I’ve been saving this entry for about a week. Many badass things have happened lately. I’ll break it down:

• I got a WebCam! An IBM PC Camera, for $60 (little high, don’t buy from ur friends 😮 ). I set it up atop my monitor, connected via USB. I had some problems w/ the drivers @ first, but now it works perfectly. This supports 3 reses, picks up sound, and can either take snapshot pics or motion avis. Here’s a few pics from it:
  
• I got a new Blue Orb fan from The Card Cooler (pictured above). It took about an hour to remove my old heatsink/fan and paste this on w/ Arctic Silver II paste. I hooked it to a MB fan header w/out a sensor, so I can’t test the RPM of it… anyway, this will make my GeForce2 reasonably cooler.
• The GhetTO Driver Catastrophe: First, I noticed that my USB ports didn’t detect new devices anymore (I noticed this when I hooked my WebCam up). So Snake suggested I go to viahardware.com and get the latest 4-in-1 drivers (v4.33, w/ newest AGP GART). I did, and shortly after (this was about the same time I put my newly-fanned GeForce in), it kept locking: in IE, CS, anything. So I reinstalled it once, then got some older drivers, still locked. Got just new AGP GART, still locked. I even tried doubling my AGP Aperture size in BIOS. Just a couple hours ago, I got the original AGP GARTs that came w/ our systems, and it works fine. I still have the newest 4-in-1. Anyway, what this solved was not only my USB (I think), but my IRQ collision problem.
  

  VIA PCI IRQ Miniport Driver is to be installed under Windows 98 only, it willfixed PCI IRQ routing sequence.

• Ever since the first S&L Surge failed LAN party, I lost my net protocols cause of network installions 😕 . So, I got my Windows 98 CD back from Snake, and reinstalled them. Now I can connect automatically to the net again.
• I e-mailed my uncle Bruce about the upcoming S&L Computers company. By December, we should definitely have this up & running. If u have an old computer, or not one @ all, ask us to sell u one: less travel distance, tweaked to ur liking, total installation, extra options (like painting).
• What else… um, I got those MODs Snake was talkin bout… all the MODs on the newest 3 Top10s are great. And… my computer is still quite hot (88° avg.), so I will probably change my CPU-HS contact from tape to paste. I will Overclock my GeForce once it’s cooler.
• Life is good… is it for u?

Ok, I spent some time today to upload the csv1113.exe upgrade patch for the mod version (non-retail). It’s about 33MBs and you can get it here: csv1113.exe.

I know that it’s been long enough that the major servers have sped up some, but this has no wait time whatsoever and you don’t have to worry about slow DL speed at all.

I got this official fully awesome rom yesterday for SNES called Front Mission. It’s kinda like Mech Commander, I guess. You command a group of mercenary mechs that run around an island blasting all the baddies away. You’re group is usualy outnumbered but with higher levels and bigger weapons. I must have played it for 4 hours today until I got my ass owned when they had all those eggrets. Luckily, SNES9X has freeze frames. Anyways, pick it up from Quality Roms.

My GF2 Ultra auction finally ending. A dutch for 8 Inno3D cards and only 2 bids for $169.50. I think it’s a pretty good price considering most online retailers are selling VisionTek GF2 Ultras for around $200. Like I said before, stay turned for the gHEttO with that.

I thought there was something else…but only that I reviewed As the Trees and Winds.

This ain’t no friggin’ GeoCities page, so in order to have a guestbook, I’d have to install and set it up manually. If you wanna drop us a line, just use the forum for now. You see the link that says “Comment” right up there? That’s to get to the forum. Whatever…

All you MOD fans, don’t forget about the Top 10 Mod Archive Additions (like I did for a few months). Warhawk is keeping it very up-to-date, so there have been additions almost every month. I’d like to suggest astrees.xm, fjellman-fwinds.xm, and gh-tst.xm. There’s probably a lot more that are great, but I just picked through the ambient ones yesterday.

That bitch, Quelog, has two weeks off next week. So, maybe…just maybe, if we all cross our fingers, he’ll finish a Column. 😉 Now that I think about it, Que’s probably wrote more on the news than in any current Columns. School’s being the usual pain in the ass, so I’m lucky if I have time to frag nowadays. 😡

I’ll be getting a GF2 Ultra soon, aswell as a bitchload (you can also use fuckload, shitload, buttload, etc.) of cooling supplies (Arctic Silver II, 40mm Sunon, grills, etc.) from 2CoolTek. There WILL be some ghetto to follow…like a “Dedicated Geforce2 Vent”. I just realized that they did something similar at Icrontic a while back with cardboard; that’s generally what I’m gonna be doing. 8)

And….yeh, that’s it for now.

Loogie and I were totally amazed by a recent (6 days old) video and article at Tom’s Hardware. I never realized what would happen if somehow the heatsink fell off of the processor. It’s a rather likely chance that a heatsink could come off of the processor, given that some HSFs are very heavy and are dealing with the forces of gravity; yet, the effects are devistating for AMD processors. Read the article here and then make sure you pick up the video.

The video was what really blew me away. The Pentium 4 actually slowed down to compensate for the added heat and as soon as the HSF was placed (not even attached, just placed) back on the P4, Quake3 returned to a decent frame-rate. You AMD Socket A people better make sure that your HSFs are attached well. If it falls off or isn’t making contact, it won’t necessarily detach the fan power and the Fan-Off Control won’t catch the error, then. 8)

Here’s a couple screens from the video which is very well done and of high quality: