Computer upgrade March 2009

New specs:
Intel Core i7 920
Intel X25-M SSD
Intel BOXDX58SO Motherboard
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
Silverstone Element ST60EF
Prolimatech Megahalem Heatsink
Hiper Osiris mid-tower case
Raedon HD 4870 Vapor-X Cooling 2GB GDDR5

Old specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600
Intel D975XBX
an assortment of HDs
4GB DDR2 RAM
SeaSonic S12-600
Zalman something heatsink
Antec Sonata mid-tower case

The old computer cost about $800 amortized over 2.5 years, not bad...

What hasn't changed?
Dell 2408 WFP (great ergonomics, DisplayPort)
8800GTS R.I.P. May 2009
Xi-Fi Pro soundcard
300GB VelociRaptor

Dustbin of history:
Graphics cards more than $350

False economies - choosing efficiency over power. Computing power drives the need for energy efficiency, not the other way around.

Rehman Baba

Why I’m not dying, Of the cruelty of this age

"Pakistan Taliban blew up the tomb of the revered 17th century Pashtun poet and Sufi saint Rehman Baba near Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province on March 5"

E.U. Wasting Away in Hooverville

Czech PM attacks Obama spending

And Others in the U.S. Wasting Away in Hooverville

Debunking third-world myths

...with the best stats you've ever seen

This is the way the Internet ends: not with a bang, but DPI - Ars Technica

This is the way the Internet ends: not with a bang, but DPI - Ars Technica

Economic Destiny of Nations

A Summary of Japan's post-war growth and decline, cumulating in its lost decade:

"A steady-state capitalism in which markets, technology and productivity all stagnate is hard to imagine – although present-day Japan may be coming close. But frontiers, or business opportunities, come in many forms that are often hard to spot ahead of one’s rivals. Nevertheless, Ikeda, a former financial bureaucrat, saw open frontiers beckoning to Japan from all points of the social and political compass when he announced his income-doubling scheme in 1960, by which year Japan had moved from the ravages of its own futile wars to the sunlit security of being the key Cold War ally of the US, the world’s richest and most powerful nation....

The frontiers beckoning so invitingly to the Japanese of the 1960s are now either closed, closing, or in question."

Apocrypha

Empty Streets

More Blues

Peking Opera Blues 刀马旦

Classic

Quite a treat if you like the HK style of comedy, which is slapstick and absurd. I love it.