Random Thoughts from the Electron Frog

Linux for all!!!

Alpha — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:14:25 +0000

I’ve been playing around with the new version of Ubuntu Linux named Gutsy. I can’t get over how nicely it installs and how smooth everything works. No more compiling source code to install applications. There is a large repository of precompiled binaries that have been packaged to work on Ubuntu Gutsy and there is a very nice package manager that is installed by default with the OS. Ubuntu’s mantra is “Linux for human beings”, and I think they live up to it. Besides the fact that the entire OS and all the apps are free, easy to install (easier than any version of windows I’ve ever installed anyways), and the entire Ubuntu community who can provide support, the coolest thing about the OS is Compiz Fusion. Compiz Fusion is a compositing window manager that comes preinstalled with ubuntu. It comes preinstalled with a bunch of plug-ins and there are a bunch more out there for you to play around with. All you have to have is a video card that is capable of running it. Don’t worry, it’ll run on pretty much any video card that has 3D acceleration, its much less stringent than the Vista Aero requirements.

Here are some screenshots from Ubuntu Gutsy with Compiz Fusion running:

Laptops for all!

Omega — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:26:01 +0000

I’ve been trying to keep relatively up-to-date with the progress of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for a while now, and they have recently announced an incentive to donate. To help production get started they are offering participants their own XO laptop to give to a child in their own lives when they buy an XO laptop for a child in a developing country. Prices are expected to drop as production ramps up, but this offer is only available until the 26th of November. Check it out!

Give One Get One
Main OLPC Site

Neat power supply

Omega — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:18:19 +0000

As I was researching the possibility of replacing my Antec NSK1300’s power supply I came across one of the most interesting power supplies I have seen yet.

Pico Power Supply

It’s an itty-bitty power supply that is built directly onto the motherboard connector. It’s fanless and 96% efficient, but it does have a couple of downsides. One issue is that it runs on 12v, which is fine for car operation but it means that in the house you’ll need to use a little adapter outside of the computer. The larger downside, though, is that it is only 120 watts, which is insufficient for anything but very small, low power machines. The same website sells small 200 watt power supplies which would probably be able to support a microATX computer assuming the builder pays plenty of attention to using low power parts.

So, unfortunately, I don’t think any of those tiny power supplies would be a good replacement for my 300 watt Antec supply right now, but hopefully in the future they will offer a higher power version. Even a PSU that is 1/3 to 1/2 the size of a normal uATX would be a great savings in space. In the meantime if you’re looking to build a mini-ITX or other very small PC I’m sure it would be a very good supply to look into. If you do build such a machine let us know how it goes, or write a review on the wiki!

Updates - Long Overdue

Omega — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:16:46 +0000

I’ve been incredibly busy lately, so I haven’t had much time to work on the wiki. I spent about half an hour just cleaning up spam pages on the wiki due to some company in Malaysia that cheats in WOW for you. It’s unfortunate that people have tried to take advantage of the openness of the wiki, but I have not added any restrictions except to block the IP addresses that the company used.

As soon as I have more time available I will resume adding to the site. I’ve been trying to delay buying a new computer to wait for a price drop. When I do get started I’ll certainly be posting my progress.

uATX Case

Omega — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:42:24 +0000

I received my micro-ATX case (Antec NSK 1300) yesterday and assembled it. I took a bunch of pictures of the process and will have a review up soon.

oh, and Electron Frog… wtf?

=======o (e-)

The Electron Frog — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:17:21 +0000

My frog tongue brings all the electrons to the yard

and they’re like, it’s better than yours

damn right, it’s better than yours

I could eat you, but I’d have a charge

New case, future computer upgrade

Omega — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:32:10 +0000

I just ordered a new computer case to put my aging micro-ATX computer into. I ordered an Antec 1300 cube case to cut down on size and noise, we’ll see how it does. It was about $85 from zipzoomfly.com. When I get the case in I’ll be sure to document the experience and report what I discover about the case and the retailer.

This case is the beginning of my gradual computer upgrade. The next step will probably be to buy a 500 gig SATAII HDD and throw it onto my current computer. The last step is sort of an all-or-nothing thing; I’ll have to buy a motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card all at once because none of them will be very useful on their own. (I could get by with the onboard video on the new mobo for a bit if I think video card prices are going to go down shortly, but it’ll get tiresome pretty fast.) I might decide to buy another 2gb of RAM later on, but I think the computer will run just fine with the first 2gb until RAM prices drop more. (DDR3 RAM is starting to come out, as it gets to be more reasonably priced high-end DDR2 RAM will come down in price too. Plus, the mobo I plan to buy has support for DDR3 RAM.)

Site upgrade complete

Omega — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:04:21 +0000

After quite a bit of work the team has been able to finish up upgrading the wiki to the most recent version of MediaWiki. The domain links directly to the new wiki now, but you may have to refresh the page to get it to show up the first time.

The wiki looks best in Firefox or IE7, there are some known issues with previous versions of IE. Let us know if you have any other problems.

Wiki

Omega — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:44:04 +0000

Both domains now link directly to the wiki’s main page. A good amount of information for beginning computer builders has already been written and is available. Also, we have gotten the site ready for ads and can now start trying to make up our hosting costs.

There are still a number of important pages we need written, any green link is a page we plan to have that hasn’t been created yet. Access for creating and editing pages is still almost unrestricted, you don’t even have to sign up to work on articles.

We now have a Wikipedia page! Hopefully this will help get our site increased search engine hits and draw people to the site.

New Computer

Alpha — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:54:19 +0000

I was able to convince that stingy Electron Frog to fund a new computer for me, I’ve already received the parts and will be putting it together over the weekend. I will be posting the review of the entire experience on the wiki soon. Just as a preview the computer is a E6600 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with a nvidia 680i SLI motherboard.