2005-06-18: Adventures in Home Entertainment Center Goodness

Having had only slept five hours of sleep lead to a day where I'd sit down for a few minutes, start thinking about taking a nap, and then decide to do some work instead. I performed that cycle many times until around 1700, when I got introduced to Ikea. While I can see a fair amount of value to Ikea, I can also see why it also gets described as trendy junk by its detractors. Most of the stuff there, I couldn't see looking very good after a few years' worth of use.

At any rate, the tech lesson for today is that if your computer's CPU fans are connected to a thermostat, and the computer keeps gradually getting louder over time, that's your clue that it's infested with dust bunnies. My system had gotten loud because its CPU fans were at or close to their maximum rotational speed due to high heat. Once I cleaned out the dust bunnies and removed the wire which was preventing my case's exhaust fan from spinning, my system got quite a bit quieter. It's still not as quiet as I'd like, but I ascribe that partly to the dual fan cooled Voodoo 5500 video card. Part of me wants to replace that video card, now that some of the Radeons are getting fairly inexpensive. That being said, that card's tied with my Radeon 9200 as the top-end video cards in my machines, so it'd be tough to switch to another card.

In other news, I've reclaimed vast tracts of floor space in my room and the living room. It is my hope that I'll soon manage to clear enough space to run Azaka's network cable through the heat vent so that I'll stop tripping over it. It's the last 'trip cable' left in my room, actually.

That having been said, although I did a lot of cleaning today, none of it was particularly noteworthy. Just moving things around, filing receipts, etc.