Dell Computers has authorized the return of the second laptop.

Dell agreed to allow me to return the second laptop ordered by mistake. The problem was that I thought, I had canceled it but had been through a few orders and did not cancel each and everyone of them. Well I have one new Dell laptop now and one to ship back,

I just installed Kubuntu on the new Dell Inspiron.

I decided to try out Kubuntu on the Dell Inspiron. I used about 52 GB for the Linux install.

Update on machines.

I am still using the eMac because it stores all my email. It also can use the Canon printer two sided so often I print from that machine.

Remembrance has not been used for a few days and remains off. It now has a two monitor set up with the LG 19" wide screen as the main monitor and then the 17" CRT no name monitor is used beside it on the office desk as extra screen space. These are running off the eGeForce 8500 video card with its 1 GB of RAM as it supports dual VGA monitors.

My Macbook has become my main machine for day to day non work computing and is still a key machine for my graduate studies work. I use it generally for replying to and reading personal and other non work email. The MySQL and PHP setup on it is not working since I changed hard drives, so I do not access the Drupal on my home Intranet or my Media Wiki I set up for my studies. Neither of these web applications were set up on the Internet but instead working inside my home network behind the modem as a home Intranet.

I have a new Dell Inspiron 15 1545 laptop that I use for Eve Online so I can play that game from the comfort of the couch with the laptop on the coffee table. Other than Eve Online, I am restricting this laptop to work related computing and am not storing documents on its hard drive but instead using a USB key with it for storing work files. Also all the work files are non-confidential work files, as per, my workplace computer security policy. I may limit this new Dell to work only or perhaps also do school work on it. The Dell may at some point be used for music recording because it is relatively new, but that use would require a big investment in other recording equipment as well. But it will not be used to store email, pictures, or music at the moment. I will also not use it for social networking. I will use the Macbook for day to day social networking, as I have been for the past year or so.

The BIOS does not see the IDE hard drive.

For some reason the BIOS is not seeing the hard drive. I will need to consult the motherboard's manual to see if something needs to be set.

I have successfully installed the 200 GB maxtor hard drive into Remembrance.

I successfully installed the 200 GB hard drive. So it is in Remembrance and connected. I have booted up Debian and I will now see if I can access the drive and format it.

I bought a friend a used Apple G4 Titanium Powerbook and am setting it up for him.

I bought a used Apple G4 Titanium Powerbook. This G4 processor is a 400 Mhz speed processor. The computer came with a fresh install of Mac OS 10.3. I am preparing it now for use. I installed X11. My friend wants to be able to record music so I installed Audacity and tested that with the built in microphone. I will installed Neo Office or perhaps Open Office as I believe Open Office now has a Mac version. I will also install Gimp.

I just got off the phone with my friend and he is thankful for my work on his new used Powerbook.

I am installing Kubuntu as the third operating system on my home built PC

I do, in fact, have that 200 GB IDE hard drive from my last PC: the IBM ThinkCentre. I have donated the IBM ThinkCentre to a community centre network through Computers for Communities a local tech charity I have been involved with lately. I took out the 200 GB drive as it was not needed for the community centre project. This 200 GB which has a Debian installed from the ThinkCentre will need to be formatted first, so that it does not cause any problems. I will install it and then format it before putting in the Kubuntu DVD.

I am presently backing up the PC side in case I have some boot problems after the Kubuntu install adjusts the master boot record. I am looking forward to trying out Kubuntu after I had seen it on the old Dell.

Ordering Dell 15" Windows Vista laptop.

I ended up mistakenly ordering two Dell laptops. I had only wanted one of these. I now will have to send one back when they arrive. Both of them have separate video cards so these machines should be good for playing computer games. But the real use will be for work and school related statistical and programming work. I will install SAS and Office on the new machines. I will also install Inference for R and R software. I may also install Linux on the laptop.

The Canon IP90 printer now works with the Dell Mini 9

I managed to install some drivers for the Canon IP90. It seems to work for black text printing with Linux Canon Pixma IP 4300 drivers. I can at least print black text. So I now have a very portable printing systems in the Netbook and IP90 combination.

I am planning on saving for some hard drives but actually I have one 250 GB hard drive spare perhaps.

I am also wanting a hard drive for the storage bay still but planning on saving up for this. I want to install Kubuntu on Remembrance and would also want a third hard drive in Remembrance for this. I am not sure but I believe I have a spare 250 GB hard drive from my Pentium IV 3 Ghz IBM desktop. This would be an IDE hard drive not SATA. I can install such a hard drive in Remembrance, if I have some extra hard drive space. The motherboard will certainly support the older IDE hard drives. So this will be my next project. I am downloading Kubuntu as I write this. I just learned that Kubunutu is not a community version of Ubunutu but in fact, a KDE version of Ubunutu which would be peachy keen.

I am still using Inference of R and also becoming more familiar with Office 2007.

I have been using Office 2007 for about three months now. I have been using Inference for R for a few weeks now. These are both installed on the 64 bit Windows XP.

The old Dell 600 Mhz machine I got in a swap.

So yes, this old Dell was used at a political office for volunteers to use. I donated it to the party without tax receipt. The office tech guy set it up to run Kubuntu. When I booted it a couple of days ago I could log into Kubuntu. The problem now is that the machine fails to turn on and the message is "Thermal Failure". I can try a few times to get it to boot finally. But this will not be a good PC to donate to a Linux newbie as was my intention.

So now I can repair it or take the parts and build a another PC. I am not sure seeing that is a proprietary case that I can put a new mother board into it. More e-waste problems for me to solve.

I decided not to do email on my home PC's.

I decided given the viruses and worms in emails and the lack of security on PC's to not run email on my PC's. I did again import my Mac mail on my Macbook into Eurdora and once agan tried to import email into Entourage and it again did not work.

I set up my office again and moved Remembrance out of the living room

I had Remembrance set up in front of the TV for a month or two. I was intending to get Eve Online on the TV. But this did not work. I am not really enjoying Eve online so much after all. It is partly people issues with smutty talk and drunks on line. I am considering closing my accounts.

I set up the 17" CRT monitor in office in the middle of the desk. I have on the left side my eMac which is not getting much use these days but is still a print server for my Macbook and the Canon printer. To the right to of the CRT monitor is the new LG 19" Widescreen monitor. I was running the used Dell 600 Mhz computer into the CRT monitor and Remembrance into the LG monitor. The Dell is running Kubuntu. So I have three monitors side by side. I am chasing images in the media and various workplaces I work at; images of computer setups.