Do any of you happen to have an old motherboard + RAM + CPU which you don’t need any more?
I need something reasonably fast, Intel or AMD, with PCI slots. It is going to go in my MAME Cabinet and hold an AudioPCI running the fabulous DOS driver (thanks,
Really, I’m not too picky as to what it all is, so long as its reasonably quick and free. :D
Before I shipped off my 360, I decided to make up a video of it having the problem it has.
The first video shows the problem occuring once. The second shows me unable to turn on my 360, but the Wii’s video cable just happens to hang in front of the power light, so it’s hard to see things:
· c0nsumer_xbox360_failure.mp4 (2.3 MB)
· c0nsumer_xbox360_failure_2.mp4 (5.5 MB)
Danielle is treasurer of the microbiology society at U of M Dearborn, which she is just about to graduate from. For a group activity she set up a tour of Dragonmead Microbrewery, over in Warren, MI. While I’m not a member, I went along and took some pictures.
Dragonmead is one of my favorite breweries in Michigan. It’s a nice, small, non-smoking place which has an absurd variety of beer, all of which they make themselves. In fact, they produce the largest variety of beer for any microbrewery, and have 52 taps and two beer engines. I think there were 40-some taps going when we were there yesterday. They are also starting to offer mead (one style for now, more to come once co-owner Larry Channell’s son graduates from college and starts making some.
All in all, it was a very nice tour, lasting somewhere around three hours. After the tour we (Danielle, Sarah, Bo, and one of their friends and I) ran over to Chicken Shack, grabbed food, then brought it back to eat at the brewery while having a few more beers.
If you’d like to see more of the photos (there’s a lot), click here: Dragonmead Tour (photo gallery retired)
I went to buy some beer today, but I instead was given a six-pack of Arcadia Jaw Jacker. I don’t particularly care for pumpkin beers, but it’s much appreciated anyway. I also ended up getting a six pack of Brooklyn’s Black Chocolate Stout. I’ve been told that it’s tasty, but I didn’t realize it is 10.1% until I got home. I also grabbed a 2004 (or is it 2005?) bottle of Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout.
Now I’m going to go make another toasted cheese sandwich. I forgot to mention in last night’s detailing of dinner that I had put the bread in the oven until it was thoroughly hot, cut it open, then filled it with the cheese before toasting it some more. This will be the same, but with hot pepperjack on different bread. Unfortunately I don’t have any side veggies or whatnot to go along with it. Although… I could heat up some fire roasted corn… Mmm!
750mL Bottle of Caol Ila 12 YearOut of a desire to try something new, on suggestion of
Thankfully the price was the state minimum of $47.92, which made it reasonably affordable. It’s still not cheap, but it’s right around what my other choice, Laphroaig 10 Year would have cost.
I tried a few sips of it straight, before cutting it with about 40% bottled water. (Just Aquafina, PepsiCo‘s finest highly filtered tapwater product. I find it good for mixing things because it has a nice, neutral taste.) I’m thinking that I rather like it. It’s plenty peaty and smokey, but it’s also got a little bit of sweetness to it. There is not enough sweetness to make it something I dislike, though, more like just enough to nicely round it out.
I’m wishing that I had one of the Millett Hybrid Maxed headphone amps to use (my two are disassembled currently) so I could sit back on the couch and listen to some music while sipping this in the dark. It’s quite nice.
Here’s my dinner tonight. It is 12oz of Magic Hat‘s Circus Boy Hefeweizen, a slab of peppered hot smoked salmon, and a sandwich made of roasted garlic cheese and a piece of herb ciabatta.
It’s too bad Magic Hat’s site is a monolithic piece of crappy flash, else I’d actually link to info about the beer. The smoked salmon is some (non-farmed) Alaskan stuff, and the cheese actually contained roasted garlic, and is just whatever was on sale at Nino Salvaggio.
Sorry about the color on the photo, I just took the photo on my kitchen counter which has crappy warm halogens above it.
Damage To My CarThis is why I can’t have nice things.
See, I was at the Target / Lowes complex in Sterling Heights to buy a new toilet seat (coming in future post). Well, when backing out of the parking spot I suddenly heard a CLANKgrinnnnnnnnd sound, which stopped when I did. Looking in the rear view mirror (where I had been looking) I saw nothing. Looking in the side view mirror I saw part of the cart corral really close to the back of my car.
I pulled away from it, went and parked, got out and looked, and only saw a bit of scraping to the side of the vehicle near the back. Nothing broken, nothing dented. Looking at why I hit it, the damned cart corral was sticking out into the lane 5′ – 6′! It’s also much shorter than my car’s rear end, so it was pretty much impossible to see. (Use the Grand Am in this photo for comparison; my car’s trunk is about that same height.)
Once I got home I wiped down that part of the vehicle and took the photo. It’s really not as bad as it could have been, as it looks to be only a scuff. There is also a couple small marks on the bumper. I’ll check it all out again tomorrow in the daylight.
While rubbing compound should take care of it, I’m still a bit frustrated. I’ll probably find some way to complain to Target about it, because that corral should not have been positioned that far out in the lane. I don’t really want anything for it, I just want it fixed so no one else hits it.
Today / Tonight’s Accomplishments:
· Car oil changed.
· Bathrooms cleaned sufficiently.
· Solution book to K&R’s C book ordered from Half.com.
· Old built-in soap dispenser removed from kitchen sink and replaced with metal plug.
· Beer poured, leftover Thai food microwaving.
· Bathroom rugs and floor towels in the dryer.
My Xbox 360 is a turd. I just submitted a request for repair, which means that Microsoft should now be sending me a $0 repair kit so that I can have the privilege of not playing games on it for a month while it is (hopefully) put in the state it should have originally been in. That is, working properly.
Quality control like this is the main reason why Microsot won’t be able to make a hand held gaming device any time soon. If consoles are failing this regularly when they aren’t moved about, there’s no way MS can compete in the DS (and PSP) market of regularly dropped in bags / knocked around devices.
Also, here is sparkly part of the DIA from last night, and here is some tasty aloo gobi I ate at Rangoli Express on the way home from work a few evenings back.
I have a strong, sudden urge to go pick up a bunch of cheap bamboo flooring from Costco and install it in my office.
This would then be followed by the purchase of a new chair, possibly a Haworth Improve HE, the same sort of chair I’ve sat in (and felt comfortable in) at work for the last few years.
