Tag Archives: computers

Quick Geek Post, Real Post Later

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After mucho deliberation, I’ve decided on a new computer and will be purchasing it tomorrow. Tentative final specs: 2.0GHz dual processor Power Mac G5, 1gb of PC3200 DDR RAM, 250gb hard drive, Radeon 9600 XT, wireless card and bluetooth module.

I also plan to get iWork, and it’ll be coming with iLife ’05 built in. I also picked up a 250gb external FireWire and FireWire800 drive for backup and archiving (you lose all your data ONCE and you’re a die-hard archivist for life), and a LaCie ElectronBlue IV 22″ monitor (factory reconditioned… $300 off retail that way, which is why I decided to splurge on the larger monitor).

Total cost: more than we have, and let’s leave it at that. That said, my trust pitched in just under $1.7k, which helps a lot, and the hope is that I’ll have a job soon (two separate prospects have shown up on my doorstep around the same time… an internship locally, writing content for a MMORPG which could potentially turn into a full time job, and the other is a full time job writing content for a MMORPG… in Australia. Strangely, the Australia one is more concrete, since I’ve actually already made it onto their shortlist. I know I was talking about moving out of the country, but I honestly wasn’t expecting so soon, and am now kind of squeamish now that there’s even a potential real prospect.)

Anyway, as the title says, this is just a geekpost. I’ll post more real stuff later. Thanks so much to all of you who’ve commented recently, and I hope to get back to all of you in one way or another soon.

Laptop Amusement

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Sitting around at the Tiger Tech Talk at the Seattle Marriot Waterfront, in a room filled with other Mac Geeks. I’ve NEVER seen this many laptops. It’s really pretty impressive. Entire 12 person tables were filled with people’s various Powerbooks at every seat. I don’t know why, but this amuses me greatly… that and the fact that I can turn on iChat and see half a dozen people on Rendezvous. Slick slick slick.

Umm, I can’t really talk about what I’ve been learning, quite yet… they made it clear at the beginning of the conference that this information is Confidential, and pointed out that we signed a general NDA when we signed up for the seminar.
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Need a New Computer

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[NOTE: This is going to be an image-heavy post, so 56k-ers, be forewarned (the images total about 470k together, so it shouldn’t be too bad). All the images are in the extended entry. – Nabil]

A little background: I am a computer user by hobby and (so to speak) by trade. I do graphics work (3d and 2d), I write, I program, I design, I research, all on my computer. This is in addition to blogging, MUDding, chatting (IRC and otherwise), and web browsing in general. When all said and done, I AVERAGE 12 hours a day on my computer, daily, with the range going from 4 hour to 20 hours at a time. I make myself available 24 hours a day for the systems I help administer (the MUD, for instance), as well, so my computer is running (albeit idle) pretty much all the time.

Suffice it to say, my computers see a LOT of use. I travel with it regularly to a variety of locations (whether across the country or down the street to the local coffee shop). As such, despite keeping it in padded protected carrying cases, it sees some physical abuse in addition to just processor cycles. All of which… well it takes its toll. I’m documenting the abuse my current computer has received in the past two years as an example of exactly why I’m needing a new computer now: basically, I honestly don’t believe it will last even until I graduate next year.
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Programming (1)

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So, some of you may be wondering where I’ve been for the past few days… the short answer (ie, ignoring everything else that was going on) is that I’ve been wading through the last few chapters of Stephen Kochan‘s Programming in Objective-C. Useful, well written book that does more for actually teaching the language than most of the other books on my shelf combined.

I finally got through it, and feel moderately comfortable with it, ready to take the next step, and actually try my hand at actual development. Never one for small bites, I decided to dive right into building a MUD server. From scratch. In Objective-C, which none of my friends know and thus can’t help with. Woo!
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Status Update

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I sent out my packet today, which I’m pretty pleased with. The annotations turned out well, I think, and while it was two days late in going out, I’m satisfied overall with the results. I may post some of them up here later… we’ll see. Might nice to finally have SOMETHING up in my articles section.

