I began with the basic necessities first: the ThermalTake tower case and Antec Power Supply. I liked the ATX case with plenty of room for the motherboard and hard drive cages. The power supply is a good (orange) looking 750W with extra 6-pin plugs for Crossfire capable video cards.

Next, oddly enough, when I began the research about 5 months ago, I thought it was a good idea to buy the Kingston HyperX RAM because there was a rebate promotion at Newegg. Then RAM prices dropped dramatically, by almost half!  For sure, a painful lesson learned here. [Updated: Photo]

In the last 2 weeks, the shopping went into high gear, with the indication there were more online sale after Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  It was the time to start buying the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 motherboard.

In order to test the motherboard, I had to make a quick decision to buy the CPU.  During my research, I was originally going with lower end AMD Phenom II X6.  But I read an awful lot of negative reviews on the AMD. There are many glowing reviews on the Intel i7 2600-K. I decided I needed to spend the money on a much better chip.  The CPU is the brain of the operation, so it needed to be the best one.  The Intel happens to be good at overclocking without requiring much power and producing heat. Additionally, I also got the Cooler Master 212+ CPU cooler, with a large heat sink and fan, to cool it off.

Next, I had to get the video card.  This was an interesting decision that I had to make. The choices were high-end Radeon 69XX series, the recently discounted Radeon 68XX series, or go with new territory of Nvidia GTX series.  I also had to decide on getting a card with 1G or 2G RAM.  Since my 23″ monitor only has 1920×1200 resolution, I thought the 1G RAM version is sufficient.  Anyway, I decided to get the discounted ASUS EAH6850.  My strategy here is to get another one so I can link them in a Crossfire configuration, at a later day when prices have gone down.  I need to watch the prices regularly because if the supply is gone, availability will be scarce and prices won’t come down. It’s a lesson I learned from the last build with Radeon 4850.

Finally, I couldn’t resist the temptation to try out the latest craze: Solid State Drives.  It promises faster boot up time and operation. Reviews only said to stay away from first generation SSDs, so I ended up buying the more recent OCZ Vertex 3 90GB drive. I knew it’s going to be a big improvement over hard drives.  Also, in the future, I may be able to use this as a cache for RAID hard drives².

Part of this exercise is to discover the advantages UEFI “BIOS”.  Microsoft touted Windows 8 to take advantage of UEFI to secure the boot process.  It can also (possibly) speed up power-on bootup, as shown in their video.  Right now, I haven’t explored this possibility since there’s no Windows 8 public beta, at least not until February 2012.

The ASUS’s UEFI is quite beautiful.

I always overclock my CPUs.  With the new motherboards and CPUs, this has become an easy exercise.  I overclocked the i7 2600K from 3.4 GHz to 4.6, with relative ease. This P8Z68 motherboard made it painless: just change the multiplier and set everything else on Auto. It’s so easy, my Grandma can do it.

Of course, with overclocking, I’ll need a good cooling system.  Putting in the massive CPU cooler was not the only thing I needed for my overclocking adventures. I had to make sure the case has good air flow.  So I made sure there are three 120mm fans blowing in from the front.  I also sealed any holes on the sides and the top of the case.  Now, when the computer is on, it’s pretty noisy – even when I close the cabinet door, where I stored the PC. I’ll need to tweak the chassis fan speeds to make it more quiet.  It’s going to be a balancing act between better cooling and lower decibels.

But for now, I can get the CPU cores to operate around 70°C under full load³ at 4.6 GHz.  Later, I’ll go search for that holy grail of 5.0 GHz.

Here was my shopping list.  The only thing left to do is putting in another Radeon HD68XX based card for CrossFireX configuration.  I can definitely wait for the price to go down a little more.  Otherwise, I’m pretty much done with this setup.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

PC Build 2011

1. I still used rebates and looked for discounts, whenever I can, as the first rule of thumb.
2. Using Intel’s SRT software.
3. Using prime95

Related posts:

1. PC Build 2008: Part 1
2. PC Build 2008: Part 2
3. Building An HTPC

Both have a memorable impact in my life.

