Or updating or something. Earlier in the week had replaced a hard drive in Cat’s machine with a new one cause hers was showing errors. After replacing it and copying everything over to the new one got to looking at the one I took out. When in the machine it was showing up with 2 partitions, one about 4 gb and one about 152 gb, and when the computer was bought it was advertised as having a 160 gb drive. But when I got it out it stated on the drive it was a 120 gb drive. Looked it up online and the specs showed it as a 120 gb drive. Put it in my linux box this morning and it showed up with one partition of 4 gb and one of 111 gb with some free space left over. Not sure what they did but her computer is running a LOT faster with another drive in it than it was with this one. And after reformatting and installing PCLOS on it this computer is running fine. No errors showing up on the drive now either. Suspecting they used some kind of compression on it but who knows. Copied all the files from my home directory over to a backup directory on the new drive and moved the .mozilla folder to the home directory. Installed everything else from scratch. Just shut it down and added a CD burner that I had laying around. Already had a DVD burner. Have a 80 gb drive as extra storage. Gotta get the files in it moved over to my home directory and/or burned to backup CD’s, then clear that one off and use it as a website test/backup drive. Tis late and I am about done in, so gonna call it a night and start anew tomorrow. Till then…
Looked at the 20″ Acer on the Wallyworld website again this am and they had dropped the price to 184.88. Decided to go out and about and see what was available in the stores around here. First stop was at J’ville where they had the same one as online but the price tag was 228.88. Pass. Next stop was the one in Lenlock. Same thing. Had them in stock but 228.88. Southward we go. Next stop Office Max. I had tried their website and the prices were higher than Wallyworld so this stop was just to verify what I had seen online. Well I got a shock! They had a 22″ Soyo for 199.99 and a 20″ for 169.99 among others. All sale prices but still. The 22″ was a hundred dollars off! Went next door to Circuit City to take a quick look and went back and got the 22″. Added their 1 year screw it up and they still replace it warranty for another 25 bucks and walked out 250 poorer but with a super nice monitor. Model is MT-NI-DYLM2286 for anyone interested. Wallyworlds online price is 229.88. So glad I didn’t end up getting one through them.
![SOYO 22\](http://www.technoprimitive.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/soyo22in-300x300.jpg "SOYO 22\")
And it’s got built in speakers. Not the greatest but they’ll do, and I don’t have a pair taking up desk space anymore. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now I just got to get busy and do some website work to pay for it… Tis late so am gonna do just a bit more reading feeds (on my nice new BIG monitor) and then call it a night. Till tomorrow…
Victorian All-in-One PC | The Steampunk Workshop
Jake von Slatt does it again. This time with a 24 inch flat screen. Interestingly enough the one he chose is the same brand that I picked up today, a SOYO, though I ended up with a 22″ model. Still a super nice monitor, especially for the price. But mine doesn’t look quite as nice.
Chumby hackers go to town – Boing Boing
Gotta love open hardware! Some neat projects.
Steampunk Unboxing: Difference Engine Arrives in Silicon Valley
I can’t help but wonder just how different the world today would be if this had been built back then. Amazing bit of work!
Computerworld > Open source 3D printer copies itself
Once again life imitates science fiction. Don’t remember when it was that I first ran across the concept of the universal replicator or in what story/book but I do remember that at the time I was in awe of the concept. And here are a gropu of folks that are working to make an open source device that can be used to make the parts to reproduce it’s self. The overused “cool” is just to mild for this, fantastic and wonderful both apply but there again just not right. What/which ever, this is great! And I want one!
U.S. Health Agency Forbids Sensitive Data On Apple MacBooks — Security — InformationWeek
In the wake of a widely publicized security breach that left thousands of patient records exposed, the federal government’s National Institutes of Health is forbidding all employees who use Apple’s MacBook laptops from handling sensitive data as of Friday, InformationWeek has learned.
Employees at the health agency who store medical records and other personal information on laptops must use systems that run either on Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Windows operating system or Linux, according to an agency memo.
This is beyond words. Go, read the article, especially the comments. Typical top management CYA BS.
