Henry

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Netbook...
My first netbook was a NEC MobilePro 800 ($800-900)

MobilePro 770
The MobilePro 770 was released in 1999. It added a 4096 colour display and a 56K modem. It had 32 MB of RAM, Windows CE 2.11 and a 131 MHz NEC VR4121 MIPS processor.

MobilePro 800
The MobilePro 800 was released in 1999. It had specifications similar to the 770, but had a larger 9 inch 800 x 600 display and a USB port.

A machine that could... scale the web... eventually, even when plugged in directly via ethernet.

I used this device to take all of my notes when I was studying for my computer science major, which never came to fruition.

My NEC MobilePro died in a freak vodka accident.

10 years later, I am finally replacing this device with the same kind of device ($390):
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16451

Asus EPC100HE: 10" LED backlit LCD, 2GB RAM DDR 533 (+$21), 160GB 5.4k RPM HD, crappy intel chipset with crappy 3d acceleration, 7-9 hour battery life, stereo mic, optional car charger, built in wireless g/n and bluetooth 2.0 (i.e. only 2.4GHz), intel atom 280 (1.66GHz single core with hyperthreading, 666MHz (or 667 if you prefer) FSB, but memory is only 5xx whatever), 3 USB 2.0 ports (one of which also works as eSATA), 10/100/1000 ethernet, secure ROM 4-in-1 reader.

On the plus side, I've googled out how I can tether it with my HTC G1 (through T-Mobile, which is notably less fascist than AT&T and others).

Drunk test...
About a half hour ago I was pulled over by 2 motorcycle cops after taking a right turn when I saw a lot of traffic. Apparently this was a sobriety checkpoint. I told them I drank 2 glasses of wine. After poking fun at me for having gained weight versus what was displayed on my license, the cops ran me through a whole gamut of tests before they finally had me do a breathalyser test.

I struggled with those tests. I my legs were sore from jogging earlier in the week. Anyway, I passed the test with .03%. "No offense, but you're not very coordinated."

There's more, but I'm feeling to lazy to type it out right now.

Yay RAID 10! (a topic of great concern to me alone)
Over the past few weeks, one of the Western Digital RE2 500GB drives in my RAID 10 array had been going off line periodically, forcing me to power cycle and rebuild the array. The drive finally died over the weekend. Running with 3/4 drives makes me fairly uneasy, as another drive loss could kill a lot of my free time (even though I have full backups on a secondary drive, it would still take me a lot of time to restore everything). Also, the array is noticeably slower with 3/4 drives.

Since my troubles with this drive began, I've considered how nice it would be to have a spare drive on hand, so that my machine could immediately be restored to 4/4 drives if one were to fail. So Sunday night, I went ahead and ordered another Western Digital RE2 500 from newegg for about $85. The new drive arrived today and my RAID array is currently rebuilding (42% complete). I've shipped off the failed drive (the warranty is good until December 2011) and should have that replacement in 2 weeks or so. When the RMA replacement arrives, I think I'll put it in the machine as a hot spare.
---------------------------------------
The funny thing about having a system like this is that I'm probably 4 times as likely to suffer a hard drive failure as if I only had 1 drive. On the other hand, I'm less likely to lose data as the result of a hard drive failure.

Graphics Card Woes...
Over the past few weeks I've started experiencing video artifacts on my computer, followed by crashes. I started experiencing this more frequently in Warhammer Online (which John got me for my birthday - thanks John). In the time since that incident, I've been having problems more and more often (with any game), until it got to the point where my screen would go nuts and my machine would crash while just sitting at the desktop. I'm certain that it's a video card issue. The behavior is that of a video card overheating, but it seems that as the card approached its complete uselessness, it overheated very easily. For instance, this morning it was 65F in my computer room, the computer had been off all night, and the card failed and locked the machine in less than a minute of logging on Windows. Whereas before, when I first experienced my bad crash in Warhammer, it was 90F in my computer room and I had been playing for over an hour.

At least I have my work computer.

The video card that failed is an eVGA nVidia 8800GTX (768MB) that I originally purchased in November 2006. This unit wasn't my original card though--I had to RMA my first 8800GTX a few months after getting the computer. The 2nd card lasted for well over a year, but the problem is the same. Of course, I've gotten a lot of use out of it over the last year (i.e. I game a lot and always have my computer on).

The fan on the cooler appears to be operating fine. My guess is that the silicon has been cooked pretty well by now. While looking at reviews for newer video cards, I came across this gem:
"Looks to me like the 8800 GTX is so much quieter than newer cards because it's willing to let GPU temperatures climb much higher." http://techreport.com/articles.x/14934/16 That might explain why I've had so many problems with this card.

