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I had some serious problems with my hard driv...
November 04, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I had some serious problems with my hard drive in my main computer that I couldn't figure out. It seemed really slow, to the point where loading windows took ten times as long, and games weren't very playable. I ended up running this online disk check utility, which pronounced my hard drive nearly dead, generated a RMA for me, and I spent much of the day shuffling data around until I could copy everything to a blank.
Amazingly, it all seems to work okay. Things seem smooth and good again. I put the old drive in a styrafoam container, made a box for it out of a beer container, and have asked Jamie to ship it off so that I can get a replacement. It's rare that things go so smoothly.
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Well, the 6 GB drive turned out to really jus...
October 11, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, the 6 GB drive turned out to really just be a 2 GB drive. I also had a bear of a time getting the network card to work (funny incompatibilities with the motherboard) as well as the hard drive (primary IDE controller was shot). Still, I managed to ressurect the beast and load up Unread Tournament. I now have three computers in the basement that can run basic games, and another upstairs if I had to. The funny thing is that most afternoons, there are three people on the computer. As soon as I arrive, Josh, Sam, and I descend to the nerd cave to play computer games. So, now we can all play together. A nerd's dream come true.
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The nerd cave looks like a techno-whirlwind p...
October 10, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
The nerd cave looks like a techno-whirlwind passed through. I've got computer parts strewn about. I temporarily gave up trying to run Linux. The picture quality of my t.v. card was pretty bad. I recorded a couple shows on my main computer just fine, and encoded them to DivX format this morning. It went from 3 GB to 250 MB, which was pretty amazing. Reasonable quality, though not perfect.
The Pentium III 550 that was going to be the Linux box now has a 6GB hard drive in it and is being transformed into a simple gaming box. I may send it to the beach, or perhaps to Josh's house. It has some issues, and isn't top of the line, but it'll work for most of the old stuff. I'll try to finish it up this week and figure out what to do with it.
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Well, I got Mandrake linux installed on the n...
October 06, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
 Well, I got Mandrake linux installed on the new computer. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it runs at nearly 600 Mhz, almost twice what I thought it did. The hard drive was way too small, though, so I ordered a 60 GB one for $60 after rebate. What a deal.
Anyway, I'll probably reinstall on the new hard drive when it arrives, and try to get the PVR software working. Pretty cool stuff. It is weird having five computers down in the nerd cave now. It's living up to it's name, I suppose.
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I've got Seraph and Robbie's old computer dow...
October 05, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I've got Seraph and Robbie's old computer down here in the nerd cave. I'm downloading linux as I type - soon I'll be as trendy as the other nerds out there. The tentative plan is to install linux and some t.v. recording software so that I can record t.v. shows and watch them later. Not sure if it'll work well, but that's the tentative hope. Otherwise, I'll probably take it to the beach for entertainment purposes. It'll go well with the other Pentium II 300's. Lots of old network games could be played on them without too much problem.
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It turns out they were blocking ports
September 30, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
It turns out they were blocking ports. They were having some network issues and they decided I was using too much bandwidth, so they blocked all of my external ports. So, I'm back in business, but I get the impression I'm on some kind of probation. So, I'll try to be good . . .
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I'm having weird Internet issues at home thes...
September 30, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I'm having weird Internet issues at home these days. Suddenly, other computers in the world were unable to connect to me. It seemed periodic, and I suspected at first that there was something wrong with my computer. I ended up doing endless configuration changes, installing the DSL modem on another computer, and am now convinced that my ISP has an issue. I'll give them a call this afternoon and hopefully figure it out. Sigh.
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Well, I finally got a laptop
September 17, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, I finally got a laptop. It's old, but the price was close to free. It's an Omnibook 2000CT, a Pentium 133 with 64 MB of memory. It's just enough to run old adventure games like Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle, and Pajama Sam, and so on. Unfortunately, it's not enough to play back video, which would have been idea. Still, it'll make a good little trip computer. I expect lots of adventure game playing with Sam this weekend.
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The web server that hosts adamandjamie
September 10, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
The web server that hosts adamandjamie.com died Sunday night, and we were down for most of the day Monday. Not sure if there's much I can do on my end. I have a hot mirror on tinboy, but that's not useful if no one knows about it. Of course, I'm not sure if there's anything that needs to happen - network outages are a fact of life, and it's been pretty reliable. Plus, it's free through my friend Chris, which is a big plus.
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My house and computer projects have been mini...
September 09, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
My house and computer projects have been minimal lately. I did do a bit with the mantle today. Darren had put it up, though it had been many months since he last touched it. We were wanting to finish things up, and hadn't heard from him in a long time, so I puttied and sanded it down today. I also had to put in a few screws and nails, as there were some boards barely hanging on. So, a couple hours later, it's ready for painting. Slow going, but it should look nice.
Oh - and the last computer issue? It's fine now. The other set of memory was really cheap, and worked just fine with the previous stick. I'm running at 512 MB of DDR and lovin' it.
