Coming soon: AMD price cuts

Price cuts are a given in our industry.  You buy something, the seller ships it, you receive it, and you get online only to find it cheaper somewhere else.  This just seems to be the status quo for computing.  The price cuts in question, detailed at Daily Tech, are of a more substantial then normal nature, and apparently in direct response to the release of Intel’s Core 2 Duo Conroe processor.  So here’s the dirt – Intel officially releases the Core 2 Duo Conroe processer on July 23rd.  On, or about, July 24th, AMD will drop prices for Athlon 64 and Sempron processors:

  • AMD Athlon 64 price cuts will receive price cut up to 30%
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 will receive price cuts up to 50%
  • AMD Sempron processors will receive price cuts up to 15%

That’s a lotta extra power available on the 24th.  I’ve been holding off buying an X2 3800+ since the processer has been hovering around the $300 mark for a while.  If Daily Tech’s source is accurate, this should drop to around $160.  In fact, apparently the X2 4600+ will drop to around the $300 mark, which suddenly makes that a viable consideration for my next processor upgrade.

Those of you looking for the big dog A64 FX processors aren’t getting any love here, as they will maintain current prices.  But all the rest of us look to be getting some really good options opening up soon.

[tags]AMD, Price cuts, CPU pricing, Athlon[/tags]

Snake rescuer’s blog

(via boingboing)
Visit the snake rescue blog to see some really cool photos of, well, rescued snakes. I’m not a snake keeper/collector/lover by any means, but I don’t find them repulsive or scary like most folks do (but I do have enough respect for the danger to know to keep my distance). To a lot of folks, this site will probably not be interesting at all. To me, however, it’s a fascinating read, especially with all the photos on the site.

Prairie_Rattler.jpg06/05/2004 @ 06:13:26 PM MDT
I found this prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) while 4-wheeling in the Caha del Rio section of the Santa Fe National Forest on the east side of the Rio Grande. It was very determined to not be picked up, struggling so much that I decided then and there that rattlesnakes don’t need to be handled unless absolutely necessary.

[tags]Snake rescue, Snakes, Bloggers[/tags]

Jeans designed for “conceal carry” use

(via BoingBoing)

toters.gifI know some folks who might like a few pairs of these. Of course, I have no idea if these are any good, but the company does make a write-up done well enough to have me curious. Since I don’t carry, I don’t really need these myself, but I’m sure someone who sees this story can post a comment about the jeans and let the world (in as much as people who read my ramblings constitute the world) know whether these are any good.

TOTERS ™ were conceived and created by veteran holster and knife designer Blackie Collins as an innovative alternative to the various – albeit limited – options one has to choose from when looking to purchase concealed carry clothing. The concept is simple: Create an extremely comfortable and durable item of clothing that effectively provides a means for concealed carry, but does so without any of the extreme bulkiness or expense that is often associated with other concealed carry garments.

Aside from the long run-on sentence there, that sounds like a good concept. The company also offers concealed carry vests, in case jeans aren’t an option.
[tags]Concealed carry, gun control?[/tags]

Buffett to give away most of his fortune

(via CNN Money)
That would be Warren Buffett, and not Jimmy Buffett (who, by the way, was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi – the same place where that squirrel went berserk – but back to the story).

FORTUNE EXCLUSIVE: The world’s second richest man – who’s now worth $44 billion – tells editor-at-large Carol Loomis he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July – most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Notice that this will still leave him with somewhere around $4 billion after all is said and done. I just thought I’d point that out for folks who aren’t as cynical as I am. Actually, though, I think this is a great thing Buffett is doing, and don’t want to belittle the upside. I know that $4 billion doesn’t buy what it used to, but I think Warren will still be able to live quite comfortably after giving so much away to help others. And remember that the man is an investing genius – he’ll still grow his wealth after this, and have figuratively tons of money to leave for more good works when he dies.

Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett’s (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).

For all the bad things I say about Microsoft and Bill Gates, this foundation is truly a great work, and with Buffett’s extra donations, even more good can be done.

[tags]Warren Buffett[/tags]

Top 20 game innovations we take for granted

(via Joystiq)
1UP has it’s list of important gameplay innovations up.  These are things we take for granted now in gaming but that seemed revolutionary when first introduced.  I won’t steal 1UP’s thunder by listing them all now, but here are a few.