In Junior High, I was hooked by Apple when they made computers with “Hi-Res” graphics that looked spectacular (at the time). I asked my Dad to buy me an Apple //e. I sunk a lot of time playing with it – learning everything from doing school work, tinkering with computer graphics, and word processing¹.  I remembered visiting downtown Toronto and hung out at the computer stores along Queen St.  I remembered forming a Toronto Apple User Group with a bunch of friends I knew online via BBS, to talk about the latest hardware hacking and software recommendation.

Fast forward to 1990.  In University, I was doing a computer science major.  They introduced a C Programming class.²  I always wanted to learn a programming other than Fortran and BASIC, so I dove right in.  The text book I used was Kernighan and Ritchie’s C Programming Language.  I remembered it well, a clean white book with lots of text.  If you ask me now what was in it, I couldn’t recall, because of a couple of reasons.  One, it was over 20 years ago since I last read it.  Two, the book was written like a documentation. I like learning by example, and this book had very few of it.  I’m terrible at theories, so I tend to forget most of it.  Nevertheless, the learning experience was a good foundation.  I recalled spending hours in the computer lab doing an assignment on re-inventing a parser by making a version of Karel interpreted programming language. Also, learning C made me comfortable in doing hacks for Netrek servers in campus.

So the products both Jobs and Ritchie produced made quite an impression on me. As a geek growing up in front of computers, I can definitely appreciate their contributions. Their products were a part of my life – from my humble beginnings to my professional life.

RIP, Mr. Jobs and Mr. Ritchie.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Ritchie and Jobs: Thank You for the Memories

1. With a package called “Gutenberg“
2. It was a popular language at the time, until C++ and Object Oriented programming takes over.

No related posts.

I’m trying to break down what I need from a Smartphone:

Voice and Data service has to be reliable.

Having a good carrier is crucial, especially in emergencies.  I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas without a cell service!  I also don’t want dropped calls.  Service has to be consistent and available.  AT&T so far has a really bad reputation for dropped calls and poor 3G data coverage.  I made calls from my Verizon phone to my friends on the iPhone, and I kept getting dropped calls.  Calls between Verizon phones are fine.

Device has to be useful.

One word: Apps!  The more apps, the better.  Fortunately, Android based phones are getting more and more apps.  Competition is good.  However, the iPhone has a commanding lead with the sheer number of available apps.  There’s an app for everything, it seems.  That’s the reassurance that I want for my smartphone.

My top apps are (on the iPhone):

• Facebook
• Camera + Video
• Mail with Exchange connectivity
• Pandora
• Netflix
• Amazon Kindle¹
• Yelp
• Bejeweled 2

Interestingly enough, I don’t have a need for Flash apps because I’ll only need it for Hulu – which Hulu currently does not supported on Android devices.

The contract price has to be affordable.

Verizon is notorious for overcharging.  They put charges on everything and anything they can.  For data service, they want additional $30 for “unlimited” plan².  Family plan starts at $70 and add $10 per new line.  Total per month with Verizon: $110.

AT&T, on the other hand, charges a little bit less at $25 for limited data (2 Gb/month) , $60 for family plan and $10 per additional line.  Total per month with AT&T: $95³.

So all in all, Verizon is more expensive than AT&T.

As a comparison, I’ve looked at Sprint’s offering.  Monthly family plan starts at $130 for the HTC EVO 4G, plus $10 for “premium data”.  Sprint is obviously not even competitive in this case.

Conclusion

Other than data/voice reliability, it looks like the iPhone 4 and AT&T combination, have the edge.  They have 2 (out of 3) of my requirements.  I should not have to choose a device based on the carrier, but that’s exactly what I have to do now.   It’s too bad my choices are restricted like this.  The entire wireless industry needs to be more competitive: more choices and lower prices.

Photo Credit: Mashable

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Which Smartphone to Get?

