It’s amazing how fast PCs continue to get. Whenever I get a new PC these days, I try to benchmark it to see how it rates. For my benchmarking purposes, I use: Performance Test CPU test . I name my desktop PC’s “frogs” with the year I got them and the laptops “Turtles”. I’m a little bummed that Performance Test 7.0 scores don’t correspond with 6.1 since I have a bunch of historic benchmarks with 6.1 …   Frog 2003: Decent Dell box with a P4 running at 2.8Ghz. CPU scor...

As some people saw in the recent deficit graph, President Obama plans to create deficits that are just staggering. They make the ridiculous Bush deficits seem downright responsible. So what will happen as a result? There are 4 possible things, none of which are good for our country. 1. We’ll have to print more money to pay for the loans the government is going to have to take out to pay for these crazy programs which means increased inflation. That means your assets will become wo...

Jake DeSantis, the executive Vice Prsident of AIG’s financial product unit has put his resignation letter online.  It’s worth reading.   View: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

I was somewhat disgusted with Bush having deficits but compared to Obama, Bush was a piker.

At the Game Developer’s Conference. This is a view from my hotel window.

I’ve been on Celexa for about a year and a half.  Celexa is ostensibly prescribed for depression.  In my case, I have used Celexa to deal with my aggressiveness.  That is, I tend to lack the “flight” part of the flight or flight instinct even when it would make sense to do so.  Celexa doesn’t fix that as much as greatlyincrease the threshold of when the fight or fight instinct comes into play which is useful when running a company. The effects have made others happy but ...

  Doing a gazillion things at once.   I have not loved a computer upgrade like the upgrade to 64-bit/12 gigs RAM/Core I7 since I got a Pentium with OS/2 years ago.

One of the things that I’ve been thankful for is the blessing of good health. And by good health, I don’t mean a life free of disease or injury but I mean a life free from getting colds, flus, etc.  I never get sick. As I’m getting a bit older, I once in awhile will have a day where I get say a migraine or am sore from working out in the yard and my productivity drops to nil. That sort of thing would have a devastating impact on trying to succeed if it was common.

A world broken in two The continent of Cartagia was broken into two at the climax of the titanic war between “the powers” in what became known as the cataclysm. From this we now have what the inhabitants simply refer to as “the west” and “the east”. When the world was broken, all was laid waste and much lore was lost. In the time that became known as the “War of Magic”, we saw Channelers begin to return and carve out kingdoms. During the War of Magic, the world was again l...

The Democrats have introduced a bill in congress that will put an end to those Farmer Markets. The bill’s sponsor, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), is married to the CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research does work for Monsanto. The bill would force anyone who produces food and transports it (even in state) to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration” and have their food inspected prior to sale which would, effectively put an end to those road-side stands or farmers m...

Demigod Beta 3C arrives. Not a lot of changes in this beta but some polish, updated network coding, performance touching, etc.  The main purpose for Beta 3C is for internal infrastructure testing.  But we think you’ll find this update worthwhile still.   AI Teleporting double checks Friendly tower wrangling Betrayer fixes for Regulus Squad attac...

Ever want a particular sound and don’t want to mess with having to find a WAV to do it? There are websites which simply play those sites.   Some examples: http://www.dramabutton.com/ http://nelsonhaha.com/ http://instantcrickets.com/   See get a good list go here: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/03/08/top-four-instant-sound-effect-sites/

  I want this. I need this.

I’ve long stopped using the highest settings on my cameras because there’s really no quality difference that I can tell other than when I want to zoom in and crop a piece. On cameras, we need a new spec to help us know what quality image we can expect. In the meantime, check out this Ars article on the topic: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/why-weve-reached-the-end-of-the-camera-megapixel-race.ars

In Finland, how much you make determines the amount of a fine. For instance, a Finnish millionaire recently got a 112,000-euro speeding ticket (he was about 10 over).  That’s because the fine is calculated using what he earned last year. So the guy who inherits his wealth and sits on his butt is fine. But the guy who’s working his rear end off gets penalized more. Taking this to its logical conclusion, a young person should get more time in prison because he has more life av...