Cooper McKay's Blog

Coolermaster Storm Scout

2009-05-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

This case looks pretty sweet, great price at $110. And a handle for carrying to LANS. I also was seriously considering the Coolermaster Temjin nvidia edition, but $400 is a little pricey for a case Money better spent on a better GPU or SSD.(Solid State Drive)Check out the case below, great little case for taking to LANS.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4543058&sku=C283-1221

Also I am wondering why I ever bought components from newegg, on tiger direct you don't have to pay tax! which can add up to a couple hundred $$. TD doesn't have as good of a selection as newegg, and shipping takes 3x as long, but its cheaper.

New Job

2009-05-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

Wow now I REALLY haven't updated in awhile. I start a new job next week working for Siwel Consulting Inc. as an IT contractor for Verizon's largest data center in Sacramento, Ca. (Free Fios perhaps? lol.) I'm basically going to be doing cabling and server hardware support. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the cabling. In high school I made some cat5e patch cables while working on the school network. I didn't enjoy that too much, this would be patching fiber cables however. I think it would basically be the same.

Man after working for basically pennies for 7 months its going to be wierd having money. In fact, ever since I have had bills to pay I never had enough money to live the lifestyle I want. Don't get me wrong- working for the school district was great, I had enough money for rent, utilities, food, even eating out sometimes. But there was no way I could ever afford to go to Japan to visit my brother, or even to buy a new computer. Now, I finally will be able to do those things. Quite the jump from practically minimum wage (I was making $12/hr ,now $23/hr) to a livable salary. I'm doing pretty good despite having no college degree if I do say so myself. :-) The degree will come in time, as I realize it is necessary to get more permanent jobs.

Need to update!

2008-12-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

Wow I haven't posted in awhile! There are quite a few things going on in my life I can make an update on :-)

On October 14th, I turned 23 years old. I feel older yet still young at the same time. It reminds me of that Blink 182 song "No one likes you when you're 23, my friends say I should act my age, whats my age again?" I am becoming more of an adult but still want to have a good time. As my Japanese room mate Bibby would say, "I just want to have special moment." Wise words..

I got a new job! I was briefly working for UPS loading packages onto trucks, but still looking what seemed like in VAIN for IT jobs. Prior to that, I had worked as a Network Technician for my college. I have to work with my passion, computers. Boxes are not my passion sorry. I was offered a position at Robert Half International shortly after my birthday! Much to my surprise, they found me a job right away, a 4 week contract at the Twin Rivers Unified School District IT Department in Mclellan, Ca. I didn't really know what to expect when I went in on the first day. I thought I was going to an interview but they put me to work on the spot. After 4 weeks I learned the contract had been renewed now I have been working here for almost 3 months now with word I may be hired on as a permanent employee. This job is great for me, I get to use all the tech I know to help users throughout the school district, and I learn something new almost everyday.

I'm still going to a lot of LANS. In November I went to Oregon for the first time for PDX 12.5. I flew with my friend Cameron. We are so hardcore, we LANed on the plane. :-) Unfortunatley my battery died right away, so I was only able to get my hero to level 2 in Warcraft III. The LAN was a blast and I got to meet some cool people. One of my friends won about $2500 worth of computer hardware. I chose to drive back with some friends after the LAN, it was about an 8 hour drive from Portland, Oregon back to Davis, CA. Cameron had a power inverter, which we were able to use to charge our laptops, however mine drew too much power so we were only able to plug them in one at a time. But were able to get another game of Warcraft III in. LANS are a ton of fun and I want to keep going to as many as possible, hopefully this summer I will be able to go to Quakecon in Texas.

I am still very into video editing. The staff of a LAN I go to, Ascendancy Gaming, were impresssed by the videos I had edited and put on youtube for my Team Fortress 2 clan, and chose to "hire" me as their video editor. A few weeks ago I recorded footage for their WinterWonderLAN. I still have to finish editing the video, I regret not finishing it right away but I have been very busy at work and got several offers from IT companies to work for them. Bascially been pretty busy.

I'm really looking forward visiting my parents in Santa Cruz this Christmas, as well as some friends from high school. Going home will give me a chance to work on some of the projects I have been meaning to get done for awhile. However my parents archaic DSL connection does not help my productivity very much. >_<

I'm sad I won't be seeing my twin brother Nick this Christmas. He is attending Waseda University in Japan and won't come back to America until September. I really want to visit him, if I can save up some money. Its odd spending 22 birthdays and christmas('s?) with someone and now they are not here. : ( I'm really happy for him though it seems like he is having a good time over there.

This has been an update on Cooper's life. Cooper McKay signing off...

Games I am currently playing

2008-09-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Team Fortress 2

Tf2 needs no introduction I have been playing it almost every day since its release almost a year ago.

Halflife: Decay

Halflife: Decay is a cooperative 2 player game that was included with Halflife when it was released for the playstation 2 in 2001. It was only included in the ps2 release, valve was planning a PC version but it was canceled for reasons "beyond their control". A group of people managed to extract the maps from the ps2 version onto the PC and using this method ported the game to PC, albiet 7 years later. It holds up suprisingly well though, it uses the high definition model pack that came with blue shift, so the character models actually look very good for the half life engine. Its fun playing it for the first time so many years later, because its like I am getting to play half life for the first time, its the first offical halflife game in awhile, of course the PC version isn't official, but decay is new for a lot of PC-only gamers. I think its exciting for fans of the original half life because you get to visit places that were in the original game, and theres more story, plus its really fun playing with a friend.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People episode 1

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is a game based on the internet cartoon Homestar Runner. I have been a fan of the homestar runner since 2002 or 2003, I think thats when it came out, because I was still a junior in high school. The game is basically an old school adventure game, but its hilarious! The graphics look really good too, its kind of simplistic but they use neat effects like panning the camera and zooming around. It was only $8.95 and they have a second episode out now. But I want to beat this one first :D

Awesome new electro song from Super Mal.

2008-05-19T08:50:00.001-07:00

Super Mal - Light Years

Alice Deejay

2008-05-18T04:04:00.000-07:00

Alice Deejay was a popular Dutch electronic dance group that performed from 1999-2002. The group consisted of record producers Pronti (born Sebastiaan Molijn), Kalmani (born Eelke Kalberg) and DJ Jurgen, with lead singer Judith Pronk and background dancers Mila Levesque & Angelique Versnel. They were VERY popular after their single "Better off Alone" in 1999. in 2000 they released an album entitled "Who Needs Guitars Anyway" (The only CD I ever bought.) In 2002 the lead singer, Judith Pronk retired to work in the cosmetic business. Alice Deejay was disbanded.

In 2004, a new act was formed from the same producers called Candee Jay, but had no where near the success of Alice Deejay, after two hits it the project was disbanded.

In the summer of 2007 Alice Deejay performed at Winterfresh with a remixed version of "Better off Alone" Judith Pronk however, was not there. Producers Pronti & Kalmani formed a new act called Dash Berlin, focusing on trance rather then dance music. Their single "Till the Sky Falls Down was released in April 2008 and was a huge sucess.

note: most of the above was copied from wikipedia, I tried to rewrite it in my own words but its like 4 AM , anyways, just citing it to make it legit :)

In 2007 a song appeared on youtube called "Far Away" but whether or not Judith is singing is to be debated, sure sounds like her though. Will Judith Pronk ever return? Her energy is unmatchable.

Graphics Cards recited from memory IN ORDER

2008-05-18T02:55:00.001-07:00

Graphics Cards recited from memory IN ORDER, I won't remember all of them but I will try. Cards in bold means I have owned one. I love video cards each one improves upon the last, offering new features and faster framerates. The first video card I bought was a VGA 2 MB VESA card, and the first graphics accelerator I bought was the 3dfx Voodoo Banchee.

3DFX: 1995-2000
Voodoo, banchee, 2, 3000, 3500, 4, 5, 6

ATI: 1997-present
Rage, Radeon, Radeon 8500, 9500, 9600 pro, 9700 pro, 9800 pro*, x800, x800 pro x1600, x1650, x1800, x1900, x1900XTX, HD 3800, HD 4800
(Wow I am terrible at remembering ATI, their naming scheme is harder to remember and I never owned as many of their cards)

Nvidia: 1997-present
TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra,
(All from here on have Geforce name before them ) Geforce 256, 2MX, 2GTS, 2Ultra,2 Ti, 3 ti 200, 3, 3 Ti 500, 4 ti 200, 4 ti 4600, FX 5600, FX 5700, FX 5800, FX 5900 Ultra, 6600, 6600GT, 6800, 6800 GS 6800GT, 6800 Ultra, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, 7800 GT, 7800 GTX, 7900 GT, 7900 GTX, 7950 gx2, 8500, 8600 GT, 8800 GT, 8800 GTS, 8800 GTX, 9600 GT, 9800 GTS, 9800 GTX, 9800 GX2

GTX 260 , GTX 280

Video card interfaces:
ISA, PCI, AGP, PCI Express

Note: this is mostly in terms of when they were released, but a few are in order of performance, for example; the Geforce 3 ti 200 came out after the geforce 3 but was actually slower.... Heh, I had a friend that "Upgraded" from the geforce 3 to the Geforce 3 ti 200, what an idiot... I may have missed a few this is reciting from memory hehe.

