A few minutes ago, I posted in the 'Right Now!' blog about starting a new blog to act as my Computer Stuff 'journal.'

And here it is.

Anything posted earler than this was 'imported' from my straight-up HTML page that served the same purpose. If you see multiple posts with unique dates on them, then my plan of cut-n-pasting the HTML 'posts' into blog posts and editing the dates worked. The majority of the old posts were made at various times of the day, but because of my 'importing' technique, they all look like I made them around the same time in the evening. Kinda cool... I'm a night-owl or something.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildinghellfire.htm

This project came about as a potential birthday present for my nephew. His mom sent me some money back in December 2006 and asked me to build a custom computer with the understanding that it would be his birthday present in June. She also sent me a video card they'd purchased (a nice nVidia 7600 PCI-E card) which didn't fit the machine they already had. So I spec'd out the machine and ordered parts.

Knowing her son as we did, a cool paint-job and other stuff was in order, so I also ordered a PowerUp! TC3J-4044 mid-tower case (see below) because of it's coolness factor. I wish they would've had a black one available, but it was going to get painted anyway.

The system specs:

Athlon 64 3500+
1GB DDR 400 RAM
ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe mobo
Maxtor 250GB SATA-II HDD
nVidia 7600 PCI-E video card
Lite-On DVD-RW+/- w/Lite Scribe
Lite-On DVD-ROM
NetGear Wireless PCI NIC
52-in-1 multi-media card reader
1.44 3.5" FDD
Antec Basiq 500 watt PS
Clear chassis fans w/Red LEDs (2)
Red Cold Cathode Tube light
Custom Window
Custom Paint w/graphics
Skull thumb screws for side panels
PowerUp! TC3J-4044 Mid Tower

I had the parts sitting around for almost 5 months before I had a chance to do anything with them. So I kinda had to scramble a little to get it done in time for his birthday. I know I keep saying I'll do better about getting these things done sooner, but I never seem to make it work. Oh well.

I kicked off the build effort Saturday morning by making a run to Lowe's to score some still-needed materials: Lexan panel (for the window), some Allen-head screws and Nylock nuts (to hold the Lexan in place), paint, and some metal-cutting jigsaw blades. Once I had all the gear at home, I set-up my makeshift workbench in the garage once again. Like a dumb-ass, I hadn't opened the case box and inspected the case before Saturday, and there was a nice dent on the edge of the top panel... right by the front - chipped and missing paint as well. Wonderful. Oh well, press on.

After totally dismantling all of the components in the case, I discovered that the top was actually pop-riveted to the chassis. Bummer. Oh well, time to drill out the pop-rivets, because there was no way I could paint the chassis and the outer skins the way I wanted with everything all attached like that. And there was also no way to repair the dent with the whole thing assembled as well. Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 1: Sometimes computer cases can get a little mangled when the UPS dudes get bored and decide to play football with your package on the loading dock.

After I repaired the dent (pounded it out and re-shaped the edge (turned out OK - a guy named Bart that does body-work in Wichita, Kansas would've been proud). I drew the skull outline on the left-side panel. Cutting out the skull was going to be a snap, after all, with the jigsaw I borrowed from my pal Jim. Yeah... right. Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 2: A jigsaw will mangle the crap out of cheap sheet metal if given the opportunity... and it had plenty of opportunity. I made it through 3 good cuts before the jigsaw threatened to completely mangle everything in sight - including me if I wasn't careful. I know what you're thinking - and yes, I can use a jigsaw, quite well, actually. But I've never really used one on this kind of cheap sheet metal before. So this was a learning experience... I learned that next time I'll call my pal Bud Sizemore and have him cut something like this out on his precision laser/plasma cutting rig.

So - time to bust out the trusty ol' Dremel.

Fortunately, I had a handful of the fiberglass reinforced cut-off wheels and a full 30-pack of those cheapo "heavy duty" cut-off wheels. You know, the ones that disintegrate within 45 seconds of cutting, or snap altogether if you look at them funny while cutting. It's a good thing too, because I used all but 2 of them to cut the shape you'll see below.

