Beltaine

I forgot to publish this Beltaine message on May 1 so as a service to my many readers, I am posting late.

Beltaine has arrived at the Bruig and, as usual we practiced the required fertility rites as prescribed by the Druids. All went well.

We started by feasting on spring pork and drinking heady coffee before retiring for a night of frenzied copulation. Tradition allows us to choose another partner(s) without shame on Beltaine but we partook of our pleasure within the bounds of matrimony.

At dawn I presented my wife with a lovely bouquet of Beltaine flowers (lillies) that I grew in our fertile flower bed. Then we feasted and fertilized until sunset when we performed the ancient animal purification ritual. (Note: we didn't purify ancient animals, just young ones and no animals were harmed during the ritual, well, fur was singed but nothing that required a vet).

At dusk, we heaped up a pair of great bonfires and herded the animals between the fires to purify the parasites from their fur. The chihuahua balked and was finally dragged between the fires with the help of a leash. Her enormous eyes bulging as she trembled in terror. Cloe, the dowager Maltese, was lured between the fires with yummy dog treats with only minor singing of her white pelt. Toby was tricked between the fires with a laser pointer, barely noticing the flames. Cat had to be tricked into a pet carrier and carried between the fires as she hissed and spat. Thus concluded the Beltaine ritual 2009.

We'll see if the fertility ritual bears fruit. Hopefully our garden, animals and my comely wife's womb will all be productive this year.

Three post in one Day! Why?

I've been looking for work since October. I had a job offer and should have started in January but the company that wanted to hire me had their principle customer go balls up. Now they're waiting for a government handout. So...so am I. Well, actually another government bailout, because I've been drawing unemployment for nine months while I look for work that doesn't exist here in middle America (once the center of manufacturing of the world, now a rusting superfund site)! So I'm just waitin for the President/CEO/messiah to extend his golden hands and hand over some of that freshly printed money to a company so a job can be created just for little, ole me! Sorry, my thighs were tingling just imagining ....

Oh, and by the way, my former employer(s) terminated both pension and medical benefits. So if I ever get to work and then am able to retire, then I'll get dimes on the dollar (also tax payer subsidized). So, after 37 years experience as a skilled semiconductor professional, I'm sitting at home on the public dole wondering if I'll ever work again. Once a month I "checkin" with bureaucrats who hector me to go to school to "update my skills". Odd, since the few potential employers that respond to my submissions say I'm overqualified (code for too old). But you never know, I could go to school to become a green-bio-molecular-gynecologist before I'm 70! I could specialize in wind turbine breast augmentation and treat green yeast infections in boomer wetted spaces using vaginal stem cell replacement technologies that they're teachin down at the community college.

Well, ya old fart, move to Califorie, that's the land of opportunity you say? In my depressed auto community houses aren't selling for half their assessed value. I guess I could toss a lifetime of equity in the trash can to add to all the other abandoned potential meth labs in town. But that doesn't seem right. Somehow. On several levels. Then I could move to Californie to stand in the unemployment line with half the population of Mexico as the bear state sinks beneath the waves of utter bankruptcy.

Bitter? Nooooooo! My blog posts are widely read for my sober analysis and darnit, people just love me. Why, Sitemeter says I get as many as one 00:00 second visit/hits per week. So I thought I'd share my feelings on this rainy Thursday. If you are an employer, I'd do a damn fine job for you and keep my bitterness to myself at work. Seriously, I would never mention Mexican migrants or green-bio-yeast infections at work. I promise.

Pssst...if you are reading this, you need to get out more. Um, get a life, bathe, whatever.

PS...can you believe that this drivel will be stored on magnetic media for a millenia? Who exactly cares what I'm thinking or feeling? Echo...................

This Economic Downturn is Different

I've lived through several recessions but this one is different. I thought that the late 1970s, early 1980s recession was bad. This one will prove to be much worse, more like, but different than the 1930s depression. I'm no economist, but I am observant. This downturn is different than previous recessions and may linger for generations.

Firstly, the world has changed forever in the last decade. US financial and manufacturing preeminence has permanently declined. I believe that the US was in a special position at the end of world war 2 that enabled the US to dominate the global economy. The rest of the world was destroyed and the US was the only stable, functioning place to put your money and buy the finished goods that you needed to rebuild your country. The world war 2 generation saved and invested, worked hard and lived frugally enabling research and development, modern infrastructure and solid companies that provided a robust middle class. Promises were made based upon global economic conditions that existed only in the bubble of prosperity created by world war 2 and it's aftermath. Those conditions haven't existed for more than a decade.

But the world has not stood still for the past 64 years. Countries have rebuilt, developed and now compete, often out-compete, US firms. The next generation spent rather than saved, believed themselves entitled to their benefits and middle class lifestyles and has neglected research and development, infrastructure and has mostly avoided frugality and hard work.

