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April 24, 2004
It's a Dry Heat
Well, despite some rain earlier in the week, this week has become a little taste of the summer that the weathermen have said we probably won't get. Admitedly, it is making my PC run a degree or so hotter than last week in the rain (!), but this is the weather I like. Not for tanning, or driving around with my windows open and blasting music out (though I have been doing this up to a pont - James Taylor* and Debbie Gibson, would you believe?), but for the girls. I noticed it when it briefly nice last week, but this week has really brought out those midriffs - a touch of sun and out come the summer clothing! It makes you wonder how little they wear on a night out... Heck, I've even stopped wearing jumpers at work! Yes, it's at this time of year when I seriously consider throwing off my vow of chastity (really!) , and it's not surprising when I tell you about a couple of encounters on Thursday... which was a nice, hot day, of course...
The first was unexpected - I called at the house, and was asked to come in - I did (once I worked out hjow to open the little baby-gate they had set up) and came face to face with a teenager wth just a bathrobe on drying her long blonde hair and smiling... it didn't help that she stayed there, right by the phone, while I was trying to fit an amplifier. Really, it didn't. And she wasn't ugly, either, if you get my drift, and I'm sure you do. Things were as bad in Clitheroe when I went to see an old man and his wife and their granddaughter was their, home from school. And she sits right on the chair arm, hugging her gran while we talked. With long legs. Very long legs. In just the wrong position so I had to see them all the time - thankfully I could look in the other direction occasionally. Ulp. James would be happy. Very, if he'd been around!
The other big things this week have been the Away Day in Longridge on Monday(which I nearly missed as dad was very lost on his way to York - it took him 3 1/2 hours to get there from Burnley, which is kinda not good - it took him 2 1/2 to get back, but at least that was partly due to a diversion caused by the flower show!) which wasn't bad - nice food, a good group of people - as a team we should be fine.
Of course, it started wet on Tuesday, and then brightened up considerably - I think Monday afternoon got everyone's hopes up - Tuesday continued with glorious weather as I hiked across Manchester to go to the Aria shop by Manchester Academy to buy the cold cathodes for Ayumi (blue and red, and they look mint - I'll post pics when I get hold of the camera again!). I'd forgotten just how big UMIST is, and the Academy is on the other side. Of course, I had to pass lots of rather nice college girls, and they were not exactly dolled up in jumpers and stuff...
Wednesday of course, decided to spoil it all! Thursday was nice, and yesterday was pretty good weather-wise too! Today is just hot - it's getting a little cloudy, but it is not cooling down much - I hope it continues a little longer before turning to rain again.
I was going to spend this weekend battling through the stuff for ,com, at a nice, liesurly pace, but I got a call from Nick this afternoon - he is now not going anyway until next week - this means that tomorrow is the usual blasting session. Combine this with the fact that I need Zend Optimizer on my server and at the moment it isn't running, things might be a little tight! I may end up hosting the comics over here (which would probably help with bandwidth when I start posting the animations, etc over there) to get everything running in time for the new launch on May 1st. Anyway, the long and short is that tomorrow it will be at least three of us idiots over at Nick's, though James may or may not be there - it's hard to tell - he has disappeared from the net and life again - I know he hasn't seen the moneyshot.avi posted below or else he'd have put up som sarcastic comments. I fear his beloved (if battered) PC is in it's second home again - he tends to mope and stay away when he hasn't got his baby...
Ah well - it's a nice hot day, I'm going to watch more VH1 Classic while I fiddle with stuff on the site (how annoying are those bloody ringtone ads? I don't want Usher, and the guy who is trying to be excited about the monophonic tones is soooo not getting a voice gig on I.T. or Dark Tidings!) so I'll be off now - next update should be Case Mod Stage 2 with pics!
*PS - Do you know it is impossible to play James Taylor too loud? Even at full blast it still sounds incredibly soothing!
Posted by Badgers at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2004
Case Modification - Stage One
You know how it is - you want a flashy PC but know that it is not easy to build a super-modded case on your first try. I used to just want a machine that worked. Then cases with windows and lights came along. w00t! I think Jamius was the first to get one and fit it with lights (he has since modded it even further with a hammer or something...) I followed with my Thermaltake Xaser, which was nice, glowed red inside and worked well (despite the initial problems with the processor which finally crashed and burned a little while ago), though recently a few problems possibly caused by heat made me want to do something else.
