So, we had one of these little gadgets that was sitting around, fairly inoperable, at the bottom of a desk drawer. eBay to the rescue! I have a battery en route, as well as an upgrade sleeve that will accept PC cards. I’ve already got the 4GB SD card. The idea is to get it able to connect to an 802.11 network, as well as play an appreciable amount of MP3s. I mean, the thing has a standard headphone jack right there on the top! It’s practically begging to be turned into a flashy mp3 player, on top of being a PDA and wireless… aw, hell. A palmtop. There, I said it.

Of course, this can’t go easily. I’ve been waiting on the battery forever, and had auctions (like the SD card) that I won after the battery show up before it. If I unplug the A/C adapter, *poof* goes all my data. So, I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern. At least, when the SD card arrived, I could test it, right? Well, it appears that it doesn’t want to format the card. And while Googling seems to solve most Apple and Linux related questions, not so for HP/Microsoft amalgamations.

The only information I’ve been able to find is outdated. Compatibility listings only go up to 1GB, but there are spotty reports of getting 2GB cards to work. HP’s support won’t even attempt to answer the question because it’s so far out of warrantee. That’s odd to me, because their live support was always great at handling questions about my old Compaq laptop, and it was a Pentium 1. WAY out of date. Perhaps this is a difference between their live support and their email support, and I should try the live support again.

In any case, if any of you has knowledge of such handhelds, and wouldn’t mind shedding some insight in my general direction, I would appreciate it crazy-like. If I have to downgrade to a 2GB, or there’s a software update out there that I need, lay it on me. :)

So, armed with a combo drive and a 512 MB SO-DIMM, I was ready to upgrade the crap out of my iBook. By that, I mean keep track of the screws while did most of the work. But, this is neither here nor there.

I had acquired both from ebay, and I was boosted by the fact that the machine had powered itself on, while closed, booted, and gone into sleep mode while I was off galavanting around the Flint and Detroit areas for family fun. So, it was working again, but the upgrade required a power-down. I knew it was risky, but I was bound and determined to squeeze every last drop of cool out of this thing. 1 GB of RAM and the ability to burn CDs was just the kind of cool I wanted. (cool)

This is where things took a bit of a turn for the worse. After tearing apart the entire laptop, layer by layer, we discovered that this particular generation of iBook does not have a second RAM slot for its onboard RAM. Nope, it has actual onboard RAM. Well, at least we could upgrade to the Combo Drive, right? Sure!

But it won’t turn on. Again. Same exact problem. *sigh* So, I have activated the actuators, perpetuated the perpetuators, set the gears to grindin’, reversed the polarities, increased the transporter buffer, re-routed power through the secondary coupling, and have decided to part out the iBook and sell its bits on eBay to fund a newer, better, faster laptop.

If you know anybody who’s interested in these sort of bits, please feel free to send them here. Also, please do the same if you know people looking for used White Wolf books. :)

In the meantime, I am not without a machine, thanks to . His timely gift of a used tower is much appreciated. I’ve already brought my old 17″ CRT monitor out of storage (AKA gathering dust on the floor next to my desk), put some extra RAM in it that I had lying around, and the Ubuntu install was completing when I left the house this morning. I still need to find the video card drivers and find a better place for my printer, but all is well.

So, the electronics saga continues. I’m not sure why this happens to me in cycles (power supply and motherboard on my last desktop gave out on me simultaneously, power wouldn’t turn on with the iBook…), but apparently I’m rolling with it well this time. :)

We got the best Xmas present EVER for . Seriously. And it wasn’t even on his list.

And, since yesterday was Yule, and I exchanged our presents for each other then. :) She dug the Zelda Hoodie that I got her, and I’m going to have longer and more water-efficient showers in my future! Is it strange that I’m this happy about getting a shower head for Yule? Heh.

You’re going to have to covet that hoodie IRL now, ! MU HA HA!

I really wish that would pull her head out of her rectum.

Also, iBook won’t boot. Power button seems to have no impact on the generally off status of the laptop. It -works-, though, because you can use it in the keypress combination to reset the power management unit, and the Apple charger responds properly by blinking at you. PRAM reset also has no effect. Holding the power button down to clear capacitors with no power source, also no effect. Battery is charging when power is plugged in. Battery is responding properly. Won’t boot with the battery in or with the battery out. No chime, no nothin’. I even unplugged, took out the battery, cleared the capacitors, took out the keyboard, airport, that little metal plate, and then the RAM, waited 20 minutes, and put the thing back together. Also, I let it sit for 10 hours.

It’s just not. turning. on.

The only thing that I can think of is the logic board, and the notoriously shoddy video on it. I can a) take it back to Apple and see if they’ll replace it for free, since they’ve had a pseudo-recall about this sort of thing (that I missed the date on), b) replace the logic board myself – by which I mean watching over ‘s shoulder, and trying to learn something, or c) part the (*(@#$ out and use those earnings to save for an upgrade. High-end PowerBook G4s on eBay and refurbished MacBooks from Apple are going for about the same price these days.

