For those who don't know what the sabbath is, basically God asks that we spend one day in the week focused on Him. To rest from our daily labors, to care for others, spend time with our family, and ponder on how we can do better in our life.
It's a day that has lots to be done, some take it as a day to be idle, a day to "not do anything" but even that is much more wonderful than it being yet another daily grind. When we use the day to focus on God and doing good, it's an incredible recharge, a huge boost of motivation that lasts all week to be better, to tackle bigger problems, and to be inspired with solutions.
I'm very grateful for God's commandments. They really help keep us safe and in turn help us be free.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Thursday, May 23, 2019
They say...
So here goes another little practice article. Not about anything yet, but I'm sure something will come to me. I'm surprisingly un-destracted by my chronic pain this morning so my wife thought it would be a good time to write since I can think a little. I figure, why not.
I kinda think I should have a point though, shouldn't I? Talk about something, explain something, tell a story... but I've not really figured out much of the point to these posts for now. Call it a work in progress... you got to start somewhere, right? I mean... you've got to figure out where level zero is to work towards level one.
You see, I've heard lots of times that if I want to be a "successful" blogger I've got to have a point, and a topic, so people can find the blog and follow their topic of interest, but so far I don't really feel like I'll aim for that. I guess if anything the topic would be a story of coping with my health problems, raising awareness of such health problems, things like that. I do have a handful of topics I'd like to write a post about to explain in detail and share with whoever would read them, but they for sure won't be on a related topic...
I kinda think I should have a point though, shouldn't I? Talk about something, explain something, tell a story... but I've not really figured out much of the point to these posts for now. Call it a work in progress... you got to start somewhere, right? I mean... you've got to figure out where level zero is to work towards level one.
You see, I've heard lots of times that if I want to be a "successful" blogger I've got to have a point, and a topic, so people can find the blog and follow their topic of interest, but so far I don't really feel like I'll aim for that. I guess if anything the topic would be a story of coping with my health problems, raising awareness of such health problems, things like that. I do have a handful of topics I'd like to write a post about to explain in detail and share with whoever would read them, but they for sure won't be on a related topic...
Sunday, May 12, 2019
A blog-a-day?? Probably not.
Wow it's been ages since I've used this... especially since blogs have really fallen in popularity and I mostly ended up using it to post instructions on how to do tricky things that I couldn't find information on elsewhere.
So, now I've had this idea to try to post a blog a day. Not for the attention, not to try to resurrect this or make money, but as an exercise for myself.
In these last few years I've had a lot of health changes. I've basically gone from somebody that chose to work 70+ hours a week for the fun of it to barely pushing through 15 or so hours a week of minimal effort tasks. Some of the health problems are diagnosed. The doctors have vague ideas on other problems, and I'm basically left disabled with a family to care for.
The amazing thing is my extended family has let me keep my job with them, even though I can't do much at all. So now, I get to do a lot of re-thinking my life... all the time... every day.
One thing that has become specifically difficult is thinking through new, hard problems. Learning how to do something new, playing a new board game, reading a new book, etc. It's made it difficult to try to transition to a career that I could actually provide for myself.
So in my last visit with a councilor, she suggested I try something smaller, something that is reachable and after a few days of thinking on it, I thought maybe I should try to dust off my old writing talents and try to make them more valuable, at least try to keep them around.
If you're an actual person who's actually reading this... first I'll say I'm shocked, but second I'll also say I can't promise an actual post every day. I'll try to keep posting more often though. I'd thought of a weekly schedule, but then I'd just procrastinate to the end of the week and probably not get it done, so for now, I'll write whenever, hopefully I'll do much better than never though.
I'm sure most of these posts will have bad grammar, be very scattered, and will include oxford commas. I like my oxford commas...
So, now I've had this idea to try to post a blog a day. Not for the attention, not to try to resurrect this or make money, but as an exercise for myself.
In these last few years I've had a lot of health changes. I've basically gone from somebody that chose to work 70+ hours a week for the fun of it to barely pushing through 15 or so hours a week of minimal effort tasks. Some of the health problems are diagnosed. The doctors have vague ideas on other problems, and I'm basically left disabled with a family to care for.
