by Carla Schroder
Managing Editor
Here we are at year end already, and for me the
pace is going to slow down a bit until after the New Year. I plan
to mix up some inside and outside activities, and rack up a
long-distance phone bill talking to family. What’s on your downtime
to-do list?This is a beautiful time of the year in my little corner of the
world. It is cold and crisp, the bitey insects are gone, and at
night the stargazing is prime. I plan to fool around with some
computer projects, get in a couple of hikes, and loaf. This is a
natural time of year for some contemplation and renewal, and while
I’m fresh out of deep thoughts, loafing sounds good. I have a
paycheck and a home, which is worth spending a few moments being
thankful for.It’s a good time to refresh connections with friends and family.
I have a large extended family–they’re everywhere. We’ve lost a
few recently, and there is also a growing new generation. I’m a
great-aunt eight times over, which is a bit mind-blowing because my
great-aunts were frail little old ladies. I’m not frail and dangit,
I still have a couple-three good years left.Multicore Upgrade
The great Upgrade the Studio Computer project, which I have talked
about in previous Editor’s Notes, is on hold for now. I was
investigating saving some money by upgrading from a single-core
Athlon to a multi-core Athlon or Phenom, rather than going to
Intel. Unfortunately, my motherboard has some limitations that get
in the way. It’s an AM2+ board, but the CPUs that I like are AM3.
Theoretically a BIOS flash would add AM3 support, but I’ve been
down that road before and it’s chancy, and I don’t feel like
fooling around with it. Especially since most vendors have
restrictive CPU return policies, and I have to mail-order
everything.It’s tolerable for the time being; I’m going to wait until I can
buy an Intel Core Duo CPU and board, which are what I really want
anyway. Meanwhile, Newegg has some nice buys on quiet Antec cases,
like the Antec Solo, which is my current favorite mid-tower
case.Though that may take a back seat to some new power
tools–cordless lithium-ion tools are great. I’m sure I can invent
some reasons to justify having them.What’s on your calendar for the rest of the year?
This isn’t really a holiday greeting, but I think it’s a
wonderful sentiment to share:
