February 2007 Archives

   I finally got around to installing Linux on the iPod Mini I have. I was worried it was going to be a nasty affair but it actually turned out to be real simple and quick. Well, the simple part is thanks to a nice Installer someone made.
   I haven't yet got around to installing iDoom on it just yet. I fully plan to do some other stuff too. I just don't know what yet.
   Be sure to check out my newest flickr pictures to the left...

   I'm quite sorry the last batch of updates have been quite lame, and short. I decided to compile up a list of things going on at the moment.

1  I'm still looking for a job. Well, I'm sitting here. I count that as part of the search. I suppose if no jobs come knocking on my door, I'm going to have to go huntin' 'em down.
2  I'm going to get someone started on using a Mac. Not a complete 'Switcher', but enough for me.
3  Games, and more games. I suppose I could be better spending the time I use on my games, but that wouldn't be fun. Nevertheless, I'm somewhate capable of doing several things at once. I like to think so.
4  Attempting to fix the several problems with my car. This is quite slow going as I have little to no experience fixing cars. I'm learning more and more as I go on. So, my Mighty Mustang (aka Vomit Comet) will be fully functional soon enough.

   So, there you go. A horribly crude but effective glimpse into what I'm doing at the moment. I'll let you go for now. For now... (*continues sipping non-alcholoic apple cider*)

   I have finally gotten my hands on some sticker printer paper. I can finally make my own stickers. Hurray. The possibilities are truly endless. Who knows of all the stickers I can make.
   Sure, I still haven't gone out and gotten my lazy ass a job. Hell, I got BLANK stickers.

   Nothing going on in the Kingdom of Thomas at the moment. Just bebopping around trying to get a couple important things done.
   I'll try to get another entry up today. I probably won't be able to, though (looking at my past record of getting that done).

   I'm hoping to grab a pair of jackstands today in order to get to work on my 'Stang. Well, it's raining today. I'll really begin working/checking on my Mustang when it stops raining.
   Pretty lame entry, no? I didn't have anything else to talk about but I did need to update. I might get something more wholesome up later on. Probably not, but we'll hope for the best.

   I've been having problems with iChat for the last few months. The thing is that after quitting iChat, after having it running for a bit, it would then refuse to connect back again. It would come up saying that there was a problem reconnecting. I could try and try and it wouldn't make a difference.
   On a hunch of mine, I decided to see if disconnecting the firewire webcam would make a bit of difference. Sadly, the first time I disconnected it there was no change. The suprise came when I hooked it back up. iChat decided to reconnect. Hmm, I thought.
   It is well known in the Mac world (well, it was at one time, before the Wheel continued turning) that the B&W G3's implemention of firewire is somewhat unreliable. This is especially noticeable with firewire-based hard drives. Mind you, the fix is to simple use a firewire pci card. They are usually a dime-a-dozen these days.
   I haven't experimented further on my hypothesis, but I fully intend to.

EDIT:  It seems that all I needed to do was change the port that iChat uses to connect to the AIM network. Strange. I wonder why messing around with the firewire webcam seemed to make a difference. Whatever, it works now.

   I decided to go looking on eBay for any Mac video cards I could maybe grab for the Sawtooth G4 in my care. Damn. Talk about heavily inflated prices. $60 Buy-it-now for an 'ole Radeon 7000, $100 for a Radeon 8500, and getting past $200 for a damn Radeon 9600 Mac Edition. WTF, dude?!? I can't believe that sellers expect people to pay the Buy-it-now prices for some of those items, but I can't help but to worry that people are actually paying them.

   I would like to do most of my gaming on my Mac. Hell, I used to play World of Warcraft exclusively on my Mac. Once I got a Gaming PC rig up and running, though, there was no contest. My Gaming PC now with only a $20 (including shipping and handling) Radeon 9100 easily beat my Mac in any type of 3D game. Mind you, my Mac handles everything else better than the PC easily enough. Just not games.
   Luckily I don't have to get special Mac hard drives or optical drives.

   Oh yes, I forgot to mention. Yesterday marked the fourth year that I've had the B&W G3 in my care. It's still going strong too.

   My Newton's wireless abilities stopped working about one or two months ago for no reason whatsoever. I fussed over it for about a week before giving up. Almost in a mocking way, the wireless card starts working again last night. I could once again cruise the internets. Strange.
   Just thought I would tell you, loyal internet reader(s).

   Well, I've got the new oil seperator on my Mustang. It wasn't a very hard procedure to do. It was worth putting on, though. It should keep more oil from getting into the upper intake from now on.
   This morning I went out there to take some pictures for my flickr account and I spied something. There was oil in it. You may be saying that there will be oil in something that is suppose to catch it. Nevertheless, the sight of it doing its job made me quite happy. I've still got to give the engine a real good cleaning to stop the knocking, though. I'll get around to it eventually.
   Be sure to check my flickr thing on the left side of the blog for my newest pictures.

