Smart people live in Las Vegas knowing that sometime before too long, they will be sitting on prime ocean-front property. Stupid people live in California not understanding after 27 bazillion earthquakes that they’re about to be drowned like rats. Even their not-so-distant recessive cousins, the people who live in trailers in Tornado Alley know that God hates California and a purge, eh plunge is coming…

*sigh* Man I can’t wait to see the Ocean!

Q: What was the last thing a Californian said after the Big One?
A: Glub glub glub!

Q: How many Californians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None, they all drowned. Almost like rats (but their rats were smarter and moved to Las Vegas before it was too late driving all the %$#@!ing prices up for everybody.)

Q: How dumb do you have to be when Tornado Alley residents think you’re stupid?
A: Stupid enough that a paper plate beats you at chess religiously.

My Upcoming Dream System: Part II aka Stocking Up

As some know I was pretty close to buying parts for my dream killer gaming rig this January but I wisely held off knowing that if I could manage to resist the impulse I’d be able to build a better and better system the longer I held out. See, this is the one basic rule of computer building: prices come down. The longer you put off buying parts the cheaper and more powerful your new rig becomes.

Well, I’m just about ready now and thanks to my waiting not only did the prices come down a little but more powerful options presented itself (that and I’m financially capable to buying more system.) Instead of buying parts and gutting my existing computer, I think I’ll build a full rig instead. Minus maybe a hard drive, as I already have a 200gig that I have yet to fill, plus a friend already offered 512MB of PC2700 that I can stick in this board for a backup system. See, I’m moving my 1 gig of OCZ 3200 RAM to the new rig, although I hear their new RAM is sweet - maybe I’ll go buy some or check out other RAM offerings like Kingston or Corsair… dunno.

So what will my new rig look like? Well, at least an AMD Athlon 64 3700+, Nforce 4 Ultra chipset mobo and a PCI express 6800GT card. Right now I’m pretty focused on the type of processor, mobo and card, just nailing down which specific ones I’m getting; the rest will follow in short order. So within a week or two I should be placing my orders and waiting for the shipments to come in.

In the mean time I’m stocking up on new games for my killer rig; I’ve already got NFS Underground 2, Farcry, Doom3 Half-Life 2 Collector’s Edition and UT 2004 for starters and I’m still scanning the web for other great game deals… booya!

If you’ll excuse me now I have to go do some more price shopping. Daddy needs a new rig.

Can you re-image four computers at the same time? I can! I am the Ghost Masta!

One of the first things I was told when I was brought onboard the IT dept was that I would be in charge of figuring out how to get Ghost to format more than one machine at a time on the network. I really wasn’t all that worried until everyone in the dept recalled their own personal horror stories of trying to get Ghost to work on multiple machines. The more I heard, the more nervous I began to get. Not only was this a pretty big deal, something that was very critical with the endless number of machines we have to re-image but it was kind of my first real responsibility and sorely needed. A biggie. At first glance they all seemed bright and if they had so much trouble with it, ah, well it ain’t looking good for the FNG, ya know what I’ saying? I got a pretty good feeling that everyone was glad to be rid of this headache… because they all kept telling me they were glad to get rid of this headache.

Ulp.

I was given Symantec’s phone number, website address and told that I would be talking to them quite frequently; handed enough manuals to choke a horse and a neat LARGE bottle of aspirin. Sure, they said good luck, were really obviously looking forward to someone performing a few miracles with this beast but they also had that whole “he’s screwed/ dead man walking” look whenever I sat down to read all about Ghost.

Greeeattt!

Amidst all the chaos of helping people I finally got enough time to hook up four computers to the network and make my first stab at Ghosting them. Four. At the same time. When everyone had trouble doing more than one I think I’m going to get four going right off the bat?! Ambitious? Screw it, I thought I’m all in on this one! It’s either going to be a spectacular success or quite a nose-diving failure. What the kelp…

Wouldn’t you know it the first time I tried it all four worked perfectly. Surprised us all, I can tell you! Not a bad start if I must say so myself; although I don’t know who was more stunned, my new friends or me… hehehe…. Boo-freaking-ya!

After further tweaking and experimenting I’m consistantly re-imaging four machines at a time (be it laptops or desktops) and as soon as we get a new 8-port KVM switch I’m going for the real gusto; 8 at once! See, we usually get shipments of 8 new computers and even though I’ve managed to drastically shorten the prep time to roll new ones out with my mad Ghosting skills, I know I can shave even more time off if I had the right equipment. Heck if I daisy chain the routers maybe 11 at a time? Hmmm…

…it’s not about the bragging, the quicker I can get all the new computers arriving imaged and ready, the easier it is on all of us and the more time we have to get other things done. I’ve managed to drastically cut the impact imaging/re-imaging machies had on our dept, now if I could just figure out how to change my number so there aren’t so many help calls. Hey, wait a sec, I do know how now… hehehe… I can reprogram any phone now, let alone re-wire them too. Oooh, yeah.

I am the Ghost Masta! Woo-hoo!

Hey, maybe one day they’ll honor me by putting my name on the door. Nah…

I am the Ghost Masta! Woo-hoo!

Peace Y’all.