Mine's quite silent...It's the WD HD that's killing me. If my PC ever sleeps, then it is quiet. Maybe it's vibrating the case or something, but the PSU is the least of my noise issues.
I am one of those educators that does teach PowerPoint. I was forced. I used to teach a Multimedia course that was actually fun. We used Hyperstudio as a base, and I had the time to teach them a little Photoshop, Illustrator, and SoundEdit when they needed those tools to make things better.
Then middle management came along and decreed that Thou Shalt use PowerPoint as it is what the Real World uses. They also decreed that I would integrate presentation topics with the academic teacher's classes to inject a little "reality" into my eighth grader's lives.
Now I have to teach wretched PowerPoint and the presentations generally bore me to tears. Plus with MM looking at me all the time I cannot have any fun anymore with other software. There is no time. Lately I have jazzed it up a lot, and the students have gotten better through the use of note cards, but PP still sucks.
I am trying really hard to drive home the important points of presentations, but stupid things like Word f'n Art get in the way.
I work in a middle school in NJ and it absolutely galls me that the district spends money about every year upgrading one computer lab or the other. Our newest lab runs Pentium 4's and XP. Out oldest runs Pentium 3's and 98. What do we do in these labs? Mavis Beacon, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Hyperstudio.
At least I teach them a little Photoshop. At least that could get processor intensive occasionally.
Of course our CAD lab has to make do with P2's and 64 megs of RAM to run CAD apps. Plus we get to print them out on a nice HP Laserjet 4V.
Where's the logic? Keyboarding labs get high end P4s and CAD rooms get castoffs?
Don't get me rolling on MY classroom.
Of course, I use Redhat 9 on one of my P2/350's with 64 megs of RAM to run a rock solid SAMBA server. Most days I keep it logged into a console to save resources. It never crashes or hiccups. Not even when a whole lab installs QuickTime 6 at the same time. Same thing goes for streaming videos.
People will use Kazaa until they can no longer get their music for free. Those that use P2P services like this generally are not concerned with high bitrates or lossless compression. They just want to be able to listen on their Wintel-based boxes and occasionally burn to disc or shift some tunes to their players.
Even at a buck a song why should today's children and like-minded adults pony up cash for stuff they can still obtain for free.
There's no high minded ideals at work here. Just leeching of mp3's while you can.
There is a Quadra 700 that runs as my home file server.
I have an Apple IIgs at work with SCSI and the GUI OS running off of an old Syquest drive. It runs Synthlab and a load of old games for my 6th graders to knock around with.
Not enough RAM for Wolfenstein, tho...
Used to run a Pentium Pro as a daily desktop at work..Gave that away to someone who needed it more than me.
Where can I get ISOs of this latest version? I can't seem to find links on either linuxiso.org or Slackware's main website. Most of the posted mirrors aren't carrying any ISOs past 9.0.
Man, I got that email this morning...Of course I was running YellowDog Linux on my iBook 2002--so, of course this virus had no effect on my OS whatsoever.
Matter of fact...I got two of them today.
That was one slick looking fakemail. I can think of at least two members of my family that have probably hosed their systems thanks to that little gem.
My Packard Bell / Mac case mod is a fan short. There was a fan in the back of the original PowerCenter's high profile desktop case. I haven't figured out how to mount the fan in the PB's case without a lot of hacking. Without the fan the PowerCenter's powersupply heats up quick inside the new case.
With only minimal work on the metal shell and exterior plastics I managed to cram a PowerComputing PowerCenter Macintosh Clone into the case of an ancient Packard Bell PackMate's tower case with three bays (circa 1995). The toughest part was working with the tin snips and not making a huge mess of the metal portion of the case. Everything fits and works--even the PCI riser card. Eventually I will press it back into service as my file server at work. I haven't gotten switches for the front panel yet, but the HD led lights out the front.
I know, not so weird as a Coffee pot...But still cool.
Yeah, and out of that "under 18" range...Most know the following: where the power button is, how to get onto the AIM network, how to play java based games on their web browsers, how to fire up Word.
That's it. Ask a young teen how to transfer a file from My Documents to a disk or other storage media to move it and a big ol' "Huh" look hits their faces. Ask about installing (or more importantly, UNINSTALLING) a piece of software, and the same Huh appears.
I have to agree...Do we really give a frog's fat ass whether it's in Times New Roman in.doc format or in courier as plain ol' text?
