RECENTLY I've found a fantastic podcast by a guy called Knightwise, now this might sound like a plug to start off with, but you guys have to know where my inspiration came from and if by hearing this, you visit his site, www.knightwise.com, and checkout his fantastic podcast in iTunes, the knightcast, then all the better for YOU I say.
Over the last year he has been updating a series called "The Grid" witch basically goes through all the different facets of your possible home network and the different ways you can use it, or as knightwise says, "make the technology work for you". After listening to a few of these podcasts at work it got me thinking about the wasted PC sitting at home in my "computer room". THis, as you may know is a terrible thing for a geek to have, a 'computer room'. As time went on and i listened and learned, I decided (more like having a eureka moment where I think i actually shouted out 'YES, I'll do' while pumping my fist in the air) that I'd would put knightwise's plan into action. Seeing as I had a fairly new, Intel Core2 Duo 3.00GHz with 2Gig RAM 'just laying around', I figured I would come out of this with a fairly powerful system. The basic jist, or plan of attack that I derived from the series was to install ubuntu server with LAMP extensions and use the system as a central HUB for all your workings at home and away. Now don't worry if none of that part makes sense, thats not what i'm writing about today. What I wanted to share with you guys first was, as the title may suggest, how I went about setting up the old 'computer room', into a functioning hive of computering and tech activity! *insert maniacle laughter here*
So, let me start by showing you just what I was working with.
Yes, thats right, somewhere in here lays a dorment, yet perfectly good system.No, no, that is a sewing machine on the desk, that's not my computer...
LOOK, there she is! Oh, isn't it so pretty, yes. Hmm, I don't remember having that external HDD? Oh well, now, if I could just dig it out....So, that's what I did for the next, oh I dunno, 8 hours or so, moving everything out of that little space to make room for my grand plan! (Subsequently, all that crap got shoved into an even smaller room just next door, but what do I care where the sewing machine lives)
Oh god, I mean, this for a geek is just laughable, if any you out there HAD any respect for me, I'd bet it's all gone now, just look at the tired old network hub, look, my modem hasn't even opened it's preset from last christmas...or something :S And I bet there'd be no data loss through that mess of cables either ey?
And the crap storm continues, yes yes, don't tell my phone company will you, I'm pretty sure they frown on modification of their cables but hey, I'm a true cheapscate! ;)
And hey, it works! I guess to could compare my phone cable to say...oh I dunno, Vista :P Cheap, nasty, does what I need it too without look real pretty. I guess the main difference is that I can really rely on this phone connection ;)Just taking some time out to reflect on the job, thus far....
Now that I had my table, things could really get wound up! Start the transfer!!
And away I went, unplugging, untangling and unraveling the mysteries that lay beneath, my old desk. Case in point, it's a bit scary when you uncover a media under your desk that you had forgotten about, it's completely terrifying to find a media under your desk that the WORLD HAS MOVED ON FROM! That's write, I found this old case of floppy disks, floppy disks that my system doesn't even have a drive for!
*Insert humerous comment about mess here*
In my cleaning, I also found a few older bits of gear. Like this old banger that was running as my print server for awhile. And I finnally found a good use for this old canon printer :P
Well, I guess it's all plugged in and running now. Time to install ubuntu server and TRY TRY TRY to get it working.
A true geek stack of cans after a long 14hrs work ;)
