Saturday Shenanigans - 2

Well, now to the second part of my weekend shenanigans...

(Here is the short version: today I took apart an old laptop and removed its internal wireless card and antenna, and installed these in my laptop I got back in 2001. Now I have wireless on it! Sweet!)

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE SHORT STORY, HERE IS THE NARRATIVE OF TODAY'S EVENTS, JUST AS THEY HAPPENED...

Back in 2001, I purchased a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop. I actually got it off of eBay. It was only a week or so old, and the fellow that had purchased it decided that he really wanted something different. So, I was able to get a brand new system for a couple hundred less than what I would have paid directly from Dell.

The Birth Certificate from Dell (yes, I did blur out the service tag number so you couldn't read it and then go on Dell's site and try to find out what's in this system!)

Say what you will about Dell, but I have had no complaints with this system. It came with Windows ME preinstalled, which, even at the time, I was not too keen on. In fact, when the system arrived, I formatted the hard drive and installed Windows 98 on it. After using it for a while, it became apparent that it actually ran BETTER with Windows ME, so I formatted the drive again and started over with ME.

Here is what the ole' girl looks like

I have had that computer for the last 8 years, and have not had one lick of trouble with it. The battery finally went out on it, but it still runs well with the AC adapter. I have run many different versions of Linux on it, and even a BSD or two. Come to think of it, I may have even run OpenSolaris on the ole' girl.

My one beef with it lately has been the lack of wireless. Sure, I could fork out $40 or so for a PC card adapter or even a USB adapter, but come on now, is it really worth it for an 8-year old system?

Let me digress for a moment, because there is another story that ties into this one and will help to explain my day's activities. For quite some time, we have been allowed to do computer returns at our store. This helped us in taking care of the customer, especially if the problem with their computer would normally have required sending their computer back to the manufacturer.

Every once in a while, a laptop would return for which we could get no return to vendor authorization. These would silently sit in our back room, collecting whatever bits of dust they could get their plastic little chassis on. Well, one day I decided to check with my boss and see if there was a chance I could buy the lot of them. He agreed, so that evening I went home with five laptops, in various stages of repair (or disrepair as the case may be).

Well, to shorten the story up a bit, one of the computers was an old built-to-order HP. This thing easily exceeded the bounds of a portable computer and landed squarely in the realm of "luggable" or "budgeable". Since it was missing both its hard drive and AC adaptor, I felt it was the perfect victim...er...specimen, for my project today.

Ok, this isn't MY Inspiron, but, like the earlier picture, it is a brother or sister

This morning I got a curious bug to see if my Inspiron had what is called a mini-PCI port in it. So, I turned it over, got out a handful of trusty screwdrivers, and opened up the access panel on the bottom of the computer. Sure enough, it had a mini-PCI port, but there was currently a card plugged into it. After determining that this was the network card and 56K dial up modem, I had an idea. What if that old luggable HP had a wireless mini-PCI card in it? Could I put that in my Inspiron and make it wireless? Well, with nothing holding me back but fear itself, I began with my "cardectomy".

After unscrewing a countless number of small screws, the old HP began to grudgingly come apart in my hands. I removed the wireless mini-PCI card, only to discover that these little guys use an antenna (basically a set of wires) which snaked its way towards the LCD screen. Not being one to quickly give up (hey, the odds were in my favor), I disassembled the screen and removed it from the laptop chassis. I then extricated the antenna (wires) from behind the LCD screen and voila, I was set.

Here is the same make and model Broadcom wireless card I installed today

I carefully attached the antenna wires to the card and inserted it into my Inspiron. First I tried booting with one of my Linux distros, but the card wasn't recognized, so I installed Windows XP. The old Inspiron should have given up the ghost (hey, she only sports 192MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive) but she chugged right along, as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. (Remember, the ole' girl was in my possession and operating as my computer before XP was a gleam in Bill Gates' eye).

Well, downloading the XP driver for that card on my desktop computer, I copied it on a flash drive and installed it on the Inspiron. Just like clockwork, up came the wireless card and I was online. Between the wireless and a good Linux distro (just haven't quite decided yet) this almost decade-old computer has a new lease on life!

