Spring

Peonies have been blooming.

Sandy Bridge

Intel has released its Sandy Bridge CPU's. These are very nice chips. They overclock well and consume less power than their predecessors. The motherboards are also reasonably priced. I'm using a 2600K with a ASUS P8P67 board (see pic above). The new ASUS boards use UEFI which is the replacement for the old BIOS. Takes a little getting used to, but it makes overclocking very easy.

Update: Intel says there's a chipset defect that could cause the SATA II ports to fail On Sandy Bridge boards. The reseller that sold me the board is offering a full refund or a replacement board (when the revised boards are available). So far, I have had no problems with my board, so I'm keeping it until the replacements are available.

January

Happy new year to everyone. I've been lazy and haven't posted much. Or maybe I've lost interest. Maybe a little of both. Nothing much has changed in my life. Just getting older. You know you're getting up there in age when AARP is sending letters every week, asking you to join.

Our cat is amazing. Six years ago, he had an enlarged heart and at least two vets said there was no hope for him. Fortunately we took him to another vet who wasn't so pessimistic. He took the cat off most of the medicines that the other vets prescribed. The cat recovered and is as spunky as ever. No one will believe us, but the cat says "hello" every day. He can also say "ohayo" which is the Japanese word for "good morning." He only does this when he's alone, never around people. But my wife and I can hear him. We've tried using a cell phone to record audio of the cat. But he knows when we're nearby and stops talking.

Fall

Fall has arrived. I replaced my main PC. Now using a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R and Intel Core i7-930, along with a solid state drive. Boot-up times are much faster now. Programs open faster and some file transfers are much quicker. So far, no complaints about switching to SSD.

Summer

Over the past couple of months, I've built three new PC's to run the WCG project. I have two machines running Intel hexa-cores and a third PC using a Core i7-860. It had been awhile since I built a PC. The first thing I noticed is that heatsinks have gotten a lot bigger, especially the better ones. One of the heatsinks I bought is the Noctua NH-D14 (see pic). It's even bigger than it looks. But it does a good job of cooling.

Spring

Spring is always a favorite time of year for me. Some of the flowers in my garden are blossoming. The weather is mild. What more can a person ask for?

Brahms

As some of you may know, I like classical music. But I was never much of a fan of Brahms. That's slowly changing. I've been listening to Sviatoslav Richter's live performance from 1951 of the Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 with Evgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Symphony. Very uplifting. There are some wrong notes here and there. But that doesn't take away from the power of the performance at all.

Many years ago, I had an LP with some Brahms solo piano works. There was one piece in particular that I found beautiful - Intermezzo No. 1 Op.117. The pianist was Wilhelm Kempff. I started listening to this recording again. Very nice.

2010

A sign that I'm getting old. I didn't even stay up to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Still, I wish all my friends a prosperous 2010.

Summer

Richter

One of my favorite musicians is Sviatoslav Richter, the great Russian pianist. Richter was more than just a brilliant performer. There was something profound about his playing. Nowadays people focus almost entirely on the performer. Richter, on the other hand, provided us with a direct link to the composer, giving us a glimpse of what Beethoven and others wanted to tell us. I feel Annie Fischer was the same type of pianist.

I have a number of Richter CD's including his famous live performance in Sofia of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." I also love his interpretations of Beethoven, Schumann and Rachmaninoff.

There is a fascinating documentary about Richter. It's called "Richter, the Enigma." We learn a lot about his life. And of course, there are plenty of concert clips. Like all great musicians, Richter was very self-critical. He was not afraid to say when he had a bad performance. Worth watching.

Spring

More peony pics

Spring

Spring is back and the peonies are in bloom. What more can a person want?

September

I have not posted in awhile. Been busy at work. It's already September. This year has gone by quickly.

I recently purchased a DVD of an old Japanese movie titled Anjouke no Butokai. It's about an aristocratic family in Japan. After World War Two the family is forced to give up their home during the Allied occupation. The film is directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura and stars one of my favorite actresses, Setsuko Hara, best known for her roles in movies by Yasujiro Ozu. It's a Region 2 DVD, but I have a region-free DVD player. There are a number of other Region 2 movies that I would like to purchase, all from Japan.

P5Q Deluxe

I bought a new motherboard, the Asus P5Q Deluxe. I needed to replace my P5K Deluxe because the ethernet on the board stopped working following a power outage. The P5Q Deluxe has 16-phase power regulation. The VDroop on this board is very low, which is good. Also added a Western Digital 640GB drive and Vista Ultimate 64-bit. So far, so good. Had a problem with screen resolution until I discovered the DVI cable had gone bad. After replacing the cable, I now have full resolution. :)

Fires

For the past couple of weeks, hundreds of wildfires have been burning in California. More than half a million acres have burned. The smoke from these fires has been horrendous. 200,000 firefighters are on the lines. California owes them a deep debt of gratitude. The situation would be much worse, were it not for them.

Covered

The roofers finished installing the wood shakes and new gutters. It took them about a week. There were a couple of delays because they ran out of materials. Also, it was very hot, so they could work only in the mornings and early afternoon. Finished roof looks nice.

Roof

I'm finally having the wood shakes on my roof replaced. It took a crew of about 15 workers only a couple hours to remove the old shakes. The photo is a view from the garage with its new "skylight". Actually I like the view of the trees. But not very practical when it rains. ;)

Tomatoes

My tomato plants are doing nicely. Nothing like home-grown tomatoes. They taste so much better than the one you find in the grocery store.

More garden shots