Dell Vostro 3350.

I bought a new Windows 7 laptop a Dell 3350 Vostro model.

I was able to access one tape section from my Iomega Ditto drive.

I had been thinking there was a lot of data on this old tape. I found only one web site's back up files and some creative writing. I may be able to find a back up file on there but the simple copy function only showed these few files. I used my IBM Pentium 1 Thinkpad with Win98 to access the tape drive.

I searched out information and programs online to get this old tape drive working. It will only work in Win98, and Win NT. That's why I used this old laptop, as it is my only Win98 computer. In the end the software I found was just one on someone's FTP in Norway and so it was a bit of a risky download. The company no longer have the software available. Ageing computers are an issue.

I completed some year end back ups on my Dell Alienware and Dell Studio laptops

I have not been using my Macbook much in the past year nor the eMac. Mostly I use the Dell Studio laptop for daily personal work and the Alienware M11X for games. Both of these machines are backed up regularly but not automatically.

Sold my Dell Vostro 1015.

I sold my Vostro 1015 running Ubuntu 11.10 to a friend who gave it to her daughter. I really only needed to back up sent e-mail that had been sent from this laptop. I did also back up documents I had made on the machine. This machine was my main laptop for a non-profit I was involved in that refurbishes computers and installs Ubuntu on the refurbished machines.

End of month back ups starting.

I should probably make more DVD backups soon.

I backed up my Dell Studio.

I backed up my Dell Studio to network drive and then a second copy of the back up was made to an external firewire drive.

Both my Vostro 1510 and my Vostro V130n had their Linux software updated this week.

These two Vostro's are my two Linux only machines. "Look ma, no windows." I updated them both this week with security updates and newer versions of software. The Vostro V130n is dual boot Edubuntu and Kubuntu. The Vostro 1510 is the latest Kubuntu.

I was successful installing SAS on Edubuntu 11.04

I got a hold of some instructions from a blog and got the SAS installed on Linux. A support worker at work found the instructions for me.

I am trying to install SAS on Linux this weekend.

I have some help files and will try to install SAS 9.2 on Linux this weekend.

I updated my computers and various operating systems

My Linux operating systems are failing. I can no longer access the Debian 6 on Remembrance or update the Transmission 4.0 fully on Remembrance. The Debian 6 seems to have an X window problem and has become a print server and I can not start tasksel on it or use sudo. The transmission is having problems with the Adobe Flash update. I did update just now, Debian 4 on Remembrance and also the Win XP 64 bit. I am attempting to rescue the Kubuntu on the Alienware M11X this morning. I lost it soon after upgrading to 11.04 Kubuntu. I have two Dell Vostro laptops which came from Dell with Linux already installed and these have been updated to Kubuntu 11.04 and one also boots to Edubuntu 11.04 now. These are both working fine still. And I receive e-mail on one and send e-mail using KMail. On the other newer one a Vostro V130n I use Evolution yet have not configured the sending of e-mail. I no longer really use Macs in any regular way. I still depend on my e-Mac to be my e-mail storage machine and turn it on every week or two to download new e-mail. All my other machines leave the e-mail on the server. I think the e-mail service I have which is managed in the back end by hotmail actually keeps a few months or more of the e-mail on the server anyways.

My home computer ownership history.

