A Time-Wasting Ramble

Just doing a bit of time wasting here. I just spent an inordinate amount of time watching Dan Wood videos about MorphOS, and his usage of that operating system. I've seen several of Wood's videos, including a couple that became rather popular. Especially the one's where he talked about using Amiga software in the mid-2000s. Interesting stuff for a techie obsessed nerd.

For those of you who don't know, MorphOS is a sort of mutant outgrowth of the old Commodore Amiga systems of 1980s and 90s. It's a dedicated attempt to make the Amiga-style operating system viable in the modern world. As far as I know, it's still mainly running on the old PowerPC architecture. But there has long been talk of porting it over to the X86 architecture, which would be intriguing.

For myself, I never used an Amiga. The closest I ever got was having the AmigaForever emulator kit installed on a Windows 7 machines I used to have. However, that computer hasn't been used in years, and in fact I'm not even sure where that old laptop is. I never really played with the emulator that much, though I'd occasionally fire it up. Most of the system installs were just that, system installs, with base software. I probably could've gotten onto something like AmiNet online and grabbed other software, but it just didn't really seem worth it. After all, the real purpose of that emulation package was to play old Amiga games, and I was never much of a game player. (Though I did enjoy running some of the “demos”, which were pretty cool.)

I think the greatest fascination for me in watching these videos is seeing the programs Wood was/is using, and getting a feel for what he uses them for. Like so many other nerdy types, I have to admit to a rather voyeuristic interest in what tools people use on their computer systems. And Wood does actually use MorphOS as part of his everyday workflow, which I really do find fascinating. Granted, Wood was an Amiga user from back in the day, so he has a background knowledge of the system. And a goodly collection of software he's accumulated over the years. It makes sense for him to use MorphOS, as he's familiar with it.

MorphOS looks really interesting. And, it sparks that little tickle in the back of my head to go down to my storage building, dig out that old PowerPC Mac Mini, and hook it back up. And then download & burn an ISO, and give it a spin…

Alas, I have to put the brakes on, and admit that's not going to happen. I have no room on my desk for a desktop computer setup. And I really don't want to drop c.$100 for the license to a bit of software that I really have no major use for. Besides, I have Linux running on my laptop systems, so… (Though, there is that 12" Powerbook that I forgot was in the back room… Hmmm…)

Still, it impresses me that someone is using something other than the current “Big 3” platforms (Window, Mac, or Linux) to do serious work. I like that. Makes me wish I could use my systems more productively, as well. My Linux boxen really demand to be put to serious work. Maybe, someday… If I'd just stop wasting time watching videos on YouTube…..

Yet Another Yet Another

Well, I'm trying. Really. I am. I've been trying to put together some ideas for things to write here, but that hasn't been as easy as one might think. Which is kind of unusual for me. Anyone who knows me personally (God help them) know me as a person who has more than his fair share of opinions, rants, babblings, etc., all ready to spill out. Yet, when it comes time to get them down on paper (or tossed into electrons, or whatever), I begin to falter. I think a lot of the lethargy comes from the quarantine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the quarantine is a bad thing. It has helped lower the number of infections and deaths. (Which is, in its own right a frightening statement, given the number of infections and deaths we are seeing with the social distancing, etc. I won't get into the whole "reopening" debate here...) What I think it is is a sense of almost divine lethargy. You do begin to lose track of days after a bit. I shouldn't complain. I have no sickness in my family. We are able to keep going as best we can. At least for the moment. But... There is that desire for "normality", whatever that may be. Or at least some sense of stability. Or, at the very least, some better sense of differentiation from one day to the next. This runs the risk of sounding like me whining. I'm most certainly not. Again, I'm lucky. I live in an area that is relatively free of the ravages of the virus. Though, for how long that goes on..? I keep trying to get my head a bit clear, and to do some creative stuff. But, all to often, I get lost in just gorging myself on the news of the day. The Internet does have both its blessings, and its curses. When the news of the world is laid out before me like a grand buffet, I tend to dive right in. That does tend to curtain me giving time to doing any of my own work. As does some of my hobbies. I haven't been buying computers, nor pens, these days. I do have several of both about to fiddling with, and fiddle I have. I've settled down in my Linux distro-hopping, but I at least try to keep up with things. And, since I've been at home quite a bit, I've been playing with pens a bit, too. (Sadly, my handwriting has not improved in the least...) Oh, and I occasionally play with old typewriters as well. Which sometimes makes me think about the wonderful world of "typecasting", typing an entry on a typewriter, the scanning said piece and posting it here. I used to do something silly like that with screen grabs from old Macintosh emulators. The latter also reminds me... Damn it. I better stop. All this is doing is giving me reasons not to even finish this quick note. I suddenly want to go and dig out an old Mac (which still has an emulator installed), and do something foolish... So much for anything creative for the night...

Thoughts in the Time of Terrible Things

Well, this is a bit different. I haven't put a post on this blog in five years, at least. It's sort of been a desert of technical babblings. Maybe I'll leave it as such. I don't know. It is, indeed, the Cabinet of UnNecessities.

The World, as We Know It

It's definitely a different world from when I last was in this cyberspace. I never thought I would see things as they are now.

