Benny Ling’s Bling

Three Microsoft engineers and three Apple employees are travelling by train to a computer conference. At the station, the three Microsoft engineers each buy tickets and watch as the three Apple employees buy only a single ticket.
“How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?” asks a Microsoft engineer. “Watch and you`ll see,” answers the Apple employee.
They all board the train. The Microsoft engineers take their respective seats, but all three Apple employees cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, “Ticket, please.” The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes the ticket and moves on.
The Microsoft engineers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the Microsoft engineers decide to do the same on the return trip and save some money.
When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Apple employees don`t buy any ticket, at all.
“How are you going to travel without a ticket?” asks one perplexed Microsoft engineer.
“Watch and you`ll see,” answers an Apple employee.
When they board the train the three Microsoft engineers cram into a restroom and the three Apple employees cram into another one nearby. The train departs.
Shortly afterward, one of the Apple employees leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the Microsoft engineers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, “Ticket, please…”

via Mac funnies – Page 4 – MacTalk Forums.

• Usual bus was late. Now I'm on a different bus that takes it's route through a particularly low standards part of town… #
• Digg has reached rock bottom and have now started to dig, pun not intended. http://bit.ly/B4jmQ (thanks to @atebits for this one) #
• HUGE day of Uni is complete. Reason for nil tweets during that period was nil iPhone battery. #
• I hereby name this Nvidia driver hell. #
• Well, no more NeoWin job for me. I turned it down, but only because I am currently far too busy for 4x 300-word articles every week =/ #
• I've got some RAM for sale on #OCAU if you're interested, it's 2×1GB G.Skill 800Mhz, $30 for both http://bit.ly/2xjrP #
• Listening to the @mactalk podcast.
  Learnt that @xenex worked for Apple, or so he hinted. #
• Managed to sell my RAM on #OCAU for $30. Lots more to sell cos I need the cash #
• Sat directly opposite @ahewitt in yesterday's KXT204 tute. I didn't think he noticed. #
• Statistics and Excel stuff in Data Management? They said there was going to be SQL!! #
• Fark. Should have gotten SkyVoyager while it was free. #
• RIP James Brown, and RIP Graham Coleman.
  You will both be missed. #
• I want a Good Old Game for free http://www.gog.com #GOGgiveaway #
• I'd have to say, this is my own personal zone of suck. http://twitpic.com/b3mcs #
• Thank goodness for normal. #
• For once, the sun is shining. Funnily enough, it doesn't make it any less cold. #
• After buying from a store called "Cutie Cupcake", I feel like my masculinity has just evaporated. #
• So $3.95 gets you a Classic Honeycomb cupcake. If anything, it comes in a nice box: http://twitpic.com/b5wyx #
• Note: actual cupcake appearance may differ in real life. http://twitpic.com/b5zqo #
• Today's geek photo: http://twitpic.com/b6fe1 #
• If you're going to say "one other thing" six times in a row and ask the same question twice, next time I might not serve you. #
• Also happy b'day to my Mac champ @tomricci! *golf claps* #
• Had the two most rediculously cutest girls in today. /sigh #
• My MSN transport is screwed, keeps giving me an exception.Exception error. Nice one.
  http://twitpic.com/b79uf #
• Put my one month of worldwide calls on Skype up for sale on #OCAU with an instant of $30. Let's see how this goes… #
• At this rate, I'd be able to make (from scratch) my own version of @thehitlist for iPhone before Potion Factory come out with theirs… #
• Wishing I had TechNet for the copy of Windows 7 that just RTM'd. #
• Uni lecturer has Steam in his system tray. I'd love to find out his Steam ID. #
• For those of you wondering, build 7600 is the #Windows7 #RTM build.
  I wonder if this'll be the second version of Windows I buy… #
• Just realised my damn case fans are SUCKING IN, as opposed to BLOWING OUT which I wanted them to do.
  FFS. #
• I lol'd. http://twitpic.com/bawvd #
• I do believe that my MSN transport has kicked the bucket – now I get random disconnects, whereupon it immediately reconnects! ARGH! #
• AUSTRALIAN APPLE ONLINE STORE DOWN. #applestoreisdown #
• So everytime I talk to my MSN contacts via my Jabber transport, they go offline. Incredibly useful indeed. FFS. #
• The @mactalk podcast gives me lots of lulz on the bus.
  I should probably think about donating. #
• Sad iPod is sad http://twitpic.com/bdu31 #
• Showing a webinar audience how quickly a message can spread on Twitter. Would you please RT #watchitspread (via @delic8genius) #
• Telemarketer called from Melbourne. Told them to call back later in the day, they said they couldn't as they were on AEST – and we're not?! #
• Wait, there's something now quite right about this one… http://twitpic.com/bem2c #
• Today was pretty crap, if I do say so myself. Started alright, went through all 7 levels of hell after lunch. #TGIF #
• Boxcar just beat iTweetReply for the first update with version 1.1 which brings support for Tweetie and opening DMs in apps.
  CMON, @SYNCODE! #
• Off to Target for some iTunes gift card lovin' – at 25% off, it's too good to turn down! #
• So this will be my one and only tweet about wanting a what.cd invite as well as a Google Wave invite. Anyone of my tweeps care to oblige? #
• You are currently using 1122MB (15%) of your 7351MB. #gmailusagestatistics #
• RT @matthew858: Hey baby, wanna come to myspace and twitter my yahoo 'til i google all over your facebook? #fb #
• If you know anyone who could be interested in unlimited calls to landlines in 42 countries via Skype, @reply me! I'm selling a code. #
• So THIS is why I love my PMX200s! I'm in love all over again – these things are better than my V-Moda Vibes! I'm so sorry I neglected you! #
• HUGE kudos to the folks at @JabberAustralia – created a new Jabber account, registered MSN Transport, now MSN works with iChat! Awesome! #
• Oh, so the icon in the menu bar of my iPhone is telling me to charge my battery? Or what? http://twitpic.com/bmxs4 #
• Just realised my phone has been off for the past couple of hours. #
• Off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz… Er, better make that Harry Potter. #
• Wait, this is Hobart? http://twitpic.com/boihs #
• It would seem that everytime I forget to bring my headphones I'll need them, and everytime I bring them, I don't.
  This is getting old. #

