this is kind of old news, but flash versions starting with 10.1 now have hardware accelerated video playback, which can be nice in many cases..  It always used to annoy me how much CPU just playing some flash videos consumed, but now that problem is somewhat alleviated..  And we can make more use of those GPUs some of us spend $100′s on..  Two cool related utilities I found where

GPU-Z http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

and DXVA Checker http://bluesky23.hp.infoseek.co.jp/en/index.html#DXVAChecker

GPU-Z displays some info about your video card, and (depending on make/model/driver) will show some stats, like “GPU Load” or “Video Engine Load”.  DXVA support (Direct X Video Acceleration) is needed for Flash to perform hardware acceleration (in windows, of course.  I’m not certain of support for acceleration in other OSes).  Be sure to update your video drives and flash version to take advantage of this feature.

A while back, I had posted that the one food item I had never figured out was the (perfect) soft-boiled egg.. I’d run into many problems of various kinds every time I attempted them in the past.. But now, I finally figured it out! The problem was that I was focusing on the wrong variable.. The perfect soft-boiled egg is not primarily about how long to cook the egg, it’s about the right temperature for the water. You need to get the water to the temperature where the whites will harden, but the yolk will not fully cook.. I’m not sure what that temperature is, but I believe it’s somewhere between 80 and 90C. I have a handy digital meat thermometer which can help in measuring the water temp (which was very inexpensive). Get the water to around the right temp, then carefully place the eggs in the water, and then give it “adequate time” to cook (I cooked them for about 8 minutes, which worked fine).

Now, to figure out the right temperature exactly.

update – found this page which is interesting:
http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/science_of_cooking/cooking_temperatures.htm

(and also yes, I meant between 80 and 90C, though it seems doesn’t even need to be that high, and can probably be around 63 or 65C – though that’s questionable from a safety perspective).

Tonight while doing some reading, I came up with an analogy for the role of the federal reserve.  It’s by no means a perfect analogy, but hopefully it’s a lot more accessible to people, most of whom probably don’t really understand the role of the federal reserve and what it does.  Well, first off, the fed has a number of functions, and this analogy only describes one aspect of it’s functions, but hey, it’s a start, right?

If I had any idea that American Idol would give us Kelly Clarkson, I would have watched it eagerly during the first season. I love how on the radio sometimes they call her “our girl.” And it’s always fun to read stats like this:

“On January 28, 2009, it was announced that her latest single, “My Life Would Suck Without You”, had advanced from No. 97 to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in its first week of release, breaking the record for the largest leap to the position in chart history. She is currently the only American Idol contestant to have reached number one in the UK. She claimed number one on March 1st 2009 when “My Life Would Suck Without You” debuted number one on downloads alone.”
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Clarkson

I seem to have lost interest in life.. Except, I get inexplicably excited about the idea of cooking and having people over to entertain them. Work seems “just tolerable,” I don’t seem much interested in trading or the economy recently.. I haven’t done any reading for a while, stopped playing DDR.. I did get an Xbox recently, and have been playing Halo3 and some other things, but even that was just to “pass the time.” But I keep thinking of new recipes I want to try, and get excited about organizing the kitchen better and buying new kitchen stuff. I just bought some glass prep bowls (like they have on those cooking shows) yesterday, and am very excited about them. And some ramekins with little wicker baskets. These in fact:
Ramekins from Sur La Table

So cute!

I know not everyone follows the stock market and the economy, so for those that don’t, we’re in the middle of a historic decline. In the future, people will write books about this time and what went wrong, what could have been done to prevent it, etc etc. I can’t say how bad it will actually get, but so far the signs are it will be pretty bad. This next week, we may see the low for the year in the stock market, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to celebrate. An end of the year rally might still be followed by further decline in 2009 and/or 2010. The fact is, the stock market is a leading indicator of the economy. It tells us what people expect will happen in the future, and since the economy thrives or contracts on people’s expectations (eg if they expect wage increases, they spend more – if they expect to lose their job, they stop buying), then it’s an accurate predictor. The deep pessimism and losses in the market will be reflected in the economy, and by all accounts it won’t be pretty. My advice is to stay safe physically, and remember compassion. We may not be able to prevent the economic downturn, but we can remember to be kind to our neighbor.

why am I so moody?  I’ve been in a reasonably good mood most of this week.  Today, while going grocery shopping it turned markedly down.  nothing in particular happened either, I guess just the general flow of my own thoughts.  thinking how inefficient it is to just cook for myself.  and how much i’d enjoy having someone there to go shopping with me and enjoy whatever I’m going to cook.  and before long I was just thinking, life just seems so pointless.  so much effort and for what?

but perhaps that is the fundamental nature of life, ups and downs.  maybe i should just enjoy it.  maybe it means more nights of watching movies and playing video games.  i haven’t played any video games for a few weeks, just lost interest.  maybe it’s time for a new gaming phase.

recently I’ve been paying a lot more attention to movies, music, and tv shows that inspire me.  There is some amazing artistry in all these formats.  Yesterday I was at Best Buy, and one of their blu-ray demo disks had a cut from a live Dave Matthews show.  The second I saw it, I had that sense of “this is amazing, and I want to get it.”

