My Computers

2008-05-08T07:37:00.004-04:00

Waldorf got a new keyboard -- a Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500. It's a pretty nice keyboard, simple, but effective. It's wired because this particular computer has no need for wireless peripherals, and the addition of batteries would really just be detrimental. And the keyboard is simple, no LCD screens or multitudes of media buttons which no one would ever use. Just a good, soft-touch, quiet, keyboard. Which is surprisingly hard to find nowadays.

This replaces a generic Compaq keyboard, which dates back to the earliest days of Fozzie (1999!). In addition to just being generally old, the keys were starting to lose responsiveness. I think it's understandable that it started to die after almost 10 years of use.

This keyboard marks one of the last components of Waldorf that can be upgraded without a major renovation -- everything else is tied to the motherboard in one way or another. This computer was originally built from parts cycled out of Fozzie, and I have been systematically upgrading all of the individually replaceable parts ever since. Now we're at the point where the next step will be to renovate the remaining parts of the computer -- motherboard, CPU, PSU, case, video card, and memory.

2008-03-06T07:33:00.002-05:00

Got a new monitor for Clementine -- a 19-inch Samsung SyncMaster 940BX. Great monitor: 1000:1 contrast ratio, adjustable height, and can be rotated.

Attentive readers may remember that this is actually the same monitor I added to Fozzie back in December 2006. Even over a year later, I still couldn't find a better monitor than this, particularly at this price point. I didn't start out saying that I was going to get the same monitor, but after looking at all of them, this one still won.

It's also worth noting that this replaces a Samsung SyncMaster 570VTFT that Clementine was using. Before Clementine, this monitor was used with Fozzie, and was in fact the first LCD monitor I acquired, back in July of 2001. I am amazed at how well this monitor has held up over time. Other than being a slightly small 15 inches (which is still a common size), it has otherwise been great monitor to use over the years. That monitor -- and the 4 subsequent Samsung monitors I've purchased -- has made me a big Samsung fan. I'm continually impressed with the quality of their monitors. 5 LCD monitors and no dead pixels!

2007-12-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

Fozzie just got a Christmas upgrade -- a new Seagate Barracuda SATA 120GB hard drive, to replace the existing Maxtor 80GB drive.

This serves as my secondary hard drive; it only stores my user data. That's why it is smaller than the other hard drive, which is 250 GB. I need to be able to back up my secondary drive onto my primary drive, so my primary drive needs to be big enough to hold both the contents of the secondary drive as well as the operating system and applications. So, when I upgrade my primary drive, I can buy one as big as I want. But when I upgrade my secondary drive, I have to keep it smaller than the primary drive.

The biggest reason for doing this upgrade at this time was that I plan on renovating Fozzie again sometime this summer. When I do so, it's quite likely that whatever motherboard I end up buying will only support one IDE channel (2 devices), as IDE is being phased out. My current board supports 2 IDE channels (4 devices), and my existing setup was 1 SATA hard drive, 1 IDE hard drive, and 2 IDE optical drives. So, I felt it would be prudent to replace the IDE hard drive with a SATA drive, so now I only have 2 IDE devices.

I'm very impressed with this new drive. Yes, it's bigger (120 GB vs. 80 GB) and faster (SATA vs. IDE), but what really impresses me is how quiet it is. As I soon I turned my computer on for the first time with this drive in, I instantly noticed that the noise level had dropped dramatically. I assumed that my older drive was causing some noise, but not nearly as much as it actually was. And I always like to make computers as quiet as possible, so that's a great benefit.

2007-11-05T07:32:00.000-05:00

Ever since I got a Bluetooth adapter for Fozzie, I've been interested in trying to use a Bluetooth headset with my computer. So, I recently decided to go ahead and try it out. After reading tons of reviews of headsets online, it was clear that the universally best reviewed headset was the Plantronics Voyager 510. No other Bluetooth headset had anywhere near the positive feedback that it did. So, it was the obvious buy.