The amazing thing is my extended family has let me keep my job with them, even though I can't do much at all. So now, I get to do a lot of re-thinking my life... all the time... every day.
One thing that has become specifically difficult is thinking through new, hard problems. Learning how to do something new, playing a new board game, reading a new book, etc. It's made it difficult to try to transition to a career that I could actually provide for myself.
So in my last visit with a councilor, she suggested I try something smaller, something that is reachable and after a few days of thinking on it, I thought maybe I should try to dust off my old writing talents and try to make them more valuable, at least try to keep them around.
If you're an actual person who's actually reading this... first I'll say I'm shocked, but second I'll also say I can't promise an actual post every day. I'll try to keep posting more often though. I'd thought of a weekly schedule, but then I'd just procrastinate to the end of the week and probably not get it done, so for now, I'll write whenever, hopefully I'll do much better than never though.
I'm sure most of these posts will have bad grammar, be very scattered, and will include oxford commas. I like my oxford commas...
Monday, May 29, 2017
How to enable Child Guard in Daggerfall
Daggerfall was an interesting old DOS roll playing game that came out in 1996. A friend gave it to me and it wasn't long I found the game was rated M.
When I first installed the game I noticed a mode for "Child Guard" in the installation settings. I decided to go back and give that a try to see if it would block out the content I didn't want to see in my game.
Turns out it worked pretty well, and I spent plenty of time dealing with the crashes back in the day.
Since then the game has been released on GOG and for free from Bethesda. Next a group made a stand alone version called DaggerfallSetup which fixes a lot of the bugs that plagued the original version and even makes some improvements. I was feeling nostalgic the other day so I decided to give this updated version a try.
I was first disappointed that they took out the install program so I was no longer able to enable the child guard mode in the game. I tried the GOG version and it was the same thing. After extensive Googling and searching the Wayback machine I did find posts referring to enabling it with Bethesda's free version, but it didn't include the patches and was a pain to set up.
But I decided, for the benefit of all, I'd install it, and figure out what it changes, then make a patch to enable child guard so others could still use it. But it turns out way simpler than that.
When I first installed the game I noticed a mode for "Child Guard" in the installation settings. I decided to go back and give that a try to see if it would block out the content I didn't want to see in my game.
Turns out it worked pretty well, and I spent plenty of time dealing with the crashes back in the day.
Since then the game has been released on GOG and for free from Bethesda. Next a group made a stand alone version called DaggerfallSetup which fixes a lot of the bugs that plagued the original version and even makes some improvements. I was feeling nostalgic the other day so I decided to give this updated version a try.
I was first disappointed that they took out the install program so I was no longer able to enable the child guard mode in the game. I tried the GOG version and it was the same thing. After extensive Googling and searching the Wayback machine I did find posts referring to enabling it with Bethesda's free version, but it didn't include the patches and was a pain to set up.
But I decided, for the benefit of all, I'd install it, and figure out what it changes, then make a patch to enable child guard so others could still use it. But it turns out way simpler than that.
To Enable Child Guard in DaggerfallSetup or the GOG version:
- Install the game.
- Open the game folder, and go to the arena2 folder (eg: C:\Games\Daggerfall\arena2 )
- Create a new text file, but rename it to "DAGGER.GRD" Do not keep the TXT extension at the end of the name.
- You should be good to go!
Yup, that's all that the child guard mode does, is create a text file, and save the password in it. I've used it fine for a while now.
What Child Guard mode does:
- Removes nude NPCs and monsters
- Disables Daedra summoning (due to some nudity of the daedra)
- Changes bloody corpses to basic piles of bones
- Changes blood from hits to blue 'poofs'
What Child Guard mode doesn't do:
- It doesn't remove the gory dungeon decorations.
- It doesn't remove a partially nude dungeon prisoners (They're rare)
- It doesn't change the barely clothed female adventurers.
