I have a 21.5" iMac with the discrete graphics card. There are a few small issues with it such as my feeling that the screen might not last as long as the components inside (occasional flickers). However I love the damn thing. And OSX doesn't frustrate the hell out of me -- the UI and its various behaviors actually make sense. For example, I don't think I've had a problem with things like the Firefox address bar losing focus for no apparent reason. The machine itself is super fast: ArcMap loads in 4 seconds within a Windows XP VM.

So I'm quite happy with my purchase (I think I'd be happy with most anything that could replace my 5 year old desktop!).

But I'm not an Apple fanboy. I don't own an iPod, iPhone, or any of those other FLAC-deprived devices. iTunes doesn't even support FLAC. Fortunately there is Songbird. I don't use Safari or Mail. In fact I don't use much of anything by Apple except OSX, Preview, and Terminal. God I love having a terminal with a UNIX environment. Windows can go to hell. I mean, Windows doesn't even come with Kerberos and a Ticket Viewer or a super crazy Graphing program. It sure as hell does not come with emacs. OSX respects my geekiness. Of course I could use Ubuntu, etc., but none of the desktop environments are as refined as OSX's Aqua. I quite like it.

September 24 is the day. Isotopic Geochemistry begins although I doubt there'll be much to it since my professor will be on a NASA panel that day in DC. Thus a stand-in professor will be doing the various administrative details. I'm hoping no work is assigned other than reading.

Then Friday will commence with Introduction to GIS and immediately following, Earth Materials.

I've been taking my sweet sweet time looking for a new desktop machine. My current machine has a venerable Athlon 64 2Ghz, 1GB RAM, a few hard drives, and a GeForce 6600. It is as old as my SyncMaster 710T LCD. 4 years and 9 months old. My laptop, on the other hand, is two years old and holding up pretty well.

I've look at AMD and Intel platforms. I've been dizzied by the options available whether I put together my own system or buy a prebuilt system. How many chipsets do Intel and AMD need to be supporting at one time? Seriously; it's become ridiculous since late 2004. What really rubs me wrong is when companies that build systems to order limit system potential by using DDR2 when DDR3 would really shine. 800Mhz FSB on a processor that would really like 1333Mhz? Come on, guys. At least Apple used 1066Mhz DDR3 on their iMacs released last March. Much better fit.

And yes, I've toyed with the notion of using the Apple platform. Since I'm pretty serious at researching every possible angle when I'm in the market for a new desktop, I'm going to wait and see what the new iMacs offer. I suspect that there will be a revamp either beginning of October or shortly after. I'm very much in the market for an all-in-one wonder; I'm sick of obstructive boxes and wiring. Sony's offerings are over the top in this area and the trade-offs for advanced media features aren't worth it. ASUS has all-in-ones with identity crises since they are powered like netbooks.

Good grief!! What a screwed up market.

Bought music for the year (yes this is likely it until Christmas!). If you read about each band, you'll find most of them fit into their own genres. Yeah, I kind of get around!

* "The Body, the Blood, the Machine" - The Thermals
-- Very different from the bulk of my collection. But I enjoyed the lyrics. Might take a while for it to properly grow on me (mostly due to the vocalist's jarring style).

* "In Ghost Colours" - Cut Copy (Australian band!)
-- Quite a good impression so far. Definitely jam worthy. Probably great in the car.

* "Third" - Portishead
-- Haven't popped it in the player yet. This will happen tomorrow after work! Note: Boo to all those pretentious people that listen to Portishead on repeat at The Naked Lounge in Chico, CA.

* "Songs in A & E" - Spiritualized
-- Quintessential New Spiritualized but not quite as rocking as the last two releases (which I think is a good thing!). Whoo! And wow, Spaceman's voice has aged!

* "Fleet Foxes" - Fleet Foxes
-- Excellent. Harmony is good. Glad it's making a comeback.

* "My Maudlin Career" - Camera Obscura
-- Excellent.

