Archive for October, 2008

My First 64bit PC

Posted by RyanG in PC Upgrade, Worklogs on October 23, 2008

Time for the second installment of my worklog for my PC Upgrade.

Well, I actually received all the bits from UPS Monday (is it Thursday already? sheesh). I actually assembled the thing Monday afternoon/evening, and have been slowly installing software and getting it up to speed.

For the curious, and so I can brag a bit heres the parts list.

Now, this isn’t quite bleeding edge stuff but it certainly brings me up to date and I’m quite happy. Because I wanted just a ROCK SOLID setup and wasn’t intending to overclock, I went with an Intel motherboard. I didn’t want to regret not getting enough memory, so I maxxed it out with 8GB. I don’t really game so the video card is nothing special, but I did want enough horsepower to drive my big monitor and take advantage of Vista’s Aero theme and some of the cool linux eye candy that’s in KDE4 etc. I am NOT disappointed!

So far I’ve gotten Gentoo linux installed on the system. The speed of compiling is admirable though not mind blowing. One of the first things I installed though was Cinelerra and I loaded up some of my HDV source material. While I should have expected as much I was able to play, edit, and render the HD in realtime! WOO HOO!

I’m quite impressed with Gentoo, no hardware headaches, everything more-or-less worked out of the box. I haven’t quite got all my favorite apps installed and running but I trust it will be uneventful.

I’m in the process of moving my drives/data over from my old system. I had a software RAID1 setup using mdadm which I’ve been able to bring back up on the new box. Going to play with a RAID5 since I now have enough disks, and maybe simulate a failure to test recovery. This should get my confidence up for building a linux software based RAID5 NAS box which is the next project.

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Fun with moonlight

Posted by RyanG in Photography on October 16, 2008

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The other night, I couldn’t resist the urge to capture this image. The moon was shining brightly through our bathroom window casting the shadow of the tree and fence(s) behind our apartment.

This was the photo I liked the most, but you can see all the shots I took over at Flickr

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3.0L Mercedes Diesel – Datsun 240z

Posted by RyanG in Bio Diesel, Concept Projects on October 9, 2008

I tend to have lots of ideas about project cars that I think are pretty cool. The chances are I won’t ever build any of them, but I figured I could start documenting them here just for fun, or on the odd chance that somebody reads my ideas and decides to build one of them.

So, for my first submission..

I’ve been interested in the early to mid 70’s datsun z for some time. I even bought the “jags-that-run” book on converting one to a chevy 350 drivetrain. I’m still very interested owning one of these cars and doing an engine swap. Here’s what I think would be cool.

Take a 3.0L diesel, the modern common rail motor that is also dubbed “Blutec” when all of the emissions magic is done on it, out of a wrecked Mercedes and stuff it into a 240z. Yeah, there are bigger badder diesel motors but they are heavier and would extend past the front axle of the z. I’m looking for a small, fast, but most importantly agile car.

Of course, the ideal transmission for this would be a true 6 speed manual, but no production vehicle with the 3.0L has one so getting the computer to cooperate, and mating up a manual may be more trouble than it’s worth. However, if you carried over the 7 speed automatic from the Benz and fashioned a paddle type shifter to activate the up and down shifts (should be possible since there is an “automanual” setting for the Benz that’s clearly electronically triggered) it should still be a heck of a lotta fun in the twisties.

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