Refurbished

This came a little later than I first expected and a little sooner than I then expected. You see, in May or then abouts I figured I'd change computers in late june or possibly early July. Then, in late June, I figured the end of the Summer would be a good time. Not much later I was advised to wait until the end of the year, for the price drop in quad core processors, and much as I accepted said advice, I was fairly sure I would do no such thing in December, and January would be right out of the issue, with Exam season and what not, and even February didn't seem too likely... Then fate took all my decisions for me.

About a week ago I came back from vacation and found my computer to be inopperative. One long beep followed by a few short beeps during post suggested my graphics adapter was shot. A few tries later, after checking that the gigantic GeForce 7800 GTX SLI was propperly inserted, the cooling fans started to sound rather slow and the leds weren't quite as bright, which made me think the power unit was about to kick the bucket. Sure enough, I could have replaced those parts, but I figured, "Now is as good a time to change as any other." Sure, in just a few short months Quad core processors will be much cheaper and some new and exciting advent of technology will make current technology obsolete and I really should wait, but you know what, in a few more months from then some other sort of processor will become much cheaper and some other new and eciting technology will mane the new and exciting technology we are now expecting obsolete. So I figure any time os a great time to change. So I did.

And so I'm now runnig test running my new custom machine. At first I thought I'd splurge a little (more) and go all out on an Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme processor, but I figured I'd never be able to afford the harware to fully enjoy that, so I settled for a Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHZ with a 1333 MHz FSB. With the same clock frequency as the Quad core I'd get, it will, most likely, perform much better for the price (much less than a third), since I don't really run anything that takes advantage of multiple cores. After that was settled, the Asus P5K-E Motherboard was quite the natural choice, as were the twin Western Digital 500 GB SATAII hard disks, for a mean SATA RAID Type 0, because you really can't enjoy a wicked fast processor without a wicked fast data storage such as a RAID device. 4 GB RAM might seem a bit wasteful, since I'm running a 32 bit system (I experimented with 64 bits systems with my Athlon 64 FX. Nothing great about it.), but Linux can index it all, even if Windows can only index just over 3 GB. The active cooler I got for it, in addition the passive coolers it came with (Corsair stuff, they go all out to keep it cool) might have been a little much, but the price was quite right. I only had half a mind to change my graphics card, but since the one I had could be bust anyway, in came a XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 768 MB GDDR3. Talk about huge, I've seen entire computers smaller than that thing (think PDAs). And before you go on rambling about ATI cards, great though they may be, and ATI Crossfire technology, great though it might seem, remember only that Linux doesnt always fare as well with ATI cards, and Crossfire, just like SLi, looks great on paper, and you think you can always get a card just like the one you have when they're dirt cheap instead of a whole new card, but by the time you would, it just might be time for a full upgrade (just like this). The case I had only haf a mind to change, since my minitower proved to be a bit awkward at times, not really providing much room to fir components or to circulate air, so in came a brand new aluminium case. I could barely believe how light it is, when I first took it, I honestly thought it to be an empty shell. It is most definitely the coolest case I've ever had, not the least reason for it that it comes with 3 cooling fans: one intake fan in front, near the disk drives, one exhaust fan, in the back, just beneath the power supply unit, for good air flow, and yet another rail mounted 120 mm fan level with the graphics adapter. Throw in a waterpipe CPU heatsink with it's own 120 mm fan, the 120 mm fan from the power supply unit and the three 40 mm fans from the memory cooler and it is definitely the most well refirgerated computer I ever had, surpassing its predecessor by about four fans.

On the down side, recent motherboards only have one IDE channel, meaning I no longer have a four optic drive extravaganza, but two will do just as well. And it's two less components generating heat inside the case. AS soon as I have money I must remember to get me one of those nifty extra long and cylindrical, as opposed to flat, IDE cables, because the one I have now kind of looks like it could disrupt the optimal airflow the good people at F13 PC went to great lengths to ensure would be spotless.

But, you know, performance isn't all there is to it. After most of the Summer "making do" with a laptop keyboars and the extra, unexpected week of waiting to get my hands on my very wierd looking bent and crooked ergonomic keyboard, this feeling of being back on the saddle cannot be put into words. Meaning I could wrap up this entry here, but no, this feels good. I must have more of this! Plenty more! Welcome to the unsurpassable Wall of Tai Ping! Ha ha.

Our Russian readers may be assured this Great blog is as you read assessing your mood, gathering physiological data about you and asserting your personality, because in Soviet Rossya, blog reads YOU!! This has geen a guest intervention by Russian Reversal.

