Resolution: Two Months On

Entering March and checking my savings balance, I now have £300.91 :D
In the fray of not being able to run Supreme Commander on my laptop, I started pre-building my proposed new rig. Here it is so far:

Processor	Core2 Duo E6600	£191.49
Motherboard	Asus P5b Deluxe iP965	£123.73
RAM	Corsair 2Gb XMS2-6400	£128.78
Hard Drive	Seagate Barracuda 500Gb	£87.99
Graphics Card	nVidia GeForce 8800GTS	£264.36
DVD Drive	Asus DRW Dual Layer	£19.96
PSU	Coolermaster eXtreme Power 650W PSU	£78.73
Case	Antec SLK3000B	£32.34
	Total	£927.38

I also have my eye on a rather nice Samsung 22" LCD, though that will increase the financial damage by another £250 or so... By the time I have the money to buy this exact spec should nose under the £850 mark :) The scary thing is that in 2 months I've made it 1/3 of the way to target, making the estimated build date around June

Resolution: One Month On

Well after 1 month matching alcohol purchase with saving for new PC pound for pound, I have £145.26 in the savings account (26p interest :D )

I'm not actually sure if that's good or not, but as I said, I can't really lose...

Railguns? Hell Yeah!

It appears that the US Navy is developing a prototype of the Quake-style railgun.

Engadget reports:

"The mere mention of the word brings back visions of the original first-person-shooters to grace our now-antiquated machines, and now the US Navy is getting real personal with a realized version of the pixelated railgun we all love and adore. Presumably ripped straight from the (admittedly lacking) storyline of Quake, an 8-Megajoule railgun has been officially created, fired, and deemed worthy of flanking our naval ships, which should strike fear in the hearts of anyone wishing us harm. The gun was showcased this week at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia, and utilizes massive quantities of electricity rather than gunpowder to propel "nonexplosive projectiles at incredible speeds." The weapon is powerful enough to equal the damage inflicted by a Tomahawk cruise missile, and the device's project director compared the impact to hitting a solid object "going 380 miles-per-hour in a Ford Taurus." Moreover, the railgun touts a 200 to 250 nautical-mile range, compared to the 15 nautical-mile range that current five-inch guns sport now. Interestingly, the weapon should "only" cost around $1,000 per shot once loaded onboard, which is chump change compared to the cool million that vanishes each time a cruise missile is deployed, and if everything goes as planned, we'll be seeing a 32-Megajoule prototype in June, with a 64-Megajoule rendition adorning our ships by 2020."

More info here

(I am revising in the background, honest)

My New Years Resolution

Two weeks ago my external hard drive died and Christmas Day, of all days, my laptop's fifth motherboard followed suit and kicked the bucket :( I'm still in negotiations with Dell to try and get the latter replaced but the whole process had already convinced me that my computer is in serious need of an upgrade. Therefore, every pound I spend on alcohol in 2007 will be matched by the 'Stop being shit and get something that will run new games' fund. By the end of the year I will have either a) more money to spend on a new computer (and filed for bankrupcy) or b) drank less (and have more money to spend on a new computer).

Logic says I cannot lose.