I have been working on the volcano computer in the little time I have available with my in-laws in town from Mexico. I might have mentioned that I got PuppyLinux up and running on the thing. It works great, but very, very slow. The problem is that the microprocessor in the computer is the equivalent of an old Intel 486sx. It does not have a floating point processor. That means that we have to recompile the kernel so that floating point emulation is enabled. Still, we will have to run the computer without a GUI which is OK because we are going to run it headless (without a monitor) inside the mountain anyway. In all the time I have been using Linux, I only compiled the kernel one or two times when I was using Gentoo. In the meantime, we are waiting for the next Ubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron) to come out on Thursday. We plan to install it on the homeschool computer as soon as we get a chance to clean up and store the files there. The VERY cool thing about Ubuntu is that it is so predictable. We know that it does everything we want it to do already (Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird, Blender, OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Samba, CUPS) so any improvements are just icing on the cake.
Our buddy Lyle from Oregon is joining us on the chart. I am pretty worried because the guy runs massive miles every day, tracks it on his iPod, and is WAY younger (and better looking) than Bryan and I. Bryan and I are definitely going to have to make some kind of a plan to send him jelly donuts on a regular basis. Good grief, he keeps his running log on his blog! We have no chance. The only downside other than that is that he uses a Mac. Pretty sad, really. At any rate, his blog is here.
Hunter
On the first part,that was TRUE engineer’s talk!
Man! And I was trying not to sound like a geek! 🙁
I was surprised to see I have all ready lost 15 pounds.
Exactly!!! Quite impressive, Lyle!
Hey, Ken … I just bought an extra copy of Microsoft Windows Office Professional for $20 (a special deal through work). Would it be okay if I installed in on my system running Microsoft Windows XP? It sure seems a lot simpler than scrounging for all that open source junk to run on scrounged lynix shareware.
Bill Gates and me are tight, baby!
… ha, ha, just kidding …
$20!!!!! That is outrageous! That is at least $1020 more than I would have been willing to pay for that stuff. Do computers still run XP?
Hey, Ken… I just found an extra copy of MS Office in the garbage. Would it be ok if I just left it there? 😉
My dear dad who has bucked his Mac Man son for all these years and run MS based pcs, has FINALLY seen the light. He bought a new MacBook! I helped him transfer all his pictures and Quicken data from his XP based system to his new Mac. I have no idea why he literally took an ax to his old pc, but I bet after years of frustrations, it felt really good. 😉
The Mac in business: it’s easier than you think
More users are demanding Macs in the enterprise. Thanks to key computing shifts, supporting their appetite for Apple is now a straightforward option for IT
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/21/17FE-macs-in-business-tease_1.html
I am going to be pretty hard to convince after installing the AWESOME new Ubuntu Linux on a brand new $450 laptop. I would have been under $399 if I could have gotten it without Windoze. How much did the MacBook cost?
well… if ALL you want to do is run Linux on a totally portable computer that has wifi, edge, and bluetooth built in, as well as a 2mp camera and a hi-res touch screen and cell phone, then just get a iPhone for $399 or an iTouch for $299.
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/62209.html?welcome=1209247407 <– Unix on an iPhone
Hey! how cool would it be to do a iPhone based vision system?!! already connected to internet and cell!!
MacBook was considerably more then $450… but the base model starts at $1100, and it has way more then 3 times the computer power, not to mention the fully integrated suite of applications that come with it.