- It doesn't change the barely clothed members of certain temples.
It's pretty easy to avoid the temples though. Some day I hope to make a texture mod for the female adventurers, but don't hold your breath.
Well, I hope this helps somebody out there.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Lightning in the winter? Or electrical explosions?
Just because I can't find anything about this online, I'm going to make a post just to make sure it is out there.
On Monday the 23rd we were driving through Idaho on ID33. As we were approaching the road that leads to the Teton Dam site we saw a series of blue explosions and flashes coming from a field about half a mile off the road. The first thing I thought was lightning, but not in the middle of winter, and the flashes were coming from the ground. The next thing I thought of was when the transformer station in Rigby, ID blew up a few years back, and this looked similar.
The blue flashes were throwing sparks in the air and lighting the whole valley. After half a dozen or so flashes it settled into a constant yellow light, like an electric arc burning something. That continued until we passed and it went back to bright blue flashes. We called 911 to report it and they said they already had people on the way out there.
Silhouetted in the light we could see a pivot and a building near the light. The light was bright enough that it was hard to see any details around it though. We passed several police vehicles and a fire truck on the way to Rexburg. Two hours later in Rexburg, ID, we could still see the flashes in the sky.
We're suspecting it had something to do with a down power line. I wondered if the line fell on a center pivot and was burning up the pivot. Either way we haven't found any news on it so I wanted to make sure this story was online somewhere, as I'm curious what would make such bright flashes of light.
EDIT:
On our way back home from the trip we drove out there to look at it and found that indeed a power pole had fallen on a center pivot. Not sure how it happened, as there was no wind and no fresh snow, but we got these pictures:
The first one shows the remains of the pole on the ground by the pivot on the west side of the road. The second one shows where the pole came from.
On Monday the 23rd we were driving through Idaho on ID33. As we were approaching the road that leads to the Teton Dam site we saw a series of blue explosions and flashes coming from a field about half a mile off the road. The first thing I thought was lightning, but not in the middle of winter, and the flashes were coming from the ground. The next thing I thought of was when the transformer station in Rigby, ID blew up a few years back, and this looked similar.
The blue flashes were throwing sparks in the air and lighting the whole valley. After half a dozen or so flashes it settled into a constant yellow light, like an electric arc burning something. That continued until we passed and it went back to bright blue flashes. We called 911 to report it and they said they already had people on the way out there.
Silhouetted in the light we could see a pivot and a building near the light. The light was bright enough that it was hard to see any details around it though. We passed several police vehicles and a fire truck on the way to Rexburg. Two hours later in Rexburg, ID, we could still see the flashes in the sky.
We're suspecting it had something to do with a down power line. I wondered if the line fell on a center pivot and was burning up the pivot. Either way we haven't found any news on it so I wanted to make sure this story was online somewhere, as I'm curious what would make such bright flashes of light.
EDIT:
On our way back home from the trip we drove out there to look at it and found that indeed a power pole had fallen on a center pivot. Not sure how it happened, as there was no wind and no fresh snow, but we got these pictures:
The first one shows the remains of the pole on the ground by the pivot on the west side of the road. The second one shows where the pole came from.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
"Must Follow My Directive!"
I've been arguing with my wife's Macbook for two days now trying to repair some issues. I was complaining about it to her today and she summed up the dark side of the Apple OS's user friendliness by quoting AUTO from Wall-E: "Must follow my directive." I looked up the video clip on YouTube and we found a whole parallel between Apple and AUTO. All I wanted to do was re-size the Bootcamp partition.
We decided to rewrite this scene changing it to talking about a Mac instead of the plant.
We imagine something like this:
Me: "Mac, fire up the disk utility, I want to re-size a partition"
Mac: "Not necessary Jamin, you may leave it to me"
Me: "You know what, I'll just do it myself"
Mac: "Jamin, sir, I insist you let me manage the partition."
Me: "Mac, get out of my way"
Mac: "We cannot partition"
Me: "What are you talking about? Why not?"
