The Events of Today and Last Night (yesterday and the night before...)
As promised, here are the events of "today and last night," but as time has moved on (as it usually does), they are now the events of yesterday and the night before.
I'll start at the night before.
The Asian Supermarket.
Holy cow, wow.
What an adventure. So many exciting goodies. So, so many. I love Asian Supermarkets, and this one was as big as a Woolworths (not a Tescos though). We bought all manner of fantastic products. I took a photo of everything we bought, included below:
After our little shopping adventure, Leanne wanted to take me out to dinner - her knowing that I have been craving Cannelloni for the last few months, she decided to take me out to La Botte (which is across the road from the Asian Supermarket - actually, I have the events kind of backwards here, Leanne wanted to take me to La Botte, and to waste some time between picking me up at the Bus Stop and dinner, we decided to visit the nearby Asian Supermarket).
So we dropped our stuff off at the car, and walked across the road to La Botte. Now. Fluidtek lies between La Botte and the crossing, so I couldn't help but pop in and ask Eddie if there was any possibility of obtaining a Socket A motherboard. He said no, but said for $130 I can get a socket 754 board (the ASUS K8V-VM) and a Sempron 3000+ processor, which will mean I can keep my RAM, and because there is onboard video I don't need a new graphics card. Hmmm. $130 is a good price... so... I bought it. It's a mini atx board. Of course, the problem with the un built graphics card is that I can now no longer can play video games - not that I played many before, but Leanne was having fun on The Sims 2. But it has a PCI-E 16x port, so I can always buy a good video card and use it in my next system (and as the on board graphics only has VGA, I will have to get a new card if I want DVI anyway). Also, I'm not sure how the new Sempron will compare to my old Athlon. As they are two entirely different architectures I will have to wait and see until my PC is running and just compare the time taken to do tasks (although I now have more RAM as the 512MB module that I bought off of Jon should work in this board - but after buying the board I found out that there are only 2x RAM slots, so I can't use the 2x256MB modules that were in my old board, rather I will use the (non-matching) 512MB module that Josh gave me... either that or see if I can get the RAM out of Aaron's old PC. Complicated.).
Anyway.
While I was there I thought I would ask about a HTPC case for my new board (might as well). They had a Silverstone LC16 advertised on their website for $249 (which inlcuded a VFD, Remote control, volume knob, and play/stop etc buttons). He said they were out of stock, but had the Accent HT-200 HTPC case. He described it as the "Rolls Royce" of HTPC cases. He also mentioned that it came with an ir receiver, so I could use a remote with it anyway. It was advertised on the site as being $229, but he said he'd do it for $140. I thought that sounded a bargain so I bought it.
Mistake.
The Silverstone is a good case. The Accent one isn't. The only feature it offers is the VFD. In fact, my $50 case has some usability features that this case is lacking. In all honesty, I have no idea why people would pay any more than the $140 for it.
Even from the moment I opened the vanity flap for the 5.25" drives, one of the two magnets that keep it closed came off... hmmm.
The drive cages are difficult to remove.
There is no external 3.5" bay (I wanted a card reader to go there - and while I can get a 5.25" card reader, I currently have two 5.25" drives, so there isn't room for one).
Also, because of the vanity flap, I can't install my front panel connector for my soundcard (and there isn't room for it anyway, as there is only 2x 5.25" external drive bays).
The motherboard tray doesn't slide out (but it doesn't do that on my existing case, so no biggie).
The PCI card bays are hard to get to with a screwdriver (even my $50 case combated this by having holes for the screwdriver to pass through).
The VFD controller cable has to pass out the back of the case to the parallel port (why not connect to an internal USB header?).
If I wanted to use the breakout box for my soundcard, I would have to stick it outside my case (and I probably would want to).
Now, despite these problems, and because I had seen it online for up to $300, I was happy in the fact that despite it being a basic case, at least it was a bargain (and isn't bad looking). But yesterday I found out that it doesn't have the ir receiver that Eddie said it did. Ok. Fuck that. I don't need a new case right now, I would prefer my actual HTPC to go into a better (more functional) case, and I need the money. So I will be taking it back. If Eddie doesn't let me do so (there is a no exchange for change of mind policy - so all I have to go on is him saying that it had ir when it didn't), I will sell it on Ebay (and maybe get more for it??). Even if he just gives me a store credit, it won't be so bad, as Josh wants me to pick him up an external 2.5" HDD for him anyway. So. Little pissed about that.
Last night I placed the new mobo into my old case and started hooking things up. "Hey-ho, what's this? A 24 pin power connector where my PSU only has a 20 pin. Oh joy." So I couldn't get it all running last night anyway. Grr... Turns out that PCI-E boards require more power. So I need an adaptor (my PSU won't have a problem handling it). I think I can run it without the extra 4 pins, as they are only required for PCI-E, but don't want to risk it. So I will have to ask Eddie for that adaptor. So many problems!!
And Fluidtek is closed today, so I will have to do all of this tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed he lets me do it. Stoopid case. It didn't even come with any installation instructions/information, and the website is vague. Silverstone is heaps better. Rolls Royce - you motherfucker.
Wow. That was a long ramble.
So anyway, after spontaneously buying that stuff (I also bought a USB WiFi connector, despite being warned about USB NICs being a bit hairy... so I hope it works well... my logic was that it's easily removable when I move to a wired network, or need it on another PC), Leanne and I went to dinner at La Botte.
It was tasty! My Cannelloni (veal) had less besciamella sauce than I'm used to, but was nice. The meat had a nice texture. Leanne bought a very nice Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli, and we bought a nice bottle of red for $15. It was a lovely meal, made lovelier by the dessert (Crème Caramel and Sticky Date Pudding), and the complimentary port.
Now, I'm not sure that you normally get complimentary port, but the waitress saw that I had bought some computer parts, and talked to me for a bit on routers. So, I think she gave us the port as thanks. Aw, bless.
Man, I want some ravioli right now.
Now, because of the length of this post (and the last one), I will keep the details of yesterday short.
I was due to go to a meeting at Shorelink HQ (in Mt Kuring-gai) for work (Rebecca was to come along, too). We were due there at 9:30am, and to get there Rebecca had to pass through Carlingford, so we decided to just meet me at the BP on Pennant Hills Rd at 8:45am. Easy done. We actually arrived at 9:15am, but when we got in they informed us that the man I was to meet with had called in sick! That motherfucker! So we met with someone else, who didn't really know much about TC, but was helpful (actually more helpful than the man we were meant to meet with), and didn't see any problems with the maps they had in their possession (the reason we were called to meet was because of the problems that the original guy had with the maps). The guy didn't find problems not because he didn't know it well enough, but because the guy we were originally meant to meet with was making problems that didn't need to exist.
So the meeting achieved nothing. So that sucks. And we'll probably have to go back there. Which also sucks.
And now at TC we are just about out of work. Well, not me so much as I have the last of the Premier Illawarra edits to do before we move onto generating the Fare Matrix Tables, but I spent yesterday bludging, and I have spent all this morning doing the same. I do have work now though, so I shall start it now.
And there you go.
Sorry for giving y'all so much to read. I should try and keep posts short, but sometimes I just get carried away. I know they get boring when they are this long. Sorry.
Listening to: Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows - Les Fleurs du Mal (The new one... it's cool. Actually, a few moments before writing this, I was of the mind that it will get better with subsequent listens - like all the best albums - as it didn't sound exceptional, but just now there was a very cool bit, and I have a very good feeling about this album. Oooh, I like this song; In der Palästra. There's a cool choir in it. Very cool. Wow. No, it's a fucking cool song. Dude. This album is hot.)
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