So during my off-day, I actually did some poker "work."  My computer seemed to be lagging a little bit.  I wasn't sure what the cause was.  In before the flood of "too much porn on your computer DFly" comments.

I thought it might be the fact that I have like 2 million hands in my HEM database - mostly because my Rush hud was updating a little slowly.  So I started a new database, named it "HEM10" so that I can remember I started it in 2010. This way, I'll know any data I need from before 2010 will be on my older database (which I can still access).  I only put the hands from my last 8 months on the new database.  I figure I should never need to go back any further than that.  People's games probably change every few months to a year, so I think data that's too old is going to be counter-productive.  Anyway, it actually takes about 12 hours of processing time to back up your old database, restore it to the new database, remove the hands you don't want, and to vacuum the new database to optimize it.  Hopefully this will do the trick for the next few months.

Otherwise, I may have to get a new computer.  We have 4 computers at home that we actively use:
  * My main poker desktop - which I only use for online poker
  * My secondary desktop - which I use for most personal uses, like itunes, finance, internet, etc.
  * My laptop - which I got from the FT store, which I use when I travel and which I keep on my night table.
  * Mrs Fly's laptop - which she uses for email, photos, recipes, etc.

It would really suck if I had to get a new machine, because I've only had my current poker machine for under a year.  I'm thinking a new desktop should last me 2-3 years.  This way, I can rotate my desktops so that I never have a machine older than 5-6 years (because by then it's pretty much useless).  It's an Intel Core2 Quad CPU, but I made the mistake of thinking that 3GB of memory would be adequate.  You definitely don't need that much if you only play a few tables, but playing 10+ tables at a time, and running several pieces of software (some of which use optical scraping technology - basically taking snapshots of the screen and decomposing it) requires a lot of processing power.  The last thing you want when you have a lot of money at the table and need to make a decision every few seconds is the aggravation of lags.

So I may need to get a new machine in a few months.  Adding to the buying pressure is that my second desktop is really struggling to run more than a few applications at a time.  I also spilled wine on my keyboard recently.  I attempted to flush it out with water before letting it air dry, but the keys are starting to feel a little sticky.  It was the wine!  I swear!

Anyway, a new CPU only costs like $500-$1000, and since this is how I make my money, it makes no sense for me to get aggravated by it.  But I'm going to give it a few months.