h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We may look into "nicer" speakers at some point. For the time being, my uncle will let us use a pair of his. We do have a set of nice headphones with the right audio plugs which I bought for those occasions when K plays one of the games for the PC. He sometimes plays a bit after I've gone to bed, and after a couple occasions where I was woken by screams from Call of Cthulhu, we got a set of nice phones.

I guess my services are not wanted then. But in reality, a decent set of head-phones are really far better than common 2-way speakers, I'd think.

* some have said that real gamers have the 4-way with sub-woof, etc ...

What services do you mean? Did you mean accessing my hard drive? Where my personal documents and passwords are stored? I thought that was a joke.

I imagine I'm not alone in being unable or unwilling to grant anyone access to a hard drive which contains passwords and protected personal information. If that was an option, there's no shortage of local businesses who could do it.

Most of our games are played on the TV, which has pretty good integrated speakers. And we don't listen to music through the computer (in fact, there's even a boom box sitting on the computer desk in case anyone needs to listen to music while at the computer) so I don't think we need to get really fancy speakers... we just need to be able to hear the sounds from the games we do have, and the occasional YouTube clip, etc.

I don't actually like wearing the headphones all that much. They're designed for using with the computer so they have a mic attached, and it drives me nuts.

Well, ... ummm, no. It wasn't a joke. I was offering the option of you sending me a chunk of hardware, bulk-copy to DVD, and all back again.

Have I missed something in betweens?

Ah! 2nd paragraph, the granting to anyone ... Right. Good luck with it, the adapter to IDE, or ATA or5 S-ATA, or which-ever is best suited.

And bye bye ...

I did a Google for adapters this morning, Ed. They *are* inexpensive- just about $25. And going by the description, could possibly be used to connect a second DVD drive as needed, too.

Wonder if it would also work with the old floppy drive- I guess rather than picking up an external floppy drive to access the disks regularly, I could try to connect it just long enough to copy the files, and then erase and recycle the disks.

Hmm. The computer building isn't going to plan. We plugged it in and...nada.

It wouldn't be so bad if I even enjoyed this kind of stuff.

I don't enjoy it, either. I know it's ususally less expensive- and a lot easier to mee tthe specs you really want- if you build your own. I just have other things to do with my spare time that I give higher priority to- and not enough time for those!

Phew! By a process of deduction / taking bits out and putting them back in again we figured out that the graphics card wasn't in properly.

Next stop Ubuntu...

Followed by 'doze 7...

It might seem odd that someone who's willing to spend hours backing up vinyl, cassettes and VHS to digital format, or various other projects, has little interest in DIY when it comes to to the internal workings of the computer itself, but I really can't be bothered with building or repairing myself. I don't have as much free time as I'd like, and when it comes down to it, more often than not I'd rather pay someone a reasonable price to do it for me than to take on yet another chore. I've replaced the kitchen faucet and the toilet gaskets at our apartment, but I don't like messing with electrical stuff or actual plumbing.

Same goes for car repairs. Most of you know that I worked my way through college by working in automotive repair- I *hated* the job, but it paid better than most jobs available to students while still offering a flexible enough schedule to get around all of my classes. So even though I know enough to fix any number of things, I don't care to and can't be bothered with anything much more complicated than replacing batteries, filters or the occasional flat tire.

Though it does just get right on my raving when someone assumes that because I'm reasonably well educated and currently work in an office, or maybe just because I have innie genitalia rather than an outtie, that I have no clue about it, and can be easily ripped off. I know plenty of men with absolutely no interest in gearhead pursuits, too.

As an aside, I think a lot of folks also take for granted that I must not know anything about cars because I've never needed to or wanted to drive. The only reason I ever had a driver's license was because I needed to be able to pull cars from the parking lot to the service bays, and once I quit that job (oh, happy day!), I never bothered renewing it again.

I'm wondering if part of the reason K and I have hemmed and hawed so much about buying an actual house is because neither of us cares much for DIY or yard work. (See- I wasn't getting totally off topic!) I think we're actually in agreement that we'd rather keep renting and let someone else deal with it... or else just buy a condo, where we get the best of both worlds.

I have the opposite problem. Because I have dangly genitalia (well - *slightly* dangly ), 'mechanical types' assume I must know what the feck they're talking about when they tell me that the ball joint on my tracking rod is worn. I just nod sagely and don't admit that I didn't even know I had a tracking rod.

On the other hand...I still get bizarre amounts of praise *from women* simply because I am the household cook. Not all women, but some. Apparently men are meant to have their dinner waiting for them when they get home.

Worn ball joint on your tracking rod? That's easy. It's why you had to add that 'slightly dangly' bit in parentheses.

I cook dinner most weeknights these days, but that's because it takes me half an hour to get home from work and it takes K 3-4 times that long. Whoever gets home first, cooks, and whoever didn't cook, clears up and puts the dishes in the dishwasher. Back when K used to get home before I did, he used to have dinner ready for me when I got home.

Weird, I get the opposite. Being a geeky non-macho male my knowledge and experience of pulling bikes and cars apart seems to be unexpected. The fact I can build a computer from scrap and know what a track rod end is and how to replace wheel bearings and tune both a 2 stroke and 4 stroke engine seems to be surprising. None of it is complicated, It's just a case of learning the rules. Same as maths or physics. Learn the rules, plug in the variables and you get the answer.

I would say it's not brain surgery; but then from what I know that also is just following the rules and knowing the key facts. It isn't a case of intelligence or manhood, merely a case of specialisation. What you are interested in. If it doesn't interest you, chances are you won't learn it.

I'd say you're bang on with that, Ictoan. I don't know *that* much about it, purely because I've never bothered to take the time to learn. That said, I don't drive, or ride bikes. I'm always a bit surprised by people who do, but don't make a point of learning about how these things work. If for no other reason than to save themselves a fortune!

My husband knows and cares nothing about car repairs, and used to really tick me off with lack of maintenance. I suspect it's some sort of thing to do with his dad- his dad's really handy with all kinds of engines and DIY stuff. Probably also why K has no interest at all in sports (something we share, except that I don't mind ice hockey or tennis).

I'm fine with paying someone else to do the vehicle maintenance, as we don't have a garage or driveway and doing repairs in the street violates all kinds of city ordinances. But for the love of all that is holy, when the "check engine" light illuminates, it means it. Don't drive around for four more months and then have to cough up $400 for a tow because your car broke down on the expressway on the way home from work 50+ miles away, and the repair shop is two blocks from home, and oh, by the way... remember when I told you that that rough idle felt a lot to me like a timing problem? Well, replacing that timing belt would have been a lot less costly without the tow. And replacing that timing belt *before* it broke might have meant not having to get towed home from work again four months later to have the whole ing engine replaced...

*breathe, PC, breathe...

I do love him to death, BTW. He just has the attention span of a turnip sometimes.