Firmware and Solid State Disks (SSDs)

Being still relatively new tech, there are some kinks being worked out still. The big one currently is TRIM support, that is the process of cleaning sectors that have been deleted, thus maintaining the high speeds of the drive over time. But also there is often not-trivial performance improvements. And just as commonly drive wear reductions. Definitely something that can't be ignored.

Every drive supports TRIM on various levels the best support for it though is the automatic Windows 7 native commands...meaning Windows 7 does it every time it deletes something. However most drives require a separate utility to be ran by the user from time to time to wipe these sectors. I assume in time nearly all SSDs will get firmware updates to support TRIM.

What ever drive you buy it more then likely requires a firmware update. To make this the ultimate in pains in the ass, most of these format the drive and they also can't be a drive with the Operating System installed on it. So the best bet is to make sure you use another computer and update the firmware before you start installing things.

My biggest issue here is that I doubt that this is the last firmware update they are going to release. Should I plan to reformat every few months? That's what its starting to feel like. I would suggest most people give this technology another year to bake. Amazingly fast but I'm thinking its not fast enough to be worth the headaches.

EVGA InterView Dual 17" Monitor

I wish I could find justification in why I need to own this monitor but for $650 I'm having a hard time.

Anyway...its cool but you need to see it in the flesh to really see just how cool it is. Each of those monitors flip and tilt, left to right or even all the way over. Hard to explain.

I could really do with out the web cam in there though. You always have to wonder, is someone looking at you when you don't know it?

The BK 3000

Well, job complete.... primary machine restored to basic operation. I don't enjoy building computers anymore, its a complete pain in the ass. Next time I'm going to buy something and at worse slap a video card in. Its no longer worth the time, money, or frustrations. Though my worst frustration was realizing that all I have was IDE CD drives and the motherboard no longer supported IDE.

As you can see I'm getting hit on the video card as my 8800 GTX is indeed still functional. I'm a bit torn here because ATI 5970s are nice (though hard to get currently) but after watching Nvidias 3d Vision at Frys I became undecided as that's a really freaking cool technology.

Seeing eight processors in the Task Manager is funny and the nearly instant boot times of Windows 7 + Solid State Disks is nice. Otherwise....ho, hum... I was happy with what I had before up till it broke.

Oh, one final thing.... Newegg would have cost a couple hundred extra dollars over what it cost at Frys. Usually there isn't such a wide and shocking gap there...something to keep in mind.

eReader thoughts

As I lay in bed reading the latest Wheel of Time book, I really feel like I'm getting a workout. As the massive tome has some fair weight to it I think harder about a nice eBook reader. The one I was waiting on, the Readius eReader, will never come to pass as the company behind it went bankrupt before they could get it out the door.

I don't want all of these books laying around anymore. 95% of all books (just like movies), I never read again. If I was going to collect something it would have to be of real value...

I'm not completely happy with any of the eReaders on the market currently (or near market like the Nook). What I would really like is a eReader thats actually a tablet. Like the Archos 9. There is a slew of these small tablets hitting the market from January to March of 2010, all of which are priced from $250 to $500.

The problem with these tablets is battery life, 3-5 hours isn't anywhere near as good as most eReaders. While I almost never read 3 hours straight... I don't want to have yet another device that needs charged all the damn time.

I think I'm going to have to settle this by coin toss in the end, between the Kindle DX or The Nook....or maybe I will just decide I don't mind charging yet another thing all the time. Damn-nation!

12-12 Bonus session canceled

Well, I screwed up.... I have to bail on the 12-12 bonus session as I forgot I have the Star Wars deal that night. Sorry! Clock reset to 12-26-2009.

Pure Pwnage goes big time

I kinda faded on the show but it appears they are officially going to be a TV series in March 2010. I can't figure out where its going to air so I would guess in Canada.

ATI 5970 scaling with AMD & Intel

Title links to a 24 page finding showing the differences in performance between the latest Phenoms vs. the latest Core cpus when using the latest ATI video card. Interestingly enough the core processors benefit almost not at all from cpu clock speeds where as the AMD chips are greatly changed by over clocking and require it to keep up.

On the flip side that pretty good out of AMD for the price and considering they are only meant to compete with the lower end i5 processors.

In short, if you don't mind some somewhat serious over clocking a Phenom is the way to go. Otherwise spend the extra $115.

Of course I can't really recommend over clocking...

Blackhole getting a remake

I re-watched the 1979 movie The Blackhole about a year ago and it still holds up amazingly well. I will definitely be trilled to see a remake of this classic.

This movie had some firsts for Disney back in the day. It was their first PG rated move and it was the most expensive they ever made (at that time) for $26 million.

Blackberry Bold 9700

Its got wi-fi calling but only through T-Mobile. SUCK!

Well its a step closer... someday when wi-fi calling is a standard feature we will all be able to use a wi-fi connection to talk over cell minutes.

Taiwanese news on TigerGate

A Taiwanese news station has presented what I can only assume is a completely realistic account of the Tiger Woods incident - in full animation. Perhaps the animation was a last resort. As if they were about to shoot the reenactment with real actors only to realize that it's virtually impossible to find a stand-in for Tiger Woods.

Motherboard failure

I guess I jumped to conclusions when I called it the video card as the video card I tossed in there had the same boot fail issues the next day. What can I say I replace the card and it worked... at least at first...

So I did some card wiggling and it came back up. Ut oh. This is a eVGA motherboard, one of the x2 PCI-e ones....though I can't recall its model number. I have had a number of motherboard failures in my life so I wouldn't judge eVGA to harshly for it but its just as likely that I never buy another eVGA product simply because some other gimmicky thing pulls me in other directions.

That's a crappy part to have go because it guarantees that I have to rebuild the thing completely. The level of effort that requires makes me want to not just replace the part but replace everything. It would have been a lot better had it been the video card.

Sigh....

2012

Otherwise to be known to me as the movie where I realized that special effects no longer impress me. So it was OK. I wasn't sad that I saw nor was I sad when it was over. Definitely a big win for John Cusack.

But what would have been better is if the movie has been based on the book 2012: The War for Souls. Which is a freaking awesome book.

I think as it stands, at this moment, my favorite "end of the world" type movie is going to have to go to Knowing.

Puzzle Quest 2, spring 2010

Holiday Sessions

The Bonus Session on the 12th is Hanukkah and if we do our regular session on the 26th it would be for Kwanzaa.

Just thought you all might want to know...I understand if someone has to cancel so they can observe their special day.

RIP: Nvidia 8800 GTX OC

Update: It appears the video card is fine and its a motherboard that is failing.

Today my primary gaming machines video card failed to come back from a reboot. Its never been quite the same after its battle with Dragon Age. Of course we're never going to know for sure if it was just its time or if it was helped in some way.

How long should a $600 video card last? Seems like it should be longer then 3 years.... I think the best answer is, for as long as I am using it. In which case this one gets a big black mark next to its otherwise happy record. Which amazingly was still playing everything at max settings.

A quick check with the accounting department shows that I spend around $200 a year on video cards. Sometimes as larger lump sums, sometimes as smaller but more frequent expenditures. So ultimately I spend the same if I buy the best card available or if I buy the best value. Good to know.

The only thing here is I've never actually had one fail completely... I mean ever, I likely still have a working 3Dfx product around here somewhere. Could be quite some time before I bless Nvidia with another purchase just for that fact. Although ATI's upper end cards are having a lot of trouble keeping up with demand currently... which leaves a couple upper end Nvidia cards at sweet price points...

Anno 1404 expansion

Adding a whole bunch of stuff but most importantly multiplayer!!!

Feb 2010