SHIFTED!

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http://www.tHeSiD.net

Monster v3

With friends visiting home from the USA and a sudden inflow of cash led to me upgrading my system. This is third and probably last version of my System.

It all started off when I was in Delhi where I bought my first PC. The original Monster.
2.8GHz P4, 2x512 DDR400, 2x80GB RAID0, Geforce 5600XT, Gigabyte GA-8KNXP.
That time everything cost me 10k each, processor 10k, RAM 10k etc. The Mobo was quite expensive, it cost me around 13k. It worked fine all the time I was in Delhi. Sometimes the RAID setup was giving problems. Other than that it was all fine. When I returned back to Hyderabad the 5600XT fried, so I then got a 6800GT (import). That was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me.

I was so happy when I got the card, but all that joy dwindled soon. As time passed, almost every component started failing, hard disks first, RAM, then finally the mobo. The mobo was the worst, the whole power circuitry melted in front of my eyes and I could smell the smoke. Lucky me, the mobo had a Dual Power System, as a result it JUST worked. I was also fortunate with the hard disks, Seagate replaced all of them at no cost. The reason behind all this was very trivial, none of the components were getting any power, especially in stressed states. The culprit was the 6800GT, it hogged so much power, that there was nothing left for the rest. I had some crappy 400W Frontech SMPS. I managed somehow, without gaming or any other GPU intensive tasks. Meanwhile my 17" Samsung monitor started showing signs of fatigue with a blurred picture and a lot of flickering.

While I was in a miserable state and no cash to buy a proper SMPS, I got the news that Guns was leaving to the USA. I was thrilled, not coz he was going but coz then I could snatch his Antec 500W. He left, I snatched. To my horror, that Antec was already in a dire state. You might not belive this but its true, I had to heat the SMPS for 10 mins with a Hair dryer just to make it start. After starting though, it was all stable and was able to power the 6800GT.

I then started gaming again and since god likes to screw with me, one fine day the mobo went bust. This was around 4 or 5 months ago, at that time there were no motherboard supporting the processor. I was stuck.

Then Monster v2 arrived. This time I didn't buy it but I snatched Guns' WHOLE system! :D. It was an AMD 3200+, 2x512 DDR400, MSI K8N-SLI and a 7800GT. It was working great till....

... The Antec died (FFS). I gave it for repair as it was still under warranty and got myself a Zebronics 500W as a temporary replacement. It worked fine but I was still weary of the power quality and thus never actually stressed the system much. They returned the Antec to me but it still had the same problem. I needed the Antec bad, so this time I took a screwdriver and smashed some of the capacitors/resistors inside. I had to make sure it didn't work. It didn't and I returned it.

To my amazement after a month they gave me an Antec 550W TRIO series! Apparently they didn't have the old model and had to replace the old one with the new model. All this wasn't that easy though, stupid Guns didn't tell me where he had bought it from. I had to go to the reseller for replacement and they refused to accept items from end customers. After some 20 calls and merciless bombardment of the word "WHY", they accepted to take it and replace it.

Meanwhile my college paid me for maintaining their website. I instantly got myself a Viewsonic VX922 to replace the dying Samsung.

I considered upgrading the v2 to an AMD X2 and a 7900GS. But Guns was scheduled to visit India and as usual he was being a dick and wanted his system back. I wouldn't have a system then. I was calculating the future.

After a week or so after my discussion with Guns, I read an article on AnandTech, 8800GT - The only card that matters. I was very impressed. I dreamt of playing Crysis on it and assumed it will remain a dream. But, all of a sudden all my projects paid off. There was a sudden inflow of cash in to my account. I did the obvious and decided to go all out and buy myself a completely new system. I asked Guns to get the 8800GT and another friend of mine, Srikar, brought me the RAM.

After careful planning and perfect execution , I have my brand new Monster v3!!

Monster v3

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Biostar TP35D2-A7 (Intel P35)
XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB DDR3 Extreme (Alpha Dog Edition)
Patriot Extreme Performance 2x2GB PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency Kit
1x250GB, 1x500GB - Seagate 7200.10
Viewsonic VX922 (DVI)
Antec True Power TRIO! 550W
Creative 5.1 Inspire
Hauppauge Xfones PC2400 (cordless Dolby Headphones)
Windows Vista Ultimate x64
Liteon 16X DVD-RW
LG 16X DVD-RAM

/me hopes nothing bad happens anymore.

Catch 22?

Recently, Opera browser makers sued Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer along with their OS. They say...

"We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them, In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation. We cannot rest until we've brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide."

