It's my birthday today!

Kel made me yummy breakfast. We had bacon and sausages with baked tomatoes. Very yummy! I've been working on the HTPC some more, well most of the day actually. Put in the new power supply, since the existing PSU didn’t have the necessary P4 connector – a lead that supplies a rail of 12V to the main board. I had secured the new PSU with Gaff Tape because the existing Gateway PSU had a tricky quick-release system. I corrected that later in the afternoon when I re-attached the gateway bracket to the new PSU so it could work in quick release. I had to drill the PSU case to do it. I then mounted the two ‘tines’ on the PSU so it could mate with the top of the case, then be secured with a plastic clip.

I set up the TV tuner card and it’s all working well. It was missing channel 9 and also wouldn't record properly. I reinstalled the software and manually entered the details for channel 9 digital in manually [191.625MHz, Provider ID 1, Video UID 519, Audio UID 720]. It took a lot of searching to find those settings!

Anyways, everything was burbling away nicely. I had it running Nine Digital in full screen while Kel watched the Bulldogs game. I smelt burning. I narrowed it down to the HTPC. I narrowed it further to the PSU. I could feel the heat on my face coming off it from about a foot away while looking for the source of the smell. It was too hot to touch.

Speaking of Hot. I bought some brass bits and pieces to make an adapter so I could run the heater we got from Kel’s parents off the BBQ gas bottle. That’s all running very well now, although the regulator on the hose that came with the BBQ seems to struggle with more than 1 bar. [The heater has 3 bars] You can hear the muffled hissing sound get pretty loud at 2 and 3 bars! It’s much better than the tiny halogen heater. At least this gas unit uses a fan to circulate the air as well as radiating heat out of the front of the unit.

Adaptor

We had pizza for dinner. Dominos managed to bugger up my order. TWICE. I really can’t understand how the bloody hell "Puffection" could possibly be misinterpreted as either "Pan" or "Classic". Neither of the two terms they use to describe a pan-fried pizza sound anything like "Puffection". Bastards. No-I-dea! Had the pizzas remade after talking to the manager. They sent out pan AGAIN. Got it right third time! Go Dominos!