2011/02/19

Pimp Stuck in Time with a Wheel of Fortune - A Glitch Glitch

A Glitch glitch



Another Glitch glitch. I was leaving my house and got stuck in that position for a few minutes. I decided to use one of my tickets and that’s where the wheel came from.

2011/02/17

Athlon X2 4400 'Toledo', Zalman CNPS-9700 and Spire TherMax Eclipse II - A Review of Sorts

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 'Toledo' 125W CPU
Click on the picture for more (and full size)

This is a picture of my CPU, it's an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+. The code name for this processor is Toledo. It has a 2 x 1024KB L2 cache and it's TDP is 125W. It's a socket 939 processor. It is supposed to be clocked at 2.2GHz, but I currently have it at 2.75GHz. I had a chance to take the pictures when I was switching heatsinks.

The 64 was dropped from AMD processors after 64-bit became the standard.

The reason that I was changing heatsinks was because the Zalman CNPS-9700 LED that I bought about 5 years ago was defective. I should have sent it back after receiving it.

The LED on the fan never did work and the noise it made was much louder than it should have been. I can't say for certain if the noise problem was just with mine or if it's the entire batch of this model, since mine is the only one I've heard.

The Zalman did its job, that's why I made the mistake of keeping it; it cooled the CPU perfectly, until some time around last year. It must have been getting worse with time because my recent temperatures were unacceptable. I could no longer deal with the sound the Zalman made, it was breaking my brain, so I replaced it with the Spire TherMax Eclipse II.

I chose the TherMax Eclipse II because it had the highest rating for cooling AMD processors, according to a reputable review site. The Eclipse II is dual fan mountable (12cm fans) and it's big. It works damn well, too! If only it wasn't for its fan mounting system, it would be perfect.

Although the temperatures are amazing with only one fan mounted, the fan mounting system is horrible. It's so bad that it makes me wish I had purchased a different heatsink. The heatsink seems to be about half a centimetre shorter than the fans it's supposed to support. The fan mounts won't stay in the heatsink if you try to mount the fan properly. You have to force the mounts into the fan while at the same time pulling on them, to jam them into the heatsink. It is almost impossible to install this heatsink in the first place, with a 939 socket. When you finally get the heatsink installed and you get to the fans, they can't be mounted properly!

The bad mounting leads to vibration and the possibility of a fan falling off. I'm down to one fan because the second one was vibrating so much that it was nearly detached. It's nearly impossible, once you have the motherboard installed, to put the fans on the heatsink, or to tighten them if they are loose.

I might test the heatsink with no fans on, see how the temperatures are on that. If they are low enough, I will keep it that way. Otherwise, I'll have to take the motherboard out of the case and try to put both of the fans back on.

If the Eclipse II had a working mounting system, it would be the quietest I've ever heard, and the cooling capacity would be the best in its class, but it does not. I would not recommend this heatsink over a model that is known to have a functioning fan mounting system.

2011/02/14

The Best Captcha Comics from the Original SomethingAwful Thread

These shops are from a 2009 thread on SA, where the idea originated.

without abreast

viagra flagship

diluted tragedy

be hornier

never waddling
never waddling is probably the best one.

There's one last comic for titmice hams but it might not be appropriate for this post!

2011/02/10

Stuck Under My House - Glitch Screenshot (Alpha Testing New Game)

I took this when I got stuck under my house in Glitch. The game is still in alpha so it's expected that things would go wrong every now and then.

Other than lag and lag disconnects, this is the only bug I've encountered multiple times. Usually I can just jump on to land at a lower point but this one had no access point. I had to teleport out, something a newbie couldn't do. If I didn't have the teleport ability I would have been stuck until a developer got me out!

Glitch Screenshot - Stuck Under My House

Gaining root by Installing Drakaz Recovery on i7500/i7500L

This guide will help you get root access on your Samsung Galaxy i7500 or i7500L mobile phone. After gaining root you can do whatever you please to your phone, including an extremely easy upgrade to better firmware, such as Galaxo (Android 1.6) or GAOSP (Android 2.2).

Software

Before you begin you should start downloading these files:

Install Process

  1. Install New PC Studio (NPS).
  2. Extract Android SDK to an easy to access location.
  3. Enable USB debugging on the phone at Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
  4. Install the drivers for ADB. Some people have issues with ADB and Fastboot, this is mainly driver related. x86 operating systems should be fine after enabling USB debugging on the phone and connecting it to the PC. If there are issues you can try installing the modified SDK drivers. Driod Explorer may also be able to install the necessary drivers.
  5. Extract recovery-*.img from the Drakaz Recovery package to the Android SDK tools folder. For example, c:\android-sdk-windows\tools\.
  6. Copy RECTOOLS.tar.gz the internal SD memory (not the SD card you may have put in there).
  7. Open a command promt (Win key+R > cmd) and navigate to the Android SDK tools folder. Example: cd C:\android-sdk-windows\tools
  8. Enter the command fastboot flash recovery recovery-*.img and you should now be prompted with waiting for device.
  9. If you are using an x64 OS, go into the Device Manager and select View > Show hidden devices in the menu. Try to find, under Other devices (or possibly another section), Android 1.0. If you find it then try to install the x64 drivers. If you can't find it then continue reading.
  10. Power down the phone and boot into fastboot by holding Dial + Power together. fastboot mode should display on the phone. If fastboot is successful, the cmd promt will update and after about 15 seconds the phone will continue to boot up.
  11. On an x64 OS this might fail the first time. The command promt won't update after you've gone through a cycle of entering fastboot mode on the phone. You will need to enter Device Manager and select View > Show hidden devices in the menu. Try to find, under Other devices (or possibly another section), Android 1.0. You can now update the device with the x64 drivers and repeat the previous step.
  12. Power down the phone and boot into recovery mode with Volume Down + Dial + Power held together. You should now be in the Android recovery menu.
  13. Do a Nandroid backup to save your current configuration, in case anything bad happens in the future.
  14. Select Fix packages permissions and hit the Home key when it prompts.
  15. Select Root this device and hit the Home key when it prompts.
  16. Reboot!

Links

Visit the LURKMORE Wiki page on the i7500 for more information.

2011/02/07

The Periodic Table of Controllers - Controllers Through History

I saw this on the net somewhere and thought it was pretty cool. It's a chart showing the button placements on game controllers, starting from 1972. I noticed that a lot of them look like funny faces.

The Periodic Table of Controllers

I believe it to be extremely interesting to see how controllers have managed to add so many buttons and yet never change from the format they originally started in. The only original style in the last decade has been the Wii controller, and that's due to the shape of the controller being a single-hand remote, instead of a game pad.

If you look closely you'll notice that the PSX controller is styled after the SNES controller. Ever since the PSX came out the other brands have tried very hard to be different and original. The PlayStation controllers haven't changed in three generations! The other brands also pretty much failed at all of their controller configurations when it came to real use.

2011/02/06

Caramel Has A Snow Day

Here's a picture I took a day or two ago. It's Caramel's paw prints in the snow!

Caramel's prints

2011/02/05

Frosty Piss

What better way could there be to start a blog but with a first post talking about a 4chan event.

Sinistar

On February 6th, 2008, the mods put a sticky on the site with a flash picture of HTML visible through the broken background, and Sinistar followed your mouse. There were also sounds from the game Sinistar, such as, "I hunger!" The message was accompanied by the words, "OH GOD". It has become a forced meme.

Unrelated

Completely unrelated to my story above, this book, Catch-22, is quite possibly my favourite book!