Every computer has a clock that beats out the working cadence of the CPU and the components that feed it. Each time the clock ticks - 2.26 billion times per second before Sylvia stepped on the gas - the CPU spits out another calculation. The quicker the clock goes, the quicker the computer runs. A pumped-up PC perks up any application. More to the point, it smokes the competition in a first-person shooter like Quake, which is really what this is all about. No one risks frying his CPU for a zippier spreadsheet.
A chip's rated speed isn't a hard-and-fast limit; it's just the clock rate at which the manufacturer guarantees optimal performance. Before Taiwanese motherboard maker ABIT released its IT5H board in 1997, however, tweaking that rate meant unsoldering a machine's original clock and installing a new one - a tricky operation that daunted even skilled technicians. The IT5H let you accelerate right from the keyboard. By typing a few instructions during the PC's boot cycle, you could change the front-side bus multiplier - the parameter that governs how fast the CPU communicates with main memory - and shunt more voltage to the processor.
ABIT's board appeared at an opportune moment. Soon afterward, Intel split its product line between the high-speed, high-ticket Pentium and the cheapo Celeron. Suddenly, users who mounted Celeron chips on ABIT boards could create a "virtual Pentium." The convergence of easy hacking and affordable hardware turned an obscure geek hobby into full-bore macho mania. Once they're hooked, overclockers kiss the budget good-bye as the compulsion to put the pedal to the metal smashes the usual restraints of time and money.
As Spider-Man learned, with great power comes great responsibility. The more electrical current a chip draws, the hotter it becomes. Without a cooling system, an overclocked CPU's delicate microlithographed circuitry burns out. Thus, cooling is an obsession among overclockers, who trade tips and post benchmarks at online hangouts like HardOCP.com (the Hard Overclocker's Paradise) and Futuremark.com.
Be sure to read Michael Kinsley's column on the Democratic opposition to Bush judicial nominee Miguel Estrada (either at Slate or today's WaPo, your choice).
Obviously, Estrada's real reason for evasiveness is the fear that if some senators knew what his views are, they would vote against him. However, this kind of high-minded bluster is a powerful weapon in the ongoing judicial wars. Over the past couple of decades, talk like this has intimidated many a senator who aspires to a reputation for thoughtfulness. And it does sound swell. Until you think about it.
Potential judges should not reveal their views on legal issues because a judge should have an open mind? Hiding your views doesn't make them go away. If the problem is judges having views on judicial topics, rather than judges expressing those views, then allowing people to become judges without revealing their views is a solution that doesn't address the problem. And if the problem is judges who fail to put their previous views aside, rather than judges having such views to begin with, then allowing judicial nominees to hide those views until it's too late is still a solution that is logically unrelated to the problem.
[T]he problem is how to keep a judgeship candidate's opinions hidden until he or she is safely confirmed for a lifetime appointment, and the phony issue of "prejudging" is a strategy for doing that.
...Judgeship nominations bring out the hypocrite in politicians of both parties, but the Republican hypocrisy here is especially impressive. When Bill Clinton was appointing judges, the senior Judiciary Committee Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch, called for "more diligent and extensive . . . questioning of nominees' jurisprudential views." Now Hatch says Democrats have no right to demand any such thing. President Bush fired the American Bar Association as official auditor of judicial nominations because the ABA gave some Republican nominees a lousy grade. Now Hatch cites the ABA's judgment as "the gold standard" because it unofficially gave Estrada a high grade.
The seat Republicans want to give Estrada is open only because Republicans successfully blocked a Clinton nominee. Two Clinton nominations to the D.C. Circuit were blocked because Republicans said the circuit had too many judges already. Now Bush has sent nominations for both those seats. Hatch and others accuse Democrats of being anti-Hispanic for opposing Estrada. With 42 circuit court vacancies to fill, Estrada is the only Hispanic Bush has nominated. Clinton nominated 11, three of whom the Republicans blocked.
Democratic Senators have begun a filibuster to block Estrada's appointment, and good on them, I say. It's quite simple, really...when Bush appoints conservative justices whose opinion isn't too far outside the mainstream--and who don't attempt to conceal their judicial philosophy--they generally get confirmed. The Senate's role is to advise and consent, not rubber-stamp every ideological nominee to a lifetime appointment.
