So one of my friends has this really kick-ass computer. He recently put in an SSD (finally! – did that a long time ago) and then his Windows Experience Index for the hard drive went up to 7.4. Then it jumped to 7.8. When I asked him how he did it he said “AHCI”. When I looked it up I couldn’t believe I didn’t know it about it before. I could’ve had more performance all this time with just a few steps! Here’s how you can do it too if you have a SATA drive.
- Follow these steps on the Microsoft website. You can either use their registry patch or make the changes yourself.
- Restart you computer and enter the BIOS settings (usually Del button).
- Find the setting to change the SATA mode. It’s probably set to IDE (the default for maximum compatibility with older operating systems). Change it to AHCI.
Then your done! If you re-run the WEI test you should get a higher score for you hard drive. Enjoy the free performance gain! There are some other performance tweaks that I haven’t done yet but I’ll post about them after I do.
So I’ve been wanting to do something cool with Amazon S3 ever since I’ve heard about it. S3 has a free usage tier, but it has some limits, so using it on smaller sets of data would probably be a good idea I thought maybe using it as backup storage for this site would be a good idea so I did some research. Turns out it’s pretty simple! Here’s how to do it.
- Sign up for a AWS account here.
- Setup s3cmd with these instructions.
- Run
s3cmd --configure
and use your AWS credentials.
- Modify this guy’s script to do whatever you want it to.
- To schedule it with cron you can use this guide.
Then your done! Hands-off backup to S3!
I took a bunch of photos of fireworks on New Year’s Eve. This was pretty special because they were fired off the Space Needle! It’s an amazing sight! But I made a few mistakes:
- I didn’t use mirror lock-up. Thus my photos were a little more blurry then they should have been.
- My exposures were too short. This made the fireworks a little less explosive then I would’ve liked.
- I didn’t properly frame the shots. I should’ve included more of the base and foreground.
At least I’m learning! Here are some of the shots:
Just finished the main quest in Skyrim. It was a pretty epic final battle against the oldest dragon. I’m so glad there is still so much to do. What a great game! I think I’m a level 34 or 35 now. I’m a pretty awesome archer.
I wish I could post to this thing regularly, but I lack the willpower. Let’s see…what’s new. I took a bunch of pictures around Seattle, so I’ll post those soon. I’m a level 31 in Skyrim now. That’s all I can think of at the moment. Oh, and I went back to the old theme because I like it better. Till next time!
P.S. I’m going to set up automatic wordpress backup one of these days and I’ll post on how to do it once I finish.
Man this game is addicting. I’m a level 19 now. Working my way up. I’ve decided to grab quests as I get them, and work my way from closest to farthest from home (Whiterun). I’ve installed a bunch of mods that make the game look georgeous. The coolest one so far is the Whiterun texture pack. It makes Whiterun look much better! I also disabled the 2GB RAM limit.
I’ve finished two Daedric quests so far, so that means two unique items. One is a cool glowing sword. The other is a wicked mace. I’m using the mace right now because it does more damage and it has a soul trap enchantment along with a damage enchantment. So it pretty much charges itself!
I’ve been playing Skyrim for a few hours and I have to say it’s really fun and addicting! It’s pretty similar to Oblivion, but the spells definitely look cooler. And the environments look pretty good. I’m playing it maxed out on my desktop, so no complaints with performance! Fighting the first dragon was pretty awesome and beautiful. I can’t wait to fight some more dragons. I’ve come across some pretty powerful creatures already and have had to run away, so I might have to look into how to get stronger faster. So far I’m just a level 6. I’m playing as a Nord because they’re the best looking haha. You should play it too!
I just beat Uncharted 3 and I have to say that it was a lot of fun. What an exciting game. From scenes like barely escaping a burning building to hanging for dear life from the back of a cargo plane, the game keeps you on the edge of your seat. I’d highly recommend it! Now on to Skyrim!
Just bought a new car! It’s a Honda Accord SE. It’s a little more boring then I would like, but I’m trying to be a more practical buyer. Since I wanted to be at least a little happy with it, I got the SE package which includes leather trimming. Now I’m no longer confined to things within walking distance and I no longer need to take 2 hour bus rides. Now I’ll just stick some HIDs (both practical, exotic, and a very cheap DIY upgrade).
Last weekend I went to Brickcon and saw a lot of cool lego structures. There was a giant tower bridge and a HUMONGOUS tower of Isengard. Check out the pics in the set!
