Why My Screen Name is Kona0197…

Well my screen name breaks down into two reasons why the name came about.

The first reason is because I owned a 1996 Kona Lava Dome mountain bike. It was bright orange metallic. 21 speeds. Complete Shimano STX group. To this day I miss that bike and have not found one as nice. So far it is the best I have ever owned. So that’s where I get the Kona part of my name.

The second reason is because I had a cell phone back in ‘99 that had the digits 0197 as the last 4 digits in my phone number and I like that number arrangement.

How to Build a Computer Step by Step

Welcome to my instructions on how to build a PC from scratch. I hope this Blog helps you build your own computer and have some fun while doing it. You will find it is cheaper to build your own then buying a machine from Dell or HP.

Well first off we need a list of ingredients. I can’t help you choose what to use in your new computer. I can just tell you what you need then it’s up to you to choose the make and model of said part.

Make sure you do plenty of research about every part you buy. That way you can be assured the parts will hold up and are compatible.

You will need:

• Computer case
• Power Supply (650 watt or better)
• Motherboard
• Processor (CPU)
• CPU fan (May come with the CPU)
• Memory (RAM)
• DVD ROM or DVD Burner (I recommend a SATA model)
• Hard Drive (Again SATA)
• Video Card
• A copy of Windows  XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 if you plan on using Windows
• A copy of your favorite Linux flavor such as Fedora, Ubuntu or SuSE if you will be using Linux

Some extras that come in handy:

• Card reader
• Floppy drive
• Extra case fans

Just make sure when you purchase your motherboard and CPU and memory that they were made for each other. In other words make sure they are compatible.  This is a MUST.

Let’s have a brief, oversimplified description of each of these items and what they do. Pictures are JUST examples.

The Case: This one’s simple. The case is the big metal and plastic box that holds everything. Once upon a time they were all beige. Now they’ve gotten all wild and crazy, and you can get cases that look like spaceships, or insects, or robots or whatever. But the function remains the same: all the other bits and pieces go into it.

Here is a look inside the same case:

The Power Supply, also known as the PSU. It’s not going to run without power. The power supply is a metal box with a fan in it, and a bunch of cables hanging out. The cables get plugged into the motherboard, and the drives, and the graphic card, and whatever else needs power. Don’t be cheap here, especially if you’re going high-end. Lots of clean, stable power will make your system happy. I recommend a power supply of 550 watt to 700 watt.

Make sure it has all to connectors you will need as well. I recommend a power supply with at least:

• 3 SATA connectors
• 4 MOLEX connectors
• 1 floppy connector
• 1 PCI Express video card connector

The CPU: The processor…the brain. Everything that’s going on is generated and calculated by this magical piece of engineering. It plugs into the motherboard. Both Intel and AMD make CPU chips.

Intel CPU:

AMD CPU:

The CPU cooler: CPU’s get hot. You want them to not get too hot, or bad things will happen. The cooler is usually a combination heat sink/fan apparatus that sits on top of the CPU and draws as much heat as possible away from it.

Motherboard: This is the big circuit-board looking thing with all the sockets on it. The CPU, the RAM, the drive cables, the graphics card and other stuff all plug into it. It looks very complicated and dangerous, but don’t let it scare you. It’s just a circuit board.

The RAM: This is the memory that your system will have. The bottom line is that the more you have the better (within reason). Keep in mind any 32 bit version of Windows can only use 3.5 GB of memory. If you use a 64 version of Windows it can use 4 GB of memory and more.

Plan on getting a minimum of two gigabytes. I recommend getting 2 one GB sticks so you can run them dual channel. Your motherboard manual will show yo where to put the sticks.  If you’re doing a lot of graphic work or want a good game system, get four gigabytes or more depending on your operating system.

The Graphics card: This is the thing that hooks up to your monitor so that you can see what’s going on. If you don’t play games or do heavy graphics work, you can probably get away with almost any recent (or near-recent) card. If you demand maximum gaming or pixel-pushing though, there are a lot of fast cards available made by nVidia or ATI. I prefer nVidia.

