So, this page is very out of date now. I bought the Jeep, have a different laptop (since I left my job), and have entirely different sets of toys now. At the same time, the initial excitement has worn off, and now this page just seems embarrasingly silly. In light of this, instead of updating it, I'm going to unlink it, which means that probably few, if any, will ever see it again.
So, as I was saying, I've been acquiringlots of toys lately, either from work or by myself.
In the summer of 1998, I finally broke down and bought myself a spiffy new laptop computer:
I had been saving for this computer for about 10 years, (little things like MIT kept interfering), and I was pretty darned excited about it. The funny thing is that shortly after getting it, I switched jobs, and my new job bought me a different spiffy new laptop.
Spring 2000. The ``Honking Brick'' died, twice, and since there are only like 3 of them left in the company, and it's leased, when I called IT they said ``you want it fixed or replaced?'' and I said ``whatever's easier for you.''. I guess that they appreciate such responses, cause the new machine is pretty nice:
So, now I've replaced the PowerBook 520 with a PII 266, and then replaced the PII 266 with a PII 300, and then replaced the PII 300 with a PIII 500. Not bad. What really scares me is that not only is this laptop basically double the `specs' of my previous laptop, it's significantly better than my current desktop. Whee.
...and it's still like half as heavy of the Inspiron 7k. Hard to complain about stuff like that, isn't it? :-)
So, one of my friends recently pointed out to me that I'd been canonized. It's good to know that hard work and dedication can pay off, but I thought that I'd have to die first. Ah, well. Anyway, I've been adding to my PDA collection, which now includes 2 Newton MessagePads, a Franklin REX, a Palm V with wireless modem (review: quite nice, but you really, really want more than 2M or memory for it), and a HandSpring Visor. I've been using the palmV instead of the Visor to try out the wireless service, but I recently picked up the Stowaway keyboard for the Visor and I'm planning on switching to it. I'm also hoping that Xircom will hurry up and get me network for the Visor.
In addition to all of this pda hullaballoo, I've also recently replaced my broken Rio PMP 300 with an RCA Lyra and a Rio PMP 500. I intended to try out the Lyra, and decided to return it (POS doesn't really play MP3's -- it plays `encrypted MPX files', which is useless), but I lost the reciept. I'm using it's CF card in the z50 instead, so it's not a total loss, but it's still annoying.) The Rio500 is quite nice, and I'm very happy with it, except that now that I have a 64M SmartMedia memory card for it, they're telling me that the 64M cards are not yet supported. Bastards.
My other recent toy acquisitions, somewhat less computer-related, include:
a set of LEGO Mindstorms (in case you didn't know, LEGOs are the best toys ever)
an IBM workpad z50. It's a keyboarded WinCE machine, but I'm working on NetBSD for it, and it looks promising as an ultralight notebook.
Wireless networking. I am now the enthusiastic owner of an Apple AirPort wireless `hub' and a couple Lucent Wavelan (I mean, ORINOCO) network cards. The whole thing works pretty well in the laptops and the z50, although the NetBSD driver for the z50 sometimes crashes the machine, I hear.
Jeep! I'm about to buy a car. More specifically, a Jeep. To `try it out', I'm currently renting a Jeep Wrangler, and enjoying it thoroughly. Unfortunately, the fabulous Boston Weather hasn't been cooperating much, so I've only had the top down once.