LCD Story

I've been looking forward for a long time to the day that I could replace my nearly-identical dual 19" CRT monitors with nice, shiny LCDs. I've watched the market for a few years now, ever more thankful that I didn't buy an LCD or two a couple of years back when they would have essentially been flatter CRTs, image quality-wise.

 

I have a Tablet PC on hand that I'll be selling in a bit here, and I've decided that I'll use the cash from selling it to buy a couple of LCDs.

 

Now, I've been running dual monitors since Windows 98 was in full vogue, and after this much time, I'm not going back. I love massive amounts of screen real estate in which to work. So it's been absolutely imperative to me all along that when I finally do convert to LCD, I'll be buying two identical LCDs to put side-by-side on my desk.

 

After I determined that the time had come, I did some research and nailed down my requirements. Here they are.

 

REQUIRED:

• 16ms Response Time or better.
• 17" Viewable Area or better (My 19" CRTs have about 17" viewable, and I'm not willing to lose viewable area.)
• Analog (D-Sub) AND Digital (DVI) inputs. If it won't to both, I don't want it.
• 1280 x 1024 Native Resolution. That's what I run my 19s at, and it's standard for the higher-end 17" and 19" LCD models.
• Must be under $400 per unit after rebates, shipping and other whatnot.
• Current customers must give uniformly good reviews of the model.
• Less than 10" Deep.
• Thin Bezel.
• Black or Dark Grey Frame, Chassis, and Stand.

PREFERRED:

• All Cables Included.
• More than 17" Viewable.
• Better than 16ms Response Time.
• Less than 8" Deep.

As you can see, I want the monitor to look nice, but performance is what I'm really concerned about. Built-in speakers, for instance, don't mean a thing to me. Even if they're great, I won't be using them. I'm good on speakers, and built-in monitor speakers generally suck anyway.

 

Once I had my priorities determined, I knew it was time to do some serious shopping. So I sat Crystal down in front of a long movie and got to work.

 

After an hour and a half or so, I had seen a lot of monitors, and I really, really wanted to buy the Samsung SyncMaster 710n. It's got a 12ms Response Time! Sadly, it only supports an analog connection. The two vid cards that my computer runs each have a DVI port, so it just doesn't make sense to buy a nice LCD only to down convert the signal to analog and have the LCD re-convert it back to digital. You can't tell me that all those conversion processes won't cost some response time. It probably has the faster 12ms time just to compensate for this. So I had to pass.

 

Eventually, I landed on the Princeton Senergy 714. The prices for this monitor were simply unbelievable, and it had most of the features I was looking for. Here's a rundown of the basic specs:

• 16ms Response Time
• 17" Viewable
• DVI and Analog connections

In my quest for information on the model, I found about 30 customer reviews of it. Three separate reviewers claimed that they've played HL2 on the monitor with no defects or ghosting. None of the reviewers claimed to have dead pixels.

 

And so on. I found a couple for about $250 each, and ordered them.

 

Yesterday they arrived at my house. I spent the night re-configuring my desk area. What can I say? These are a couple of impressive monitors. They're bright, the color is even, and the picture on them is perhaps the sharpest I've ever seen.

 

Me = Happy about my new monitors. Thanks, Princeton!

 

 

(New Feature!) Daily Update

Because if I can't post daily, then what the hell business do I have running a blog anyway?

 

(Please, please, Internets, do not answer that last question; it was rhetorical. Because we are living in a rhetorical world, and I am a rhetorical blogger.)

 

Leon was sick over the weekend, and he decided that he'd rather relax today than hang out. So Leon, here's to your recuperation: Hello Kitty Sushi. Oh, don't thank me. You already know you're welcome.

 

You are a technically oriented person, right? If no, what on earth are you doing here? Can't you see that we're an elitist bunch of snorting white guys?

 

What? That's not cool anymore? Damn.

 

Here's a quiz to test your geek cred a little. And, unlike most online quizzes, this one isn't totally inane and pointless. The questions are actually relevant. Want to see some sample NON questions? OK!

 

1. What's that sliding open thingy on the front of your computer (hint: it looks kind of like a cup holder)?

 

2. What does IDE stand for?

 

Once again, those were sample NON Questions. The quiz is nothing like that. It's relevant. And if you're wondering, it stands for "Integrated Drive Electronics."

 

And save yourself embarrassment: "CC" in an email context stands for Carbon Copy. "BCC" is its blind little brother.

 

Oh, one last thing about the tech quiz: Steve, the guy behind it, is cool. I sent him an email pointing out that a question about current vid cards should be PCI-E aware, and he was quick with a positive response. Way to build your whuffie, Steve.

Rehash/Clarification/What-Have-You

Wow, that was fun!

 

I've decided that I need to feed this blog more often, and with some of my more controversial ideas.

 

I need to clear a couple of things up:

 

1. I know that Win98 is horribly outdated. But so what? With a good firewall/antivirus team and regular updates (supplied, as I said before, by a worldwide geek elite community), this is not a problem.

 

2. Hey, you guys who think I'm a Win98 fanboy: Were you listening at all? AT ALL? Do I look like I'm running a scaled-down $100 system designed for a third-worlder? No. My desktop runs WinXP Pro, my server runs Windows Server 2003, my other desktop runs Fedora, and my main computer is a Tablet PC. Yes, just like Scoble's.

 

3. And ditto to the guys who think I hate Linux. Listening? No. Linux is great! I love Linux! But Linux does not have the market penetration that Windows, even Windows 98 does. And I've got more news for you...these people who are using Win98 right now? They're not your target market, guys. They've got no interest at all in learning a new OS, because either they're comfortable with Windows already, or they find it mystifying enough without bringing in a whole new set of commands. Get real. These guys are not Linux bandwagon material. Or if they are, the distro will have to come from Michael Robertson (of Lindows/Linspire/mp3.com fame).

 

4. Windows XP Starter Edition for developing markets. Yeah, I know. But seriously now, put yourself in the shoes of the designer of the sub-$100 boxes that are meant to fill that market. Hmmmm, crippled Windows XP for $30 a license or full-on Linux for free? Once again, get real. If Microsoft wants real penetration in developing markets, it's free or nothing.

 

Now for you lovely folks that didn't read your own agendas and phobias into my proposal; pat yourselves on your collective backs and pay a visit to Tech Girl. Pretty cool little blog. Thanks for the comment, TG. Oh, I guess her blog is called Why Are You Reading This.

 

One last thing before I go to bed...you must check out Last.fm. Now. They give you your very own streaming radio station over there, and it doesn't suck. At all.

 

I discovered a neato trick with Last.fm today. If you have one PC connected to your stereo system, and another that you work from you can do what I tried; listen to the live .mp3 stream on the stereo-connected system, and control the feed from your portable in real time.

 

Go. See. Now. You'll like it.

 

A Bold Proposal

So here's the deal: I'm going to be contacting Robert Scoble at some point in the near future, because I have an idea that he may be able to start the wheels turning on. I'm writing out the meat of the idea here, so that it's available to him right away, and so that it's also in the public domain. Once I get this idea developed in writing, I want it to move as quickly as possible.

 

There are parts of Microsoft--who don't necessarily represent the company as a whole--who would have Microsoft be a benevolent, helpful giant, rather than a stomping, crushing, hegemonizing one.