NOTE: Some motherboards come with video built in. Should the board you are considering have built in video there is really no need to get a video card.

However adding a video card to a system with on board video can increase system performance.

The Hard drives: You store everything on these guys…all your files, your data, your applications, your photos…you name it. In all reality most people will need just one hard drive. You can backup data to a USB stick or DVD R as well.

A look inside the Hard Drive for those who are curious. Please DO NOT TAKE YOUR HARD DRIVE APART. Doing so will make the drive unusable.

The CD/DVD drive: Once upon a time these were considered an “extra” but these days are essential. Most software ships on CD’s these days, with larger programs shipping on DVD’s. Prices have dropped like crazy on these, so there’s no excuse for not getting a good one. You should really get one that reads all current disc formats, and you might as well get one that burns both CD’s and DVD’s so you can back up and permanently store important files.

The Operating System: Windows. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. You can also choose a flavor of Linux. The operating system is the is an interface between hardware and user; an OS is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for applications that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware.

The Monitor: This is the TV thing that sits on your desk. You still have a choice of CRT (big, heavy old-school) vs. Flat-panel. I prefer using the old-school CRT for my main monitor, but flat panel for the secondary monitors. They plug into your graphics card.

The keyboard and mouse you’re already familiar with. They’re the input devices, and also the things you bang on when things aren’t working right.

A few other helpful items:

You can also use a floppy drive if you use the old 3.5 inch floppies.

I also highly recommend using a card reader. Card readers make using flash memory a breeze.

DO NOT connect the card reader to the motherboard until you have completely loaded your operating system.

Getting it together:

Once you have bought everything take a moment to look over the purchases to make sure you got everything. Once you are ready you will need the following tools:

• Phillips screwdriver
• Small Phillips screwdriver
• Pliers
• Nail clippers
• Zip ties

A NOTE ABOUT STATIC ELECTRITY!!

Static electricity can kill computer components. It’s takes only a small discharge to ruin the smallest part. Ground yourself before working on any of these parts we are discussing. If possible buy and use a static electricity strap so you will always be grounded.

Once you are ready let’s get that PC built! Let’s start with the case. Here is a shot of our case. You will need to remove the sides of the case. They are held in by screws in the rear. Just remove the screws and side the sides off. To prevent scratches you can lay down felt or a towel on the work surface.

A shot of the front of the new case:

First we will install the power supply. It is held in by 4 screws in the rear of the case. Fit the power supply in it’s place and secure it with the 4 bolts. For now move all the wires out of the way. Here is a picture of the power supply installed. Notice I keep the screws I need to assemble the computer in a small dish.

Notice how I have moved all the wires from the proceeding picture out of the case. The tend to get in the way till they are needed.Also take note of that 120mm fan. They are needed for system cooling. Most cases come with them. If your new case did not come with extra fans they can be purchased. Follow the fan’s instruction’s for installation instructions.

Next we will install the copper motherboard standoffs. They are small. The color can be gold or silver. They look like this:

You can also substitute these plastic standoffs on the corner of the motherboard for extra support:

Now we need to know how many bolts to use. To do this unpack your motherboard carefully after grounding yourself and count the number of holes they look like this:

Now carefully hold the motherboard over the case. By sight determine where the standoffs go. We will not be mounting the motherboard quite yet so set it aside carefully. Go ahead and screw the standoffs in and secure them with a pair of pliers. Here are some pictures to help you see how to install the standoffs.

You will want to install the rear IO Shield at this time. It should have come with your new motherboard. They snap into place. They look like this:

Here we are snapping the IO Shield into the case:

Time for some work installing parts on the motherboard before we actually put the motherboard in the case. Make sure the board is resting on a static free workspace. I usually put the board on top the box it came in while working on it. Here is our new board. Notice the anti-static bag protecting the bottom of the new board:

Read more on the next page.

