A productive weekend. Forgive typos; on a low-bandwidth link (minime doesn't seem to want to compile on Linux again... grr...)
My new computer unexpectedly showed up on Saturday (wasn't expecting it until mid this week or so; most likely after I went to CA). Wooo hoo!!! It's decked out to the gills (I can't resist the opportunity to list all its power features):
- Pentium III/800mhz. 32k L1, 256K L2.
- 256MB ECC/RDRAM.
- 20GB disk.
- 12x DVD drive (and windoze DVD software).
- 8x/4x/32x CDRW drive.
- 3 button mouse.
- Altec Lansing THX speaker setup. This stuff is amazing -- an approximately 2'-per-side cube subwoofer and 4 speakers. We hooked it up to the VCR on Saturday to watch Episode one -- amazing sound!
- 21" monitor trinitron monitor (19.8" viewable, .25-.26 dpi).
- 32MB DDR nVidia GeForce2 GTS 4x AGP video card (I don't know what most of those letters mean, so I assume it can be directly translated from Ancient Hebrew to "fucking cool").
- Windows 98 (I tried to keep a Windoze partition, but it completely barfed with my network card, so Windoze is gone gone gone... Linux!).
It's fast fast fast. However, I have noticed I/O constraints that are typical on Intel architectures. Oh well -- you can't have everything (where would you put it?). But with the speed of this machine, I'll likely do at least some local development rather than ssh to nd.edu and doing everything from up there.
As practically obligatory, I went out and bought the Matrix DVD to test my DVD drive with. Hopefully, I'll get to test it later today (gotta find some Linux DVD software...).
Other things this weekend, did some "apartment" errands; got me a bookshelf, keyboard tray-thing for my desk, a 4 drawer filing cabinet. Tracy got me a warm fuzzy robe for my birthday (because I really liked the complimentary robe on our cruise); soon enough it will be cool enough to wear it around here. Might as well subscribe to the telecommuting lifestyle, eh?
I should point out that this new 'puter ran rip/encode CDs like nobody's business (and what's what I've had it doing...).