I live in the U.S., and things have not been good here for the last 3+ years. Maybe you've noticed...

To be sure, I never thought that things could fall into the state they have. And the last few months have been sort of a microcosm of horror that's driven that point home with an unrelenting force.

How did we get to this point? What the hell happened? There's a LOT of answers to all that, for sure. As they say, it's complicated...

I'm not sure how the world is going to be when we come out of this. If we come out of it. We've never been through anything quite like this in the modern era, and I'm not really sure we're all equipped to deal with it. It makes me wonder...

The Way Things May Go

But I do hold onto hope. Despite the chaos, despite the lack of leadership, despite the sometimes overwhelming idiocy that seems to boil up in times like these, I still try to hold onto a little bit of hope. There are still good people out there. And we can only hope that they are still the majority now. Maybe they can keep the world going on.

That's the world we live in now.

So...

As I'm caught up in the quarantine, sheltering at home, taking care of family and trying to practice social distancing as much as possible, I'm probably going to have a lot of time on my hands. So, maybe, I might just start sticking stuff back here on this blog.

I don't really know what might show up. Maybe it'll be me ranting about world situation as a whole. Maybe it'll be me just babbling stuff about the computer I'm playing with at the moment. Or a book I'm trying to finally get around to read. Or maybe I'll just meditate on a particularly good fountain pen.

Maybe it'll just be me trying to keep my mind occupied, distracting myself, giving myself a slight rest from some of the things going on out there. I think we all need that.

Really, I don't know if it'll be interesting or not. Or even what it will be in general. This is, after all, the Cabinet of UnNecessities. Let's just see where things lead us. If anywhere...

Just a Test

This is only a test - December 5, 2015

Just sweeping some dust out of the old blog, and trying out a new production tool.

More to come.

Soon.

A Brief Note in the Window

So...  Been a long time.

The reasons are legion, and maybe I'll go into them one of these days. 

Foremost amongst them was spending nearly two years on the road, living in hotels, and doing the six-day week.  With a goodly bit of travel on all those intervening days.  Fun.  Needless to say, free brain activity wasn't exactly a big thing with me. 

But, for now, those days are somewhat behind me.  I recently managed to get back closer to home, even though I still end up driving a good bit for work.  But, I'm home, so...

More horrible, computer-wise, was that I was basically stuck with the scourge of the modern business world, Windows.  Because of the business and government websites that I often had to access, I was stuck with using Internet Exploder...er, Explorer for work.  So, I spent a great deal of my in-office time staring at Windows 8.1, and Microsoft Office.  Not exactly soul-enriching, that.

When I came back, I found myself drifting back into the Macintosh realm.  I started to rediscover some of the creativity tools available (like Scrivener, Ulysses, and Nisus Writer Pro), and began to fall in love with them again.

However, the call of FOSS kept, well, calling.  Sadly, my beloved Crunchbang had fallen by the wayside.  I had to move on, so I went in a completely different direction, and took up with Fedora, which I quite liked.  But I've had my eyes on several other distros.  I found myself drifting back towards Debian, version 8.1 which I recently installed on my newest Thinkpad, a T440p snagged 2nd/3rd hand refurbished.  I even recently found a new version of Puppy Linux, called "PuppyBang" that I really want to try. (Grabbed the ISO, but haven't zapped it onto a thumb drive yet.)

I had to do a mass migration of my old computers out to storage, and one of those was my T400, the SlackBox.  It, and my copy of the SlackBook, got packed away.

Today, though, I managed to get out to the storage building and get my Slack stuff back out.  (I had to exchange a couple old junker Powerbooks for them, but...)  So, after a round of updates/upgrades (and something I'd not gotten round to before, installing multimedia codecs), I have Slackware 14.1 up and running again.  I'm typing this on it right now.

And, I grabbed a current copy of the ArchBang ISO, and burned it.  I kept out a couple clunker laptops, and intend to use them to do some software testing, and ArchBang is going to be my first candidate, giving myself a slightly closer look at the Arch world than Manjaro did.  (I've also heard of some CrunchBang replacement candidates out there.  And I also want to get some playtime in with Viperr, the French OpenBox Fedora spin, and VSIDO, the Debian "unstable" distro with FluxBox, which looks interesting.)

So many things for one fool to do...  Maybe I'll come up with some stuff to toss out here on the blog.

We shall see...

Went and Did It

Yeah,  I did.

I went and put in an order with Mr. Volkerding, et al, from the Slackware Shop, and had a Slackware DVD (and a copy of the Slackware Linux Essentials book) waiting on me when I got back home.

I'd prepped prior to trying out the install process.  And, thankfully, the install was painless.  Just to test, I installed the 32-bit version of 14.1 on my Thinkpad T400 (Core2Duo at 2.53 Ghz, 3 GB RAM, and a 160 GB HD).  Hardware detection was flawless, and everything was set up perfectly.  (Even the touchpad, which had me a bit worried.)  I installed Network Manager, and it picked up my wireless without a hitch.

Of course, being a drone who watches YouTube far too much, I immediately set about installing Flashplayer.  (I know...)  I ended up going to the SlackBuild route, which was an adventure, but one I wanted to take.  I wanted to get familiar with the system, so...  Luckily for me, smarter souls have left instructions.  Took some minor modifications, but I got it installed.  And I could watch movies.

