Story of my ancient computer

Last weekend, I was finally able to dispose off my Celeron(P3) computer. It was the first computer that I built from scratch. I first built in in 99-00 and over the years upgraded many of the components. We started with a 4 GB hard drive and 128 MB of RAM and by end 2004, it was up to 384 MB of RAM, a CD-RW and 80 GB of memory. Through our stay in Mangalore, this was the primary computer that I used and it ran without skipping a beat (well, if you exclude 1 crashed hard drive and a couple of failed optical drives). When we returned to Bangalore, we found ourselves with 2 computers, and since the other was a Athlon 2000+XP, that I assembled in 2004, I couldn’t really find a reason to continue using this one. I stripped out the parts as best as I could and distributed them to various people. I bought a HDD casing and made an external drive out of that. I found a buyer for the monitor and speakers in late 2005, but there were absolutely no takers for what was remaining.

I toyed around with the idea of converting the computer into a file or media server but space is at a premium at my house. So, the computer was gathering dust. When my brother’s computer went on the blink, I took back the memory I had given him and advertised for the case+mb+cpu+memory bundle on various sites like craigslist, indiaconnect etc. Nothing happened for a few months, but then last week, I got a call from a prospective buyer. He finally came down on Saturday and bought the computer for the grand prize of 1000 rupees. Imagine, parts which cost me over 20000 rupees just 8 years back now worth little more than scrap value.

2007 F1 season

This is turning out to be one of the best Formula One seasons so far. We have two teams that are equally matched with four drivers at the top of their game. It has produced three fantastic races full of tension, uncertainity and intrigue, just the kind of thing that makes Formula One so special. Yesterday, just before the start of the race, I was so keyed up that I could feel my heart pounding away, easily over 135 bpm. I know because that's how I feel after a very intense exercise schedule. No wonder they say that the F1 drivers heart rate goes to almost 200 bpm at the race start.

A few things that really stand out for me
- Lewis Hamilton is really the real deal. He drives like a true veteran, I really felt that yesterday, there was no way that he would make a mistake, he was that good. Reminds me of Schumi at his best. I think I am becoming a fan. It helps that I don't have to listen to the ITV commentators whose praise of Lewis would be puke-worthy (in the grand tradition of most British commentators), though the Star Sports guys are bad enough.
- I think Alonso would be shell shocked by his performance. In the last couple of years, he's had the measure of Fisi pretty much everywhere and has never been beaten in a straight fight. I think the last time it happened was with Trulli at Monaco 2004. But as he is a true champion, I fully expect him to regroup and eventually he will get the better of Lewis.
- Kimi really needs to rework his strategy. I still believe that he is faster than Massa and since the Ferrari is the fastest car, he should be the fastest guy around, but he is not getting a chance to run in clean air. For the next race, he needs to qualify light on pole and just run away from the group.
- I've always admired Quick Nick, a humble no-nonsense guy who gets on with his job with minimum fuss. However, I felt that he was never capable of really breaking into the top tier. Looking at his performance yesterday, I could be wrong, his pass on Alonso was fantastic.

There's a four week break now until the next race at Barcelona, it'll keep all F1 fans on tenterhooks throughout.