Author Topic: Well, I'm sorta up and running again (Read 3388 times)

Randy Powell · « **on:** April 23, 2009, 10:54:22 PM »

I, perhaps foolishly, decided to install a new OS on my home computer. I built this box recently and it's a bit flaky (trying to get my wife's Windows drive working with what is a much, much faster system than it was designed for). I decided to go with the latest and greatest. x64 based system and it's been an adventure. If would have just gone with the current, general distribution release, things would have been fine, But NO, I had to go with the beta, bleeding edge system. It's faster than greased snot, but is definitely beta. I've managed to get the email and web browser working (though trying to get the compositing window manager to work right has been frustrating). I've read more how-tos and cruised more forums that I can believe in the last couple of days. But it's coming along, I guess.

Anyway, this post is a test to see if this thing is really working now. Should be very cool if I ever get it all working (before it becomes general release at least).

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2009, 11:03:39 PM »

Hey Randy, the post didnt come through,, not sure if you have it working yet,, keep trying,,

don Burke · « **Reply #2 on:** April 24, 2009, 11:08:42 AM »

Mark,
Your post didn't come thru, try again, Randy's was OK!

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #3 on:** April 24, 2009, 11:14:49 AM »

first liar hasnt got a chance,,, sigh

Norvaldo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2009, 12:27:26 PM »

Well .. If this is Beta, i assume it is Windows 7.
If you have more than one drive ( Physical or Logical) i recommend installing a 'Standard' opsys in addition to the one you already have and then you may choose at boot time which to run.
Then you have a backup if the other should be totally crazy.
Also: If this is Windows 7 free Beta.. that one will stop working sometimes around September.. unless you pay whatever is asked..
Norvald

Randy Powell · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2009, 02:53:11 PM »

>>If this is Beta, i assume it is Windows 7<<

Ugh! never touch the stuff. This is Fedora Core 11 Beta. Based on the new (and very experimental) 2.7 kernel. Overall not bad at all (and very, very fast; especially with the 64bit base). But some of the API stuff and hooks into the GUI are not all that stable yet. They are pretty clear: if you want stable, used Core 10. If you want bleeding edge, they try out Beta 11.

It's coming around. I skipped Core 9, so I couldn't just upgrade. Had to go with a new, full install. Everything is backed up, so if I can get it all working (still messing with some of the eye candy), I can restore backups and settings for programs and be all set. Just tedious when you have to deal with not quite ready for prime time software.

But for all that, the CUBE is really fun.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #6 on:** April 24, 2009, 03:47:40 PM »

Hope you get it figured out Randy. The wife installed some new program per my lazya-- son-in-law. I have said very few kind words about it. Especially when you try to respond to someones post and the stuff you typed is gone to never never land out in cyber space. Still having fun. DOC Holliday

Randy Powell · « **Reply #7 on:** April 24, 2009, 04:48:33 PM »

Doc,

Yea, I've been a computer geek since my first C=64 back in 85 or so. Then a UNIX box with IRIX and an Amiga. Sort of took off from there. I remember online unix accounts that were command line only. Come a long way since then, I guess. A cable modem sure beats a 300baud dial up unit.

sleepy gomez · « **Reply #8 on:** April 26, 2009, 11:27:54 AM »

I think the CRS 4.5 sysops to be both better and faster than the MOG 9 I previously installed. The MOG 9 would suriptiously remove a word and re-insert it in another sentence. I even discovered an errant word in the lower left quadrant of several photographs! The CRS 4.5 also has problems. I have ordered a Caprimeter Octogon 5 that has been warranteed to prevent the release of paraslips in the CRS 4.5 upgrading it to a CRS 5.1 Supposedly now this will solve my computer problems.

Randy Powell · « **Reply #9 on:** April 26, 2009, 11:38:58 AM »

OK, sorry, too much tech speak. Being a UNIX geek has it's drawbacks.

Norvaldo · « **Reply #10 on:** April 26, 2009, 02:05:29 PM »

Ahhh..
Linux... the real BOM of computing...