 

Surely, a company this powerful has great potential to do good. And yes, I know about the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does good things, but it's a drop in the bucket when compared to what a company sitting on several billion dollars in cash could do for the world around it.

 

Anyway, I'm getting away from my point.

 

Scoble is one of these guys that is making a conscious effort to steer his company in a better direction. And he puts his money where his mouth is...a while back he pledged $5 toward Asian Tsunami relief every time he mentioned the word "blog" on his blog. Since then, he's been just looking for opportunities to do so, and joyfully.

 

So with a step in the right direction for Microsoft in mind, I propose this idea:

 

Make Windows 98 unsupported freeware.

 

First off, here's why.

 

1. The poor suckers out there still running a copy of Windows 98 that is so loaded full of spyware and other junk that the system is unusable, but they can't find the original Win 98 install disc and can't afford to take the machine to the local PC shop and get it worked on. These people need help.

 

2. The machines being designed and created for developing areas of the world need a very cheap or free OS included with them. Most of the companies working on this are looking at Linux-based machines. Free Win 98 may change that.

 

3. Home users again. If I've got enough spare parts lying around to build my kid a PC for cruising around on the net, Mandrake is free. Maybe I know more about how to use a Windows machine, but the free one will win every time. "Especially", I'll tell myself, "because he's a kid, and he's going to need to know how to use Linux down the road."

 

These are the broad strokes. There are dozens of small reasons and advantages, but Microsoft can make a real contribution to developing countries and be of real use to millions of families with computer problems just that simply.

 

We next need to deal with justification and implementation.

 

Microsoft, being what it is, will need more reason to let go of a former cash cow than, "Aw, c'mon, be good now." They're a big business, with big business concerns. Why do it?

 

1. The ongoing war on Linux. Let's be realistic and frank; Microsoft is doing poorly in this area, despite Linux's current weakness for use as a home computing platform. Surely they're not doing as well as they'd like. A free home OS from Microsoft, with an established user base already prepared for acceptance of it, surely wouldn't kill the Linux beast, but it would strike an unprecedented blow.

 

2. People using low-end systems in developing countries with free operating systems will naturally move on to use newer computers with the same or similar operating systems on them as the ones they learned on. Do you want that shiny, new OS to be a BSD or Solaris variant? No! Every shiny new box with a shiny new Microsoft OS will make you money. So pretend that India and China are American educational institutions and give them a freebie...Windows 98.

 

3. The raging piracy problem in hotspots around the world. What if your users used a free copy of Windows 98 instead of a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro? They might, if Microsoft makes it easier to get hold of the free one than the pirated one.

 

4. Public opinion. News of Microsoft releasing a full OS as freeware would rattle through the worldwide media so loudly, you'd hardly hear anything else for a week. If Microsoft loudly declared the above reasons for the move, it would strike a serious blow to the "I hate M$ because they're so very, very greedy" techie establishment. Those are compelling reasons, and these guys know a good argument when they hear it.

 

How? Will it be a lot of work that will bring no direct bottom line benefits? I don't think so. Here's why:

 

1. Most of the work has already been done. Windows 98 is a good OS. It's not perfect, and it can't hold a candle to any NT OS from Windows 2000 on, but for the vast majority of users, it's better than functionally adequate. Make three little changes.

 

    a. Remove the install requirement for a license key. Just tell the install routine to skip that part.

    b. Make it a stand-alone, self-install from CD-ROM process, a-la NT. No more floppies and fdisk-ing.

    c. Post an ISO at Microsoft.com for the whole world to pull down and burn to a CD, just like the Linux guys do.

 

2. Don't officially support the OS. No more Windows Updates, no patches, no nothing. The Windows geeks of the world will rise up and fill the gap, creating an instant support community. Most of this work has already been done, despite Microsoft's past aloofness to geek communities. These guys are doing fantastic work on this front.

 

I'm beginning to get away from my broad strokes approach. I need to post this. I need to call Scoble. Before I get too busy for another week, or doubt that Scoble will listen, or what have you. I've got to get this done, ADD be damned.

 

Here goes!

**Update**

I just made the call, and got Robert's voice mail. He probably didn't answer because it's 10pm here and 9pm in Seattle. I told him about my email to him, with a link to this blog, so hopefully he'll take a look and let me know what he thinks.

We're an Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune!

I took Crystal to see Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra the other night. I planned on going into minute detail on the lack of quality throughout the evening. I'll instead simply say that such a blatant display of extreme discord coming from a Marsalis is disappointing and disheartening. Repent, Wynton, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and you've got your family name to think of.

 

Yes, I know the difference between abstraction and discord. Yes, I heard them both, and there was far too much of the latter. I won't be paying to see you again, Wynton. Unless you repent. Then I'll think about it.

Welcome Back to the Grind

But first, let's reminisce, shall we? How about some photos?

Hmm, ok, who remembers this?


Or if you're one of the brothers Widdison, this should look familiar:


What's that? You don't see Krys here? Oh my, that is a problem. Here you go!


"But Jake," you say, "can't we see the dorky picture of you?...Please?" Yeah, ok.


Gary's cue stick guitar in the background is what makes that one worth posting.

So here I am, the first Saturday of this new semester at the Davis Lab doing...uh, homework. Please don't tell Crystal I posted. She could hurt me.

This semester, I have quite a bit on my plate, including Accounting 2010, Botany 1403 (which isn't really a Botany class), IS&T 2100 (Online, and hard to find time for), and Math 1010, this time with an instructor who knows her head from her ass.

My last math instructor wasn't so sure which was which.

And I'm still working in the Davis Lab, and I'm still doing all sorts of administrative things for WEA, and I'm still a husband and daddy. So my schedule looks like this:

Monday - BUSY BUSY BUSY
Tuesday - BUSY play Busy
Wednesday - BUSY BUSY BUSY
Thursday - BUSY BUSY BUSY
Friday - BUSY with non-school crap
Saturday - HOMEWORK HOMEWORK SLEEP
Sunday - Teach Young Men, Panic that I don't have all my homework done for Monday.

Sound familiar? Thought so.

Last night, Krys (see above for photo) and my sister, Julianne, had their first date. The reaction was very, very interesting. I think they like each other.

We went bowling, and had a good time. I got to wear my new bowling shoes and throw gutter balls, and Crystal got to kick my butt. This seemed to work pretty well for everyone.

Oh darn. I should get back to homework.

Well that is it for the 2 for 1 menu.

And now for another sushi review.

I have been slacking! We’ve been out 3 more times and I have not written any thing sorry to any one who actually reads this.

• Edamane – boiled soy beans still in the shell and sprinkled with shaved salt. I did not like this much to start but Jake has helped me come to appreciate them more. As an appetizer 8.
• Negi hama – this is another of those understated rolls like the utah. Yellow tail tuna and green onion. I can only describe it as having a musky flavor to it 7.
• Unagi Maki – cooked eel this is my favorite on the VIP 2 for 1 sheet. It has a sweet lightly smokey flavor that I really enjoy 9.
• Calliforina – the roll for beginners, crab and avocado are the main players here and they blend together well 8.
• Salmon – good for what it is but I would suggest the playboy or the samuri as you get more toppings and a better flavor 6.
• Tuna – a lot like the Negi Hama 7.
• Tempura shrimp – once again good for what it is but I would once again sugest the playboy as it has the salmon and the Tobiko (Flying Fish Caviar) and the shrimp 7.
• Spicy Rolls on the 2 for 1 – I have found that most of the “spicy rolls” are just to spicy to taste the what is there with the exception of the Spicy Tako. So they all get 5.
• Spicy Tako – the only spicy roll I like. The different texture and flavor are what I really enjoy 8.

