Fuzzy Thoughts

The case of a computer is comparable to the outer walls of a building. It holds the rest of the computer, and the windows (fans) help regulate heat inside. The bigger cases generally cost more (but also have more room inside), and some of them have a clear window that you can look in to see the insides of the computer. Well, I bought my case, and have received it, so I guess I can post about it now.

When looking for parts for the computer, I looked only at Newegg, since I have purchased tech items from them in the past, and have been extremely satisfied. They have some of the best deals I have seen, and their shipping kicks ass (I have had a few things physically in my possession before I got the email with the tracking number).

I’ve had all the parts picked out for a while now, so the only thing left to do is to purchase them, and I figured that the case would be a good place to start, since I can’t do anything else without that. And it turns out that the case I purchased was not the one that had been on my wishlist for the past four months.

One of my friend’s built his own computer last summer, and I liked the case he had picked out. The fans had blue LED’s and there was a green light bar in the front of the case; it just looked cool, and had enough room to hold anything I’d want to put into my computer and still have sufficient air flow to help keep everything running cool (temperature wise). But I decided that I wanted to look cases at a site other than Newegg, and I’m glad I did, because it ended up with me saving some money. And as any college student knows, saving money is always a cool thing.

One of the few sites that I have seen the more hardware/software inclined people that I talk with frequently is Tiger Direct. So I went over there to take a look at what cases they had, because while I think blue light coming from my computer is cool, it would peobably annoy me after a while, and probably keep me up at night since if it produces too much light

So I had to start buying parts, and I figured a good part to start with would be the case. From Newegg, I had picked out a case that my friend had used on his build. But I didn’t end up going with that. Instead, I got an Aluminus case from Ultra Products

It’s big, which will help with cooling, and it has plenty of room for everything I currently want to put in it, plus enough room to allow me to upgrade in the future. This case has enough room for me to use it until I die, which hopefully won’t be for a long time. And the case is aluminum, so that’s an extra plus, but despite being made from a relatively lightweight material, the shipping weight is still 25 pounds. The power supply is 700 watts, so that’s plenty for me, at least for what I see myself needing for the immediate future. If I need more power after adding more drives, cards, etc, then I can always get a more powerful PSU.

So I’m getting a $200 case+power supply combo, for less money than what I had originally planned to spend, and it only cost me $170 once shipping was included. Better case, plus a better PSU. And as an extra plus, the PSU has a modular cable system, so I only need to use the cables that I need, and reduce clutter inside the case.

Now to just get the money for the rest of the parts….

OK, so I’m not really building a command center (yet), but I am building my next computer.

Building my own computer has been something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. It is actually a lot easier than people might think. The hardest part is probably picking out the parts based on what your budget is and what you want the computer to be able to do. In my case, I want to spend no more than $1500, and the machine will be used as my main computer. This means that it will be getting used a lot, on 24/7, and getting hit hard from me running virtual machines on it as well. I’m not a gamer, but that doesn’t mean my machine doesn’t run stress free.

Which is why I want to build myself a desktop. After three years of being on (pretty much) 24/7, it has taken a beating. Sure it still runs, but I want to make sure that I have it to take to class and travel with, and that means not using it as a main machine. Now, of course I could just buy a desktop from Dell, HP, Gateway, or any other computer manufacturer, but it would feel good knowing that I work on a machine that I built myself. Plus the fact that you can’t really get a computer with the same specs that I want to get.

As I purchase parts, I will post about them, and once I have everything, I will post about how it goes building it. And after I’ve used it for a bit, I’ll post about how it’s running and a little reflection on the whole thing

To all Veterans, past, present, and future:

Thank you for risking your lives, so that I may live mine in freedom.

I’m exhausted….in more ways than one….wish I was writing this around this time next week, cuz I’d be counting down to thanksgiving break in hours and not days….

I just want to be home and able to relax…and take care of some other things…

This past Sunday was supposed to be a peaceful day. Go food shopping, work on a paper that was due the next day… nothing to hard to do. Instead, I end up driving back to my hometown, spend a ton more money than I wanted, and didn’t get back to my dorm until about 10:00 that night. So let’s take a look at what went right and what went wrong, shall we…

I got up, and took a shower…I think. I normally just take one when I get back from work in hte very early Sunday AM, and another Monday morning before class. But there is a chance I took one when I woke up. I took a look at my phone and what do you know, I had a voicemail waiting for me. From my mom. Saying that I got a notice saying I owed Blockbuster close to $40. WTF?! I knew I owed them some money for returning a couple videos late, but $40? No way, that had to be a mistake.

So I drove to the Blockbuster in Hamden, thinking that since Blockbuster has store’s all over, they must have a centralized database. Nope, the one in Hamden had nothing to say, except that I owed them $5 in restocking fees, for movies I took out last semester. Oops. So it was back in the car, and start heading back home. On the way, I called a friend that was in town from school in Maryland, and we made some plans to hang out later that day.