I'm happy to say it works great with my computer (and with my cell phone, too!). One change I had to make was that I needed to move the Bluetooth dongle from the back of my computer to my desktop, using an extra USB extension/stand that I have. It seems that line of sight is very critical to Bluetooth working correctly, especially for real-time audio. But once that change was made, the audio is very clear in both directions, and I have continued to reduce wires!

With this change in place, I was able to move my existing headset setup (a wired Plantronics MX-505 and Radio Shack speaker/headset switch) to Clementine, which had lacked a headset. That's still a pretty recent headset model, I only got it about a year and a half ago.

2007-10-16T17:12:00.000-04:00

Waldorf had a hardware change a while back that I completely forgot to post about here. The new Logitech mouse that we got for it turned out to be a piece of junk -- which is surprising, as I've generally been happy with other Logitech mice. The cursor was very jumpy, which made it hard to point at anything with precision on screen. Tried more than one mouse, and all of them had the defect.

So, we quickly replaced it with a Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000, which seems to be working great. Goes to show that even companies with good histories can make mistakes!

2007-06-16T10:22:00.000-04:00

Waldorf just got a new mouse -- a Logitech LX3 Optical Mouse Blue. This is an upgrade from it's previous non-optical OEM Compaq mouse, so it's a big step forward.

It's corded, because this computer doesn't really require a wireless mouse & keyboard. I was surprised when we went to a certain big-box retailer, and there only 2 corded mice, and 1 corded (no-name brand) keyboard. I didn't realized wireless had become so pervasive (although I do love the wireless sets on Fozzie and Clementine, but Waldorf just didn't need one).

Luckily, one of the two corded mice was this Logitech LX3 model, which is very similar to the mouse that's part of my highly-recommended wireless set -- the Logitech LX7 -- except it's a) corded and b) optical in stead of laser. Great high-quality mouse.

2007-05-19T16:36:00.000-04:00

BIG change to talk about -- I built a new computer!

My fiance's computer has been seemingly dying a slow death recently, so I decided it was time to build a new one to replace it, and include it in my family of computers. The new computer's name is Clementine, and you can read all of the detailed specs here. You can also see images and commentary from the building process by going here.

As a quick summary, this computer is centered around an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor -- dual core and quite powerful, but also very reasonably priced. We've got a great Asus M2N motherboard, and a fanless, silent, EVGA GeForce 7100GS video card. The card is not super powerful, but this computer will not be used for gaming at all, so sound level of the card (and computer in general) was more important than power. And at any rate, this card is still quite capable for simple 3D tasks and even high-end games from a couple of years ago.

Two SATA Seagate hard drives, totalling 240GB of space, and a Plextor DVD burner. Also, we've got a Logitech LX710 cordless desktop set (same as in Fozzie, excellent set!), a completely silent Enermax case fan, and the 15-inch Samsung LCD that was previously used on Fozzie. Check out the specs, it's a pretty decent machine for general tasks, with a lot of room to grow.

Also, at the same time, I remove the StarLogic floppy drive from Fozzie, and instead bought a NEC USB floppy drive, which I'll share amongst the three computers I have here (Fozzie, Camilla, and Clementine, none of which have built-in floppy drives). Floppy disks are used so infrequently nowadays, I felt it was better to not build a drive into every computer, and instead just share a USB drive. However, I took this StarLogic drive, and installed it in Waldorf. Waldorf is not physically located here, so would not benefit from my USB floppy drive. Also, the floppy drive that was previously in Waldorf did not work, so this gives Waldorf a functioning drive at least.

So, we welcome Clementine to the Greg Leedberg family of computers!

2007-04-27T12:04:00.000-04:00

As part of a push to "refresh" the capabilities of Waldorf, I recently replaced its aging 17-inch Compaq CRT monitor with a new 17-inch Samsung SyncMaster 720N LCD monitor. The Compaq it replaces is a massive monitor, so the switch to a flat panel is a definite improvement in desk space utilization.

