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Oh five. Oh! Five! Oh-five.

And so it is today, 05-05-05. Doesn't really matter which way you write it, you can't get it wrong ;) Today is today. Huzzah!

There's lots I want to say (hah) but it's not going to happen today unfortunately, as other things have to sorted first and other people informed. Hope everyone has had a fantastic day :)

lubzny.org

Welcome Stav to the world of blogging by checking out his brand spanking new blog at http://lubzny.org/. Don't be surprised if you see a whole bunch of changes or if it goes offline from time to time as he's mucking about with things ;)

Welcome Stav!

Took the Piss out of Shadey

I log onto Teamspeak, a kinda VoIP team-based program for online games, and say "Hi". Next I hear...

Shadey: So, are you guys on the internet then?

'nuff said. :D

Wireless Networking

I need to get a wireless network setup at home as I'm fed up with cables being everywhere. If anyone tried one of those USB WiFi adapters I'd be interested in how well they work. I'm also interested in adding Bluetooth to my rig as it'll make transfering stuff to and from my phone a whole lot easier.

This Bluetooth necklace looks kinda strange but also like it might be usuable as well. I also like the idea of using AAA batteries as they're cheap, powerful if you get rechargeable ones and easy to pick up pretty much anywhere if you run out of power. Wonder if you can use this with a PC and something like Skype...

People who eat noisily

I think I'll just have to write something in order to block out other noises. Hopefully this will mean I don't go utterly insane.

Anyway, what's happened recently? Well, I bought a car last month, courtesy of First Direct, thanks guys ;) It's a red, no, make that "Flash Red" Seat Leon, Y reg (end of 2001) with about 80k miles on the clock. Now that might sound like a lot, but the rest of the car is in very good condition, so I figured it was worth it considering my somewhat limited budget.

The alternator has already died, so I'm now full into owning the car and everything that entails, mainly expenses! Still I'm really happy with it and glad that I got it when I could as it will make visiting the parents this Christmas a LOT easier than it has been for the last few years on public transport. Carrying presents on trains and especially the London Underground is no fun what so ever. The ability to just dump them into the boot and just set off is fantastic.

I really want an MP3 player so I can listen to music again when I'm not at home. I've sold my MD recorder as I was never using the thing anyway (ah the pleasures of eBay) and now I'm without any kind of "walkman". Also, the car only has a radio (I hate radio) and tape player (quality is too bad). The Creative MuVo V200 is very tempting at only £120, but I'm just wondering if I get a Motorola A1000 and stick 256MB TransFlash card in it instead. It would be one less thing to carry around. Hmm....

Tonight I'm going to some listen to some carols at Bath Abbey and then a little cinema at the new Odeon and a take out. Have fun.

Just found some cheaper TransFlash prices and pricing for 512MB card at valuemedia.co.uk, also I think an SD adapter will be essential in order to get stuff onto TransFlash quickly.

VIPTrash.com

Weighing in at a massive 57KB, VIP Trash is finally live. This took me a shade over 10 hours from start to finish. For once everything just seemed to fall into place! It even validates, which is something I always aim for, but rarely succeed in achieving. Seems like all the learning I've been doing recently is beginning to pay off.

Please visit it and give me some feedback on it. Likes, dislikes, I dont care, just make them constructive please.

Time to get on with another site *sigh* I will finish it one day...

Currently in the works

Here's a taster of a little site in the works right now...

Effectively using em's

After smashing my head against the spiked wall that IE5.x and CSS is attempting, in vain, to get em's to behave properly so users can resize their own fonts and I can have some control over them myself I decided to have a snoop around. I can't remember how I got there now, but I found an excellent em font article on www.clagnut.com. Make sure you see the comment by patrick h. lauke as that's the real clincher ;)

Also, I've been toiling hard in the garden this weekend with Rebecca, my other half, and an old fried, Gillon. Pictures and a post to follow (once I've nailed this damn site).

Overclocking Hardware

I'm seriously contemplating swapping my Abit NF7-Sv2 out for a DFI NFII Ultra Infinity. They're both based on the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, but the NF7-S doesn't seem to like my RAM :(

I've got 2 sticks of KHX PC3000 and my rig will just not stabilise if I run the RAM at anything more than 166MHz. Even 167MHz is toast. Random program crashes, data corruption, BSODs you name it, it all happens. Apparently the NF7-Sv2 simply doesn't like double sided RAM, especially KHX *sigh*. I know my CPU will do 215+MHz FSB since I can run that with a stick of TwinMOS PC3700 I have (slack timings). But no matter what timings (high, low or SPD) and no matter what voltage I give the KHX I'm getting nowhere.

The Infinity also has 4 SATA sockets compared to two with the NF7, which will be good when I get another hard drive; it's only a matter of time. Also, I'm led to believe that it also has the four CPU mounting holes around the socket, which is essential for my waterblock. Well ok, it's preferable ;)

I initially tried some TwinMOS PC3200 with this NF7, and it was never 24/7 stable. Each time I’ve had a RAM issue with it I’m tempted to jump ship and buy a P4. Then I remember the price/performance ratio of the P4 and come to my senses. However, as I really do need to get a separate rig for work that I vow I will never muck around with once it’s initially built, I may well get a P4 with that. Hyper Threading sounds like it should keep things a little happier when I’ve got a tonne of programs open all at once.

If you need help overclocking or just want some hardware advice I seriously recommend you become a member of these two forums OCUK and Xtreme Systems.

Looks like I've got some reading ahead of me on that DFI board ;)