Or, it’ll act like ‘s did, and just randomly start working again. *shrug* Whatever. Usually, I’m all freaked out and upset about this sort of thing, but I’m really laid back. I have a bunch of options in front of me, and none of them are bad.

I’m going to step outside for a moment, breathe the not-quite-cold-enough air, and smile at the sky.

I woke up this morning after about 11 hours of sleep. That’s two nights in a row with that volume of sleep, and my body hasn’t felt so rested in a long time. I know it’s needed when the only sinus headache I get is mild.

is sick, and she was catching it before she left for New York. So, it looks like I’m following her lead. Copious amounts of Vitamin C, as well as the aforementioned sleep, are helping my body to fight it off, thankfully.

First thing I did was address a situation that has been frustrating me for weeks now. The wireless bridge that we use for our internet connection hasn’t been able to find a network to attach to, for about 75% of the time. When it does find one, it attaches for just long enough for me to attempt to load a page, and then it drops again. This thing has problems seeing the wireless router that’s right next to it, much of the time.

So, I moved the bridge back out into the hallway (closer to the source), and it picked up signal. It was as slow as dialup, but it was solid. I jumped up and down for joy a little bit, and then started browsing teh intarwebs from bed, where my comforter was still invitingly cozy. After a short while, Buddy joined me, so I surfed and petted the dog. Good times. Eventually, I decided to get up, and set the W2K3 server to update itself while I took a shower. And it was a perfect, relaxing, just-long-enough hot shower. My back muscles and neck muscles relaxed (which is a miracle, lately). I was smiling as I got dressed.

Update was successful, and now with intertubes, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t go and get that USB wireless adapter for that ancient iMac that’s downstairs. It’s not AirPort compatible, but I had found an adapter by Belkin that has open-source drivers (well, the makers of the chipset put out open source drivers, so it’s the same, in the end). It also happened to be the least expensive of the bunch, so I hit the ATM, hopped a bus, and headed to CompUSA in Frandor.

I picked it up, amazed and content that my day of technology was going so well. I decided to ride the bus the long way back so that I could get some reading in. Yup, still working on Wishsong of Shannarra.

By the time I got home and let the dog out, I was a little light-headed and shaky. This confused me, until I looked at the clock. 3:12 PM. I hadn’t eaten yet. SMRT. So, I set some eggs and hash browns cooking, and pop the wireless adapter into the iMac.

This is where things stop being easy. The device registers in the hardware list in Ubuntu, but it’s acting as if there’s no driver installed. Don’t think I can use ndiswrapper with a PC driver on an iMac. Also, I need to download some packages to do that, and the point of getting this was so that I wouldn’t have to run a wire to the iMac from upstairs. And I really don’t want to haul this thing into work.

So, I grab my iBook and bring it downstairs. I start searching for some drivers, and set the W2K3 Server (Alpha-Trion) to download some more updates. At this point, the connection is slower than dial-up. Still there, but crawling. I grind my teeth a little, but I’m able to bring up the Ubuntu forums page, which is about the best font of Ubuntu knowledge ever. And it’s down for some database cleanup. No access.

On the good side of things, the eggs and hash browns were delicious, and hit the spot.

The update on the server dies, because the connection has. I go upstairs, grumbling in my old-man grumble, and move the bridge around until it gets a signal. Nothing stable to be had, unfortunately. So, I packed up my shit, snapped a pic of the Playstation that I’m putting up on eBay, and headed out. After a nice walk, I enter Theio’s to find that my usual spots are taken. No biggie, there’s a table near a plug, so I sit there.

Right in the direct sunlight. In my black shirt and slacks. I started to sweat. IN OCTOBER. There is something wrong with that. I could barely see my iBook’s screen, and I was totally overheating. Thankfully, one of the nearby shaded seats was vacated shortly afterward, and I sit there now. Just out of the sunlight, decently cool, and with an idea to get some online shit taken care of, and then maybe some writing.

I’ve got coffee (stay caffeinated, young padowan), water (but do not dehydrate thyself), notebooks, my iBook (OptimusPrime), and idea to say screw it and put Panther on that old blue-green iMac at home (Kup). It’s funny, but Panther has a lower memory requirement than Ubuntu does.

Today has gone from restful, to stressful (self-induced), and back to restful.

Is it legal to use what would otherwise be a pirated copy of a depricated operating system? That is, one that is no longer supported and/or available for purchase from its company of origin?

Edit: What about an OS that’s still supported, but no longer available for sale?

So, I’ve got this TV that -almost- works. It’s pretty old tech, so I thought someone here might be interested. ? Anyway, this is what I posted in the local FreeCycle group:

I’ve got a Sanyo 91C82 20″ television that I’d like to get rid of.

I’m fairly certain that this was the first color television that my parents ever owned. It’s got rabbit ears, and places for both UHF and VHF antennas. It has an adapter that my brother added, which makes it cable-ready. It does not have any RCA inputs.

I am no TV repairman, but I thought that someone here might be interested in taking this off of my hands. First come, first serve. Please contact me via email only.

Edit: There’s even a service manual listed on eBay. Heh.