a quickr pickr post

Here I am, ready to start.

Me with the Motherboard.

CPU! This is an Athlon XP 2800+

I put in the CPU

I RAM! I’ve got two sticks of 256mb each.

Snapping in the RAM that I

I predict that this crazy sound card snagged out of my dad’s old PC will be the bane of my existance. It’s a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy.

Securing the Hard Drive.

Channel your inner Back to the Future cast member. “Those things don’t work on water!”

“Unless you’ve got POWer”

Cables everywhere…

Turning on the power.

Here I am with my new box!

I have successfully installed Kubuntu Linux onto my new box. I booted with System Rescue CD first to wipe the drive because it was my younger sister’s old drive and who knows what could be on there. Then I had no problem installing Kubuntu with the dvd I burned from the iso. It looks so pretty! I named the computer Comet, the name of Supergirl’s horse.

I set the new box up to use a KVM so it’s working fine sharing the keyboard and monitor with my Windows box, but I did have some trouble with the mouse, so I just have two different mice plugged in for now, and I’ll look into that later.

Here’s a screenshot for my Kubuntu desktop on my new machine. I was quite pleased with how configurable it is. I was easily able to create and use a pink fading pattern on the panel(at the bottom). I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed print screen and a little box popped up, allowing me to save the screenshot as a png!

Here I am, ready to start.

Me with the Motherboard.

CPU! This is an Athlon XP 2800+

I put in the CPU

I *heart* RAM! I’ve got two sticks of 256mb each.

Snapping in the RAM that I *heart*

I predict that this crazy sound card snagged out of my dad’s old PC will be the bane of my existance. It’s a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy.

Securing the Hard Drive.

Channel your inner Back to the Future cast member. “Those things don’t work on water!”

“Unless you’ve got POWer”

Cables everywhere…

Turning on the power.

Here I am with my new box!

I have successfully installed Kubuntu Linux onto my new box. I booted with System Rescue CD first to wipe the drive because it was my younger sister’s old drive and who knows what could be on there. Then I had no problem installing Kubuntu with the dvd I burned from the iso. It looks so pretty! I named the computer Comet, the name of Supergirl’s horse.

I set the new box up to use a KVM so it’s working fine sharing the keyboard and monitor with my Windows box, but I did have some trouble with the mouse, so I just have two different mice plugged in for now, and I’ll look into that later.

Here’s a screenshot for my Kubuntu desktop on my new machine. I was quite pleased with how configurable it is. I was easily able to create and use a pink fading pattern on the panel(at the bottom). I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed print screen and a little box popped up, allowing me to save the screenshot as a png!

I painted the top over with the light pink

I printed out a template on some card stock and cut it out. Then I stuck it to the top. I actually used a gluestick because I didn’t have any double stick tape. Actually, it worked pretty well, but if you try it make sure you get any glue residue off of the parts you want the paint to stick to. I went around it after I stuck it down with a damp paper towel.

Okay, so then I sprayed it over with the dark pink again.

Stencil Ready

Stencil Sprayed

Success! not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good.

I waited for the stencil to dry and did one on the top too.

I taped it down more this time and I think I actually got a little more under the edges. I think it was the angle, though. I’m not very tall.

I think it’ll still look good once I get the border part on, though. I may also go over it with the original color to clean up some of the spots that the light pink got through.

And I did actually have to put on some sunblock to go outside and paint, because it’s 100 degrees outside on our patio.

the lighting’s different though, it’s cloudier today.

Okay, here’s my younger sister drawing a stencil for me. I brought out a shirt for her to use as a guide.

here it is finished, and there I am trying to cut it out

I started thinking about it too much and confused myself about where I needed to cut out so I had to stop and take a break

I’m going to let it dry, probably overnight, and then see if it needs another coat(it probably will, especially on the sides). Then I plan on using a glossy top coat. I’m trying to think of something good to put in the case badge spot. Any suggestions?

Yes, I am a girl.

So, here’s the case I’m starting out with. Just a plain beige case, but pretty nice.

One of the main things that I was confused about was how to get the front off of my DVD drive so that I could paint it. Thanks to the helpful forum members, I figured it out without much trouble after the tip that you need to open the drive

Here are my primered components

Next stop, pink paint!

I’m still working on the HTPC/PVR for my parents’ house. I’ve got the box together and all the software installed and everything. It works as a computer, but I’m getting stuck on the TV part. I tried to record from it using SageTV and it just recorded this fuzzy stuff. I plugged in Component cables from the DirecTV reciever into the tuner card, I had the right DirecTV selected because I got the right tv listings, but I think the problem is that i don’t have the right serial COM port selected. I’m not sure I even know what this is or how to find out which one it should be. None of the default settings have worked.