teh TODDtastic webLog-a-majig

I was browsing through my old posts… when I came across this post from over a year ago.

It was interesting to see what I was planning and hoping for back then. Interestingly enough, even over a year ago, my idea of my next system was not too unlike what I’m still picturing. Avoiding the fact that I will probably not have the budget to build one this summer, either… if I were to do such, the specs lined up in the linked post, are not too far from what I would build these days.

Core i7 is here now, so in terms of server chips… we can now get 6 cores on a chip, 12 cores in a dual socket system. While this type of build may not be within my future budget, 8 cores on one chip should be once Intel releases 8-core Core i7 chips. Triple channel RAM is here… so the projection on that front for 12GB of RAM was not bad, and is still perfectly reasonable for todays systems.

I was hoping my idea of a really great system would have changed more substantially by now… but it hasn’t. This makes me wonder if the technology has not improved significantly enough in a year (possibly due to the economy?) or if perhaps I was just looking far advanced of a possible system at that time. Maybe it’s a mix of both.

With that said, I have to say that pretty much any system you can build for $500-1000 these days is definitely plenty powerful for most people, as in… I think technology is finally starting to really be great in all price ranges.

People often think that spending more money on something means that it will work better than something is cheaper. That is not always the case. Especially when it comes to computers. I see people sometimes yelling at their computers for not working right and claiming that they should not have to put up with something not working because they paid so much for their computer. Believe it or not… cost of computer has no connection at all to how the software works or doesn’t work. Yes, hardware may have more of a connection to cost, but even then there is hardware failure or other problems that don’t care how much you spent on it.

I have cursed at my computers before for not behaving as expected and it is always out of frustration. We probably all have. But I am a very knowledgeable technology oriented person. When I am relaxed and take the time to understand what I am doing, I am most effective.

Basically, frustration doesn’t get things done faster in the world of computers. If anything it makes things take longer. Sure, there can be technical problems that happen anytime, but it seems they happen less when you aren’t frustrated. I’m sure you’ve all experienced your computer being “retarded” when you need it most, such as for that last minute project or something. If possible, try to calm down and not be in so much of a hurry. Things might go smoother.

This is also the same type of thing where people spend more on a TV and thinking it will have a better picture than something that is cheaper or spending endless amounts of money on audio equipment thinking it will sound better. Or to the person that spends large amounts of money on a monster cable because it has gold tips. (Monster cables are generally very good cables, but there is also a lot of marketing hype and mark up on them). These examples boil down to research and just plain knowledge. It’s just like the person that thinks they are a big shot because they own a hummer. When in reality they are struggling to pay for it and/or its gas– we all point and say “sucks to be you” when we see a hummer these days.

I have created a new page, currently title “My Stuff” for lack of a better name. This page will run through several of my computers. It is for those people that are curious what I run, and whatever. It is open to questions and comment. Feel free to take a look and ask any questions you have; I would enjoy answering them.

The page is not complete, but I got it started with my desktop computer. More will come, and I’ve started a list of more things to add to it. You can also suggest things for me to add to it.

(It is probably obvious my life is focused around computers and technology, so… now you know will be able more details about what that means)

Technology is great… it’s true.