08:00
- We'd planned to build a new system over the weekend, but I
decided
to put that off until next weekend. I need a Windows box on my desk to
run some astronomy software, and the easiest way to get one is to build
a new one rather than repurpose an existing one.
As I was gathering components for the new system last week, I realized
that I didn't have what I wanted to build the "budget" system for the
new edition of Building the Perfect
PC. We could still have built a system with the parts I have
lying around,
of course, but it wouldn't have been appropriate for the book. And, as
long as we're building a system, we might as well kill two stones with
one bird. So I ordered the rest of the stuff we needed.
Our goal was a $350 system, not counting sales tax, shipping, keyboard
and mouse, speakers, or display. We met that goal exactly. Here's
what's going into the new "budget" system:
Not bad for 350 bucks, and immensely better than any big-box store
system for that price, even if you add the cost of shipping and a
Windows XP license.
- The ASRock motherboard is an excellent choice for a Windows
system, although it's not a good choice for a Linux box, at least until
Linux is updated to support the integrated LAN and video.
- The GeForce 6100 integrated video is good enough for casual
gaming, and there's a PCI-e X16 slot for future upgrades.
- The Sempron 3100+ "feels like" a 3 GHz processor. We could have
gotten a retail-boxed Sempron 3100+ for $8 more, but instead we decided
to install the Arctic Cooling ACS64U CPU cooler, which is much quieter
and more efficient than the boxed cooler. That decision cost us a
net $4, which we thought was reasonable.
- We thought about installing 1 GB of RAM, but decided that
512 MB was sufficient for a budget Windows XP box. The motherboard has
only two DIMM slots, so we opted for one 512 MB DIMM rather
than two 256 MB DIMMs, leaving one DIMM slot open for future expansion.
(In fact, we'll probably install a second 512 MB DIMM in this system,
but for the
purposes of the book, 512 MB suffices.)
- We could have increased the hard drive space significantly for
not much incremental cost, but decided that 80 GB was sufficient for a
budget box.
- We could have saved a few bucks by going with a DVD-ROM drive or
CD burner, but why bother when an excellent DVD burner like the
ND-3550A sells for only $35?
Barbara and I will build this system next weekend, and it will end up
on my desk as my secondary system. My old secondary system, ripper, which runs Xandros 3.0, has
already become my new den system.
Tuesday,
14 February
2006
09:56
- My favorite Valentine's Day quote:
“You
can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a
kind word alone.” --Al Capone
I see the Islamic nutcases have now shown their displeasure with a
newspaper in Denmark by burning down a KFC in Pakistan. To the
Islamics, that makes sense, which should tell us something right there.
So, in my little "free speech" box at the top right of this page, I
decided to display the flag of Denmark in solidarity. I'll leave it up
for a week or so, just to remind myself of yet another difference
between western civilization, where free speech is generally
respected, and Islamic barbarism, which is the implacable enemy of free
speech.
As to the cartoons, where are the t-shirts? Where are the bumper
stickers? Inquiring minds want to know.
Wednesday,
15 February
2006
08:55
- The 14th is my Netflix anniversary date, and I'd thought about
dropping Netflix yesterday in favor of Blockbuster. I didn't, because
several people have told me that Blockbuster has gotten as bad or worse
about throttling, and because Netflix has eased up a bit on the
throttling this month.
Last month, Netflix sent me only 13 discs. They've sent me nine discs
so far this month, of which eight have actually been playable. They
shipped me two more discs yesterday. One of them should have shipped
Monday for Tuesday delivery. Instead, it shipped yesterday for Friday
(!) delivery. The other should have shipped yesterday for delivery
today, and did.
Netflix throttling has finally reached the consciousness of the
mainstream media. That recent AP article has been reprinted widely,
including on the front page of the business section of our newspaper
yesterday. The article mentions that heavy renters cost Netflix money
in terms of postage, but it ignores one aspect I've never heard
mentioned.
When it comes to popular titles, Netflix has the same problem a library
does. When a breakout bestseller is released, libraries face a huge
disparity between supply and demand. A library that might buy one or
two copies of a book suddenly needs literally 100 copies to meet
demand. But it can't buy 100 copies, because that demand is
short-lived. After a couple of months, demand will have dropped to the
point where one or two copies would be sufficient, but the library is
instead stuck with 100 copies.
To meet that need, there are companies that specialize in what amounts
to short-term rentals of popular books to libraries. A library can
order 100 copies of a bestseller from such a company to meet the
short-term demand. When demand slacks off, the library can return 98
copies to the rental company, and use the credit for those returned
books to rent extra copies of the next bestseller. As far as I know,
there's no similar service for DVDs.
So, when a monster hit movie arrives, Netflix has a big problem. In
order to meet demand from their 4 million subscribers in anything like
a reasonable time, Netflix might require 10,000 copies of that movie.
