Hawk’s Babble-Log

Directed by: Michael Davis
Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, and Monica Bellucci.

The name of this movie says it all! And I knew I wanted to see it as soon as I saw the billboard. I didn’t even see a preview. All I knew was: 1) starred Clive Owen, 2) starred Paul Giamatti, and 3) is called “Shoot ‘em Up!” And that’s good enough for me.

Now, if you get queasy watching people get shot or blown away, then this is not the movie for you. If you get annoyed that there is a gun shot between every other sentence, then don’t see this movie. And if you do see it, be prepared to learn what Mr. Hero really hates, because he’s going to tell you whether you want to hear it or not.

A possible alternative for the name would have been, “Body Count”. It seems that there are an endless number of bad guys who are just begging to get shot. And they’re all really, really bad shots!

Our Mr. Hero, on the other hand, is one bad-ass mofo who kicks ass all over the place. He kicks ass effortlessly, even while doing other things such as helping pregnant women give birth… and even having sex.

I laughed my ass off through this movie. I thought it was great. Why? Because it doesn’t take itself seriously. For example. when our Mr. Hero escapes from a huge batch of bad guys, the lead bad guy says, “My god, do we really suck, or is he really that good?!” Which I thought was one of the best lines in the whole movie.

I’ll probably buy it when it comes out. Sigh… You know… It’s tough to find such high quality fantastic fun gratuitous violence these days. Well done, Michael Davis, and keep it fun! Give me more! More!

This is my new kick-ass Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H motherboard. It’s a Socket AM2 with dual-channel DDR2 800 RAM (four slots), integrated ATI Radeon X1250-based graphics adapter, Dual PCI-E graphics interfaces which supports ATI CrossFire (though I probably won’t be using it here in my server… then again, I might), integrated SATA 3Gb/s (with RAID support… if I wanted one), 8-channel hi-def audio with S/PDIF in/out (and support for Blu-ray/HD DVD), and a gigabit ethernet adapter. I got it from mwave.com.

The processor is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+, and it also kicks ass. See that CPU fan? That came with it, and the CPU came pre-installed on the mobo because I paid an extra $10 to have it assembled and tested before shipping it out to me. BUT… that CPU heat-sink & fan is not the one I’m using now. More on that later.

Here it is installed into the case. I put insulator washers on both sides of the motherboard, just to make sure it was a good, snug, isolated fit. When one builds his own computer, one can use as many insulator washers as one pleases. As mentioned in the [previous article](http://jedihawk.com/hawksblog/?p=158), the connector backplate doesn’t fit, so I left it off.

Here’s one stick of the Crucial RAM, BL12864AA804 Ballistix 240-pin DIMM DDR2-800 PC2-6400, Unbuffered, non-ecc. I got this as part of a “kit”, meaning two sticks of 1Gb RAM sold together in it’s own cute little box. This is good because you need two sticks of RAM to take advantage of the “dual channel” feature of my mobo anyway. I got this from mwave.com also.

More to come.

I finally decided to upgrade my server. My server is also my primary workstation. It’s the one on the left when viewing my desk. This thing is so old that I’m a little surprised that it’s still running. I got it back in the late 90’s when I was working for Speedyclick.com (now a dot-gone). It’s a dual Pentium 2 running at 600MHz with a little over half a gig of RAM. Back then, it was really impressive.

Anyway, here’s my new case. It’s a Logisys clear acrylic CS888CL case, and I got it from frozencpu.com.

The only problem I had with it was when I tried to install the motherboard with the motherboard’s own connector backplate; it didn’t fit. At first I thought it was a problem with the case. I thought the mobo standoffs were too tall (a standoff is the cylindrical screw-receiving connector which holds the mobo to the left side of the case). Then I learned it wasn’t the case that was out of alignment, but the mobo’s own connector backplate. It was about 5mm off. I know the case isn’t to blame because the video card seated perfectly.

So I just left the connector backplate off and all is well.

There are two main types of connectors used in holding this case together: the L-shaped metal connector, and the cubical acrylic + metal threads connector. I think the L-shaped connectors should all be replaced with the cube-type; they’re much better and much more solid. The L-shaped connectors bend easily with your fingers. On the plus side, only the cube-type connectors are used when good structural support is required.

I’m very satisfied with this case and would recommend it. But I’d recommend you get it from xoxide.com, they’ve got lower prices than frozencpu.com and they’ve got a fantastic support forum.

More to come.