Jeremy Emberling [Dot] Com

My parents are always trying to get rid of my computers. I have to come up with reasons to keep them all the time. They are all old boxes, except for my main PC. I have always said that old computers still have uses. They can be used for servers, firewalls, and even light desktops using Linux.

One old of my computers is a Compaq Presario with a 400MHz Pentium II with 128mb of RAM. It’s running Ubuntu 5.04, and I use it as a Samba Windows file server. I have a Linksys WRT54G router that is running DD-WRT firmware. I am very happy with my router, but I’ve heard great things about Smoothwall, so I thought I would give it a try.

The computer I wanted to install Smoothwall on is a Compaq Presario with a 95MHz Pentium CPU with 32mb ram. Yeah, doesn’t sound like much, but for a firewall, it is perfect. The hard drive is 6 GB, which more than what is really needed. My Linksys router has 16am RAM, 200mhz CPU, and 4mb flash memory, so it’s not that much of an upgrade. Since this was going to be used as a router, I installed two Ethernet cards, one for the Internet connection, and one for the hub. I got everything put in, burned the install CD, and was ready to install. After I hooked up the computer, I popped in the CD, and turned it on.

Instead of booting from the CD, the computer booted into Windows. I restarted the computer, and pressed the Del, F12, and F1 keys to try to get into the BIOS. It didn’t work. So, I made two floppy boot disks so I could continue. They worked! I was going through the setup screens and then it got to where it was time to configure my network devices. The auto-probe feature failed. I knew then that I was screwed since I had no clue where the two cards came from anyway.

I then went through at least three different distros, but the boot disks were not working and I decided it’s not worth it. I guess it’s time to get all the parts out of the old box and put it in another one. I’ll think of some use for it. There’s always a use for an old computer.

This morning at church, I going to eat a few donuts since I hadn’t ate yet. I saw that someone had put them away, but our class was going to eat at Mc Donald’s anyway, so it was okay. As I was walking toward my class, I was interrupted by Bro. Larry and was instructed to go help Bro. Roger. So, I go over to the computer and he explains to me that he’s been fighting with Media Shout so he could play only one chapter of a DVD. I thought to myself, “Well, there goes my chance of eating any breakfast.”

I am always surprised at how if you know anything about computers, you are being asked to help people all the time. I don’t mind it at all; it’s fun and has its benefits. I don’t know if hardly anyone in the church would know my name if they hadn’t seen me run Media Shout on Sundays. Being a geek is kind of cool, it’s not like it used to be. I’m known as “the hacker” at a school I don’t even go to and people know my name. This may sound stupid, and most likely is, but I find it funny. A year ago I wouldn’t go outside at all. I was in the computer room playing Tribes all day long. If you told me I was going to be doing all that I am now I would have most likely have called you a noob and laughed at you… after you left.

Oh yeah, sorry, I’m still telling a story, aren’t I? Anyway, after playing with it for a few minutes, we got it to work… almost. The video played great, but there was no audio. We checked the volume on both computer and mixer, but still no sound. After seeing this, I decided that I would just make a shortcut on the desktop of the VOB file on the DVD, and open it at the correct time in the service. I made sure to explain to Bro. Larry and Bro. Roger how I was going to do everything so that they would be able to do this in the future.

This is kind of bad since the church paid a great sum of money for the system and it adds a lot to the service. They shouldn’t even have to have me there helping them, everything should be easier than it is. I can’t blame it all on Media Shout; they have a great piece of software.

Not all churches has tech savvy members, heck, I’m not even a member of the church! It’s funny, it’s like I’m some kind of technology boy scout. I love the idea of that! Instead of camp outs, I could have LAN parties, and make promises by saying, “Geek’s Honour!” Most churches do not have thousands of dollars to spend on this equipment, either. I hate to think that a pastor would see all the great things technology offers in churches, then goes through a great deal of trouble to get the funding for it, and then spend even more money on tech support. If I were Media Shout, I would make a deal with a computer manufacturer, and have a church package. It would come with a computer, projector, cables, and Media Shout 3. It would sell like hotcakes, and make tech support way easier for Media Shout since they would know your system setup.

I guess the point to this long entry is just that if you make a product that is targeted to a group of people who most likely aren’t tech savvy, you should make it as easy as possible. Heh, who am I kidding? I don’t want it all to work perfectly, what would I do if it did? Sure, everything would run smoother, but where is the fun in that?