SazanBlog

SKULLCANDY

2009-05-27T00:09:00.002-04:00

Is there a better name for a female-fronted Japanese ska band than SKULLCANDY? (I guess Ore Ska Band is a close second.) That's all I really wanted to say in this post, but the MySpace pages for these bands are fantastic. First of all, unlike YouTube, you don't have to worry about the videos being pulled by overzealous copyright holders. Check out SKULLCANDY's guitarist in their videos, and also be sure to listen to my favorite song, "Go! But reality!!"

Next, the friend links are great for finding new bands you might like. I'd never heard of 蕾-TSUBOMI- before, but when they list friends like Ego-Wrappin’, Bonnie Pink, Shakalabbits, and GO!GO!7188 (all huge personal favorites), not to mention SKULLCANDY and their compatriots Witchery SKANK, I knew I had to check them out. I also love that EGO-WRAPPIN' are friends with Patti Smith.

Finally, you get up-to-date news, like SKULLCANDY has released a full album called MERRY MERRY!! (not to be confused with the excellent EGO-WRAPPIN' album merry merry). Also, not only will ORESKABAND hopefully be at the Vans Warped Tour again this year, but you can also buy their album and gear in the US! I'm sure there's more cool stuff waiting to be discovered.

BlackBerry blogging

2009-05-06T20:41:00.003-04:00

This is my first attempt to blog from my new phone. Here's my Storm's custom wallpaper.

Update: OK, so posting images don't seem to be working from my BlackBerry, so I had to fix this post from my desktop. The screenshot was taken using Capture It!

I found a prime!

2009-05-03T13:59:00.002-04:00

By participating in the No Prime Left Behind project, I discovered that the number 493 x 2⁶⁶⁹¹⁵¹-1 is a prime number. If you perform that calculation, you'll get a number with 201438 digits, which makes it the 891st largest prime number discovered as of today.

The NPLB project is using well-sieved files, which means that most of the non-prime numbers have already been eliminated. That means there's a good chance I'll find some more primes in the future, although maybe not as big.

DC Update

2009-04-27T22:46:00.005-04:00

(That's Distributed Computing, not District of Columbia. I try to avoid the latter.)

I'm continuing to fold @ home, now as part of the FreeRepublic team. I just hit #6 on the team, and I'm currently producing about 50K PPD or 1.5 million points per month with only three PCs. I'm also still helping the [H]ard DC Commandos, and I just set up my stats on Free-DC, so here's an overview:

If the image looks weird it's because I'm still playing around with the colors. The commandos are up to #12 on DC Vault, so hopefully we can reach the top 10 soon.

Bhavani is complete (almost)

2009-04-27T22:21:00.004-04:00

The case finally arrived for my "slightly smaller" gaming PC, named Bhavani. Dave at PC Design Lab is a nice guy and builds good cases. I'm very happy despite the wait.

I still need to install some pimp UV case lighting, but after that it should be done.

This marks a milestone in that I don't want to spend anymore money on PCs this year. However, one of the hard drives in my main PC just died last night, so maybe I'll have to add a clause allowing replacement parts. Now that everything is pretty much built, I'll try to take some nice pictures and update the PC pages.

If you remember my previous post about every PC I own having a different operating system, Bhavani has Vista Ultimate 64-bit, which is different than my laptop which runs the 32-bit version. With Girija running 64-bit Windows 7 beta, I suddenly have a shortage of PCs able to run 32-bit BOINC projects. I need to upgrade to the RC of Windows 7 anyway, so maybe I'll install the 32-bit version this time.

Quote of the day

2009-04-07T15:28:00.002-04:00

Mark Steyn, discussing gov't regulation of cars:

...and soon nanny-state regulation will require every American under 37 to be in a rear-facing child seat, which is a pretty good metaphor for where the country's going.

Read the whole thing.

Either-Or

2009-03-27T21:12:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I blogged. Although I'd like to post about Camille Paglia, Atlas Shrugged, or other meaningful topics, I'd rather catch up on some TV watching and sleep. I won't even bore you with some of my recent computer-related activities. (I got a new keyboard! Thrilling, isn't it.)

I have been enjoying the latest Chatmonchy album. Here's some video:

The more the merrier

2009-02-16T20:33:00.005-05:00

People (mostly computer journalists) love to complain about the many different versions of Windows. Why does Microsoft make everything so complicated? Why can't they offer only one version, or maybe two?

Well, I currently have six modern computers, and I realized that each one is running a different version of Windows:

Windows XP Media Center Edition (Aparna)

Windows Vista Ultimate (Uma)

Windows Vista Home Premium (Lalitha)

Windows Home Server (Durga)

Windows XP Professional x64 (Gauri)

Windows XP Home (Girija)

I'm not just picking the latest version of the OS, either. The two Vista machines were upgraded from XP, but the two newest XP machines (Gauri and Girija) were built after the release of Vista. And of course I'm still using Amba, which runs Windows 2000 Professional.

I guess variety is the spice of life. I suppose my next machine will run Windows 7, but I haven't decided which version yet.

Carblogging / catblogging

2009-02-08T18:39:00.005-05:00

I did some work on my Xterra today, finally installing the Shrockworks rock sliders/step rails.

OK, there are no sliders in the picture above, but there is a cat! If you want to see the sliders, check out my thread at TheNewX.org.

Adult Swim kicks rocks

2009-02-06T21:40:00.003-05:00

(Embedded player removed, click here to listen.)

Here's a little music for ya. I love that Adult Swim releases music, but you have to check their site regularly because things don't stay there forever. The only thing I'm watching on Adult Swim now is Bleach, but maybe they'll release more Venture Brothers.

WTF!

2009-02-04T22:31:00.002-05:00

I updated the Computers page to add the specs for Gauri. With the new hardware, I've been crushing everyone on the AVS Forum team. I broke into the top 20 users today, and at the current pace I'll be in the top 3 by the end of the month. However, as a team we're going nowhere, so hopefully some other members will be inspired.

For a little more excitement, I've been helping the [H]ard DC Commandos increase the [H]ard|OCP team ranking in DC Vault. We broke into the top 50 in January, and are currently #36.

By the way, the post title means "Way To Fold!"

Gauri is born

2009-01-22T00:12:00.004-05:00

My new computer parts have started arriving:

Folding@home addiction

2009-01-15T00:43:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned on my Computers page, I recently got into Folding@home. It started by just folding on my PS3. I leave it on 24/7 anyway (because I can't turn it on and off with my IR remote, and who wants to get up off the couch and push a button?), so why not have it do something useful, right? The PS3 is a good folding machine that will generate around 900 points per day (PPD). Wait a minute, you mean I can score points?

I also leave my PCs on all the time, so why not install the software on some of them, too. I'll just install the uniprocessor client. Well, that doesn't generate many PPD, so maybe I'll install the beta SMP client on my desktop. That's better, but it's still going to take a long time for me to overtake people on the AVS Forum team, even though most of them are not actively folding. I've got a decent NVIDIA card in Aparna, and although I'll have to install the CUDA drivers, why not try the GPU client as well? Whoa, I just doubled my PPD!

Now I've got 5 folding processes running, generating around 4000-7000 PPD, and I've moved from #89 to #85 on the team in the last 24 hours. Today I ordered a 9800 GX2 specfically for folding (10,000 PPD!). I actually tried to order two cards, but I was lucky to get the one from Newegg before they were out of stock again. Pretty soon I'll have caseless motherboards scattered around the condo with big fans blowing on them (or maybe I'll be able to turn off the heat this winter). It's a sickness! But hopefully, one day it will help find a cure.

Japan photos

2009-01-14T23:28:00.002-05:00

Co-workers at Omron

I found my pictures from Japan (on my old SyJet drive disks!) and posted them to a Flickr account. I particularly like this one.

I have a blog?

