Help shaft.ed succeed in life

[TDC]

I've found numbers of 70k for Skype with video. That would be some five hours a day before you hit the limit. So if that's all you do, it shouldn't be a problem.

[shaft.ed]

OK so the apartment has been gotten. Internet has been ordered. Sex swing has not been installed.

It's now time to purchase a laptop. I have a fellowship that will pay for one personal computer, money is almost no object. It will be used to process microscopy data, so I need something with good graphics and fast speed, that will last me a couple years. I really only know Sony and Lenovo (IBM) laptops at all, so I've been checking them out and am curious what people with more knowledge would suggest. I'm also wondering if a solid state hard drive is somewhat or highly recommended. Note I will not be saving or working with data from my computer hard drive, I will be writing to externals. Freestanding monitor might also be an option to make up for smaller screens.

Current options ranked in order of consideration.

Vaio Z series:
13.1 inch screen
intel i5 2.53GHz processor
Solid State Drive
8 GB DRAM
1 GB NVidia graphics card

Thinkpad 410s:
14.1 inch screen
intel i5 2.4GHz processor
Solid State Drive
8 GB DRAM
512 MB NVidia graphics card

Vaio E Series:
15.5 inch screen
intel i5 2.4GHz processor
HSD
8 GB RAM
512 MB NVIdia graphics card

Vaio CW Series:
14 inch screen
intel i5 2.53GHz processor
HSD
8GB RAM
245 MB NVidiea graphics card

So would any of these be a good idea, if so which one?

[TDC]

Can you explain what exactly "processing microscopy data" entails? I can't quite envision how that would require "good graphics".

[Oman]

To be honest, Solid states are just too expensive for the benefit these days.

[Nelloz]

don't they use the regular channels such as classified listings?

I haven't gotten to anz papers yet. But I don't know any German.

Someone needs to get used to the German keyboard layout.



I don't think you'd need a SSD if you write to external disks anyway.

[shaft.ed]

Can you explain what exactly "processing microscopy data" entails? I can't quite envision how that would require "good graphics".

Welp you start with medium to large data files (currently my biggest are about 2 gigs, but they have the potential to grow). Then you open them with an image processing program. I'll 99.9% be using ImageJ / FIJIsince they are open source. These are Java based programs that allow a multitude of different manipulations. Some examples would be opening the files to make simple measurements of size or intensity. Analyzing time lapse data to track particle movement. Most complicated function is going to be 3D rendering (actually 4D since it's time lapse) where image stacks are freely spun about in 3D space. Measurements, masking, and tracking etc. will be performed in this view. I may also be running deconvolution plugins, which are usually pretty taxing. In my previous lab I had a desktop with 4GB RAM and it would still crash on occassion due to too much going on. Primarily with the 3D rendering program when I had too large an image file open, or too many files open due to time lapse.

I'll also be doing post processing in Adobe programs, but this is generally less demanding than the analysis steps.

The only reason I can think the solid state would be beneficial is because the programs are installed on the hard drive. So I wasn't sure if this would help make program usage less sluggish.

Also yeah the solid state is going to cost about $1K more along with a couple other bells and whistles, but like I said money is not that big of a concern. If I keep it below 2.5-3K I'll be fine.

[TDC]

Ah okay. I doubt those programs would make much use of a graphics adapter to be honest, it is probably all done on the cpu. Even so I think the main concern is going to be RAM. I don't know whether you'll find a laptop with 16GB, but would certainly recommend that then (seeing how even that's only 8 pictures..)

Although this sounds like a task that should be run on a cluster and not on a laptop..

[shaft.ed]

So yeah, 16GB is going to run me about $4K, that is actually a bit too much. It's also 9 pounds (at least from Dell).

[Thestatusquo]

Whatever you do, don't buy dell.

[crywolf20084]

Whatever you do, don't buy dell.

This. I can send you wonderful pictures of my dell after 2 years. my graphics card is also (literally) fried.

[shaft.ed]

Whatever you do, don't buy dell.

Yeah my only Dell purchase died 1 month after the warranty expired. So I'm not doing another Dell. Just they were the first company I could find offering a 16GB RAM. Lenovo has one too, but its like 4.2K or something.

[shaft.ed]

OK figured I'd put up some pics of my new place so that you guys could know how much I am succeeding at life with your help.

First my wall of south facing windows. Yeah lots of crap on the floor. I blame IKEA


Then what I can see out of said windows. OMG a roof and some trees!


My kitchen is so damn spacious I had to take two pictures to get the whole thing.

Note the luxorious IKEA wears



And probably what I like best about my apartment is the location. 3 blocks to the UBahn. 15 minute walk to work. 3 blocks to the asian market. 3 grocery stores within a block and a half. 3 bakeries within a block. 2 ice cream shops within a block. 2 butchers within a half a block. And 15 hair salons within a 3 block radius!

[shaft.ed]

Has anyone here tried undervolting their laptop? Mine gets quite warm and has a lot of fan noise, I was thinking this might be helpful.

