I’ve now got EVE Online working under that older desktop.  A couple of tweaks, and it’s smooth like butter.  Uh, except for sound.  That’s still in the works.

Capsuleer’s Log

Warping through twelve jump gates to get across Metropolis.  I’m seriously hoping that the training agents on this side of space – even though they’re also Pator Tech School – don’t hate me for my long lapses between missions in Embod IV.

Huh.  So Todifrauan VII, the system that houses another Pator Tech School station, is low-security.  How sweet is that.  While I’m biting my nails about my ship getting blown to bits, I’m still distracted by the variances in jump gate construction.  All seem to act the same – swallow the ship in a wormhole, shoot it across space, leaving a trail of light as wake – but there are fundamental differences in construction.

I’ve arrived at Pator Tech School in the far-off Todifrauan system.  I cross my fingers and bring up the station’s agent manifest.  Level 1 Agent is available to me.  Level 2 Agent is not available to me (expected).  Lo and behold, there is a Training Agent under Agents of Interest!  Excellent!  Wait, that name looks familiar.  Embod IV?  *Jaw Drop*  Will he talk to me?

*Shifty Eyes*

He will!  Here we go again, warping across fourteen gates back to Embod IV’s Pator Tech School station.  I’m pretty sure that this guy trains in combat.  At this pint, I’ll take what I can get.

So Nikki’s laptop is dead until we can get it serviced.  This will involve dealing with big box stores and “certified” repair centers, and shipping it across country.  The idea of this does not wow me.  So, in the meantime, she’s using my laptop, and I have thrown together a desktop system or two.

A little while back, I received a Dell and a Compaq desktop from my good friends George and Trase.  The machines were given with the intention that they go to use for something that wasn’t sitting in their garage collecting dust.  Into my SETI@Retirement Home project they went.  As they’re Pentium 4 boxen with a decent amount of RAM, I pulled them out and re-worked them.

The Dell takes a particular kind of RAM which is far too expensive to upgrade, so it ended up with Edubuntu, and is pending a setup in Hunter’s room.  The Compaq took normal RAM for its type of motherboard, and I had a gig lying around, so I upgraded it from 2x256mb to 2x512mb, and added a 256mb Nvidia AGP video card.  Ubuntu seems to like the card just fine, and in between job hunting and chores around the house, I’m updating the kernel so that EVE Online will do something other than freeze and stutter under Wine.

I did miss the feel of my first-generation Microsoft ergonomic keyboard.

Brought some delicious Traverse City cherry coffee to work today. Got it at Horrocks, ground it in Nikki’s white elephant gift from the Cramptons (which ended up being mine, because she spoils me something fierce), brewed it in my coffee maker, and brought it to work in my white elephant gift from the Cramptons. Did I mention that it’s damn tasty?

I spent most of the Micro Center gift card that I got from my parents. Let’s see if I can tick off the ways in which I spoiled myself:

• EVE Online
• Logitech ClearChat Premium PC headset
• 3-pack of compressed air cans
• USB Jump Drive wallet

Still have a bit left on the card, for future miscellaneous geekery.

Horoscope for 23 Dec 2009:
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to astronomer Mark Whittle, the Big Bang began in silence. Soon it crescendoed into a majestic major third chord 50 octaves below middle A. Then it transformed, over the course of a million years, into a wistful minor third chord. In my vision of the first two-thirds of 2010, the music of your life will have a similar pattern: It begins with silence. Next, it progresses into a lush major feel, with spirited and complex contrapuntal themes. Then in June, it evolves into a dreamy, contemplative phase. By late September, however — unlike the Big Bang — you will move into a third act, in which the music of your life returns to the lively mood it had at the start, only now with the gravitas that the reflective phase has instilled.

Horoscope for 30 Dec 2009:
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): My Taurus friend Jill had a dream in which she stopped by a blackberry bush on a summer afternoon. All the ripe blackberries were too high on the bush, just out of reach. She stood there gazing longingly up at them for a long time. Finally three people in medieval garb came by, as if having stepped out of a deck of Tarot cards — a warrior, magician, and priestess. “I really want those blackberries,” she said to them. “Could you give me a boost?” They stooped down to make their backs available. She climbed up, but still couldn’t reach the berries. “Oh well, we tried,” she said. “Follow us,” said the priestess, and she did. After a while they came to another bush whose blackberries were lower and easy to pluck. Then the four shared the feast. After analyzing the omens for 2010, Taurus, I’ve come to the conclusion that Jill’s dream is an apt metaphor for your best possible destiny in 2010.