Sunday, August 10, 2008
Google Street View
I spotted a Google Street View car on Khyber Pass Road in Auckland on Friday evening. A quick look around on the internet it seems that a few of these cars have been spotted around New Zealand. I'll try and get a photo next time, I was on my way home on the bus when I spotted it. They're quite distinctive vehicles, because of the camera equipment. It looks like Google have opted for Holden Astras in New Zealand, and each has a contraption on the roof which carries the cameras and GPS equipment. I expect I'll see more around Auckland as Google attempts to put the entire world online in explicit detail.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
mmmmm. Cheese on Toast.
Not much to report on my computer projects this week. So to my new cooker. The landlord finally arranged for our useless cooker to be replaced. Which means I can now grill things.
Cheese on Toast is a simple pleasure, but one I have been deprived of for the last 18 months. Now we have a new cooker, complete with working grill, I decided to christen it by making cheese on toast.
The "Perfect" cheese on toast.
Serves 2.
4 slices wheatmeal bread.
Mainland Tasty Cheese.
Salt.
Worcestershire Sauce.
Grill one side of the bread until golden brown. Turn bread and add enough sliced cheese to cover the un-toasted side. Sprinkle on some salt and add a large dash of Worcestershire sauce. Grill until cheese begins to bubble.
Perfect. Now eat and enjoy.
I have started selling the remains of FrankenPC. Some of it has already sold. As for the rest I hope it will go soon. But it will leave me without as many daft projects. Ok then, FrankenServer next?
Cheese on Toast is a simple pleasure, but one I have been deprived of for the last 18 months. Now we have a new cooker, complete with working grill, I decided to christen it by making cheese on toast.
The "Perfect" cheese on toast.
Serves 2.
4 slices wheatmeal bread.
Mainland Tasty Cheese.
Salt.
Worcestershire Sauce.
Grill one side of the bread until golden brown. Turn bread and add enough sliced cheese to cover the un-toasted side. Sprinkle on some salt and add a large dash of Worcestershire sauce. Grill until cheese begins to bubble.
Perfect. Now eat and enjoy.
I have started selling the remains of FrankenPC. Some of it has already sold. As for the rest I hope it will go soon. But it will leave me without as many daft projects. Ok then, FrankenServer next?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Installing Ubuntu on FrankenMac
Important discovery number 1.
FrankenMac, my old 350mhz G3 iMac will quite happily run with 133Mhz RAM rather than 100Mhz.
With the dismantling of FrankenPC I just happened to have 2 128mb 133Mhz sticks of RAM kicking about. So they have both been installed and now FrankenPC has heaps of RAM to install an operating system.
Important discovery number 2.
My mystery optical drive is just a CD-ROM as suspected. No chance of an OS X install.
Important discovery number 3.
Ubuntu does not run from the live CD as expected on the G3 iMacs. However after a bit of searching I found some great advice.
The Live CD does not set up xorg.conf properly for the iMac G3.
After booting is complete,
1. ctrl-option-F1 (I'm using a cheap Windows keyboard so ctrl-alt-F1 works just fine)
2. type: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf (return)
3. make your edits (see below)
Disable DRI (in the modules section, put a hash mark (#) at the beginning of the line containing "load dri").
Modify "HorizSync" to 60-60 and "VertRefresh" to 75-117. Both are in the monitors section.
4. ctrl-O (return) to write edited file
5. ctrl-X to exit nano back to command line
6. type: sudo killall -HUP gdm
This got me out of the black screen and into a brown Ubuntu screen with loads of error messages like:
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error
There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon
Anyway it's progress. I'm still working on these errors, but right now I need a cup of tea.
OK, fully revived by tea and have found the following:
this is the solution to the problem: ctrl-alt-f1
sudo date --set 07/13/2008
sudo killall gdm
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
And all is working fine. I now have Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake running from a Live CD on FrankenMac.
Update.
