Oh man, I'm almost a full week late with this post. Here's last week. This week? It started normally: studies, buddies, etc. It was a rather busy week, and in anticipation of the new computer I was going to get I spent some time going through the old one, diving back into old GTA games a bit. I played out GTA 3, finally (I've had just the final mission left for a few months), tried getting my corrupt GTA VC save to work with no ado (Note for future reference: never save a game at the Cherry Popper factory!), finished my GTA 3 modpack and saved that for potential future use, thought I won't be uploading it because I never bothered keeping track of modified files, so that'd be the same as uploading the full game, and then some, and that wouldn't be very legal. Since my old computer has a wasted CHMOD battery the date/time modified isn't working very well either. I also realized that GTA 3 and VC do run on 64-bit systems, they just don't work that well with integrated video drivers, so with my new computer I might be able to continue playing them after all! Woohoo! But with GTA 4, is there a reason? I'm hyped to see how that'll turn out.

The biggest news of the week though: in the weekend, after a hectic week of much sun but still a little ice-wind, I brought home my computer. I fired it up, all five fans started whirring, the lights blinked, the monitor didn't get a signal... but you've probably read all about this already. So the week ended a bit shiftily, attempts at digging aound myself to fix the problem, thoughts about computer repair, and that's all. Much done, but not so much interesting events to post about.

I'm a good mood today! Why? Because I recently ordered my new computer, something broke along the way, I've been down low wallowing in despair and doubt over my decisions to buy cheap computers online and digging around for solutions and thinking maybe I should've added a chunk of money to the sum I spent and bought something that's at least guaranteed to work, with a guarantee to perk... and not second hand with a wrecked fan... but after an inquiry to the shipping company it's been made clear they'll finance professional troubleshooting, and if there is trouble to boot to shoot, they'll finance the reparation fee as well AS LONG as it doesn't exceed the initial cost I paid for the computer. So! That is fucking awesome news! I'm so relieved I won't even bother keeping this site family safe for the day. My hopes are rocketing. I've sent out inquiries to all the companies nearby that do computer repair, and hopefully I'll get an answer soon, and then I'll let them check the computer, and hopefully it'll all be happy ever after and I can power up this new beast in a box and do all the things I've dreamed of that have always seemed to be just outside reach of my caged in finances. Like playing GTA 4... or even better, GTA SA with ENB Series and SRT3 on maximum settings. As it turns out, I might even be able to play GTA 3 and VC some more, because, they do work on 64-bit systems, they just don't work with integrated video cards like the one I happen to have on my current (now 4 years old) 64-bit desktop that's a piece of shit compared to my new masterpiece. Ah...

I actually wrote a blog about the trials and tribulations of trying to get this (formerly mentioned) box working before I contacted support, but I haven't gotten around to posting anything the past few days, so here you go, here's a post of a post-low mood written by this dude (me) the day before yesterday.

( pause, rewind two days )

So I picked up my new computer at the post office today, and the damn machine's not working! It fires up fine, the power button glows ominously red, the fans (five of them, two in front, two above the motherboard, blocking access to four slotes of RAM, and one in the back) are whirring, and the HD hummmmms fine. There's a switch to control the speed of the rear fan, a Cooler Master. The ATI Radeon card is the first thing you notice when you open the box, bright red, as big as one of those slim external drives, with a built in fan on one side. There's a rack for IDE drives (surprise!) with just one 500GB inserted, and space you can easily fill with one or two DVD/CD drives. This space is currently empty, but I do have a pair of CD drives (two DVD drives are in use in my two current computers) that I could mount. If I knew how. On second thought, they may be so old they're not even compatible with this new motherboard...

So, the fans get to whirring, the drive hacks familiarly like drives usually do when starting up (that good, cozy, hacking sound) and a little green light radiates from the motherboard. It sounds OK, but... there's no signal. The screen displays nothing. Plugged in keyboard/mouse aren't working. There's room for 2 DVI (or HDMI, not sure which is which) and I tried both of them. I have two screens, one new one old, and I tried both of those too. I have plenty of mice and keyboards, but I only tried a pair of those, a pair I know works, and should plug n play. The computer should have Win 7 Ultimate already installed. So... what can I do? Double check all cables and make sure they're attached. Power down, power up, power down again, try poking at the RAM below the fans to make sure they're all sitting tight, power up again... nothing. So, I email the sender. Wait for a reply. Still waiting. Five minutes later, I'm still waiting. Damn... I'm hoping for a miracle answer with a 'oh, you forgot to plug in the __' or, 'just hit the___' and it will all start running. But for now, it looks like I might actually have to go to a PC Repair shop. Or do nothing. It's a second-hand device, custom-built, some parts new, some parts old, some I don't know. I've always known there are risks buying things second hand, but in this case, I think/thought it was worth the risk. All the components are there. I can see them. All that's missing is competence on my part, and... maybe some spare part. Time will tell; I'll tell you in time.

