02-17-2003: Yes, I've been very bad at updating the site in the past week or two. I know this. I'm working very hard on developing a NeverWinter Nights module of my own, as well as some new antispam research stuff.

So, bear with me. I'll update Stinkweasel when I can. But right now, I have a few other projects that have my attention.

02-09-2004: My gaming machine is possessed, I swear to god.

I've had nothing but bad luck with the gaming machine I built at the end of last year. I'm not quite sure why - I bought good hardware, and I'm not a total slouch at building machines... But this one, this one has really given me a run for the money.

It's an AMD Athlon XP 2800, with 1G of DDR RAM, 1x36G and 1x73G U160 SCSI drives, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card, and a Soundblaster Live sound card. Certainly not the top of the line components, but nothing crappy either.

The problems started in November - things were a little wonky - it would become a bit unstable when under load (like playing NeverWinter Nights). I found out that the CPU fan had gone tits-up, so I bought a new one. Yay, problem solved. Until recently, mind you - NWN started getting weird on me again, so I checked the CPU fan. It was fine. I checked the machine's health in the BIOS - holy SHIT, that CPU is running at 95 degrees Celsius (normal is 40-60)! Not good not good not good!

It appears that the CPU cooler (one of those cheap-ass folded aluminum models) that came with the Athlon just doesn't appear to cut it. So, I bought a new one, a much nicer model, with a more powerful fan. Yay me!

Until I try to mount it. It's big, but that's OK... Just have to wrestle it into place, and attach the clips, and ... Oh crap, what was that snapping sound? Oh crap, it just snapped a capacitor off the motherboard! Sonovabitch!

So, I just hosed the three-month-old motherboard in this beast. Like I told a friend of mine, I think the silicon in this system was mined from an ancient indian burial ground. And now they're pissed. It's just plain cursed. And the problem is, I don't know WHICH part of the system is cursed (although the CPU/mobo combination sounds pretty likely to me right about now), so I can' just toss the entire thing. Not to mention, it cost some $$$ to get the friggin' thing put together, so I'm not just going to throw that away.

Sigh.

02-06-2004: Contributing editor Mr. M is attending a family member's funeral today.

The staff at Stinkweasel would like to offer their thoughts and condolences to Mr. M and his family.

02-01-2004: It's Super Bowl Sunday!

... And we really don't care this year. The teams playing aren't near and dear to our hearts, and they're both defensive - it's probably not even going to be an exciting game.

Oh well. At least the commercials will rock, as always.