brendoman's bits

Knapsack

My friend David wrote this sweet web-based RSS Aggregator. Check it out here. You supply it with RSS Feeds from websites (like this one) and it gives you the headlines of the last 10 entries. You then click on the headlines you want to read and it displays the entry. This makes for fast, easy reading of blogs and other sites all in one place. I have never seen a web-based aggregator before, so this is pretty darn sweet. I have a couple RSS aggregator on my own PC that I use (NewzCrawler is my favorite), but I think I'm definitely going to start using this one.

My Dream Machine

So I talked about the case/mobo I want in this post. Now I'm going to run down all the components I want complete with prices to get an idea of how much this is going to cost. I'll surf on over to Pricewatch to see what we can find.

ICE-Cube Bare Bones system case with MoBo and Power Supply: $202.40

P4 2.6 Ghz Processor: $186.29

PC2700 512MB DDR RAM: $63.00

40 GB EIDE Hard Drive: $53.74

Soundblaster Audigy Gamer Sound Card: $87.00

GeForce4 TI 4200 128MB DDR Video Card: $103

I already have a good monitor and DVD Drive, so let's see what the price is with this. Total: $695.43

Wow! That's cheap. I could probably boost the RAM and Hard Drive space a bit, maybe even go for a 3.0 Ghz processor. Let's add a new monitor and an optical drive into the mix first.

Phillips DVD CDRW Combo: $48

KDS 19in CRT Monitor: $148

Grand Total (with shipping): $891.43

Yeah, I definitely think I'm going to do this pretty soon. It's the perfect LAN party machine and a gaming powerhouse.

New Computer Possibilities

I'm thinking of purchasing a new computer in the fall. I want to be able to play Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, and unless I get a new motherboard, RAM, processor, and video card, I can't play them on my current machine. Buying a new machine would probably be cheaper than upgrading everything. I'm really looking into buying this case. It's really small and perfect for LAN parties. Check it out:

If I went with this, I would probably end up paying around $1200 for the system since I already have a DVD drive and a good monitor. I'm also thinking about going in a totally different direction. I would really like a laptop with integrated wireless for use at school. I'd also like an I-Pod. I found a pretty sweet deal on an I-Book/I-Pod package. It would be my first Mac ever. I'm a little more hesitant about this option, but it would be pretty cool.

I'm currently watching Cannibal! The Musical. It's pretty stinking funny. Not much else going on. I'm going to test out TypePad's Photo Album feature.