Is the President being coached?

There is evidence that President Bush has been coached wirelessly during the last two presidential debates. This would explain a lot. I was wondering why he ranted “Let me finish!” during the first debate. I just thought he was going bonkers. It never occured to naive honest me that he might actually have live coaching through wireless gear.

As upsetting as this suggestion is, it also gives me hope. As I see it, one of two things might happen:

- Bush goes without wireless in the next debate and, well, Does A Bush, and will get utterly trounced by Kerry
- Bush does use wireless in the next debate, and an enterprising geek in the audience will intercept the coaching and publish it. That supposes that there will be an enterprising geek, and that he’ll be able to get the recording equipment in. Or close enough from a nearby location to target the building and get through whatever shielding it may provide. Not sure this is feasible, but one can dream, ne?
- Kerry pats Bush on the back, having been briefed on this, and exposes him as using a wireless transmitter. That’d be so sweet

Worst-case scenario: Bush does get exposed, and is still elected. In that case, I’ll say “A country has the leadership it deserves”
Second-worst-case scenario: Bush does not get exposed; all we have is screenshots and left-wing bloggers ranting. It’s written off as a conspiracy theory.

Yet more fun with PCs

C. moved my board to his PC, and the likely remarked CPU as well – on account of it being slightly cracked now around the edges, and it being a sure bet that the company I bought it from would take it and NOT refund my money. Insert-vile-curses here — lesson learned, Lehrgeld has been paid.

The other two CPUs we have – my 2600+ and his 1.4GHz one … also have slight cracks around the edges. Seems that happens with Athlons when you pop em in and out a lot. Yeeks.

So anyway, the thing’s not stable at 180 FSB with the memory I gave him (Geil DDR 433). He had ordered an extra stick of Geil DDR400 – it works with that. Nothing makes any sense any more. So he’s gonna sell the two DDR433, and buy another DDR400.

The OS refused to play right now, though. The darn NForce-2 drivers won’t go in. Doesn’t make any sense, either. “Worked for me”, didn’t it? It’s either his Windows has too much accumulated crud, or one of the PCI cards he has doesn’t play well with the board.

My new HD arrived today as well, so I’ll see whether my diskcopy soft works, then move my old (failing) HD to his machine and use the spare WinXP partition on it to figure out whether this is a problem with his Windows install or hardware.

PC upgrades – attempt them only if you feel bored :,

Fun with PCs

So, I figure I’d upgrade my PC with an Athlon XP 3200+ (faster CPU) and 1GB of RAM (more memory), so that City of Heroes will run without bitching at me.

And being the cheap bastard I am, I buy from “Alpha International Business“, without thoroughly checking their reviews first. Big mistake. The Micron RAM I order turns out to be no-name RAM with a heatsink plastered over and a sticker “removal of heatsink voids warranty”, to keep me from peeking. I return the RAM for a refund, and they charge me a 15% restocking fee. Bastiches.

With Kingston ValueRAM from newegg, I try again. System comes up, but is not stable at full speed. I have to downclock. So, I swap power supplies … no go. Fiddle around with RAM … no go. At this point, I am getting seriously frustrated. I RMA my motherboard, am without my PC for 10 days. New motherboard comes … still no go. After steaming for a bit, I order a different brand of motherboard, and sit on it for a month or two, while Christopher tries to coax me into actually giving the new motherboard a spin.

So, weekend before last, we put it in, and I tried it. Result? You guessed it. No go.

Exasperated, I order a new CPU from newegg. $200, as opposed to the $110 I paid at ‘AIB’. And when I put that CPU in – it works. Not only that, it also runs about 10-15 degree Celsius cooler than the CPU I got from AIB.

I guess I should have seen it coming. But I just couldn’t believe they’d go that far. You see, I checked the markings on the CPU that AIB sold me. It was properly marked as an Athlon XP 3200+. Now, of course, I am thinking it’s really an Athlon XP 2500+, which has been remarked with a rather professional looking sticker.

Where do I go from here? I want my money back, sure, but I also want to shut these guys down for good. I know nothing about tort lawsuits (fraud, in this case), or how to make them stick. Should I talk to the office of the Attorney General? Take the case to the police? I’ll ask a colleague who used to be with the State Troopers. If any of my kind readers have suggestions, please leave a comment.

Oh, and yeah, my primary hard drive is dying. Luckily, I caught it while it is still limping along. It’s out of warranty, so I ordered a new spiffy quiet Samsung one, and am running a backup as we speak, in case it croaks before the replacement arrives. Whatever Greek god is responsible for technology: Stop fucking with me!

Pictures of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ CPU

Here’s a picture of the CPU that AIB sold me, which would not run stable at 200MHz FSB, and ran very hot at 180MHz FSB – which I suspect to really be an XP 2500+:

And here’s a picture of the retail XP 3200+ that newegg sold me, which is now running stable and cool in my system, next to the bad CPU: