When it rains, it pours

  1. My main system motherboard died. Luckily a friend was able to provide a replacement free of charge. That helped a whole lot.
  2. My server, known as Yes, developed a weird problem where transferring files via samba over the local network caused it to reset itself. I still havn’t figured that one out. Probably motherboard related.
  3. Listener’s desktop had bad memory. Luckily memtest86 found the problem quickly and I think that was a problem that had been causing her trouble for a long time.
  4. The forums machine I run for Guardians of Valor started flooding the network like crazy. New network card and that seems to be fixed.
  5. My monitor died.

None of those are horrible disasters, but they came right after each other. And all of that outside of work. What a week for computer problems.

Death of a motherboard

My main gaming system stopped working tonight. I was playing WoW and the screen went black and dead. No errors, nothing. This was an Epox EP-8RDA+ and had been an awesome motherboard for over a year. So, I need to find a new one as soon as possible.

World of Warcraft

Mail. This one little thing in WoW really has made items less of an albatross around my neck. I can chuck an item, keep it, or sent it to someone who might need it. No more hanging on to bags full of equipment and items, wondering when I’ll meet someone to hand it off to them. Swing by an inn and drop it in the mail. I think it’s the little improvements that can make a game enjoyable versus tolerable.

I also find the crafting aspect of WoW to be very easy to deal with. The interface makes fabrication very smooth and easy to work with. You aren’t fumbling with buttons or items or anything. Most of WoW has this same interface smoothness that makes the game very easy to work with. I do think that the screen real estate is the most limiting aspect of the interface and Blizzard did not want to clutter it up with more buttons. But, I would expect that most people will add user interface modifications to change that.

The Incredibles

Wow. This has to be one of the all time best super-hero movies. It is a fantastic movie. I really can not find fault with any aspect of this movie. The acting, the animation, and the story are all top notch and very entertaining. While I’de like to see more of this movie, I find it hard to imagine a sequal that would be able to match the impact of this movie. It’s that good.