Phew, what a day! Unfortunately most of it was spent frantically trying to find my Olympus WS-320M that sold on eBay last night. I knew what the box looked like, so it should have been easy enough to find. After all, it's only a house I live in, not a factory! Finally after 5 hours I chanced looking in a random cardboard box, and there it was. Why I put the perfectly well boxed thing in yet another, plain, looking like a hundred other cardboard boxes box I'll never know. For one horrifying moment I actually thought I'd already sold it which would have been an embarrassment to say the least. Anyway, it was finally packaged up and sent, along with my old Asus Striker Extreme motherboard and a NEC DVD+/-RW combo drive that also sold.

The other frustration was my finding out that my Uni funding is anything but sorted. Apparently what I've 'won' is not a scholarship at all, but a nomination for one. So, I have to fill out yet another blasted form to 'apply' to SAAS to actually get the funding. I also need to send some proof of nomination, but I've no idea what this entails so am waiting on the course leader getting back to me on that. Luckily, I studied under her two years ago so maybe that might count for something, not that I'm looking to jump queues or anything but a little bit of an expedited response wouldn't be frowned upon, no ma'am!

My friend crashed her car yesterday, but luckily she walked away from it OK. Yesterday was Thursday. Is this a prelude to the curse of the dreaded Thursdays rearing its ugly head again? Incidentally, there was no shooting yesterday either, Ali never made contact, so I didn't have any news to go on. And as his mother's brother's second cousin's father (or something like that - hey I don't understand all this complicated relationship stuff!) is in hospital, I didn't want to intrude, damn nobility complex again.

Now to the one thing that is causing some excitement around here. I, (with some gratefully accepted help from mum) managed to get the water cooling system on the new computer functioning, although I had to empty nearly the entire bottle of coolant into the ever-guzzling pump to do it (didn't know that much liquid could fit in there!). Well, at least I think it's working as it's been running for nearly 3 hours straight and the connectors on the waterblock are actually cold. This in comparison to yesterday when I practically burnt my fingers on them. I was trying to judge the performance by sound, but it took a while for me to realise that bubbles in the pipes cause noise, so the lack of noise, coupled with the cold connectors must mean there are no bubbles and that the system's working, so in this case silence is golden. I've installed Vista and will sort out the graphics drivers tomorrow, as without them Supernova is being odd, or at least what I can't read of it makes me think it is.

I've upgraded the firmware on my Nokia N95 8GB to version 30.0.018. Mum asked me why I did, and honestly I don't know why as there's nothing really that interesting in the new release to shout about. I suppose the only thing I am hoping for is to get some more battery life out of the phone between charges. Also, I don't suppose the quicker camera startup time will hurt any. But really, if you have the phone and are happy with it, my advice would be to leave things be. It's a lot of effort to re-configure everything to the way it was before, even more so for me as I have to re-hack the firmware, re-hack the totally stupid and downright absurd certificate management features and go through this crazily longwinded process of getting all the applications re-installed and tailored to my liking. Plus, the tricks I implemented for my standby screen customizations, for one, are gone and are a royal pain to set up again. I heard rumours a while back that this newest update would not destroy existing user data on the phone, a feat which is more than technically possible seeing as a computer is used as the transfer medium, but clearly this was not the case. Hopefully it's something which Nokia will consider implementing, particularly if users start screaming for it. As phones' internal storage capacities grow, and their features and capabilities advance, users are going to want to install more programs, store more data, and generally make the device even more integrated into their daily lives. If we can update our computers without returning to ground zero each time, why not our phones? So yes, anyway, if it ain't broke, don't do a Patwa and fix it, until there's actually something worth fixing!

For any V.I guys or gals that read this, I have a box of some tactile mathematics odds and ends that's looking for a good home. It's not worth much, but if you're interested let me know and I'll get it shipped to you. Throw in a fiver or something if you really want. Incidentally, does anyone know if the CECOGRAMME free postage service for the blind works for sending mail to the EU (including the Skengen zone) and the US & Canada? I hardly ever use it, but for big packages I probably would and it's handy to know.

OK, that's about all I have for today. I'm feeling rather odd, sort of melancholy and a bit teary-eyed, I don't know why. I'm actually posting this on Friday, but my laptop's still stuck on Norwegian time, hence any confusion. I'll go and get some painkillers and a soda now, I think, so catch you soon.

Hello!

It has been an interesting past couple of weeks.

My work away was good as always, and I leave behind one happy telecommunications company (which is what I was paid for after all) and a few new friends, which is an added bonus. My usual luck with travel held true, but fortunately the detours and diversions at least left me travelling in vaguely the desired direction this time, rather than all over the god damned continent. For those that don't know, my relationship with all forms of travel on anything other than two feet, particularly planes and trains, is anything but benine. I'll most likely remain put here in Aberdeen now until at least the Christmas holidays.

Good news! After much delay (well from my viewpoint anyway) and some gentle nudges by e-mail, I've found that I've been accepted for the CAS Scholarship. Unlike the Postgraduate one which I didn't get, this one is specific to the MSc course I'm going to do which in some ways is better as the qualification essays were judged by the course leader so the academic link is more relevant, plus I just plain enjoyed writing it. OK, enough self-preening for now. But nevertheless I'm over the moon and it's one weight off my mind.

