Computer: Part 2 BE WARN LONG POST AHEAD

Happen on 10/25/08

Friday
6.30 pm - i open the boxes carefully, and took out all the manual.
7.00 pm - went to get food, while of course, reading the manual to make sure everything goes right and according to plan
7.45 pm - Set everything in one box and lay cardboard over the floor that i would be working with and also positioning myself in a non-carpeted area of my room(very small) to avoid static buildup and the possibility of static discharge that would destroy my computer . took out the nice looking computer case too. TRIED to open the case... impossible. well not exactly impossible if i decided to use brute force.



apparently due to the fact that i've been using a dell computer for so long that i forgot that some case doesn't have the easy locking system which dell cases seem to use. THEY HAVE SCREWS. so after figuring it out i can finally open the case and get started. everything else came out of the box nicely without much hassle.

now, there are certain order to install every single component.

1. power supply to the case
2. place cpu on motherboard
3. install bottom part of a heatsink to the motherboard
4. then the top part of the heatsink
5. place RAM on motherboard
6. place motherboard in case
7. attach power supply to motherboard and also wiring from case
8. place hard drive and dvd drive to the case
9. attach power supply to hard drive and dvd drive and also wiring to motherboard
10. place graphic card to motherboard
11. attach power supply to graphic card
12. attach power supply to the case fan

it sure does look simple doesn't it? it's not!! i got through the power supply installment without a problem... but installing the cpu became my worst nightmare....imagine putting this cpu:
on to this motherboard...
ya... so what's the problem? if you look closely at the motherboard. each of the gold things are pins... very fragile pins, that if you bend it by force, they won't cover it in your warranty... so, let's see... people would ask, what's the big deal? ok, fair enough, now imagine you need to shut another panel on your cpu to secure it, so it look something like this:
as you can see there is no cpu in this picture... but that's no the point. the force required to snap the lid shut is about how much force you will apply to open a jar of jam that has been VERY VERY TIGHTLY SEALED... so, basically i'm pushing down on the cpu with enough force, i'm sure to crushed the pins... now the problem is i tired using less force, then taking it out, to see if i've even bend the pins... but the pins are RIDICULOUSLY SMALL... and even if my near perfect sight, i can't tell whether it's bend or not... but basically every time i applied more force... i got a MINI HEART-ATTACK... until finally i decided fuck this... and i applied enough force in one go to close the thing....

so, that's bad enough... worst is still yet to come... I DON'T HAVE ANYWAY TO KNOW IF I'M SCREWED UP... well, not at least until i get the computer up... what a long night this will be....well, at the end this is what my motherboard look like after step 5... ready for step 6 :P

oh and this is what my computer look like before all the installation

pristine is the word i would use

and pretty much after that i'm too work up to remember to shoot my camera... there are several shots of the stuff in the box but that's about it... maybe i can show you :P

anyway, the only real problem i encounter after that is the installation of I/O plate... it's just annoying... btw, one of the selling point of this power supply i got:

it was that it was a modulated version... this basically means i could attach whatever wire i need to the power supply and to the component and NOT ANYTHING MORE than what i need... the funny thing was that in the end of the day, i used it all...

so, anyway i think i'm just gonna post the rest of my picture... to lazy to write more... ask question if you have i guess... although i highly doubt anybody ever reads all the way down or right in the middle... plus, who the hell actually builds their own computer...

my motherboard... i like the box :P


my graphic card... err... do you know how long is my graphic card? you wouldn't believe it even if i tell you... so i'll going to grab a picture... brb :P

oh yeah, the shoes will be a line of reference... i couldn't find anything else atm, so the shoes will do... i'm a size 7 and that graphic card is about 10.5 inch... huge leh? btw, ignore the messy cable. my computer is not done yet... so i'm not in a hurry to get everything nice and neat.

power supply in a box... they even provided me a bag :P too keep all those extra wires i will not use....

this is my very very nice, 640GB hard drive... and if i add my old 320GB hard drive, i practically have 1 terabyte!!1 woohoooo, i hit 1TB

well, this is my 4 gigs of ram first... i didn't get 8 gig right away cause of two reason.... i'm broke :P and also i don't have a copy of a 64bit vista ultimate
you see the thing that is highlighted... that is basically a metal holding my graphic card up, during the first 24 hours of my computer life... why?... i didn't have the right screwdriver to screw the graphic card in place....