Here we go again: Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 3: Never try to pick the little straggler scrap off using your index finger after you've just finished cutting it with the Dremel. The resulting blister from the burn makes it hard to push the nozzle on the spray can when painting later. (I know this is probably more of a Common Sense rule than a sheet metal tip - but they're related... trust me)

Once I had the had the window cut, I drilled some holes for mounting the Lexan panel to the back once this all comes together. I also lined up and drilled the corresponding holes in the Lexan panel. OK - now that all of the cutting and drilling is done, time to lay down some base coat. I shot some Rustoleum Cherry Red on the chassis and backsides of the outer skins, and let that dry for a couple hours. Once that was all done, I flipped everything back over and fogged on some Rustoleum Black Hammered-Finish paint. So far, so good.

Sunday had me setting up my spiffy new expandable step-ladder as a painting easel so I could have a decent way to paint everything. I hadn't painted anything since Dave's truck back in November, so I had to get friendly with the airbrush again. I was hoping to use my new Iwata HP-CS that I scored on eBay, but the fitting for the air-hose was too big. I guess I need a new air hose for it now. Bummer. Oh well, the Paasche VL does a nice job, so no biggee. Once I started laying down some orange flames, I was getting back into it and was pretty happy with how the left panel (with the window) was going. So I grabbed the other side panel and decided to free-hand a flaming skull onto it. I chickened out and drew some quick guidelines with my trusty ol' Sharpie first though - they were going to be hidden with the paint, after all. It was turning out great... until I decided to pile on some more colors and ruined the effect I was going for. Dammit. I've never been good at 'minimizing' anything. Oh well - it turned out OK - just not exactly how I wanted it. And with both side panels done, I decided to try again with the top panel... except this time, this guy was going to look a little meaner. Same deal - Sharpie then paint. Although, I'm much happier about how he turned out (technique-wise, that is). Looks meaner too. ;-)

OK - so now all the graphics are done, so it's time to clear coat everything. Since I hadn't planned on clearing the chassis, I flipped everything black-side up and started shooting (Rustoleum Clear) and pretty much finished up the front bezel and door, when I noticed this bizarre crinkling effect going on. Oh. My. God. I had just ruined everything. The black Hammered-Finish said something about waiting 48 hours to cure (but I didn't have that kind of time) and I hit it with the clear at 24 hours. Well, the chemical reaction wasn't quite through, so it wrinkled like a big dawg.

CRAP!!

Then my wife saw it and said it looked cool. So, worried about what it was going to do to the graphics, I shot the rest of the pieces and the same thing happened pretty much everywhere - I would up with pretty much the equivalent of Harley Wrinkle-Black all over the whole thing. It didn't mess up the graphics in the least... I got lucky there.

I let it dry overnight and took Monday off so I could finish assembling the whole thing. Once I got the top pop-riveted back on, it was all downhill from there. Everything went in like it was supposed to, except that I didn't have a power supply anywhere. Dammit! So, I took a break from the heat and ran to Circuit City for an Antec Basiq 500 PS. Of course, it was twice as expensive as ordering online, but oh well - again, I didn't have any more time for small stuff like this. Once I got the power supply installed and zip-tied all the wires in-place I took it inside and began loading Windows. Normally, zip-tying everything means that I'll have some issue crop up that I'll have to take everything all apart to fix, but it all went well this time. It's like the machine knew it needed to be done and out the door today... and it behaved. After I finished everything up, I took a couple of quick pictures, packed it all up, and ran it to Office Depot for UPS pick-up. Hopefully, it'll get there in time, and more importantly - intact.

Lessons learned: Bug some friends that have cooler tools for the hard stuff, make sure you have everything before you begin, check ALL of the parts when they show up, and don't wait until the last damn minute to do this kind of stuff anymore.

Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing major, nothing spectacular beyond the window and paint. Hopefully, my nephew will be happy with it and maybe even get me some more pictures.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildingjemezman.htm

This project came about as a Christmas present to my friend... which kinda took 3 Christmas's to get done. My friend Jim is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico and really digs the southwestern style. So immediately, I had plans about how a New Mexico themed case would look, and it's pretty much what you'll see below. Lots of things affected the timeline of building the case... but the biggest thing was Jim's patience - which it seems like he has more than I'll ever be able to muster up, as he never complained about not having received this 'present' back when it was promised... but also as the next 2 Christmas holidays came and went. I was even a couple days late getting it to him this year as well. Don't get me wrong - he gave me plenty of ribbing about it over the time... which was well deserved and I would expect nothing less from him as well.

