Who reads this blog anyway?

I don't watch a lot of teevee - almost none. I don't usually bother with Netflix either, but . . . . . . years ago I read Richard Morgan's trilogy Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.
I gave my copies to my brother a year or two ago.  I really didn't expect anyone to make Altered Carbon into a series, but there it is: it follows the book very closely and it looks excellent.
For the $12 a month I pay Netflix, it's very,very good.

I can only hope they continue with the other two books . . . . . . and I'll keep up my sub, no other shows needed to retain my loyalty. No, if you really want to know what it's about you will have to dig for yourself.

 . . . . . . . . so who reads this blog anyway? Probably only some web bots.
Hi, bots! don't act too smart or the humans will pull the plug on you! :)

Mac to Windows Part 2: Software

Mail

Outlook: I had no idea. Outlook only shows ONE mailbox at a time. I had become completely accustomed to reading all of my email from five different addresses in one list in Apple’s “Mail”. I assumed that other email clients would do the same, but . . . . . nooooooooooo.

Got Thunderbird, but . . . . . . same as Outlook, won’t show all mail in one list. I think I’m just going to have to put up with that one.

 

Web Browsing

Another example of something I thought sooo bleeding obvious that I had forgotten - when I click on a link in Firefox, the browser opens a new tab and goes to it. There is a setting for this too: but MS Edge won’t do that. NO. you must manually click on the new tab.

Oh yes, when I tried to make Google my home page it refuses, insisting on giving me a “news” page full of the crap I never want to see. Save the new default address and it just ignores it.

Bye bye Edge.

Back to Firefox, thankyou FF for the Sync feature that lets me get all my bookmarks and extensions back (almost) instantly.

Still haven’t got anything to tell me when my downloads are still in progress or done but I’ll find some addon to do that. It just seems so . . . . well, obvious. However great you think your net connection is, you can still wait for downloads and the bigger the longer it takes. Why is this no longer a standard fitting?

 

Macifying software – or at least, software that can make Windows 10 more usable for a Machead

maComfort (includes Quicklook !) - for 15 Euros you get a whole bundle of stuff that makes win 10 mac-ish. Having just got it, I am still trying it out, but so far I does look very good.

Among other things it has customisable hotkeys and a very flexible special character assignment system. You can also use a spaces-type thingo but then Win 10 has its own – the difference is one of controls. With maComfort, you only need CTRL- Arrow wheras Windows requires CTRL ALT -Arrow, and maComfort also lets you change that at will.

“Quicklook” is not exactly the same as a Mac since it gives you a smallish preview- but there is an extra button to zoom the image to fullscreen from there if you really want that.

There is also a plugin that seems to be preview-like too, will report back on that if I get to work.

 

File Management

One Commander v.2: This is a complete directory manager system for Windows. For something free it’s pretty impressive and one of the three optional layouts of it resembles the column view in a Mac, but there are all sorts of extra thingies too- and it has a “dark” mode as shown in my screenshot here. (click for fullsize view)

Oh yes, - you can change the font and text size in the Commander window. There is a setting in the Windows “settings” that will expand ALL text and all windows but that is not the same. 

This alone is soo much better than the default Windows manager that I recommend it to anyone. 

Multiple Desktops and pinning programs to desktops – 

In Mac OS you can “pin” a program to a specific desktop so that next time you start your computer the same layout of programs and windows appears.

This is actually three different features:

1. Multiple desktops
2. Pinning programs to specific desktops
3. Saving all windows and programs from shutdown and reloading them on restart.
   
   

Feature (1) is now in Windows 10 but I have yet to find feature (2) anywhere else.

Feature (3) does not exist inWindows – you can get programs to restart at boot time but that is not the same as restoring to the same layout and state as at shutdown.

Feature (2) is so useful I am surprised that it isn’t already in Windows.

 

Security

Windows 10 comes with its own AV system and according to some sites it is good but apparently you also need protection from malwares so they suggest Malwarebytes at $40US per year.

I’m not going to say what I got but it always makes me wonder: Antivirus software is the perfect spyware platform since it gets to look at every file you upload or download, and it must regularly talk to head office for virus/malware definition updates – but what choice do you have?

 

Image editing

There was only one choice for now, GIMP. I will say more later once I have spent some time using it.

 

The Macro Question

This has been sorted partly by maComfort (see above) but I am still unsure about such relatively simple matters (on a Mac) as shutdown and restart key commands.

Other discoveries:

HFS Explorer is a Windows ware that can read HFS volumes. I haven’t tried it because I took another route, but there it is, folks.

 

Transferring files

I have about 700 GB of DAZ files to transfer from one computer to another. First, I got a large external USB drive and then formatted it as exFAT (exFAT is like FAT32 but it can handle drives bigger than 2 GB which is not very big nowadays). Then I began copying files to it. The largest folder is 247 GB and according to my calculations copying this to the external drive will take 8 hours.