Saturday Shenanigans - 1

Well ok, I'll admit it, I played around today. Yeah, I did accomplish a few things...but mostly I played. One of the things I did was update my desktop computer with an application called RocketDock, a free application designed to help manage your frequently used shortcuts.

Previously, I had used the Quick Launch bar across the top of the screen. I had it set to autohide and loaded it up with the majority of the applications I use. It was simple, practical and very utilitarian.

Below I have included a couple of screenshots from my desktop today. (Yes, I know I have a lot of icons on the desktop!) The first picture shows the RocketDock at the bottom of the screen. In the second picture, I have moved the mouse over the OpenOffice.org Writer icon, which is enlarged accordingly.

RocketDock

RocketDock mouseover

It functions very fast and the graphics transitions are smooth. Overall I think it is a definite improvement to my desktop and general user experience. While I didn't get the impression that this is open source software, it is free...so the price is right. If you would like your own copy, just visit: http://www.rocketdock.com

(And yes, for you Mac users, this is similar to the OS X Dock)

Pics From Thanksgiving '08

I'm Pressing On...

"I'm pressing on the upward way..." So begins the old hymn. It was with these words that yesterday's Sunday School lesson out of Ruth began. We were looking at verse nineteen which reads, "So they two went until they came to Bethlehem..." This was as far as we got, though my intention had been to examine the whole verse.

The lesson was entitled "Continuing Until." We looked at the fact that there are no incidentals in the Bible, this small sentence was included with just as much Divine intent as the passages on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. So, it was important for us to consider why this verse was recorded.

The basic principle we drew was that of continuing until the end. Naomi and Ruth did not travel on a different path than the one they had set out on, the one which lead to Bethlehem. Also, they did not stop along the way and settle there, for example, stopping in Jericho or Jerusalem and living there. They both continued until they arrived at Bethlehem.

No matter what we face in these last days before Christ comes again, we must continue on. The Bible adjures us to press on, continue on, until the day of Christ Jesus. We are to be found often in church, often in the Bible, often in prayer. We are to be about the business of the Master and in fellowship one with another.

Whether we face the daily discouragement of a physical ailment, an emotional hindrance, or financial difficulties, we are to press on. Though we are persecuted or reviled for Christ's sake, we are to press on. Let us take example from these two widows on the road to Judah. They would not stay nor stray until the day they arrived at their destination...Bethlehem, the "house of bread."

Google Chrome

My home screen in Google Chrome

Being a bit of a computer/gadget buff, I am part of the continuous search for better pieces of software and hardware.  (Better being defined as closer to my likes and tastes).  For years I have been a fan of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

Sure, like any Microsoft product, it was constantly attacked and criticized.  It had its flaws and its bugs.  It didn't completely implement HTML and CSS coding according to standards.  Security vulnerabilites seemed to be discovered every week or two.

Yet, it seemed to be as fast if not faster than the other competing products.  While I was developing web sites, I downloaded different browsers to see how my HTML work would look and be interpreted.  I found IE to be right up there with Firefox, Safari, Netscape, Opera, etc.

Well, when IE version 7 came along I immediately downloaded it to see what had improved.  To my disappointment, the screen interface had been highly modified and much of the ability to customize and arrange the screen had been removed from the user.

So disenchanted was I, that I uninstalled it, reverting back to IE6.  But, my love affair with IE had ended.  After some testing, I settled on Firefox.  I was able to customize it to look similar to the setup I had used in IE and all was good.

Well, for several months now I have been using a new browser, put out by Google.  It is called Google Chrome and I have to say I think I am beginning to fall in love again.  It is fast and light with a minimalistic interface.

One of my favorite features is the ability to do a search directly from the address bar.  There is no need for another toolbar with a search box in it, everything can be done from the address bar.  The other feature that I really like, though it is different than other browsers, is that nine of my most frequently visited sites are thumbnailed on the page.  These thumbnails are automatically updated with the latest site changes upon visiting that site.

It may be that you're not looking for a new browser or even desire to try one, but if you are "in the market" I'd definitely give this one a look.