Condition of my PCs

Note: This post was originally on my main blog but was moved to here 6 hours after posting as it was unsutable.

Brief summary: My main PC is getting closer to being unusable

Detailed summary: My 2002-era desktop computer seems to be failing as it has lately been making a lot of noise from the processor fan and primary hard disk drive. Also, the on board local area network port has malfunctioned and the only way to get on the network is via the universal serial bus port adapter. (Unfortunately, this also means that the maximum transfer speed is 12Mb/s instead of the intended 100Mb/s due to the USB2.0 limitations) Installing Linux or using another hard disk is not an option as a prompt message appeared saying that files needed to run Windows XP are missing and won't even allow me to boot from the CD. Due to the lack of space and non-standard AT-X power casing, placing it on another casing is out of the question, and I can't put primary or secondary slave drives.

Strangely enough, I was able to install Windows XP SP2 on a PC that came pre-installed with Windows 95 and installed a faster CD reader (that had been replaced by a DVD burner on a PC mentioned earlier) and several larger capacity hard disk drive (14 & 32 GB) on top of the existing one (4GB). I had also installed a sound card and a LAN card (10Mb/s instead of 100Mb/s sadly) too as it did not come with them. Mouse that uses a ball to detect movement, keyboard and display from that era are also use, though it can use the today's wireless USB ones with optical LED/laser detector and LCD display, though not with the DMI connection.

I couldn't think of anything to type at the moment. Sorry for the many technical terms that might have been used. I might also might not be going online until Thursday for various reasons that I might have mentioned earlier. Since I would be not staying at a hotel when overseas, finding an internet connection can be quite tricky, though not so if someone's home network is not secured.

English edition anime blog: Changed layout

I have changed the layout for the English version of the anime blog to match that of the Japanese version, which has been there for quite some time now. The navigation bar is blue instead of black to tell apart from each other without scrolling down.

In case you were wondering, the layout is a modified version of "Sand Dolar", one of blogger's default layouts. As for the one you are currently seeing on this blog, it is based on "Harbour", another modified default layout of blogger, was originally designed for my main blog. I spent a lot of time editing it until it doesn't resemble the original. However, due to limitations with the layout, I decided, at that time, to change the layout and dump the layout to here, which previously had an unmodified default layout.

Speaking of the above, the current layout is not permanent: I have plans to change the background to something that is nice, but yet readable with the text on top of it. For the header image, I have plans to use a non-anime related image with a layout smillar to the anime blogs: a spillover effect above the Navbar and the sidebar, but on the right instead of left.

Major changes to friendster profiles

If you had visited all of my profiles today, you would have noticed that there are changes to the display images and in some cases, change of name/url.

Do note that the following has been changed (profile no. remains unchanged):
# 西沢雪穂 Yukiho Nishizawa (42670116) >>>>> ￜ小林春奈 Haruna Kobayashi (42670116)
/nishizawayukiho (4623690) >>>>> /hashimotokonomi (4623690)
/hashimotokonomi (42670116) >>>>> /kobayashiharuna (42670116)

You might have also noticed that ￜ高橋陽子 (54253582) no longer uses anime images and instead uses photos, somewhat like my main profile (32399691) these days.

Due to growing number of people wanting to add me and the limited time and space to accommodate everyone (as you can tell from me not logging into all of them, except the main account, between February and May), I am going to let you know how I handle them:

• I only read the 10 most recent testimonials, after deleting duplicates
• I don't check the message inbox because if I do, I would see forwarded messages making up a large majority of it anyway
• I am very particular on the primary display image. For all cases, I should be able to see it clearly on both the thumbnail (45x45) and actual size (the latter should be larger than the former), with a face (if any) visible in the thumbnail-size version.
  
• For anime images, , and are acceptable, but and are not because they are: a) images are more suitable as wallpapers and are therefore too small as display images, b) for the 4th image: the characters in it are too common, c) for the 6th image: I see it almost everywhere and I don't want all the emo or gothic stuff to appear d) there should only be between 1-2 people in an image and their heads and/or the upper part of the body should make up more than 50% of the image, as you can tell from the first 3 images.
• I would appreciate if characters from the following anime are not used: Cardcaptor Sakura, Maria-sama ga Mieteru, Prince of Tennis, Naruto, Bleach, Gundam Seed series, Tengenn Toppa Guren Lagann, Shaman King, Pokemon, Digimon, Inuyasha, Detective Conan, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball series, Touhou (game) series, Shuffle!, Jigoku Shoujo. Others, including Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu and Hatsume Miku, are acceptable.
• For others I would accept , and but not , and . You should get the general idea behind it: The rule mention above, lighting, how people pose at the camera (including how close), decent camera quality (picture taken at VGA quality (0.3MP) is not the same as one taken taken at 7MP and resized to 640x480), text on the image. Borders should also be avoided