Well. i myself work with software support for an American doftware company.
So i need to be where the money is ....

Norvald

Randy Powell · « **Reply #11 on:** April 26, 2009, 07:46:10 PM »

Norvaldo,

It's not like it used to be. Aunt Matilda could install it. I'm just messing with bleeding edge stuff. Had I been smart, I would have installed the generation behind that is already in distro mode instead of getting the latest and greatest. But it's all working fine, more or less. Still can't quite get compositing working correctly, but I understand there's a patch being released tomorrow that will probably fix things. Fun stuff.

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #12 on:** April 26, 2009, 11:32:52 PM »

Well as succsesfull as his 40 VF on the new profile is,, maybe one of those other VFs found a home,, hmmm a Piped VF powered laptop,, now THERE is an idea,, lol

Randy Powell · « **Reply #13 on:** April 27, 2009, 11:20:07 AM »

Mark,

How did you know?

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #14 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:27:46 PM »

and I am guessing a PA Merlin UL is slated for the new laptops power supply right?

Randy Powell · « **Reply #15 on:** April 27, 2009, 01:52:17 PM »

Nope, the VF was extra. Te PA is going back in the Novi... if I ever get a new wing built for it.

Rod Claus · « **Reply #16 on:** April 27, 2009, 06:52:35 PM »

Randy,
That Commador 64 has gotta go......

Richard Grogan · « **Reply #17 on:** April 28, 2009, 12:19:58 AM »

Quote from: Rod Claus on April 27, 2009, 06:52:35 PM

Randy,
That Commador 64 has gotta go......

Hey! That Comodore 64 is still a sweet machine! I still use one for MIDI sequencing my keyboards. A beast, but still dependable and ticking after all these years!( and after a few rebuilds!)

Randy Powell · « **Reply #18 on:** April 28, 2009, 01:07:00 PM »

Well, had Commodore had not been probably the stupidest people on the planet and had they not shot themselves in the foot so many times that there was nothing left by a bloody stump, we would probably all be using Amiga's today. They had a 2 year lead on IBM in personal computer technology. It appears that stupidity is universal. Sigh....

I may have lost all my stunt pictures. I have them on a DVD, but for some reason, the system can read them. I just love major upgrades. I hope I didn't irreparably screw something up. I really want those pictures back. It's probably a permissions issue and I'll get it worked out, but it's frustrating.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #19 on:** April 29, 2009, 08:28:40 AM »

Maybe not hitting right key or have an inhibit somewhere in the system. On my lap top I could not look at my Stunt News CD's. After trading lap tops with daughter I can now look at them. Still don't know why it would work on one and not the other. DOC Holliday

Larry Cunningham · « **Reply #20 on:** April 29, 2009, 11:58:40 AM »

Ah, but Randy, have ye played Zork on an 11/45 Sunday morning at 3 AM with a dumb terminal
and 300 baud acoustic modem (mouse ears)?

Only a true computer dork can make such claims; a true testament to no love life, well.. no life.
Kill troll with sword! Nerk, nerk.

L.

PS - but I still think I can toggle in a boot segment on an 11. And I know most Z80 opcodes by heart.

PPS - stuck with XP Pro-32 on my new computer (mit der dual Xeon quad CPUs).. after witnessing
XPP32 vs Vista on my friend's "red hot" laptop, I assumed Vista would be like running a 1/2"
restrictor plate on a NASCAR 358" V8..

"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward,
you will service us." -Locutus of Borg

Larry Cunningham · « **Reply #21 on:** April 29, 2009, 12:15:21 PM »

Doc,

If you're using XP, first select My Computer, and when you see your DVD or CD drive
listed, select it, and right click. Select Properties -> AutoPlay, and there you will be able
to set up the drive to do what you want. Normally. Don't know how it works on other
Windows OSes.

L.

