Results matching “build own pc” from Ye Olde Rad Blog III

Created a dedicated 'Guides' page. See here » Radified Guides. Been meaning to do that for .. eons. This will allow me to off-load the guides listed here on the home-page, so I can clean it up.

I indented & right-aligned every other link .. to make them easier to read. What do you think? When the links were all lined-up together & left-aligned, they seemed too .. similar.

Eventually I'd like to include a representative graphic for each guide/link. But for now, I just wanted to create a page that contains a repository of the links to all our guides.

On a related note, I've been looking more deeply into MODx, the Content Management System (CMS). They are fixin' to release a new version (complete-rewrite, from the ground up, based on PHP5) .. called » REVOLUTION. (Current version is called » EVOLUTION.)

Drupal would be cool, but it's way too sophisticated for what I need. I don't want/need a PhD in CMS's. Here's a MODx site, for example. (I used to live in Lancaster, PA .. the heart of Amish country. Nice people there.)

I'd like to become intimately familiar with a good CMS .. as another skill to add to my digital toolkit. Only way to do that is » use one daily.

The good people at MODx claim a 'Release Candidate' version of REVOLUTION will be coming » "Winter 2009" (.. which is now). [ Notice how the words 'Summer 2009' have been lined-out. ] UPDATE » They just changed the RC date to "Spring 2010". Hmmm.

The MODx site is running REVOLUTION. I'm in no hurry, tho. Rather make a good decision than a hasty one.

The White House re-launched its website on Drupal. Can you believe that? Not sure why this blows my mind. In searching the web however, I see many others have also sat up and taken notice.

No doubt the White House has content to manage. Sure.

But I think the reason it's so unexpected is that Drupal is simply too cool & cutting edge for the White House .. which we normally associate with stodginess and somnolent formality.

Then there's the fact that Drupal is not an American product. It was born in Belgium, at the University of Ghent (.. as a message board for fellow-students enrolled there).

And you know how RADICAL college students can be. Downright revolutionary at times.

It could also be that we associate politicians with being less-than-honest about their true intentions .. while Drupal is open source, and therefore completely transparent. (Imagine how people might feel if Hitler were caught parading around town wearing a scarf knitted by Mother Teresa.)

Dare I mention how the government TAKES your money .. without even a thank-you note, and gives it to people who have much too much already. While Drupal, released under GPL, is better than free (as in 'free beer'), cuz it's also open source (free as in 'freedom').

The whole thing feels grossly incongruent .. as tho two vastly different worlds have collided. Matter and anti-matter. Good omen, tho .. for both the White House and Drupal.

My buddy eDawg just built himself a new beast. Here's a copy-n-paste from the invoice (totaling $1325 + tax). He's using dual flat-panel monitors imported from a previous system. See here:

• Case Antec | Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Retail » $100
• PSU Corsair | CMPSU-750TX 750W SLI + CrossFire Ready Retail » $110
• Motherboard ASUS | P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 X58 Intel Chipset Retail » $290
• CPU Intel | Core i7 920 Bloomfield 2.66G 45N Quad-Core - Retail » $290
• 2 x Memory | Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 PC3 - Retail » $320
• VGA XFX | Radeon HD 4870 1G 256-bit GDDR5 HD-487A-ZWFC PCI Express 2.0 x16 Retail » $145
• Hard Drive 250G | Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200-RPM 8MB Cache SATA2 - OEM » $45
• DVD Burner Lite-On | Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW SATA - OEM » $25
• Windows 7

This system has 12 gigs of memory (2 x 6-gig sticks). That's downright decadent. I think he could arrested for having so much memory (without a permit). We hate you, eDawg. Actually, that motherboard can handle (up to) 24 gigs .. in triple-channel mode.

I said, "Dang, you probably oughta call your local power company and let them know whenever you're fixin' to start that beast .. so they can tweak bus frequency up to 62-cycles, so you don't bring down the whole western grid."

