Hardware Headache

I built a new development machine over the holidays using Intel’s new Rapid Storage Technology.

What a PITA!  Two OS reloads to get the system to acknowledge it’s using RST, then the intel driver crashes and the system crashes on OS install.  Well that’s enough RST for me!  I reconfigured the SSD as a standard drive and all seems to be working.

I configured Windows to put the User directory and Program Files/Program Files(x86) onto the 2TB D: drive.

Hardware.

Yeong Yang YY-0221B Case

Gigabyte GA-Z69-UD3

Intel i7-2600K

Patriot 4×4 16 GB Ram

OCZ Nocti 64GB SSD

Seagate 2TB 7200rpm SATA HD

Sapphire 6970 HD 2GB

2 x SATA DVD-RW

1 x SATA BluRay

3x Samsung 27″ P2770HD Monitors

Logitech G15 Keyboard

Logitech G930 Wireless Surround sound Headphones

Logitech MX1100 Wireless Mouse

Logitech THX 5.1 Speakers

Wacom Bamboo Tablet

 

One more week

Only one more week of school remaining. I will post some of my Maya stuff once class is done — maybe even a video.

My regular job has decided to close their office between Christmas and New Year, though I normally work during that time because it’s nice and quiet and I can get more done.  Not this year!  I’ll be home working on software!

Good Old Games

http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24407

Good Old Games knows its customers.  Too bad companies like EA wont listen to its PAYING customers.  EA’s DRM gets more draconian with each release, punishing ONLY the PAYING customers; their games still get pirated on day 1 if not before.

Beta

When it rains it pours!  I got invited to 2 Beta tests this week. I can’t say much more as I’m under NDA, but when the NDA drops I’ll give my impressions.

Maya Composition Pt 2

Dan Biehl suggested Light Works Beta, an open source project.  I registered, downloaded and installed it yesterday.  I hope to give it a try this weekend.

http://www.lightworksbeta.com

Hackintosh Pt 2

Well, I did some research and found my Video card isn’t supported, though some suggest is close enough that a driver for a different model from the same generation may work. So I may give it a shot.  It’s an nVidia 9800 GTX, and there are drivers for the nVidia 9800 GT & nVidia 9800 GTS.

Small Buisiness Tools

Economical Credit Card Processing.

https://squareup.com/#!home

Simple and relatively cheap book and document scanning.  ( You don’t get the books back; they cut the binding off. )

http://1dollarscan.com/

Virtual Business Telephone answering system.

http://grasshopper.com/

Quantum Locking

Incredible video showing the quantum locking effect of superconducting materials and magnets.

http://io9.com/5850729/quantum-locking-will-blow-your-mind–but-how-does-it-work

Hackintosh

I’ve wanted a Mac to play with for a few years, I even tried to build a Hackintosh a few years ago, but trying to get Audio/Video working properly was so much of a pain I gave up.  Well its time to give it another shot.  Thanks too much simpler tools from Tony Mac X86 http://tonymacx86.com/ I’ll be attempting this again, probably this weekend if all goes well.  Tony’s new Unibeast and Multibeast installers make the installation a snap.  All I need to do is verify the Hackintosh hardware I bought a couple of years ago is supported by Unibeast and Multibeast, and I’ll be on my way.

With the advent of iOS, I’m hoping to be able to get in some iOS5 development if the Hackintosh build is successful.

Maya composition.

I’ve been looking for some way to composite my maya animations, free or really cheap.. I’ve had Adobe After Effects suggested but even the student version is several hundred dollars.  I just need something that I can compile the rendered Images into a 24 or 30 FPS video file.