Instrumentality

The Entertainment Center

2009-11-11T08:44:00.005-07:00

As an avid reader of Slashdot, Tom's Hardware, Ars Technica, and Wikipedia. You could say Electronics and Computing is my hobby. By no means am I an old timer with years of wisdom and knowledge of computing trends. I'm barely 23 years old. I've managed over the few years to reconsider enthusiast performance computing, met others who shared similar interests and passions, discussing tips and trends in the computer market. A few years back the glamor of Case Modding, exotic paint jobs, LED Fans, UV lighting, overclocking and water cooling was all the rage. Aftermarket products enhanced the look or performance of a custom built mid-tower or full tower computer. Surely, I had to experiment with this new fad. Five years have passed by since, only recently noticing it was my only desktop computer I've ever built and owned. I've worked on a few other computer projects, often provided advice for others, moved away from desktops and computed mostly on laptops. The finer aspects of laptops. Portability, and size is what I though was the best. Power, performance into the small package. Two gaming laptops, an entry level notebook, and one netbook later; I've ridden that wave long enough. PC gaming continues to grow and look ever more promising. It's time to throwback, to days of custom built performance rigs.

The flashy market has only gotten flashier. Recalling my memories of other custom built rigs owned by friends over the years, a Full Tower behemoth, or a mid tower, plexiglass with dazzling illumination. I started researching a worthy competitor. Only this time life has changed the stakes. Now there is this woman that patiently waits for my return from a long days work. That lady cooks my meals, but more importantly plays computer and video games with. Marriage has now binded us into a permanent co-op. For better or worse, the person I'll share the Exp. Points with. is now my wife, and team kills will ban me to the couch. It seems the server admin god of life just added a new map and item drop whoring is no longer allowed. Talk about lame.

I can no longer put only myself at the center point. After all, I realize the best games are played with someone else. Borderlands, and Diablo 3, alone justify the cause. That 3 grand rig for me however, is no longer feasible, not one, but two must be built on the same budget. The woman I previously mentioned, a mainstream casual gamer, or whatever PC game I come home with and decide to play, is not a fellow enthusiast as I. Casual gaming aside, what's a housewife really going to do with an overclocked, low latency, high performance computer anyways? Myspace, iTunes, solitaire, and chain emails with my mother-in-law? Please. There will be no shenanigans of this sort. I'll just offset the budget in my favor and build the better computer and leave the leftovers onto hers. Not fair you say? Hey pal, I'm building and financing this operation here. So you can talk to me about ethics and equality later when your paying the tab.

My monthly subscription issue of Maximum PC arrived and presented me the best solution, building two rigs, one between the $700-1000 price range for the wife, the other around $1,500 - $ 2,000 for me. To be honest I have sort of grown fond of the AMD Phenom II processors and the Dragon Platform. Originally, following the advice of Max PC. I decided the wife's computer will run an AMD Phenom X3, and I'll installed the X4 in mine. All my research was done two months early. A bit later the HD Raedeon 5870 was launched, I cheered for the Nvidia smashing graphics card and changed the parts list accordingly. The PC market does not stagnate, but continue to innovate and improve. Unfortunately, I planned two months too early. Intel has released the Core i5, Suddenly those dragon platforms I justified on the price to performance ratio, just went out the window. Now I have to suck it up, and realize that Intel took the CPU crown in another segment market again. Even if that dragon platform looked so cool and shiny. - - That night I had to do some soul searching, I went to bed and slept on it. That next morning I woke up with a solution. I put some, but not all my pride aside, and decided to install the Core i5 processor into my wife's computer and I'd settle for Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. Meaning, she would have the faster processor, even it's better and cheaper than mine. Suddenly it is hard to even justify my build, why not just install a Core i7 920 in mine? Because I want an AMD Dragon Platform Computer damn it! If I can't have my cake and eat it too, at least let me some frosting alright? Pardon, I was sidetracked for a moment. Ahem.

Quiet computing, also a new slogan by Antec. I think I like that theme, and add a bit of efficiency too. A no-nonsense computer cases without the pretty colors and unnecessary plexiglass, minus the bland and boring of a business class or office computer case. I essentially want to blend power and performance into an elegant package. To compare it to the automotive world, I'm choosing over the muscle cars and import tuners in favor of a Mercedes or BMW. A fellow colleague disagrees with this vision. He'd rather hear his computer, with 120mm or 200 mm Case fans in full spin, once only considered for server racks, spool up like turbocharger reading to dump that air into the chambers. He'd like to hear and feel the power emitting from his computer. Of course he's single, not paying the electric bill, and there is no room mate that acts like the local deputy(wife) complaining about noise ordinance either. No, it's settled, an Antec P193 Desktop Mid-Tower case.