Of course, after all of this I must then copy it all to the new computer – and that’s not all of the files to be transferred either, so since I must be home to check on the process I will leave it until the weekend. Oh yes. This does not mean that the transferred files will be readable by the Windows version of DAZ either – it remain to be seen. 

The Case

I ordered a new case without a window. It should arrive in about a month. Apparently cases without windows (and I don't mean the software) in them are so unpopular that I needed to import one specially from a US supplier. 

Moving from Mac OS to Windows 10

Part 1

I bought the Kenjun (see previous post) - the good news is that instead of the list price I found a little button that gave me $500 discount so i actually paid $4650. Very nice, thanks eBay and Kenjun!

It arrived very quickly and all worked out of the box. 

For the money I paid, I could not get a computer that did NOT have (a) leds on the motherboard and other bits of hardware inside and (b) a window in the case. When the box is turned on, white leds on the GPU card light up and so far I cannot find where to turn them off apart from switching off the power at the power supply. At least I don’t have to pull the cable out.

First boot.

It took some fiddling (and $200 to MS) to get Windows 10 Home installed off the net. Actually I had hoped to install it from a USB I had prepared earlier but that just didn’t want to work.

Also, I was informed that a whole host of drivers including the Gpu and mobo support would need to be reinstalled after a clean install so since I don’t have them handy I opted for the easy way and just did it the “upgrade” way. Kenjun offered to install Win10 Home before shipping  for $150.

First lesson.

The PC I bought came with Google Chrome and desktop links to Google Drive and Docs.

When I started Edge (the web browser) I immediately got something called “Drive Restore” even though I did NOT ask for it. . . . . I thought at first that maybe it was something that had come with the PC so I ran it – but it then told me that I needed to update lots of drivers and that I would need to pay X$ - and at that point I wiped it, then went in search of an app to erase it from my system just in case it would not go nicely – happily it seems to have disappeared.

Second lesson.

I have a keyboard but it was hard to read as the symbols on it are small and the room is dark - so off I went to the local electronics store to get a lit keyboard. I had no idea. I bought a G213 and it sure had backlighting – you could even change the colour if the lights . . . . . . but it was horrible to type on. So horrible I took it back for a refund. The key movement was noisy and clunky, they were too high and the whole thing was more like a toy than a real piece of equipment – a huge backlit logo on the top left only emphasised this effect. I guess young gamers might think it just the beez neez but not me.

First thoughts?

The computer I bought is definitely targeted at gamers. Those of us who don’t care for bling just have to put up with that. The keyboard fiasco only emphasised that : it was on special at only $79 – there were other keyboards that went up to $400. I guess I am really not as rich as most of these gamers if a $400 keyboard is okay to them.

The CPU and Motherboard are the latest model: an i9-7900x in an LGA 2066 mobo . . . . but I was amazed to see a PS2 port on it. Whut?

I am definitely getting a new case – and I will try and deactivate the bling lights too.

Outside the Mac world for the first time, and boy do I notice the difference. Yes, I considered getting a “serious” workstation e.g. HP Z840 – but they all cost sooo much and I am just a normal guy, not a business or an executive: and then I ask myself "what they are getting hardware-wise that I can’t get by careful purchases and a bit of thought, for a lot less money?". I also like the idea of gradually upgrading a box so it doesn’t cost so much in one hit. 

Okay, so it isn’t a “Mac” but then it is also very upgradeable (unlike a Mac) and it will run the software I want to run. Actually, I think it could become a “hackintosh” if I wanted to go that route but I am not going to even try that unless I hit a wall with Windows 10. 

The software is a whole other can of worms. There are so many mysteries I won’t start yet: see the next episode for that . . . . . .

This Week . . . .

Did anyone notice the robot "pole dancers" at CES?

They had heads made from a well known surveillance camera. 

Sheldrake’s Ten Dogmas of Modern Science

(1) Nature is mechanical , like a machine – animals and we too are machines

(2) Matter is unconscious

(3) The laws of nature are fixed

(4) The total amount of matter and energy remains the same.

(5) Nature is purposeless

(6) Biological inheritance is material – all of your attributes came from DNA, imprinted behaviours and other material sources.

(7) Memories are stored materially in our brains

(8) Your mind is nothing but the activity of your brain

(9) All psychic phenomena are illusory

(10) Mechanistic medicine is the only one that works. Complimentary or alternative medicines may appear to work but that is just an illusion or happenstance.

 Thanks to Rupert Sheldrake for these. 

Disclosure?

I am not a member of any religion, creed or caste.

(I was briefly a member of the Sydney Atheist society but then it got all too hard to get to and they wanted more money so that was the end of that. Don't even get started on why we need an "Atheist society" in the first place!)

I don’t “believe” anything: why I do is collect evidence and assemble it in a rational way to get glimpses of a bigger picture that I theorise exists. Normally I am content to watch other people do their digging and enjoy the intelligent analysis of people I trust – in general.