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Well, I picked up more memory to replace the ...
July 14, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, I picked up more memory to replace the stick that melted in my computer. Unfortunately, it wasn't compatible (evidently you can mix registered and unbuffered memory). So, I have a spare stick of memory at the moment. If I keep this up, I'll have parts for half a computer. I ordered some more, though I'm not sure what kind it is. It was such a super deal, however, I couldn't pass it up.
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The Fossil computer is back in business
July 12, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
The Fossil computer is back in business. It turns out it was a faulty memory stick. I've ordered a replacement, which should be arriving shortly. The only "oops" from this experience is that I have a power supply that I don't need. Plus, it's really loud (the fan hits the case). I may just try to fix it myself and keep it as a spare. You never know when you'll need another power supply.
I've been doing house projects as well. We took a closet door off the hinges, stripped off all the old paint, and I'm almost finished repainting it. Whew!
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Well, my main computer is in pieces at the moment
June 26, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, my main computer is in pieces at the moment. I've been having weird problems - reboots and strange error messages. The solution presented itself when I popped open the case and shocked myself on the metal chassis. It turns out the outlet I was using wasn't grounded. I also suspected the power supply of being flaky.
So, to remedy both, I've purchased a new power supply and had a new outlet put it. Hopefully that'll take care of it all, though I'm forced to use the Tinboy computer until the new power supply arrives. Sigh.
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I slapped in my new video card in the new com...
June 09, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I slapped in my new video card in the new computer. It took me awhile, as it had to be positioned quite carefully in the AGP slot. If it was screwed in, it popped out the back and stopped working. So, after a little finessing, I now have GeForce3 class video cards in my main and backup gaming computers. Sam and I need to test it out this weekend.
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Well, tinboy
June 07, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, tinboy.com is up and running again. I'm not really doing much with it yet. I've made a duplicate of this site in case this server is hit by an asterioid or something crazy. I even set up a little routine where I can copy everything from this server to the one in my closet.
My GeForce 3 card arrived a couple days ago. I've got to throw it into the new computer sometime this weekend. That'll turn it into quite the gaming PC as well, almost as good as my main computer. Well, that'll keep Sam and I busy for the next year or two.
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Over the weekend, I put together a new comput...
June 04, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Over the weekend, I put together a new computer, moved the DSL connection over to it, and moved the black computer upstairs. The amazing thing is that it all went smoothly, with virtually no problems at all. I must be getting good at this sort of thing.
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Jamie's been complaining that the Lego comput...
May 29, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Jamie's been complaining that the Lego computer is being annoyingly slow these days. Since it's only a 266Mhz system, it's certainly understandable. So, I decided to bite the bullet and get a new system.
I thought a lot about getting a laptop, which would be nice for travelling with Sam. Watching movies or the like would be really handy. Instead, I opted for the $200 Duron barebones system. I'll throw in a new hard drive, and possibly put in the DVD drive from the black computer. That way it'll match the new black case I picked up. If I really want to haul it along, I can get a power inverter to plug into the lighter. If I'm brave.
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I keep adding goodies to the Fossil computer
May 08, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I keep adding goodies to the Fossil computer. First it was a TV tuner card and now it's an extra hard drive. I recorded Frontier House to watch later, only to find that it took up 3 GB per 2-hour episode. Whew! Now I've got huge volumes of space to record things on. Very handy.
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Well, I plugged in the flat panel display to ...
May 03, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, I plugged in the flat panel display to the upstairs Lego computer. It makes it look far cooler, especially with the wireless keyboard and mouse. The all-black look is fairly cool. Still, it's hooked up to a Pentium II 266, which is not exactly the zippiest computer around.
I may end up having to do a computer reshuffle at some point. The next obvious choice is to move the None More Black computer upstairs, making it Jamie's computer. The Fossil computer would be my main computer. The catch is that I use the None More Black computer all the time, for Internet stuff, as well as a second game when playing with Sam. Well, for now, things stay where they are . . .
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I ordered a flat panel monitor yesterday
April 26, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I ordered a flat panel monitor yesterday. It's a fairly small 15" one, and really cheap. The plan is to hook it up to the Lego computer for now, though it may eventually get hooked up to the Fossil computer, as it has the digital output for LCD panels. I'm not really sure how much it will be used - it's kind of an experiment at this point. Who knows? Perhaps it will make it into some sort of future case mod . . .
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The Fossil computer was acting up last week, ...
April 16, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
The Fossil computer was acting up last week, a fan on the motherboard getting overly loud. I had recently done the 7 volt fan mod on the case fan that was cooling my video card. That took care of the fan there, but the motherboard fan was driving me nuts. I searched around, found that others had the same problem, and ended up just removing it. The heat sink under it never got warm to the touch.
For the first time, the Fossil computer is really quiet. Since that was a primary design feature, I'm glad it's finally accomplished. Ah, Nerdvana.
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Well, the TV card went in this morning, just ...