That settles the computer case. There is just one problem. Where am I going to put them in our home? We have no desks, and I want an entertainment center too. A google search for two person computer desks brings up photos for a office style corner desks made for some cubicle, a gaming desk has great number of options and style, for one person, and what about the entertainment center? Clearly there is no pre-manufactured furniture piece that fits my need. To the drawing board! More specifically, I fired up Google Sketchup and started designing away. I finished my 3D master piece 8 hours later. Something about the model however, looks as if it was too big. A few emails home later, I discovered the table would not reasonably fit in the living room. I had to start from scratch all over again, another 26 hours of redesigning I completed a better piece. Something even quite marketable to couples living in studio apartments. Now to build it. But how? Although I have a little woodworking experience, I know enough that I need to hire outside help. A bit of consulting with other co-workers, and I learned cherry would be quite expensive. My father in-law, a master carpenter, suggested plywood. Only plywood would make the furniture look terrible and cheap. Cherry it is with a perhaps a stain of Walnut will place an estimate price tag of five large. Something to lose sleep over, but quality furniture is never cheap. But I also considered usefulness of having a piece of furniture that acts as two complete desks and and entertainment center. Three pieces of furniture rolled into one? Not bad at all.

Took at look at the concept photos.

Double Striped Thick Knee

2008-11-03T00:05:00.002-07:00

Here are some photos during my stay in El Paso.

Wife and I stayed at Biggs Army Airfield for two nights and visited the El Paso Zoo.In the Aviary this guy decided instead of us watching him do animal things, he decided to watch us do human things. That or he was waiting for some food, oh well, at least he posed for some great photos.
Below is a slideshow from my web album.

2008 taco cook off

2008-10-19T23:32:00.002-07:00

Location: Bucklin park El Centro, California

The wife and I drove an hour away to Live marachi music, a crazy paletro man, and good carne asada tacos! It was not as big as I was hoping with only about seven vendors actually selling tacos. Not only that but there was one vendor that had a sign claming to be the 2007 defending champs. However, on closer inspection they were only selling fish tacos. Once again they won the fish taco category, then again it is rather silly when there is only one other competitor. Besides that award is as about as meaningless as winning the best hot at a bratwurst competion. As for rest, the tacos were about priced at $1.00 - $1.50 each, with both corn or flour as an option, however since most vendors had there own standard of condiments i find it hard to pick best overall taco. one vendor had really good tortillas and awesome salsa, and another with great meat.

To bad this wasn't closer to home, this was a great way to have lunch on a saturday afternoon.

Wings Update

2008-09-24T12:21:00.002-07:00

Last Year I posted

"I've should have not gone out for wings last night."Man, I'm feeling it this morning, or I could be the 3 large cokes to go along with it."

Well here is an update to that.

$.50 Cent wing night tuesdays at Buffalo Wild Wings compelled me to try out wings the first time. The wings tasted damn good, but going home with the runs or puking in the parking lot afterwards made me to start disliking the joint. I figured it was the food and how it was prepared. I pretty much swore off the place.

Months later I was invited to Buffalo Wild Wings by a friend, who also found out my problem. Wings and Pop, is not a good combo. Tears up your inside, instead substitute my drink for beer. I was very skeptical that it would even work. Sure enough a unclogged toliet and vomit free parking lot 24 hours later proved he was right.

Lessoned Learned.

Orders

2008-08-16T21:21:00.002-07:00

I have orders to
8th Crime, J-Actionville, North Cackalaky.

Okay I'll be serious.

8th Communications Battalion, Camp Lejeune North Carolina

I should be there before Thanksgiving.

Toenail removal by a corpsman

2008-03-31T20:52:00.001-07:00

Toenail removal by a corpsman

Site 39, i sleep here, in the middle of

2008-03-29T10:52:00.001-07:00

Site 39, i sleep here, in the middle of nowhere

Enjoying A'C' Sitting in a hospital lobb

2008-03-21T12:05:00.001-07:00

Enjoying A'C' Sitting in a hospital lobby reading half a year old magazines.

Nong Shim Kimchi Bowl Noodle....MMMmmm...

2008-03-16T14:52:00.003-07:00

I writing this as I'm eating my second bowl of instant ramen, but oh no not just any instant ramen. Nong Shim's Kimichi Bowl Noodle!!