  • Life Bar / Hit Points
  • Power Ups
  • Combos
  • Cooperative Play

I particularly remember the first time I played co-op in Descent.  Man, that was awesome.  For me, that combined the co-op play and the online feature, which was most unusual at the time.  I remember playing Descent co-op with 2 friends over a 28K modem connection.  We didn’t even think of trying to use voice chat at the same time – the available bandwidth at the time wouldn’t have supported it.

[tags]1UP, Gameplay innovations, gaming innovations, Descent is the greatest game ever[/tags]

Good Irish music

If you happen to have a chance to travel to Dublin, try to find where The Naked Fiddler (Brendan P Lynch) and his friends are playing.  My wife and I saw him at a pub in Dublin Friday night, playing with Joe Brennan and Paul O’Sullivan and again found where he was playing on Saturday night.  These two nights are easily the most memorable of many great things we saw and did on this trip.

[tags]Naked Fiddler, Brendan P Lynch, Irish music, Ireland[/tags]

Thus endeth a long day

Ireland-castle01.JPG

I have just returned from a vacation in Ireland. And if I can get everyone to leave me the hell alone, I’ll be going to bed after posting. I was up at 1:00 AM Memphis time, and it is now 10:17 PM Memphis time. I have not had any sleep today, and have spent over 18 hours getting from Ireland back home. When I have some time, I’ll select a few more images like this one to post, and I’ll write up a bit on the vacation – it was fantastic, so I’ll try to say more about why it was. It will take a few days to really get posting here going again, as I have a lot of techie-world crud to go over and catch up on.

I’ve also had some thoughts on how to better handle future absences so long periods without posts don’t happen again. I only had a little time to get the site as ready as I’d like this time. Not that I didn’t know enough in advance to get posts ready, but that I didn’t really know how to auto-post in advance, so just played around and figured it out just before leaving. But that shouldn’t be a problem again, if I can get myself into better practices on posting.

[tags]Ireland, My Vacation[/tags]

Photos of modern ruins

I subscribe to “American Heritage of Invention and Technology” magazine. I just received a new issue, and saw an article in it about some sights online with photographs of old ruins and abandoned industrial installations. Listed in the article are Modern Ruins Photographic Essays and Undercity.org. I have no idea why these are so interesting, but they seem compelling enough for me to post about them. There are so many good photos, that picking any to show as samples is tough. Note that both sites make the photos available for sale as well as being available for viewing online.

nysba_pan1.jpg

SmallpoxHospWindows.jpg

This second photo is Manhattan Seen Through the Windows of the Renwick Smallpox Hospital Ruin.

I found it a bit depressing to think about.

[tags]Abandoned places[/tags]

Is it a game… or is it real?

200px-War_Games_Cover.jpgSince the War Games launch code was mentioned in a recent post here, I thought I’d post to the very nice entry at Wikipedia for War Games. This was the first DVD I ever bought – even before I had a DVD player. I’m just a big loser geek like that. I remember talking about the movie in 1993 with a guy where I worked. I had just watched it again on TV, and mentioned how outdated it then looked. He reminded me how outdated it looked when it originally aired. I had to agree, but it was still such a great movie (for geeky values of great). And quite successful.

The movie was a hit, costing US$12 million, but grossing over $74 million after five months in the United States. The NORAD set was the most expensive single movie set ever built up to that time, at the staggering cost of $1 million.

I can still remember one of my favorite lines from the movie, but never realized it wasn’t originally in the script:

“I’d piss on a sparkplug if I thought it would do any good.”– Gen. Jack Beringer, ad-libbed by Barry Corbin

On the Wikipedia page is a list of all the launch scenarios tried by Joshua/WOPR. I also liked reading the trivia from the movie.

  • The writers and director had an interest in working with Professor Stephen Hawking to develop the Falken character into a physicist as well as a computer scientist/game theorist. Hawking responded to their request by noting that he was happy to assist with the inclusion of some of his theories on cosmology in the movie, but he would decline if the intent was to exploit his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Since the writers and director could not in good conscience say that Hawking’s disability wasn’t of interest to them, they ultimately decided to write Falken as a dabbler in paleontology instead. They kept the name “Stephen” as an homage.
  • This movie carried the first cinematic reference to firewalls.
  • In the computer game Uplink, one machine that can be hacked into is labeled “Protovision Game Server.” Using the password “joshua” on this machine will recreate the list of games available on the WOPR computer, including a playable Global Thermonuclear War. (Cool game, BTW – buy and play Uplink)
  • A shell script, /usr/games/wargames, is included with BSD systems. When run, it will ask the user if they want to play a game. If a game is selected, the script will then run the game, or, if an invalid selection is made, it will state: “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” The script was also run when a user logged in as falcon, followed by an immediate logout.

