MORE POWER, IGOR!!!!

"Yeth, Mathter!"

As previously mentioned, I've been fighting a memory error problem for some time that at first looked like a bad RAM module.  babylon5 has run perfectly stably for about eight years with 3x 256MB DDR333 RAM modules, but with the three 1GB DDR333 modules I was recently given, it developed severe stability issues, including gcc internal compiler errors (gcc works memory subsystems very hard, and is an excellent canary for memory problems), kernel "oopses", and even kernel panics.  Any two of the modules would work together fine in any two slots, but add the third module, and things went to hell.

After scratching my head over this for some time, I did some calculations and came up with a working theory.  Although in theory my existing 420W power supply should be adequate for the load, I came to suspect that (a) being a cheap, no-name power supply, it was not actually delivering its full rated 420W output, and (b) as a result, it was allowing the 3.3v rail to sag when the system was under heavy load and demanding peak power.

Well, I didn't have a spare power supply, so I bought one, a normally-$70 650W power supply from NewEgg on sale for $40 after rebates.  I swapped the new power supply in last night, and after first making sure everything worked properly with 2GB RAM and the new supply, added the third RAM module back in.  babylon5 is now most of the way through recompiling BRL-CAD (again ... I've been having trouble with it), and gcc hasn't so much as hiccupped, although system load factor has climbed into double digits with up to 13 gcc processes running at a time.

So, it looks as though my theory of insufficient power on the 3.3v rail was correct, and the problem is now solved.

(The other good news, of course, is that I now have a spare power supply.  The bad news is that it appears to be putting out about 350W, about 17% below its rated output, at best...)

Making law in secret by "unanimous consent"

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) voices concerns that the Senate passes over 90% of legislation without any debate, without amendment, and without a roll call vote.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  If you think your bill needs to be passed unread and without amendments or a recorded vote, then I suggest that on the contrary, it almost certainly means it should not be passed at all.  Because if your bill is a benefit to the nation, then why do you need to hide it from the nation until it's a fait accompli and conceal who voted to pass it?

Tempest in a teapot

The health blog on the New York Times has a column about the deadly danger to small children posed swallowing by various types of button-cell batteries.  This terrible danger happens THOUSANDS OF TIMES PER YEAR!!!  Well ... OK, maybe a few hundred ... no?  Ten to a dozen?

Well, OK, ALMOST ten.  ...Over the past six years.

Three hundred and forty million people, more or less, in the United States.  And in any given year, one or two of them swallow a button-cell battery and die as a result.

So, let's see ... how does that compare to other common risks?  No, wait: let's compare to RARE risks.  Oh, yes, here we go:  You are fifty times more likely to be struck and killed by lightning in any given year than you are to die from swallowing a button-cell battery.

But wait, not everyone who swallows a battery dies.  What about all the children that don't die, but still suffer serious injuries?

Well, the article says that's about a hundred people per year in the US at present, up from about fifteen per year in 1985. Out of three hundred and forty million.  That's, um ... gee. 130 times less than the number of people aged fifteen and under injured on those deadly, death-trap contrivances, bicycles, each year.  (About 13,000 in 2009.)  Hell, it's almost the number of 15-and-unders killed on bicycles in 2009 (93).

Well, we all knew bicycles were dangerous.  How about something nice and safe like the school playground?

ZOMG!!!  About two hundred thousand playground injuries per year among the 14-and-under set, about 90,000 of them severe (fractures, concussions, internal injuries, amputations etc).

Well, OK ... how about food?  Food's nice and safe, isn't it?

Well ... since you mention it ... actually, not so much.  WebMD says between 66 and 77 children under 10 die each year after choking on foods, and 10,000 children under age 15 are treated in emergency departments. Three quarters of those are children under 3 years old.  Even more deaths and choking injuries result from "swallowing balloons and small toys".

But Ms. Parker-Pope thinks we have an imminent crisis that desperately needs attention, because one to two people per year are dying from ingesting button cell batteries and maybe a hundred are being seriously injured.  We need to secure all battery compartments, everywhere, right away.

Or then again, Ms. Parker-Pope, maybe we could all start paying attention again to what our kids are getting into.  And maybe you could find something productive to do with the time on your hands, of which you appear to have rather too much if you have time to get all in a tizzy about a hazard so rare that, frankly, it's lost in the statistical noise.

Sometimes I swear we're actively breeding people for stupidity.