2 posts tagged “computer”

If you know me personally, you know I'm a geek. Not a specific geek but I tend to have my feet and hands all over the place. I have a lot of gadgets, I love building computers from scratch, I like customizing, I blog, I compose, I game, I'm a fanboy, etc etc etc. I guess you could just say I'm a tech geek. Sounds about right.

Anyway, my biggest pet peeve is when people have great technology but don't use it to potential. I guess one can say if it works... why mess with it but at the same time, you're not experiencing it the way it should be experienced. You're not getting your money's worth. Sounds like nothing I suppose but it just bothers me so. I was freeloading off of visiting some relatives a few days ago and noticed a few things - They have an ok Sony microdisplay (can't remember the model name or type but it can do up to 1080i) but not a single component/DVI/HDMI cable was running through the house. I noticed this because my cousin and I wanted to watch a movie except the way their media center was wired was ... ridiculous? I didn't want to touch anything because I tend to forget to change things back to how they were (now that I think about it, I left their TV in normal resolution and didn't switch back to stretched. lol). I couldn't figure out how to access the DVD video. They didn't take advantage of the multiple inputs on the back of their TV and just piggybacked a bunch of stuff... Also, they didn't have a surge proof power bar, just extensions plugged into extensions. I was scared for my life. They have a Wii as well but it's hooked in composite in the front A/V ports as opposed to the back ones though they don't take the console anywhere. They didn't even have their Wii connected to their wifi and it wasn't updated nor did they take advantage of the free Internet Channel Trial. I ranted to sis about this and she said internet on the Wii? Maybe she doesn't need it or wouldn't use it. BAH! That's besides the point. the trial was FREE. There's no downside to having it there. Maybe you want to show a youtube video to your friends but don't want to have to surround a small monitor or don't want to have to TV-Out. Finally, they don't have an HD cable box - just digital cable via coax - and they watch their 4:3 formatted channels in 16:9. omg. omg. OMG. I HATE it when people watch things out of proper resolution. Why do you like watching short, fat people?

So anyway, after experiencing that, I felt better coming home to my setup. Everything's where it is and doing what it should. I was on stickam one night and was trying out new camera angles and I was doing an over-the-shoulder type view of my setup while I was on. I got a lot of comments about my dual monitor + laptop setup. Everyone thought I was running 3 computers. I had to answer so many questions about it and explain a lot of things. Which leads me to this post. Though I don't know if I actually am, I feel as if I'm using all of my technology to potential. It suits my needs nor am I doing anything too over-the-top. My hardware isn't the greatest but it gets the job done. Let's get started shall we?

Starting off with the desktop itself. I'm running an Intel P4 2.4ghz with 1.5GB ram and an ATI Radeon x1650 Pro 512MB all on a Asus P4S8X-X. Everything's running stock with no OCing. I have 3 ATA HDDS - 160GB, 80GB, and 60GB. The 160 is split into 2 80 partitions. Everything's scattered all over the place though I try to keep things as organized as possible. I need more DVD+Rs. I have 2 monitors, an LG1710S and a Dell M782p. I game on the CRT. I use Ultramon as a multi desktop manager. Their wallpaper options are better than standard Windows options and swapping the main monitor and turning off secondary couldn't be easier with the systray icon. As for peripherals I'm using a Saitek Eclipse keyboard and a Logitech G5 Laser mouse. Both are quite lovely. Speakers are the Edifier M3300's. They're alright. As for headphones, Sony MDR-V300's. Quite excellent. I love walking around Toronto with them since they're bulky but not TOO bulky.

I have an old 30 something inch tube TV in my room for watching movies and playing consoles (PS2). I have composite cables running to the TV from the back of my desktop. I have a small audio system hooked up to the audio out of the TV and have the TV speakers turned off. Any speakers are better than TV speakers. Too bad I can't triple head but that'd just be too much. The TV is at the foot of my bed so it's comfy to watch movies and such.

As for games, I'm currently playing CS:S, Doom3, Prey, NFS:C and ITG. I have a Logitech Nascar wheel I got for $10 refurb @ canada computers. lol. Works like a charm. For ITG, I have a USB->PS converter for a Dualshock2 controller. Everything else is good old WASD. I use firefox as my browser (I'd go through all my addons but that'd take forever. Maybe if someone was interested enough to comment about it, I'll post it there), iTunes as my music player, VLC for videos, Virtualdub for editing and reincoding, 3GP Converter for converting to mobile devices, Azureus for torrents, and manycam for webcam software (thanks Christine!). For music production, I use FLStudio7 and utilize both monitors by stretching the window over both screens. I'm using a Roland PC-160 midi keyboard just to play around for melodies but I end up just pointing and clicking the notes in Piano Roll instead of recording it on the keyboard. I have timing issues and my compy can't handle < 30ms with enough instruments loaded so the lag is kinda bleh.Here's a pic of one of my latest projects. http://www.box.net/shared/hmy8u43gyh if you're interested in what it sounds like. It's a remix of Tommy february6's Love is forever. Quite a cute song. I just Hardcored it.

FLStudio Setup

For stickam, like I said, I use manycam since it has a lot of source options like showing desktop, playing movies, showing still pictures, etc. It's not bad for being free. I have a Dynex DX-DTCAM which was pretty blow at first since it was supposedly mac compatible. It wasn't from the get go but since then, Dynex posted new drivers on their website so now it works fine in XP and OSX. I couldn't get it to work in Vista. As for audio in, I use my iBook (which I'll get to explaining later) as my jukebox and route the audio in for the room to the line in on my soundcard (being my iBook audio). If I'm not streaming music, I'm using my Logitech Desktop Mic to talk or usually just remain silent. I have a Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1 card though I should buy a better one. I'm looking at the X-Fi xtremegamer card. We'll see what happens.

Let's get started on the mobile front, shall we?

I have an early 2004, 12" iBook G4 with a 128MB so-dimm in the ram expansion slot. Running Tiger. It's basically my school / IM / jukebox machine and useful for when I'm doing something with the desktop and/or don't want to take up any more resources and just need to do a quick websearch. It kinda does the job but I'm looking to replace it. Not that I have the money though.

I also have a PSP which I use as my portable media center. I only have a 2GB card but it's ok. I have about a dozen music videos and 1.2GB of music. I'm running M33's 3.52 CFW though I'm waiting for wildcard's CFW to be more... stable. The recovery menu looks sexy and I love the SCEP menus built in without having to run a prx plugin. I'm just wondering if it uses the sony no-umd driver as well. Dying to get a PSP slim so I can TV out my vids.

Hrm. That sounds like that's all of it. Any specific questions about my setup, just ask.
Maybe I'll add more pictures to this post if I feel like it later...

Update: