Been away a while -- hopfully I'm back

[Porkchunker]

Have been rebuilding the computers at home and have been off the net (except when my boss isn't looking) for a while. So if you haven't seen me lately, I have an excuse. Hopefully all is back up.

Gave up forcing the Admiral to use Linux and built a laptop with Windoze XP for her. She still does internet searches and e-mail on Linux, but has several Windoze only applications she can't live without.

The main computer was reconfigured to be dual-boot between Windoze XP and Fedora Linux 10. Fedora 10 is the default boot and Windoze XP is reserved for our financial stuff. Fedora 10 still has an intermittent problem looking up addresses on the internet (dns for you geeks). I had a failing DVD R/W drive that was causing intermittent problems and took way toooooooooo long to diagnose. I wish both were totally dead, then it could be diagnosed easier. Finally diagnosed the DVD drive, but the dns is still in and out. But because it is intermittent, resolving it is a hair-pulling experience.

Game computer went up in smoke this late fall and I replaced the power supply, but is still needs a new motherboard. The Sony TV went out about the same time so we think we got a lightning strike somewhere close enough to cause some damage. Once the new motherboard arrives, it gets a load of Windoze XP 64 and games for the boys.

I have 5 computers in the house, and for a while not a single one of them was up on the internet. You can only imagine the grief I was getting.

As you start the New Year, go thank your IT department for keeping this crap mostly transparent to you.

Dave

aka

 

[Megabyte]

Dave... Good to have you back. I was beginning to think you and Graymug had sailed out to sea on the same ship.

I recently gave my (late 2001) iMac G3/400 to my sister when her early 2001 iMac died, and then snagged a G4/700 iMac (an early 2002 'Luxo' model) for myself from another one of my sisters.
http://lowendmac.com/imacs/15in-imac-g4 ... 0-mhz.html

I don't exactly use the latest and greatest hardware, but Mac OS X (which is essentially BSD Unix) has been very good to me.
As a Unix guy, you might want to consider it. :wink:

 

[grouperjim]

welcome back........as they say, an Apple a day keeps the.......well you know.

 

[Porkchunker]

I sent #2 son off to pursue an EE degree last fall with a MacBook Pro 17". Geeked him up with a copy of VMWare and a load of Windoze XP in a virtual machine. He can run Windoze in a window on the Mac OS...leveraging the Mac for what it does best and Windoze for what it does poorly.

I fell in love with that machine, and have my eye on a Mac for our eventual move to Williamsburg.

Dave

aka

 

[grouperjim]

Dave:

you've got to see the new MacBook. it is in the same case now as the new Pro, which is a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum.....no seams, black keys, and black trim around the screen......absolutely beautiful. so much so, i bought a new MacBook yesterday and gave the Pro to Admiral.

Please don't ask what else i did in the process.

 

[TheOtherLine]

Dave:

you've got to see the new MacBook. it is in the same case now as the new Pro, which is a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum.....no seams, black keys, and black trim around the screen......absolutely beautiful. so much so, i bought a new MacBook yesterday and gave the Pro to Admiral.

Please don't ask what else i did in the process.

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'll never tell but maybe I'll send the Admiral a link to this thread. She might want to share.... :wink:

Are your sure you don't want to sell me those Penn 113's?

 

[Megabyte]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'll never tell but maybe I'll send the Admiral a link to this thread. She might want to share.... :wink:

Are your sure you don't want to sell me those Penn 113's?

Ooooohhhh...!
I can hear the screws tightening all the way up here! :lol:

 

[grouperjim]

while personalizing the MacBook Pro to make it specific to the Admiral, i deleted myself as a user which inadvertently deleted the entire iphoto library that included 2 1/2 years worth of baby photos and videos.

the head geek at the Apple store came out from the back and told me that unfortunately those file were now permanently lost with no chance of recovery.

of course this answer was unacceptable to the Admiral. in the end it cost $500 to have a data recovery company do a forensic data recovery to an external hard drive. while more than 3000 pics and 200 vids were recovered, the Admiral is sorting them out as we speak. they were in random order with many duplicates.

since my money is her money in her mind, i felt compelled to sacrifice a little, so i sold one of my Glocks to pay for the data recovery.........all is well now.

NO, Larry the Penns are not for sale. But thanks the shoulder to cry on in the moment of crisis...........while i waited to find out if the data was recoverable.

 

[Megabyte]

i felt compelled to sacrifice a little, so i sold one of my Glocks to pay for the data recovery.........all is well now.

You sold what!? :shock:
<shiver>

 

[Porkchunker]

I'll second that....you sold what?

I once sold a beautiful Smith K22 and a 4" Python to buy an engagement ring for my first wife. 2 years later she left...with the ring. Swore I'll never sell another gun for a woman as long as I live!!!! BTW, the second wife, and current Admiral is a peach...has been with me 26 years, is the mother of two great sons, and let my buy that Parker 2510. So...there is forgiveness and redemption.

For backup, I'm using a 500GB "MyBook" USB external hard drive. They now make them in 1TB. They are cheap. There is no reason to not keep a backup of important files.

As for IT equipment...I enjoy geeking around with Linux. I'll probably always have a version of Linux around the house, but will definitely move to a Mac for my primary home machine.

Dave

aka

 

[Megabyte]

Once you are ready with a backup device, fire up and configure Time Machine, which is part of OS X.
It will handle your backups seamlessly on a schedule that you can set. :wink:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html

 

[grouperjim]

For backup, I'm using a 500GB "MyBook"

believe it or not, i bought her that very same 500GB HD two days before the data loss ($104). she had not got around to backing up the iphoto library yet. :shock: :evil: ........but of course mentioning that little tid bit in the heat of the moment would have gone over about has smoothly as the Hindenberg. :?

 

[rangerdog]

My backup is a Colt Defender...

What? :mrgreen:

 

[HM5]

Probably more direct and final than Microsoft Defender! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Porkchunker]

For backup, I'm using a 500GB "MyBook"

believe it or not, i bought her that very same 500GB HD two days before the data loss ($104). she had not got around to backing up the iphoto library yet. :shock: :evil: ........but of course mentioning that little tid bit in the heat of the moment would have gone over about has smoothly as the Hindenberg. :?

I didn't know Parker owners were whimps.

Dave

aka

 

[HM5]

We are the Captains of our ships and the Admirals allow us to say so :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Megabyte]

We are the Captains of our ships and the Admirals allow us to say so :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

True words...

 

[hakr]

I sent #2 son off to pursue an EE degree last fall with a MacBook Pro 17". Geeked him up with a copy of VMWare and a load of Windoze XP in a virtual machine. He can run Windoze in a window on the Mac OS...leveraging the Mac for what it does best and Windoze for what it does poorly.

I fell in love with that machine, and have my eye on a Mac for our eventual move to Williamsburg.

Dave

aka

I bought a macbook pro about a year ago and I like the mac "way" so much I took down my Vista desktop and am turning it into a server. Will be buying a mac desktop shortly.

I tried VMWARE. It works, but I prefer Bootcamp. I can boot into Mac OS or Vista and each runs fast and smoothly the way they are supposed to run. I thought XP ran a little rough under VMWARE, and I have four gigs of RAM on the laptop.

 

[Megabyte]

If you liked BootCamp, give Parallels a try. You might like it better.

http://www.parallels.com/

 

[goinsfishin]

Have converted one laptop and one desktop to Ubuntu (Linux). If you havn't tried it , do so. One quick easy install, dual boot by default, Open Office is included and integrated by default, plenty of fun gizmos and add-on's to play with (including GPS).
I have yet to run into a hardware problem, I've also done a couple machines at work. They even have a server version which seems to be very robust.
As far as I'm concerned , Goodbye WinBlows.........