Let the buying begin It’s only plastic afterall!

Now that I’ve my computer up and running, my eye is starting to look for other wonderful geeky toys. Of the current possibilities, one is actually justifiable while the other is pure entertainment.

Canon LiDE 600F
This, my friends is a pretty cool scanner. I have always been on the lookout for a scanner that will copy photographic negatives yet also do a good job with standard scanning as well. Many of the reviews I have read on this seems to indicate that it is actually a good unit. On top of it all, this baby is powered via the USB cord so no extra power cords are required. Once my tax return arrives, I’m taking this one home.

Belkin n52 TE Tournament Edition
Now something for the gaming geek in me. This game pad is actually an upgrade for one I already own. Yup, I have the n52 SpeedPad and I love it. But this one is definitely an upgrade if not just for the pretty blue back lighting! Hey, I’m easily amused. Besides, it matches the blue case lighting on my new computer!

Yellowstone National Park Live Web Cam

This is a webcam live from Yellowstone National Park. Most of the time it should be aimed at the Old Faithful Geyser. I caught the last eruption that occurred at 10:58 AM PST today; pretty cool. If you watch it long enough, you'll see lots of people and animals including Bison walk by.

The video might take a little time to buffer so be patient. Also, you might get an ActiveX request since I'm using "x-mplayer2" (basically an embedded Windows Media Player).

Oh, and one final item, while this post is on the front page, I'd suggest that if you still have dial up, don’t get upset if you don't get any video at all. Time to upgrade.



Edit (February 14, 2008): It looks like the feed changes paths periodically so once this moves off my front page, I will not be updating it (all you'll get is a blank screen). In that case, just use the link at the top to visit their site and see the camera from there.

Robin Williams on Golf

One Year

The passing of a friend closes one path and opens another. Whether one chooses to take that new path or wonder aimlessly at the trailhead is not always an easy choice. Some of us, to quote Elton John, “fall by the wayside and some of us soar to the stars.”

I find that I have started on the new path that was opened when Reggie died but am not walking very fast. Luckily, while I have not soared to the stars, I have not entirely fallen by the wayside either. It is a difficult path but one that must be followed not only for my sanity but also for my health.

I know it’s stupid to have so much emotion wrapped up in a pet but after living with that pet for 14 years, one becomes attached. When they pass on, a hole is left that is hard to fill especially if one lives alone. I have tried to occupy my time so that the rough edges of that hole are smoothed; I have attempted to “move on.” However, sometimes I feel guilty that I have “moved on” and do not think of him every day; a rather vicious cycle.

Today marks one year since that fateful snowy day. What a difference a year makes but I do miss him and the moment of his death is still fresh in my mind.

Rest in peace my friend.

A Bit Slow

I had to laugh today. All of a sudden, a memory from my distant past came to mind. You see, I’m a nerd and was definitely one in Junior High School as well. I love to design space ships as much as the next Poindexter and did so back then as well. Well, one day I was sitting with a fellow nerd in the locker room showing him a design I came up with and drew somewhat of a crowd. Before I knew it, the coach came by and looked over everyone’s shoulder to see my design; or so I thought.

My little (really late) epiphany about that incident is that most likely the coach was making sure I was not showing everyone some girly magazine I swiped from my father’s stash (not that my father had one).

A real Roll On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off moment today. Talk about dense. It took me over 20 years to figure that one out. It’s amazing that I made it past High School.

Obsession v2.0.3

Hmmm…

I forgot how having new toys makes me obsessive. This whole week I have been up past midnight and every hour at work I have the overwhelming desire to leave and go home to play on the computer.

Yes, the missed workout on Tuesday was because I stayed up late all weekend. However, the missing workout (that will be) tomorrow (Friday) will be due to the fact I have a short business trip that day.

Conservative pastor urges buying Microsoft stock to fight its gay rights efforts

Ya gotta love our local insane asylum inmate Ken Hutcherson. I swear this guy is gay; he has the MO. His obsession with homosexuality is getting tiresome.

Ken Hutcherson is a swindler. This little “buy-up” of Microsoft stock sound suspiciously like “If I don’t receive 200 million shares of Microsoft stock by June, God will call me home;” in other words, something straight out of the Oral Roberts playbook.

These extreme religious leaders are doing so much harm to their faith that if I believed in Satan I would be sure that they have sold their souls to him; sounds much like the Nazgûl in Lord of the Rings.

From the interview, “When asked why he's putting so much effort into this new venture, he said, ‘God will judge us one day, and I want to do everything it takes for him not to judge us on my watch.’”

Wow, now Ken thinks he can stave off the second coming while he is alive; that’s very presumptuous as well as sacrilege. He thinks he can influence God.

Ken, meet Lucifer… oh, I see you already “know” each other.

Computer Build Update 2.0

So the new system is up and running. Except for one problem that required a hot fix from Microsoft (will talk about a little later), everything has gone smoothly.

Earlier I mentioned there were some issues that still needed to be addressed. Those, along with the results, are listed below:

1. Attempt to get the second HD working,

Doh, turns out that the power cable was not connected. All is well now.


2. Attempt to see if I can get the CPU fan more secure,

Did my best, I think it’s in there to stay. If not, you’ll hear about it via a major rant.