Waldorf is currently my mother's computer, although I still consider it part of my "family" of computers. When I first built Waldorf, I built it entirely out of used parts, and intended for it to be a secondary computer to Fozzie. Fozzie is still my primary computer, but now that Waldorf is my mother's primary computer, I'd like to try and update some of the hardware components. I'll focus first with the most pressing needs -- like this monitor.

2007-03-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

I recently bought a new cell phone (an LG VX8600) which supports Bluetooth. As you may know, I'm a big fan of Bluetooth technology, so I took this as an opportunity to add Bluetooth connectivity to my desktop, Fozzie.

After reading lots of reviews on Bluetooth adapters, I found that they range in price from $7 all the way up to $60 or more. But, they had almost universally bad reviews, except one -- the Anycom USB-250. It seemed that for most adapters, no matter the price, some people could get it to work, while lots of people could not. To be fair, Bluetooth can be complex because compatibility depends on both the adapter as well as the device you're connecting to (in my case, my cell phone). There are so many possible combinations that it's not surprising that there are compatibility problems. But, it seemed that more people had success with the Anycom adapter than with others.

Since I got it, I have found that it works perfectly with my phone. I am able to transfer files, use my phone as a modem, and use my computer as a speaker phone. Some of it was non-obvious (step #1: Get rid of the CD that comes with the adapter and download the latest software from Anycom's web site), so I may end up writing a how-to for my blog.

Now that I have Bluetooth connectivity on my computer, I am excited to start getting more Bluetooth-compatible devices. Printers, mice, keyboards, media players... lots of things are supporting Bluetooth nowadays. And now I can take part in the wireless fun!

2007-01-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, you should always expect unexpected problems when upgrading computers.

Case in point: In my last post, I talked about adding an XFX GeForce 7300GT video card to my computer. However, at that time I had not really pushed it very much. I played Doom 3 for a couple of minutes, was amazed by the quality of the rendering, and posted to this blog. Later, I continued to play Doom 3, and found that, consistently, after about 5 - 10 minutes of playing, the computer would lock up. So, I downloaded a video card stability tester, and the card would fail the test (i.e., crash the computer) within just a few seconds of the test running. After reading online and reviewing the specs for the video card, I began to suspect that the card was attempting to pull more power than my 400W power supply could, well, supply.

So, I went onto NewEgg, read some reviews, and ordered an Antec TrueControl 550W power supply. This time around, I wanted to go with Antec since they are consistently well reviewed and have a very good reputation for producing high-quality power supplies.

A few days went buy, and it came. I installed it, and it completely solved the problem. Doom 3 runs perpetually, and the video card stability test runs without crashing. However, this is not the end of the story.

The TrueControl line of power supplies come with a control panel you can mount on the front of your computer. This panel has several dials which allow you to tweak the voltage and fan speed of the power supply. I have two issues with this control panel: One, I don't overclock so I don't need to tweak my voltage levels. Two, the panel is incredibly, incredibly, ugly. Perhaps if you're one of those people who put neon lights in your case, it wouldn't be so bad, but that is not the look I'm going for at all.

When ordering the power supply, I assumed that if you didn't set up the control panel, the power supply would just run like a normal power supply and produce the rated voltages and whatnot. However, it turns out that without the front panel connected, the power supply actually runs all the voltages at their minimum rated levels, and fans at full speed. Incredible.

It's perfectly safe to have voltages at the bottom of the rated range, but the problem is that if that voltage were to fluctuate at all, you'd suddenly be outside of that safe range. I didn't want to pay top dollar for an Antec power supply, and always be worried about my voltage levels. Nor did I want to have to install the horrible front panel.

So, I returned it to NewEgg. Luckily, they are good about things like this. In its place, I ordered a standard TruePower Trio 550W power supply. No front panel.