Their otherwise-ideal customers--those who rent a movie and keep it for
a week or ten days--actually end up costing them a lot of money,
because they have to buy many more copies of that movie. Their
"undesirable" customers--those who receive a disc, watch it, and return
it immediately--end up saving Netflix money, because that one copy of
the disc can serve many more customers.
Once the demand has died down, Netflix might find that 500 copies of
that movie would suffice, but instead they have 10,000 copies. That's a
lot of working capital tied up in a bunch of discs that are now
essentially worthless to them. Of course, they try to recoup their
costs by selling the used discs outright, but I suspect they still end
up stuck with a lot of unwanted copies.
In effect, the heavy renters help Netflix keep their inventory turns
up, at the expense of costing them more in postage. And I suspect
that's why the throttling issue has become increasingly common. When
Netflix was starting out, their inventory was smaller and their working
capital was more limited. It was more important to turn inventory
quickly, particularly since they had fewer distribution centers and the
average transit time both directions was longer. Nowadays, Netflix has
many more distribution centers and many more discs in inventory, so
they worry less about inventory turns and working capital allocation,
and more about postage costs.
My only problem with Netflix is that they claim "unlimited rentals" and
"one-day turnaround", both of which are lies. Netflix should stop the
false advertising and simply tell the truth. They should clarify their
most popular three-out program to mean: "Three discs out at any one
time, up to 15 discs per month, additional discs charged at $1.25
each", or whatever. If they did that, I'd have no problem at all with
Netflix.
Thursday,
16 February
2006
08:56
- The roll-out of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is looking more and more
like a train wreck.
As of now, only a month before the first HD-DVD players were to ship,
they haven't even got the copy-protection specification finalized. In
the past week, we've learned that no existing video adapter, including
models that were sold as "HDCP-ready", are in fact capable of playing
HD programming at HD resolution. Even worse, those existing video
adapters can't be upgraded to support HDCP, so all of those who bought
one are out of luck. Not that that matters much, because approximately
99.9999% of existing displays are incapable of rendering HDCP-protected
programming at high resolution, if at all.
And most people who've bought HD televisions are in for a nasty shock
when they learn that those expensive new televisions won't display HDCP
programming in high-resolution. If they're lucky, they'll be able to
use their expensive new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players to watch their
expensive new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs in standard DVD resolution. And
there's no guarantee they'll even be able to do that. They may see only
a black screen.
This is shaping up to be the most disastrous new product roll-out since
the Edsel. People are going to stay away from this stuff in droves.
Meanwhile, I'm sure DVD Jon will be working to bypass AACS copy
protection. I give it six months, a year at the most, before it's
cracked wide open. There'll be AACS versions of DVDshrink available for
anyone to download, and we'll be right back where we were.
The RIAA continues its attack on Fair Use. It now says, reversing its
previous position, that ripping CDs is
illegal. I say it's time to strike back.
What we really need is an honest congressman, if there is such a
thing, to introduce a new bill to legalize non-commercial copyright
infringement, making it lawful for individuals to copy recorded music,
movies, and binary software freely for their own personal use, and to
distribute such copies freely, so long as it is not done for profit.
Such a bill should also waive all of the circumvention provisions of
the DMCA and forbid commercial content providers from incorporating
copy protection, product activation, or other technological measures
that have the effect of making it more difficult to make and/or use
lawful copies.
Here's some truly bad news from Bo Leuf:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: criminalizing blasphemy
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:03:51 +0100
From: Bo leuf
To: Robert Bruce Thompson
CC: Jerry Pournelle
Alarmingly, I see that similar serious proposals are now under
consideration at three different levels: national (e.g. Sweden), EU
directive, and UN, all aiming to criminalize 'blasphemy' in much the
same way that incitement based on race, religion and ethnic group
already is.
If successful, it would mean that anything considered offensive to any
religious group's perception could not be published without risk of
criminal prosecution.
This 'protection' against the traditional freedom of expression will in
effect be stronger than protection against libel, for example. And it
will depend mainly on the degree of offense expressed by those who feel
offended.
Talk about a giant step backward. Such arbitrary criteria will
assuredly have a serious self-censorship effects on journalism and
publishing in the formerly free West. And assuredly be used to further
non-religious agendas.
Taken to an extreme it could mean legal constraints on for example
publishing scientific papers if the content is 'blasphemous' to an
accepted relious group. While this may seem absurd still, and Europeans
have long mocked the heated US discussions about 'teaching Darwin's
theories' in schools, similar issues of 'politically correct curricula'
may soon become commonplace in Europe, especially v.a.v. Islam and
Muslim traditions.
Our Constitution
protects "hate speech" and blasphemy. Unfortunately, our government
pays little attention to our Constitution.
