Dual Monitors

Woot.  I wish I had dual monitors.  That would just be really cool.  But no, instead, I set up my Friend with Dual monitors.  Why he needs them, I don't know, all he uses his computer for is music.  Oh well, I was called in for Tech Support, and off I went!

Basically, it was a straightforwads process.  His computer had Intel intergrated graphics, which supported one monitor, so I had to install another graphics card which had another VGA output.  That went well.  However, once I accomplished that, the computer didn't recognize the Intel graphics, only the newly installed one.  So, I had to go and find a new Driver for the Graphics card, which wasn't that difficult, install, restart, and hoped it worked.

It did!  It was awesome.  Going to Control Panel -> Display, (Alternate "Right click" on desktop, -> Properties, (or personalize in Vista) then go to Settings, (or Display in Vista), allowed me to set it up so the Mouse could move between monitors.  I got a program which extended the start menu across to the other monitor.  The entire thing was pretty awesome.  Very pleased without it all came out.

First Day of School

Ahhh, my friend and I were talking about the first day of school.  I was doing some of the complaining, but then he reminded me that it wasn't so much the "first day of school," more like the "first day of penetration testing on the school network."  That brightened me up considerably.  And oh, what fun we did have.

Although no penetration testing.

Not yet.

During my free block, I showed off Leopard and Parallels running, with the cube effects, very cute.  But then, I installed a new version of Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, and using the newest patch, got it running without needing the CD.  I then proceeded to set up an ad-hoc network and play my friend in a game of Warcarft.  Unfortunetely, the school's network wouldn't allow us to play, we think they blocked the port.

Fedora 9 is History - Moving to OpenSuse

Relevant XKCD.

Anyways, I decided that I am done with Fedora, at least for the time being.  I have never really warmed up to it, for a number of reasons.  The most annoying being, wireless is extremely obnoxious.  It used to connect to networks, but recently, it just has refused to connect to my network.  It fails to remember the Network password properly, and it fails at life.  I have to resort to ethernet to hook up to the internet; I already do that in OS X, I don't need two OS's which fail at wireless.

The other reason that Fedora 9 annoys me, is the fact that it uses some very wierrd file system (ext4 maybe) instead of the usual ext3 for Linux.  And do you know what that means?  It means, that windows XP CDs won't boot anymore.  I don't get it, but I want to reinstall XP, and Fedora 9 doesn't let the CD boot.  Very, very wierd.

The solution?  Lots of troubleshooting.  The other option, which I am taking, is to try another Distrobution.  I'm moving to OpenSuse, and am going to see how it works.  Eventually I will make my own OS which works perfectly.  That will be the day.

Update

Things move in a forwards direction.  This is good, because if everything moved backwards, our bodies would be different.  And that would suck.  Point is moot though.

The computers are all plugged in and opperational.  They all work, I just need to get the wires involved to hook them all up to the Network.  And then we have extreme LAN games.  It will be intense.  As well as a lot of learning, because with this many computers on the network, it would be good to have them all update at once.  There is much to be done here.

Cluster!

Congratulations, now I can have Cluster fail.  With my three new computers and a whole lot of organizing and working, friends and I managed to get the computers set up.  It isn't completely done, but it really is amazing what we have managed to accomplish.  Once we can get them all up and running at the same time, then we can really work on networking and LAN gaming.

So, this is the rearranging of the basement.  Once I got the all clear from the Parental Units, it was all in our own hands.  We moved the TV and Xbox out from the corner you see (where the two walls of windows meet) to the other side of the basement.  We then condensed all the crap in the basement over into the space you see.  See the wagon?  All those boxes on it are Magic cards.  A lot of Magic cards.

This is our cluster.  Three computers, with room for a Laptop (which is what Sam is doing right now).  Unfortunetly, I don't have a switch yet to give them all Ethernet, that will come soon.  (Along with more RAM).  Very happy with how the cluster turned out.  I also need a powergrid to get them all working at the same time.  At the moment, only one computer can be on.  Two max, but the other outlets are being used my less important things.  Like Sam's laptop.

That is our big ass-tv.  And the Xbox, with Halo.  The person you see working on the Mac is my Linux Guru of a friend, Henry.  Working on getting Wordpress to work on our server, which isn't going well.  Anyways, we got the area cleared out so that could work as well.  Very pleased by this turnout, although without Sam, Henry, and Brian (my bro), it would have been a lot harder to do.  Now.... to networking!



Enjoy these other pictures!

New Computers

So, with the help of a friend, and some fast action, I managed to grab 3 computers.  Now, keep in mind, they aren't new, but they are computers.  The story goes, a school decided that they needed to upgarde their technology.  So, IT calls out that they are selling off these computers.  I don't know this is happening, I am hanging out with my Girlfriend at a lake house.  Good fun that was.  However, my friend does, and he knows how into technology I am.  He IM's me and tells me about this deal.  He had already told the school that he wanted too.  When he contacted me with this information, this is all I got:

School is getting rid of computers.
$20 each, comes with Monitors, keyboard, and a mouse.
Pentium 4 Intel Processor at 2Ghz.
256mb of Ram.

That is all I know.  But for $20, how can you go wrong?  I tell them to grab those two he ordered, and if he can, pick up a third.  And you know what?  It all worked out.  I have (In fact, I'm typing this on a new computer) three computers sitting in front of me.  The RAM sucks, but I am ordering more.  Hopefully by the end of this week each computer will be fitted with 1GB of ram.  They only have 20GB HDD, but I don't really need more storage.  So, the next step?  Extreme networking and extreme LAN partying.  Fun stuff.

If you have ideas on what I should do with them, post it!

Epic New Website

Wow, I have been so busy actually making the website, I forgot to tell the world about it.  Of course, it isn't done yet, the hardest part is still to come.  Basically, I (with graphic help from x986123) made a website to host stories for my friends and myself.  It is farely basic, but looks really good.  I am happy to see it is almost complete.  The entire thing came together with the visuals, so I am very happy to have that done!

Now, with the adding of content, things will get a move on it.  I am working on the best way to make that happen.  Ideas, ideas...

Here is the URL:  http://epicstory.freehostia.com/