Beware the Ides of March!

Et tu, Jose?

That bit is just to show you that I'm all edumacated. I even know how to spell "Shakespeare" without looking it up. For those of you with a less-than-classical education, today (well, yesterday by now - I need to get to bed!) is the "Ides of March," which for those of you more numerically oriented, is the 15th - the middle of the month. In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, today is the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and other conspirators. When Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by the conspirators, with his friend Brutus joining in to kill him, Caesar says, "Et tu, Brute?" Translated this means, "And you, Brutus?" Tragically, Caesar is asking if even his friend, Brutus, will join in killing him, even as Brutus stabs him to death.

Mayhem in Madrid

As you all know, the horrific bombings in Spain last week were followed by an electoral defeat of Spain's Popular Party by the Socialist Worker's Party. This is a dismaying development, since the former Spanish government had supported the war to remove Saddam Hussein and had sent troops to Iraq to support the reconstruction effort. The new Spanish government has said that they will pull their troops out of Iraq, and the new Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has called the U.S. efforts in Iraq "a disaster." Doesn't it feel like we've just been stabbed in the back by a friend? Indeed, beware the ides of March.

In polls that I have seen, the citizens of Spain were generally against the war (sorry, I don't have links handy), but the government was a strong and unflinching supporter of the War on Terror and the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. I'm sorry to see that the voters in Spain seem to have completely missed the mark with their votes. They have apparently embraced a policy of appeasement, hoping that the Islamist terrorists will leave them alone if they pack up their troops, leave Iraq, and stay home. They don't realize that they've just shown the terrorists that they can be intimidated. I hope that it won't happen, but I fear more terror in Spain as a result of this election. The citizens of Spain were convinced that they were targeted because of their support for the War on Terror. What they didn't understand is that all non-Muslims are targets. In fact, many Muslims are targets as well, if they don't follow the teachings of Wahhabi fundamentalist Islam favored by the terrorists. It's surprising, given that Spain was the last bastion of Islam in Europe, that the people of Spain don't know this. I guess it's another example of the saying, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Ironically, this quote is from George Santayana, the great philosopher raised and educated in America, but born in...Spain.

It remains to be seen what policies the new Spanish government pursue. Let's all hope that Spain doesn't become another full-fledged member of the Axis of Weasels.

Where Have I Been?

PC Pete

In case anyone noticed, I haven't posted anything new for several days now. Well, the reason for that (other than general busy-ness and laziness) is that I have acquired a new PC, and it has taken me a few days to get myself organized on this new computer.

For this new machine, I undertook a bit of an adventure, and assembled the machine myself from component parts (told you I'm a geek). Yup, I went and bought a case, motherboard (Asus P4C800), 500 watt power supply, CPU chip (a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4), a gigabyte of matched DDR RAM, graphics card (PNY Verto GeForce FX with an NVidia FX 5950 Ultra chip, a 160 GB SATA hard drive, a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, a Samsung 173P 17" flat panel LCD display, and other assorted bits and pieces. After a few hours of screwing stuff together, plugging in cables, installing drivers and operating system (Windows XP Pro), and application software, I now have a new computer! It isn't the very top of the line, but it's a screaming machine, and I'm loving it!

I hadn't ever assembled a complete computer from components before, but I had installed new cards of various types, so I was pretty familiar with the insides of a computer; nevertheless, I was surprised that the process wasn't very difficult at all. I had a couple of rough spots, mostly because I had skimmed through the directions on a couple of things, but I had most everything assembled and the computer up and running in one evening. I then spent another evening installing a couple of things I'd forgotten at first (floppy drive and sound card - duh!) and loading some software. Since then, I've been configuring stuff, installing software, and so on. Tonight is the first night I've had a chance to get to the web site (which required installing Office 2003 and FrontPage 2003). So, there's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

If you have ever thought about building your own PC, I'd encourage you to try it - assuming you are quite comfortable with the insides of a computer. If you know what the motherboard is, the CPU, power supply, and so on, and have installed expansion cards and/or a new hard drive or CD/DVD drive, then you might give it a try. Do some research on components, read some tech articles on building PC's, and so on. Look carefully at the insides of your current computer, examining how the power supply cables are plugged in. Go to your local geek supply store that sells PC components (motherboards, memory, CPU chips, and so on) and ask for help. I was intimidated by all the choices I had to make, but one of the salespeople at the store I bought my stuff from helped me out a lot, especially in picking a motherboard and CPU - parts that I hadn't ever installed myself before.

If you decide to build a computer yourself, I wouldn't recommend it as a way to save money, necessarily. I bought all my components at a retail store. I'm sure you can get them cheaper over the Internet, but since it was my first experience, I wanted to be able to look at the parts carefully and ask questions before making a decision. Should I ever build another computer from components, I might buy some parts from Internet retailers to save some money. As I said, though, saving money shouldn't be your primary motivation, in my opinion. I certainly could have gotten a nearly-equivalent computer for less money if I'd just bought one already assembled. Based on my experience, the real benefit of building your own PC is being able to build exactly the machine you want and to know, in detail, how it is assembled. From the time that you assemble your new computer, you'll be able to upgrade all of its components easily, since you'll know exactly how it's put together. You won't ever have to settle for cheap components or shoddy workmanship. You can customize your machine to your heart's content, making it look and run the way you want it, not the way some manufacturer thought it should be, to maximize the manufacturer's sales and profits. My experience building my new computer was rewarding and fun. Seeing it boot the first time I powered it on was way cool. If you've the inclination and the aptitude, I very much recommend building your own PC - it's a blast.

Permanent link