I love electronics.  If you know me, then you know this.  I love computers, phones, video game systems, pretty much anything technology related.  Being a video game geek I also own a couple video game consoles.  I have the Xbox 360, a PS3, and a PSP.  Had a Wii for a while, but sold it since it sat around most of the time.  Still debating about picking up another Wii since the kids are getting older and could use it more, plus Kim and I had bowling nights.

With the video game systems there is one that is always being poked at for being a problem child.  The Xbox 360 has been plagued with issues almost from its launch day.  I pre-ordered and got a “launch” console (a 360 from when it was released).  I played this console for nearly 2 years until I sold it to get a Xbox 360 Elite.  At the time, the Elite was the only one that had the HDMI output, and I wanted it.  For those that don’t know HDMI carries the audio and video signals digitally on one cable, much like a coax cable carries the audio and video in analog format.  The difference?  Compare VHS and DVD.  And since our TV at the time had a couple of open HDMI inputs, I figured, “Why not?”.  I have now owned an XBox 360 for over 4 years and have never had a single problem with it.  Well, not major anyway.  I did have it overheat a couple times, but it seems to be doing MUCH better since I blew out all the dust.

The Wii we had for a couple years.  We didn’t get one until it had been out for a long time, so the kinks should have been worked out, but no.  After about 9 months it went back to Nintendo because the DVD drive (does it use a DVD drive??) quit working.  It was replaced and worked beautifully when I sold it (and it is still working to my knowledge).

The PS3 we have now had for 2 years.  We’ve had issues with it recognizing DVD’s we wanted to watch.  Sometimes it wouldn’t work, other times it was no problem.  This has been going on for about 6-8 months now.  Blu-Ray and games worked fine, but regular DVD’s sometimes wouldn’t.  Well, almost 2 years to the day from purchase Aiden popped in a Tom & Jerry DVD to watch when something new happened.  I got the “Yellow Light of Death” (YLOD).  What cracks me up is all the PS3 fanboys poking fun at the 360 fanboys (like me) about how the Red Ring of Death (RROD) that the 360 gets happens all the time, and PS3’s don’t have this problem.  Yeah, yeah you do.  I know because it happened to me.

Ok, so I’m staring at the YLOD.  Power off, power on, trying anything.  Not working.  Can’t even eject the DVD.  Now, I’m well outside of warranty so there will be no “Goodwill” repair from Sony.  They want $150 to send me a refurbished PS3 after I send in mine.  All of Aiden’s game saves from Ratchet and Clank would be gone.  So I start browsing online.  I found a guide to fix the YLOD, and figured, why not?  I could always send it in to Sony if it didn’t work.  At worst, I’d be out the $7 I spent on the Arctic Silver thermal paste plus the $150 for the refurb.  At best, I’d spend $7 for the thermal paste and we’d continue on while giving Sony the finger.  On we go…

Here it is.  Unaware of it’s impending doom.  The tear-down.  For the record, this is the 40GB PS3 model#CECHG01.  I know, it is the “cheap one” but I didn’t care.  It was the cheapest Blu-Ray player out at the time.  Plus, it has built in Wi-Fi and gets regular updates (so if the BD Live gets an update, I get it).  The model makes a difference, I know for certain because the guide I looked at was for a 60GB PS3 and it was slightly different internally than mine was.

First thing I had to do was remove the warranty sticker that covers a rubber plug that allows me to get into the console.  I was out of warranty anyway, and I’ve always wanted to do this….so I cut the warranty sticker so I could access the plug.  (Sorry, didn’t adjust the flash until later)

I think my warranty is voided now

So, behind the rubber plug was a “Tamper proof” Torx screw (size T10).  These look like normal Torx head screws, but in the center there is a little piece of metal that sticks up so that you can’t use a standard Torx, you need one with a hole in the center.  Luckily, Puma had one from the times he’d disassembled a 360 controller and he let me borrow it.  Come to find out, it was the wrong size hole for the piece of metal.  Out came one of my small flathead screwdrivers and I just busted that little metal piece off.  I now just use a normal T10 Torx.

The top cover came off once the screw was out.  I found that this top cover is partially transparent, and serves no other purpose than to cover the main top cover and make the PS3 look pretty.  Mission accomplished.  I still think the PS3 is better looking than the 360.

