May 22, 2005
adoption and underutilization
Time for a new entry before the new week. Not completely sure what to write about, so I'll just start talking about stuff and see where it leads me.
Antesignanus Fatalis started up a ventrilo server, so I've been on there chatting for a few hours. Lots of fun, a lot easier then text and lets you do other things (like play planetside) while you're at it. I'm really not sure why more people don't use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Skype, or other voice programs. They really are incredibly handy, and are able to utilize the vast amount of bandwidth the average user has at his disposal. The computer has the capability to replace the television, telephone, books, cd players, game consoles, and just about every other electronic device you can think of. The problem is people simply don't use them for that. People who are afraid of change and afraid of adopting new technology ensure that the technology does not succeed in the marketplace, while simpler and older technology such as instant messaging is finally now getting accepted, 20 years after its first use. Why should the average consumer wait 20 years for all that when it is available right now? I for one cannot tell. Use skype for your phone calls! Why live in the 80's when you own a computer capable of over 3 billion calculations per second? Why use text messaging when your internet connection can support 1.5 million binary digits per second?
It is this underutilization of technology that angers me. With the exception of digital media creators and gamers, computer users do not use the massive power they possess, instead owning a computer for a couple of years and then replacing it with a more powerful one that they will utilize less of? Simply because Windows causes massive performance decay over time does not mean that you cannot simply reinstall Windows and restart the decay anew, or install Linux or another alternate OS and prevent the decay entirely. In a world where CPU speed does not matter, why is the whole computer world still obsessed with it?
Posted by Raculot at 09:50 PM | Comments (1)
May 21, 2005
star wars
Seems like I can't really post during the week. School takes up too much time =(
Oh well, it's the weekend now and I can post something, so I am. I saw Revenge of the Sith a few hours ago, and it was AWESOME! It was a really great movie, and did a good job of bringing closure to the star wars saga. Gone was the wooden acting and terrible dialog from the first two prequel movies, instead this one was excellently acted and very well done. If you have not done so already, go see the movie now! I'll probably make a post about it in a couple weeks more in depth, but right now I might spoil it since so many people haven't seen it.
Playing through Knights of the Old Republic 2, and it is a very nice game. The intro area of Paragus is awfully long and boring, however. It leaves you constantly wondering if the whole game is set on this boring old abandoned mining outpost.
Ah well, hopefully I get a lightsaber soon =)
Posted by Raculot at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
flying rooks
I continue to be amazed by the stupidity of people. Now chessboards are banned from the THS library because the monkeys living there couldn't seem to stop throwing chess pieces at each other or otherwise creating a scene. So, now, those of us who actually enjoy playing chess cannot do it there.
The whole thing reminds me of some of the chess related deaths listed in Wikipedia. I would not be surprised if there is a reported death of the same cause in the library.
Also, el senor Pardo is giving us a test tomorrow, despite the fact that half of our class has no idea what the imperfect subjunctive is. Spanish class is getting more and more annoying, its good the school year will be ending soon.
In unrelated news, we have our last tennis practice today. I'm glad the season is ending, its gone on longer then it should anyway. Our last game is away at somewhere-or-other tomorrow, and then we're done. YAAAY.
Lets see....math class is screwed up, Mr. Denigris keeps delaying the test because the other class isn't learning much since Mr. Straub passed away, so we may end up cutting out our last unit and not reviewing for the exam at all. Its rather annoying, to say the least, and he keeps trying to blame it on us. I'm not sure why, and I don't think he knows either. He's been exceedingly cross and strange the last couple months, and I can't figure out why. He's intentionally failing most of the class. You know that something is wrong when the highest grade on the last test was a 73%.
Now french people are trying to steal my laptop, so it looks like this entry is about to end.
Mateo says "Que tengas un buen dia"
Posted by Raculot at 01:51 PM | Comments (4)
May 15, 2005
apple computers
I find it funny the way the world as a whole views Apple Computers as a company. In the eyes of the American public, it can do no wrong. Anything that Apple decides to do is lauded as an amazingly brilliant decision, ignoring the many products that both were released far before it and were far better. Whenever Apple does anything, it is plastered all over the news as the greatest thing since the invention of the computer. However, anything great done by Microsoft recieves no such attention. And, in the event that a Microsoft product has a bug? It's all over, everyone criticizing Microsoft for not catching it sooner. How about when hundreds of thousands of Apple iBook laptops develop white splotches on the screen? First, a big battle between the customers and apple to get them serviced, and finally a HUGE recall of apple machines. Had anything of that magnitude occurred with another manufacturer, it would have been the end of them. However, with Apple, it's barely even noticed, while all of its overpriced, buggy equipment is priced far more then it's x86-compatible counterparts.
