computer setup nightmare

October 15, 2009

For several months now, a bunch of computer parts have been lying unused in the corner of my living room. One set of hdd’s I want to get music off of… but they are in raid configuration so can’t be installed on my current computer. I hope Linux will allow my old Promise TX100 raid card to work.

I had about a week’s delay in getting a copy of Ubuntu Server Edition because the burner on my main computer is burnt out, along with the burner on my computer at work. The fix was that I had to download it at work, save it to an 8gb memory stick, transfer it to Joe’s new laptop’s hdd, and burn it from there.

So I just got that fresh CD a couple days ago and found a ton of problems with the computer I’m setting up. Joe wanted some files off his old computer, and donated the parts to me after I helped him take out the hard drives. I combined his motherboard and power supply with my old Asus Vento 3600 case, the one that looks like it has a fighter jet intake. The system turns on and all the fans run, but there’s no video output on both DVI and VGA, not even POST. ARGH! I removed all the drives and tried two different video cards, so I think it must be the motherboard or ram.

Not wanting to have to deal with it anymore, I’m going to try plugging the raid card into my current machine and setting up dual booting to linux to try to access the files. Currently praying that it doesn’t mess up something and leave me without a computer for a week.

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AMD finally beats nVidia: how does my old GPU stack up?

September 26, 2009

Looks like ATI (now owned by AMD) is finally overtaking nVidia in terms of best graphics chips. They’re now capable of supporting the resolution of 6 monitors combined! I was just at maximumpc and the specs are insane!

EyeFinity in Action

EyeFinity in action

I didn’t want to check my current specs because I was afraid of how pitifully low the numbers might be – but I did it anyways, and here they are:

stats from my old graphics card

I can’t believe how puny my card’s specs are…

I don’t have time for new games right now; I’m waiting for them to get so ridiculously out of control that I’m overcome with disbelief and force myself to upgrade.

For now I’m happy with my current setup: PS3 only on a 105″ 720p projection screen. The projector + screen only cost $1.2k in 2006, while a 50″ LCD was $2k. So I got plenty of screen space for super cheap. That’s one reason why I seriously doubt that 6x or even 3x screens will be popular in 5 years, and I’ll explain the other one after these two EyeFinity demo videos.

   
EyeFinity allows 6 monitors to operate as one without additional hardware.
source: AMD

EyeFinity is not a new technology, it’s a temporary hack. The GPUs are doing the same job as before, they’ve just improved far faster than LCD technology has been able to. Splitting a rendered image to 6 monitors can’t be that complicated! But no matter how badly AMD or anyone else wants it to, Moore’s law works for making things smaller, not larger; it doesn’t apply to display size like it does to GPU’s, so it’s impossible for displays to catch up. I think eventually there will be 50″ monitors with the same pixel density of the current 30″ models, but until that happens I will consider displays to be lagging.

Back to the screen topic: I’ve played single player Halo on a 105″ screen, larger than any 6 monitor setup out there, and it’s definitely more immersive, but there’s no edge whatsoever playing on a bigger screen. It actually made me play worse, because it was so much slower turning my head to react to things.

Conclusion: The advantage of being able to scan the entire screen in one eye movement is huge in fast games. I don’t care how much information I can pack on 6 screens, if I don’t have time to use it in the heat of battle then it’s completely useless.

I think a lot of other people like me are playing to win, not just for eye candy. Will game makers ever make using multiple monitors advantageous enough to be worth the cost?

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One of my data scientist heroes

September 24, 2009

Design already requires superior technical skills, and those requirements will only increase now that it’s becoming more closely linked to data visualization. This is because the value of data can only be unlocked when it analyzed and turned into information. This important work will be done by a new generation of data scientists.

Lisa Strausfeld is an example of a data scientist hero. Her goal is to change the way we view government statistics and make them accessible and understandable to more people through design. Check out the link below to read about her experience.

Fast Company’s Masters of Design – Lisa Strausfeld

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Maybe it’s not so bad here: Outsourcing Unemployment to China

September 16, 2009

Although I don’t keep up to date on Asian news, I hope to live/work in Asia at some point in my life, so I’m interested in taking look into what’s going on over there every once in a while. Seeing this video really helped me to appreciate how good we have it over here.

Adam Yamaguchi travels to China to look at how we’ve outsourced our unemployment.
Length: 25:05
Content: Video tour of unemployment in China. Factory workers are laid off with no notice from employers and have to return to their families in the countryside when they can’t find work.
via Mish

The last time I went to China was two years ago, and I exchanged $1 for 8 RMB. If I were to go now I would only get 6.8 RMB.

I remember buying a 40 oz beer on the street from a little girl’s kiosk for only 3rmb ~25 cents, but in a bar a few miles away the beer would be 40rmb for a bottle 1/3 the size! No wonder the bar was so empty…

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My uncle is working on a batmobile

September 15, 2009

Got a surprise today when I randomly saw my uncle in my news reader… Apparently he’s working on some kind of batmobile toy? He would probably get mad if I called it a toy though.

I don’t have many details about the project but my uncle does advanced development of embedded computers, so that batmobile is probably going to do something really crazy by the time he’s done with it. I worked for him during the summer before I went to college to learn some programming skills.

Spark Contest via Make Magazine

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