I've spent the last couple of days frantically working to set up all the remaining parts and peripherals for my new computer, as I'm determined to have it up and running by the time Uni starts on the 23rd. But, and you guessed it, just as I thought it was all done and dusted, the water cooling system seems to have, as my friendly Italian Linksys support guy would put it, developed some 'issues'. Basically it's doing everything but cool the system down, and there's no water flowing through it. I decided to try to suck the air out of the tubes in case this would fix the problem, but ended up drinking half the coolant instead. And no, it's not totally disgusting, but it's not all too pleasant either. I'll stick to my Mochas and Lattes thanks. And no, it didn't fix the 'issues'. On a more positive note, the Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 surround sound speakers look awesome, and when I powered up the subwoofer, it just sat and purred at me and sounded ever so sexy; you could almost hear it sitting just on the edge, eagerly raring to rev up and go! I can't wait to actually get some sound going through it. Oh, and the 24" Dell monitor looks awesome too.

I was woken up the other day by what I hope is not going to be a replacement for my trusty alarm clock, namely one of my double-shelving units, complete with contents, collapsing. I think I was honestly more annoyed at this tremendously loud crash at 05:20, 05:20 in the morning for God's sake, disturbing my sleep than anything else. Fortunately nothing was damaged, other than a small clay model thing I painted in Kindergarten and a plastic ruler. No major loss, and luckily this all happened before I had the £££'s of new, babe'ful (is that even a word? Oh well it is now!) computer equipment wheeled through here.

OK, that's all the major highlights for now. I've just read this back and realised I'm actually really happy, which I think comes out in my writing style. And some totally random person who I probably know but couldn't remember came up to me in the street today and said that it was really nice to see me with a great big grin on my face for a change. Um, not quite sure how to take that, but I do feel surprisingly light and care-free. So I'm off to grin the rest of the night away, which is probably a story for another time 'wink, wink'. :D

I was looking at the manual for the Enermax Galaxy 1000W PSU and noticed the diagram showed the PSU turned in the opposite direction compared to how I'd installed it in the case. So, I stupidly went and removed it and turned it around to match the diagram, which involved me removing all the drives and bay covers again, only to find that now the screw holes on the PSU would not line up with the corresponding holes on the case. I also did find it odd that the intake fan was now pointing upwards towards the solid alumininum sheet which comprises the top of the case. Damn! So I went and changed everything back to the way it was, but now one of the thumbscrews will not fit - I really hope it's not a worn out thread within the PSU itself. Oh well, hopefully three retaining screwes and the metal resting plate will be enough to hold it in place.

I've now started to connect the fans and have done the LCD Poster for the motherboard. So we're slowly but surely moving forward.

My left bicep is sore and swollen. I think it could be strain from supporting, yes, you got it, that damned PSU in an awkward position the other night. I really hope it will recover with rest overnight as otherwise it's going to be a real pain and a distraction when shooting. This weekend sees the SSRA Blind Shooting Championship up at Denwood.

OK, an early night is on the cards, so more later.

I've started the next phase of the system build and things are starting to get a little crowded. Yesterday, I installed the two Sony DVD-RW combo drives and today removed the hard drive cage from the Tai-Chi case, screwed in the Seagate 750GB Baracuda 10 SATA II hard drive and re-mounted the cage. That was a little awkward, as there isn't much room to get fingers or screws into the inner housing. Thus, there'll probably be some issues when it comes to installing future drives.

I then thought I'd install the Enermax Galaxy 1000W modular PSU. It's actually bigger than I thought, and wouldn't fit in the usual way from the side of the case. Also, unlike with other Thermaltake cases, you can't remove the side bar which would have provided extra room to maneuver. OK, so the bar is vital for holding the door pivot mechanism, but still it would have been possible to provide a means of detaching the bar from the case at the front end.

I was starting to get quite worried by this point, as the PSU was just slightly too wide to fit squarely through the front of the case so I couldn't just slide it in and be done with it. Eventually, I ended up removing both optical drives, the top power/reset button unit and two 5.25" drive bay covers, and sliding the PSU in at an angle. After all this I thought it wouldn't line up with the screw holes at the back of the case, but fortunately this wasn't so and after about 20 minutes from start to finish I had it all fixed into place. I've re-installed the drives and bay covers I removed, and the end result is that whilst everything so far fits, and more importantly whilst I don't think I've managed to damage the motherboard, things are getting quite crowded even without the extra modular cables from the PSU. I think it's definitely going to be a cable-tie affair when it's all said and done. The full weight of the entire system is now also starting to become apparent, and it's not unimpressive. I'd just hate for it to fall over one day when the door's open, which has almost happened several times, my foot is still complaining about it from last week! In case anyone thinks this is an exaggeration, can I just point out that the case itself when unboxed weighs in at just below 20kg. This is just about the limit for hold baggage on most economy airlines.

I wanted to touch on some other things, but I'd like to keep these PC build related posts stand-alone, so I'll post about the other stuff later.

The second phase of building for the new computer has gone well. I've added:

EVGA 8800GTX Graphics Card
Asus Supreme-FX II Sound Card
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro Sound Card
2GB Black Dragon EVo1 DDR2 PC8500 RAM

All powered up OK, and with a monitor connected to the graphics card I can see the motherboard being correctly recognised. Lights on the Asus sound card also indicate the expansion slots/cards are working.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully start moving things into the case.

I've been feeling ill all afternoon, been sick twice and generally feel icky. Why does one get a headache whenever one throws up? Is there some chemical reaction in the brain that takes place after the process?

I've almost finished photographing all the new computer's components, boxes, etc. Just for prosperity.

Right, off to try to settle my churning stomach... urgh.

I've just completed the first test of my new computer with the system in a skeleton setup using:

Asus Rampage Formula motherboard
Enermax 1000W PSU
Intel QX6700 CPU

I did a 10 second burn, and a 2 minute burn later. All lights powered up OK, including the CPU and power configuration detection LEDs.

I will install the RAM, daughterboard and expansion cards tomorrow, then if a second test passes OK I'll start moving the rig into the case.

We cannot do a longer burn at present due to the lack of any active or passive cooling of the CPU.

Updates as they happen.