Word of the day: "hypoxia"

I think I've done a decent job of cleaning up most of my more embarrassing traces in the public domain, leaving only a couple of vague hints to pique public interest:) My university homepage is long gone, as is my connection to the Gavrilo Princip Society among other subversive materials. Unfortunately, newsgroups are another matter - but what the hell, the stuff I used to post under my own name there is stuff I don't mind people reading. Juvenile opinions are my stock in trade:)

Thanks to the plethora of free email services around, creating a pseudo-account for posting is terribly easy - I defy you to find all my posts to alt.sex.aluminum.baseball.

A testament to the power of interactive marketing and product placement.

Today was a more miserable day at work thus far - the projects are piling up, the office politics are hitting a Macchiavellian pitch, and I still spend far too much time surfing the web and blogging. A couple of screw-ups made a few days ago have snowballed exponentially into a major headache at present. Some of my work involves verifying and entering values and calculations into a server which generates a whole set of other calculations and values for use in day-to-day trading activity, monitoring and valuation.. and a few mistranscriptions two days ago by my careless self have now blossomed into a nightmare in which our bank's VAR(Value At Risk) went up about 14 times. As the alarm bells rang, I hunkered down for the inevitable hammering. The whole debacle required a system re-run for the last 48 hours to regenerate the correct data sets.

Basically, I have some work of significance to do - but as the new guy, most of those projects are being snowed under by the little everyday tasks that "new guys" are saddled with. As a result, the (reasonably intersting) work I was originally employed for is now taking a distant second to the far more banal sai kang routines heaped on me. Still, I will prevail - despite feeling like I've hit a mid-life crisis in my early twenties.

On top of it, there is a serious logomachy going on between departments, with a lot of my seniors caught in the crossfire; battles over turf, conflicting requirements, personality clashes, and people trying too hard to prove personal points. Thankfully, I'm far too junior to be enmeshed in this kind of corporate politicking - I simply go about my daily labours and go unnoticed for now.

Andrew - agh. That foul concoction known as bubble tea has finally infiltrated my favourite copy shop! Before I left, it was already making inroads into Australian society, or at least the Asian-student demographic. I hear that the shop near Hoyt's is owned by some enterprising students and they reportedly rake in about 10k profit a month. Goes to show that Asian-student stupidity has great market potential - remember that Neoprint shop next to Mind Games on Swanston?

As for computer parts; here are my opinions:

a) Pentium 4.... 2.0 gHz or higher. (Or should i get an athlon?) - Athlon. Definitely. It's cheaper, and they survive longer in temperate climes. Make sure you don't get a stock fan - buy a decent brand like Thermaltake. The swap meets should have them on sale.

b) optical mouse - Go for wireless!:) If you don't mind changing batteries.

c) LCD monitor. If the price is okay... like sub $900 i guess...? = Sub $900 is doable for a 15" - probably around low 800s. But frankly, I find LCD monitors a bit.. irritating to my eyes. It's highly subjective, but I personally prefer a cheaper, flat-screen CRT monitor. You'll have to peer into many monitors to ascertain what you're comfortable with. While CRTs may look less funky, they're easier on my eyes at least, and for the same price as a 15" LCD I can jack up to a 19" model equivalent.

d) CD-RW and 16x DVD drive(s). Separately? Separately, of course - how are you going to do on-the-fly CD-to-CD copies otherwise? Ripping an image onto HD takes time. I'd recommend a Lite-on CD-burner; they're the best value for money and they're good quality as well - particularly if you can't afford a Plextor like most normal humans or non-Indonesian students. Same goes for DVD-ROM

e) Printer, inkjet, sub $200... about $100. You could get a low-end Lexmark or Canon for $100, but I suggest forking out a little more and getting a decent Epson Stylus 480 or thereabouts. A decent printer is an investment you will not regret as a student.

f) Reasonable soundcard. About $100. These are dirt cheap. An SB Live! Value will be just fine.

g) 56k Modem. Internal or external? Either would do. With voice/data/fax. Sub ... 100. Internal modems are evil. Evil! They can mess up your system in all sorts of ways and they take up space you might want to use next time. Don't skimp - get a US Robotics 56k Fax/Data for about $150 or thereabouts. You won't regret it. Or better still, get broadband.. but I know how restrictive the connections at hostels are.

h) Ethernet card (hrm, i saw one selling for $30 at the computer shop in the union) For your usage level it doesn't really matter. Get a cheap 100BaseT card anywhere.

i) Video card (i know nuts about them, what is good?) + j) 3D card HAHAHAHAHA. Long gone are the days when you had to get an Orchid Righteous 3D card with that mondo thick pass-through cable to plug onto your S3 Trio OEM. Erm... as far as I can tell , your gaming needs are fairly simplistic, so go for a half-way decent GeForce 4 MX 440, They're about $220-$270AUD depending on which brand - shop around a little. Make sure you ask if they have OEM cards as they'll be cheaper - but it's not easy to find for new graphics cards. If thats a little too steep, downgrade to a GeForce 4 MX 400 for about $150 or so - Leadtek retails at that price, I believe.

USB ports and stuff, umm can't think of anything else. Hard drive? Keyboard? Speakers? HD space depends on your budget; as for keyboard get a decent Logitech one if you can afford it - it'll last - and speakers also depends onyour budget. Try to find the old Altec Lansing ACS45 sets - 4 satellite + subwoofer. It's quite decent value for money. Some of the older ones even still have wood subwoofers, which add greater resonance.

Go to this site for some comparison shopping.

And, finally, if you're not above second-hand stuff, check out this page. It also details when the monthly swap meets occur - that's where you can get some really good prices. They also sell a few odds and ends on occasion you might like to pick up - like antique 386 RAM:)

Lunch time.