PS3 with the "Pretty Panel" removed

I opted to remove the hard drive at this point.  The guide didn’t show it removed until later, but it is so w quick and easy I just did it.  One cover and one screw then slide the hard drive out.

Next was removing the screws from the main top cover.  There were eight or so screws, most long with a couple shorter.  I marked on the cover itself with a Sharpie so that I knew where the short one went.  Figured I better just to be safe.  Once those were all removed, there is a locking tab on the top right section (referring to picture directly above) and a hinge-lock on the front.  Simply use a screwdriver tip to release the lock-tab, and then lift the panel from the back towards the front and it comes right off.  Once the top panel is off it looks like this….

Ok, so looking at the picture directly above you have: the Blu-Ray drive on the right side, the power supply in the upper left and the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth daughter-boards bottom left with a one wire connection to another board at the upper middle.  I know the daughter-boards are for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth because I forgot to plug the ribbon cable in the first time I put it together and neither Wi-Fi nor Bluetooth worked.  Whoops.  All in all I tore it down three times the first night.  The last time was because I forgot to plug the Blu-Ray drive back in after fixing the Wi-Fi and BT board issue.

The Blu-Ray drive just lifts out here, but there is a plug into the mother board that you must undo first.  This is actually held in place with screws that are holding on the top main cover as well.  Makes it easy I guess.  The power supply actually has five screws in it.  One at each corner, with two in the lower right corner (closest to the Blu-Ray drive and the daughter-board).  Before lifting out the power supply, make sure you untape the wire running between the daughter-boards.  The bigger daughter-board has two screws (one on either side) and a good ol’ ribbon cable.  The smaller board has only one screw.  With the power supply and Blu-Ray drive removed it is easy to see the screw for the small board.

Now we are down at the main fan assembly/heatsink clamshell that encases the motherboard (what I needed to get at).  There are again, various screws to deal with.  Sadly, I didn’t take a picture here.  At this point the you must unscrew the power supply ground wire (I put the screw back in its spot) and you can lift the whole thing out of the bottom tray.  The back cover (where the plug and various A/V ports are) comes up with the clamshell assembly and then pops off.  Here’s where it was fun the first time.

Opening the clamshell on my 40GB PS3 was quite different than the 60GB I saw online.  First, make sure you unplug the fan from the motherboard!!  Then I had to bend the metal tabs away from the A/V ports and there were two small metal dowels that went through the whole assembly.  Plus, the bastard was damn near super-glued together.  I didn’t want to break it, but it took a decent amount of force to separate it.  I finally got it apart and this is how it looked.

Finally, I set to work “reflowing the solder”.  First I cleaned the old thermal paste off the processors and the heat sink assemblies.  I used isopropyl alcohol, but would have preferred ArctiClean (from Arctic Silver).  My local computer shop didn’t have any, so I used what I could.  Then I used a heat gun (not the best method, I know) to reheat the area around the processors.  The guide I used suggested 350 degrees.  I plan on getting a heat-gun with a digital readout next time.  I had to use an oven thermometer this time.  Not very accurate, but again, I did what I could.  I’m impatient and wanted to get right into this.  Planning ahead wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Once I finished with the heat gun on both sides I reapplied thermal paste and reassembled.  Once I had done the three tear-down and reassemblies, it worked beautifully.  For two days.  Then I tore it all down again and re-did it, but heated it for longer.  It has now been going strong for a week.

I want to thank Gilksy for his guide.  Without his guide I never would have tried this, and would have sent it back to Sony.  You can see his video how-to on youtube.  Here is a link for step 1 (which has links to the rest of the steps).  

I haven’t read a book for pleasure in probably 20 years. That changed this past week. About two weeks ago the whole family loaded up and headed to the mall. We originally went so that we could visit our Disney Store that would be closing this month. We had the stroller, and to make it easier to get in, I suggested we enter via the Borders Bookstore due to the push button doors. Kim was a little surprised and excited. Usually I don’t suggest her going into a bookstore….EVER. It’s like sending me into an electronics store or into a shoe store that carries Jordan’s. There was no turning back now.