How many of you remember "Knight Rider"? Did you know the concept derived from a mock pitch dubbed "The Six Words Man"? The pitch was for a show about a man who, at the start of each episode, would get out of bed, turn to the woman therein and say "Thank you". Upon recieving orders from his boss, he'd say "Okay". Somewhere along the episode, he'd threaten the baddies with "Freeze!", and, at the very end, upon being thanked by the damsel in distress no more, he'd say "You're Welcome", and leave all the talking to the car. The finished product has more than six words (most of which are either "buddy" or "pal", refering to the "suaver"-than-thou car), but the talking car concept remains. Did you know they are still going to make the feature film? Expected to be released in mid 2008, the Knight Rider movie may or may not take place in the same continuity as the Knight Rider show from the 80's (not too likely), and definitely does not take place it the same continuity as the Knight Rider 2000 movie (which does, however, take place in the same continuity as the show... wierd...), will feature a black car (not red, Knight Rider 2000) with a red scanner (remember the iconic red scanner, Knight Rider 2000?), the ability to Turbo Boost (as if anything could replace that... I mean, what would one come up with, turning into a boat?) and will not be named KIFT (because that would be silly, wouldn't it, Knight Rider 2000?). Oh, and have you ever heard of a Knight Rider 2010 moive? Spare yourself, there is nothing Knight (or Rider, for that matter) about it. Remember always that a talikng car a Knight Industries does not make. I mean, Inspector Gadget (the film featuring Matthew Broderick) ahd a talking car, but it made no such claims.

Psyched? Let's see a teaser trailer:

                                    Movie not loading...

Right, it's much too soon for a teaser trailer. Let's see a teaser poster isstead:



Like that? Don't think the new KITT is too rounded? Let's take a closer look:



How about it? Like that? Well, don't get excited, it's fake as a €3,00 bill.

See for yourself, straight from Koenigsegg Official site, a picture of the CCX supercar:



See the similarities? The author of the so-called Teaser poster had admitied to making the fake poster as a joke. Not half bad, however.

It should be noted that the movie is being considered since 2004, but, then again, lest we forget, the domain www.simpsonsmovie.com has been registred since circa 1997, when there was nary an inkling towards a feature Simpsons movie. Patience, Grasshopper.

And, should you be curious about it, this won't be a reboot or a continuation, at least not quite. The movie is, confirmedly, going to be set in present day and age, not the 80's, and won't feature a Pontic Trans Am as per the 80's show, not the least reason for it that Pontiac Won't allow it and that it only allows replicas to be used in television or movies for parody purposes. This will be a reimaging on the show.

Psyched now? Remeber the Battlestar Gallactica (also from Glen A. Larson's mind) movies? Liked the new sexy model Cylons and the new plot? No? Well good, because it seems very few people did, their creators included. Glen Larson himself did just about all he could to distance himself from that, but he is spearheading the Knight Rider movie project and writing the script himself according to his own and original vision (not the "Six Words Man"!), not the crappy plots of the TV "movies" or Knight Rider 2000 (which kind of resembles the plot of Robocop, in a way...) or even Team Knight Rider (Ugh! What the hell was that about?).

If you can read this, it is possible that you have little or no life. Yet I congratulate you on your endurance.

Pax vobiscum atque vale.

ArabianShark really missed his keyboard. All is well now.

Trust Doesn't Rust

... is arguably the best episode of long gone but never forgotten 1980s show Knight Rider, the one that featured not one but two shiny black nigh-omnipotent supercars, punctuated with humorous remarks from the good trans am, the Knight Industries Two Thousand, or KITT, for short, such as "That car is going to give Trans Am a bad reputation...", humurous misunderstanding driven questions from the evil prototype, the Knight Automated Roving Robot, who would allow you to call him KARR, such as "I saw you deactivate your Tony. Was he malfunctioning?", and the cant-do-without presence of Michael Knight, boasting the indispensable black leather jacket and somewhat exagerated curls, seasoned with his own brand of attitude, not the least of which towards the dignified, if pompous, figure of Devon Miles and the ever imminent romantic leaning towards the pretty face in front of the big brains of Bonnie Barstow. But Im sure you don't think I'm here to talk about that.

I have trust issues. Difficulty to trust someone is quite the most prominent issue, but certainly not the only one. See, I used to be the blind trust type, never - I mean never - ever pausing to reflect whether my trust was ever misplaced. As a kid, that got me in trouble all the time. So now I have a hard time placing more than just a smidgeon of trust in anyone, really. But the worst issue still seems to be that whenever I manage to overcome the previous issue, I still find my trust to be misplaced. It just snowballs from there. But I'm not here to talk about myself either.

