Convoluted!

So I haven't taken much time to play any games, though I did pick-up Tomb Raider Anniversary and Jade Empire Special Edition for Windows. I've been busy fixing people's computer problems all weekend, and I've got some stories and a new toy to show for it (well, those and some cash). First up is that 3.0GHz Pentium 4 I mentioned in my last post; It was hurting bad from the spyware and such, so I backed-up their important stuff and started fresh. Whoever built that thing must've been out cold, 'cause I was half asleep and noticed that the power fan was plugged into the chassis fan connector, the power LED was plugged-in as a two-pin connector instead of the three-pin connector the motherboard takes, and the RAM was installed in single-channel mode. I fixed those issues, installed a PCI fax modem, dusted everything, updated the BIOS, and from there it was smooth sailing. While I was delivering the finished product, I was offered one of these. I wasn't intimately familiar with the Dell Digital Audio Receiver, but I figured it was some sort of PC-to-stereo streaming apparatus, judging by the ethernet port on the back. Well, as it turns-out, I was right, but wasn't getting the whole story. You can actually use your home phone network to stream music to any room with a phone jack (or an ethernet hub/switch/router)! Pretty cool feature, but I'm currently using it in my bedroom (through an old router) to listen to my MP3s from my bed with a remote. It's a fun little toy, and was pretty expensive in its day (over $300 CDN after taxes!), so I'm happy to add it to my collection of random tech crap :) Now if only it ordered albums by track number instead of alphabetically :\ Making your own playlists using the device's interface is just a bitch.

The other stories are far less interesting. They involve troubleshooting one person's home network via text messages and installing a wireless router for another person. Wheee!