Hear Elvis singing?

So there's this problem I have. I live in a ghetto. I can't say it's the boonies, because I've lived there before in Montana. This ain't the boonies. This ghetto is so ghetto that neither Qwest, nor Comcast will bring broadband internet. That ghetto. The telephone lines that Qwest does have here aren't that great, but dial-up internet has peaked somewhere between 42 and 44k. Not bad for a PCI modem, until you try to use any ISP in this area. Not once am I able to complete a connection on the first attempt. It's just painfully annoying.

Then I picked up this cell phone that has a USB connection to keep my address lists of friends and family (and other lists) nicely backed-up. Lo and behold, I see it can even act as a modem for the computer with the data package I have.

A couple days ago, as I was getting connection speeds of a mere 24k due to awful noise on the phone line I thought, "What the hell, I'll give that a try. Can't get much worse than 24k fer cryin' out loud."

Try indeed. The first attempt connected me at 460k. Trying later in the day connected my computer at a "lowly" 120k. I don't know why the sudden slow-down, but I immediately called Cingular and upped my service to include their unlimited "MEdianet" package. Only $15 more on the cell phone bill, and I lose $35 for the home phone service and ISP charge.

Yeah, I can deal with four times the connection speed (ten times, on a good day apparently) with $20 savings per month. Yay for the home team.

I can actually stream Sirius radio now WHILE I check out porn download winders updates and irfanview and an occasional tune! ...am I, perhaps, just a little too happy about this?

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Elvis, Money Honey

Down time

Unwind.

Kick back.

Take a load off.

Relieve yourself of mundane household responsibilities and bask in the glow of Slackerdom.

-or-

Spend a combined 24 hours over a weekend wrestling with new computer hardware before you come to the realization that maybe the marketing glossy wasn't entirely accurate "in your case".

A while back, this infernal machine started acting flakey. I did some scrimping and saving, and picked up some nice but not bleeding edge pieces parts. Replacing the motherboard meant a new CPU and memory. I could have gone with a motherboard with integrated video, but what fun is that? Hence, a new video card. Some people pester me saying I could have gotten a Dell (dude) or something similar for the same money, and have something that's already put together, no muss, no fuss. There are two problems with that for me.

First, I like building it. Pulling out the same Philips screw driver that I've used nigh on two decades for these projects (you may now gag on the nostalgia). Cutting open the static-protection envelope to see if the cat, who walked by ten minutes ago across the wool carpet in another part of the world, generated enough static electricity to zap the thing ANYway. Aligning the motherboard with the mount points. Plugging cables hither and yon, and on, and on... This is (mostly) fun to me. Occasionally, it's even challenging; Such as having a mid-tower case to cram everything into and hope it doesn't overheat.

Second, for the money they would spend on one of those pre-built systems, I can buy better components than Dell, et al., use in their one-size fits, well, somebody over there who only types in a text editor now and then. If they type slowly. I'm no hard-core FPS gamer, but I loath to have any game I load start to skip more than my Beatles album that my parents gave to me when I was five years old (and if you think about how your average five-year-old treats the black circle, you'll know what I mean). [Tangent: I wonder why my parents didn't like The Beatles?]

So about the assembly. Yes, your mileage may vary, but do yourself a favor and don't attempt to mess with Mother Nature. For if the optical drive were meant to be connected to the SATA port, it would have damn well been made with a SATA connector. Tread not into the blasphemy of "converting" the IDE port to mate in unholy union with the SATA!

Ahem... sorry about that. I'm not the boss of you, do whatever the hell you want. It can work with your IDE hard drive (that is, it's working with one of mine at the moment), but there's just something apparently not right when trying to do the same with the optical variety drives. Or, at least, with my optical drives.

And for the love of Mom's Apple Pie, ALWAYS...

No, wait.

NEVER try to update ANY software when you're only connection is of the dial-up variety. It hurts.

---

Megadeth, Disconnect

--Enter meaningless title here--

So the New Year's Eve festivities were low key at the homestead here. By "low key", I mean, "in bed at 10pm". Yup, such is my level of excitement that I was examining the backs of my eyelids that early. The way I see it, I've done the 'up til midnight on December 31st' thing enough times, in various states of lucidity. I don't need to do any more.

