My world

As an intro, I thought I'd write about the computers I own.

I have an old Athlon 1Ghz with 256M/80G. Basic workhorse with WinXP and Office (for CV-writing, working from home, etc). The monitor's a nice 19" Dell flatscreen. My advice to anyone buying a new computer: forget Ghz, get a great screen.

I have my Powerbook 15" G4 1.25Ghz, 512M/80G. This is my main computer - MacOSX 10.3 is a fine OS.

I have a more recent Mac Mini G4 1.4Ghz, 512M/80G. I'm using this as a home server, running MacOSX 10.3 (not OSX Server).

The mini serves files and I'm currently working on an installation of Plone/Zope to unify my address books and diaries. I could use Open-Groupware.org but it seemed much more limited, even though plone doesn't fully replace a groupware server.

The mini also serves as video-conferencing using AIM and iChat. It's interesting that there are no real cheap webcam options for Mac - I'm using my camcorder instead. This is a little annoying tho' because the Mac doesn't see the mic on this as a proper audio input device, so other VoIP applications won't use it (particularly Skype, as a friend uses this a lot).

All this runs over an 802.11g network. The positioning of my PC (upstairs) and the wireless access point means that with the belkin card I bought, it has to signal through the floor/ceiling and a chimney breast, i.e. no signal. Interesting that these cards come with an aerial in the back, which in a home you then shove up to the wall, probably in a corner. So I had to buy a separate aerial on a wire so I could move it to a better position.

Printing, I have an epson RX600. One minor gripe is that I haven't got a proper network solution for it. The 802.11g print servers are way expensive given that I'd have to walk upstairs to turn it on anyway. Not sure how to deal with this. Wonder if Epson do a plug-in network adapter which will do WoL... For now I just walk upstairs and plug in the USB cable.