Category: personal

New Computer!

Hopefully I can start playing all those games that have been sitting on Steam waiting for me to have a computer with enough “umph” to handle them!

Dude! You're getting a Dell!
Dude! You’re getting a Dell!

I had a number of friends who told me that I should build my own computer. And maybe I should have, I’ve done it twice in the past. But, I didn’t feel like I had the time or the energy to do the necessary research for parts and then to assemble them all. So, I went with Alienware (Dell)

The whole she-bang
The whole she-bang

I went with a desktop model so that I can, potentially, upgrade the video card, CPU, RAM, and HD if I ever want to. Below are the specs, if you’re into that kind of thing…

Processor(s)

  • Processor
    • CPU_Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz
    • CPU_Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
    • CPU_Caption: Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3
    • CPU_Version:
    • CPU_ProcessorId: BFEBFBFF000306C3
    • CPU_CurrentClockSpeed: 780MHz
    • CPU_AddressWidth: 64Bits
    • CPU_DataWidth: 64Bits


System Memory

  • 8 gigabits


BIOS Information

  • BIOS_Manufacturer: Alienware
  • BIOS_Name: BIOS Date: 03/19/13 11:59:38 Ver: 04.06.05
  • BIOS_Version1: A00
  • BIOS_Version2: ALWARE – 1072009


Motherboard Information

  • MB_Manufacturer: Alienware
  • MB_Product: 0PGRP5
  • MB_SerialNumber: .1SGB7Y1.CN6970234J0960.
  • MB_Version: A00


Video Adapter

  • Video_Caption: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
  • Video_AdapterRAM: -1984MB
  • Video_DriverVersion: 9.18.10.3055


Hard Drive(s)

  • ATA ST1000DM003-1CH1 SCSI Disk Device
    • Disk_Model: ATA ST1000DM003-1CH1 SCSI Disk Device
    • Disk_Size: 1000 GB
    • Disk_Partitions: 4
    • Disk_TotalHeads: 255
    • Disk_TotalCylinders: 121601
    • Disk_TotalTracks: 31008255
    • Disk_TracksPerCylinder: 255


Optical Drives / Other Storage

  • PLDS DVD+-RW DL-8A4SH SCSI CdRom Device


OperatingSystem: MS Windows 7 Home Premium Edition

DirectXVersion: DirectX 11

IRQ Configuration

  • 0 System timer
  • 1 -empty-
  • 2 -empty-
  • 3 Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Series SMBus Controller – 8C22
  • 4 -empty-
  • 5 -empty-
  • 6 -empty-
  • 7 -empty-
  • 8 System CMOS/real time clock
  • 9 -empty-
  • 10 -empty-
  • 11 -empty-
  • 12 -empty-
  • 13 Numeric data processor
  • 14 -empty-
  • 15 -empty-
  • 16 Dell Wireless 1506 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
  • 16 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645
  • 16 Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Series USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 – 8C2D
  • 17 High Definition Audio Controller
  • 19 Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Series PCI Express Root Port #4 – 8C16
  • 22 High Definition Audio Controller
  • 23 Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Series USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 – 8C26
  • 190 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System

Installed Devices Drivers

  • NVIDIA High Definition Audio, 7-3-2012, 1.3.18.0
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • PLDS DVD+-RW DL-8A4SH SCSI CdRom Device, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7601.17514
  • Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600, 3-6-2013, 9.18.10.3055
  • Microsoft Streaming Tee/Sink-to-Sink Converter, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Realtek High Definition Audio, 2-19-2013, 6.0.1.6844
  • ATA ST1000DM003-1CH1 SCSI Disk Device, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Intel(R) Display Audio, 1-11-2013, 6.16.0.3106
  • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Generic volume shadow copy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller, 1-22-2013, 12.0.0.1082
  • Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645, 1-18-2013, 9.18.13.1106
  • Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller, 12-26-2012, 7.67.1226.2012
  • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385
  • Dell Wireless 1506 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz), 11-30-2012, 9.2.0.514
  • Microsoft Streaming Tee/Sink-to-Sink Converter, 6-21-2006, 6.1.7600.16385

Summer Garden 2013: An Update

Everything is looking good!
Everything is looking good!

It’s been a few weeks since the garden went in, and a few since the heat wave that nearly killed it all. With everything thriving it seemed like a good idea to post an update.

IMG_5339
Do you know what type of peppers these are? If so please let me know in the comments!

After the heatwave things actually cooled down quite a bit. Maybe too cool as out tomatoes stopped flowering and the green tomatoes just seem to be hanging out. The weather has started to warm up a little though and the two plants now seem to be budding again. Our jalapeno peppers are producing slowly as well, I think this is related to the weather as well. Our little red pepper plant is quite happy! The plant hasn’t grown any but it continues to pump out peppers at a rate of 4 or 5 a week! Everything else is slowly coming along. Beans are starting to vine, squash and eggplant are blooming, okra is doing its thing… We also planted some oregano and basil today (you can see them in the very first image.)

