This Geek

So there I was, loafing at home for the month of January, when I receive a call from EDS. They wanted to know if I would go work for them, but back at Mercantile - the place I had left last September.

Tough call really. I was seriously in two minds about it, but I decided to do it after all.

So I’m back, but not quite my old job, thankfully. Still mostly the same people, with a couple of new (EDS) faces. I started last Wednesday, so I’ve basically been there a week. Only a few more months to go before the contract ends. Although the contract that EDS has with Mercantile is ending then, if they choose to renew it, and they ask me to continue, I don’t think I will. I have plans - and I need to use these few months to get them off the ground.

---

I upgraded my computer finally. I’m now running a dual core processor with Nvidia 8800GT’s in SLI. Very nice.

Can’t say I’m too impressed with Crysis though. Although it looks very pretty indeed, it runs like an absolute dog. Unreal Tournament 3 is very impressive though. I get 60fps at 1600×1200 with everything on max.

So you think that if you buy computer components all of the same brand, that the things would work perfectly together, right?

Riiight.

My Antec power supply decided to die on me this morning. So, obviously I need to find something to replace it quite urgently, at least until my new parts arrive.

So I run around, and I find a Gigabyte brand power supply that will hopefully do the trick, especially considering that my chassis, motherboard, and graphics cards are all Gigabyte brand.

My first problem is that I’m running an SLI setup, and this new power supply only has one PCI-E power connector. No problem, I hack together a converter cable from my dead power supply.

I happily install the Gigabyte power supply into the Gigabyte chassis, plug the cables into the Gigabyte motherboard, and then attempt to plug the PCI-E power connector into the first Gigabyte graphics card. Guess what? The cable is too short.

Now that just boggles the mind. You would think they would test their components with their own products, but obviously not.

… to be rude and inconsiderate.

Why do people see the need to be rude? I’ve noticed it the last few days, be it on the road, or out shopping. People are just being ruder than normal. They will cut you off in traffic, or barge in front of you while shopping.

It’s just as well I have a very long temper.

Contemplating the mysteries of life is something that everybody should do from time to time.

I enjoy the quiet time, but now having had it for the past 6 days, I am missing my family terribly.

I’ll be picking them up at the airport this evening. Hopefully I can get the house in some semblance of order before then. Not that it’s in total disarray - it looks pretty normal - although what is normal for us, may be complete chaos for others.

I’ve done a slight remodeling job in the kitchen. I bought a washing machine/dryer combo thingy, and there’s no space to put it, since our dishwasher lives where the washing machine would normally live, so I’ve removed a kitchen cabinet (not very neatly I might add), so I can move the dishwasher there, and have the washing machine next to it. I had to do a spot of tiling to cover the area where the cupboard was. Again, not very neatly. :-p

So the kitchen is in part disarray while the tile cement and grout dries, and I still have to move the stuff that’s sitting on top of the dishwasher so I can take it’s top off to fit under the counter.

Of course, I’m a procrastinator, so I’m finding other things to do so I can avoid finishing the job… like writing this post.

A friend of mine gave me this program called DarkRoom, so being the curious sort, I ran it. Turns out it’s this cute little full screen editor that is green text on a black background. I don’t know why, but this just tickles me. It’s brilliant, because it removes all the distractions of little icons and widgets and lets you write. Which is what I’m using to compose this post right now. It’s probably also why I can ramble on without getting too sidetracked. The problem is that now I’m getting sidetracked by my thoughts, rather than the crap happening on my screen.

This disembodied green text floating on my screen. Pretty awesome really.

So now I’ve got this nice writing environment, I should be able to write, now shouldn’t I?

I took this personality test at one of my clients (long story, I was essentially testing the program because they were having problems with it - a recruitment agency), anyway, according to my personality profile, I’m perfectly suited to being a ‘computer service engineer’. Oh joy, what I am now, basically. :-p The funny thing is that ‘author’ was on the list of least suited jobs. Now should I pay attention to what this software says, or is it trying to tell me something?

I suppose at least it indicates to me why I just can’t get started. Or finished for that matter.

---

I forgot to mention that after almost 7500km’s, I resigned my job. Way too much travelling for my liking. Almost 23 hours of that was spent stopped in traffic.

I’ve done around 5800 kilometers already. 721 kilometers were done today. I had to drive up to a mine in Limpopo province.

---

I’m not religious, I do not believe in god or heaven. I find religion to be irrational. But that’s my opinion, everyone’s entitled to it. My point with that statement is that I’ve sometimes thought, “What happens when you die?”

Now if you think about it, one day when you were a child, you became self-aware. You “woke up”, so to speak, as you. Now who’s to say that it doesn’t happen like that all the time? You die. You become self-aware, but you’re someone else. I’m not talking about reincarnation or past lives, or any of that type of crap. You are just someone else. And so the cycle continues.

I’m not sure if you (the reader) will get what I’m trying to say. Don’t really care either :-p

I really don’t understand the penchant for spamming web logs with referrer spam. Do these spammers REALLY think that when browsing your web logs, you’re going to be inclined to look at a referrer coming from www-buy-cigarettes-now.ru?

Maybe one day when AI is a feasible and tangible thing, we can send them out to wipe out every spammer that they find. Suddenly we get a 98% speed increase when accessing the net because of all the spammers being down. Ahhh, joy.

Say hello to Skynet.

Here endeth my third week of the new job. I still haven’t decided if it’s the right thing for me. I’ll give it a few months.

My wife is now 6 weeks pregnant with our third child. Dang.

I’ve driven over 1500 kilometers in the past three weeks. Crezzy man, crezzy. For the past 7 years I’ve driven around 72k’s a day (to and from work), but now it’s easily twice that. Fortunately I’m a very relaxed driver, so I don’t (or should I say “try not to”) let the traffic and bad drivers get to me. The taxis have to be the worst. I’m not going to go into a huge tirade about them, other than to say that about the only law of the road that they do obey (from time to time), is which side of the road to drive on. The rest don’t matter.