21 March 2011

Apple, Please Fix Your Nvidia Drivers!

So things like this won't happen:
Video corruption while working with Aperture 3 presets on my Late 2010 MacBook Air

While doing some intensive editing, my laptop actually locked up for a full half an hour before I force-rebooted it. I checked the logs only to see the driver acting up (click to see log dump):


Otherwise I'm jumping ship to ATi AMD when I upgrade my Hackintosh! (Linux users: now's the time to scream ``NO YOU WOULDN'T!'')

[EDIT 17 Aug 2011] Seems like Apple has better drivers in Lion and Aperture is no longer locking up my machine anymore!
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15 March 2011

Woah

I just realized that I have a legitimate need for Mac, Windows, and Linux:
  • Mac: Aperture (because I'm a semiserious photographer, but not serious enough to warrant me a 12-core Mac Pro)
  • Windows: AutoDesk Inventor (3D parametric modeling)
  • Linux: General development, OpenCL, CUDA
All three require [serious] graphics acceleration, so virtualization is a very big no-no.

Hmm actually I could probably get away without Linux, but coding just works so much better on Linux than on Windows. Plus my EvilWM setup with my split keyboard and trackball just seems so hardcore and user unfriendly hahah

Time to build another box so I can run all three platforms concurrently?
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05 March 2011

Gaming

Looking back, I used to be a relatively big gamer. Especially for a girl.

Now, I'm not. Not at all. (Although I can wallop a good handful of people on my hall at Super Smash Bros. Melee)

Ten years ago, things were mostly `mechanical,' or physical, to be general. Rubik's cubes, block letters, stuffed animals. The thought of a multifunctional handheld device that contained an alternate universe was unfathomable. Perhaps my fascination with this new concept is the reason I played Pokémon for upwards of eight hours a week on my teal GameBoy Color (which I somewhat regret selling to GameStop). In sixth grade I would devote some time each week to practicing Super Smash Brothers Melee when family friends came over. I did get `better' at these games; I could beat a good number of people who challenged me.

Today's world is more or less the opposite. Activities are mostly virtual, from organizational tasks, to learning, and even to simulation of mechanical objects. `Mechanical' things mostly have been relegated to the past. The thought of building a microprocessor out of transistors seems anachronistic today; it is `trivialized' to writing some number lines of simulation code in JSim. Sure, prototyping in software is much faster and more cost efficient, but one does not gain the tactile experience of merely touching a transistor, never mind stripping wires, hooking everything up to a breadboard, or even soldering.

Perhaps the digital dominance has pushed me to pursue `mechanical' activities more than before.
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04 March 2011

Spring Cleaning

My computer needs it.

This thing is so clogged that no air can flow through; the hot air ends up flowing into my case.

 
I always wondered why my 8800GTS ran at 72ºC: now I know why!

Unfortunately, this is the result of running my case with the side panel off. The sad thing is that, even before the dust, my computer will shut down with the panel on after like 10min of intense work. A new case is on its way; I just have to finish modding it!
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