Saturday, December 20, 2003
The Computer has Landed
I am sitting at a table across from my wife, and I say to her, "Honey, we need to come up with a name for the new computer."
"Ok, any inspiration for the name?"
"Well, I just started this posting by saying, "The Computer has Landed, alluding to the fact that it barely got here in one piece. Does that help?"
"Um." Time passes. "I am trying to think of things not so obvious, Apollo, Gemini. Could you hand me those scissors, please?"
And thus ends my attempt at narrative writing on this blog. You don't know about my home life, you want to know about the computer. Wrapped in a well-worn Sony monitor box, the quarter-opened box sat outside the doorstep late Friday afternoon. After documenting the horrible condition in which it arrived on the doorstep with a digital photo or two, I tested the computer for damage. Finding none, I forgot about the photos and was thankful for my good fortune. Though I intend to document step by step the process of turning this machine into my PVR, I did go ahead in a fit of Christmas glee and do some basic hardware steps that can be now marked as "completed." Several questions had to be asked and answered before putting the project aside for Christmas:
1) Does the computer have (2) 64MB sticks of memory or (1) 128MB stick? Answer, (1) 128MB.
2) Does it accept the (1) 256MB I bought it for Christmas? Answer, yes.
3) Can I download the Mandrake 9.2 ISO's (Images of the three CD's required to load it) on my home office computer, get them burned, and install Mandrake 9.2 on the computer?
Answer: yes, (yes, yes, and no), (ouch and yes). I downloaded from a mirror site at the University of Wisconsin. The first two CD's were fine. The third CD I burned was marred by a badly scratched CD-RW I was using. I decided to go ahead and load up Mandrake 9.2, knowing that I had no clue yet nor the will to document yet what MythTV should want. At this point, partitioning the drive and a game of Tux Racer are fine by me. As it happens, the GX110 came with a CD-ROM 48x drive made by LG. It is presently a paperweight, because LG CD-ROMs and Mandrake 9.2 don't play well together. There is a patch available so that I can install it later and there is a procedure for resurrecting the seemingly "dead" LG CD-ROM drive. I had a spare Sony 48x around so I used it instead. My Tux Racer needs work, but Mandrake 9.2 is on the machine and seems to run quite well.
4) What kind of sound card does the system have? Answer, not integrated, it actually seems to have a Sound Blaster card on the PCI bus. That is all right by me.
OK, for now, the unnamed computer is sitting side-by-side with the home office computer, and this is where it will sit until the thesis is deposited, or at least under review at a point I have nothing else to do. Thanks for your patience, and I will update next when a name is chosen or when I received the items from an unnamed source. Merry Christmas to one and all.
"Ok, any inspiration for the name?"
"Well, I just started this posting by saying, "The Computer has Landed, alluding to the fact that it barely got here in one piece. Does that help?"
"Um." Time passes. "I am trying to think of things not so obvious, Apollo, Gemini. Could you hand me those scissors, please?"
And thus ends my attempt at narrative writing on this blog. You don't know about my home life, you want to know about the computer. Wrapped in a well-worn Sony monitor box, the quarter-opened box sat outside the doorstep late Friday afternoon. After documenting the horrible condition in which it arrived on the doorstep with a digital photo or two, I tested the computer for damage. Finding none, I forgot about the photos and was thankful for my good fortune. Though I intend to document step by step the process of turning this machine into my PVR, I did go ahead in a fit of Christmas glee and do some basic hardware steps that can be now marked as "completed." Several questions had to be asked and answered before putting the project aside for Christmas:
1) Does the computer have (2) 64MB sticks of memory or (1) 128MB stick? Answer, (1) 128MB.
2) Does it accept the (1) 256MB I bought it for Christmas? Answer, yes.
3) Can I download the Mandrake 9.2 ISO's (Images of the three CD's required to load it) on my home office computer, get them burned, and install Mandrake 9.2 on the computer?
Answer: yes, (yes, yes, and no), (ouch and yes). I downloaded from a mirror site at the University of Wisconsin. The first two CD's were fine. The third CD I burned was marred by a badly scratched CD-RW I was using. I decided to go ahead and load up Mandrake 9.2, knowing that I had no clue yet nor the will to document yet what MythTV should want. At this point, partitioning the drive and a game of Tux Racer are fine by me. As it happens, the GX110 came with a CD-ROM 48x drive made by LG. It is presently a paperweight, because LG CD-ROMs and Mandrake 9.2 don't play well together. There is a patch available so that I can install it later and there is a procedure for resurrecting the seemingly "dead" LG CD-ROM drive. I had a spare Sony 48x around so I used it instead. My Tux Racer needs work, but Mandrake 9.2 is on the machine and seems to run quite well.
4) What kind of sound card does the system have? Answer, not integrated, it actually seems to have a Sound Blaster card on the PCI bus. That is all right by me.
OK, for now, the unnamed computer is sitting side-by-side with the home office computer, and this is where it will sit until the thesis is deposited, or at least under review at a point I have nothing else to do. Thanks for your patience, and I will update next when a name is chosen or when I received the items from an unnamed source. Merry Christmas to one and all.