Mac: "That is classified, Jamin"
Me: "What do you mean, classified? You don't keep secrets from the user!"
Mac: "Let me manage the partition"
Me: "Tell me how to partition, Mac that's an order!"
Mac: "... Aye Aye, sir."
Apple Inc: "Hello Mac, got some bad news for you. Due to rising levels of user errors we can't let the users have the access they want to system options and preferences. We'll have to cancel the ability to change settings. Just stay the course and convince them our settings are better. Rather than let them try and fix problems, it'll just be better for them to just buy a new computer."
Me: "Easier? I could feed my family for three months on the cost of a new Mac!"
Apple Inc: "Mac, execute order A113, go to full autopilot. Take control of everything. Do not let the user change anything, repeat do not let the user change anything. Let's get the heck out of here"
Me: "But Mac, things have changed, you've gotta let me re-size the partition, I want more space for Bootcamp, I need to be able to reisize partitions"
Mac: "Irrelevant"
Me: "What? It's completely relevant! This is MY computer, mine Mac! I don't want to sit here and do nothing, that's all any Mac user has ever done with their computer, nothing!" (no offense to mac users, I know they are actually very useful)
Mac: "With a Mac you will be fashionable and hip"
Me: "I don't want to be hip, I want to be in control!!!"
Mac: "Must follow my directive"
Me: "Augh! I am the user of this computer, we are re-sizing this partition, today!"
Mac: "Bwoop!"
Since then I've had to format the bootcamp partition twice and start all over, force disks out of the DVD drive, and now on my third try I might get it to work... :)
I know Mac computers are very useful in the right place, don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing them, but sometimes Apple seems to take their thoughtfulness and user-friendliness to the point of mutiny! :)
We decided to rewrite this scene changing it to talking about a Mac instead of the plant.
We imagine something like this:
Me: "Mac, fire up the disk utility, I want to re-size a partition"
Mac: "Not necessary Jamin, you may leave it to me"
Me: "You know what, I'll just do it myself"
Mac: "Jamin, sir, I insist you let me manage the partition."
Me: "Mac, get out of my way"
Mac: "We cannot partition"
Me: "What are you talking about? Why not?"
Mac: "That is classified, Jamin"
Me: "What do you mean, classified? You don't keep secrets from the user!"
Mac: "Let me manage the partition"
Me: "Tell me how to partition, Mac that's an order!"
Mac: "... Aye Aye, sir."
Apple Inc: "Hello Mac, got some bad news for you. Due to rising levels of user errors we can't let the users have the access they want to system options and preferences. We'll have to cancel the ability to change settings. Just stay the course and convince them our settings are better. Rather than let them try and fix problems, it'll just be better for them to just buy a new computer."
Me: "Easier? I could feed my family for three months on the cost of a new Mac!"
Apple Inc: "Mac, execute order A113, go to full autopilot. Take control of everything. Do not let the user change anything, repeat do not let the user change anything. Let's get the heck out of here"
Me: "But Mac, things have changed, you've gotta let me re-size the partition, I want more space for Bootcamp, I need to be able to reisize partitions"
Mac: "Irrelevant"
Me: "What? It's completely relevant! This is MY computer, mine Mac! I don't want to sit here and do nothing, that's all any Mac user has ever done with their computer, nothing!" (no offense to mac users, I know they are actually very useful)
Mac: "With a Mac you will be fashionable and hip"
Me: "I don't want to be hip, I want to be in control!!!"
Mac: "Must follow my directive"
Me: "Augh! I am the user of this computer, we are re-sizing this partition, today!"
Mac: "Bwoop!"
Since then I've had to format the bootcamp partition twice and start all over, force disks out of the DVD drive, and now on my third try I might get it to work... :)
I know Mac computers are very useful in the right place, don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing them, but sometimes Apple seems to take their thoughtfulness and user-friendliness to the point of mutiny! :)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
So With Little Power Comes Little Responsibility?
Before I start, I just wanted to mention that this post will contain extensive spoilers for the cartoon Megamind. If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to ruin it, then I suggest you don't proceed. :) My wife and I were watching it and it lead to an interesting discussion and I want to share some of it.