IMG_5337
These tomatoes have been green for too long! I’m hoping the rising temperature turns them red!

Continue reading “Summer Garden 2013: An Update”

Giving Back to Video Games

When I had the game boxes too they were taking up a lot more room than just a drawer in a file cabinet...
When I had the game boxes too they were taking up a lot more room than just a drawer in a file cabinet…

I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember. My dad bought an Odyssey 2 when I was only two. Some of my first spoken words came from games like, P.T. Barnum’s Acrobats!  Our family got a Tandy IBM/PC compatible computer in 1987 or 88 when I was eight. Along with some financing software and print shop my dad also picked up Sierra On-line’s Space Quest. A year later my brother and I got a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas… I could go on, but the point is that I’m hard pressed to think of a time when PC or console gaming didn’t play a role in my life. Outside of Family,after Church, and Scouting, video gaming might be the most influential force in my life. I learned how to use DOS, script, program in BASIC, and edit autoexec.bat and config.sys files in order to play games. I spent my summer work money in order to play Final Fantasy VII…

What I’m trying to say is that they’ve been a pretty big deal. My father had horses and the Arizona wilds, my grandfather had trains. I had video games.

But, this stuff takes space: mental and physical. For awhile I could keep my computer and consoles game boxes at my parents’ but at some point they not only want you to move out but to take all your stuff with you to. I didn’t have room for all of it a few years back and no one was interested in taking it off my hands, and I didn’t have the time to try to sell it all on Ebay… So, it went to the municipal dump or the recycling center. I kept discs and manuals but the boxes, the “feelies,” and the installation guides all went. This last year I’ve moved three times and each time less stuff came with me. It gets harder and harder to justify carrying file cabinets and tupperware bins of old games around with you. Especially when sites like Desura, Gamersgate, GOG, and Steam can provide games and manuals that take up no physical space.

But, I didn’t just want to throw this all away. The PC or console game manual is extinct today. You’r lucky to get a folded insert with a button layout. Gone are the days of 100 pages manuals with charts and indexes. This is history and it should be preserved. Luckily, museums are springing up to do just that, one of them is just down the road from where I live. The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment‘s (the Made), in Oakland, CA , mission is to preserve PC and console gaming history, I contacted them and let them know that I had a stack of PC game manuals from the mid and late nineties and that they could have them if they wanted. They did. And, so last weekend I mailed off a 30+ pound box of manuals to them.

I feel better knowing that the flowchart to Civilization II or Alpha Centauri will be put to good use by some adult or child in the future to understand early video gaming culture and not rotting in a dump… The tax write off won’t hurt either.

Anyway, if you’re thinking of downsizing your collection, instead of Ebay or the dump, give a thought to preserving and sharing the hobby that has given you so much enjoyment.

Oh, and if you’re ever in Oakland on a weekend stop by the Made and play some classic PC or console games. Who knows, if you find yourself flipping through and old manual to a Sierra On-line game it might have been mine.

Gardening! Summer 2013 Edition!

Before we could garden we had to clean up...
Before we could garden we had to clean up…

Our new place has its problems, we’ll talk about those some other time, but it does have a nice backyard with multiple garden beds. But before the backyard was nice we had to clean it up. I think the previous tenants only used the backyard for drinking booze and the beds for ashtrays. So, nature had been allowed to do its own thing. Meaning the beds were full of weeds as was most of the landscaping… It took a good 12 to 20 hours cleaning up the yard before we could begin planting grass and vegetables.

Just a small sample of the weeds that had to be pulled and dug up before we could get started.
Just a small sample of the weeds that had to be pulled and dug up before we could get started.

This garden is almost solely the work of D. She has spent the past week working on the yard and beds while I was at work. But, the work has really paid off the backyard looks amazing and the beds look great as well. (Thanks D!)

Turning over the soil in the other bed
Turning over and working in new soil in the one bed
The bed with vegetables planted
The bed with vegetables planted
IMG_5297
The other bed with vegetables planted. Also note along the fence more vegetables

We’ve got banana peppers, jalapenos, summer squash, eggplants, green beans, melon, tomatoes, and okra. We’re hoping to get some pumpkin in as well. Our big worry right now is that this week it’s supposed to get up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit this week. That is not typical for this time of year in Davis and our transplants might not survive the heat… We’re doing everything we can to try and mitigate the heat. Including watering up to three times a day and covering the beds in straw to reduce evaporation.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

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