But I couldn't hear them.

No sound, whatsoever.

OK, let's think this through logically.  The first thing to do is panic, and desperately try to think what the hell I've done wrong?  What didn't install right?  What's wrong with the plugin?  Etc., etc.

Luckily, through the haze of general ignorance came a sudden spark of realization:  Remember all that time playing with Puppy Linux?  Remember having to occasionally monkey with the sound manager?

Took me for freaking ever to remember the name "alsamixer".  Jump into the terminal emulator, fire it up.  A few seconds, and problem solved.

I now have a nice, functional install of Slackware 14.1.  I chose to use XFce, as KDE and I don't always see eye-to-eye.  Everything works, and Good Grief, how much software they jam into this thing!  I am a bit curious about CalligraOffice, which I've not used much.  (The BrainDump program from the Calligra folks looks particularly intriguing.)

And, as a side note, installing Slackware knocked the sense into me to figure out what I did wrong with that copy of Salix 14.1 that I thought I'd botched.  I now have a nice install of Salix on one of the ancient Toshiba's.

So, there's been a bit of an overkill of Linux installations this weekend.  But I'm having fun.

Until the next round...

Cracking the Cabinet Door

So....

It has been a while.  But it's been a busy while.  I've been through one job which, while not being the greatest, at least paid the bills.  And when that one wound to an end, thankfully a friend called and...  I'm still employed.  Though it was another move, and a whole lot of stuff dumped in my lap very quickly.  With more to follow.

But I'm back.  Sort of.

This is just a touching base sort of thing.  I've been been so busy as of late, I had to pare back the computer stuff for the while.  But I've kept my hand in.

Most of the time at work, I'm stuck using Windows 8.1.  I have to admit, it works.  It's fast booting (a large improvement over it's predecessor), and is about as stable as Windows 7 ever was.  But...well...  blah...  I had to finally put my beloved little Thinkpad X220T on the shelf because it was...well, little.  My eyes are not in the best of shape these days, and that 12" screen wasn't doing me much good.  So, for office work, I've switched over to a Thinkpad Edge with a 15.6" screen.  No touch capability, but I never used that anyway.

I still keep one foot in the realm of Mac, and on in the realm of Linux.  And here, I've both stayed the same and moved about.  Still using OS X 10.8.  Mountain Lion isn't Snow Leopard (God, do I miss AppleWorks!), I've managed to configure the MacBook Pro up write as a "creative writing machine".  I discovered Scrivener, and have started relying heavily on WriteRoom and Nisus.  One of these days, I'll get round to making some comments on each.

Linux remains a hobby.  I seem to have adopted CrunchBang as my fallback for everything.  I have it on my Thinkpad X301 "Kodachi", which is my backup computer.  However, I've been juggling my main "Linux box", from a T410s, currently running Manjaro XFCe, and a Thinkpad X1, running Mint 17 Cinnamon.  I had Salix running on the T410s for a while, and loved it, but on a complete whim put Manjaro back on the system.  However, I loved Salix so much, I'm going to have to find something to put it back on.  (One of these days, I'm going to do a straight Slackware install on one of my systems, but I just haven't worked up to it yet.  I'm still too much the "lazy slacker...")

Which brings me to Puppy.  Puppy Linux is the evening's project.  I'm actually typing this right now in Dpup Exprimo, booted off a USB thumb drive on the T410s.  It's outdated, but I like it.  I have a bad tendency to boot into this, even over Puppy Slacko, or Quirky (which definitely lives up to its name).

But tonight's fun was FatDog64 which, if you're not familiar, is a 64-bit Puppy.  I've had a love/hate relationship with FatDog since way back when.  I think I originally ran FatDog64 600, and rather liked it.  But, when a new version came out, I updated, and the problems began.  The main problem being, the newer versions would never find my Save file (containing all my system settings, etc.) on boot up from a USB stick.  I never bothered to research this, just got mad, nuked the installation, and moved on to other things.

Well, the other day, on a whim, I downloaded the 700 Beta 1 edition to give it a try.  And ran right into the same problem.  I set up my Save file, reboot, and nothing.  Only, this time, I decided to be a bit of an adult (what a bummer) and do a little research.  Turns out it's a fairly simple fix.  Seems FatDog "boots too fast" for older USB drives.  Solution: Pass a boot parameter to slow the boot down by a few seconds.  I added the line "waitdev=5" to the boot menu.lst, and things worked fine.

It's the strangest things that get you back in the game...

I'll definitely try to get back on.  Maybe do some reviews.  Some writeups.

We shall see...

Lazy Slacker

Well, I'm slacking.  In more ways than one.

Rather than belabor the fact that work is making me a blog slacker, let me focus on my other bit of Slack.  I finally got round to installing Salix on my long-suffering T410s.

For whatever reason, I've been rather obsessed with fiddling with something Slackware-ish.  However, Slackware proper is a bit on the intimidating side for a less-than-dedicated yutz like myself.  So I had to work my way up.  From baby steps, like playing with Puppy Slacko (yeah, I know it's not really Slack, but it uses the repositories, so don't you start nuthin'), to dipping my foot in with a copy of Slax on a USB (even with it's kind of toyish, but clever, package system)...