WELCOME TO RETAIL OBLIVION

via Penny Arcade! – WELCOME TO RETAIL OBLIVION.

For the first post in this series, see The Great CPU Caper, Part I here.

Like every good geek, I did some research before buying my E8400.

What I found wasn’t pretty – apparently, Intel changed the reference design of the stock heatsink/fan that came with every CPU that they sold.

The pictures speak for themselves, so I’ll let them do the talking:

The HSF on the left is from my E8400. Note how it does not have a copper core or base, and how it is half the height difference of the HSF on the right, which I presume is from a previous-generation of Intel CPUs, such as the E6600 or similar.

This is bad for two reasons – copper is a far better conductor of heat than aluminium is. The second reason is that by halving the heatsink module, they’ve essentially halved the surface area that will contribute to the dissipation of heat produced by the HSF.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Yo @exocetau, I found him (or rather, he found me) – the guy with the awesome blog? He's @domenic11. Highly recommended. #
• Tonight's iPhone App: TuneWiki. http://bit.ly/2NVy3 [iTMS] #
• Oh poo, now I have an incorrect spelling of "receipt" in my OSX spelling dictionary so that it doesn't underline it in red. Need to remove. #
• First year student in second year unit. Satisfied prereq last semester. Only because there were no other courses. #
• Interview down, WD Raptor acquired, back to work it is… #
• PCCG shipment notice, UMAT admission form. #todaysemail #
• Orig tweet: http://bit.ly/XDXkb How to edit Firefox's custom dictionary: http://bit.ly/28J3A Proof: http://twitpic.com/af2g2 (@jeloz) #
• Linda > Justine. Don't really follow #masterchef though, so looks alone will have to do #
• Telstra are dead to me. Fuck them and their billing system from hell. #
• RT @vaempyr: I wish the App Store App had the option of push notifications when updates become available. #
• Assembling computers and stuff. #
• Parcel arrived. Thank YOU, Aus Post! ^_^ #
• So… individual pins for front audio on this case? Paired with this motherboard? #worldofhurt http://bit.ly/4AWxKB #
• People have complained about the WD Velociraptor's loud RPM whine. To me, it's dead silent because I can't hear it over my fans! #
• Rotation inhibitor update removes hold action in SBSettings, improves compat with OS 3.0 and 3GS. Fixes an annoying bug as well… #
• For every cute girl there's at least one guy who would love to help her out with her tech-related issues. You know what I mean? #
• Would somebody please tell me why this person is running IE 5.2 under OSX 10.5? In this day and age, there is no need for it. IE Must Die. #
• Grabbing a cupclake from the new cupcake store in Elizabeth street mall so I can tell all you Hobart tweeps how awesome they are #
• Actually, scratch that, apparently they're all sold out, at least Amplified is playing in the Mall… #
• RT @marcoarment: Oh come on, Apple, can you think of ANY more ways to fuck up the App Store? http://www.marco.org/143239041

