All about my workstation(s)
I spend a lot of time on my computer(s), so why not talk about it on
this little page. Each computer has a picture of its case. Nothing
really special; I don't have time to get into case modding.
Nala is my latest machine and absolutely blows all the others away. It
is an Apple Titanium Powerbook G4.
Nala is named after Nala the lioness from The
Lion King. Here are the specifications:
- PowerPC G4 processor running at 867MHz
- 768MB of SDRAM
- 40GB hard drive
- Built in CD-R/DVD-ROM drive
- 802.11b "Airport" Wi-Fi wireless networking
- 15" TFT display, 1280x864
- Runs MacOS X Jaguar 10.2.x (It's a UNIX system! I know
this!)
- Weighs only around five pounds.
This machine consistently pegs the fps meter in Quake 3 Arena at over
100 and is one of the slickest laptops I've ever used, period. }:)
Duchess was retired, probably temporarily, when hushpad had a CPU
failure and needed its motherboard+processor. Since I acquired Nala,
Duchess' purpose in life has minimized almost completely, so my
incentive to resurrect it is minimal. I'll eventually find a CPU for
it, though, since Windows comes in handy once in a blue moon. To play
Grand Theft Auto.
Ahh yes, Duchess. The former creme de la creme of my computers. This machine
replaced Sarabi in mid-2000. I was going to keep the name Sarabi
originally, but since the machine was undergoing a complete
overhaul, I figured I'd rename it. (Plus, I'd seen _The Aristocats_
recently and thought Duchess (the fuzzy white persian kitty (who has
those cute kittens) was adorable, so why not.)
So anyway, here's the stats as they were when it was gutted:
- Intel Pentium III 600Mhz CPU on an Asus i820 based motherboard
- 512 megs of SDRAM
- Quantum 16GB disk
- Sound Blaster "Live!" audio board
- NVidia GeForce2 MX 64MB video
- Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 Network card
- Toshiba 12X DVD-ROM Drive
- Sony Trinitron FD 400E 19" monitor
- Hauppauge Wincast/TV for watching TV and making screen captures
- Runs tri-boot Linux, Windows 2000 and
Windows 98.
(My Win98 partition got hosed and I've been too lazy to reinstall it)
This used to be a gaming box. I used it for web-browsing too, since
it was so DAMNFAST!, but if it WEREN'T a gaming box, it would be running
Linux, just like Hushpad.
Then there's hushpad. Hushpad is my Linux box. That's all it ever
runs; Linux. It serves mail and web for zorin.org, stores vast amounts
of data, and looks good in its stunning beige exterior, as well.
Hushpad was named after a cat (did you guess?) in Tad Williams' book
_Tailchaser's Song_. It has been upgraded lately (as of July 2001).
When hushpad first came to be in 1996, it was named Milva, which was
the online name of my significant other at the time. When that fell to
pieces, though, I couldn't bear to have a machine named after her
anymore, I renamed it. (Besides, I liked the book!)
Hushpad suffered a CPU failure in May 2003. The CPU and board were
replaced with the ones from Duchess. The result was a memory upgrade
(to 512MB) but the CPU speed stayed the same.
So here's them stats!
-
Intel Pentium 166 processor on an AT motherboard
Intel Pentium II 233Mhz III 600Mhz processor on an ATX
motherboard, sometimes overclocked
-
128 megs of DRAM 512 megs of SDRAM
- Hard disks:
-
4.3GB IBM Deskstar 9GB Fujitsu hard drive.
This drive is unusually quiet. I was amazed.
-
1.2GB Seagate/Conner IDE (one of those mixed ones)
Gone. Was way too noisy for the measly 1.2GB it provided.
-
9GB Seagate Elite 9 SCSI-2 Narrow hard drive (5.25
full height) (retired, it was way too noisy; I use it for
backups nowadays)
-
60GB 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax IDE HDD
-
Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI controller I'll put it
back in someday...
-
NEC MultiSpin 6Xi SCSI CD-ROM drive with a nifty LCD
display Ditto.
-
OEM NEC MultiSpin 6X
SCSI CD-ROM drive without a nifty LCD display
Ditto.
-
Broken Samsung 8X filling a drive bay with no cover
I pulled it out to improve airflow...