Computer Hardware, GeekStuff, Here's your sign - STUPID, Linux, Mac, Micro$oft, Political
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CYA, health, InformationWeek, Linux, MacBook, management, Microsoft, Security, Sensitive, Windows
OLPC computers on their way to Birmingham, Ala.
Anyone who has thought that, as nice as the Linux-powered One Laptop Per Child computers are for the target market of third-world children, they’d also make a lot of sense for U.S. kids too, is in good company. The mayor of Birmingham, Ala., Larry Langford, had the same thought and the result is that the city will be deploying 15,000 OLPCs to its school system.
So cool that an Alabama city is the first in the US to do this! This news is a month or more old but I just found this post on it and had to share. Hope it works out for them.
Why Wal-Mart won’t have Linux desktops on its store shelves
Here’s what I found out. Customers did want to buy the computer, but they, and all too often the workers, were thoroughly confused because the PCs came with Linux and not Windows. The word “clueless” comes quickly to mind.
But let’s be realistic here. How much technical expertise do you think an average Wal-Mart customer, or any ordinary U.S. citizen, really has anyway? The one technically adept customer service representative I met told me, “These are the same people who really can’t tell the difference between the computer and its software. At best, they know they need Windows to run Quicken, Office and games. That’s it.”
Kinda what I figured had happened. But the Linux boxes are still available from WalMart online which is certainly better than them dropping the line completely.
Global Nerdy | Creative Labs’ Forums Filling With “Dear John†Messages
😀 😀 😀 That’s what they get for telling their customers to piss off and cough up more money to get what they paid for when they bought their products.
Global Nerdy | Creative Labs: Where No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
A MicroShaft Vista downgrade that I had read about before as well as a real good reason to NOT buy any Creative Labs products. 👿
Steampunk Remake: Dave Veloz’s Keyboard and Monitor
Seriously steampunk! Only thing this project needs to be perfect is construction pics. Thanks to Steve for the link.
FreeNAS: The Free NAS Server – Home
And from the comments from the previous post we have another server that may be more what I am looking for.
Andy Ihnatko’s Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA) » New YouTube video is up: “In The Soup”
Andy is just SOOOO laid back (in the tub actually but also quite safe for work 😆 ) after his hard drive craps out with all his backups 3000 miles away. Funny stuff (as long as it’s happening to someone else that is)…
Stainless Steel Mouse | thecontaminated.com
Talk about too much time on their hands. Beautiful job and all that but 8 months to make a mouse, right down to the bejeweled usb connector… 😯
PlexNex: Today’s Lesson: Do Not F**k with the Negroponte Brothers
Interesting slant on OLPC and the Intel mess. It’ll be a hoot if they do manage to drag Gates and micro$loth into it. 😈
Some bits better and some are worse.
Got the Nissan Pathfinder done today. Or as done as I am gonna get it. Air bleed plug is in and fluid topped off, though not in that order. 😉 Hatch inside cover put back on with new clips, and light switch disconnected. Steering column reassembled. Lights all working. Coil mounted and relays remounted as they were supposed to be. Done, done, and done.
Got a job that requires air pressure in the tank. Last few times I have needed it it would climb to 120 and sit there for quite a time and I have just been cutting it off. Took the head off the compressor this afternoon to see what the problem was and have got a large hole in a spring steel valve. Spent the rest of the daylight looking for a piece to make another one out of. So far no luck. Gonna go to the yard sale trailer and see if I can find anything over there that will work. After that am gonna take a seat belt roll up unit apart and see what kind of spring they have in them. I know something around here will work. Just gotta find it. 🙂
Got Cat a new hard drive today. Now to figure out what process/program(s) to use to copy the old one to the new one. Old is 120 gb new is 250 gb. Think she wants to dual boot too. Guess I need to download the latest and greatest pclos for her to install.
Looks like we are gonna be selling airsoft products and equipment out of the yard sale trailer soon. Tim got the license today, so I’ve got to clear a bunch of stuff out of the main room asap. Also need to get that bathroom torn out and ceiling repaired. And a entry way built. Bit by bit… 😯 🙄 Ought to be an interesting few weeks, months, whatever till things get to the point they are workable.
