First Home-Built Computer!

My Productivity Central

Overview:

This post is mainly designed to encourage those who might be looking to build a fairly high end computer, but have never done it themselves.  I believe that buying a computer these days is one of the best ways you can invest in yourself and buy a real asset (Thanks Guy Kawasaki: Rich Dad, Poor Dad).  For those of you who hesitate, it’s not TOO difficult to build your own computer, although troubleshooting can be a pain if something goes wrong and you do need to invest some time to ensure you buy compatible hardware that meets your needs.  I survived a hard drive that was dead on arrival (Seagate ST 3640323AS) and burning multiple bad copies of an OS image.  To get you jump started on a system, take a look below.  Note the basic components you need and your approximate budget, then get to it!  Enough said.

The System:

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

RAM: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive

CD/DVD Drive: Sony Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Professional 64-bit; it’s fine if you have enough RAM!  Thanks to Microsoft MSDNAA for UF Engineers!

The Extras:

EDIMAX EW-7728In 32bit PCI Wireless 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Card

LINKSKEY LKA-CR15B 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Black Card Reader/Writer

IOGEAR PCI to 5 Ports USB2.0 Card

You might notice that’s a total of 14 USB ports.  Look for a serious webcam system coming soon!  Does this officially make me a nerd/geek?  I’m not sure; but I do know I’m enjoying the process of learning how to do new things (like scraping the internet for real-time stock quotes with Python: TRY IT! CODE HERE)!  I’m convinced knowing how to operate computers/the web/large data sets to find trends and make decisions is going to be a major theme of the rest of my life.  This new computer is the vehicle that is going to take me there.

Thanks to my dad for loaning me a few parts after he redid his office recently (a free monitor, keyboard, mouse and case helps)!

The Meaning of Life?

Responses 1, 2, 3: Which Will You Choose?

In lieu of my second life birth as Alyosha Runner, a first bloody nose while playing ultimate frisbee, and finishing up my master’s thesis, I’ve been contemplating the meaning of life.  I doubt that I could have actually found THE meaning, but here’s an option.  You will certainly understand a LOT about me if you understand this:

Not-secret Formula to Living Life:
(notes (or disclaimers?): S/P=situation/problem, no complete solution is possible, suffering will almost surely be involved)
1. Search to find complex and worthwhile S/P (finding a complex one is easy, worthwhile is much more difficult-God, Others and Bayesian Statistics are recommended).
2. Search to find prior information about S/P (vocab, math, previous work).
3. Find others interested in understanding S/P; form a team if possible.
4. Get access to or develop sensing and analysis techniques to get basic facts about S/P.
5. Learn by exploring S/P (Use a basic (almost real-life, may be computational) or complex (real-life) example).
6. Learn by recognizing patterns in S/P as it occurs in real life.
7. Synthesize all analysis techniques into design methodology which accounts for uncertainty.
8. Design.
9. Produce design (ie: Live!).
10. Automate entire process and redo.
11. Share entire process with others (preferably done concurrently).
12. Repeat for new S/P
The point emerges:
The meaning of life=Shared Iterative Exploration.

A Note for Those in Other Fields or Potential Engineers:
I’m an engineer and likely to remain one, but there’s no need to be an engineer to live by this process. The job of an engineer just lets one do this for their livelihood with others who desire to also!

A Resultant Note for Managers:
Pigeonholes will be systematically and categorically rejected.  Try as you might, I will not become a stick-brain to simply create cogs.  Nor will I treat others as if they are simple parts of a machine except when my self-centeredness prevails.  I often do not go through this process systematically due to the fact that I am human.  Spontaneity is required to catch wind gusts. This is one reason why step 10 is so necessary.

Is running away really necessary?

A Note to Hedonists, Realists and Skeptics:
Insightful readers might note a similarity to the conclusion of “Into the Wild” (happiness is only real when shared).  I make no claims about happiness or reality being involved; some have said that death and taxes are the only guarantees and, for me, they are probably right; we’ll see for any children I have.  I do have a sneaking suspicion that Solomon was right in Ecclesiastes: the meaning is not given by the resulting product.  None-the-less, please refuse to give up you hopes and dreams; on the contrary, enlarge them and share them!

A Note to You
I stand on many the shoulders of many others and hope to let others stand on mine.  I urge you readers to consider who you’re sharing life with and if you’re using your freedom to explore.  If you aren’t, I might argue you’re dead already. Go live; you can do it!