Currently my favorite choice of bowl noodle. While living with my folks as a kid, my mom used to buy the maruchan instant ramen noodles. I loved to eat them, and mom was happy because they were cheap! Over the years of living on my own I ended up buying Nissin Beef Cup Noodle a little under a dollar a cup, it was great while living in the barracks and having no other choice but to live by chow hall hours. After a while I end up getting sick to the taste, especially the chicken I don't know why, but I had to find an alternative. Then one day, in Walmart Aisle, was Nong Shim awaiting me. Ready to embrace me with wide open arms as I ran away from Nissin.
I stocked up on like 4 bowls, enough so the wife wouldn't questioned the instant rameny goodness. I poured some water into the bowl, nuked it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Opened the kimchi packet into the steaming bowl awaiting me. Folks, it was like eating instant ramen for the first time all over again. Time stopped all together when my chopsticks left my mouth. Soon I had to find out one thing, as I wondered are there any instant ramen lovers out there on the web? Sure enough I found two great blogs.
http://www.mattfischer.com/ramen/ and http://ramenlovers.blogspot.com/

For the Record, March is National Noodle Month.

QOTD

2008-03-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

- Epicurus

Mayweather said what?

2008-03-03T23:33:00.003-07:00

He is the best in Boxing, MMA and Pro Wrestling, we all know he is a great boxer, and pro wrestling is well fake, but MMA? HAH!

I only watch RAW because my wife enjoys it. But after watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. talk nothing more than smack and after two weeks of USA promoting the smack talk, complete crap. Only for the viewer to find out Floyd won't fight until Wrestlemania, nothing more than more pay-per-view crap. But back to "money" mayweather, it was funny how he threw out he is the best in boxing, MMA (as in yes mixed martial arts) and pro wrestling. While boxing is very competative sport time and time again boxers have gotten thier asses kicked in the octagon. We all know that Pro Wrestling is fake and nothing more than kay fabe. I would love to see Floyd Mayweather Jr. battle in the MMA circuit, but that pretty boy wouldn't risk it, besides he'd get his ass kicked in the first round.

AM Radio

2008-03-01T21:11:00.003-07:00

----------------
Now playing: Spyra - Bath (DI.fm Premium - Ambient)
via FoxyTunes
I was driving 2 nights ago South Bound on I-15 past Temecula, CA. The government vehicle I was in was fortunate enough to have a AM/FM radio, and after scanning the FM side to find nothing interesting to hear. It is usually the same, Pop Music, Rap, Country, and being in southern California and so close the border the usual spanish statio ns. All bleh. I came to discover an intresting radio station, and after closer Listening it was being broadcasted from somewhere in Utah, and the local news was based in Salt Lake City. I asked my friend who was riding along during my journey, how is that possible. Now, my buddy just happens to be a electronic maintenance guru and knew a thing or two about my query. He explained to me how at night the Ionosphere bounces this to far locations. Pretty cool, I thought.

For a few months now I've become more interested in public and broadcasted radio, I listen to National Public Radio on KAWC 88.9 FM sometimes 1320 AM, depending on my location. I find I can usually get a whole daily segment of unbaised headline news for the day on just a short time span, a perfect way to start and end the day driving to and from work. I was just recently thinking, what If I could essential tivo public radio so I can record it and play it on my cell phone, I dare not say iPod, in fact I hate iPods and apple. No I use my new cell phone which has an FM radio (no AM capability unfortunately) and 1 gig memory stick to listen to music. I headed over to thinkgeek.com a cool website selling somenifty geek gadgets. I found the radio shark A 50 dollar AM/FM tuner that plugs into usb and can time shift radio segments. Maybe just maybe I'd might invest, or head over to radio shack and build my own.

Mice

2008-02-29T18:15:00.002-07:00

I've used many a mouses in my day. Touch pads, Nipples, Trackballs, Optical, Laser, A few years ago I used to swear by my Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse. By the way, I prefer Logitech mice and keyboards, they have nice quality products and are innovators in their fields.

While Corded Mice have better response time, the overall clutter of just another cable makes things messy. Especially those on laptops, for those heavy laptops users more often than not we end up being wired to some wall outlet. For some using the touch pad is fine, I've forced myself to get used to it. For others it is unacceptable, my wife uses a Microsoft optical notebook mouse, which again with optical mice suffer from movement problems on various surfaces, in fact I'm using my sofa's arm rest as the surface for my mouse, because, well I actually do put my laptop on my lap. My old gaming notebook was rather hot on bottom thanks to a beefed up video card.