Upon installing this power supply, the video card still functions correctly, and voltage levels are where they should be. I'm pretty impressed with the Antec power supply so far. It's quiet, powerful, and puts out incredibly steady voltages.

But in the end, this is a lesson -- always assume that something is going to go wrong when upgrading parts. Not that that's bad -- you'll learn a lot along the way -- but it's just important to keep in mind.

2006-12-27T13:08:00.000-05:00

As is always the case with Christmas, I have had a series of changes in my computers over the span of the last few days.

The biggest change is that I've upgraded the video card in my primary desktop computer, Fozzie. The new video card is an XFX GeForce 7300GT, replacing the existing PNY Verto GeForce 5200FX. The reason for this upgrade is that my system is AGP-based, and the graphics card industry has recently switched to PCI-Express, so AGP cards will be becoming more rare. As such, I wanted to put a rather high-end AGP card in Fozzie, effectively maximizing its graphics capabilities, until the time comes that I upgrade the whole system to a PCI-Express-capable motherboard. I'm very happy with the GeForce 7300GT card so far. It runs Doom 3 amazingly well, and also lets me use the digital connection to my recently upgraded LCD monitor.

On Fozzie, I also upgraded both the keyboard and mouse with a new desktop set, the Logitech LX710 cordless desktop. There were several motivations for this upgrade. On the keyboard side, the keyboard that I had (a Logitech Cordless Access keyboard) was relatively low-end when I bought it, and the "feel" of the keys has significantly degraded over time. Since I am a software engineer, I do a lot of typing, and the feel of the keys is very important to me. This new keyboard is a slim profile, with quiet keys. On the mouse side, the mouse I had (a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Blue) was getting to be 4 years old (the longest I have ever had a mouse!), and was showing significant wear-and-tear on the surface. Additionally, in the four years that have passed, new optical mouse technologies have come out, most notably laser mice. I am quite impressed with this new mouse -- with the laser technology, it seems to perform almost identically to a corded mouse. I always felt that my previous cordless mouse was very, very good for a cordless mouse, but it was noticably different than using a corded mouse. Not so with this laser mouse. Also, going to this new set allowed me to consolidate the two different wireless receivers I had into just one. And, this one receiver is just a USB dongle, so it doesn't even need to sit on my desk. Amazing.

Lastly, Waldorf saw an upgrade in that I added a printer, a Canon Pixma iP4200 to it. Waldorf previously had no printer. Waldorf is a computer I originally built out of spare parts for myself, but now it is serving as my mother's computer, so it warranted having a new printer. The last three printers I have purchased have been Canons, and I have been consistently impressed.

2006-10-28T16:24:00.000-04:00

As an early birthday present, today I upgraded my current 15" LCD monitor to a 19" Samsung SyncMaster 940BX monitor. This new monitor is absolutely amazing -- 1000:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time, no dead pixels, adjustable height, and can be rotated. Those are feature normally found in very high-end monitors.

This replaces a 15" Samsung SyncMaster 570V, which I've had since sophomore year of college. I still remember when I first got that monitor, it was a big deal because at that time not many people had LCD monitors. That monitor was very good for its time, and is still actually a very nice monitor (no dead pixels there either!). My primary reason for wanting to upgrade was because I wanted a little more screen real estate than a 15", 1024x768 monitor can offer. So, that monitor has been moved to my fiance's computer, which is a nice upgrade from her previous CRT monitor.

The monitor was one of the three oldest parts of my computer, upgrading it now puts my >4 year old, 80GB secondary hard drive into that category.

2006-10-21T11:33:00.000-04:00

Another series of not-too-interesting computer part swaps amongst my computers.

Waldorf was without a sound card, while Fozzie had two (a Sound Blaster Live as well as the on-board sound on the motherboard, which is actually rather good). So I took the SB Live card from Fozzie and put it in Waldorf, and am currently using the on-board sound with Fozzie. Due to this, a top-priority upgrade for next year will be to buy a new sound card for Fozzie. The removal of the SB Live card from Fozzie is actually rather "historic", in that the SB Live card was one of only 2 components left in Fozzie that date back to when I originally bought that computer in December, 1999. Now the only remaining component from that date is the speakers.

