Sparsely awake since 6am. Was like this yesterday as well.

The sun don’t come up as early anymore. It seems to have also shifted in direction, setting slightly northward. It also rises slightly towards the south (since it keeps blinding me during the first 30 odd minutes at work).

A little tired. Studying is a bit mundane, but managed to cram in a great deal the night before. Two assignments due next week, and 4 weeks after that I think I’m having exams again. It could be the added toll of needing to study after work, but I am feeling it slightly like I really don’t have enough time. Could barely spend more than an hour trying to fix up the new computer last night.

Heh, I run my computers 24/7. Just assembled a new one, and I haven’t been using the old one too much after that, hence switching it off in the mornings before I go to work. Last night I came home and studied, so I neglected it a bit. I was only half surprised when pressing the power button yielded no results. I have always had this phobia that if I turned my computer off, I’d never be able to turn it on again. I think most likely the power supply has died. Diagnosing computer problems is very much a hands on, experience based thing. The more exposure you get to dealing with what usually breaks in a computer, the faster and easier you can identify the problem (sometimes you just need to give it a whack and it will work).

Anyway, transplanting some organs from the old comp into the new one earlier than anticipated (I can’t live with crappy onboard sound included on motherboards, they really stink). The Sonata II (my new case) is a splendid quiet case, with some nice cabling and a decent PSU. My only lament is that it’s rather cramped to work with sometimes, and the cabling is taking up a lot of space, but I did cut only once while assembling stuff, which shines as a quality of the case manufactured by Antec. It also comes with front USB, Firewire and earphone/mic jacks (installed the former two and apparently there is a way to hook the cables up to my Audigy 2 ZS) which I will find handy later on.

This is probably the umpteenth computer I have assembled, and I think it was one of the least troublesome to do. Prior experience helped a lot, but some of the innovative features of the case left me stumped (drive rails where you screw on to attach to an optical drive) and I had to step up my intelligence for the 2 hours I spent installing it. Usually have most problems with installing a heatsink on the CPU, but the retention mechanisms of the CPU have improved a lot since I started working on these things and usually a little brute force is required. Every other piece of hardware slotted in as it was supposed to. One of the things that tickled me was having two mouse (not mice!) installed on the same computer so I could literally control either computer, doing settings on one while looking at the actual settings on the other (another benefit of having dual monitors). I think I’m mostly setup to fix someone’s comp (I have a spare power cable and LAN cable plugged in) if the need arises.

Heh, physically installing the hardware bit by bit is exhilarating. It doesn’t matter if I bend in awkward positions (and get a sore shoulder or feet later) just to fit a piece of equipment. I do dislike the part where I have to set the software back to the way I’m used to using. This is especially true if you use a lot of programs and each things requires individual tweaking. This time round the transition has been easier, since I got my KVM switch last year, switching between running two computers was a bit simpler. I could also export settings and set it up on the other one simultaneously, so I didn’t lose too much in the transition over.

Only thing left to do is transfer some files over from the old computer and transplant one of the larger drives as a secondary download and scratch drive. Hopefully I can get it done by tonight since I have ONE of my assignments sitting on it.

Heh, still a little dazed and confuzzled from waking up so early. I think it’s time to grind some coffee for my plunger. As a note, el cheapo $30 Bodum glass plunger does not mean less quality than cafe made espressos. With fresh coffee, your tongue is more exposed to the complexities of the taste, especially the accentuated acidity that is associated with a type of bean.

It’s going to be another long day.

Been putting in more posts of late. It’s a good trackback for what I do on a daily basis. Heh, it’s been a little more exciting than usual anyway.

Went to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre opposite the casino today. There was a motor show on and my housemate suggested to go. Heh, not like I’m ever aware of these events. Trying to be a little more sociable this year, and mix with more people, hence I took up the offer to go. Heh, but thinking of it, I immediately snapped up the offer because I wanted to take pictures of cars. Since I went back to KL, I’ve been more enthusiastic about taking pictures than ever. It’s a discovery process, taking pictures, and I’m using whatever occasions I have to test out my theories.

I think the ticket prices went down this year, at only $17 for adults and $12.50 for students. I recalled going to a similar show at the same venue a couple of years ago at $20++. Or maybe my memory is a little faulty. Purchased my ticket and went onto the showfloor to be greeted by BMWs. What a sight. Looking at cars on the Internet or through magazine pictures, you don’t really get a sense of how the car looks or feels like. The Z4 is really a yummy car. Also saw a couple of M series BMWs. My uncle once said the 6 series BMWs looked great. I have to agree with him. Although with those prices, I could afford myself a nice bungalow here. Heh.

Next up was my favourite brand of car. Honda! I was so excited to see the new Civic on display. It looks funky in pictures, but seeing the actual car, you get a real feel for it. The thing about motor shows is that there’s an entire hall full of cars where you can sit at the driver’s seat and play around with the internals of the car. The new Civic is really the car I want to have. At $20,990 for the 1.8 litre V-tec engine model, that has all the basic stuff like air conditioning etc. It’s also rather spacious, and the boot looks quite big. I’m not sure what the dimensions are compared to the older Civic, but it feels like the car is slightly longer now to accommodate all the extra space.

Honda Civic

I also got to try out the interior of the Honda Jazz, a car I’ve been eyeing for being practical and inexpensive. In terms of relative value, $5,000 isn’t a lot when you look at it and that’s not much saved when you downgrade from a Civic to a Jazz. The basic Jazz is a 1.3 litre engine car, but surprisingly, the dimensions of the seats and space match that of the older Civic. Impressive for such a small car, no wonder it sold like hot cakes when it was introduced in Japan.

Moving on, got to sit in the latest Mazda MX-5. It’s a roadster and I saw the retail price tag of $43,000. That’s a lot less than what I remembered it to be going for. The earlier generation MX-5 was a roadster classic, having sold more units than any other roadster, due to its superb handling on the road. This car looks solid, even if it’s slightly more curvy than its predecessor. I got to sit in the driving seat, and this is probably the closest I will get to it anytime soon. Heh, wonder it will feel like on a country road, with the roof down and the wind in your face. Sounds really good. Also had a brief look at the Mazda RX-8, which features a powerful rotary engine. Heh, sometimes people are overwhelmed by the specifications featured on a brochure or display. It’s just like using MHz to compare processors and while Intel procs have the faster clockspeed, they don’t necessarily translate to faster performance compared to a ‘slower’ processor (you don’t even need to look outside Intel, their Pentium 4s and Pentium Ms are already a good comparison).

Lotus Elise and Exige

Slowly walked through the rest of the exhibition hall. Personally have a preference towards Japanese automobiles, due to their fuel efficiency and the Japanese attitude of striving for perfection. Saw many manufacturers at the show and some cars were magnificent (the half a million dollar Lamborghinis, the sleek Ferraris and Maseratis), others like the Porsches, are quite elegant. Then you have the absolutely grotesque (personal view, I’m sure many others share my view) Ssang Yong cars. Malaysia’s Proton was also on display, albeit only with a small selection of cars. Not sure how much the Savvy is going for in Malaysia, but it was only $14,000 here, much, much more affordable than what it could be back home.

Spent nearly 2 hours looking at cars. It’s not a massive motor show, but you do get to see the most mainstream cars. Just thinking of how I can save up $21k for a nice Civic. Heh.

Nissan Nismo modified Z350