99.9% of all of my serious correspondence contains NOTHING in it that Word makes "special". If I want page layout, I can use Quark, or Illustrator, or something else, but not Word.
Wait...Most people reading this page don't think twice about reformatting or reinstalling whatever operating system they want to on a given computer system...However, Slashdotters are not Most Computer Users. Most folks use Windows because it comes with their Dell, Gateway, or whatever. As for a reinstall...Forget it. That's what CompUSA is for--or the "guru" in your family.
Three years ago I gave my 80 year old Gramma a Macintosh. As far as she is concerned, the Mac OS is the only one she needs to know about. If I had given her my old Pentium Pro with Win98--she'd be perfectly happy with that. Most people DO NOT CARE.
The last time I tried using Debian 3 to install on my rev A iMac. I could not get X to start because I would get errors for a core pointer device. I did make sure that USB support was built into the kernel, but I could not make xf86config pick up the fact that I had a USB mouse...period.
I've been playing with lots of distros for PPC for a couple of years. YDL 3.0 seems buggy, Linux PPC is outdated. Mandrake is nice to my rev A iMac, but xine does not work at all. I would love to use Debian on that machine, but it will not allow me to properly configure X.
Fink is hellish for anyone not a Linux pro. I struggled mightily with it to get Windowmaker compiled using Xdarwin. It took FOREVER, and I cannot see anyone getting KDE working under OSX. Not worth the effort. It takes 20 minutes to compile Lynx on a G3 800 MHz iBook, forget KDE or something large like gimp.
I have been using YDL on my rev A iMac for a couple of years. YDL 3.0 was no good for me. I think there may have been a bug in the installer as I cannot use apt-get at all and cannot add any of my CDs to sources.list.
I have tried Mandrake PPC 9.1 on the iMac and like it alot. But as far as a live CD...Nope, never seen one.
Can anyone give me feedback on YDL 3.0 vs Mandrake 9.1?
I have used PC laptops, Powerbooks, Newtons, and Palms over the years. I have switched from Newton to Palm and back to Newton again. Yeah, it's big, but it does lots more for me from a practical end. Easy email, notes, books, scheduling, and MP3's on my Newt! Also easy connectivity via an older 3Com Ethernet PCMCIA card. Sure, it weighs a pound and is not pocketable...That's the sucky side. I use an older Toshiba laptop for SuSE, and Win98 to keep up with the "rest of the world" and my iBook for everyday work. I have to agree with the above posters. A keyboard, whether chorded or not, has to have something that approaches full sized keys. I have an external KB for my Newton and it is as small as it can be and still be comfortable. Before getting my iBook I regularly used a 2400c and that was a small KB as well. Heck, lots of times when I see a 2400c on the swap lists, or auction block or whatever, one of the chief complaints for selling is that the KB is too little for folks with big mitts.
Its all about size versus useability versus the right tool for the right job. My Newt is all big and clunky, but for me it blows a Palm away. Others might be different.
Just my $.02
Scott
The floppy is old, slow, small, and failure prone--BUT it's one of the few mediums that Joe Sixpack / Mister Middle America can handle.
I teach teenagers for a living and the concept of emailing a file attachment to oneself was totally alien.
Hell, for most folks, if it ain't in My Documents, it might as well be lost forever.
THAT'S why the floppy is still here.
Slashdot Mirror
Scott
I am one of those educators that does teach PowerPoint. I was forced. I used to teach a Multimedia course that was actually fun. We used Hyperstudio as a base, and I had the time to teach them a little Photoshop, Illustrator, and SoundEdit when they needed those tools to make things better.
Then middle management came along and decreed that Thou Shalt use PowerPoint as it is what the Real World uses. They also decreed that I would integrate presentation topics with the academic teacher's classes to inject a little "reality" into my eighth grader's lives.
Now I have to teach wretched PowerPoint and the presentations generally bore me to tears. Plus with MM looking at me all the time I cannot have any fun anymore with other software. There is no time. Lately I have jazzed it up a lot, and the students have gotten better through the use of note cards, but PP still sucks.
I am trying really hard to drive home the important points of presentations, but stupid things like Word f'n Art get in the way.
Scott
At least I teach them a little Photoshop. At least that could get processor intensive occasionally.
