Get your holler on!

Some years ago, my step-dad gave us a ThinkPad 770Z (Pentium II), and I’ve been a ThinkPad convert ever since.  I also have a ThinkPad X-60 (dual core with 12.1″ lcd), which is awesome for regular bike commuting (small, light weight); however, lately I’ve been accessing Windows servers remotely on campus and have had to use Visual Studio for several applications that I’ve been writing, and the 12.1″ lcd just is too small for working in VS.  Also, I wanted something a little bit larger for mobile computing around the house.  After some shopping around on eBay, I found a T30 for super cheap that had Ubuntu Linux installed on it. Although I picked it up for a song, upon receiving the machine, it appeared that the 512 MB of RAM that had been listed in the auction was actually 256 MB.  [Edit: I have since learned that the T30 has a known issue with the motherboard where only one of the DIMM's may be accessed: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=13262].  After cracking open the lid that contains the DIMM’s, I found two sticks of 256.  Sitting on top of the RAM were two half-lengths of popsicle sticks, which were apparently pushing down on the RAM [to fix the motherboard issue linked above, but this solution does not work so well...]; I guess that the pressure of the popsicle sticks pushing down on the RAM modules is somehow supposed to help them engage better.  After readjusting the popsicle sticks, closing the lid and rebooting the machine, I was able to utilize all 512 MB of RAM; now I am finding that I may need to find a better remedy for this issue as the machine now only seems to be utilizing 256 MB of memory and that the other stick is not engaging.  I guess that you never know exactly what you are going to get when you shop on eBay.  Although the machine reeks of stale cigarette smoke, the contact under the ’4′ key does not work very well, and there are a few cracks in the machine’s case, I am pretty happy with this machine.  With a quick rebuild of the OS, I am now running #! (CrunchBang) Linux (8.10.01), which is based on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, and am really enjoying having a dedicated #! machine at my fingertips (other than my work lappie, which I don’t use very often and it runs the same OS).  So far, the machine suits all of my needs and then some.  Simple, sleek, not too big, not too heavy… I’m liking it.  The 14.1″ lcd seems to fit my needs very well.  Plus, it seems to smell less like cigarettes with each passing day. 

All of the hardware seems to be running just fine under #!.  Here are the system specs:

• Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 – M CPU 2.00GHz
• RAM: 256 MB – 512 MB, depending on it’s mood. SODIMM SDRAM
• VGA: ATI Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
• USB Controller: Intel 82801CA/CAM
• Wireless Interface: Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b
• Ethernet Interface: Intel 82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller
• Disk: Toshiba PATA 40 GB
• Audio: Intel 82801CA/CAM AC’97 Audio Controller

Incidentally, I still use the old 770Z quite frequently.  When we go to bed, wifey is often times doing homework, and I’ll be catching up on newsgroups or furthering my knowledge on one thing or another.  DSL (Damn Small Linux – all of 50 MB!) runs quite well on this machine and suits me just fine.