Dealing with Ruby's different versions

To my dismay, Ruby on Rails seems to be linked deeply into OS X's frameworks, which I don't want to mess with. Some poking reveals that the default installation, version 1.8, is in a system framework called Ruby.framework. The normal method to updating such tools is to remove the old version and then install the new one, but I did not want to take the risks this time. Turns out there's a great tool called rvm that will manage multiple Ruby versions!

Complete instructions are here: http://bigdiver.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/update-ruby-and-rails-on-mac-os-x/

They're written with OS X in mind, but adapting them for any Linux system should be trivial.

The Ideal Notebook

If I didn't have my monster of a Hackintosh already.

Presenting the Mac Pro to go, or the retina MacBook Pro. Comes with a built-in 30" screen!

Clearly the first thing I do is run the notebook at native resolution, an incredible 2880x1800. The menu bar nearly disappears, while the dock becomes reasonably-sized. For those incredulous readers, my 20/13 eyesight is sufficient for this resolution. :-)

An 1880px vertical is quite nice for web designing, albeit highly misleading for emulating typical usage.

Day-to-day use. I can fit a bunch of apps onto one virtual desktop, which is how I work on my 30" Dell. It's huge compared to my MacBook Air, which has a 1440x900 screen, and a lot less claustrophobic than my six-year-old MacBook Pro, which has a 1920x1200 screen.

Safari 6 View Source

To my surprise (not a good one, either), Safari 6 has done away with View Source in its vanilla state. I was shocked and disappointed when I was trying to view the source of a test page:

On the bright side, it's buried in the Develop menu in the snazzy console:

But yay, syntax highlighting!

Two small lemmas

Two friends kindly pointed out to me that I will have power issues next year at MIT. Since most dorm rooms have one circuit (good for about 2kW), I can at most run two out of the following three items simultaneously: {computer, refrigerator, air conditioning}.

A friend suggested that I schedule all rendering and compute jobs late at night since the power grid will not be as hosed and to automate the modulation of my fridge/AC usage during the day. I also won't be helping the situation with a near-imminent upgrade to dual Nvidia GTX 580s, either.

SR-2 Adventures, Part III

I recently ordered a third power supply (don't worry, I'm not modding this one!) for my hackintosh. It's a server grade unit rated at 1200W made by PC Power & Cooling, which should be sufficient for further upgrades, such as dual Nvidia GTX 580s (for raytracing, of course). At first, 1200W seems gluttonous, but we note that overclocked processors can consume up to 200W, since power is approximately proportional to clock speed squared.

Now onto the fun part: overclocking! Recall that this system uses two Intel Xeon X5650-like [1] chips sourced from eBay. To get up to 4GHz, we use the following voltages:

• Disable Vdroop
• Set Vcore to 1.35
• Set Vtt to 1.35
• Set DIMM to 1.65
• V_IOH to 1.40

Then in the signal tweaks menu:

• Set QPI0 to -86
• Set QPI1 to -16

Then jiggle the settings in the CPU menu:

• Enable Speedstep
• Enable Turbo
• Disable C-state

Note that enabling Turbo will get you a 21x multiplier, or so people say. Finally set BCLK to 191 and voilà, a 4GHz 12-core monster! Sadly OS X does not notice the turbo multiplier at 21x, so it won't show 4GHz in System Profiler. In any case, here's a screenshot of the system at 191x21:

Issues

Mac App Store can't verify computer

This one is annoying. I haven't bothered to fix the issue for this hackintosh (I did it for my single processor computer), but the solution involves deleting the network interfaces file, rebooting, and readding the interfaces in System Preferences. I will update this section once I fix the issue.

Flaky PS2-USB adapter

For BCLKs @ 195 and 200 I noticed that my keyboard would work for about 10 seconds after being plugged in and then it would stop working. I check the Console, which says

IOUSBPipe:ClosePipe for address, ep 1 had a retain count > 1. Leaking a pipe
IOUSBPipe:ClosePipe for address, ep 2 had a retain count > 1. Leaking a pipe

I am convinced that this is due to the overclock being unstable. The problem goes away when I'm running at 190 or 191. I also noticed that USB mouse and ethernet adapter aren't flaky at all, but my USB headset does develop crackling noises after a short while (under 10 min).

It's heating up my room!

Yep, sadly this rig is overpowering the air conditioner in my residence. I can feel it spewing hot air out the back. :(

[1] Duck test, but for CPUs: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

A Very Tasty Salad

I've been going to this deli called Hale and Hearty and concocted quite possibly the most delicious salad. I get it every single time I go in an attempt to redeem a free 10th salad (you know this marketing technique). Here goes:

Serving size: 1 bowl
Prep time: 5 minutes

• 6-8oz spinach
• 2oz Mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 large tomato
• 1/2 Hass avocado
• 1/4 red onion
• ~30 Chickpeas

Mix together in a bowl, chop in the bowl, and voilà!

RIP Dell Streak

It's too bad that the device couldn't survive a three foot drop. I feel conflicted at the moment: on one hand, I feel bad that I essentially wasted $500 (phone + docking kit), but on the other hand, I couldn't care less about this monster that I never loved since day one. Besides its pitiful build quality, it had its share of software problems too, such as clock randomly going 15 minutes ahead or sudden rebooting syndrome (StreakDroid Gingerbread).

Independence Day

Greetings from the tristate area!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Misconception

I used to think that a millionaire was a person who had a salary greater or equal to $1mm/year. Strange that I knew the other words (billionaire) meant people whose net worth was that amount.

Summer

I'm back in the tri-state area for the summer. While it's unfortunate that none of my MIT buddies are remotely close to me, I figured these three months alone were sorely needed to get stuff done.

Or not.

It's too bad that I have more or less only two hours of down time at home every weeknight; transportation is significantly nontrivial compared to last year; I lived half a mile away from the Infinite Loop. Transportation is especially horrendous when the weather is ungodly humid or when the bus is late.

I also miss the shenanigans I'd partake with my MIT buddies. My internship friends are the kind who wouldn't want to be caught dead in a McDonald's, never mind play the Triangular Burger game, in which a group of people line up and, starting with ordering three cheeseburgers, order one more cheeseburger than the person in front. *cough* #richpeople. After two months without McDonald's, I got a little nostalgic for my favorite infant-hood food:

Tower of Hamburger!

For the record, the cheeseburgers from 56th and 8th in NY are considerably drier than the ones from Central Square in Cambridge. They're also 20% more expensive, to my dismay.

On the bright side, work has been pretty fun. My boss has a 5ft remote-controlled flying shark! After only a week I've learned how to drive it really well. I am really tempted to glue an Arduino onto it and make it do something silly, like 8-bit music.

And then of course there are the NYC zoos, which are quite picturesque. I've only been to the Bronx Zoo so far; I'm hoping to go to the other four and practice my photography.

I've also seen some exotics around the city, namely a Mercedes SLS AMG, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a Maybach 62S. There's also a ton of fullsize luxury sedans; Audi A8, Mercedes S-class, Lexus LS, and BMW 7 series. It's too bad that one cannot take advantage of the potential of these cars while crawling through streets cluttered by yellow cabs and people.

Now excuse me as I hide from the humidity.