Still, we're
better off than Europe, which has been invaded and occupied by
Islamics, which are breeding like rabbits. I fear for the future of
Europe unless its governments come to their senses and expel the
Islamics en masse. If that doesn't happen, and I see no reason to think
it will happen, all of Europe will become third-world Islamic
theocracies within a generation or two. France is already nearly
lost, and several other European nations are not far behind. I'm not
entirely sure that the process is reversible even now.
12:56
- I see that California, under court order, has taken steps
to ensure
a better into-the-box experience.
09:11
- People are fuming at the revelation that Microsoft
requires a new OEM Windows license if you replace the motherboard.
Here's the relevant text from the document linked to in the article:
Rather
than purchase completely new PCs, my organization performs in-place
upgrades to the hardware on many of our computers. We often times only
replace the motherboard, processor, and memory. Since the COA is still
on the case and the OS is still installed on the hard drive, this
computer is still licensed, right?
ANSWER. Generally, you may
upgrade or replace all of the hardware components on your computer and
maintain the license for the original Microsoft OEM operating system
software, with the exception of an upgrade or replacement of the
motherboard. An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a
"new personal computer." Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot
be transferred from one computer to another. Therefore, if the
motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect
then a new computer has been created, the original license expires, and
a new full operating system license (not upgrade) is required. This is
true even if the computer is covered under Software Assurance or other
Volume License programs.
Here's the workaround if you want to upgrade a motherboard without
buying a new Windows license (not to mention new licenses for all your
other OEM Microsoft software):
1. Turn off the system and open the
case.
2. Remove all memory modules from the system.
3. Restart the system, and note that it refuses to boot.
4. Diagnose the likely cause as a failed motherboard.
5. Replace the motherboard with the new model that you just happen to
have waiting.
6. Reactivate Windows.
For those who think the preceding workaround is unethical, this
alternative method also works and is indisputably valid:
1. Turn off the system and open the
case.
2. Remove the processor from the system.
3. Snap off the ZIF lever on the processor socket.
4. Diagnose the likely cause as a failed motherboard.
5. Replace the motherboard with the new model that you just happen to
have waiting.
6. Reactivate Windows.
Better yet, stop dealing with Microsoft. Install Linux.
12:01
- ATi is in real trouble, I think. It has sold millions of
video adapters with the claim that
those adapters support HDCP. They don't support HDCP, they never
will, and there was never any possibility that they would. ATi decided
not to pay the licensing fee required for HDCP support, which was
$0.045 per adapter. That's right. 4.5 cents each. There's no fix for
this. The boards can't be updated via firmware because they lack the
chip needed to store the HDCP keys.
It sounds to me as though ATi has a disaster on its hands. The only
fair response would be for ATi to recall all of the defective boards
and replace them, which I suspect would cost enough to drive ATi into
liquidation. And even that wouldn't begin to pay for the damage. It
costs real money to open a system, replace a video card, and possibly
install new drivers. Just ask any corporate PC manager. Then there are
the retail systems owned by individuals, who can't reasonably be
expected to do the swap themselves.
To make matters worse, ATi has been quietly changing their web site to
remove the references to HDCP compatibility. That won't look good when
the matter comes to trial, as I'm sure it eventually will.
nVIDIA cards have the same problem, but nVIDIA seems to be in the
clear. nVIDIA doesn't make retail video adapters, but instead depends
on OEMs to manufacture video adapters with its chipsets. The nVIDIA
reference designs supplied to OEMs apparently did include the necessary
chips, but those OEMs chose not to implement HDCP, leaving nVIDIA
blameless. Unfortunately, apparently many nVIDIA OEMs made similar
claims of HDCP compatibility, apparently in the full knowledge that
those claims were false.
I don't understand what these people were thinking. Did they no
one would notice? Well, they've noticed now, and in spades.
Saturday,
18 February
2006
09:41
- Our friend Mary Chervenak has entered an essay contest. Mary
is a superb essayist. Just don't make the mistake, as I did, of
drinking Coke while you're reading her essay.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: essay
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:56:04 -0500
From: Paul B. Jones
To: <many people>
I apologize for the mass email. Mary has entered an essay contest
and ended up a finalist. The five essays in the final cut are
online and
folks can vote for them (1 being the best, 5 being the worst). I
thought I would advertise this, though, of course, you're under no
obligation to vote or to vote for hers. However, it is a pretty
funny essay. And, you'll find it ironic that she has an ex named
Paul. You can follow the link below. Thanks and
enjoy. -Paul
http://www.hornytoad.com/za/HT?PAGE=CONTESTS
As they say, vote early and vote often.
00:00
-
Copyright
© 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by Robert Bruce
Thompson. All
Rights Reserved.
