Most computers people use nowadays are 32 bit, but 64 bit computers are becoming popular. A 64 bit computer's fundamental instructions can work with twice as much data in about the same amount of time. This translates to faster MP3 encoding, higher resolution video encoding and playback, and increased precision (correct to more decimal places). I have been playing with Microsoft Windows XP 64 bit edition on a new AMD 4800+ computer with tricked out graphics (SLI'd NVIDIA 7800's) (my 3DMARK05 is 14571 (that's high!)). This AMD chip is also dual core, which means it has two CPU cores that run mostly independently in parallel.

Now, a 64 bit computer and operating system can usually run older 32 bit programs, but certain programs and hardware depend upon drivers. Most drivers are still 32 bit, and 32 bit drivers can't easily be installed on this Windows XP system. This means my good sound cards and video cams aren't yet working. Further, several network drivers I use for sneaky purposes aren't yet compatible. I suspect I'll have problems with DVD burning too.

So, if you want to be cool and take advantage of all those 64 bits, you have to be 64 bit end-to-end, which means you need the 64 bit operating system, the 64 bit drivers, and 64 bit applications. Since I'm cool, I've installed 64 bit Java (FINALLY, IT IS FAST ENOUGH!), Oracle 10g Enterprise 64 Bit AMD Edition, and a few other programs. It's going okay, but I'm not super happy about the availability of drivers (I wanted to use this box for video encoding and streaming too). It's REALLY fast though. Java installed in about 1 second.

Something odd is that vendors are taking their sweet time releasing drivers. It seems that if you want to do audio and video, it's taken over a year for drivers to start coming out in 64 bit form except for some ultra-expensive super-pro stuff. Even things like those Wacom graphire tablets are not 64 bit compatible (but their super expensive tablets are). I think the vendors are not releasing the drivers so you are forced to buy 'new' products from them. Take Logitech for instance -- big company (mice, keyboards, webcams, etc...). They haven't released a single 64 bit webcam driver in a YEAR.

Further, as I found out, LOTS of people are having HUGE problems with not only 64 bit platforms, but also the new expansion card format PCI Express that new PC's are including. These two technologies are fairly new, and it seems they haven't been perfected yet.

So, since I couldn't get my good soundcard to work on this new box, I decided to route audio through the gigabit LAN via 'Jack', which is a cool program that lets you essentially select speaker outputs on other computers on your network. Since my house is networked, and there are lots of speakers and amps in the house, I can select any one as an output through the network. Jack is free, and runs on Linux, and OS X. I tried it through the wireless network, but it was glitchy. If you have a LAN, it's a great way to have one good stereo, and route all your computers audio to it via the network.

CORONAL MASS EJECTION ALERT
Oh, and go for a drive to the country tonight. Due to a large coronal mass ejection, you might be able to see the aurora!!!! (also check the sky clock at the bottom of this page) - click the link and it will tell you how clear and dark the night sky will be where you are).

OH, and DARN YOU FEDEX
I received a tesla coil in the mail today, but it was pretty bashed up. A transformer was ripped off the board it was screwed into, and was bouncing all over the circuit board during shipping. Instead of millions of volts, I get a lame duck. Now I have to fix it, which is FUN! I don't think it's possible for FedEx to actually treat packages worse. What a freaky company.

Oooh, I finally won a bet with my friend Gus. We make bets all the time.

Gus is funny, for it's *reallllly* hard to convince him if you've won, even if you have won. Under these rules, I usually don't win. It's always a gentleman's bet (1 buck). This last bet was on a subtle point of public key vs. symmetric key cryptographic algorithms. My point was that the RSA algorithm is peculiar in that EITHER the public or private keys can be used to encrypt OR decrypt -- this is not true of all public key algorithms (e.g. Elliptic Curve). In this way the keys are 'symmetrical', although of course, it's not a symmetric key algorithm like DES (which has only one key that must be guarded).

Gus, being formidable, works hard to try to get out of paying me anything, for any reason--but this time he 'fessed up, and did a Maple test, which finally resulted in me being a whole dollar (Canadian) richer! Have a look at the web page Gus made (Maple export) (read Gus's conclusion). W00T!