You'd think that the Xaser would be a cool case with all those fans, but it seems that it wasn't. I wanted a cooler processor and case temprature, and the problem with the Xaser seems to have been that all those fans needed wires, and wires cause serious problems with airflow. Cable management was a nightmare! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I bought a new case and stuff, and set to work. The results are shown below - I turned the Aero Jet 7 blower on the heatsink round this morning and I've managed to lower the temperature a few more degrees. It needs a little more work (a blowhole in the top and another fan fitted on the right side of the case perhaps?) including swapping the red laser LEDs to a cathode tube of some description, as they are sadly lost at he moment with the glare from the fans.
Since there was only me and Nick this afternoon there was little shooting (apart from some Ghost Recon) and a lot of benchmarking... thabks to the new memory and its 2-3-3-6 setup I have now got a 16613 score in 3D Mark 2001 which is quite nice, and a gain on the same machine with different memory, and a nice 5606 in 3DMark 03 - another large gain!
On with the show, I think!
Here is Ayumi in a picture taken at Nicks - sorry that it is so bright that you can't see all the lights clearly! I'll add a darker picture later when I get a chance to get the camera back from my parents (for now watch the video below!) Notice that there is indeed some cable management going on and lots of space for airflow! Still needs more work though - some cable covering stuff and more wires clamped at the bottom, but it is a start!
Here is the rig I go mobile with. Thankfully the monitor stays at Nick's (its the one I got with my first PC, a Gateway DX2 way back in the day) Nothing special, but it works - as do the fans, etc - check that temp!
A close up on the Akasa fan on the side - the multicoloured LEDs make a big difference. Most modders have a theme - mine is colourful chaos! Just wait till I paint the inside a mad colour!
Here is Nick's usual PC, Zoidberg. For many reasons the side is off all the time, so he is a step nearer a windowed PC! As you can see, neatness and cable management are not his strong points! Famously unstable, this machine now works well with the Radeon 9800 Pro he recently fitted, and it hasn't fell over yet. This is a good thing considering how tall the case is... To the left you can see two older PCs he has - one is the one he liked to call his mobile PC until it tried to run Far Cry and began to cry itself...
A closer look at the innards of Zoidberg - can anything be done to save this machine? The magic 8-ball says "OMGWTF??11ROFLAO!"
Here is a link to a DivX .avi of Ayumi doing her stuff... (8.82mb) Sorry, I couldn't resist! I am holding the camera and Nick guest stars as the hand (my thumb appears as an uncredited extra as I nearly fell over the idiot!). Yes, I am going to look into blacking up the drives so it looks nicer... so many plans...
Should I add a case picture in the Mates section? Maybe you can tell the way a person is by how his case looks... I think mine says it all!
Enjoy!
Posted by Badgers at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2004
The Rescue
I am on some kind of military exercise or a wargame on what looks like an old abandoned factory. We are assaulting the base of some neo nazis who are holding a lot of prisoners. My team goes in and we start shooting to take out the guards. All the prisoners are wearing long black coats. As we get them out more Nazis arrive, along with a little fat Adolf Hitler who starts barking orders and getting us pinned down. We sneak around and surprise the baddies and the Hitler keeps telling me "Zere are no prisoners" in a terrible accent. I notice that he and the officers have an 'E4' logo tattooed on their heads. I attack the Hitler dude try to knock him out, but he keeps laughing.
I leave him when my captain calls me back to the truck - I help the last of the prisoners onto the truck and leap onto the side as the truck pulls away. Behind the Nazis laugh. On the way out I see the factory pass by, and see huge machines inside pumping.
We get into town and see the lake - it is a little choppy and one of the soldiers says that it is better than it was last week (a reference to a previous dream - see analysis below) when it was stormy as hell. we head to the base and back up into a room where we are greeted with a welcome back party. As I get off the truck with the prisoners behind me I am hugged by Yasmin, a girl who I used to work with years ago who had come back to see me. I am whisked away with the prisoners for debriefing.
I have a feeling this was part of a TV show for E4 (hence the tattoos) but who knows. The asualt was quite realistic feeling, but still felt like something out of Call Of Duty. The Nazis came from somewhere, but where I don't know. The fat little Hitler was a cutie, even when I was punching him in his ample gut!
The pumping machines are interesting, but again, I have no idea where they came from.
Why Yasmin turned up I don't know - I haven't thought of her in years - and she looked like dshe did back then - I have a feeling her grandfather was somewhere in the room too (I went to fix her computer and her grandfather was very happy and smily about me... odd!)
