"Old Sources of Energy"
I can't believe I haven't made any submittals to this blog in almost a month. I get a little free time and suddenly I'm too good to write. Something I enjoy somewhat anyway. The answer to the last entry was good old Chief Wiggum from The Simpsons. If I remember that episode correctly home had just been arrested, at which point he lets out his trademark expletive. To which Wiggum replies with "That's what they all say... They all say d'oh". Did I mention I like that show? I don't think I did. Well I do. Like that show. Wuhoo.
As I mentioned in the last few entries I've finally built my new computer. The fore-mentioned problems seemed to be alleviated for a while there. Accept that my BIOS would report a bunch of garbage characters at the boot-up screen in place of the name of the processor, AMD 2500+. So I took what I thought would be a risk and used the utility that came with my ASUS motherboard to flash and update the BIOS to the latest version. And to my total and complete utter surprise it actually worked...on the first try! The program connected to the ASUS FTP site, found the latest version of the BIOS, erased the flash ROM, updated the ROM, and prompted me to reboot. Which I did. So good then the BIOS correctly reports the name of my CPU.
So I start playing my new game, Elderscroll 3: Morrowind. After something like a half hour of play the computer reboots. This was right after I flashed the BIOS. In previous days I had played for hours with no miraculous reboots. So what's the deal? So I use the other ASUS utility called PC Probe and it tells me the CPU is at 56 degrees Celsius which is quite hot.
Side track! Side track! Side track! Side track! Side track! Side track!
I'm not one of these "Canadians" who use them fancy "rest of the world measuring systems" that are laid out and organized in a "logical manner" (pfff!) but it does seem more convenient to use Celsius in this case. I guess because "my CPU is running at a chilly 44 degrees" makes more sense than "the CPU's at a chilly 114 degrees!” Right? For those of you Americans who don't know in the Celsius system, 0 degrees is freezing and 100 degrees is boiling. See what I mean? Damned fruity rest of the world measuring systems...
End Side track
So any way I started to get worried. I described the issues to my clan mates (Max Jerome, Dark Man and PhotekOBV more specifically) and Dark Man suggested buying a new heat synch called the Volcano 7+ so this is what I went out to buy. I spent $35 on that damn thing. I could have got it for less had I ordered online but I needed it right away, as I really wanted to use my computer. This particular heat sync seems actually pretty popular these days. In the package included as some "thermal grease". You're supposed to put it on the "dye" (or is it "die"? I dunno) of the CPU too kind of insulate the CPU from the heat sync. I had to go through several attempts at applying this grease. The first one or two times (yesterday) I ended up with a hotter temperatures than I had with the sync that the CPU came with. But today I looked a little more carefully and tried to find some better instructions on the Internet and re-applied the grease. This time when I booted up the CPU was 47 degrees according the to BIOS at first but once warmed up by the time it the OS had booted it was to 53 degrees. Ok that's not so good but still better. Then I did some activity and it eventually climbed back to 55 degrees. I decided to test out Morrowind and what do ya know we're back to 60 to 61 degrees. This was about 6 or 7 hours ago. Now, at 11:08pm, PC Probe is reporting 49 degrees Celsius. Looks like this grease stuff needs some sort of "incubation period" of some sort before it starts to work. Ok perhaps that isn't the right term. Just needs to be "cooked-in" I suppose. Point is looks like the grease is now helping. Finally! Of course it will take a session of several hours worth of Morrowind to know for sure the system won't reboot after a long time of heavy use. A sacrifice I'll just have to make... On complaint about this new heat synch though: it's really, really noisy. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending) we have one of those "whole house fans" and it's installed right outside my bedroom door in the hall. So when it is on it drowns out the noisy multiple computers. Lucky me! I think I'm getting used to it though as I now fall asleep fairly quickly despite the noise.
Speaking of my computer I finally installed one of those fancy window "case mods" into the side of my computer. I also installed a blue cold cathode light to the inside. I have taken some pictures with a digital camera and will have the links up eventually.
In other news I've had the last couple weeks off. No classes for the summer and no job. I did almost get a job though. Some job agency found my resume on the Internet and tried to hook me up. But I must have blew it in the old enthusiasm department. I guess. I can be enthusiastic under the right circumstances. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be an on-demand sort of thing as I obviously didn't pull it off at the right time. So I suppose this was a learning experience. Still would have been nice to have a real job with some sort of money coming in.
In other news the oh-so-beloved governor of my state of California (Marxist People's Republic of California) is in the midst of a recall campaign. This means if the needed 900,000 signatures are collected and validated a special measure will be put on the ballet first asking if the sitting governor should be recalled and if so who should take his place. Apparently the number of signatures will in fact be collected. The current governor, Grey "grey-out" Davis, is one of the most unpopular governors in this state's history. Of course the amazing thing mere last November (that's about 7 or 8 months ago) this very same person was re-elected. And why? The voter apathy is so high only the left-wing wacko types were the ones to show up. Although even that isn't all true as the Republican alternative actually won more counties in the state including a southern county (the south of the state seems more liberal than most parts of the north). There simply weren't enough people even aware of the election never mind willing to vote in it. But with an approval rating something like 25% I don't think I'm the only one who is expressing joy at the news of this recall. Of course I'm still trying to figure out how he got re-elected in the first place. Part if it is the weakness combined with the stupidity of the competition. And part of it was the voter apathy. But what about the people who really did vote for this Davis fellow? Did they actually believe this guy when he said he wouldn't raise taxes and the budget was balanced? Do people that stupid actually exist?! Yes, that's right. If you believed him you're stupid. Very, very stupid. Not to mention gullible (please forward your blog tax to the following address....if you don't comply space aliens will come probe you and not in the cute way...). Gullible.
Now I probably could come up with more to talk about. In fact I know I could. But it's 1:00am now and I'm a little tired. It did occur to me the title of the blog does refer to LiteStep and yet I haven't actually written about the subject yet. Well I will write about it. And soon.
