Silvexis » Life

The Great Computer Stuff Moving sale of 2009!

Erik — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:59:03 +0000

I’m moving to California and as anyone who has moved cross country or really anywhere knows is that before you move, you clean. For this move I’ve decided to part with the vast horde of computer paraphernalia that I’ve built up over the past 15 years.

I’ve carefully collected and packaged this stuff up and then schlepped it around the country from dorm room to apartment to apartment and finally to my house where it has all sat like a ticking time bomb in my basement out of sight, out of mind.

So enough is enough, I’m not taking this stuff with me, but I hate to just toss it. There are some real gems in there but my parents have threatened to disown me if I try to store this stuff in their attic so I’m looking for a new home. Here is the list of things that seem cool enough to mention:

Assorted Token-Ring hardware including 16/4Mbps NIC’s an IBM 8228 MAU (You could build your own home Token-Ring network if you were so inclined with all of this gear which I used to do back in the day when I was a Banyan Vines/Token Ring network guru)
- Odd bit of trivia about me: I’m a Banyan Vines certified network administrator, do you remember StreetTalk? They invented directory services! Forget Novell NDS and Microsoft AD, both those fools ripped Banyan off, sigh…(I’m also certified on Lan Manager too, I bet you didn’t even know why NTLM is called NTLM? Well now you do)
10Base-2 Ethernet hardware including a 10Base-2 repeater! You can get 300 feet x 2 with this awesome technology.
- More random trivia: In Atlanta, there are two apartments in the same apartment complex that were covertly wired for 10Base-2 back in 1998 and are likely still wired to this day. Oh the awesomeness of crawling in between walls and attic crawl spaces during an Atlanta summer just so a buddy of mine in the same place could play computer games
A collection of random Palm Pilots from the original up to a Handspring model (Come on, relive the good times and see if you can still write in Graffiti!)
A DECstation 5000 model 20 with 20 inch monitor.
- More triva: I wrote tons of MIPS assembly code on this bad boy, oh the memories! I’ve never felt closer to a computer than when I was writing RISC assembly, it was a very romantic moment for a geek.
An original, Apple LISA with 10MB(!!) HD. This amazing computer cost $10,000.00 new, yours for only shipping and handling (the monitor might be in need of repair and I might break down and sell this one on eBay so sorry in advance if I waffle on giving this one away)
Random assortment of computer junk (486 chips, random RAM sticks, odd SCSI cables and whatnot)
An Apple iMac G4 (sunflower). Relive this period in history and plant this cool looking computer in your house today!
HP DeskJet 5850 with WiFi/Ethernet/USB support (This printer is only a few years old, works perfectly fine, comes with a bunch of ink cartridges)
HP 15 Inch LCD monitor (A friend gave this to me many years ago, now you can be my friend and I can give it to you)
Sony MegaStorage 400 CD changer (you remember CD’s right?)
Atari 2600 with a huge box full of games (HAHAHA, no sorry, I’m keeping this awesome gaming system for myself.)

I’m still going through the boxes, I’m sure I’ll find other gems and when I do, I’ll post them here. I am very serious about finding a good home (not a landfill) for most of this stuff, if you are interested, drop me a message if you know me or leave me a comment if you don’t and I’ll get back to you. Also, if you are looking for something really old or odd, maybe an odd cable or plug or who knows what, ask me, I problably have it, but ask soon, before it disapears.

Just Added:

Xbox original (Hack it to install Linux and fufill every young hackers dream of installing Linux on anything that computes)
Echo Power Blower PB-403t (Need to get that dust out of your computer case? Forget about those wimpy computer vacuums, this puppy will do the job in about 1.2 seconds)

The next great Technology Supernova is coming

The coolest thing in the world

Erik — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:26:06 +0000

Anna Elizabeth Peterson, born last week, 8 pounds 5 ounces of pure cuteness.

Let the adventure begin!

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Tool

Erik — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:28:50 +0000

Day 3 of the Tool extravaganza. Thursday Caleb and I flew down to Orlando to catch Tool in concert and the show rocked. It’s been something like 6 years since these guys toured and I have this fear that this might be the last, hence why this is day 3. Today we find ourselves in Jacksonville, FL where tonight we will be seeing Tool again. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a band twice on the same tour and I’m not sure what to expect. The set has been pretty good, I’m horrible with names however so don’t ask me to name what songs, but they have been playing a lot of my old favorites in addition to new stuff off of 10,000 days.

Too many Tool might seem as just another angry metal band but for me I’ve always considered Tool a pretty spiritual experience. It’s a raw power sharply focused that I find deeply energizing. That’s not to say all of their songs talk to me, but most of them do, and they wake something up inside me.

Ok, off for breakfast, tonight the show goes on.

Filling the music void

Chicago part 2

Erik — Mon, 28 May 2007 04:39:45 +0000

Day 2 in Chicago – We are never going to leave!

The weather was absolutely perfect. I mean really really perfect. Blue skys, no clouds, amazing. We got our start around 10 when we hopped on the Red Line going north, got off at Chicago station and walked our way to the John Hancock building. It could not have been a better day to be up there looking out over the city. We could see as far as Gary Indiana and the vistas were spectacular. From there we walked the Magnificent Mile and ducked in and out of the shops, I picked up a pair of shoes and Rebecca picked up some clothes from H&M.

