WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEA?

Slight Problem

I can't read my own blog at work. Not until Miss OpenBSD and Miss Linux scroll off the page, anyway.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:48 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Your Message Is Important To Us

I got my email working properly at home. It was last seen alive on Sunday.

I am presently downloading just over 1100 new messages.

I will get back to you. Really. (Just as soon as the spam filter finishes with them. That should cut it down a bit.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:04 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Oops

I need to buy a new pair of jeans. Like now.

Hmm. I guess it's not that obvious.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Sucks And Blows

I installed my two new computers, Kei and Yuri, in Lian-Li 6070 cases, which feature quiet fans and sound insulating foam. I also used Antec super-quiet power supplies.

And then I installed 8 hard drives in Yuri.

Which proved to be something of a problem. I turns out that the reason quiet fans and quiet power supplies are quiet is that the fans are slow. And being slow, they don't move much air. And not moving much air means not cooling the system very well... And 8 hard drives produce a lot of heat.

So I got a nice fast high-volume fan, and I stuck it in Yuri at the back to blow all the hot air out. In fact, I had to duct-tape it to the existing fan, because there is only exhaust vent and the existing fan is attached with these annoying plastic rivets which are impossible to remove. It's far from ideal, but there's a lot more air blowing out the back now, which is a good thing.

But. All the air is coming from the newly-enhanced case fan, and none of it from the power supply fan. And the case above the power supply is starting to get a little warm. A lot warm, really.

After a few moments I realise that the new high speed fan is doing such a good job pulling air out of the case that it is reducing the air pressure to the point where the slow fans in the power supply can't cope. I should be glad that at least it's not sucking air in through the power supply (which would dump lovely pre-heated air directly on top of the CPU).

So I took the side panel off the case. It's running much cooler now, with both fans working together to blow the hot air out. But it's not exactly quiet any more, is it? I said, it's not exactly quiet any more, is it?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Krispy Kritters

Someone from the recruitment agency we use at work just popped in to say hello - and drop off two big boxes of Krispy Kremes as a Christmas gift.

Mmmm. Burp.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Clicky Clicky

My new mouse has seven buttons and a scrollwheel.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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No. No No Not.

Over on Trey Givens I found this interesting test which tries to recommend a presidential candidate based on your opinions on various policies. I got this:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Libertarian Candidate (61%)
3. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (54%)
4. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (51%)
5. Socialist Candidate (44%)
6. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (43%)
7. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (42%)
8. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (40%)
9. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (40%)
10. Bush, President George W. - Republican (40%)
11. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (40%)
12. Green Party Candidate (38%)
13. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (36%)
14. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (32%)
15. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (21%)
16. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (16%)
17. Hagelin, Dr. John - Natural Law (10%)

The only purpose this serves, really, is to illustrate once again just how weird American politics seems to an Australian. The highest ranking actual person* is Howard-flipping-Dean. Howard Dean, for crying out loud. I tick It is appropriate for the US to take unilateral military action against enemy nations--for example Iraq. and give it High importance, and I get Howard the Duck.

Then "Big" Dick Gephardt.

Then a fictional Socialist Candidate.

Then John Edwards, about whom the only thing I know is that he is probably less loathsome than fraudulent TV "psychic" John Edward.

Then Clark, Retired General Wesley K. "Krusher", the anti-war general.

Then Joe Lieberman, who at least appears to inhabit the same planet as the rest of us.

Then the Immensely Reverend Al Sharpton. The only thing he has in his favour is that he isn't Dennis "The Menace" Kucinich.

Then Bush, President George W. I don't care much for some of his domestic policies - the War on Drugs he inherited, but Faith-Based Initiatives is his own - but he is the only one of the lot I would trust to run America right now.**

Here's a little note the test designers attached to the info page:

What sort of score should my top candidate have? If your top candidate scores in the 90’s or the high 80’s then you’ll be very pleased with this candidates positions.
If your top candidate scores in the low 80’s or less, retake the selector, but this time try varying the priority settings below each issue area--set some “high” and some “low”. Optionally, you might try taking the selector again, but this time, do not answer those questions on issues for which you have little passion or interest.
If your top candidate did not get at least 50%, then all we can is that you have a unique combination of political views.

It's not great surprise to see the Libertarians at the top of the list - though I disagree with the Libertarian Party on some important issues - but the highest ranking real candidate that is not either a nonentity or an active menace is Joe Lieberman at just 40%.

I wouldn't have thought my political views were unique... But maybe they are somewhat unusual in the context of mainstream America.

* He is, isn't he?
** Since I'm an Aussie and have no say in the matter, it is a good thing for me that he is running America right now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Tough Decisions

OpenBSD or Linux?

Downloaded from here.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:54 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Well, Of Course



You are Kermit the Frog. You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you have a habit of waving your arms about maniacally.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and "Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"
LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to theInternet"
HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.
QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."

What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Via Ghost of a flea. Again.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Good News

Kei, my new 2.6GHz Pentium 4 Windows box, is up and running.

As I thought, gigabit ethernet works just fine with a standard cross-over cable. Since I only have two computers that support gigabit (well, three, but don't tell anyone) this saves me the cost of buying a switch.

I can get about 16 megabytes per second over Samba, disk to disk. That's only about 16% of what gigabit ethernet can do, but is three times what I got from my old server and my old Windows box.

On the other hand, Windows XP's routing is screwy. I'm blogging from Linux until I get that worked out. Windows can find the router just fine, but won't actually send packets there to be routed. I might just set up Yuri as a router for Kei - since they're plugged directly together, that at least should work. (In fact, Kei seems to be using the 100M ethernet port as a back-channel for the Gbit port... But still, it's working.)

On the third hand, I installed the nVidia drivers on Yuri, and they don't seem to work terribly well. It may be that they just don't support the GeForce FX 5700 fully; I can try swapping it for my old GeForce 4 and see if that works better. The GeForce 4 is at least listed as supported.

Oh, and Saddam Hussein has been captured. Hit Instapundit for a boatload of links.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 06:41 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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