So back to the question wired or wireless, most gamers will tell you stay corded, and I would agree, if your using a desktop, for laptop the best is wireless, high speed wireless should not be a factor even in intense first person online shooters in today's age. And after 2 years of constant moving around, the cable to my old g5 mouse became frayed and then unusable, then I upgraded to the MX revolution, a great mouse but the charger was terrible, the contacts on the bottom of the mouse were supposed to the touch the charging cradle, often I'd spend 20 minutes just making sure my mouse charged, the scroll wheel was awesome, sometimes I felt the mouse was a a bit bulky, I ended up finding out there was notebook version, but well it was too late, and then came to the problem of usb ports on the side or your laptop, having a dangling receiver on usb ports are susceptible to being bent or broken, not exactly lap friendly, and every time you have to stow your trusty laptop away in a bag or something, you mustn't forget to to remove the receiver. This new nano VX has as written on the packaging, the world's smallest receiver, and lo and be hold I plug this in on the side on of my laptop to see that indeed there isn't much stick out, probably about 3/4 inch of plastic from the edge of the chassis. Plug and play, Windows XP detected the HID complaint mouse and easily installed default drivers and the mouse work just fine. I saw no need to install Logitech Setpoint, no need for another memory hogging background application.

----------------
Now playing: Aspect - Hi Jack (Vocal Mix) (DI.fm Premium - Vocal Trance)
via FoxyTunes

US Senate fails to uphold constitution.

2008-02-12T20:49:00.001-07:00

Folks with a heavy heart I am very disappointed to say that the senate has failed to uphold the constitution. Today the US Senate voted on Cloture for the FISA Amendments act. It has seem that the congress is started to side with corporations than for the privacy rights of the individual citizen. As Senator Dood said last night, Congress should not allow another scandal to be overlooked from the Bush Administration, whether it is the questionable interrogation tactics of the CIA, Abu Gharaib scandal, the resignation of former US Attorney Alberto Gonzales.

Quote:

Sixty-seven senators chose to side with corporate interests rather than uphold the Constitution today, passing the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) and voting to reject every amendment that would have improved the bill and protected American civil liberties.

For a list of which Senator cast which shameful vote, here is the official tally.

Visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation for more details. I urge you contact your congressman to the do the right thing. And not grant retroactive immunity to TeleComs, although this has already gone through the Senate it still has to go through the House of Representatives. It is funny how the White House has admitted that the defendants in the wiretapping scandal that occured for 5 years mind you, assisted in illegal wiretapping.

For those of you who don't know in 2002 a former AT&T technician discovered fiber optic lines were being split to "secret room" within the switching center of a san francisco center. Further investigation from the tech also suggest that another 15 through 20 resides in other major switching centers across the U.S. Basically a direct hard line copy was sent through this secret room with EVERYTHING as in voice and data communications was been screen in real time. All under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was DOMESTIC traffic being analyzed by the government. Unfortunately, history has way of repeating itself, this isn't the first time the U.S government uses national security to spy on Americans. Anyone remember the Cold War? While I wasn't during that time. Those same principles of citizens privacy still apply to today.

I am truly saddened

Boycott Trendmicro

2008-02-11T21:57:00.001-07:00

Voting in 2008

2008-02-10T02:38:00.001-07:00

Alright this is my first year I plan to vote, and I'm saying right now this voting system is screwed up.
I guess I can consider myself an "independent." There are some things I agree with the republican party and some with the democratic party. I most particularly prefer Barack Obama and Ron Paul,
and though I'm military and most military are probably going to vote for John McCain, besides his military views I can hardly agree with anything he has. For awhile I made up my mind he was the guy, but I'm starting to strongly dislike him more and more. I don't know about you but I'm so freaking sick and tired of hearing about this election on NPR.org, it seems all the good news time is spent picking apart and analyzing this damn election. I hear these terms like Delegates, Super Tuesday, blah blah blah. I did my research on just about everything i need to know. Now I'm ready to vote, or am I. First and foremost I realized I hate political parties. I also hate terms like Liberal, Libertarian, Conservative, right wing and left wing.

From a technology stand point Barack Obama wins hands down. I also like how he actually has a plan to pull out from iraq, the only thing is I don't really think he understands how much asset is overthere and I have a feeling there is no real possible way to pull out. But whatever, power to him if he can pull us out of Iraq.

Hiliary Clinton? I just plain hate that lady, God help us if she is Commander in Chief, she has got some crazy ideas about "protecting the children" from the evils of video game in her time as a senator. Not only that she isn't known to give straight answers. She gives a MAYBE in issues like the REAL ID act, nothing more than "show me your papers" idea. I freaking hate that, How can you be a president if you aren't a straight shooter.

As for John McCain, power to him as vietnam vet and POW, I highly respect him in that aspect, but that guy has no agenda for pulling out in Iraq, again more republican agendas. Besides war is great for the economy, everyone knows that. More servicemen are going to continue to die, we are going to continue spiraling down into a deficit. I think that since he has already tried to run for president before, there is a reason why he didn't win that time. He needs to give it up already.