so, what's so sweet about this case? it has a temperature monitor... with that i can see if my computer, especially my graphic card is overheating... oh yeah i was done about 3am in the morning after formatting the computer and everything... sadly to say in the period of the next 2 days i formatted my computer several more times to try to get my second hard drive to work.

so that's it... i'm surprise you read up to this point :P or maybe you went all the way down and saw this :P

mistake and it's not a secret anymore

well, there will be someone in particular who will be particularly piss, cause of copyright issue :P but i can't help it. the title fit so nicely. so let's not dwell in the title and go on to listen to a story.

from November 13-19, sFn was held. it's basically a convention for all the nerds in the neuro field to go to. i didn't attend it cause i've nothing to present :( maybe next year. anyway, my lab is completely empty except for a couple undergraduate that hardly show up. so i was doing western blotting, which is some very nice way of separating protein according to their weight. it starts with some homogenization, which basically means i'm squashing some brain cell in buffer solution. follow by immunoprecipitation (not going thought the steps), a difmup test and finally western blotting.

now the everything went fine until i started the western blotting. Basically i needed to transfer my samples into ten lanes that is also filled with another buffer. now the problem was that i didn't write down what's the concentration of the buffer suppose to be, and being new, i didn't know everything is suppose to be 1X not 4X or 5X. i just assume that different experiment will use different concentration... so i load 5X of running buffer.

the results were fantastic... in not a good way... i had 6 sample and 2 molecular marker... so i had to load them in one by one... the funny thing was by the time i load the 3rd sample, i felt something was wrong... my sample didn't want to settle down... like they won't go down... i thought maybe i need to give it some time... so i continue to load the rest of the sample and molecular marker... when i was done the result was amazing... the first two sample i load was GONE... POOF INTO THE AIR... somebody stole my sample? well, not exactly... i look at the third sample and guess what i saw?

the sample was CLIMBING OUT OF THE LANE. it's a freaking sample and it's climbing out... oh yeah, i'm loosing sample by the minute... so yeah, i'm slightly screwed... well maybe completely screwed cause i can't continue without my sample... it took me a while to figure out my mistake... so i related it to my coworker at the sFn...



guess what they do? they set up a facebook group just for me... oh yeah, and it's a secret facebook group... OHHH... didn't know you could do that...


so since, i'm telling you all right now, "it's not a secret anymore!"
*applause* *applause* *applause*

oh yeah, on a side note. if you think you never get enough static shock... come to the US during winter and you will be in for a surprise. i get a daily regiment of static shock every time i get back to my room... if i'm REALLY REALLY LUCKY, i'll get one on my way to class :P

what an intersting place to live in.

another side note. this is my thanksgiving dinner provided by the school one week in advance
ok, so it does look weird in the picture. but who cares. i have turkey and bread on the right. mash potato, corn and crumbs with gravy on the left... what a nice meal... and don't forget, a cup of chocolate milk :P

OMG 3 post in 24 hours

the most amazing thing that ever happen :P

this is the third post within 24 hours, so either somebody is pointing a gun to my head forcing me to post stuff... or it's divine intervention... well, i'm an atheist so i don't believe it can't be divine intervention :P i would say karma but that's just almost as retarded as divine intervention :P

Now this is the reason why i'm posting it one more time :P

DO YOU SEE IT?!?

so, it's a freaking south east asia shop. OMG. it has malaysia food!! and thai(hopefully better than the one i had last year). now the funnier thing is the story on how i found this place :P

i was walking to my friend house. her house is like 5 minutes off campus. what makes today different from any other day, was that i decided to take a different route. basically, i walk on the other side of the street. normally i go to her place after dinner but this time i didn't. so i was looking around if there is anything interesting to eat... I SAW THIS!!!

well, one restaurant found. it's slightly more expensive than what i usually buy but for MALAYSIA food i'll do anything :P probably go there next week. updates then :P