I didn't have the T410s with me on the road, so I just waited till I got back home for a weekend.  (I did have the X60s, still proudly running Saluki, in all its cool glory, and backed up by a case-full of Puppy USBs.)  I used the already installed Kubuntu (which just never really tripped my trigger) to do the download and burn.

Being slightly gun shy, I only downloaded the 32-bit Xfce version.  I'm still a knuckle-dragging .ISO burner, and I just didn't want to waste a DVD-R on a system that might not work properly with my hardware.  (And, I also had some delusions about testing it on a lower spec machine later.)

However...  it worked perfectly.  Hardware was all recognized out of the box.  Trackpad, sound, everything.  Even scrolling.  There was a slight blip when setting up the wifi, but a reboot took care of that.  I have even been impressed with the included version of Midori, a web browser that has never been on my favorites list.  I may actually eschew installing Firefox, at least for a bit.

The only thing I have not tried doing is hibernating the system, which can be a pain in some version of Puppy.  (Later Thinkpads tend to sometimes be a bit finicky about sleeping.)  So, we shall see...  (Does Salix have a suspend feature?  Would you believe, I haven't even looked...)

So, all in all, if you're in the market for a lightweight implementation of Slackware, which has some lazy-slacker features (Dependency checking!  Yes!), Salix might be the thing for you.  I've obviously only used it a very short time, but I have to say I do like it.  It might compete with Crunchbang as a clean, daily work version of Linux for me.  I might even take this out on the road with me, and see how it goes.

Slackware for the Lazy Slacker.  I can dig it.

WOW!

Well, the junker T43 I got a few days ago just will NOT work right.  Tried it with Wary Puppy, which is about as basic as it gets, and it still froze up in the interface.  When I just tried to boot into the copy of Windows on the hard drive, it of course demands you "activate" Windows.  And then freezes.

On a lark, I dragged out the poor little X41 Tablet and pulled the extra memory stick out and stuck it in the T43 (which only had 512 MB).  No go.  Same problems.  Same outcome.

Disgusted, I put the memory stick back in the X41.  And then I got a wild hair...  The X41 is missing it's hard drive, and is also missing keys off the keyboard, and one Trackpoint button.  But...

But...

I went in and dug out an old thumb drive with Puppy Slacko 5.5 on it, plugged it in, hooked up the power brick, and hit the power button...

Damn.

The fan in the X41 kicked on and screamed...  Then settled down.  I hit F12 for boot devices.  Took it just a second, but...  There was the menu, and there was the USB drive.  Select that...

It booted.  Long story short, it booted.  Even in the savage shape that little notebook was in, it booted.  The lost 'G' slot still worked fine.  And the seemingly stuck right Trackpoint button worked.  (I didn't try the missing scroll button.)

When I'd had the back memory door open, I noticed a wireless card installed.  So...

It did.   It went online flawlessly.  I browsed the web for just a second.  (Didn't fiddle with YouTube, as I hadn't adjusted the sound, but I have no doubt the system would've dealt with it quite well.)

A check of the system showed a PentiumM running at 1.6 Ghz, with a gig of memory.  Nicely appointed little system.  Granted, it has it's problems, as I noted above.  The screen latch is busted, too.  And no hard drive.

But, I just might put a little work into it.  Maybe see if I can find those missing keys.  And maybe a new HD.  This little computer deserves a second chance.

It's a fighter.  And it's pretty darn cool for it.

Still Fluffing

One of those evenings again.  Just fiddling about, waiting for the big snowstorm to hit.  Fun.

Did a bit of Linux stuff this evening.  Burned and tested the latest versions of LXPup and Simplicity Linux.  Both seem quite decent.  Of the two, LXPup seems a bit less buggy, but saying that's being a bit rough on Simplicity.   The only major problem I had with the latter was that it wouldn't recognize the hardware volume control on my T430.  I somewhat suspect that might not be a problem on other systems.    I didn't try the "suspend" feature on either system, as I think the later Thinkpads are bit wonky in this regard.  I've got LXPup set up on a thumb drive, and will try it on my X60s later on.  I think it'll work flawlessly there.

I was actually looking for some other systems to try on the junker T43 that I mentioned a couple entries ago.  I have yet to give Wary Puppy a try.  On one of those oddball larks for which I'm famous, I grabbed an .ISO for Legacy OS 4 Mini.  The name "mini" seems a bit of a misnomer, as the image file is nearly half a gig in size.  However, it's supposed to be decent for older systems, so...

(I had thought about getting Legacy OS 2, but the only version I could find in my very quick check was the current "Gamer" release, which comes loaded with older games.  To be honest, I'm not a gamer, and right now I'm only interested in this as a test option, so...)

Kind of wondering about the T43.  Not sure what's causing the freeze-ups after booting.  Possible bad memory?  Something deeper?  I don't know.  Not sure if I'll have time to really look into it till I'm next in.

Too much stuff to do. and not enough time...

Continuing the Fun

After my last post, I found myself cruising around some of my old YouTube haunts, ending up at PuppyLinuxWorld.  The good IcyOS was one of my online mentors when I first started delving into the deep, dark Linux world.  His videos are well-done, and he has just the right off-beat sense of humor to appeal to someone as...well, off-beat as me. 