As you know, paulsop.com lets you listen to my internet radio station by clicking on a link in the top left corner (or here). About 28,000ish songs iterate in alphabetical order by some field or another, which is an order I've always found fun. Since I moved the server to Dallas TX, I decided to try a few new things, like switching the 'server' from Shoutcast (which is really great, BTW) to the OpenSource Icecast2. This was done since my basement just has a pokey little cable modem, and if 5 people were listening to Radio, there wasn't any bandwidth leftover for other things (like mail, or serving up paulsop.com). Now that the server is in Dallas, and much faster, I've increased the number of radio clients, but the actual MP3's are still in the basement. What happens is program by the nice folks at OddSock that runs in in my basement iterates over an iTunes playlist and streams a single copy to www.paulsop.com, which is then relayed to whomever is listening. Apparently, Icecast2 supports video streaming, which is something I'm also wanting to try, so stay tuned. I'm also thinking of setting up a few streams for different genres and moods.

Okay, the site is upgraded to a server in Dallas TX. The only thing that seems not to be working is the radio station, but that will be back up in a few days. Internet Speed! Things should load at least 3-5x faster. Internet Speed! The funny thing is that the MySQL migration was the easiest (vs. the hardest), and the only problems I've had is a DNS mixup at network solutions which took the site down for a portion of the day (with a construction page for some reason), and the time it took to determine that the Apache2 overide none option *naturally* disabled the .htaccess files, which the gallery uses to create friendly URL's -- I Know! who would have thought! I have to thank some obscure russian page for cluing me in.

For those who aren't in the know, the know, this site runs on Linux, a free operating system. The old site ran on a Mandrake version of Linux with a 2.4 version of the kernel (the kernel is the 'brain' of Linux). The new site (this site) runs on version 2.6.something of the Linux kernel. The old site was a Mandrake distribution (a Linux distribution refers to the organization and philosophy of the layout of its files and software packages). So even though we've changed distributions, kernels, and more, the only real issue was getting to know the layout of the Debian Apache2 (this version of Linux we're using now is the excellent Debian Linux distribution, and apache2 is version 2 of a popular web server). So we changed distros, upgraded kernels, web servers, and even MySQL database servers. That being said, the migration was very easy except for a few lookups to understand how the Debian Apache2 packages were setup. Kudos to Linux!

On another note, I'm greatly saddened to hear of New Orleans. I really love New Orleans, it's people, culture, and soul. It was(will be?) easily the *BEST* (that's *** ** * BEST * ** ***) place to hang out in North America. My extra psi energies are directed towards their survival and reconstruction. It's hopeful that they'll reconstruct with the governing ideal of New Orleans (esp. the French influence -- France ROCKS). I remember many a happy day being forgotten drunk on Hurricane's from Pat O'Brein's, many a fantastic shopping adventure on Canal St., super food at Emeril's NOLA (the double thick pork chop was wow wow). It was the first place I tried Gator (tastes like chicken, but chewy). Damn you Katrina. Damn you to hell.

Peace peeps. Give to NOLA, where humans live.

Oh so busy, and so much to tell. First off, I've chucked all those terrible ergonomic keyboards out, and replaced them with the geeky Das Keyboard.

Besides the obvious geeky pretentiousness of a keyboard with no symbols on it, I must say typing on the keyboard is okay. Not as good as the legendary IBM Model M selectric keyboards (the Das Keyboard is actually just a Keytronic keyboard I think. BTW, you can also Buy a Model-M here). Anyhow, I knew I had to change, for I've been doing HUGE amounts of typing lately and my right hand got a bad case of the clickity-click and needed to have dedicated emergency hour long massages.

So I've been up to my elbows in CSS, Ruby on Rails, and a lot of new product development, which is very exciting and creative. I just picked me up a dual core AMD 4800+ machine, NVidia 7800 SLI (yep, 2 of em), 4 GB Crucial which should be lots of fun. I'm very eager to go all 64 bit (gonna put XP 64 bit and the usual Gentoo) on the box.

On the language front, I'm also **really** liking Ruby (programming language developed in Japan). My friend Mat got me into it 2 or 3 years ago, and lately it's really looking like a great environment. I've also been messing with Plainblack's WebGUI, a perl based content management system (CMS). It took a long time for me to get it running, for its dependencies are fair, and getting everything to run with my server security settings took about 2 weeks.

