Progeny

I've been playing around with Progeny Debian Linux today. I downloaded the CD images yesterday, which took 6 hours, and I had to get them from Denmark, as all the U.S. mirrors were swamped. So far, I like it, though I'm installing KDE right now, because I really don't dig Gnome so much. The installation was fairly painless, and detected all of the hardware in my Dell Precision 410 correctly. I didn't like the way it asked for my monitor capabilities, I prefer the Mandrake/RedHat method of just letting me select my monitor model from the list, rather than asking for some fairly generic statistics, or wanting me to dig out my manual and give the vertical and horizontal refresh rates...

I really liked the way it asked about how I wanted to set up Samba, giving me the choice to launch it as a daemon or from inetd.

If you want to give it a shot, the CD image files are available on my workstation here, via FTP.

The bad old days

I'm having a bit of computer deja vu today, as I install Windows NT 4.0 on a Gateway G6-200.  This must have been quite the computer in its day, with a Pentium Pro 200 CPU, 72 (?) MB of RAM, and a 4GB SCSI drive. It's got an Adaptec 2940U (one of the best SCSI cards ever made) and a Matrox Millennium in it.  This would have been the fastest thing on the block when it was new.  The warranty just ran out, since the machine was made 1/09/97...

Catching Up

Al has done it now, he's gone and broken the screen on his iBook.  Ouch.  Reminds me of the time I cracked my Handspring Visor, only more expensive...

CNet takes back their 7 rating for Netscape 6, giving it a painful four out of ten points instead.  Netscape 6 does suck, but I think Netscape 4 is horrible too.  I'm installing Netscape 6 on all of the Windows 2000 machines I'm giving faculty, because 4.7x keeps giving me registry access errors if the user isn't a "Power User".  I tell them that they should use Internet Explorer, but a lot of them refuse to, for purely political reasons, in which case, they can suffer through Netscape 6.  I had high hopes for this version, but they've fallen flat.  There's no compelling reason to use it, rather than Internet Explorer.

Just as I reach contentment, something comes along to make me question my job.   An acquantiance here at the University will be hiring an underling sometime this spring, and he's been telling me about the position, and nudging me to apply.  It'd be in a new direction, working more with web stuff and less with hardware, but it would come with a significant pay increase.  I'll probably apply for it, but I'm not sure if I want the job..

I'm actually getting caught up here at work, it's a bizarre feeling.  I've still got some new computers to deliver, but no one is waiting on me for anything.  I've sent out e-mails, asking them when they'd like them delivered, so I just get to sit back, and schedule it all in, much less frantic that it has been for the last two months.

Wakeup Call

I just spent an hour and a half removing the W95.MTX virus from a faculty member's computer.  It's a nasty little bug, it infects your wsock32.dll file as well as several others.  It will crash your web browsers if you try to access anything at Symantec's web site, keeping you from updating your virus definitions to remove it.  I finally wound up using the removal tool, in conjunction with Norton AntiVirus 2001, for which I updated the virus info manually.  It's a nasty one folks, so make sure those virus definitions are up to date.

Here's a way to get your heart beating in the morning: delete your "Inbox" folder by mistake.  It's okay, I've recovered it now, but I was in panic mode for a bit there.  I've got 400 messages in it, many of which contain important information, like what needs to be fixed.  Sure, I could have gotten one of the central computer folks to retrieve my folder from a backup tape, but I would have been torn between my need for that information, and my need to save face...

Jornada 820

It's always a good idea to check new homes for corpses.  It seems a new homeowner in Toledo, Ohio had a nasty suprise waiting in the living room for him.  Boy, you'd think someone would check the house before just putting it up for auction.  All I have to say, is that the new homeowner is going to need some serious rental time with a Rug Doctor to get that smell out. This quote kills me:

Dean Nowakowski, 33, who lives two houses away, said the last time he saw Bearringer was more than two years ago. “I always wondered what happened to that dude,” he said. “It got awful quiet over there.”

