Author Archives: admin

About 2 or 3 times in my life I have experiences “sleep paralysis.”
It is basically you are going to sleep or just waking up and the part of your brain that keeps you from injuring yourself is still on, but you are semi or almost fully aware. It is a very odd feeling, not being able to control your limbs for a few minutes.
What makes it even scarier it is often accompanied by VERY vivid hallucinations (visual, audio, and touch.) Most scientists think it is the origin of most, if not all alien and ghost sitings. It ALSO has a lovely sense of extreme dread along with difficulty breathing thrown in for extra fun.
So, to get to the point, the object of dread is often cultural and not universal. For instance, many people see aliens, or ghosts, shadow people, devils, demons, or in the past succubus or old hags. In my case, I dreaded and was convinced a burglar was trying to break into my apartment at the time. It was the whole nine yards, rattling the door handles and a person dressed in black. But, notice, it was a person I was dreading. Not a supernatural entity. I happen to be an atheist, and don’t believe in ghosts, aliens, hobgoblins or whatnot.
So, if you have ever experienced sleep paralysis, what did you perceive as your source of dread? Did it relate directly to your belief system?

My computer had been locking up too often, and I knew it was hardware related.
So, first I cleaned the case and the CPU heat sink. That helped for a while, but it then started to lock up again. Then I noticed the chipset fan was turning sloooowly, so I replaced that. Got a little better, but still would lock up after about 12 hours. Then I replaced the power supply. No dice.
So, finally I bought some new, silver based head sink compound. I had heard that silicone based compound can dry out. It has been 4 years since I installed the current heat sink. I pulled up the heat sink and there was NO material between the die of the CPU and the heat sink. It looks like it migrated away from the die over these years.

As you can see, there was almost nothing conducting heat other than force of habit. Apparently, the tape type compound used before is wax and silicone based. You can see how it migrated away from the die to the outside of the die. Now, with the new silver grease, there have been no lockups and the CPU is running about 8 degrees C cooler than before.

We shall see if this does the trick.

Knowing that one of the most powerful computers in the world (that can compute 360 trillion operations per second!) can only simulate half of a mouse brain at 1/10 speed say a lot about organic brains.

Wired Science – Wired Blogs

I guess it takes a lot of work to equal 4 billion years of evolution.  The one remarkable thing about brains are that they so parallel and work in real time, all the time.   Even a mouse brain in processing 10’s or 100’s of millions of bits of information every second using probably a tenth of a watt of energy!
The human brain (and whale brains) are the most complicated pieces of matter in the known universe!  Humans have 100,000,000,000 neurons with over 10,000 connections per neuron!  The number of possible connections is greater than the number of elemental particles in the universe.  I think it will take a little while longer before we can create a machine that rivals our brains and minds.

If anyone out there who knows more than I do, please answer the following questions:

Do Cadillac Escalades have turn signals installed?  I have never seen one used on that car and I have to assume when I drive they are not installed on that model, or it must be an expensive option.

Do you have to pay money every time you use a turn signal on most cars?  I know on my Hyundai it is free, but seeing how sparingly they are used, most people must have to drop a quarter in every time they use their turn signal.

Did the meaning of the word stop change?  I think now it means kind of slow down if there is another car within 10 feet or a small child may be crossing the street.  Most people don’t even bother to slow anymore, so I must assume Stop signs don’t mean the same thing they did when I learned how to drive 16 years ago.

Are speed limits a light suggestion?  If the speed limit sign says 30, most people do 45.  If it says 55 and you are on I294 (The TriState) it means 85 to 90+.

So, if you can help me out, I would appreciate it.

Been raining here for the last few days.  I am glad to get the rain, the grass looks great.  The only thing I miss is going for walks and not getting soaked.

The Glenn Monster is doing well.  He really likes pulling up and trying scooch around the couch now.  Some days he isn’t bad, others he is just a cranky baby.  Both of his lower front teeth are through the gums now.  I would take a picture, but it is almost impossible to see what’s going on in there.

Work is busy as always.  Our new guy was let go this morning.  He didn’t do much, that any of us could tell, which is probably why he is gone.  Not too much loss I guess.

As soon as it stops raining, I’ll be able to take some spring photos.  The tress are finally not entirely naked.
The darn cicadas are coming soon.  Oh joy.  Ugly but harmless.