My computer is behaving rather oddly… the Expose feature of OS X is randomly turning on… I think I’ve managed to isolate what’s happening, thought I’m not entirely sure why it’s suddenly happening now. Basically, when I’m typing with the computer in my lap, the whole thing bends juuust enough that the number lock and F9 keys are triggered. It’s very bizarre, and very VERY annoying.
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Explorations

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First: I’m an Uncle (again)! Nikhil Tiger Sacks was born March 31, 2004, and is doing well (as is his mom). Congratulations, and I can’t wait to meet him :).

I’m not quite sure where this post will take me. I’m mostly posting because I’ve had requests to update so the prior post is no longer so prominently displayed. What exactly I’ll be posting, I’m not entirely sure. Hence the post, “Explorations”.

It’s not that I have nothing to say. I have a LOT to say, about a great many things. Enjoying the beautiful weather we’ve been having, getting to spend time with my wife, adventures with UberCon, money woes (if I don’t get a job in the next month or two, we’ll have to move when our lease is up, and if it doesn’t pay very well, then we may have to move anyway), and looking forward to seeing my friends on my impending trip back east for school.

That’s just the things that are immediately pressing on my mind. There’s much more to say. The sad part is that I don’t really want to talk about any of it in any amount of depth.
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Grr. Argh.

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I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to write about this evening, but it’s time to post again, and there are definitely things rolling around in my head. Some are postable (post-worthy is arguably too pretentious for them), some are not, but no time like the present to find out!

I’m pretty sure I mentioned it before, but my friends Eli and Megan broke up recently. This has been a rollercoaster of emotions for the both of them, I’m sure. They’ve been processing it differently, though, which has caused a bit of… hmm, strife in the overall breakup. Namely, Eli has been externalizing, being very vocal about how he is feeling, and open about his needs. Megan has been far more internalizing as far as I can tell, and has been processing how she’s feeling either by herself, or with a few close friends.
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Geeking Out

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Well, it only took a few days of being obtuse, but I’ve finally got a reasonably up to date mirror of my site, functioning with a MySQL backend (unlike my actual BerkeleyDB… something I plan to remedy soon), on my local machine. I just barely finished importing all the files necessary and making sure everything works, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get an opportunity to actually start futzing with stuff a little.

I’m starting to feel drained from this trip. I haven’t been sleeping well, and have been constantly surrounded by people (even though they are my friends). This is quite the change from the hermit-like nature I’d been exhibiting in Seattle, and the change has been a bit more draining than I’d like. I also miss my wife (imagine that!), which is exacerbated because I feel like neither of us are communicating very well lately. Something to work on when I get back, I suppose — just keeping in touch when you’re 3000 miles and 3 time zones apart is tough enough, without trying to work through new stuff.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post to announce that the “geek issue” that’s been absorbing my time and energy the past few days is finally done, so now I’m going to in theory try to post a bit more regularly. (No more excuse of getting absorbed into the localizing problem!)

Online + Console = Buh?

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It is official: I’m a geek. I now have all three of my consoles connected to the internet. Not only that, but it’s WIRELESS. Here’s how:

The three consoles (my GC broadband adapter just came in today) are plugged into a switch which is plugged into my ethernet converter, which communicates wirelessly with my airport station, which also acts as my router for my cable modem. Ta-da, no running cables all over the house.

Of course, I haven’t tested the Auto Modellista online capabilities yet through this set-up… I was on the beta and had connection problems, which they said they were going to fix. So when the actual game gets released, I’m like “woohoo! Online cell shaded racing at its finest!” Flip open the manual to discover that it (supposedly) requires a direct connection to the cable modem, and will not work over a NAT’d router.

What the hell kind of shit is that? Who pays for broadband in order to SOLELY connect it to the PS2? BAD Capcom! No biscuit!

I’m going to test that after I get back from my residency… too busy at the moment.

Whimper Followup

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Okay, so I got my new drive (thanks LaCie!). It is the same size as the old one, but slightly better… the previous one had been FW&USB, this one is FW&USB2. Hey, I’m all for it… especially since the recovery attempt failed, so the unexpected bus upgrade helps cheer me up.

The recovery attempt cost me $200. When they opened the drive, they discovered that the reader head had broken off and physically shredded the platter, completely eradicating my data. Nothing to be done. At least now I know. If another drive fails in the future, I’ll probably use DriveSavers again… they were expensive (most are), but they were cool enough to not treat me like an idiot.
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