The superb P.L.A. has spent this week examining Bush's record in light of his declaration that he represented a new era of repsonsibility in government, and the results are far from pretty. Dwight Meredith criticizes Bush's record of hypocrisy responsibility regarding:
And, of course, responsibility in general ("The Republican Era of Responsibility is quite easy to understand. No one except Bill Clinton is ever responsible.")
Some have complained that Bush skeptics like to use the term "responsibility" as a rhetorical club. I would submit that the fact that Bush himself insisted on the term--and his implication that he represented a higher standard of responsibility--makes it appropriate not only to judge him in that light, but also to apply the highest possible standards. If Bush's supporters don't like the way he looks in that light, I suggest they have no one but Bush himself to blame for setting a standard that he apparently wasn't willing to live up to. It's a pity that more Bush supporters aren't willing to re-evaluate their opinion of him in that light, but that's a matter for individual decision.
I disagree with some of this WaPo analysis of Bush's tax strategy--for example, that his insistence on eliminating the inheritance tax "sounded reasonable"--but one key paragraph absolutely pegged it with regard to the Shrub administration:
Had Bush run on a platform to eliminate all taxes on investment income and to make America safe for inherited wealth, we'd be discussing the budget proposals presented last week by President Gore.
That statement applies to so many of Bush's proposals. Had he run on his current platform, he'd have been toast in 2000. And I think people are starting to catch on:
Just 38% approve of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy--– the lowest percentage since he has been in office.
BUSH’S RATING ON HANDLING THE ECONOMY Approve: Now 38% 1/23/02 [Ed: I think that should be 03] 44% 2/2002 54% 3/2001 55%
Disapprove: Now 53% 1/23/03 49% 2/2002 37% 3/2001 28%
I also liked this description of Bush's tax plan:
[L]ook at the president's proposals taken together, and you see what's going on. He's trying to make income from investments tax-free, which would radically transform the cherished notion of a progressive system -- that people who have done better, thanks to what this country has to offer, should pay taxes at a higher rate than the less fortunate. People get that nice glow contemplating how much this plan or that plan would save them, not realizing that the warmth they feel is the water temperature rising.
Let me rephrase that: Bush's policies revolve around the concept that if you work for your money, you owe taxes, but if your money works for you, you don't.
I sure didn't vote for this. Most of the people who voted in 2000 didn't vote for this. And now some of those who voted for Bush the first time around are realizing what they really voted for.
So this could be described as … enlightened? After all, it shows a lesbian couple overcoming fear and reproach. Perhaps there's something positive about the world's youth learning to embrace non-heterosexual pop stars.
But the story of t.A.T.u. and their sexual inclinations turns out to be even more mysterious than the capitalization and punctuation strategy in their name. The original creation myth went like this: The two girls, who are now age 17 and 18, are childhood friends who, in early adolescence, fell in love. They performed together in a teen band, then auditioned for one Ivan Shapovalov, who is billed as a filmmaker and former child psychologist. Shapovalov then packaged the pair for mass consumption, first in Russia, then Europe, and now the United States. (They recorded in Russian when they started out in 2000, but last year recorded a couple of songs in English, working with producer Trevor Horn on "All the Things She Said" and other tracks on the mostly English-language version of their album, 200 KM/H in the Wrong Lane.)
More recently, reports began to surface that the girls are not actually lesbians at all. Shapovalov was quoted by the British press referring to t.A.T.u. as an "underage sex project" and saying that he got the idea for the band after looking at porn sites. "At first, the idea was just underage sex," he told Blender, the music magazine, adding that he came to realize that this by itself wasn't enough. "Every time, the audience needs new images—for this project, new images were lesbian teenagers." In other words, t.A.T.u.'s place in the pantheon of breakthroughs in mass acceptance of gays and lesbians falls somewhere between a Howard Stern bit and the current Miller Lite "catfight" ad. Could you ever believe such a perfect surprise?
But the story of the Lolita couple's rise only becomes truly perverse when you consider how obviously flimsy the lesbian packaging is: Shapovalov and his charges have hardly bothered to persuade anyone that they're on the up and up. Even the band's official bio comes off as a parody of the Svengali manipulator formula that recurs through pop history.
...Even Malcolm McLaren would be impressed at the Great Lesbian Pop Tart Swindle.
