Scientific Discovery!!

On Saturday I spent most of the day and part of the next morning at the house painting. 'Twas good fun with the legendary Lourie and the epic Pottsey stopping by to keep me company and share some laughs. And in the midst of that I managed to put the second coat on half the walls in the living room - YAY! But I digress.

So the scene is set - 12 hours of honest labor behind me as I wake up on Sunday, late morning-ish. After some monkeying about and a small amount of grocery shopping, I once again journeyed south to the painting cave. While waiting for Pottsey to come down I used the ingredients I had bought - 2 cans of chili (con carne) and 250g of prime cheddar. After simmering the chili on medium heat, I added the better part of 150g of said cheese (cubed) and stirred through till melted. After Pottsey arrived (30 sec after I took the chili-cheese wonderment off the stove) I put a bag of Doritos in a bowl, put the now identified dip in another bowl and served. Pottsey and I then did what we do best and consumed the glorious combination of (sort of) nacho chips and chili-cheese dip.

Now I can almost hear you thinking, "Why is the word 'SCIENCE' in the title???" Well, I'm glad you asked. After Pottsey and I consumed heaven on a plate, we found that we had a total lack of ability to continue painting, and, in fact, were about to fall asleep. So my scientific conclusion is:

"Good food combined with a late night prior leads to a complete lack of caring about anything."

Which is just fine with me!
And just for you, here's a basic recipe for you to enjoy:

Chili-cheese Dip
Ingredients:
Can of Chili con carne (choose flavor based on taste) - Ratio = about 2 cans:3 people
Cheddar cheese, cubed - Add to suit taste

Put the chili into a saucepan / small pot and simmer
Add cheese gradually
Stir continuously
Eventually raise heat to high, constantly stirring
Done when you can't find any bits of cheese
Put in a bowl and serve with favorite type of chip (fries are good too!)

Frankenstein Nostalgia

I'll bet the title has at least SOME people scratching their electronic heads. Which is fine with me - Chaos, Confusion, Disorder, and my work here is done...

But seriously, I'm having a severe wistful moment. Allow me to elaborate:
The first computer I ever built, was constructed completely out of spare parts. I added about $200 of upgrades, but the bare bones that made it run was cobbled together from stuff I got for free. I dubbed it "Frankenstein" which I know isn't literally correct, but too bad. (It's worth mentioning that I sold Frankenstein to a coffee shop for $200 profit. :) ) Now, let's fast forward back to the present: I have 3 computers in the same room as me that I've built in a similar fashion, including Frankenstein II, but all of them pale in comparison to the machine that is currently building itself on the desk. That's right, the Media Server.

Now wait, didn't I already have that running???
Ah yes, I did. I had it working quite nicely actually - however, it's now bigger, badder, and better than ever! While most of the original hardware is the same, there are some major differences:

1) The Case: one of the major drawbacks of the original machine was that the case it was in was a cheap thing I picked up for $10, and with the fans I put into it to keep it from melting on me, it was pretty damn loud. Not anymore - whisper silent, much more room, and just plain good-looking.




2) The Storage: the old machine had about 850GB of storage provided by 4 hard drives in a JBOD configuration. (JBOD = Jumbo Bunch Of Disks. It also = heart break if one of them fails). Now? Five hard drives, with 4 in a RAID 5 configuration (it's cool, trust me) with just about double the storage of the JBOD. That's right, we're talking more than 1.5 TB. Be afraid.



Also noteworthy: Because of the way it works, the 4 drives in RAID 5 need to be "built" into the right configuration. (Remember, I said it's "building itself"...?). I started this building process almost 2 hours ago. Current status = 30%. Must. Be. Patient...!




3) The RAID Controller: OK, I already mentioned the storage, but this little piece of silicone is what makes it work - a PCI SATA RAID controller. And no, I won't expand that alphabet soup of acronyms there. You're not special enough :-P
Anywho, I need to shower much thanks on my buddy Simon: he had this lying around as a spare part, and let me have it :-D.

Current status: 31%

Well, I can't afford to keep watching this thing till it finishes, so it's bedtime for me. Klara's probably going to kill me after reading this, because I said I wasn't going to have a late night... But I think I'll be alright, at least until after the house is painted :-P

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Update: 01/10/08, 10:00 AM

The server lives again! And after a bit of downloading for a driver, and some small tweaks, the massive drive is recognized - in fact, before I left for work, I started transferring across my DVD library. Ah, so much joy.