Non-Election thread- what do use/want to use you PC(s) for?

[The Straight Story]

I love copmuters, something magical about them to me. I got my first computer when I was 13, a trs-80 model 1, 16K (yes K) of ram, casette drive, and blocky graphics. That was 26 years ago.

I wrote programs on it, a lot of different ones (chess, adventure games, math) some of which I cannot recall. For it's day it filled my needs.

Now I own a few computers:
Sun Enterprise E450, 4 processors, gig ram, 8-18gig HD's, 2-36-gigHD, 21" Sun monitor with color (wow - color! We have come a long way)

Usage: Surf the net, programming (c mainly) generally related to number theory, testing out new script ideas.

Future for the machine: Finish up some oracle stuff on it and make it my main DB for a variety of things. Will continue to use for day to day things (and may partition more deeply if and when I switch from solaris 8 to 10)

Sun Ultra 2, gig ram, 2-36 gig drives, 17" color monitor (and I love sun monitors,crystal clear)

Usage: Testing builds
Future: dedicated to analysis

P650 running windows 2000 server
Usage: currently running apache and holds some old personal data.
future: debian or gentoo linux, maybe even vector linux, dedicated to R&D for linux subjects and coding.

P200, P266, IBM risc systems - all to have vector linux (removing redhat from them and using a stripped down build, may also consider debian instead of vector) and to be used in a variety of things from assembly language to security testing. Broad range of things.

Other Window machine - a 2 gig machine running windows, for the wife.

This list does not include my trs-80 model 3 or model 100, or future systems I will have in house shortly (mainly all suns).

The WHY of this post for me - I read so often about faster systems, latest this that and the other. All fine if you're building a game machine - or something for the business world (where I deal with midrange servers mostly) but most the people I know outside the business (family included) mainly use the PC for word processing, digital imaging, surfing the net, and some generic style games (like solitaire and the like). To me, personally, you can do those things with vector linux running kde or gnome and do it on a p266 or similar machine (in other words, don't toss out a computer to a landfill that is old, they can still be of use to many!).

So have at it DUers! What is your system for, what would you like to use it (them) for - from webhosting to just hanging out here, sound off and have a geeky night discussing the things you love about your system(s).

Mine might be old, no where near what many here might have, but they still bring me happiness and productivity. let's have some fun and de-stress for a thread :)

[dave502d]

1. I built this 2 year ago.

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (IE 6.0 SP1)


Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4HT, 2866 MHz (3.25 x 882)
Motherboard Name Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 1 WiFi, 4 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Canterwood i875P
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (09/24/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 SERIES - Secondary (128 MB)
Video Adapter ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 SERIES (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (R300)
Monitor Sony CPD-E540 (8009458)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative Audigy Platinum Sound Card

Storage:
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive EPSON SP 825 Storage
Disk Drive RAID_Volume1
Optical Drive LITEON DVD-ROM LTD-165P (16x/48x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-832S
Optical Drive SONY iLINK DRIVE IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 70598 MB (53725 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse HID-compliant mouse
Mouse Logitech USB Wheel Mouse

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. We have two

one my hubby uses for internet play, the second, a tablet PC, I am a weriter and I also use it for computer art

[qnr]

3. No idea. I just feel guilty about having it sit idle for hundreds of

millions of cycles, so I do all sorts of weird things, just to keep the electrons from going stir crazy due to boredom.