We have adopted technology and improved productivity, eliminating millions of labor intensive and administrative jobs. But many of the replacement jobs don't pay enough to maintain a middle class lifestyle let alone pensions and insurance benefits. Meanwhile medical technology has blossomed making longer healthier lives possible but at very high cost.

So here we stand with high expectations and limited means. The pie is shrinking yet we want to keep our lifestyles and entitlements. An impossible dilemma!

The idea of putting people in their own home is admirable. Surely people would be more productive in an ownership society. People would take care of their own home better than a HUD apartment and work to make their community a better place to live. Extending credit to marginally worthy people would power the consumer economy and raise all boats. Giving state-of-the art health care to all regardless of ability to pay is both moral and establishes a sense of community. But who will pay for all this?

The US economy took on more than it could afford. Sure, the government can borrow money to pay for all this or can print money if it there isn't enough available to borrow. Americans seem to have always expressed a sense of boundless limits. We can do anything if we set our minds to it. But is there a limit?

This downturn is different. We are putting skilled, experienced 50 year old men on the curb like sacks of garbage. Companies say "We don't need your experience because we aren't going to make anything here anymore". Companies terminate pension plans, cancel medical coverage and line up with their hand out to the tax payers to bail out their already hollowed out enterprises. But just who are these tax payers? Are they 30 year olds living with mom and dad or are they 50 year old men making middle class wages? With all these 50 year olds out of work (and often on the public dole)
who is going to pay for the bailouts?

In previous downturns, companies kept their skilled, experienced workers. This time around they are put on the street because the management knows that this time, they aren't going to do these jobs again. Better to keep the low paid, benefit poor, healthier younger workers until they move the work to Zimbabwe.

So we have all of these 50 year old men, who should be in their peak productivity years at peak salary on the public dole, with their pension, life savings and medical benefits gone. They will not be saving for investment in research and development, building companies or infrastructure improvement. They will not be participating in the middle class, consumer economy. They will not be paying taxes to pay off the enormous debts accumulating on the US balance sheet. Who, excatly will pay for this?

Now the rulers in Washington have decided that we need national health care. This benefit will be added to the already insolvent social security obligations that are on the books. Exactly how do these czars think this can be paid for?

I can see the future of the US and it is bleak. The 50 year olds will blow through their savings and their inheritance that their parents accumulated in the post war years, as well as all the money that Washington can borrow just to survive. When this generation passes it will leave a legacy of debt and servitude to our children, and generations to come. The exceptionalism that was America will die soon thereafter. A great shame on all of us.

Perhaps the only bright light is that future generations will have to live and work as hard as our forbears did, and build the character of our forbears in the process.
That is, if our descendents have enough freedom remaining to wrench themselves from servitude of the coming feudal society that is settling around us.

May God have mercy on our wicked souls.

Controlling Computer Temperature

We run three modern computers on our network here at the Bruig that are located in less than ideal environments. Elevated temperature slows performance and shortens lifetime so I decided to investigate and control temperatures without spending a lot of money. I've found a few successful strategies that result in CPU and hard drive temperatures of about 30C, motherboard temperatures about 35C and video card temperatures of about 55C that will keep the Bruig's machines fast and long-lived.

Hardware
I build my own computers and have found a few vendor components that I prefer due to cost and reliability. All of my cooling work is specific to my machines and the components used.
I use Intel socket 478/775 processors, Corsair memory, ASUS motherboards, Antec mid-tower cases and Nvidia video cards in all my computers. I have had great results cooling these components with Zalman CPU and video card fans, Antec case fans and iStar hard drive heat sinks.

Heat Sources
The video card seems to be the greatest source of heat in the case after the power supply (which has it's own cooling fan). Video cards like to operate above 55C and unfortunately must be installed in a manner that makes heat removal difficult. These cards sit low in the case, upside down which holds heat load in the case. The CPU and memory are also significant heat sources, operating above 30C and above 50C under load. High speed/capacity hard drives also add heat load to the case usually running above 30C.
In an well ventilated, ideal environment these temperatures can be acceptable but if case airflow is poor due to overhead bookcases and such, it is necessary to augment OEM cooling strategies.
Dust is present in every environment and acts as an insulator on fans and components. It is critical that you open your case at least twice a year and carefully vacumn away accumulated dust from case intakes, intake filters if present, fans, heat sinks and wherever else you may find it. At least once per year, blow dust out of the power supply, fans and heat sinks as vacumning won't get all dust out of components.

