[Excellent...]
I received my new Microsoft keyboard today. Once the request was approved and stock availability confirmed, delivery was insanely fast. Virtually overnight. I'm really impressed.
I wasn't at home when the courier came, and now there's a bit of a problem. My keyboard is part of a desktop set consisting of a mouse, keyboard, and RF receiver. The courier (from Singpost) dropped off a whole new set for me, but only took back the faulty keyboard. Hence, I'm now holding on to an extra receiver and mouse.
Not to sure what to do with them now. I've emailed Microsoft. They can come pick it up if they want. All I wanted was a replacement keyboard.
As insane as this sounds, the new keyboard feels different. I prefer the tactile feel of the previous one. And yes, it's the same model. This new one is a little "harder". Hopefully it "loosens" up after a few days.
[Back and forth...]
I've been planning to change the furniture in my room for a long time. Now that it's done, I'm planning to upgrade to a bigger monitor. I've been going back and forth on this one.
Because my display card died in the beginning of the year, I would need to get a display card as well. This is the tricky part. I am considering getting either the Raedon 4870 or 4890 1GB, or maybe the GeForce 275 GTX. Deciding on which card to get really isn't the problem...
First of all, power issues. I've never owned a display card that required external power before. I can't be bothered to open up my casing to check, so I searched for a review of my current PSU. My PSU is about three years old. It runs at 480w and while it does have two 6-pin PCIe connectors, I'm not sure if it would be powerful enough to run the Raedon cards (I don't know how many power connectors the 275 GTX requires). The two connectors are on the same power cable (coming out of the PSU) and I read somewhere that in this situation, the power supplied might not be sufficient.
Coupled with the fact that my PSU is plugged into my UPS which has a rated output of 300w, I don't know if everything would work, power-wise, if I get a new generation display card.
Power issues aside, I'm using an Asus M2NPV-VM and it's a pretty old motherboard. I can't find the definitive information anywhere, but I believe it supports only PCIe v1.0. Should not be a problem as the new generation PCIe v2.0 display cards are backwards compatible. But I've read reports of how the backwards compatibility from v2.0 to v1.0 might not be there in all cases. Several local users of the same motherboard have reported issues with using v2.0 display cards.
So I've been going back and forth all weekend. Should I just get the parts I want, plug them in and hope for the best? Or should I hold off, wait till the end of the year and do a major system upgrade? I prefer not to do a major system upgrade, because I'm happy and have no complaints with the other aspects of my system (why spend on things you don't really need?). But I don't want to end up in a situation whereby I get new components and they don't work and leave my system in a unserviceable condition.
Right now, I'm leaning towards holding off, and performing a major upgrade at the end of the year. Things will be slow then at work, so it's easy to take several days of leave and not have to worry about things in the office. And by that time, my system would be two years old. Reasonable time-frame for an upgrade I guess.
[Bite bite, wipe wipe...]
I was seated at those face-each-other seats on the bus today. You know, the ones right behind the bus driver? I had the (dis)pleasure of sitting across from a rather disturbed individual.
He was dressed nicely...Like someone with an office job. But the stuff he did...Let's just say I think he belonged in IMH.
For starters, he kept biting his fingers. That's right, his fingers. Not his nails. His fingers. And when he was done, he would rub his fingers on his pants and I swear, I could see the saliva stains. Eeeewwwwww! What the hell is that?
Then, every once in a while, he would yawn without covering his mouth. And not one of those small yawns neither. They were oh-my-God-I-haven't-slept-in-ages, mouth wide open type of yawns. I could see the little bit of flesh (I don't know the name for it) hanging at the back of his throat. Since I was sitting across from him, there was no escaping it. Sure, I could look elsewhere...But if you drive past a car wreck, no matter how mangled everything was, you'd look, wouldn't you?
And to round it off, he talks to himself. No idea what he's saying since I had my MP3 player on. But when people talk to themselves, it's never good.
Wished I had my camera phone with me. I would have taken a million pictures or maybe even a video. I don't think he'd mind. I was staring at him the whole time and he didn't seem to care.
[Did they really think it through?]
There's a problem with my new keyboard. There's an intermittent problem with the "M" button. Sometimes it simply won't work. I "fix" the problem by picking up the keyboard and "bending" it a little (sounds crazy but I don't know how else to describe it). But if I move the keyboard (which I will, since it is wireless and that's the whole point of getting a wireless keyboard/mouse combo), the problem comes back again. Good news is, Microsoft is very efficient when it comes to RMA. They will send someone to your door-step to exchange whatever it is you want to RMA. I'll observe the problem and see how to proceed...
And anyway, what I really want to rant about are the instructions that came with the keyboard/mouse combo. I think we all know that keyboards and mice do not require drivers or additional software to work, whether PS/2 or USB. So when I read the instructions which came with them and saw that they emphasised installing the software before plugging in the keyboard/mouse, I thought it was weird.
If someone bought the keyboard/mouse as part of a new system, how can they possibly install the software before plugging in the keyboard and mouse? That just doesn't make sense. How would you navigate? In fact, I think the BIOS might not boot up at all if it doesn't detect a keyboard.
Did they think through the process before the released the product's instructions?
[One to go...]
I got a set of wireless keyboard and mouse today. Bought Microsoft's Wireless Laser Desktop 3000.
