So I bought an Intel Socket 775 board to support a crash webserver rebuild project. I present the story in hopes that it might be useful, or entertaining, or both. I don’t know the ultimate outcome of it yet, but all of the decisions made sense at the time.
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Know someone who needs computer skills? Send ’em to the library
One of my coworkers asked me a good question this week. He said one of his neighbors just bought a new computer from a big-box consumer electronics store whose name doesn’t really matter all that much (but it’s one I pick on frequently) and didn’t really know a lot about computers.
He asked what someone in that situation can do to avoid being taken advantage of, and what they can do once they get the computer home, to learn how to actually use the thing. For now, they’re asking him, but long-term, that’s not the right answer. At least I don’t think it is.
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I got my new webserver motherboard
I got my new webserver motherboard. There’s a story there. I’m saving it for later in the week.
The board doesn’t work. I power it on, and it shuts itself off after 2-3 seconds. The power supply works with a different board. So for the first time in my life, I’m contacting Asus technical support, because I can’t figure out if it’s something I did, or just a DOA board. So there’s going to be a story with that, too. Let’s hope for a happy ending.
How to replace cash envelopes, and when not to
This morning as I was trying to dodge commercials and morning-show call-in games, I heard a couple of DJs talking about personal finance, and how their finances are a mess, and they heard that in the old days, people budgeted by putting money in cash envelopes, paid expenses out of those envelopes.
They asked if anyone has a high-tech way of doing the same thing.
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Why do European trains look so much better than U.S. trains?
I guess there’s something floating around Facebook right now comparing sleek, elegant European trains against clunker, junky trains that roam the rails in the United States. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve already had some questions about it.
There was a time when U.S. trains were pretty bleak to look at, but that time isn’t now.
I knew I should have bought that motherboard…
My webserver seems to be having a hard time keeping up with demand. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I could have had my preferred low-end motherboard for about $33, but I was able to come up with about 10 reasons not to buy it at that time and tackle the project. I can get an Asus Socket 775 board and a 2-core Intel CPU to put on it locally for around $90-$100 total, which will give me a four-fold increase in available CPU power and RAM, not to mention a newer and better-known chipset to work with. But I had several things come up this weekend that kept me from making that trip. Studying, of course, but also a family matter.
My server managed a not-exactly-heroic uptime of 3 days on this last reboot. If I can swap the board for something better this week, I’ll try. And if it dies again before I’m able to do that, I’ll have to see if I can remember to put some more memory in it. I just found a half-gig PC3200 DIMM that will fit, assuming I have a slot available.
Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3
My wife wanted a point-and-shoot camera. My go-to brand for that sort of thing usually is Olympus, based on the recommendation of someone who’s forgotten more about cameras than I’ll ever know, but there are some serious concerns that Olympus may not be around much longer.
So I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3, a point-and-shoot I got on sale for under $100. Unlike most cameras I could find in that price range, the reviews on it were overwhelmingly positive.
Apple and China, or Why the U.S. Middle Class is Shrinking
“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”
Apple Computer, currently the highest-valued company in the country, at its peak employs 1/10 the number of Americans as General Motors did in the 1950s. Apple is an easy target because it’s big, but the problem isn’t unique to Apple. Technology companies as a whole employ fewer people than the heavyweights of ages past like General Motors and General Electric. It’s the nature of the work.
Digital distribution, not SOPA and PIPA, is the best long-term solution for the MPAA
Fightforthefuture.org declared victory yesterday, saying that SOPA and PIPA have been dropped. Their e-mail said some other important and interesting things, but most importantly, it made some references to China. Communist China. Totalitarian Communist China.
The distinction is important.
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Get Acronis for free
There isn’t much time left, and I apologize, but for the rest of the day, you can get the home version of Acronis for free. Details at the link. It’s not a bad idea to be familiar with Acronis, since it’s so widely used by businesses. Getting it and using it on your home PCs will get you some relevant experience. I’m not sure what the differences are between the home and business versions (I haven’t seen the home version yet myself), but using it will put you in position to figure it out. And you can’t beat the price, right?