Faster than a Gallente Shuttle

I didn't get much time to either play Eve or blog on Friday evening because I was busy building my new computer. It is a massive beast, and while it isn't top of the line (I can never justify the cost) it is pretty close. Here is the spec sheet of what I got:

• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
• EVGA P55 FTW 200 SLI 141-LF-E658-KR LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
• EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
• Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W Continuous Power ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
• Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750
• LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (For Storage and non-gaming installs)
• Crucial CT128M225 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (for OS and select Games)
• Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

All said and done the build was just over $2000.00 USD with shipping included (I'll actually get a bit more back when I fill out rebate forms.) And holy hell is it a wonderful machine.

After getting Windows 7 running I downloaded Eve (among other crucial apps). I took it for a test spin and was able to run two copies of Eve at max settings while still IMing, transferring files from my old computer via the home network, downloading ME2 through Steam, and watching some videos on Hulu. I haven't even started to consider over clocking potential, and this rig is made to be over clocked. We've had a bit of a heat and humidity spike here, so I might hold off on the overclocking till I break out the air conditioners or if the heat drops back down to respectable Spring levels again.

I promise to post some pictures of my gaming space later this week to show you my setup. I'm rather proud.

Epic Fail

I've fallen drastically behind on my posting due to a large influx of real life. In the past month I have done the following:

• Witnessed the birth of my first child
• Survived the holiday madness including transporting said child to several family gatherings
• Gotten back into Eve as mining makes for a good profession while waiting for a baby to cry
• Managed to avoid joining the ranks of the many unemployed for now

So with my return to Eve I can say fairly certainly that not too much has changed for me with the release of Apocrypha. Mining wasn't touched too much by the last expansion, though since I stick to high-sec I also haven't seen the changes that have been brought about by sovereignty. I have, however, reached many of my short term goals for both of my accounts. So now I get to start to head down some new paths.

Before I begin to venture too aggressively into the world of potentially doing low-sec mining I think I'm going to explore missioning. Fortunately one of my characters is already well on his way to being able to handle some serious missioning. The other character is going to work on raising his drone skills and exploring some more defensive skill sets. I have seen some pretty impressive examples of what a properly fitted Hulk can withstand. I need to explore this more before taking my baby into risky waters.

All in all I'm looking forward to a good year in Eve. It will probably be vastly different from my past year.

I might be addicted...

You know you might have an Eve problem when you have this phone conversation:

Me: Hey man what's up?
Friend: Not much, watching tv with my wife. Why'd you call?
Me: Ummm I'm out at rehearsal till 10:30 and I just checked and I only have 2 hours left on a skill and nothing queued.
Friend: Okay....
Me: You mind logging in on my account and queuing up Exhumers 5 for me?
Friend: *sigh* Sure... hold on...

Yeah, you know it's a problem when missing 4 or 5 hours of skill training time upsets you enough to call in backup. At least $15/month is cheaper than heroin.

Multi-Tasking while Mining

So, I'm sure if you are a miner you've done it. You've dumped your cargo hold into a waiting jetcan or Orca and then run to get a soda, or use the bathroom, or take a shower. In fact, I have many daily routines now worked down to the point where I can effectively accomplish them between cycles. I'm sure when my wife gives birth I'll be able to prep a bottle or change the baby in the same time span in short order.

The point is that mining doesn't always require undivided attention. Now, there is always the chance that a two minute distraction will lead to far more than two minutes and you'll return to this. But the chances are that most of the time you are safe. Pull in your mining drones, set the drones on the Orca to protect you and your danger is minimal.

But even I'm actively at the computer I'm doing things in the foreground while I mine waiting for the sounds of turrets to rouse me from my slumber, or the computer informing me it's time to target another rock. I've posted to this blog, I've shot the shit in Corp Chat, I've worked on websites. And then I discovered the joys of Hulu. I can run two Eve clients, one on each monitor and staple Hulu in the upper left hand corner of one monitor and watch episode after episode of shows from Dead Like Me or Death Note to simply classics like Highlander.

So what do you do while you grind the rocks?

Loose Lips (and Wives) Pod Ships.

I've been rather busy this past week and a half. I'm a teacher and school just went back into session after summer vacation. That means that I've been back to work and trying to get a classroom set up, student names learned, lesson plans created, so forth and so on. Needless to say that the job that pays for Eve has to take some precedence over Eve itself so my time mining has been woefully limited.

Finally I get a chance to play with the holiday weekend, so this morning I fire up my two copies of Eve (what good miner doesn't have an alt account training an orca?) and head out to grind some roids. Cue wife who needs a few moments of my time. Thinking that she means "a few moments" in the sense of a regular human I decide not to bother docking both my ships and run downstairs to see what is up.

I'm sure now all the vet players are shaking their heads or beating it against the edge of their desk.

Needless to say, "a few seconds" turns into several minutes - it isn't like I could tell my wife "Hold on hon, I need to check on how my ships are doing since you are talking too much." During which rats show up, eat my mining drones, and pop my retty (fortunately my Hulk is much sturdier and they didn't get that). I come back to them chewing on my Hulk's shields. End result I lost the following:

5x Mining Drone 1
1x Retriever
2x Expanded Cargohold 1
2x Hobgoblin 1
1x Survey Scanner 1

After the payout from insurance I really didn't lose that much ISK (less than a 1M overall) but I did lose valuable mining time getting a replacement. This probably never have happened had I launched all my combat drones, or if I had realized that my wife's definition of "a few seconds" was considerably longer than that of a normal humans.

Lesson learned, isk payed.Definitely glad I always insure my ships though.