Sounds Sweet

I bought a new sound card on Thursday becuase the old one stoped working after I reinstalled everything. It was a shit $20 one, so good riddens. The new one is so awesome I cant even belive I put up with the shit that I did. Presenting the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Value.

• It plays DVD-Audio (I pee'd a bit when listening to it for the first time)
• Dolby Digital EX (for DVD's)
  
• 7.1 surround sound (I only have 2 atm...)
• Digital Output (weeeeee)
  

The installation was pretty easy, just plug it in and run the software on the CD. Restart. Hey presto we have sound. its probably twice as big as the old card and doesnt have the old school game port... And it's black. The board is black, it looks pretty amazing. I would of liked to get the ZS (the next model up), but that was over my budget, but I would of got DTS, THX and gold plated connections.... Firstly I don't have and dont plan on getting THX speakers for my computer, secondy DTS may be technicly better, but I'm unlikely to hear the difference sitting next to my computer, which I like to call windy........ Gold connection would of been nice, considering I had to fork out $90 for the damn thing. It was worth it though.

The first thing I played was the DVD-Audio sample disc that came with it. The sweet awesomness that followed is hard to describe, its basicly a case of, no one can be told what it sounds like, you have to experiance for your self.... especialy since I mainly listen to mpthrees.

Over all everything sounds better, I can crank the fuck out of my speakers now and I get no distortion. Previously I thought it was the speakers topping out. But no, its the sound card was crap. Now I have no fear in turning it up. Games sound better, the "stereo" is just more distinct. Also there seem to be more notes in everything. Especialy down bellow and at the top. Espeicaly the bottom end, so many more notes. I thought the step up to a decent set of speakers made a huge difference, but now its just so much more complete. More variations....

Overall the sound card as it says, is good value. The main reason, is that you can play Dolby Digital and have a decent number of outputs for that 5.1 setup I intend on now buying. Plus you can play DVD-Audio. Not that I have any, but I'm sure in 5 years time this machine will still be going, probably as somekinda media center pc. Another thing is that there is less usage of the CPU now. Which means things are running faster because most the sound processing is done on the sound card unlike crapcard.

I dont think I will ever change from soundblasters ever again. My first sound card was a sound blaster. And for somereason I reasoned that a cheap sound card for this puter would be ok. Clearly it wasnt. But I was able to upgrade.

Blogging is hard work

I spend a bit of time on D-news, but in doing so I neglect the other sites. Which was not the purpose of spliting everything up. So tomorrow I will work on something cool for the other sites. This is espeicaly important as D-news is just recycling news already available... Again supposedly not the sold purpose of D-news, but this is what it has become.

Maybe because the camera is broken its hard to put up pictures, which for me would be 'easy' content. Something like drawing or the podcast is actually very hard.

Today the bus driver took some weird long way around the city, not sure why but he kinda overshot the turn and had to just go straight, so we ended up near central station... Its actually a nicer route in terms of better/cleaner buildings.

Hot Hot Hot

Today is nice and toasty, just the way I like it.

Had to go deliver some stuff on the northside today, which meant that we get to use the gateway bridge. Its now $2.40 each way, and somtimes you wonder if its worth it... I guess it cuts out an extra hour's worth of driving.

Anyway, I had to dodge one car which decided to stop on the side of the road. Another which was actually on the bridge, which took some manuvering considering the speed of some cars in the other 2 lanes. It was probably more becuase I didn't see it untill after the car in front of me had swearved out of the way, which was actually a really old limo with gliter and other decorative stuff glued to it, trying to entice you to vote for an Australian Idol contestant (dont know and dont care which one). And then on the way back coming into the old cleveland road exit someone decides to pull off the motorway just before the off ramp... again going at 100km/hr and having to break suddenly is NOT something you want to be doing when my mum is in the car as she screams. And for that breif moment you feel utterly depressed.

Other than that the trip was a perfect sucess.

Fridge

Fridge

Fridge

Fridge Magnet

Fridge Bucket

Fudge Bucket

Fucking Cunt Shit Fuck

Click Click Click

Correct: I am no longer 18 and I certainly don't have any bullets

But After I guess a week or so of depressing depression etc and just general moping around the house with nothing better to do, I have gone insane. I thought it would take longer, but luckily it happened sooner...