2009-01-14T21:03:00.003-05:00

No, I hadn't completely forgotten about this blog (although it did take me a while to remember how to post). I've just been away from my website in general for a while. About the only pages I've been updating are the computer pages, and I don't think even those pages were updated in 2008. Anyway, it's a new year, and I'm back and in the midst of cleaning things up. (First my homepage, next the 3x3 Eyes Digest? It just might happen.)

I updated my bio, and altered some text on other pages that said I was still living in Japan. (That hasn't been true for almost 10 years!) I also updated most of the computer pages, except for the really old PCs, and I'm also in the process of updating the computers themselves so those pages should continue to change. The AV pages are next, but for that I need decent pictures.

I got a new camera, and I really need to start posting more and better pictures on this site. It's been so long, I can't even remember my disk quota or how close I am to hitting it, but I just got my annual bill from my web host so that should refresh my memory. Regardless of space, I might just start hosting photos on Flickr.

Finally, the old green template for this blog wasn't working for me, so I changed it to this basic template for now. I think I'll stick with Blogger for a while, since it's already up and running.

April Fool!

2007-04-01T23:45:00.001-04:00

I actually posted this in Jan 2009. I'm having trouble with Blogger thinking I have a post in April 2007, so to fix the problem I created one.

New blog

2006-01-29T17:36:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that my web host has built-in blogging software, and it seems pretty cool. I'll link to it here once I've got it set up. I think I'll keep both blogs active for now, until I figure out what to do with them.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

Well, 2005 was a pretty eventful year for me, and 2006 looks to be exciting too. I know I haven't posted for a while, but the holidays were typically hectic. I'm not making any resolutions this year, but I do try to get back into a daily rhythm. We're extremely busy at work, so that will probably be difficult.

I got a wireless keyboard for my HTPC for Christmas, so I can finally get back to playing some games on it (if I have time). The only game I've been playing recently is the Palm version of Lode Runner: TLR. I'm stuck on the next to last level (149) and I don't see any way to reach the exit door. I think it's time to switch to a new game.

Holidazzle

2005-11-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well, the holidays can really make it difficult to keep resolutions. Luckily I'm not on a diet. Anyway, the push-ups and blogging restart tonight. No news, other than I'm happy that Tech is headed to the ACC Championship. My dream is for VT to crush Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, but there's still some football to be played.

Nothing...

2005-11-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

...to say.

Wallpaper: Spring

2005-11-20T19:01:00.000-05:00

I promised some wallpaper earlier, so here's the first image (currently my work desktop):

(click for full-size 1.6 MB image)

This image was taken during the cherry blossom festival in Washington, D.C., last spring. I think it nicely shows off the quality of my new digital camera, a Casio Exilim EX-Z55. It's very tiny but has a large screen and can capture 5-megapixel images (bigger than the one above). I'm very happy with it.

I've been trying to capture some fall images, but I'm not satisfied with the results so far.

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi!

2005-11-19T23:45:00.000-05:00

What's better than Tech beating UVa 52-14? For Miami to lose on the same day. ACC Championship, here we come!

Some Good Articles

2005-11-18T13:43:00.001-05:00

Everyone should read the interview with Bill Tierney at FrontPage magazine, which is an excellent summary of the twelve wasted years between the Gulf War (a.k.a., "please play nice, Saddam") and Operation Iraqi Freedom (a.k.a., "this time we mean it!"). What a contrast between the on-the-ground reality described by Tierney and the bitter self-delusion being spouted by that jackass Jimmy Carter. I see FrontPage has a follow-up article on Carter, but I don't think I can stomach it right now.

I donated blood today, so I think I'll have to skip the push-ups tonight.

Busy

2005-11-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

I had a club meeting tonight, so I'm still catching up on things at home. (Already did my push-ups.) Tomorrow I'll post some nature images that should make good desktop wallpaper.

Catblogging

2005-11-16T19:16:00.000-05:00

Steffi says, "Hi!"