With a sound card, Waldorf also was in need of speakers. So, I pulled an old set of Labtec speakers from my very first computer, an IBM PS/ValuePoint. These speakers are now the oldest component I have in use in any computer. I am not sure of the exact date they were acquired, but it was sometime when I was in middle school I believe (so, mid-90's). Suprisingly, despite their age they still sound great and work fine.

It also has become desirable for Waldorf to have wireless networking (as it did when it was originally built!) due its location. So, a new Linksys WMP54GS was purchased and installed as well. This is the only truly new component in Waldorf, all other parts have been "inherited" from other computers.

2006-09-12T18:11:00.000-04:00

Nothing too interesting has been happening with my computers, but there have been several swaps of parts between my computers.

First, the wireless NIC I had been using in Fozzie was removed, and installed instead into my fiance's computer. Fozzie now is back to using its on-board wired LAN. My fiance and I are moving into an apartment together, and the layout of the place dictated that her computer would have to be the wireless one, and that mine would be close enough to the router to be wired. That's fine -- I don't care either way. It was a life saver to have the wireless NIC, though, it really gives you some freedom and makes it easier to set up multiple computers in a room.

Second, Waldorf (which has been mostly usused for the last year) has been revived as a "starter" computer for my mother. So, I wiped out the Linux installation and installed Windows XP instead, since it is a easier operating system to use. I also swapped the 15-inch monitor for the spare 17-inch Compaq monitor I have, since 15 inches is almost unusable for a CRT monitor nowadays. It's a pretty good machine for learning, I think. What's interesting is that after all of this swapping and inheriting of parts, Waldorf is now almost exaclty the same computer as the original Fozzie from 1999. Waldorf now just has 128MB more RAM, and is lacking a sound card and speakers. Other than that, all the original Fozzie parts are now humming along in Waldorf.

Ah, the circle of life.

2006-08-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

Unlike most people, I really do like touchpads on laptops. I think they're an intuitive way to use a pointing device. Because of this, I've exclusively used the touchpad on Camilla in the time I have had this laptop.

However, once in a while, I really do a lot of work in one sitting on my laptop. For instance, if I work from home, or if I take the laptop on a trip and it becomes my primary computer. In those cases, the "intuitiveness" of the touchpad is overshadowed by the discomfort it causes after extended usage.

For these times, I decided to buy a Logitech Notebook Optical Mouse Plus. It was the top-rated corded optical notebook mouse on NewEgg and Amazon, and was only $11, so I figured it's a good deal. Why not cordless? Mostly because it'd be just one more battery to charge. Also, with a laptop, I don't forsee the need to require the mouse to be far away from the computer. I love the wireless mouse I have for my desktop, but it just didn't make sense for a laptop.

Seems pretty good. Smaller than a desktop mouse, but not as small as some Microsoft notebook mice I have seen, so it's still comfortable to hold. Cord wraps around the bottom and snaps into place. Feels pretty sturdy and solid overall, even the scroll wheel. Not a terribly exciting upgrade, but worthwhile and a good deal. Nice.

2006-07-06T18:04:00.000-04:00

The other day, my Cyber Power uninterruptible power supply suffered a horrible death. We lost power for just a moment, but rather than supplying power to Fozzie through the loss, it shut the computer off. Then, when the power came back, the UPS would maintain power to the computer for about 3 seconds, then drop power, then bring it back for 3 seconds, then drop it. My computer kept being turned on and off -- not very good for it!

So I declared this the death of my UPS. This is actually the second UPS I have had die a horrible death -- the other one was a Cyber Power model as well. I'm not sure if this shows that Cyber Power is a bad brand, or that UPSes are fault-prone. It's definitely one of the two, though.

