Weekend Open Thread
Here’s your chance to talk about whatever is on your mind. You can drop off links to news you want to discuss, or links to your own blog, exchange recipes, cuss me out for being absent – but Mom is visiting this weekend, so my attention is diverted for a while – knock yourselves out.
Category: Administrative
Happy 238th Birthday to all my fellow Sailors out there, Past and Present.
I wonder why no one’s ever seriously proposed a Congressional Wonderlick: A 50 multiple-choice/problem timed-test covering questions that all politicians ought be able to answer re law and legislative rules, civics/history and current affairs, science, math & logic.
The first couple of questions would relatively easy — say, college freshman level — and then get progressively difficult; though all questions would have consensus right answer (and hence, wouldn’t cover, say, the meaning of “to declare war”). Most importantly, all questions would be selected primarily from those issues prone to errors (assessing political ignorance) or partisan bias (e.g., re whether inflation dropped with Reagan, or campaign donations have increased relative to GNP). The latter is what’s called a tax on BS. A few questions would even seem a bit mathy. * All in all, womething geared for a median score of about 22.
The test would administered annually, taken en masse at the Capitol, with the test, bathroom breaks, and subsequent drug test proctored by the NSA and HRT. The results would be public displayed in real time; subsequent congressional parking and office space allocated based on results.
*Something like what follows. Believe it or not, this exact sort of problem pops up every day. Also, the numbers are what matters; don’t get hung up on exact phrasing. Also, don’t attempt if easily angered (and no, the answer is not 54%).
“A woman goes to the dentist to have a tooth extracted. After, she gets a prescription for a pain medicine. The next day, she’s found dead. Research reliably shows that 60% of patients who receive these prescriptions actually fill them and take the medicine. Forensic investigators also establish by that if the woman took the meds, then there is a 90% chance it killed her. What’s the probability that she took the medicine and it killed her (viz. if she hadn’t taken the medicine, she wouldn’t have died)?”
Ex-PH2 – I have a mini-laptop that I got from Dell. I love it! I am on my 5th hard drive though. I like the size and the weight I throw it in my purse and off I go. I do not like the fact that it does not have an internal fan. Like I said I’m on the 5th hard drive due to melting them. But as far as memory and all that other tech stuff it works great as long as you use Google Chrome and not explorer. The cost is the best though ,it’s under $300 and with a really great warranty.
Today marks the beginning of my Birthday week. One week from today I’ll be turning 40. So every night I’ll be lighting a black candle and silently weeping in the corner. All I get to do is talk about my birthday, my son’s and oldest daughter’s birthdays were 2 and 3 weeks ago and my middle daughter’s birthday is a week after mine. Kids suck! First they ruin your body and your bank account and then your birthday drinking. (just kidding everyone knows I worship my children)
JohnC, most politicians in office today, all levels from local to national, could not pass the Constitution tests I had to take to graduate from high school, never mind any of the standard 19th century math and literacy tests that kids had to take to get out of grammar school.
Valkyrie, the problem with my computer is that while it was start of the art when I bought it, now it would be considered an antique on the level of the LISA or the MacJunior from 1987, but only because of the increased complexity of software and the size of page files on the internet. Offline, it’s just fine.
I just stepped out on my balcony to watch one of the ships passing by on the horizon, and I smelled someone’s barbecue.
Because of wind direction, I’m guessing it is coming from down by the beach, where participants in “CRUISIN’ THE COAST” are camped.
“CRUISIN’ THE COAST” is an annual event in Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, where folks from all over the country converge to show off their classic cars, antique cars, restored cars, funny cars, and hot rods.
You really ought to see it!
They were scheduled to come to the Armed Forces Retirement Home a few days ago, but it was cancelled because of the government shutdown.
Here’s my videos that I made of “CRUISIN’ THE COAST” last year.
@105 Ex-PH2
I’ve been around a decent number of politicians (elected and otherwise)’ and honestly, they tend relatively well-informed. Maybe the biggest difference between politicos and the electorate is this: the former are less certain they know the answer to, e.g., whether deficits increased under the other party’s president (certainty and correctness being in no way related).
Besides, whatever political ignorance they may display, it’s a reflection of the voters: believe it or not, politicians actually keep the vast majority their campaign promises; voters get what they’re asking for.
#95 Ex-PH2 –
My own approach to desktops for a long time has been to custom build them, something that might sound complicated but is actually fairly simple, and sort of like riding a bicycle. Once you learn to do it, you never forget. One advantage is that you can get the benefit of best-of-breed components, another is that because the form factor of the components tend to be standardized, you can replace them individually as they break or need an upgrade.
Given your need to store large photo files, and assuming you decide to retire the Compaq, an alternative method to an external drive or NAS is to use a RAID controller for simple mirroring or as part of a multiple-drive redundant array. RAIDs are common in servers, and have the advantage that if one drive fails you get a warning and no loss of data. You simply replace the failed unit, and re-sync.
