Damn FarmVille

I'm spending much too much time playing this stupid game and organising my life around it. Why did I ever start it? Especially as I made loads of mistakes at the beginning which I'm having to live with and I'm certainly not going to spend any money on it!

So I've built this super-fast computer for 3D games playing and all I'm doing is Flash-based FarmVille. Where's the sense in that? The first thing that I do in the morning is harvest the crops that grew overnight so that I can plant some more which I can harvest before I go to bed. I've got lots of coins, goods, gifts and XP but nothing to do with it. Really stupid!

Ahhh well, I'm off to check my barley and hops so that I can brew some more beer.

Rejuvenating old multi-core machines

There seems to be a spate of fairly modern systems (especially Packard Bell) with Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad CPUs malfunctioning with motherboard failures. Often the customer will opt for a new replacement rather than a costly repair and software rebuild.


It seems a shame to just junk these systems after stripping for spare parts, then selling the CPUs and lighter components on eBay for a few pounds. I started buying new cases and motherboards for these systems for about £35 each and then re-constructing the systems and reselling them for typically half the price of an equivalent new system. Even the old OEM versions of Windows Vista is happy to be reinstalled and reactivated.

I probably don't make much profit on these but at least a bunch of parts will find a new home. I do tell the customer that they are rebuilds and hence do not offer a warranty with them. Apart from if they go bad in a couple of weeks, I'll repair or replace them.

Onwards to 8Gb memory

It really is too good an opportunity to miss. Upgrade the memory in my games system that is. The first desktop system to run with 8Gb. With quality branded gamer/enthusiast Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600GHz at under £25 for 2x2Gb matched pair.

I don't really see any performance difference yet, but just to idle Windows 7 with just 18% of the memory capacity is amazing. DDR3 memory prices just continue to drop. I purchased a similar pair when I assembled the system late last year for £47 and I thought that was a bargain. Now with prices about half as much it really is too good to miss.