Category: Geekery

Second and Third

Reader’s Choice Awards–PDA Software Winner

So CoPilot came second in the poll, which is a real vindication of this wonderful unpretentious and understated free software. Coming second to the flashy, expensive and hugely processor intensive Anywhere WX (which only runs on PocketPC because of the processor requirements) is no shame. If I had a PocketPC I’d probably want AnywhereWX or WXWorks.

But I’m surprised to see that number three is another piece of software that I’m slightly involved with – GPSPilot.com’s Fly 5.1. GPSPilot.com are the nice people who bought me my lovely Sony Clié as thanks for doing my waypoint generator for them. It appears that they’re paying more attention to the connection to AeroPlanner than to my generator now, so I probably won’t be able to convince them to replace the Clié now that it’s getting kind of battered looking. Oh well.

If I can just convince Vicki to replace her clunky old Handspring Visor with a Palm Tungsten E, I might be able to get away with buying a new PDA next year. I’m so crafty it hurts – too bad I’m letting the cat out of the bag here.

I apologize to Plane and Pilot Magazine

In a previous blog entry, I asked people to vote in a Plane and Pilot magazine poll for some software that I’m involved with. In that, I made an ironically cynical remark that “it can’t win against software that actually buys advertising in the magazine” – memories of the notoriously biased and down right fraudulent “Runners World” shoe surveys on the late 1970s and early 1980s and the like dancing in my head. Well, it turns out that Plane and Pilot Magazine, like most aviation publications, are straight shooters, and I insulted them gratuitously. For that, I apologize.

In the good news department, Plane and Pilot Magazine tells that we finished in the top five in the poll. Woo hoo.

Oh, and to give you another indication of why Plane and Pilot Magazine has gone way up in my estimation, the publisher himself posted a comment in my blog pointing out the insult, but NOT threatening me or asking me to apologize. And that’s why I think they deserve the apology.

Incompetent sales people

You know, FrozenCPU.com has one, and only one purpose in life – to sell cooling (fans, heatsinks, water cooling) and customization (case mods, LEDs, window kits) supplies to people with high performance computers, specficially Pentium4/Athlon/Itanic/Sledgehammer systems. So you’d think that the staff would make it their business to know a few things about cooling Pentium 4 and Athlon processors.

I went there today (and it’s a bit of a drive, about 20 minutes each way) to pick up some cooling supplies.

One of the more important things I needed was heatsinks and cooling fans for my dual AthlonMP1800+ computer, my main server which I’ve ranted about several times. When I told the salesguy (and since they’ve got such a small staff, I assume he’s probably one of the two prinicples in the organization) what I needed, he asked if it was a 603 or a 604 processor. I’d never heard of that, so I said I didn’t know. I thought all Althlons were basically standard Socket 7 processors, but I think I remember something about “Palamino” and “Thunderbird” cores although I could be wrong about that. I thought “604” meant the pre-G3 PowerPC chip. I tell him I’ll find out and come back on Monday.

So here it is, 6 hours later, and I’m finally at my parents place in Oshawa where I can finally look at /proc/cpuinfo on my computer, and it doesn’t say anything about this 603/604 business. So I do a quick google, and you know what I find? 603/604 are sockets for the Intel Xeon chips, not Athlons. I didn’t know that, because I have no exposure to Xeon chips, having all of my Linux and Windows boxes running AthlonXPs, AthlonMPs and Durons. But it’s not my business to know what heat sink goes with which processor, it was this guy’s. And he failed miserably.

I suppose if a wasted 40 minutes in the car listening to Al Franken reading “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” is the worst thing that happens in a day, then it’s been a pretty ok day, but I’m still peeved.