Their argument seems logical, but I seem to find it completely retarded. They are thinking about themselves and not the customers, I can say that for sure. Let me explain.

Let us assume, Microsoft (MS) is banned from bundling Internet Explorer (IE) with Windows (all Linux geeks (LG) and MS bashers (MSB) rejoice). Now a lame man, like say a middle aged man having his midlife crisis, installs Windows (At this point, all the Linux fanboys and MS bashers might go on to ramble that Windows sucks and say they'd rather install Linux. Imbeciles, no one wants to calculate 2xRAM = SWAP nor does anyone want to operate from the console.). All done, Windows installed well, he watches a couple of movies (Assuming he is not European, EU version of Windows doesn't have WMP), listens to his favourite songs. All is well. The next step would obviously to browse the Internet, for Pr0n. He is all excited, but then he realizes his computer doesn't have a browser! OH NO! DAMN IT TO HELL!

The only option available to him is to download a browser from the Internet and then start using it. LGs and MSBs might yell firefox, hardcore Internet freaks might say Opera and people like me would say IE7. He just has to download the browser he prefers and start browsing the Internet. It all seems very simple, but there is a catch. How in the world will that man download a browser of his choice if he cant browse the Internet? There is no way for him to view a web page on his system as there is no browser. So he can neither visit www.getfirefox.com nor www.opera.com nor download.microsoft.com. Then how can he install a browser (Op | FF | IE)? There are some options.

1. He visits a friend who has a browser. Ask him to download the browser he prefers and then bring that file to his place on storage device. Pen drive etc. Install it and then enjoy the pr0n.
2. If windows has something similar to wget, he can use that. But we are talking about about a 40year old man here. First of all I doubt windows to have something like that. Secondly, lets face it, he would rather hang himself than do a command line download.
3. Bundle all available browsers with the windows installation.
4. Magic.

All seemingly feasible but, unnecessary burden on the poor old man. He just wants to enjoy the pr0n but he is faced with a multitude of problems. Consequently he goes on to kill his loved ones and then finally commit suicide. Tragic.

One thing I don't understand is, haven't they thought of this? or am I missing something?

Operating systems are installed on brand new systems (reinstalling, formatting etc. are different). People buy computers for either entertainment, Internet or professional work, the first two being the most common uses. After installing, the first thing they want to probably do is to either watch a movie, listen to songs or browse the Internet. Thus a browser and a media player are bare essentials. If you strip them off, what is left is a car without the wheels, purpose lost.

I might faintly agree with..

"Microsoft abusing its dominant position in the browser market by tying Internet Explorer to Windows and by not complying with W3C web standards when it comes to how IE renders pages."

.. but who doesn't want to? They have the best OS out there and they want to make money out of it. If IE is removed from windows, then Firefox should be removed from Linux, that would only be the fair thing to do.

They say IE is not 100% compliant, but then neither is Firefox nor Opera. If a company wants people to use their product, they should make it stand out from the rest. Take Firefox, it has been my faithful companion since years. I being a huge Windows fan, still like Firefox for its features. The extensions make Firefox a browser with unlimited features and infinitely customisable/extendable. That is what made Firefox click among the Internet communities. Opera being third in race isn't an unpopular browser. It has its own feature set, but the users who prefer that feature set are few. Opera in the early days was a nightmare, both with JS and standards. Even though it is the most compliant browser currently available, it still needs to be improved in usability, extensibility and other aspects.

Opera's future is hanging by the thread. IE7 has been improved immensely from IE6, with tabs and add-ons like IEPro, it can also become a geek's browser. Firefox on the other hand already is a geek's browser and Firefox 3 aims to eliminate the 2 major problems plaguing it, memory leaks and speed. These two will share the whole market, IE used by casual browsers and Firefox by the rest.

One more thing, "Standards compliance" is not a feature looked for in a browser by the end user, at least not the important feature. Standards compliance is only for web developers, they are the ones who face the most problems than the end users because of incompatibility. With compatibility in the order Op>IE7>FF2>IE6, Opera might have a chance, but who knows?

Gears of War

WOW! Amazing game really. The gameplay is impressive and the graphics are amazing. But the game is really buggy, it gets really annoying. It swaps even on a 2Gig machine resulting in a choppy movement.

The worst issue of all is the disappearing saved games. I don't know where they are stored. I completed almost half the game in Hardcore level and when I restarted the game, puff! all the saved games vanished. I did create a live player profile. It worked perfectly till act 2. I entered Act 3 and then they vanish. Some people say they are stored on a Live account, but I don't think that is my case because I don't have a live account nor I let it connect to the Internet. I've been searching online for a good explanation and hopefully a fix, but found nothing yet.