I used to use an Apple Performa 580CD computer in 1995 to 1998 as my main home computer. This was my first computer with a mouse and colour screen. I then got a hand me down Hewlet Packard 166 Mhz Pentium I computer running Windows 95. This began my Outlook Express e-mail client use phase. This computer was the only computer I did not save the email from. Then I purchased with my school's help an IBM Aptiva running Windows 98 in late 1999. With this computer I got Broadband Internet in my home for the first time. Then a year or two later again with help from others I got a Duron 850 Mhz clone PC running Windows 98. Some of the e-mail from this computer is still locked up on a hard drive I can not access. The case of this computer is still being used for Remembrance my present quad boot PC. I then went back to Mac's and got an early model eMac and that was my main machine for years. I also got an IBM Thinkpad laptop refurbished with Windows XP and that got me through most of my last BA. I then bought a last model eMac that I still have. The IBM laptop screen broke and I got all the data off it. For awhile in those days I used an IBM rack mount server for daily home used with a Windows NT 3 desktop. It also booted into Red Hat and then later when Red Hat started to cost money Red Hat's free Fedora Linux. I then in 2006 got a first model Macbook which I still have. I used an IBM Thinkcentre with XP for a while for a windows machine and I then built Remembrance a 64 bit Windows XP machine in 2008. I continued to use the Macbook and eMac. The eMac and Macbook became my regular machines for home use and I only used the Windows really for Eve Online ( a game) and some Windows based school related programming. I then started to buy Dell computers in 2009. This then began my more extensive use of Linux phase. I also used an Inspiron laptop running Vista for one year then got an Alienware M11X running Windows 7 and then this Dell Studio also Windows 7 and when I got the Studio laptop I retired the Macbook. I also use a Vostro running the latest Kubuntu. Also all my PC's have the ability to boot into Debian Linux including Debian 4 and 6.

Backing up the Dell Studio for a monthly back up.

I have backed up the Dell Studio Desktop and Documents folder to one network hard drive and am now copying that backup to a second network drive. I will next copy that backup to the Iomega 4 TB drive.

I set up my LinkSys 5 port swtich in the living room.

My router/modem is in the office in my apartament. I run an ethernet cable through the walls to the living room. In the office this cable connects to a 16 port switch. Recently I have been using laptops in the living room which all have wireless connections to the router/modem. Instead of wireless which causes some slow YouTube videos I have started to use the cable to the living room. To split this cable out I connected my 5 port LinkSys Ethernet switch last night. The 5 port switch takes the cable signal and splits it out in the living room.

I got a new 4 TB hard drive with RAID.

I have a new Iomega hard drive designed for the G5 Mac and nearly went out and bought a G5 Mac used. I formatted the hard drive into 6 partitions of a little less than 500 GB each. It really only has about 2 TB space because of the RAID. I have backed up my eMac and my Macbook so far using the firewire connection. That's why I bought this particular model because it has a firewire interface. I am also copying data off of my network drive to this new hard drive. The drive can not be seen by my windows computers even though I reformated it to DOS readable partitions.

More RAM memory purchased for laptops.

I purchased 4 GB of RAM memory for the Alienware M11X computer. I also upgraded the Vostro computer to 4 GB of RAM memory.

Computer group I am volunteering with doing some good.

We are starting to write some very good stories of getting low income families computers running Ubuntu. We have many busy "Ubuntu installing" volunteers developed.

I updated the Indamixx on the Dell Studio. I can not get the sound system working on it though!

I spent about half an hour trying to get the sound system to come through the M-Audio Pre USB sound interface and into some headphones. This is on the Indamixx side of this Dell Studio laptop. Oh well, at least I put in some more time with Indamixx and the Trinity OS. I really should read the manuals for this OS and its softwares.

The Kubuntu Vostro 15 is now updated. More RAM needed perhaps for this machine.

I updated the Vostro 15.

It was very sluggish. I may need to invest in more RAM for this machine. It has 1 GB now and can go up to 4 GB. A 2 GB RAM chip costs about 30$ to 75$ so the upgrade could be anywhere from 30$ to 150$ depending on where I buy the RAM and how much I upgrade the RAM amount.

Remembrance is updated.

I have now updated the XP, the Indimixx and the Debian 4 on the home built PC I call Remembrance.

The back ups seem to be going fine.

Both Remembrance and the Dell Studio have had their Desktop and Documents folders copied to a network drive. The eMac has downloaded the past month's e-mail after copies were downloaded to the Macbook and the Kubuntu Vostro. Now this e-mail is being backed up to the network drive. For the above, I think I will make second copies on the other network drive.