While cruising through his older stuff, I got a bit nostalgic.  (Me?  Noooo....)  Ended up plugged & charging my old Thinkpad X60s, which still has the ever-marvelous Saluki Linux installed.  of all the Puppy Linux descendents, Saluki is probably my favorite.  Of all the variants I've tried, Saluki always struck me as by far the best version to use for full-scale daily productive work. 

Alas, of course, Saluki is no longer being developed, and the last time I checked, it's repositories were getting a little long in the tooth.  I was able, some time back, to snag a newer version of Firefox to install, keeping the browser up to date, but...  Still, I haven't found anything that can replace it yet.  I've tried Lighthouse, which is nice, but is 64-bit, and won't run on older systems like the X60s.  (I also had some problems with the touchpad support when I installed it on my T410s.)  I've also tried Simplicity, which is quite nice, but just didn't quite click with me.  And, yes, I've been half-keeping an eye on Saluki's "annointed" successor, Carolina.  (In fact, I have the latest version stuck on a thumb drive to test on the X60s, but just haven't gotten 'round to it.  I did run it on my T430, and it ran OK, but I still have some issues...)  Still, none of these really "do it" for me the way Saluki does.

So, in my nostalgic mood, I dragged out the X60s, and fired it up.  Kicked up the copy of FireFox, and was quite happy when it did its upgrade to v.27.  That's cool.  And Flash still works, as I spent too much time watching the new Godzilla trailer on YouTube...  (I know...  But my Inner-9-Year-Old was quite insistent.)  I'd even forgotten I'd installed a conky showing all my system settings.  In short...  Well, it was like rekindling a romance with an old fling...

And I still have 51% left on the battery...

I did use Saluki to do a mass reset on my fleet of Puppy USB boot drives.  (Basically I just went in and erased all the "save" files.  I'll set up new ones when I next boot each of those thumb drives.)  However, I did not touch my 32 GB "monster" drive, which has (you guessed it) another copy of Saluki on it.  I'd set it up ages ago to do some Virtual Box testing, which I never really got around to doing. 

In any event, it's been kind of fun to spend some time with an old friend.  I may actually take the X60s with me when I go back out on the road, along with that thumb drive collection, and see if I can get some more quality time in.

We shall see...

Fluffing about

So...  I'm officially in the in-between at the moment.  A little bit of time off before starting yet another grind.  I'm rather happy for the breathing space.  It's been a bit of a haul, and I'm hoping that the next round of work is a bit more even.

So, back in town for a bit, I decided to make a run to the Computer-Shop-Across-the-River, to check on a couple of errant computers I've left in their care for far too long.  Alas, the great Dell behemoth that I should never have bought is still dead in the water, as the owner of the Shop continues to try and find me a GPU for a decent (rather than Dell-approved) price.  We shall continue that saga later.

The crusty little Thinkpad T23 that had originally went in to let them replace the fan unit, and which had suffered a broken piece of keyboard had, however, been fixed.  Lovely!  I was happy to take it home, even if I have absolutely no use for the poor thing.  A Pentium III with no wireless card, and me lacking the desire to upgrade it.  (I did install the CMOS battery that I'd bought shortly after getting the system way back when.  Works like a charm now.)  (And, alas, no I'm not using it to write this via Ethernet...  This is the T30, though running an identical copy of Puppy Slacko 5.6 for good measure.)

Amusingly, the shop owner ran back to his little computer stocking shelves, and came back carrying a great heap of black plastic & metal.  "Got some stuff here for you!"  Seems that someone from the local "recycling center" had dropped off a load of computer junk with him.  (I'm going to sound a total fool and say I didn't even know we had a recycling center here.  But I don't get out much...)  I found myself staring at a stack of 3 Thinkpads in various states of disrepair.

What was there?  Well, the best of the lot appeared to be a T43, on which was a note saying that battery wouldn't charge, but it would boot, but there seemed to be some Windows problems.  Going down the list was an X41 Tablet computer, missing a hard drive, a single key off the keyboard ("g"), the central Trackpoint click button.  Oh, and the screen latch was shot.  And last on the list was an ancient Thinkpad 600, the note on it stating that it would start to boot, and never stop.  And it was missing the cover to the memory slot.  A memory stick was hanging out of it, which I quickly clicked back into place.

Since I was more interested in getting the T23 up and running, I only really played with the T43.  I think the battery wasn't properly seated, which was the charging problem.   The greater concern was that it seems to have some more serious problems.  The copy of WindowsXP on it keeps asking to be registered, which I really don't want to do.  A Linux run showed that it would boot into both Puppy Raring and Puppy Slacko, go to the desktop, and then freeze.  Puppy Precise wouldn't boot at all.  I was going to give Puppy Wary a go, but was getting a bit on the tired side, so...  A quick check of the X41 showed that the right Trackpad button was also stuck.  I'll look into fixing/replacing later.  If I can get it to boot a Puppy from USB, which I'm not sure it's capable of, I might even think about a replacement hard drive.  As for the 600, I really haven't a clue.  Not even sure if it will turn on, and haven't really given thought to a replacement memory slot door (if you could even find one without just buying another unit, which would be pointless.)  And, to be honest, I think my 380XD eats the 600 for breakfast, and it's really just scraping to run Puppy Wary.

