They don't make Jews like Jesus any More .. favourite
Amelia Earhart ..
Kinyk's most popular ..
In the spirit of Bill Clinton ..
As you can probably tell by my lack of postings, I have been busy programming lately as well as research on replacing my current development computer and external monitor. It kind of reminds me of the old Icon days and QNX when I would sit in front of 3 workstations, making use of all three of them. Liz, you can probably relate. More follows, later in this post.
I have spoken before about human trafficking and how the bar trade is not a big player in this problem. The major reason is that a bar girl has an easy time escaping from her human traffickers and therefore, the bars are not a good place to traffic. Instead, to understand the issue, please read this post in the Bangkok Post:
Shrimp peeled by slaves in Thailand http://bit.ly/1Ye9DpY #BangkokPost
I have also been discussing political correctness and the Christmas (as opposed to holiday) season. Here is an example of one school principal doing what she considers to be a good job educating us all:
Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. “Harvest festival” has replaced Thanksgiving, and “winter celebrations” substitute for Christmas parties.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/13/school-principal-bans-santa-thanksgiving-and-pledge-allegiance/
Seems that the PC establishment is running amok. How about the Harvard place mat to take home to family for the 'Holiday' season:
Those celebrating the holiday with any Harvard students may have a real treat in store. That’s because, as Campus Reform reported, the university is handing out a “place mat” for students, as “a guide for holiday discussions on race and justice with loved ones.”
The place mat was created by the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The freshman’s dean’s office collaborated with the effort, and the place mats were then distributed at a dining hall.
http://redalertpolitics.com/2015/12/17/harvard-offers-pc-placemat-guide-holiday-discussions-race-justice/
There are many more examples, unfortunately too many to list in case I bore you, or shudder, offend you!
I stay informed in Thailand by reading online newspapers and news sources, such as The Bangkok Post, The Nation (Thailand), USA Today, CBC, CTV, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Fox News, CNN, BBC, and USA Today Sports.
Back to Technology, luddites may exit here.
My current laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga with 8 GB of ram, 256 GB of SSD drive, and an HD screen (1920 x 1080) I also have a Samsung 24" HD display for additional workspace. The best feature of this laptop has to be its spill resistant keyboard that I managed to test at least once. It is also military grade and withstands heat and dust very well. However, it is approaching 2 years of age and it gets constant use, of about 16 hours a day.
I have gradually and finally moved to vmWare images for my development work. It used to take me about 5 days to prep a new laptop with all my development software. I now have a 60 GB Windows pro image that has my development software and it akes me about 10 minutes to move it to a new laptop. I also have a 10 GB WinXP image that I use for my legacy software. And, then there is a server image that I boot up to test in a distributed environment. Then, my Linux learning image where I spend time coming to grips with Linux.
Now, in order for this environment to work well, I need a high end CPU, i7 with multiple cores (dual or quad), 16 GB of Ram, a display capable of HD or UHD, and at least 512 GB of SSD storage to accommodate about 256 GB of vmWare images. When I explored the hardware offering for this type of laptop the prices invariably settled between $2,500 and $3,500 (CDN) which I considered exorbitant.
I then discovered that gaming laptops were often configured with the above specs and that 1 year old models were often discounted. I settled on:
Dell Alienware 13 ANW13-8636SLV Signature Edition Gaming Laptop
★★★★★
CAD $1,699.00
13.3-inch (337.82-millimeters) QHD+ touchscreen
Intel Core i7-5500U
16GB memory/512GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics
from the Microsoft Online Store - Canada
I forgot to mention that the laptop has to be capable of driving 2 extermnal monitors, my existing HD monitor and another supporting greater than HD. I am seriously considering this as my second external display:
Samsung UHD 28" Monitor with High Glossy Black Finish
LU28E590DS/ZA
★★★★★
4K, 3840 X 2160 Resolution (UHD), 60Hz (DP)
Sharper Viewing Angle with T-shaped Stand
1 Billion Color Support
1ms (GTG) Response Time
SUGGESTED RETAIL:$599.99
The hardware will enable me to be even more productive in programming than my current hardware setup. Once I get it all setup in January 2016 I will post some pics.
TTYL,
Jim
I am really sort of amused that you are considering an Alienware laptop. But, gaming laptops do need to have good specs! Video card would be excessive I assume?
ReplyDeleteNot really when you are driving 2 external monitors, one of which will be UHD display (3840 x 2160). Graphic cards are good at pushing pixels around :-)
ReplyDeleteA thought on replacing Christian terminology with harvest festival and winter celebrations...Isn't this what the Christians did before? Replace the pagan holiday terms with theirs? Has anyone else considered that we are returning to pagan terms, which I personally like! And another example of the few dictating a rigid and unbending viewpoint to the majority, we have a local brouhaha with the Student Council of U of O cancelling the yoga class as non-Indians doing yoga and saying Namaste is according to them, cultural appropriation. Hmmm, does that mean that black people shouldn't do Ballet given it's origins? I'd like to see someone suggest that to the world-renowned Ballet School of Harlem. Would be an interesting discussion! Theatre of the absurd, indeed.
ReplyDeleteYes, the world has definitely lost its marbles ...
ReplyDelete