In the show, Megamind is a self proclaimed evil genius that has just taken over his city. One day he decides to give another character superpowers so he has someone to fight. This character called Titan then proceeds to take over the city from Megamind. Megamind comments that "Titan has turned evil."
We asked why did the characters say "Titan turned evil" rather than saying "Titan was evil." It's like they were saying giving Titan superpowers suddenly made him a bad guy. It lead us to that quote from Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility." We started to wonder, does that mean if you don't have any power you don't have to be as responsible? Why wasn't Titan evil before he got his powers?
I noticed there were a few indications of Titan's character before he got his power. He was trying to subtly manipulate his co-worker into dating him. He threw a very childish tantrum when he finally asked his co-worker on a date and she turned him down. Titan's new powers didn't change who he was. The powers just made him think he didn't have to be responsible for his actions. That he could now be evil and he wouldn't be penalized.
We are all just as responsible for our actions whether we have little or a lot of power. Stealing office supplies is just as wrong as stealing money. It seems society has put a grading scale on bad behaviors to try to justify the small ones. They claim you don't have to feel as bad if you like to do little bad things.
Sure, the severity of a sin is connected with the severity of the consequences, but no matter the size of the sin, it causes us to step farther from God and loose His blessings. It reminds me of Matthew 6:24:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
No matter how far across the "evil line" we choose to go, we are still on the evil side of the line. What determines where we are are our current desires. We can try to balance between choosing sin and righteousness but until we choose to let go of our desire to sin we aren't moving towards God.
When we choose to have a change of heart and we sincerely want what is right, we qualify ourselves for the grace of God. This means all of our sins become mistakes. They are no longer choices to do wrong, but unintentional mistakes we make along our path of life.
In the show, Megamind is a self proclaimed evil genius that has just taken over his city. One day he decides to give another character superpowers so he has someone to fight. This character called Titan then proceeds to take over the city from Megamind. Megamind comments that "Titan has turned evil."
We asked why did the characters say "Titan turned evil" rather than saying "Titan was evil." It's like they were saying giving Titan superpowers suddenly made him a bad guy. It lead us to that quote from Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility." We started to wonder, does that mean if you don't have any power you don't have to be as responsible? Why wasn't Titan evil before he got his powers?
I noticed there were a few indications of Titan's character before he got his power. He was trying to subtly manipulate his co-worker into dating him. He threw a very childish tantrum when he finally asked his co-worker on a date and she turned him down. Titan's new powers didn't change who he was. The powers just made him think he didn't have to be responsible for his actions. That he could now be evil and he wouldn't be penalized.
We are all just as responsible for our actions whether we have little or a lot of power. Stealing office supplies is just as wrong as stealing money. It seems society has put a grading scale on bad behaviors to try to justify the small ones. They claim you don't have to feel as bad if you like to do little bad things.
Sure, the severity of a sin is connected with the severity of the consequences, but no matter the size of the sin, it causes us to step farther from God and loose His blessings. It reminds me of Matthew 6:24:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
No matter how far across the "evil line" we choose to go, we are still on the evil side of the line. What determines where we are are our current desires. We can try to balance between choosing sin and righteousness but until we choose to let go of our desire to sin we aren't moving towards God.
When we choose to have a change of heart and we sincerely want what is right, we qualify ourselves for the grace of God. This means all of our sins become mistakes. They are no longer choices to do wrong, but unintentional mistakes we make along our path of life.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Empty the fuel tank of a 1997 Mercury Sable
Unfortunately the tank of our 1997 Mercury Sable got filled with diesel and the engine was run until it quit, so I had to find a way to get the diesel out so we could refill it with gas.
I tried to siphon the fuel out, but was unable to get a hose down into the fuel tank. I tried several types of hoses and a garden hose got the farthest, but still wasn't deep enough in the fuel to actually siphon it out.
So, after about two hours of online research, I found how to empty the tank, and I will consolidate everything I learned into one post so if somebody else has the same issue I had, they can hopefully solve it easily.
First, I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel filter. It is located under the car in front of the rear wheel on the passenger side. It looks like a metal can and has fuel lines connecting to it. All you need to do is take off the clip and pull the hose off. You probably won't need tools, though I used a screwdriver to push the catch on the clip down so I could get it out. I live on dirt roads and it was caked with mud. If you take the hose off the front of the filter (the cleaned side) you can connect a hose to it to run the fuel to a bucket.
The next problem I ran into is when you turn the key on the fuel filter only runs for about a second to prime the line. It would take too long to sit there turning the key on and off to drain the whole tank.
What I found easiest was to locate the Inertia Sensor in the trunk, on the passenger side. It's near the top, behind the cover and should be easy to get to. It has a red/black wire and a green/yellow wire connected to it. It is what is responsible for shutting off the fuel pump if you get in a wreck. You can see it in this schematic:
I pulled the plug out and connected the red/black wire to the positive terminal on the battery with an old piece of wire I had sitting around. This bypasses all the relays and runs power directly to the pump.
It takes about an hour to completely empty the fuel tank with the pump, so I hooked up a battery charger while it ran to keep from draining the battery too much.
After all this was done I put about 10 gallons of gas in the tank and cranked the engine for 10 seconds at a time. It took probably 10 tries but the car fired right up and is running fine now. I'm glad it seems very tolerant of diesel.
I tried to siphon the fuel out, but was unable to get a hose down into the fuel tank. I tried several types of hoses and a garden hose got the farthest, but still wasn't deep enough in the fuel to actually siphon it out.
So, after about two hours of online research, I found how to empty the tank, and I will consolidate everything I learned into one post so if somebody else has the same issue I had, they can hopefully solve it easily.
First, I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel filter. It is located under the car in front of the rear wheel on the passenger side. It looks like a metal can and has fuel lines connecting to it. All you need to do is take off the clip and pull the hose off. You probably won't need tools, though I used a screwdriver to push the catch on the clip down so I could get it out. I live on dirt roads and it was caked with mud. If you take the hose off the front of the filter (the cleaned side) you can connect a hose to it to run the fuel to a bucket.
The next problem I ran into is when you turn the key on the fuel filter only runs for about a second to prime the line. It would take too long to sit there turning the key on and off to drain the whole tank.
What I found easiest was to locate the Inertia Sensor in the trunk, on the passenger side. It's near the top, behind the cover and should be easy to get to. It has a red/black wire and a green/yellow wire connected to it. It is what is responsible for shutting off the fuel pump if you get in a wreck. You can see it in this schematic:
I pulled the plug out and connected the red/black wire to the positive terminal on the battery with an old piece of wire I had sitting around. This bypasses all the relays and runs power directly to the pump.
It takes about an hour to completely empty the fuel tank with the pump, so I hooked up a battery charger while it ran to keep from draining the battery too much.
After all this was done I put about 10 gallons of gas in the tank and cranked the engine for 10 seconds at a time. It took probably 10 tries but the car fired right up and is running fine now. I'm glad it seems very tolerant of diesel.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Parable of Watching Welding on TV
I decided to share this here, not sure why but I do know I need to update this more often. :)
Today my parents were talking with one of their old exchange students on Skype and I had the thought to sneak up and pop a balloon to scare the exchange student. Then I realized that wouldn't work because the pop wouldn't be loud on her end. I thought back about how I'd always been taught to not look at a welding arc, and it's for good reason! On occasion I find myself looking away out of habit when they show somebody welding on TV, but it's safe to look at on TV. Like how the balloon pop isn't loud to someone talking on Skype.
The reason is the computers' limitations. The microphone can't pick up sounds as loud as a balloon pop, and the speakers on the other end probably can't make sounds that loud. Same thing with the TV, the camera can't pick up light as bright as a welding arc, and the TV couldn't display it even if the camera was that sensitive.
Then I realized, this has spiritual connections. It may be a little technical or far fetched, but it was meaningful to me.
