Windows Vista.  The latest operating system release from Microsoft.  Microsoft is supposedly planning to stop releasing Service Packs and stop supporting Windows XP sometime in the near future.  I don’t know when the full transition is expected to take place, but anyone using Windows XP better prepare to be forced to use Windows Vista very soon.  It’s very rare to find any new computer (with the exception of business computers) that come with Windows XP.  Some people absolutely love it, but there have been numerous, countless, problems with this “revolutionary” operating system.  I have one home computer that we bought new about a year ago, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD.  It is already outdated by Windows Vista.  I have my Intel Centrino Compaq HP that runs Fluxbuntu at just a slightly slower speed.  Why is this?  Because if you haven’t already figured it out, Windows Vista is a big, fat, eye-candy loaded resource hog.  I can run a game in Vista, it takes up almost all of the RAM because there is so much background stuff going on.

When I run a few programs, such as the now bloated Microsoft Office 12, and maybe Photoshop, along with the Aero window theme, the glass look, and the Windows Sidebar, my computer shows signs of aging and slows to an unbelievable pace!  Yet, all of my computers that run various Flavors of Ubuntu (Ubuntu, Fluxbuntu, Xubuntu) still go at an awesome pace for how old these machines are.  All of these machines are at least three years old, but they run just as fast as Windows Vista.  The only thing I can see in Windows Vista is Windows XP with a super bloated graphical theme.  Is this Revolutionary?  No.  Ubuntu and various other Linux Distros have been able to skin the window manager and have thousands of other ways to customize your box.  There are tons of Mac-like themes, Aero themes, and tons of other amazing themes.  All of this, and my Linux still runs faster, with the same look and similar programs.  Another bonus to Linux: It’s free.  That’s about two-hundred dollars cheaper then Vista.

If you think this is too late, I needed time to test Vista, and Ubuntu and find many of the disturbing realities of Vista.  It’s bloated and not worth your money.  I wouldn’t take it for free either.  There you go.  That’s my Windows Vista rant.

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I have (almost) completed the Cardboard PC II.  It turns on and it is running WinXP right now, but it will have some flavor of linux right now.  Currently it is running at about CPU – 107F and System – 82F with two extra fans on each side.  Here are some pictures, and yes, it really does run and it stays really cool.  I only need to secure a few more parts on the box and my project will be complete!  Then I hope to find more computer parts and make CB-PC III.  We’ll see what I can get…  Anyway, here are the pics, I will post the specs up as soon as I get home and fiddle with it some more.

Sorry some of them are blurry, I took them with my camera phone.  I will post more complete pictures when I am totally finished with the project.

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I have almost finished the CB-PC II, which I worked on for about four hours today.  I will post pictures this week, I promise.  I had a few things this weekend that got in the way of production.  This computer has less RAM, but the same CPU and the same hard drive, but a different power supply and motherboard.  We’ll see how this one runs.  I guess you could call this the first “real” Cardboard PC as it will actually run something, unlike it’s predecessor.  CB-PC II has four fans, and will run even cooler then CB-PC I.  Stay tuned for the release of more specs and some awesome pics!  Unfortunately, the CB-PC I has been taken apart and scrapped for the construction of CB-PC II.  I hope you enjoy the pics coming soon!

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I have not started taking this apart yet, or putting  the second one together.  I will this weeked, I promise.  Here you go for now.  My custom case mod, the CB-PC I, Code-named “Quick One”.

Specs: It has three fans (Power Supply, Random, CPU Fan), a 40 GB HDD, 384 MB RAM, Pentium 4, two 48x CD-ROM, one floppy drive, added on video card, pieces came from two HP Compaqs (not sure which model) and a Compaq EVO.  It currently does not boot into an OS, because I think I either hooked up something wrong, or there is no OS.  (I also had to replace the Motherboard battery, so I think for CB-PC II, code-named “Puckulence”, I will use one of the other motherboards.  We’ll see…

I hope that CB-PC II will be the first working Cardboard Fluxbuntu box.  We’ll see… yet again.

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I, uh, broke my laptop somehow…  I had Ubuntu, installed Xfce on it (it’s really slow), and it broke.  So I reinstalled Ubuntu 7.04 from a CD I have, updated it to 7.10 and then to 8.04.  It’s still broken!  Gaaah!  I thought I had it fixed after another quick update, but then it wouldn’t finish an update!  Then Firefox and several other programs wouldn’t open at all.

So what did I do with it?  I through it on the ground and ran it over with my Hummer.  (Okay, I need that laptop, and I can’t afford a Hummer, and what a waste of gas anyway.)  I installed Fluxbuntu, and everything (mostly) works fast(er) and seamlessy!  We’ll see in the long run.

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 ‘Hello, technical support, how can I help you’ ?
LADY: ‘Last night my computer started making a
lot of hissing noises at me so I shut it down. This morning when I turned it on, the computer started hissing and cracking, then started smoking and then there was a bad smell, then nothing’.

SUPPORT: ‘I will have a technician come over first thing this morning, just leave the computer just like it is, so they can find the problem and fix it, or change it out with another computer. Give me your address; phone number and the technician will be there just as soon as he can’.

When the technician got there, the lady showed the technician where the computer was, said what happened to it. This is what the technician found wrong. Take a look at the pictures. .. you won’t believe your eyes!!!!!

And you thought you had computer problems !!

SCROLL DOWN………

 

 

 

 

The technician told her: It must have been after the mouse!  The woman didn’t think it was very funny at all.

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Help Desk, Technology Hide

How to create Slax modules
Create new modules
There are many ways how to create Slax modules. All commands described here work directly in Slax, but can also work in your own distribution. For that case, download linux-live scripts and run ./install. Get Linux-Live scripts here.
The following command will convert Slackware’s TGZ package to Slax module:tgz2lzm software.tgz software.lzm
If you wish to modify your Slackware package before the module is created, use:installpkg -root /tmp/aaaa software.tgz
It will install your TGZ package in different root (/tmp/aaaa here). Modify the files you need and finally convert the directory tree to a module by using:dir2lzm /tmp/aaaa software.lzm

Modify existing modules
The following command will extract content of your Slax module to a directory in
/tmp/aaaa:mkdir /tmp/aaaa
lzm2dir software.lzm /tmp/aaaa
Make sure you have enough free space there. When the module is extracted, you can modify everything in /tmp/aaaa/, and when done, pack the module back to the .lzm format by using:dir2lzm /tmp/aaaa software.lzm
If you just wish to browse the content of a module (without extracting it to disk), you may mount it by using the following command:
mkdir /mnt/aaaa
mount -t squashfs -o loop /path/software.lzm /mnt/aaaa

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