enjoy myself i
n certain ways
but was really not in the mood for clubbing as it is so different to me from the time when I was younger. Gary went home about 0130hrs together with his frens as for me and Perlin stayed till about 0430hrs. Together with Serene and Joanne we took a cab and head back home. All of us stay in Bt.Batok so it was convenient for us. We dropped Joanne off at her place while the rest of us went for supper. After supper was close to 0600hrs. We headed back. Got home was so tired.Set the alarm clock to 1300hrs and went to bed.
Our father who hath in heaven.Hallowed be thy name,Thy kingdom come,Thy world be done on earth as it is in heaven.Give us tis day our daily bread,And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.Microsoft publicly released Windows XP Professional x64 Edition on April 30, 2005. This version of Windows XP Professional is the first designed specifically to work with x64 PCs. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, a high-performance platform, brings benefits to customers who work in technical fields such as automobile and airplane design, computational fluid dynamics, and scientific visualization. Digital content creators, including 3-D animators, digital artists, and game developers will also welcome the large amounts of memory and performance improvements that make their 64-bit applications run faster and more efficiently. And enthusiasts who edit a large of amount of photos, video, or music files will benefit from the additional memory and processing capability.
In this column, I'll give you an overview of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. I'll describe what hardware and software it supports and point out the kind of customer who'll get the most from the new OS version.
The term x64 is used to describe the 64-bit architecture developed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel to provide processors that are highly compatible with the x86 processors that have been the mainstay of personal computing. The x64 architecture, when combined with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, can run the thousands of 32-bit programs available today. The x64 architecture also lets a developer enter whole new areas with the advanced capabilities that 64-bit processing makes possible.
The biggest difference between x64 and other 64-bit processors is that x64 processors are compatible at the hardware level with 32-bit, x86 processors. There are currently two basic x64 processor families:
| • | AMD's amd64 |
| • | Intel's EM64T |
From AMD, this includes the Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Mobile Athlon 64, Turion 64, and Opteron processors. From Intel, this includes the Xeon with EM64T and Pentium 4 with EM64T processors. The two architectures are binary compatible, allowing Windows XP Professional x64 Edition to use a single version to support both.
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is a near feature-complete version of Windows XP Professional that runs on x64 processors. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition supports 128 GB of RAM and 16 terabytes of virtual memory address space, as compared to 4 GB of both physical RAM and virtual memory address space for 32-bit Windows XP Professional.
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition runs 32-bit applications in the Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) subsystem providing compatibility with the more than 10,000 existing 32-bit Windows applications while enabling new 64-bit applications.
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is only available from Microsoft manufacturer partners—such as Dell, HP, and IBM—as part of a new computer. There isn't a stand-alone retail version. System builders will offer the new version of the OS with new systems or, for customers who build their own computers, with a qualifying hardware purchase. An MSDN version is available to developers.
If you've already bought x64-capable hardware that you're using to run 32-bit Windows XP Professional, you'll have the option to trade in that copy of Windows XP Professional for a copy of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Check the Technology Advancement Program to find more information about this program.
Whatever version of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition you use, however, it will only be available as a fresh install. There is no provision for an upgrade from Windows XP Professional. If you're running Windows XP Home Edition and have x64 hardware, you can move to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition when it's available. But you'll need to upgrade from Windows XP Home Edition to Windows XP Professional Edition first.
32-bit applications running in the WOW64 subsystem provide a highly-compatible, high-performance environment for the thousands of existing 32-bit applications. 32-bit applications are installed into the Program Files (x86) directory structure, and have separate hives in the registry to prevent problems.
Applications running in the WOW64 system on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition each have a full 4 GB of virtual memory space. Applications compiled to take advantage of the /3 GB switch will actually get 4 GB, without constraining the operating system at all, since it is running in the 8 terabytes of virtual address space that Windows XP Professional x64 Edition has for the system processes. This can have a substantial impact on memory-constrained applications, such as computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), even before a 64-bit version of the program is available.
With Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, you can run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications side by side. Your existing 32-bit applications run in WOW64, while the 64-bit applications run natively. This makes it easy to transition to 64-bit applications at your pace—only moving when you're ready. You can even run 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the same application in Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, allowing you to evaluate the new version of an existing application and transition at a controlled pace.
This release of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is primarily designed for 32-bit system users who are pushing the memory limits of their systems and want the new 64-bit technology to improve their PC or workstation performance. The core audience for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition includes these groups:
| • | Developers |
| • | Gamers |
| • | Graphics, audio, and media artists |
| • | CAD/CAM users |
| • | Enthusiasts |
I fall under this last one more than any other. I'm moving my main workstation to the new x64 box I built a few months ago. But one of the programs I've seen running on x64 that I find really exciting is SONAR 4, a professional music studio audio-mixing application from Cakewalk. As Ron Kuper, Chief Technical Officer for Cakewalk, discovered when they did an internal port of SONAR 4 to x64, they got a completely unexpected 20-30% performance boost even though SONAR 4 wasn't memory space constrained. But the additional efficiency of the x64 processor architecture, with its additional general purpose and floating point registers, had a significant impact on the speed and responsiveness of SONAR 4.
If you've bought a personal computer in the last few months, you may already have an x64-capable PC, just as I do. So all you need to do is participate in the Technology Advancement Program to get Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and you're ready to go. If you're buying a new desktop computer this year, I wouldn't even consider buying a non-x64 capable version, even if you choose to run 32-bit Windows on it. The cost differential between equivalent PCs is negligible or non-existent, and your new x64 PC will run either version of Windows XP quite well.
If you're buying a new system to run Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, you do need to be careful about the peripherals you choose. As with any new version of an operating system, there are still gaps in the list of supported hardware. New drivers are coming from all the major vendors, but these drivers will undoubtedly focus on only their newest products. And you can't run 32-bit drivers—they will not work.
When moving to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, you need to understand some key differences. The most important is that there is no support for legacy MS-DOS and 16-bit applications. If you have an older application that runs in MS-DOS mode or is a 16-bit application, you shouldn't move to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition until you can either update or replace the application.
Some 32-bit applications have 16-bit installation programs. Many of these will not install on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, since 16-bit applications are not supported. However, some will work because Windows will transparently substitute the 32-bit version of the installer in the background.
Applications that install their own hardware drivers will not work until there is a 64-bit driver available for them. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition doesn't support 32-bit drivers at all.
Extensions to Windows Explorer, for example, menu extensions to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer, must be 64-bit. If they are 32-bit, the application may work, but the Windows Explorer extensions will not be available. This is because any application can be either 32-bit running in WOW64 or 64-bit. But not both. And Windows Explorer is obviously 64-bit. So the application itself will work, but the extensions won't. I really miss the right-click extensions for WinZip, a prime example of this.
All drivers must be 64-bit. There are still quite a few gaps in the list of available drivers but the situation should improve dramatically now that Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is officially launched. If you're buying new hardware, you should definitely make sure that there are x64 drivers available before you buy. And if you're recycling older peripherals to use with your new x64 computer, you'll want to check with the peripheral manufacturer or vendor about available drivers. One site I've found that has been quite helpful in finding drivers for x64 is PlanetAMD.
The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.
Still Life With Woodpecker
Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...
You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "maybe we should just be friends" or "how very perceptive" turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.
Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