3. Install the card reader that should arrive today,

The installation was easy. Well, except it took me a bit of trial and error to figure out how the case 3.5 slot adaptor worked. I finally found a diagram that showed the correct way…

“Me see pretty picture and make boxy thing fit good.”


4. Reattach the SATA drives to different ports (the OS HD is currently on SATA port 3, I want it on 1) … yeah, I know, very anal of me,

Yup, I actually did that. Both hard drives are now on SATA 1 and 2 (as it should be).


5. Do a little bit more cable management since some are too close to some fans for my comfort,

I was actually able to get more cables out of the way so it’s less messy in there now.


6. Re-clock my memory (factory settings are worse than what it's rated at),

This was surprisingly easy. The BIOS is very user friendly (well, at least to me).


7. Figure out if I can get Vista to see all 4GB of memory (don’t think so),

Never really looked into this.


8. Figure out exactly where I'm putting the case in my room,

The computer is exactly (to the nearest centimeter) where I want it. OK, just kidding about the centimeter; I’m not THAT anal!


9. Do external cable management for all the wires of the 3 PCs (time to pull out that old KVM until I get everything I want off of the oldest computer (it's a P3) so I can give it away),

Well, maybe I am THAT anal. I spent much of Saturday underneath the desk getting all the cables rolled, twisted, coiled, tied off, routed, wound, and installed so that they were all neat and tidy.


10. Install all the software and transfer files to the new machine,

I am still in the process of getting all the software installed.


11. Clean up the mess in the living room (I assembled it there and the place looks like a tornado hit).

Except for the coffee table, much of the living room is now clean.

Well, there you have it. The list is mostly complete.

As mentioned earlier, I had to get a hot fix from Microsoft. This was an issue with the way Vista manages memory. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say that when I was running Everquest II (yup, I play games; isn’t that what life is all about?)… Anyway, I cranked the quality settings in the game up and ran around in game checking out how my system handled it. Around 20 minutes later, the game crashes and gives me an error stating “Application ran out of memory when requesting 2048592 (limit 2048)….” I was directed to the hot fix from the game’s tech support. Initial test seem to show that it works though I have not tested it for any length of time.

And So It Begins

One year ago today was the beginning of the end. This was the date that I took Reggie to the vet out of concern for his health since he had not been eating much for several days before.

Tomorrow will be the 6th which last year fell on a Saturday. I woke up to find that Reggie did not have control of his hind legs so I rushed him to the emergency vet. For six more days, he stayed overnight until he was stable enough to be sent home. I was fortunate to be able to take that Friday off from work so I got a long weekend with him.

At 3:55 AM in the morning on Tuesday, January 16th, Reggie died. What horrible way to spend the beginning days of 2007.

While these same days of 2008 will be painful reminders of last year, I hope that they will also bring a positive outlook for the coming year. We all have our crosses to bear, this is one of mine.

Computer Build Update

It took me awhile to install everything into the case last night. Unfortunately I started out trying to do "proper" cable management; what a pain. The GPU is so big that you really can't manage all of the cables well. However, the tangle that they are currently in has an artistic component so it does not bother me.

I am a little concerned about the CPU fan since I am not sure that it is properly seated but I didn't want to push too hard and crack the mobo. Two of the attachments are in, but the other side is where I am not sure. I think I can remove it and reseat it which I might try to do. I definitely do not want that thing coming loose and falling on the GPU; it'd pretty much be endgame at that point.

Other than that, the only other thing I had to guess on (the documentation SUCKED!) was where to attach the ground wire from the power supply. It said attach to the mobo and gave a tiny picture so I guessed, unscrewed one of the mobo attachment screws, and put the gound wire between the screw head and the washer. I think that is right.

Once everything was in, I hooked it up to the externals and it worked from the start (YEAH!). However, when installing Vista I got a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) so I removed one of the memory modules and was able to install Vista with 2GB. Once that was done, I reinstalled the remaining card as well as connected the second HD.

Vista only recognizes 3.25GB memory (I think the 768Mb graphic card has sequestered the rest) and the second HD is not recognized in the BIOS.

So, tonight and this weekend I get to...

1. Attempt to get the second HD working,


2. Attempt to see if I can get the CPU fan more secure,


3. Install the card reader that should arrive today,


4. Reattach the SATA drives to different ports (the OS HD is currently on SATA port 3, I want it on 1) … yeah, I know, very anal of me,


5. Do a little bit more cable management since some are too close to some fans for my comfort,


6. Re-clock my memory (factory settings are worse than what it's rated at),


7. Figure out if I can get Vista to see all 4GB of memory (don’t think so),


8. Figure out exactly where I'm putting the case in my room,


9. Do external cable management for all the wires of the 3 PCs (time to pull out that old KVM until I get everything I want off of the oldest computer (it's a P3) so I can give it away),


10. Install all the software and transfer files to the new machine,


11. Clean up the mess in the living room (I assembled it there and the place looks like a tornado hit).

... and anything else that comes up.

Oh, and finally, I need to get some sleep.

Computer Parts

Today is the big day. The rest of the computer parts are scheduled to arrive this afternoon. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and nothing is DOA (Dead On Arrival). The pessimist in me says something will go wrong, the optimist in me says everything will work the first time around; we’ll see.

Once they arrive, I’m taking the rest of the day off from work to go home and assemble the new computer from the ground up. Hopefully they will arrive earlier rather than later though.

Happy New Year!