One of the donations at work today consisted of a few Synoptics hubs. I don't remember exactly which models, but the donation immediately brought to mind the Synoptics 16-port Lattishub 2803 that I bought at the University of Waterloo surplus sale for $3.00. I actually bought 2, but one was problematic.
My Synoptics hub has been put to use under Titan, my main desktop workstation; the hub keeps the tower off the carpet -- in other words it's not really in use.
I decided to do a little investigation and discovered that the Synoptics hubs have a few problems. Apparently they don't like BOOTP much. Microsoft encourages Synoptics owners to upgrade the firmware on the hub, and to use TFTP.
Surprisingly, I couldn't find a Synoptics, or Bay Networks, apparently a newer name, on Google. Everything I read leaves me to believe that they were swallowed by Nortel. If you know, I'd like to know.
Resources:
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Inkscape inspiration
Inkscape is one of those open source programs that is a must have if you do any kind of publicity.
Inkscape is a .svg vector art program that lets you do some pretty dynamic graphics - even if you don't have a lot of drawing skill. The computers, clouds, everything except the Working Centre logo were all created for this image in roughly 1/2 hour.
Of course, Inkscape is open source!
References:
Inkscape is a .svg vector art program that lets you do some pretty dynamic graphics - even if you don't have a lot of drawing skill. The computers, clouds, everything except the Working Centre logo were all created for this image in roughly 1/2 hour.
Of course, Inkscape is open source!
References:
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Getting more work done at work!
Do you ever get stuck on something at work and wish you had access to your machine at home? I do, so I did something about it, I opened a SSH (Secure Shell) port on my Sparcstation 5 so I could log in securely.
At work we primarily use Windows, though we do have quite a few Linux boxes. For reasons of support and compatibility I've been told to stick with Windows on my primary box. (Which also shares (samba anyone) a printer). Eventually I probably will move to an all Linux box, but I have to prove it can be completely compatible, and I'm busy enough with other details to get everything working.
It may seem useless to have a shell at work, but if you can't install software at work, or need to use software like figlet, a program that creates neat ascii fonts, SSH comes in real handy.
Resources:
At work we primarily use Windows, though we do have quite a few Linux boxes. For reasons of support and compatibility I've been told to stick with Windows on my primary box. (Which also shares (samba anyone) a printer). Eventually I probably will move to an all Linux box, but I have to prove it can be completely compatible, and I'm busy enough with other details to get everything working.
It may seem useless to have a shell at work, but if you can't install software at work, or need to use software like figlet, a program that creates neat ascii fonts, SSH comes in real handy.
Resources:
Monday, October 31, 2005
Shedding a little light on the Sparcstation 5
With the arrival of the remote control for my Sun GDM20D10 monitor I decided that it was about time I posted an actual picture of my Sparcstation 5. (The Solaris screen in the previous post is from my monitor)
There are actually 2 machines in this photograph. On the bottom is a currently inactive Sparcstation 1. The Sparcstation 1 is due for an upgrade, from a 250MB hard drive to a 2.1GB hard drive, but I haven't bothered because I don't have enough power outlets to run it, so there's no point at the moment. On top is Dione my Sparcstation 5. Dione has the following specs:
224MB RAM
9.1GB 10,000 RPM SCA SCSI Hard Drive
10/100MB/s Hme NIC
10MB/s Lance onboard NIC
Sun GDM20D10 Monitor with remote
External TDC SCSI Tape Drive (2GB)
External 12x Lacie CD-ROM
External TDC 10GB Raid Array (4 drives)
There are actually 2 machines in this photograph. On the bottom is a currently inactive Sparcstation 1. The Sparcstation 1 is due for an upgrade, from a 250MB hard drive to a 2.1GB hard drive, but I haven't bothered because I don't have enough power outlets to run it, so there's no point at the moment. On top is Dione my Sparcstation 5. Dione has the following specs:
224MB RAM
9.1GB 10,000 RPM SCA SCSI Hard Drive
10/100MB/s Hme NIC
10MB/s Lance onboard NIC
Sun GDM20D10 Monitor with remote
External TDC SCSI Tape Drive (2GB)
External 12x Lacie CD-ROM
External TDC 10GB Raid Array (4 drives)
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Slowlaris 9 on the Sparcstation 5
Alright, I realize it isn't fair to be slogging Solaris 9 as slow on a 110MHz machine, but Sun's Solaris 9 operating system is very slow on my Sun Sparcstation 5 (SS5), even with 224MB (almost the maximum) RAM. If you're thinking about trying Solaris 9 on your SS5, think of it like you would trying to run Windows XP on a Celeron 433MHz machine with 128MB RAM, it will run, but not well.
