Fun stuff.

[digitaldiscipline]

So, in the wake of The Great Video Card Failure of Ought Seven (Q2 Edition), the jump from 1999's cutting edge to 2006's not-too-shabby tech revealed a glaring deficiency in the CPU horsepower department in K's rig (she'd been using a Sempron 2600+). I had the guts of most of a desktop sitting around (a good geek -always- has a spare; there's still a fully-functional P3-800 here, too), but it was not functional - I hadn't gotten around to determining if it was the CPU or mobo that was at fault. So, why not yank the chip (Athlon XP 2500+ M-series (the low-voltage variant)) just to see?

CPU auto-detect on an Epox K8RDA+
"Athlon XP - 600MHz," the BIOS sez.
"WTF?" sez I.
"14x 133FSB," research sez.
"Homie don't play that," mobo sez.
"O RLY?" sez I.

CPU Config = Manual
FSB = 100
Multiplier = 10x
"Athlon XP - 1000MHz," the BIOS sez.
"A-ha!" sez I.

FSB = 100
Multiplier = 11x
"Athlon XP - 1100MHz," the BIOS sez.

FSB = 100
Multiplier = 12x
"Athlon XP - 1200MHz," the BIOS sez.

FSB = 100
Multiplier = 13x
"Athlon XP - 600MHz," the BIOS sez.
"Fuck!" sez I.

FSB = 100
Multiplier = 12.5x
"Athlon XP - 1250MHz," the BIOS sez.
"A-ha!" sez I.

FSB = 166
Multiplier = 12.5x
"Unknown Processor Type - 2083MHz," the BIOS sez.
"That'll do," sez I.

Much, much happier framerates with an un-neutered CPU and a light overclock. Might fuck around and see about pushing it further, but I don't think her RAM is capable of much above 190MHz; it's not a compelling need anymore, at least.

Some other stuff happened yesterday, too; the personal biggie being finally getting Command & Conquer 3 and Blowing Stuff Up with mighty_man & Baal for the first time in entirely too long after having to, unfortunately, remove AVG's security suite from my system - the firewall wasn't passing traffic successfully, and would cause the application to lock up unrecoverably.

I like AVG's software (this was the 30 day free demo, and I heartily recommend it to any and everyone - I have fairly safe browsing habits, and after it scanned my system, it gave me the equivalent of, "Dude, you need to stop fucking those rotting corpses, mmkay?"

I may go to Avast's anti-virus solution, since it uses the same underpinnings, or just install everything except the firewall from the AVG suite, since my routers & Windows' integrated firewall do an adequate job of meeting my needs.

Friday after work (gym geek alert!), my workout partner and I (okay, mostly me) took another crack at the 300 workout. 50 inclined pushups, 30 pull-ups (3x10), 50 jumps (onto a 16" high bench), 25 clean-and-jerk @ 35#, 25 @ 25#. Hell, last week, I even did some roadwork (admittedly, just a mile).

I also seem to have mislaid my mp3 player. I suspect it fell out of my pocket either in mighty_man's car, at Denny's, or somewhere on the way back from Phoenix, since that was the last time I recall having it. Given the performance-enhancing results thewronghands has seen in her mile times with the inclusion of some good tunes, I'd like to perform similar experiments.

Last night, we hit the Castle with rappleboy & Jeeves after a much-needed pizza dinner with angel_sil & theonebob ; it was a weird crowd (was there a con in town, or did BARF wrap up or something?), but the patio music was pretty decent. Got some twisted amusement out of sharing complete sobriety with rappleboy, much to his chagrin.

For those hippies in the audience, since it's Earth Day, Home Depot is apparently giving away single fluourescent lightbulbs (while supplies last) and Starbucks will fill a non-disposable coffee mug for free today - aishlynn & I are looking to walk to our local 'bucks with Sil & Bob shortly, because it's fucking beautiful out right now.

Afterwards, I'm gonna chop my hair off before helping xany_hellion "move heavy stuff," as he put it, followed by a relaxing afternoon filled with digital mayhem and perhaps a nice bottle of red wine, since (it being my week on call), I'm not going into the office tomorrow, and can do a little bit of partying on a school night (my comeuppance is that I work a half day Saturday).

All in all... yeah, I'd have to say things don't suck around Gothopia Moon Base Alpha North today. There was even a bunny sighting. ;-)