You know I like that Ron Paul guy, He very is direct with his policies and believes in a smaller government and I think that his deregulation and less taxes. Ideas like removing the IRS, although crazy, some of crazy is just what we might need. I think it would be interesting to see what he could do in office, just about everybody has an idea of implement this or that. Adding another law to already huge lawbook when in fact I personally think we just need more enforcement of the current laws, not making ACTs upon acts granting more federal funding for this or that, when last time i checked we are in huge deficit. Well whatever.

So on to my state primary Indiana. First and foremost Indiana is mostly republican. John McCain is getting lots of support so I think I'm kinda screwed in the Republican party, so I decided not to register as Republican, and then I read up on the idea of super delegates and some serious questions came to mind. I for one DO NOT like the idea of delegates in the first place. I believe nominees should by the common popular vote ONLY, not some big wig who is only going to solidify the victory for a winner, or in worst case scenario elect the against the popular vote.

So just the fact that democratic party has that...hmm I really don't like that. Besides I don't want to be called a democrat anyways. The democratic party has way to many ideas that coincide with a socialism and communism. And well, we all know how that turns out. I think I'm very liberal on issues regarding technology but conservative on most economic and health care issues. I don't like the idea that I'm paying more for social security today and going to receive less in the future, nor do I like the idea of the Medicaid, WIC or programmes that disqualify families based on income, WHY? Well first and foremost a program like WIC disqualifies families who have high incomes, I'm think What the fuck? Hold on a second, so people who don't work as Smart, MIND you I didn't say as hard, qualify for wic all at the expenses of the general public. TAXES yo.
but if I make to much I don't qualify, that is some serious whack. People who argue about tax cuts for the rich, HEY, rich people spend more money than any another tax bracket and spur the economy, putting more money back into thier hands so they can contribute back into the economy is great. I think a flat tax is better than a percentage based income tax. That or FICA should an option, not mandatory. But we all know that goverment borrows off social security like it is cool. Also a problem.

Yeah I think we need sales taxes, property taxes and to make up for it a much higher wheel tax.
Any carbon emissioned base car needs to have some high tax. That will give more incentive to buy better environmental friendly cars.
We need these taxes to pay for stuff. Why not just get rid of income taxes all together and just have sales tax. I think its whack your taxed for investments and savings that you earn. Everyone tells you about saving your money this and that, and you do it, but next thing you know the government thinks it should get its share of your savings.... if everything was taxed via sales tax, because we all know we have to buy things. It would be a lot easier.

well whatever on that. So back to the democratic party, As I said I'm pretty much decided on barack obama. He is rather young, full of great ideas and not like the rest of the old fogeys in Washington. The only reason I'd register as democrat is make sure he maintains his lead over hiliary. Other than that, as I stated earlier this whole delegate thing and also electoral college really pisses me off.

Oh by the way wanna know what helped make my decisions. Wikipedia.org
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-delegate.htm and CNET news

----------------
Now playing: Mike Shiver & Ashkan Fardost present AM - Arise (Exclusive Hammer and Funabashi Remix) (DI.fm Premium - Vocal Trance)
via FoxyTunes

The Windows XP problem

2008-02-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is ceasing sales of Windows XP Pre Shrink Wrapped and OEM releases, after June 30, 2008, those of you who build your own machines, you have until Dec 31.

Meaning? Computers Sold After that date will come installed with Windows Vista. Microsoft's way of selling more copies of Vista.

Like or not, for those like me who rather sell a kidney than install Vista over XP. (Well I don't think there are any but, but I won't use Vista unless you pay me too.) For those who wish to downgrade,

Quote:

vendors such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Fujitsu, and more recently NEC, all offer the opportunity to downgrade to XP Pro."

Source:Slashdot

Infoworld has more details.

----------------
Now playing: Armin Van Buuren - Shivers (DI.fm Premium - Vocal Trance)
via FoxyTunes

Comcast, Traffic Shaping, and the FCC

2008-02-10T00:53:00.000-07:00

Internet Service Provider Comcast has changed its Terms of Service, this change is the first in over two years. Section III in the Terms of Service now includes policies on Traffic Management.

Quote:

Comcast uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards." The company points out that it is not alone in the practice, saying that "all major" ISPs engage in some form of traffic shaping. Comcast does it to keep its subscribers from suffering the heartaches of "spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service" and to "deliver the best possible Internet experience to all of its customers.

