Sunday, October 28, 2007

Building A Computer Part 1

Ok, I would be the first to admit that I have been lackadaisical about blogging. So many things have happened over the past three weeks that I just have not had the time to post some new things. Although, that could be a good thing because I have a lot to write about now. Here's a list of things that I would like to post (not necessarily in this order):

1) Building a new computer
2) Steam engine project
3) Career fairs
4) My new GT I-Drive 1.0 bike

So, without further ado, let's talk about how to build a computer. As a side note, other people may have their own opinions about how to build a rig.

CPU
So, generally, choosing a CPU (central processing unit) is the first thing that one should do. The two main companies that manufacture these processors are AMD and Intel of course. I will mainly talk about AMD since I tend to be loyal to that. So after choosing either one of those, you need to think about what you will be using your computer for. A computer that will not be used for high-end gaming does not need a dual -core processor like AMD X2's or FX's. So, a lower end processor like AMD Athlon 3200+, 3000+, etc will do. However, if you are into gaming like I am, one would require a higher-end processor as well. Luckily, processors nowadays are becoming cheaper and cheaper. An AMD X2 6000 about a year ago would cost a fortune, but nowadays, I was able to get one for about $170. Really, it is an awesome processor, even though it's very power hungry. With the stock fan, I am able to overclock it up to 5% making it better. The 6000 comes at 3.0Ghz and it can be overclocked to 3.15Ghz. Some processors are shipped with their overclocking capabilities unlocked like the AMD FX's which are quite good as well. Now, if you want to compare different processors as it performs with different games and programs, it can be checked easily on different websites like www.tomshardware.com.

Really, there's much more to choosing a CPU than games and programs. After choosing that processor, we can then choose a motherboard.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Gmail Manager

Just a quick post, but an important one. For those of you who have trouble managing multiple gmail accounts, this post is for you. I came across a program that allows you to manage multiple gmail accounts on firefox. I'm not sure if it will work with internet explorer or a mac but both are crap anyways.

Here's the link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1320



Peace, Love and Basketball,
Sean

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Steam Engine Part 3

So, I've been putting it off for a few days. I actually wanted to post several things but I just didn't have the time to. Like I said before, I wanted to post something about building a new computer. So, at this point, my blogging goals are: 1) process of building a new computer system 2) continue posting about the steam engine project 3) getting an internship/job during or after college Number 2 would be the quickest. Does anybody remember my very first post about this steam engine project? It was a failure so it shouldn't be too hard to remember. Basically, it turned out all lopsided and deformed because we had too much water in the sand and really, we were rushing it. Anyways, we were able to find some that were in a lot better condition, but still not in top form. So that's when the milling process came in. Vertical mill was the type that we used to cut the deformities off the aluminum frames. My friendly neighborhood Wikipedia explains it better:
A milling machine is a machine tool used for the complex shaping of metal and other solid materials. Its basic form is that of a rotating cutter or endmill which rotates about the spindle axis (similar to a drill), and a movable table to which the workpiece is affixed. That is to say, the cutting tool generally remains stationary (except for its rotation) while the workpiece moves to accomplish the cutting action.
Source: Wikipedia-Milling Machine
So the entire process was cool. In a matter of seconds, your material can be smooth and polished. To me, the advantage of using a milling machine over a lathe is that parts of the mills (endmills, etc) in a milling machine don't have to be switched out during th process. Instead, the actual part that you want to mill is moved (rotated, etc). However, this is not true for the lathe. When using a lathe, the part is stationary while the different drills,etc. are replaced. So which one would be more efficient in the end? Well, I believe that the milling machine would be a little bit more efficient because one doesn't need to switch out the different endmills, etc. However, it is said that a lathe is able to do ALL of the functions of other machines. But why would you want to do that if there are faster ways?



Saturday, October 6, 2007

New Rig Installation

Ya, I know I'm supposed to talk about my new system which I have not forgotten yet. However, I am extremely busy right now-work and a sh$%load of school work including an engineering statistics midterm that I am going to take on Monday. I promise to post pictures sometime in the week and possibly start that series of computer building articles. Anyways, the whole building and installation process took nine hours-yes, nine fr$#king hours. You read that correctly. Nine hours because I made dumb mistakes which everybody should learn to watch out for in the future. I'll post more information next time.

Just a thought, lucky working men and women get their days off on Monday for Columbus Day.For us however, that is not the case....hmmm.


