're going to be buying new CPU's every year or so doing it. I'm happy with a no-stressed 33%. That gives me E6700 ($300) performance from an E4400 ($130).

The oddest cooling solution for OC's I ever saw was this one. (You want fries with that?) The most extreme is a tossup between the liquid nitrogen people and the honest-to-diety Toyota radiator.

Very cool, yark, yark. I used to yearn to overclock my 16.7MHz 68000 Amiga 1000, which was SO much slower than the 25MHz 68020 I used at work. Now it's been ages since CPU speed has noticeably slowed the kinds of application development I do (except a dip into the CPU-hogging chip design industry).

And now Austin has a bunch of ex-Presidents and ex-First-Ladies descending on us. The mourning ceremony for locals was very popular despite the heat.

I've been reading Churchill to the boy. He's always liked being read to from the very start, but he used to cry at Churchill until the Profesora suggested reading in a cadenced, Mother Goose-like delivery. Now he loves it.

Heh. Back when I built my first Heathkit.... ;-)

Remember the TURBO button on the first XT's? Back when a 10mb HD made people gasp in awe? Yep. A pushbutton 25% OC!

The water bottle is a neat case mod. Get a great wind-tunnel aircooling effect.