I know where the lake came from though. Last week I had a dream where again I was a soldier, but the base beside the lake was being smashed apart by a storm. The lake was smashing up onto the shore and buildings were being dashed apart.
Posted by Badgers at 06:33 PM | Comments (1)
The Concert
Nick and I are out at a concert in the town centre - some generic club somwhere, I suppose. The music is modern folk-type stuff, and sounds really good. Part way through I nip out of the concert to go to Oddies (a local bakers) to buy some pies. It is 11.00pm as I hear the town hall clock toll as I come out of Oddies with a bag of pies. I eat one of them while watching the late night revellers milling about having fun. I return to the concert and we eat some more of the pies (which are now small beef patties, though I may have only bought one pie and the rest as patties - who knows!). The concert continues and then winds to a close. Afterwards we leave and wander round town eating the rest of the pies before heading to the car park where the car is parked. Nick goes to the bank to get more money while I wonder if Oddies is still open for more pies. I actually go into Game to look at the new games coming out (it is still open past midnight!). I head back to the car and find Nick leaning over the side of the multi story car park waiting for me.
Who ate all the pies? I guess that is the first thing to come to mind. Oddly I can find many oif the influences for this dream quite easily, though some may seem a little odd!
The concert thing no doubt came out of the fact that we were going to watch Complete Madness (a tribute band to some band or other) at Lava on Good Friday, but I wasn't well, and Nick called up the next day to ask when it was on. I told him last night. The music at the concert probably came from the music I have been listening to recently while my Jpop has been stuck on a hard drive in an external firewire case that hasn't been working. It did sound pretty good, though probably a mix of James Taylor, Capercaillie, Mary and Frances Black.
The pies are odd, but I guess they came from watching the entire run (up to date) of Weeble and Bob flash animations - Weeble and Bob (two eggs) love pie. 20-30 of those can mess with your mind! Mmmmm Pie! That and the fact I did pop into Oddies to buy a couple of pies.
I want to go out for another night out soon, and the milling crowds were a cleaned up version of the ones we see when leaving Lava/Ignite at 2.00am - no mystery there. Why Game should be open so late is odd though, unless they were wanting to catch the late night Oddies crowd. Hmmm.
One thing does puzzle me, and that is why Nick keeps turning up in my dreams - is he hustling in on my action? I can think of a few people I'd rather have in my dreams (one turns up in one of this batch), so why him? And when he does, why don't I punch him in the head? It's probably because we go out on nights out more than with the other idiot (Andrew not included as his promises to join us have come to zip all so far) so it made sense for him to be there, though I don't know why he'd like folk - unless the girl singing was pretty... or old !(!) I didn't really notice the band, to be honest.
And yes, it looks like I did eat all the pies, but as the rest seemed to be patties, maybe there was only one pie?
Posted by Badgers at 05:31 PM | Comments (1)
Easter Eggs, New Cases And Stuff
Since my last entry Easter has come and gone, which was nice. But one or two's things were not nice.
Friday saw me feeling a little ill so I wasn't able to go and see the Madness Tribute band at Lava. A shame, but I'll survive. Nick then calls up on Saturday afternoon and asks when the Madness thing is on... I told him "Last night" and he went - "Oops!"
I went to Nick's as usual on the Sunday to shoot him and Andrew on the computer. This was fun, though thepain in the arse of getting Soldner to work was not fun. We did finally get three of us in the game on the LAN but as Andrew decided to camp outside the town we spawned in and blow it up with his (not so little) tank, things may not have been as much fun as I'd have liked. The game itself, by the way, looks like it could be good (but a Flashpoint-beater? I doubt it) but it needs work. And the net code still blows big ones. Far more impressive was Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising which is having it's Delta Force history downplayed - a shame as the engine in DF:Black Hawk Down was good, it was the multiplayer that sucked. The good news is that the new game has cooperative play and a sort of conquest mode like UT2K4 (w00t!) and this could be a Flashpoint beater - 100+players at once with vehicles and everything. One to watch, for sure!
Anyway, the thing that was most not-good was that some idiots (not naming Nick and Andrew) bought me eggs. Chocolate Eggs. And a tin of Celebrations. This for someone who cannot eat chocolate as it makes him puke enough to have an excorcist called in. And Nick ate one of his big Dairy Milk ones right next to me, making me feel very ill. Bleurgh!