So, I have replaced it. This time, with a good-reputation APC model. APC costs just a little more than brands like Cyber Power, but if the unit lasts longer than 2 years, it's worth it. Already I like it more -- 10 outlets rather than 6, 5 battery-backed outlets rather than 3, better software, and USB connection rather than serial.

I really find UPSes to be incredibly useful, particularly for those quick little "hiccups" of power that you get every now and then. I hope this APC unit meets my expectations!

2006-02-20T18:43:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in my previous post, my old Labtec headset, which I've had since 2000, broke recently. So I have now replaced it, with a Plantronics MX-505 headset.

It's interesting to note that this new headset is actually designed for mobile phones, which use a 2.5mm headset jack. I'm able to attach it to my computer via the Radio Shack headset / speaker switch I recently bought.

Now, the question you might wonder is, why did I go through the trouble of getting a phone headset, rather than just buying a regular PC headset. Well...

There were several different approaches I could have taken with this headset needing to be replaced. For one, I could have bought a high-end USB PC headset. The problem with these is, mainly, that they cost too much. At a minimum of $40, I just can't justify that. Additionally, USB headsets sometimes conflict when used at the same time as a web cam. My primary use of a headset is for videoconferencing, so I didn't want to take this risk -- especially since it would be at a premium.

So I looked at regular PC headsets that plug into your sound card. There are lots out there, and at reasonable prices. However, every single one of them was big and bulky. They seems to be mostly designed for gaming / listening to music. In the time I have had my computer, not once have I used my headset for those purposes. I have only ever used it for VOIP or videoconferencing. I don't need stereo sound, and I don't want a big bulky headset that makes me look silly on camera. I considered those behind-the-head headsets briefly, but couldn't find a set that were well reviewed -- they all seemed to have a hard time fitting people correctly.

So, I had decided that I wanted a small, discrete headset, for under $30, that has good (but not necessarily amazing) sound quality. Plantronics makes a wireless PC headset that almost fits this bill -- except it costs over $200. So, I started at this point to look at Bluetooth headsets. Bluetooth headsets are mostly designed for use with Bluetooth-enabled cell phones. But, for $20 you can get a Bluetooth adapter for your PC and, theoretically, use them on your computer. Bluetooth headsets are almost universally small and discrete. However, the more I read about them, the more I got the sense that lots of people seem to have problems trying to get them to work with PCs. There's a fair population out there that are successful, but I don't want a battle with my computer over a headset.

So I thought I had ruled out every possiblity (and probably at this point would have ended up buying a standard PC headset). However, I realized that there are lots of regular, wired, mobile phone headsets out there that are < $30, and are also inconspicuous. I was lucky to find the Radio Shack switch (apparently one of the only ways to make this sort of connection!). I did some research on Amazon, and managed to find this great little headset. I was leaning from the beginning towards buying a Plantronics headset, since I know they are a good brand. This particular headset was very well reviewed, so I gave it a shot.

I haven't had it long, but the connection works flawlessly, and upon inital experiments, the sound quality is quite good, both the speaker and the microphone. And it's a really nice looking headset, and doesn't stand out on the webcam. Plus, it looks high-tech when you wear it. All good things! And, last but not least, I did something "interesting" with my computer, rather than taking the "easy" route. :-)

2006-02-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

There has been a flurry of small changes with my computers lately.

First, I recently decided to take the wireless NIC (a new Linksys WMP54G) from Waldorf and put it in Fozzie. I built Waldorf mostly to try and use the old parts I had hanging around, as well as to have a Linux-only desktop. However, since I built Waldorf I haven't used it a single time. It was a fun project to built, but not very useful. If I want to run Linux I can boot up my laptop, and Waldorf was too underpowered to really use for much. So I took the one new component from Waldorf, and put it in Fozzie.

