Finally my dell inspiron 530 quadcore has arrived. Fortunately for me the minimum PSI required for quadcore is 350 w, which makes it compatible with eVGA 8800GT PCIe card without replacing the standard PSI. However the standard PSI is using only sata 15-pin power and 8800GT is using two 4-pin molex to power its GPU. In addition to that, if you order your spec like me, 1 DVD rom + 1 Harddisk, you will only have 2 sata power left that you can use.

 

The following is the extra cables/extentions I bought to make it work:

A1. SATA 15-pin M molex to 4-pin F power adapter

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0281713

A2. 4-pin Molex Y Power Cable

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0260708

 

After you got everything setup, do the following to install your 8800GT to Inspiron 530

1. Turn off your computer and unplugged it from the wall

2. Disconnect all connections from your desktop, then open the case.

3. Plug the 8800GT to the only PCIe slot (#25 on the diagram below)

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/inspd530/EN/OM/parts.htm#wp1184332

4. Connect the 15-pin molex to 4 pin converter (A1) to the one of the SATA power either from harddrive or dvd rom

5. Connect A1 to A2 and then connect A2 to the Y cable from your 8800GT

6. Close the case, connect the monitor cable to the new card, plug it back in, and boot up.  The system should see the new hardware. 

7. Install all of the driver that came from the CD, or download the latest version fron nvidia website

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.25_whql.html

 

 

DHL Guy: Oh shoot the package arrived at Wilmington, OH one day early. This package should be delivered tomorrow 4/22. Let me ship this back to Lousville, KY so that when the other guys at Kentucky realized that it was wrong shipment, they will surely ship this back to Ohio. That way I can ensure the delivery to the cusomer is ontime tomorrow

 

Have you ever wondered how to calculate distance between 2 coordinates in map? It turns out that the calculation is not that simple. There is a formula called Haversine and this formula will give you the exact precision to the meter unit. So what is the formula?

Haversine Formula:

R = earth’s radius (mean radius = 6,371km)
?lat = lat2? lat1
?long = long2? long1
a = sin²(?lat/2) + cos(lat1).cos(lat2).sin²(?long/2)
c = 2.atan2(?a, ?(1?a))
d = R.c
(Note that angles need to be in radians to pass to trig functions).

Looks very complicated isn’t it? If you don’t need the exact distance up to meter unit precision, there is a lot simpler formula that you can use. It’s called Spherical Law of Cosines.

Spherical Law of Cosines:

d = acos(sin(lat1).sin(lat2)+cos(lat1).cos(lat2).cos(long2?long1)).R

Or even better, in MySQL it can be translated to:

SELECT id, place_name,
ROUND( SQRT( POW((69.1 * (#Val(arguments.latitude)# - latitude)), 2) + POW((53 * (#Val(arguments.longitude)# - longitude)), 2)), 1) AS distance
FROM places
ORDER BY distance ASC

I hope this is useful for those who are interested in geomapping.

 

Taken exactly outside my apartment in Columbus, OH. The snow was 20 in high and it was the highest snowfall accumulation ever happened in Ohio.

 

 

I have to admit that San Francisco is one of the nicest city I’ve ever been to. I like pretty much about everything in San Francisco except the difficulties in finding parking spots.

 

 

The trip to vegas was really more than a trip. We drove all the way from Los Angeles to Vegas and there were so many interesting things to see on the way to Vegas. One of them was there is a place called Zzyzx. I don’t even know how to pronounce it

 

We visitted most of the casinos and hotels there. The food was great and we spent the new year eve there in Vegas. Unfortunately when we were there, we have not yet watched ‘21‘ the movie or otherwise we would became millionaire in few nights.

 

 

Taken at Santa Monica Beach, CA - I took this picture because I think this really fits to say good bye for 2007 and to welcome the new year 2008

 

Interesting quotation from one Anglican bishop written on his tomb in Westminster Abbey:

“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world.  As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.

“But it, too, seemed immovable.

“As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.

“And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize:  If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.

From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.”

 

Does anyone remember Michael Jordan commercial? You see him striding through the back hallways of the stadium where he was a part of the world champion Chicago Bulls basketball team.  And then you hear Michael say, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my life.  I’ve lost over 300 games.  Thirty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot … and missed.  I have failed over and over again in my life.  And that is why … I SUCCEED!”

In essence, Michael was saying, “It’s okay to fail.  It’s not okay to give up.”

 

 

I went all the way to Hocking Hills, OH just to capture the beauty of autumn foliages. I also hiked for 6 miles and indeed that was exhausting.