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Media Center Woes

So for those of you who don't care for the tech postings, move on, this is going to get ugly.

When last we talked of this, I was trying very hard to get my media center up and running. I did that, even to the point of putting a Huge Ass Hardrive in it (400 GB) so that I can store a ton of crap. Good times.

The thing is so frickin' loud I want to scream. Inside of it are:

• GeForce 6800FX with a very loud fan.
• Athalon 64 3000+ also with a very loud fan.
• A Nexus power supply which I put in to lower fan noise.
• A case fan, that is also very loud.

Get the picture? This sumbitch is loud. So on the advice of various people's, I manage to buy some items that are supposed to help me. Zalman VGA card kit, a CPU fan kit, etc. To put the CPU one on, I have to completely disassamble the computer, remove the motherboard, and THEN put the fan on. So that project is on hold until I'm ready to dedicate an entire afternoon to it. The VGA card, it seems, is not going to work at all because my particular card doesn't have what it needs. So now I have to buy ANOTHER card and then do it. Ugh.

At the end of the day, I could have just bought the silent version of the media center for a few hundred bucks more and been done with it.

Seriously, this was a failure.

Condi

So it will surprise some of my friends on the left (you know who you are) that I'm not sure about this choice of Condi Rice at state.  I would have greatly preferred some reaching across the aisle for this position, perhaps Lieberman...but Condi?  Not sure.

I think Bush is going to end up giving Democrats small inconsequential cabinet spots.  Lincoln was a bit more bold, putting prominent Democrats in the thick of his cabinet -- he believed in the same thing the mafia does: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. 

Got it working...

Okay, now that all necessary updates have been applied, my MCE is working.  However, it is LOUD.  They told me this particular unit would not be that loud.  It's louder than my PC.  So, I now find myself wondering "WTF".

UGH.  I can't have an appliance that is this frickin' loud.  WHIIIRRRRRRR...fan is going like crazy.

*sigh*  I think this will be going back to the store.

Dammit.

Media Center 2005

I swear, every time I try to be a company guy and go with our technology, I want to scream.  I am a TIVO guy, and as such, am used to stuff Just Working.  Today, I took the plunge and went and purchased a Windows Media 2005 box with an HDTV card in it. 

I just set it up and it won't work.  It crashes.  It freezes up.  Nothing displays.  Goooood stuff.

My HD Tivo, by contrast, Just Worked.

This happened to me when I bought Ultimate TV as well -- piece-o-crap.

Arrrghghghghghghg.

Okay, off to fight with it some more.

Alan Keyes = Nutcase

Lest you think I am a Right Wing Wacko, let me show you a REAL right wing wacko.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present, Alan Keyes.  My Lord, what a loonie.  What is wrong with that guy?

Democrats

I am reminded of a comment I heard Dennis Miller make a year or so ago about why he moved from being a Democrat to being a Republican.  It had to do with how more and more of his friends on the left had started comparing the right to Nazi's and Religious Nuts. 

I found this today, and it articulates the point rather well.  It's an essay from a Democrat to fellow Democrats.  Read it here.

Actually, no. Our error is that we Democrats are far less understanding than we think we are. Our version of understanding the other side is to look at them from a psychological point of view while being completely unwilling to take their arguments seriously. "Well, he can't help himself, he's a right-wing religious zealot, so of course he's going to think like that." "Republicans who never served in war are hypocrites to send young men to die. " "Republicans are homophobes, probably because they can't deal with their secret desires." Anything but actually listening and responding to the arguments being made.

Great Article

Newsweek has a great article about Bush and Kerry.

It's funny, because the description of these two men is how I would describe a friend of mine from college and I (without the disdain, of course):

Bush did not remember Kerry but he knew the type: sanctimonious suck-ups who looked down on fun-loving fellows like George W. Bush. In the world according to Bush, guys like Kerry were not out just to ruin Yale. They wanted to take over the whole country, to impose the smug, know-it-all liberal ideology on regular, God-fearing, hardworking Americans. Kerry's regard for Bush was just as dismissive. Kerry may or may not have met Bush at Yale but he had met his kind before. At Kerry's prep school, boys like Bush were known as "regs," regular guys, the cool, sarcastic in-crowd that made awkward, too-eager-to-please boys like John F. Kerry feel low and left out. The regs were insular, stuck up, too sure of themselves to reach out to, or even see, the wider world.

WOW

Well, yowza.

How my "blue state" friends are reacting

Seriously, I have seen people bringing up Nazi's, how dumb America is, etc. Guys, instead of focusing on the people who thought Bush was a better choice than Kerry, perhaps some time being inside focused about why your party is lost is the right thing to do. Apparently, you're not in the mainstream. I'd spend time figuring out why. And it's not because everyone else is dumber than you are (no matter how much that may make you feel better).