Fearless Bit

I’m so tempted to buy one of these new ridiculously-fast SSDs and break out of the 64 gig limitation I currently have.

I found this to be an interesting list of things to think about using to improve how well you retain information or how quickly you learn.

I really like this post.  FTA:

I wouldn’t call ideas worthless, per se, but it’s clear that ideas alone are a hollow sort of currency. Success is rarely determined by the quality of your ideas. But it is frequently determined by the quality of your execution. So instead of worrying about whether the Next Big Idea you’re all working on is sufficiently brilliant, worry about how well you’re executing.

If you give a good idea to a mediocre group, they’ll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they’ll fix it. Or they’ll throw it away and come up with something else.

I’m downloading it now.  At 4 MB/s!

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-visual-studio-2010-rc-released-to-msdn-subscribers

New Super-fast SSD drives reviewed!  355 MB/s read, 215 MB/s write.  “Only” $800 for the 256 GB drive (a bargain in my eyes, considering I dropped about that much for my 64 GB Intel SSD).

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3118/crucial_realssd_c300_256gb_sata_6gbps_solid_state_disk/index.html

Intel and Micron start 25nm flash production; SSDs to get cheap, huge (via Engadget).

So now I have to wait for the iPad and these new SSD drives.  Where’s cryogenic sleep when you need it?

Food for thought …

• 6 Books Every Programmer Should Own
• The High Cost of Overhead When Working in Parallel
• Stability First… Then Speed!
• Inversion of Control: A Beginner Guide

I bought another one of these because I just couldn’t stand to have only one of them 🙂  I made a quick-n-dirty video to show what they’re like.

Micron is expecting to ship SSD’s using the 6 Gbps SATA interface in Q1 of 2010.  These are rated at 355 MB/s read and 215 MB/s writes and will come in 128 and 256 GB sizes.  Read more here.  *drool*

While shopping at Home Depot, I came across several Philips LED bulbs, including this Indoor Flood.  It was about $49 but I was curious, so I picked one up.

The first thing I noticed about this was how heavy it was.  It weighs 12 ounces (compared to 3.7 for my CFL Flood and 1.9 for my Incandescent Flood).  It’s also relatively small.  Check out the gallery below for the pictures.

This particular model can’t be used with dimmers but my Kitchen doesn’t have a dimmer so I’m quite alright with that.  It consumes 11 watts, which isn’t anything to write home about.  I was more concerned with getting the full brightness as soon as I turned the light on.  I can’t stand CFL warmup, especially when it’s cold (I live in New England).

After installing and hitting the switch, it took about one half of a second to turn on — which was a little weird.  It would be even more weird if all my kitchen lights were these LED Floods as you’d still have pitch black immediately after hitting the switch.  After a moment of weird, you’d be presented with 100% power, however.

This thing is bright, in the area it shines in.  You’ll notice in the gallery below that it doesn’t radiate like CFLs or Incandescents do.  Notice how much darker it is to the sides of the bar — especially the background area.  It’s also extremely white — not nearly as warm as any of my other bulbs.

The assembly gets rather hot — which was surprising.  However, it doesn’t radiate heat like Incandescents or even CFLs do.

I’m not entirely sure I’ll replace all my kitchen lights with these (another $150) — I’m worried I’ll have dark areas between each of the lights.  Besides the price, I think getting these things to radiate light better is important.