   As of late this evening, the problem with excessive oil leaking into the combustion chambers through the PCV vavle has been fixed. I hope so, at least.
   I'll get some pictures of it up tomorrow. It was dark when I finished and I didn't even have my camera on me. I'll post them up on Flickr tomorrow, though. No need to worry...

   No, I'm not dead. Just been away from 'home' for a bit. I'm back now, though. I'll try to get something fancy up tomorrow or the day after. I don't know what I'm going to update with, but I'll think of something.

   I have the internets. A quick call to my cable provider quickly solved the problem and the internets can be travelled once again.
   Its sad to see that just losing the internets for a day will put me in such a bad mood. Doesn't speak well about my character. Not at all well.

   Well, my elation at finally getting the cable internet setup at my abode was quickly smashed against the wall this morning. I had planned to get on and listen to some streaming beats to wake myself up. Sadly, the Internets were the broken. Sad, indeed.
   So, I spent my morning pouring over my network trying to find the problem. I even tryed hooking up the Xubuntu Wallstreet (my only truly mobile machine in my arsenal) directly to the Cable Modem but to no avail. I did eventually find that the router was no longer getting the DHCP information it needed to work.
   By this time, though, my frustration was quickly bordering on anger. I then said aloud to myself, "Fuck it. I'm going to Dothan." Thus, I went.
   On the somewhat-small-but-still-there good-side of things today, I not only picked up a book I wanted but I also finally got a copy of Half-Life 2. I did spend about $50 today on those two things but I'll make it up selling some of the piles of useless crap I have.
   In short, I will be calling Troy Cable tomorrow but I probably won't be on any stable connection for some time. It don't much matter...

   Damn that noisy-ass fan in the my gaming PC. It does cool well when the rest of the case has good ventilation, though. Nevertheless, it is just too noisy. Thus, I have temporarily removed it. I plan on getting a better heatsink/fan combo soon. Until then, I've made a somewhat stop-gap solution to my cooling problem.
   By using my skills in shaping cardboard to my will (I have lots of boxes from things shipped to me) and in ghetto-rigging things, I have created this. While it cools a bit worse than the HO (high-output) fan did, it does so a hell of a lot quieter. I'm even sitting right next to it at the moment and it doesn't even bother me in the slightest.
   Plus, to complete the RICEd-up look I even plopped on a completely useless spoiler. Since many idiots think big spoilers make their slow-ass cars run faster, maybe it will make one or more of my case fans do the same. Who knows?
   Yea, I saw you looking at it with envy in your eyes. Well, you can't have it. Ha, ha, ha. You'll have to gather up your own cardboard and use your own staples and superglue to meld them together.
   Yes, it is a temporary solution. I don't plan on keeping my gaming PC looking like that.

   I have stumbled upon some bad news while looking through the insides of the other B&W down at my Dad's house. It seems that while looking through it, I was able to simply take the heatsink I had on the Grackle off.
   This brings me to wonder if Super-glue doesn't hold well between metal and my paper shims (made specifically for the Grackle). I'm going to have to check the heatsink that I have on my main B&Ws Grackle chip.
   Yes, I think that is something I will most definitely do.

   I've finally got my upgraded Power Computing Powerbase up and running again. Plus, I've got it back to working on some Seti@home stuff.
   Yea, I know. It ain't goin' to be doing it too quick, but I hate for it to be just sitting around. I see no real harm in doing it, aside from the power used to run it during that time. But, whatever.
   At the moment, I have it sharing a monitor with another B&W that's pulling Seti@home duty. Its a genero/bobo VGA switch-thing but it gets the job done. Since the B&W is using a ADB keyboard and mouse, I was looking for a switcher thing for that too, but have so far failed to find one. No matter. There is more than enough mouses and keyboard to go around.

   Not long before I moved to my new place (for now, I think), I ordered a new wireless router to use with the cable broadband I was going to get. Sadly, although the router finally arrived a day or so ago, going to sign up for them to come by and set up the cable modem didn't happen until today. Even then, my ISP/TV provider is going to take about 5 days to finally come out here. Not to worry, though.
   Back to the matter at hand, the router I ordered was a refurbished Netgear 802.11g wireless router from one of my favorite shopping grounds. From the other choices I've seen, it was a good damn deal despite being refurbished (I wouldn't say a router gets a lot of physical punishment).
   The built-in web browser interface is somewhat ugly compared to the previous Linksys router I used. Mind you, it still has all what you would expect there and maybe some more stuff.
   I would say that it is a dandy good router, as far as routers are concerned. Hmm. Yep, that's all.
   Maybe I need to work on another layout or something. Yea, that's what I'll do...