March 23, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, the TV card went in this morning, just before the cable guy arrived. It seems to work fairly well. The image quality is a little grainy, but it seems to work reasonably well.
I also took off the noisy fan on the video card and screwed in a case fan to the heat sink. It takes up a PCI slot, but I've got a few spare ones. The main problem is that the new fan is a bit noisy. I'll probably need to get a rheostat to turn down the voltage, and thus the fan rpms. Should keep it quiet.
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After not doing much to my computer, I'm actu...
March 21, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
After not doing much to my computer, I'm actually going to crack open the case and install some new hardware. I was up at Fry's and ended up with a TV capture card for the computer. It should let me watch television as well as record it.
Another thing I'm thinking of is getting an exercise machine, now that it looks like we're getting tax money back. If I can record enough shows to create an "exercise/entertaiment zone", it might actually get Jamie and myself to use it more often. We'll see . . .
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For some strange reason, I've recently gotten...
March 06, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
 For some strange reason, I've recently gotten into making paper models of castles and buildings. I was ran across a link to a page that let you print and cut out little buildings. Since I was watching Sam that day, I decided to get them ready so that I could make them with Sam. Well, I ended up having more fun than he did. It's vaguely relaxing, like how Jamie does crossword puzzles.
I've already built two towers (one ruined and one normal), a wall section, and a variety of smaller houses. Sam and I got some Knight Legos last weekend, so we had a good time playing with them. I think Sam's favorite is the ruined tower, as his characters could fall down into it and get stuck on the second floor.
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The Lego computer is now in it's new location...
February 05, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
The Lego computer is now in it's new location, next to the front door in the living room. The next part was running network cable from the basement "nerd cave" to the upstairs. Easier said than done, as the scrapes on my hand can attest to. I was using an existing hole that was previously used for the baseboard heater. I had to expand that slightly, then carefully thread the cable through. Once that was done, I drilled a hole in my closet and hook it all up. I think it took me two full hours, several drill bits, and some creative swearing before it was finished.
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Well, Seraph and Robbie's computer is complete
February 02, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Well, Seraph and Robbie's computer is complete. I soldered the fan, slapped it all together, tested it all, and it's good to go. I even wrote up directions on how to put all the plugs back in. I'm taking it to Dez's birthday party and do the exchange there. Hope they're happy with it!
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Seraph and Robbie's computer is progressing q...
February 01, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Seraph and Robbie's computer is progressing quite well. I hooked everything together and managed to turn it on by shorting out the two connectors for the power switch. After getting the appropriate drivers loaded, I worked on getting the switch actually functioning. It was a bit tricky, but I traced the wires and "made" them fit correctly. So, you can actually turn it on by pushing the power button. Of course, there aren't any lights and the reset button doesn't work, but those aren't really necessary in my opinion.
I also replaced the power supply, as it was making a funny high-pitched noise when I plugged it it. I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad noise, but I decided that any explosion risk for my family was a bit too much.
The final piece is to get the case fan hooked up. The power connector is for the motherboard, and it doesn't reach on the new motherboard. I'll need to solder on a new connector tonight. That should finish it up. I'll test the sound and verify things are working, but I'm pretty happy as to how things are working out.
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Don't tell Seraph and Robbie, but I've been d...
January 31, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
Don't tell Seraph and Robbie, but I've been doing some Very Bad ThingsÖ to their old computer. They dropped it off so that I could upgrade it (my Christmas present). Unfortunately, it's a Dell and it's not quite standard.
I ended up having to drill a hole in the back of the case in order to provide room for the second serial port. Now the new motherboard fits, but I'm running into a problem turning it on. Dell uses a weird ribbon of wires that connect to the power switch, lights, and reset button. Standard motherboards use individual wires, so I'll have to jury-rig some way to hook the two together.
Never daunted, I'm going to try to go at it tonight. If lucky, I'll even be able to turn the thing on.
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After much fiddling and lots of patience by J...
January 06, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
After much fiddling and lots of patience by Jamie who watched Sam for several hours, I finally got Internet Connection Sharing set up on my main computer. I can now access the Internet from my new Windows XP computer, which I haven't been able to do for several months. I promptly updated all the security patches, surfed the net, and generally enjoyed myself. Great fun.
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I did a small amount of project work over the...
January 03, 2002 by Adam in Adam's Projects
I did a small amount of project work over the holiday break. Almost all of it was spent watching Sam, which means that many tasks were left undone. I did drill holes in the living room floor to run the rear speaker wires through. It looks lots better.
I also moved the Lego computer up into the craft room, which Sam immediately thought was cool. He'd turn it on himself, then sit in his antique writing desk playing the Elmo game. The only thing that was lacking was speakers, so I bought some cheap ones that should be arriving soon. After we move all his games up too, Sam should be able to play on his computer while Jamie scrapbooks away!
I'm also waiting to get my hands on Seraph and Robbie's computer. I've promised them a computer upgrade for Christmas, and I have a new video card, motherboard, processor, and memory to stick in. Should be fun.
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