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Since upgrading my computer allows me to play some more recent games, I decided to have a go at Half Life 2. The game was all the hype when it came out, but at that time my computer could barely run it at crap settings, so I didn’t bother playing through it. Now playing a few hours of it at a time, I get very nauseous. I don’t know if it’s the game or me, but this hasn’t happened to me before, at least not this soon. I remember playing Quake for maybe 4 hours that made me feel a bit dizzy after, but never really made me feel nauseous. I’ve played Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, Halo, and others for hours on end with no major after effects. It seems like after 30-45 minutes of Half-Life 2 I start to feeling some nausea. I don’t know what it is, it’s strange as I thought I’m used to this stuff by now. Oh wait, that reminds me of Descent 3, I think I played it for 15 minutes and I felt really sick afterwards. I think that’s the only game to really do it to me. Strangely enough, I’ve also got it recently with Katamari Damacy. Maybe I’m just getting too old for these games.

I’m sure tired today. I’m still having trouble adjusting to a normal schedule after staying up late, waking up late for awhile. I only got 4 hours sleep today before I went to school. I’m registered for 5 courses right now (20 units), of which I originally planned to drop one of them. But I don’t know, I’m really considering just taking them all and working extra hard. But realistically, I don’t think I can do it. Still haven’t decided. I have until Friday to change my schedule. After school today, I went over to a school friend’s house to help him type up a later. He’s an international student, so his English isn’t that great. He took me out to dimsum afterwards, so it was all good. After that I had to go to the post office to ship out a bunch of packages. It must’ve been 9 packages I mailed out. I sold most of the Buffy season DVDs. Not because I don’t love it anymore, but I’m getting money to buy the complete box set. Considering I’m selling all 7 seasons for a total of $140, and buying the new set for $129.99, it’s not a bad idea. I got it from Amazon.com as it is the lowest price with free shipping. The set is pretty much the same discs as the current discs, only there’s an extra disc documetary, and a box for it to all go into. What can I say, I always want the updated and better versions of all my DVDs. I do this quite often as studios tend to release double-dip versions to get people like me to buy the movies again. I guess it works. More details about the set are here.

Speaking of these double dip DVDs. More and more have been coming out I’ve been noticing, and they been coming with silly version names tagged to them. Some of which include: Office Space - with More Flair Edition, Chicago - Razzle Dazzle Edition, Tommy Boy - Holy Schnike Edition, Clueless - Whatever! Edition, etc. I don’t mind better versions of DVD releases, especially when the original release is mediocre quality or lacked any extras, but I hate when they stick silly edition names with them.

In about 8 hours, I get up and go back to school. My 3 weeks off went by so fast, and I feel that I really didn’t take much advantage of it having fun. But surely those days of waking up in the afternoon will be missed. Although today is an afternoon class, MWF I start at 9, and I’m sure I’ll be grouchy.

Things a brewin’ lately with the recent Tokyo Game Show. Biggest news I suppose is the unveiling of the Nintendo Revolution controller. In case you missed it, read here. I really don’t know what to make of it. It’s not really revolutionary in technology as we have seen this before. There’s this ninja arcade game where you hold the sword and wave it accordingly to slash down your enemies. But perhaps extending this further into the home is revolutionary in a sense that it could possibly change how people game. I really doubt it. I just feel that I would rather sit back and relax with a controller to play rather than hold my arm out in front of me waving it around. I can’t really say I’m impressed by Nintendo’s move, but it’s pretty bold. It could really break them further in the console business.

Another big highlight for me is the first showing of Metal Gear Solid 4. This time it will appear on the PS3, and it just looks amazing. The trailer is just beautiful, almost to the point of disbelief. It’s a more futuristic world with a much older Snake, but it looks pretty intense.

After recently building a new computer for myself, I cleaned off my desk since I moved some stuff off anyway. I wiped out layers of filth and dust that was hidden behind everything. Tossed away a bunch of random papers and receipts I had lying around. The desk was clean, I rearranged some stuff to give myself some more room, and being proud of my cable hiding techniques inside my computer, I tried to do the same on my desk. I keep the surge protector on my desk because there was no easy way to keep it on the floor and bring these big adapters down there for devices I have on my desk. So it looked like this with my old computer and stuff on my desk. Now it’s like this after cleaning and new computer. See that surge projector and various cables? It really bugs me and I didn’t know how else to hide it besides… a box.

I wasn’t about to stop at just my physical desktop. Since I made a fresh install of Windows, my desktop environment was pretty stock and ugly. Spent some time fancying it up with skins, icons, resource hacks, widgets and such.

Finally finished setting up my new computer.

As you can see there are a lot of blue lights. The case has a bold design that some may not like. I chose this case based on reviews, cost, and features. It’s very easy to install things like the pci cards and hard drives without the use of any tools. The hard drive chamber slides out of the case and you twist in the big screws. There are also rubber washer deals that supposed to reduce the vibration of the hard drives. The round thing in the front is actually a real CD. The case comes with a blank DVD-R that is held in by the case, and you can remove and replace it with any disc if you choose to. The front opens in the middle to reveal the drives on the inside. I couldn’t find a silver DVD drive so it’s black.

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The side has a window for even more lights. The heatsink I got (Zalman 7000) has a blue LED fan, and the power supply also has a blue LED fan. The power supply also has power cables that glow when exposed to cold cathode light. So I bought some :).

