Schierer Space

It’s about freaking time somebody implemented this! Thunderbird 3.0 just noticed that I had the word “attached” in my email and put up a reminder to check if I had intended to attach something to the message.

Sweet.

It allows you to add the attachment immediately, or “Remind Me Later” so that it prompts you if you try to send without the attachment in place.

Why is someone setting off fireworks at 12:18AM on a Wednesday morning?

Carry on.

Although it is too late for any commentary on this research to impact my purchasing decisions (the PC is already built and I’m using it right now), I’d still like to get it up before it is completely obsolete. So let’s go…

As always, building a new PC requires the integration of a few primary components which are listed in the order I generally consider them. Although in this case, I bought the power supply first. The same unit I used to replace the noisemaker that was my previous PS, the 500W OCZ supply from NewEgg, was once again available for $39.99 after MIB. Anyhow, the list goes…

1. CPU
2. Motherboard
3. Memory
4. System Disk
5. Video
6. Power Supply
7. Case
8. Optical Drive
9. OS
10. Peripherals

Much detail and rambling on after the fold… you have been warned.
(more…)

Since the Central New York weather has finally cooperated to produce a significant snow fall.^[1] In fact, prior to this event Baltimore, MD, was actually ahead of Syracuse for most snowfall in a US city this year. ^[2]
After piling all of the snow from the driveway next to the driveway, the temptation to carve out a fort and some tunnels was overwhelming. With Nate’s ‘help’ we constructed a pretty decent snow park with canyon-like paths, a tunnel, a fort and a slide.

Here are some highlights:

No snow park would be complete without a snow-bunny… ^[3]

More fun in the snow in Nate’s gallery.

More pics of Rachel added too.

1. We’ve been getting steady amounts which have amounted to very little significant accumulation. This was finally a storm that dumped a significant amount over a few days. [↩]
2. A population of over 100,000 if I recall the bracket. [↩]
3. Who has since melted enough that it lost its head. Apparently this was the cause of some significant distress for one of Nate’s playmates. [↩]

Only about three weeks late, here is R’s one month pic.

And another for you to enjoy.

As always they are all available in the gallery.

With a new member of the household, it’s been pretty busy around here. I have much to report, but haven’t had time to do any reporting.

Here is a list of what I’d like to take some time to write about… as a promissory note and a to-do list.

1. R is growing fast. We have a 1 month growth chart pic and many more. I will get these online soon.
2. N continues to be a joy. He’s learning so fast now I’m not sure school will be ready for him in two more years. He’s working on reading and spelling simple words. He’ll be 3 in May.
3. Snow! We finally got real winter weather here in central NY. Pics of outdoor snow constructions will be coming soon.
4. New PC research. With our tax returns burning a hole in our bank accounts, I’ve begun the process of specing out a new machine for K. We also need to get Win7 installed before N wipes out our much-more-difficult-to-secure WXP household PC.
5. New PC constructed. I’m using it now to write this post… and will use it to edit the pics to post them. I owe you comments on Win7, and performance of the new machine. Not to mention the build process itself. Must keep installing stuff if I’m going to get into a position to clear out this list.

Ok. Must get back to installation.

Thanks to R’s tendency to only sleep when supported vertically, I’ve been putting her in the Baby Bjorn and finding other things to do. These things need to be generally stationary and relatively quiet. This means that I’ve been catching up on my Discover magazines, quickly exhausting Turner Classic Movies On-Demand and finishing off some video games (with headphones on).

As a result of this I have several random observations:
A) Watching The Manchurian Candidate (1962) while heavily sleep deprived is especially surreal. It also gives you crazy violent dreams, so I wouldn’t recommend the overall experience. ^[1]
B) I’ve now completed Bioshock which I started back in December. There was about a three week hiatus, but I made a pretty hard push to finish it over the last few days/nights. I really have to applaud the writers and designers for writing a compelling storyline with reasonable psychological and ethical hurdles. The scenery is very dark and bloody and combined with adult dialog, the game is rather squarely rated “R”. However, despite this, it rarely seemed gratuitous like other shooters I have played (and generally stopped playing). There was suitable opportunity for a ‘thinking player’ rather than a ‘rapid reflex’ player to ambush/evade/out-think the enemies with sufficient moments of sheer combat chaos to keep the heart going. I have Mass Effect waiting in the wings, but I think I’m going to evade game-commitment and install NFS:Undercover next. ^[2]
C) Every time I read another article about the plasticity of the brain, and the growing field of neural-mechanical interfaces I really feel like I’m in the wrong line of work. I am continuously amazed at how remarkably flexible and adaptable the brain is at integrating with new inputs. This is reinforced by watching N learn to spell, associate numbers with objects and generally become more sophisticated physically and mentally every day. We’re starting this road again with R, and so quickly she develops reactions to certain stimuli.

1. Great movie though. Angela Lansbury as the manipulative Mrs. Iselin is fantastically dark. [↩]
2. Yes, I purchase and play games well after their initial release dates. Both Bioshock and Mass Effect have recently released sequels. I do this to keep my PC costs in check and to get a true bargain for my entertainment budget. I think I picked up Bioshock for about $10, and got a ridiculous number of entertainment hours out of it. [↩]

One more in the gallery.

So we’re starting to settle into a bit of a rhythm with Rachel now. She’s pretty much sleeping in the early morning (this morning from like 3-8!), but this means she’s anything but sleeping from about 9PM until 1 or 2 in the morning. That’s a bad time for mental health.

Regardless, she’s still a sweetie.

And lest you think we forgot our other photogenic child…

(For those of you following on Facebook, realize that K has set up her notes to grab our blog feed automatically. Rather than harass you with all of my (Chris’) crazy rantings we’ve narrowed it to only grab the family update posts… like this one.)

As seen on actual ESD^[1] mandatory training material (emphasis mine):

“Static electricity is a simple form of electrical energy. Every time you walk across a carpet, touch a doorknob, and get a spark it’s because you were splitting electrons. When you move, you generate an excess of either positive or negative charges on your body. Upon touching something conductive, the excess electrons are trying to find an electron of the opposite charge in order to neutralize themselves. So, an imbalance in electrons creates a difference in potential, which may cause an ESD event that may cause damage to circuitry.”

This is so fundamentally wrong it just hurts my brain. First off, in the Standard Model of elementary particles, electrons are indivisible. Even if you could split them, doing so by casually walking across a carpet would result in a significant release of energy. (Note, the annihilation of a single electron would be essentially unnoticeable from an energy release perspective, but if it happened as easily as simply walking across a carpet, we would have serious problems.) The amount of charge one can feel dissipating on a doorknob is on the order of 10^18 electrons. If they were really combining with “electrons of the opposite charge” (aka positrons… or antimatter electrons) this would result in a significant antimatter explosion. Something on the order of 100-200 kilojoules. Enough to heat about 40 kilograms of water one degree. Or for the 10 grams in the tip of your finger… pretty much vaporization. (Somebody please check my math on that.) Regardless… ouch.

I sent a correction. I’ll be interested to see how well received it is.

1. That’s ElectroStatic Discharge for you non-technical acronym types. [↩]