Good Morning MOT

Have been eyeing the new Core 2 I7 2600.

The weather here remains cold so most of the snow and ice are still here. It sounds like it may be another 2-3 days before enough melts to make any difference. What does melt during the day is refreezing at night. The snow is getting compacting between the ice crust on the top from the freezing drizzle and a bit of melting and the meltwater on the bottom that refreezes at night turning it all into an icy mess. All the freeways here are a mess. As soon as the latest blockage is cleared after hours of work, another quickly occurs. It's a fairly rare thing in the Atlanta area to get this sort of weather so sand and gravel are typically the best the counties can offer for the side roads. The state handles the freeways and the state roads but it's not like further north where this sort of weather is more common. Usually, the main solution is sunlight but that's been missing for days now. We might get some tomorrow. Temps may get above freezing enough to matter.

It's all relative though I guess. I keep reading about the flooding down in Australia. It just doesn't seem to be stopping. It seems to be moving south down the northeast coast. If my geography is correct, most of the rivers there tend to basically run west to east from the mountains inland parallel to the east coast to the ocean. From what I can sort out on Google Maps, it looks like it's moving from river to river. I think the weather patterns tend to come from the north in terms of the summer rains (though I recall seeing something about it's not yet the start of the rainy season there). It's an area the size of France and Germany combined that's been and being hit. I don't think we have anyone in the area. Marc (Blueprint) is over on the west coast near Perth; Vuj is down south around Melbourne (or was it Adelaide?). I want to believe Rulkethecharon is around Sydney. From what I can find out, it seems Mechanical is somewhere in Australia though I have no idea where. It would be interesting to get a "local" perspective on this. I've tried to sort out what I could from the Sydney and Brisbane news sites. BTW, how can a resevoir be at 190 percent capacity?

MyOnlineTeam Daily Statistics for 01/11 - Active Members

Active team members report
==========================

                                                     Current          Points
Active member name            Rank      Change       Points        This Period
=========================     =====     ======     ===========     ===========
RT                                1          0      72,228,215         144,682
marysduby                         2          0      57,209,615          29,181
Coingames                         3          0      40,779,980          62,900
judson Somerville MD              4         +1      20,441,276          78,836
NiceMedTexMD                      5         -1      20,427,608          31,791
nl59056                           6          0      15,564,636           1,176
keithhenry                        7          0      14,766,127          17,629
brown chris                       8          0      14,714,598          23,205
Esteban69                         9          0      12,897,458           2,232
xroule                           10          0      10,172,201          27,823
Vuj                              11          0       9,783,968          11,316
Blueprint                        12          0       8,252,666          11,970
frans6nl                         13          0       6,739,739           3,531
PohSoon                          14          0       6,541,925           5,237
finman                           15          0       5,149,906          34,098
darth_vader                      16          0       4,904,633          13,757
David Autumns                    17          0       4,216,885          37,107
lawrencehardin                   18          0       3,542,054          11,969
Tomwp                            19          0       3,199,408           1,344
Alain Bryden                     20          0       3,085,692           2,506
Rene Punt                        21          0       2,976,670           9,609
smcclarigan                      22          0       2,552,857           4,587
Sunny L. Kae                     23          0       2,364,252           1,395
johng                            24          0       2,168,651           3,524
Wunderwuzzi                      25          0       1,969,128             959
harry_i_c                        26          0       1,879,223               0
Jockin                           27          0       1,845,127           1,723
Mike OSullivan                   28          0       1,525,359          10,565
imin                             29          0       1,440,070           2,316
Bon Kuhlman                      30          0       1,378,428             865
Daeloan                          31          0       1,301,305           2,688
elpe                             32          0       1,153,505           1,063
Barramundi                       33          0         627,494               0
pramodp                          34          0         577,972           2,754
Mechanical                       35          0         544,104               0
barney15c                        36          0         479,705           1,042
madambaster                      37          0         440,988             769
Natalino                         38          0         416,442               0
Momentary Lapse of Reason        39          0         386,336               0
dkt                              40         +2         317,574          37,841
hne12359                         41         -1         304,768           1,506
cknotty                          42         -1         292,999             640
Harry de Swart                   43          0         165,704               0
imdioxin                         44          0         105,502               0
xterm2232@yahoo.com              45          0         104,680               0

Note: Active members are those who earned points in the prior 30 days.

Top Twenty active members returning points today:
01: RT - 144,682 points
02: judson Somerville MD - 78,836 points
03: Coingames - 62,900 points
04: dkt - 37,841 points
05: David Autumns - 37,107 points
06: finman - 34,098 points
07: NiceMedTexMD - 31,791 points
08: marysduby - 29,181 points
09: xroule - 27,823 points
10: brown chris - 23,205 points
11: keithhenry - 17,629 points
12: darth_vader - 13,757 points
13: Blueprint - 11,970 points
14: lawrencehardin - 11,969 points
15: Vuj - 11,316 points
16: Mike OSullivan - 10,565 points
17: Rene Punt - 9,609 points
18: PohSoon - 5,237 points
19: smcclarigan - 4,587 points
20: frans6nl - 3,531 points

Total points returned today: 636,136
Active members returning points today: 37
Average points per member active today: 17,192.8649

Good Morning MOT

Intel has just started selling a second generation of the I5 and I7 processors and is said to be about to sell the second generation of the I3 line as well. The latest versions all have 4 digit designations as opposed to the 3 digit designations. e.g. 870 or 920. The new processors are built at 32nm and are 95w are lower. These things are supposed to be a good deal more productive per watt than even the preceding I7s. They have a new socket (1155) which means a new mother board for those thinking of upgrading. The parts are all available now for those that want to build one. I will likely build one before too long. Just have to scrape together some $.

The weather seems to be radical all over the place. I did not realize how bad it was in Australia. That is amazing. I just saw an article on how bad the weather is here in the U.S. Northeast. Just goes to show you that Mother Nature can still kick our butts any time she pleases.

It has seemed unusual this winter for some reason. The local TV weather folks were remarking (a it sarcastically) about how a mild winter had been forcast by the weather service back in mid-Fall. The first half of December was brutally cold, then we had the first white Xmas since the 1890's (that became the first blizzard of the northeast), and after 7-10 days break, we got this last round - seven inches of snow and some ice here, more ice to the south of town - on Sunday night and they now have the freeways mostly clean and they're saying they are starting to work on the side roads. Usually, if we do manage to get snow or the typical ice, the sun melts it within a day or two. They're saying we'll get the first siginificant melting from the sun tomorrow.

As for Australia, that just boggles my mind. I think I saw the word monsoon somewhere in one of the stories on it. I've read about their rainy season. We've heard about their fire season in past years. Europe's had some snow problems this year. It's the extent of the extremeness that seems unusual this year. With the South Pacific ocean currents, I think that steers the wet weather towards Australia so that may be involved this year but more so that normal. It's something to get your head around.