I Don't Upgrade Often...

I don’t crave the newest "whatever" when the next "better" one comes out.

I’ve been operating the last nine years on a state of the art desktop PC built in 2003. Yes sir! An Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1Gb of memory and a 120Gb of disk space should be all I’ll ever need.

While it has been pretty much trouble free and is still operating, the disk is kinda full. Full of what I can’t imagine. It’s probably all those photos, blog posts and ten years of M/S Windows upgrade files.

While it was blistering fast in 2003, it’s painfully plodding in 2012.

Most times, I can’t operate Quicken AND a web browser window at the same time as it sometimes takes 2-3 MINUTES to actually switch from one program to the other as the disk activity light churns continuously. Online videos stumble and pause, making a 2 minute video stretch to a 10 minute, unintelligible feature film.

So it’s time to retire the old man and upgrade to something bigger, faster and more up to date. I ordered a new PC with an Intel i7 core processor, 2Tb HD and 16Gb of memory.

That’s 6x more processor(s) power, 20x more disk space and 16x more memory than the old man has and yet…

And...today I ran across this breaking development that appears to obsolete my new computer even faster that the old one:

 "...Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700Tb — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times."


(Update: 09/26/2012 - New computer up and running. Now working on how to network the "new" to the "old" so I can retrieve documents and pictures...)

Difference Between MLK and BHO

"I have dream!" .vs. "I have a plan!"

Success vs Failure explained...
(It's long but worth every minute)



HT: CarpeDiem for the find

Weird Numbers - Kaprekar's constant

Amaze your nerd friends and win bar bets:

6174 is known as Kaprekar's constant after the Indian Mathematician D. R. Kaprekar. This number is notable for the following property:

Take any four-digit number, using at least two different digits (Leading zeros are allowed.)

1. Arrange the digits in ascending and then in descending order to get two four-digit numbers, adding leading zeros if necessary. 
2. Subtract the smaller number from the bigger number.
3. Using the result, go back to step 1.

The above process, known as Kaprekar's routine, will always reach 6174 in at most 7 iterations. Once 6174 is reached, the process will continue yielding:
7641 – 1467 = 6174. 

For example, choose 3524:

Iteration:

1. 5432 – 2345 = 3087
2. 8730 – 0378 = 8352
3. 8532 – 2358 = 6174
4. 7641 - 1467 = 6174

Using the above process,  the number "0050" takes 7 iterations to reach 6174. 
Try it and see!

(Hat tip to Darren at http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-would-someone-figure-this-out.html)

Frazil Ice??

Not snow, not ice...it's "Frazil Ice" in Yosemite Park