Month: March 2010

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Unboxing the new computer

The computer came in a big box containing several smaller boxes with all the bits and pieces. Well, one large bit and several smaller pieces.

A large cardboard box sitting on the floor. The box contains my new computer.

The Thermaltake Element T case. The dogs were quite intrigued.

A box containing a Thermaltake ElementT computer case
Two black labrador retrievers sniffing at a black computer case sitting on the floor

First thing I had to do was crack it open and check out the inside. Had to get past the packing foam first.

Inside the computer case filled with packing foam

The inside of the case is quite spartan compared to what’s in my current computer. A nice roomy case.

Inside the Thermaltek ElementT computer case. The motherboard, CPU cooler, video card and power supply are visible.
Looking at the upper portion of the case showing the mother board, CPU cooler and RAM slots
Inside the lower half of the computer showing the motherboard, video card and power supply
A view of the drive bays inside the computer. Most of them are empty

After poking around in the BIOS to see what there was, I set about installing Fedora 12 onto the machine. With Hyperthreading enabled, it shows up as 8 processors of computing goodness.

Splash screen for the new computer during boot up
Main BIOS screen
Fedora 12 system monitor window showing 8 processors and 12 GiB of memory

Shiny 🙂

Red LED lighting on the top fan of the computer case
Blue LED lighting coming from the power supply of the computer
Computer turned on showing a fan at the top lit up in red, and the power supply lit up in blue
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Migration planning

Finally made it back from Albuquerque this afternoon and found my luggage had somehow beat me here. Albuquerque was a pretty nice place, but it’s good to be back home.

New computer arrived while I was away, but is out of the box now and ready to be used (unboxing post will come soon). First I need to plan out how I’m going to partition the drives and then work out a reasonably painless way to move stuff over from the old computer, then find time to do it all. I figure I should have it up and running in a couple of days or so.

Woohoo!

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So much for plans

My time in Albuquerque is over. I was hoping for an uneventful flight back to Charleston, but those have been dashed so far with a delayed flight out of ABQ. Because of a short layover time, I’ll probably end up missing the connecting flight and end up getting stuck in overnight in Houston.

So my plans to do the bridge run this year will probably be dashed.

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Giant Red Arrow

Browsing around Gowalla to see what interesting things there were around for my last night in Albuquerque. I found this giant red arrow, so I went to see.

A giant red arrow sculpture in Albequerque, New Mexico

It’s this giant red arrow at the corner of a Whole Foods parking lot. Not entirely sure what it’s supposed to represent, and there aren’t any descriptive plaques or anything that say anything about it. There it is though.

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MCNP light bulbs

The MCNP training course I’m in is starting to set off some light bulbs in my head now.

It’s been a pretty good course so far. Being able to work on example problems under guidance has really helped and I think I’ve figured out more about MCNP in the last three days than I have in the last three months of going through the manual. It’s also helped with being able to make more sense out of what I’ve read in the manual so far.

ding
dingdingdingding*

Fortunately it hasn’t been all work. I’ve been able to get out and explore some eating destinations around Albuquerque and check out a few area attractions like the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the Sandia Peak Tramway. Tomorrow I’m planning on a quick lunchbreak visit to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

A picture of me standing at the Sandia Peak Tramway station. The sign next to me says "Welcome to Sandia Peak Elevation 10,378 ft"