DISCLAIMER: Your results may vary. Larry's Computer Advice (tm) may invoke various
symptoms, including rash, gash, flash, flatulence, scabies, rabies, heba-jebas, nose bleeding,
rectal bleeding, bleeding heart, cirrhosis, halitosis, expialadocious, headache, blurred
vision, blurred comprehension, excessive facial hair, baldness, enlarged prostate, deflated
prostate, proselytizing, fantasizing, macerating, lactating, salivating, vacillating, tingles,
shingles, dwarfism, gigantism, diarrhea, constipation, impotence, omnipotence, and
omnicognizance.

Pinecone · « **Reply #22 on:** April 29, 2009, 03:16:46 PM »

The basic problem is, Windows RELEASE software is pre-beta.

I prefer to wait on new OS until Service Pack 1 is released.

Randy Powell · « **Reply #23 on:** April 29, 2009, 04:03:37 PM »

Larry,

Was never a Zork fan (though I played it on a z80 machine a bit. For me, it was Shadowgate on a school terminal a 3am on Sunday nights. It had actual graphics ... sort of. They had a screaming network connection (for the day).

Beta --- That's half the problem right now, I'm running bleeding edge stuff and while parts of it are pretty solid, some parts are flaky as heck. It will get better as updates are released (daily), but I've seen enough core dumps in the last few days to last me a bit.

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #24 on:** April 29, 2009, 08:08:28 PM »

Hey I played Zork on my Commodore,, I bet I still have the floppies for it around here somewhere!

Bruce Reynolds · « **Reply #25 on:** April 30, 2009, 06:59:23 AM »

Ah, Commodore 64. Remember M.U.L.E.? The best C-64 game ever.

Jumpman, Summer & Winter Games, Spelunker, etc., etc. All great. Well, except for Booga-Boo (ick).

Randy Powell · « **Reply #26 on:** April 30, 2009, 12:26:23 PM »

Bruce,

I was an Elite junky. Wore those old 5 1/4" floppies out. Amazing how engaging stick graphics could be.

Mark Scarborough · « **Reply #27 on:** April 30, 2009, 01:13:43 PM »

YEPPERS, let that be a lesson to all the game developers out there, game play is so much more important than cool pictures,,,,
One of my fav all time PC games was, and still is, Sid Mieirs Colonization,, really old school graqhics, but totally addictive game play,,,

Bruce Reynolds · « **Reply #28 on:** April 30, 2009, 01:47:04 PM »

Randy,

We were exceedingly cheap. We notched the floppies so that we could flip them over and use the back side. I didn't open up the 1541 to see how much crap fell out of the floppies from running them the "wrong way."

Randy Powell · « **Reply #29 on:** May 01, 2009, 04:10:18 PM »

Bruce,

I forgot all about the old 1541 floppy drives! Yeow, does that take me back. How about Berkeley GEOS?

I actaully had a C=128 for a bit running CP/M. Very fun machine. I wrote my thesis on that machine using a copy of RunScript that I typed into an assembler directly from a copy of Run magazine. Man, glad those days are over.

Bruce Reynolds · « **Reply #30 on:** May 04, 2009, 07:15:08 AM »

Quote from: Randy Powell on May 01, 2009, 04:10:18 PM

.... Man, glad those days are over.

Amen.

Hey, Randy, I wanted to publicly thank you and Mark for answering some questions I had several months ago regarding using decals on basecoat/clearcoat systems. I had posted the questions in the Finishing area and the thread was unfortunately lost during the server crash. If you recall, I had pancaked my Cardinal at the end of last year while rediscovering the pattern. Broke the fuse off at the trailing edge and grafted on a new one:

I didn't take much care filling dings and such because I was worried about adding too much weight. It turns out I could have filled some of the gouges since the repaired version came out 1.5 oz. lighter than the pre-dorked version. On the down side, oil kept leaching out of the cowl and front end of the fuse, which didn't allow the paint to cure. I finally punted and brushed on some thinned epoxy all over those parts.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, warts and all. If you stand off about 10 feet (and post pictures at low resolution

) it doesn't look bad.

Randy Powell · « **Reply #31 on:** May 04, 2009, 08:49:40 AM »

Bruce,

I like it. Very slick paint scheme. I may be force to steal, ur, borrow the idea.