Three years on...

Three years might seem like a long time to
some, but for others it goes pretty quickly. It might feel like not much has
been achieved or that it was spent stalling the progress of the rest of life.
Whichever your view, it is a long time for a computer to be running and it was
pretty fugly inside this particular unit.* Not that it was slow or anything... 1.6GHz Sempron on a Geforce 6100 board still gets a lot done.  

I stopped getting people cheapo SHAW cases a
while back. They're not too bad - power supplies haven't blown up or anything (using 50W from 600 bazillion is fairly safe).
Bits could fit better or at all. (Some screwholes are absent as well as the
ability to open one side of the case) But after a while it just doesn't seem
worth it to save those last few dollars.

A really random and big grate on the side panel
seems might make a good first impression for ventilation... until nearly three years'
worth of carpet fluff/dust finds its way in. 15-30 minutes with a paintbrush
resulted in a very dusty table outside (I find the idea of buying a can of air
nearly as bad as buying bottled water. Not my table so it's ok).  Plus the wind wasn’t blowing that day. Sometimes the brush side wasn't stiff enough to pierce what looked almost like felt under the cpu fan.

But yeah... that sight was quite disturbing. Eww. Maybe kicking one's computer in this instance would actually be good in dislodging dust. Hmmmmm