I believe it is time to eat a carrot.

Did you that rolling batteries in your hand is dangerous. I was doing this and it zapped me! I was shocked (thank me later...), not just literally but the fact that it did. I mean I wasn't touching both ends, and even if you do you don't get a shock, so I find this a bit weird. Now this has put me off handling batteries without some kinda protection. I guess rubber gloves would be a good choice, as they don't conduct electricity, but since I don't have any, I'm going to have to use garden variety (literally) leather gloves, which should also work in the same way.

Format

Its done. Something that I have waited to do for a year now. Format my Hard drive. And despite it taking 2 days (and counting...) it is/was worth it. Not only have I made the computer run smoother. I have reclaimed 25 gigs of wasted space. Thats right folks 25 big ones.

So that may not be entirely true as I still have about 6 gigs of personal files left to load back, which will put me just under 20. But that still means I have 30 gigs of free space... Which for me is amazing.

I thought it was time for a new hard drive, and still probably is, but now I can wait and save up a bit more for a bigger hard drive. However my sound card does not seem to work. So I do need to buy a new one of those ASAP! having to use my MP3 player for music isnt the best, as it sounds like crap on these speakers. It probably sounds crap on my headphones as well, but sitting on a bus you kinda dont care (it doesnt matter). This sound card only cost me $20, so I'm not exactly crying over its demise. Rather looking forward to some better sound quality. Especialy when watching DVD's, playing games and of course listening to music.

While I've been downloading drivers for various crap... I've been shopping around. Basicly I dont want to spend over $100. As the top end ones, which lots of shiney gold, THX, Firewire, Optical and DTS are in excess of $300. I have found 1 card thats in the $100 to $200, but considering its main purpose is going to be playing mp3's I doubt it will matter too much. However I dont want another crap sound card that:

1. Sounds Like crap
2. Breaks
3. Has no Drivers
4. Has no Drivers on the CD that work
5. Is so crap the Internet doesnt even have Drivers
6. [Generic Drivers for windows dont work for me for some reason]
7. Is a burden on the CPU
8. Sounds like crap

The format went relativly smoothly and from format to windows login was only 4 hours. I am not planning on Building a couple of disks with all the good stuff on them, so that I can get this kinda thing done withing a day.

Expensive Sub

On the trip to Toowomba we stoped at subway to get something to eat for bruch. Little did I know subway had increased their prices...

Consequently I have a $30 reference fee that my bank has charged me becuase of the declined transaction, as I didn't have enough money in my account to pay...

I plan on getting my money back... By sending them a strongly worded letter.

It's All Over

I have officialy had my last exam. On saturday. Financial Accounting Issues. Theres a lot to blog about so be prepared for the next 2 weeks... I feel excited to be able to finnaly wirte all of this down. Where to being no one knows... Maybe I should let the dice decide... (j/k (or did the dice tell me to lie?)) That and more...

Well firstly I feel sad. I feel sad that I will no longer be going to QUT. And only now do I realise how much of an awesome university it was. And I will miss it. Hopefully in the future I can vist it in doing my other studies. I guess when you to a place for a long period of time you get used to its surroundings. QUT is pretty easy to get used to, with the botanical gardens, south bank, goodwill bridge, city within 6 mins walk, hot women etc... Knowing people you dont know...

Most people are happy to leave. And no its not that I'm afraid to get a job, I already have a job remember, so its not like I'm adverse to working. In fact that would be great. Anyone who needs a graduate accoutant just send me an email to beancountingATgmail.com

Its a routine you get into. Catch a certain bus. Have a particular route mapped out for different times of the day so as not to get sunned on. If its raining you know where to get shelter. Where the cheapest coffee is located. Now I'm just going to be at home. Home is pretty comfy but, I prefer to be outside. Doing stuff. Being at home means you're either sick and lying in bed or are unemployed (possible a sickness as well). I've been at home for 4 days and I feel depressed. Maybe its the sadness of finishing something. I thought I would feel much happier. Considering all the sleep deprivation suffered. If I pass my subjects I guess thats when I will get closure.

Farewell