New Nvidia video card may be appearing in June

2008-05-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Nvidia might be releasing a new graphics card series "GTX 2xx" this summer, a successor to their 9800 series. Originally called the 9900 GTX, Nvidia has ditched their previous naming scheme. Their new flagship gpu (Graphics Processing Unit) will be called the GTX 280, rather then GTX being at the end like the 9800 GTX. This will be the first time Nvidia changed their naming scheme since 1999 with the introduction of the Geforce 256 as a successor to the TNT2 Ultra. It looks a hell of alot better than the 9800 GX2, it will be the first gaming GPU to feature 1 GB of ram in a single GPU.

The previous Nvidia Speed king, the 9800 GX2 had 512 mb on each board and was essentially two GPU's in one, and the same is true for ATI's Radeon HD 3870 X2; which adequates to not fully utilizing 1 GB. The older generation 8800 GTX actually performed better than it at high resolutions due to it having 768 MB over the 512x2 MB in the 9800 GX2.
In my opinion the 9800 series offered nothing new but higher framerates, and not enough higher to justify owners of the 8800 series to upgrade. When the 8800 GTX was released in late 2006, it was a significant improvement over the 7800 Series: Direct x 10 support, stream processors, onboard physics acceleration, and shader model 4.0 just to name a few. The GTX 2xx series however, looks like it will have new features in addition to faster framerates.

The GTX 280 has a entirley new architecture: GT200. (9800 series is G92) I hope to be seeing more than 40 FPS in Crysis on Very High . That is what the 9800 GX2 performs at and is simply unacceptable; not much of an upgrade from 30 FPS on the 8800 GTX. The new architecture means we will be seeing a much greater leap in framerate then the 8800-9800 series.
However the negative side, Nvidia doesn't seem interested in supporting direct x 10.1. The new card from ATI, the HD 4800 series, will. I am looking forward to this June when we will hear more about this exciting graphics card, and I hope it will be worth spending $500 to upgrade from my almost 2 year old 8800 GTX.

If you are interested in reading more about the GTX 280, I recommend you search for it on tomshardware, that is where I got most of my information.

My top 5 most anticipated PC games

2008-05-13T16:46:00.001-07:00

1. Starcraft 2 (TBA, December 2008?)
2. Deus Ex 3 (TBA, guessing late 2009) http://www.deusex3.com/
3. Mafia 2 (TBA,guessing fall)
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (TBA, probably October-December, all the other GTA's took 6-8 months to come to PC)
5. fallout 3 (September 2008)

(Games I will play but most likely bit torrent and only have interest in due to the hype)
Mass effect
Spore
farcry 2

Adventure Game Studio

2008-03-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

(Above: An attempt to re create my room at my parents house when I was 15. Complete with Pentium III computer!!!)

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a free game making program that allows you to create games in the style similar to classic Sierra and Lucasarts early 90's adventure games. However you are not limited to making adventure games, it has a powerful scripting engine based on the C language. The game interface is fully customizable though set to Sierra interface by default. It supports classic resolutions Sierra and Lucasarts used 320x200 and up to 800x600. Version 3.0 Added hardware support. Some of the scripting is difficult but there is a nice community in the forums that can help you answer any question you have.

I have yet to finish my first full game but as a fan of adventure games who grew up in the 90's, I can't wait to make my dream a reality.

A simple script I added for looking at objects. The scripts are easy to use, you just click which one you want. You have to know the syntax though but you can easily find whatever you need to know on the forum.

Download it here

Review for Cisco CCNA Exam at DeVry University and Cisco ACAD online

2008-02-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday night I have two finals for my networking 202 class at DeVry University. I have the final for the class, and the online final for the Cisco Academy online course right after. I have to know quite a bit of terms, 4 pages front and back of written notes. I am going to put all the terms on here with the answers to help me review for the exam next week.

Parts of a computer (don't need to study)
NIC's and how they work hardware/software
Different categories of internet access: Dialup, Cable, CHSI
TCP/IP and how it works
Ping, arp, tracert commands
convert binary, decimal, hexadecimal
MAC Address and logical address What are they used for and when?
IEEE 802 specifications
Coxial, Fiber media types
Twisted pair, cat 3, cat 5, cat 5e max lengths
Fiber optic mult imode and single mode
Define properties of a wave: Frequency, amplitude, phase, attenuation, signwave characteristics
What media is used for what application; backbone, distribution point, LAN
Hubs, repeaters, switches, routers, what they do and how
Client/Server and P2P network
RJ11 vs RJ 45
RJ 11 is used for phones, RJ 45 is used for ethernet

DCE and DTE Difference
DCE (Data Communications Equipment) and DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) are descriptions of the role an Ethernet interface. DCE is typically the upstream device (network end), and DTE the downstream device (user end). DTE is an end station, while DCE is a server, router, or hub.