Will Windows 7 Save Microsoft? Not Likely…

To this day I still hear people say they don’t care for Windows Vista or they will not upgrade to Vista. It seems Vista made a bad name for itself. Of course there will always be those that have no issues with Vista but I think on the whole most people were turned off by Vista. How? Word of mouth. Blogs. Phone calls. Vista was shipped to early and the consequences have had a sour effect on Microsoft.

So will Windows 7 redeem Microsoft? Will it bring everyone back in to the fold? I think not. After all it’s the same old song and dance. And here’s why.

First of all there is the hardware issue. Most folks I know haven’t upgraded their hardware to run Vista. They were talked out of it by others who had bad experiences with Vista. So now they are looking at either spending good money on a new machine or upgrading the old.

Now I know hardware is cheap in today’s computer market. Yet for some of us we can only afford what we have. It’s not because we are poor per say. We just have other things we pay on. So faced with buying a new PC or upgrading a old PC than buying Windows we would rather just stick to what we have till they say we can’t use it anymore. Think about it. There are people still running Windows 98 SE.

Second thing I would like to talk about is the cost in money and time to run Windows. They say Windows 7 has brand new code from the ground up. So be it maybe they did recode all of Windows. People will still have to use a virus scanner and a spyware scanner. Drives will still need to be defragmented. And I’ll bet the Windows registry will still need to be cleaned.

What does this mean to the end user? Time and money. Time to constantly monitor the programs needed to keep Windows clean and running. Money because most people are duped into using Norton or McAfee and have to pay for the virus updates. I find most people are just not aware of the free alternatives out there. Most of the free applications do a better job.

Sadly I think it really isn’t the user’s fault that they must run virus scanners and spyware scanners. It is just the fact that Windows controls the majority of the desktop and notebook market. I’m sure if Apple computers had the majority of the market then the virus writers would target them.

On the other hand I don’t see people spending hard earned money while we are in this recession of sorts on a new unproven operating system. I hear it is faster and sleeker than Vista but time and experience will tell the tale. I myself will probably try Windows 7 to review it here.

As for Vista I personally love the look of Vista. I used it as my main OS for about 6 months. But I can see where people have had and are having problems with Vista.

My point in this article was to wonder if Windows 7 really can turn things around for Microsoft. Will Windows 7 really be a new step in the right direction?

At the End of a Very Long Rope…

For the longest time now I have been investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have come to learn that the Church is true through my own understandings and reasons.

So after a few years of investigating the Church I decided to join. But I’m having problems becoming a member. Why? Because I am not married to my sweet girlfriend of 9 years.

Now that brings me to the point of this Blog entry. We would have been married a few years ago if Social Security wasn’t standing in the way. You see at this point in life we are living off Social Security benefits that my girlfriend gets due to her disability. She has a bad back and other disabiliting factors. I’m going to college to improve our lives but as it stands now this is all we have.

I know there are those out there that will critisize living off the system I tell those that read this with that attitute that we are doing the best we can with what we have.

My whole point in this Blog is Social Security. They will not let us get married without losing what income we have. I really do not understand what thinking went into these laws. My better half would still be disabled should we married. Nothing would change except her name if she wants.

I’ve seen plenty of couples that have one person taking in SSD and the other one not. Yet they still get SSD. Why are we different? I have no clue here.

I’ve been down every avenue on this one. It seems nothing helps. And the whole thing about this situation is all we want is to be married and serving members of the Church.

Perhaps we need to hire an Attoney.

Thanks for reading.

LDS.net – A Series of Unfortunate Events

NOTE: Before you read this Blog please be aware that LDS.net is a great website filled with great people. I have an issue with a few people there but that does not mean LDS.net is an overall bad place. Feel free to visit LDS.net for yourself.

It’s funny how a simple argument with another person can get out of hand.

Last year I joined LDS.net. At that time I was still an investigator of the LDS Church but was at that stage were I had questions.

At first I had a great time interacting with people at the site. I would check the site daily for new threads or updates to interesting threads or those I had commented on. Things were going OK.

I started asking questions about the LDS faith. I even asked questions about anti-LDS sites. My questions were deep and provoking but none the less I needed some answers. After all one needs to know the whole truth before committing oneself to a cause or belief.