More to share soon!!!

Not many new stories on the front page, but I've been about doing many things and there's lots of stuff happening on the back end. Check out the monthly galleries for piles of new pictures every month.

This last week I took some pictures of Sarah Beer's new bike. It's killer, and made by Hugh Black of True North Cycles. Here's Sarah's bike:

I've just applied the Geeklog 1.3.11sr1 security patch. I can't believe it's been available for about a month and I didn't even know about it. Anyone know of a vulnerability update service that just tells you about stuff you have, instead of all the crazy stuff you don't have?

I still like Geeklog, but have started using WebGUI on another project. It's pretty cool. If you need an instant web-site with good CMS, check it out. Also check out CMS Matrix, which lets you find the best CMS software for your needs. Cool stuff! Hey, I should get to bed.

It's good I got a new Weller soldering iron the other day:

For I have come to own a very rare synthesizer (that needs a lot of electronics work) with a pretty unique history. The Ionic Performer, which hails back from the early 70's:

I estimate that somewhere between 3-5 of these puppies are still working (it is believed that only 12-20 were ever made!). If you're sharp, you'll notice the vernier dials, and the trapezoid function, which should tip you off that it's a rip off of the super-classic EMS VCS3 (you know.. the one that made the Dr. Who sounds!). Well, this keyboard is an American rip-off copy done in the 70's.

This one needs a lot of work: capacitors, resistors, and transistors all need replacing, as do a bunch of pots. It's pretty daunting, since the system is all hard-wired and components are tough to get at.

You can listen to MP3 example's made in 1974ish at Dennis Báthory-Kitsz's site. I'll be visiting Dennis in Vermont in the fall to drink beer and work on the synth with him a bit. If you visit his site, download the free VST of the Ionic Performer that he made! Imagine: two ionic performers within 50 meters of each other -- some sort of critical mass implosion will occur -- no doubt!

[it is a good book]

It is good that J.K. Rowling is richer than the queen. This last book of hers' has many good points in its favour:

1) Evil-doers have a field day. The inept government canna stop 'em. Dementors are breeding like flies and sucking all the joy from England en-masse. (sound familiar?)
2) Harry, Ron, and Hermione all have miserable time. They only become increasingly miserable as the book goes on. (yay! I don't like them!)
3) All of the good people suffer in proportion to their goodness. The 'more good' you are, the 'more you suffer'. (this is sad, for I like most other characters, esp. Hagrid and Snape).
4) Lord Voldemort doesn't even dain to appear in this book, since his minions are doing so well. (still, I'd not invite Voldemort to tea)
5) My hero, Snape (whom I know is a good guy down inside, despite the propoganda in this book) shows fine form. (W00t Snape!)
6) I believe (precognitive spoiler comming) that Fawkes is flying into the sun to sacrifice himself for a great effect -- we'll find out in the next book.

My eyes are sore. My head hurts. 600 pages in two evenings. Gripping. It is good ol' J.K.'s richer than the queen.

Spoiler: What I want for Christmas is one of those cool sweaters that ron gets as presents. some hand knit Rowan felted tweed type deal. with a silly letter stiched in the front in a size that's alltogether big. (P for Paul or the classic H for Hogwarts).

Here's one of the best I've found though (and it'd work for me, since I'm sure I'd be in Slytherin):

Cheers

Look at this:

This is a modular synthesizer made by Don Buchla, one of the original glorious pioneers of electronic music. It is a lovely design. Blinking lights, knobs, wires. It's like my house, only smaller. It's so dreamy.

Click to go to a page with streaming super-awesome video of this beautiful modular making bleep bleep noises.

Arrrr I say. Arrrrr... Down with GUI's, and up with HWUI (hard-wired user interface). It's way way more fun.

Work with me now: close your eyes and imagine a future not so different from the one you're living in tomorrow, but instead of little mini-mini hello-kitty button controls on your iPod's and remote-controls, you'd use something far more sexy like this (okay, open your eyes now):

[At PAULSOP.COM we give you the future of the iPod -- the I(bm)Pod - it can sort your MP3 ID3 Tags]

"I predict that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings in Europe will own them." - Professor Frink