Power Supply Trouble

There is an additional 4 pins on a 24 pin mother board power connector when compared to the older 20 pin mother board power connector. Duh! The power connector is wired and keyed so that you can plug in a 20 pin power connector into a 24 pin and vise versa (although the additional 4 pins hang over).

Some new power supplies allow you to remove those additional 4 pins to keep them out of the way when using an older 20 pin motherboard. I never realized those additional 4 pins are keyed the same as the 4 pin auxiliary 12 volt plug that applies additional power to the CPU. It never even dawned on me to try to swap those.

This guy managed to stretch his add-on 4 pin connector to the 12 volt plug. One would think by all the extra work he had to do to stretch it far enough should have been a clue that maybe it doesn't go there.


In any case, this mother board was fried by the time we got it.

Although this isn't the kind of thing I would have thought to do, it does bother me slightly that they aren't keyed differently.

Weighted Companion Cube <3

As usual, the latest installment of the Half-Life series gets my highest recommendations. This one also came with Portal. I was a big fan of Narbacular Drop. More of the idea than the actual game. When I heard Valve snatched up the guys that made it, I knew something wonderful was in the works and I was so right.

Portal is what they came up with. Everything about this game was spectacular. The concept, the levels, the computer bad girl, and of course the Weighted Companion Cube. I found a place to print and create your own Weighted Companion Cube. But be cautious, mass of the paper Weighted Companion Cube may not be enough to trigger Aperture Science 1500-Megawatt Super colliding Super Button.

Playing with Prosper

With my recent interest in finance I checked out a few finance blogs. One of them introduced me to a little website called Prosper. I was a little skeptical at first, but bottom line you are the bank. Folks put in for loans up to $25,000 and all loans are on a 3 year term. I am a lender, so I loan people money, but I don't have to come up with the whole principal, just at least $50. My $50, combined with many other Prosper lenders, make up the loan the borrower gets.

I get to chose who I lend money to. I can see their credit rating, debit to income ratio, and even post a question if I want. People with better credit can get away with a lower interest rate, but their a safe bet. Borrowers with bad credit will start at higher interest rates (pretty normal stuff). When I put in my $50 bid, I chose the lowest interest rate I'm willing to take. It's all very interesting and I highly recommend throwing in $50 to try it out. I got in on a reference, so after I made my first loan I got a bonus $25. Free $25 bucks is hard to beat.

Because my first loan has so far gone well, I've decided $50 a month isn't too hard to come up with. My first loan gives me back a whopping $1.68 a month. Right now the plan is to make the money I get back a month equal the $50 I put into it a month, thus making it a self sustaining investment. Depending on the loans I find, and assuming everything works well, I figure it will take about a year and a half before I reach that point. When that happens I'll be able to loan out $50's a month without having it come out of my income. Then from there I'll work towards bringing in enough to pay some real bills. It will probably be a while before I can live off Prosper income. Rough estimates tell me I need to invest well over $60,000 to even consider it.