Another day, another worry...

keilaron@keilaron.ca (Keilaron) — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:29:04 -0500

Shibby shibby.
(What does that mean, anyway?)

Last night, a friend of mine and I were playing Unreal Tournament 2004 again. It had been a while since we had... and boy did I miss it. Just being in the game, waiting for him to connect, and looking at the intricate detail and amazing rendering... I miss it all. He remarked, later on when he had to go, that we had to do this more often.
Yes, we do.
Come play Invasion with us sometime, will you not?

That's the "highest" point on this post, though...
I was modding my DreamCast a day or so ago: I had ordered a transparent blue case for my DreamCast (looks pretty much like the original, but transparent blue) a week or so ago; When I got it, I disassembled the DC, and reassembled it within it's new case. At the same time, I took the opportuniy to do another mod for it: I unsoldered the power L.E.D. (orange) and replaced it with another one - a dual-color one (well, I soldered it in place to green, though it could've been red, but I don't like red).
I shouldn't have.
Seems I've fried the controller board - specifically whatever handles the controllers. Everything else in the DreamCast works just fine. The L.E.D. lights, the fan goes on. CD spins up, and the DC asks me for the date and time.
But I can't give it, because the controller has no power, no communication... I can't tell if this is due to permanent damage (honestly, I did a really bad job), or just from a "link" (short circuit) that shouldn't be there. Hopefully the latter, as I don't want to have to buy another DC just to fix this one... or something.

And Firefox is beginning to bother me. While I'm glad I can finally use the BlackJapan theme (BlackJapan theme for Thunderbird), it really irks me that it once again has decided to forget my address bar URLs. God damnit, STOP DOING THAT FIREFOX!
Another thing I've noticed is that it's got a severe memory leak, probably due to one of the extensions I have. As I write this, firefox.exe takes a whopping 129,104K of memory on it's own. My computer can handle it, but it doesn't stop me from being annoyed.

As much as I am willing to try relationships, I don't think I can handle them. Not with the way I currently am, anyhow.
She wants me to call every day. I can't even manage that... aren't I just pathetic?
I don't like subtleties either. I don't think we'll get along well, though she seems to think differently. Her language mannerisms (assuming that's the correct term for it) are annoying me, too. I've only once before thought that repeating things like that could bother me (Arkos, I'm looking at you.). I mean, I've read thing and spoken to people who would repeat certain expressions, and it has never bothered me so much before. Why, oh why, does it bother me to hear "I don't worry", now?! I wonder if it's because of the lying way she uses it.
*sigh*

My todo list isn't shrinking.

Of Linux, servers, and Dreamcasts

keilaron@keilaron.ca (Keilaron) — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:50:43 -0400

If you've ever had the "bright" idea of opening a console with the idea that, seeing how modular it seemed to be, you might be able to upgrade some part of it -- desist. While I was rather certain that I'd get nowhere, I did it anyway.

The thought originated from seeing that Linux could be run on a Dreamcast - pretty sweet, if you have any use for it. But I didn't want it for playing games or what have you; Rather, I had the intention of running a server on the DC. Hey, if it had the necessary hardware, why not? As a bonus, I could even run games on it if I wanted to. First, however, I had to check the specs - and 16 MB of (main) SDRAM isn't all that appealing, especially since my server currently needs much more than that.

But I already had the idea of running my server off a DC, since the thing could be equipped with a LAN/broadband adapter. So why not at least check? Knowing it was most likely a waste of time, I decided to open the DreamCast and see if I could upgrade it's memory - after all, SDRAM is (or was) fairly common.

(Though this is the first time I've opened a console, I have opened computer cases before, laptops included. I strongly disrecommend opening any such device on your own if you haven't done so before, and aren't being supervised, especially if you haven't bothered to read any advice and precautions.) Having never opened a console before, I was fairly impressed: everything was well kept together, yet still very modular and easy to take apart. In the process of taking everything out, however, I had mistakenly believed that I needed to disconnect the GD-ROM from it's base (the actual GD-ROM "drive" -- the part with the lens and motor -- is seperate from the part that connects to the DreamCast's mainboard); this became a problem later. Naturally, when I got to the mainboard, I found that everything was integratedly soldered on: no (easy) modifications possible. I know that if I really had wanted to try, I could have still removed the chips and replaced them with other SDRAM chips, but for all I knew (and in fact, was informed of later on) these could be specialised chips used in conjunction with a special memory manager. So I decided, at this point, to stop.

I was then faced with the problem of having to put it back together. "No problem", I thought, as I had already learnt by now to keep parts well idenfied and organised when taking something apart. But when I was to put the GD-ROM's connector cable back in, I found that I couldn't actually reach in there - my fingers were much too big and clumsy.
Uh oh.
I persevered a bit, but I was never able to completely push in the cable - either half of it would go in lopsided, or barely at all. Then I had the bright idea of using pliers, which did manage to get it in - and bend it, too. (For this is a sensitive type of cable that isn't meant to bend sharply.) This worried me, but I had finally gotten it in, so I figured I'd might as well see if it worked before letting panic settle anything.
Once I'd gotten most of the parts in, I plugged in the DC and turned it on, to see if it worked.
The VMU beeped (It's battery is dead, so it performs a self-test whenever it gets power from the DC), the disc spun up...
...but nothing showed up on the TV. The disc was not being read, either.

This lead me to believe there was one or more of the following problems:

Part of the mainboard was now fried. I noticed, after turning off the DC, that I had forgotten to place the protective plastic shielding under the power convertor section; it was possible that a current had went from underneath this section to somewhere it didn't belong.
The GD-ROM was damaged and possibly irrevocably confused.
Some part had been shorted by an electric shock I hadn't noticed (unlikely, but it happens, or so I hear).

I tried taking things apart and putting them back together, checking a few various things in the process. Nothing seemed damaged nor fried (other than the previously mentioned bent cable), yet the darn thing wouldn't show anything useful, nor read the GD for some reason.
Annoyed and exhausted, I just put the whole thing back together, and shut everything (DC, stereo, TV and VCR) off. I quickly checked the connections behind the VCR, but everything seemed okay. I sat back down at my work PC - which is right beside my two consoles, the DC and the PSX (No, it's not a PS1, it's a PSX! It actually has a parallel port.) - and decided I'd work on something else.
While it booted up, a little optimistic voice in my head said, "Go on, turn it on again." as I stared at the DC.
Alright, fine. Couldn't lose anything more of the DC at this point. So I turned on the VCR and TV again, then the DC.
Lo and behold, the DC starts up normally, logo and all. Then I get my answer as to why the GD was never read:
Because I unplugged the DC's power, it forgot what the time was and was asking me for it. >_<;

At this point I tested the DC, and it seemed to work just fine. I'd say I'm lucky, though, since what I did to the GD-ROM wasn't bright. All in all, though, I knew it was pretty much a foregone conclusion and a waste of time. But hey, I had to try ;)

Blrg - DreamCast

Another day, another worry...

Of Linux, servers, and Dreamcasts