Happy New Year!

Here's a small, simple, fast, low-cost HDPC configuration:
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray iHOS104-08 $59.99
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK $84.99
AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad-Core Processor $99.99
WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache $49.99
Shuttle SA76G2 V2 $209.99
The processor in this configuration scores a 3474 on the Passmark benchmark.

An all-time favorite book is Replayby Ken Grimwood. A number of years after loaning our prized copy to an acquaintance and after they moved away from the area, we were browsing a second-hand bookstore and found a copy of this book. Imagine the surprise of finding your own name written in the book and having to buy it back. Oh, the irony!

Merry Christmas! Looking forward to the total solar eclipse in August 2017. Check out the interactive map.

Frozen Mocha: Boil 100ml water and then add 14g freshly-ground (finest grind) coffee and reboil twice or thrice. Within two minutes, strain coffee into mug and stir in 6g sugar. Bring to room temperature. Add coffee ice cream to fill mug. Stir carefully with coffee to create a smooth blend. Enjoy!

Playing: Michael Stegner Trio - Fantastic Adventures of An Amphibian Named Jamal

Studio Update: Delighted to report that the new studio computer scored a 7380 on the PassMark benchmark. This exceeds the reported speed of a stock Core i7 975 which scores a 7026. The Xeon W3520 processor costs less than 1/3 of the i7 975. We're overclocking the Xeon a modest 25%.

Now performing research to configure a new workstation for the design studio. The i7 950 and the Xeon W3550 are looking rather attractive at this point.

Playing: Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor