New Type of RAM – PRAM

Intel, along with some other companies are developing a new type of RAM.  RAM is one of the main parts of the computer that makes it go fast.  It is like a hard drive in that it stores data, but it is much faster (and smaller), but it requires power to store data.  It’s not used to store your files, it is for loading the programs into when they are running.  That way they can run faster then if they were running right off the hard drive.

This new RAM is called PRAM, or, phase-change RAM. From what I read it seems like it should be faster and cheaper, and it also will not require power.  This all sounds cool to me, but what really got my attention was the way it’s made.

PRAM is based on chalcogenide glass, which can be altered using the heat generated by an electric current. Heat changes the physical structure of the glass to either a crystalline or amorphous state. Each of these states has a distinct electrical resistance that is used to represent the ones and zeroes needed to represent stored data in binary terms.

- PC World

That’s awesome.  What kind of a goof ball would think they should try to heat a piece of glass into an amorphous state to represent binary.  You can call me a geek all you want with my programming and whatnot, but the guys who think this stuff up are the real geniuses.

Gmail Paper – April Fools

I just went to login to my Gmail account, and on the main page it said that Google was introducing a new feature – Gmail Paper.  It’d be a thing where you can select however many emails you want, click Paper Archive, and then they would print out all the messages and mail them to you, for free.  It would even print photos if they were attached to the emails.  At first I thought, sweet, I can see them doing that since they would print ads on the back of the paper.  But then I logged in and the Paper Archive button wasn’t there.  I logged out and thought about it for a while, and then went back to the site, thought about it some more, and thought, no way.  That’s an April Fools.  Of course they haven’t actually said that it’s an April Fools yet, but I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t.

I feel kind of dorky for falling for it at first.

http://mail.google.com

Internship

I was up at the place I go for my computer classes (from here on to be referred to by its name – TechSkills) talking to my instructor. We were just kind of shootin the breeze when I asked him what he thought as far as me getting a job or internship somewhere. He got, what I thought to be a puzzled look on his face and it seemed like he was thinking for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but I sort of thought that he was going to say that I shouldn’t do anything like that just yet. Then he went on to say, that just the other day he had talked to a local software company that writes .NET code and uses SQL Server (precisely what I use), and that they were looking for an intern.

So I wrote up a little resume type thing, and he sent it to the company. So I’m just waiting to here back from him now. This was on Friday. Actually it was pretty late Friday, right around when he leaves work, so he might not have been able to send it until today.

I’m an MCAD

Microsoft Certified Application Developer, that is.  In addition to my normal school, I am also taking some computer courses.  My main focus is the .NET Framework, which I’m not even going to give a brief description of right now, but just know that it’s really cool for a programmer, and that its end product is software-consumer satisfaction.

When I am all done I will be an MCSD, Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.  I am planning on taking five courses (if I finish all of those in my 12 month time limit, I will take some more): SQL Server, VB.net, XML and Web Services, ASP.net, and Architecture.  I am finished with the first three (upon completion of the third is when I got my MCAD certification), and just started ASP.net about a week ago.

With what I know so far I’m pretty sure I can get a decent job somewhere (and I’ll be looking in the next month or so), and when I’m entirely done, I think I’ll be able to make some sweet do-ray-me.  Of course I need experience too, but that’s what the first job is for.

History of the Marine Corps

I’m writing a research paper on the founding of the USMC right now, but for some reason I had the urge to write a brief summarization of it.

Marine combat has been around for thousands of years, the Greeks, Egyptians, all those good guys employed marine warfare. But marine forces that were more directly related to the birth of our current United States Marine Corps started happening in the 1600s. King Charles II of England had the Royal Marines, of which the American colonials were a part of since roughly 1740. I think it’s safe to assume that once the American Revolution started, those loyal to England remained part of the Royal Marines, and those loyal to America left. But I did not read that in any of my books.

In 1775, the Continential Congress ordered the creation of 2 battalions of marines, thus forming the Continential Marines. Captain Samuel Nicholas was put in command of these battalions, as well as given the responsibility of recruiting those 2 battalions. As any Marine will tell you, that recruiting took place at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia. Captain Nicholas is considered the first commandant of the Marine Corps.

The Continential Marines fought and led many battles during the Revolution, but afterwards, they kind of dissolved. There wasn’t an immediately obvious need for them. In the 1790s, however, we started to get into trouble with the Barbary Pirates and France. So Congress ordered the creation of the Department of the Navy, and shortly after that a “Marine Corps.” And that is when the actual United States Marine Corps was founded. And of course they have served as America’s finest in all of our conflicts since then.

Once I am done with my paper, I’ll probably post that up here. Which should be in a few weeks, following the class schedule.

Blog-tag: 5 Things You Probably (might) Not Know About Me

It appears as though I have just been tagged by Marek (Think This //) in a game of blog tag (ya I had no idea that was such a thing either). This particular game was started by Jeff Pulver, and the “rules” are, that you say 5 things not many people know about you, and then tag 5 more bloggers. I don’t think I know that many bloggers so we’ll see what I do once I get that far. Anyway…

1. I pretty much never sleep in my bed, I usually sleep on the floor in the family room.
2. There are some people, that when I talk to them, I feel like they have no idea what I’m talking about. Not because I’m reciting super advanced mathematical formulas or anything. They just don’t get what I’m saying. (it probably doesn’t make any more sense to me, then reading this makes to you)
3. I’m sitting on the couch right now and I am extremely uncomfortable.
4. One time, in 2nd grade or so, I got in trouble with the music teacher (it wasn’t my fault, Matt Mueller was making faces at me) and had to write her an apology note.
5. When I was a ‘lil fella, I had a Little Mermaid Barbie… I don’t anymore though.

Now for the 5 people.  As I said I don’t really know very many people who have blogs.

Bill Hardin

Mom Hardin

Rianne Hardin

Matthew Wells 

Well that’s good enough I think.

Anna Nicole Smith

Why is the news wasting all of their broadcast time on Anna Nicole Smith? Thousands of people die each day, and it’s sad. Do we need to have hour upon hour of news TV time to the story about one unimportant person’s death? There are several stories that networks could be sending reporters to for investigation. Such as -

• MEND rebels in Nigeria.
• Police officer shortage in Los Angeles.
• What was that thing going on in Iraq? I forgot…. ummm, oh ya! A WAR. That makes far better news.
• 8 feet of snow in New York, that’s cool.

It just seems like there are far more important things going on right now.  She has been the main headline on Drudge Report for at least 12 hours straight now (probably longer, that’s just how long I’ve been keeping track), Greta devoted pretty much her entire show to the story on Fox News.  Which was disappointing because over on CNN they were covering some of those other things I mentioned.

Beauty Salon

As I’m writing this I am sitting in a nail/hair/massage salon…. next time my mom asks if I want to come in or stay in the car, I’ll definitely chose the latter.  First of all, it smells.  It smells terrible.  I don’t know what all that girl stuff is, but if I were to match the stench with odors I’ve whiffed in the past, I’d say it’s nail polish.  Gallons of nail polish.  Maybe even some sort of nail polish factory.

Okay, I seriously can’t contain myself.  A woman sitting kitty corner from me just said, “I’m wearing long johns.”  I don’t really care to hear that.

Aside from the horrid smell and the long john lady, it’s just kind of weird in here.  The cushions on one of the benches are kind of cheetah looking.  There’s some goofy rugs on the floor and someone took there shoes off before they went into one of the rooms.

The conversation between the customers and stylists is riveting.  One lady was talking about how hairy someone (it might have been her) was, the need for some body part to be waxed (I don’t want to know what part), and one lady just asked another lady if “you found a bubble bath.”

I hope my mom is done soon cause I have to go to the bathroom (there’s no way I’m going to explore around this building looking for a bathroom), I’m starting to get a little dizzy from the afore mentioned stink, and I just don’t think I can be surrounded by all this womanism for too much longer.

Minneapolis

Alright, I was under the impression that only a few people read this, and that I personally know all off them.  But I was just looking at my Google Analytics page, and there have been over a hundred views in the last few weeks from Minneapolis…. I don’t know anyone in Minneapolis.  So, if whoever is reading this, from Minneapolis (or anywhere north of Milwaukee for that matter), could just write a little comment (click the link that says No Comments) and say how you know me or how you found this site, or something; that would be cool.

This is Doctor…

My dad is a doctor, and when someone from the hospital need to talk to him, the have the hospital paging service send him a page so he can call back. My dad often has trouble when calling the paging service back. Here’s the latest conversation my sister and I overheard. We were laughing our heads off. I put “………” where the other persons dialog was which of course I couldn’t hear.

This is Dr. Hardin, somebody paged

………

This is Dr. Hardin

………

Dr. Hardin

………

Then why don’t you use a different phone cause I’m not gonna yell

………

THIS IS DOCTOR HARDIN!!!!!!