Slax

Micah came over for a bit today to install an OS on the Vectra. He brought with him a Slax boot disk. This is a live session Linux OS. I have to say though, I'm not enamoured with Linux thus far. I can't find anything on it, and it can't even see its own hard drive, which we discovered is 20GB, not the 8 that I had previously thought. I use Windows normally. I accept the flaws of Windows, on the presmises that a) I know how to use it, and b) PCs are modifiable. It seemed to work okay while Micah was still here, but when I tried to put music on it as soon as he left, the hard drive was gone. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will put Windows back on it later, but we'll see.

Vectra PC

I got a power supply for it today, 19v, 3.16A, usually used for laptops. Having arrived home, I hooked all the different bit of computer together and fired the Vectra up and, lo and behold, it worked. It turns out it's running XP professional, but only has an 8GB hard drive. That will have to be fixed. Micah and myself are going to do some fiddling on Monday. I plan to strip it down to the smallest possible amount of software. I want it to play music, read pdfs and do MS Word as well. And maybe paint. But that's all it needs. Micah has suggested using Live sessions, but we'll see.

Two recent acquisitions

In the past week I have obtained two quite interesting things. The first, bought from a shop on Geelong St., Fyshwick, is a fan made by General Electric from before 1950, although I couldn't find exactly when. It set me back $20, but I think it's fantastic. I intend to make it work again and set it up in the workshop for the disgusting Canberra summers that we get.

The other is a small 'corporate's' PC that I found on the side of the road. It's an HP Vectra, released in 2000, with a fast-remove, ultra-ata hard drive and DVD reader. Instead of having an internal power supply, it requires a plug pack at 19 V DC, 6.13A. I don't have a power supply to suit, so I'll obtain one and test this little machine, and, if it works, it will become a jukebox in the workshop.