I'm actually pretty embarrassed that it took so long to execute. Not so much time really went into it - just gettin' off me arse and actually working on it was the tough part - because something else always comes up. It's pretty much just a couple of LED fans, a window, and a paintjob - nothing really spectacular.

Back in 2002, I picked up a nice full-tower kit from mwave.com with the intention of modding it to what you see below. Unfortunately, the idea of cutting the window and how I was going to make the dreamcatcher work was the first major hurdle. After a long time of planning, I realized that it was too close to the holiday to complete the case, so I got him something else and promised I'd finish it soon. The bad thing is that I do most of my work at the Auto Hobby Shop (where he actually works), so trying to get it done there seemed like it would be tough... but he already knew about it and it kind of became a joke after awhile.

Once I got the window cut - it sat for another few months while I tried to figure out how to work the window's glass and still incorporate the dream catcher.

Then about 3 months ago (September 2005), I got some inspiration (and motivation) when another friend asked me to paint the tank and fenders for his motorcycle. After I found out what he wanted, I figured I'd mod a case for him with the same theme as a practice effort. BUT - I still had to finish this case for Jim. It would be just wrong to start another project without finishing this up, after all.

So I brought the front panel in and cut out Kokopelli with my Dremel, and also cut out the chassis fan guards to fit the LED fans it so they wouldn't be obstructed. Then - I got tagged with a bunch of TDY's to various places... each for a week at a time. Somewhere in there was a car show that I entered the Jeep in, Thanksgiving, and my time spent with the Community Band. Like I say - something else always comes up.

So with about a month to go before Christmas 2005, I finally drilled the holes to thread the dream catcher and painted the Fleckstone paint. The following week I had to go to Boston for a maintenance training course, and when I got back, I had two weeks to go. I checked all of my reference drawings and even surfed out for some more. But blew off actually laying down the murals until the Friday before Christmas Day.

That night, I got the Eagle Kachina on the left panel done. Saturday (Christmas Eve) I worked on the dream catcher and showed Jim the actual progress when he came by to drop off my Christmas presents (see how cool he is?). Then I kinda finished the rest of it on Christmas Day and clear-coated the murals on the day after Christmas, I also mounted up the glass that day - which I'm still not too keen on how it worked out. As I finished it up, I called Jim to arrange delivery - and he was sick in bed with some kind of stomach bug. Whoa! Hey - it wasn't my fault this time! For once...

So, after work 2 days after Christmas, I had him over while I put the chassis altogether and took the pictures. He got it home and transferred his computer into the new case and apparently thinks it was worth the wait. I'm glad he's happy with it - but I'm still embarrassed it took me so long to get the man his Christmas present from 2002.

Been a long time since anything has given me any trouble. Everything's running great so I'm going to leave it all alone for now.

I decided to build a new machine out of leftovers to replace the aging Guard Dawg. I need to get the machine up before I head to my Solaris class next week, since I'm taking it (along with the rest of my SS7 stuff) down to Dave so he can have some fun with it.

I also smoked the power supply in Rusty. So I snagged a new Enermax 270 watt PS from MWave.com. I'm going to open up the power supply case on that sucker and hopefully get some more cooling action in there.

I've also got a couple of case-mods ongoing. One is a southwestern-style case with an adobe-colored fleckstone paintjob with a dream catcher for a window and a Kokopelli cut-out of the front panel - lit with a blue CCFL and Blue LED fans. The other is a shiny black paintjob with a shadowy skull window cut-out with a similar skull cut-out air-intake on the front panel, lit with red LED fans and a red CCFL.

Unfortunately, after about a month-and-a-half of running great, the motherboard in the laptop crapped out - right as I showed up to a class in Austin for two weeks. Apparently too much abuse from the previous owner had taken its toll. I was able to have a notebook repair shop repair the machine (since they wouldn't just sell me a new mobo). It ran $700 all said and done, but I'm still several hundred dollars ahead of the game considering the machine I have.

Scored a monster deal on a laptop. One of the guys at work had this machine and it crapped out on him - it would only run for a few minutes at a time and not even boot. He mentioned selling it for parts on eBay once he found out how much a new motherboard was going to cost. I offered to buy it from him, but he wanted to keep the hard drive because of all of his stuff that he was sure I'd be able to pull off of it after a format - whatever (this guy claims he knows a ton about computers... but has yet to prove it). I bought a new, bigger drive for $60... no biggee.

