I'm still alive

"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot) 04/15/2019 at 08:50 • Filed to: None

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Yep , I’m still alive. I’ve been busy with life; being a father, working like mad at times, dealing with medical problems; aka the norm for me. And for those car fans ou t there, I still own both my first and second car . Whic h is sort of crazy , because I bought the pt crusier back in 2010, and the grand prix sometime around 2015. Both are still operational and functional , regardless of how lit up the grand prix’s dashboard might be. So how is Oppo as of late?

pip bip - choose Corrour > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 08:52

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my 2004 Lancer now has 708k km, how much longer it will last is another matter though.

zeontestpilot > pip bip - choose Corrour 04/15/2019 at 09:03

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Dang, that’s still impressive though. My grand prix is at 180k miles. It’s just unhappy that a sensor broke, so it disabled traction control and ABS brakes. I’m just waiting for the part honestly, lol.

pip bip - choose Corrour > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:05

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my engine (2nd one) has got a rattle on cold start up. 

Nibby > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:06

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i know what you’ve been up to... saw this picture of you recently

zeontestpilot > Nibby 04/15/2019 at 09:07

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.... they promised me they wouldn’t take any pictures...

zeontestpilot > pip bip - choose Corrour 04/15/2019 at 09:11

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You win, lol. though sometimes, if the prix is moody, it doesn’t start up when i turn the key.

carcrazydan738 > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:12

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Welcome back! I was wondering what might have happened to ya bro.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:19

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Glad to see you’re still around, as well as the PT and GP.

I was intermitently Oppoing in ‘17 & ‘18, but I’ve been around a lot more recently. Similar situation as you, just too dang busy with work and the house and all that.  But the house is coming together, I can start to see a dim light at the end of the tunnel regarding the major projects.  Once I get a few more things done I think it will be time for a project car/bike/boat/airplane, or something.  

loki03xlh > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:20

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The infamous Grand Prix wheel hub fiasco?

Nibby > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:21

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promises are made to be broken

E90M3 > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 09:27

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I was going to say, you’ve been on here for a long time, right? Feel like you’re one of the pre-Kinja people I kind of remember. 

zeontestpilot > loki03xlh 04/15/2019 at 09:27

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from what i understood, the sensor that senses the tire for the passengers rear, went bad.

zeontestpilot > carcrazydan738 04/15/2019 at 09:32

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Yeah, been busy with a lot of stuff, ended up dropping anything that wasn’t ‘priority’ until I got back into the swing of things.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > E90M3 04/15/2019 at 09:33

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Yeah, I’ve been around for a long time, I think I started back in 2010 or 2011.  But the last 2 years I’ve been super busy and wasn’t on as much.  I think in 2017 I posted a total of 4 times.  

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 09:35

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One of the main things i focused on was computers and linux. It went hand-in-hand with my job, but i learned all i could about computers to learn what makes they tick. I’m by no-means an expert though, lol, it’s a hobby now.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:36

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Yep, I’m still alive.

That’s exactly what I’d *expect* you to say if you were dead and said something.

E90M3 > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 09:37

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That’s fair. Oppo is pretty much the only social media I use, if you can even call it that. I think the only time I’ve been that busy was when I was in school and didn’t have a smart phone. 

zeontestpilot > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/15/2019 at 09:40

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No, I’m not a computer....

On a side note, I’m out of cake....

CB > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:41

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Oh hey dude. Hope all has been well. I’m alive and employed, so things are pretty solid.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:41

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Hi! I'm quite new here, joined about a year ago. I bought an 04 Mini round the same time and a 02 Vette Z06 last week. Has been fun!

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:44

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Well I had to shovel 4" of snow off my driveway this morning since my summer tires beach on anything more than a light dusting. Didn’t help that the snow was wet and my landlord took away the good shovel and gave me a dollar tree shovel which snapped in half. But that’s okay! He got a backup! Which then proceeded to also break....

zeontestpilot > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 04/15/2019 at 09:51

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this morning i was trying to figure out why i was so cold and couldn’t sleep. got up to walk the dog, opened the door and... winter wonderland. just stood there for a few seconds, whispered to myself “that would explain the coldness”

zeontestpilot > CB 04/15/2019 at 09:53

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It’s been a rough year and a half, but it’s getting better. Basically figuring out my priorities in life, and knowing when to have ‘me’ time. Also been playing games with Steam; that’s been an absolutely blast.

zeontestpilot > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 04/15/2019 at 09:55

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Which mini? the hatch? i’ve been a fan of those, lol. how is it?

