Da-Banana

I now have two computers up and running so naturally I needed a KVM. I looked around, but there are so many and they are all mostly the same. I had previously gotten a Zonet wireless card and loved how nicely it worked in Linux, so I looked at what Zonet had to offer as far as KVMs went. I looked and they had a new KVM model listed and it was listed to support Linux. It was a small sleek design and supports switching between 4 computers. It even has a button for each computer so you can move from one to another directly by hotkey or button. The one problem with it, as some might say, is that the cables are custom. They hook into the KVM using just the 15-pin VGA connector and then branch off at the end to hook up to the computer. I don't have a problem with this, but some people might. I've been using the KVM for over a week now and its working great. So, if you're looking for a great KVM for 4 computers, but don't wanna fork out tons of cash, then look not further. 4-p...

So, I decided to upgrade my video card. My old card was fine, but this card had VIVO and I thought I would be able to use it to do some neat things. The new card is an ATI X800 GTO VIVO built by Sapphire. It is in AGP form and has the R420 chipset. The card is fast, much faster than my previous nvidia Geforce 5900se. I can now play Call of Duty 2 in DirectX9 mode instead of having to bump it down to DX7 to get playable frame rates. The main concern of mine was how this would affect my Linux experience. Seeing as how I'm dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu, I was hoping this card wouldn't cause a problem. Much to my surprise, the card is supported now in Linux very well. ATI has come a long ways in the last several years. It was no trouble at all to get the card up and running with OpenGL support. All in all, the upgrade was quite worth it. Even though my processor is quite behind my video card, it still works fine. I was afraid that the CPU would be to much of a lackluster and not ...

I ordered from Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago a PCI wireless card for my computer. It arrived the day before Thanksgiving so I didn't get a chance to open it until I had gotten back from visiting family. I did a bit of searching to find the one I wanted. I ended up choosing Zonet because they like to use chips that work in Linux. The model is the zew1601 and it is a 54 mbps with WPA2 support. It has the RT2500 chipset and is supposed to work "Out of the Box" on most Linux distributions, specifically Ubuntu. I opened the box and got the card out. Installed it without a problem and hooked it up. Started the computer up into Ubuntu and checked the wireless cards and it was listed. Worked like a charm. Now all I had to do was connect it to the router. The problem is that the router is setup to use WPA. I already knew this though and had a guide ready for setting up the card. I followed it, copying the text into the interfaces file and then had it connect. Unfortunately, it ...

Earlier today I was browsing the web when I saw a deal on OfficeMax chairs. They had one of there Leather EZ chairs marked for a $50 dollar instant savings. I just had to check it out. I'd been planning on getting an office chair so I'd been on the lookout. Could this be the one I was looking for? I wanted something that was comfortable and could tilt back. I didn't think these were to large of requirements. Well, I went to Google Maps and searched for the nearest OfficeMax. I found several and chose the one to drive too. I got there, found the office chair section and began browsing for the one I was looking for. I found one I really like, but it was out of my price range and I knew it the second I saw it. The one I liked next though turned out to be the one from the website I saw. I sat down and it was very comfortable. It also rocked back just how I wanted. I looked around and only one other chair caught my eye. It was the same price, but had a massage built into it. I s...

After 4 years of owning a computer, I purchased a monitor for the first time. I had a decent 19" monitor, but I found a great deal on a widescreen LCD and couldn't pass it up. The monitor is a 15.4 inch widescreen by SOYO and it cost only $78. This isn't by any means the greatest LCD in the world, but for the price its very nice. When it arrived, I couldn't believe how light it was. At first I thought they maybe forgot to put the item in there. It was very easy to setup. The hardest part was removing my old monitor, which weighs over 40 lbs. The downsize in screen wasn't as drastic as I thought it would be. Since its a widescreen it actually is just as wide as my previous monitor. Things were going well with it until I booted my computer into Linux. I run Ubuntu 6.06 on my machine. Its very nice and works with most hardware without a problem. For some reason it didn't want to setup my new monitor correctly. It would work with 1024x768, but at this resolution im...

I saw an article a couple of weeks ago with a link to a video on XGL. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded interesting. I loaded the video and it was a demo showing all the features of XGL. It showed how you could make windows wobble and bounce around. It looked cool so I decided I wanted to try it out for myself on my Ubuntu box. I quick Google search and I found a guide for the install. The first guide I followed had me install Compiz for the window manager. It was nice, but not very customizable, at least not with the setup I had. I then found a another guide using Beryl instead of Compiz. It allowed me to turn on features I liked and turn off others that I didn't. It also allowed me to change the window theme and had plenty of themes to choose from. It also had the ability to turn itself off. My experience with XGL/Beryl has been quite a pleasant one. It was very easy to install, especially if you already have your OpenGL drivers already installed. There are al...