What to do with all that CPU?
I like to talk about value here, and CPU’s these days offer a compelling amount of performance for the price. AMD is asking what you would do with a 48 core system. As you know, I’ve been away for a while and that was due to in illness in the family. Without going into too many details, my wife had a run in with thyroid cancer. Things are going well for now and we are truly happy about that. Dealing with cancer isn’t fun and hopefully one day there will be a way to cure all kinds of cancer. We don’t have much money so donating that way doesn’t really work. However, I’ve been using my computers at home to run the Stanford University Folding@home application 24/7 to contribute all they can to their research projects (which include caner). I run both the CPU and the GPU folding programs.
If you would like to contribute or just read up on the program, please scoot on over to http://folding.stanford.edu/
As for a 48 core system, that could do some serious folding. I would definitely setup it up with Linux (as I’m a Linux Admin 
) and let that thing go crazy folding! The only thing that would make it sweeter is pairing it with a Radeon GPU to do even more folding. While again, it might not be much….but a lot of individuals contributing what they can have already lead to some great successes.
So, let me know. Do you guys fold! If so, for what teams or causes?
Credit Cards: Does it really hurt to close them?
Stumbled across an interesting article today in regards to credit cards. Your FICO score, which is made up of a secret formula of variables to determine your credit worthiness, may not get dinged by closing old accounts after all. It turns out, the card does not magically disappear from your credit report or profile when you close it. The account history will remain for 10 years whereas any negative items like late payments and so forth fall off after 7 years.
You’ve read — perhaps from well-meaning people on FICO’s own message boards — that you should never close your oldest credit card because your length-of-credit-history measurement will immediately plummet? Again, that’s a myth, says Watts.
Now, the articles goes on to mention that where it WILL hurt you to close a card is if you carry a balance. Closing accounts when you have a lot of credit card debt will increase the percentage of your usage. This number counts for 30% of your credit score, so don’t go all closing happy if you still have balances.
One benefit of knowing this is that you can tell your credit card company to stick it if they try to change your rate. Tell them to close the account and finish paying it off under your current terms. Don’t fret about the closing of the account impacting your score. However, please keep your usage ratio in mind.
For the full article, hit up MSNBC
Another note on the Health Care Bill
There is one more thing I wanted to mention. Something that I don’t believe is clear and the Republicans are trying to misconstrue. The Democrats are NOT using Reconciliation to PASS the Health Care Bill. The bill has already passed both the House and the Senate. What they are doing now is asking the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. Once that is done, the President will sign it into law.
The whole part about Reconciliation is that there are several changes that the President and other members want made in the bill. Since these changes (while very large and trans-formative from the passed bill) will modify the budgetary aspects of the bill, Reconciliation is a proper method to enact these changes. It is all part of the rules of the Senate. The House just wants to make sure that the Senate promises to pass the changes.
To recap:
- House accepts Senate version of the Health Care Reform Bill
- President signs bill into law
- The President’s and Congress’s changes are made to the bill using Reconciliation
- Both the House and the Senate pass the changes.
Pretty simple if you ask me….
Kohl’s Discount – March 2010
Well, it looks like Kohl’s is having another 10,20 or 30% off sale. For those of you who like to shop online, use code MARCH30 when checking out to get a 30% discount off your order. The one caveat is that you need to use your Kohl’s Charge Card to get the discount. However, if you have the cash and plan to pay it off once the bill comes in, by all means save yourself 30%.
Health Care Reform – Your Views
So, the biggest political topic at the moment is Health Care Reform. As for me, I would say I am more of an Independent that leans more to the left. There are issues I have with both Democrats and Republicans (many more for Republicans). As for health care, I believe that everyone should have access to affordable health care. Whether that is through insurance exchanges or a public option, I don’t really care. What I do care about is the number one reason American’s go bankrupt in this country is due to medical debt. If anything, passing comprehensive medical reform will be an economical boost due to the amount of money that no longer needs to be spent on insane medical services.
Now, I have health care insurance and I believe it is very good. I pay a not too small amount every month for it through my employer, but it is indeed worth it. What I cannot believe is how much these services cost BEFORE it is negotiated with your insurance company. Without going into too many details about the family medical issue I mentioned in a prior post, the cost for that was in the 10’s of thousands of dollars. My portion when it was all done, about $800. Had we not had health insurance, I am pretty sure we would be in financial ruin for a long time due to that illness.
We are also lucky that we don’t have to worry about being dropped since one of our family members had an illness. That is another benefit of having insurance by working for a large corporation. Had we been on our own, I’m pretty sure the next thing on their list would be to drop us. Same goes for trying to get life insurance and other items.
So, does this country need reform. Yes…it absolutely does. When you are in the top 10% you can claim that the U.S. has the best health care system in the world. The problem is, that “world class” care doesn’t come cheap for your average American. Come down to the average persons level and see how “world class” it feels.
As always, I’m interested to hear you views.