New computer
It was getting dangerously close to 2 years since I’d upgraded my computer – which was an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ on an nForce 4, 2GB DDR400, 2x 36GB (first-gen) Raptors in RAID 0 for the OS / apps, 2 x 300GB Maxtor 7200/16MB storage drives, and a Geforce 7800GTX. It had served me well for a long time, longer than I remember going without a single upgrade and still being happy with its performance. Even Vista was far more than satisfied and running at full steam.
And yet, something about having a laptop that was faster just seemed wrong. That, and seeing Chris’ pre-production QuadFX system really got me interested in what had become the new state-of-the-art.
A couple days ago I replaced everything except the video card and local storage disks. I’m waiting for AMD/ATI to release their new monster before I consider upgrading the GPU. I had considered going quad-core this time around, but couldn’t quite justify the three-times-larger CPU price, so that will have to wait til next time.
So what’s the new rig look like?
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz, 4MB) – running at 3.4Ghz
- EVGA Nvidia 680i motherboard (“Designed by Nvidia”)
- 4GB DDR800 Corsair memory, 4-4-4-2 timings (Supports Nvidia’s “SLI Ready”)
- 2 x 74GB Raptors (ADFD model) in RAID 0 called “Bottled Lightning” by Anandtech
- Seasonic 650W PSU Recommended by Silent PC Review
- Antec Nine Hundred case (4 large fans)
- Themaltake “Big Typhoon” CPU coolor
- Update: A couple weeks later, and I’ve added a Geforce 8800GTX 768MB to the mix.
The overclocking success that I had with absolulely no effort is remarkable. The machine isn’t silent, but also isn’t particularly loud, and I haven’t yet done any real tweaking to make it quieter.
My main concern is a faint buzzing sound under CPU load, which only seems to happen when overclocking past a certain point. My understanding is that it’s likely some sort of CPU voltage coil which is vibrating at a frequency which is inversely harmonic to that of the polarized deflector dish. As with all things, the remedy apparently involves hot glue.
Performance on Vista Ultimate x64 is absolutely phenomenal. Applications seem to appear so quickly it’s as if they knew in advance they were about to run. Windows Media Center loads in a miraculous one second. Most of all, it’s even capable of satiating the ridiculous computation desires of Vanguard – a feat previously thought impossible.
MyPunchBowl is forgiven
This time 🙂
I’m actually quite impressed with the quickness of the response by MyPunchBowl to the community’s concerns. They made a mistake, but at least they’re listening and have taken steps to fix the situation – and I respect that. Thanks to Matt of MyPunchBowl for coming here to post the link to their response and updated privacy policy.
New Windows Search SDK is live!
The new Windows Search SDK for Windows Vista and Windows Desktop Search 3.x is now available on MSDN!
We’ve also released a new set of code samples to go along with it.
I’ll be digging in and writing more about building on the SDK very soon!
MyPunchBowl is sending MeJunkMail
Jake beat me to it. But I knew as soon as I got a “March Newsletter” from MyPunchBowl.com that they’d gotten my e-mail address back when Chris and Ponzi invited me to a party via the service.
Anyway, go read Jake’s thoughts – and then pretend I said them. That’ll save me the time of paraphrasing 🙂
Okay, I finally found something cool about Twitter that Facebook lacks. Public access.
Facebook has all sorts of awesome privacy options, but there’s no way to have my status updates shared with everyone, which is what Twitter allows. Even unauthenticated users can see my Twitter updates. So there is a difference after all. It’s like Instant Messaging, but everyone can see it and jump in whenever they want.
If I wanted to come up with some kind of gimmicky Web 2.0 buzzword for it, I might go with “OpenSource Conversations.” And if I were really shameless, I’d go back and stick it in the title of this post.
What I can’t decide is if Facebook should go in this direction. It’s definitely very close to what they offer. On the other hand, part of what makes Facebook be Facebook is that it’s all about your friends and not so much about how much attention you can get from complete strangers.
I’m curious what other users of both services think. Do you use both Facebook and Twitter? What unique aspect(s) of Twitter do you find appealing?
I caved… joined twitter
A couple weeks ago Chris and Scoble showed me in-person what all the fuss with Twitter was about. I’d heard it talked about, but was too busy to even bother finding out what it was. After a quick demonstration, I decided not to sign-up as it just seemed like a goofy way to waste time (which isn’t something I need more of at the moment).
However, tonight I was hanging out with some of the MVPs (mostly the young, hip Windows Live ones) and finally decided to sign-up. With MVPs looking over my shoulder, the sight of the words “Welcome back, Robert Scoble!” proved to be an irresistable temptation.
Anyway, I’m on Twitter now. It’s pretty much the Facebook “status” feature, ripped out and offered as a standalone service. The real difference is the network of people. Facebook has my friends from high school, college, and most of my 20-something friends all on board. But Twitter has… the entire blogosphere. Or maybe that’s just Scoble’s Twitter followers.
Sorry Scoble
Hopefully Robert has a good sense of humor 😉
Mini on team performance incentives
Mini-Microsoft has been back on the scene, and among his most recent post he had this little gem:
Post Stack-Ranked Future First Step: something that I think would be a significant first step from unhealthy peer vs. peer performance ranking: Team Compensation for Performance. I was talking with a friend who used to work at big hardware manufacturer. He said their main bonus budget and dispersion was directly attached to the goals their team’s leadership put together to deliver for the upcoming year and how well they did on those goals. Regular updates through the quarter were shared with the employees. The goals were S.M.A.R.T. and aggressive and directly tied to business results.
The better the whole team performed on delivering those results, the better all of their bonus was. Stock and raises were used for distinguishing individual performance.
I’ve heard of this kind of system at competitors, and I think it would be a fantastic addition to the new myMicrosoft system. As Mini has said, even in the “post stack ranking era” the more savvy employees will be aware of “calibration” and at some level concerned with how they’ll stand up (or stand out) when compared with their peers. This does little to encourage overall success for the team, and in extreme cases could even hinder team productivity by encouraging individuals to put their own careers ahead of the team’s priorities.
What’s more, a system like this would encourage peer groups to identify and deal with “dead weight” on the team, as opposed to keeping it around as “buffer” to insulate their more productive colleagues.
Truthfully, I don’t think that’s been a problem for my team at any point. But I have seen it elsewhere, and think it’s a natural effect of the current system. Kind of like the token ugly girl in a sorority – you know the one I’m talking about.
At the GDC this week, Sony’s Playstation 3 got some of the first positive attention it’s had all year. In fact, their demonstration of Playstation Home (think Second Life + Nintendo “Miis” + Xbox Live Achievements – or just a console-centric version of Tecmo’s lobby system in DOA4) and LittleBigWorld had me for the first time thinking that I might actually purchase a PS3 as my third console – eventually.
It didn’t take long for Sony’s marketing department to get wind of this, and take swift action to strike down any hint of positivity in the gaming community about their ill-fated console.
I’d hate to be one of the people working on the PS3 or its software these days. They’ve really done some cool things and obviously want to do more of them, but corporate bungling has kept their console at single-digit marketshare.
Sony should fire their marketing department. Then let their engineers start blogging (the people working on the Playstation Online service, Home, etc). Then maybe they can keep it a three console race.
Start++ breaks 6,000 downloads
According to my logs, over 6,500 people have downloaded Start++ since it’s release! Wow! Guess it’s time to put up a real “Info” web page to introduce people to it.
Anyone know of or interested in providing a good place to have a Start++ user forum?
Also, if anyone wants to make a pretty icon for it (especially larger than 16×16 ones) that would rock too =)