Random Musings

So we just recently got a new sectional. In order to make space for it, we put our old recliner sofa in the back of my truck, and hauled it away. Of course, this meant I had to remove my car pc from the back of my explorer. Unfortunately, I didn’t tidy up the loose cables that were left behind before we put the couch in.

The result? I bent a bunch of the pins on my VGA connector on the cable to my 8″ Lilliput touch screen. I tried bending them back, but they simply broke. So the only solution is to put a new connector on.

Now the Lilliput proprietary cable carries the VGA signal and the USB signal for the touchscreen. In total there are 9 wires. Of course, I had to figure out the pinout in order to connect everything back up.

Using a multimeter and some trial and error I figured it out for my cable. It might fit be the same for others, it might not but this info might be useful for somebody.

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.

• FSP Group SAGA+ 450R 450W ATX12V Power Supply
• COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• Intel BOXDP35DPM LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
• 4 x 2GB = 8GB Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
• EVGA 512-P3-N954-TR GeForce 9500 GT 512MB
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM

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.

This Labor Day weekend I finally put the finishing touches on my wife’s Lexus ES300. You see, about 5 weeks earlier I had started the seemingly simple task of removing the cylinder heads, and replacing them with a rebuilt pair I had practically stolen from a seller on eBay.

The goal of course, was to fix the valve stem seal leak(s) and what I thought was a valve cover leak “once and for all”. Suffice to say there were some complications and unanticipated distractions during the several weekends it took to get it done.

The result? I’ve replaced the two broken motor mounts I found, got the pretty new heads installed, replaced the timing belt, installed new spark plugs, and replaced the master and slave cylinders for the hydraulic clutch. The car is running much better, and no longer billows a big blue cloud of smoke when being started up.

However, the passenger side axle still has a broken CV boot which I have a replacement for, but may not get to for another couple weekends and…. The oil leak I had assumed was the valve cover gaskets turns out to have been something else. At the moment I’m suspecting the oil pan gasket, I’m hoping to fully diagnose it and possibly tackle the replacement next weekend. I’m going to take this weekend to relax!

I just placed the first of two orders for the components to my new desktop machine!

This upgrade is sorely overdue, the last time I got a “new” machine was about 3 years ago and it was antiquated then. So I’m going from my 2.4GHZ P4 with 1GB RAM and an assortment of various drives to this new beast I’m building.

This first order was for a 24″ Widescreen LCD, Ergo keyboard, speakers, and a gigabit switch. I also ordered a power supply and some fans for an different project entirely. The total cost shipped was $631.53 with about $50 representing stuff not associated with this upgrade.

The rest of the parts will consist of a 2.4GHZ Intel Core Quad Processor, 8GB RAM, a 500GB drive, Vista Ultimate 64, and a fairly run of the mill 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT.

Sadly, still not “bleeding edge” but certainly a big step up from what I’ve got. I’m hoping to enjoy it’s speed when doing stuff like non linear video editing of HDV from my camcorder using Cinelerra. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed, and I’ll be sure to post results here, so stay tuned for more!