Of course our CAD lab has to make do with P2's and 64 megs of RAM to run CAD apps. Plus we get to print them out on a nice HP Laserjet 4V.
Where's the logic? Keyboarding labs get high end P4s and CAD rooms get castoffs?
Don't get me rolling on MY classroom.
Of course, I use Redhat 9 on one of my P2/350's with 64 megs of RAM to run a rock solid SAMBA server. Most days I keep it logged into a console to save resources. It never crashes or hiccups. Not even when a whole lab installs QuickTime 6 at the same time. Same thing goes for streaming videos.
End of Rant,
Scott
My iBook plays games, movies, runs OSX, OS9, Linux, and Windows 2k in emulation via Virtual PC.
What can your Dell Inspiron do that my Apple can't?
Wait...I know...Catch a virus!
Scott
People will use Kazaa until they can no longer get their music for free. Those that use P2P services like this generally are not concerned with high bitrates or lossless compression. They just want to be able to listen on their Wintel-based boxes and occasionally burn to disc or shift some tunes to their players.
Even at a buck a song why should today's children and like-minded adults pony up cash for stuff they can still obtain for free.
There's no high minded ideals at work here. Just leeching of mp3's while you can.
Scott
I have an Apple IIgs at work with SCSI and the GUI OS running off of an old Syquest drive. It runs Synthlab and a load of old games for my 6th graders to knock around with.
Not enough RAM for Wolfenstein, tho...
Used to run a Pentium Pro as a daily desktop at work..Gave that away to someone who needed it more than me.
Scott
Scott Strungis
Matter of fact...I got two of them today.
That was one slick looking fakemail. I can think of at least two members of my family that have probably hosed their systems thanks to that little gem.
I am taking my phone off the hook.
Scott
Scott
I know, not so weird as a Coffee pot...But still cool.
That's it. Ask a young teen how to transfer a file from My Documents to a disk or other storage media to move it and a big ol' "Huh" look hits their faces. Ask about installing (or more importantly, UNINSTALLING) a piece of software, and the same Huh appears.
Scott
99.9% of all of my serious correspondence contains NOTHING in it that Word makes "special". If I want page layout, I can use Quark, or Illustrator, or something else, but not Word.
Ascii is for me!
Scott
Three years ago I gave my 80 year old Gramma a Macintosh. As far as she is concerned, the Mac OS is the only one she needs to know about. If I had given her my old Pentium Pro with Win98--she'd be perfectly happy with that. Most people DO NOT CARE.
Scott
I've been playing with lots of distros for PPC for a couple of years. YDL 3.0 seems buggy, Linux PPC is outdated. Mandrake is nice to my rev A iMac, but xine does not work at all. I would love to use Debian on that machine, but it will not allow me to properly configure X.
Scott
Scott
I have tried Mandrake PPC 9.1 on the iMac and like it alot. But as far as a live CD...Nope, never seen one.
Can anyone give me feedback on YDL 3.0 vs Mandrake 9.1?
Scott
You have no chance to survive...Make your time.
-Strungis
I have used PC laptops, Powerbooks, Newtons, and Palms over the years. I have switched from Newton to Palm and back to Newton again. Yeah, it's big, but it does lots more for me from a practical end. Easy email, notes, books, scheduling, and MP3's on my Newt! Also easy connectivity via an older 3Com Ethernet PCMCIA card. Sure, it weighs a pound and is not pocketable...That's the sucky side. I use an older Toshiba laptop for SuSE, and Win98 to keep up with the "rest of the world" and my iBook for everyday work. I have to agree with the above posters. A keyboard, whether chorded or not, has to have something that approaches full sized keys. I have an external KB for my Newton and it is as small as it can be and still be comfortable. Before getting my iBook I regularly used a 2400c and that was a small KB as well. Heck, lots of times when I see a 2400c on the swap lists, or auction block or whatever, one of the chief complaints for selling is that the KB is too little for folks with big mitts. Its all about size versus useability versus the right tool for the right job. My Newt is all big and clunky, but for me it blows a Palm away. Others might be different. Just my $.02 Scott
The floppy is old, slow, small, and failure prone--BUT it's one of the few mediums that Joe Sixpack / Mister Middle America can handle. I teach teenagers for a living and the concept of emailing a file attachment to oneself was totally alien. Hell, for most folks, if it ain't in My Documents, it might as well be lost forever. THAT'S why the floppy is still here.