DTE-DCE or DCE-DTE connections use Standard Ethernet Cable (straight-thru)
DTE-DTE or DCE-DCE connections use crossover Ethernet Cable (send/receive "cross over")

DCE/DTE refer to interfaces - not the actual device. A device can have both DCE and DTE ports. However, in general:

PC LAN cards (NIC - Network Interface Card) are DTE
Hub LAN ports are DCE
Hub Uplink Ports are DTE - it is a shared port with the last LAN port, but has the pinouts crossed
Cable Modem LAN port is DCE
Router LAN ports are DCE
Home Router WAN Ethernet ports are DTE

Major standard making bodies in networking: TIA/EIA, IEEE, ISO

OSI Reference Model
I use this mnemonic to remember it: PDNTSPA.

Application
This layer supports application and end-user processes. Communication partners are identified, quality of service is identified, user authentication and privacy are considered, and any constraints on data syntax are identified. Everything at this layer is application-specific. This layer provides application services for file transfers, e-mail, and other network software services. Telnet and FTP are applications that exist entirely in the application level. Tiered application architectures are part of this layer.
Presentation
This layer provides independence from differences in data representation (e.g., encryption) by translating from application to network format, and vice versa. The presentation layer works to transform data into the form that the application layer can accept. This layer formats and encrypts data to be sent across a network, providing freedom from compatibility problems. It is sometimes called the syntax layer.
Session
This layer establishes, manages and terminates connections between applications. The session layer sets up, coordinates, and terminates conversations, exchanges, and dialogues between the applications at each end. It deals with session and connection coordination.
Transport
This layer provides transparent transfer of data between end systems, or hosts, and is responsible for end-to-end error recovery and flow control. It ensures complete data transfer.
Network
This layer provides switching and routing technologies, creating logical paths, known as virtual circuits, for transmitting data from node to node. Routing and forwarding are functions of this layer, as well as addressing, internetworking, error handling, congestion control and packet sequencing.
Data Link
At this layer, data packets are encoded and decoded into bits. It furnishes transmission protocol knowledge and management and handles errors in the physical layer, flow control and frame synchronization. The data link layer is divided into two sublayers: The Media Access Control (MAC) layer and the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer. The MAC sublayer controls how a computer on the network gains access to the data and permission to transmit it. The LLC layer controls frame synchronization, flow control and error checking.
Physical
This layer conveys the bit stream - electrical impulse, light or radio signal -- through the network at the electrical and mechanical level. It provides the hardware means of sending and receiving data on a carrier, including defining cables, cards and physical aspects. Fast Ethernet, RS232, and ATM are protocols with physical layer components.

802.3 standards and what layers of the OSI model they function at

Latency and propagation delay

collisions in ethernet- local, remote, late, jabber.

Long frame vs short frame

10 megabit, 100 megabit, and gigabit autonegotiation

Auto negotiation - Station sends out signal names and techniques

STP - Spamming tree protocol - what is it used for?

Techniques that switches use to reduce the number of collisions - need to know the specific names for it

Two methods store forwards and cut through how switches send frames

which devices breakup collisions and broadcast domains

TCP/IP Reference Model

Protocols that work with TCP/IP, ICMP, ARP, RARP what layer they work in of the OSI model

FTP - Which layer of the TCP/IP it works at
application

Protocol for the WWW
html

How ICMP, ARP, FTP, http work

IPV4 how it works , how many bits, classes of ip addressing

routed protocol vs routing protocol

IPX and netboui how they work

MAC Address table and routing table differences

What is an autonomous system?
A collection of networks under the control of one central administrator

Link state routing and distance vector routing

examples of routed and routing protocols

difference between exterior and interior gateway protocol

Routing protocol - RIP basics

Acronyms - TCP/IP, VPN, NIC, RJ, ECS, CSMA/CD, IPV6, VDP, RIP, OSPF

Which media is susceptible to electromagnetic interference and radio interference

Crosstalk - how it works

Speeds of ISDN, T1 Line, T3 Line

IP address host / node portions

Essay Question - Media Cat 5 single mode fiber optic etc.

Devices, which media would be appropriate and why. Router to switch, backbone etc.