Its a great game no doubt, but these small issues are really annoying and spoil the fun!

** Just installed the new Gears of Wars Patch #1, Hope this works, will install the live redistributable and see if anything works out.

Winterbells

Beat this!! lol!!

Mad Mosley

Max Mosley punts for new Formula 1 rules in 2011
According to reports in today's F1 Racing monthly magazine, the FIA is now making the first steps towards the introduction of 2.2-litre V6 turbocharged engines, running on biodiesel fuels, in F1 in 2011. The reports suggest that the engines will be restricted to 10,000rpm and that they will have to survive for five Grand Prix. The idea, which we suggested might happen back in November last year is being proposed to the automobile manufacturers. It remains to be seen whether the proposals will be embraced by the car companies. In addition the proposals include a number of other controversial ideas, such as traction-control, four-wheel-drive, power-boost buttons and identical bodywork for all the teams. Some of these are idea have been pushed by FIA President Max Mosley in the past and are probably included in the proposals to see what he can achieve by throwing the net wide and seeing what survives.

O H M Y G O D ! !

NO Mosley!! thats a BAD Mosley!

Turbochargers! in Formula one?! Bio Diesel! in Formula one?! There is going to be turbo lag!!. It just doesn't make sense!! And whats wrong with the fuels used now! its not like F1 cars are fuel inefficient, they churn out 900bhp for crying out loud! Its not like there is smoke from the exhaust. What have the hippies done to you man! Mosley! The last thing I need today is to know that in future hippies will rule Formula one.

I just don't understand. Turbos increase weight, yeah power to weight ratio will be more probably but one word "TURBOLAG"!!!! Bio diesel might have more octane but still! Common! Bio!? You want 'BIO' in F1, the pinnacle of automobile racing and technology?! 10K RPM? my Corsa revs upto 7K RPM for god's sake. This just devastating. Go hippify NASCAR or INDY car racing, but not F1! FUCK!

I dont know!

I don’t know what I’m saying!
I don’t know what I’m doing!
I don’t know what I’m thinking!

All I was doing till now was to stare, yes just stare at the monitor for absolutely no reason whatsoever and sometimes drawing those square boxes on the desktop with the mouse. I feel like coding but no patience and no drive. Set up Flex and Eclipse yesterday and at the end of it, I got bored and slept. All the TV series ended, all at once and the worst time possible, summer holidays. If I go sit near the TV its either people crying in reality shows, Turks bombing masjids or some hippie American movie all the time and the worst of them all, those Bollywood concerts and festivals.

I’m passing most of the time by either by sms-ing, talking on phone or chatting. I know, I am a geek, or wait was I? I’m not supposed to do all that stuff but I seem to have no other option. I need something strong to work on, something which will keep me interested and occupied for a long time. Usually gaming did it, but I played and completed all the games out there and am bored of them. Unfortunately there aren’t any new interesting games out either. I actually am supposed to work on a project, but as I said before, no drive at all.

After a long time I was watching TV today, specially the news. It seems as though us Indians got fed up of a long peace period. The sand in the vaginas was accumulating for a long time now I guess, someone, of all places bombed a masjid. Well who ever did that was a genius. It was probably one of the toughest tasks to accomplish. Even the Home Minister of the State wasn’t allowed into the masjid after the incident, nor were the top police heads, and someone goes into such a “secure” place and plants a bomb in it. Amazing isn’t it. I wonder who did that. Who was daring enough to attack a Muslim holy site? It is not in us normal Hindus to plant bombs, our nature is to pelt rocks and shout that’s all. And Christians are probably busy converting everyone they find. Who could it be? I just can’t fathom the reason behind this nor who did it. Whoever did it, Bad Boy! Don’t do that again.

Now even if I want to roam outside from tomorrow I can’t. They said bandh already and the streets will be filled with protesting assholes who have absolutely no other work than to mess up the lives of others. So “going away from home” option is also now disabled. So no gym, no movies, no eating outside etc. Oh my god! I just realized I can’t do all these, shit. How could this get any worse? Damn.

Cartman: What's wrong?? Has he been checked for bombs?
Mrs. Garrison: Eric, that's enough! Not all Muslim people are terrorists!
Cartman: No, but most of them are. And all it takes is most of them.