  Ridiculous. #

• XFX 7900GTX with box and accessories, $40 express posted. Thank YOU, #OCAU! #
• Forgot my headphones. This will make the 30 minute bus ride back relatively painful. #
• Sitting right behind the driver. It's dark here, so maybe I can get some shut eye since I don't have any music to entertain me… #
• Dammit, forgot to check my tute times online. Can't do so on the iPhone because it requires VPN, right @tonygray? #
• Bogan, newspaper snowman (snow woman in this case), you get the picture… http://twitpic.com/amvvg #
• Nice, I got all the tutes I wanted. Most of Wed and all of Friday remain free days, epic win. #
• So, 3D Mark Vantage only allows you to submit ONE result with a trial key.This is why piracy happens, to circumvent this sort of BS. FAIL. #
• Almost forgot #followfriday: @domenic11 @adam_d @danslatts @haydio @finchwizard @matthew858 @matthewlesh @halfgoon #
• Another #followfriday: @urusaipoppu @zacislost @glompbot @neg2led @beaugiles @benzoenator @tomricci @shadowsaber1 #
• So it's early AND cold – not the best combination ever, I'll admit. #
• Also thinking of selling a Power Mac G5 case that I have lying around – any ideas on what it's worth? Not perfect, but nothing major either. #
• I feel a little wierd saying this, but happy b'day to @IMKristenBell. #
• Got offered a job as a writer for NeoWin. Booyah. #
• Okay @glompbot, @matt_v, @shaun_r and @beaugiles – might be a little early for celebrations, but I'm in with a chance #
• I'm now an Aardvocate, a super-Aardvark user!
  Wondering if @Warlach is one as well… #
• My Raptor needs to be RMA'd. Doesn't like large writes – burst and benchmarking is fine, just hangs Win 7 x64 when copying largish files. #
• Capturing HD footage actually *rapes* my poor Macbook. Needs a HDD upgrade very, very soon… I can has 500GB 7200rpm? #
• Selling a PowerMac G5 (case only!) on OCAU if you're interested: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=797387 #
• Would it be unethical to sell my month's worth of free landline calls from Skype? I'm sure as hell not going to use them… #
• EPIC FAILURE – Win7 64-bit will not copy files to my Raptor (hangs Explorer), but Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit will. WHY MUST YOU HATE ME, MICROSOFT? #
• Microsoft, a _software_ company, is essentially preventing me from using my _hardware_ (in this case, 4GB RAM).

  This shouldn't happen. #

• WTF IS THIS WINDOWS, THE SAME FILE TRANSFER NOW WORKS PERFECTLY UNDER BOTH 32 AND 64 BIT WINDOWS 7.
  FFFFFFFFUUUUUUU…. #
• Search Google from the command line: http://bit.ly/2nmIaf #
• Is it just me, or is Firefox 3.5.1 one of the buggiest releases ever? Takes away the polish and speed, replaces it with lockups and hangs. #
• And old friend just made my day. #
• OH: "Darwin is in Queensland, right?"
  Me: /facepalm #
• I should probably blog. Or resolve my continual Windows 7 64-bit issues.
  Instead, I'm gonna take a nap. Get some zzz's, yo. #
• WTF?! @domenic11 has been suspended? Why is the first big question that comes to mind… #
• To SLI or not to SLI, that is the question. #
• Well, this Monday Morning News won't write itself, so here goes… #

Folks, I’d like for you to meet the latest additions to the Ling family.