It was hard for me to choose a wireless keyboard and mouse combo. I need a fairly simple keyboard, non-curved, and the only extra shortcut buttons I really need are for volume control. But I would prefer a mouse with extra shortcut buttons, so I could access common applications easier. Problem is, they usually don't pair low-end keyboards with high-end mice.
I thought of mix-and-matching, but that means spending more and buying items I don't need and won't be using. So I picked what I thought was the best compromise. The Wireless Laser Desktop 3000 comes with a fairly simple keyboard but the mouse is quite advanced. Only problem is that the keyboard is slightly curved. Which sucks, because I don't type with all my fingers. I type with two fingers, flying all over the keyboard. I'm used to the normal non-curved layout. I'm now learning how to type again...I'm missing some of the keys in the middle row and most of the keys in the last row.
This is going to take some getting used to. Luckily the curve of this keyboard is rather slight.
In any case, my plans are nearly complete. All I have left on my upgrade list are a new display card, monitor and hard disk. I'd probably get them over the Labour Day holiday. Will take a couple of days' leave to go get them and then to set everything up.
[New table!]
I've been planning to change the furniture in my room for a while. Last year, I put my plan into action and changed to a new bed, one that allows me to put boxes underneath so I could use the space below for storage.
The second part of my plan involved getting a L-shaped table for my room. I had to get rid of my fish tank first, which was a good idea since I really didn't have any time for it after graduating and starting work. But looking for the right table took me a long time.
I finally settled on the GALANT table from IKEA. I liked the GALANT because it allows mix and matching, so I could get a table which is the exact size I wanted. Most importantly, the height of the table is adjustable. Most tables are 75cm tall. I liked mine a little lower.
So my room went from this...
...to this.
All it took was six hours and $434. Assembling the table itself took me two hours. I was concerned about how much weight the table would be able to support...You would too, if you saw how the adjustable legs worked. The legs are locked into position entirely based on friction. The table-top itself weighed a ton, and I was gonna place several heavy-weight items on the table (my CPU and the laser printer) so I was really concerned. Although after some thinking-through, I think the way the legs are arranged...In a "A" shape, probably helps. If they were straight up at 90-degrees, I think it would not be able to hold all the weight.
One thing that amazed me...The table legs can be any length you wanted. There aren't any notches that would snap into position after adjustment. You adjust the legs to the length you wanted (there were markings on them) and just twist to "lock". I was thinking how the hell was I gonna be able to get them all the same length (six legs in all). To my amazement, I got them all the same length on my first try. I know because I used this tool that checks if something is level to the ground. Glad I didn't have to keep adjusting the legs...I would lose my freaking mind.
Not gonna lie, it was an insane amount of effort. I had to transfer my computer over which was a huge task by itself. I took the opportunity to clean the wires and the back of the components. Then I went through the drawers of my study table and threw away most of the things in them. Some of the stuff in them were from over ten years ago.
Next step, is to get a new display card (thinking of a Raedon 4870HD 1GB) and a new monitor (22" probably). I was unable to upgrade my monitor when I was using my old table because there wasn't any space for expansion. 30% of my laser printer was hanging in the air as it was. Will definitely get a new hard disk as well, as well as a new keyboard and mouse. I used to think that getting wireless keyboard/mouse for desktop systems was lame, but I get it now. It would be a lot neater and easier to move around if my keyboard and mouse were wireless.
19 years ago, she came to Singapore with basic English. 19 years later, her English hasn't improved. You teach me cut pencil with rose petal? How about I teach you shove pencil up ass? Beginner class: Back of pencil up. Expert class: Pointy-end up.
ST Online has this article about grooming sports talent. Some news about "grooming" our local sports "talents" appear every once in a while. They can "groom" all they want, nothing will come of it, I tell you. Case in point? S-League. The "S" stands for Shitty.
Anyway, the article contains a hilarious paragraph:
One such programme is the Fundamental Skills Programme, which is aimed at enabling every child from the age of 18 months to six years to be able to acquire basic movement skills.
Oh shit. No such programme when I was a kid. I don't have any "basic movement skills".
I can't move. Help.
I think it was sometime last week. An article appeared in the papers regarding the online leak of Wolverine. A workprint. Seldom see these being released these days. The article went on to talk about how much the entertainment industry is losing every year due to piracy, how Singaporeans on the whole don't mind illegally downloading movies, etc etc. The usual bullshit politically-correct stuff.
Why hasn't anyone asked how did the workprint get leaked in the first place?
For those who are not familiar, a workprint is a copy of the film which is "incomplete". Usually still being edited. So how did this workprint get out on the Internet?
Maybe instead of crying-heaven-crying-hell, the movie studios need to get their own house in order.
Broken for now. :( If anyone knows of a good way to display tweets without using Twitter's awful looking widgets, please let me know. Preferably something that allows me to retrieve my tweets in plain-text format.
What's this about?
Anything and everything under the sun. I write about my day, my thoughts, things I see in public, things to get off my chest, or sometimes just some senseless rants that make sense only to me.
About Me
30 year old male. Always with too many ideas in his head and too little time. For my 15 minutes of fame, I want to be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Interests
Movies, TV, cycling, computers, planted tanks, cherry shrimps, P2P legal issues, Manchester United, WWE, TNA, UFC, etc...
Disclaimer
Best viewed @ 1280*1024 or above. Views are expressed are mine and mine only, and are not meant to offend or influence anyone. Designed for readers with a sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you probably won't like my style of humour.
