I’ve put up more photos from our summer vacation in the North of Ireland. Some are just from around Belfast; the ones from the Black Taxi tour we took are the most interesting of this newest lot.

The ones we took on 11th night in Belfast are probably the most interesting.

ASUS Rampage Formula

A highly tweakable motherboard based on the x48 chipset.

4 GB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 RAM

1066 MHz with CAS latency 5. I have not installed the included fans.

HIS Radeon 4870

Yes, yes, I know that ATI graphics cards suck. Except that this one doesn’t.

Intel Q9450

A quad-core 2.66GHz CPU.

Mist 1000w Power Supply

This is a Norwegian-made power supply. It’s gotten excellent reviews but I haven’t been able to find any information about it in English. It’s completely modular and almost completely silent.

Western Digital Raptor X

Here shown installed in the same kind of case I got. This is a 10,000 RPM 150GB SATA drive with a 16MB cache. It’s noisier than hell, but it sure looks pretty!

Clear Computer Case RaptorX

Their site is down for maintenance now, but you can still see the case on the front page.

Samsung DVD Burner

Does the job quietly.

Western Digital WD4000KD

The old 7200 RPM 400GB SATA drive that has my life on it.

3 Nexus Real Silent 120mm fans

Virtually inaudible.

The most hardcore technical bit was when I had to rewire the connector for the front USB ports.

Everything worked perfectly the first time I powered it on and has continued to work perfectly since. With the exception of the clicking of the Raptor X, it’s virtually silent. It runs a little hot, but I understand that’s typical for these motherboards. The video card runs very hot, but from the reading up I’ve done, that’s normal for these 4870’s. I have played with the fan speed a little to get the temperature stable and quiet–25% seems to be the magic number.

The only disappointment has been with the new mouse I bought—I wanted a rechargeable mouse, but it turns out that the one I bought doesn’t work with the old Intellipoint software that allows the user to change the mouse orientation. I was able to get a driver filter to reverse the y axis, but this disabled some of the mouse button functions I use the most, like middle-clicking to view the desktop. Thus I have switched back to my trusty Wireless Intellimouse Explorer with Intellipoint 4.12.

My monitor is the same HP F2304 23″ LCD I’ve been using for the past few years, although it now has to be propped up by the orb Johannes bought me for my birthday a few years back. And, of course, I continue to enjoy using my vintage Model M keyboard.

Next I will put some pretty lights in it, and then I will water-cool it.

Hmmm, can’t be good, whatever it is. These look like military ships, and the headline says something about the US. What kind of trouble is the US causing now with their military power?

Then the headline: USA truer med å sende hjem nødhjelp (”USA threatens to send home emergency aid to Burma”)

Right. Here we go again, mean ol’ USA using any means necessary to get what they want, even if it means withholding emergency supplies meant to help the Burmese after the cyclone. Are they using their military to turn back the ships other countries have sent offering aid?

It turns out that US ships with fresh water and other emergency supplies have been waiting for over two weeks in international waters to be allowed into the country.

The Burmese government has repeatedly refused to let any foreign countries help their citizens. The military junta running Burma claims that it will accept aid, so long as that aid is offered “with no strings attached”.

This is a perfect example of the (thankfully rare) kind of bias Norwegian media has against the US. Jeez, Aftenposten, we do a good enough job making ourselves seem like asses to the rest of the world; at least give us some credit when we do the right thing!

This is a really cool tool. I’ve been wondering for a while how rising sea levels might affect me here, given that I’m 20 minutes’ walk from the fjord. When will it be time for you to flee to higher ground?