Source: ArsTechnica

This however, did not come by until a recent investigation by the FCC which the issue was brought up by the Associated Press, and reconfirmed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Quote:

Comcast has been "caught" blocking BitTorrent traffic in some areas, according to tests performed by the Associated Press. The news organization claims to have confirmed that Comcast is blocking—or at least seriously slowing down—BitTorrent transfers, regardless of whether the content is legal or not. If true, Comcast's actions have serious implications for sharing information online, and by proxy, Net Neutrality.

This was originally sent as a tip by Vuze Inc, some the developers who made Azureus, the open source bit torrent client. This of course is in direct conflicts to thier company.

The Conclusion.

So now after some serious uproar about Comcast's Data Discrimination.
Yeah I said that right, and I know it may sound a bit funny, but its not funny anymore when your business relies on your internet traffic and then is given a side seat to someone elses. Comcast is hoping its fancy buzzwords are simply overlooked by thier ignorant customer; after all, Comcast is counting on each and every user NOT to use the entire 3 Megabits per second they payed for. For thier studies show only about half or less is in reality used. Thus, allowing the company to over sell the same tier to thier customers in a community. More profit for them, worse connection for you. But..., what about the 5 percent of customers who do use thier entire 3 Mbps. The whole pipe as you may say. Comcast knows that demographic is usually P2P traders and bittorrent users, the leeches of the network. Leeches or not they still pay for it. So in order to prevent the "heartaches of network congestion."

Quote:

Comcast has denied throttling BitTorrent traffic, saying that the ISP just "delays" or "postpones" it on occasion. One analogy used by a Comcast executive was that of trying to make a phone call and getting a busy signal for a time, until the call actually goes through. A more accurate explanation of Comcast's use of TCP reset packets, to build on the phone analogy, would be talking on the phone with someone and then both of you hearing the other's voice saying "hang up." That's the effect of the forged reset packets: convincing the BitTorrent clients that the other(s) have stopped responding.

If I was a comcast customer I would be very pissed, for those of you who are. You may weigh in on the proceedings to the the FCC on this issue. You have until Feb 13 to use the Electronic Comment Filing System for comment on WC Docket no. 07-52.

----------------
Now playing: Rialdo Shepherd - Sour Mix (DI.fm Premium - Trance)
via FoxyTunes

an assement.

2008-01-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this on my new laptop which will eventually go to my mom. I purchased it off ebay (item link) about a week ago for $616 not too shabby. It came perfectly packaged even with an restore cd and drivers. Kudos to my seller. I was very impressed with its condition, I could have sworn it was new by its look, no scratches dead pixels or anything. And all though the onboard graphics card is by no means meant for gaming. I didn't buy this for gaming.

I really love this laptop for its nice tactile feel while typing, and the very bright and easy display.
my initial thoughts when I picked up out of the box was "wow! 6.7 pound laptop?". My previous laptops although gaming laptops were not exactly meant for laps. Running very hot, I always had to use a table. This laptops runs cool and quiet, they way it should. I guess I upgraded too. SATA hard drive for faster drives seeks, and Centrino Duo. Everything in me wants to run a linux only laptop. I've been wanting to it for the longest time. I even downloaded Slackware Linux 12.0, but after downloading, I couldn't see myself switching. I'll try VMWare and see hot it goes. But enough about the laptop.

I'm going my third WTI. For the most part I'll gone the The end of march and mid to late april.
It is also where almost all job functions have been replaced by something new. In short I ran and support the Back end of WAN Link and provided LAN assistance. Running tactical fiber to various outposts. As my superiors are still trying to figure out our role. I'm hoping to actually skate by this operation. (Read kick back and relax). I just know all to well the units taking over my job are going to screw it up and ending calling us during the most critical time to fix everything for them. As the saying goes. Roll with the punches.

The wife you ask? I dunno were good. Hoping to attend the renaissance fair in Yuma. This saturday. I've never been to one, it may weird who knows. She stays at home and cooks, I go to work. Although the issue was brought up on many occassions. By the looks she wants to stay home and be a housewife. Fine by me. Although I don't make much in the military I still manage to make it by. Some people ask me about my finances and ask me if I save. Usually I tell them no. If your asking tomorrow do I have a few hundred bucks to save my skin. Maybe. Anything over a thousand? Nah. I have a long term Thrift Saving Plan which 10 percent of income goes. But since I don't ever touch it, I hardly ever consider it my savings, at least immediate.

Education: Well I'm hoping to start my associates degree with Davenport University. I'm going for an Associates Degree in Computer Security, and while I'd rather prefer one in Networking Technology, the Security degree is the only one I'd intresting that is 100 percent online. I'll probably end up double majoring and moving on to a Bachelors in computer science.

