I needed to use SAS so booted up my Intellistation and ran SAS. I quickly wrote some SAS code for some homework. I left the computer running in the other room. I will now save my SAS files, print the output window and turn the machine off.

I did get win2K working on the eMac and am now trying to get Debian 3.1 installed on the eMac.

I am installing fink-0.24.12 on my eMac. I need to update X Code to 2.2 and I now have the gcc 4.0 compiler installed.

My eMac is working fine and the only computer I use constantly everyday.

I did not turn on any of my linux computers today. I read a little of Linux magazine. I also added some GNU software books at Amazon to buy later. I mostly have been working with my iPod using the iTalk microphone. I also have left my eMac on for more than a day now. I did use my Palm with Word To Go and also the Snapper email software. I looked into buying a Jazz drive and stuff for that on ebay.ca. I also looked into getting a new larger 3 GB hard drive for my Compaq laptop also on ebay.ca. I also looked at RAM prices for the Intellistation.

I changed the CD drive in the Intellistation and put in a DVD drive. I was then able to mount the Debian 3.1 r 1 net install disk and now have Debian 3.1 r 1 installed and working fine. I spent the last few hours surfing ebay.ca using this Debian desktop.

I got Win2K installed on the Virtual PC on the Mac and installed Adobe Reader and Yahoo Messenger. I can use voice now on this Mac with Yahoo Messenger by using the Virtual PC Win2K to run Yahoo Messenger Windows version. So that was a success.

I need a 2 or 3 or 4 GB hard drive for my Linux laptop and then I need to install Debian again. But this can wait. It is just that the old hard drive in the Debian laptop is making noises and is likely to fail soon.

I tried to post to my studies blog but because that blog is still considered a spam blog it needs word verification which this laptop could not handle. Or Blogger's word verification uses some none standard type of cookie of something. So I spent the last 45 minutes transfering the post to Kword then a floppy then uploading the floppy to the intellistation and then posting in Internet explorer in WinXP. I also cleaned up under my living room desk.

I am posting this from my Linux laptop. I have had enough installing Linux for the day and decided to use Linux more. So this post is an effort to do one of my daily computer activities in Linux.

I received a copy of Virtual PC for the Mac but so far have not been able to install an operating system inside the Virtual PC. I will make another try this morning after trying three different WinXP disks and Debian 3.1 r1. I am now trying my Win2000 disk. Again this should be a legal copy of Win2000.

My problems with my Linux install are now just X. I need to configure X to work still. I have no useable screens as my error message. I have so far been unable to google a configuration file. I have found some Nvidia drivers but could not install them for this older kernal. I have a 2.2 kernal instead of the current 2.6 kernal. May be even 2.7 is the current kernal.

I now know how to install Woody only and am doing this overnight.

I reached out to the local Linux novice help email list and got some help with my Linux install and I am also doing this over night. My other computers are fine now. My new eMac gets the most use. My new IBM works fine for WinXP and it is this machine I am also trying to install Linux on. My palm is working fine but not getting as much use as my Palms have in the past. My iPod is also working fine. I am not using my PSP much but did try to get further in the Sims 2 game a week ago. I burnt a CD of songs for my wife and we paid for these songs.

All this computer tinkering keeps me from doing my school work. I know this is true because as soon as I sucessfully completed the SAS install and then the Linux install I almost immediately devoted my time to my homework until it got done. So my computter tinkering was keeping me from doing my school homework. It was also highly frustating and now that I have Xandros Linux installed I realise that this free version of Xandors is very limited and I may try to install Debian Woody again or Fedora core 4. Install, install, I am an install junkie and hardly spend much time actually working in Linux. Actually the problems is I like Woody but not sure I can keep it updated with out going into Sarge and I can't seem to install Sarge with net disks and as I said with no DVD drive on the intellistation I can't use the DVD's I made of Sarge.

Success Xandros installs ok

I was able to install a Xandros Linux desktop. I was not able to watch a DVD though because actually this computer does not have a DVD drive installed. I have a spare DVD drive but I am not up to installing that right now.

I was thinking about trying a different flavour of Linux on the Intellistation and am now trying a Xandros install. It is almost done and I will see if it works ok. I went with a swap partition of almost 2 GB so I can install some more RAM on the Intellistation. It needs PC133 RAM chips which I figure must be cheap these days. I will upgrade this system to 1 GB as soon as I can afford the extra RAM. Always upgrading. Just for fun if the Xandros installs with no issues I will watch the third Matrix film on the intellistation using Xandros starting at 3:30 AM.

I am having trouble mounting CD's made on my Mac on the new refurbished IBM Intellistation. I only seem to be able to get the Debian 3.0 woody CD to work. But then when I download newer Debian 3.1 Sarge software the boot proccess stops at Lilo only producing the letters LI in the upper left corner and then freezing. I am re trying this again and again. Right now I am trying it with out a network connection. I should stop this and start again with Debian 3.0 without ftp apt sources just security updates butthe main system just from the CD.

Success installing SAS, finally after about 20 attempts.

I first had an error because the firmware on my new refurbished computers CDROM had not been updated. I updated it yesterday morning or late Thursday night. Once that was solved I found the install mostly worked or got through more of the proccess. But the SAS install as many softwares is an all or nothing process involving 9 CD's. In the end I could not choose extra language support because a file for that option was on a part of a CD that is damaged. After unselecting that language support option the installation worked. I will report the damaged CD to the school hardware services clerk when I take the disks back to school on Monday.

I now have a functioning SAS workstation. I don't have any SAS homework yet but will have some later in the term.

I bought a refurbished IBM Intellistation Pro E. It has a 64 MB video card. I installed WinXP pro on it as soon as I got it. I am still trying to install SAS on the windows. I split the drive in half and am this morning continuing to try to install Debian Linux on the second half. SAS gave me problems as is Linux giving me problems. I have the SAS disks borrowed from school for another two days. I should stop this computer tinkering and get some school work done. But I have been reading all morning while the computer downloads linux software.

I just read half of a study into computer war gaming. I also have been reading about child poverty and statistics and about modern warfare in terms of body hardening and body injury. I finished a book on the rule of law that I started to read this summer after studying public law with Christian Jackel. I also finished a book titled Techno Feminism.

The new computer is basically supposed to be a windows box for doing windows only software. I did need to do some firmware upgrade on the CDROM. I will stop the Linux tinkering now at 3:36 and try the SAS install a few more times. My reason for buying this computer was to be able to run SAS at home for school work.