smart computer use?

I live in North Dakota. Winters get very cold and brutal at times. I’m sure if you’ve heard anything about North Dakota you have heard about that.

That’s the story setup…

Here is the quick back story about my old computers.

I have a couple of old desktop computers that I have recently rotated out of use in favor for new desktop computers. Both of the old computers are tower units that built about 5 years ago. I had to just finally rotate them out and replace them with new computers because they just couldn’t keep up with modern applications for me any more.

I would consider both of the old computers to be worth keeping around, however. You just never know when you will get the itch to set up a computer that is a few years old to either play Unreal Tournament GOTY or maybe set up a linux server for a web development playground. At least that is my line of thinking.

So, I put both of the computers out in the garage.

I put them there in hopes that some day I might feel like using them again.

Cold weather and computers

I would like to think that cold weather can have a completely negative effect on computers. I know for a fact that if a computer is going to be turned on or off, it should not be sitting in 20 degree temperatures. The effects of hot-cold changes would wreak havoc on the computer hardware.

But, I would also think that a computer might be completely fine sitting in the cold if it will not be turned on and will only be there for storage.

I am thinking that I will probably take the hard drives out of the two old computers and keep them in the warm confines of my studio. I don’t really think I need anything from the hard drives, but I would like to keep them around and keep them operational if a situation arises where I need a hard drive.

I think that the rest of the computer (motherboard, CPU, RAM, CD drives, tower, power supply, etc.) will be fine sitting in the garage for storage over the winter. Or at least I’ll find out someday if and when I might try to use them again after storing them in the garage over the winter.

Temperature drops and computers

This whole situation also got me thinking about how changing temperatures can be bad for old computers. I had another computer that was from the same 2001 era that these two old computers are from. This particular other computer was being used at the office of the business where I work. It is more than a few years old but was being used as a developers computer (ftp, text editors, and simple non-resource intensive apps were all that it was running).

The heat went out over a particular winter weekend and the temperatures in the office dropped to maybe 40-50 degrees from the usual 70 degree mark.

When I came into the office on Monday morning, that old computer was not running, and the CPU fan and heatsink were hanging out the side of the computer by it’s wires. Hmm… not a good thing I though to myself. Turns out that the CPU fan and heatsink had snapped off of the motherboard, the plastic clips that held the fan and heatsink on the motherboard were broke and there really was no way to fix other than replace the motherboard.

I could only assume that this had happened because of the temperature drop… in combination with the brittle old plastic inside the computer.

Too bad. I kinda liked that old machine. Now it’s cannibalized for parts.

Ah, how the life of an old computer can be ended so quickly.

I have the pleasure of living with 3 cats. Considering that I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment, it seems a little crowed between me, my girlfriend and the 3 cats. Plus throw in a 75 gallon fish tank and 10 gallon fish tank and that adds up to a lot of living creatures (including humans) in one 2 bedroom apartment.

I find the cats to be very interesting a lot of times in their interaction with computers.

Fascination with the laptop computer

The youngest one, Dotty, is completely fascinated by the glossy surface covering on my main laptop computer. She likes to either just sit on top of it or paw at the glossy surface material and act amazed. This can get quite comical, I think she can see her reflection in it or something.

Dotty also had a bad habit for a while of sitting behind my laptop screen and reaching her paws around the side to attack my hands while I would be trying to type. While cute, it was annoying, but it was too entertaining to get me angry. She seems to have dropped that habit lately, though she would only do this if I was laying in bed with the computer on my lap. I haven’t done that for a while and I can only assume that she’d do that again if the situation arose.

Fascination with the iTunes visualizer

Kitty is the second youngest. Yes I actually have a cat named Kitty, she already had that name when we got her and we didn’t change it. She always had a fascination with the speakers that I have set up to the left and right of my main desktop computer monitor. When I’m listening to music like Aphex Twin or Squarepusher that has lots of interesting electronic sounds and left-right panning she likes to sit next to me on the desk and watch back and forth between the speakers, trying to figure out what is going on.

Then one day after I got into iTunes, I kicked on the visualizer while I was cleaning my 75 gallon aquarium (which is in the office/studio with my computers). Kitty sat and watched the visualizer for about 30 minutes, without taking her eyes off the screen, until I turned it off after done cleaning my aquarium. She is quite patient and that was a pretty funny thing to watch, her being mezmerized by the screen.

Glasses of water

I haven’t mentioned Brick yet, the oldest of the three cats. He doesn’t really do much with the computers and I don’t think he really cares about them.

But… he has a fascination with glasses of water. All three cats do actually. This isn’t that bad of a thing, and you may be asking yourself… what does this have to do with computers?

Well, cats that are fascinated with glasses of water tend to tip them over every now and then. They’ll either paw at glasses to intentionally try to tip them water, or they will try to stick their heads in the glasses to drink the water. This leads to spilled glasses of water every now and again.

About 2 weeks ago I forgot a large, full glass of water on the computer desk and sure enough, it was tipped over the next morning. I had to dry up water underneath a laptop computer, under the mouse pad, and under the keyboard of my main desktop computer. I couldn’t be mad though… my fault completely for leaving the water there, I know better.

Another potentially bad situation includes the fact that I like to put glasses of water on my night stand. I get thirsty for water a lot and like to keep it nearby. I also like to lean my laptop up against the side of the night stand at times. This is a horrible idea, obviously, but what can I say… I’m a risk taker. I haven’t had water spilled on my laptop computer in a situation like this yet, but I’m sure it will happen some day.

