Red-Ringed Tupperware Party with (ineffective) Tin Foil Hats

wu_wei0 wrote in post #2449682
Hey sis. Good almost morning! Go back to bed!

Morning dear...I wish I could...what are you up to this morning?

Almost morning...I like that

DEAD PRESIDENT UPDATE!!

I just saw the morning news, and they announced that services are going to be held at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church. This is noteworthy only because that's where my camera club meets.

Things are going to be decidedly out of whack out here for a few days. Traffic is already bad, and there is going to be at least one day of public viewing. I suspect it will also be a good time not to be dragging any of the big white lenses out.

Just finished building myself a new 'puter. The main board containing all the chips and essentially everything that makes the computer is barely bigger than a couple of lens caps.

All you need to do is add RAM, hard disk, and a case of some sort (with power supply) and you are good to go. This is the PC world's version of the Mac Mini, except with the board, I can use any conventional case (recycling some of my small cases leftover from the old days), and any conventional 3.5" hard disk as opposed to the small 2.5" disks the Mac makes me use.

Specs.. VIA C3 800Mhz CPU, VIA onboard graphics, onboard 10/100 Ethernet, Firewire, 4 USB2 ports, going to buy 512MB of DDR RAM tomorrow. 250GB ATA100 hard disk. Slow by today's standards, but I wanted something cheap, 100% integrated, and robust. The little VIA EPIA boards are perfect for embedded systems.

The only purpose this box will have in life is to warehouse my images.. 250GB of dedicated storage connected straight to my network. And yes, it will run UNIX..

Total cost.. $150 for the board, $50 for the RAM, $50 for the case (not counted since I am recycling one, just needs to be vacuum'ed throughly), $100 for the hard disk, also not counted because it was recycled. Software is free (open source/BSD or GPL license).

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

belmondo wrote in post #2449917
DEAD PRESIDENT UPDATE!!

I just saw the morning news, and they announced that services are going to be held at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church. This is noteworthy only because that's where my camera club meets.

Things are going to be decidedly out of whack out here for a few days. Traffic is already bad, and there is going to be at least one day of public viewing. I suspect it will also be a good time not to be dragging any of the big white lenses out.

Wow...yes it does sound like things will be awry for a while there...maybe you can find some nice trains as a distraction . I'm glad President Ford had what appears to be a long and happy life. It's something to live to such an advanced age and be well respected by so many!

Lightstream wrote in post #2449943
Just finished building myself a new 'puter. The main board containing all the chips and essentially everything that makes the computer is barely bigger than a couple of lens caps.

Very Nice, Yoda! I miss doing that kind of stuff. Got rid of all my parts and pieces when I moved here. Sons inherited them. My youngest has been building some awesome gaming machines and then built my future DIL a sweet little one with lots of oomph. she loves it!

Permagrin wrote in post #2449688
Morning dear...I wish I could...what are you up to this morning?

taking a break-- again Water got hot quickly- down to the silverware. I hate that part!!
Now I need to go ready the sunroom for the portrait shoot. argh!!!

wu_wei0 wrote in post #2449959
Very Nice, Yoda! I miss doing that kind of stuff. Got rid of all my parts and pieces when I moved here. Sons inherited them. My youngest has been building some awesome gaming machines and then built my future DIL a sweet little one with lots of oomph. she loves it!

Thanks Wu

This is the first machine I've built in a long time. I had so many adventures and misadventures over a decade building my own systems that the last few years, I have been taking the easy way out - my 3.5 year old home computer (as in, truly home.. the one I am on now) was the last I built. Everything else including my 'away' computer and everything at work was 'just give Dell a call and let them sort it out'.

Just that Dell doesn't build little specialized embedded systems at any reasonable price (not in my area). $200 outlay got me exactly where I wanted to be.. glad to see the skills have not quit on me entirely

wu_wei0 wrote in post #2449959
Very Nice, Yoda! I miss doing that kind of stuff. Got rid of all my parts and pieces when I moved here. Sons inherited them. My youngest has been building some awesome gaming machines and then built my future DIL a sweet little one with lots of oomph. she loves it!

That's cool...and I can honestly say that's something I've never done nor have the slightest clue how to accomplish.

