Puppy TV

Back in November, I paid $5 for a Dell Dimension L550R. It came with Windows 2000 Professional, a 550MHz Pentium III processor, and 256MB of memory. Basically, it was good enough to surf the Internet, type some documents, or run a lightweight programming IDE. With only 85 watts of power, I was able to boot it up after dropping in faster CD-Rom and 1GHz Pentium III. The problem arose that the new system would be running on a TV and I wanted it to be fast since I wouldn't be doing any hardcore gaming or software development. So I chose Puppy Linux v4.3.1. So i leave you with a quote that takes after the old Life cereal commercials, "Puppy eats anything. He Likes It! Hey Puppy!"

Pentax Optio I-10

As I was scrounging through the Awesomer yesterday I came across a camera that caught my attention. The Pentax Optio I-10, is a compact DSLR with retro styling. It features a 5x wide angle zoom lens and houses a 12.1MP sensor for extreme detail. There are tons of included modes including my favorite P/A/S/M mode for manual operations. It comes with image stabilization on multiple levels and is able to record in 720 HD video! The shutter speeds and ISO levels are great for both low-light situations and enormous panoramic views. It was supposed to have been released yesterday at $299 but it seems to be delayed till next month. Oh, and it also comes in white.

http://hypebeast.com/2010/01/pentax-optio-i10/

OMA Lab

Looking for a location to start and host an Omaha hackerspace. Despite the word hackerspace, they are actually more for projects involving technology. Programming projects, hardware projects, anything tech that thinks outside the box is what I'm interested in.

*Note: I do not intend to hack networks or write viruses, if that's what you are looking for, look elsewhere.

New Computers

8GB of RAM... really? Someone told me they wanted this as the minimum amount of memory in their new computer. A few notes on what computer companies think you need and what you really need. Memory is good. The more the better. 8GB of RAM, however, is way more than the average user needs. 2GB may even be high for the "average" user. When I define the "average" user, I am defining the average Joe whom sits at home and surfs the Internet, maybe watches a movie, and occasionally does some work with Microsoft Word. Now lets break it down. Video games are about the highest CPU and memory usage you can put your computer, a benchmark if you will as to what your computer can handle. The only exception would be 3D rendering (which is based strongly on your graphics card), software development tools (Visual Studio) which rely on an under-laying framework, and servers that undergo loads of stress. Chances are, you will not be multitasking to this extent... ever.

On to processors. Quad Core Processors such as the Phenoms, Core 2 Quad, and i7 processors are fast and powerful. But are they necessary? They have shown a fairly nice gain in performance over the older Dual Core processors when it comes to multitasking and gaming. So what is Joe Average missing? Currently, there are no games that can utilize all four cores. Secondly, there is no software besides server and rendering software that can utilize all four cores.

My point is, Joe Average will be paying a price way beyond what he needs to for hardware he most likely cannot use to its fullest extent. He would be much better off with a low end Quad Core or High end Dual Core with 2 to 4 GB of memory and a decent graphics card.

My Computer:
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.5GHz
-2GB G.Skill PC6400 @ 5-5-5-15
-Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256 bit GDDR4
-Seagate ATA100 300GB HDD

Innovation

UNO has a new program of study within the Information Technology department called the "IT Innovation Degree." Essentially this allows entrepeneurs to create their own program of study based on a solid core of Information Technology classes. The reason I'm looking into this, is that I like innovation yet I like customizing things the way I use them. So after a little while, going through the course catalog, I put together a list of classes proposing the concept of a Data Analysis and Programming degree. This is very, very strong on database technology as well as multiple development languages including C++ and Java. Someone at work told me the order in which people move while in the Information Technology department. The students in Computer Engineering that can't make it, switch to Computer Science, which in turn switch to MIS, which in turn now have the opportunity to fill whatever stupidity they want into the Innovation degree. From my point of view, I can see the chain of events, however, I don't want the accounting and minor business requirements associated with MIS. I would rather have a degree based upon solid programming and data analytics.

Golden Orbs

My new project is underway. The Golden Orbs are representative of the computing power of old. Dual overclocked Celeron processors on an Abit BP6 motherboard (legendary in the overclocking world). The Golden Orbs will be powering a lightweight Linux OS (still undecided), loaded with only media functionality.