Uggh...

My desktop is no longer functional. It POSTs, but goes nowhere else after that. Hopefully, the power supply is bad, considering its age, uptime, and load levels it's not surprising it failed. I bought the thing sometime in 2010 and running since. When I get back to working a reliable schedule that purchase will be #1 on my list. Number 2 on my list of things to get is a new TV. My monitor is dying a slow painful death. What you see is, what I can only describe, a digital noise pattern when turned on that fades after a while. All of my computing tasks now rest on MiniMe. Stay tuned for more news.

I'm tired!

For the past 18 hours, I've been doing hard drive cloning, using the unix command, dd, putting higher capacity hard drives in both MiniMe and DrEvil, the desktop. The cloning process took a little more than than 4 hours. DrEvil now has 2 terabytes of space at 6 Gb/s. MiniMe's getting a 1 terabyte hard drive at 3 Gb/s. The hard drive in MiniMe that will be replaced is a pokey 1.5 Gb/s. I'll be back as soon as this fragging operation is done.

Owwie!

The Dreamcast controllers hurt. I have to hold them in the weirdest position. Playing Death Crimson OX with out a gun controller does not help, but the controls for, well, a controller are a little odd for a seasoned gamer like me. Now, with modern games one or more of the shoulder buttons are allocated to shooting. With this game "A" is used, rather than the more sensible "R" trigger. Where this control scheme hurts is about 2-3 inches above my wrists. Now, I don't have that many games to test out for different control schemes. I have 9 games, hardly a decent sample size to test. Sometime next month, I'll pick up Soul Calibur 1 for the ol' Dreemie and really see how comfortable the controller is, if the stock controller turns out to be the problem, I'll see about shopping around for a more comfortable controller. In closing, I might get some mileage out of this thing. I just don't know. See ya.

So close...

...I can just hear it. My keyboard will be here in about 12 hours. USB cable:√ Keyboard to PC audio cable:√ Sustain pedal:√. Let's get this party started.

STATUS:HISTORICAL

My support for Windows XP has officially ended. Tomorrow, I'm depositing Christmas loot and the next day, ordering new music keyboard. The only reason I was holding onto XP was an old driver acting as the keyboard.

Intresting development...

I inherited a sizable haul of Dreamcast paraphernalia. In this package: 4 controllers, 8 games, 1 demo disc, 1 AV cable, 2 RF switches, a VMU, a tremor pak, and a useless gun controller with ripped apart buttons. One of the RF switches has all of the AV port pins populated. I plan on using that connector by building a universal AV cable out of it. Off to Play n Trade tomorrow to pick up a Dreamcast to see what works. See ya! Turns out in the haul was was a Dreemy. A really filthy one. So, out comes the screwdrivers, take it apart, sponge, dish liquid, rinse, done! Just need some WD-40 to get rid of tape residue from the cover failing to close. Fixed that while I was at it.

Days, numbered.

My support for Windows xp will officially end sometime in 2013. Why? I will be acquiring a new keyboard. At which point WinXP mode will be uninstalled for my desktop and notebook PC's. The reason for needing XP? Yamaha's XG player only supports XP. The keyboard in question supports 7. In case you were wondering what I'm getting: a PSR-E433. Review coming as soon as I get it.