[tags]War Games, Shall we play a game?, Joshua, WOPR, Movie Miscellany[/tags]

Charlie Daniels on Zarqawi’s demise

Yes, that Charlie Daniels. Not only is he a talented musician, he’s a very bright individual who is not the least bit ashamed of his conservative views. I read his soapbox postings off and on, and always find them worth reading, even if I disagree. His latest is spot-on in calling to task the liberals who act as if getting Zarqawi is a minor news item.

Senator Harry Reid and the libernuts in Washington are acting as if the demise of one of the top three terrorists in the world was nothing more than swatting a worrisome mosquito.

Come on guys, nobody said that it was going to end the war in Iraq but it’s a great step along the way, his name was Zarqawi, remember him? He’s the guy responsible for murdering children on a school bus who had done nothing more than being born into the opposite sect of Muslims.

Can’t you even congratulate the troops for a job well done?
Can’t you take just a little bit of joy in this great victory? Why do you always have to be so negative, are you so bent on politics that you can’t even be glad when we have a big win?

What is it with you guys? Are your real interests in the welfare of America or the welfare of your political party? It’s hard to figure out why you can’t even say a few kind words about the men and women in uniform who have ridded the world of one of the most bloodthirsty, cruel and diabolical monsters ever born.

Regardless of how you feel about the war can’t you be happy for the people of Iraq who have suffered at the hands of this
demented master terrorist? Can’t you even acknowledge that we are starting to get cooperation from Iraqi citizens who are sick and tired of Zarqawi and his kind?

I’ve discussed something like this with a cow-orker recently. No one with any sense should be happy to hear when a President is performing badly or makes a serious mistake. Yet so many people seem glad to hear bad employment news, failings to take out military targets, and other things that might “prove” one party or the other is doing badly. But this is just nonsense. Sure, support your own party and all that, but if the current administration screws up, don’t celebrate. When we have problems at the top, it comes all the way down, eventually. My cow-orkers example was when conservatives kept hoping for high unemployment numbers under Clinton. The problem with that is, some of those very people hoping for those bad numbers could be among the unemployed. If you don’t like who is in charge now, that’s fine – but don’t wish bad things on them, or we all stand to suffer.

[tags]Charlie Daniels, Zarqawi, Liberal idiocy[/tags]

The Pirate Bay sends a message

While catching up on Wired’s security blog, 27B Stroke 6, I found the following amusing article:

Hidden Message from the Pirate Bay
Those jaunty buccaneers in Sweden have changed the reverse-DNS on their raided-and-resurrected torrent site to deliver a victory message to the MPAA, and the Swedish equivalent, APB.

$ ping thepiratebay.org
PING thepiratebay.org (83.140.176.146) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from hey.mpaa.and.apb.bite.my.shiny.metal.ass.thepiratebay.org (83.140.176.146): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=183 ms

[tags]The Pirate Bay, PirateBay, MPAA, Wired security blog, 27B Stroke 6[/tags]

US Treasury repeals Spanish-American Telephone Tax

(via The Consumerist)

Wow! I can hardly believe this. A tax begun 108 years ago to support a war effort has finally been repealed. And you’ll be allowed to claim it on your 2006 tax forms, it seems.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – After losing several court battles, the U.S. Treasury on Thursday said it would provide refunds to consumers for a federal excise “luxury” tax on long-distance service, the origins of which date back to 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War.

The refund will apply to the 3 percent excise tax billed to them on long-distance service since Feb. 28, 2003 and will include interest. Consumers will be able to claim it on their 2006 tax returns, which they will file in 2007.

. . .

The tax was passed in 1898, when there was no federal income tax and telephone service was something that only the rich had access to. It was designed as a luxury tax to help the government during a time of high military spending.

The amazing thing really is that our government only took a little over 100 years to end the tax. Not bad given the typically eonic pace seen for government “action” on anything.

[tags]Telephone Tax, Spanish-American war[/tags]