I's gots a new computer.
Thanks to a very generous friend I have a new (to me) computer. Since 2003, I've been tooling around on a grape iMac (the purple makes it go faster) running OS 8.6 (I refused to upgrade to 9.2 due to it being extremely unstable.). Slowly, over time, my internet functions were dwindling. As the technology to make the internet bigger, better and faster grew, my wee iMac was left in the dust. That all changed on Saturday when I picked up my Dual 500 MHz PowerPC G4. My friend quickly gave me a run-down off all the nifty features (which I barely understood) and sent me on my way. My plans that evening kept me from playing with it too much; I pretty much had time to plug it in and turn it on.
When I got home from Liz's party that night (which fucking rocked by the way), I started playing around with it. I became immediately frustrated since I hadn't really had any experience with OS X and there was a lot of stuff that didn't seem very intuitive. I couldn't get the DVD drive to work so I couldn't install AOL or anything else I had on disc. However, I already had plans on Sunday to go see a movie with a friend, then go over to his house and abuse his internet connection (with my airport card) to download various applications, updates and whatnot.
Sunday came quickly and we set plans to see "I Am Legend" a AMC Eastridge. Now I have another reason to continue the self-imposed ban of myself on Eastridge. Since they have a bookstore (Barnes & Noble), Movie Theater, two good restaurants *not* in the food court (Red Robin and Chilli's), and a Bed, Bath and Beyond (shut up).
The movie rocked and I gotta say, Will Smith is H-O-T! Back to my place to grab the computer and a few essentials, then off to his place. It took a while to get the airport working, but once that happened, I was in hog heaven. Downloaded AOL and AIM immediately, then went to the apple site to check for updates. Downloaded those and installed them (went from 10.4.10 to 10.4.11) but I couldn't find a stand alone install of 10.4. I would have no problem borrowing the disc from someone but, oops, the drive doesn't work. So I'm trying to work out a sharing party between me and a friend (we'll see how that goes). Then, my friend suggested that I install an old 8GB drive that he's not using anymore. What? A place to put more pr0n? Cool, slap that puppy in. We spent a good twenty minutes mounting the 8GB drive in the only place we could find; the space above the 150 GB drive. When I turned the computer on, it immediately saw and recognized the drive (Yay!) and I proceeded to wipe it of all things Windoze (break out the holy water) and renamed it to "Old and Busted."
During all of this, I had been chatting intermittedly (over iChat) with the friend that gave me the computer asking him about password settings and a lot of questions starting with "How do you do..." I completely forgot about the Help settings and slowly rediscovered them (you mean help actually helps now?). When I was over at my friend's house, we spent more time chatting and surfing the internet than anything else, so not much else got done (but I had the software I needed).
When I got home that night, I started truly making it my own. I made a new Admin account and deleted the other two accounts that were originally on there. I went through every setting in the system preferences. I renamed the computer from "Boltbucket" to Cerebrate and the original drive to "Spawning Pool" (were you expecting "New Hotness"?). I'm quite proud of the name. I didn't want to copy my college computer name of Babcom and Command and Control (Babylon 5 reference) but I still wanted something geeky. And, as a homage to the friend who gave the thing to me, I wanted to have a Starcraft reference, specifically Zerg (cause they're squishy). I think I achieved that. Thanks again, G-man.
So how am I able to post using the new computer with the modem and DVD drive not working? I found an open wireless network thanks to my airport. I gotta get wireless in here.
And I'm always on the lookout for new hardware (monitors, keyboards, mice, etc.).
When I got home from Liz's party that night (which fucking rocked by the way), I started playing around with it. I became immediately frustrated since I hadn't really had any experience with OS X and there was a lot of stuff that didn't seem very intuitive. I couldn't get the DVD drive to work so I couldn't install AOL or anything else I had on disc. However, I already had plans on Sunday to go see a movie with a friend, then go over to his house and abuse his internet connection (with my airport card) to download various applications, updates and whatnot.
Sunday came quickly and we set plans to see "I Am Legend" a AMC Eastridge. Now I have another reason to continue the self-imposed ban of myself on Eastridge. Since they have a bookstore (Barnes & Noble), Movie Theater, two good restaurants *not* in the food court (Red Robin and Chilli's), and a Bed, Bath and Beyond (shut up).
The movie rocked and I gotta say, Will Smith is H-O-T! Back to my place to grab the computer and a few essentials, then off to his place. It took a while to get the airport working, but once that happened, I was in hog heaven. Downloaded AOL and AIM immediately, then went to the apple site to check for updates. Downloaded those and installed them (went from 10.4.10 to 10.4.11) but I couldn't find a stand alone install of 10.4. I would have no problem borrowing the disc from someone but, oops, the drive doesn't work. So I'm trying to work out a sharing party between me and a friend (we'll see how that goes). Then, my friend suggested that I install an old 8GB drive that he's not using anymore. What? A place to put more pr0n? Cool, slap that puppy in. We spent a good twenty minutes mounting the 8GB drive in the only place we could find; the space above the 150 GB drive. When I turned the computer on, it immediately saw and recognized the drive (Yay!) and I proceeded to wipe it of all things Windoze (break out the holy water) and renamed it to "Old and Busted."
During all of this, I had been chatting intermittedly (over iChat) with the friend that gave me the computer asking him about password settings and a lot of questions starting with "How do you do..." I completely forgot about the Help settings and slowly rediscovered them (you mean help actually helps now?). When I was over at my friend's house, we spent more time chatting and surfing the internet than anything else, so not much else got done (but I had the software I needed).
When I got home that night, I started truly making it my own. I made a new Admin account and deleted the other two accounts that were originally on there. I went through every setting in the system preferences. I renamed the computer from "Boltbucket" to Cerebrate and the original drive to "Spawning Pool" (were you expecting "New Hotness"?). I'm quite proud of the name. I didn't want to copy my college computer name of Babcom and Command and Control (Babylon 5 reference) but I still wanted something geeky. And, as a homage to the friend who gave the thing to me, I wanted to have a Starcraft reference, specifically Zerg (cause they're squishy). I think I achieved that. Thanks again, G-man.
So how am I able to post using the new computer with the modem and DVD drive not working? I found an open wireless network thanks to my airport. I gotta get wireless in here.
And I'm always on the lookout for new hardware (monitors, keyboards, mice, etc.).