Well that is it for the 2 for 1 menu.

to much fun

To those who attended the LAN party skip to the bottom. You already know it was a blast. Half Life was a slaughter. Pool was great too. I still need to work on my motorcross skills. Oh yes and the food was great. The only thing really left over was the chips and salsa. I slept for close to eighteen hours afterwards. To much fun.

Back to school. I'm putting off buying books. The one class I have attended is volleyball. I will also have to much fun here. I noticed about three other guys in a class of about twenty. The coach is pretty nice too. ;) The scenery is my favorite part of school. I mean no offense to any women reading. I must simply appreciate beauty in all forms.

Semi-Final Guest List

Here's the guest list as of Mon, 27 Dec. 2004:

Roger Widdison (Confirmed)
Eric Widdison (Confirmed)
Gary Walker (Confirmed)
Leon Walker (Confirmed)
Andrew Walker (Confirmed)
Jake Wilcox (Confirmed)
Jeff Wilcox (Confirmed)
Krys Johnson (Confirmed)
Joe Oskiersky (Maybe)
Boyd and David Wheeler (Confirmed)
Sian Dagostino (Confirmed)
Becca Betts (Confirmed)

Once again...Bring your own PC, Monitor, Keyboard, SURGE PROTECTOR (Required), and Headphones. SPEAKERS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED. If you want to hear your game, you'll need headphones.

The directions to the party are here.

The party will begin whenever you show up after noon. You may show up before noon if you please, but you'll be helping set up if you do.

The food will arrive sometime between five and six.

Deck the Halls and Blow People Up, fa la la...

Well, it's well and truly the Christmas season, once again. This is going to be an interesting one, too. I've definitely got the "Christmas spirit" mindset, but I'm not sure I'm really feeling it. Maybe it's just cause I'm a nice guy all year, with my cliche keeping Christmas all year long.

At this point I would like to make it clear that I am not in a particularly bad mood, nor am I turning into the Grinch. Just having a little trouble getting into the holiday spirit is all. I do love Christmas and fully respect the people and religions which choose not to.

Changing gears slightly, this year, I can safely say that I'm giving better gifts than ever to date. Admittedly, I am sharing the credit for Mom and Dad's gifts, but I made sure I got everyone something they want. Giving is something I can really get behind. It makes me feel good. And when I feel good, I make those around me feel good. (Or is it the other way around? hmm....) Anyway, Karma, baby, Karma.

I recently had my foot worked on, and by order of the doctor, I have to "restrict movement" for a few days. In other words, I get to catch up on my gaming. Almost makes me wish I hadn't finished HL2. But, I have a new game to play with. Those of you who have never played Kingdom Hearts, give it a shot. It has come highly recomended, and I'm enjoying it so far. But first, play HL2.

On the subject of games in general, I have been hearing about problems with games expected to be played at the LAN party. These include HL (not source) not working while you've got HL2 installed and the Motocross codec (refer to his post earlier). Strange part is, I don't have these problems. I don't know if I should be proud or wierded out, because it seems like everyone else has them.

Well, now I'm starting to ramble, so everyone have a merry Christmas, a happy new year, and always give freely of your own heart.

One Important LAN Party Detail at the End, and Some Other Junk

I, once again, am on speed.

 

I have a new ADD doctor, and he wants to try yet another amphetamine. And that's why I was up reading until 3:30 this morning, and then only slept until 7:00. Fortunately, not only do you not sleep when you're on speed, you also don't feel like you need to sleep, so it all works out.

 

Oh yeah, and this is special extended release speed. So I feel weird all day, not just for a few hours after the initial dose. I just hope that this one doesn't depress me.

 

If you've tried to play Motocross Madness 2 lately, you may find that it won't run. That's because you're missing the Indeo codec, which Microsoft bombed in all versions of WinXP since SP1. Stupidly, you only need the codec to run the demo at the beginning of the game, but if you can't run the demo, you can't play either. Stupidly.

 

Indeo used to belong to Intel...it was their in-house video format (Intel+Video=Indeo), but they figured they didn't need it anymore and sold the IP rights to a band of highwaymen known as Ligos.

 

Ligos wants $15 a pop from Windows XP users for the codec. For a damned codec that you probably won't use except to run the demo for MCM2, in which case you'll probably press Esc so that you don't have to watch it again, they want $15.

 

Fortunately, we live in the Internet Age, wherein most things, if not all, are possible. In this case, we're going to download and install a version of the Indeo Codec that predates Ligos going all corporate greedy, yet still works fine in Windows XP. See?

 

So here's where you need to go for the free Indeo Codec.

 

(Take that, Ligos. Bastards.)

 

You know what? Speed makes me feisty.

Directions to the LAN Party, Phone Numbers, other Info.

The time is drawing near. We now have at least ten confirmed attendees and there will probably be more. This means that Leon and I need to order more food than we originally planned, but we can afford it, because more people will be paying the cover.

 

Once again, we are having Garcia's brought in. Yum. The cover charge is $10. Plan on it.

 

Please bring a network switch if you have a spare one. Leon has an old 10 MB/sec 24 port hub, but we'd rather not drag that thing out if we don't have to, and we're not even sure that it works.

 

Here is Leon's address in Kaysville:

 

350 N. Seemore Drive

 

Directions: From I-15, take the Kaysville exit. Coming off of the exit, turn West onto 200 North. If you're coming from the South, that's a left turn. If you're coming from the North, it's a right turn.

 

You should pass a car dealership right by the freeway as you head West.

 

Further down on the right, you'll see a nice park. This means you're going the right way. There's another park right next to the first one that has a sign blocking the parking lot that says the park is closed for winter. Keep heading West.

 

You'll see an LDS church on the left. Then you'll see a Baptist church across the street from the LDS church, also on your left. Keep heading West.

 

Fields. There are fields on the left and right, but mostly on the right. **CORRECTION** The train tracks are no longer there. Just take the first right-hand turn AFTER the churches.

 

Take the next right. It's called Seemore Drive. This is Leon's street. He lives at the very end of the street, on the right-hand side. There is parking in front and at the side of the house.

 

Here's an aerial photo of Leon's neighborhood. Seemore Drive is the road that ends in a "T", not the one that has a cul-de-sac. His house is the one on the right-hand corner next to the cul-de-sac. Yeah, the one with the huge back yard.

 

If you have any problems, questions or other concerns about the party, you can email me at ohbejake (at) earthlink (dot) net, or you can call my cellular phone at nine four oh, fifteen oh six. Got that? If you don't know the area code, go away.

 

Agent double oh nothin', out! (This message will self destruct. Well, not so much self destruct, more self deflate, like a two-week-old balloon that your kid got at some cheesy restaurant before you could stop the zitty minimum wage employee from handing it to him. And then you drive home with the damned balloon in the rear view mirror the whole way, and when it's not blocking your view, it's hitting you in the back of the head. Two weeks later, you find it wrinkled and sickly under a bed, and so you mercifully whip your knife out of your back pocket and put it out of its misery. And that's how this message will self destruct. In about two weeks.)

