There are going to be some power outages over the next couple of weeks, and when this happens it could damage the PC or the Network Area Storage. So I have gotten a few APC UPSs to safeguard my equipment. They have a good selection of Home & Small Office products which can give you enough time to shutdown your equipment, and you can remain operational for a bit if you need to.

What I got:

• APC Back-UPS ES 550VA 230V
  • Price: 30 kD
  • Quantity 4
• APC BACK-UPS RS 1500VA 230V
  • Price: 100 KD
  • Quantity 1

I wanted the APC Back-UPS ES700VA since it could last quite a bit longer and had 8 sockets instead of 5, but I had to go with what was in stock. I have already installed the first UPS but it will take about 8 hours to charge up before use and then I connect a lot my equipment to it.

As I was walking through the co-op the other day I decided to check out when chips they might have, and then I came by the Lays Salt & Vinegar I couldn’t help pick up a few since I really like Salt & Vinegar Chips.

I’m one of those people that really like Salt & Vinegar Chips, I really can’t get enough of them if they are in front of me. I don’t really crave them but if they are in front of me I will have a good share of them. Its funny people either love the taste or hates it, nobody is indifferent of the taste of salt and vinegar chips.

This program is from the creators of Stardock which allowed widgets and gadgets to be placed on the desktop. Changing the bland theme of Windows into a Dynamic Interactive theme called Stardock and you have many custom made themes to choose from. I tried Stardock a few years back and it was fun for a little while but it was heavy on the system so I took it off.

Objectdock is also a creative addition from Stardock but they have learned to make it a light application. Objectdock mimics the action of Apple’s OS X scrolling program bar. You can launch programs from there and minimize your programs to the bottom as well as control which programs would be on the list. Its a really nice addition and I know many will say you might as well get an Apple, but this is a very nice addition to Windows Vista. You can download thousads of icons for the dock to change the look as well as have custom icons for certain programs. There are two versions one is for free and the other is for $20, I haven’t tried the pay version but I’m finding the free version to be entertaining and satisfy my needs. Overall I think its a great addition and it takes up very little pc resources to use.

The Plus (pay) version has some extra functionality as multiple docks, as well as complete customization of the dock. You can also tab the programs on the dock itself which is very useful, and you can customize the behavior of a dock to specific dock so two docks could behave differently.

Link: ObjectDock

Since the summer came in it has been relatively hot that there is no reason to keep the boiler on. If I put the water on cool water it is cool for about 30 seconds and then it turns into hot water and always the same temperature. The switched off boiler has now become the cool water source, I just choose hot water from the tap or shower and it is really cool/cold water which is nice after a hot day outside.

I have been storing up on lots of different animes and I have had a good selection to choose from. Recently I have started watching multiple different animes and all of them turned out to be really good so whenever I get a good nights sleep the night before I end up staying up late watching a good amount of anime. I really do enjoy that I am getting a good dose but this is just messing up my sleeping patterns but I am enjoying it!

The Perpetrators:

• Naruto Shippuuden
• Kiba
• Claymore
• Death Note

I have recently changed my tires from the Bridgestone Dueler H/T to the Toyo A/T Open Country. I drive a lot on-road and off-road in different locations and in different situations. I judge tires based braking, cornering, sound, and overall traction. The Bridgestone Dueler H/T were horrible tires, and they are horrible at braking so I would avoid them and if you have them I would change them right away.

The Toyo tires are really good for being more off-road oriented then most tires, but since they are All-Terrains they do a good job in different situations. In braking the tires are much better then the Bridgestones and in cornering I feel more comfortable with these tires. Overall I am very happy with these tires, and the only tires which I think would be better are the BF Goodrich All Terrains.

I have received my revamped PC, and it is operating like a breeze, now I’m just installing the software that I want to make it completely functional. Its all going pretty smoothly and I still have all the data & media from my previous PC so I’m enjoying jump starting everything right away.