Lightstream wrote in post #2449980
Thanks Wu

This is the first machine I've built in a long time. I had so many adventures and misadventures over a decade building my own systems that the last few years, I have been taking the easy way out - my 3.5 year old home computer (as in, truly home.. the one I am on now) was the last I built. Everything else including my 'away' computer and everything at work was 'just give Dell a call and let them sort it out'.

Just that Dell doesn't build little specialized embedded systems at any reasonable price (not in my area). $200 outlay got me exactly where I wanted to be.. glad to see the skills have not quit on me entirely

Glad you were successful. $200 isn't bad at all for a computer

Permagrin wrote in post #2449945
Wow...yes it does sound like things will be awry for a while there...maybe you can find some nice trains as a distraction . I'm glad President Ford had what appears to be a long and happy life. It's something to live to such an advanced age and be well respected by so many!

This will be the biggest funeral here in the desert since Sonny Bono splattered himself on a tree when skiing. We have a lot of old famous people here just waiting to expire. We have so many senior citizens here, some people refer to the desert as God's waiting room.

Permagrin wrote in post #2449988
That's cool...and I can honestly say that's something I've never done nor have the slightest clue how to accomplish.

Glad you were successful. $200 isn't bad at all for a computer

Don't start it can be tremendously frustrating at times. I needed something to sacrifice to the career gods, so this was it. (used to be a hobbyist, now look what happened). Actually the paycheck is not too bad nowadays.

$200 for a tiny low powered machine.. it'll never be a Photoshop box, it will probably never even run a graphical interface and never have a mouse attached to it. Remember the old text-based screens? That'll be it. But it will do what I need it to do (store large amounts of data and protect it) extremely well.

Lightstream wrote in post #2450033
Remember the old text-based screens? That'll be it.

ahhhhh- my beloved command line!!

Actually got a job offer at the courthouse the other day. Was finally getting my KS tags (yes, I have lived here over 2 years but wouldn't admit it to myself that I was a ks resident!) The woman behind the counter was having problems with the mainframe and I casually talked her through to solutions- only to find their head honcho IT guy standing behind me when I was done. "come to my office. I have a proposition for you." Too bad it wasn't more money. I might have jumped!! I miss being a geek goddess sometimes. ROFL

wu_wei0 wrote in post #2450085
ahhhhh- my beloved command line!!

Actually got a job offer at the courthouse the other day. Was finally getting my KS tags (yes, I have lived here over 2 years but wouldn't admit it to myself that I was a ks resident!) The woman behind the counter was having problems with the mainframe and I casually talked her through to solutions- only to find their head honcho IT guy standing behind me when I was done. "come to my office. I have a proposition for you." Too bad it wasn't more money. I might have jumped!! I miss being a geek goddess sometimes. ROFL

Geek goddess...my SISTER!
(too bad it wasn't for more money because that would have been ideal!)

wu_wei0 wrote in post #2450085
ahhhhh- my beloved command line!!

Actually got a job offer at the courthouse the other day. Was finally getting my KS tags (yes, I have lived here over 2 years but wouldn't admit it to myself that I was a ks resident!) The woman behind the counter was having problems with the mainframe and I casually talked her through to solutions- only to find their head honcho IT guy standing behind me when I was done. "come to my office. I have a proposition for you." Too bad it wasn't more money. I might have jumped!! I miss being a geek goddess sometimes. ROFL

/bin/tcsh for me

I run FreeBSD on x86 systems.. but MacOS X is descended from FreeBSD, so we all share a common heritage. They kept most of the goodies I've come to appreciate on FreeBSD, too.

He should have offered more $$ You sound like the kind of problem solver they need.... too often I see them pay peanuts and get their proverbial monkeys at the keyboard in return!

belmondo wrote in post #2449917
DEAD PRESIDENT UPDATE!!

I just saw the morning news, and they announced that services are going to be held at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church. This is noteworthy only because that's where my camera club meets.

Things are going to be decidedly out of whack out here for a few days. Traffic is already bad, and there is going to be at least one day of public viewing. I suspect it will also be a good time not to be dragging any of the big white lenses out.

huh??

can't get a photo of the president? ... and other famous dignitaries?

If I were in that neck of the woods that is where you would find me ...

... not that famous folks are my thing ... really not

... but to document a historical event would be interesting!