I did find it, and it is quite incredible.  It’s very well recorded, both visually and auditorially.  It is recorded at the Radio City Music Hall, and the second you see it, it gives the impression of size, openness and grandeur.  I can see why it is nicknamed the “Showplace of the Nation.”  The camera work is professional and the recording is high resolution and looks excellent on a high-def display, a welcome change from those live DVDs that look like someone recorded it with a handheld camera and then digitized it into a low res mpeg movie before transferring it to DVD.  The audio portion of the recording is clean, with no distortion, and captures the guitar work and vocals excellently, as well as some of the noise from the audience (very important to give you a sense of the energy of the live performance).

The music is simply incredible.  Dave Matthews and Time Reynolds sound like they jam and practice together every day.  Not only are they awesome musicians, but they play together so well.  They sound polished and professional (a far cry from those bands that are so drugged they can’t even remember the lyrics to their own songs), and like they truly enjoy what they are doing and love the music they are making.  Every live music DVD should be this good.

I watched “Definitely, Maybe” tonight.  I also watched it last night.  I really liked it.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe it gives me a sense of hope.  That perhaps there are always more chances no matter how many wrong turns have been made.  It also had some nice music.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently.  Well, I’m always doing a lot of thinking, so that’s just redundant to say it, isn’t it?  I just actually wrote some comments here but maybe I will expand on some of those a bit..

One might say one of the very fundamental questions that bring people to spiritual searching is – what causes suffering?  I was struck with that same question myself today.  From several perspectives.  One is, why do I suffer, despite having many resources and many blessings?  But who knows, maybe I was just unlucky and born with poor brain chemistry.  But then, I noticed many other people seem to walk through life unhappy.  And these are people living in the richest country in the world.  Why, despite seemingly having reasons to be happy, do people still suffer through life?  Not – why do they experience hardship, but why do people suffer even when there is a relative lack of hardship?

One source of “suffering” seems to be the friction of human interaction.  Is that simply unavoidable?  Will there always be that friction, that annoyance, conflict, disagreement, anger, etc in human relationships?  I’ve noticed some of my relationships don’t really seem to have that friction.  Is that because I only hang out with them when I am “at my best?”  Is it because I make the effort whenever I am with those friends?  Is it just that those particular friendships are 1 in a thousand?

This actually reminds me of a book I read recently, called “blink.”  One section of it reported that research seemed to point to the being able to “thin slice” relationships – in terms of researches being able to identify specific emotions during a brief interaction, and from those few moments extract a very accurate gauge of the long term health/success rate of the relationship.  That would seem to point to every relationship having a certain set tone which isn’t easily changed.  If I have always argued with my dad – even when we didn’t want to, that likely will always be a part of our relationship.  If I have always looked down on a particular coworker, that is also likely to stick.

And I’m still not sure how much we can change.  Actually, perhaps I should ask myself, why am I so intent on changing?  Well, it’s always good to strive to learn and be a better person.  But what creates that sense that if I do not become better, then I am in danger?  Fear that if I do not learn and adapt, the environment and life will crush me?

Sometimes when I write like this and think about how deep my fears and neuroses are, I wonder how I’ve made it so far without having multiple breakdowns.  Or maybe I do have them but I just keep going.  Actually that’s probably the case.  It’s probably bad when I can see them coming.  Like when I think to myself – hmm, if I don’t change course, I’ll have to quit my job again, so let’s try to figure something out here.  Or – I’m starting to spend all weekend hiding out at home again, let’s re-evaluate if this is where I really want to be.  And when thinking about these things just makes me laugh, because I guess it’s easier to laugh about it than to think how sad it is.

Ok, but this reminds me of some other thoughts I’ve been having recently.  It’s getting late, maybe there’s not enough time to write them all.  But, when I started working, I would try to do what was best for the company.  And some coworkers used to tell me “Gilbert, you have to think about yourself more.”  I’d be like “huh???”  I need to think about myself more?  Aren’t we supposed to not be selfish?  But years later, I finally see their wisdom.  The majority of people in life are watching out for themselves.  Some with an “enlightened self interest” thankfully.  But if I do not watch out for myself, no one else will really.  If I were to (theoretically) spend my life taking care of others, no one would take care of me, and I’d eventually break down like a car that isn’t maintained.  Even if I want to care for others, I must still watch out for myself and take care of myself, because no one else is going to.  There’s no general rule of reciprocation.  Which is maybe where I had gone wrong in the past.  I assumed that if I was kind and generous, the universe would somehow balance that back with sending me kindness and generosity as well.  I guess that’s a very Karmic view of life.  Which I suppose, could still be “true.”  Maybe I need to pay off some debts from another life.   Yet really, I can’t complain about the actual circumstances of my life.  I have received many blessings.  Perhaps it’s just in my head and in my heart where I do not feel the kindness and benevolence of the world being returned.

