Cyberphreak.com

As you know, my old computer’s motherboard died. When shopping for a new motherboard/CPU/Memory, I thought, damn, that would be a nice watch. Something that won’t die in 5 to 10 years. Not be outdated before I unwrap the packaging. When I did get the new parts, I just replaced what was broken and moved on. No tinkering, no new OS. I just wanted my computer to work again, that’s all. I have always loved technology, but I have learned it doesn’t love you back, not like a loving wife or child. Those are the things that really matter. That all being said, I really love my new computer. At least 4 times faster than my old one. Linux does REALLY well under multi processors. One processor encodes video while the other lets me surf the web and listen to music with no skipping or slowdowns. Pretty cool. Running full screen video takes 3% of processing time now 🙂

Steve Ballmer, head of Microsoft, predicted the end of print media in 10 years. Yeah, right. I’ll remember that the next time a drop a magazine or paperback book and just pick it up, not worrying about if I cracked the screen or damaged the battery. Portable electronics are fragile. I know all about e-ink, we have all been hearing about it for the past decade. The new screens are nice, the batteries are getting better, and they will still all fail in less than 10 years. That is the way electronics is. It fails. If it has a battery, expect it to last 5 years, TOPS. Take it from somebody whose whole professional life is electronics. My degree is in electronics. It is not like paper and ink. They can’t make them last. With ROHS, they will have even shorter life spans. I am reading the Lord of the Rings novels right now, 1971 reprinting. A PAPERBACK no less. Try to find working electronic media from 1971, no less a working computer. Plus, no worrying about formats changing. It’s ink on paper. Just what I want every few years, worrying about if my book collection will have to be repurchased. Enough venting for now.

In other news, wow, wild weather here. Tornadoes ripping through a few suburbs and rain coming down in buckets everywhere else. April storms in June. As the night hours go on, it is getting HOTTER. It was 77 at 6:00 P.M. It is over 84 now at 11:00. Hope everyone makes it through the night OK.

Got my ‘new’ computer today. My old one, after 7 years, died. I was running a Athlon XP 2200, with 512mb of 133 RAM. I now have an Athlon 64×2 4400 running on 2G of 667 RAM. I was sad to see the old girl go, but this new machine is really fast, especially under Linux. Mandriva found everything correctly, and I didn’t even have to re-install the operating system. The new motherboard is nice, a combo of old and new. It has 2 IDE controllers, an AGP slot, but runs the latest dual core and faster memory. All in all, a nice way to save old hardware and have the latest. I was able to keep my hard drives, case, DVD-R, power supply, and case. So it looks like the old machine with a new heart but old soul.

Wow, it’s Memorial Day weekend already. Unfortunately, it is also 50°F out!
Luckily, it may get up into the 80’s Sunday, we shall see.
Been super busy at work with new automated testers I designed and programmed. I did get them to work, but there is always endless tweaking after this point. They are actually pretty cool to watch work. The operators already like them. No more tired hands caused by turning switches by hand.
Glenn has become a little parrot. He will try to imitate just about anything you say now. He has also really developed a fixation in Elmo. He says his name and hugs and kisses him. When he sees Elmo on TV he runs and grabs his Elmo doll and watches the show with him, very cute.
He is becoming more interesting, but definitely not easier as the months go on. He is becoming more of a boy every day. It is sad to see the baby go away, but no so sad when the crying baby returns to remind you of how hard it can be.

To keep up with what is happening technology wise, and not have to pay for it, I read some of the technology blogs and websites out there. For being 2008, we really aren’t advancing all that much. More cell phones, more laptops, more flat screen TV’s, more MP3 players, more gadgets that will end up in a landfill somewhere. I remember when computers used to be interesting, not appliances. In the 80’s computers/technology was changing all the time. I remember computers and game consoles going from 8, to 16, to 32, to 64 bit, all in one decade. I remember when CD’s first came out. I remember computers with color graphics came out. Now, all we get is refinements, nothing really new. Ohh, excitement, another point and shoot digital camera with more pixels. (Advice from Dave, if you only plan to print 4×6 or 5×7, THREE mega pixels is all you need.)
Instead of buying disposable technology, we bought a new refrigerator with some of our tax incentive. Everyone asks, did your old one break? Well, no, we wanted a new one. Why do you have to wait for it to break (and ruin probably $100 in food) to replace it? It costs half the price of a new laptop computer and no one asks why you bought a new laptop/mp3 player/TV when your old one works. Hey, we were just sick of a top freezer. We now have a bottom freezer AND this fridge uses probably half the energy of the old one. We even did the environment and out pocketbooks some good and sold the old one to some local farmers. Ironically, they came from Texas, didn’t like the weather there.
As another observation, it is really nice to get some customer service in this day and age. I don’t know why companies demonize commission (I am looking at you Circuit City) but it really makes the salespeople give a shit. No Sale=No Money. We bought the fridge at Sears. Very good customer service, no up-selling, and it was delivered on time. I think everyone is too complacent with inept sales people. Best Buy used to (they may now, its been years since I talked to salesperson there) announce they were commission free. They are also brain free as well. Thank you very much, I can READ the little card in front of the product you know nothing about. In Home Depot, do they still have people who work on the sales floor? In WalMart, if they are not at the Jewelery counter or Electronics, I really don’t think anyone is on the floor who is not stocking something. Target is just as bad, but at least they have the red bat phones to call up customer service to find something. Personally I would not mind paying a little more if someone could actually help me every now and then.
Well, that’s enough venting. Tiffany’s second mother’s day this weekend. The Glenn Monster is still growing. We will be taking him to the Zoo later today. Been almost a year since we have been to Lincoln Park. Glenn is learning more words, some not intentionally. He can almost say “Dave” now from Tiffany talking to me. He can also say “Dumb” which is kinda funny. Have to watch our language around him. Fuck.

Since when did Chicagotribune.com become a cheap porn site? Pop up adds, click though adds, flash adds everywhere. I know you need advertising dollars, but, come on. Do you really think those ads work? The redesign looks terrible and it is getting hard to navigate though all the ads to read something useful. Another thing, your videos suck as well. I come to a newspaper’s website to READ, not to watch videos.
Sorry, just had to vent.