found_drama

Gizmodo writes of Apple’s new G5 iMac…:

I thought this picture from the floor in Paris does a lot better job of illustrating what the new iMac G5s look like in real life than Apple’s product images.

This (of course?) hammers home but one point to me: Is this not currently the smallest 64-bit processor computer on the market today? Now, assuming the Screen Spanning Doctor applies to this model (”already” or “soon enough”, take your pick), this might very well become a front-runner as the most desirable computer on the market. As some have already noted…

Call me paranoid, but for some reason this feels a lot like posting the “names, address and phone numbers” of abortion clinic doctors.

1. open up the box again.
2. re-seat problematic PCI cards.
3. re-start
4. bask in operation glory.
5. hang head in shame for not seating the cards properly in the first f%*#ing place.

Thanks (again?) to SG for that insight on the power supply. Couldn’t have gotten even this far w/o a fresh pair of eyes (even if you are basically just working w/ one right now…) And so in a way we’re in better shape than we were before. And in another, entirely different way, we’re worse off.

Detonator-3 is back on line and powered up and booted up and running. The innards are secured (some pieces secured for the first time since installation) and the machine is operational in its minimal capacity. i.e., we can exchange files, send/rcv email, and otherwise do the network ish one expects out of a machine that is doing double-duty as a desktop PC and server.

Of course, no project like this is w/o a few bumps in the road, right? For whatever reason…

• only one of two USB ports is working (not totally confirmed yet — but TFG for hubs)
• the sound card has disappeared from the device manager (and its driver doesn’t even waste its time in loading from what i can tell)
• the Firewire card is only half working… (dig this! plugging a Firewire device into one of the open ports gets power but the device never shows up on the system (e.g., an iPod will charge but doesn’t show up as a mounted drive in iTunes or in the filesystem)

So yeah, a nice little triumverate of left-over troubleshooting to keep me busy until… Well, at least I’m not bored.

Spamusement! Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!
Thanks PG!

The power button or the power supply? The power button or the power supply? The power button or the power supply? The front panel pins or the whole damn mainboard? The front panel pins or the whole damn mainboard? The front panel pins or the whole damn mainboard? The front panel pins or the whole damn mainboard? Busted LEDs or no-goodnik wires? Busted LEDs or no-goodnik wires? Busted LEDs or no-goodnik wires? The processor or the front-side bus? The processor or the front-side bus? The processor or the front-side bus? The power button or the power supply? The power button or the power supply? The power button or the power supply?

if it ain’t one thing, it’s always another

UPDATE: moderate success

2004-08-29 21:58

Detonator-3 gets new life in a new case. Too bad the frustration turned out to be from a bunk power supply in the new case. (Hence having to use the failing power supply from the old chassis to use until I can jam down to the store for an exchange…)

Microsoft announces Longhorn will hit is 2006 target release but at a price. It will ship minus WinFS.

While a major file system overhaul should be a part of any seminal release, this is the part I find fishy:

The new file system, based on database software architecture aimed at making it easier for users to find information stored on hard drives, will be shipped later, with a test, or beta version, of WinFS shipping along with Longhorn in 2006.

…easier for users to find information stored on hard drives… ??? Call me an anal-retentive organization snob but why not just clean up after yourself and use a smart, predictable, logical system that you know and love and use on a regular basis. If you’re going to dump every document that you’ve ever written into ‘My Documents’ then perhaps you have a whole separate set of problems…

Next up!? WinCVS for all your letters-written-to-grandma needs!

It’s strangely refreshing to know that I’m not the only one ‘discovering’ New Wave two decades late. My quest for Depeche Mode LPs seems somehow vindicated.

For those not already using Quicksilver… WTF is wrong w/ you!?!? I was resistant to its alluring hype for a while. “Command-Space!? Who cares?” Oh, but you will care! Maybe I just didn’t read the fine-print of all those rave reviews but for whatever reason, I kept thinking that each time you invoke the little app, it was having to search your filesystem for whatever it is that you’re looking for. Ha! That wouldn’t be elegant, now would it? Instead, we have this truly kick-ass, totally transparent application that indexes your apps (and a few other, frequently used items (like Applescripts)) for rapid fire access. Firefox? No problem! command-space … f … i … GOT IT!! Why bother having anything in the Dock anymore? I’ve been stripping stuff out one icon at a time these days. At this point, it’s strictly a matter of aesthetics as to who gets to stay…

I need more time to read this. I don’t need more time to know how I feel about the first third…

…she detailed the peccadilloes of the men she said were her six current sexual partners, including a married Bush administration official who met her in hotel rooms and gave her envelopes of cash; a senator’s staff member who helped hire her, then later bedded her; and another man who liked to spank and be spanked…

In a culture increasingly nervous about its own values, numbly sinking into the sofa at night to watch trash reality TV shows and wondering if our own 14-year-old sons and daughters are casually “hooking up,” it’s satisfying to have a bona fide blog slut to flog. Fuck you, Washington. Fuck you, America. Fuck you, “married Bush administration official who met her in hotel rooms and gave her envelopes of cash”.

But the real question the scan raises is: Are sexual ethics deprecated? Or more pertinent than ever?

“Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people are naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticise others’ shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. For, you see, even if there is no right and wrong, you can find grounds to criticise another person by contrasting what he has espoused with what he has actually done. In this case, you are not making any judgment whatsoever as to the correctness of his views or the morality of his behaviour—you are merely pointing out that he has said one thing and done another…

–Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age