Clash of Civilizations
Posted 30 Nov, 2005 at 12:40 by matt in /Games | Permanent link
Much like last year, Brent and I spent a goodly portion of my visit to his world last week playing Civ: in this case, the newly-released Civ 4. (Well, newly-released for his platform, albeit not mine... yet.) Each Civ game has been deeper/more complex than its predecessor, and so it is with this one; while I still find it absorbing, in a lot of ways this new release has reminded me exactly how/why I'm not a (computer) gamer.
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Because smaller is better
Posted 28 Nov, 2005 at 12:40 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
Check out the new iPod Zepto. Even smaller than the Nano...you may have some trouble locating it. This reminds me of the Onion's article on 5 bladed razors several years ago...
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Evolution Oppressed
Posted 17 Nov, 2005 at 09:23 by brent in /Science | Permanent link
An amusing little short on the oppression of evolution. BTW: There's an exhibit in New York on Darwin's life and the theory of evolution. Getting an itch to go...
http://movies.lionhead.com/movie/1168Comments (1 comment so far)
Roast Veal with Potatoes
Posted 16 Nov, 2005 at 20:24 by matt in /FoodDrink | Permanent link
Nota bene: I am fully aware that there are those who feel that the eating of veal is a sin and a shame. That may be; however, it is a very tasty sin and shame, and one that I have no intention of ceasing to commit. It is unlikely that your impassioned words will convince me to do so, in case you were planning on leaving a comment to the effect of U R TEH B4D.
With that out of the way...
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A nice story
Posted 15 Nov, 2005 at 10:18 by blue in /World | Permanent link
Just a little story I saw on the web this morning that I thought I would share.
The story can be read (and watched) at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10043374/
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Retail Poetry
Posted 15 Nov, 2005 at 00:27 by kael in /Words | Permanent link
The Artizia window, right next to Mexx in the Eaton's Center is filled with pithy little quotes like "It's strange the way I need a reason to call you and say I thought about you today'" and "We gave black cats the right of way."
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Automotive Gods
Posted 12 Nov, 2005 at 18:56 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link
So you say you don't believe in God?
What about the god of money? The god of big business? The god of modern medicine, fast food, alcohol and television?
Is the car-god any less demanding of sacrifice than the God of Abraham? Abraham was only asked to give up a son. 42,636 people were killed in 2004 in vehicular accidents in the United States alone. Rows of temples to the god of the combustion engine rise in every two-bit town big enough to support a bypass... we call them AutoMalls as we speed by. We pray to their acolytes, "Just stay green a little longer! No no! Don't turn red yet!" (oh c'mon, tell me you haven't mentally said that prayer at least once!)
Have we really moved away from one god, only to supplant it with a host of others who clamour for our attention? Are Tony the Tiger and Trix the Rabbit just different faces of the same god?
And what of the old gods? The ones that came before. Can Hermes and the television carry the same message? We can look back and think of the ancients as foolish for their beliefs, but would they not look forward at as and think the same?
Who will you make your sacrifice to this year?
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How legally binding are EULA's?
Posted 11 Nov, 2005 at 04:53 by blue in /Technical | Permanent link
For those who aren't normal denizen's of this place... EULA means End User Licence Agreement and is the thing that most people ignore when it pops up during their software installation.
According to an article on zdnet.com one company who makes spyware is sueing a company who makes anti-spyware software because in the EULA they specifically say 'you can't use this software for anti-spyware research'... meaning, that if you can detect it, you must have researched it.
Depending on how the courts rule on this, it could open up a big loophole in EULA's or even make them essentially meaningless.
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8 Year Old College Kid
Posted 06 Nov, 2005 at 07:32 by blue in /Social | Permanent link
And I thought it was hard for those kids who were still a couple of years away from the drinking age. This kid hasn't even hit puberty!
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Sony Rootkit
Posted 04 Nov, 2005 at 11:42 by brent in /Technical | Permanent link
Entertaining discovery and disassembly of Sony DRM software that acts as a rootkit (and is exploitable by other malware):
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ASUS and the fabrications they live by
Posted 03 Nov, 2005 at 21:23 by brent in /Technical | Permanent link
Some may know this already but I'm in the process of building out a new machine to replace three servers (domain controller & exchange, web server and sql, and the firewall) into one box. So I thought I had purchased some reasonable goods to accomplish this goal. I got a nice aspire case for a micro ATX motherboard, a Pentium D 820 (dual core processor at 2.8 GHz), 4GB of RAM, DVD drive, 300GB SATA HD, and the ASUS P5LD2-VM motherboard. This rant relates to the last of these items.
In particular it was exhibiting three problems that I was not expecting. The first is after installing Windows 2003 Server (oh it was sweet working at MS) I noticed it wasn't reporting multiple CPUs. Only one. This struck me as mighty strange. CPUZ (a tool from the web) interestingly enough also only reports one CPU. However, the BIOS reports two.
Let that be lie #1.
Next up is hyperthreading. Apparently some Pentium D processors do not support hyperthreading on top of the dual core processor resulting in effectively four separate streams of processing potential. This actually may be reality but it bears questioning then the marketing of PCs I've seen in numerous stores indicating dual cores with hyperthreading. Someone is lying. Lie #2 is a little unsure of its identity but quite sure of its existence.
Finally, Memory. 4 gigabytes. Good ol' 2^32. Well, not so much in this machine. You see apparently the bios has taken the pains to appropriate 896 MB of RAM. Yes, the units are correct. Almost an entire stick of RAM is used (??) by the bios. I actually went through the pains and it is only at 4 GB this happens. Not a single byte is listed as appropriated at 1 GB, 2 GB, or 3 GB. Only 4 GB. ASUS support indicated that it was the intel chipset and that this would occur for all chipsets and that ATI takes 6% of CPU. I think this is completely absurd and told the fine support staff that appropriating almost an entire stick of RAM was incomprehensible. Apparently they don't take kindly to having their fabrications questioned (lie #3 for those keeping count at home) and they promptly hung up.
So now I'm going to attempt to replace this motherboard with one that will actually work. I'm considering Gigabyte or a true blue Intel motherboard. I'll phone both to find out which will serve my needs. If you have any recommendations I'd be glad to hear them. Oh, total system cost came to about $1500 CDN I believe from Bytewise which so far hasn't been too bad.
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The Analog Hole
Posted 01 Nov, 2005 at 17:56 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link
Some interesting reading about yet another RIAA/MIAA move to pass legislation in the US.
Personally I liked some of the entertaining comments people had written. The one making the case about the Harley made a good point in some respects... but missed the obvious fact that you can sell the original item you bought... even for a profit and 'added to'. You just can't sell "copies" of it... and I think Harley would object if you started selling knock-offs of their product too.