Yet Another New Year's LAN Party Update

Here's what the (potential) guest list looks like:

!! UPDATED 21 Dec. 2004 !!

Roger Widdison (Confirmed)
Eric Widdison (Confirmed)
Gary Walker (Confirmed)
Leon Walker (Confirmed)
Andrew Walker (Confirmed)
Jake Wilcox (Confirmed)
Jeff Wilcox (Confirmed)
Stan Wilcox (Maybe)
Krys Johnson (Confirmed)
Joe Oskiersky (Maybe)
Boyd Wheeler (Probably)
David Wheeler (Maybe)
Sian Dagostino (Confirmed)
Becca Betts (Confirmed)


I've read through Eric's list of HL mod maps and we may use some of them. More later.

Prognosis Negative

I'm with Jake right now, and we're done troubleshooting the troublesome system. We concur that the motherboard is fried. Looking on the retailer's website, I can't find it, so I may be screwed. I did find a great deal on an ASUS board, which I will likely be much happier with. I need to talk to Zip Zoom Fly RMA tomorrow, and this whole build thing will have to start over again in a week or so.

Happy Hannukuh.

Updated LAN Party Planning

The guest list in particular needs updating.

 

Oh, and my apologies to Jeff. He didn't load the wrong driver on Mom's system...he didn't even touch it. I was the installer for the print server on that machine, and it turns out I did it right. I fiddled with it and it suddenly started working. Sorry again, Jeff. Thanks for all your help.

 

Leon...you haven't reminded me to tell you about keeping a MAC address database. Believe me, you want to do this, and I'll tell you why. Later.

 

Here's the updated guest list:

 

Roger Widdison (Eric's little brother)

Eric Widdison

Gary Walker

Leon Walker

Andrew Walker

Jake Wilcox

Jeff Wilcox

Stan Wilcox (Bit of a pattern developing, no?)

Krys Johnson

Dan Carver

Joe Oskiersky (The HTML barfed last time I tried to spell his name right.)

Lowell Layton (Crystal's Brother)

Sian Dagostino (A Woman! (pronounced "See-Ahn"))

Becca Betts (Sian's friend, probably won't be playing.)

 

Roger, Dan, Andrew, Gary, Stan, Krys, Joe, and Lowell all need contacting and RSVP'ing.

 

I can get Krys, Joe, and Lowell. Leon and Eric, can you guys get the rest?

 

So far, we've had about two votes for Subway, and three for Garcia's. One of the votes for Garcia's is cast by the host, and so it looks like Garcia's is definitely in the lead. I'll visit them today and see what they can do for us. They may not even operate on New Year's Day.

 

Don't forget, folks...there WILL be a cover charge. So if you're calling someone to let them know about the party, don't forget that part. We don't know how much yet, but I'd like to keep it under $10 and I definitely can't see going higher than $15. Leon and I will get solid numbers as soon as we can.

 

Once again, the games menu will be 1.) Microsoft Motocross Madness 2, and 2.) Half-Life 1 Multiplayer Death Match.

 

MCM2 is long out of production and can be had from Froogle for $10 and sometimes less. I saw some on Ebay for as little as $5. If you don't have Half-Life by now, shame on you.

 

I strongly advise that you come to the party with at least game control skills. If you don't know where the "jump" button is, we'll be happy to help, but you really ought to have that down before you arrive. That sort of problem makes for a frustrating experience.

 

 

Build Update

This weekend, I tackled my third attempt to build a computer from scratch, my first time working solo. Things did not go well. The following is from a pair of emails I sent to Jake to recap my struggles.

Here's the story:

I put the computer together without any problems hardware-wise, except for that time I had to reseat the processor. When I came to installing Win2K, it went through the setup normally until the first reboot, at which point it got to the flash screen and stopped. Suspecting a video problem, I tried it with three different video cards (a basic PCI card, a 64 MB PCI Radeon, and the AGP Jetway card I got from you), with the same results every time. I tried both of the 64 MB cards in my main system, and both worked normally (although the PCI card was predictably much slower).

Installing Windows XP (Home or Pro) also runs normally during the first stage of install, but after the first reboot, both go to a black screen and stop. The system can boot to Win98SE, but why bother? When booting from a Knoppix disc, it uncompresses the OS and prints a message that it is ttarting the kernel, at which point it stops.

Quicktech 2000 (from the SDB disc) runs on the system if it is cold (it freezes before offereing a burn-in when the system is warmed up), and it finds no errors in its automated tests. It does hit problems when checking video modes. With one video card (the AGP one), it failed to load two VGA modes, and with the PCI Radeon card, it failed to load the text-only VESA modes. This doesn't seem relevant to the issue, since different modes are available with different cards, but the behavior of the system has been independent of the card.

The power supply voltages are all close to +/- 3.3, 5, or 12 V except for one wire that has nearly 13 V, but that should still be in tolerance. I've reset the BIOS settings with no success (the BIOS is really complicated). I've used two hard drives, including a brand new 200 GB drive. The 40 GB drive has passed all of the Quicktech tests, even after several passes.

The board is a brand new Chaintech Summit board. It has all the usual stuff (IDE, 5 PCI, AGP, ect), plus onboard LAN, 8 USB, SATA, and onboard audio. I don't think the problem is hard drive related because nothing has identified a problem with a hard drive specifically, and because Knoppix won't boot (it runs from CD, independent of hard drives). I haven't had the 200 GB drive plugged in except for one time when I was checking to see if the 40 GB drive (which is older) was at fault. It didn't make any difference.

The processor is an AMD Athlon XP 2700+. The 200 GB drive is a WD, and the 40 GB drive is a Maxtor (it predates my realization that they suck, but you work with what you have). The power supply is a 450 W supply, but it's probably a really cheap brand.

It just occurred to me that if I billed my time at the same hourly rate I get at work, this project is nearing the point where the labor exceeds the parts.

I’m very frustrated at this whole thing. I got past the hardware build, which is where I am relatively inexperienced, and now I’m stuck at the OS installation, which I’ve done dozens of times.

Planetary "Um"

I need to write...right now, if only for a lack of anything better to do. Since I quit this semester, I don't even have homework to do, or not to do and to inspire me to find something more interesting to do.

 

Even if I did, this would probably end up being that more interesting thing anyway.

 

I think Jeff loaded the wrong driver on my Mom's computer when he installed the networked printer for her. When she tries to print, it prints several thousand copies of gibberish. Can we be more careful next time, Jeff? I'm going to have to fix this now.

 

I went on a tour with WEA yesterday to Petersen Manufacturing Inc. in Farr West. It was fascinating.

 

One thing that struck me is that Steve Petersen knows every little facet of his business. He knows how every part is manufactured, he knows where every part is going, what it will be used for, and he calls his 430 or so employees each by name.

 

I asked him how much of his day was spent walking the floors of his factories, and his answer explained a lot of how he knows everything about everything. He said that 30% of his day is spent walking the floors, and that's not as much as he'd like. So that's quite a bit.

 

I've heard the term "management by walking around" before, and I believe in it. Yesterday's tour only reinforced that belief.

 

I want my business. I really do. I want a job where I enjoy going in every day, and it's a sacrifice to call in sick. And I have no interest whatsoever in writing a resume ever again. It seems to a certain degree that going somewhere and asking for a job is a form of begging.