- Plextor 8/4/32 CD-RW drive for burnin' da CD's...
- Iomega ZipPlus 100MB removeable disk drive
(on a cheap
Adaptec 1502 SCSI controller) Moved it to the parallel port. I
hardly use zip disks anymore.
-
Sound Blaster 32 audio (with no speakers or anything
plugged into it; just there for when I need audio from Hushpad)
Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1371, with S/PDIF output enabled, running to my Denon
receiver.
-
Sony 420GS 19" Trinitron monitor ViewSonic VX900
19" TFT display
-
Matrox Millennium 4MB Video 3DFX
Voodoo3 16MB ATI Radeon 7000 with DVI output
- 100Mbit PCI Ethernet card
- IEEE 1394 "FireWire" controller, used to drive misc external disks
- Runs Red Hat Linux
5.1 7.2 all the time
(Sarabi is gone. I gave it away. May its new owner find it useful.)
Ahh yes, Sarabi. Sarabi was my Windows box before Duchess came into
my life. It ran NT 4.0 back then, but now it's been cursed to a life of
running Windows 95. I haven't used it in months, but I might as well
name it for completeness sakes.
Sarabi has had that name ever since it was a 486DX2/66 back in early
1995. I still have that 486DX2/66, but it is nameless so it is not on
this page.
Sarabi is named after Simba's mom in The Lion King. It is a lovely
name, and I hope to give it to a more important machine someday...
- Cyrix 6x86/133 processor on an AT motherboard
- 64 megs of DRAM
- 1.6GB Western Digital HDD
- Matrox Mystique 2MB video card
- $3.99 Sony speakers that really blow major chunks
- 14 inch Samsung Syncmaster monitor
- 10Mbps NE2000 clone ethernet card
- Runs Windows 95
Spyro is a SPARCClassic. It runs Solaris (did you guess?) and has
one purpose in life: Backing up important stuff on hushpad. Every now
and then I run dumps to it. It stays off most of the time, since the
machine is less vulnerable to lightning and other catastrophic events
in the off state.
- MicroSPARC 50Mhz processor (this makes slow seem fast)
- 9GB Seagate SCSI drive (Amusing.. when this machine came out the
biggest disk available for it was 1GB)
- 56MB of RAM
And that's it. It's used entirely over the network, or on its serial
console. And to think this plaything was once a $5000 workstation...
Well, not anymore. It's sitting on a shelf now.
cleo - image (retired
8/2002)
Cleo is my laptop! It's a quaint lil' K6/450 with 160MB of RAM and
an 800x600 passive matrix display. It was graciously provided to me by
my employer, and I love them for it! Cleo is named after Cleo the cat
in the old Heathcliff cartoon.
Cleo was retired when I acquired kitten. Cleo sucked, mostly becuase
the screen was crappy, it could only run Windows 2000 well, and had
lethargic battery life. Kitten solves these problems.
Kitten is my new laptop! Well, it's not really new, it's three years
old, but it's way better than cleo was. You see, kitten runs Linux
properly, and has a TFT display! The CPU is a bit slower (P2-366) but
you can't win them all. Of course, the three hour battery life (as
opposed to Cleo's 45 minutes; one hour if lucky) is an amazing plus.
Li-Ion battery technology rules.
Kitten isn't used much anymore since I got Nala. (top of this page)
Deceased Hardware
We remember people when they die, right? Why not remember deceased
hardware? Here is a list of hardware I have that currently have a place
in hardware heaven, and have served me well:
- Western Digital 31200 1.2GB hard drive
- 16MB 72 pin Logic Parity SIMM
- Digital 1GB SCSI Hard Disk
- Samsung 8X IDE CD-ROM drive
- i80486DX/33 processor chip (I murdered it. I confess. Just to see
how cool the die looks.)
- An AT powersupply. It sucked anyway; power connectors were cheap
and shorted.
- An i430VX motherboard. I don't think it ever worked in my
posession; it smells like a cat did its business on it. I should
probably throw it out.
- A Mitsumi 1.44MB floppy drive. Mitsumi sucks.
- Intel Pentium III 600MHz processor (from hushpad)
Well, when you're done drooling over my computer system (yeah, right.),
you can return to my home page.