But that wasn’t the mission for the day, if you recall from yesterday, the goal today was Pizza and we hit the mother load. Gino’s East was recommended to us by a friend and it was absolutely delicious. Exactly what we were looking for – a true slice of Chicago pie. The line was just long enough to know you had come to the right place but not too long as to annoy you. Once we got in we noticed that just about every flat surface in the place was covered by the graffiti the thousands who had come here before, pretty cool. We ordered a Gino’s Sausage Supreme. Our waiter warned us in advance that they cook everything from scratch and that it would take about 45 min for the pizza to arrive but it was worth it. If you find yourself in Chicago, looking for Pizza, I highly recommend you head over to Gino’s on 162 E Superior St.

We spent more time walking the mile and shopping, we hit up the Apple store for fun and then headed to the original Marshall Fields store to explore. Most department stores in the US are well, department stores. Boring, formulaic and just what you are expecting. The original Marshall Fields store however has character, in some ways parts of it reminded me of Harrods in London if you can believe that, and that’s a serious complement for any store in America. Despite wandering around for some time, we ended up not buying anything except a box of chocolates which I’m enjoying right now

We took the red line back home, dropped off our booty for the day and then headed immediately off to meet up with Rebecca’s cousins (whom we are staying with) and enjoy a concert at Millennium Park. Completed in 2004 it transformed a part of the city once dominated by a railroad switching yard into 25 acres of parkland. Center to the park is a huge outdoor pavilion designed by Frank Gehry which is where we enjoyed our dinner and watched the concert.

Also in the park is “the bean” or Cloud Gate sculpture created by Anish Kapoor which is this gigantic stainless steel “bean” that has been polished to be super reflective. It wraps a warped reflection of the skyline around it’s curves and really catches your eye. You can walk underneath it where you feel like you are entering into a fun house mirror of the most extreme kind. I heard this thing cost a ridiculous amount of money, I think it was worth every penny.

The concert came to an end, we wandered back home and now as we get ready to turn in I can’t help but feel like in the past 2 short days I’ve really gotten to know this city. I’m adding it to my short list of places I’d consider living next.

Filling the music void

Erik — Mon, 22 May 2006 03:42:58 +0000

When I first heard of podcasting, I somehow got it in my mind that they were just recorded talk radio shows on esoteric subjects. Ok, I didn’t think they were all like that but I didn’t quite get it at first. To explain, let me get a little nostalgic. Ever since I started to buy CD’s on the Internet (anyone remember CD-NOW?) I lamented the loss of the music store experience. There was something special about walking into your favorite music store (for me it was Virgin Megastore Vienna) picking out 20 hopefuls and then power listening to them all. On the good days I left the store with 20 cd’s in hand.

Fast forward to today. I haven’t been into a music store in years that I wanted to spend more than 5 min. in (ok Virgin London rocked, hmm perhaps this is an American only issue?). Which means I’ve been totally dependent on my friends and random chance to find my music (thanks Michael!) and yes before you tell me there are thousands of news groups and web pages dedicated to finding music, let me just say that when it comes to music, I’ve got to hear it, talking about it just doesn’t work for me.

Enter the music podcast.

If you are not finding new music via podcasts, you are missing out. For the first time in a long time I’ve got that music store experience back again, I’m enjoying those 20 cd’s and on the good days I’m puting in an order to iTunes or AllofMP3.com.

So there are a few podcasts you need to know about, and since i’m on an electronic kick right now, I’ll point you to two of my favorites.

Spacemusic is podcasted direct from the Netherlands by TC and generaly falls on the beat oriented ambient side of the house. Occasionally TC mixes it up and IMHO it’s always a nice way to keep people on their toes. Orbital Grooves falls more on the dance/trance/drum n base/house side and the latest podcast has induced 100 mph speeds at least twice now.

The void has been filled.

Progress part 1

Ahhh Drywall…

Erik — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 14:31:08 +0000

Putting up wallpaper on a brand new wall? Thinking of skipping that first step of priming the wall? Don’t. About 20 years ago someone assumed that the wallpaper that was hanging in my dining room would be the only wall covering anyone would ever want so they skipped that step. 20 year old wallpaper is just beautiful to look at. Really.

So the wall paper had to go and much to our horror my wife and I discovered why that first step is so important. As we peeled the wallpaper off along with it came the drywall backing and the promise of lots of work in our future. That was 4 days ago, and thanks to this really cool stuff from Zinsser call GARDZ. To our joy (yes joy, if you do home improvement on your own time you will come to find joy in these things) GARDZ is designed to seal the fuzzy brown wall and turn it back into a nice hard surface that you can then paint or skim coat with drywall mud if you that sort of person (which I am).

Which brings me to drywall…there is nothing quite like a perfectly finished wall, but wow, what a lot of work. It’s really an art form, and for a computer guy like me, definitely new territory. So far things are looking good, but i’m sanding way to much which means my technique is far from perfect. Perhaps in time I will one day reach drywall nirvana and be able to complete an entire wall with out having to sand anything. For this handyman, one can only dream…

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