The Solaris web startup is really quite nice, and I would imagine on a Sun Blade it would rock, but not on this machine.
Installing Solaris took the better part of an evening. There was a lot of data, and transfer was slow on the 12x CDROM. Once installed, I played with CDE (Common Desktop Environment) for 20 minutes or so before I realized that I would just prefer the text interface of Debian GNU/Linux, and all the software that comes with it. Solaris is pretty, just don't try running CDE on a SS5.
Currently Sun is touting Solaris 10. You can get version 9 and earlier versions by following the Solaris link in the resources, Choosing Downloads from the top navigation menu, selecting see all, Operating Systems, and Solaris Operating Systems.
Resources
The Solaris web startup is really quite nice, and I would imagine on a Sun Blade it would rock, but not on this machine.
Installing Solaris took the better part of an evening. There was a lot of data, and transfer was slow on the 12x CDROM. Once installed, I played with CDE (Common Desktop Environment) for 20 minutes or so before I realized that I would just prefer the text interface of Debian GNU/Linux, and all the software that comes with it. Solaris is pretty, just don't try running CDE on a SS5.
Currently Sun is touting Solaris 10. You can get version 9 and earlier versions by following the Solaris link in the resources, Choosing Downloads from the top navigation menu, selecting see all, Operating Systems, and Solaris Operating Systems.
Resources
The mysterious SCSI tape drive.
The old man stumbled down the dark ally ho bbling along on a crooked cane. Oh, wait, that's another mystery. The mystery I want to address is an external tape drive I have. I've been told the drive uses 2GB tapes, but that's about as much information as I was given.
Armed with Google and Ebay I set out to find out more about the mysterious SCSI drive whose only identifying marking was a pen-scribbled TDC Model C1536. Scouring google turned up nothing for the complete result, but I found quite a few interesting matches on "C1536" which, although they were for internal tape drives, seemed to confirm that the drive takes 2/4GB DDS/DAT tapes. The sites also confirmed the drive is SCSI-2 (Fast).
Digging a bit deeper I discovered that the company that makes the drives is indeed alive and well, thriving in fact, but they've long dropped supporting the TDC Model C1536. In fact there seems to be no mention of it anywhere, which is one of the reasons for this post: if you own one of these drives, you'll probably want to stick around for future posts concerning the drive and any success with backups and tapes. Oh yeah, the company is now called Tandberg Data. I would imaging the C in TDC was Corporation. They seem to be thriving as a backup solution provider to the high end market. At the low end, well, there's this blog to start. Unfortunately there seems to be little other information unless you consider this drive and the similar internal Compaq/HP drives to be the same beast. More on the mystery drive in another post.
Resources:
Armed with Google and Ebay I set out to find out more about the mysterious SCSI drive whose only identifying marking was a pen-scribbled TDC Model C1536. Scouring google turned up nothing for the complete result, but I found quite a few interesting matches on "C1536" which, although they were for internal tape drives, seemed to confirm that the drive takes 2/4GB DDS/DAT tapes. The sites also confirmed the drive is SCSI-2 (Fast).
Digging a bit deeper I discovered that the company that makes the drives is indeed alive and well, thriving in fact, but they've long dropped supporting the TDC Model C1536. In fact there seems to be no mention of it anywhere, which is one of the reasons for this post: if you own one of these drives, you'll probably want to stick around for future posts concerning the drive and any success with backups and tapes. Oh yeah, the company is now called Tandberg Data. I would imaging the C in TDC was Corporation. They seem to be thriving as a backup solution provider to the high end market. At the low end, well, there's this blog to start. Unfortunately there seems to be little other information unless you consider this drive and the similar internal Compaq/HP drives to be the same beast. More on the mystery drive in another post.
Resources:
- Tandberg Data
- Emag Solutions - tape solutions
- Google Canada
- Ebay Canada
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