How about the iPod Shuffle? Many similar products, such as the Sony Network Walkman E-505, offer similar functionality, lower price, just as nice styling, far better battery life, and a screen to boot, all in a package that's the same size as the Shuffle? Or how about the Turtle Beach Audiotron or the Slim Devices Squeezebox? Both are vastly superior to the Apple AirPort Express, and had been around for years when the AirPort Express with iTunes "revolutionized" music listening. And none of the competing products try to force you to use the company's other products, as the AirPort Express does with iTunes. And for just slightly more, other companies can give you products that support streaming video in many other formats, such as the Buffalo LinkTheater (I've used Buffalo Technology products about a year now, they're really awesome).
Also, there's the well-known phenomenon of Apple computers always being used by the good guys in movies/cartoons/tv/anything, and the bad guys are always using Windows.
Why is it that a truely evil company like Apple Computers is able to get away with almost anything and still be seen as a great company? While the American people tend to side with the underdog, Apple Computers is exploiting this trust.
Posted by Raculot at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)
change
"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." - King Whitney Jr.
I've been hard at work on the new layout for the website. It is coming along, but VERY slowly. There is a lot of work involved in making a totally new website from scratch because you feel like it. My old black-and-white website was nice, but was over a year and a half old and had gotten incredibly boring to me. So, I decided, I should make a better one!
The blog is already done (obviously), and I just finished the Star Wars Galaxies section. A lot of spots in it are a little bare content-wise, but at least the skeleton is there and on the internet. Next I get to make a forum skin to match the site for the Forum section, and then make a computer section.
The computer section will take a LONG time, since I have *so many* ideas for it. In the ideal world where I have infinite time and a working digital camera, I would love to put a virtual tour of my favorite place in the world - inside my computer. However, until I get my camera working again, this will be an impossibility. I also want to put up some of my digital art in a section of its own, and some of the stuff I've been working on that's computer related. Also, I'd like a small website to cover the computer-building business that I've been running the last couple months. All that to go in the little quarter circle for computers! I might need to make a second circle-menu of subcategories for computers if I can't figure out a good way to organize the computers page.
Ah well, lots of ideas, but 2:00 AM right now, so I should probably be heading to bed. I think this makes 3 blog entrys in one day, and I've had to contain myself from ranting about Apple, wireless mesh networks, technology, and about a million other things. I think I may need to ration how many blog entrys per day I can make or I'll end up with 500 posts a weekend for two months until I completely exhaust every possible topic to write about.
Anyway, enjoy the new, partially completed layout. It's better then the black and white one, now its black, white, and blue. In 253 more years it might be worthy of an old monitor.
Posted by Raculot at 01:48 AM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2005
graphics card envy
My new copy of Maximum PC came in yesterday. It makes my system feel awfully old, and my recent performance problems have been making me seriously consider an upgrade.
About 8 months ago, I upgraded my system to an AMD Athlon FX-55, an Asus A8V-Deluxe, and an Asus X800 XT PE, AGP version. Those of you computer geeks in the audience probably think the AGP card was a dumb move, and it was. I was contemplating the PCI-e version, but I kept thinking about losing the extra PCI slots. I realize now that was a very bad move, and will likely mean I need a complete mobo/gfx upgrade in the near future. My X800 XT PE has been acting up the last few months, and gradually getting worse. It just generates too much heat for its own good, and no amount of cooling I can put on it seems to help much. ATI made a bad move with making the X800 a single slot card, and the cooler on the ASUS one is particularly flimsy. I finally downgraded to an old 9800 XT that I had lying around the house because it had become impossible to play games that my old Geforce 3 could run 4 years ago. The system feels more steady now, but that is a short term fix.
Maximum PC hightened my urge to upgrade when I looked at the reviews of new computers they had in there. Even midrange computers have more horsepower then my rig these days. The "zero point" system that all other computers they review are measured as a percent improvement against is an AMD Athlon FX-55, 2 GB low-latency RAM, Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe, and Dual PCI-e nVidia 6800 Ultras with 256 MB graphics memory each. That system puts mine to shame performance wise, and thier reviews of systems with dual graphics cards with 512 MB graphics memory PER CARD made my single-card computer with 256 MB total seem completely underpowered.
Thier zero-point system would kick my computer's ass any day, yet I still consider my computer to be "powerful". I keep holding off until the next big generation of graphics cards, but I'm really not sure about it. Maybe an upgrade is in order before then.
And I'll keep kicking myself for not getting an SLI board the last time I upgraded the system.
Posted by Raculot at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
And God said: Let there be light: and there was light.
Movable Type works! After much fighting with it, I have successfully forced Moveable Type to work with my webserver. Now for the fun part - configuring it correctly.
I suppose that part will be left for another day.
Tyler and Dad are away for the weekend, so it leaves Mom and I at home. Most of the friends are away at the band trip, so I'm probably going to pester Samuel in a little while to see if he wants to hang out and play Command and Conquer Generals.
I keep having the feeling that there is some huge homework assignment I need to be doing, but then carefully go through my assignments in my head and find there are no papers due. I suppose its the stress from the end of the year getting to me, even when there's nothing to put stress on me.
Quote of the day:
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990)
Posted by Raculot at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)