And yet, it does not matter.  In the end, no matter what, I can not shake the idea that I am put on this earth to love and help my fellow man.  Even if there is no reward of kindness in return, even if I continue to experience depressions or emotional malaise, I must love and give.  Just as a car is created to be driven, a pan to fry, a lightbulb to illuminate, so I believe my purpose is to help my fellow man.  I have no reasoning for that, in fact it seems pretty illogical (if everyone’s purpose is to help each other, then why create anyone at all?), but it’s still there, and seemingly unshakeable.

ahh, life is so busy recently.  I don’t have time to post.  When I’m driving to work, I think about all these ideas and thoughts and stuff I would probably like posting..  But then, work, bleh, no time..

But at least now I have a helper in the datacenter.  We found someone from craigslist to help with all the little stuff which I had claimed all along would be much better for us to hire someone for $25/hr or whatever to do than have me do it.  Now I can worry about all the other things we have to get done, instead of spending hours per day just cabling servers, labeling them, installing shelves and racks etc etc.

And I’m still looking forward to when this thing is done and I can transition out of full time.  I’ve been happy with how things have been going with my trading still.  The Dow is down almost 1000 pts from it’s high about a month ago (almost 10%), but I’m up 3% or so since then.  But maybe I’m just lucky!  I still have a lot to learn, but it’s so fun and interesting to learn.

One of my most recent trades is a pair trade between Honda (HMC) and Ford (F).  The summary version of what a pair trade is you go long one stock and short the other one.  Guess which one I went long on.   For those that don’t know, I really like Honda.  And in fact what I was reading about Honda just before I started this post is what motivated me to post tonight.

This month, Honda announced (essentially) a beta program for their new FCX Clarity.  What makes this special?  This is a fuel cell vehicle, a highly efficient type of car which runs on hydrogen, and produce no emissions except for water vapor.  This brings the grand total of retail (non prototype/concept) fuel vehicles I believe to 2, the first being the first generation Honda FCX.  The other amazing part is they are introducing a hydrogen “network,” a set of three Honda dealerships where you can fill up on hydrogen.  Because, as you may know, hydrogen isn’t one of those things you can easily go out and just buy at the store or gas station.  They are also pursuing a home refueling hydrogen station, which would make a fuel cell vehicle much more practical.

This isn’t the first time Honda has been so forward thinking, in terms of environmentally and the global energy problem.  To make the effort to bring such a vehicle into the retail market is a fantastic way for them to lose a lot of money (hence why you don’t see every car maker producing fuel cell vehicles, etc), and they knowingly lose money in order to pave the way for the future.  They also sell the (to my knowledge) only retail natural gas vehicle, the Civic GX.  (You can get conversions/etc on other cars, but no other vehicle comes off the factory line able to drive on natural gas).  And Honda helped support the development of the Phill home natural gas refueler.  By purchasing a small appliance, you can easily and conveniently fill up your Civic GX while it’s parked in the garage overnight.  That’s actually _more_ convenient than going to the gas station.

Another thing about Honda is if you walk through their dealerships, for the past 10 years or so, it seemed like every car had one of those LEV or ULEV or SULEV stickers on them.  I seem to remember even the NSX and S2000 (their sports cars) have some sort of LEV status.  Going back even farther, during 1992-1995, you could buy a Civic VX.  The Civic VX was a hatchback that got 50 mpg, that was over 10 years ago, without being a hybrid.  They stopped producing it because not many people bought it.  The 1989 CRX HF could get 50 mpg (in a slightly less useful 2 seater configuration).  In 1975, Honda introduced the CVCC engine, a special engine design which was exceptionally clean (it could pass the emissions standards _without_ a catalytic converter).

So, I’ve always felt Honda was a little ahead of the times, their specialty in making clean, efficient economy cars has sometimes made it a challenge for them to thrive during the boom times when Americans were demanding bigger and bigger cars.  But, perhaps their time has again come.  Reports differ, but it is said the Ford F-series has been the best selling vehicle in the US for somewhere around 17 years or more.  No longer, last month, the Civic, Corolla, Camry, and Accord all came in above it.  In this article you can read just how huge a gain the Civic made in sales.  There has been a huge shift finally to smaller and more fuel efficient cars.  And, take note, this may be a sign of a deeper shift in the American psyche.

It is possible this (among many other signs) is an indication we are heading towards a larger recession than I have ever witnessed in my adult life (which admittedly isn’t that long, but I can’t compare to what I’ve never seen, right?)  I’ve always felt the cycles in a market economy are actually driven by some sort of mass social sentiment (there are schools of economics based on this theory as well).  It’s possible we are seeing a shift towards retraction, conservation, less, reduction, etc – which will likely lead to a contraction in the economy.  Not permanently of course, but it might last a while.  Do I really know?  Of course not, this is just a premise.

Ok, since it’s now 4am, maybe I should attempt to sleep.  Good night!