Of course don't forget to download and listen to Dynamo Go's excellent LP, "The Fool of Fountain City".

Yeah it has been talked about to death so I won't say anything said elsewhere.

But I don't think anyone has mentioned how they finally acknowledged there isn't sound in space. On a few cuts they went silent or 2001: A Space Odyssey style: only the sounds of breathing while space diving.

I totally applaud that despite many scenes still employing sound in space. But you got the feeling that was all right once JJ acknowledged "yes there is not gas in space, there is not sound in space, but we kinda have to do this :-)"

Loved the film!

I'm not moving until July 3rd or 4th but I've already started! How? Today I went to recycle a billion ancient electronics. My closet never looked emptier. So many old cellphone batteries, laptop batteries, a laptop, an entire computer (so ancient that the capacitors probably are dust by now). A bazillion AA and AAA batteries. A tore up camera, several 16mb and 256mb compact flash units. Power bricks. An entire TV and VCR. A PC speaker system. Tons of crap that would have never been used again. Some of it might be useful for Chico, CA's Computers for Classrooms. I don't know how much since I have no idea what condition the systems or drives are in. Somebody will have a lot of fun ascertaining that!

Anyway, it's good stuff. Glad it's all gone.

Doing some insanely repetitive calculations for Chemistry or Physics?  Tired of entering values for manipulation into tables on your TI-83 or TI-86?  Learn and use R.  It is so much faster.

Oh, and for Calculus, nothing is better than maxima (using wxMaxima GUI) for making sure you're getting double (and triple!) integrals and differentials right.  And, of course, taking care of some of that algebraic busy-work! 

April 1st has become such a tradition on the Web that it isn't really too much fun anymore. Especially having to dig through the jokes to get the real news.

This day used to be better when not everyone participated! (I still remember Microsoft's Internet Exploder!)

Before I used to stir-fry in red pepper chips prior to throwing in the vegetables. It imparts a nice yellow-coloration to the onions and oil. But the spiciness that I was looking for tended to be lacking. I have found, however, that stir-frying in a single thinly diced Serrano pepper does the trick spectacularly. Use two if you're particularly bold. Of course, a wise chef would take a nibble to see if it will live up to expectations -- but it's a good bet it will. So if next time you need to make your dish spicy, try one diced Serrano. No more, no less.

I don't know exactly how long but 1-2 minutes of frying whole cumin in olive oil isn't long enough. Instead, fry for mmmaybe 4 minutes. They become softer and impart far more flavor to the oil. Then fry onions, veined jalapenos with seeds, or what have you as usual. Get a whiff of that cumin frying action; it's great!

If students studied instead of complaining about their instructors, there would be a major social and technological revolution.

Canned chickpeas (aka, garbanzo beans) are an ideal substitute for Tofu when I'm too lazy to prepare it. Not to mention much cheaper.

I don't think I realized how much a pound of dry black beans would make.  It's a ton.  I don't expect to be able to get through all of that this week!  Perhaps after my black bean burritos I'll whip out my food processor and make a black bean dip?  Perhaps one day I'll have black beans and rice?  Maybe for breakfast I'll have a bowl of black beans and soy milk?  Err.  No.

I may just end up drying some beans and freezing them for later use.

Monday: Multivariate Calculus and California Geography finals.  I'd have to fail the first to drop down to a C from a B.  But I can't get 202/200 points to get an A.  As for California Geography, let's just say that I'm not worried. Not even the slightest bit.

Zero has been popping up an awful lot lately in Multivariate Calculus. For example, in Physics, if you take an object and lift it up 1 meter and then put it down in the same place despite the path you take, the work done is ZERO.

Anyway, things that are conservative tend to do this. This means that I end up doing a lot of setup, integration, and algebra, just to find out it's all ZERO. Of course there are tests to figure out if something is zero. For instance, if the given function is exact and there is a closed curve in the given region then we can assume it is zero. So I don't have to do anything but write ZERO. That makes life grand, especially if it is a particularly nasty looking line integral.

