Hydro-Powah!

Yesterday, my coworker gave me this sweet calculator:


I know, right about now you're thinking, "There is nothing sweet about that calculator but the green buttons, and THAT'S certainly nothing worth blogging about." Well, friends, don't judge this book by its cover, check THIS out:

It is water-powered! Seriously, you unscrew that and fill the clear part about 3/4 with water and you're good to go. I don't know how long that amount of water will last, but so far she's going strong!

I'm probably overly excited about this, but it seems to me like a pretty damn cool advance!

Nerdiness Prevails

I spent the bulk of my weekend building Frankputer:


Several months ago, my aunt's computer (which was formerly my grandfather's) suffered from a hard drive crash. Having a laptop, she decided to just be done with the desktop. My father & I being the computer nerds we are got dibs.

Subsequently, my computer wouldn't run Star Trek Online, a game Andy purchased and was excited to play. It might have overcome the subpar dual core, since the clock speed was more than necessary, but my video card just wouldn't cut the mustard. He went online and bought the recommended card for the game. He should have consulted me, as the motherboard has an AGP video slot and he bought a PCI-E, so we couldn't use it.

This set in motion the plan for Frankenputer. We got the case from my aunt, and I had my desktop as well as Andy's virus-ridden one at the house. We'd been planning to combine our 2 to make the best machine we could out of what we had, but now there was another one in the mix.

Dad came over Saturday and we spent nearly the entire weekend assembling it, but for the most part it is paying off. Thankfully, even though it isn't dual core, it runs Star Trek Online pretty damn smoothly.

We ended up wiping Andy's hard drive and using it, using the RAM from his computer, and his wireless card. My wireless card was acting flaky. I left my system mostly intact and sent it up to my parents' house to live on the farm.

The computer my grandpa originally had, which is the bulk of what our 'new' system is, has some kickass features. It comes with built-in FM and TV tuners, has a remote control, records video, has S-video and composite outputs, etc. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Something was wrong with the DVD burner tray, so I took it out and had to take it apart to get a disc out of it, so we'll need to replace that. Also, I'm waiting on the hard drive cage to make its way back from the data recovery service, where it's still attached to my aunt/grandpa's hard drive. That's why the cover is off and top slot is empty in the picture.

Anyway, what we ended up with:
Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
2.5 GB RAM
160 GB HD, w 80 GB master in the works....and striped SATA drives to follow shortly
GeForce 9500 GT graphics card

...and all for the $30 that it cost Andy to get the video card, and as a result light a proverbial fire under my ass.

I'm pretty happy.

Only in the Finest Establishments

The first-ever cordless remote

Perhaps I should start a new series, of Awesome 80's Technology in the 21st century....the name needs work, but you get the drift.

Do you remember last time I left town & stayed in a cabin, the sweet alarm clock? Well this time I left town and went to Hermann for Octoberfest. We rented the Mueller Haus. It had 5 bedrooms, and "The Dorm" - the basement where Jenny, Laurinda, & I stayed. It was awesome. That part I am being completely unsarcastic about - I loved it.

In The Dorm we had a Zenith TV that looked just like one that we had when I was growing up. Actually, it was frighteningly recently that my parents parted with it. It never had a remote that I know of. Certainly by the time I inherited it to play N64 on, there was no remote. However, I now know what it would look like if it did have one.

My favorite part of it was that it took a 9-volt battery. That thing better last forever!! I'm guessing the battery in it was the second one since 1977.

Epic 80′s Awesomeness – Day 4.5

Of course. The day after I'm wildly impressed with my stick-to-it-ness, I forgot to take a damn picture. I'm going to go ahead and say I thought I did take one...but then I couldn't find it.

HOLY SHIT! As I was typing that I remembered what happened! My phone was dead & I took a picture on my sister's phone. She was supposed to send it to me, but I'm not sure she ever did. I'll add it at a later time and/or date.

So then I guess this post is officially Day 5. I don't have to pretend like this one photo somehow works for 2 days. Although, I think I should tell you now that something this awesome totally COULD count for 2 days. So fuck off.

Holy shit! This alarm clock is the same size as the TV in my bedroom!

In retrospect, flash was probably not the best idea.

So this weekend we went on a float trip down the Gasconade River for my sister's birthday. We stayed in a cabin that wasn't quite big enough for all of us, but it was a blast. That said, the bedroom belonging to me, my sister, and Jenny, had not only this SUPER FUCKING SWEET alarm clock, but it also had a bed that collapsed at least once a day.

The place really wasn't as shitty as I'm making it sound, everything but our bedroom seemed to be just fine and dandy. I mean it wasn't the Ritz, but it was a river cabin. Even if it were the Ritz once upon a time it would end up being some level of shitty. The problem with the bed was that there were no slats or anything through the middle of the frame so the boxsprings kept falling through. I was glad to be the odd-man-out, sleeping on my cot. Third wheel FTW!

This alarm clock, circa 1983, did not help us wake up. But it did prop our window open for the night. As did the Gideon's Bible, but that is neither here nor there.