I took this as an oportunity to remove the modem from Fozzie. This is notable in that the modem is one of the oldest components in Fozzie, dating all the way back to December, 1999. It's not really needed, though. I haven't used a dial-up connection in several years, and don't foresee myself using one again. So, it was easier to just swap the modem for the wireless card, rather than adding another PCI card to the system.

Also, it seems that I added my headset to the page just in time. It just broke the other day. It's still useable (sort of), but the plastic bends when you wear it. Not bad for $15 six years ago, though. I plan to replace it in the very near future. My current plan is to replace it with a mobile phone headset, rather than a traditional PC headset. When/if I actually do that, I'll give more explanation here. But for now, I've added a Radio Shack computer headphone/speaker switch, which lets you switch between speakers, computer headset, or mobile phone headset, which is a really neat feature. I sort of wanted a switch anyways. It's tough having both speakers and a headset and trying to switch between them. My previous solution was to set my sound card to 4-speaker mode, and use the headset as the "rear" speakers and my real speakers as the "front" speakers. It works, but it's not clean. Now I have a switch for that purpose.

2006-01-29T18:11:00.000-05:00

Today I upgraded Camilla to Fedora Core 4. The only reason she was running Core 3 was that, as of July, I couldn't get wireless networking to work under Core 4. But since then I've gotten it working -- largely because of building Waldorf. This was actually just part of re-building the operating systems on Camilla. I also re-installed Windows XP. I like to start from scratch about once a year, for several reasons. For one, it helps to get rid of the "cruft" that builds up over time as programs are installed and uninstalled. Also, it gives you the experience of having to re-install an operating system, so that you a) know how to do it in your sleep, b) know what needs to be backed up in order to do it successfully and c) aren't stressed out by doing it.

Also, to Fozzie's page, I added a headset. This isn't a new component, though. I've had this headset since August of 2000. For some reason, I just had never listed it on this page. But it's certainly a part of Fozzie. This headset has enabled me to use Dialpad.com (back when it offered free calling), Skype, Stanaphone, and, currently, SightSpeed. Quite a lot of use for $15 six years ago.

2005-12-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Today I added one 1GB module of Crucial PC3200 RAM to Fozzie, bringing Fozzie's total to 1.5GB of RAM.

1.5GB is quite a lot of memory for a desktop system, so you might wonder why I added 1GB rather than, say, 512MB. The reason is, even though the Asus K8V motherboard has three slots for memory modules and supports PC3200 speed RAM, you can only achieve that maximum speed in the event that two or fewer slots are in use. As soon as you put a third module in the system, the speed of all memory drops to, I think, PC2700. I'd rather keep the speed high, so, thinking ahead, figured it'd be better to put a 1GB module in and then not need more for a long time. When the time comes to upgrade memory again, I'll replace the pre-existing 512MB module with another 1GB -- and then stop memory upgrades, so as to not lower the access speed.

2005-11-22T19:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I added a Logitech Precision GamePad 2 to Fozzie. Now, I actually don't play games very often on my computer, so why would I want a game pad? Because, every now and then I do enjoy playing emulated games. Classic games, like Mario and Sonic, that sort of thing. Every now and then, I'm just in the mood for playing Mario Kart for 15 minutes. But, it's quite horrible to do that with a computer keyboard. So, I've been looking and looking for a good, cheap, PC game controller. I don't need a joystick, analog pads, or rumble features, because I'm only going to play older games with it. But at the same time, I don't want a really cheaply made controller that will fall apart after a few months. The Logitech Precision GamePad only costs $10, and has really good reviews on Amazon. Thus far, I've agreed with the reviews -- it's a really comfortable, sturdy controller, that really does just "plug and play" -- no drivers or anything required. Recommended if you want to play emulated games. Probably not so good if you want to play modern flight simulators and first person shooters.

This was actually a great birthday present from my wonderful girlfriend. Thanks, Leslie :-)

2005-11-14T18:45:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I did something I've been planning to do for a long time: increased the amount of RAM in Camilla. I swapped out one of the 128MB modules, and replaced it with a Kingston 256MB PC2100 module, bringing the total to 384MB.