Green's theorum and the Fundamental Theorem of Line Integrals also comes to the rescue making life really easy, too.  And what's more, using polar, cylinder, and spherical coordinates are a beautiful thing when you've an integral with awful roots in it (trigonometric substitution is NEVER fun and sometimes they can't be integrated at all in rectangular coordinates!!).

One of the things I particularly like about Calculus III is that everything comes together really well. We're applying everything we've done this semester in the last few sections. Makes me feel like I've actually accomplished something. Calc II wasn't much like that. It seemed like a scatter shot of a class with no cohesion. I am SO glad that we didn't have to deal with series in Multivariable Calculus.  Behind the cut is just me expressing my frustrations.  I did the problem all on paper, which took some space, and then checked it using Maxima because I was getting sick of all the zeros popping up everywhere. Zero is an incredible number.

( Dream of Zeros )

About time the election is over.  My studies have been less than ideal because of all the distractions.  Of course now I'm distracted with Obama's transition team and the eventual picks for his cabinet. But I imagine it'll be less of a problem than the election.  Sadly, Prop 8 (amend California Constitution to make marriage only between a man and a woman) looks like it'll pass but parental notification for minors needing an abortion is failing.  Looks like high speed rail might become a reality in California as Prop 1 is marginally passing.  Prop 2 passed, which is good.

Chico's city council is back in business with three of its incumbents reelected and a newcomer was elected (whom I supported) despite massive spending by a political action group trying to get pro-business and development people into the council.  I think they underestimated Chico's love for art when one of their colorful mailings said "millions wasted on useless art".  Yeah, that PAC had over $100,000 and they failed.  Just goes to show that it isn't about who has the most money.  At least, in local elections.  Yay.

Sunday night I made a nice batch of chili -- slow simmered and nicely reduced into a balanced consistency.    I did a few things differently this time.   First of all, I stir fried in whole cumin seeds with red pepper flakes and onions.  Then I did things as usual except this time I added two fresh jalapenos and two different kinds of chili powder: New Mexican and Pasilla.  What a dynamite combination when added in generous amounts.  The Pasilla has a nice smokey flavor while the New Mexico has heat.  I added at least 4 tablespoons of the stuff, if not 6, and perhaps in equal parts.

What else is in my chili?  I used 2 cans of kidney beans (drained), 1 fresh bell pepper, 1 small can of corn, sliced frehs mushrooms, and sliced stewed tomatoes.  For the chili base, it's just one 8oz can of tomato sauce with two cans of water (reduced down).  VEGAN.

I know that this might not be impressive to most of you.  But I just thought I had to share this beautifully baked acorn squash.  My first acorn squash, ever.   It was super easy to do, of course.  I don't cook difficult things unless I have copious amounts of time.

While most recipes called for baking it in water, I went without.  I put it straight onto a baking sheet with olive oil smeared about on aluminum foil.  I added flavor with adequite amounts of brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, a bit of salt and pepper, and a generous amount of olive oil.  Most recipes call for butter -- something I do not have.  Olive oil is way better anyhow!  I baked it for about 45 minutes; basically until fork tender.  Turned out great and was still quite moist!  One problem: it's an awful lot for one person to eat.  But I managed to eat both halves.  

My recipe?  A synthesis of a recipe for vegan butternut squash and non-vegan acorn squash.  It seems that's the trend these days: no one recipe is good enough for me.

Is brown sugar vegan?  If it is, then this meal was vegan :-0  I had a side of cashews.  Yum.

( Photo of Baked Acorn Squash )

Remember when I said that Sarah Palin at least visited Iraq after receiving her passport in 2006?

