Hello again, [H] Worklogs! It's been too long, way too long...
I started a worklog a few months back, and before I could get going I lost interest and now the log is gone. However... I'm doing a complete re-imagining of the object of that worklog, and I have grand plans and a tentative schedule worked out.
I'm talking, of course, of my long-running (but currently on hiatus) shitbox mod, Paper Tiger.
Yes, Virginia, there will be a Paper Tiger 2!!
First, however, the requisite trip down Memory Lane...
The original Paper Tiger, thrown together from scrap around the house, was a Socket 7 system that ran a copy of SuSE 7 Pro that a college prof gave to me because it was wasting space in his office. It didn't last very long...
A few days later, it looked like this. Not much improved, IIRC.
A few motherboards --and other config changes later-- I had a system with a Socket 462/A system (Athlon XP -- remember those? ) with a gig and a half of RAM. The hard drive wasn't very spacious, tho -- a 20gb Seagate out of a beige Dell. These photos were taken by my father at his house. His wife --my stepmother-- stepped in the room for a while and remarked that, given the appearance and the fact that it actually ran, it scared her a little. Heh heh...
...and the final configuration, as of Sept 2012, shortly before I started tearing it apart.
The NEW Paper Tiger has only just begun... here are the specs of the new system...
Commell LE-370Z Motherboard
Integrated Celeron M ULV 600MHz (!) CPU (soldered down; I'd upgrade if I could!)
Intel 852GM / ICH4 chipset
1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (1x1024, running at PC2100 speeds because that's all the board will do)
ATi RADEON 7000 PCI graphics card (no, not PCIe -- 32b PCI) on proprietary riser card
40GB Toshiba MK40GAS notebook IDE hard drive (pull from a laptop that got a bigger drive)
Onboard power connectors (12v barrel jack input, P4 power input, Berg [floppy drive] power output)
Single combined PS/2 port (plus splitter dongle)
2x USB2 ports
RJ45 LAN port
Mobo onboard VGA (useless -- there's something weird about it, that makes it not want to work with a regular monitor)
DB9M COM Port
Headphone Jack
PCI Card VGA Port
...and the OS will be some flavor of Puppy Linux with a 3.x.x kernel, because that's the only versions of Puppy that are compatible. I might try out the new Upup Precise 3.9.9...
So today, I figured out the new look (and it is different) and started work. I cut up some wood, drilled holes where they needed to be, and applied some clearcoat (Krylon's finest ). Another coat will be sprayed on tonight before bed. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get some plastic cut up and drilled (tomorrow will be a busy day for other reasons). If there's time, I"ll also put a tail on a switch and figure out how I want to attach it. Saturday is probably when final assembly will likely happen, along with OS installation.
Here's a pic of where things stand now... first coat of of Krylon curing on the wood, on my dirty-ass porch that hasn't been cleaned up and swept in far, far too long
More to come, late tomorrow evening
I started a worklog a few months back, and before I could get going I lost interest and now the log is gone. However... I'm doing a complete re-imagining of the object of that worklog, and I have grand plans and a tentative schedule worked out.
I'm talking, of course, of my long-running (but currently on hiatus) shitbox mod, Paper Tiger.
Yes, Virginia, there will be a Paper Tiger 2!!
First, however, the requisite trip down Memory Lane...
The original Paper Tiger, thrown together from scrap around the house, was a Socket 7 system that ran a copy of SuSE 7 Pro that a college prof gave to me because it was wasting space in his office. It didn't last very long...
A few days later, it looked like this. Not much improved, IIRC.
A few motherboards --and other config changes later-- I had a system with a Socket 462/A system (Athlon XP -- remember those? ) with a gig and a half of RAM. The hard drive wasn't very spacious, tho -- a 20gb Seagate out of a beige Dell. These photos were taken by my father at his house. His wife --my stepmother-- stepped in the room for a while and remarked that, given the appearance and the fact that it actually ran, it scared her a little. Heh heh...
...and the final configuration, as of Sept 2012, shortly before I started tearing it apart.
The NEW Paper Tiger has only just begun... here are the specs of the new system...
Commell LE-370Z Motherboard
Integrated Celeron M ULV 600MHz (!) CPU (soldered down; I'd upgrade if I could!)
Intel 852GM / ICH4 chipset
1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (1x1024, running at PC2100 speeds because that's all the board will do)
ATi RADEON 7000 PCI graphics card (no, not PCIe -- 32b PCI) on proprietary riser card
40GB Toshiba MK40GAS notebook IDE hard drive (pull from a laptop that got a bigger drive)
Onboard power connectors (12v barrel jack input, P4 power input, Berg [floppy drive] power output)
Single combined PS/2 port (plus splitter dongle)
2x USB2 ports
RJ45 LAN port
Mobo onboard VGA (useless -- there's something weird about it, that makes it not want to work with a regular monitor)
DB9M COM Port
Headphone Jack
PCI Card VGA Port
...and the OS will be some flavor of Puppy Linux with a 3.x.x kernel, because that's the only versions of Puppy that are compatible. I might try out the new Upup Precise 3.9.9...
So today, I figured out the new look (and it is different) and started work. I cut up some wood, drilled holes where they needed to be, and applied some clearcoat (Krylon's finest ). Another coat will be sprayed on tonight before bed. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get some plastic cut up and drilled (tomorrow will be a busy day for other reasons). If there's time, I"ll also put a tail on a switch and figure out how I want to attach it. Saturday is probably when final assembly will likely happen, along with OS installation.
Here's a pic of where things stand now... first coat of of Krylon curing on the wood, on my dirty-ass porch that hasn't been cleaned up and swept in far, far too long
More to come, late tomorrow evening