I asked why he didn't opt for a giant 2-TB drive for storage, or a 10K-rpm Raptor to run his system & programs .. or better yet » a solid state drive (drool).

I remember back when we ordered and built his very first custom system. That wasn't long after eDawg's dad married my friend » Maria. We all lived in this big 5-level Euro-style mansion that eDawg's dad built (which later sold for several $mil) cut into the hillside high above Laguna .. with a killer 180-degree view of the Pacific. Ah, the good ol' days .. sitting out on the deck and watching the sun go down.

Sold the Rad-mobile today. I've driven that car every day for 22 years. (When I find something I like, I stick with it.) Bought it when I was living in Pennsylvania (1986) when the car was 2 years old ($32K). Previously owned by a doctor's wife.

Last week I noticed the engine sagging slighty. Took me a few days to figure out why. A part called the motor mount bracket had broken ($450, just for the part).

My buddy, Big Al, stopped over this morning to take a look. He's an ex crew chief for race cars. Builds race cars for a living. He said the bracket would not be easy to replace.

We'd have to do what is called a partial engine-drop. He also said not to drive the car, cuz the dang engine could fall out.

So I placed an ad on Craig's List. Within the hour, phone rang. Guy named Alex asked how much I thought the car was worth. I really had no idea, given its condition (undriveable).

But I threw out a number I'd be happy with. Alex said, "If you're willing to sell for that, I'll come over right now and buy it sight unseen."

Well, he did. Him and his buddy. Car left a few hours ago on a flatbed. It all went so very fast. (Made me dizzy.) One minute Big Al was ready to fix the car for me; the next (it seems), it was gone.

Logged into my Paypal account today, planning to move fund$ (from my checking account) .. in preparation for paying this month's web hosting fee (with our new provider) .. when I noticed...

.. there was already plenty of cash in the account. (Woohoo!) How did it get in there?

You might've noticed the small Make a Donation button .. found in the left side-bar (have to scroll down). As you know, I don't solicit donations. But if readers feel inspired, there it is.

Timely Donations

Several generous readers donated amounts ranging from $50 to $100 (less a small percentage Paypal keeps for their trouble). Boy, was I stoked!

Funny how donations always seem to arrive when they're needed most.

As a side note, I find it interesting that most donations (by far) come from » Texans. Why is that? Are they more generous than most? .. or drawn more strongly to the site? I have lived in many states, but Texas isn't one of them. So I can't say for sure.

Priorities & Sacrifice

Speaking of money .. all my life, cash was never a problem. I mean (not to brag), I was earning close to $100K fifteen years ago .. (back when 100K was still 100K). I paid ca$h for a Porsche (the Rad-mobile) .. back in the '80's. Even at age 11, I was delivering newspapers 7 days a week. So I've always had plenty of spending-cash .. for long as I can recall.

But ever since I started going to court a few years ago .. well, that wiped me out. And you can't work nuclear just any ol' place. Reactors aren't found on every street corner, or in every town. (Or even in every state.)

While laying in the sauna last night (where I had a great sweat going), I was thinking how pleased I am with the way things turned out .. with our move to the new VPS server (upgrade). The site is more enjoyable to use, now that's much zippier. Both the blog and the forum are way faster.

And I like how the world of VPS contains such cool language. Consider, for example, the phrase, "Rad on VPS ala Xen." Sounds Ferrari-like, doesn't it?

Laying there (in the steam), I was thinking how many people have worked very hard to make all this cool software (such as MTOS) available .. that I get to play with!

The last few months have been hectic, trying to lower our usage of server resources. I upgraded both the forum & blog scripts. And when that wasn't enough, I had no choice but to move the site. Lunarpages kept threatening to cancel my account, so I had to do something.

Feel like I can finally relax. The move is complete. The site is stable. Nobody is threatening to turn off the lights. Plus these WiredTree support techs are great.