CAP flight 1

I've posted pictures of the first CAP flight I went on in December.
I didn't take any pictures on today's flight.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Danielee.linux/1stCAPFlight#

Blender games and artwork

Here's a noteworthy site to check out I just found! BlenderArtists.org
I'm going to try out some game demos made with their blender engine. Check out the artwork, its amazing! http://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=fc9a57368376c6d6f58bd39636eee01d&f=27

Early thoughts on a Ultrasharp 2408WFP LCD

A comparison of a Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP to a Samsung Syncmaster 216BW, and some thoughts on them both.
The 2408WFP:







I finally moved to a 1920 by 1200 resolution LCD. Currently I'm using dual screens with my 22" 1680 by 1050 Sasmung 216BW.

First off, the color, brightness, and contrast is MUCH better on the 2408WFP. The Samsung just doesn't display as many colors, and in between shades as the 2408, and the difference is quite noticible! The 216BW has a normal 72% color gamut, and the 2408WFP has a 110% color gamut.

The vertical contrast on the samsung was awful, they reported 1000 to 1, but it just is plain bad when you are not level vertically. You also cannot tilt or do anything for that matter other than spin around the samsung, which means you need the screen at exactly eye level...
The 2408WFP has a contrast ratio of 1300 to 1 and its not a problem at all. The difference between the 300 nit britness screens and 400 nit is huge, I have the 2408WFP in the 50% range while the other can be all out, thats the closest match to the Ultrasharp. The whites are very bright and clear, and it makes the Syncmaster's whites look yellow. The tilt, height and rotation is very useful. I really like to rotate it 90* to make it tall, its great for web pages and forums!


Of course the resolution is a good reason to upgrade compared to the 22" LCDs, but what I really like in this screen is the color it can display!
I'll have to talk about the connections options another day... :)

Record 5.611ghz on a Core i7

Here's the new record CPU-Z validated for the Core i7 CPU, done by duck on an Asus P6T6 WS Revolution board! Check out his GPUs! ;) 4 GTX 295s, for a total of 8 GPUs!
Here's the record: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=486646
FYI duck also holds the world record for the fastest clock on any CPU, ran it on a P4 631. Check out all the records on this page: http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php

A HUGE PC case!

Here is the biggest case around! It is a cube tower! It costs about the same as the TT Armour+ I had....
LOOK AT THIS! crazy size! Holds tons of fans!
Thermaltake website description: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1134&ID=1414#Tab0
Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133025

Ice

Its been pretty cold in Alabama...

Cinematograph HD computer mod!

Cinematograph HD Video Work log from Will Urbina on Vimeo.
Amazing mod to make an all in one powerful desktop! Check it out! It was featured in this month's Maximum PC's catalogue...

Firefox protection...

From Maximum PC's website

Windows Media Player in Windows 7

Still getting used to MP12 that comes with Windows 7... all the buttons are all moved... It looks great though! :P

What REALLY happens when you take off a CPU heatsink!

Here's tomshardware giving a demonstration of how different CPUs react without a HSF!

PortableApps

I really like the free program from PortableApps.com! It is a little program like the U3 program that comes on a lot of USB sticks... and it works really well! I have FF3, OO3, GIMP, LBreakout2, Notepad++, a really nice Bible program, PDF viewer, and a media player.

A little review on what I like in Windows 7

I've been using the beta for Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit for a while now... and I'll say I love it! Its fast, stable, and has more effects than Windows Vista. I definitely think that its a good upgrade for ANYBODY, whether you are STILL using "good ole XP" or Vista... I'm definitely going to be using Windows 7 on all my systems and selling computers preloaded with it when its released! It is rumored to be released in 2010. It seems to be really stable and well developed already, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was released this year!

It is much like Vista SP1 and has all the fixes that Vista SP1 presented over the original version of Vista, which is good. The original Vista had some bugs... for example: it took FOREVER to send little items like shortcuts to the recycle bin...

The Aero interface is improved, it looks about the same but there are more colors to choose from, and a few better effects for previewing windows and such.

The task panel is totally redone, its bigger, and the buttons are grouped differently... it makes it easier to use, there is less clogging when you have a lot of programs open, and it looks cleaner. Some of the programs that come with it have changed in their appearance, Media player, Paint, and Internet Explorer.

