Scenes included a character being shot in the head at close range, a victim having bleach forced down their throat and a fatal glass attack.
Shocking violence, aired in a 3.30pm slot, also showed the charred remains of a man killed with a blowtorch and a man upside down with his fingers cut off.
Is it a documentary? No, far too tame for that.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
US Virgin Islands
I'm chilling out for a few days in the US Virgin Islands. These were bought by the US in 1917 for $300 an acre to prevent the Germans getting their hands on them.
(There are also British Virgin Islands nearby. They are quintessentially British: to guarantee an authentic British experience, all visitors to the British Virgin Islands are greeted at the airport by a large, bald, semi-naked, drunken, tattooed man, who punches you in the face after asking "did you spill my pint?")
In the US Virgin Islands, driving drunk is a way of life. On St. John, there are only two roads, so it's impossible to get lost. Most of St. John is a National Park.
Some toilets eh? The $4 entrance fee is not being wasted! Ten coachloads of tourists can dump simultaneously here.
I sat through a few episodes of "Lost". I was amused to see St. John has its very own hatch!
Careful of the plantlife - these could bring tears to your eyes
The financial problems on the mainland have reached here - the St. John Stock Exchange has closed
(There are also British Virgin Islands nearby. They are quintessentially British: to guarantee an authentic British experience, all visitors to the British Virgin Islands are greeted at the airport by a large, bald, semi-naked, drunken, tattooed man, who punches you in the face after asking "did you spill my pint?")
In the US Virgin Islands, driving drunk is a way of life. On St. John, there are only two roads, so it's impossible to get lost. Most of St. John is a National Park.
Some toilets eh? The $4 entrance fee is not being wasted! Ten coachloads of tourists can dump simultaneously here.
I sat through a few episodes of "Lost". I was amused to see St. John has its very own hatch!
Careful of the plantlife - these could bring tears to your eyes
The financial problems on the mainland have reached here - the St. John Stock Exchange has closed
What's a good laptop to buy?
I just bought a Lenovo T500 ($2000) with
- Core2 DUO T9400 CPU (2.53GHz)
- 3GB RAM
- 160GB 7200 RPM hard drive
- Vista Business
I've heard people complain about Lenovo deliveries. This machine took 2 weeks to build and 1 week to ship, and arrived on the date originally predicted.
After using it for a couple of weeks, and comparing it with my previous machine, a Dell D620 with 2GB RAM, I can tell you I am delighted with the Lenovo.
Here are the highlights.
- Runs cool. Developing with the Dell, or watching videos, the fan was always blasting and it ran so hot that when an external monitor was plugged in, the image would shake. You rarely hear the Lenovo fan on the other hand and you can have the machine on your lap without being cooked.
- Runs fast. I have four or five instances of Visual Studio running, and switch between them, Word, and Firefox, with no delay at all.
- Well built. The Dell felt flimsy and poorly made. While the T500 does not feel as well built as a G40 and a T60 I had before, it is better built than the Dell. I broke out my 2004 era G40 recently while I waited for the T500 to arrive, installed VS 2008 on it, and although it was slow it performed faultlessly despite having spent most of the last 2 years under my desk gathering dust.
- Awesome screen. The display is beautifully clear and crisp.
The only problems? The 3 USB ports are too close together on the left hand side of the machine, as is the Ethernet port. If you are left handed cables hanging out of that side might get in your way. Fortunately I'm right handed.
Other than that and at the risk of sounding like a shill for Lenovo I think this is an absolutely outstanding machine and I am very satisfied with it.
- Core2 DUO T9400 CPU (2.53GHz)
- 3GB RAM
- 160GB 7200 RPM hard drive
- Vista Business
I've heard people complain about Lenovo deliveries. This machine took 2 weeks to build and 1 week to ship, and arrived on the date originally predicted.
After using it for a couple of weeks, and comparing it with my previous machine, a Dell D620 with 2GB RAM, I can tell you I am delighted with the Lenovo.
Here are the highlights.
- Runs cool. Developing with the Dell, or watching videos, the fan was always blasting and it ran so hot that when an external monitor was plugged in, the image would shake. You rarely hear the Lenovo fan on the other hand and you can have the machine on your lap without being cooked.
- Runs fast. I have four or five instances of Visual Studio running, and switch between them, Word, and Firefox, with no delay at all.
- Well built. The Dell felt flimsy and poorly made. While the T500 does not feel as well built as a G40 and a T60 I had before, it is better built than the Dell. I broke out my 2004 era G40 recently while I waited for the T500 to arrive, installed VS 2008 on it, and although it was slow it performed faultlessly despite having spent most of the last 2 years under my desk gathering dust.
- Awesome screen. The display is beautifully clear and crisp.
The only problems? The 3 USB ports are too close together on the left hand side of the machine, as is the Ethernet port. If you are left handed cables hanging out of that side might get in your way. Fortunately I'm right handed.
Other than that and at the risk of sounding like a shill for Lenovo I think this is an absolutely outstanding machine and I am very satisfied with it.
How long does it take to rebuild a RAID array?
So at home I have a file server which consists of a 2005 era Compaq PC I bought from Wal-Mart for $300 with 192MB RAM and a AMD Sempron CPU.
For storage I added a Highpoint 1540/1640 RAID card driving a RAID5 array of 4xSeagate 400GB SATA drives. I have always liked Seagate drives. One of the drives was faulty on arrival and was replaced. The initial four drives have been operating on a 24x7 basis ever since. Now another has failed.
So how long does it take to rebuild this array?
Well, I started the rebuild at 6.30 PM on September 25th and I'm projecting it will take a shade over three full days - so should finish before Monday morning.
For storage I added a Highpoint 1540/1640 RAID card driving a RAID5 array of 4xSeagate 400GB SATA drives. I have always liked Seagate drives. One of the drives was faulty on arrival and was replaced. The initial four drives have been operating on a 24x7 basis ever since. Now another has failed.
So how long does it take to rebuild this array?
Well, I started the rebuild at 6.30 PM on September 25th and I'm projecting it will take a shade over three full days - so should finish before Monday morning.
Businessman of the year award
Alan Fishman of WaMu, who was CEO for just 17 days before the company failed and was bought by JPMC, has walked away with a $19.1M payout.
Assuming he was on an eight hour day, that works out at $140,000 an hour.
Now that's a savvy businessman.
Assuming he was on an eight hour day, that works out at $140,000 an hour.
Now that's a savvy businessman.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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