BUTterflies say HI to Tralfamadorians (channel 4, deal 2, trick K)

BUTterflies say HI to Tralfamadorians (channel 4, deal 2, trick K)

Image by KevinHutchins314
BUTterflies say HI to Tralfamadorians ("So it goes, so it goes.")

(Captions? Queer Disks? Yeah, we heard about those in the IN-D CLUB, when we smoked the KIND BUD and danced to the DUlCet DUB in the BACKROOM. Queer awaRDS for an INnATE exCESS of POLLIamorous DISKS? The disko Inferno? BUT don't we all wish for a KIND reward? Your BUD Kevin enjoys the proCESS, relishing the Titanomaxia at Flaming Holey's. Whether five minutes, 5 YEARS, or five aeons: perspectives shift; not so STUNNING, we just get OLDER.)

How can the Medium provide leadership? How will the Dealer cooperate defensively? What will the Contractor reveal of their strengths or weaknesses? Will the Initiate be able to protect his Wizard Ace of Trump? Will the Wizard of the Void be able to triumph over material elements? And where is the Demon hiding?

Strategy:

Medium = You have no Air and no Fire; your Cosmic Tribe dancers in the Void are certainly in no position to act here; and so you either must select another of the dangerous Earth dancers or attempt a splash into the untouched Waters. When you'd tried to lead onto the Earth with your Π Pion of Pentacles during an earlier trick the response from the Contractor had been ominous: the Bitch had prognosticated both 9 and 2 of Pentacles but the contract-taker acquiesced with the 9 instead of the 2 Deuce, suggesting he may have held the 9 as a "cinglette/bluffer". If he already put the 2 Deuce (and any other Pentacles) into his écart (discards) then he could now be ready to pounce from the Void, and Earth cards could be trumped. On the other hand, he did hold at least that Earth 9, and he could be pussy-footing around with the 2 Deuce and/or some other possible card such as the 10 Ten of pentacles. Obviously you should expect the Ω Archon and the Υ Upsilon face cards of Earth pentacles to be held by your co-conspirator (the Dealer). Should you throw another coin from your Earth troves, or should you finally splash into the Waters?

Examination of the verrrry lengthy collection of Cosmic Tribe dancers which you hold in the cups of Water is contrasted with your rather short list of dancers on the pentacles of Earth. Is the contractor going to trump into this tierce with his Wizard if you play either of those suits? Perhaps both of those elements are trouble. If you play your face card among the pentacles you will be using that Ψ Psion to signal to your partner as much information as possible about your knowledge of the distributions in that element and its court of Earth members. You might be trumped, but you might have better odds of escaping now rather than later. With a bold banging, crashing and stomping, your Queern Of Disks Ψ Psion of Earth leads into this trick.

Dealer = You have three reasonable options now as you are required to follow suit into the Pentacles of the Earth. You could be extremely conservative and play a pip card from your Disks, trying to avoid losing any of your face cards in case the contractor trumps the Queern Ψ Psion which was led. You could be extremely risky and play your tremendous Ω Archon Warlock of Earth Pentacles, but you are afraid to risk his +4 tête points in such a dangerous predicament here. The Ψ Psion is shouting rather loudly, and you want to go along with your partner's suggestion, but you don't especially enjoy the possible outcome of the cheap conservative extreme nor the expensive dangerous choice at the other extreme. So the third option is a sort of middle-ground: you could "run in the Horse Race" and gamble on your other Earth face card; you could send your Υ Upsilon Cavalier of Pentacles (+2 tête points) and he could be your "Dark Horse in the running". If your side wins this trick, that's great, then you'll get the points for the Ψ Psion and the Υ Upsilon; but if you lose (if the contractor trumps your Disks) you won't be risking your most expensive diamond Ω Archon King Warlock of the Earth.

In an effort to take your chances by running right down the middle-of-the-road you decide to follow suit here with your Υ Upsilon face card of Earth: the Chevalier Carreau diamond-horseman of the pentacle element. And they're off!

Initiate (Contractor) = You were so clever in the earlier trick when pentacles were requested, you disguised your 2 Deuce, your 1 Ace, and your 10 Ten of Earth by utilizing the 9 of pentacles at that time. But now your little charade is coming unveiled and the truth will begin emerging as they ask about more Earth Disks. You can try to keep up this performance as long as possible, although your opponents will soon recognize the obfuscation. This is the time to play the other Bitch card: give them the 2 Deuce of Disks which had been prognosticated, and you'll satisfy this trick while exposing as little information as you can. Your disguise won't last much longer, but you can try to sustain it until they force your hand.

Scansion:
Medium = lead Ψ Psion of Earth.
Dealer = follow Υ Upsilon of Earth.
Initiate (Contractor) = acquiesce Earth 2.
Defense scores on face cards +3 tête points for the Ψ Psion, +2 tête points for the Υ Upsilon, plus they earn +1 Tricky Point for the tierce; these 6 are added to their previous 11 for a new subtotal of 17 points at the end of this Trick K. The Medium continues to maintain the tempo.

unidentified HGC clone

Image by AutomaticDefence
Indeed, another unidentified video card, although things are a bit clearer this time. The few online sources don't agree on the manufacturer, but other facts could be established, most importantly compatibility with the Hercules Graphics Card (HGC). Combining the better attributes of the two choices available when IBM's original PC was launched in 1981, it offers the for the time high text resolution of the Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) and graphics capability, albeit in black and white only instead of the CGA's 16 colours. However, the CGA is limited to 640x200 in any mode and thus customers often opted for a sharper text display more suitable for word and spreadsheet processing. The Hercules, as a single card, was conveniently also cheaper than the option to install both of IBM's adapters alongside in a system.

As a result, the HGC is not a standard per se, widespread success of the original 1982 version and copies rather established it as one. This model comes in the shape of a full-length ISA board, but later clones like the pictured TD3088A-equipped example generally have a much higher degree of integration and as it was common back then, a DB25f parallel printer port is usually provided as well. The reference to the Republic of China in place of or supplementing Taiwan can be seen on some hardware before 1991.

Available licences for this photo:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (recommended)
GNU Free Documentation Licence 1.3

Cheap PVR. One fewer power supplies. Total fan count: 3

Image by Lester.L.
I got a new 250 gig harddrive (which brings the total price tag to 8) , got rid of an 80mm fan and fooled around to see if the computer would boot with only one power supply. Lo and behold, It Did!

So I did some rearranging, moved the 120mm fan up to draw air over the HDDs and push it over the vid card's cooling fins. Eliminating the second PSU and the 80mm fan drops the fan count from 5 to 3.

Previous configuration: www.flickr.com/photos/lesterofpuppets/73002918/in/set-721...