[shaft.ed]

sooo...I got my shiny new laptop with 8GB RAM, but, when I run my image analysis program it tells me that since I'm 32 bit I can only allocate 1.2 GB of memory. If I manually adjust above this threshold the program doesn't open. Now I'm stuck only being able to open about 3/4 of my data files. This is something I can workaround in the future. But it would be really helpful if I could allocate more memory to this program. Is there anyway to do so?

[TDC]

Are we talking about ImageJ? If so, can you verify your Java runtime is 64bit? (Did you use the installer that comes bundled with 64bit Java?)

[shaft.ed]

Yes I'm using ImageJ/FIJI

Control Panel says I have 64-bit Java as well as a second instance of Java (not specified). Both are version 6 update 18. They were preinstalled on the computer at purchase.

[TDC]

I would guess the unspecified one is 32bit and it's using that one.
You could check by opening a command prompt and entering "java -version".

If so, there's bound to be something in the control panel -> java thing where you can select which one to use.
That said, I'm not sure what you'd need the 32bit for anyway, so you could just try removing it.

[shaft.ed]

I'm guessing there are some programs that might not work on 64 bit Java. But it looks like this is the problem. When I go into the memory allocation it is definitely limited to 32 bit. I'll check the FIJI forums to see how to switch it. Thanks.


EDIT: yeah I'm just an idiot. Downloaded the 32 bit version because I forgot I was running a 64 bit Windows. Now have 5.8G memory to work with. Thanks!

[shaft.ed]

So I've bought a pair of Eurail passes for me and my wife. We'll have 15 days to visit as many countries as we want in the Eurail system. We've decided that since money is a little tight with my wife back in school, we're going to start our travels on the cheaper side of the continent. I don't know much about the area (hell I couldn't even show you a good time in Munich) so I figured I'd shamelessly solicit advice for our vacation from fellow scummers who may or may not have been.

Possibly helpful information:

-The Eurail pass doesn't cover all of Eastern Europe. Included countries are: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria.
-Since most of it's neighbors aren't in the system, Montenegro ends up being a dead end (was thinking of visiting Kotor).
-We'll likely be starting the trip by going down through Italy and then hopping a ferry over to Greece. So with the time burnt and the distance, Poland is likely out and possibly Czech Republic.
-We aren't huge fans of standard nightlife (like clubs/bars) but my wife does like 24 hour cities, like in Shanghai were you can go to eat streetfood in the middle of the night.
-My wife is also a big fan of mountains and lakes, so I'm thinking of visiting Lake Bohinj in Slovenia.
-The only thing I'm interested in while traveling is pretty much food, and avoiding tourist traps.

[Yaw]

I've been to Greece, but only the islands (ferried across from Turkey, went through Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, Paros, Samos, and Chios on a little loop). If you're heading out in that direction, I might have some recommendations for you.

[Nelloz]

I was in Croatia (Zadar) earlier this year. I loved that city. Great national parks to see (Islands + Waterfalls) if you are into this kind of stuff. There is a great, warm saltwater lake on an Island which looks just great, with the surrounding area mirrored in there, and no tourists (except you). I was at a national park with countless waterfalls, one more gorgeous than the next. Went around it and then wanted to start another round again, words can't do it justice. Also Zadar has a very lovely sunset. Don't remember if it is a 24h city, you were able to get decent food around midnight though during the week. It is a really, really beautiful city.
They are supposed to have nice lamb meat there, I did not try it.
It's not too far away from Italy. You could go there and then to Greece instead of using a ferry. Or use a ferry which stops there.

[Jahudo]

I know a little about Italy's Veneto region, if you might be stopping in Venice or thereabouts. Lots of places to eat but I'm not sure how late they're open.

[Korts]

I could show you round Budapest (I know the night life the best around here, but I'm sure I can dig up a day's worth of interesting stuff if you're interested). Also, come to Pécs. It's the European Capital of Culture for 2010.

[shaft.ed]

Thanks for the replies guys.

@Yaw, I don't think we will get time to do island hopping in Greece. I know that's probably the best thing to do there, but the ferry schedules look too slow, and the ferries inside Greece aren't covered by our pass.

@Nelloz, Thanks for the tips. I've been searching Croatia's national parks and they're beautiful. Did you stop at Plitvice Lakes on your way into Zadar? I don't know if we will get all the way down to the islands because Croatia is a dead end, but we will definitely see some of the parks. Thanks.

@Jahudo, We might actually be stopping in Venice. If we go to Slovenia we can either return to Munich through Venice or the North through Salzburg. Some food suggestions would be great. There's a night train from Slovenia to Venice so that could work out good.

@Korts, Thanks a lot for the offer, but my wife isn't keen no meeting internet strangers . But thanks for the Pecs suggestion. It's nice and low in Hungary so it will fit well on the itinerary. I'll check it out.

[Nuwen]

Wife this, wife that. Don't you want to meet Korts?

I

want to meet Korts.