After about 40 minutes we were done, and I had purchased the first book for pleasure in a VERY long time…maybe ever. I think when I was younger and reading a lot my parents bought my books. Then there was the library. The library is almost a bad word in our house. Kim loves books. LOVES books. That’s why we don’t go to the library. She loves books, but doesn’t like to give them back. The library kinda frowns upon that. So, we buy books.

So, the book I bought is/was about an assassin. I bought it for that reason. I loved the game Assassin’s Creed and I generally like any game like it. Hitman, Splinter Cell, etc. Kim calls them my “Sneaky bastard” games. So, I started reading on Thursday. I thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew. My first book back and it was 670-some-odd pages, and it was the first of three in the series. I finished it in 3 days. Could have finished it in one if I’d sat down to read more, but I didn’t. I’m now halfway through book #2. Kim is excited. Actually, that’s an understatement. She is thrilled that I started reading again.

Next up? That would be an E-Reader of some sort for me. See, Kim loves books. She loves the way they feel, the feel of the pages, the feel of the printed words, the smell of the books. Everything about them. And pretty much those same things are what I DON’T like about books. A couple months ago I brought up the idea of getting Kim a Kindle from Amazon or a Nook from Barnes and Noble. She declined due to the previously mentioned reasons for loving books. However, she is now suggesting that we “get one for [me] that she can ‘borrow’ when we go on trips”. Uh huh. Well, it is actually a good idea for the most part. I’d like one because I wouldn’t have to deal with the things I don’t like about books, and I’d get a new gadget. Gadgets are cool. So now, it is a matter of deciding which one.

This past Saturday we went to the bookstore to check out the Nook in person. I don’t like it. It is too small for my tastes. It is also quite slow. I played with a Kindle when my mom came out to visit a few months ago, but didn’t really like that either. It has a keyboard on it (basically) and that just makes it bigger than it needs to be. So as of now I’m waiting to see what the HP Slate and the Apple iPad are like. I think the tablet will be the way to go for me. Bigger screen, and more than just an E-Reader. The HP Slate is a full-blown computer in a tablet format. The iPad is an oversized iPod Touch. I’m leaning more towards the HP Slate due to the fact it is an actual computer and can multi-task. Plus, I won’t have the temptation to get the 3G data plan that the iPad would bring. Since neither is out yet, well, I guess I will just wait. Unless someone that works for HP or Apple is reading this. In which case, feel free to send me a pre-production model to test for you. I’d love that. Then, I could put up a review on here. Maybe start serving a better purpose than a location for my incomprehensible babbling. I’m off to bed. Kim’s working tonight and I got stuff to do tomorrow!

This sucks.  We had 1.5 Mbps DSL service for a few years (I think up to 4-5 years at this point) and I had finally grown tired of the slow speed.  In August I cancelled them out completely and got our local cable company to install cable internet (at 5 Mbps) and digital cable with a Hi-Def DVR.   When that flier showed up about 1 1/2 weeks after the change I was pissed.  Had they just told me I never would have switched.

So I went out to get the mail a couple weeks ago.  Again came the flier from our local phone company that faster DSL was now available in our area.  Ok, time for me to review what we’ve got, and see if I can save money.  We had DirecTV a while back because I slaved in their call center for about 3 1/2 years.  That job sucked.  They payed pretty good for what I did (sat on my butt and answered the phone) and it came with free DirecTV service (top of the line of course), but we cancelled it because I was back in school.  Trying to conserve money and all.  It was cancelled in 2005.  I decided to check and see what it would run for similar service now.

I called DirecTV to make sure I was eligible for the promotions on programming that were currently running, and surprisingly, I was.  So I started calculating.  With the DSL promotion and the DirecTV promotion we could save about $40 a month.  With this we would be getting: more than double the download speed of our cable internet, and getting a LOT more channels.  Wow.  Where is the downside?  Then came the call to get the equipment from DirecTV.  This is where knowing how to work the system comes in.

