Polychromic's Workshop

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I guess you'd probably like to know just who I am. I'm a die-hard computer geek. I spend most of my time attached to my computers. I surf the net nightly to stay current on developing technology and techniques. During my free time I play computer games like Ultima, Thief, Gothic, and Oblivion.

Haxalibur, my main PC, is currently a alien green Chieftec DX-01GND case filled with a MSI P6N SLI Platinum motherboard upon which is mounted an Intel P4 Core Duo 2 E6600 processor, four pieces of Mushkin 1024MB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM, a Creative Labs Audigy2 sound card, a MSI NX8600GTS video card, an on-board Realtek RTL8211BL Gigabit NIC, a Toshiba SH-S182D DVD±ROM, 320GB, 250GB and 160GB hard drives from Western Digital and Seagate. All this is powered by a 550W Fortron power supply. My main monitor is a Samsung 225BW 22" LCD flatscreen model. Currently, I'm running Windows XP Pro and Vista Business Edition on Haxalibur. Haxalibur is protected with an APC BackUPS RS 1500VA battery backup.

My secondary PC, Scratch, is currently an Antec Solution SLK1650B case, with an Antec Tru-Power 450W power supply, housing an Asus P4P800 motherboard with an Intel P4 2.60GHz CPU and four pieces of Crucial 512MB PC3200 DDR RAM. Cards in the case include a XFX GeForce FX 5600 video card, a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! sound card and a Compaq NC3122 dual-head 10/100 NIC to hook up my home network. I've got a 40GB Western Digital IDE harddrive and a Toshiba SD-M1212 DVD-ROM installed in it. Scratch is my internet gateway and firewall, but it also runs various P2P applications such as Azureus and eMule. Currently, Scratch is running on Windows Server 2003. Scratch is protected with an APC BackUPS 450 using the APC Powerchute software.

My third PC, Server, (what an inventive name!) is my Windows Home Server. Built into an Enlight 7237 case is an Asus P3V4X motherboard with an Intel P3 600e at 800MHz and 640MB of Crucial PC133 RAM. The only cards in the case are an old ATI 3D Rage IIC video card and a 3Com 3C905C-TX NIC. Right now there are only three 80GB Western Digital hard drives and a Toshiba SD-M1212 DVD drive in it. This is powered by a nice 450W Enermax power supply.

My fourth PC, Omega, is used to test all sorts of different hardware and software so it's configuration is constantly being changed. Right now it consists of an old Dell branded Palo Alto case with a good old reliable Abit BH6 motherboard with an original Intel Celeron 300a processor. It has 384MB of PC100 SDRAM. Inside it I've got a Leadtek WinFast GeForce 5900 video card, a Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE32 (ISA) sound card and a Linksys 100TX 10/100 network card. IIRC, it has a 20GB Western Digital harddrive, two 13GB Fujitsu harddrives, a small 6GB Hitachi 2.5" drive on an adapter, a NEC ND-2510A DVD±ROM and a "so fast it needed a warning sticker" Sony 52x CD-ROM installed in it at the moment. Omega is running either the default installation of Windows XP Pro, a super minimal installation of XP Pro, or a custom tweaked version of XP Pro. I tend to use Ghost 8.3 (the real one descended from the original by Binary Research) to restore it after testing software.

By nature I'm a tinker. For as long as I can remember, folks have brought broken items to me so I could fix them. I'm always taking things apart but fortunately I can almost always re-assemble them. I also like working around the house and on the Millennium Sparrow, my 1970 VW bug. I've mastered the art of pulling air-cooled VW engines, tiling bathrooms, laying linoleum floor tiles, repairing plumbing, building bookcases, and many other assorted home-improvement tasks. I'm not sure if it's a vice or a virtue but I'm really stubborn especially when I'm trying to repair something and it won't cooperate. In that kind of situation I usually start looking like this until I can come up with a better idea or the right tool for the job : )

The first computer I ever owned was a Timex Sinclair ZX-81 that I built from a kit which cost me $99. It was a fun exercise in hardware futility. Slowly I managed to work my way up to my present self-made PC. Along the way I've owned a Commodore 64, a Commodore 128 (eventually outfitted with 1 MB of RAM), a non-functioning Amiga 1000, an Atari 800, a Packard Bell 486sx25, a Dell Dimension P133 and a Zeos PC. Now I just build my own systems from individual components.

Besides drooling over the latest computer games, my hobbies are many and varied. I used to ride my Miyata 710 road-racing bicycle several hundred miles each week. I also like fishing. I have quite a lot of fishing tackle. Unfortunately, most of the places around here seem to be rather depleted of fish these days. I love camping. I used to like making all kinds of models. Plastic tanks, balsa airplanes and model rockets were my favorites. More recently, I've been painting lead miniatures. I love pen and paper role-playing games, especially when I'm the gamemaster. The system I use is a mixture of my own devious ideas, Warhammer, Harn, Dangerous Journeys, Earthdawn, Rolemaster, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I collect science fiction and fantasy books and videos. Lastly, I collect hand tools, flashlights, pocket knives and watches.