Two Moves Deep

Posted by Ace on June 15th, 2009 filed in letters from Ace
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So…

If Skynet actually succeeded in exterminating the human race, what would it do then?


And the Winner is…

Posted by Ace on June 14th, 2009 filed in letters from Ace
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… the Dell XPS730x.  Intel i7-940 cpu running at 2.9 ghz, with 6 gigs of RAM and an ATI Radeon 4870×2 GPU.  Which admittedly is not an Nvidia dual-card sli or ATI Crossfire set-up.  Still, I should be able to levitate the house, provided I don’t blow the whole grid when I turn it on.

It’ll arrive around the 25th.


Familiar Scene

Posted by Ace on June 12th, 2009 filed in letters from Ace
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Unemployed again (yawn).  Domo arigato to Scotto-san, who alone among my (former) co-workers sent me on my way with a big ol’ can of Sapporo Reserve (currently in my glass, and in my hand.)  Here’s to me for a job well done.

No computer yet.  Alienware is out.  Now it’s a fight between a Dell XPS and a Mac Pro…


Battling Entropy II: End of an Era

Posted by Ace on June 7th, 2009 filed in letters from Ace
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My beloved desktop Heart Reborn, the system I purchased to allow Faye to do her classwork so very long ago, the one on which I catalogued all my linking books, the one that dragged me kicking and screaming step by step into the 21st century (and yes, the one that we cleaned all that Virtumonde off of) is dead.  Passed on.  Shuffled off this mortal coil.  Run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ Choir Invisible.  Some time during the previous weekend (apparently) a power surge hit the surge protector, blew it out, and still had enough left-over oomph to blow the capacitors on the mother board.  How it managed to do this without frying every other piece of hardware in the immediate vicinity, I have no idea, but in any event, the system no longer produces any response to the toggling of the power switch except the Flashing Amber Light of Death.  And it has been examined by knowledgeable, relatively disinterested third-parties, who tell me that no, it’s not the PSU, and no, it’s not the system battery, and while it would be possible for them to replace the mother board, their usual advice under such circumstances is to get a new computer.  So until that time, I have been reduced to Opal’s laptop, and Heart Reborn has become a rather large, somewhat nostalgic doorstop.

I’m thinkin’ Alienware.

Am also taking suggestions for good names for the new system.  (And award yourself 10+2 extra geek points if you know where the name Heart Reborn came from.)