Still, I've got the things, and it might be good for a weekend of fiddling around.  Who knows?

The things I get myself into...

Yeah, I know...

I said I was going to be a bit more diligent, didn't I?

The trouble is, this real life stuff keeps intruding.  And I haven't had a moment to breathe in ages.  However, I may be up for a switch here soon.  Don't know if that mythical "breathing room" will become available or not, but...

I did manage to make it in off the road this weekend, if only for a day or so.  So, after unpacking and assaulting the washing machine, I dug into some tech stuff to relax for a bit.  Won't get into it too much, but a quick overview...

Dug out my old Sony Vaio FJ (the mysterious "Russian" system; remind me to explain that sometime), and nuked a copy of MacPup off of it, replacing it with a fresh install of CrunchBang.  Works fine, of course, save for the fact that #! just does not cotton to the ALPS touchpad on the system.  Everything works fine, mind you, save for there being no tap nor scroll capability.  Quickly grabbed/installed a copy of tpconfig, but that's a no-go.  Oh well, I can deal with clicking a button.  For now...

The second system I wanted to play with was a Lenovo IdeaPad U310 that came to me via a trade of some old junk.  The IdeaPads are decent systems, from what I've seen.  ThinkPads they are not, but they aren't bad.  However, this one had an odd bit to it.  Whoever had had it prior had installed a really thin copy of Windows 7 Home Edition on the 32 GB SSD.  (!?!)  When I looked in Windows Explorer, the 500 GB HD wasn't there.  Oooo-kay...  A bit deeper digging showed that there was something there, but Windows couldn't see it.

Well, I just don't do things the easy way.  Being the jerk I am, I dragged out an old Puppy Raring thumb drive, and booted from that.  And it didn't see anything.  At first.  But...well, you all know what it was:  The freaking HD wasn't formatted.  Basically, the system had nothing at that point save for basically a 32 GB drive.  And that, with a Windows install, was getting mighty thin...

Feeling particularly jerkish, I just fired up gparted and quickly did a format of the drive.  Not feeling particular industrious, I didn't reinstall Windows to the larger drive, and set the SSD up as cache.  The thing works, and as long as it does, I don't care.  No one else will be using it, so...  Boots really fast, by the way...

Still trying to figure out what idiot lets a system out into the wild like that.  It's making my head hurt...

Beyond that, did a real quick update to Kubuntu on the old ThinkPad T410s.  Not really sure this install is going to stick around, but it'll do for now.  I just haven't found anything that feels right on the T410s.  I know that sounds weird, but...

It's getting late, and after many hours on the road, I think it's time for bed.  This just might be enough tech for the night...

Did it again

OK, everyone who knows me knows I'm a bit off my rocker when it comes to collecting.  You can go back to some of the early posts in this blog, and see the crazy fountain pens I have floating about.  I have a horrifyingly magpie-ish sense of "gotta have it" when I get fixated on something...

Not too long ago, I picked up a copy of Steve Hamm's The Race for Perfect: Inside the Quest to Design the Ultimate Personal Computer.  It's a decent general history of the evolution of portable computing systems.  However, it uses as its main focus the development of the Lenovo Thinkpad X300, an early contemporary/competitor for the MacBook Air.  (Designed at almost the same time as the original Air.)

The X300 (originally code named "Kodachi", after the shorter Japanese sword) is a wonderfully cool design, and of course I fell straight in love with it.  And, of course, started hitting eBay looking at used models. 

But there were some things I didn't like.  I wasn't fond of the 64 GB SSD, which seemed a bit slim for my taste.  And the "collector's premium" kept seeing in the 'Bay listings didn't appeal to me, either.

However...  (Damn, there's always a "however", isn't there?)

There was the X301, the refresh of the X300.  Basically the same case, a slightly updated processor, and a 128 GB SSD.  There still tended to be the collector's premium, but...

Yeah, I found one.  Whether it was a fluke or not, i found an X301 at a decent price.  Not sure what the deal was, but I snagged it.  The system is in good shape, and the battery (a replacement) is of decent quality.  It was loaded with, of all things, Windows 7 Premium (32 bit), which I wasn't thrilled about.  However...

It took a goodly bit of work, a bit of cleaning, upgrading, and some fortuitous application installations, but I have it up and running properly now.  I think I'm hitting around 4 to 4.5 hours on the battery, which is decent enough for me.  I didn't upgrade the OS, as I really just don't feel like doing so.  It's functional, especially after I managed to dig out my old copy of Office 2007 and install it.  Certainly not "cutting edge" nor "feature-rich", but functional.  And that's what I wanted.  Functional.

Have to admit, I find it a bit odd to go back to the "old" Thinkpad keyboard.  I've solidly adapted to the new, "island-style" on my X1 Carbon, but...  Both versions are the best you can get, so...  I enjoy typing on either, and I do have to admit to really liking the old "forward/back" key set (the one thing I do miss on the new keyboard).