I call the regular “reconnect” line at DirecTV and get a dumbass (as Red would say).  No really….I haven’t worked at DirecTV in about 4 1/2 years, and I was correcting him on things.  Really dude?  You think you should be doing this job?  He even tried to upsell me on adding Qwest DSL (which I was already doing).  He said, “You can get 1.5 ‘M’ at your house.  Just in case you don’t know the ‘M’ means it is fast.”  LMAO!  Dude, really?  I then spent about 5 minutes informing him what the ‘M’ stood for, and that he was wrong about what the fastest speed available to me was.  Next he pretty much told me what I already knew about the programming costs.  Then I asked about equipment.  I want one HD-DVR and one standard DVR…..free.  ”No, I can’t do that.  Best I can do is HD-DVR free and the other DVR is $99 plus shipping.”  Bite me.  Told him I’d think about it and call back.  I did, too.  I called to see what someone else was willing to do.  Guy number 2 was a little better, but still not willing to eat all the cost on the second DVR.  Ok, I’m done fooling around.  Time to call retention.

I used to work in retention.  I used to joke that the department I worked in was the “Give shit away” department.  Do what it takes to prevent people from cancelling service.  I also did reconnects…guess how those went.  So, I get the “Express line” phone number with pin.  From here I got into CRG and get: $25-32 off of programming for the next 12 months, 6 months of free movie channels, and the HD-DVR and standard DVR for free.  I just paid for shipping.  Then the installer showed up.  CRG guy botched it.  Not only did I get a HD-DVR free, I got 2 HD-DVR’s free.  These are normally $199 a pop.  Cool.  HD-DVR in the bedroom too!  Once it was all hooked up I had to call a couple times to get the programming corrected and discounts applied, but is should be all good now.  And as an added bonus we get $5 a month off because we have DSL too.

Next up was the internet.  Back to what started the DirecTV switch.  Our 5Mb service was $49 a month.  We were getting hosed.  That would get me 20Mb in Portland (where I grew up), but not here.  In any case, we now pay $45 a month (with a free $100 modem) for 12Mb service.  Just got the internet installed today and it is nice.  Can’t wait to see if there is an improvement in Xbox Live….but I highly doubt it.

Moral of the story.  Don’t accept the first representative’s offer.  Work the system.  Learn whom to talk to, and more importantly, how to talk to them.  Never (EVER) be defensive or argumentative.  The saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” is only accurate when you are literally talking about wheels.  As Dalton would say, “Be nice.”

I think it is fair to say I’m addicted to Halo.  I’m addicted to Xbox 360 games (and pretty much all video games) in general, but Halo has a special place in my world.  With somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 matchmade games across at least six different gamertags (with my original clocking the highest at 4,449 matches) in Halo 3 alone, yeah….I’m addicted.

So around a year ago Bungie (the company that makes Halo) mentioned something about a new game coming out. We knew it wouldn’t be Master Chief (main character of Halo: CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3) so it would be a new challenge.  Naturally, being the addict I am, I pre-ordered the new game as soon as I could at my local GameStop.  That was back in May.  The game came out about 1 1/2 weeks ago and I was there at midnight, Monday, September 21, 2009, to pick up my copy.  I got the Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition.  Same game, but I got a “limited edition” controller.  Also, because I pre-ordered, I got the code for Sgt. Johnson to use in the new multiplayer mode called “Firefight”.  I also picked up Puma’s copy because the bastard was on a cruise in the Caribbean or somewhere.

The game itself is called Halo 3: ODST.  For those that don’t know, ODST stands for “Orbital Drop Shock Trooper”.  I won’t explain everything because those that will read this either already know or don’t care….like Kim doesn’t care.  So, I get home and boot up.  This came with two discs: one is only Halo 3 multiplayer with all the maps that I’ve paid for already in the last couple years, plus three new maps.  I fired this disc up first to find the skull hidden on each map.  The Xbox 360 has this thing called “Achievements” and as the name suggests, it is a “reward” for doing things in the games.  I am addicted to those blasted achievements popping up the notification that I’ve just earned something.  The fun part of finding the skulls was my partner was someone who works at Bungie.  The bad part was he was at work and didn’t have a headset.  Never realized how difficult it can be to try to accomplish something without being able to communicate very well.  Oh well, we got it done.

Once that was done, he took off for the bar (everyone was celebrating from the studio) so I jumped over to the new disc.  I partnered up with another guy and we started the main game on the ODST disc.  The campaign loaded up and was nice.  I was able to set my controls the way I had them in Halo 3 (naturally) and it was second nature.  It felt like I was controlling Master Chief, but I was missing some little things.  Shield regeneration is gone, dual wielding is gone (being able to shoot two weapons simultaneously), but overall it was comfortable.