If you’re not comfortable assembling a custom machine, most people aren’t, it might be pointed out that the cost can be as good or better having a local independent computer guy do such work rather than buying a new HP or whatever at Best Buy. You’re also likely to get better tech support than the crew at Geek Squad. One difference is in warranties, but you would really be dealing with component level and not machine level which is not a big thing.
My approach to laptops is also probably different than most in that for a long time I’ve been picking up used enterprise-grade IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpads on eBay which are usually about the age when they’re coming off corporate lease. They tend to be heavy, but also pretty much indestructible. If one does happen to break, there’s also a good supply of parts available even for old ones.
Perry Gaskill: the only issue with internal RAID is that drive mechanisms tend to be fairly reliable – and short lived as products. Plus, while I haven’t kept up with the more current RAID controllers, last time I checked you usually had best results if you used a matched pair of drives for mirroring. And therein lies the problem.
Drives don’t tend to last very long as a product for sale (a year or two for a specific mechanism) – so they tend to die well after you can no longer find the exact item for sale any more. And the mechanisms also tend to die singly vice in pairs – which means you might end up having to spring for a new pair, even if you only need one new one, if you want to continue operating in a RAID configuration.
For applications where you absolutely need “belt and suspenders” high-reliability, RAID is great. But IMO, in practice you can do just about as well with periodic backups on an external unit – and you don’t get those disadvantages.
Having said all that: RAID’s a great high-reliability alternative, and isn’t terribly expensive at all these days. It just means you might need to budget for twin drives as a replacement when one in a mirrored pair goes “poof”. With bare 1TB mechanisms in the, what, $50 range? (haven’t kept current lately) in SATA, that’s probably do-able.
Mr John Mallernee, while I don’t post often, as I prefer to lurk and read, you, sir inspire me. To love life the way you do, well, that’s just amazing. One vet to another, thank you sir! And keep up the great commentary, I really enjoy it. Thank you sir!
Valkyrie, 40 isn’t bad… I just hit it earlier this year. Of course, my knees are shot, back gives me problems, and I seem to forget things… Well, I think my kids have caused that. No grand kids yet… Because my oldest is 17, and I would have to kill her! Happy birthday week!
#110 Hondo –
Points taken. Still, my thought is that if PH-2 plans to keep the Compaq, external storage is the best option. For a new machine, on the other hand, RAID is still a good way to go even if five years out you have, say, a RAID 0 mirror failure and can’t find an exact replacement drive through an NOS source, or want to replace the failed drive with a non-exact unit. Which actually shouldn’t be a big deal because all the RAID controller cares about is the size of the partitions it’s working with.
Another alternative, as you’ve mentioned, is that assuming you have at least four controller channels, instead of replacing an individual drive in a failed array, it’s also possible to create a brand new array from two new larger drives and ghost a drive image over from the remaining original good drive. Since the RAID control handles things at a BIOS level, it shouldn’t matter to the operating system because it sees the new RAID array as just one big bootable drive anyway. At that point, it’s then possible to turn the non-failed original drive into an external unit via USB that only gets used for backup on a limited basis.
At least in theory. And I think I just sent the geek-o-meter into the red zone.
MCPO, Take your kid up on his offer. When/if he finishes and asks for payment, hand him his Pokey Mon cards. When he asks for the cash just tell him that you have put it in his college fund. Explain compound interest to him and tell him he can use the money to pay for college. You won’t be screwing him out of the money because we know you will end up paying for it anyway. Then explain compound interest to him again.
Hondo, Perry Gaskill – the problem is less about storage than it is about the CPU chip. I have a 500GB standalone backup drive and a 1TB ditto. The microprocessor on the motherboard is 10 years old, and has the ability to adapt to the demands of the internet, but I cannot update my browser beyond IE8, unless I switch out the motherboard and have a new CPU microprocessor with a faster baud rate installed in its place. That means giving up Windows XP, which far and away outrates all the obnoxious, unnecessary and idiotic crap that Microsoft has added to Windows since the XP level, stuff that was never necessary but someone at Microsoft decided made it more attractive to users (not). I have seen Windows Vista – gag me! I have seen Windows 7, not much better. And I have now seen Windows 8, with the tough screen boxes, and these are possibly the most ridiculous excuses for user-friendly stuff to come along in a long time. The comparison is the Ford Edsel. (The what?) It was supposed to replace the Fairlane (didn’t) and the T-bird (Hah!) and ended up in junkyards. Oh, and then there was that Chrysler episode with a turbojet powered engine, which overheated the entire car, created a whining noise that gave drivers tinnitis, and inhaled gas the way a 10-year-old inhales ice cream and money. My point is that somethings simply do NOT need changing. They only need to be expanded to accommodate upgrades and enhancements. And Microsoft has yet to grasp that concept. Why should I have to pick a box to work in when all I want to do is work on something with my choice of backgrounds (my own pictures) in the background? Until or unless Microsoft decides to stop fixing something that wasn’t broken to begin with (and Windows XP was NOT broken), all I need is extra storage and a faster microprocessor. And that may not be quite as difficult to do as I think it is. But, for those who wonder why MSFT stock is not worth… Read more »
114 Ex-PH2 –
The mention of the RAID for storage was merely to point out what I would build for myself; it’s not like it’s a rule carved in stone somewhere. If the method you have now for backups works, I have zero problem with it.