1. iBook with PDF support will change this!
2. Verizon will not  have unlimited for very long.
3. With the limited data, I can potentially go over, especially if I plan to do video streaming, or using Skype over 3G.

Related posts:

1. Smartphone Woes
2. Ghetto iPhone Holders

Got my copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii!  The sequel was launched quietly, with not much fanfare, unlike the first one.  Nothing ground breaking except for a faster loading time and less story telling.  Since I’ve played the first Super Mario Galaxy enough times, I’m comfortable with the controls, and jumped right into it.  Covered the first two galaxies so far.  Looking forward to play some more.

Oh, here’s the awesome live music from the game’s intro:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEu-TfeDb3Y

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Got My Super Mario Galaxy 2!

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1. Smashingly Good
2. Head Tracking in 3D using the Wii

I prefer going “creative and cheap”.²

First, I started with a bendable stress toy.  I got it free from a training class I took a few years ago.  The flexible shape can hold the iPhone at many angles.  But, I can only make this work sturdy enough in landscape mode.

Then I started reading about the 69 cents business card holder from Office Depot that can actually hold an iPad.  It obviously works well with the iPhone, but I can’t adjust the tilt.

Lastly, I found the “Mini Magic Stand” that only cost me $2/pair, from Meritline.  Works quite well and it folds for easy transport.  Now I have 4 of these things sitting around the house.

The best part about these holders they’re good for any device, not just an iPhone.

I’m going to keep experimenting.  Being a geek (on a budget), I find this a fun exercise.  My next attempt will involve my daughter making a holder using LEGO and K’NEX parts.

Update: Mashable has an article on Macgyver-style iPhone stands. Suddenly, mine are not so ghetto after all.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Ghetto iPhone Holders

1. Over 180,000!
2. Going ghetto.

Related posts:

1. My Top iPhone Apps
2. Which Smartphone to Get?
3. Lunch Bits – Edition 28

Here’s my attempt to identify them:

1919: Popeyes

1929: Tintin

1930: Betty Boop

1935: ??

1950: Peanuts

1952: Astro boy

1959: ??

1960: The Flintstones

1966: ??

1969: Scooby Doo

1970: Josey and Pussycats

1983: He-Man

1984: ??

1985: ??

1986: Calvin & Hobbes

1987: The Simpsons

1993: ??

1995: ??

1996: ??

2000: Aqua Teen Hunger Force

I’m not able to identify some of them.  If you have any idea what they are, you can let me know via comment below.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Cartoons

No related posts.

(For one thing, the word “dweeb” is so old, it’s not cool to use anymore.)

I have an obsession with all things like Star Wars or Star Trek.  Then, there’s my constant craving for all things computers, big or small. I consider myself a geek because, well, I’m married with a kid, so I’m fine socially.

I don’t know if I want to be a nerd.  I don’t know if I want to live as a socially awkward individual.  I have  felt like a nerd once in a while – but after a good whack on the head, I wake up to reality again.

For more info, check out this cartoon strip.

Photo Credit: Great White Shark

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Geeks and Nerds and Dweebs, Oh My!

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Compared to the other developed countries, the US lags so far behind in bandwidth for affordable home broadband.  For the same $33, folks in Korea, Japan, and France will get more than 10 Mbps for sure, maybe even 100 Mbps!  Korea will offer Gigabit broadband by end of 2012.  That’s just mind boggling!

So who can help speed up the internet infrastructure here in America?  The government certainly is not helping with FCC’s latest “Broadband Plan“. The problem is the government’s lack of willingness to promote competition among providers.  For example, my house can’t get Verizon FIOS, and my other option is Time Warner Cable that suffers the same bandwidth limitations.

Enter: Google.

The name that represents the Internet is going to rescue select communities. By offering to install (or upgrade) high speed broadband fibers, they’re going to make those cities feel lucky.  Some folks call this a ballsy move. I call it Corporate America thinking ahead and giving back.  Considering most of Internet traffic is towards Google anyway, it’s a logical fit for most of us, the YouTube generation.