Peace, Love and Basketball,
Sean

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Thursday Hodgepodge

While still waiting for the slow delivery of my system parts by UPS, I became aware of a sad incident. Some 30 yr-old lady was caught downloading music and was being sued by about 24 companies for a total of around $220,000. Reading this news article should send chills up some people's spines....

The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all.

The companies accused Thomas, 30, of Brainerd, of offering the songs online through a Kazaa file-sharing account. She denied wrongdoing and testified that she didn't have a Kazaa account.

Source: Sacbee.com -Record companies win music sharing trial


So what's the moral of the story? Don't download and if you do, be careful. For the sake of this being a public blog, I am not going to say anything more.

-> On to better news, those of us who think that writing a bibliography is a pain in the hiney, cry no more. I discovered this site called Son of Citation Machine which pretty much makes your bibliography for you. All you have to do is type in the author's name(s), date, etc. And yes, it does have APA and Chicago styles.


Peace, Love and Basketball,
Sean

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Some Wednesday Hodgepodge

In the spirit of engineering and technology, I was planning on talking about the new computer system that I was about to assemble. Really, I wanted to talk about the performance and value of having a Crossfire system setup as opposed to having a single card as well as the AMD Athlon X2 6000+. I did a lot of research regarding the two video cards that I got for the Crossfire system-ATI X2600 XT, which are GDDR4 and should be compatible with Direct X10. From the research itself, I obtained a motley of information which did not satisfy me much even though it was leaning more towards the positive reviews. Still I really want to see for myself whether the FPS (frames per second) really are much better with a Crossfire setup.

All was going according to plan, at least until UPS ruined everything. Good ol' UPS screwed up my shipment so I will not be getting it until tomorrow; I'm not going to blame Newegg for this one since this is really UPS's fault even though Newegg did sell me a backordered item which made this whole process longer (they gave me a $10 coupon for next purchase) =]. So, I guess the discussion and pictures will have to come tomorrow or a few days after that.

Also, a friend of mine wanted to "know" how to build a computer. I put the quotation marks around the word know, because I think that building a computer will require more than a common know-how. Experience is much more preferred because it will help you make the right choices when choosing a processor, video cards, ram, etc. So before building a computer, one should probably have an idea of the differences between processors, video cards, and such. Luckily, this being a technological blog and all, I can discuss that in small details later on starting from processors and all the way to the proper casing. That would have to wait till later though.

Anyways, I promised some hodgepodge so without further ado...

-> Isiah Thomas is owing money to Browne Sanders...wow, I was very surprised (sarcastically). Really, did Isiah Thomas deserved what he got? I think so, but I think Browne Sanders wasn't very professional anyway. There's a saying, "It takes two to tango". No doubt it will apply to this situation.
Source: ESPN.com -Thomas says his mind 'never left basketball' during trial

-> I'm just gonna come out and say it: I want an iPhone for Christmas. I'm sure you all do too and with good reason. An iPhone is much more a phone, it's also a mini-computer that can connect to the internet and do a bunch of stuff. It really is a huge, huge, huge step up from my current smartphone. Although, one similarity is the ability to hack into the iPhone mainframe and install third-party programs (meaning non-Apple programs). Sadly, Steve Jobs decided to put a restriction to this because he felt that it may ruin ATT (that's loosely what he said). Well, a website seems to be dedicated to hacking the iPhone and with good results.
Source: iPhone Hacks.com

Peace, Love and Basketball,
Sean

Photo courtesy of: http://www.truthdig.com

Monday, October 1, 2007

Basketball Facility Closes Because of One Bitter Person

It's a known fact that some people just have too much pride. Some people in this world are just bitter. Some people will make use of that bitterness just to destroy things that are important to the community. Charles Colton put it best, "There is a paradox in pride: it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so".

I consider myself a pretty amiable person; yet, I cannot bring myself to understand the action of this one disabled individual. Apparently, this individual was upset that he missed his nephew's birthday party and felt that his rights were violated since the facility did not have an elevator. So he sued Basketball Town facility; Basketball Town, not being able to afford more than $100,000 in lawyer fees, had to be shut down. Is there something wrong here?

So, whose fault exactly was it that the disabled gentleman missed his nephew's party? I'm not trying to be insensitive to the gentleman's feelings but it would seem to me that it is the responsibility of that gentleman's family to inquire about the facility before even deciding to hold the party there. Through careful planning, they would have been able to determine that the facility was lacking an elevator - unless having an elevator was not too important to them. So why sue the facility?

Countless games were played on the basketball courts since the facility opened back in 2002. Its purpose was to provide kids with a safe place to play.

