Good to visit New Mexico Again

The state of the Zia.



The barbed wire.



The Cactus.



...and Contradictions.

Snow riding in North Boulder

Good stuff on a Sunday morning.

Progress of computers

I know it's an endless story, but I was reminded of it as I built up a new computer over the last few days. It's amazing to think of the pace of computers has been over the last three decades that I have been using them.

My first computer, circa, 1980 was a zx81. I was a teenager eager to learn how to program a computer. It had 2k of memory and a very slow cassette storage mechanism. But it used a standard audio cassette player. Does anyone even know what that is?

Then I got the color version, sold in the US as a Sinclair 2068. This was the age of the Apple IIe.

Not being able to afford an Apple, I got my hands on a Commodore 64 and had a blast. It had 64 k of memory but a slow 5-1/2 disk drive that stored around 170k of data.

Finally after college, I got a decent PC (1991 or so) that sported Windows 3.1 and a huge drive of 220 MB. I sweated over the details on this one since it was around $3000. All that sweat was rendered obsolete soon after.

The story remains the same; Yesterday, I built up a new computer which has 4GB ram and a 1-Terrabyte hard drive. Yes, 1-Terrabyte = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.

And the scary part is, it's really not a big deal these days.

My first real pc (1991) cost $3000 and had
200 MB Hard Drive
Intel 486 processor running at 20 MHz or something like that
8 MB RAM
cheeseball graphics
Windows 3.1

The computer I built yesterday (A very conservative build) cost less than $600 and has
1 TB Hard Drive
AMD Athlon II 4-core processor running at 2.6 GHz
4GB RAM
High speed 512 MB3D graphics card with two DVI outputs
Windows 7






I also found some interesting things while cleaning up:

Lotus 1-2-3. It pushed the need for computers to go beyond the 640k memory barrier in the 1980's



Mosaic. One of the first ways to browse the web.

Big Snow In Boulder

Seems every other year the front range of Colorado gets a huge dumping of snow in October. Likewise, another in March.

This one might have come close to breaking--or broke--a record. I think the tally is 22 inches and counting--it's still snowing lightly.

Unfortunately, some trees that are still bearing leaves have felt the carnage. We lost the upper half of a Hawthorne tree that was full of berries.





The broken Hawthorne.



Nala doesn't mind.









Interesting features deep within a collapsed tree.

Thunder Mountain, Utah

Near Bryce Canyon. A nice easy few miles on a paved path, some up and down in a forest and some amazing hoodoo singletrack. If Alice rode a bike, she would be riding this wonderland.

A short video taste. Music: Massive Attack, Butterfly Caught.

The Machine that Changed the World

Produced by WGBH Boston, and first aired in 1992 (I recorded it on VHS and actually still have it)--this is an incredible documentary. It's ironic because it was just the tip of the iceberg and profiles the technology that makes this post possible. It's seems so dated now, yet is still so insightful.

Luckily someone put it on Google videos.

I highly recommend watching it--even as long as it is. It not only tells the history of the computer, it kinda implies amazing foresight in the future of the computer that lead the the present internet. It even implies some ideas in the future that we have yet to see.

It's narrated by the famous Frontline narrator, Will Lyman. It's well written and and an amazing educational experience.

Enjoy.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

A Change of Ridestyle

Sunday, as I was maintaining my Schwinn hardtail bike, I found the rear dropout broken. Yes, It was broken and simply held together by the rear wheel. It's history.

After 20,000 plus miles, it's no more. Sad actually.





I could find a cheap replacement frame--but not yet. I pulled my dusty 1993 Raleigh M500--that I made into a single speed--off the wall. Might as well ride it a little and see if I like it as a singlespeed. If not, I will pull the parts over and build it up with some gears.

The first day sucked. 32-17 gearing is too easy for commuting. So when I got home, I switched out the rear to the smallest I had, 14. Now I have 32-14.

Not too bad today. It was ok on the climbs and not terrible on the down. I might look into 34-14 later but for now, this is a go. My bad knee doesn't particularly like the fast spin on the flats but I can lay off.

UPDATE: The gearing was still too easy. So I put on a 12 tooth, making it 32-12--Very nice. It's good on the flats and makes me stand and use the bars on moderate hills. Not sure I could do any real trail on it but I intend to try Marshall Mesa at some point.

Threw the bell and a speedometer on the sucker tonight. I definitely need the bell with the clueless people on the trails here. Some people almost have to be run over to let them know you could run over them.