Weekend Recap

Thursday night: drunkenness and video games with shadowandlight. Morrocco Ale is deliciously exotic.

Friday: Was kinda “blah” all day, due to the martini aforementioned drunkenness. 1 martini + 4 beers = more than I usually imbibe in one evening. Tagged groggily along with shadowandlight to various nerdboy shopping destinations. Went for a walk, naped with avivahg for a couple of hours.

Friday night: We went to Ascension and met up with nixer, who was celebrating his birthday. It was great to see him again after almost a year. Danced more than I expected, given how I was feeling. What can I say, I have happy feet. And netherswandust spins music that makes them want to dance…

Saturday: went to a hamfest in Timonium that a coworker alerted me to. It was essentially a giant flea-market with a strong electronics theme. Lots of old computers and radio parts and less identifiable thingies being sold to grizzled old survivalists complaining about how their wives wouldn’t let them spend much. I made out pretty well: I bought a pair of Palm m500s for $15 total, both of which turned out to be fully functional. And I bought a laptop! It’s a 400mhz IBM Thinkpad 600e, with 96Mb of RAM and a 12GB hard drive scavenged from another laptop. It’s fully functional and runs linux well. I’ve got Ubuntu running on it right now, but I’m thinking of trying MEPIS and/or Xandros out on it as well. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a computer I can freely muck about with, so I’m using it as an opportunity to try out some of the distros I’ve been curious about. The only thing that doesn’t work is the sound card; but as it turns out there’s heaps of documentation online for getting sound working under linux on that particular model, so I should have that ironed out soon. I’m hoping to pick up a cheap wi-fi card this week so I can get online with it.

If I can get wireless working, one of my life’s chief annoyances will be eliminated: the fact that my only computer access at home is in a cold, dank, uncomfortable basement, at a computer which the whole household fights over, and which requires me to leave avivahg alone at night if I want to get anything done. Expect me to be online a lot more if this works out 😀

Saturday night: attended a “Wicca 101” meeting of greymaiden‘s coven at her house in Owings Mills. Did my usual quiet listen-y thing when I’m among new people.

Sunday: worked up the nerve to face my taxes again. Arranged for financial ass-rape courtesy the Internal Revenue Service. Figured up, but did not yet submit, my local taxes, which were slightly less than I’d feared. Went for a very cold walk. Drank brandy and watched Law&Order with the Lady. Tinkered around with the laptop a bit, and went to bed.

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12 Comments

  1. Good luck with the wireless. 😉

    I *may* have a spare wireless card – let me dig around for it before you buy one.

    What kind of security were you planning to run on the wireless network?

    1. I’m looking for a card that supports WPA, since WEP is easily crackable. Preferably wireless G, but that’s less important than the security.

      1. That’s where I got hung up. Was able to get the actual adapter recognized, but never was able to get WPA working. o.O

        Of course, you are a Linux guru, so you may have substantially better “luck” than I did. Oh, and I was trying to work with a USB adapter, not pcmcia, so that added to my difficulties, too.

        If you get something up and running (w/ WPA,) please let me know what combo eventually worked, because I might be persuaded to give Linux on that box one last shot.

      2. That’s where I got hung up. Was able to get the actual adapter recognized, but never was able to get WPA working. o.O

        Of course, you are a Linux guru, so you may have substantially better “luck” than I did. Oh, and I was trying to work with a USB adapter, not pcmcia, so that added to my difficulties, too.

        If you get something up and running (w/ WPA,) please let me know what combo eventually worked, because I might be persuaded to give Linux on that box one last shot.

    2. I’m looking for a card that supports WPA, since WEP is easily crackable. Preferably wireless G, but that’s less important than the security.

  2. Good luck with the wireless. 😉

    I *may* have a spare wireless card – let me dig around for it before you buy one.

    What kind of security were you planning to run on the wireless network?

  3. Congrats on the laptop! I have an IBM running SuSE and it works quite well. Except for the modem, for which I need a modem driver that the kernel knows about, and the wireless card, which doesn’t work for some unknown reason. (The computer sees that there is a card in the PCMCIA slot, but doesn’t know about the wireless connection. Even after configuring the connection with YAST (SuSE’s configuration tool). *sigh*

    But I like everything else. The display is nice, the keyboard works for me, and the sound works just fine.

  4. Congrats on the laptop! I have an IBM running SuSE and it works quite well. Except for the modem, for which I need a modem driver that the kernel knows about, and the wireless card, which doesn’t work for some unknown reason. (The computer sees that there is a card in the PCMCIA slot, but doesn’t know about the wireless connection. Even after configuring the connection with YAST (SuSE’s configuration tool). *sigh*

    But I like everything else. The display is nice, the keyboard works for me, and the sound works just fine.

  5. I am very happy that you enjoy may dj’ing! That makes me so happy that I could just pee! It was great seeing you and Stacy out on Friday! 🙂

    1. That’s a strange kind of happy. 🙂

    2. That’s a strange kind of happy. 🙂

  6. I am very happy that you enjoy may dj’ing! That makes me so happy that I could just pee! It was great seeing you and Stacy out on Friday! 🙂

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