While looking for replacement motherboards, I have come upon the idea of upgrading the system. Browsing over Newegg.com, and Google Groups, here are the specs I am currently thinking over.

ASUS P4PE Motherboard: 400/533MHz FSB, Serial ATA, Gig-E, Firewire
Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 533MHz FSB
768 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR Ram
Zalman CNPS5700D-CU Pure Copper CPU Cooler
Antec P4 ATX12V 400 Watt Power Supply With 2 Fans
PNY GeForce 4 TI4200 64M 4X TV/DVI

All for the low, low price of $671.80, including shipping(2day).
Questions, comments?

So, last week the computer went foom. I thought it was the harddrive, but now it seems to be the IDE controller. So now this weekend, when I get my Fed tax refund, looks like I am going to have to buy a new motherboard. The only problem being I have a 423 Pentium 4, rather then the newer 478 Pentium 4. This is making finding a motherboard somewhat difficult. So I guess I will be upgrading, again, to something maybe multi-gigahertz, with some fast ram and watching my refund fly away. Or, maybe not...

I must be getting old. I have been in bed and asleep around 11pm every night this week. I wake up a few times a night, but not to use the bathroom thankfully. It's wierd being at my house with no pc ( workstation ate it the other night ) and no internet connection. I take walks and baths and read books.
And I go to bed on time.
When I worked at the ISP in Grand Rapids, my boss didn't have a pc at his house. He had a green-screen terminal hooked up to a modem, so in an emergancy he could get online to work. I thought he was crazy, but now I am beginning to think he had the right idea.

For some reason, I am completly unable to concentrate on one thing for more then 2 seconds today. I hate when that happens.

I am beginning to think I should just give up on computers all together. The other night, there was a power outage, or at least my clocks were blinking when I happened to wake up a 3 am. So last night I go to power on the pc of death to watch a movie, but NOOOOO. The system is now deciding that it would be a good idea to panic while checking the root filesystem. At that point, I grabbed a beer, took a bath, read a book, and went to bed.

Interesting geek stuff. University of San Francisco CS652: Programming Languages website. Includes lecture notes and, more importantly, lecture audio in mp3 format for downloading. Big fun.

I just had the strangest call on my cell phone. Someone calling about the phone system, at Neoplanet. Seems more people need to read the newspapers, as neoplanet ceased to be almost a year ago.

I'm going to be offline for a while. The home internet connection is down, and right at this moment I feel no real pressure to restore it. In a couple of weeks I wll be back around. I check mail from 9am until about 6pm or so from work. Maybe on the weekends if I get on one of the local wireless networks.

Something to ponder
Title III: Enhancing Investiations of Terrorist Plots
Subtitle A: Terrorism Identification Database
Section 302: Collection and Use of Identification from Suspected Terrorists and Other Sources
Current law permits the FBI to establish an index to collect DNA identification records of person convicted of certain crimes, and DNA samples recoverd from crime scenes and unidentified human remains. 42 U.S.C § 14132. However, the law does not directly address the FBI's authority to collect and use DNA samples of terrorist or those suspected of terrorism. It would be extremely beneficial to clarify how DNA samples from suspects, such as samples taken from unlawful combatants at Guantanamo Bay, can be used as necessary for counterterroris and law-enforcement purposes. Section 302 would allow the Attorney General or Secretary of Defense to collect, analyze, and maintain DNA samples and other identification information from "suspected terrorists" -- i.e., (1) persons suspected of engaging in terrorism as defined in 18 U.S.C § 2441(1) & (5), or committing an offense described in 18 U.S.C § 2332b(g)(5)(B), or persons conspiring or attempting to do so; (2) enemy combatants or other battlefield detainees; (3) persons suspected of being members of a terrorist organization; and (4) certain classes of alians including those engaged in activity that endangers national security.

From Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, Draft January 9, 2003
Read more about it here.

We're from the government. We're here to help you.

One Question Geek Test

I must be king of the flat tire. Not more then a couple of months ago, I had a flat on the way to work, and so just because I can't particularly afford it right at this moment, I get another flat on the way to work. I am about two steps from selling that car and taking the bus. At this point, an hour and a half each way doesn't seem so bad...

I saw the saddest thing today. I went down to the PetSmart to get some food for the cats, and following my usual habit, stopped to look at the rescue cats. The had the cutest 2 year old cat, but there was a problem. She was born without eyes. It made me so sad that I wanted to just pick her up and bring her home with me.

I had to steal this image from the Onion because it hits too close to home.

Here's the big question, when you realize that people you actually know and spend time with ( or would like to ) read your blog, should you continue to post drunken rages or not? Are these people going to hold it against you in the future, the things you write or have written, or let it slide. I know that everything I have written I meant, at the moment they were written, and I still don't regret having my name on this thing, the hard part comes in knowing that people will use these things against me. I suppose that in the end, it really won't matter. After all, tomorrow it could all be gone, right?

Is it just coincedence that both the computer people I love to hate are named Bill? Honestly, have you ever worked with a Sun? I mean, it's so obvious that the root partition would be named '/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0'. Obvious.

So here's the thing.. I have a Sony TSL-A300C tape autoloader, with a Sony SDX-300C tape drive inside, and it is under the misguided assuption that all the tapes are WR_PROT. All the tapes have the write protect tab set to 'record' so I don't know how to clear this flag. Anyone know how to rectify this situation?