Kevin Minnis

As you can tell from my not entering much in my blog that I’ve been pretty busy. Jayden’s growing like a weed and manages to come up with new stuff every day to entertain his parents. For instance, on our way back from a baby shower yesterday he was doing his normal ssssssssccccccreeeeeeeeeeacccccchhhh and making all sorts of noise. All of a sudden it was quiet and we thought what’s going on…we looked back and he was sound a sleep. Jayden had his 6 month checkup today and passed with flying colors. He grew another inch and a quarter and weighs about a pound and a half more. He got two shots today but managed to not be affected by them too much. He now sits up on his own, but refuses to stand when you hold him up. He’s getting better at it, but it isn’t something he likes to do.

I’ve added some more pictures to his 6 month album along with some pictures of our nephews’ wrestling. We went up to watch them wrestle for District a couple of weekends ago.

Well, it happened. My computer that I built around January 31, 2002 had a massive overheating of the VIA VT8366A system bus controller, or northbridge. The motherboard manual states that, “…it houses the high-speed system elements critical to overall system performance while also containing the system interface to the processor. The key functions…include the 266 MHz Athlon System Bus, the 266 MHz DDR Memory Subsystem, the AGP 4x/2x/1x modes Graphics Interface (AGP 2.0 Compliant) and the 33 MHz/32-bit PCI Bus Interface.” The main cause of overheating was a stupid $3 fan quit turning. The first signs of it heading down hill was the video went blank and then came back on. I got a new fan for it, but it did little to help as the system finally quit working all together. The BIOS screen didn’t even display anything. The trouble of it is, if I even wanted to attempt to salvage the computer, I’d have to go to EBay and wait 3 days to even win a bid on a new motherboard.

So, today I ordered our first Dell. I decided to try the Dell Outlet or Refurbished route as they’re cheap. The price of computers these days is so cheap it’s hardly worth spending a ton of money on stuff that’s outdated the minute it leaves the factory. I never thought I’d be buying a pre-built system. Every computer that I’ve owned, except my first one, has been one that I’ve built. My first one was a 33 MHz 16 MB or ram Gateway 2000 (yes, that was before they changed their name to just Gateway). The “new” one is a Dimension 2400, 2.4 MHz with 256 MB of ram and cost $159 plus the rip off shipping of $99. I think my first computer was around $2,500. Luckily, I had my old 233 MHz PC that has FreeBSD installed on it up and running so that Kim could at least surf a little bit while at home. It’s amazing how much our society relies on computers to get ordinary day-to-day activities accomplished.

So it’s been at least 6 years since I’ve opened a lot of my college books relating to database management and design. Well, today I pulled out a couple of them to reference some information on database design. It’s kind of cool how everyday brings something new/different to the plate at work. That’s why I like working in the field I’m in so much, never a dull moment and always a day of learning ahead.