Before long, my first buddy was home.  Over to Firefight we go.  There are a couple of games that I’ve played that had this game mode where you fight a number of enemies in each round.  Gears of War 2 had “Horde” mode (the only good thing about that game in my opinion).  Call of Duty: World at War has “Zombie” mode; this was a great addition to a good game already.  So Firefight has: Sets, Rounds, and Waves.  There are five Waves to a Round, and three Rounds to a Set.  Supposedly there are infinite Sets, but I’ve yet to make it to set five.  However, I have made it to Set 4, Round 4, Wave 3, and that took just a hair under 2 1/2 hours.  This game is fun!

Overall, the graphics and gameplay are great in my opinion.  Yes, I’m slightly biased, but I still pay for my games.  The Campaign was a bit too easy, even on Legendary difficulty (the hardest).  The fact that I was able to complete Legendary by myself (Solo is the way to go!) in less time than it took for Halo 3 or Halo 2 left me a bit disappointed.  It doesn’t surprise me much since Halo 3 Legendary was easier than Halo 2 Legendary.  The story itself was interesting, or atleast what I watched of it.  I’m known among my co-op friends to skip cut-scenes at every opportunity.  I still couldn’t tell you what happened at the end of Halo 3.

Somebody asked me the second day I had it if I thought it was worth a buy.  Absolutely.  I paid $100 for the Collector’s Edition (and since controllers usually go for $50 on their own, it was a good deal) and I say Firefight alone is worth it.  Factor in a whole new campaign, the multiplayer maps for Halo 3, and the chance for Recon…..well, that’s just icing on the cake.

For the record the night of 9-21-09 went like this:
2230 – Left for GameStop for the midnight pickup
0004 – Got my copy of Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition
0017 – Got home and attempted opening of Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition packaging
0022 – Finally got game disc out of box
0023 – Downloaded Sgt. Johnson for Firefight mode using code from GameStop
0025 – Batteries in new controller, Sgt. Johnson downloaded, game disc loaded, started play
B L U R
0530 – Was startled by Aiden bursting into my office with his now dislodged tooth in his hand (surprised he didn’t swallow it!!!)
0540 – Got Aiden back in his bed, and went to bed.

So, I got a good 4 hours in on the first night.  Got up at 1100 and went on with the day.  I would also like to point out that as of today, I have not been up past midnight since last Saturday….that’s some kind of record for me!

I’m a geek in training. Yes, there, I said it.  I love messing around with computers.  I don’t know all about them, but I’m learning.  I don’t know why, but they are fun to me.  I’ve been wanting to get a desktop for a while now.  I’m not in school anymore so I don’t think I need a laptop.  I’ve got one, in fact I”m typing on it right now, but most of the time it just sits here plugged in.  Thus, my rant starts…..

I have a laptop.  It is actually my second laptop…poor Kim got the hand-me-down first laptop (the behemoth).  My first laptop was a Dell I8600.  15.4″ WUXGA screen (1900×1200 resolution), modular bay (that I have 2nd battery, DVD burner, and floppy drive for), blah blah blah.  It worked well for me for the first year and a half of school.  The downside of it, and the main reason I replaced it, was because it weighed something like 12 pounds.  Factor in the textbooks I was hauling around as well….yeah, I wanted a lighter laptop.  The funny thing is that shouldn’t have been my first laptop.  I had originally ordered a blue Alienware laptop.  It would have been lighter in weight, and in specs.  I went with the Dell because I was getting more for my money.  Sure it wasn’t as pretty to look at, but all the technical specs were better.  So, long story short, I cancelled my first ever order with Alienware and got the Dell.

Fast forward, and comes time to get my “lighter replacement” laptop.  This time, I decided I didn’t want a Dell because of all the bloatware the last laptop (and our desktop) was filled with.  This time, I went Alienware.  Just ordered a Sentia with a couple small upgrades (CPU is bumped and added an extra charger, things like that) but didn’t go overboard.  Alienware wanted a ton of money to upgrade the RAM or hard drive.  Screw that.  So the order was placed, and then I got dicked around by Alienware for a couple weeks while my laptop was “built”.  Basically I was told it would ship by “x” date.  Then the fun started.  Basically it sat for a while because my 2nd charger was on backorder.  My laptop didn’t get shipped because of that….can’t seperate the order.  Meanwhile, I’m still eligeble for the promos they start running since my laptop hasn’t shipped yet.  At least there was one manager (who’s name I wish I could remember) that was willing to work with me.  Hey, I wanted something for having my finished laptop sitting there waiting for something as silly as a spare charger.

