New

My week was exceptionally busy - I just had a new desktop computer.

Unfortunately that's an inevitable nuisance every few years. My previous desktop had been in use for 5 or 6 years and, with time, had gradually slowed down. Like cooking a frog in warm water, I was quite unaware of the problem until a few weeks ago, when Stanley, our department computer technician, came and did some software update for it, and he left with the very remark, "How could you tolerate such a slow computer?"

But I hesitated for quite a moment before deciding to have a new one. No, it's not a problem of money. (It actually costs less than the graphic software that I bought for my research papers.) My real worry was the effort it takes to move every piece of my work to a new place (which Stanley helped me a lot), personalize all settings from scratch, and install all software anew.

**********************

By the way, you may find the list of software that I need useful:

• Cute PDF Writer (for creation of PDF document)
• Screen Hunter (for converting a computer screen into a picture)
• FastStone Image View (for figure editing)
• EverNote
• iTune
• Google Chrome
• Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional
• PASS 2000
• SigmaPlot

The last three are paid items, while you could download the others online free. In fact, the first three on this list was recommended by The Lancet as useful aids for academic research.