Wheelerguy > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 09:57

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WE MISS YOU ON LaLD!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > E90M3 04/15/2019 at 10:03

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I was having trouble with mobile Kinja for a while, so I didn’t use mobile. Now it seems to be more cooperative with my phone. And I couldn’t access from work because our interent was just atrocious, though now it’s better. And in the evenings I’m usually doing stuff around the house so I wasn’t making time to post. I’m trying to be a more active Oppo citizen these days. 

zeontestpilot > Wheelerguy 04/15/2019 at 10:07

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I figured as much, lol. I can make a life update there later.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 10:08

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That’s awesome, and a ver y good set of skills to have! I was super into computers back in the early 2000's. I built my own rigs, worked for a few different local computer & IT companies in high school for after school jobs/internships/work study. I origianlly went to college as a Computer Engineering major.

Now I’m old and crusty and don’t keep up with it very well, but a lot of that early experience still serves me well. The hardware hasn’t changed much (still a CPU, RAM, hard drive, etc.) and I can still get around in Windows, Mac, and Linux well enough. I do kind of get sad at times that I’ve reached the point where a computer is a tool and I’ve lost a bit of the wonder to learn more in depth things, but that would be just one more thing to keep up with that I don’t have time for.

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 10:29

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My friends and coworkers now k now me as ‘the guy they can offload old computers and computers part on to’, lol. My policy is, if you can get it running, do it. If not, take usable parts off, and scrap it. I’ve given some stuff away, and others I’ve kept for the family. I even have a Dell Poweredge 2950 ready to be used as a gaming server if needed, lol.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 10:32

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That’s awesome. I used to be the same way. At one point I probably had a dozen different machines. Now we have 3 laptops in the house (wifes, mine newer one , my old one ) and one desktop (an SGI Indy workstation that someone gave to me and I don’t really know what to do with).

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 10:38

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Yup, it’s a 1st gen S which means its a  supercharged hatch with a 6 speed stick. Its a lotta fun hearing the whining from the SC and the handling is sublime. Been fairly reliable as well, has 205k miles on her now.

zeontestpilot > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 04/15/2019 at 10:46

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I’ve looked at them before, but the upkeep and maintenance steered me away, namely because it’s BMW owned. So, is maintaining it pretty decent in price? I mean, a hot hatch, what’s not to love? lol

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 10:56

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I made myself dismantle the ones i didn’t know what to do with. Right now we have two desktops (my first one ever , stock with a Nvidia 620 card ; the second one a Systemax case with a dell inspirion AMD mobo, running a Nvidia 8800 GT), the aforementioned poweredge server, and ..... 5 laptops? I have my old college laptop, only good for remote computer access, two thinkpads (one for me, the other for the wife ), a family laptop for the kids when they get older, and a fifth one i don’t really need (nor care about honestly) but someone gave to me. It just needed a new HD and it was good as new. On the fence about just giving it away to someone in need.

Also not sure on how knowledgeable you are on servers, but the poweredge 2950 has two redundant 750 watt PSUs! A standard desktop has about a 400 watts power supply. I turn it off mostly to save on electricity, lol.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 13:04

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Nice fleet. I recently purged a bunch of stuff, donated most of it to Goodwill, but had some old cards and things that were totally worthless that I took to a recycling center.

The server sounds cool, but yeah, dual 750w PSUs is a lot of power. I remember when desktops came with like 200, 250, and if you were building a custom rig and you would spend the coin to get 300w!

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 13:49

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My fun desktop has a 450 w for the GPU... Well had. Between the first post and now, both s creens went unresponsive, and now nothing besides the bios is showing up. Could be the gpu, i put it in just for two screens. Will have to look through the stash for a replacement to try out. -_-

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 13:56

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Ouch, that sucks.

At some point I’m going to get the home office/misc. storage/laundry drying area/library cleaned up and put a proper desk and computer in there and I want dual monitors.  Maybe even 3!

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 14:54

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In total, i own about 7 monitors. Mrsztp says i csnt bring any more home. In her defense, i get them dirt cheap or free so.....