So, I took it home and started researching everything I could find on it. I found a support forum on Dell's site that outlined the symptoms it was having and how to fix it - basically that the machine has a poorly-designed heat exchanger that needs to remain absolutely clean to work properly. So, I pulled it apart and cleaned out what seemed like a half pound of dog hair, dust, and cigarette ashes. Once that was taken care of it ran great for about 45 minutes - long enough to reload Windows XP Pro.

I also discovered that they had suspect power supplies that would overdrive the power distribution section on the motherboard, causing a thermal shutdown. So, I got on eBay and found a new power supply which seemed to solve the problem - the machine runs like a champ.

OK, so it's been forever since I updated this thing. But, everything's pretty much happy for now. I just built a machine for one of my friends at the Auto Hobby Shop at Goodfellow AFB. I screwed up and ordered the wrong video card, the ATI 9000 AIW has a DVI output, and he still needs an SVGA. So, I ordered an MSI TV tuner card instead, and he's in business. So, now I'm stuck with this ATI card, which I think I'll stuff into StoneAge and put him back under the TV as a TiVo box. I think StoneAge is going to become the real Living Room machine, since GuardDawg is old and can't run UT2003 or UT2004 when Dave comes to visit. But the ol' thing just keeps running and running and running. It just hangs in there and keeps dishing out MP3s and storage for me. Hey, as long as it's willing to hang in there - it's got a place under the TV.

I also received the new motherboard for Rusty when I got all of Don's parts. It's a BioStar mATX board and should drop right in and take over where the Gigabyte board left off. The Gigabyte board did fine, but the place I order most of my junk from (MWave.com) didn't have one in stock, so I had to find another solution.

Of all things, a major thunderstorm on the 8th took out Rusty. Since the power cord wasn't long enough to plug into the 30amp surge protector with the rest of the junk, it's mobo kinda got fried and died a slow death over the next couple days. So, I grabbed the ever-so-willing StoneAge and slammed it back under the desk to substitute as the software router/multi-function server until I can get Rusty back together.

Dave's here and GuardDawg can't hang with running UT2003, which is the new game we're all wanting to play now. So, it's time to put Rusty in it's proper place - on the shelf above BigDawg as my new software router and multi-function server. With that done, StoneAge has been moved into the living room under the TV next to GuardDawg, to take over as the new living room multimedia machine.

Well, I'm finally done. Meet Rusty, my new software router/multi-functional server and first ever completely custom machine... I mean completely custom. That was my 'secret project' from the last entry that I was trying to keep hidden from some people I know that think NASCAR is a big waste. After two different attempts at getting the decals squared away, I finally came upon a solution - adhesive backed photo paper from Office Depot. It seems as if the water-slip inkjet decals I tried let too much color bleed through the white areas, and didn't want to stick after a few weeks anyway.

Click on 'Rusty' on the drag-down menu above under 'My Machines' to see more about this creation.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildingrusty.htm

I sat at my computer desk one day and listened to the BIOS alarm on my main machine going off. I realized that the new machine I had just built to run my website, FTP site, and act as software router that I had placed under the desk right next to it was causing cooling issues with Big Dawg. So, looking around, I tried to figure out where I could put the new box to keep Big Dawg happy, and still be able to use my KVM switch between the two. Nothing looked good, and then it hit me – build a machine that looks like a NASCAR race car and put it on a shelf above my desk so it looks like it’s part of my Rusty Wallace collection of die-cast race cars.

I was a big fan of the GTR-PC I saw on the internet a few years back (I’m still apalled that someone actually stole that machine), and that served as a huge part of my inspiration to create the machine you see now. Except that he had used a 1/8th scale remote control car body for his machine, and there were no NASCAR bodies in that scale – I’m also into R/C cars as a hobby. So I realized I had to go smaller scale in the 1/10th range, which would give me quite a selection of bodies, wheels, tires, etc, to choose from.