I have now installed on the Ubuntu on the Hard Drive, however this is the slightly suspect drive from FrankenPC so I doubt it will last for long. However on reboot I get the same error messages:
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error
There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon
The time displays as 1st Jan 02 on the login screen. I suspect the PRAM battery is dead and not retaining the date and time settings when the Mac is shutdown. Looks like I'll have to get another PRAM battery before I can do anything else. Now where the hell would I get a battery for an 8 year old iMac in Auckland.
FrankenMac, my old 350mhz G3 iMac will quite happily run with 133Mhz RAM rather than 100Mhz.
With the dismantling of FrankenPC I just happened to have 2 128mb 133Mhz sticks of RAM kicking about. So they have both been installed and now FrankenPC has heaps of RAM to install an operating system.
Important discovery number 2.
My mystery optical drive is just a CD-ROM as suspected. No chance of an OS X install.
Important discovery number 3.
Ubuntu does not run from the live CD as expected on the G3 iMacs. However after a bit of searching I found some great advice.
The Live CD does not set up xorg.conf properly for the iMac G3.
After booting is complete,
1. ctrl-option-F1 (I'm using a cheap Windows keyboard so ctrl-alt-F1 works just fine)
2. type: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf (return)
3. make your edits (see below)
Disable DRI (in the modules section, put a hash mark (#) at the beginning of the line containing "load dri").
Modify "HorizSync" to 60-60 and "VertRefresh" to 75-117. Both are in the monitors section.
4. ctrl-O (return) to write edited file
5. ctrl-X to exit nano back to command line
6. type: sudo killall -HUP gdm
This got me out of the black screen and into a brown Ubuntu screen with loads of error messages like:
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error
There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon
Anyway it's progress. I'm still working on these errors, but right now I need a cup of tea.
OK, fully revived by tea and have found the following:
this is the solution to the problem: ctrl-alt-f1
sudo date --set 07/13/2008
sudo killall gdm
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
And all is working fine. I now have Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake running from a Live CD on FrankenMac.
Update.
I have now installed on the Ubuntu on the Hard Drive, however this is the slightly suspect drive from FrankenPC so I doubt it will last for long. However on reboot I get the same error messages:
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error
There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon
The time displays as 1st Jan 02 on the login screen. I suspect the PRAM battery is dead and not retaining the date and time settings when the Mac is shutdown. Looks like I'll have to get another PRAM battery before I can do anything else. Now where the hell would I get a battery for an 8 year old iMac in Auckland.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
FrankenPC is dead, long live FrankenMac
The FrankenPC project is now officially dead. After a hard disk drive failure, and the purchase of a dead replacement, I decided it was time to call an end to the project. It was a success however. I had a working PC for 9 months, made entirely from bits no-one else would want.
The whole project cost less than $50, and to make some money back I'm selling some of the parts on Trade Me. Hopefully I'll make enough to kick start the build of a brand new budget PC. To which I'll install a large secondary HDD and use as a file and print server.
My attentions have now turned to the FrankenMac project. I still have no working hard drive, just two faulty ones. I think I will purchase a brand new hard drive for this one.
I've also discovered that one of my optical drives has both a CD-ROM label and a DVD-ROM label, so I'm not sure which it is. I will test it and hope it's a DVD, but it will probably just be a CD.
If it's a DVD I'll have to invest in some more RAM so it can run OSX rather than Ubuntu.
The first success of the FrankenMac project has been the iCat. Amanda caught Cindy actually using it for the purpose it was intended.
The whole project cost less than $50, and to make some money back I'm selling some of the parts on Trade Me. Hopefully I'll make enough to kick start the build of a brand new budget PC. To which I'll install a large secondary HDD and use as a file and print server.
My attentions have now turned to the FrankenMac project. I still have no working hard drive, just two faulty ones. I think I will purchase a brand new hard drive for this one.
I've also discovered that one of my optical drives has both a CD-ROM label and a DVD-ROM label, so I'm not sure which it is. I will test it and hope it's a DVD, but it will probably just be a CD.
If it's a DVD I'll have to invest in some more RAM so it can run OSX rather than Ubuntu.
The first success of the FrankenMac project has been the iCat. Amanda caught Cindy actually using it for the purpose it was intended.
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