It's clear that the kids who practiced their dribbling and shooting skills will missing playing on the courts. "It's sad you know, this is the place to come play basketball with my friends and everything," said Damien Trujillo.

Parents are also sad to see the place go. "Pretty devastating, disappointing that they are not going to have the opportunity to play," said parent Mark Lucero.

Source: KCRA 3 - Basketball Town Forced To Close

From the gentleman's point of view, it's not easy being disabled. However, there are things that can be done to make life easier - like planning! There's no reason to close an entire facility just because you disagree with the management or the way its built. So maybe the facility does need an upgrade. There are ways to handle this matter. America is already a sue-happy country as it is. Having worked first-hand with children at Boys and Girls Club as well as a boys' group home, I know how important these facilities are. I feel sorry for those kids but remember that there's always hope. CS Lewis said, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.”

Peace.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Steam Engine Part 2 (aka Let's Melt Some Metals)

Alright, this is the second part of the story on my steam engine project. I'll try to keep it brief this time. Last time, we completed the frame portion so now, we worked on the cylinder part used for the actual piston assembly itself.

Basically, we used this machine called Lathe which is quite spectacular really, when you first use it. Good ol' wikipedia helped me out on this one.
A lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or def ormation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation....

Metalworking lathes are commonly provided with a variable ratio gear train to drive the main leadscrew. This enables different pitches of threads to be cut. Some older gear trains are changed manually by using interchangeable gears with various numbers of teeth, while more modern or elaborate lathes have a quick change box to provide commonly used ratios by the operation of a lever.

Source: Wikipedia-Lathe
So there, you have it. Check out the site for much more descriptions. Anyways, I decided to post some pictures of the cylinder. Enjoy =].



Friday, September 28, 2007

Facebook To The Rescue

In a world where social networks like Facebook and MySpace are becoming more and more popular, it's very easy get caught up in all the madness. I remember getting a Facebook account when I was a Freshman in college and I could remember a time when I depended on Facebook for news and information about my friends-seriously, phones and hanging out are way overrated. No, actually, I think that Facebook was a waste of time; however, I still use it for some reason =). The ever so useful Wikipedia reports that as of July 2007, Facebook has over 34-million users worldwide. With numbers like that, you should be able to find your friends or anyone easily right? Right.

Well, at least one person should be thanking Facebook. CNN reports that a victim of a hate-crime attack used Facebook to recognize the suspect.

After the attack, the victim started looking on Facebook to see if he could find the person who attacked him, according to Lt. Alberto Jova of the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.

When he found a profile of someone who looked like his attacker, police investigated, then created a photo spread of possible suspects. The victim picked Cooney's photo from the photo spread and Washington police worked with Georgetown University Public Safety officers to arrest him.

Source: CNN - Victim Uses Facebook To Finger Suspect
Well, if you ask me, that racist b#$tard should rot in jail. It makes you wonder how many friends he had on his list. This would not have been possible if it weren't for Facebook. Now, if only Facebook could give me back the one million hours that I wasted....

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Let's Melt Some Metals!

So, I have a bit of free time today (which is rare) so I am actually going to write something.

Since I am writing my very first actual engineering post, I believe the foundation is a good topic to start with. Any products such as cars, bridges, houses, and even a chair will require some sort of manufacturing process put into it. Sand-casting is of particular importance to me because it is a method that we use in my Manufacturing Process class lab. It is quite simple when you think about it, albeit the dangerous aspect of it. So what is sand-casting really?

No, I am not going write a report about this but I will try to explain the process. Really, sand-casting is just what it sounds like-sand + casting. Although, you cannot use regular sand; green-sand molds which is not necessarily green, but it should contain a little bit of clay and water for bonding. Patterns come in different forms and sizes but really, it is important to make the pattern slightly bigger to compensate for the shrinkage that occurs when the metal cools down. So we start off with a metal container that could be separated from the middle (becoming two separate parts) with the top part being cope and bottom being drag. So basically, the pattern is attached on the molding board (think of it as the floor) of the drag. Next process is kind of crazy!

We shovelled a bunch of sand on a sieve (aligned on top of the drag) and shook it continuously which causes a bunch of smaller sands to fall onto the drag-process is called riddling. Seriously, I do not know who came up with the term "riddling" but it sure is tiring (especially if have to do it so many times). Fast forward to the fun part, assuming that we rammed the sand as hard as we could every time, the sand should be pretty tightly packed-which is good. Last thing we want is the sand collapsing. We removed the pattern then we created a hole through the sand (should lead to the pattern) so we can pour the metal into it. Has anyone ever seen the process of melting a metal?

