Would I Lie to You?

[jackofallgeeks]

So, I've been trying to find $1200 to build a new computer. Because Oblivion is out. The game i've been watching for the last 18 months. You know, the new Elder Scrolls game? The follow-up to Morrowind? The latest bit of that series I've been playing since Arena launched in '94.

Anyways, UnicronPrime is showing her age. She can't run Oblivion. She can't even upgrade to be able to run Oblivion. And as her drives are being filled to capacity these days, her time is coming. Before long, she'll be little more than storage, and eventually not even that.

Maybe I'll scrub her clean and give her to my brother. She might get a few more years of life then, maybe. It's sad to watch and old friend fade away.

So right. Building a new computer. I think her name will be Annie. Just toying with that idea, we'll see. Her specs make her roughly twice as powerful as UnicronPrime in almost every way. But her specs were coming out to $1200. And I could do that, but it'd hurt a little. And I just managed to get her specs down to just under $1000, without losing much capability (none, for most intents and purposes). And, oddly enough, I can justify a $1000 computer more readily than I can justify a $1200 computer.

And now I have $200 I've already mentally allocated.

I'm probably going to order this machine this weekend and be playing Oblivion before the end of the month.

I should be doing more constructive things. Like my homework.

Comments

[photoholic62.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I never ever got an inkling you were disagreeing with my guru or anything like that. In fact, I had the idea that we all agree this will be a good enough machine for me. At least until the "bigger/better/faster" bug bites me again in a couple years. I knew you would agree with him about the music!

In a good year, I fill up 6 to 8 DVDs with my photos. Just no way to keep them all on my machine. I do have a file of favorites that stays on here though, and a nice little slide show program....

I thought about it later. I only named Daisy. (Although Jeff did agree with the name) Daisy and Jeff named Melody. The dog was already named when she came to live with us. The kids named the fish. ::sigh:: I have no power! Ahahahahahaa

Actually, I tend to enjoy conversations more when I don't have the upper hand. I learn more, listen more and talk less. All good stuff. If I can ever help you with graphics though, you know how to find me.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Well, now that you mention it, I just took a "Computer Graphics" course here at school. In actuality, it was specifically about 3D graphics, ray-tracing and lighting models and rendering and stuff. Really, the only application I can conceive of for that sort of thing is video games (and a "training simulation" is just a fancy word for an 'official' video game), but he seemed to think there was much, much more that could be done with it. -shrugs-

Thing is, I'm not sure I know what you do with graphics, or even what you mean by 'graphics.' I presume you aren't in the business of rendering scenes, ne? Is most of what you do the standard sort of 2D things one might think of for web pages and the like? what is it you do?

[photoholic62.livejournal.com]

I have not ventured into the world of 3D. At least not yet. The kind of thing you are talking about sounds like the sort of things they use in making simulations (aside from game usage, of course.) Like weather catastrophe simulations, or "what would happen if this car hit that truck at a high rate of speed" or "just how much damage can a bomb in a locker cause" kind of work. Also, more and more architects and engineers are beginning to use these types of 3D programs. Crime scene speicalists use that type of software also.

Me? I make web graphics, and I do photograph repairs and/or manips. Like, have you seen the pic that went around the net here a while back of a shark jumping out of the water trying to get a man who was dangling on a rope from a helicopter? I can do that sort of thing. I prefer to just take a bad photo and make it better, or to do the web graphics though. Someone on my flist yesterday posted a dark pic of a sleeping baby taken with a camera phone. I took that image, and brought out the details so you could actually see the sleeping baby's face, rather than just the general shape of a baby. When I was done, you could even see the red, rosy cheeks.

A client once sent me a very old photo with crease lines, and some tears and stains in it. I digitally removed the damage to restore the photo as closely as possible. It was a family heirloom kind of pic. That kind of work is really challenging, and this is an area where I wish I had actual training instead of just "learn as you go" type of process. I couldn't make it perfect, could only make it better.

That's the kind of thing I mean ...