Replacing the mainboard and CPU in the Compaq is doubtful. You might actually be able to get one to fit in the case, but where things tend to screw up is in the match for the external ports such as keyboard, USB, etc. You’ll also need new memory for the new mainboard.
If network bandwidth, what you may be calling baud rate, seems to be a limiter, the reason could be because the network interface on the Compaq is an older 10-base T type. This can be an issue if, for example, you have newer DSL. One way to check to see if your CPU is maxing is to use CNTRL-ALT-DEL in XP to bring up the task manager and see what’s going on in the performance tab.
I have no thoughts on IE8 or later as a browser except to say that I haven’t used anything but Firefox much since way back when Microsoft decided to make up it’s own rules for HTML coding. Newer versions of IE might need a newer version of Windows; it’s not the kind of thing I’ve been keeping track of lately.
If you’re comfortable with Windows XP, and find no reason to change from it, it’s not a given that you have to switch to a newer operating system when you install a new mainboard. IIRC, Microsoft hasn’t end-of-lifed XP yet and it’s likely a reputable mainboard OEM such as ASUS, for example, would support the needed device drivers. Still, it would be worth checking that before a final decision.
Well, I figure if I need more operating/running ‘room’ to accommodate a faster online data stream, I’ll have to get it eventually, but downloading large files to my ‘old’ computer is the real issue.
Even if I download them to a peripheral drive, they still have to go through the microprocessor, and I find that if I scan images from my grandad’s photo album from the Klondike, the CPU can’t handle the entire load and keep it open. It wasn’t made for the stuff that I want to do. So I have to put some things off for the time being and find a way to work around others until I can make the change to a larger processor.
Perry Gaskill: Win7 would IMO be a worthwhile OS upgrade. XP is at end of life and won’t be supported by MicroSoft much longer. Win7 is also more secure and performs quite a bit better than does XP on the same hardware. (Vista really isn’t too bad, but it does eat system resources shipped as configured with all the “eye candy” bells and whistles turned on. Turn most of that crap off and it performs reasonably well.)
However, go Win8 and by all accounts you’ll likely have to re-learn everything. (Disclaimer: I haven’t done Win8 and won’t any time soon, for that very reason.) IMO MicroSoft fornicated Fido (e.g., screwed the pooch) with that one. Word is that an imminent release of Win8 will re-enable the older (XP/Vista/Win7-style) interface. Until that’s out and fully stable, I’d say stay away.
For a primary machine, a “roll your own” desktop is a good choice if you either (1) know enough to do it yourself, or (2) know someone who can do it for you at reasonable cost. Best advice I could give anyone considering that (or buying a new system in general) is don’t skimp on the RAM. Most people simply don’t want to spend a relatively few extra dollars up front to add more, and they pay for that in a short period of time in terms of hugely reduced performance as new stuff comes out or they start multitasking (easy to do without realizing it given today’s software).
Couple enough memory with even a mid-range Intel desktop CPU and a decent video adapter and the resulting system should do most anything that needs doing reasonably well.
@3….. Question? I don’t belong to either of these organizations. However I served one year five months in the army. Of which 11 months, 12 days was in the nam. 11b; cib; door gunner; made sgt e-5 in 15mo. Does this make me less than a two year wonder?
Hey John at 29&30 ….. I’m just shy of 5’10” we had snake pilots taller than me. Don’t know how they stuffed themselves in that tight space, but they did. As for that m-60 while in the bush before flying on slicks I was the assistant gunner for my squad. Packing that damn extra ammo was a real pain in the ass. I would sweat so much the links would rust after one day. We operated out of phuoc vinh. Later out of phu loi. Shared a flight line with the navy sea wolves, what a guns ho outfit.
Spell check again, gung ho
116 Ex-PH2 and 117 Hondo –
Ex-Ph2
Sometimes what you’re looking at with trying to upgrade an older system is basically a game of whack-a-mole. Newer systems tend to be across-the-board better in ways you might not be immediately aware of particularly if the Compaq has a relatively slow CPU, limited memory, USB 1.0, etc. Personally, I hate the idea of sending what amounts to a loyal old beast off to the re-cycler, but if the cost of upgrading it is starting to stretch beyond around $500, it’s probably best to replace it. That’s assuming you can even do such an upgrade.