Trust is quite the strange thing. It can take eons to build, but even the so-deemed strongest of trusts may be shattered by a single deed. Sad though it may be that, in a moment of distraction, irreflection, poor foresight or, on the other hand, anger or hurt, a single deed may raze what might have taken forever to raise. But saddest of all is that said deed need not be done at all.

I don't mean that a deed done by innaction, or, thus, the lack of a deed might break one's long since trust. I mean that suspicion, needingly paired with stubbornness, might make one see beyond what has been done and what might have been done and into what hasn't been done and wouldn't be done, and the deed undone, which would, no doubt destroy one's trust in another when done, will do so just as well iven if not done. The operative word, of course, being suspicion. Sure, hard-headedness cannot be dispensed with, but tolerated, if not for suspicion.

Hence my thought: Trust is a thing too fickle to have, even if one cant do without it. To deposit in someone more thrust than they reciprocate can much too easily lead to hurt feelings when they become assured they've been wronged in ways you'd never dream of, let alone even consider, but how does one assess another's trust without testing it?

Pax vobiscum atque vale.

ArabianShark wonders if any such thing as a a capella version of the Knight Rider theme can be had. And don't get started on the infamous dubbing of "A Super Máquina!" Herbert & Richards...

Clubbing

from to club

       verb;

       To beat with a heavy stick, usually thicker at one end, suitable to be used as a weapon.

Good to know, but certainly not what I mean.

Remeber Pac-Man? Little round chap, wandering about dark rooms filled with bright white spots where loud, electronic, repetitive music could be heard, avoiding phantoms like entities? I can empathise abit right now.

My head is buzzing, but not swimming. It might account for any unusual degree of uncommoness about this post. Bear with me. Like you always do, friends dearest.

There's this friend of mine I've known since... 1995! Feels so long ago now, but I still remember how we first met and how we became such friends. I mean, such good friends. We kept really close until about 2002. Then college, the best thing to ever happen to me though it may be, put an end to many good things I had going on. It did make us a bot apart, but it takes more than a highly (un)organised and quite powerful teaching institution to break such friends apart for good. This week I thought I'd look him up and get together. We did.

Tonight, he invited me to go clubbing (no, not bludgeoning) with him. I did. It was (is, really) so not me, to go clubbing, and to that point, we realised, each holding a glass of crushed ice, lime and liquor that in the 12 years we've known each other, we had never gone for a night out together.

And what do I have to show for it? The music reminded me of my Philosophy final paper, back in 2001 (long as hell, but saying barely anything. Worth an A-. 19 out of 20, that was). The people around I had never met, might never meet again and if I do, I won't know it, and I don't much care for drinking; two shots to make minimum consumption and a Caipiroska (lime juice, sugar and vodka, shaken with crushed ice, in the very odd chance you're wandering) can't really make my head feel lighter or any such effect, but the music did a bit of a number on my ears. For a while, that was.

My final account? Best night of the whole Summer. As per Austin Danger Powers, KBE's immortal words, "Yeah, baby!" So I'm pretty tired and I feel somewhat "busted up", mainly beacuse I was feeling a bit under the weather to begin with this morning, but I don't recall ever being happier these last few months year. Sure, I could not be going to bed alone, but, then again, I could be obscenely wealthy, live in a white marble manor just outside London with a full complement of serving staff waiting on my hand and foot for my every desire, have a British Racing Green Jaguar XJ8 Sovereign LWB (for a quiet, comfortable drive) and a Plate Jaguar XJK (for a spirity drive) in my garage and shelter a dozen gorgeous and sculptural raving nymphomaniacs head over heels in love with me, but often that which we most ardently desire might stop us from enjoying that which we do have. (meaning, of course, "Not going to happen, old chap, carry on".)

Pax vobiscum atque vale.

ArabianShark wishes to apologise for attempting to mislead his faithful readers into shedding some e-blood for his own profit. But you're all still welcome to keep donating.

Speaking of nibbles...

I wonder if I can recruit your help with a small favour...

I ask for no money (but, needless to say, if you want to give it...), just a morsel of your time.
Shady dealings ahoy...
Were I to provide a link, would you click it? Note, said link has my personal guarantee of carrying no mailce. It's appropriate for adults, thoug not X-rated. It's appropriate for very small enfants, for it contains no small pieces which may be inhaled, an thus poses no choking hazard. It's appropriate for teens. This is truly a family link, and I don't mean it in the way that The Sound of Music is a family film. This link may be enjoied equally by the whole family.

Would you click it?

If you would, then here it is:

Link!

And, sure enough, if you wouldn't, I'll provide something else, just for you:

Alternate Link! Which just happens to be the same...

So... if everyone's had enough links...

Pax vobiscum atque vale.

ArabianShark is done linking here for today. Check back regularly for links of similar and far better quality.