Fawkes, and Voldemort.

We’ll start with Fawkes, because he’s definitely the most impressive of the two.

CPU: Intel E8400 3.0GHz/1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache, $220
CPU HSF: Artic Cooling Alpine 11, $10.50
Mobo: XFX 780i SLI, $150
RAM: Team Xtreem Dark 4GB kit, $50
GPU: Asus EN9800GT 512MB, $100
HDD1: Western Digital 320GB WD3200KS, $40
HDD2: Western Digital 150GB Velociraptor, $130
Case: Cooler Master CM-690, $109
PSU: Cooler Master 460W, $30
Other: 2x Xigmatek 140mm fans, $44
OS: Windows 7 RC1, 64 bit edition, $0
Total Cost: $783.50

It’s not too bad.

Read the rest of this entry »

You might have noticed that I’m updating the blog a lot.

Problem is, in my humble opinion it’s happening far too infrequently – blog 600 articles one day, 0 the next, 542 the day after that, and so on and so forth.

I think the issue here is that I’ve lost sight of what this blog was created. It’s not supposed to be an internet scrapbook where I keep all my links so I don’t forget them. It’s not a place where I can just put stuff up ‘cos I think that it’s awesome (although that’s certinaly a part of it, there’s far too much awesome stuff on the internet these days to keep putting it up here).

No, dear reader.

Let me remind you of why this blog came about in the first place – those words uttered by Steve Jobs; “Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.”

It’s not because it was said by Steve (although that makes it slightly more awesome).

It’s not because I don’t want to share awesome things with you guys, I really do.

I feel as though there’s not enough “me” in these posts. Press This, while being the most awesome blogging tool ever invented, has made me a lazy blogger, and I’m sorry to admit it.

While I feel that there’s always a little I can add on to each Pressed post, I haven’t been out of sheer laziness.

It’s time that changed.

From now onwards – less Pressing.

More blogging.

Alright?

Even if it means sacrificing updates for days on end. Even if it means you won’t see the merely entertaining stuff, just the mega-awesome-zomg-that-was-incredible-stuff.

Less Pressing. More blogging.

I saw the new Transformers movie today with a friend. It was pretty good – say what you will about the plot (holes), Michael bay’s performance as a director, but there’s no denying that however bad Megan Fox’s acting is, she provided ample eye-candy.

As did Isabel Lucas, I might add. She’s hawt.

via Wait, Uni again? So soon? » freshbytes.

It doesn’t need to be said that I’d have a hard time choosing between Megan Fox and Isabel Lucas.

Or does it?

via The Joy of Tech comic… a Twitter wedgie.

It’s beyond me why this is titled “a Twitter wedgie”, but hey, whatever.

Digital clock: only figures, no case, only the necessary – only accurate time. Each figure has self-contained power supply and independent control, it can be fixed to any surface autonomously. A light sensor will switch the clock to an invert mode: the figures are white in the dark time of day and black at daytime.

via Kibardindesign.

I’ll take two. However; more concerning is this:

Status of project: searching for manufacturer.

Looks like I won’t be getting them anytime soon

Are software touchscreen keyboards good for everyone? Certainly not. But this is another aspect of the Apple Way. Apple tries to make things that many people love, not things that all people like. The key is that they’re not afraid of the staunch criticism, and often outright derision, that comes with breaking conventions.

via Daring Fireball: Mobile Phone Keyboards.

..and you know what?

He’s damn right – Apple products aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay.

No, it’s not about “maintaining exclusivity”, or anything like that. It’s not about “being of a higher status” than someone else. Mostly, it’s just about having quality.

People have said that the Mac is a way of life – once you go Mac, you won’t go back and all that – but it’s more than that.

There’s a heap of people out there that shop on price alone. And that’s totally okay – everyone loves a good bargain, and it doesn’t make sense to be ripped off.

However, I get the feeling that those that compare spec for spec don’t take into account the other things – things like the OS, design, all the R&D money, etc. It’s those things that make the whole package, and one of the things that appeal the most to new Mac users.

via diesel sweeties: 8-bit robot romance webcomic and geeky t-shirts : A Day in the iLife.

Even if you haven’t worked in an actual Apple Retail store, it’s still damn true.