Intellidick.com - Pure Insanity

After 5 years of fighting, I think i’m ready for a new desktop PC. When I built this PC, I decided to dump a ton of money into it. Here are the original specs.

• ASUS A7M266-D Motherboard (Dual Socket AMD)
• 2 AMD Athlon MP 2100+ Processors
• 1 GB PC2100 ECC DDR Memory
• 64-bit PCI Compaq RAID controller (don’t remember the model # anymore)
• 64-bit PCI Intel PRO/1000 Dual Port Ethernet adapter
• 2 15K SCSI 36GB Seagate Cheetah drives
• Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti 500 (Top of the line in consumer graphics at the time)

This thing was amazing. Very fast machine at the time.

5 years down the road, the RAID controller has died and been replaced by an Adaptec with more cache. The video card died and was replaced by a GeForce 4 Ti 4600. Both of the original processors went super nova and had to be replaced. I’m running MP 2600+’s now. (Which the board doesn’t correctly recognize because of their stepping) Everything is now in a different case with better cooling and has a new power supply. So with the exception of the motherboard, RAM, HDs, and Ethernet cards, it’s all been replaced.

Two days ago… it died again. Apparently the fan went out on the video card and took itself out in a matter of hours. No warning for me of course, I run Linux and it’d be too simple to send me a desktop alert and shut down gracefully. I’m sure there is some kind of super-techy alerting system that I neglected to wire up in Linux, but that’s another rant altogether. I was actually looking at the monitor when it died… no warnings, nothing.

So now i’m faced with the decision, repair it again or just replace it. I’m so sick and tired of fixing my PC. I can’t begin to explain my total disgust for this machine. When it runs, it’s still a great performer and does whatever I need it to do, it’s just that it doesn’t run that often.

Oh well, I guess i’ll join the masses and just buy a pre-built machine with a nice 3-year on site warranty! Just kidding, I’m sure i’ll build again. I’m just perturbed with the whole thing right now. The thought of some high school kid coming over to try and help me fix my PC just makes me want to gag, so yeah, i’ll most likely build.

I was just taking a moment to reflect on the fact that I just got an email alert from my fish tank. It was informing me that the pH inside of my Calcium Reactor was a touch too high. And to make it even more geeky, I got the email on my BlackBerry.

So anyway, special thanks to Neptune Systems for making the AquaController III so that I can get an email when my pH is a bit off.

For you fish geeks out there, the AquaController III really does rock. It’s a great tool for managing your Aquarium while you’re out and about.

I’ve been running with Ocadia for a while now and it’s been a good friend, but it’s time to upgrade. Wordpress 2.3 broke the theme (notice the broken tags). Ocadia isn’t even listed on the compatibility list for Wordpress 2.5, so I take it that means I need to upgrade.

How about somebody linking me to a fitting (and free) WP 2.5 compatible theme, eh? I’m also looking for a Coppermine theme as well if somebody runs across one of those that matches somewhat.

They finally did it. Rock Band got a new free download, the ending song from Portal. GLaDOS finally gets to take another shot at me by making me play that song over and over again on Expert. Call me a geek or whatever, but hey, i’m Still Alive.

Well, I was “still alive” until Microsoft took my Xbox 360 away from me. I suppose GLaDOS finally get her way and just blew up my Xbox so I couldn’t finish the song. Little did she know, it’s still under warranty.

Well folks, I got hit tonight. I was about to kick into some Rock Band and there was an update out for my Xbox 360… I downloaded it, rebooted, and the console worked fine. I grabbed my trusty guitar and went after it. Two songs into it, the game crashed and locked up the console. Okay, bad sign, it’s never locked up like this before. I reboot, it comes back! I hit the button to start Rock Band, the game freezes at the opening screen… console lucked up complete again. So now i’m thinking that it must be that the update broke Rock Band. I’ll be angry but I know they’ll fix it soon so no big deal… right? Oh wait, the console locked up again, this time at the green Xbox 360 boot screen. That’s not good. Not good at all. One more reboot and it finally happens.

Red Ring of Death.

The feared “General Hardware Failure”. I’ve checked the power supply, it has a green light and should be good to go. I’ve pulled all of the cables and reseated them. I’ve removed the hard drive. Nothing. It’s dead. No more Xbox 360 for me. Fortunately, i’ve never cracked the case and Microsoft has extended the warranty of the console. Oh well, if i’m lucky, i’ll get an updated premium console with the HDMI output. That’d be nice.

Anyway, thanks to Microsoft for ruining my night (and my successful Expert career in Rock Band!)

As I read through the news, I constantly see articles about authors who are pissed off about someone taking their works and distributing them in other countries. Here’s the deal guys, you can’t publish something exclusively in one country and then get upset because someone from another country got a hold of it. Here is why I say that… The days of exclusive paper publishing  are dead, digital distribution is here. If you write a book and only release it in the US, somebody will scan it and send it over the wire to their friend in Germany… especially if it’s a series. The Harry Potter book is a perfect example, there was a story about a 16-year old kid who got a hold of the English version of the book and then translated it to French… in a matter of days. The author got upset because this wasn’t the “official” distribution channel (read: She didn’t get paid). I understand her right to get paid for her works, but she should stop listening to the meatheads at her publishers office and release her works onto the world, all at once. Give everyone who wants it the opportunity to have it, legally. Stop forcing them to pirate it in order to get a copy at the same time as the US does.

Millions and millions of dollars are dumped into advertising things like this to make us want them. They advertise them to the point where it’s social status to not have it on the first day. Do they actually sit around and wonder why people riot when they can’t get them? It doesn’t sound like rocket science to me. You advertise something enough that it gets a social status with it (like the iPhone) did, then you do a limited quantity, limited market release? Then you sit around and wonder why people rioted to get a copy? Yeah… totally not rocket science here people. If you don’t want to release it world wide and in enough quantity for a large percentage of the early adopters to get one, then STOP ADVERTISING IT EVERYWHERE you monkeys. You can’t get us all excited about it and then not give it to us.

(Time to rant hardcore) One more note. Parents, stop buying this crap on the media’s time line for your kids please. Make your kids wait and earn their things. Make them understand the value of working for what they want. If they want a new toy or something, put a value on chores and make them do chores until such time as they have enough “credit” to get what they want. But if they do their part, don’t back out on them. Make sure that if you promise something, you deliver it. Stop giving it to them freely and teaching them incorrectly. They don’t “deserve” to have it. It’s not their “right” to have it, it’s their “privilege”. Just think, you could be the mean parent that makes their kid work for everything they have but ends up as an adult with a true appreciation for everything that they’ve worked so hard for. Maybe your kids can have parents who care enough about them to teach them the value of things and not let the media and market teach them that an H2 is the most valuable thing in the world because of the “hummer” name on the side.

If your comment starts with “So, I was watching Star Wars Episode III last night…”, just stop and cancel the comment. (You should also disconnect yourself from my internet, but that’s another story.) We don’t want to hear your comparison of the article to the relationship between Han Solo and his Wookie. No really, it’s not that clever. We don’t care. Please… stop.