My questions and threads were struck down. Some said I was provoking people. Some said I was trying to stir up problems. Some of my posts were removed. Others were locked. I was told to not talk about certain subjects of the faith. How am to learn if I can’t ask questions?

I got into a small argument with a Admin there. It boiled over. I ended up being banned for life without a warning. It was stated that all the Admins were contacted about banning me. I have come to find out this is not true.

My point? Be careful. Keep in mind the people who you are dealing with. Watch what you type. Ask questions in the proper setting. Use caution.

Lately I have asked to be reinstated. I have asked 3 times. Every time I have been shot down. All I wanted was a second chance. Especially since I will be a member of the LDS Church very soon. It seems someone is holding a grudge or is unwilling to let me redeem myself.

I have since joined another LDS site. They are more apologetic and allow some subjects of a provoking nature to be discussed. I think I have learned from my mistakes.

I only hope in time those who are mad at me at LDS.net will forgive my trespasses.

So there it is. The moral is to watch how you handle yourself online.

9 Points Why You Should Buy From A Local Bike Shop

Here is the story: You decide to buy a bicycle because you have been wanting one for awhile now. So you walk into Walmart, Target, CostCo or Toys “r” us and your eye catches some nice looking bicycles for low prices. So you figure it is a good buy right? Here is the reasons why you might have just wasted a lot of money:

1. Weight of the department store brand bicycle vs a LBS (local bicycle shop) bike such as a Giant or Kona brand bicycle.

Manufactures like Kona or Giant go to great lengths to lighten their bike designs. They do things like triple butt or double butt the frame, place welds where they look clean and save weight, and make the frame out of light materials to begin with. And then they take it one step further by using weight saving parts. Even on low end LBS bikes you can expect to find a butted frame.

2. Components on a department store bike are..well..crap compared to the LBS offerings.

Walk into any LBS and look at their bicycles and you will see that not one of them (besides child’s bikes and the entry level models) use Shimano tourney components. Shimano tourney components are the lowest form of parts in the Shimano line and in my opinion are almost quite useless. Department store bikes are chuck full of these Shimano Tourney (SIS as it is called) components. The Tourney components BREAK very easy so don’t expect much from these low end components.

I stated that entry level LBS bikes may have these Tourney components. You get a great frame and free service from the shop in return should you choose these models in their defense. But overall Most LBS bikes do not use Tourney components.

3. Department store bikes use outdated full suspension designs

If you haven’t noticed, Kona uses 4 bar suspension design as do many other manufactures. Single pivot designs are still being used by bike makers such as Santa Cruz, but they also add a Stable Platform Valve shock to cancel out BOB – pedal induced bobbing. Department store bikes have rear shocks that are NEVER brand name shocks such as Fox or Rock Shox. Instead, if you buy a department store bike you get a no name, 2 or 3 inch travel rear shock. These shocks have no damping or compression controls either.

By the way, 2 or 3 inches of rear travel is so yesterday. Today’s bikes are getting 4, 5, and over 6 inches of travel.

4. Front forks on a department store bike make me laugh and cry. Why? that’s a easy one to answer.

Because they are NOT up to current technology and are even dangerous. Here is why I say that: New forks have a alloy 1 and a 8th inch steer tube, 1 pace forged crown, 32 mm stanchions that are pressed into the crown, one piece lowers, and are typically are air over oil or coil forks. Most new forks get 4 inches to 6 inches of travel, travel adjustment, preload adjustment knobs, and lockout devices. New forks can be had for as low as $150 bucks.

So what is wrong with department store bike forks?

From what I have witnessed, a majority of the department store bikes have a lot of fork problems. Most use 1 inch steer tubes. The crown is welded on, not cast as one piece. The skimpy stanchions are just tack welded to the crown instead of being pressed into the crown. (thus if a weld breaks after a long hard ride, you are going to get hurt.) The innards are simple steel spring with no compression damning or rebound damning. No lockouts. No travel adjustment. No disc brake tabs. And the lowers are bolted together instead of being cast as one piece. All this adds up to a dangerous fork. And to upgrade to a newer for you have to get a new frame because the head tube at 1” will not let you upgrade to a newer style fork.

