I’m such a Geek

I’ll admit I’m a teensy bit of a geek, and sometimes I like to revel in it. Take this, for instance: I just snagged a used monitor, some old parts I had sitting under my bed, and a cheap DVD drive… and now I have a working second computer running Linux again! Ubuntu Linux, specifically. What geekiness are you reveling in right now?

15 Responses to “I’m such a Geek”

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I’m not sure if reveling is quite the correct word, but I’m actually attempting similar geekiness as you right now, even will be running Ubuntu once I get it working. I was going to try to upgrade my processor only to discover that new processors don’t fit in my old motherboard. Since my old board had integrated video, I also had to get a new video card which also required a new case since my old one was a nice compact thing, that is a pain to find anything that will fit inside it. Between all this I found an excuse to get a larger hard drive and am building a new computer. Too bad it’s not working yet. The challenge of trying to get it to work could be fun, I just should have done this with more time before school started, since now I’m really missing having a functional computer at home.

mcmillan - August 25th, 2005 at 2:48 pm

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Good for you, McMillan! I’ve gone through similar troubles… My last “pre-built” computer was a Dell, which (as I now know) means it had a custom motherboard, CPU socket, memory socket, and power supply… So “upgrading” became, just like in your case, “building a new one”. But it’s fun, isn’t it?

And for the record– Ubuntu is the slickest, most polished Linux I’ve ever seen. It passes the Parent Test of “could my parents (or other figures in your life who aren’t into computers) use this?”

Especially nice is the Ubuntu Guide which walks you through things like installing the decoders to watch videos, DVD and CD burning software, and all sorts of other stuff.

Paradoxdruid - August 25th, 2005 at 3:36 pm

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Hmm…this Ubuntu sounds worth looking into. My Linux partition has been sadly neglected for awhile, mostly due to the fact that I can’t get my wireless card to work on it. Any progress in that area?

Mallorn - August 26th, 2005 at 5:31 am

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This Unbuntu IS worth looking into… it’s really slick. Hell, they made updating as simple as it is in Windows (an icon appears in your notification tray saying “you have new upgrades available”. You click it, open a window that shows what will be upgraded, click “ok” and apt-get runs for you.. all GUI, very slick). And that’s just one example.

That said, Mallorn, you can download a LiveCD of Ubuntu before you risk it, to see if it detects your wireless card or not.

Also, I wanted to publicly thank stephen– He long ago urged me to partition my harddrive so that I had a smallish root filesystem partition and a big /home partition. Well, My new Linux computer is using that old harddrive, and because of that sage advice, when Ubuntu installed, I was comforted to see that all my data was still there, though the operating system was different. Heck, it even kept my KDE appearance settings!

Paradoxdruid - August 27th, 2005 at 7:17 am

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Yea, I have to thank him too..since he did all the hard work for me 😛 And with the bizarre computer problems I have, I’m afraid to touch it! But this Ubuntu does look interesting…

In addition to thanking Stephen, wish him a happy birthday too! Happy birthday old man! 😉

Mallorn - August 29th, 2005 at 12:47 pm

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:-/ :-\ My linux box hates me. It really needs some love. I’m running gentoo, which is… less user friendly. Especially for me who isn’t a computer genius like my roommate (example: I accidentially deleted my boot partition on my lap top. That was interesting…).

In a different area of geekdom, I have started working on my halloween costume (yes I know it’s still over a month away). My boyfriend and I are going to a masked ball where everyone has to come as a diety. We are going as Bahumat and Tiamat :-D! W00t D&D gods!

Happy birthday Stephen! (monkey)

Lily - August 30th, 2005 at 10:06 am

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*definitely off topic but…* There’s no shame in thinking about Halloween now!! I sooo want to dress up as a pregnant nun and go as Miss Conception, but I’m afraid I’ll alienate the few friends I’ve managed to make out here in the, um, more conservative midwest 😛

Mallorn - August 30th, 2005 at 11:01 am

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*laughs* That would be almost as wrong as the year Kathryn and Jake went as a priest and an alter boy! I love halloween mainly because I get to make costumes! I’ve spent about 3 days so far on my Tiamat mask. It’s split up into 5 sections with the different colored dragon heads (in D&D she has 5 heads, red, blue, green, white and black). Although I’m a little worried that the epoxy fumes are still going to be there in a month and I’ll pass out half way through the party.

And there is another Lily geek-ism. As a Chemical Engineer I feel the need to use the most toxic chemicals whenever possible! *laughs* X-(

Lily - August 30th, 2005 at 11:08 am

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Hey! Give credit where credit is due…. Tiamat and Bahamut are Babylonian and Islamic figures, respectively… No DnD invocation is necessary. 😛
I remember a few years ago, I went as Tezcatlipoca , an Aztec god… My girlfriend at the time was going to join me as Cihuacoatl , but was feeling sick (and her costume was a *tad* revealing). Last year, I went as a Stick Man– in fact, pictures of that are on this website right here and here . That was fun!

I’m totally lost on what to go as this year, though… Maybe I’ll start a topic on that very thing.

Paradoxdruid - August 30th, 2005 at 12:12 pm

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Yes, we remember the Aztec god costume…and a certain picture that you seemed remarkable sensitive about 😉

Nice Stick Man costume!

Mallorn - August 30th, 2005 at 1:37 pm

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“I’m feeling fat… and sassy!”

Teisha - August 30th, 2005 at 5:10 pm

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“Hey! Give credit where credit is due…. Tiamat and Bahamut are Babylonian and Islamic figures, respectively”

I actually knew that; however, we are going as the D&D versions cause we’re gamers ;). That and otherwise it doesn’t make much sense as a couple costume theme. This way he can be LG and I can be LE! MUHAHAHAHA

Btw, love the stick man outfit! That freak’n rulz!

Lily - August 31st, 2005 at 9:14 am

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Okay so this Ubuntu linux is indeed pretty cool. Very easy install process! I haven’t had the guts yet to check and see if all my files are still on my other partition, but everything else was really smooth. Quick and easy update process too. And the best part? It had a really clear process for setting up my wireless card! It’s weird though; it detects my card and I can configure and activate it, but can’t actually connect to anything. Any ideas?

Mallorn - September 4th, 2005 at 5:42 pm

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Well, first off, connect to your wireless router configuration with a wired connection and make sure that it’s configured to accept wireless clients and not closed off (I sometimes close mine to just specific MAC addresses for security reasons, maybe yours is set up more secure by default or Stephen).
Assuming that it’s open to connections, in Ubuntu go to “Network Tools”. See what network devices it lists in the drop-down menu. One of them SHOULD have an IPv4 IP Address listed, if it detects your router and got an address. In any case, you can click “Configure” and see if it’s configured via DHCP (that is, automatically by the router). If it is, next in “Network Tools” go to the tab “Ping” and try to ping your router– usually something like 192.168.0.1 . If it receives a response, you’re connected to the router.

Tell me if that helps, and if not, what the tools tell ya. 🙂

Paradoxdruid - September 4th, 2005 at 6:56 pm

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Ug..I need to pull myself away from my computer 😛

It looks like the problem I’m having is similar to that of several other people on the Ubuntu forums. My wired card works just fine, with and without encryption turned on. Ubuntu recognizes and correctly configures my wireless card (even with encryption although that takes some tweaking). Under “iwconfig”, the wireless card has the MAC address of the router. I think there’s something wrong with DHCP. I can’t get an ip address assigned when using my wireless card and when I run the dhclient command, it doesn’t get any response. This was the most helpful forum I found: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=57210&highlight=wireless+card
That’s what’s happening to me all the way up till the iwlist command — that one works for me.

I suppose I should actually post this on the scary real forums, huh? rather than bugging all of you about it 😉

oh, and the ndiswrapper thing on Ubuntu is way cool!

Okay, time to go shower my stinky self and actually go outside!

Mallorn - September 5th, 2005 at 7:41 am

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