For this particular project, we used aluminum which was melted on a furnace. I know this may sound crazy-but, seeing molten metal in person is almost a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was marvelous. Dang, it took a while and it was obvious how powerful that furnace is from the noise it was generating. Seeing molten metal in person was quite astounding. Just the thought of metal not having control over its form at such high temperatures was crazy. Other students were taking videos and pictures with their camera phones but I thought that was a little weird. So we let the metal cool for about thirty minutes.......BIG MISTAKE.

The metal piece that we built had so much deformities that it was not even funny. Thirty minutes was not sufficient and it was probably the amount of water that was responsible. See, the water in the sand did not have enough time to evaporate so it probably reacted with all the high pressure vapors in the casting---->really, ask a chemistry major for the actual explanation because I really do not know. Good news is that 90% of all the metallic parts formed that day were defective. It is always nice when the mistake of a lot of people can quite nicely cover yours =). So, I brought home an actual deformed metallic part. In case you were all wondering about we were going to use these parts for, it is supposed to be for a miniature steam engine which is quite nice. Currently, we are building the piston in lab.



The shortcoming of sand-casting becomes obvious when you try to mold a very detailed pattern. Also, sand-casting itself, is not a very controlled process. Slackers could skip a few rammings and they could end up garbage. A different process would be required for those parts with really intricate details such as die-metal casting. Unfortunately, the actual die-metal casting process is beyond the scope of what we cover in lab although I may talk about it later in future posts if I am in the mood.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

My first post

Wow. I never could have imagined that posting a first blog entry could be so frustrating just sitting here for what seems to me like an eternity. By the time I finish this sentence, it would have been twenty minutes. Wow. So, what's hip to write about these days?

Although I am tempted to write about celebrities, world news, or some other important thing like Lindsey Lohan's DUI arrest, I will instead post something more essential for all your daily lives. No, I will not ramble on about my life (not too much anyway). Instead, I will try to post some helpful stuff pertaining to life in general and even engineering (because I am a student). Who knows? Maybe I'll even throw in some naked pictures of Vanessa Hudgens (which are very much coveted by perverts alike). JUST PLAYING..please don't sue me Mr. Lawyer sir. No really, stay tuned.

It's amazing what you learn even in a trivial class (at least to me) like English. Something that happened at work today reminded me of the phrase "We seek to confirm not to question our ideas". You see, we're reading this book "Don't Believe Everything You Think" by Thomas Kida and rather than bore you with the summary of this book, I will just cut to the chase.

Basically, that phrase applies to our everyday lives. For example, once we hate someone, we think everything they do is annoying. Really, that's true. Your brother punches you in the face and you think everything he does is annoying-walking, talking, smiling-even breathing. So how does this apply to me?

At work today, I made this really, really small mistake of confusing a Schwinn Sierra GS and Schwinn Voyageur when I was showing it to a customer. Basically, I got lectured in front of another employee which PISSED the heck out of me. Seriously, this guy said, "You should shadow me one weekend so I can show you things b/c I'm the best at everything at this store, I know everything." Geez, for those of you that are not familiar with a Schwinn Sierra and a Schwinn Voyageur-they are nearly identical. One is a hybrid and the other is a comfort bike. That's basically an orange and a tangerine. Was it so difficult to pull me to the office and lecture me there. I got a little pissed off but I didn't say anything. Actually, for a week now, he's been pissing me off but I just meditated every time to relieve my anger. Uh huh..."meditation" =).

A few minutes later, this same guy walks up to me and brags about how he screwed over Home Depot by returning an item that was two years old. Then, I got to thinking. Subconsciously, within the recesses of my mind, I remembered a week ago that the same b@#tard told us about a guy who tried to return a worn-out shoe that had been used for at least a year. Our store, having a satisfaction guarantee policy, accepted it. This same b$#tard reluctantly accepted the worn-out shoe and later told us about "karma" and how it's going to affect this customer's life from now on. Then, it occured to me, this b$%tard evinced hypocrisy. I mean come on, you can't lecture us about "karma" one week and brag to us about how you screwed over Home Depot. Well, it happens.

Bottom line is, it's weird when you are surrounded w/ people you dislike (not necessarily hate). Weird things starts happening in your head and everything they do seems to piss you off. Such is the significance of "not questioning our own ideas".

Well, until next time folks. I'll try to post something as much as possible but having seven classes plus work is just a tidbit exhausting. See you soon.

Roomie-Mania


        Want to be my roomie?