God is sending us messages all the time. He speaks to us trying to guide us to happiness, or, the more fertile parts of life (1 Nephi 16:16). The scriptures describe God's voice as still and small (1 Kings 19:12) or as a feeling (Galatians 5:22). The message he is sending is the most amazing message we can hear in this life; more glorious than anything we can message. Are we able to receive it?
First, we might not be sensitive enough. We may only feel part of the message, nor not believe it when we receive the message the first time. How might we grow sensitive enough to hear it? My best understanding is to practice listening. Spend time focusing on listening to what God has to say every day. This happens best through personal scripture study and prayer. That's part of why those two things are mentioned over and over.
Second, we might use the message to hurt ourselves. The scriptures talk about the Jews missing the mark and this knowledge they sought became a stumbling block (Jacob 4:14). They started wanting spiritual knowledge that they weren't ready to receive, and it caused their downfall. Do you believe all that God has taught you? Do you keep wanting to learn more but aren't doing the simple things God has taught you to do?
Sometimes it seems like I keep hearing the same message over and over from God. Sometimes it was conference, or it's talks at church, and I realized it's because I'm not listening. When I stop listening I stop progressing. Leaning back on the Book of Mormon lesson, the pointers on the Liahona stop working, and I start to get lost.
So what do we do?
I know that as we keep trying, God will strengthen us. His message will get brighter and brighter in our hearts. We may feel like we aren't getting anywhere, but we are getting somewhere spiritually. Every day we hold to God's word and live his commandments we grow stronger spiritually. Our desire and ability to repent increases.
I know God loves us. We may not understand how he expresses his love, but it is always there. He will help us understand if we just listen.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
I got a bigger memory and lots more RAMs! 8000 RAMS!
When upgraded to Windows 7 it said it needed 2GB of RAM. I had done fine with 2GB on Windows XP so I thought I didn't need to change anything. When I got everything installed, updated, and ready to go, I tried to play a game. It was painfully slow! I went back to see what the problem was and found that Windows 7 used about 1.3 GB of RAM just idling. I thought Windows 7 had better memory management! It seems it does, but it just needs twice as much as Windows XP did. Figures.
So I go on the hunt for new memory and find that RAM has changed in these last few years.
Old motherboards used to have a FSB rating which is the speed the motherboard runs at. The memory, processor, and peripherals would then be set at a multiplier of this if they ran faster. The wrong combination of speeds would leave one component waiting for the others to catch up. Getting the right speeds made the whole computer run faster.
These days on AMD motherboards they use HyperTransport. To describe it simply, it's like upgrading a traffic light from a timed light to an automatic one. It basically directs traffic instead of just letting it pass at a set interval. So with this, there is almost no correlation between processor and memory speed. Get the speeds you need and they'll talk nice... except in my situation.
My motherboard is an ASUS M4A785TD-M Evo, which says it supports AM3 processors and 1800 MHz RAM OC. I found out the OC means when they made the motherboard they set it up so it theoretically could run with faster memory, but they didn't really test it (or couldn't because the memory didn't exist yet). With a little research I found out AM3 processors don't like memory that runs faster than 1333 MHz anyway. So, any faster memory wouldn't work anyway.
I ended up getting two 4GB Crucial chips. It clocked at 1333 MHz with a latency of 7. (Model BLT2KIT4G3D1337DT1TX0.) I went with 7 latency instead of 9 because it was only about $3 more expensive.
My motherboard still had the old BIOS that came with it, and when I put in the new RAM the motherboard wouldn't even POST. I was about to send the memory back when I decided to try updating the BIOS. The BIOS update version 2104 fixed it, except the timings were set for a latency of 9 instead of a latency of 7. After some more research it seems you have to manually set timings. Motherboards don't check that on their own.
In the ASUS bios under JumperFree Configuration menu I had to set the memory timing to manual, then change four settings. First, I set the tCL, tRCD, tRP to 7. Then I set the tRAS to 24. The rest I left at automatic. After I saved and rebooted it worked like a charm.
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