I scored a sheet of 4mm aluminum, the Parma 2001 Taurus Super Speedway body, some Pro-Line Green pre-mounted foam tires, and a couple of NASCAR Taurus decal kits. I cut a test chassis out of cardboard to fit to the body, then began my measurements. Not just any motherboard would fit into the chassis and tuck under the body, so I went with a Gigabyte K7 Triton Micro ATX mobo, since it was only 190mm X 243mm – which would fit in there nicely. I also decided to go with a laptop CD-ROM, Micro ATX power supply, and elevate the mobo on some extra brass stand-offs so I could stuff the hard drive under there. There wasn’t much room to put stuff on top of the mobo and have it all still fit under the body. I also decided to exclude a floppy drive, since there wasn’t much room for it, and who uses floppies anymore anyway, right? My other big problem was how to get two NICs necessary to run as a software router. One was already on-board the mobo, so I snagged a 90 degree port-adapter card and laid the NIC down across the board. And it just barely clears the hood.

After several test-fittings, I cut the chassis out of the aluminum sheet with a jigsaw (after I saw what a plasma-cutter did to the sheet aluminum, I figured I’d get a cleaner edge doing it the old way. After several hours of cleaning up the edges with a file and Dremel, I found some 1”x1” aluminum L-channel stock and made the wheel mounts, which I pop-riveted to the chassis. I also had to cut a square hole in the back for the power supply fan to hang out of (literally) for ventilation. I also found the need to bend the chassis upwards of 15 degrees in the back to stay tucked under the body. The power supply barely fits under the ‘trunk’ now.

I had to custom-fab a bulkhead for the power switch & LED and the reset switch and hard drive light. For that, I used the same 1”x1” aluminum L-channel I used to mount the wheels to the chassis with. After that, I located everything and drilled the necessary holes to mount everything. I hand-polished the chassis, since I wasn’t smart enough to polish it before I pop-riveted the wheel mounts on. I also discovered that the power supply’s power cord would’ve come out of the body in a bad place, so I took it apart and hard-wired the power supply cord to the power supply.

Now it was time to put everything on the chassis. Surprise! Everything fit. I mounted the hard drive under the mobo with its interface towards the driver’s side so I could fold the cables under for a cleaner look. The laptop CD-ROM was mounted using double-stick ‘servo tape’ – which I thought was fitting since so much other R/C car tech was used on this project so far.

I painted the wheels and body and realized that the NASCAR Taurus decals were not the ones I needed to use. Plus, nobody made a decal set for Rusty Wallace’s #2 Miller Lite Special. Imagine that – I’ve had a hard time finding any good collectible stuff for him, so why should this be any different? So, between MS Paint, PaintShop Pro 6, and PhotoShop 6, I was able to make the decals and print them out on adhesive-back photo paper – a few were scanned or ripped from actual pictures of the real car, but the rest were drawn by me. Getting the decals to fit was tough and took many attempts, but I think I got it worked out fairly well. Plus, it looks like it’s part of my Rusty Wallace collectibles and most people that see it can’t believe that it’s a computer.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've really done anything to these machines. I guess if they ain't broke, don't fix 'em. Well, one of them was kinda broke, and not filling the bill for the wife. Her new machine (referenced as Fred after this entry) was in a case that was a bit too big for the desk it was housed in. So I snagged a new smaller case and after determining that it would indeed fit, I decided to try my hand at case modding. My wife is into Egyptian Mythology, Unreal Tournament, the Sims, likes Journey (the music group), and a myriad of other things. I decided the mod theme for her case would be Egyptian. So I painted it a Fleckstone paint Sandstone color, cut out the Eye of Horus in the front panel, lit it with some green LEDs, painted the chassis gold, decorated the exterior with hand-painted (by me) heiroglyphics and crypt murals, painted the drive device faces gold as well, and switched to rounded cables on the interior. It's finally done and looks pretty good, actually.

Click on 'Anubis' on the drag-down menu above under 'My Machines' to see more about this creation.

No progress on the 'Jeep' theme case. I'm going to start working on my other project... it's a secret until I make some definitive progress.... sorry. ;-)

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildinganubis.htm

This project came about as a result of building too big of a computer for my wife's desk. When we upgraded her machine from an AMD K6-2/500 to an Athlon machine, we switched from a Baby AT case to an ATX mid-tower, that was too tall to fit under the shelf of her desk. And needing as much storage space in her computer desk as she can get, I decided to get a new case and transfer the system into it.

Her old machine started out inside a CodeGen mid-tower w/4 5.25 bays, which was about 5" too tall to fit the desk without major modification... screw that.

The case I chose is an In-Win A500 from MWave.com. It has a 300 watt power supply, 3 5.25" bays, and 3 3.5" bays. They call it a 'Super Mini-Tower,' which is perfect to fit under the shelf I can now reinstall on her desk.

