Intel Unveils Powerful New System On A Chip Designs

This is big step for Intel as they have been getting into more and more markets. In fact most of the chipset’s (save video) on my computer are now Intel. I remeber about 4 years ago looking into a Z chip that was supposed to be an all in one PC but they could never get the clock speed past 500Mhz so I abandoned the idea.

I see this as being great for settop boxes and media centers as having powerfull chipset also mean better decoding of HD, MPEG, MP4, etc…

Digg Info:
Gadi Singer, Vice President of Intel’s Mobility Group, and Doug Davis, Vice President of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, held a conference call today to discuss a brand new product line from Intel targeted at security, storage, communications, and industrial applications, the Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor family.

read more | digg story

The Winner of the Losers: Why Barack Obama Should Win the 2008 Presidential Elections

For the past year I have been bombarded with infomercials, flyers, and emails begging for my support of one presidential candidate or another. I usually wait until all of the name calling and bickering of the party nominations subside before I research my choice in a presidential candidate. However, this year I was sucked in by the propaganda between Hillary, Obama and McCain. I think everyone was to some extent. After all of the fighting and airing of the dirty laundry I have to say that my candidate for the 2008 elections will be Barack Obama. Even though our choices are slim I hope that the next few paragraphs will allow you to see why I chose Obama, and I may even persuade you to do the same.

?Change We Can Believe In? (Obama for America). This is Obama?s main driving point and the main reason I will vote for him this term. Change is what we need, and not just radical change but small changes that lead up to bigger changes. A well thought out plan is what we need and that is what I believe Obama will give us. His website http://www.Barackobama.com (Obama for America)has a list of hot topics and Barack?s plan for each item. Below are some my hot topics that were on his site.
The economy is a current hot topic for many Americans; we have all felt the blow first hand due to soaring gas prices, the housing market crashing, and job market drying up. These items hit very close to home for me and I needed to know that my presidential candidate felt that this was a very important issue, and that he would have a plan of action to alleviate some of our suffering. I feel that Obama addresses these issues with much vigor by providing a clear plan for jumpstarting the economy and then sustaining it.The plan will be effective by providing more job opportunities and creating laws that will protect home buyers from these sub-prime loans and fishy loan programs. He furthers my support by including technology expansions in his plan. This was the biggest point for me as I am currently in that field.
I believe everyone has felt their pocket hurt recently due to rising energy cost because of our dependency on foreign oil. Obama is recognized over the other candidates because his plans include oil reform or becoming independent from foreign oil. He also plans to support research into cleaner fuels such as biofuel and renewable energy sources like wind, sun, and water. My presidential candidate Barack Obama has more than an idea on how to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. He has a plan that you can see in black and white. Click Here To Read(Obama for America)
The last but not least of my hot topics covered by Barack Obama would be education. I have felt the hurt of the rising cost of college and Obama plans to support outreach programs for college students. The program will also increase federal grant programs to help with the cost of school. The aforementioned items would be enough to suffice my requirements in my presidential candidate but Barack has gone two steps further. His plan includes actions that will simplify the application process known as fafsa and plans to create an additional tax credit for college students which I could have used this year on my taxes.

Barack Obama is clearly my choice as a presidential candidate. Not because he is this or that but because the plans he presents are solid and include items that I am concerned about. Whether you choose Obama or not is up to you. However, I would strongly recommend Obama based on my research and fact finding. He is the best candidate in my opinion.

Thanks for reading
David Bates

My Trip to the Beach Day 2: Sun, Sand, Lighthouses and Lots of Driving

Today we started our trip with the goal of going to the Aquarium. However, after driving for a couple of hours we noticed that we passed the Aquarium and decided to trudge on to see Cape Hatteras. Cape Hatteras is one the most well known lighthouses of the outer banks for those of you haven?t been to North Carolina. It was a very long drive to reach the Hatteras Lighthouse as we were staying at the north part of the outer banks and it was located at the south end. My sister and myself climbed the lighthouse several years ago before it was moved and was hoping to be able to climb it again to remember how it was long ago. However, since that time the lighthouse had actually been moved and they now charge a fee of $7.00 per person just to enter the lighthouse. So needless to say all the pictures you will see are from the outside of the lighthouse. I did not climb it this time around.

After the lighthouse we all went out on the Hatteras beach to catch some waves, It was quite a bit of fun. We stayed for awhile and everyone became hot and frustrated so we decided to ride down to the southern tip of Hatteras and catch the ferry to Ocracoke.

Ocracoke was a lot of fun and although we didn?t get to do a lot there everyone enjoyed the lighthouse and small shops on the strip. We then took the 11:00 ferry back to Hatteras and drove back home.

This day included a lot of driving but was also a lot of fun.

Enjoy
David Bates

My Trip to The Beach Day 1: Grave Digger, Unpacking, and Military Ordinance

After a 5 ½ hour trip starting at 6AM and cleaning up the baby after he got carsick, the crew and myself stopped at Grave Digger’s workshop. For those of you who may not know Grave Digger is a world known Monster Truck. My nephew who is three now would have killed us if we had not stopped there. The Shop I must say was pretty cool and I especially enjoyed seeing the older trucks parked out front. I took several pictures of the event and placed a sideshow below for your viewing pleasure.

When we arrived at the house we were all in awe at how beautiful it was. The house was a two bedroom one level nestled about 300′ from the Albemarle Sound. We quickly lifted the hurricane windows and setup our fans to cool the place off. We then moved around some furniture to fit our beds and began unpacking our overstuffed cars.

After we unpacked I decided to take a stroll down the sound with my nephew. We happened upon a long shiny metal cylinder. I decided to take a closer look and picked it up. To my surprise the cylinder had several items on it in bright red such as ?Warning Do Not Touch? ?May Cause Severe Burns? ?Call Military or Police Immediately?. I also noticed that the cylinder had instructions on it for hand launching. I believe it was as I was reading the hand launching instructions that I noticed the cylinder sparking and smoking from its tip! I threw down the cylinder and that it started hissing so I grabbed my nephew?s hand and ran back to the house to call 911. Shortly after my call a man came in a emergency response truck and explained that the cylinder was a phosphorous flare used by the base on the other side of the sound to light up the night sky. He placed the cylinder in a bucket of sand and went on his way.

Day one pretty much consisted of the boys playing in sand and the adults getting settled in.

Enjoy
David Bates

Headed to the Beach!

Hi All,

This next statement may make you wish your name was David Bates. I am headed to the beach!
This is my first vacation in more than 4 years, and I havn’t been to the beach since I was 9 or so.
I will be staying for 1 week in Jarvisburg NC (near Duck). Sun, Sand, and VPN is dancing through my head.
You may ask why I would include VPN. I include because I am a diligent college student and will try to make use of my home VPN in order to complete my school-work.

I can feel the balmy see breeze now

This is also Daniel’s first trip ever to the beach and I can’t wait to see him crawl/walk in the sand.

I will put some picture on here throughout the week. Here is one to get you started.

I hope you are on vacation as well, if not hopefully you’ll get to go soon.
David Bates