I left work a bit early so that I could go to the eye doctor.  I'm glad I didn't do it earlier in the day, as I'm just now starting to regain my vision well enough to read my computer screen.  They dialated my pupils, and it took about 6 hours to wear off.  Prior to that, it looked to me as if someone had smeared my nice monitor with Vaseline, since I couldn't focus well enough to read anything.  It was worth it, as he discovered that the contacts I'd been wearing for the past two weeks were the wrong size.  The ones I'm now wearing are much more comfortable, and I'm 20/20, albeit a very fuzzy 20/20, since the contacts don't correct for my astigmatisms.  In case you're curious, my vision is pretty bad, my contacts correct -6.5 diopters in both eyes.  So, without them, I can see clearly for about 5-7 inches...

It looks like I'm going to have two PDA's now.  We managed to get a couple of Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 820 devices ordered today.  I say "managed" because it was rather a hassle.  The 820 is being discontinued, which is why it's so cheap, but there is no immediate replacement or equivalent to it.  The only place that seems to have them in stock is HPShopping.com, which does not take purchase orders.  Working for a University where the purchasing process is not a simple one, I can't just order equipment on the purchasing credit card.  HPShopping told me to contact the educational division of HP, who can take P.O.'s.  Of course, they don't have any of the 820's in stock, only the HPShopping.com division does.  The solution wound up being the Dean ordering the devices on her credit card, and then she'll have the University reimburse her for the cost.  What a pain.

So why do I need this, in addition to my "Visor"?  Well, they're two very different devices.  The Jornada is more of an alternative to a laptop, it's something you can sit down and type out some e-mail on, or surf a web page or two.  You can't do that so easily with the Visor.  But, at $540, it's a lot cheaper than a laptop, only weighs 2.5 pounds, and it can run 10 hours between recharging it's batteries.  You can display simple PowerPoint presentations with it, it's got a standard VGA-out port, and there are quite a few appliations you can run on Windows CE.

Duron

I'm the proud new owner of a Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1 motherboard and an AMD Duron 600. I've replaced the dead A-Bit board (which I loved) and my trusty celeron 366 (overclocked to 458) with this new board, CPU and cooling fan. It ran me $289 after tax, but it's already noticeably faster than my old system. I took the PC133 SDRAM out of my new Dell (which only has a 100mhz memory bus) and put it into the AMD box, which can actually use the 133mhz setting. The box seems stable so far, but all I've done is format the drive and start WindowsMe installation. I'll post my feelings about the AMD chip after I've played with it some more...

QuickCam

I've got two laptops sitting here on my desk that I can't work on. The users have dropped them off to have software installed. That's a little difficult, since they didn't leave the CD Drives or the ethernet cards. I've left them voice mail messages, so now I just get to sit here and twiddle my thumbs until they find the drives. Why would you take it out of the computer and not put it in the bag? Why would you remove your PCMCIA ethernet card? I'm toying with my new QuickCam Pro. This is a really slick webcam, and the image quality and speed are outstanding. I've set up a dorky webcam below:

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Proprietary Hardware

Yesterday, I came to the realization that buying a new Mac, other than an iMac, isn't such a good idea. Why? The Apple Display Connector. Sure, you get a better picture without the standard analog connector, but you've got to buy Apple's monitors. That's right, unlike the previous G4 models, there is no analog connector on the video card, so you've got to shell out $499 for Apple's new display. Think about that, five hundred dollars for a 17 inch monitor? You can get bargain 17 inch displays for around $200 if you shop around, so imagine how fat the margin is on these monitors for Apple.

Of course you could always opt for the 15 inch LCD display at $999, which still is no bargain.

So what if you're like John or myself, and your primary display is a 21 inch CRT? Sorry, no longer available, if you want serious screen real estate, get ready to pony up four grand for the Cinema Display. Sure it's cool, my boss has one on his desk (we got it for free), but would we have spent four grand on it? No way. And it'd be a pain for those of us who create web pages to try to size things on the widescreen aspect ratio display, 1600x1024 isn't exactly a typical resolution.

After adopting many standards that were shared with the PC, has Apple gone back to the days of proprietary hardware design? It's hard to reccomend buying anything but an iMac when you look at the prices for a fully-equipped G4 or G4 Cube.

