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PC Build Log Part-2 The Build and A Delivery Nightmare

A brief recap – The old laptop was showing its age, hence we decided to build a custom PC. I went over my process of parts selection in the last post. This post comes with both its highs and lows – the euphoria of build and a delivery nightmare. Read on... The parts arrived earlier than expected, to my delight! The only part left was the motherboard – the one that tied it all together. This is where the hellish customer experience began. The product shipped was the incorrect model – slightly inferior in quality to the MSI A-320 A-Pro MAX that I had ordered. Fine, I returned it and ordered it again, this time from a different seller on Amazon. That was a mistake. They shipped a used (possibly a returned, faulty unit). It had clear signs of use – thermal paste marks, fingerprints on the I/O shield and the SATA cable pouch was torn open. Fuming, I returned it again, this time leaving a 1-star review for the sellar with proof. As if to add salt to the wound, Amazon rejected the review. Th...
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PC Build Log Part 1 - Inspiration & Parts Selection

​The old laptop was starting to show its age, with the slow spinning drive and faulty display. Scouring the internet for deals on budget laptops, I was disappointed by the lack of options with 8gb ram and solid-state storage within budget. So it was clear – we decided upon a custom-built PC! This was it! Finally, with all the research I had done in custom pc hardware, I can now use it to select parts for a home PC. I was stoked, as I always wanted to get hands-on with it (3 years of JEE preparation, then the first year of college and so on). I first searched for the most important part- the CPU. Within the budget, I saw three options – the Pentium Gold G5400, Athlon 200GE ( really wanted the 300GE but wasn’t available in India at that time :-( ) and the Ryzen 3 2200g. The Ryzen 3, while being the fastest among all three, was a tad bit overpriced. The extra cost, I felt was better invested in good storage and ram. The Pentium and Athlon were pretty close in performance, edge ...

Eragon

By  Christopher Paolini Rating 9/10 One egg, One boy, An epic journey,  Unlimited adventure How can one stone, lying unnoticed in the hills, change the course of the lives of people of AlgaĆ«sia ? Will it plunge their world into eternal darkness or....... give them their last ray of hope? All of this depends on the choice made by the young farm boy ......... Eragon. Take a fantastic storyline, add loads of adventure, mix it with a pinch of twists and a tinge of magic ... You get - Eragon! The story is beautifully written, has tons of surprises and lot of suspense too. Although it lacks in just one thing - humour. Yet the wonderful vocabulary and all that suspense completely makes up for it. Christopher Paolini has written a masterpiece. So dive into the magical world of dragons & elves, dwarves & urgals in the mystical land of AlgaĆ«sia with Eragon, Brom and Saphira!

Blood of Olympus

  Blood of Olympus  By Rick Riordan  Rating  8/10  Seven heroes ..  Millions of demons…  The final battle begins….   “Seven half bloods shall answer the call,  To storm or fire the world must fall,  An oath to keep with a final breath,  And foes bear arms at the doors of death” It is their one and only chance to save the world from ... the Earth!  As the crew of Argo 2 traveled deep into the ancient lands, Nico, Rayena & the Coach are desperately trying to restore peace between the Greeks & the Romans. One of the crew members has an "oath to keep with the final breath". Will they be ‘victorious’ to succeed or see the earth being torn apart ... by the Earth itself?  The Blood Of Olympus if the fifth and final book in the fantabulous Heroes of Olympus series. Set in the ancient lands of Greece and the modern Camp Half blood, this book takes us on the final journey of the crew o...

BOOK SERIES REVIEW YOUNG SAMURAI ( by Chris Bradford)

Rating 9.5/10 stars  Jack Fletcher' s father's ship was wrecked off the coast mysterious land of Japan , attacked by the Ninja pirates. With his father murdered and the responsibility to protect his rutter & being lost in the unknown land, Jack is left helpless. When the great Masamoto adopted him, he trained in the way of the warrior to become a samurai. Jack feels unsafe as the ruthless ninja ' dragon eye ', the  cold-blooded  Shogun Kamkura and his unrelenting enemy Kazuki are after his life.  With help of his sensei and his loyal friends, Jack is able to begin his journey to Nagasaki, to return to England.  Can he reach England safely? Can he face his biggest fear ever? Can he protect his father's Rutter ?  Young Samurai is a fantastic nine book series by Chris Bradford, with so many twists in the story that I lost count. These twists make the story so gripping that I couldn't put the books down till the end . Th...

Welcome to the world of Arduino

Whether you are a newbie or an expert at programming/ electronics and want unleash your creativity though microprocessor programming, Arduino is just the perfect platform for you to kick off.  This mini wonder is a micro-controller which is nothing but a small computer that you can control to perform various functions . E.g Turing LED lamp on/off . Hold on! You may wonder "why would I need a 'computer' to turn on a LED ? I can do it with a switch !" Consider this - you want a LED to blink after every 1 minute, or a more complex situation of a traffic signal, where multiple LED lamps need to turn on/off periodically....... or even more difficult situation where the traffic varies a lot. Now Green signal needs to be kept on in proportion to the traffic in that lane. It means, traffic in all lanes needs to be sensed to control the traffic light all the time.  These problems cannot be solved by a mere switch. Only a computer. Can perform...

BOOK REVIEW THE THRONE OF FIRE ( by Rick Riordan)

Rating- 8/10 Two heroes  An unstoppable enemy Five days till doomsday..... Carter and Sadie Kane are in a very big trouble. They have to find the Book of Ra , awaken the sun god, & defeat the serpent of Chaos, Apophis, a feat no magician has ever achieved . Carter also wants to save Zia, but can they do this in just 5 days  The Throne of Fire , the second installment of the Kane Chronicles, takes us through an epic journey along with humorous bits here and there. Rick Riordan  has as usual given hilarious titles to the chapters{ like  CARTER DOES SOMETHING REALLY STUPID( and no one is surprised) }. The plot is nail- biting and full of suspense and twists. He (Rick Riordan)  slowly and beautifully unravels the story except for the conclusion that happens and gets over too quickly. Overall it is a fantastic read ,especially for action-adventure- mythology genre