It may seem odd that Camilla had two 128MB modules rather than just a single 256MB module, but at the time that I bought Camilla, there was a substantial financial savings by going the 2x128MB route. I knew that 256MB wasn't a whole lot for a laptop to run Windows XP, but I decided that I would save the money in the short term, and then upgrade one of the modules within a year. Well, now, 2 years later, I've finally done it :-) Even 384MB is a little low for a laptop -- when you're dealing 5400RPM hard drives, you don't want the OS to swap to disk very often! -- but my plan is to upgrade the other 128MB module within a year.

So look for that upgrade in November 2007....

2005-10-23T16:47:00.000-04:00

I built a new computer! However, this computer, "Waldorf", is not intended to replace either Fozzie or Camilla. Waldorf is built (almost) entirely from parts that have been cycled out of other computers -- mostly from Fozzie. One of my big motivations for building Waldorf was simply that I had enough parts lying around to build another computer -- so why not?

Of note, Waldorf is Linux-only. I quietly removed Linux recently from Fozzie. Fozzie's goal is to be a computer that constantly meets my needs and is constantly relatively up-to-date. But, by dual-booting Windows and Linux, it was frequently a chore to pick out compatible hardware, which sometimes kept Fozzie from reaching its full potential. I also had been having problems getting XP and Linux to dual-boot from my new SATA drive. And also, I just simply don't like dual-booting to begin with. It's nice having a large pool of applications available, but it's annoying to have to reboot in order to use something in another operating system (especially if you run servers on your computer, which I do). A better solution is to just run Cygwin under Windows, which gives you a Linux-like environment and pool of applications. So, Fozzie is now Windows-only, and Waldorf is Linux-only. Since Waldorf is largely "aged" hardware, this seems to make sense.

The one new piece of hardware in Waldorf is a Linksys PCI 802.11g wireless card. Since there is no room in my computer room for another computer, and that's where the router is located, I either had to get wireless for Waldorf or run cabling around the house. Luckily, the Linksys card seems to work with Fedora Core 3, by using the infinitely useful ndiswrapper program.

I had some problems with IRQ conflicts relating to running FC3 on this older hardware, but those problems strangely only occur on reboots, not fresh startups, so the rule is to not reboot Waldorf... just startup and shutdown. Other than that, Waldorf is functioning execellently.

2005-10-01T16:31:00.000-04:00

Got a new printer today, a Canon Pixma iP6600D. This is to replace my 5-year-old HP DeskJet 932C. The 932C had served me very well over the years (all of college and grad school), but was very obviously starting to die. Whenever I'd print with it, it would emit crazy squealing and grinding noises like no printer should ever do. And it seemed to be jamming more lately. So, I got this new Canon. I'm very happy with it so far. Borderless photo printing, LCD preview, memory card slots. A lot has changed in printing in the last 5 years! I really wanted just another simple printer, but it seemed like all the "simple" printers had bad print quality as well. The 6600D is sort of new, so there aren't lots of reviews online for it, but the ones I found were positive, and I know that Canon has produced several of the best printers out right now (iP4000 and iP5000), so it seemed like a safe bet.

2005-08-31T20:03:00.000-04:00

I finally did a long-planned upgrade: I replace my 5+ year-old 20GB hard drive with a new 250GB Seagate SATA drive. The install went flawlessly. I was nervous, I've read about people having problems with SATA installs. I probably didn't have problems because I read so much and knew about the pitfalls and how to avoid them. It's worth noting that the 20GB drive I replaced was one of the oldest components in my system. It's one of the few devices that date back to the original computer I bought in 1999 (along with modem, sound card, and speakers). So, this was somewhat historic in that respect. The old drive was actually still performing quite well, I'm very impressed with that drive (it was also a Seagate). I just wanted a bigger, faster drive. I plan on hopefully re-using the 20GB drive in the future.