Only mail folders remain to be backed up on the Macbook and eMac

The document folders on the eMac and Macbook are now backed up for this month. Also both desktop folders are backed up. So all that remains is to complete the mail folders back up. This takes longer as there are so many files as each e-mail is one file. Remembrance is backed up and that leaves only the Dell Studio and Dell Mini 9 to back up.

The documents folder is now backed up.

The eMac documents folder is now backed up. All that remains to back up now is the email folder. I have started this folder backup. I also now need to finish backing up the Macbook which I did start the work on.

I am not sure what I am doing with my music rack...Music? Server?

I have been putting more stuff in my music rack. I am not too pleased with the server I have. But I have not really put a lot of time into it yet. I did also buy a D-Link 16 port switch and did put that in the top 1U of my 10 U music gear rack.

eMac backups and the old e-mail policy.

I have backed up the eMac's Desktop folder now. I am just verifying with the Get Info function that the two Desktops, the real one and the back up copy are about the same size.

Then I will continue the copying of files and folders from the Documents folder on the eMac to the back up copy on the network drive. Then I will back up e-mail. I will not bother to back up videos, photos, music or applications this time, as these do not change much. These especially do not change much on the eMac.

Back in early 2005 I had only an eMac and a Thinkpad. My philosophy was to keep all e-mail on the eMac when I got a Macbook to replace the Thinkpad that had broken that year. In the last six months I have lifted this policy a bit and generally read my e-mail on the Macbook. I did not want to do this for security reasons; given that I might loose a computer like a laptop outside the house I thought it better not to store e-mail on it. But I leave the e-mail on the server with the Macbook so it is still all downloaded eventually and stored on the eMac. But the eMac is getting old now. Also I am having trouble these days backing up the e-mail folders on the eMac to external drives and even more trouble backing up to DVD. When I did my e-mail on the Thinkpad before I started using only the eMac for e-mail, I could back up the e-mail to DVD no problem from the Thinkpad. There was simply less e-mail to backup back then.

I am beginning my mid month backups to a network drive.

I have been starting my backups to a network drive for the mid month. So far, I am working with Remembrance and the eMac.

I am also transferring my network music library to the new 1 TB drive.

I still have not fully transferred the first of the USB external drives to the network hard drive. It is not an easy process. There are always files that produce error messages and stop whole copy operations.

The hard drive is physically in the server and the server starts.

I found some flat headed screws from Remembrance and also my little compartment box. I was able to push the hard drive up against the IDE backplane. I am still not sure it is connected. I need to boot to the BIOS to check that. I will have to boot to the BIOS to set the boot device anyways.

I did hook the server up to a monitor and started it up. The computer tried to find bootable media.

Sure enough the computer started and showed 2 GB of RAM. This means the RAM is working too. The RAM cost about 60$ from an ebay seller.

The server hard drive trays are excellent but I need flat head screws

I got the server hard drive trays and am ready to install the 200 GB hard drive left over from the IBM ThinkCentre. To do this I need to make sure the hard drive mounting screw are flush with the tray arms so typical hard drive mounting screws are not going to work. I need flat head screws. The screws need to be flush so the tray can slide into the server. I also have my first IDE backplane which basically means when the tray slides in, the hard drive connections plug right into the connectors on the computer. These connections are on this thing called an IDE backplane. So I do not need hard drive cables.

The next step with the server is to put in a hard drive.

The next step is to put the 250 GB hard drive from my old IBM NetVista into the server. This was the NetVista's second hard drive and ran Debian Linux. The first step is to take this 250 GB hard drive out of Remembrance where is basically doing nothing as it is not recognised by the motherboard. I think the motherboard will not allow IDE and SATA drives to run at the same time or something. The hard drive trays for this server are at the post office now so I will need to pay 9 dollars customs and bring them home.

I hope to hear Richard Stallman speak tomorrow at Parliament Hill

Richard Stallman a software developer and free software advocate will be speaking on Parliament hill tomorrow and I am hoping to hear him and then join him at a restaurant near by. I have been to this restaurant a few times for social computing gatherings.

The RAM memory has been placed in the server now.

I received the server this week via UPS courier. I put the RAM memory in last night. It seems that hard drives may just plug into what is called an "IDE backplane". There seem to be only two case fans so I hope this server is not too noisy. There is one small power supply fan as well. The computer does not have a mouse port as it is a server so using one of these keyboards with a track ball set in a 1 U tray may not be the best idea. Also it does not appear to have an easy accessible PCI card slot. Thus the idea of using this as a music recording device has probably met the last straw now. So perhaps I will find another use for this as a home Intranet web server or an home Internet server. I am not sure now. I have spent about 125 dollars on the server and about 60 dollars on the RAM memory so far. So I have spent approximately 200 dollars on this computer so far.

I still need some more parts for the server.

I have the server case, the motherboard, the CPU's and the RAM. I have one 200GB hard drive I was going to use on Remembrance that I can instead use in this server. I still need some hard drive trays for about 10$ plus shipping. I think I need four of them and the shipping for four of them is 25US$ or about 30CND$. That means about 70CND$ just for the hard drive trays. I also would like a 1U keyboard tray with keyboard and these seem to be about 120CND$ on ebay including shipping. So that is a little more than 200$ more. I did find a PCI sound card that will take a stereo input from the mixing board. This cost 51$ but the Linux drivers will be another 50US$ for the license for these drivers. Then I have to think about a video monitor and mounting that on the roto rack which is a 10u wheeled hard plastic rack. It has an AP812 power mixer on top now and a bass Power amp in the bottom and a bass tube preamp.

I bought a new used server on ebay.

I bought a server case and motherboard for 19.98 US$ on ebay. The case is a rackable systems case similar to Rackable Systems 2U half depth C2004-BN but older. The motherboard is an Intel. Here are the specs:

Intel SE7501WV2 Dual Xeon Motherboard

Intel SE7501WV2 Dual Xeon, EATX, 12GB ECC DDR-SDRAM, 400/533MHz FSB
(MPN: SE7501WV2SCSI)

It also has Dual (2) Xeon 2.66Ghz Processors.

The total cost with shipping was 102CND$.

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.