Author: Robert

Robert Belknap has been writing online sporadically since 2001. See the colophon for more details.

I must be losing my touch

It’s been a very long time (too long) since I last built a computer from scratch, and even then I did not have to research or purchase the components. My boss just said: “here are the parts for your workstation. Put it together.”

So I want to build a new machine and I’m not even sure where to start looking. Does anyone have any suggestions for finding good prices on components for a decent gaming system? At the minimum I’ll be needing a new motherboard, processor, RAM, and case (along with the requisite cables/connectors/cooling/power….) I can cannibalize my current system for other needed pieces (video, cdrom, hd, etc) for the time being, seeing as how I’m on a tight budget. (I’ve got about $300 to get me started.)

Edited on Dec 7th 2004, 01:56 by Hooloovoo

Today I am 27

I’ve had a pretty good, yet mellow birthday.

Justin was cooperative enough to let Jenny and I sleep in a bit. Then his grandparents (Jenny’s mom and dad) came down to play with him while Jenny and I went to see a movie.

We were going to see “Finding Neverland”, but I got the showtimes mixed up and by the time we got to the theatre, we’d missed the first 20 minutes. So we decided to see “The Incedibles” instead. That also gave us enough time to space around the Bay Street shopping center a bit. We were in the Apple Store and I came very close to spending the money my grandfather sent me on an iPod Mini. My current plan is to put it towards the purchase of a new computer, but damn, the iPod is a sexy MP3 player.

The movie was really good, I enjoyed it a lot. Not going to go into much here, but the story is really well written in addition to some great animation. I think it’s my favorite Pixar film yet.

After the movie, Jenny and I went home and then out to dinner with my parents. I don’t remember if I’ve said this before, but Vo’s Restaraunt in San Leandro is terrrific. I’ve yet to have something there that wasn’t excellent.

Now we are home. Jenny has gone to bed, (she started getting a migraine while we were at dinner,) so I think Justin and I are gong to watch LXG which came in the mail via Netflix yesterday.

Edited on Dec 6th 2004, 15:50 by Hooloovoo

No, I am NOT "baby-sitting" him.

He’s my son, god-damnit.

Why do people use the term “baby-sitting” for a father who is watching/caring for thier newborn? Baby-sitting is what you do when it’s not your kid.

Despite the silly gas-station attendant, (who made the baby-sitting comment) Justin and I had a nice adventure today. I’d write more, but the point of this post was to vent a bit about the “baby-sitting”, and it sounds like Justin just woke up from his post-adventure nap.

What’s this? A Pyrimid Marketing Scheme?

I tend to trust UserFriendly so I clicked on a banner ad there that I would have ignored on just about ANY other website.

Now I’m probably just making things worse by taking the next step and posting this link: Get a free iPod

As I understand it, this is how it works:
1 Sign up for an account and pick which iPod you would like
2 Complete one of the site’s promotional offers
3 Refer 5 other people who must also complete 1 offer (and I assume, refer 5 of thier own people… and so on)
4 Have your selecetd iPod shipped to you

I’ve completed step 1. This post (with the link above) is my attempt at completing step 3. I haven’t decided which of the promotions is the least evil yet, so I’m holding off on setp 2.

Why am I doing this? Why the hell not?

Magpie RSS Parser

I had a very basic RSS parser ripped from a tutorial somewhere powering the syndication of my g-blog posts on my own website: http://www.hooloovoo.net/blog

I was never really happy with the code I had found, specifically the way it formatted the date. (I couldnt figure out how to get enything but the raw UTC timestamp from the DC:Date element of the feed items.)

Anyway, to make a long story short, I just rewrote my blog page using Magpie RSS as the feed parser. I’m much happier with the result, (and the php code that produced the result.)

Plus, if Gossip ever decides he’s bored and wants to start creating Atom feeds for G-blog, I can switch my input file with little or no effort. 🙂

(edit: preview damnit, preview!)

Edited on Nov 6th 2004, 11:18 by Hooloovoo

As promised, more pictures

I called my sister today about something unrelated, and the first thing out of her mouth wasn’t “Hello” – but that’s because she usually greets me with a “Mahalo”.

The SECOND thing she said was: “What’s big idea not having Justin’s Halloween costume pictures up yet?”

So as promised, new pictures are up. (clicky clicky) We didn’t get as many pictures as I had hoped of the baby dragon, but we got a few. (And I suppose we could put him in the costume again to get more.)

Tomorrow is “shots” day. Won’t that be fun?

(edit: when proofreading a post, it helps to actually read it.)

Edited on Nov 2nd 2004, 08:39 by Hooloovoo