 

There's a weakness in not being able to find your own value to society and creating the job that you need. I'm afraid of my own employment philosophy. God, what if I'm right? Scary stuff, and a sad commentary on American society's ugly streak of unemployment.

 

The other night Crystal and Julianne and I took the kids to Salt Lake to see the lights and a star show. Star shows aren't what they used to be, and neither is the planetarium, so we ended up seeing an IMAX 3D show called "Snowman Vs. Santa Claus." The 3D stuff scared the kids a couple of times right at the start, and it was hard to get them to keep their 3D glasses on. And then the show was only 30 minutes long...not worth the $8 per adult and $5 per child that we paid.

 

We had hot chocolate after the show, and then we drove around Temple Square to get a peek at lights. Rachel fell asleep in the car on the way home. I reminisced about falling asleep in the car and waking up to my Dad picking me up and carrying me to bed. I must have been five or six years old the last time that happened. It was about that time, too, that I was getting too big for my Dad to flip me on my bed. He hurt himself doing that once, and he didn't take the chance again.

 

I miss the Hansen Planetarium. It was in a grand old stone three story building that had creaky stairs and wrought iron banisters in it. There was an old phone booth in the lobby that belonged in some kind of period movie where Marty McFly has to make an emergency phone call to "Doc."

 

They also had an ultra-cool plasma sphere on the main floor that was a good three feet or so in diameter. Big damn thing. And if you stood up on its pedestal and touched it and then touched your friend who wasn't on the pedestal, you could give him a wicked zap.

 

Sure, the Clark Planetarium is a cool place, and I'll take my kids there, but it's not the neat old place that I learned about stars in. Kids need to know this stuff.

 

Well, I don't know what I'll do for the next four hours, other than sit in front of this computer. Looks like it's going to be a long shift. But my writing is rambling.

When it rains…

It started when I went to visit Jake last month. We looked at my motherboard, and realized that it was having some problems. The chipset fan was not running, and so he (hot)swapped it with one he had on hand. He also noticed a number of capacitors that were blown. While I’ve been fond of this motherboard, I haven’t been overly impressed with it, and so I figure it’s a good time to just replace it. I would have done so already, but I am under strict instruction to not mess around with the computer until my wife is done with school for the semester, which is still a week away.

Monday morning, amid frigid temperatures, I went out to start my car and clean the windows. By the time I was able to see out, the car had stopped, and wouldn’t start again. I tried for a while, and then went in for a bit. I finally got it started half an hour after I first went out. It ran all day, and the next. Wednesday, I took my wife’s car, which starts fine, and Thursday I tried my car again. It wouldn’t start, except that this time it was much warmer. We tried several times during the day, and finally it got towed to a shop.

I just got the diagnosis. One of the cylinders is going out. Their recommendation was to take it home and try to help it be comfortable until the time came. In retrospect, it sounds like the spark plugs were bad, and so now that they’ve fixed those, the car should be fine for the foreseeable future, although it is still dying. It’s had problems ever since I got it 6 years ago, and until this week, it’s been running better than it did right after I got it.<>

<>What this visit to the shop does is it gives me some impetus to replace the car before I have to go through another summer in that unconditioned greenhouse. I guess it is time for a new car. And a new motherboard. Oh, and a new house. Except that I may put that one off for a while, unless our apartment floods.

Right Now I Feel The Best I've Felt All Day

Which is really sad. Really. Sad.

I walked out of my WEA leadership meeting this morning, because I just couldn't stand the thought of being there anymore. And the meeting wasn't bad...I was. So I left.

The week is off to an ominous start, but tomorrow I'm going to sushi with Leon, and I've found sushi with Leon to be at least as effective at helping with my attitude as therapy was all those years ago.

Hmph.

This weekend, Leon and I exchanged Christmas gifts...he got the Radeon 9600SE that I bought him, and I got the 250GB SATA hard drive he bought me. As I was handing him things to take home, he took the hard drives and the vid card, thinking he could pull a slick one.

Then I helped him realize that if I had to wait for Christmas, so did he. Suddenly there was a new hard drive in my hands.

We took an hour or so installing the drive in the server...the server won't boot unless you have the BIOS settings for the SATA drives just so...then Leon went home and I spent until 2:00 am moving partitions around until I had things the way I wanted them. The new Video Drive is an impressive 232GB all by its little self, after formatting. It'll take some work to fill it up.

Leon installed HL2 today, and I expect I won't hear much from him after sushi tomorrow and before he's done getting through HL2 by himself in hard mode.

I managed to get the new wireless access point that's built into my DSL modem running this weekend. I had tried to get it going a couple of times before, but this time I finally figured out that it called what I was doing on my other AP a "pre-shared key", or PSK. That could have been a little more intuitive. But it's running now, and that's good.

Here's something interesting: Leon and I both run 128-bit WEP encryption. But my key is 13 digits and his is 26 digits. I think we had a little hex vs. binary snafu. That'll have to be worked out later.

Oh, Leon? Remind me to tell you the advantages of creating and storing a database of the wireless MAC addresses that you authorize on your network. Mkay?

Finally, I tried and tried to get my WinServ2k3 machine to serve FTP this weekend. It is not intuitive, and it still doesn't work. Maybe I'll just install the FileZilla server and call it good. But I've got such a nice, shiny OS, I'd really rather use the built-in FTP server. If it continues to be a pain in the ass...well, nevermind. It already has been one, so I'm going to FileZilla.

OpenOffice.org is a nice little piece of work. I had a student in the lab crying a couple of weeks ago because her PowerPoint file had been corrupted and wouldn't open anymore.

I suspected that OpenOffice would fix it, but I didn't have a copy handy, and I didn't have time to download it and try it at the time.

I did hang on to a copy of the file, though, and the other day I tried it. Sure enough, where PowerPoint barfs, OpenOffice runs like a champ. If you save the file in OpenOffice and then re-open it in PowerPoint, it works perfectly.

Scoble? Are you listening? Your PPT guys need to hear about this. $550 software suites are supposed to work better than the free ones, not worse.

It's beginning to look a lot like a LAN party

Is this party for New Year's day? I'm in.

I can bring a switch, and I may be able to get another player into the game. My little brother proved himself to be a worthy opponent at Half-Life.

As for catering, I like Subway. I know some Subway people and can talk to them.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it.

LAN Party Details Briefing (Stand by for De-Briefing)

I'm working at the Davis Lab and Leon is sitting here. I think it's a good time to hash out some details for the party.

 

Here's the list of invitees so far:

 

Gary

Leon

Jake

Jeff

Eric

Krys

Stan

Andrew (?)

Dan Carver (?)

Jörg (Known as "Joe" to you American types)

Lowell (Crystal's older brother)

 

It's at Leon's place, in the basement and library. The food will be upstairs, but you can bring it down and eat in front of your own computer if you choose. We have a reasonable player limit of twelve.

 

Leon and I will set up camp in Leon's room, for which I'll bring a wired router so that I'll have a place to plug in. If someone (Eric, I'm looking in your direction) could bring another switch or two, then that would be great.

 

Now, regarding food...

 

We need to arrange catering. Leon and I are planning this thing, and we're open to input. But we're not bringing in Baja Fresh again, dammit.