Over the past year, my wife's been collecting all sorts of Egyptian Mythological artwork and figurines, and has even gotten into quilt-work and ceramics as result. So, I figured I had a direction to go with this. I spent a lot of time at Virtual-Hideout and Blue-Smoke on the galleries checking out the modded cases, and came up with a simple idea for my first 'real' effort. Painting Guard Dawg black wasn't really anything to speak of, I wanted something a little more exotic. So I decided on a sandstone case with hieroglyphics and crypt murals with a cartouche on the top.

I also decided I wanted a lit case, but didn't want to go with a window. I noticed someone had lit a cutout of a crow on the front panel of their case, so I decided to go that route, and envisioned the cover of the Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky album. Then I drew out the 'Eye of Ra' on the backside of the front panel and took the Dremel to it. Had it cut out in no time and took the hot glue gun to the green LED 3-pack. No problem.

Then I pulled the main cover and front panel for the Sandstone paint. After a couple coats of Fleckstone, it was ready for the artwork. The left panel is a rip-off of a clock that she found on e-Bay with Isis, Osirus, & a Pharoah during Judgement Day. I'm a big Stargate SG-1 fan, and the theme of the show ties in with the Egyptian Mythology, so I tossed some of the Stargate 'Chevrons' on the mural as well as one of the 'Stargate addresses,' which I totally made up.

The top panel is a cartouche of her name - which wound up way too big, now that I look at it. Plus, I would've preferred to paint it Metallic Gold, as most of the cartouches I've seen in real life were made of Gold. Oh well.

The right panel is a figure drawing of Horus (left) and Anubis (right) with the Scarab from the Journey - Greatest Hits CD cover (she loves Journey) as well as the Unreal Tournament shield - again, she plays UT and UT2003 like crazy. Maybe this would inspire her. The hieroglyphics are from the phonetic alphabet and actually spell out a message, but I'll probably get my ass kicked if she ever figures it out.

Just a little FYI - the artwork was hand-drawn by me with my trusty Sharpie magic marker, and a set of Pentel color sticks from a local arts & crafts store to fill in the colors. The White areas on the murals were done using a white China Pencil. Nothing fancy about the techniques used here or anything. So, no - it's not a sticker... LOL!

Once the artwork was done, the case sat for a few weeks while I figure out what else to do with it. Meanwhile, I ordered some round cables, for airflow more than anything since I don't plan on cutting a window in the side or anything. Then I got the idea to paint the chassis Metallic Gold. Having done that, the rest of the chassis components (except the power supply - didn't feel like taking it apart) were painted Metallic Gold as well. Then I decided on painting the faceplates of the CD-ROM, Floppy, & Breakout Panel along with all of the bulkhead panels the same Metallic Gold as well. Hindsight would have me paint the bay covers during the process instead of the Fleckstone, but oh well.

OK, we're getting into nit-noid things now. I just received a Logitech Cordless Freedom keyboard and Cordless Mouseman for Big Dawg. I got the keyboard installed and running great, but I didn't realize that the mouse wasn't optical. Oh well, I'll stick with the optical Mouseman I'm currently running. It's optical, plus it has a cool blue LED-lit Logitech logo on it.

I've also decided to mod my case. I'm not going for anything like a window or like that, but instead a Jeep Theme paintjob... or rather, My Jeep theme paintjob. It'll be pretty cool I hope. I got the idea from a friend on The Tech Zone who is making a case for his girlfriend, and she owns a Jeep. He asked what he could do to his case to make it look like a Jeep. So I stated telling him all the cool things that are bolted onto Jeeps (footman loops, hood catches, stone-guards, etc...) and started thinking about my machine.

I'll post pics in progress and after it's done.

Well, the latest is I just installed an Athlon XP2100+ (Palomino) in Big Dawg and closed off all of the extra factory vents in the case. This leaves me with a somewhat quieter machine, as well as the air flow is being directed from the exact area I want it to come from - the front of the case where it's cool. The open vents on the back of the case were allowing warm air that's just been exhausted from both Big Dawg and Stoneage to recirculate back into the machine, keeping it even warmer. By doing this, it dropped the case temp from 100 degrees, down to 86 degrees, and the CPU temp from 128 degrees, down to 118 degrees. This is big because before I did this, the CPU temp of the new Athlon shot up to 133 before the first round of vent clogging.