For example, the new PC on my desktop is a Dell Pentium III-850, it came with 256MB of RAM, a 20GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive, 250MB Zip Drive, DVD-ROM, 32MB TNT2 Video Card, 17 inch monitor, speakers, Windows 2000, Norton AntiVirus and a Microsoft keyboard and mouse. It's also covered under a three-year warranty. It cost about $2100 for this setup a month ago, and I'd classify it as a mid-to-high end business workstation. Say I'd wanted the same type of system from Apple, what would it cost me?

According to what I just ran through the Apple Store, for a dual-CPU 450 G4, we're looking at $3,427, and the Zip Drive is only a 100MB model.

I'll argue it's not fair to compare a dual-CPU machine to a single CPU machine, so let's knock it back down to the single CPU 400mhz model. That reduces the price $600, to $2,827, but I don't feel that's really an equivalent comparison, as a G4-400mhz doesn't seem as fast as the PIII-850 I'm using.

What if I want one of those nifty cubes? For the 450mhz model, you're looking at $2,997, and that's without a Zip drive. Throw in an external USB 250MB Zip, and you're well over $3,100, that's over a thousand dollars more than my trusty Dell.

Sure, Apple hardware is neat, but the OS isn't. If MacOS X were here, and working well, I'd equate it to Windows 2000, but MacOS 9 is not even close. I don't understand the 64MB base memory configurations on these models. Anyone who has ever tried to do serious work on a Mac knows that it can't be done in OS9 with 64MB of memory.

The bottom line? Don't let the advertised prices of the Cube and the G4 mislead you, the price, when you're locked into an Apple-brand monitor, gets much larger. Is it worth it? I don't know, I'm not a rabid Mac fan, but for a business or educational institution on a budget, the PC has a much more appealing price tag.

The iMac is another story entirely, they're reasonably priced, and good basic household machines. They're not great for gaming, but if you're on the Mac platform, gaming isn't your first priority, or you'd be using a console system or a PC. The only problem I have with the iMacs is the 15 inch monitor. Let's see a 17 inch model, and I'll like them even more. Throw in MacOS X, and I might even buy one...

Update: Okay, so I'm off my rocker. John pointed out that the Mac does have the 15-pin VGA connection, as you can see at this page. The really embarassing thing is that I looked at that page while writing the bit above. Okay, so you can still buy a cheaper monitor, but the Macs are too expensive for my tastes...

Black Holes

Sometimes I think I'm the only one who paid attention in physics class. I caught a review of the new Apple Pro mouse over at CNN, via Slashdot, and this comment struck me as being wrong the second I saw it: The mouse won't work on surfaces that pass through or reflect light, such as glass tabletops or mirrors. Otherwise, the sky's the limit.

Okay, now look around your desk and try to find something that doesn't reflect light.... I'll wait....

Find anything? Unless you've got a black hole lurking around your office, I'm guessing you didn't. Why? Because if it doesn't reflect light, you can't see it!

I now have a G4 under my desk. It isn't one of the fancy-pants multiple processor models, and it's only there temporarily, but I am using an Apple product right now. I'm playing with the services for Macintosh on my Windows 2000 servers, and I got tired of trekking across the hall to ask the mac guys to try to connect to this share, or try to print to this printer, when I'd rather just tinker myself. I do have one of the new Pro mice and keyboards, but I'm not using them.

I decided not to use the keyboard, because I've got an LCD display hooked up to the Mac, and the older keyboards fit in that little groove under the display, so that I may reclaim the desk space when I'm not using that computer.

I chose to hook up a Microsoft Intellimouse w/Intellieye, rather than the Pro mouse. I'm smart enough to remember what two buttons and a scroll wheel do, and frankly, the pro mice remind me of the StupidaMouse.

So how did we get some of the pro keyboards and mice, without the new Multi-Processor G4? We got in an order of the new iMac DV's. I actually like the new colors. While I haven't seen "Sage" yet, the "Indigo" and "Ruby" models we have received are pure eye candy. The colors are rich and deep, and they're intrinsically appealing.

I might try out the Pro mouse, just to get a feel for it, as soon as I track down a controlled singularity to run it over...