T. Joseph CARTER wrote:
Corporate ownership and an army of trolls happened, I think. I still
occasionally hear about people blathering about having a five digit
slashdot ID. I don't get the big deal.
Geez, you mean the fact that I have a slashdot id that's less than
50,000 is a big deal? I've been missing out...
I also have three ICQ numbers that have just a few digits in them, but
what's a number... :)
So do I. I just prefer not to do so for every little thing that comes
along. When there's an upgrade, I could see it. When you're setting up a
new system, I could see it. But when you get home with a new camera? I
can't see that.
That's why I'm glad most cameras use standard USB drive interfaces..
But I get your point.
That's silly in cars too.
Being a car person, I disagree. Everyone needs a hobby or two. I have
too many of them, and many I don't do for years at a time...
I think moding anything is a good passtime and potentially has a lot of
educational value as well.
Besides, it's not the same as rebuilding a car
for performance or anything like that. Consider, there are two kinds of
case mods out there.
Much of what the government will allow you to do to your car is in the
area of visual appeal. When I started working on cars (makes me sound so
old..) there really wasn't any rules... If you wanted to slap that huge
four barrel carb on your pinto, no one would stop you... It was up to
you to get the thing to run afterwards... Pouring gas out the tailpipe
unburned, but it could run...
Now, you can do a lot in the visual department (paint, stripes, tint,
lights, etc) but a lot of the mechanicals are off limits. Especially if
you live in the Portland Metro or Medford area where you have to meet
emission standards to get your tags. It's coming to Eugene, slowly. So
people do what they can. Some of the stuff out there really looks good.
It's the same with cases. Why have a boring beige case when you can have
one with lights and windows and fans with lights and lights that blink
to music...
YOU may not be interested, but some people are. Just because you don't
care to participate does not make it silly. It's just not your thing.
There are LOTS of things I don't care to do but others do. Does that
make it silly? No. It just means we're all different and we should all
enjoy what we enjoy, and let others enjoy what they enjoy.
The former set of hacks usually involve precision and creativity. The
latter set, while perhaps novel some years ago, does have an amatuer feel
to it. And watching the average casemodder go nuts over this kind of mod
has the same feel as watching adults get excited about using clothespins
to hold playing cards in the spokes of a bicycle because it makes it makes
the bike sound more like a motorcycle. At nine, that's kind of cute. At
nineteen, I'd wonder what's wrong with them. =)
Gotta start somewhere. If I were to start moding a case, I'd probably
get one that I didn't care about and get my dremel out...
As it is, I tend to be kinda boring with my case. It's aluminum, but
it's beige. I've thought about getting a new case... but then I think it
would be pretty cool to just get three rack mount chassis and put my two
servers and my desktop machine in my rack, and just use my laptop as a
console for them. No desk at all.
That said, I have been known to drill out the stock sheet metal fan
grilles in PC cases, replace them with wire guards, and added internal
cable management. I do this kind of case mod to ensure better cooling
performance, not to improve the appearance of my system. (Who'd notice
anyway? My entire work area looked like a machine room..)
And that brings back the geek thoughts. Many of my friends walk into my
living room and comment on the fact that I have my servers in a telco
rack in the corner of the living room. All the networking and phone
throughout the house also runs through that rack. So there's some
comments about how much of a geek I am, but it's all in fun and they
still like me, I still like them, and if they have a computer issue,
they are likely to call me to see if I have any insight. Life is good.
Believe me that I'd have one if I could drive it. Busses are fine in
Eugene during the day, but forget it after 7pm.
Yeah, it's better here in Portland, but having a car while living in
Beaverton and working in Portland has it's advantages.
Nobody has shown me any study that doesn't say, "A diet exclusively of
aspartame..."
I've also read studies that show breathing to lead to death.
Life and death happen. You make choices.
I could produce some in response to your first statement here, however
your second demonstrates the value you would assign to any such study, so
it's not really worth digging up.
Yeah, I generally take any of them with a large grain of salt. Think
bonneville salt flats.
Eventually, we all die. We make choices based on what we've been exposed
to. I've heard of the dangers of aspertame. I've witnessed the dangers
of smoking. I don't smoke. I do, however, drink diet Coke. Will it kill
me? Don't know. I know I discussed it with my doctor and he wasn't
concerned that it was diet coke. He was concerned that it was a
carbonated beverage.
Plain water is better for you. That's probably why we'll pay more for a
bottle of water than we do for soda or a gallon of gas.
Which do you think costs more to make?
Russ
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