 

So, here are some local places that cater. Please give us feedback on your preference:

 

Tasty's (High probability)

Ligori's

KFC

Togos (Sandwiches)

Garcia's (Excellent Mexican)

Panda Express

Quizno's

Subway

 

Overall, Leon and I lean toward Garcia's, Tasty's, or Quizno's. Any of those would be fine, and if I talk to a manager, we can probably be assured of the food arriving on time.

 

We also need to get some variety. So we're going to play some Motocross Madness 2 before dinner and Half-Life. We figure it'll be a good warm-up game. This is not set in stone. Whatever the group, or even factions thereof, want to do is fine. We're all there to have fun.

 

Everything here is subject to change. Leon wanted me to throw that in, just in case. OK? Ok.

WEA Blog Update

WEA Leadership Members-

 

As you know, WEA now has a weblog. The link to the blog is: http://weberwea.blogspot.com/. The weblog's purpose is to enable all of us to have written communication that is widely available to the entire group and to document our progress. An added benefit is that by reading each other's posts, we'll get to know each other better.

 

Soon each of you will be sent an invitation email to join the weblog. All you have to do to join the weblog (or "blog") is click the link in the invitation email and then enter in a few details about yourself on the web page that will open up. That's it. You're a member. Please click the invite link and become a member as soon as you receive the invite email...the link will expire after a few days.

 

There are a couple of tools on the weblog that can make using it easier to use. First, you don't have to log on to Blogger (www.blogger.com) in order to post. You can go into your account settings once you join and create an email address that you can simply send your posts to, and they'll automatically be published to the blog.

 

Second, you don't have to check the blog all the time for new posts...you can have them automatically emailed to you if you choose. This is also done through your Blogger account settings when you're logged on.

 

Finally, if you use an RSS aggregator to gather your online reading materials, you can find an RSS feed link in the Blogger settings also.

 

To those of you shaking your heads and still not seeing the point...er, well, you'll just have to trust me. But the following links may or may not help, if you've got a minute to glance at a couple.

 

1. How To Blog, from TonyPierce.com. I agree with some of this, and some of it is bunk. Your mileage will vary.

 

2. Defective Yeti. His kid is cute (check out this post!), and if you don't laugh, you're made of stone.

 

3. BoingBoing. The Grand Dame of weblogs. BoingBoing is very hard to explain. But go ahead and see how it strikes you.

 

4. Obscure Store and Reading Room. Sort of a clearinghouse for all those man-bites-dog type stories that are becoming so common. When you see something unusual on CNN, odds are these guys had it a few days earlier.

 

5. 5ives. Guy has random thoughts in groups of five. Guy posts them online. Here's an example: 

 

Five fake names I like to give at restaurants

1. Mr. Bob Dobalina
2. Thorstenson Finlandson
3. Rrrrrrrrrroberto!
4. Bubb Rubb
5. Dr. Julius Kelp

6. Scobleizer. Robert Scoble is a Microsoft employee who writes about working at Microsoft. He uses his blog to communicate with other MSFT employees, talk about projects he's working on there, and clearly states what he feels Microsoft does right and wrong. This is sort of where I envision the WEA blog going, but with more people.

 

So that's about it. Watch for your invites, and don't hesitate to email me with questions...or better yet, post them to the blog!

 

Jake.

Let's not argue about who killed whom.

This week, my brother is visiting from DC, where he has been going to school. We were very excited to get together, because since we last saw each other this summer, both he and my older brother got new computers that are now capable of playing decent games. So, we planned, and when the time came, he snuck away from his wife and her family, and we played some Half-life.

There were a lot of concerns about this, because I’m an experienced player, and they’re all more or less complete novices. My DC brother got the game about a few weeks ago and played through the entire single player game in a surprisingly short amount of time. My youngest brother joined one of the LAN parties with my friends at this forum, but didn’t stay long or do very well. He’s an unbeatable Halo player, and we were doing well to get him away from Halo 2, which he just got recently. My older brother is very new to the entire multiplayer FPS experience, except for occasional games of Halo, which isn’t the same.

So, to counter my experience, I went out looking for new maps, so that I would have to learn all of the maps instead of having intimate, practiced knowledge of their layout. My early efforts at finding maps were disappointing. I found a couple of maps that their author was very proud of, but it turned out that they had very limited weapons, and they were extremely difficult to move around in. They were the sort of maps that a couple of players could easily control against an arbitrary number of opponents. Then I found The Snark Pit. It’s a forum for map developers, and they turn out some great work. I downloaded a lot of maps, and they clearly show the improvements that come from peer review. They are beautiful maps to be in (especially one that with snowfall, giving it an idyllic peaceful feel), and most of them give great game play.

So, Thursday (Thanksgiving) night, we got together and spent about 4 or 5 hours straight blasting each other away through half a dozen maps. They made some good progress in their skills, and so I think that at least two of them (the younger brothers) could hold their own in the Phischkneght LAN parties. We gave up because we were getting tired and our reaction times were dwindling. The peak of the evening was when we were playing on a small map (the Snark Pit review said it was only good for two players) that was just a small open arena. I had a tendency to get the long jump module and jump all over the place, leading my brothers to dub me “Spider Man”. We had a frenzied bloodbath. It got too intense for us, and we had to finish up with a peaceful round of Crossfire.

We managed to get together again Friday night, and we soon decided that the only map we wanted to play on was this arena map. We spent about an hour and a half there. It was insane. My youngest brother and I were neck and neck the whole time (he was usually ahead by 5-15 kills until near the end when I took the lead), and the other brothers had about 2/3 our scores. At the end, the two higher scores were over 300, and the lower scores were over 200. I had the most kills by a small margin, and also the fewest deaths by a much larger margin. In all, there were over 1000 kills during that time, meaning that the average life span was less than 30 seconds. It was the best round I have ever had, with bullets, rockets, and trash talk flying freely. About an hour after the game ended, I had finally calmed down enough that I wasn’t shaking. I think I’ve still got some adrenaline pumping from it.

Anyway, I need to play again. The next time we have a LAN party together, I have about 60 MB of maps for us to try out. We may find a few new favorites. Plus, the less we play Subtransit, the better.

[Edited to correct the size of my maps file from 60 GB to 60 MB. Give me a break. I was writing at 2 a.m.]

Only there to help

Well, I had a frustrating drive home.

I had just dropped off Andy (being the nice guy I am) and got on I-15. About a mile from my exit, my tire went flat. Ok, no problem. This is why I have a cell phone, right? RIGHT? Well, I tried to call home and I got a message telling me that I needed to make a payment before I make a call. So, I get ahold of a rep who needs the SSN of the person whose name is on the account. For those of you wondering, no, I don't know my dad's number and I don't have any burning desire to know. Thankfully, police officers Campbell and Ricks pulled up and called Julianne. Even nicer was that they called a guy with a jack to come and put the spare on the car, seeing as how we never put a jack in the Jetta.

So my thanks to the police officers of the world, putting themselves on the line to make the world a better place for us. Even if we occasionally forget that.

May your tires never go flat

Jeff

One More Round

I was not expecting this round but sushi is never unwanted or unwelcome.

This round we had a Vegas roll, a BSCR roll, a Diva roll, and a Utah roll. Since I have rated two of these already you will have to read the other post to catch their rating. The new ones this round were the Utah Roll and the Diva Roll.

