Hardware:
Compaq Presario 1622
Pentium I MMX 266 MHz proc.
160 MB RAM
CD-ROM drive
PCMCIA Netgear wireless card

Goal:
Windows 98 has consistently required re-installs, and up until this point it’s been blamed on the CD-ROM drive. Now, after a serious RAM error, chips have been swapped and this unit has begun the experiment of keeping old hardware useful and worthwhile. To that end, Knoppix will be tested and run from the CD-ROM drive, and then installed on the hard drive. Damn Small Linux was considered, however it has a problem with the particular Synaptics Touchpad that Compaq chose to use on this machine.

Progress:
With the 160 megs of RAM, Knoppix loaded flawlessly from the CD-ROM. I partitioned the hard drive into a 256 meg swap partition and a 2.9 gig main partition. The initial boot from the hard drive was a bit slow, but it looks like that’s because it’s a first boot. Wireless card is not detected. Hrm, perhaps PCMCIA is not fully supported. Also, things still seem extremely slow. Rebooting the machine from CD to attempt to access pcmcia there. And now I stumble across the warnings by Knoppix users not to sintall to the hard drive. Apparently, all sorts of things break when the hard drive installer is run.

As the coffee shop is closing, and I’ve discovered that my wireless card isn’t supported by either Damn Small Linux or Knoppix, I’m considering putting Win98 back on the machine. There has to be a way to keep this old hardware functional, responsive (if not fast), and useful. :/

The computer that I call mine is a hand-me-down from . It’s been a pretty dependable machine, and it was quite an improvement over my last – an AMD K6-2 350. But, it has had its quirks. When I first got it, if it sat off for more than a few days, it would have problems starting up. It would power up for a few seconds, then shut down. It would do that a few times, and then boot up as if nothing was wrong.

This problem has become worse over the time I’ve had it. Now, if it’s down for more than a few hours, this happens, and it takes quite a while to get it to stay on. Each time it boots, it stays on for a little while longer, and then eventually it acts as though nothing was wrong.

A new problem has cropped up. Every once in a while, the machine’s hard drive activity light goes solid and the machine stops accessing the CD-RW drive. It doesn’t even show up in WinXP’s explorer. I have to restart the machine to access the drive again.

And now, in the past few days, it has been randomly shutting off, as if I had left the machine shut down for a time. Today, I’ve noticed that everything slows to a crawl right before it shuts down.

All of this leads me to believe that there is something serious wrong with the motherboard. That’s the only thing that can explain both the problems with shutting down and with the IDE controller.

Is my diagnosis accurate? Is the machine doomed? If it is, I’d like to salvage the hard drives, the RAM, and the CD-RW and put them into another box. Does anybody happen to have a case and mobo/proc combo just lying around, collecting dust, taking up space? Maybe a mac? *wink*wink*nudge*nudge*

I’m going to keep my eyes open, check out MSU Surplus and the usual haunts, but if you see anything, let me know. :)

Finals are over, and the classwork is -almost- done.

4.0 in Japanese, as far as can be predicted.
4.0 in Judaism, for certain.

This semester was NOT a cake walk. I need to go back in time and slap myself stupid for thinking so. Ack.

The Smart Networks job in Flint is moving from 14-hour days for as many as we can tolerate to 8 hour days, M-F. Thank the gods for that. And, I’m going to be at work at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and hopefully finish up the Earthy Delights server before heading to Jackson for the Bean Xmas celebration.

Also, the Linux bug won’t let me go. Damn Small Linux on an 11-year-old laptop is a brilliant idea. Also, the concept of Linux on shiny (but well-aged) Apple hardware has me tweaked pleasantly.

Ok, off to actually read my friends’ page. :)

So, I’ve been craving a decent MMORPG that I don’t have to pay for.

With a 16 MB video card, apparently I can’t even play the free European or Korean games.

And how come they’re making free ones, and we suck?

I should really get to work on that TF MMORPG proposal.

Oh, yeah, and I’ve been at the coffee shop, with a ‘net connection, plenty to do, caffienated beverage in plentiful supply, and I have gotten NOTHING DONE. Not jack. I can’t even blame this on the donating blood.

Want to pull out my hiar, but I know that this is just a mood. Buckling down is needed.

Though, I have read over 120 LJ entries on my friends’ page. Bleargh.

< vent >
For the love of all that is TECHNOLOGICALLY HOLY, why won’t Adium copy to a USB jump drive or the MSU file server space?!

It is the most versatile messaging client in existence, and DAMNIT, I want to be able to run it from the lab computers without having to re-enter ALL of my IM account info over and over and over again.

OS X 10.3.7 says that one file cannot copy to the USB jump drive. Then it says that one of the file names is too long to be copied onto my MSU AFS space.

I WILL TEAR OUT SOMEONE’S THROAT WITH MY TEETH!
< /vent >

I am teh uber nifty. I’m on a dual-G5 with OS X 10.3, and I’m remotely administering Windows Server 2003 boxen. Not only that, but I’m running the app straight from my USB keychain.

Oh, yeah. Gettin’ my geek on.

Edit: Also, Apple’s flat screen monitors seem to have 2 usb ports in the back. They are powered, unlike the ones in the keyboard. Nice!

So, I have a class in fifty minutes here in the Eppley Business Complex, and I’ve been exploring the newer building for a computer lab. I’d completely forgotten to note the room number. SMRT.

So, I find a lab on the first floor (after having entered the building on the ground floor) that’s filled with old Dell machines. I’m talking Dimension 4100’s, before they switched from the beige cases to the black ones. No USB. 5 1/4″ expansion bays filled with headphone jacks with knob volume controls. Keyboards that give you that clackitty-clack. This only fuels my desire for the old Pismo laptop.

And now that I’ve begun to listen to the third season of the Tales from the Afternow, he’s talking about old tech, and his love for old tech.

So, this whole deciding to purchase a new laptop thing… way out of my ideal set. I’m all about re-use, and defeating the consumer within me. At the same time, there are specific things that I want in a laptop. The ability to use wireless connectivity (PCMCIA expansion I’m okay with). The ability to run OS X (which means it’s an Apple laptop with built-in USB). Really, that’s it.

So, I’m sitting on the can, where I do all my good thinkin’, and I’m blindsided by my own dorkitude. A later-generation Powerbook G3. Eminently upgradable, built-in USB, and even firewire on some models. Very friendly for wireless, especially with OS X.

AND IT’S MY FAVORITE COLOR. That’s the reason I never put a lot of effort into looking for a clamshell iBook. I never really dug the way they look. ‘Course I’m vain. Even my dog is goth. Heh.

So, lo and behold, what do I find?

ME WANTY!!!

Of course, I can’t afford the buy it now price until June, and it may never reach its reserve. Perhaps I should email the seller about negotiations if and when the reserve is not met. Either way… ME WANTY!! Heh.