Ok, so I finally got my laptop.  Couple months later I decide to bump up things a little.  I had it shipped with 512mb of RAM because it was still expensive at that time.  I think it was like a $500 increase to go to 2GB (the max for my laptop) directly from Alienware in the order.  I looked to newegg.com first.  I order all my computer stuff from them now, although I don’t order all that much.  I knew that I wanted Crucial RAM, and newegg offered 1GB sticks, but if I went direct from Crucial I could get 2GB matched set for $250.  Alienware was still charging $500 for that upgrade.  Yup, I saved some money.  Also upgraded to a 160GB hard drive.  Pretty good size at the time…I think the 200GB 5400 was a BIG deal at the time.  Saved a lot more money.

Big downside to my upgrades….my battery life is gone.  Since the upgrade of the RAM and HDD I don’t get more than 20 minutes on a charge.  I called Alienware about it and they didn’t seem surprised.  In fact, I was told I should expect short battery life because I was using a computer with “high end products”.  Wow.  Ok.  I just keep it plugged in now.  It is more of a slightly mobile desktop with very short UPS.

So, I’m in the market for a new desktop.  Ok, not really, but I still look.  Alienware was always touted as a “gamer’s computer” in my mind.  Is was the hardcore computer for the true geek.  It had the newest and best.  You couldn’t get any better.  Well, shortly after I bought my laptop Alienware was bought out by Dell.  Since then I think Alienware has shifted.  They don’t offer “hardcore gaming rigs” anymore…they’re more like “upper-midrange computers” now.   I give you my small argument….

Ok, so of course I want the desktop to have the newest and greatest parts, but I can’t afford the full on high end.  I am pretty sure Kim would “accidentially” knee me in the groin, kick me in both shins, slip and poke me in both eyes, not see me lying on the ground and “accidentially” kick me in the gut, then fall and break her fall by using her knees to my head and elbow to my chest….if I told her I ordered a $12,000+ computer.  So I start looking at the lower-upper end computer parts.

Alienware was my first stop.  Built with the options they have I got one around $2500.  Decent CPU, fair amount of hard drive space, substantial RAM, a really nice video card, and a 64-bit OS.  Little things upgraded, but not over the top.  No liquid cooling (really, with three kids under 6 I don’t think it is a good idea), not the best CPU or GPU.  Things started annoying me.  The options require removal of certain things to add others.  I couldn’t get a SLi or Crossfire setup with an actual sound card, or a seperate network card.

Dell was next cause they’re cheap.  Again, decent upgrades.  Same story as Alienware, afterall, they are the same parent company.

Next up was www.newegg.com.  The pride of having something I built…plus the fun of actually building it myself.  Seems like the individual components offered nice long warranties, and then I could pick exactly what motherboard I wanted.  Downside is that I don’t know enough to know what works really well with what.  Yes, it can make a difference.

Somewhere along the way I found www.cyberpowerpc.com.  Now, when I was on newegg.com I found that there were faster RAM options for the triple channel RAM used with the i7 core CPU from Intel.  Funny, Alienware’s “Benchmark destroyer” only offered 1333MHz RAm, but cyberpowerpc.com offers 1333, 1600, and 1800MHz RAM options.  I also just noticed (yes, I just went and built a PC on both Alienware and CyberPowerPC) that cyberpowerpc.com has overclocking options as well.

For the two computers I just built I basically went top of the line on everything.  Didn’t add a keyboard or mouse (cause I’d get replacements from newegg) and no monitor (I have a Samsung 24″ sitting on my desk waiting).  I did go 12GB RAM from both, with cyberpowerpc offering 12GB at 1800MHz, but Alienware was 12GB at 1333MHz.  Alienware did offer the 2TB hard drive, but CyberPower did not.  In the end, the CyberPowerPC desktop was about $40 cheaper, and came with a 3 year warranty.  Alienware’s was certainly a lot nicer to look at, and came with a 1 year warranty.