• Utah Roll – I really enjoyed this one once I figured out that it was best with a little wasabi a little soy sauce and a slice of ginger. The best way to describe this roll is understated. Jake may say this is a little low but I’ll give it an 8.
• Diva Roll – This roll originally comes with macadamia nuts but I HATE nuts so I ordered it without. It also has soy paper as the wrap instead of the seaweed witch had a pleasant pink color to it. Considering the nut problem I give it an 8.

Well hopefully I can do my network upgrade next but that will have to wait until my next post.

Stardate 24601

I know, what a cheesy title, right? Sorry. (I was going to go with "Come see the harder side of K-Mart", but I don't think that many people would get it. It's a Wall Street joke. But then, I guess a classic literary/Star Trek reference is pretty esoteric, too. But far more geeky.)

Did I forget to write here that I had bulging capacitors on my Intel motherboard? 'Tis true.

Intel arranged a replacement with me and said replacement is currently on a UPS truck that should stop at my house today. Sometimes they can't find my house, which pisses me off, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I'll just breathe deeply instead.

Leon and I went for sushi again yesterday. I called him in the morning, inviting him to lunch, and starved myself until lunch so I'd have room for the forthcoming sushi.

Problem is, my sugar dropped and Leon got off work late, so I was starving. I ordered a bowl of edamame when we got there, and wolfed it down when the girl brought it to the table. It was good.

I had a BSCR and a Vegas roll (that took 45 minutes to get to the table). They were both quite good. Leon tried two rolls he hadn't had before, the Utah and the Diva I think, and he's going to review those on this very blog.

The sushi was excellent, as was the service other than the late food. The waitress offered us free desserts to make up for the late food and we gratefully accepted. I had a dessert called the Mt. Fuji that was like a super-rich cakey brownie with dollops of whipped cream and some vanilla ice cream. It was very good.

I paid $60 for the meal, $13.xx of which was the tip. We were well served.

I found a copy of Half Life 2 Collector's Edition at my local Wal*Mart yesterday. I was surprised to see it there, two days after Half Life's big release date.

So the story goes like this: I have Half Life 2. I have a processor, video card, memory and other system internals that surpass by a fair bit what it'll take to run the demanding game. What I don't have is my motherboard. Dammit, Intel.

Oh, and get this...the guy at Intel tried to tell me that he rarely if ever hears of the caps going bad on Intel boards. Must be a new hire, because this bad cap epidemic is bigger than pokemon (like, so yesterday).

I was going to wear my geek-screaming HL2 shirt to work today, but I wrestled with the dog last night, and she got me (and my shirt) absolutely filthy. Dirty dog.

Nice day in the lab so far.

Oh yeah, Phischkneght readers, wiggle on over to check out the WEA blog here: http://weberwea.blogspot.com/. This is going to be a good thing.

And now I have to go post over there.

Technical Advancements

Last night I worked in the Davis Lab until 11:00pm. It was exciting because (a. the printer was dead and I kept having to apologize for peoples' inability to print, (b. Crystal brought me dinner, and (c. it's a really big deal to a lot of people when the printer dies and some of them are not nice about it.

But it was also boring, because a, b, and c are all that happened (work wise) in seven hours.

I decided to remotely log on to my home server, DENTSERVER, and try to get some real work done.

I tweaked around with the DSL modem for a while, got things set a little better than they were before. Then I turned to the new USB print server.

This was tricky. I've been meaning to give the manual a long good look, but of course the manual was at home. And I didn't remember the manufacturer and model number of the print server.

What could I do? I logged on to ZipZoomFly and looked up my order that brought the print server. I found the manufacturer and model number from there.

I got to D-Link's web page and didn't really find out anything I didn't already know. I knew that the print server wants to be 192.168.0.10 from the start, which is what I suspected was the root problem.

The modem documentation claims that the modem will automatically detect if it's on a DHCP-served network and reset its own IP address to the DHCP's subnet if necessary. The DSL modem was already serving out addresses in the 192.168.0.x subnet, so with ten clients or so, 192.168.0.10 was already in use.

So my first troubleshooting attempt involved setting the modem's subnet to 192.168.1.x and renewing all the leases on the network clients. Well, the print server didn't want to play.

And that's where I was when I started last night.

Knowing that the print server lied about paying attention to the DHCP server's subnet, I tried setting the DSL modem's subnet back to 192.168.0.x and then waited for clients to auto-renew and come back online.

My hope was that because the print server wasn't currently talking to a DHCP server, it would be constantly pinging the network for a DHCP server that was on the subnet it was looking for. If the print server was actively pinging for a print server, then it could get the IP address it wanted from the modem right away, because all the other network clients weren't yet aware that the subnet had changed, and would have to wait until their IP leases expired to re-ping the DHCP server and find out that they'd been out of touch all this time.

Unfortunately, when I changed the subnet, my connection to DENTSERVER was immediately terminated. If I'd been sitting in front of the machine, I could have manually requested a new IP address from the DHCP, but of course I wasn't.

So, just like all the other clients on the network, I just had to wait until DENTSERVER's lease ran out and requested a lease renewal--which would of course be turned down by the DHCP server--that IP was no longer valid, so DENTSERVER would get a new IP address. Or three of them, actually, because DENTSERVER runs a trio of NICs.

Are we confused yet?

DENTSERVER's lease didn't expire for 2.5 hours. That's when I was finally able to log back on to it.

I pulled up a remote FireFox window and typed 192.168.0.10 into the address bar. Sure enough, there was the print server. It had grabbed the ".10" address before any of the other clients were even close.

The funny thing is, once the print server has the IP address it wants, you can go into its web management utility and set it to something else. But only after it has the address it wants. So 192.168.0.10 is now an empty address on my network.

I gave DENTPRINTER 01 on DENTNET PRINTSERVER on DENTNET the only address that made sense to me...192.168.0.42. It works!

Quick Update

I'm alive, I just don't feel like writing lately. Sorry.

Leon's post about sushi is spot on, though. The Cobra was not my favorite but edible, the Vegas went to eleven, and the BSCR was very good indeed.

I. Am. Tired.

The lab printer has crashed, and all sorts of people hate me. Not much I can do about that, other than not take all the death threats personally.

I bought an HL2 compatible vid card last night, but if you want to know the specifics, you'll have to talk to me in person. Let's just say it's a pretty substantial upgrade in more than one way. Now I'll have to figure out what to do with my Radeon 9000 Pro (128MB DDR).

I'll bet ATI is having a banner year.

Jeesh, I wish I were in bed...and I have so much to do, including sitting at this desk until 11:00 pm. Then I get to fix Julianne's PC and then...well, we'll see.

Well that's it.

Oh yeah, saw "The Incredibles" this weekend...it was quite good. That was the same day Leon bought me sushi. Good day.

***Heavy edit alert***

I'm going to be having some members of WEA (that's Weber Entrepreneurs Association) swing by to see how a blog works...and had second thoughts about a little bit of that last post.

You can ask me what got deleted if you're so inclined. In the meantime...Hi WEA people! Welcome! Feel free to poke around and see what's here.

-Jake.

And now for something good.

It’s no secret that Jake and I like sushi. In fact I love it. There is not much I enjoy more than going out with a friend and eating good food. This past Saturday Jake and I went to the Happy Sumo and had our standard of five rolls. Though the service this round was not great the sushi was one of the best rounds I have ever had. So I will give you a list of what we had and a personal ranking on each roll, 1 to 10, and 10 being the best.