Investigate Computer Heat Load
Just adding more fans or bigger fans is not necessarily productive. You need to establish airflow and negative pressure within the case to facilitate heat load removal.
First, make sure the case has adequate air intake of cool room air. Provide a few inches of clearance around all case air intakes so the machine can draw room air. Also make sure that hot air can escape the rear of the case and not get recycled back into the machine. If hot air is trapped under a bookshelf then use an external fan or vent to move the hot air elsewhere.
Next, install temperature monitoring software such as Speedfan to determine what temperature your computer components are operating. Use the available log files generated by the application to research temperature over a period of time to determine cooling opportunities. This will keep you from fixing problems that don't exist.

Improving Video Card Cooling
Most video cards have OEM cooling fans that do a reasonable job cooling card components. However these fans don't do well removing heat from the case. Often you can improve heat transfer out of the case by adding a PCI slot fan under the video card or adding a variable speed case fan to increase airflow through the case.
In one of my computers, I installed a 120 mm variable speed case fan in the case OEM location then added a 80mm variable speed case fan under the video card by removing the case PCI slot covers and fabricating a cover plate with holes to vent hot air. This approach keeps my video card below 60C even while playing BF1942 for hours in the non air conditioned workshop in August.
If the video card fan and heat sink look undersized and appear to be ineffective then consider adding an aftermarket assembly. Zalman makes wonderful all copper heat sinks with a variable speed fan that moves lots of air without too much noise. Make certain that the Zalman unit will fit your video card and that you have adequate slot space then carefully install this fan assembly. You will notice the improved temperature and performance stability!

CPU Cooling
All CPUs have OEM heat sinks and fans that often do an adequate job keeping your CPU alive and performing well. Pentium 4 and newer CPUs run at elevated temperature and will slow down and fail if not cooled.
I have added Zalman copper heat sinks with variable speed fan controllers to all my computers. These units provide a large surface area to dissipate heat of the CPU, memory and the motherboard as well. The variable speed allows you to balance cooling with noise and tune the cooling for seasonal differences.
The only downside to these units is that they are heavy and can damage the motherboard when the computer is moved. So great care must be taken if you move the computer.
The Zalman CPU fan keeps all my CPUs operating at about 30C tyically and under 50C under heavy load in non air conditioned spaces. The CPU never bogs down under load due to overheating and will still be running when obsolete.

Motherboard Cooling
Motherboard cooling is often overlooked and often is monitored as case temperature. It is not! Since all the computations must run through this component, it is important to keep all motherboard components, including memory, cool.
It is not unusual for motherboard temperature to run 10C above CPU temperature. This can lead to slower buss speeds, increased case heat load and component failures.
I use Corsair memory with heat sinks and use the Zalman CPU fan to keep memory and motherboard cool. I get stable motherboard temperature 5C above CPU temperature using this approach.

Hard Drive Cooling
High speed/high capacity SATA hard drives run hotter than the old IDE drives. Microsoft operating systems and internet use punish these drives when the computer is on (and here at the Bruig all machines are on 24/7 365 days a year).
I use the iStar aluminum heat sink to dissipate drive heat and keep temperature at or below 30C. The massive, one piece aluminum sink wicks away heat as air passes from the front of the case in a 5.25 inch bay and is ejected from the case, principally by the power supply fan. I prefer to keep an open slot between drives to help the iStar do it's work.

Case Cooling
The power supply and case fans must maintain a negative air pressure in the case to help CPU and video fans do their work. Test for negative flow by resting your hand on case air intakes. You should feel a draw on the part of your hand touching the intake. If you feel nothing, then you need to increase case fan size or speed.
You want to pull air from the case, not push air into the case. I've found that case input fans typically only cause turbulence in the case and work against your CPU and video card fans.
Antec make great double ball bearing, tri-speed fans that you can adjust to meet your needs. These long life fans are relatively quiet, cheap and reliable.

Miscellaneous
The bundle of power cables in the case are useful but can seriously impede case air flow. I've found that it is helpful to re-bundle cables and move them out of the airflow when possible. SATA drives vastly improve airflow by eliminating the big flat cables and you can further improve air flow by tucking those unused power cables behind the 3.5 inch drive bays.
Get rid of any components that are not being used such as modem cards and floppy drives. These components use power, generate heat, collect dust and restrict airflow.
Disconnect unused USB devices. USB devices use power, generate heat and shorten computer component life.

Conclusion
Spending a little time investigating your computer, keeping it clean and cool will pay off by extending the life and maintaining the performance of the machine that we've all grown dependent on. Technology has stalled and we can expect that the computer we now have will be viable for a number of years. You can protect that investment with some due diligence maintenance and about $100 in material.

Note:
I have no connection with the vendors noted in this article other than I am a long time faithful customer who has had great experiences with these products. Special kudos to Antec, who have delivered gold star customer support for years.