So I get to the Blockbuster that was wanting me to pay them, and it turns out it was from two movies that I had rented before I went on vacation to Alaska. So, ok, I knew they were returned late…but why wasn’t the fee $2.50 ($1.25 restocking fee per DVD). The girl helping me said it was because they weren’t returned. So ok, made a quick call to my brother. Since the time in between getting home from Alaska and me moving into the dorm was only three days, I had other things to do, and completely forgot to return them. I had sent him a text message asking him to return them, and he said OK. He had at least a week of vacation still until he went back to school, more than enough time.

So I went home to look for the DVD’s, while waiting for my brother to call me back. Which he did while I was driving back to the house. Apparently he forgot to return them. Great, so I knew they were somewhere in my house. Get into the house, and look in the big grey bin by the computer desk. Yeap, they were in there. After scaring my mom and saying hi to my sister, I went back to Blockbuster to see if I could get some credit for them. After paying what I owed, I could have gotten a single dollar back for one of them, and nada for the other. No thanks, I’ll keep them both.

So after that, I went to my friends’ house, where after saying hi to the one that was running out for a bit, went into their bathroom to clean my cut. I had cut my leg while closing the car door at Blockbuster, and it was bleeding more than I thought it would. After taking care of that, I started chatting with my friend about stuff. We went to Friendly’s where he works to chat with some of the people there. While I was outside talking on my phone to the friend that had left as I was going into his house, my cousin walked up. Apparently he works there now.

So after that we went to Chile’s to get some food. Another one of our friends was working there, so we chatted with him while we waited for our food. Eventually the friend I was talking to on the phone at Friendly’s showed up and we all chatted for a bit. Once we were done, he left, and the other friend and I paid the bill. And then we went to my car. I used the key remote to unlock the doors, and we got in. Went to start the car….and it would start. Apparently using the remote to unlock the doors killed the battery :s

So we called AAA to get it jumpstarted, and went into a nearby store to wait. After spending $5 on Smarties, we went back to the car, just as the tow truck was pulling up. We get the car jumped, and he tells us to wait about 10 minutes before leaving. So we (im)patiently wait, and after the 10 minutes are up, we start to leave. We make it 50 feet or so…and the car turns off. So I pull into the spot that’s next to where the crosswalk ends, because I didn’t want to risk hitting another car since it’s a bit hard to steer without power steering. We call AAA again, this time to get the car towed back.

The same guy comes, and jumps the car again since I had it on a wierd angle. He tells me to drive in a circle around hte parking lot. The car worked fine. He suggested trying to drive it back, and he would follow. So we left the parking lot, with my friend calling his brother to come meet us at my house. The car makes it all the way back without incident, and as I’m putting the car into park, it dies. Oh well, at least it’s back at the house. I thank the guy, go inside and tell my mom that the car is sitting where it normally does when at the house, and say goodbye to here and my sister.

So then my friends and I go back to there house to have dinner with their family and another friend and his mom. Food was good and stories were good. Watched a bit of Law and Order SVU, football, and Man vs. Wild. After a bit, got dropped of at my dorm by a friend, and started to work on my paper. Got some good progress amde on it, and then went to bed.

Another Sunday from hell was over.

This past Monday, like any other Monday, I went to the main cafe for my dinner. With a class at getting out at 5:00 and my next class starting at 6:30, it just doesn’t make sense to go back to my room and cook myself dinner. The fact that I don’t have any food to cook with is another matter that has made me eat in the cafe and the other cafe (at least at the other cafe I get food for free since I work there).

So I get what I normally get:

• Grilled chese
• 5piece chicken tenders
• Salad bar
• A soda

Normally this meal costs me around $10…which is ok for the amount of food I get. But this time, I also got a bottle of Life Water and a slice of pecan pie. I’ve never had pecan pie before, and felt like giving it a try.

This time, I paid $17.42 for my dinner. Somewhat in shock, I asked for a receipt so I could check the prices when I went to sit down. Amazingly, the prices I was charged for everything were the right prices. So why did the meal cost so much? Let’s take a look at what everything costs a studen when they buy it.

• Pecan Pie - $1.75
• 32 oz soda from the fountain - $1.99
• 0.75lb of stuff from the salad bar @$5.79/lb - $4.28
• 5pc chicken tenders - $4.99
• Grilled cheese - $2.02
• Bottle of Life Water - $2.39

Looking at that, I was shocked. I know that it doesn’t cost that much for the soda. A trip to the salad bar should not cost that much. The Life Water definitely should not be that much. The chicken tenders aren’t worth a buck a piece, and the grilled cheese looked like it had been on the side of the grill for a bit too long. The pecan pie was good…it was worth the $1.75 I got charged for it.

So why can Chartwells get away with this? Because they are the only vender on campus. If we had more space, we could possibly get other venders in. But unfortunately, there is nowhere else to put venders, and we cannot build on the main campus anymore. Yes, we can order delivery from several of the pizza, Chinese, Italian places in town, but it still does not do anything to force Chartwells to be competitive with their pricing. But until something happens, students will be forced to pay an arm and a leg for food.