Jumping to a new operating system version can be a pain, but usually what happens for most people is that it’s a pain of limited duration. If you don’t like the newer Aero whistles and bells on the desktop, it’s also possible in Win 7 to use a basic theme that isn’t that much different from XP.
Hondo
A thoughtful comment and one that matches the old IT rule that you never want to deploy a Windows OS until it has reached at least Service Pack 1.
My thought on the hardware components is that you want to stay away from both the lower and upper ends of the price curve. I’ve had good luck in the past with mainboard-level parts in the mid-to-upper range instead of strictly mid, but it probably doesn’t matter that much. Usually the process is to set a budget of, say, $1000 and try to build the best possible machine for that amount. Such a cost, at least for PH-2, should include not only the components but also a legit copy of Win 7 Pro, and what it would take to have an IT guy assemble and bring up a running system.
Again, a lot of this is personal preference and by nature somewhat subjective. I wouldn’t, for example, care all that much if the video sub-system was able to do cutting-edge gaming, but would care if it was able to run dual monitors.
Perry Gaskill: agreed. Intended usage and personal preferences should always drive the config. Staying away from the newest “bleeding edge” stuff (both hardware and software) until (1) reliability is proven and (2) cost comes down to reasonable IMO is almost always a good idea. The only way I’d recommend going “latest release” in either area is if you absolutely have no choice (need something that’s only available in the latest stuff) or literally have the money/time/inclination to play with new stuff.
Only place I might go outside your recommendations above would be if putting together a system for someone who did only lightweight stuff (e.g., Internet browsing, e-mail, and light-duty word processing like letters and such) AND wasn’t likely to change their usage pattern much. There, a lower-end CPU might be a good choice. Low-end CPUs these days are still pretty damn capable; with plenty of RAM, a system using one would be eminently useable in such a role for quite a while. But even there, the cost difference between low- and mid-range CPU usually isn’t all that much.
PH: Just a thought (as the discussion in most ways has exceeded my computer knowledge):
Since your primary concerns seem to be the OS rather than the hardware, have you considered loading your current program on a new machine? (I.e. Windows XP on 2013 machine).
I think I still have the 3.5″ floppies with Win3.1 on it from my first PC. In fact, I think the only OS I don’t have on disc is the one on the newest computer. And one of these days, I’m going to have to find a 3.5″ drive to look through the old files with.
Perry/Hondo: I’m under the impression that my ‘system’ is actually located on the D: drive (D = DO NOT TOUCH for me)and that the C: drive, which is where everything runs is what needs more room. Since I like WinXP and am not impressed with Vista or Win8, maybe the solution is to buy one of the cheaper computers with the expand-your-memory expansion bays, which offer a place to plug in a portable drive, and make sure that the running room is separate from the ‘working’ (meaning what I do) stuff. I think Staples can add even more RAM. I had 500MB of extra RAM added 6 years ago – a plug-in board, nothing more – but it was quite expensive. I could do the same thing for less now at Staples with one of their IT geeks, who, BTW, DO bother to take the time to explain everything, unlike the Geek Squad peeps. What makes me wait isn’t just the cost of one of these pound-me-in-the-ass gaming computers. It’s the same cost as my old reliable Compaq, but with far more room to run than my Compaq. The only reason I look at a computer meant for gaming is the size of the graphics card, the options for hard drive and RAM, and the fact that it IS meant for gaming, which means hard use as opposed to something for running up grocery lists, doing your homework, ordering tickets online — stuff like that. A full-length novel written in the standard 8.5×11 format, before it’s edited and formatted for publishing, takes anywhere from 1MB to 15MB, depending on the length. My RAW photo files take up to 16MB. So maybe what I need right now is just extra hard drive space and extra RAM space, which is cheaper than buying a new computer. Most people don’t do what I do, or if they do, they’re silly enough to store their stuff in the ‘cloud’, meaning online storage. (BAD idea. BAD, BAD idea. Adobe was hacked. There go your still pix and videos.) I can draw a comparison between the… Read more »
TN – I have considered exactly that. I’ve even talked to the tech geek at Staples about it. I don’t know if they can actually transfer my software to a new machine.
But frankly, if I’m going to buy a new machine, then why not get updated software, which will open my files without a whimper, and get one that has a high-end graphics card and better software for live streaming?
Everything is going through big changes now, anyway, so I can wait a little longer on the new equipment just to see how things tumble out and what they are.
And I have to start doing all that social media stuff to do PR for my books and stories next month, so maybe what I’ll do is go find out about just expanding my hard drive and adding another GB of RAM to my poor old machine for the time being. It has yet to tell me it wants to retire.