So I end up purchasing an R4 (link for more details.) 35 bucks per unit and 16 dollars for a 2 GB Micro SD card I got one for my sister and my wife. Its awesome I can run homebrew applications and I download NDS Roms (read:games) for my Nintendo DS. Lots of fun and I save money. I'm compiling a list a games before I ship to my sister, so she'll have to wait.

My current task. I'm writing a my first white paper. as defined on wikipedia.
A white paper is an authoritative report. White papers are used to educate customers, collect leads for a company, or help people make decisions. They can also be a government report outlining policy.

I am sure glad I took that English 100: Introduction to Composition class through Arizona Western College. (Speaking of which I still haven't gotten my grade from.) I've always been terrible at writing...

My cat Tom

2008-01-06T20:42:00.001-07:00

A rescue cat from the humane society of Yuma, Tom is nine months. A happy, lazy, male cat. He came neutered and is litter box trained. One the great features about tom is he is leashed trained. Yes, that's right Tom, goes outside on cat harness and leash for walks. The thing about walking cats, they walk you, not the other way around. Unlike dogs. It is easier to go where the cat wants to go, of course with some restrictions. Tom has been me since October.

My Laptop Died!

2007-12-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Oh noes..

my computer died! A circuit near the motherboard burnt out. My only guess is there was a lot of dust in that region and it shorted out. Sadly the only place I can find a replace for that motherbaord is on ebay. A nice $220 for a used mobo. Bah.

Anyways here is the part I'm buying on ebay

In other news. Unfortunately due to financial reasons like the one above I'm canceling my Christmas trip back home. Maybe in February I'll come home maybe sooner I really don't know yet.

I canceled my myspace account, I'm sick of it, I never liked it in the first place and full of ads and poor navigation and dumb quizzes. I'm on facebook only.

VICIOUSPC

2007-10-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

What ever happened to ViciousPC? 2 Years ago I ordered a laptop with my credit card for my buddy and roommate. It was the Ronin II Laptop from Vicious PC

Here was the original order

TEM ID: RONIN-CONFIG-554493992
ITEM NAME: [CPP4630] Intel Pentium 4 630 EM64T @ 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache [Add $1809]
[MNNTB00005] 15.4QuoteMark WSXGA+ 1680x1050 Wide Screen Active Matrix Color TFT LCD Display
[MMNT200004] Kingston 2GB (2 X 1GB) SODIM PC2-4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory [Add $116]
[HDNTB00011] 80GB IDE 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive [Add $150]
[VCNTB00004] nVidia GeForce Go 6800 256MB MXM Type III Video Modual w/S-Video TV out
[DVNTB00002] Internal 8X Dual Layer DVD+/- RW + 24X CDRW Rewritable Drive
[SWNON00003] Bundled Ahead Nero 6 OEM Suite DVD/CD RW Software
[SCNTB00001] Integrated AC97 Audio w/1 Mic-In, 1 Audio-Out/SPDIF out and 1 Line-In Jack
[SPCRESBS350] Creative Labs SBS 350 2.1 Stereo Speakers w/Subwoofer (Black) [Add $24]
[NCNTB00002] Built-in 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Network Port
[NC11G00002] Built-in WiFi Wireless 802.11b/g NIC
[PTNTB00001] 1 Parallel, 1 Game/Midi, 1 Modem, 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire, 1 S-VGA Out, and 3 USB ports
[CRNTB00001] 1 Infrared, 1 Type II Card Bus PCMCIA and 3-in-1 Memory Card reader for MMC/SD/MS
[MSNON00000] None.
[SWWXP00001] Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with SP2
[DMZ81SP001] 14QuoteMark Width X 11.3QuoteMark Depth X 2.02QuoteMark Height. 9lbs.
[CBVPC00001] All Purpose Carrying Bag (MSRP $49.99, special promotion Yours for Free)
[WARRNB001] Standard Warranty - 1 Year Limited Parts, Labor, and Lifetime Tech Support
[BTNTB00001] 8-Cells Li-Ion Battery (Need to uninstall 4 screws & back plate to change battery) [Add $100]
[MDNON00001] None.
[SWSYM00001] Bundled Symantec Norton Internet Security 2005
[SWNON00001] None.
[SWNON00001] None.
, ,
ITEM PRICE: $2199.00
ITEM QTY: 1
ITEM SUM: $2199.00

-------------- TOTAL --------------
TOTAL: $2199.00
8.25% CA TAX: $163.28
Rebate: -$219.9
S&H: $55.00
DISCOUNT S&H: -$55.00
GRAND TOTAL: $2142.38

