CJ's Blog, R2-D2, and Picasa.

First let me welcome CJ to the wonderful world of Blogging which you can visit here. Welcome CJ! At first I too felt pressure to supply regular content, now I do as my time/motivation allows and realize that it's all good. I'm happy you've found the same to be universal. Heh.

Speaking of the universe, 30 long years ago in a galaxy far far away, St. Lucas created Star Wars. The US Postal Service is honoring Star Wars with its own stamp series. USPS Jedi Master.com has the details. The promo features postal boxes decorated as R2-D2:

Which brings me to Picasa. The above photo album is hosted there and you can check out my full gallery here. I've just started adding pictures and have only 11 albums online as of this writing (with many more to come, so check back often). I've found that Kellie has a gallery in which she shows off her new house. Go Kellie!

Unlike other photo hosting services that I've tried and/or seen others use - this one allows the viewer to download a full-sized/resolution photo entirely free and anonymously.

Again - You do not have to pay, sign up, or give any information to view or download the photos at the full rez uploaded by the author. To download a picture, go into the album, click on the picture and then click the "download" link on the right. I prefer to upload an "Optimized 1600" format of my pictures. These are at a high enough resolution to use for most wall papers and printouts and yet compact enough to be web friendly.

If you choose you can sign up, have your own free (or pay) account for posting and hosting photos, you can buy prints, etc. But this is all optional. Let me know your gallery link so I can add you to my favorites as I did with Kellie.

Besides the service there is a Picasa program that you can install on your computer to get all sorts of nifty features. For starters, when looking at an album you can download all the pictures, instead of each picture individually.

The program will organize, edit, and generally process the photo collection on your PC. It has caption editing, search screens, red eye removal, printing and blogging features, etc. I'm still learning how best to use it and working the bugs out. Some things I like, others I don't like, but overall I'm glad to have it. The red eye fix for instance can be picky on what it will and won't clean up. Some eyes are done perfectly. Others, not so much. And then there are the "original" poops. The program backs up a copy of the pre-edited photo in a hidden folder. This is nice if you ever want to go back to the original version, but once you're sure you want that red eye gone you have to go in and manually clear this bloat out of the way. There are some other "features" that seem quirky that I'm still working out, perhaps I'll write a full review someday.

I'd liked to, but I really don't think I should...

I've been researching an upgrade to my computer so I can play SupCom. To be honest that's the prime reason for wanting to upgrade now, but certainly there are other reasons. Other programs I have that have updated (iTunes, Sound Forge, etc) can run sluggish and/or don't allow certain feature use on my existing computer. And editing video, while possible, is dreadfully slow. Upgrading, as can be expected in computers, is a must.

So I've been doing a lot of reading. I got a lot of useful info from Tom's Hardware and NewEgg. Both sites I recommend. Anyway, this is the system I've come up that I'd like to buy:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz ($222)
• Mobo: Asus P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ($130)
• RAM: Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 2x1GB ($192)
• Vid Card: EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB, 500Mhz ($260)
• PSU: Corsair CMPSU-520HX 520W ($110)

My upgrade is looking to cost $913. That's more money than I should spend right now... So I don't think I'll be upgrading/playing SupCom for a while. We'll see, but I really shouldn't.

Then there's the idea that I really don't want to tear down my existing system. It's working fine for what it is. It might take a few days during which time it would be best to have a separate, working system, from which to download drivers, etc. for the new computer. Then when I'm done Sandy can have her own computer too. To do that the $913 upgrade goes up because I have to add at least a case, HD, DVD burner, etc.

On the upside, the longer I wait the cheaper the parts are likely to become. It's really not a good time to upgrade anyway, what with all the new equipment being released right now... Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

Arg. lol

Look before you Leap.

I really wanted to play Supreme Commander, but my existing video card won't support it. I thought at first I was doomed as my 3 year-old computer wouldn't support the new PCI-E cards that are out there.

But the other day I found an AGP card I thought would do the trick. I bought Wednesday it for a great price even after paying for Two-Day Shipping. Last night I bought SupCom and installed it (I was curious what would happen if I ran it on my old card - it simply didn't pass verification, and wouldn't run).

So today I got my new card. A PNY GeForce 7600GS 512MB AGP Video Card, and it was pretty and smelled fresh and silicony. My nips were hard. We went out to dinner and I got home, cracked open my case, installed, turned on, and no workie workie. My motherboard is kind enough to have useful voice error messages, and it tells me it failed VGA test.

And here's where I blew it. I bust out the motherboard book and RTFM. Now. I should have done it before I bought the new card. It turns out my Motherboard doesn't support AGP 3.3v cards, only the 1.5v AGP cards. I can't have a new powered card on my motherboard.

I'm not sure what the return policy is on my video card. I'll look into that. Or I can buy a new computer, which isn't something I really wanted to do (though it would be nice, heh).

I'm just sad, very frustrated, disappointed and angry with myself. I should have known better. I should have researched further. I was just so excited and now I've gone and made a series of bonehead mistakes.

I suppose it could have been worse. At least I was able to put my old card back and everything is working fine the way it was. So that's good at least.

Bah.

Update - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 9:45a
I'm currently researching which parts I want to use to build a new system. I decided to send the AGP card back. Though it was a nice one, I found a similar card that's cheaper and PCI-E, and if I'm upgrading I may as well make sure to get the latest architecture.

So Amazon let me print out a pre-paid UPS retun label and I sent the PNY card back for a refund. That's nice.

In the meantime I get to read in Jay's Blog how totally awesome is SupCom.

Update - Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 4:41p
Yesterday I got an e-mail that Amazon received my RMA and gave me full credit, including what I originally paid in shipping. So that's all worked out. Thanks Amazon!

As for what else I'm doing with my PC, check out this.