5. NO DISC BRAKE TABS on the frame of a department store bike? Get real.

From what I have seen, only 3 bikes I have seen at department stores have disc brake tabs (51 mm mounts on the rear left seat stay) and out of those three, the fork did not have disc brake mounts on two of them. Due to the fact that those two bikes had 1 inch steer tubes, upgrading is almost impossible, so NO disc brakes. I will not buy a bike no matter how nice it is Without disc bakes tabs. After all, the industry is moving away from V brakes and disc is the way to go no matter what disc set you choose to use. It is time the department store bike makers step up and add disc tabs to all frames. At least that way a person has a choice to go disc without a flimsy adapter.

6. Crank sets on department store bikes are a pain in the neck and will eat your money.

Why? because on department store bikes, most of them use BMX style one piece cranks. That means your bearings are not sealed and will where out very quickly. And then there is the weight issue again. One piece BMX style cranks weigh more than regular 3 piece mountain bike setup. On top of all of that, you have these huge Chain rings and those chain rings have no ramps or pins to help pull the chain up and down and can not be removed or replaced. So what happens when you damage a chain ring on the trail? You have to replace EVERYTHING including the BB.

Normal mountain bike setups have 3 piece cranks now have splines setups and even have setups were the bearings are housed outside the BB shell and the chain rings are completely replaceable. They have the ramps and pins to aid in shifting. The BB, if it has one, is sealed and will last a good 3 to 5 years.

7. Department store bikes only have 21 or less speeds?

The standard these days is 27. three in the front, nine in the back. Road bikes have 30. I myself have 27. Without those 27 speeds the bike would kill me. Kona sells a 27 speed low end hardtail bikes for as low as $499.99!

There are now even rumors of 30 speeds – 10 in the rear – coming to mountain bikes.

8. Welds on a department store bike are likely to snap because they…well…suck!

Have you ever taken the time to pour over a department store bike and examine ALL of the welds and then compared those to a LBS bike? you will notice that department store bikes are not welded all that great due to the fact they are produced in mass and produced to quickly. The department store bike also has no gussets like my Giant does. The Giant has gussets around the head tube, disc brake mount, and BB to help frame stress.

9. Your department store bike will spend more time in the shop than at home.

Your department store bike will spend more time in the shop (LBS) getting fixed than it will at home because of these following reasons. Your rims will constantly untrue because they are low quality rims, built by a machine and not by hand with inexpensive thin spokes, and the hubs are a no name brand that can not bear a lot of stress. Your rims will need to be tensioned every month as well..

Your department store bike’s drive train will need constant true ups JUST to shift properly. Either your front chain rings and derailleur has problems throwing the chain or your rear derailleur has problems. Due to low end parts. You can upgrade but that can be expensive as well.

Your department store fork and shock never seem to soak up bumps and have to be adjusted – if they can be – all the time. Why? Your fork and shock are using most of their travel just holding you up on the bike. The rest is taken from you from pedaling (BOB) so your fork/shock act just like they were rigid bike parts.

Not to mention your wallet is going to hate you because tune ups are not cheap on department store bikes.

In closing, it would be wiser if you just save your money and buy a LBS bike. In return you are supporting your LBS and you will get free tune ups. You will be rewarded with a machine that handles better and will outlast a department store bike.

DEPARTMENT STORE BIKES ARE A WASTE OF MONEY!

Support your local bike shop!!

Transformers 2

I recently went to the midnight opening of Transformers 2. I was blown away by this movie. I was expecting it to be another love story with a few huge robots thrown in just like the first one but I was surprised and pleased when there was much more action then the first movie.

Megatron is back. I knew they couldn’t just kill off a character like him. He is too important. I was a bit sad that they choose not to bring back Barricade in his Police car disguise.

I was annoyed that they brought in a couple of robots with foul mouths. It is funny at the time but thinking back on it it was really not needed.

Devastator! Yes he is in this movie but not like the old guy who had individual robots that would transform into the big guy. In this take a bunch of construction vehicles just merge into a huge robot. They just get sucked up to form this monster.

I also wish they would quit making Jetfire into a different form. He was a F-14 looking Valkerie jet in the beginning of the old cartoons. One of my favorite toys of all time. They should have keep him like that. But they rarely keep any of the bots in their original form so I guess it’s OK.

I enjoyed the movie. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. This movie was better than the first and I can’t wait to see the third if there is indeed to be a trilogy.

I just wonder who they will bring back in the third movie. Unicron? Omega Supreme? Ultra Magnus? Metroplex? Tripicon? Triple changers like Astrotrain?

Guess we will see in 2011…

I recommend you go see it!

Apple OS X Changed My Life

I recently purchased a Apple iBook G4. I purchased the notebook off of craigslist. The guy I got the notebook from claimed the notebook did not work but I was able to fix it. All I really did was reinstall the operating system. After I was able to spend some time with the notebook I fell in love with the way OS X works.

Here are the notebook’s specifications:

• 1.07 GHz G4 CPU
• 768 MB DDR Memory
• DVD CD-RW Combo Drive
• Wireless Card (Airport Extreme)
• ATI Radeon 7500 Graphics

The operating system is OS X 10.3.9. The OS is also known as Panther. Apple has a habit of naming every new release of OS X after a big cat. For example the newest release, OS X 10.5, is named “Leopard”.

There are quite a few things that impress me about OS X. Here are the highlights:

• The Apple OS X “Dock”. Unlike Windows Apple has a dock on the bottom of the screen. Within this dock on the left side are icons that launch your favorite programs. You can add your favorite programs simply by dragging the programs icon to the dock. The right side of the dock shows what programs are open and has the trash bin. Clicking on any open program brings that program to the front as you can run many programs at once.
• Installing programs. If you are installing a program from the web all you need to do is mount the image then drag it to your applications folder on the hard drive. Most times the program will mount itself. If the program is not mounting it is easy to mount as all it takes is a double click. Installing from a CDROM or other media such as a USB stick works most the same way. All you do to uninstall is drag the program to the trash. How more simple can it get?
• Startup and Shutdown. OS X starts up very quick and powers down even quicker. Compared to my XP setup (Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB memory) this little notebook starts up and shuts down far quicker. I can’t speak for everyone but waiting to use your own computer while waiting for the PC to boot up is a pain in the neck.
• Security. Although I run a AV scanner and know that their are nasties out there for the Mac I really do not worry about security much. Based on BSD OS X is a bit more secure than Windows. I no longer have to worry about constantly looking over my shoulder for spyware or malware. No more defragging. No more constant AV scanning. It feels good to not have to run all those programs.
• iLife suite. iTunes is making my life a bit more easy because it is so easy to label MP3 files and burn music CDs. iPhoto makes life simple by allowing me so many options when editing my digital photos. Although not part of iLife I also use NeoOffice. NeoOffice brings the power of OpenOffice.org to OS X.
• The way files are stored on the hard drive. You will find no Start button anywhere. The way the files are stored is in a tree form so you click through until you find the file you are after or use the search function. I love it. Very simple to use and modify files.
• Battery life. I’m getting around 5 to 6 hours of use from a single charge on the iBook. This is outstanding. I couldn’t believe it at first but I’m loving the fact that I do not always need to have it plugged it. Even watching a movie the battery keeps up.

Well those are some of the reasons that I adore my Mac. I’ll write another review about it after further use in the future. Thanks for looking.

Welcome to my Blog!

Let me introduce myself!

My name is Terry. My friends online know me by my screen name Kona0197. I live here in the beautiful state of Oregon. My hobbies include mountain biking, building and fixing computers, fishing and and spending time with family and friends.

I am new to blogging but look forward to sharing my opinions and views with my friends and everyone using this site. Stay tuned. Feel free to leave comments.