Got to get a mail box set at that gate too. And move the boat and camper shell. And clear out all the crap in the back parking lot.
When I said tin, I meant galvanized metal roofing, most likely of the 5v style. Did a price comparison a couple of months ago and per square foot it was cheaper by far than the 3 foot wide stuff. Depending on the amount of rain we get or don’t get tonight and tomorrow, I am hoping to get a start on clearing the area to build the work shed on.
Tis early and all but I think I will close and try for an early day tomorrow.
Decided to do some scanning that I have been putting off. Went and got the scanner and plugged it into the iBook and the HP director program tells me that there is no scanner attached to my computer. Check Google and there are no drivers for the mac. Now I remember why I had it hooked to the Linux box. 🙁
So decide to move enough stuff to get the linux machine going in here in the warm. Well that is gonna entail moving 2 desks, 7 chairs, one big table and the computer and assorted stuff like monitors and keyboards and mice and several boxes of crap that is sitting on and around said stuff.
4 hours or so later after moving everything and figuring out where and how to set it all up, the Linux box is almost finished updating after the move and getting turned on for the first time in about 3 months.
Cat had been wanting a LCD monitor and since I wasn’t gonna use mine I told her we’d swap them. Which we did this morning before the scanner bit. So I had to reset the size and type of monitor. Not a problem. Usually. Thing is the vertical freq was set too high for the monitor I now have. So I can’t see anything but an out of range message. Get switched to another non X console and swap the old config file for the new bad one and reboot. Tis all good again.
Finally get all the settings right and decide to update the OS. Forgot how long it had been. 411 mb of new files later, it’s still installing them. Been at it better than half an hour after getting it all downloaded. Looks like it’ll take another 30 minutes or so longer. Then I can see if the scanner is gonna work with the new gimp and sane. And maybe get back to where I was going this morning at 10 or so…
Finally got around to it. After a daybreak wakeup call from the fan in the external hard drive case dying that is. The previous link I posted to the site with info on doing the replacement is NOT for the same computer. There are quite a few differences between the one he has and the one I have. LOT of the screws are in different places or just not there. As well as a bunch that are in mine that aren’t in his. Such is life in the world of Apple. Stupid asshats!!! There is NO excuse other than greed to make the hard drive in a laptop that hard to replace. And just one more reason that I will NEVER buy another Apple product.
Got it done and only had 2 screws left over at the end. One 3 mm and one 4 mm. It works, so I figure that the 40+ that I put back in are plenty so didn’t take it all the way back apart to find where these 2 go. If and when I get another drive to go in it I’ll look for their location then. One other gripe is the # of different tools that it takes to remove and replace the screws. Got to have a super small philips head screwdriver, a small phillips head screwdriver, a # 2 allen head driver, and something under a #10 torx driver. The torx screws are in the sides of the drive and a pair of pliers work just fine thank you very much Mr. Jobs/chief asshat/greedy bastard!
But it’s got the new drive installed and is now getting files copied over to it. Tis somewhere over 100k files now of 581,672 files and about 22 minutes into the copy. So sometime after 5 pm it should be ready for a reboot to the new drive to make sure it all works. Then I can start clearing more of the unused stuff off.
For now am going to go out and work on the camper a bit more. Had hoped to have the electrical done by now but this has taken me all day so far. About an hour and a half to get the drive in and the rest of the day to get the files on the backup drive paired down to the point that I would have SOME space left on the 80 gb that I put in the iBook. I think it’ll have about 12 gb of free space left when it gets through copying stuff over. Would like to have at least 40 gb free but will most likely settle for less.
One more piece of paneling to install and then can get back to the electrical. Have to put the paneling in so I can run the conduit on top of it for plug, light switch, light plug, and ac plug in this one run. Then 4 more plugs to run and can get back to finishing the kitchen cabinet. Getting closer than I was though. I think. At least I think, I think. Some days I don’t know… 😉
* Update – Was closer to 6:30 pm by the time it finished copying stuff over and I got to reboot it. Working fine. Quieter than it’s ever been. Guess the drive had problems from the factory. Don’t have the energy to get on the cleanup yet. Got a head cold or something and no energy to do squat. More later…
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