Turns out that was another fib.  When pressed, the McCain campaign and her spokesman admitted that she visited Kuwait and never crossed the border into Iraq.  Were they stretching the truth to shore up her lack of overseas experience and playing on emotions of Americans (since visiting unstable Iraq is surely more potent) or was there a misunderstanding?  Either way, the media is at least starting to wake up and smell the garbage.  They're being duped and I hope they don't take it sitting down.  The New York Times isn't.  But then, it may be that the story the New York Times ran about her wanting to ban books was not true (they haven't retracted it yet as far as I can tell).  It pays to read as many news sources as possible.

Well, I've a multivariate calculus midterm this coming Friday.  I'm a little behind on reading for California Geography.  I suppose I should start on that.

If you attempt to talk about Palin, either issues or character, the Republican Party will immediately say:

• You're sexist
• You've sunk to a new low (used at least twice so far, latest on the 9/13)
• You're disrespectful and offensive

These campaigns, especially the McCain Campaign, is turning our democracy into the biggest joke of all time.  Apparently, with less than 60 days to figure Sarah Palin out, she's off limits except in carefully choreographed media interviews and rallies. I sure hope that Americans see through this junk and actually do pay attention to the issues and not about personalities as the McCain camp is relying on.

List of things wrong with Sarah Palin, John McCain's selected VP.

• Fundamentalist.  Went to Pentecostal church where leaders apparently believe Alaska will be shelter from Armageddon.  Additionally, she believes God wanted the US to invade Iraq and that a pipeline is also God's will (CNN video).  Finally: creationism.
• Killer of Wolves and Grizzly bears, etc., without remorse (and wouldn't mind shooting from a plane).
• Wants to be VP while having a family with a down-syndrome child and a 17 year-old pregnant girl who is about to get shot-gunned married (family first, anyone?  VP is not something to sneeze at being "just a 72 year-old McCain heart-beat away" with a 40% chance of dying in office.  Yes, I'd have the same reservations if this candidate were male.)
• Lies without flinching blinking: apparently she once supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" though McCain ads suggest otherwise.  Additionally, she has never had any National Security experience despite being Governor and required to oversee the National Guard:  never has she given orders to them.  Nor has she ever interacted with nearby Russia.  To her credit, she has visited Alaskan soldiers in Iraq Kuwait but only after receiving her very first passport in 2006.
• Is 100% against Sex-Education and absolutely despises the notion of Women's reproductive rights unless she'll die because of it (yes, if a woman is raped, according to Palin, she must carry it to term).
• Member of NRA.  Enough said.
• Sarah Palin and Mike Wooten.  An ethics complaint. 
• Doesn't think Global Warming is a problem.
• Has no problem banning books.
• This list could probably go on and on.  Please suggest to American friends and family to truly consider her qualifications as a possible President (it would almost be a flip of a coin here, folks!).

I got fed up with Vista being so slow and wireless being REALLY FUNKY. Sometimes I would never get a list of hotspots using Vista facilities but my wireless radio diagnostic utilities would. Probably a funky driver interaction with Vista stuff, but still. Stupid. Anyway, things look very nice now and I hope that weird wireless problem has gone away. I will find out tomorrow when I go to a problem spot on campus.

There were some redeeming features of Vista, and I've mentioned them before. Anyway, it feels nice to be back here.

On another note, I ditched Slackware. Kubuntu is now on my desktop. Today I just setup wireless and WOW it was easy. I told the proprietary hardware applet to install my wireless radio's firmware and next thing I know, I've wireless with Personal WPA. Absolutely no having to mess around with WPA supplicant and other crap. The WiFi applet for Kubuntu works SO much better than versions of the past. Beautiful. Overall, I think Kubuntu has finally reached maturity. Looks like it is happy with my laptop too but I need enhanced compatibility in a Windows world. VMWare Player is the answer if I need Linux functionality. But why, when MikTex exists? :-) I had to use the Kubuntu Live-CD to delete the old Windows directory since Vista apparently likes to protect every other file as a "system file". Thankgoodness for NTFS-3G. What a great FUSE layer.

Chico got up to 70f/21c degrees today. NICE.