Gradin.com » attack

57% Chance of Surviving a Zombie Attack

Olaf — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:24:42 +0000

It’s not particularly good, though not all together bad either. I think the quiz is rigged. It never asked me how good I was with knives.

Thanks for the meme, Spazz.

DiY PC: Antec Nine Hundred (Case)

Olaf — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:00:15 +0000

I’m in the process of building out a new custom PC for the house – the first one in quite a while now. Contrary to what you might think, as a technology guy I’m usually a little late for getting things up-to-date around the house. As such, I’m replacing an old Intellistation dual-proc Pentium 3 XEON. It sounds phat, but trust me, it’s showing its age.

I tried once to just hit this project with one blow-out purchase and be done. Just as I was ready to do it, something else came up that took priority over discretionary money. As such, I’m going the incremental route and starting with the components that are least likely to change over a short period of time.

This post begins my adventure in building out what should be a great rig.

The case decision has always been a hard one for me. I have a memorable scar on my right thumb where I was attacked by a sub-$50 tower case back in 1996. I was attempting to push out metal break-outs in the case’s rear slots with my thumb. It was difficult at first, but when the razor-sharp edges of the slot sliced off a third of my thumb’s width, it slid in easily. Er – that wasn’t the intention, however. Some-odd stitches later (three through the thumbnail – ouch!), I was ready to get back to work on the case. I used a Clark’s head screwdriver and some pliers to finish off those slots. As fun as the ER visit was to break up my day, I was not entertained by the next case-catastrophe. I wanted to test out the case power and front L.E.D.’s before I began installing components. Holding firmly to the exposed metal from the case’s chassis, I pushed the large power button on the front bezel. Oh vengeful gods! 110 volts coarse through me, there’s a loud crack, and smoke boils up from behind the bezel. Unshaken (actually I was literally shaken, but still determined), I unplugged the power supply and reset the breaker that had tripped. When I investigated the power switch and back-side of the bezel, I found that it had welded itself onto the case. Having the equipment (a hammer and screwdriver), I gingerly broke the weld (gingerly, for an ogre). Turns out, the case’s sharp edges had struck again. During shipment – possibly before – the switch leads had been sliced and exposed. Unbelievably, I replaced the switch and went on.

With the exception of some minor cuts (again from the chassis edges), I experienced no further catastrophes with that case. It wasn’t until I had done some fancy coupling of two power supplies with one switch and electrified the entire case while the system was on that I finally ditched it. Good times.

What this painful experience taught me was that I would no longer spare any expense when it came to cases. Disregarding the beautiful custom cases out there, I seek out full tower cases with lots of room for hard drives, bays, and plenty of cooling options. As you might guess, I also check the status of the chassis edges – deburred or folded are the terms I believe they’re using now. I also look at cases that generally don’t include power supplies (PSU). Included PSU’s are probably cheaply made and may have suffered damage within the case during shipment or installation.

This brings me to my case of choice, the Antec Nine Hundred. It reminds me of the Spartan 300, but has nothing to do with that. My first choice was actually a Gigabyte (3D Aurora 570) tower, but it didn’t go on super sale when the Nine Hundred did. I chased the deal for a little while on the net where it bounced around from site to site at $89.99. I missed the deal on ZipZoomFly where shipping is generally free and got it at Outpost (Fry’s) – there I had to pay shipping and tax, but it was a far better deal than $130+ you see it elsewhere.

As I build out the actual system, I’ll be sure and add my feelings on this case. Until then, here are the spec’s directly from Antec’s site:

Unique Top mounted 200mm TriCool exhaust fan to cool the hottest system
Perforated front bezel for maximum air intake
Two front loaded HDD cages for up to 6 hard disk drives
The HDD cages act as air ducts to take air in more efficiently. Optional middle 120mm fan bracket to cool the hottest graphic cards or CPU
Two 120mm TriCool blue LED front fans to cool hard disk drives
Window side panel comes with an optional 120mm fan mount for maximum VGA cooling
Top mounted I/O ports for easy access
Top tray for your MP3 player, digital camera, etc.
Power supply mounts at the bottom of the case (power supply not included)
Advanced cooling system:
- 1 top 200mm TriCool fan with 3-speed switch control
- 1 rear 120mm TriCool fan with 3-speed switch control
- 2 front 120mm special black TriCool blue LED fans with 3-speed switch control to cool HDDs
- 1 side (optional) 120mm fan to cool graphic cards
- 1 middle (optional) 120mm fan to cool CPU or graphic cards
9 Drive Bays:
- External 3 x 5.25″; Internal 6 x 3.5″ for HDD, or
- External 6 x 5.25″; Internal 3x 3.5″ for HDD, or
- External 9 x 5.25″
Motherboard: Fits micro and standard ATX
7 Expansion Slots
Top I/O
Power & reset button with blue LED
2 x USB 2.0
1 x IEEE 1394
Audio In and Out
Case Weight Net: 18.52 lbs, Gross: 24.36 lbs
Case Dimensions: 19.4″ H x 18.4″ D x 8.1″ W

$105.78 through outpost.com (Tax & Shipping incl.)