It's Valentine's Day! My lovely wife and I plan to celebrate by going out for sushi for dinner (don't worry--we will pay), and perhaps a movie. But we've already begun observing the festival of love this morning. My wonderful bride baked me some chocolate-cherry muffins...mmm! For my part, I continued a tradition I began a few years ago...I'd bought a box of those kiddie paper valentines (Hello Kitty of course...neko neko! kawaii!), and I scattered a bunch of them about the first floor for the girls and Crystal to find. Cecilia really enjoyed looking for them, and she was very good at recognizing the ones addressed to her.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new computer worm has surfaced that purports to contain revealing photos of Catherine Zeta-Jones and other celebrities but actually installs a backdoor program that could allow someone to take over the computer, anti-virus company Sophos said on Thursday.
Users of the Kazaa file-sharing service and IRC instant messaging are at risk, although there have been no reports of infections yet, U.K. Sophos Plc. said.
The worm-infected file claims to contain compromising photos of female celebrities including, Zeta-Jones, Britney Spears and Shakira. Once the file is opened, a backdoor "Trojan horse" is downloaded onto the victim's computer.
The use of Zeta-Jones' name comes as she and husband Michael Douglas are waging a legal battle against a U.K. tabloid over unauthorized wedding photos, the company noted. Zeta-Jones was also recently nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her sultry role in the film "Chicago."
Just a few moments ago, the hit counter passed 16,000, thanks in part--once again--to visitors from Digby (more than 300 and counting!).
But I've been remiss in failing to recognize the regular visits from some of my favorite bloggers...Dodd, Alex (aka Musashi), anna, the Democratic Veteran, The Rittenhouse Review, Onye, Page and many others...I'm glad y'all find stuff here worth coming back for. And by all means, please come back again soon!
Update: My lovely wife chided me for not recognizing her regular reading of this blog. I looked to my referral logs for inspiration for that list, but I'm truly embarrassed and chagrined not to have mentioned her, and I hasten to correct that oversight forthwith.
Destroy All Monsters has published my first video game review, of Ridge Racer V for the PS2. I've written a couple of feature articles about video games, including my first-ever DAM article about anime abandonware and my recent wish list of old-skool games deserving a next-generation console upgrade, but this marks my first--but not last--review.
Since my video game collection is not L33t, Musashi generously created a new category--"Retro Reviews" of older, but still worthy, video games.
Here's a little-known fact about me: Back in high school, I appeared onstage at the Kentucky Center. I was in a Walden Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream; I played Theseus' steward Philostrate.
Last night, while having coffee with my lovely wife after the show, I noticed a TV turned to some hoops game and wondered aloud how the home team was doing. Well, according to today's paper , my alma mater suffered its second loss of the season last night. The Cards still have a respectable 18-2 record.
Marque Perry scored five of his 25 points in the final 13 seconds and maneuvered inside for the game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds to go as host Saint Louis upset second-ranked Louisville 59-58 Wednesday night.
Reece Gaines scored a season-high 28 points for the Cardinals.
This was by far the lowest scoring total for Louisville, which is averaging 84 points.
There's a little discussion going on with regard to my recent mention of Final Fantasy VII; several of my regular visitors have left comments about their favorite entries in the Final Fantasy series.
In some ways I enjoyed VII more than VIII. IX I quit about 1/4 of the way in. I am presently running around X doing the side quests before completing the game. It's fantastic.
Personally, I felt that FF IX was the best of the PSX/PS2-era Final Fantasy games.
The overwhelming angst of the main characters in FFVII and VIII got really weary, and X was thoroughly uninspiring. FF IX was a sendoff to the 'old school' FF games, and there was a lot of heart in that game.
I thought that VIII was the best of the PSX Final Fantasy games. It had the most interesting character development. They're all good, tho.
Personally, I tremendously enjoyed FFVIII; although I have only scratched the surface of VII, I expect I'll enjoy it as well. The only other Final Fantasy game I've played on the PlayStation is Final Fantasy Tactics, which I'm also enjoying. I've suspended playing for now, but that has more to do with the fact that my lovely wife gave me a PS2 than any fault in the game.
Speaking of Final Fantasy, it's possible to play the original Nintendo version on your PC via an emulator. c00L!
And if you're a Final Fantasy fan, be sure to check out the funny Web comic 8-bit Theatre.
Last night was a special occasion for my lovely wife and myself. I fixed a special dinner, and then we got out to see The Lion in Winter at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. I'd never even seen the movie, but I really enjoyed the play. Followign the show, we had coffee and dessert at a restaurant downtown. It was a delightful date.