I could go through point by point who offers what, and such, but in the end I’d feel like I was getting a midrange product from Alienware for more than what I’d pay at cyberpower for a high end system.  Alienware, you disappoint me.  What happened to your niche market?  You were the first I saw to offer the 1TB hard drive as an option, usually you are among the first to offer the newest and greatest options, but now…well now I just think you are just a pretty face to look at.  CyberPower, you may be getting some business from me in the future.

I like toys.  My toys are different from my son’s.  Yes, I like his LEGO’s and enjoy building the new sets he gets.  I will be disappointed when he decides he wants to build them all.  I like my electronics.  Gadgets, Gizmos, whatever.  My desk is cluttered with things right now.  Couple printers, my laptop, a 24″ HDTV monitor (serves as a 2nd screen for my laptop as well as my 1080p monitor for my Xbox 360), cable modem, DSL modem (I need to take that down), D-Link gaming router (DGL-4500…I love it), iPhone charging dock, Astro A40 headset MixAmp (awesome headset…as long as it isn’t hitting feedback that annoys the shit out of my friends online), there’s more…..

So, I’ve got my iPhone.  I love it.  I didn’t want a touchscreen.  Not after my T-Mobile MDA (a.k.a. HTC Wizard 200).  The thing was, I was always losing my stylus for the MDA.  The icons were too small for me to hit with my fat fingers.  So, when I got the iPhone from my little sister (thanks Kels and Mike), it was purely out of curiosity for what I could do with it.  I’m on T-Mobile so obviously the standard AT&T iPhone wasn’t going to cut it.  Jailbroken and Unlocked within 30 minutes of taking possession of it.  I like to play with it…hell, I had the owner’s manual and the program to unlock the MDA six months BEFORE T-Mobile USA announced they were going to carry it.  I am a forum member on quite a few geeky sites.

So, I’ve got my iPhone 2G phone.  It isn’t the newest, or even last year’s model for that matter, but it works for me.  Yes, I’d love a 32GB iPhone 3Gs, but I’m not about to spend $1,000 to buy it from a third party vender.  It would be nice if Apple would just send me one to use and evaluate from a stay at home father point of view, but that is probably unlikely.

So, T-Mobile has the MyTouch 3G available.  I have to say that my interest has been grabbed slightly by this handset.  I played with the G1 (my buddy pre-ordered a couple) and I wasn’t so fond of the phone itself, but would like to give Android a go round.  So I called T-Mobile tonight and asked them if a data plan was required (which it is) and asked if my grandfathered “data plan” would work.  I was advised that it would not.  I pay $5.99 a month for T-Zones Unlimited.  With this plan I am able to: browse the net, send/receive emails, twitter, facebook, etc. all on my phone for $6 a month.  Sure, it’s not 3G, but they don’t have 3G here yet.  I fail to see the point in spending $25 a month for a data plan.  Why not?  Well, I have Wi-Fi setup at home, as does my buddy whose house I would be at if I was out of the house.  Wi-Fi is going to be faster than the 3G….but I’m still considering it much to Kim’s dismay.

Maybe I’ll send an email to Apple and/or T-Mobile and see if I can get one of these handsets to try out for a while, review, and post my thoughts on them here…..

Just figured I’d use some of the many “tools” provided by the web host.  One of them is called “AWSTATS” and basically gives me all sorts of random statistics about the site and its visitors.  I can look and see that bots for Yahoo, Google, MSN, and a few others have crawled my site, and that the most active day is Friday.  Really?  Friday?

Apparently I need to be more diligent about posting blogs, and start inserting jokes and such.  Have a friend from WAY back who is going to send me some recipes soon.  I really hoped to have more of them up on here by now, but haven’t sat down to do it.  Coming soon……

I wanted to post yesterday…no really, I did.  There was a slight problem though…it was Bungie Day.  Bungie is the studio responsible for the Halo games (not Halo Wars).  They have something with the number 7, and well, yesterday was 7/7.  They usually do things to celebrate.  So, I was online quite a bit yesterday playing thanks to my lovely wife.

Happy belated Bungie Day.