Scandalous Brassieres Mock Downtown Gainesville

Olaf — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:34:26 +0000

Bella Lingerie has posted their new display cabinet facing Main Street at Main Street Market on downtown Gainesville, Georgia. The display includes three comfortable-looking bras hung without any sort of model or filling to present them. An upstanding member of the Gainesville community has filed some formality of a complaint with Main Street Market owner, Debra, as well as Bella Lingerie proprietor, Krista. There is concern that the brassiere display will disuade patrons from entering the establishment for fear of corruption or perhaps sexual disambiguation for our youth. Mary; Upper Deck owner at Main Street Market, says, “Are you kidding me? I’m going to get so much more business with that display out there…it’ll double my business!” The Upper Deck serves Gainesville’s teenage crowd in all things skating. Bella Lingerie is sensitive to the concerns regarding Gainesville’s ignorance and will seek to ensure better measures to protect virginal minds to the disgusting sites of women’s underwear. By “protect virginal minds” I mean better educate them with a vigorous and flaunting display of sexual acts and genitalia. But the offensive brassieres will be removed so as to save our children. No, not really. In a move of feminine wickèdness, Krista will make no move to please the anti-boob community.

Oh, and some of you might remember my wife – yet another member of the vulgar vixens. She boldly displayed the word “VAGINA” for the world to see outside of her studio. Wickèd I tell you, wickèd.

**UPDATE** Krista received a personal visit by the same (I assume it’s the same, anyway) lady that first complained about her establishment. The woman was fuming and ready to start a personal battle with Bella Lingerie. Unfortunately, she hadn’t counted on Krista to be as strong-willed as she is. Krista listened very well to her complaint…and then unleashed a fury of professional debate like no other. She cited examples of “support for breast cancer victims” and the general need of lingerie in general. Krista is very well prepared for such an attack and she gave her side exceptionally well. So well,in fact, that the woman left in a bit of a huff with nothing more to add or complain about. We hope that she something more to think about rather than the relative “goodness” of women’s lingerie in public sight.

Awareness Training from the Gov

Olaf — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:16:33 +0000

If you’ve become a radiation mutant with a deformed hand, remember to close the window. No one wants to see that shit.

The U.S. government wants to teach its citizens about the threats and remediation measures necessary during a terrorist attack. To do so, they’re built Ready.gov to help out the American people. I can dig it, and besides the fact that most of the real meat of the site is obscured within downloadable PDF documents, the site looks pretty nice. A friend of mine, Amanda, delivered to me a “farkin’ hilarious” joke regarding this site. I investigated briefly and found no evidence of the truth in a relationship between the contents of the joke and the actual site. Maybe it was a previous attempt or maybe it was just a blatant attempt to fabricate a joke with believable basis that no one would actually check out the story. Either way, I don’t really care because the joke is farkin’ hilarious. If you’re not familiar with Darren’s Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness, you should fast become aware if you like this humor. In looking around at the Ready.gov site, I found the peculiarity of the Kids’ area kind of funny. The whole Mountain Lion family thing is just funny to me. Maybe it’s because the mom’s name is Purrcilla when we all new it should have been Cheetara.

**UPDATE:
I did eventually find the pictures used in this joke. They’re obscured within various PDF’s regarding America’s visual guides to biological, chemical, and other threats. It’s perhaps even funnier to see them used officially, because all you can think of is the humorous context.

Trash Trolls

Olaf — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 09:24:02 +0000

At the local dumpster facility, there’s a little house adjacent the compacter where, as Amy points out, there lives a little Trash Troll. When you show up with bundles of trash, the Trash Troll creeps out of his domicile and attacks you with riddles or simply thwarts your tribute of trash. Usually, I am thwarted by some specific riddle I am unable to complete. If I had great horns like the final goat in “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” I could eject the troll into the compacter. This past weekend however, the all powerful troll gave me pardon against his Trash Troll rules. It was a special day.

Doggone

Olaf — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 02:36:16 +0000

In an unfortunate turn of events, our Great Pyrenees – Yang – closed a chapter in her life and is no longer welcome in our household. She had growled at Amy a couple of times when she attempted to take trash Yang had dug out of the trash can. I made it clear that Amy was to disuade the dog from this behaviour, and be very forceful. She hadn’t done it to me until last night. Last night, I noticed she had something she shouldn’t and began my aggressive approach. Yang preempted me with an attack and grazed my leg where she left a very slight abrasion. I won’t tell you what commenced after that, but it’s safe to assume that Animal Rescue would not be happy. Regardless of my efforts, she was unphased by my return assault. She continued to exert quite an effort to show me who was top dog. I actually wrestled with this quite a bit today, because I realize she didn’t actually bite me at the beginning when she had the opportunity. A part of me wants to train her out of this behaviour, but another part of me fears for the safety of my family, who would not be as able as I in dealing with this large animal. With Balthazar, I cannot afford this chance and uncertainty. Amy and I can survive an attack; if it were only us I might try to go the discipline route.

