Support
So, I send in six requests to our support at my day job. Two out of the six had problems. One of which was basically just not done. These are not complex requests. I need a file renamed on a bunch of servers. I need a software package distributed (copied) to a bunch of standard servers around the world. I need an XML file edited to make text changes show up on the web page. It is all standard every day stuff for these guys. We make these requests all the time. I'm the one who makes the changes, they just distribute them over the network. I make the software install properly, they just copy the files. Two out of six fail. Come on.

More on Dell
Drive Swap
Tonight comes the big move. I am pulling the DVD reader out of the Dell (cheap drive) and I'm putting in a DVD burner from my other machine. I'm also adding the second 160 gigabyte hard drive that I have laying around. It never ended up in one of the other machines because I don't trust their power supplies to handle it.
Heat
Man, this thing is hot. I can feel the heat coming from the side of the machine during normal use. When I run BOINC, The fan kicks into high and the heat radiates from the machine. I could bake cookies with the frigging thing. Maybe I should write a cookbook for geeks.

1/2 cup of butter.
1 cup of sugar.
1 cup of flower.
1/4 cup of milk.
Stir, put table spoon sized lumps on a sheet.
Put in bottom of case and run Doom III for 25 minutes.

The case has a nice processor cooling system. There is a shroud over the processor leading to the back of the case. Fresh air is blown over the processor and into the box. There is a grating on the side of the case to let warmth out and the power supply pulls more air out. It is still not enough. When are they just going to throw in the towel and put liquid cooled systems in these boxes?

Offers
I've been offered a computer mouse, a car calender, a paid trip to Dave and Buster's, and trip to some Chinese restaurant for lunch. I had to turn down the lunch and D&B because I needed to get some things done before the weekend.  I turned down the calender because I don't use paper calenders. I don't really get into D&B. besides it was an all afternoon trip.

Strategy
While out with the friends this past Saturday, the ones who were playing Ever-Crack, we stopped in to pick up the Strategy Guide for the game. The store was packed. We were not the only thirty-somethings in the store. Now I find there is quite a market for the strategy guides.

Hint-filled strategy guides now can sell more than 1 million copies, and long-awaited games are being given the kind of "making of" treatment typically bestowed on blockbuster movies. ... Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (Prima Games, $34.99). The 288-page hardcover coffee-table book was written with the help of game developer Valve Software. The book describes the creative process and includes hundreds of color images. ... In creating the hardcover Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, Prima Games worked directly with the game's developer, Valve Software. "Valve has had quite a rich history in game development and a following that is phenomenal," says Debra Kempker, Prima Games' president and publisher. "We thought it would be very important to give the background of the development of the game and the drawings, the history, the works." Yahoo (USA Today)

I remember when I was about thirteen buying a pamphlet sized book for the game Pit Fall I think. It was a game for the Atari 2600. I was stumped at this part where you had to jump off a mesa and snag a branch with your parachute. It turns out there was some trick to it. Now, most of these games are online with/against other people. If these books give you some advantage, I say go for it. You are paying for the privilege of being there.
Sales are up for games overall. Like movies, it is the blockbusters that make the headlines.

Citing data from the NPD Group, analysts said "Halo 2" from Microsoft Corp. sold 3.3 million units in November, while "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. sold 1.5 million units. Yahoo (Reuters)

Yee-gads, that is some scratch.