I’ve been learning important household tips from my Dad, who’s been visiting with me for the past 6 weeks. One bit of advice is to pick a cabbage by its size-to-weight ratio. If it’s heavy for its size, grab it before someone else does! Dad found an amazing cabbage that seemed to weigh as much as a bowling ball, and it served us well for many weeks in various dishes. So remember, kids: pick your cabbages wisely, and they will reward you.

On a similar note, I was researching PC power supply unit reliability because I’ve had two of them start to act flaky. My main production PC, an Athlon box assembled from parts, is having hard drive spin-up problems due to its inability to provide stable power until the PSU warms up. My main file and domain server, an ancient dual P-350 stuffed with disks, is complaining about a low voltage condition on the -5 power rail. It seems like I just replaced both these supplies a couple years ago. Thus my interest in determining reliability and quality of PSUs ahead of time.

I came across this correlation between power supply quality and weight on Directron. Their thesis is that the heavier a PSU is, the better the quality. The additional weight is attributed to thicker wires, beefier capacitors, and more studly transformer coils. You can expect to pay about 150 bucks for a decent one.