SimCity 2000 on Windows 7 (x64): Although it runs great in almost every way on the relatively newer operating system, the SimCity 2000 program quits whenever Load or Save is selected. After investigating file permissions and compatibility suggestions found online, the only solution that worked for this studio is to run the program within Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC. These tools are free from Microsoft here. Note: through Remote Desktop, performance is notably sluggish.

The screenshot below demonstrates SimCity running within the virtual environment. Just after program launch, the anticipated dialog box appears successfully upon selecting "Load Saved City". Yay!

James Franklin Hyde Chart: This colorful arrangement of elements has been a studio favorite since acquiring a pair of the posters in 1976. This one is mounted on a foam-core backing and it has held up nicely through the years. Notice the pivotal placement of hydrogen, carbon, and silicon at the center. Rather than calling it a periodic table of elements, one could describe it with adjectives such as curved, circular, spiral, rings, and looping.

J. F. Hyde, “A Newly Arranged Periodic Chart,” Chemistry, September 1976, 49(7), 15-18
See this bulletin for a little more history behind this chart.
See this bio on Mr. Hyde. Another from wayback.
Also check out this database of periodic tables.
See also wikipedia

Shadow Cities: On December 12th, game developer Gray Area released three more levels beyond 15. It is possible to level from 15 to 18 within 4 weeks, sooner with more effort.

Below is a chart of average damage at levels 11 through 18. The nine lower set of points are un-buffed hits. All data was collected while leveling up.

Tiny Tower Update: Management has decided to halt tower construction at the 120th floor. Sales reached a peak of 1950 units per minute at a sustained rate. View the tower: here

New update: Construction resumed!

Shadow Cities: Amazing and free multi-player location-based real-time strategy game. Join either the Architects or the Animators, then carry out missions warping to beacons across the globe with your iPhone/iPod/iPad during a weekly three-round battle campaign. Missions range from energy harvesting and solo entity quests to full-scale battles for territory or teamwork to control the powerful Arachne Weaver. Earn medals; advance levels; persist and discover the brilliancy of this game. And one more word: adrenaline

Check out these resources if you want to get started:
Watch the trailer
Sign up here
Read about levels
Watch out for the level 8 bug
Read this thread
"Like" my realm on Facebook to give me a vitality boost!

With determination, it is possible to achieve level 15 within two weeks.

Tiny Tower Update: Construction is moving right along. We're presently in the final stages of completing our 108th floor; this one zoned for a service organization. Overall commerce within the tower is reporting excellent business demand and brisk sales with a combined total rate of 1597 coins per minute, achieved by stocking only 3-coin inventory items. We're also happy to report that 174 of the 185 residents have found their dream jobs within the tower with more on the way - the Millspring Apartments just opened on the most recently completed 107th floor. Four minor issues have been reported to the tower developer. Meanwhile, the elevator operator reports that the new Infini-Lift Lightspeed is superb.

Tiny Tower Update: After upgrading to v1.3 and learning that a new elevator can be had for 499 towerbux, a shift in strategy was required. Instead of stocking only 3-coin items in stores, play the Dream Job Roulette game of leaving at least one opening per residential floor. This can be hard at first if there are happy bitizens in residence, but evictions are necessary, especially with the new 2 towerbux reward for dream jobs.

The reward is worth it! The new Infini-Lift Lightspeed elevator runs at 13 floors a second, going from the lobby to the 94th floor in 7 seconds.

Observed: Rain released a fabulous new album!
Awesome cover art is by Android Jones

Tiny Tower Tips

To maximize sales, don't bother stocking the 1- or 2-coin items in stores. Sales occur at a rate of about 10 per minute per store multiplied by the sector demand rate. 3-coin sales yield approximately 30 coins per minute at 100% demand. FYI: The stats page displays "coins per minute" even though it states "sales per min." Bitizens with a rating of 9 will help maximize profit and dream jobs maximize inventory.

Tiny Tower: Now at 60 floors with 110 bitizens and 106 dream jobs. Tip for more dream jobs...occasionally stop ordering and go into an eviction frenzy, then use accumulated towerbux to move in bitizens. The higher the tower, the more likely a bitizen matches a store. Often, when a biz has three happy bitizens, then give one of them a temp job in order to hire the new lesser skilled only to cash in on the 3 towerbux reward, then evict. In the end, you end up with more towerbux than spent and lots of happy bitizens. It's almost another game within the game.

