More journalism about old geek hardware
Jun. 29th, 2002 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pseydtonneIf you're a metro Boston geek and you haven't been to You-Do-It Electronics, you should check it out. You will leave feeling less geeky than usual but more in touch with the geek events of your childhood.
I was looking for silicone heat sink paste. You put a decent-sized drop on top of a CPU, then put a manifold on top of that. It fills the microscopic cracks between the metal surfaces to assist heat transfer and dissipation. I bought two 6-gram tubes for 99 cents each and wound up having plenty of the first tube left over.
On the way to finding this paste I walked through aisles of...
...just... stuff! Computer fans of all sizes and decibel ranges sat next to relay switches as big as rolls of quarters. Bin upon bin of power adapters, spools of various wires, and rows of 16-in-1 screwdrivers stood to tempt my wallet out of my pocket. Did I mention the variety of soldering irons?
The place has no windows on the first floor, where all the unassembled parts are. The lighting and the askance looks the customers give each other makes the store feel more like a porn shop. Still, there's so much for such good prices. They have the monitor A/B switch I've been seeking, and it's only $20. They had the keyboard adapter I needed and it only cost three fiddy.
Too bad they don't carry data parts. There are no hard drives, no peripherals beside one keyboard and some odd mice. They didn't even carry computer towers; if they had, I would've bought one. The Dell I found in the skip has a metal tower with few holes. It's sealed in another layer of durable plastic, even on top, making it a hothouse instead of a moore. If the front panel weren't missing, I'd actually be worried.
I got the parts home and set it up. While I was goo-ing and unscrewing, I thought up a concept for a cartoon series. It would be about a small city with a city manager (an unelected official that handles daily civic coordination like a CEO; Cincinnati has one, for example). The manager is hired by the town because he'd had a reputation for fixing foundering corporations. When he starts the job, he'd told there is a lot of high-level "ego crime" that he's been brought in to handle. Then he finds out...
...the egos are maniacal villains of the superhero ilk. The previous manager leaves him a rolodex of superheroes (ranked by ability) and an assistant that used to be a superhero's sidekick before he got engaged (his superhero turns out to be a jilted lover).
The specific episode that started this thinking was more the lull between civic sabotages. The manager is freaking out anyway. "Why can't this town have normal problems? There aren't any crack dealers, meth labs, bored rich kids shoplifting from Bloomie's. Instead some whack job hijacks the power plant for a big ransom. What am I supposed to tell him?"
Manager: "Wait, there's nothing wrong today?"
Asst: "No, sir. All is well."
M: "It's not possible. Crescent Flats?"
A: "Quiet. Hookers going to church, the works."
M: "What about twisters in the trailer parks?"
A: "Nope."
M: "Buses blown up?"
A: "Not today. The only thing of interest is a school board meeting to discuss rebuilding East Middle School. Speaking of which, the guy that fired the cruise missile at the school? His first check for damages just cleared."
M: "They have all that money but they want more. Maybe I should have a Dastardly Schemer Property Tax."
A: "The last manager tried that. Someone blew up his car."
The computer booted up fine, by the way. I installed a small hard drive to test it out. It found all the goods. Nothing has fried so far. I'm gung ho to install a real drive, pop in Linux, buy a better case and try to overclock it. If it fries, no big loss.
Now my only worry is that all of my adrenalin is coming from the hard labor. Once it works, I want to take a nap. I feel like a gambler.
-looking for the next fix, Ps/d
I was looking for silicone heat sink paste. You put a decent-sized drop on top of a CPU, then put a manifold on top of that. It fills the microscopic cracks between the metal surfaces to assist heat transfer and dissipation. I bought two 6-gram tubes for 99 cents each and wound up having plenty of the first tube left over.
On the way to finding this paste I walked through aisles of...
...just... stuff! Computer fans of all sizes and decibel ranges sat next to relay switches as big as rolls of quarters. Bin upon bin of power adapters, spools of various wires, and rows of 16-in-1 screwdrivers stood to tempt my wallet out of my pocket. Did I mention the variety of soldering irons?
The place has no windows on the first floor, where all the unassembled parts are. The lighting and the askance looks the customers give each other makes the store feel more like a porn shop. Still, there's so much for such good prices. They have the monitor A/B switch I've been seeking, and it's only $20. They had the keyboard adapter I needed and it only cost three fiddy.
Too bad they don't carry data parts. There are no hard drives, no peripherals beside one keyboard and some odd mice. They didn't even carry computer towers; if they had, I would've bought one. The Dell I found in the skip has a metal tower with few holes. It's sealed in another layer of durable plastic, even on top, making it a hothouse instead of a moore. If the front panel weren't missing, I'd actually be worried.
I got the parts home and set it up. While I was goo-ing and unscrewing, I thought up a concept for a cartoon series. It would be about a small city with a city manager (an unelected official that handles daily civic coordination like a CEO; Cincinnati has one, for example). The manager is hired by the town because he'd had a reputation for fixing foundering corporations. When he starts the job, he'd told there is a lot of high-level "ego crime" that he's been brought in to handle. Then he finds out...
...the egos are maniacal villains of the superhero ilk. The previous manager leaves him a rolodex of superheroes (ranked by ability) and an assistant that used to be a superhero's sidekick before he got engaged (his superhero turns out to be a jilted lover).
The specific episode that started this thinking was more the lull between civic sabotages. The manager is freaking out anyway. "Why can't this town have normal problems? There aren't any crack dealers, meth labs, bored rich kids shoplifting from Bloomie's. Instead some whack job hijacks the power plant for a big ransom. What am I supposed to tell him?"
Manager: "Wait, there's nothing wrong today?"
Asst: "No, sir. All is well."
M: "It's not possible. Crescent Flats?"
A: "Quiet. Hookers going to church, the works."
M: "What about twisters in the trailer parks?"
A: "Nope."
M: "Buses blown up?"
A: "Not today. The only thing of interest is a school board meeting to discuss rebuilding East Middle School. Speaking of which, the guy that fired the cruise missile at the school? His first check for damages just cleared."
M: "They have all that money but they want more. Maybe I should have a Dastardly Schemer Property Tax."
A: "The last manager tried that. Someone blew up his car."
The computer booted up fine, by the way. I installed a small hard drive to test it out. It found all the goods. Nothing has fried so far. I'm gung ho to install a real drive, pop in Linux, buy a better case and try to overclock it. If it fries, no big loss.
Now my only worry is that all of my adrenalin is coming from the hard labor. Once it works, I want to take a nap. I feel like a gambler.
-looking for the next fix, Ps/d