Green Peas

I had to be a hippie for 3 hours today. Yes, a tree hugging, smoke hating hippie. Reason? Environmental Sciences examination. Although I didn’t study a single word even though I had one full day to study, which I spent chatting and attending functions, I was pretty confident I was gonna do well. It is just writing about what you hate to do the most. Childs play. As far as I know it is easier to write about what we hate the most than what we like the most. Well anyway, being a diehard Petrol head, a racing junkie and a devotee to Lord E.T. Cartman (The Greatest hippie hater), I set off writing about why we shouldn’t drive for pleasure as it produces CO2 and uses up fossil fuels. It was so involving I didn’t deviate from the exam for even 5 minutes, usually when I write other exams I wander off into day dreams and then after a while when I realize I am supposed to write, I come back to writing. None of that happened today though, I was happily writing what I never did or will never do.

After 3 hours of exhaustive writing, my right hand started quivering in pain. Never had I put so much hatred into the paper. Every sentence in that paper is something I would never do. Then I started thinking what is the use of the exam I just wrote? Well, nothing, it just made me want to drive more, rip on the engine a lot more and to never let the engines rev less than 4K RPM. Yes some of you may disagree, so heres something for you _|_ ;)

Cartman: I hate hippies! I mean, the way they always talk about "protectin' the earth" and then drive around in cars that get poor gas mileage and wear those stupid bracelets - I hate 'em! I wanna kick 'em in the nuts!

tHeSiD: I hate hippies! I mean, the way they always talk about "protectin' the earth" and then drive around in cars that get poor gas mileage and wear those stupid bracelets - I hate 'em! I wanna kick 'em in the nuts!

OMG!TKK v2

Finally found the patience to upgrade my template to the new one. Its all nice, easily arrangeable modules but in the end had to edit html to get the header right. But I like the blog archive on the right.

Yes, I know, its like the Porsche 911, same design over and over again! but its new!! :P

Cartman: You guys! I got it! It seriously! It's the greatest picture ever! Oh my God!
Stan: What'cha do to Butters this time?
Cartman: Ihit was genius! I waited 'til he was totally asleep, right? And then I got my camera, and I pulled down his pants, and then I took a picture of his wiener in my mouth!
Kyle: Dude!
Cartman: IknowIknow, check it out, look. I got his whole wiener in my mouth, see? Heheh. Oh man, I got him good!
Stan: Dude, how is putting Butters' wiener in his mouth getting him?
Cartman: Because that makes Butters gay now!

Love and hate my ass...

A few days ago, I wanted to write an entry on “The Thin line between Love and Hate”. I was that screwed, just to give a taste of what it was like; here is a part of it.

When we love something and we can’t get it, we are in a bad situation. There are many reasons why we can’t get what we want, maybe it is with someone else or it is just not possible to get it coz of the million factors involved in the getting it. Whatever the reason, it is time we realize.

I was literally crumpling. I had no idea why, I couldn’t get my thoughts together, what I wanted to do, what I had to do, all that. I was completely messed up.

One night, I was discussing all that with Virat, and was telling him how messed up I was. Then all of a sudden a hippie friend of mine (a good guy, but annoying) started his normal routine of pissing me off by pleading me to death until I fulfilled his request. I was bummed already, and above that, the hippie keeps pestering me. Then after all this Vik realized I became too soft, I wasn’t the Cartman I was before and that I am being too kind and too nice to people. I was shocked myself when I realized that it was the truth. I became too soft.

He then started to tease me, by putting up status messages like “Cartman the new Hippie Slave!!!”, funny chat that was. It was the moment that a switch in me flicked and the Cartman in me woke up again. Then its that feeling of realizing how stupid you have been all the time, that you didn’t deserve to be in the situation you were in. Everything came back. I never believed in people changing in instants, but, that moment proved that I was wrong. My whole mindset changed, I was more rational than emotional, more cunning than naïve. Not actually a change, but being back to what I am!

The next day onwards everything was different, I felt like was one pedestal over everyone, that egoistic feel was amazing. I am back on track and the Cartman-ish feeling is great. The whole reason I was messed up became my main objective, sort of. I’m enjoying every second of it. I can’t stop smiling, at all, even if I’m surrounded by people, whenever I think about what I’ve decided to do, that evil smile comes up on my face and its not controllable. Even when I’m writing this, I’m smiling. I'm now so confident, I didn’t rewrite a single word of this blog, this is a continuous write, no going back and checking for if I was wrong and all. Its all proof I need to believe I’m stronger.

Cartman:God has told me how to make 10 million dollars!
Stan:how?
Cartman: Boy band.
Stan: Boy band?
Cartman: Boy band.
Stan: I'm not being part of any faggy boy band.
Cartman: Theres nothing faggy about 10 million dollars, asshole.