Final Intel Pentium 4 went bye

Big occasion!! I was able to retire my final desktop P4 system and now have AMD64 upper end systems on my desktops. I’m running either Ubuntu 7.10 or Debian Lenny and things are pretty good. I tried to get Mepis to install but for the amount of effort, it simply was not worth it. Debian went on like a breeze. Here is footprint of one of the systems:

1. AMD64 4200+
2. 4g DDR2 800 memory
3. 512mb PCI-x nvidia card (8500 I think)
4. asus sata cd/dvd rw drive

These systems really haul buns for the most part and my fastest one is a 6000+ Windsor running Ubuntu. It also has VMware workstation with a few different guests on it. My needs are actually pretty simple for desktops but the new breed of processor really makes a quality difference at doing even common tasks and they’re cheap! Check out Newegg or others.

Forget the Intel offerings with the cheapo system boards and processors you can get these days which tap the advantages of 64bit-ness. I would compute that they are half the price in some cases. Throw in a 3ware SATA controller and a few drives and you got a class offering. My primary server is a smaller AMD64 with that setup plus a Maxtor OneTouch USB drive that does backup duty.

On Other Fronts

This week brings me going back to the office after 2 days of working at home. I’m hoping to see an old friend that has opted out of a downward spiral for lunch. I’m also going to be departing for my annual exodus to Los Angeles to go to SCALE 6X which promises to be even better and brigther than before if possible. Thanks to all the organizers for producing a quality show that outshines the IDG offering in so many ways and ensuring that the community level is still there even with the IBMs and Dells and others that show up. It goes to show you can do a mix and keep the quality in place. I’ve got my dance card marked up with the things I want to do there and I’m hoping that Ed shows up. Not sure about that one though. Have to wait and see. Other friends will be there.

Quality of Life versus Life of Quality

There can be a mix of the two. I’ve found that my current work fuels both for me these days and the challenge and commitment level is pretty high but bring it on! I’m simply loving Visa these days with the new things I get to do. Has to be the first job I can remember to ever bring together so many positive forces for me.

Its dawned on me that I am writing more “combo blog posts” where i want to catch up a lot of stuff instead of just single ones focusing on each thing. I think that’s okay though since I save up on the Linux and other experiments. I’m also reading a few excellent books these days which perhaps I’ll offer up in a followup post for consideration. I don’t use the blog search engines at all these days because I have some reservations about what they deliver and what the offering actually is. I have some doubts about blogging too. It seems its shine has faded and now people are back to doing it because they want to and not because people want to be in a hundred or so top bloggers. What will happen to those struggling services I wonder which will not find a thing of value when the mores shift? Other institutions fade and go the way of the dodo bird. Social institution extinction. There is a precedent in anthropological thought for this.

We shall see.

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