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I spent a lot of time getting the cabling right. I wanted to hide as much of the wires and cables as possible to keep the inside neat and clean. It improves the airflow of the computer this way. I got a AMD Athlon 64 3200+, which runs at a default 2 ghz clock speed. I managed to overclock it to 2.5 ghz. Also in there is a Geforce 6800 GT and also space for a 2nd one if I choose to go SLI.

This computer is also very quiet, like 5 times more quiet than my previous machine. The fan on the cpu of the old machine was the main source of noise. This cool Zalman is very nice and quiet, and cools even better. But heatsinks are sure getting huge. I’ve seen some even larger. All in all, it’s pretty good, haven’t run into any problems yet. Let’s see how I do with the latest games. And finally Battlefield 2!!!

Here are more pics in the dark. Woo nightlight!
comp in the dark
comp in the dark 2

Four years ago, video game maker Square created a feature film called Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It was the first real attempt by anyone to create an entirely computer generated movie and make it look photo realistic. Square formed a movie studio called Square Pictures and poured in hundreds of millions of dollars to create the visual masterpiece. Unfortunately, the movie failed in theaters and the company was in danger. Many say the failure was due to a bland story line, or the departure from the fantasy setting for science fiction, or just simply not being animated enough. Square Pictures was shut down shortly after completing their work on the Animatrix short, Final Flight of the Osiris. Years later Square has recovered with successful releases and a merger with another game company Enix. Now, years after their previous blunder and with the momentum of recent success, Square Enix has released another feature film. This time directly tied to a video game, Final Fantasy VII.
… continue reading this entry.

So I made most of my purchases for my new computer rig. It was hard work doing the research on what’s new these days, and then debating over which ones to get. I was stuck on mostly the processor, graphics card, and case. It was either get a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice chip and try my luck at overclocking it, or spend way too much on the X2 3800+ dual core processor. After much deliberation, I decided I don’t really need dual cores and I could save 200 bucks. But I can still dream what it would be like multitasking on that bad boy. Next was the graphics card. It all came down to price. Was I willing to pay more than 300? Simply, no. So I passed on getting the newest generation of cards from nVidia: the 7800 GT and GTX. I opted for the 6800 Gt. I purchased the Evga brand as they have a “step-up” program that lets you trade the value of your purchase towards an upgraded card. I don’t know if I would use it or not, as it has a 90 day limit from date of purchase, but it’s nice to know that I can.

The case was probably the hardest decision. I got it down to the Thermaltake Tsunami and Thermalrock Eclipse. I chose the Eclipse based on this review round up. I think the Tsunami looks better, but I hear it is very noisy, and the Eclipse has a lot of easy to use features. I just hope I don’t regret it when I see it in person.

Here is everything I got:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ “Venice” processor
MSI K8N Neo4 SLi Platinum motherboard
1 GB OCZ EL Platinum rev. 2 memory
320 GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive
Thermalrock Eclipse case
OCZ Modstream 520w power supply
Zalman 7000 AlCu heatsink/fan
eVga nVidia Geforce 6800 GT 256 MB
NEC 3540a DVD burner

Purchases were made through 4 different online stores to maximize savings. Total came to about 1200, yikes. That’s excluding rebates, which I think amounts to about 40 dollars.

Grades came in for the quarter I just completed:
CS 480 - Software Engineering: C+
CS 301 - Numerical Methods : C
CS 365 - Computer Architecture: C+
MAT 208 - Linear Algebra: B+

Most were expected except for Software Engineering, I was sure I was going to get a B or better. My friend in the class got a B and I did better than him on the midterm. Everything else should be the same, we have the same group project together, did all the same homework. I don’t see how he got a B and I got a C+. I think the professor is getting clumsy and giving out random grades. I’ll be sure to complain to him and make him show me how he added up the grades. I also should’ve gotten an A in my Math class, but I felt I kinda messed up the final, and I guess I did. So it brings me down to a B+, oh well. I’m not happy with my grades, and I put all the blame on the professors. They suck, and that’s that.

As I partake further into the ways of capitalism, I came home today with some purchases. Bought a couple cheap DVDs and the God of War game for PS2. Played about 2 1/2 hours of it, and I love it. It’s ultra violent and not frustratingly difficult. I will probably finish it within this week. I also got the go ahead to purchase a new computer, as my brother will need a computer of his own as he starts school tomorrow. Spend spend spend. I just think of it this way: I’m helping our economy.

Being a full time student will no real job other than ebaying my useless stuff around the house, I am unable to buy much of the things I want. All summer long I’ve been looking at deals for laptop computers and components to build a new desktop computer. There was a sweet Dell deal on laptops that I tried real hard to resist. My brother’s crappy computer doesn’t work anymore so we’re always fighting over my computer. Another computer or two in the house will come in handy, but I really shouldn’t. I already owe a bunch of money and I shouldn’t spend at all. Another thing I’ve been wanting is a new desk and new television. I have a crappy 20″ TV that bleeds colors that’s been here for many years. I would love to upgrade it to a nicer widescreen, not that big still less than 30″ but maybe HD. Of course to do that, I would need more space, which I would probably need a new desk to manage. I’ll also need money on top of that. So most likely I won’t be getting any of this unless I get a sudden urge to splurge and let my credit card eat it. It’s really dumb, but sometimes you just want to enjoy life. If any, I’ll probably build a new desktop computer as it seems the most feasible option and most needed. Then comes the dilemna of what basic components I need, or what I really want. We’ll see if I end up getting a 100 dollar graphics card or a 300+ one :P.