Category Archives: tech

Technical content. The down and dirty on computer/OS/web administration and software development.

New desktop computer

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I recently set up a desktop computer to be my development and gaming machine. A few months ago my dad had purchased a barebones 2.8GHz Pentium 4 computer for a project he was working on. Eventually it was abandoned, and so we had a spare case, CPU, and motherboard. I realized it would be perfect for a desktop, so I added a few components and now it’s sitting under my desk happily. :-)

  • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz: $100 (Fry’s)
  • Motherboard: Elitegroup 848P-A P4 motherboard with built-in 800Mhz front side bus, SATA support, hyperthreading support, USB2.0, AC’97 5.1ch audio, and gigabit LAN: $50 (Fry’s)
  • Chassis: ATX with case fan, 2 front USB ports and front mic/speaker, and 300W (albeit a low quality) power supply: $9 (Fry’s)
  • Power supply: replaced the one in the case with the Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU: $25 (Fry’s)
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BAMA 1

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This year’s first Bay Area Mathematical Adventures (BAMA) was with Dan Goldston on twin primes. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand the majority of his presentation. He used Mathematica to create scrolling, animated representations of prime numbers. This was pretty cool, although he didn’t get into much of the actual formulas. Not that I would be able to understand it, anyhow. This level of math is above me. I did like his mini-talk on “45 minutes of fame” though–he showed us an article in several newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News. He was even mentioned on Slashdot back in March 2003, for a “breakthrough in prime number theory.”

Installing Fedora Core 4 on the Sony VAIO VGN-S260

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I got my Sony VAIO VGN-S260 laptop computer last Christmas (2004). Since then I’ve been running Windows XP Pro on it, but I’ve been contemplating switching to Fedora Core 4 for a while now. After plenty of research on Google, I finally decided to go for it. By the way, this report is listed at TuxMobil – Linux on laptops, notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones.

Hardware Specs

  • CPU: Intel Pentium M (Centrino) 1.7GHz CPU
  • RAM: 512MB DDR (expandable to 1GB)
  • Hard Drive: 60GB
  • Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 9200
  • Screen: 1280×800, 13.3″ wide aspect XBRITE (glossy) screen
  • Ethernet: Intel EtherExpress Pro 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet)
  • Wireless: Intel Pro Wireless 2200/BG
  • Audio: Intel ICH4 AC’97 controller
  • Firewire: Texas Instruments IEEE 1394
  • Memory Stick: by Texas Instruments
  • Modem: 56Kbps Fax/Modem

Backing up my system

First and foremost, I copied all my data to an external hard drive and used Norton Ghost to image my entire HD, just in case something went wrong or (heaven forbid) I wanted to switch back to Windows XP.

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