For now, I should push the grueling doubt (did the buyer scam me? Did he just take my money and surf off to the Bahamas?) to the back of my mind and... get some studies done.

( pause, forward two days )

But that's all part of the past now! Blast doubt! Lash out! Slash clouds! Sunshine! My time! Fun time! Some sign. Fate?

Rinsing through spam comments, I've been thinking about the different types of comments there are. Granted, they are all automatically posted, but some are still pretty clever in design. Writing a comment that can be posted to many many websites, and still seem relevant to each one is quite a challenge. Here are a few types of comments I've stumbled upon...

Giving generic praise on your website, and then asking a generic website-related question might just be a working method of getting visits. Without seeing the suspect author website link of this message, it seems pretty legit, right?

Posting something completely random, and mentioning that it's completely random, is a way of making the message relevant. It has the added benefit of working on all content forms, though it may seem less legit if posted in the middle of serious discussion.

Here's a more common response, a post-specific comment that doesn't really say anything at all. Depending on the subject, it just might seem relevant. On a video or image post, it might not work so well.

Then there's the effortless response, that's made intentionally short to seem natural. Because most people do type short responses. The problem with this type of comment are that they are Dependant on surrounding comments or text to seem legit. Whereas the examples above are contained subjects, this one is directly linked to the content.

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed this short session of lessons on SPAM! ;)

An entire world made of characters and digits and stuff. Pretty neat. :)

The past week passed by as normal, with work and studies and walks and buddies.

I spent Saturday at buddy Bear's place with a bunch of people, celebrating his move to a new apartment and his newly celebrated Birthday. I gave a plant and a candle holder in salt stone, and a little temperature-controlled water-powered LED light for a tap. It was revealed that the good people in Hong Kong probably don't use the same tap size as in Sweden, ARGH, because it didn't fit. But it did work when you held it under running water, so hopefully it'll be fixable one way or another. We went bowling in the middle of the night (won 2 outta 3... aint bad), ate a taco buffet and chips and dip for breakfast the next day.

I took a long walk on a quest for deserted golf balls in thorny brush and the first bicycle ride of the year with my cousin on Monday and Wednesday, both graceful days with plenty of sunrays to pave your face. The weather's been mostly blissful, and existence drifts in whiffs of... sniffable pitfulls (what rhymes).

I Watched Speed (1994) on Sunday night while placing bids on a few computers, and guess what, I got one. It's not just any computer either, it's going to be a beast! With an AMD FX-8120 processor, 8 cores @ 3,10 Ghz (8MB cache), 8/32GB RAM and a Radeon HD 5850 GPU with a whooping 1GB memory... it looks like I'll finally get to play GTA 4. Something in the back of my mind is telling me that maybe the GTA games only work on Intel processors, but that can't be, can it? If it can then can it, I'm hyped. I can't wait! I am waiting, but damn, it's a grand weight. The computer also has Windows 7 Ultimate installed, which means I should be able to emulate some old OSes this time around, making it possible to run both new and old games without swapping machines.

My current computer, which I proudly announced at the verge of the new year 2010 here, has 2 cores @ 2,50 Ghz (1MB cache), 3/8GB RAM and a nameless GPU which has been making it difficult to run all games I'd like to run. It does run Oni, and Doom, and Knytt, and 8Bit Killer and Need For Speed Underground... but it doesn't run GTA SA properly, and it doesn't run GTA 4 at all, and I haven't even tried any of other new games I've bought these past couply of years, because... why bother. Might be a time issue too. It's not like I'll suddenly have time to play all the greatest games of the past couple of years to my hearts content, but maybe just one or two... or ten or a hundred. Man I'm in a good mood today, but today is this week and this post is about the last. I'll just conclude with: it's been a blast. And here's 16/17, the first dual post of the year. See you next week; maybe earlier!

Is it a torch? A sword of destiny? An octagonally caged interpretation of a mountain with a blister of sky? I intended neither in my desire to try out this entertaining program, but it's surprisingly interpretable. I think I'll be having plenty of fun with this...