GeekTek

And so it is that I am once again away from home and on the road for work. As expected, I am in Charlotte, NC. It's nice down here, not cold -atleast not to a Michigander- though it did manage to rain a bit today.
After returning home on Saturday, I leave again for New York for an autoshow there. That is from Apr 10-24th, therein meaning I will miss: A) my wife's birthday, B) Easter, C) and the Boxheads LAN Party. Though I am going through LAN withdrawl, I am least happy about not being home for Tracy's b-day.
Pending roadtrips include, unless they get cancelled like Vegas, are:
- Some type of event at Atlanta MotorSpeedway for 2 weeks, and it's not a race weekend. Could be an autoshow there?
- Setting up the cars at Darlington Raceway, and yes, it's during race weekend.

Anyhow

I found a fix for FlatOut, or rather for the Athlon x2's. It seems there was a driver that I missed on AMD's website, and it cured FlatOut's glitching, and boosted BF2 even more. When I get some time at home, I intend to finalize the new build and give it a more thorough testing. I still need one piece of hardware to get the computer completed to where I want it: an IDE to SATA converter for my second 200 Gig storage drive. That drive has many game images on it that are required for certain games to function, as well as some useful applications and some movies as well. Having 2 optical drives and 2 hard drives already plugged in, all the IDE ports are taken. There are 4 SATA ports available though... and $15 for an adaptor is easier than $105 for a new SATA drive...
It's true I also want a black colored DVD-ROM and a black DVD-RW to match the black case, but the beige ones still function quite well. Though I guess they could function just as well back in the computer I just upgraded from if I got the black drives, then I would have 2 fully functional Athlon 64 systems :)

Well, time to go for now. I am off to try to find some sleep.

Long time no update.
Though, there really isn't much to update on. I have been back from Florida for nearly 2 weeks now, awaiting my next assignment from the boss. That will probably be a trip back to Charlotte, NC again for more warehouse work. There may be more news to report on the job front in the coming week...

Oh, and apparently my last post was #100. Yay, or something. I didn't think I had put that much crap up, but aparently I have :/

Also, I may have found something to cure my addiction to the game FlatOut. Unfortunately it might be my new computer. I just built a new system consisting of:
An AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+
A DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D
And a shiny new GeForce 7900 GT OC from BFG.
An OCZ 520W Modstream PSU
1GB of OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum
And a slick Cooler Master Centurion 532 case.

Gotta love tax season :) Pictures to be taken sometime I am sure.
Like I mentioned though, it does not seem to like FlatOut, or Battlefield 1942 much, as it either freezes them, or crashes straight out. Bouv from the Boxheads told me a trick about telling the game to run on only one of the cores, which worked for the most part. However, this needs to be done everytime you run the game, which might prove a tad annoying.
Other than that, newer games such as Battlefield 2 run frickin' sweet.

*Note, the afore mentioning of the computer was not intended by any means as a boast or to show off. I, being a Geek, am just, well, geeked about having it.

Have also watched the latest Harry Potter movie and found it to be fairly decent. A fair bit like the book, though slightly different. Such as, Mad Eye seems a bit too nice, given the description from the book.

On a completely different note, I am enjoying much quality time with my family while I am home. And there was much rejoicing.

Until next time, whenever that might be.
Take care.

Today was almost a bit too warm here in Orlando, got to 85F today, but still rather be too warm then be in the cold. Have had some fun here too. Since the place we are putting the cars wasn't totally ready for us, we've had some free time. Don't get me wrong we have been doing work, just not as much as we could be. For one, the building doesn't have power of it's own yet... So we can't set the cars in position yet, and the testing of computers and projectors has been done via extention cord to the adjacent building.
So I have got to experience "driving" these air-powered dragsters at Gforce. One word: WOW! Sure, they are air-powered and on a rail, but you go from 0-110 MPh in like 2 seconds, and back to 0 in about 1 second. They have a good name in Gforce too, at launch you do about 4.5G's. You are pushed back in the seat the entire 1/8th mile. It's a rush like nothing most civilians can match. Navy pilots experience the same thing on lauch/landing on an aircraft carrier.
Today we played mini golf at Pirates Cove, and it was hilarious. It was myself, my friend Rich, Anthony from New York, Kerry from Minnesota, and Randall from all over the place. And when you get that many crazy people in the same place, hilarity can ensue.

There has also been a change in the travel plan: Vegas isn't happening anymore. It was revealed to us the place in Vegas we were to have set up was actually at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, from March 10 thru 12. Yep, that's also the weekend of the NASCAR race in Vegas. So I was stoked to be at the track during race weekend. Then they tell us it's an outside setup in a big tent, like a circus tent with no sides. On the grass infield. Problems with this setup: Outside in the desert; in a tent; nothing to anchor the simulators to on the ground as you cannot bolt into dirt well; and no way to secure the site at night, as there are no doors/walls. We let the folks putting the show on this was a very not good idea, and they canceled it. So it looks like I will be here in sunny Florida an extra week finishing up (hopefully) this set up.
As much as I am enjoying the work and weather, I am also missing my wife and kids alot too, so I will be glad to get back to chilly Michigan.

Well, that seems to be all I have for now.
Take care y'all.