Helpful sites:
Tiny Tower Wiki
Tiny Tower Guide
Tips & Strategies Thread on TouchArcade

Update note: uh oh...the new 1.2 release only rewards 1 towerbux for placing a dream job. This effectively eliminates the sub-game of moving people in to dream jobs for big towerbux gain. An alternative sub-game: evict everyone from the building and earn towerbux as new bitizens move into dream jobs.

Tiny Tower: Really liking this app...very addictive time waster. Presently at 50 floors with 78 "bitizens" and 74 dream jobs. Does this app teach cultural tolerance?

Tiny Tower tips:
Save bux.
Upgrade elevator.
Evict all bitizens without dream jobs.
Maintain one store with max 3-coin stock on order for big spender (e.g. Recording Studio or Doctor's Office). When he arrives, use bux if necessary.
Maintain a list of recent searches noting both the store and the home floor.
Group stores to make it easier to shuffle staff while awaiting perfect employees.
Send delivery person to max 3-coin stock (translates to 3 bux savings).

iPod touch tip: Moleskine has a new app for note taking. It took a while to figure out how to activate the drawing tool. Once you're inside a note, open the tool select screen at the lower right. Then, touch the pen tool and on the options page, touch the red check mark to activate the tool. This takes you back to your last open page and you can start drawing. There's an eraser at the top of the screen. When you're finished drawing, touch the input options icon, touch the text icon to open its options screen, touch the check mark and you are back to the text mode again.

Cubase 6 was announced last week. We're looking forward to the upgrade. The Studio version is no longer an option, but the upgrade from Cubase Studio 5 is under $200.

Update: Just ordered on 20110705

Apple's iPad 2.0 will not feature a 2048 by 1536 screen as rumored. See the PCWorld report. Apple will begin mass production of the iPad 2 by the end of February according to Digitimes, a Taiwanese trade publication. Maybe we'll hold off buying one until April or May because a dual-core graphics chip capable of playing 1080p HD video would be a nice feature!

Picked up a 12oz canister of  Trader Joe's Ultra Dark French Roast Coffee. Wow! Very strong, dark, and oily. Tons of aroma and flavor. Excellent when blended with hazelnut

Also looked at a Lifecore R100 rowing machine. They run about $1300.

The next generation of Intel Core processor scores high in the Passmark benchmark. With the reduction in pricing of memory, CPUs, and motherboards, the speed-versus-value of a complete system is improving dramatically.

Presently, we're measuring performance for a new studio system configuration. The orange spot on the diagram below is the speed and value measurement of our latest digital audio workstation powered by an overclocked Xeon W3520. The red spot is the speed and value measurement of a new configuration powered by a next gen, overclocked Core i7-2600K. Comparatively, the prospective system is 51% faster than the system we purchased in August! Value is computed as the Passmark score divided by system price. Again, comparatively, the prospective system scores a 90% improvement. The blue dots are other Intel and AMD systems for comparison. The two blue dots scoring the highest speed (above 12000) are systems powered by an overclocked Core i7 980X. Of course, it's challenging to configure a low-cost, quiet system using this rather expensive CPU.

FYI...The prospective i7-2600K DAW configuration presently prices out at $926.

Mobo ASUS P8P67-M PRO $149.99
ODD ASUS Black 24X $19.99
RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB $89.99
CPU Intel Core i7-2600K $329.99
HSF COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 $29.99
HDD WD6401AALS 640GB $64.99
GPU ASUS EN8400GS Silent $34.99
Case Antec Mini P180 White $79.99
PSU COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 $99.99
Fans 2x Nexus PWM Series D12SL-12PWM $25.98

New Addition: We picked up a Capresso coffee burr grinder (model 559) from Costco for $30. It does a modest job at producing a fine grind. To overcome the grind inconsistency, we discovered a large sifter comes in handy to strain out the larger remnants from the grounds. The few remaining remnants can be dropped back into the upper hopper for regrinding later. With the extra sifting process, this grinder produces outstanding flavor - better than Starbucks! BTW, we load about 16g of beans at a time.

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