I am just formating the first hard drive as I install Windows XP 64 bit on my homebuilt PC. I used an Asus motherboard, 8 GB of RAM, and an Intel Wolfdale power efficient processor. It has an e-GeForce 8500 video card with 1 TB of RAM. I have a new LG 19" widescreen monitor for this system. The monitor uses 36 watts for power. I also used a Seasonic 500 watt 80+ power efficient power supply. It seems to be working and is fairly quiet. This new homebuilt PC is fairly green in its power efficiency.
I attended a workshop at MIT and spoke about knowledge management. Three learned professors gave me feedback on my presentation. I also heard many presentations on Internet topics and also work related sociology. This included development topics, politics, open source, Wifi, call centres, country comparisons of internet use, and network graphs.
I am wearing black to express mourning for these recent mega-disasters
The multi=platform household is what I have in my home I have two macs running regularly. More and more I have a Debian desktop running. I also have WinXP for some functions. I even have a copy of Win2K around. I would say I am too digital and I do not need all this technology but instead want it. It does help me at school and work though and to some extent with shopping and providing our household with goods and services. I can also justify these computers with the help and aid they allow for community development in at least supporting my volunteering. I am joining some other local activists in a group to discuss using computers in the non-profit sector locally in our city. This meeting is this Tuesday.
The on-line cyborg world used to be many virtual people. People I never met in real life would be supportive and friendly. Now I use facebook daily and it is a network of real life coworkers and past friends. This network still does not include some of my poorer friends but it is a real world network. I wrote an academic paper exploring this hypothesis that the web 2.0 is becoming more real world and less mythical cyberspace.
I decided to use a Blackberry phone. I use it to listen to music so far. I also use the facebook application. I am also using MobiPocket to read a Gutenberg free book. I am reading Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I donated 10 dollars to Project Gutenberg this month.
I provided my public address system to further the cause of proportional representation this evening.
I was able to study on the Sun web site how to change the boot device in Solaris and then logged into this government surplus machine and started to install Solaris 10 on my 40$ Sun Ultra 5 machine. It has a Sun Sparc 400 Mhz processor with 256 MB RAM. But I am going to install another 256 MB of RAM so brought up the swap to 1024 MB in size. The machine has a 20 GB hard drive. It is my first Sun Solaris Machine.