Anyway, the card is under warranty (actually, a lifetime warranty!). After my problems a while back, I bought an overnight/cross-shipment warranty plan for $15 or so, as I wasn't feeling too confident about that card. I am getting a replacement, but I've decided to go ahead and get a new card anyway, as I'm not fond of dealing with this kind of crap. I've ordered a nVidia 260 GTX from newegg for $244 and I'm sending in for a $30 rebate. The 260 GTX should be a bit faster, but I also like that it runs cooler and uses less power at idle (and only like 15 watts more under a maximum load).

The new card should arrive tomorrow. I have a feeling that the advanced overnight cross-shipment on my old card won't arrive for a few more days (funny how that works).

I had no idea that John was an AIG subsidiary... I hope things are going OK for you John.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hallucinosis/Screenshots#5247208490530663250

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

minicipal internet fails...
Yesterday my neighbor across the street asked me why his free internet stopped working... doh!

"It is with great regret that we notify you of our need to discontinue MetroFi FREE and MetroFi Premium services effective June 20, 2008."

http://www.metrofi.com/cities-12.html

Fresh Asphault!
http://www.ci.concord.ca.us/pw/projects/slurryseal.htm

My street was just done today. Because I did not bother to move a car/motorcycle before this happened, I was trapped (except for my feet, bike, and public transit... and maybe I could have rolled my motorcycle down the street if I were feeling ambitious (or through the creek behind my house... and to the road that connects to my house).

It seems like they slurry seal my street rather frequently. I'm going to guess that this happens every 3 years, if not more frequently than that. I'm not looking it up, but the street wasn't that bad off before they did this. The street did have a lot of sealed cracks, but this only reinforces my impression that Concord takes rather good care of its roads. Orinda road maintenance is crap compared to this.

Hooray Insulation!
Temperatures around and inside my house:
104°F - Back porch (I expect that's one of the hottest areas in my back yard. I really should relocate that thermometer).
96°F - Weather.com (I suspect that may be more accurate, but the closest weather station is 2.5 miles away).
86°F - Hallway
90°F - My computer room (2 fast computers with 7 hard drives between them, a 20" LCD and a 24" LCD, etc.)

The temperature in this room is pretty good considering that I have not run the air conditioner.

To Work and Back...
I had to do some stuff in the office yesterday, so I opted to ride my bike. I took my Marin Novato (Urban/Hybrid) with panniers.

I recorded the ride!

It's not the easiest ride. It's a pretty fun ride, though the hills gave me quite a workout (and slowed me down quite a bit!). I got a bit of an extra workout on the ride back as I was carrying more stuff (2 years worth of replacement filters for my reverse osmosis system [had them shipped to the office] and some miscellaneous other junk).

I took the canal trail as that's a lot safer and more enjoyable than riding along Ygnacio.

battery death
My cell phone's battery appears to have become rather bloated. I suppose this would explain why my standby time, on a full charge, is only 5-8 hours. This also explains why the battery cover has been unusually difficult to put on.

I've just ordered a new Lithium Ion battery for $10.70, after tax and shipping (3-9 business days =P). That should save me from having to buy a new phone for a sufficient period of time.

A week in exercise...
Yesterday I really outdid myself on exercise. I rode 12.4 miles on my bicycles, then jogged 3 miles. So far this week, I did bay to breakers (+walking around), a 10.3 mile bike ride on Monday, then the aforementioned exercise yesterday.

I split up the exercise between my 2 bikes.

I did 5.1 miles of laps around my block on my road bike, then rode another 2.2 miles. I then did 5.1 miles of laps around my block on my urban/hybrid bike. I was not trying to go as fast as I could either time, but going at an easily maintainable pace. My block isn't completely flat, but it's not hilly either.

The average speed for laps around my block on my road bike was 18mph, with a max speed of 24mph.
The average speed for laps around my block on the urban/hybrid bike (pannier pack off) was 16.4mph, with a max speed of 19.5mph.

It's not a huge difference, but it is noteworthy. Incidentally, it was easier to maintain good speed on the road bike.

I plan to ride at least another 10 miles this evening.

Edit: just did another of these 5.1 mile rides on my road bike: 18.3mph average, max speed of 24.9mph.

No kidding...

A perfect example is found in the final 3 contenders for the major party Presidential nominations- Clinton, Obama, and McCain are people that have been agents of big government their whole lives. Always collecting government checks. Always voting against tax cuts (even though it's our money in the first place). Always feeding off taxpayers. Always bribing the voters to stay in office- thereby increasing government spending and running up a huge deficit. But here's the worst thing of all- all 3 are sitting U.S. Senators. They collect a 6-figure income from the taxpayers. Being a Senator is a full-time job, isn't it? But these 3 are spending every waking hour campaigning for President. How are they earning their $175,000 U.S. Senate salaries? They're not even present to vote on important bills. They are cheating the citizens of New York, Illinois and Arizona. It's, in my opinion, fraud to run for higher office while collecting a check for another political office. The rules should be changed- if you want to run for President, you have to step down from your present office. Why should taxpayers pay the cost for absent politicians who ignore the job for which they are being paid?

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_U.S._Libertarian_presidential_candidate_Wayne_Allyn_Root