So I voted for my home city, Anaheim!   The competition is fierce.  I’m not sure if we can beat Topeka (now Google), Kansas!  Nevertheless. my fingers are crossed.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Hope for Google Fiber Coming to Anaheim

Related posts:

1. Ga-Ga over Google!
2. The Internet is 40 Years Old!
3. Smartphone Woes

The constraints are mainly function and economics.  I need a phone that’s useful.  I need a cell provider that doesn’t charge an arm and a leg.

I narrowed down the choices for the smart phones:

1. Blackberry.
2. Motorola Droid.
3. iPhone.

The Blackberry is, by far, the most recommended by my family and friends.  They love the device because it’s reliable, fast, and does the job.  This Christmas, I had a chance to use my Dad’s Blackberry Javelin.  He wanted me to configure Wi-Fi and install the Facebook app.  I found the physical keyboard to be small and somewhat clumsy.  The user interface is not intuitive.  Installing the Facebook app required some device authentications, which I was confused about.  Then the user interface was just too primitive¹!

In November 2009, Motorola released the Droid.  It’s a Google Android 2.0 based device that promised rock-solid performance.  I was excited and checked it out at the Verizon Wireless store.  My first impression was under whelmed.  The screen looks pretty small.  The physical keyboard is small and not quite tactile.  The user interface is clumsy, navigating between screens are not intuitive.  There’s no multi-touch screen.  App wise, it’s obviously bare, but the Facebook app that I saw had no clear logout feature, which presents a problem while checking it out in a public place, such as in the Verizon’s store.

Then comes the iPhone.  As a big bonus, my Dad gave me an unlocked iPhone for Christmas!  I was overjoyed!  I’m already familiar with it while visiting the Apple Store several times for the past 3 years.  The user interface is, hands down, the best I’ve ever used.  Having multi-touch screen is intuitive.  The iPhone has the best touch screen.  And the applications… a lot of apps!  My best, absolute-must-have game is Bejeweled 2, and only the iPhone has it.

So now it comes down to the provider.  I’m currently on Verizon Wireless and their plans are expensive!  The additional monthly fees for the Droid or Blackberry adds up to $100 per month, for a single line²!  Verizon is the best voice+data network, perhaps it’s justifiable they charge more.  But they don’t carry the phone that I really want.

The iPhone is exclusive on AT&T.  Back in 1997, I was with AT&T (Cingular back then) for a good 4 years.  Their service was spotty, even though it’s in the Bay Area.  Because of the bad experience, I avoided AT&T for the longest time.  Now that I have the iPhone, I wanted to try using it as an Internet tablet and opt for the data plan only.   Unfortunately, AT&T and their limited vision, does not allow data-only plans for the iPhone³!  I’m completely baffled.

Then I tried T-Mobile and see if they’ll be ok for my unlocked iPhone.  The sales guy honestly told me that the iPhone runs on 1700 Mhz radio, which is not compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network.  Instead, I had to be on their EDGE network and it’s significantly slower.  I wasn’t about to spend $40/month for an inferior service, so I abandoned going to T-Mobile.

So, what now?  I have a dilemma:

1. Do I go with the inferior AT&T network, just to get my iPhone to work?  AT&T recently did “promise” to upgrade their 3G network.  But reports from CES said their service is still inadequate under load.
2. Wait for a better Droid based phone on Verizon?  Nexus One is coming to Verizon, but already it has problems on the T-Mobile network.  Maybe I should just wait for Motorola Droid 2.0.
3. Wait for iPhone to be on Verizon?  Rumors run rampant on this prospect.

Something has to give.  Since I already have the iPhone, it looks like Verizon might lose my subscription, as soon as my contract is over in a few months.  Unless someone crazy enough to give me a Droid device as a gift, I can’t see myself staying with Verizon.

In the meantime, I’m using my iPhone as an expensive iPod Touch.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Smartphone Woes

1. The Blackberry user interface is ugly.
2. Even after Verizon’s 20% discount.
3. Calling customer service confirmed this.  AT&T doesn’t even mention it on their website.