Programs:

• Adobe Reader
  • To read pdfs
• Adobe Shockwave
  • To see flash files
• Azureus
  • For my torrent files
• ClockX
  • My Clock in the corner and to wake up in the morning
• ConvertxDVD
  • To burn High Quality DVDs from all the different formats of media from my torrents
• Hamachi
  • For my Remote Desktop needs.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Full
  • To play every type of media files, there isn’t anything it doesn’t play
• Microsoft Office
  • Some sort of Productivity
• Mozilla FireFox
  • For Browsing
• NOD32
  • Virus protection and not putting a burden on my system
• Paint.NET
  • A light version of Photoshop
• Picasa 2
  • Organizing all my photos
• RevoUninstaller
  • A real uninstaller and doesn’t leave a trace of the program on your PC, and it can even hunt it down which is a great feature.
• Royale Noir
  • A Black theme for Windows XP
• Winamp
  • Playing all types of audio files
• WinRar
  • Unzipping and Zipping all types compression files

This has been an interesting weekend with things just happening as I go along. I was planning anything too much since I was really tired.

The unexpected thing was at work when a large trailer came into work and the trailer was 14 m long filled with pallets of items for work and they were stuck for over two hours since they couldn’t move some equipment out of the way to maneuver the truck. So we had to unload the truck in the open area and we had some help from the forklifts to bring the pallets to our storage but the hard part was moving the pallets inside the truck trailer. It took use 45 minutes but I was coordinating the people with another coworker and I was also inside the trailer moving the pallets around with the help of a small lifter, it was one of hell of a workout, once I was done my t-shirt and jeans were soaked completely and I needed a cold shower. It was good that we did all that to make sure the procurement and storage guys could finish all their work.

As soon as I got home I took a nice cold shower which felt fantastic then I headed to the movie theater at Al Fanar to go watch Harry Potter with some friends. It was an enjoyable day, then I went to Hawally to go by some DVDs as well as check on the progress of my PC. Then I went home to check get some rest then Professional Computers called me to tell me my PC was done at 9:50pm and I was there earlier so I asked them to deliver if they could which they did, and I was extactic that I was getting my PC. I was passing out by the time the PC got home, and I fell asleep.

I slept from 11:00pm until 1:00pm which is the rest that I needed. Then I went to lunch at Edo with some friends, and it was pretty good. Then we headed over to Al Fanar to watch The Simpsons Movie which was pretty good. Then we went to Souq Sharq to check out Sony and Sultan Center, and I picked up a few things I didn’t expect to find there. I didn’t know Sultan Center Electronics had Griffin Audio accessories which was good, I’m sure their prices are expensive. Then I headed home to have a bite to eat while watching Justice League Unlimited, and end the night on Death Note!

I was walking through Hawally on Thursday night checking on my PC, they were taking some time since they were transferring data from 2x250GB Raid 0 to my 750 GB Drive since you can’t rebuild the raid setup with all the data on a new motherboard. That aside, I went into my regular video place and took the book to my car to pick out some movies. I ask for DVD copies, and I ask for high quality Cinema copy meaning the screen might look a little weird or the sound my be a little distorted. Overall I’m very happy with what I found, the problem is sorting through all the crap they have and finding the good movies and hoping they are high quality copies.

DVD Copy:

• Hoax
• Evan Almighty
• Pathfinder
• Outlaw
• American Pastime

Cinema Copy (90%-100%):

• 28 Weeks Later
• Ratatouille
• Knocked Up
• theEX
• Mr. Brooks
• 1408

As I said my main PC was acting up so I decided to go for the upgrade, the technician at Professional Computers contacted me telling that my old mother board’s transistors were burnt out because of the heat. That is why the PC was acting very strange, I was just happy that there were no problems with my Hard Drives so I didn’t have to worry about my media.

The transistors can be fixed but since I am replacing the motherboard in the first place I’m just going to keep it as a spare, its 3 years old but I can find some use for it. Overall the people at Professional Computers are pretty good, and I like dealing with them.