James wasn't there on Sunday so I went over to see him on Monday after he called me to say he had some new games and stuff. I dumped the eggs on him! After an hour of nagging I came away with some nice games, but I haven't been able to get down to trying anything (though I have been playing some Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) until I decided that my PC overheating problem needed fixing. To that end I made a plan, and ordered the bits from Aria, my favourite computer supplier!
On Wednesday I recieved all the new bits but realised that I had ordered the wrong case - this was not actually a problem. Why? Because I want to have a file server like I used to have and the window-less case would be nice, and it would match the windowed case that came the next day. Thursday saw me getting home and stripping the bits out of Ayumi in the Thermaltake case and fitting them in the new Skyhawk Matrix. I made careful note of where the pins on the motherboard went, but nothing happened. The power was gong to the right places, but there was nothing doing when I pressed the power button. Not good. Not wanting to spend all night battling, I went to bed and slept. Notice how I havn't mentioned work yet? well this week this is the only mention as it got in the way of finishing the build!
Friday night came, on went VH1 Classic as a background (since I couldn't get to my Jpop and I was in an 80's mood anyway) ad I stripped the bits out again, setting the mobo up outdide the case rather precariously. I looked at the manual for the mobo (NF7-S Rev 2.0) and the little booklet with the case. I did this last night, but it wasn't having any then. This time, though, I got it right first time (except that the power LED cable was the wrong way round - an easy fix) and up it came. For those who know the case, it has a lovely motorised door on it. I am in love with it. It's just too cool for words!
I got everything into the case and then had the horrors of cable management to deal with. This went surprisingly well - the case is not much bigger than normal (if at all) and the cables could be shoved all over the place. I'm not a big case-modder, but I like what little I did. Now Ayumi has three Akasa LED fans (one in the side replacing the clear fan and two superglued to the back as they wouldn't fit in the big plastic fan cover. I had to turn the Coolermaster Aero Jet 7 CPU fan round as it wouldn't fit with the power supply in place (a common problem - they are big, but worth it - it is working far better than the old Aero 7+ did, and is quieter) and some Corsair XMS3200Pro memory. Yes, the stuff with the lights. The case is cool as it is (though I think I'll replace the LEDs with a cathode tube as they are a little lost due to those lovely fans... in fact, those fans and the Jet are keeping the case and CPU cooler too. Surprisingly this little lot didn't set me back that much (apart from the memory but I really need to get the whole system running at 400Mhz after all this time at 266mhz!) If things go well, I may get the file server in the second case next month as I have pretty much all the bits (bar a CPU as the 300mhz was kinda fried!). No lights there, though. Maybe. No window to see them through, though... I guess I'll have to post pictures, so I'll get some taken, probably tomorrow at Nick's as it is a bit tidier!
Now, I think I'll cut a blowhole in the top, and buy some cool fan grills... sigh. At least it looks better than some of the recent efforts over at Show Your Rig at hardCOREware some of the recent efforts (especially one or two) have been pretty bad. And not in a good way.
I have some dreams to enter now (stored up on Ayu, my PocketPC - hey - I wonder if I could mod that...?) so I'll be off then...
OMG! I just realised - Nick will want one like mine now... eek!
Posted by Badgers at 04:41 PM | Comments (3)
April 09, 2004
Weeks Don't Get Much Better Than This...
...I wish they would though! I won't be moaning about work as it has been quite good this week as far as that goes...
I will moan about grinning idiots who rush out in front of my car, though. I've lost count of the number of times this week some smiling fool dashes out and nearly goes under my wheels. Old mad women, young kids - all of them smiling inanely at me as they cross oblivious to the fact that a 206 can hurt. Have they been at the little blue pills, or are the loony bins letting them all out for Easter?!?
I've also been plagued by people stopping their cars in front of me - either in the middle of the road for no reason or by pulling over to the side to let me go past. Perhaps they thought their Ford Focus wasn't powerful enough to get up the hill at 30mph, while my super-charged Peugeot 206 could. I Always pass by and then they set off, usually about 20mph. This has happened on country roads (where me approaching at 5mph more than they are doing might seem a little terrifying) and even on main roads in town - something is going on here, between the grinning idiots and the stopping drivers. I don't know what it is (and I don't want to know), but it is going on. I won't mention people who take corners on my side of the road, as I've done that to death (and nearly been killed twice this week due to them!).