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1. Which Smartphone to Get?
2. Technology and Being Connected
3. Ga-Ga over Google!

I passed on the code to Pierre Fournier and Yves Lepage for maintenance and further development.  They took it as far as they could, before eventually retired it.  I’m grateful for their involvement and dedication to it!

Below was Pierre’s entry in Wikipedia about the poker bot.  Wikipedia is about to delete this entry due to “lack of interest”.  So I’m posting it here for posterity.

—

PBot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PBot was a computer program that ran on Internet Relay Chat in the EFnet channel #poker which allowed users to play poker with fictional money. Based on standard 5-card draw poker game, the bot could handle up to 6 players and was in service between 1993 and 2002.

History

PBot was originally written by Rudy “Radix” Amid. In early 1993, after the success of his first IRC game “MooBot” ^[1], he went on to think that someone would be inspired to make a poker bot. Of course, no one seemed to have the time or the inclination to make such a bot, so he went on in February 1993 to start making a poker bot.

Radix era

Radix completed an alpha version of PBot in late February and tested it on EFnet IRC. It wasn’t as easy as he expected; the bot was riddled with all sorts of mysterious bugs as he was testing the user interface aspect. The bot was written with ircII scripts and the poker module was written in C. It didn’t take long for him to realize this 80% ircII scripts bot was not fast and powerful, but it was the best way to debug and perfect the command line parsing; recompiling the program on the fly without killing the bot. By March 1993, he started to put the poker module together as one big C program, eliminating the need to rely on ircII scripts to parse the commands. The bot at this point had many commands and was flexible enough to program. From then on, he concentrated on the poker game itself.

By late March, he was ready for PBot’s beta-testing. He called on a few dedicated users on IRC to discuss ideas and play the game. There were lots of ideas and modifications to be made. Tweaking the program proved to be the hardest. Slowly, after one feature was added at a time, bugs appeared and debugged. The process was painstakingly slow but he was determined to get it up and running, as he knew this bot would prove to be the best bot that ever happened to IRC. After his exams in April, he started to work full time on this bot. Spending countless hours modifying and testing with his beta-testers. Ideas kept pouring in.

Finally, in June, he had a fully functional poker bot. Modifications did not stop then but it was time for him to slow down and let the bot make itself known to the world. In August 1993, he had to leave the country for a few months, and have given this bot to Lyverbe for safe keeping, continued maintenance, and development of PBot.

Lyverbe era

At that time, the main goal of PBot to handle an IRC poker game was successfully achieved. Lyverbe’s goal was to add features, security and documentation to the software. He introduced:

• User privileges (known as Gods and Cops)
• Banning system
• Flood protection
• Account database
• DCC connections
• Complete online help
• Player personal setup
• Top winners list
• …and many more

With the code getting insanely bigger, he separated the single source file into multiple source files. Managing the code was half the work where the other half was managing the IRC channel itself, and this is why he created user privileges to help him out while being away. These users had additional commands to handle troublemakers.

In a short period of time, PBot gained a lot of popularity. On January 9 1995, a mailing list was created as well as a website, which was not that common back then. Two conventions were held with the first one in Montreal (August 4-6, 1995) and the second in Chicago (August 2-3, 1996). A GUI was created for the mIRC client ^[2].

Post Lyverbe era

In September 1996, after 3 years of constant work on this project, Lyverbe decided to let go. He gave the project to Cirra who moved the bot from EFnet to Undernet. She eventually gave the project to Jupiter1.

PBot stopped operating in late 2002. However, the code is still in working condition meaning that it could reappear at anytime.

During its decade of existence, PBot has created new rings of friends ^[3] with a common place to hang out and chat. Conversations have even created its own glossary of terms^[4]. Tournaments have been organized ^[5] to create variety in the standard routine game.

See also

• Internet Relay Chat
• IRC bot

References

External links

• The Realm of Undernet IRC Poker

—

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Once Upon a Time, There Was A Poker Bot

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2. PC Build 2008: Part 2