Happy birthday, dakoopst and bigredpaul!

Congrats to the birthday boys on surviving another year! :-)

Happy birthday, dakoopst and <user site="livejournal.com" user=

Congrats to the birthday boys on surviving another year! :-)

Thanks for the Memory!

My XP box has been a little sluggish with 512 MB of RAM... tolerable but slower than it should be. My Linux box is running 256 MB of RAM very nicely but the Linux package I'm planning to experiment with asks for a full gigabyte. My 512 MB iMac has always been slow but the additional burden of the growing MP3 library in iTunes and photo library in iPhoto makes both those applications teeter on the brink of unusable; serious multitasking isn't practical.

Since I've decided not to spend $2k for a Mac Book, I did a little online shopping yesterday to get the current toys up to par.

• Two 512 MB DIMMs have been ordered for the XP box, taking it to its maximum 1 GB capacity. I'll probably give away the two 256 MB DIMMs currently installed as I have no use for them.
  
• A 1 GB DIMM has been ordered for the Linux box. The existing 256 MB DIMM will likely stay in place so long as the mismatched densities don't cause performance degradation, otherwise it's history too.
  
• The iMac is tricker. There are two memory slots currently occupied with 256 MB SoDIMMs, one easily accessed in the bottom and the other accessible only with major and seriously complicated surgery. I've decided to leave the deeply embedded 256 MB unit in place and swap the easily accessed 256 MB SoDIMM with a 512 MB version. The RAM will only be expanded to 768 MB but that's a 50% improvement over the current level and 75% of the hardware's theoretical maximum. That should buy enough performance to reconsider the Mac Book next year.
  

Now to wait for all of the toys to arrive...

Thanks for the Memory!

My XP box has been a little sluggish with 512 MB of RAM... tolerable but slower than it should be. My Linux box is running 256 MB of RAM very nicely but the Linux package I'm planning to experiment with asks for a full gigabyte. My 512 MB iMac has always been slow but the additional burden of the growing MP3 library in iTunes and photo library in iPhoto makes both those applications teeter on the brink of unusable; serious multitasking isn't practical.

Since I've decided not to spend $2k for a Mac Book, I did a little online shopping yesterday to get the current toys up to par.

• Two 512 MB DIMMs have been ordered for the XP box, taking it to its maximum 1 GB capacity. I'll probably give away the two 256 MB DIMMs currently installed as I have no use for them.
  
• A 1 GB DIMM has been ordered for the Linux box. The existing 256 MB DIMM will likely stay in place so long as the mismatched densities don't cause performance degradation, otherwise it's history too.
  
• The iMac is tricker. There are two memory slots currently occupied with 256 MB SoDIMMs, one easily accessed in the bottom and the other accessible only with major and seriously complicated surgery. I've decided to leave the deeply embedded 256 MB unit in place and swap the easily accessed 256 MB SoDIMM with a 512 MB version. The RAM will only be expanded to 768 MB but that's a 50% improvement over the current level and 75% of the hardware's theoretical maximum. That should buy enough performance to reconsider the Mac Book next year.
  

Now to wait for all of the toys to arrive...

Weekend Report

The weekend has gone by very quickly.

Much of Saturday was spent shopping for RAM for the computers, followed by shopping for snacks & refreshments for Sunday's square dance workshop. It didn't take a lot of effort but accumulated sleep deficit and an early rise in the morning made the day drag on.

Despite a desire to crash early and sleep the evening away, we instead headed to Arlington for a fellow square dancer's 40th birthday. He attended mine the prior week so we felt more than a little obliged to return the favour; that, and he's kinda hot. :-)

Sunday's square dance workshop went rather well. I was surprised to have nearly 20 dancers volunteer to be checkers; three did cancel this morning while we were setting up the brunch & refreshment table but we still had a houseful.

Dayle Hodge was largely pushing us through the paces for flow and smoothness of calling. The format was a little different from our prior workshops: this time, he had kent4str and me call patter for 8-10 minutes each. Each time we completed a figure, the square would dash off the floor and another would quickly form up; the dispatched square would then quickly write up any comments related the just-completed figure, critiquing it for flow, smoothness, timing, choreography and general feel. Dayle would sort through the notes and add his own comments and suggestions after each tip.

Generally speaking, the workshop went well. kent4str did some of his best calling ever IMHO, and while I wasn't feeling particularly energetic or creative, I think I acquitted myself adequately. Most of the dancers and Dayle had generally positive comments so I'm content currently.

Hosting and being on-stage for several hours took more energy than I thought: as soon as the leftover food was put away, I wrapped up in a cozy blanket in front of the TV and fell asleep, happily lost in a half-hour nap.

The coming week is going to be busy: C1 dancing Monday and Wednesday, dinner with a friend Tuesday and AC/DC Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Whee!

Weekend Report

The weekend has gone by very quickly.

Much of Saturday was spent shopping for RAM for the computers, followed by shopping for snacks & refreshments for Sunday's square dance workshop. It didn't take a lot of effort but accumulated sleep deficit and an early rise in the morning made the day drag on.

Despite a desire to crash early and sleep the evening away, we instead headed to Arlington for a fellow square dancer's 40th birthday. He attended mine the prior week so we felt more than a little obliged to return the favour; that, and he's kinda hot. :-)

Sunday's square dance workshop went rather well. I was surprised to have nearly 20 dancers volunteer to be checkers; three did cancel this morning while we were setting up the brunch & refreshment table but we still had a houseful.

Dayle Hodge was largely pushing us through the paces for flow and smoothness of calling. The format was a little different from our prior workshops: this time, he had kent4str and me call patter for 8-10 minutes each. Each time we completed a figure, the square would dash off the floor and another would quickly form up; the dispatched square would then quickly write up any comments related the just-completed figure, critiquing it for flow, smoothness, timing, choreography and general feel. Dayle would sort through the notes and add his own comments and suggestions after each tip.

Generally speaking, the workshop went well. kent4str did some of his best calling ever IMHO, and while I wasn't feeling particularly energetic or creative, I think I acquitted myself adequately. Most of the dancers and Dayle had generally positive comments so I'm content currently.

Hosting and being on-stage for several hours took more energy than I thought: as soon as the leftover food was put away, I wrapped up in a cozy blanket in front of the TV and fell asleep, happily lost in a half-hour nap.

The coming week is going to be busy: C1 dancing Monday and Wednesday, dinner with a friend Tuesday and AC/DC Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Whee!