The X301 has sort of moved into the space that my X60s was inhabiting.  (The X60s is still loaded with Saluki Linux, upgraded with a new web browser.  But I still need to download and test Carolina on it.)  It's a bit of an upgrade, especially as it gives me access to an optical drive in a system of this very compact size.  (Yes, I am still old-fashioned enough that I do occasionally watch a DVD...)

So, I guess I'm still running in Windows mode for the time being.  But, at least I'm running it on Thinkpads.  And, as far as I'm concerned, you just can't go wrong there.  Especially if it happens to be one of the cooler Thinkpads around...

Breaking Silence

Maybe that should be the title of my TV show, "Breaking Silence"...  I seem to have to do it enough.

But...well, the usual excuses.  Work.  Work.  More work.  For which I should be eternally grateful.  It's paying my bills.  And letting me indulge in a little system grabbing.

I have switched almost entirely into Windows usage.  Not sure when that pendulum will swing back in another direction.

I have an interesting collection to play with at the moment.  I've been using a factory-refurbished Thinkpad Edge 531 with a Core i7, running Windows 8.1 as my work computer.  (I wanted a 15" screen for that.)  As my knockabout personal "notebook" computer, I've been using a refurbished X1 Carbon with an i5, 4 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD, also running 8.1.  I managed to get incredible deals on both of those system (particularly the Carbon, which I couldn't have touched otherwise.)

And, right now, I'm typing this on my "birthday present", which is a little Thinkpad X120e.  About 2 years old now, with a dual-core AMD E-350 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB HD.  Running, believe it or not, Windows 7 Professional.  It literally just looks like a miniaturized Thinkpad.  I think I got infatuated with this model after seeing the slick Lenovo "tour" video  awhile back.  (Yeah, I am that pathetic.)

Trapped here "on assignment", as it were, for several weeks at a time, Ive not had much to do but play with my computers.  I've truly, truly fell in love with Microsoft OneNote.  I truly think this is one of the best programs in the world for someone as discombobulated as I am.  And why Microsoft doesn't push it more, I don't know.  I'm beginning to think this is the Microsoft equivalent of HyperCard.  An utterly awesome program that the parent company can't get its head around, and horrifically neglects.  (OK, a bit overly dramatic.  MS does vaguely seem to know they have OneNote.  And Steve Jobs didn't neglect HyperCard, he killed it because he saw it as a John Scully project...)

So, here I sit, playing on my miniature Thinkpad, fantasizing about traveling the world.  Fantasizing about being some grand tech writer type.  Fantasizing about the cute little redhead standing at the bar...

Uh...maybe I better quit while I'm ahead...

A Happy New Year

Just a brief message, wishing all a Happy New Year.  May it good new year for all!

Peace and Happiness to all!

Off My Rambling (again)

So, it's the night before the Night Before Christmas in my neck of the woods.  A good time to spend time with family and friends, and all the usual traditions the season brings here.  Which is, of course, why I'm playing on my computer.

Not just any computer, though.  Oh, I was using that fancy Thinkpad Carbon earlier on this evening.  I got pestered from work, apparently another crew hadn't figured out that this is time off, and they shouldn't be pestering, but they did.  And I had to put together a quick report to send them.  (Pulling files off USB thumb drives, putting them together with a quick write-up.)

After that, I decided to play around with some of the older cyber-critters on the ranch.  Most of my older systems have been unplugged and packed away.  However, to my surprise, I found that I'd left the little Thinkpad T30 powered up.  So, here I am, all booted up into Puppy Slacko, enjoying the evening at a much more relaxed pace.  Guess a Pentium 4 will do that for you...

Beyond all computer amusements, this is a time for a little quiet reflection.  The year is winding to a close, and I hope it ends on a good note.  It hasn't been the best of years, but it most certainly hasn't been the worst.  I hope next year brings good things. 

I hope it's a peaceful season for all, whomever and wherever.  My best wishes and thanks to all who've stopped by.  Hopefully you'll stop back again.  I'll try to be a bit more reliable in my writing in the coming year.  And maybe even a bit more informational as well.

And now, back to an evening with Slacko...

Traitorous Leanings

It's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize.  Been a busy couple months, and it's not really letting up as we head into the holidays.  But, work is work, and I'm glad I have it.

I've made some heavy changes in my computing arsenal.  Some have been necessary, some not so much.  Some have resulted from tripping over exceptional deals on eBay and elsewhere.  Some may eventually send me to the poor house.

I previously mentioned my purchase of a Surface Pro, and how much I actually liked it.  Well, due to some of the demands of my current job (RE:, some truly horrific websites that I'm required to access), I found myself somewhat having to use a Win8 system.  I wasn't particularly happy about that, but ya does what ya does...

The Surface, while a great little system to tote around and use on the go, is not a system for everyday office work.  A 10" screen just doesn't cut it, especially when your eyes are as bad as mine.  So, a check of the local Best Buy netted me an el-cheapo Asus computer for just a bit over $200.  (It was an open-box/demo/closeout deal.)  It had an i3, a decent 15" screen, and a serviceable keyboard.  And it worked.

