The element of surprise…it is critical for special forces military operatives. So a gun that can shoot around corners makes perfect sense. But a gun barrel poking around the corner still looks like a gun barrel…unless you camouflage it.
Irene and I opened our gifts a couple of hours ago. We both received lots of wonderful things, but most of all we got the best gift of all: each other.
Each year at Christmas time I like to take a moment to reflect upon everyone who is not so fortunate, or who as I often do lacks the will to see their good fortune for what it is. I’m so very lucky. I’m basically healthy, as is everyone in my immediate circle of friends and family. We have enough for essentials plus a great deal of non-essentials.
If there is one thing that can make me giddy when I’m working on a computer upgrade project, it is a well-designed case or chassis. Well-designed means:
My favorite case manufacturer to date has been Antec. Their cases generally meet or exceed all the items on my list of requirements. My most recent full computer chassis from them was the P180: it’s a fantastic case, and I’m very happy with it.
Choosing a hard drive enclosure early this year seemed like a no brainer since I like Antec cases so much. I bought Antec’s MX-1 “actively cooled” enclosure. It looked like typical Antec: well made, easy to open, all screws easily accessible and nicely sized, with excellent cooling. Unfortunately, after just a bit over six months of use it died…rather completely. And finding a replacement wasn’t a picnic…
I was starting to think that the tide might be turning away from ATI + AMD: my favoured platform for the last four years or so. Both Intel and NVidia have been ahead of ATI/AMD now for about a year in terms of top-end video card and CPU performance.
The Conservatives appear to have delayed introducing the new DMCA-like copyright bill I mentioned in a previous post. Some people are saying that this delay is a result of the vocal reactions from various quarters, particularly on the Internet.
I have a deep, dark secret to admit: I often send email using HTML/rich text features. I know, it is shocking: but I fear the seductive features of things like fonts, bold facing, and colour have turned me from the true path of pure text.
Running a public website of any kind means having to deal with various unwanted guests. This blog, for example, receives around 300 spam comment posts a day, and any number of attempts to break in.
I am a small “c” conservative. I believe in less rather than more government. In the past, I have tended to support the Canadian Conservative party rather than the Liberals.
Lately, though, I’ve been feeling less and less inclined to think of the Conservatives as worthy of support. And in the last forty eight hours, I’ve really started to think they need a swift kick in the pants, just like the Liberals.
We had another power failure this morning. It started at about 5:30 am and continued until about 8:00 am, just as I was (manually) closing the garage door to go to work.
Unfortunately, my web server (which delivers this wonderful blog) failed to restart correctly when the power came back up. It seems prone to forgetting how to connect to the network after a power failure…anyway, when I got home from work I was beat and plunked myself in front of the TV. The result- I didn’t even know the server was down until just now.
There is no culturally significant reason for killing whales, I don’t care what the Japanese government says…and apparently my opinion is shared by Wired blogger Tony Long.