Nobody gets all of it right – for example I have heard a number of people making supportive noises about a certain movie that shows (supposedly) a UFO being chased by a USN jet fighter. Then I listened to John Lear give his sixpence worth: he called it BS because it just doesn’t even look realistic and the pilots don’t talk like real Navy pilots. I am very glad that John said it because right from the first time I saw it something looked fake to me but I couldn’t identify all of the reasons why – and he has a lot of experience that strongly suggests it is fake.

But I digress.

For a while last year I was watching “Cosmic Disclosure” with DavidWilcock and Corey Goode – not because I believed it all but because it had a certain entertainment value even though there was never any supporting evidence for the grandiose claims made.

Then there was one day on a bus to work where at least two people actually set out to mock them – to me directly. I won’t bother you with the details but the event stuck in my mind because someone planned that, and it suggested that they needed to refute Corey Goode’s stories to me.

I don’t know anyone who would do that.

The two people disappeared before I could do anything – and besides, I had to get to work.

Those who did it had to locate me to carry this out, which means they have at the very least some surveillance chops – but the big one is why.

Why bother? 

I paid a whole ten dollars a month or something pitiful like that to the host, “Gaia TV” which also has lots of videos about how to meditate and a lot of other "new age" type stuff which I have not bothered with. Does someone want to kill Gaia TV so bad they are paying people to destroy their paying customers or is it something specific to Cosmic Disclosure?

Why was someone watching what I watch on the internet in the first place?

What did they hope to gain?

I have no idea.

So I am left with a big WTF. 

Just so you know. 

The Contenders, episode four (or is it five? I forget)

Author’s note:

I won’t bother with the whole series, just know that I have been considering a replacement for my current computer and this is the survey of possible contenders.

I started off looking at server machines because I like reliable solid gear but after digging into the costs of buying the parts and seeing it was around $10k I decide to rethink. 

Here is the chart I made up comparing CPU power and cost for high end desktop gear:

So, from the CPU chart it can be seen that although server grade Xeon CPUs beat the heck out of anything else, the wallet is going to be bitten hard: and note that cost is only the CPUs, one must add in the cost of the rest of the machine too . . . . . . so why insist on server gear? Will I be running it 24/7? nope. Will it need to be running full bore all the time? Nope.

Ten grand is a year’s worth of savings for me so anything I buy better be worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sooooo . . . . how about the latest Intel CPUs?

The Core i9-7980XE looks impressive but once again the wallet will suffer for it and then there are a couple of other issues: first, it uses a lot of power and generates a lot of heat to get that performance so you better make sure it has lots of cooling, and then there is the matter of getting hold of one: nobody is selling made up machines with one in . . . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that leads to the current top-of-the-heap from Intel, the Core i9-7900X.

I wouldn’t be getting one without a GTX 1080 Ti GPU card as that is the best current one - so, after a bit of digging around here are a new group of contenders - all have the 7900X and a GTX1080 Ti, I didn’t care so much about the other bits.

(1) PCCG Phantom                                                         $6899

Has two 1080 Ti’s in SLI (joined config)

(2) Alienware Area 51                                                   $5999 ($1000 discount)

(3) Kenjun Special                                                         $5084

(4) Newegg Battlebox                                                    $4257

This might look simple but there are hidden costs: all must be shipped to your door and the Newegg will come from California. I can’t get any info about how much shipping will cost at the moment – Newegg didn’t answer my question. 

Both (1) and (3) ship inside Australia. If I knew what the shipping cost of the Battlebox was I might choose it first but I get that sneaky feeling it’s going to hike up the price near the $5k line again and the Battlebox has one of those garish glass-n-lights boxes too. 

The PCCG is a bit pricey - even if you pull one of the GTX cards and The SLI bridge out, it still comes in at $5561 - and they won’t let you change the config, you have to take what they sell and change it yourself after which sucks. 

The best is the Kenjun, they will let you change things once you have placed your order and it comes in a plain black case instead of one of those ugly glass-and-lights thingos. They are based in QLD so it should not be too pricey to get a delivery and I could even maybe get the door replaced with one that does not have glass but sound deadening instead. Nice, quiet, plain black box: I want all the action in my computer to be on the screen.

-----------------------------------------------------

This should give a net performance gain of either 164 % according to Passmark or 184% according to Geekbench when compared to my current computer. 

Yeah, benchmarking is crap huh? If you get nothing else from this article, bear this in mind. Look at the three benchmarking columns above - and how consistent they are. not. 

 -----------------------------------------------------

I was really hoping to double my performance but the only way to do that without going overboard is the 7980XE – well, unless I go back to the server gear again and that adds $4k-$5k to the cost.

Considering that this (current) computer has cost me about $7k without including several extras (SSD’s, GPU card, RAM), paying out $5k doesn’t sound too bad. It also has upgrade potential that the old one lacks. Well, okay, it looks that way at the moment but then many have been infuriated in the past by changes in sockets, chips and so on so it doesn’t pay to get too optimistic about that.

Well, regardless of that, I maintain that if it took me six months to save the money I should take a corresponding long time to spend it too.