CERN operational again

CERN is slowly ramping up (actually ahead of schedule); they've done some 900 GeV collisions (450 x 2) and expect to crank it up to 1.2/2.4 TeV very soon, then eventually to 3.5/7 TeV, which they all seem confident they can do with very little risk of another meltdown. They may be able to crank it up to 5/10 TeV with equipment as is, and with some mods planned for next year, they hope to reach a per-beam energy of 7 TeV, for a 14 TeV collision.

Windows programs on Linux

I moved another program over to Linux on my machine last night. This is a program which under Windows (XP or 7) when re-verifying its dataset would take about 45 minutes. Under Linux, about 40 seconds to do the same job. The job involves opening and examining the contents of several thousand files.

So far every Windows program that I've installed (I try to go with native Linux software, but I have gone with Windows software for 4 or 5 programs) has run faster and at least as well if not better than it does under Windows.

I was REALLY surprised that the games I bought a couple of months ago, which require DirectX 9, ran without a hitch when installed.

Audiobook finished

With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony

Not bad. Way better than #2, not as good as #1. I guess I may as well continue on through, these aren't very long. It's still pretty obvious that the book is padded to some number of words that he pre-sold, but it's nowhere near as bad as Hourglass was.

After this I'm going to need something guaranteed good to clear the palette though. I've got Count of Monte Cristo from Librivox downloaded and queued - hope it has a good reader.