bugs and dust balls

Bugs and Dust Balls: A ‘Clean’ Installation

Mildly amusing article at the New York Times, describing a typical person’s experience performing some simple upgrades on her PC. I got a big laugh comparing her experience with my own recent upgrades. I replaced almost every part in my PC, and I think I had less trouble than she did, and she was just trying to upgrade to Windows XP and add some RAM. (Also, I didn’t have to make a single tech support call. She must have made twenty.) I guess there’s some advantage to being a total geek after all. Also interesting to see the way she uses jargon. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the phrase “debugging the hard drive” before.

LCD monitors

Here are some links related to LCD monitors:

I have to admit that I’m still trying to decide if I like mine or not. Certain things look great on it, but some things are a little hard on the ol’ eyes, compared to the CRT. (It might just be that I’ve got the thing set too bright.)

PC upgrade

I’ve just about finished upgrading my PC now. The new 100 GB hard drive is in and working. (The old one is still in too, unfortunately. I can’t get it out. Long story.) The PCI modem is in too, as is the new video card. The video card is an MSI Ti 4200. It seems to be working well, although I haven’t tried anything that would really stress it yet.

Also, I’m getting used to having a CPU temp of 53 C or so. Apparently, that’s well within the margin of safety, even it is a lot hotter that my old setup.

new motherboard

I installed a new motherboard in my machine today, and it actually worked! (Not on the first try, mind you, but eventually.) It’s an ASUS A7V333, with an Athlon XP 2200+ processor, a Vantec fan/heatsink, and a 512 MB memory module from Corsair. It’s working fine so far, except that the processor is running at 53 C, which seems a little hot. Next week, I should be getting a new hard drive and video card.

Linux Adventures

I spent some time today trying to get Red Hat 8 working on my laptop. It works fine, but I couldn’t get it to recognize my wireless card properly. Oh well. Also, I don’t like the way the interface looks on my wimpy 800×600 display. Oh, and there seem to be a number of bugs in various things. I probably could get it all running well, given enough time, but I’m getting lazy in my old age, so I wiped it out. I may try Madrake 9 on the laptop next. I’m curious. It sounds like a lot of people are using Mandrake now. I can’t do any Linux stuff on my desktop right now, since I’m just about out of room on my hard drive. Maybe I’ll get a new one and set something up next weekend.