As I am typing this…

Dotty is actually drinking out of my water glass right now.

Cripes. These cats are too consistent. Now I need new glass of water and I just got on a roll with typing.

At many points in my life I’ve thought about getting a tattoo. The whole thing about getting a tattoo is that I feel it needs to be relative to something that has had a large impact on my life.

A Jackalope Tattoo…

For a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to get a tattoo of… hence the fact that I have never got a tattoo, ever. I still remain tattoo-less, even at 29 years old with an interest in tattoos.

I’ve always thought that a Jackalope tattoo would be cool. It is different. I would get the tattoo in a way that the antlers wrap up around my shoulder on one side of my body.

Why a jackalope? It’s hard to say. I would probably say that the only reasons are that for one, it’s unique, and for two, it is one of the few things that I have found to truly be funny for a long period of time throughout my life.

A Circuit Board Tattoo

But, now that I think about it, I should tattoo something on my body that represents computers. I owe a lot to computers and it is mainly because of my career path. I basically make money because of the use of computers all the time.

This is a crazy statement in a way, but it is something that has only occurred to me recently.

I feel that a circuit board tattoo can be done in all kinds of crazy ways. I’d like something a little more abstract, myself.

I’d like something that looks “digital” and represents computers, but not looking specifically like a circuit board. Know what I mean Vern?

Yeah.

Each day, at least on the weekdays, I pack up my laptop and put it in my backpack to either take it to or from work. This is a pretty standard procedure and goes well. I’ve never destroyed my laptop in the process of transporation (yet).

This process of transporting my laptop to and from work has led to a near laptop horror story that I almost carried through with. I guess you could call it a laptop close-call.

An overheating laptop is not a good thing

I’ve written in the past about keeping a laptop cool, it’s a subject near to my heart (ha, not that important, but still important to me). This is because I’ve battled with overheating laptops much in the past and present. Not so much in the present since my current laptop computer seems to handle itself quite well and doesn’t overheat, but it’s still a topic on my mind frequently.

There are many things that can cause a laptop to overheat. One of those things is neglect, or not paying attention to your laptop when it’s pleading to be cooled. But that is for another day.

What I did to my laptop to cause near-meltdown

I closed the lid one morning on my laptop, preparing to pack it up and head to work. I unplugged all the cables and then stuffed the laptop computer into my backpack.

I was in a hurry.

I usually look at the led lights on the front of the laptop to make sure that it is actually in hibernation. This day I did not. I just stuffed it into my backpack and took off for work.

At some point later in the morning I needed to gain access to my laptop for something. It was probably to chat with my fellow developers who are not in-office, or something, as I only run my IM application of choice (Trillian) on my laptop since it’s mobile and I always have it with me.

I reached in the backpack to pull out the laptop and the computer was HOT AS HELL (almost literally). I immediately realized that the computer hadn’t actually hibernated and was running at full clip inside of my backpack. It had been in there for a couple hours.

Nuts! (oven-roasted peanuts… mmm)

I immediately opened it up and put it in a location with good air flow, then I shut it down.

This could have easily melted down something in the computer. I would hope that the computer would turn off automatically before something overheated… but to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever felt a laptop that was this hot in any situation. It was like I just pulled it out of the oven!

I lucked out…

Lucky for me, nothing happened. I got to chalk this one up to experience with no repercussions. The laptop has been working fine since then, but I definitely make sure to look at the front of the machine to make sure it’s in hibernation before I put it in my backpack anymore.

Kinda like when you crash a bicycle… how a person is a little more wary of curbs and bumps in the road afterwards.

I guess I can’t really speak from experience… I just have never searched for Brad Pitt online. Don’t get me wrong, I guess he’s a decent actor and I have found him entertaining in certain movies: Fight Club, Ocean’s 11, etc.

But… according to Showbiz Tonight on CNN Headline News, Brad Pitt searches on the Internet have an 18% chance of delivering to you a nice virus, spyware or other harmful Internet gremlin.

HA!

Good thing I haven’t downloaded any stuff that claims to be about Brad Pitt on the Internet. If I was to ever now become a rabid Brad Pitt fan… I’d have to choose between search/download peril or not looking up anything about him on the Internet at all.

Let’s take a quick gander… for Brad Pitt

I just searched for Brad Pitt on Google. Yeah! Now I’m part of the online celebrity fan-club crowd. Or something.

All that I see are a bunch of fan sites, Wikipedia, and other legit looking sites… nice work Google! You have appeared to have protected me from the virtual wrath of Brad Pitt.

I would then venture to guess that this news story about 18% of all stuff on the Internet about Brad Pitt to be vicious must be referring to SPAM emails and file sharing networks. That has to be it.

Let’s take a look at my SPAM folder in Gmail. It contains 2387 messages right now from the last 30 days. There has to be something about Brad Pitt in there. And if I’m lucky it might have a sweet attachment that is representative of the Internet gremlin that I’m seeking.

What!

CableOne is once again having internet connection problems at my residence again (10th time tonight the connection has dropped, probably). Son of a ******.

Ok, CableOne is back

I see that I have 3 emails in my SPAM folder that have some keywords regarding Brad Pitt. Jackpot. I found no attachments though.

I guess I can’t find the 18% myself but it must be out there.