Two for the office, two for the upstairs computer desk, and three for the downstairs desk.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 15:11

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The biggest issue I have with that old SGI Indy is I can’t find a monitor for it because it uses a proprietary connector. Also, we got a new TV back in January (65" LG OLED 4K ) to replace a 10 year old Insignia 42" 1080p. Mrs. Snuze is annoyed because the old TV is sitting in the middle of the living room (I don’t really have a place to store it ). But I’m planning to hang it on the wall in the garage and build a micro PC and shove it in a cabinet out there so I can use it for shop manuals, YouTube tutorials, and streaming music.

In fact, lemme pick your brain - what should I get? Basically I just need it to open PDFs, browse the web, watch YouTube, stream music from Pandora or Spotify or something. The issue is my garage isn’t heated or cooled so it needs to work in conditions from, say, 30 degrees to 100 degrees. Also, I’m thinking it will live in a cabinet along with a small amplifier (I got 2 home theater speakers I’m going to cut into the ceiling). I will make sure the cabinet has some ventilation, and I think that will help protect it from dust and stuff.  Thoughts?

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/15/2019 at 16:06

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First thing that comes to mind is the ventilation, not from dust but from the heat. As you probably know, heat can kill a computer, and most server rooms are pretty chilly. Googling for how cold a computer can operate in doesn’t give satisfying answers , but it brought a an interesting problem; condensation o n the computer from taking the computer from a cold temperature quickly to a warm one (like if where you live rapidly changes temps overnight). I never thought of that before, but it does make sense.

The cabinet idea sounds good though, possibly even mount some fans inside to help cool it down. Were you thinking of building a micro pc yourself, or just outright buying one? Because I was thinking possibly a raspberry pi 3 model b+. It has a quad core 1.2GHz processor, 1 GB of ram (not upgradeable though), and hdmi out. Even has a 100 base ethernet jack, and a wireless LAN on board. Granted, it’s not fast by any means, but it would get the job done. Though its cooled passively, so it would be smart to get a fan to go over the processor for those hot temps. Does something like that sound good, or were you looking for something with a little bit more power, lol. lol

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > zeontestpilot 04/15/2019 at 20:41

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It wasn’t too bad honestly. I bought it with 163k miles on it and at 180k I gave it to a Mimi specialist to change the SC oil, change the water pump (requires the SC to come off the engine), replace LCA bushings, replace a tie rod end, replace foam surround on the radiator, a couple of hoses, a wheel bearing and flush the brake fluid. That all cost me a day and $2k. Thats the major service since I’ve owned it. I did get the coolant tank replaced when I bought it for $250 (common issue). Apart from that it has been just oil changes and spark plugs.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > zeontestpilot 04/16/2019 at 08:13

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I’m not sure if I’d buy or build. I did a quick look on NewEgg and they make some fanless PCs that seem like they would be good at least regarding the dust issue, not sure how they hold up in hot/cold environments.

Also, as far as the cold goes, it’s probably less of a worry. I’m still finishing the garage, and I’m going to insulate the whole thing and maybe even put a small space heater out there so I can heat the space up to 55 or something so it’s bearable to wrench in. I’m mostly concerned with how one of these PCs would do in the summer months. 

zeontestpilot > Snuze: Needs another Swede 04/16/2019 at 09:18

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That’s a fair worry honestly. During the summer months you’d want the heat to move away from the computer, with cold air going to it. A fanless pc isn’t a bad idea, but the air temp from within the cabinet (thats where you are putting it, right?) would be static, or even builds up since the warm and cold air wouldn’t be moving.

What about putting fans and filters on the cabinet itself? Something with an external power source that you can turn on and off depending on the temp? On one side of the cabinet you can have the fans push air in, and the other side you can have the air be pushed out; that way the air won’t remain stagnant or slowly build up with heat. There are also fan filters you can put over the fan to prevent dust and other particles from entering the cabinet.

That or you can just get a normal air-cooled pc, and do the same process with the front fans pushing cold in, and the back fans pushing hot air out. That’s what I did for my personal hodgepodge desktop build (which is working now... finally). The heatsink fan also pushes the air away; so there’s no reason for this specific desktop to ever overheat. I once had a fourth fan in it, mounted on the removable panel that pushed even more hot air away; only removed it because it was overkill. Granted, my basement doesn’t get hot, I just threw as much tech and parts into this case to see how crazy I could get it.