Anyways my roomie moved and purchased a smaller and newer laptop and sold me the ronin II.
Which I know currently have. My question is, What ever happened to them. I haven't yet tried calling them. But when I tried to visit thier webpage, it seems they have disappeared... All I seem to retrieve is this Taurus.Priced2go.NET. After further research on ICANN's whois here is the registry information

Domain Name: VICIOUSPC.COM
  Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
  Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
  Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
  Name Server: NS1.PRICED2GO.NET
  Name Server: NS2.PRICED2GO.NET
  Name Server: NS3.PRICED2GO.NET
  Name Server: NS4.PRICED2GO.NET
  Status: clientTransferProhibited
  Updated Date: 12-jun-2006
  Creation Date: 11-nov-2001
   Expiration Date: 11-nov-2007

The domain is set to expire in less than a month? My only guess is ViciousPC has gone out of business.
Not good, especially since, I was hoping to send in my laptop back to them to get refurbished.

The power source half works and the contacts to the battery somehow don't touch, so basically it doesn't work
without the power cord. The keyboard was sent in once by my roomie and I need to send it in again for repairs

This time the keyboard enter key broke off. One the internal cooling fans is dying and needs to be replaced,
although I probably could do that myself.
. From what I remember City of Industry is located
somewhere in Los Angeles and many Tech Companies reside there, such as Newegg.com.

Hopefully I can find a computer notebook repair company soon.

Here is some contact information I do have from ViciousPC from when I orginally placed the order 2 years ago.

Vicious PC - The Ultimate Gaming Computer

339 South Cheryl Lane

City of Industry, CA 91789

Your a nerd... Yeah so what?

2007-07-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

July 3rd, a very very important date. My wife would say it's the day we got married. I say it was the day transformers the movie came out.

Which I missed the opening. Just a few days ago my room mate and I went to see the movie, that was his second time. I had to have my wife remind me why I didn't see it that night. She gave me some excuse that the windshield wiper broke, it was storming that night (it's was true unfortunately) and the movie theater was 40 miles away.

I thought to meself, how good could a live action transformers movie look anyways?

AMAZING... I think my favorite movie was 300, now it has to be transformers. I think saying I had a hardon while watching the movie maybe exaggerating, but watching an AC-130 gunship rain bullets from the sky on an decepticon certainly had me cheering. So if your waiting for the DVD, free pirated movie or whatever. STOP
Go watch on it in theater already, you know big screen booming dolby surround sound and everything.

I happened to down a 16 oz rockstar, 160 milligrams of caffeine before the movie so I was really really wired.
(stats provided by energyfiend.com)

So what am I doing now? I downloaded a free MMORPG, Hero Online, and despite that I avoided MMO's like the plague, I'm actually enjoying it, minus the lag. Wireless gaming sucks when you have 9 other guys on your network and your host decides to torrent like a mofo.

I guess in the real world world I maybe a 20 year old guy, Enlisted in the Marine Corps, currently as a Corporal, and I could go on further saying that I'm married.

But on the dragon servers where I am 1st Dan 2 Kyu female physician. That's level 12 for all you world of warcrap players. I wield a long spear, wearing tiger armor, and lotus hairpin. That's what really matters. Oh yeah by the way it is free.
I downloaded it of bitorrent.com why? Well because it was free MMO so take that WOW.

I killed 19 greybears and 5 rouge's today....

What? Don't shake your head like that.
I'll poke you with my spear!

/me doesn't hate Blizzard, I actually diablo 2 with my wife.

Back in Arizona

2007-07-13T20:24:00.001-07:00

Alrighty, today I finished my last class in my week long seminar dedicated to building and developing websites. You know the web 2.0 way. Full of Cascading Style Sheets and the like.

I can finally go into working with dreamweaver 8 and using divs tags as my friend.

Anyways, I was trying to get this old dhtml javascript menu to work. I tried my darndest to put it into a div tag and it the location was relative to the page not the div tag I specific.

I was getting pretty angry. Then I googled for the creater of this conplex script.

Turns out I've been using outdated code. (As in 2001)

Anyways, some more net surfing later and I stumble across opencube.com quite intresting the niftiest menu creater website I've ever come across.

Now I can make CSS menus YAY!

And for those still wondering, no I haven't moved out of the barracks yet. I'm turning in all my marriage paper work tommorrow, so it'll move from there

Estimated Time probably would be mid august, but hopefully less

Only if I have to....

2007-07-06T18:39:00.001-07:00

I figured someone would send a lynch mob if I didn't post any pictures of the wedding. Anyways I published a few pictures on my photo album. More to come later as they come in.

shinigam.zoto.com