Ugh…. I thought last week would never end… Let’s take a look at what went on…

Monday is normally my busy day, and last week was no exception. Four classes, plus finding time to get the work for those classes done. Of course, I also had to find time to eat, and take a look at what courses I need/want to take next semester (wow, it seems that the semester just started, not that it’s midterm week now and advising sessions are starting). Add in the other stuff I needed to get done, and Monday was hectic just by itself. Monday was also “eat in the main cafe” day for me…where I spent more money than the fodd I got should have cost (another story for another post).

Tuesday was a bit calmer. Just two classes, so I spent some of the day looking at what I needed to write a paper about for Philosophy that was due this past Monday. Took some time to work on my program for computer science. Simple program to write, the hardest part was figuring out which questions to ask the user. Found out I was having a midterm in my Tuesday night class (which was this past Tuesday; it seemed a bit too easy [not a bad thing], and I was out in about 30 minutes).

Wednesday was another light day class wise, but it was the 9AM class and philosophy…not my favorite two. I think I would be more interested in the 9AM class if it were at some other time; I’m just not a morning person. I’d rather stay up until 2-3AM and wake up at 11AM than go to bed at 1-2AM and wake up at 8AM. Philosophy wasn’t all that bad, we started to watch Life is Beautiful. It’s actually not that bad of a movie. I also finished my program and submitted it. Wednesday also marked the start of paid work for me that week. Normally I work Friday and Saturday, but this week I worked Wednesday and Thursday as well. Should be getting a nice check next week.

Thursday is the best day, since I only have one class. So it was in the computer lab from programming for an hour, and then I had the rest of the day free until I went into work at 5. I don’t think there wasn’t a job that I didn’t do that day. I worked the hot line, I did Mexican, I did subs/sandwiches, I did the a la carte. I swept, I mopped, I took the garbage out.

Friday was just a regular old Friday. Two classes and work. Get out of work at midnight, go to the room, take a shower, go to bed eventually. Saturday was also a typical Saturday. Wake up, brush my teeth, chill for an hour or so, then its off to work. Get back at midnight, shower and bed.

Sunday was an adventure in its own…and will be its own post tommorrow, since I’m exhausted and about to sleep.

WordPress 2.3 was released yesterday. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to upgrade to it, due to a lot of changes, some of which could have broken the theme. But then I played around with it, and nothing conflicted, except for one plugin, which was easy enough to disable. While I’ll have to get another plugin to replace that one, it’s no big deal since I already know which one works with 2.3.

So what has changed in WordPress that concerns users? Let’s take a quick look at some of them…

1. Tags - WordPress now has tagging capabilities built into the core. Tags can be used in addition to the regular catagories, so people are not stuck using one or the other. While categories can be used to place posts in a broad topic, tags can be used to place it in more specific categories, or used to link to more specific topics. For an example, if I were to do a post on a weekend, I would put it in my Life category, and use tags for the more specific things I did that weekend, such as bike, work, etc. (Ok, so maybe that was a bad example, but I couldn’t think of anything else at the moment)
2. Update Notifications - Yes, the latest edition of WordPress will tell you when there are updates to WordPress itself as well as plugins you have in the plugins directory. While some on the WordPress mailing lists don’t like this (another post for another day), I love it, since I want to make sure that I have the latest versions of plugins, and checking manually is a time consuming process.
3. Canonical URLs - I’m not going to explain this, since Mark Jaquith, one of the lead developers, explained it in detail on his blog in a post titled simply enough, WordPress 2.3: Canonical URLs. I do like this, since it can only help me in the search engine wars. And since I can deactivate a plugin that was doing the same thing.

Those are probably the three biggest things that I like about 2.3; there are many more new features to WordPress 2.3 - if you’d like to read them, check out the WordPress 2.3 Announcment Post on the WP Development Blog.

Now to make some changes so tags are displayed…

So what is a typical weekend like for me? Well, it all starts at 5:00 on Friday evening…when I go to work. I’ll work until about 11:30, when I’ll go back to my dorm, and eventually take a shower. Stuff will be done on the computer, whether it’s working of stuff or goofing around. I’ll go to bed somewhere between 1 and 3 Saturday morning, and wake up anywhere from 7 to 9 hours later. Stuff will be done on the computer, food will be eaten, and relaxing will occur. Well, at least until 2:00 when I have to be back at work. I’ll make chicken caesar wraps, and then serve food until we close, and then clean up, hopefully being out of the building by 11:30. Then the process that happened after work on Friday repeats. When I wake up on Sunday, it’s time to do any homework that has been put off during the rest of the weekend. If I have free time, I do whatever tech support work needs to be done online, and relax. And then it’s back to class at 9:00 Monday morning.

So I don’t really have much time to party during the weekend. But what do I care? I’m a geek, my drink of choice is Mt. Dew. Besides, it’s somewhat fun working where I work, even though I may complain about it times. And sometimes I overhear things that are…odd. Such as Girls Gone Wild filming at some local clubs….and I heard that from a group of girls…