Battleangel

Some days things are slow. And stuff never turn out the way you’d like them to. I should have it up and running by the end of the week .. but then again I said that last week. Who knows.

The case proved to be more work than I anticipated. What a shock *irony*. More of everything. My bad design ideas that wouldn’t come together. More polishing the scratches (aluminium). I really hate aluminium btw. It’s awkward to work with. It’s like building a case out of ginger bread. While it is soft, it doesn’t resond well to any of the techniques I’ve used. No wonder no one wants to even touch that material professionally. I’m just glad I didn’t try to weld it as well.
The top hatch is awkward. With time I must find a better solution to secure this part. But I think the exterior is acceptable .. so .. the inside will have to look a little “ghetto” for the time being.

And then there are internal components. I CAN use the setup once I receive the slot-in dvd but I’m not expecting wonders exactly. I need a new mb/cpu combo for sure. And this pisses me off slightly. Not only because it is an extra expense but also because of the nature of the setup. When I looked around for suitable components it soon became obvious that Celeron II was the way to go. They have a lower power consumption compared to the Duron CPU and thus less and quiter cooling can be used. Now for the quirk .. of course .. would be choosing a mainboard. Here we go again .. and I had ruled out FCPGA2 completely and thus given it no attention. Never skip your homework, eh.

As for external components there is only the matter of a controller .. or remote. I once had my eyes fixed on one of the wireless IR keyboards. No more. After my past run-ins with IR I am a bit hesitant as you can imagine. Maybe if I could try before I buy or have a refund option .. but I dare say IR is not for me. And as for RF keyboards there are very few contenders, even worldwide.
I’m thinking of getting the ATi Remote Wonder as a beginning. It’s cheap and proven. And since I last wrote of it, plug-in creators have broadened the uses for it tremendously. And yes, it uses RF so no more “sniping”.