The thought I put into this dilemna throughout the day led me to understand that I didn’t want her put down, nor do I want to relinquish her into unprepared hands. I talked to my mom about this and she’s going to take her back to the farm. On the farm, there are far fewer restrictions for which to tempt her into an aggressive stance. There’s also Yang’s mother who is quite willing to put Yang in her place on a daily basis until there’s an understanding. I think this will work out very well for her, and we’ll be able to visit her as often as we like. Balthazar will also get to continue visiting Yang which, while it may sound to the contrary, is important to me.

For those of you considering or already owning a Great Pyrenees, I’d like to remind you of something you should already know. The Great Pyrenees breed is instinctually prone to guard and kill. While generally fiercely devoted to its family or flock, they are still potentially aggressive animals and require dedication to their training. Like any large breed dog, you just need to watch for signs of trouble and react with conviction.

Kingdom of Loathing

Olaf — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:53:16 +0000

I’ve not written about it before, but the Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is the best piece of crap since Legend of the Red Dragon (LoRD) way back in BBS days. KoL is chocked full of PHP and MySQL goodness to bring forth one of the more entertaining web games out there. Your a stick figure in a ridiculous world of stick-like objects and other drawings by two-year-olds. The currency is meat and you may indeed wear a meat helmet. You can engage in PvP or simply quest your heart’s desires in the places like “South of the Border” where you most likely be attacked by a Waretaco and be rewarded with uncooked chorizo. To compete with the more financially-backed games such as World of Warcraft or Everquest 2, there are more socially acceptable forms of adventure in this game too. You may learn to mix drinks in KoL, where drinking is generally a good way to get further in the game and boost your stats while you’re at it. Or send you on your way in a drunken journey to flail about and make a general mockery of yourself. You could learn to cook, smith (yes, with meat), and ‘glue’ objects together – again, with meat. The bounty of humor is unending in the Kingdom of Loathing. I’m on my second character, the first having been deleted due to activity. Hopefully, I can keep Braunschweiger alive to reach KoL Ascension, whatever the hell that is. I just reached level 7 tonight, so things are on the up-and-up.

Web Sites for Artists at the Quinlan

Olaf — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 22:15:11 +0000

I’m putting together a class for the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville towards the end of this month. I’ll be focusing on web site development by more traditional means. I think a critical step often forgotten by developers is wire framing and white boarding. Web sites are visual, so you should attack them visually first to work out any potential pit-falls and usability issues. Having read “Dont Make Me Think” a while back, I’m also going to be including insight on the topic of usability. The book was an excellent read, and a quick one at that. I’ve also poured through various CSS design guides like the CSS Zen Garden and Eric Meyer’s great discoveries. This and my personal experience in website development has led me to conclude that many people are still missing a crucial step to the development process. Brainstorming is easy if you take the time to do it. The CSS guys out there understand this, but it took them many years to figure it out. If you think you could benefit from a more traditional approach to layout design, I think you’ll enjoy the class. It’s going to be February 25th, March 2nd, and March 9th (Tuesday) from 7:00pm-8:00pm. No computers are needed for the class – pen and paper only. Contact the Quinlan for information and registration.

Population Limiters in Effect

Olaf — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:08:56 +0000

I read Darren’s comments on an article regarding the cancer-causing agents in red meat. Not that anyone has said there are carcinogens in steak, but there seems to be some sort of accusatory game going on. I’m neither a vegetarian nor a carnivore, but rather what humans were meant to be; omnivores. Darren is too, actually – he just doesn’t partake in the bloody stuff. The way I see it, humans are beginning to hit their mortality rate limit. We live too long, and there are probably too many of us. Wars bring about a good amount of losses, though we’re getting better at those too. Gone are the days of World War II and its high-ranking monthly death toll. In an effort to cheat death to the end, the 80′s began a new era of investigating every cranny to find possible risks to mankind. There isn’t much these days that won’t give you cancer or give you a heart-attack eventually. I don’t know if our food has changed so drastically through time, if we’re just living longer / eating more and seeing the effects, or if nature has turned against us in order to stamp out the humanoid virus. Whichever it is, the end result is pretty much the same. We all die…eventually. Some Jedi wisdom for everyone out there:

“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

Protein Morsel

Olaf — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 13:14:19 +0000

Yang is our Great Pyrenees who came to us by way of Raven’s death a few months ago. She shares many characteristics with Raven. Some are exact opposites, while others are very similar. The opposing qualities we toss off to the fact that she is Yang, while Raven was the Yin. One such similar trait is her love of bugs. That is, her love of bugs as a crunchy treat. Yang attacked a very large, flying beetle the other night. It had large-ish looking mandibles and long, segmented antennae. I was pretty impressed with her carefree attack on the imposing bug. She played around with it for a little while, but finally ate the juicy half of it. The business end remained on the floor for me to pick up.