The new-look RNP is coming together slowly - I've decided to spend the Easter weekend adding content, sorting out the theme, etc, so the site is closed at the moment. I'm finding a lot of interesting modules, and If I knew PHP I'd be able to program my own - PHPNuke is quite simple to work with, but it can be hard going trying to find that one last thing that is stopping a graphic from appearing! Hopefully Badgers should be easier to set up...
Games wise, Far Cry and UT2K4 have my attention at the moment, though I'll try to get back into Galaxies if I get the chance this weekend. I've also struggled to get the Soldner demo working - I managed to get a few others to join, but some had problems (including Andrew - we were on the phone for an hour trying to get it to let him in). The game looks good, but the netcode suXX0rs big time. Hopefully it will be sorted in time for release...
By the way - if anyone makes it to the new Doctor Who Exhibition in Blackpool, let me know what it's like! Oh - and I reccommend Shaun Of The Dead as your Easter movie... Very funny, but a bit sick (less blood that Passion, though!) - lovely!
Posted by Badgers at 04:42 PM | Comments (2)
April 03, 2004
A Case of Mistaken Identity
Manchester was interesting today! It seemed really quiet, and there was virtually nothing on the bus over there. Of course, later in the morning I realised why - everyone was sat behind Marks and Spencers watching the big game on the giant TV screen!
Another thing of interest was the guy who had obviously just seen The Passion Of The Christ as he was yellign big time about how the only thing that would save us was the blood of Christ. And we all know how much blood there is in that film - somehow I doubt if it will be shown widely in Germany for a couple of reasons I won't go into here... Lets just say blood and percieved anti-semetism...!
The most interesting thing was in HMV though. I was looking at the clearance DVDs (from £5.99! w00t!) when I felt a tugging at my coat sleeve. For a second I thought it was a pickpocket, but what pickpocket draws attention to themselves by tugging your sleeve? I got an inkling of the truth when the hand started to reach round and hook my arm in an embrace and drawing me over to another set of DVDs... I turned and it was a very nice chinese girl - I said "I think you've got the wrong person..." - she squeaked and her boyfriend, who had been watching, was doubled up with laughter! He had been wearing a black coat like mine, and she'd not realised. Sigh. Lucky bugger! The boyfriend was too...
Oh, and I must contrast that moment of fun and beauty with horror. Specifically bunnies. This time of year, with Easter coming round, gives me the willies. Why? Well, this year is a prime example of why, like Anya from Buffy, I hate bunnies. Eggs are one thing, but bunnies seem to be the big thing this year - and I'm not joking! Marks & Spencers are going bunnie crazy - everything from little chocolate bunnies to cute bunnies in chocolate hats to great honking two-foot tall chocolate bunnies! All that chocolate is scary enough for me nowadays (puuuke!) but what really gives me the heeby-jeebies this year is that they look just like the bunnies in Robert Rankin's classic The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse! There was one bunnie that didn't scare me, despite the fact she was pink. Outside the Arndale a rather cute lady was posing with the kids (in the rain, bless her) as the Easter Bunny.
So, how has the rest of the week been? Not too bad - my travel expenses arrived - two months worth! The job itself wasn't too bad, and I didn't get too many new cases (ten in two days isn't bad - if only I was paid by the case!!!) My old boss is hardly around as she changes jobs, my new boss in Preston - things are almost rosy!
Nick called though to say he has got a bog standard Radeon 9800 (like mine) and wanted to install it, but needed the new drivers (lets face it - if you have a Radeon, you need the Cat 4.3s!!!) and wanted to come over today to collect them. I got back from Manchester and he called to get them - and nearly didn't leave as I was watching the Porridge marathon on UK Gold and it had looped back to the first episode (with these feet?!?) and he stuck around... He had now gone off to install it and hopefully be ready for going out tonight...
Ah, yes, tonight - it should be a good night out (it's just me and Nick - No Andy (surprise) and no James (probably grounded anyway!) so that will give me something to write about - there may even be more pictures! You have been warned!
One last word - I'm prepping to convert the site over to PHPNuke, but first I want to get Rogue Noid Productions up and running first - I'm working it out quite quickly now, and by using the Anjara theme as a basis means that the site will look a little nicer than the usual basic layout... converting Badgers should be quite easy in comparison. it will be interesting, as I hope to expand Badgers to more than just a blog site... how about Classifie ads? And possibly even Matchmaking services - I hope to find out Nick's perfect woman tonight, so that I know what not to allow on the site...
Posted by Badgers at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)