Still As Life

Today, along with plotting to take over the world with Rhi, I rearranged me desk setup, and for that matter, most of that side of the room.

I've chucked one of my bookcases up on the back of one of my desks. I've run out of room on the ground level, so logically, start building up. Tetris style.

It turned out that the bottom shelf of the bookcase is the perfect size to fit my pair of 19" widescreens with about 3mm to spare above them and about 2cm in total to spare horizontally. Sweet.

I've migrated the main work stream applications over to Quadzilla. As a result of this, I've noticed about a 50% performance decrease in the performance of Adobe Photoshop CS3 when working with large files compared to the old XP box that is around a quarter of the power of Quadzilla. That doesn't make any sense to me and I sure hope it's just a temporary problem.

I have left the old box up and running next to the new one. I need it for access to the RAID 0 array in it. At the moment, I have it plugged in to the second input in my secondary monitor, however I am accessing it predominately via the Windows Remote Desktop Connection software as this saves the trouble of switching the inputs and the keyboard and mouse.

Since moving the bookcase, I all of a sudden seem to have so much extra space. I need it since I'm planning on getting a filing cabinet soon, all the same though, it's remarkable the amounf ot space it seems to have made. I'm also thinking about getting a fourth desk from somewhere to get myself some more desk space since I seem to keep running out.

Labels: other, software

Thanks to Tim and his wife Judith of Spy Journal and Jethro Consultants for inviting Rhi and I over for dinner last night. We had a great time and the food was awesome.

Tim and Jude keep Stimsons Pythons, bearded dragons, lizards, heaps of fish, and even more pets. I got to hold a snake and a dragon for the first time! Probably something I should get used to since Rhi is hoping to get her spotted python on Thursday (she didn't get her license in time to get it this weekend).

It still amazes me how placid they were, and how content they were to be held.

Tim also has a very, very awesome computer setup. 4 screens in a curve following the curve of the desk, 80" of screen, nice.

They also showed us some interesting games I have never heard of before, Tim, you are going to have to show me the computer version of Carcassone (is that how it's spelt?) sometime.

Thanks again Tim and Jude.

Labels: other

I've been talking about it, so where is it?

The new Still As Life blog?

Well, the design is virtually completed, and setup for Wordpress, I just have a few more small things to sort out in it along with setting up the basis for the second half of the website.

That's right, there's a second half!

Don't all pass out at once, I have been working!

The new Still As Life design is, I am proud to say, in my opinion Web 2.0, though as Web 2.0 is as flexible as any other definition of a design style, that is open to interpretation.

So, I can safely say, it will be alive soon.

Since I'm changing over to Wordpress instead of Blogger, and the file paths will be changing, that does mean a different RSS URL along with other changes, but in the long run, I think it will be very beneficial.

That's all for now, catch ya.

Labels: code, design, internet

As I mentioned the other day, I have been stuck at the same place in Jedi Academy that I was stuck at last time, and was quite frustrated. I just solved it, and realised how stupidly simple it was. I have no idea how I managed to get stuck there twice. Ah wells. Crisis over.

Labels: games

As you would have seen earlier, the box for my brand new Gainward Nvidia 8800 GT Golden Sample is bigger than my new motherboard box. Now, the unveiling of the contents.

As you can see in the photo on the left, there is a smaller box within the big box. In the other sections around it are the manuals, disc's and other accessories.

Basically, a TV out cable with HDTV support, molex to PCI-E power adapter, DVI to VGA adaptor and a DVI to HDMI adapter.

It came with the usual Cyberlink PowerDVD bundle along with the standard software. Additionally, it came with a full copy of Tomb Raider Anniversary.

Now, as you can see on the left, once I opened the smaller box, it was literally ALL video card!

Sweet.

This is easily the beefiest video card I have ever owned, and is also the first Nvidia graphics card that I have bought in a good many years, I have previously used predominately ATI cards.

So what is so special about this video card? Why did I buy it over any of the other brands of 8800 GT's, or for that matter, why did I buy it over the other Gainward 8800 GT's?

For starter's, the Golden Sample cost only $359 compared to the $308 for the standard version from Gainward. Now what is the Golden Sample? Basically, it's faster. It comes factory clocked at higher speeds. The core clock speed is 650mhz and the memory clock speed is 950mhz. The standard model is 600mhz by 900mhz. In addition, the Golden Sample comes with a bigger cooling solution to cope with the higher speeds.

In my opinion, the extra $50 is well worth it considering that to overclock the standard model to the same speeds and then add a better cooler to cope with the higher speeds would add up to $50+ anyway. Plus, it would no longer be under warranty where the Golden Sample is.

The reason for this brand over any other's was initially the price, it is on par with the prices of all the other brands and is actually cheaper than some others. In my previous experiences, Gainward are an excellent video card manufacturer, so to find that their prices are now equal to other brands, but with higher clock speeds, I jumped at it.

Next up, putting things together.

Labels: hardware