• Vegas Roll – In my personal opinion these set the bar against witch I judge the rest. And this round they were top notch. We ordered two of these they are a good way to make sure you get something you like when trying something new.10
• Cobra Roll – This was one a new one we tried this round out. While it looks a little like a snake because of the salmon skin the skin also added a flavor and texture I really did not care for. The roll also has a sweet flavor to it that I really did enjoy. 5
• Playboy Roll – I have had this one before so if I came back to it I must like it. This one reminds me of the samurai (witch is also great FYI) in that it has the salmon sashimi on top but also includes flying fish eggs. I prefer to dip this one in soy sauce because it helps bring out the flavor. A very good choice. 9
• BSCR Roll – Finally this was the surprise of the night. I am usually cautious of food that is presented as an acronym. This one proved its self an exception. BSCR stand for Baked Scallop California Roll and this one was delicious. The scallop was seasoned breaded and sautéed in butter and had a delicate texture it was placed over the California roll with each piece on its side. The only draw back is that it is difficult to cut the scallop with chopsticks witch makes eating it a challenge. 8

Over all I was a great meal that kept me full almost the rest of the day.

Sportitude

What can I say? I was wrong.

I thought that John Kerry should be our next president. But our next president should be whomever the most people vote for. And that wasn't Kerry. So I was wrong. I'll live with it.

There's been much talk of unhappy Democrats moving to Canada. But what's the point of that? Canada is cold, and I already got my lifetime dose of extreme coldness in Wisconsin.

Also, you can't take your guns. I like my guns. I have a few, and moving isn't a good enough reason to be rid of them.

Mexico, overall, seems to be a better choice. And it's a cheaper place to live. But I'll stay here. I was wrong.

Voting and Fragging (but not in that order)

Two things:

First, the LAN party was great. It was the most evenly matched that I've ever seen, with everyone playing well all evening. We'll definitely have to do it again. I just hope that I'm not as busy that weekend as I was last weekend.

I'm in Hampton, Virginia where I've been watching election coverage for about 8 hours now. I have been fanatical, and I'm very relieved to see Bush taking Florida and (most likely) Ohio. It's been thrilling. Ohio's snail-paced count, always holding Bush ahead by about 100,000 votes (the lead is 103,942 votes as CNN calls it "too close to call"), Bush's slow rise to the top of Florida, razor-thin races in New Hampshire, Nevada, and Iowa, and color commentary by James Carville and Tucker Carlson have all made it a fantastic evening.

Right now, it looks like Bush has taken Ohio and therefore the election (New Mexico and Iowa won't hurt to have either, especially since both are former Gore states). The final tally, prior to provisional and military ballots, will probably be about exactly 100,000. There are anywhere from 100,000 to 250,000 provisional ballots, which aren't likely to close that gap, even if most of them turn out to be legitimate ballots (which is unlikely). The military votes will only help boost Bush's lead, so of course, CNN is completely ignoring them.

Actually, CNN has been pretty fair throughout the evening, even if they have not for a moment forgotten that they want Kerry to win. As things got bleaker and even Carville had to admit that the numbers weren't good for Kerry, CNN kept looking with greater desperation for a way for Kerry to win. The provisional ballots, for example, are a "safety net". In fact, I just heard the word "recount" thrown out. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Anyway, Bush has a 3 million vote lead in the popular vote, and he's been a good sport about it. The democrats, on the other hand, have a plane full of lawyers headed to Ohio to try to wrangle something for Kerry. If this gets ugly, then for the second time in a row, it will not be the fault of Bush and his supporters. I think that we could use a good Nixon, but chances are that Kerry thinks that he should be Kennedy and Bush should be the graceful Nixon. If he forces the issue, then it's the voters that will lose.

My Prediction/Wish

You know what I want to see?

I want Bush to win the popular vote, and Kerry to win the electoral. Heh.

I didn't vote for Gore, but after all the malfeasance we've seen from the Bushies, I'd love to see him go out the way he came in.

Done!

You know what they say, 'Vote early, and vote often!'

So I skipped my first class and voted instead. And who knows? Maybe my votes will help unseat an incumbent or two.

Oh yeah, we had the kind of ballots with the infamous chads. But I didn't leave any hanging, or even pregnant.

Report of the Second Annual Wilcox Halloween LAN Party

Or WHaLaP II. Up for vote: Should next year's be called WHaLaP III, or WHaLaP IIV?

Attendees:

Jake
Jeff
Leon
Eric
Stan (Last minute...Sorry, Stan, and thanks for coming!)
Krys

First order of business:

I will never again have Baja Fresh cater a LAN party. The food was 1.5 hours late, and the girl had to call for directions TWICE, even though I had left detailed directions at the store the day before.

I'm not even sure that I'll go back there for lunch. Oh, wait, I've got points on my card. I'll spend those and then I may not go back.

Next:

The movie. I'm sorry, guys, I really thought that more of you would enjoy This Is Spinal Tap more than you did. Maybe you were just too hungry. Next year, the movie will be planned in advance and hopefully more people will laugh.

Those were the two major drawbacks of the evening. As you'll no doubt notice, neither of them has anything to do with LAN battle. And the battle went well.

The matches were relatively even, there was much carnage, and we used a frag limit this time that seemed to have the effect of keeping the game a little more fresh.

Krys is a Counter Strike junkie, and wasn't used to dealing with the sort of alliances that are formed at WHaLaP. He made his concerns known, and was summarily dismissed. He was probably just hungry.

Yes, Leon and I teamed up when convenient. And yes, we did pretty well. We didn't totally r00l, though except in SubTrasit, which is my map. When in SubTransit, bow down, because you're in for a severe ass kicking. Verily, it was so.

So. That's about it. We did set up computers in the great room, but Krys moved downstairs until more people showed up, because he didn't want to be all alone in there.

My Dad decided not to play. He had worked all day, and was tired, and HL is new to him. Maybe Jeff and I can play with him some later and get him more comfortable in the game.

Sorry again for the food, guys. I know it wasn't worth it. But now we know, and next year, we'll try something different.

Hmm, speaking of next year...looks like we need to plan on Friday, Oct. 28, 2005. Halloween is a Monday next year, so I'll have to take the kids out that Saturday night. So it's Friday.

On second thought, I don’t know. Will the trick-or-treating take place on a Monday?

Also, I'm thinking of a change of venue. Leon's basement may be the best place to do this thing, and he plans on building up his network infrastructure in the short term. Let's talk, Leon.

One last thing before I post...I'm at peace with Acronis now.

I finally asked if they were going to offer me a refund or not, and they offered to replace the software that I bought for any of their other titles (Except TrueImage 8.0 Server).

I replied in email that I'd like TrueImage 8.0, but since it won't run on my server, and they weren't offering me the Server version, I'd take a copy of Acronis Power Utilities.

So they sent me a key and a link for TrueImage 8.0. I replied again, pointing out that TrueImage wasn't what I asked for, and then they sent me a key and link for Power Utilities.

My conclusion is this: Typical. Yeah, their customer support was only so-so, but Norton probably wouldn't have been any better. Norton just wouldn't have crashed my server in the first place. Maybe.

So it's all good.