IT SNOWED and something a little more interesting

This happen on 10/25/08 :P

well, it was predicted that it would snow today, and well it was predicted to be heavy. so i bundle up. wore 2 layers of shirt and a jacket and well, you get the idea. so, i was walking my merry little way to class. and it did start to snow... i think... actually it was more like rain. at least it didn't reach the point that i would consider it snow. ha, the meteorologist, always either over predicting or under predicting. never get them right :P

boy was i wrong. about 4 hours later it started to snow a substantial amount. and i was like WTF? i mean look at the date! it isn't even november yet! and the leaves on the "beautiful" trees haven't even fall off yet but it's snowing... well, seriously can global warming make life anymore interesting? what's next? HAIL!! yes hail, i've never seen hail before and it would be nice if it happen :P *touch wood* *touch wood* *touch wood* hail are dangerous actually

well, now on to more interesting stuff :P well, i know, i know for some people snow is the most interesting stuff but trust me, it get's old after a while. but the first time will always be magnificiant but that's a story for another time.

well, this picture is from my research lab show snowing... not really clear :P woops

ok, so what's more interesting to me than snow? MY COMPUTER! DUH! i mean how could there be anything less interesting for me than that since i haven't played games for two months. anyway, the parts arrive perfectly fine. 3 big boxes, which left the mail room girl(kinda hot, but didn't notice too much, lawl) a quizzical look and to which i replied "early christmas."

Computer parts in boxes :P
Unpacked :P how does it look, recognize anything?
a further view? wonder if it made a difference :P

and also ignore everything on the left and right of the picture. my room is not terribly big. so i'm in a cram and lack space for anything else.

oh btw, to be continue... (the unpacking and the setting up... the hardest time in my life... cost my 10 years of my life)

HOLY SHIT

this will be the first time in my life i'm saying this... cause never in my life did i encounter this problem. and i'm almost sure nobody can guess what it is... cause even i didn't saw it coming in my lifetime.

the publishers need to produce LESS GOOD GAMES. i'm serious. i've been out of playing games for like 6 months. and the f#@king list is like about ten games down.

and this is not just some random shitty game i decided to try but the HOTTEST game out there. and well, when i'm not done playing it. MORE IS COMING out... not like one or two but like FIVE more within a MONTH... now i'm sitting down here wondering, how am i ever going to be able to finish all this game. maybe i really need to play games when i got back to malaysia instead of just ENJOYING the company of my friends and the FOOD(thanks to some hated person for reminding me)

i keep thinking should i make a list and add some picture or just make a quick list and get back to my games asap to try to keep up :P

"I vote just the list."
"I second it."
"Motion is passed."

not in order

1. crysis warhead
2. Sin of the solar empire
3. demigod
4. legendary
5. rise of the argonauts
6. dead space
7. left 4 dead
   
8. Civilization 4
   
9. far cry 2
10. fallout 3
11. call of duty 4 world at war
12. prince of persia 2008 one
13. prince of persia the warrior within(haven't finish it yet)
14. prince of persia the two thrones
15. C&C 3 (maybe)

so... does anybody have any suggestion as to where i can find more time to play games? life is slightly sucking, when you have a good comp, so many games but no time to play them all...

governments

Computer lah... it's no wonder i never find the time to go to do some blogging... what the hell did i expect :P

so new format, instead of posting my blogs on time. it will be late. but i'll put the date up of when the blog was suppose to be up. so it will be back-dated until i can keep up or decide to start afresh.

NEWS
computer working, manage to salvage most of my old data at least the important stuff but sadly i lost all my movies and series. So i'm redownloading everything. gonna take a while since i can't exactly use torrent so freely anymore (got caught two months ago just before my computer broke down.

One more thing. i've so say college is an interesting place. never have i imagine that i would meet people with radical idea or even a different point of view and also to discover more about myself.

To date:
1. i'm a objectivist
2. i'm all for positive liberty(new) :P

well, what more interesting is that i've manage get into a conversation on what an ideal government would be. and we(the other shall not be name) discuss a type of democratic government called demarchy. it's basically a type of government where the leaders are chosen by random from a pool of people.

we came to an agreement, that because i'm all for positive liberty, the "pool" of people would be intellectual people. people would need a certain level prestige and contribution in the world of science to be allowed into the "pool." now randomly selecting people has it's benefits. it is to prevent the way political campaign is run today. millions and millions of dollar wasted just to sway voters and it doesn't always produces satisfactory results.

but with intellectual people steering the country, i could be at least happy to know decision made would be base on the fact rational logic. well, of course some would consider that people are fallible. well, there could always be safeguard, i suppose, that would be set to prevent any problems. but still overall, i think it's easier to safeguard this system compared to today government.

so, enough ranting. let me show you thing to come :P
what my complete computer look like. i've not place the cover because something is still wrong... soon, you will know what happen :P