The only problems I have seen were with the Internet Explorer 8. It still has a few bugs in handling different sites... but it is less of a hassle to set up and is going to be a lot nicer than IE7 which is currently out with Vista...(I am not a fan of Internet Exporer anyhow... Firefox FTW!)

The "Windows Experience Index" scoring system has changed, the highest score hardware can get is moved from 5.9 to 7.9. It is quite an achievement to get 7.9 with hardware currently too!(My score for the QX6850 rig is in the attached picture) The test was run with the CPU at 3.95ghz.

Something you will notice as you boot up the first time after installing Windows 7; it JUST WORKS with your hardware, no driver CDs needed! The integrated sound and video card are working from the first minute its on! So you don't get a base rating of 1.0 with your graphics card not being recognised... and you don't have to get all your motherboard drivers and install everything as part of setting up your new computer! I love that! Its like Ubuntu Linux... :)

UAC: one of the worst hated things about Windows Vista--User Account Control. It will pop up asking if want to allow or deny on almost everything you open! In windows vista, UAC is a real pain. I always turned UAC off on windows vista. In Windows 7 however, it has improved! It is a little more complex, with settings this time! It has four different settings, raging from "always notify" to "never notify". It is automatically on the third setting up, which will notify you when programs try to make changes to your computer, but it does not notify you when you make changes to windows settings. I like it much better, it does not get in the way! Its nice to have settings to tune it to your own security preference too.

Antivirus programs: AVG Antivirus is already compatible with windows 7, along with a handful of other company's programs. Comodo is not yet, but I'm sure they will be on the ball and get it working soon! AVG works great.

Bootup screen: This is no longer a 256bit color screen which is just plain ugly as ALL of the previous Windows releases had, it is a nice looking screen in full color with a shining windows logo in the middle after it says starting up... Its a lot nicer!

Overall I love Windows 7 as it is at least as snappy as Vista, looks better, and works great! Its going to be a great OS!

When I find more things I like/dislike about it, and will keep on posting!

~Daniel

P.S. anything you want to know that I missed? Post a request in the comments!

Sunset

Sunset pictures at the local park on a tripod with the Canon A620 from many different perspectives... Which one is your favorite! :)

Enjoy!

1TB SSD card was shows at the CES 09 show! AMAZING!

1st impression on windows 7

Windows 7 Ultiamte 64bit Beta... its awesome! Very much improved and similar to vista... changed a little and updated!
I'll post a nice review later once I get to test out EVERYTHING about it... I love it! :P I saw rumors its supposed to come out in early 2010... I really think it'll probably be faster than that... I really don't have a clue though! :)
~Daniel

Windows 7 Beta!

Windows 7 beta is out... and I got a beta key from Microsoft and am downloading the 64bit version! Its good until august 2009... :P I'll buy it when it comes out anyhow...
I'll try it out today, it takes exactly an hour to download the 3.2gbs of it... :)

Currently on the library's wifi...
Isn't wifi cool? :P

a new G.Skill ram set!

Check this ram out, its very very fast DDR3! 2000mhz comes in tri channel packages of 3 or 6gbs and with latencies of 7-8-7-20, 2T! Amazing stuff!
It also comes with some REALLY COOL fans for cooling the stuff, two biggish blue LED fans... looks cooler than the corsair ram coolers! :)
Here's the pictures and article: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/G-Skill-DDR3-CL7-RAM,6746.html#xtor=RSS-181

Crazy about HTML? :D

What kind of geek are you?

This is hilarious. Here's a picture of a bunch of different kinds of geeks.
http://flickr.com/photos/scottjohnson/2086153791/sizes/o/
What kind are you?

eBay update: 62 watchers, 1300 views, 24 bids.
Exciting! :)

free 3dmark vantage advanced keys!

There is a 3dmark vantage key giveaway going on, they release 100 keys per day... and the chances of winning are great! Anybody that wants to use 3dmark vantage to test their computer and get a score... here's the full think for free thanks to PNY!
http://portal.xlr8gaming.net/?page=3dmark

First picture of the moon

Taken on the Canon Powershot A620 on a tripod with 16x zoom, 4x is optical, 4x digital, and then cropped. The quality is lacking since the digital zoom and the cropping... :( A huge zoom lens would be great for this! The tripod worked well.
Enjoy!

WHOOT! I broke 1000 views on my eBay listing this morning!
Happy 2009 everybody!