Connection Re-Established
posted by Norm on October 12th, 2005 • filed under General
I yet live, although the site itself very nearly didn’t thanks to my chronic apathy and procrastination. Yes, it was down over the weekend (along with my e-mail, which I finally received yesterday) and Monday, not through any fault of my host but because I didn’t bother to renew my contract with them. On the plus side, this did result in me picking up an extra three free months with my new lease because they suspected that I might be leaving. Once again, my bullheaded stupidity results in a windfall that will convince me to keep being dumb for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, classes continue to attempt to kill me but so far they have not succeeded – with the possible exception of Algorithms. Not because I can’t handle the class but more because I simply haven’t; there is just too much to take care of right now and there isn’t enough time to do so. I will be dropping it for the second time, which gives me great pain but will probably save my semester in the long run.
As for what affect this may have on my graduation plans is as yet unclear. My final degree audit is scheduled for tomorrow and I’ll know for sure then. If everything goes according to a best-case scenario I will be out of here at the end of the spring semester. If not I will need to stick around to take a class or two for the summer. In fact, even if I theoretically can fit everything into the spring it might not be a great idea – eighteen credits of senior-level courses is generally not an excellent idea.
In any case I’m back and considerably more mentally balanced than I was a week ago, no thanks to life which continues to throw curve balls at my head.
I have become an excellent ducker, though.
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It’s Like 90 In Computer Years
posted by Norm on October 13th, 2005 • filed under General
I really want to upgrade my computer.
It’s an irrational desire and I know it, but nonetheless it is a powerful urge that is difficult to resist. The system as it is was essentially constructed three years ago, with only a minor re-tooling about a year and a half ago to get rid of a gimpy motherboard that was constantly causing device conflicts. I suppose I could argue that it’s about time but, really, I don’t do enough PC gaming anymore to easily justify the expenditure.
What makes it worse is that there is no way to spread out the cost of an upgrade – because various technologies have come and gone in the intervening years I’ve now got to replace the video card, motherboard and CPU all at once. Any one of them alone would probably be affordable and would make a significant difference, but of course that is not possible. The only upgrade I can make without initiating a chain reaction is my hard drive, the component least likely to offer any real net performance gains.
On the other hand, my hard drives are also my biggest concern at this time. Three years is a long time in the world of PC hardware, and hard drives aren’t exactly renowned for their longevity. Especially not when running in a raid array. The two I have now have served faithfully, but I have recently noticed that they seem to be louder during normal operation than I remember, which is often the first warning sign with aging disks.
I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, but that’s not so bad since I’ve been largely disconnected from the hardware scene for nearly two years now. If anyone has informed and intelligent suggestions as to what parts and manufacturers are currently held in high regard I would be grateful.
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