I also installed an Athon XP1800+ (Thoroughbred) in Fred because my pal Jim had ordered it for his Soyo Dragon+ motherboard, but it didn't work on his mobo. The Soyo Dragon+ (K7V - KT233a chipset) would not support the T-bred processor core. So we did some research and found that the Dragon would handle up to an XP2100+, but it had to be a Palomino. So I ordered one from Accubyte.com, and they called me back with a question on my order. They wanted me to be aware that I was only ordering a processor, and no heat sink or fan. Well, Duh - I'm upgrading into an existing HSF set-up... And then when I asked the guy if this processor was going to be a Palomino or Thoroughbred, the guy answered, "Umm, well, it's an XP2100+," I asked him again, because my Soyo board would not support a T-bred, and if he knew the difference... he said he did not. So I cancelled the order since I couldn't ship it back if it was the wrong one. Then I got online with The Tech Zone and asked some questions on the forums. A friend had already posted the specs and differences between the Palomino and T-bred, so armed with that info, I went looking. I found a good site and ordered 2 of them from NewEgg.com - I called them a few days after the order was placed and asked if they were indeed Palominos and not being substituted with T-breds, and the lady (who sounded confident and knowledgeable) answered that they were indeed Palominos, and they were on their way - and showed up within a week. After I got it, I cleaned the regular old white birdshit thermal compound off my Dragon Orb HSF and smeared on some Arctic Silver 3, slapped one of the 2100+'s in my machine, and fired it up. After it posted, I had to crank up the front side bus (FS speed from 100 MHz to 133MHz to get it to read the processor as an Athlon 2100+, as opposed to the 1500+ through the 100 MHz FSB. I called Jim the next day and swapped processors with him. He be a happy man too.

So far, so good - Jim's machine is running well, Big Dawg's humming right along, and Fred's even getting those Sims from harddrive to desktop in a much quicker manner as well.

Still no progress on getting the DNS happy so that the domain names are working properly. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - this is really pissing me off.

OK, this server crap is really hacking me off. All the permissions and policies are screwed beyond belief. Looks like I'll just revert them all back to default and work on this FTP problem. It looks like someone fingered my FTP server and helped themselves to some of my drive space and used me as a File Server for Kazaa or some other music sharing service. Oh well, at least the uploaded some good music. But 'anonymous logins' is shut off for good now. Now I just need to figure out how to share the folders and keep everybody except the owners and administrator out of them.

Alright, I can't figure out how to get this FTP stuff running the way it was before Active Directory hosed all my settings. ARGH!!! I guess I'm finally going to have to do something I really didn't want to do in the first place: run the FTP server in 'Allow Anonymous Logins' mode. It wouldn't be so bad, except that I've got a couple of friends depending on my to host their stuff on the forums. Oh well - hope this works for now.

Man, I think I messed the whole server thing up. I did a DCPROMO to Stoneage in hopes of getting Windows to automatically configure the DNS server, and when it loaded Active Directory, if FUBAR'd all my original settings for the various folders, shares and permissions for the different user accounts and Group Policies. And to top it all off, my Win2K Adv Server textbook is in San Antonio with Dave while he works out his issues. ARGH!!! This sucks, and it means I'll have to figure out how this stuff all works flying blind. Of course my class notes won't help either since it's all in the textbook... Geez.

I tried to get the domain names "concho4wheelers.com" and "mister4x4.net" secured and running, although it appears that the company I'm going through is a little less than user friendly. Looks like I need to load a DNS server on Stoneage and get this thing running on my end.

I got my second machine (Lewis's old Cyrix 200+) back from my Mom several months ago and finally decided to place it on the network. To do that, I used the existing CAT-5 that was running from the cabinet that Guard Dawg lives in back to the old computer room, and the old 4-port hub, which has been in the closet since I got the switch. I hung the hub off Guard Dawg's second NIC, and plugged in one of the lines to 'Old Dawg,' which is what we're calling the Cyrix. I've got it running on Windows ME for now, but I'm planning on loading and running Red Hat Linux 7.0 just for fun and to make the Cyrix actually have some juice, compared to the struggle it had with Windows-based OS's. It's only a 200 after all. Linux makes older, less speedy hardware run more efficiently.