Till today.  I started having trouble with the USB 3.0 port.  Inserting a thumb drive would crash the computer.  (I have my suspicions of what's going on, but I'm not sure.)  This didn't make me happy, but luckily, I was testing a new system I just got it, thanks to one of those serendipitous eBay finds: a Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

Yeah, I know.  But the price I got this one for was literally too good to pass up.  It's a nice system, 1.8 Ghz Core i5, 4 GB RAM, and a 256 GB SSD.  Running Windows 8.1  I've loaded Office 2013 onto it, as I wanted OneNote, which I've (re)fallen in love with.

And the whole system is beautifully compact, yet completely usable.  I've avoided the "ultrabooks" for a long time, just considering them overly expensive toys.  The Carbon changed that opinion.  Yeah, it's damned expensive, but it's definitely no toy.  I have to put a big check mark into Lenovo's corner on this one.  (I'm starting to sound like an advertisment, aren't I?)

Today was the first day i used the Carbon in the office full time, and it was like night and day from the Asus.  Yes, the 14" screen is smaller, but the keyboard more than makes up for that.  I've heard people gripe about the new "island-style" keyboards.  And I have to admit, I love the older style Thinkpad keyboards, but this one holds its own.  It's damned good.  And it makes typing on this system a pleasure. 

So, here I am, becoming a Windows user again...

Well, not really.  But that's a story for another entry...  ;-)

Prepping

Been a little busy this weekend.

Not sure if I mentioned before, but one of the reasons I made my whirlwind trip home was to switch out computers.

Long story short, with no real explanations, I'd settled on using my little white Macbook as my primary work computer, and it was giving yeoman service.  OK, explanations:  The new business center printer my employer installed…well, there are no good drivers available for Linux.  I mean, there are drivers, and I installed them, but they won't work with this particular printer.  (I honestly think the damned printer is just a bargain-basement, give-us-the-cheapest-thing-you-got, don't-worry-about-compatibility number…)  The Mac sees it fine, so…

However, I have to now make an admission:  I'm getting old.  That little 13" screen that used to be so clear and crisp…  Well, it still is, but it's small.  I've been spending my days leaning in on the desk, and my back has decided to tell me about it.  Constantly.  So…

I have now cleaned up, updated, and software-loaded my 2nd gen Macbook Pro (2.4 Ghz, Core2Duo), which is running Mountain Lion.  The gentleman I acquired it from had jacked the memory up to 3 GB, and had stuck in a 1 TB hard drive.  (Yes, I will one day get a 2 GB stick and make it 4 GB of RAM.  But it's working fine for now.)  It, and the Surface Pro, are going to my my only accompaniment on the road.

I joked to a friend of mine that having Mountain Lion and Windows 8 side by side might result in the birth of some sort of terrifying dimensional anomaly.  (Cue Twilight Zone theme here.)

Already copied over several hundred megs of files I've generated since I've been onsite.  Now, just waiting to be able to sit down with a little screen real estate to work with.

Did have to laugh here, but not for reasons of screen size.  I needed some back up storage, so I went digging on my nightstand, and found a couple 16 GB thumb drives.  One of them I remember has the perennially failed install of FatDog64.  The other some oddball version of Puppy that I can't remember.  I just mounted them both on the MBP, and re-partitioned both of them as storage devices.

The reason I laughed about this:  It amazes me how cavalier we are today with these things.   32 gigabytes, containing two complete operating systems, yet I just nuke and reformat without giving a single thought.

Times have most definitely changed...

Yep....... (RE: Of Styli and Men...)

All of you knew this was coming, didn't you?

Less than a week, and I manage to lose the stylus on the Surface Pro.

Hell, I knew it was coming.  I told myself over and over again,"You're going to lose it!"

Bu it survived around 5 days of being toted between my hotel room and the office...  No problems.  I was super careful.  I babied it...

Yeah.  I lost it.

Somewhere, between my hotel room, carrying stuff to the car, the 6 hours of drive time, and walking through my yard to my house, I lost it.

I'm pissed.

It's the one truly abysmal bit of design on this system.  Why, in God's name, did you not put some sort of clip on the damned thing?  A not very strong magnet holding this thing that just begs to be snagged and pulled free from the system...  Oh, GENIUS!

Anyway, I honestly have no one else but myself to blame.  (Believe me, I've tried to find someone else...)

I went on a crazy spree this evening.  I've ordered an original replacement, but only after ordering the first straight capacitive stylus I came across.  Then, while looking at some other examples on eBay, I got to thinking...Hmmm...

An excavative trip down through the laptop layers, and out comes my old HP TC1100...  Pop out the stylus (this is the damned RIGHT way to stow a stylus), and...

It works.  Perfectly.  And it's actually a sight more comfortable to use than the original Microsoft-supplied model, owing to its larger girth.  Alas, I swore in my past OCD-ness, I'd ordered a spare for the HP.  But...No...  Can't find it.  Replacement tips, yes.  Spare, no...  (A trip back to eBay netted me a couple old clunker TC1100 styli for sale.  Not worried about worn tips, as I do have spares for those.  Ha ha...)

So, I guess I'll use the TC1100 stylus while I'm home, and then drop by Best Buy back out where I'm working to grab a generic.  It's going to be while before I get back home and get the ones I ordered.

I am going to have to stop by the Computer-Shop-Across-the-River to see about the T23 and the XPS M2010 tomorrow.  Wonder if they might happen to have an odd capacitive stylus loose about..?