I was, however, woken up at 11:45 by a nice lady in New Mexico who really wanted to wish me a happy new year. I think. Here's what I heard:

:ring:... "Herrlo?" That's me trying to talk, freshly returned from dreamland. Now you know what to listen for when you call me.

"HIIII!!!!" My eye's pop open from the decibel level of this broad... "I JUSHT WA-- ::urp:: WANTED TO SHAY HAPPY NEW 2007!!! I LOVE YOU!!" At this point, I am now fully awake. Yes, it was her burp that gained my full and undivided, if slightly grossed out, attention.

"Um... Is this Susan?" I know exactly one gal in New Mexico, and she is 1) gorgeous, but 2) very married, and 3) not one that normally drinks to excess.

"NO, IT'S ME!!" Well, that just clears everything right up...

"Okay, well hello you. Listen, you have a great first ride on the porcelain bus this new year, and in the morning you won't remember you've got the wrong number. Good night now, sweet cheeks."

Eh, she might actually have sweet cheeks, too. Guess I'll never know.

---

On the Excellent News front; Took the car in to get the Service Engine Soon light remedied. Or at least find out what I've gotta save up funds to have repaired. My mechanic took the GameBoy for Nissans to it, and the thing called the car a liar. No trouble code found. The little light wants attention, apparently.

I had the guy banish the light with his GameBoy, and there was much rejoicing. Especially since there was no charge. Bonus! He says if it does come back on, there could be a "recall" thing that says warranty will cover getting a new brain for it. I still think cars should be sold withOUT brains (Hey, it worked for the Model T!), but that's just me.

---

More good news, a new toy was just delivered by the good folks at UPS. I must now geek out for the next couple hours, if you'll excuse me...

---

Delerium, Siege of Atrocity

BILLions and BILLions...

To be added to search terms that Google cannot handle:
"convert 149597870 km to limes" I mean, don't you wonder just how many limes that would work out to? And how much accompanying salt & Tequilla that would require to get through?

... damn those pebcak errors!

So that Wil guy posted some math, and woke my brain up. Because of this, I had to follow through with the exercise.

For
C = 2 · π · R
and
R= 92,955,806-ish miles (one AU).

Solve for C
C = 584,058,562 mi (bear with me, it'll all be over soon)

And C over time: 21,026,108,231 mi for 36 years + about 438,043,921 mi for nine-ish months

That boils down to roughly twenty-one and a half Billion miles (imagine Carl Sagan saying that; he always capitalizes his pronunciation of Billion, doesn't he?) that I've travelled on this rock in my lifetime.

---

Covenant, Voices

Computer go boom-ish

Those who get queasy from reading tech shit MUST LEAVE NOW

Wow, cool!

The primary IDE controller on my computer went belly-up, so now I can't boot (unless I keep trying for twenty minutes, and then wait a full TEN minutes for the boot to complete). Yay!

I'll try taking out the optical drive & see if it'll boot from the secondary controller more easily until I scrape up funds to get a new motherboard ... and CPU, since Socket A is a tad long in the tooth (so much so that I doubt it's been produced in a good two or three years). Anyone know someone that can use a working Athlon 1.2GHz Thunderbird series CPU? I'll even include the all-copper heat sink. Waste not, want not, don'cha know.

I could go budget & get a newer mobo that still supports AGP so I can keep my video card. Even so, I'd need new memory since my PC133 chips aren't going to fit anything new. I've got a pair of 128M sticks if anyone wants 'em (the 256M stick is spoken for). I think I'll splurge as much as I can though; I like games.

I'd thought about going to Dell/HP & the like for a new system (yes, even Apple, but I've got too much $$ in PC software to justify that migration). The thing is, I have many components that are fairly new and working great. Why get another optical drive, case & all when I have those already? I suppose I'm just not a true consumer. Oh well.

ANYway, I'm shopping for pieces parts. This does make me all kinds of happy. Now I've just gotta pare down the "nice to have" (I do wish the MSI K8N Diamond Plus wasn't so damned popular) to the "need to have" (I've not forgotten the need for a new power supply).

...

Follow-up: Booting from the secondary IDE does indeed work just fine, though I continue to get a brief delay while chkdsk does its thing. Every. Time. I. Boot. So yeah, a replacement is in the works.
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Psyclon Nine, You Know What You Are