Thread: Need a New Computer

Tweet

Originally Posted by IC2

I can do that - will it fit on a single CD? Or do I need a DVD?

(I've had no problems so far today - maybe the Advanced Windows Care "fixed" my problems as everything seems to be running much faster - no lag on anything)

fits on 1 single CD.. would also be great to have on hand in case your windows OS goes corrupt somehow, it's a live cd so it would also be useful for recovering your files, if you ever needed too. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Originally Posted by Matt167

fits on 1 single CD.. would also be great to have on hand in case your windows OS goes corrupt somehow, it's a live cd so it would also be useful for recovering your files, if you ever needed too. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Got it, thanks

The first try and download location, Gigabyte, came up with 4 hours and 45 minutes !! Had to reboot to dump the minute or so and start over with a new location - MIT - which was ~11 minutes. They do warn of this

Yea.. Ubuntu 8.04 was just released a couple weeks or so ago, so there still a load on some of the mirrors from people wanting to get it... I think I used MIT's mirrior also when I downloaded. took me like 30 mins to get it using the Road Runner at my other house

And now I need to get my brain examined.. For whatever reason I decided to install PC Linux OS 2007, 1 of the distros that I downloaded to try ( there live CD's ) I had an empty partition that I don't use so I figured I'd split the 50 gb partition in half.. PC Linux install ran me through a lot of crap and I could not use that partition because it confused the installer ( NTFS w/ no windows on it, it was looking for windows ) so I just decided to shrink my windows partition in half, did that and followed the instructions, but for some reason I didn't realise it would overwrite my /home partition with it's own /home partition.. now Ubuntu is corrupt because it dosn't have any configuration information.. and PC Linux ended up on a small 7 GB partition, but it is running good.. At least I have the 8.04 version of Ubuntu now to put on, and Ubuntu does not require a seperate /home partition even tho it's reccomended as the /home holds the configuration files and would be on the main partition otherwise. so I won't have to worry about my configuration files for 3 years because 8.04 is a Long Term Service version.

Dude,

Just leave that crap alone. You have bigger fish to fry than that. I've been running PC's and MACs since '83 and I've never owned one that did not run 5 years at least with no problem. Linux is for BINARS who just have no life .......

Kitz

Originally Posted by kitz

Dude,

Just leave that crap alone. You have bigger fish to fry than that. I've been running PC's and MACs since '83 and I've never owned one that did not run 5 years at least with no problem. Linux is for BINARS who just have no life .......

Kitz

This computer was running for 4 years w/ windows, then the hard drive went out and I installed a larger drive and split it for Ubuntu and Windows. originally I figured I wouldn't really like Linux but just wanted to try it anyway, to my supprise it is much better than XP, more customizable. I installed the KDE because it looks more like Windows and I was used to that.

BTW, Mac is Unix/ Linux.. Even Microsoft has there hands in Linux/ Unix with Novell.

Originally Posted by DennyW

I just didn't have the heart to say that, he is trying so hard... I'm no expert at all, but, hey, these new operating systems are fine. You just have to control certain things, as I see it.

When I installed PC Linux 2007, everything worked... If I didn't accidently screw up on PC Linux install, I would still be operating Ubuntu off my hard drive.. I'm installing 8.04 right now, but running the live cd to use the internet.. ( try that 1 with Windows installation )

Well, the situation has to do with the fact that if you need more computational speed the only real way these days is to go parallel and that means that most of the parallel software is for LINUX of one sort or another. I am on the Beowulf site but I only understand some of it while learning from longtime parallel-LINUX users in what is called "HPC or High Performance Computing". Now it is interesting that Microsoft is trying to develop a version of Windows for HPC but most of the HPC folks are skeptical and so far there is no competitive version of Windows for HPC. On the one hand I would not count out Microsoft so maybe Matt is messing with the tip of a new development by installing Windows Linux, BUT (!) there are a LOT of research groups who have big bucks invested in HPC Linux based mostly on some version of Redhat Linux. The interesting thing is that it is a lot like rodding in that there are general areas of agreement but every parallel system is slightly different and some of these clusters involve hundreds or thousands of special PC motherboards with fast duo or quad CPUs on them! So far my experience in setting up four motherboards with duocores for a small cluster of 8 CPU cores has been fraught with minor problems such as a bad memory stick and a burned out power supply but I hope to get it working soon by using the CENTOS version of Redhat because that is what my former university employer uses and I can get assistance from university systems folks. So far I have about $2000 in my small parallel system and I am learning a lot; I am especially learning that I have a lot to learn! We had to switch the video card because only some video cards are compatible with LINUX and there are other tricky things to learn and yet so far I have put four PC boxes together (several times with upgrades) and I am impressed with how much standardization there is in the hardware but the software is another situation with incredible variation. Maybe (?) Microsoft will come up with a HPC form of Windows for parallel systems but so far it looks like their initial efforts fall short of the well developed Redhat systems. It may be like the situation I recall in 1953 or 1954 when the Top Eliminator National Champion was powered by a Ford flathead using well developed clutch technology and finely tuned experience in how to get the best from a flathead but you know darn well the OHV Chrysler hemis were just around the corner once folks learned how to make them run, so maybe Microsoft HPC Windows v2.0 or V3.0 will overtake the Redhat folks?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

DennyW, basically that is why I am messing around with the cluster, to learn. Let me clarify "parallel" a little. It is true that the gamers and video displays are able to run parallel for graphics and in fact some people are trying to use this parallel graphics hardware to do computation. From my background (as a numbers guy), I regard graphics as secondary, something you do after you crunch a lot of numbers while the gamers want ever better and faster hi-res graphics. I am referring to HPC type number crunching to solve scientific and engineering problems. It does appear that special hardware for fast high resolution graphics is actually faster than some general purpose programmable parallel clusters and so some people are very interested in adapting the graphics cards to do fast computation. After all, those perspective images surely involve a LOT of sin(x) and cos(x) evaluations and those are special floating-point decimal reoutines; not trivial. However, I am not aware of any successful adaptation of the special graphics cards (which are faster) to general programmable problems but maybe someone will learn how to adapt them. In the mean time it looks like the HPC community (Beowulf developers) has worked out a way to obtain high speed computation by coupling a LOT of small CPUs in parallel. Need more speed, add more CPU.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by DennyW

All I can say Don, is my son, on his windows system, running PCI-express, Pentium 4, dual core, 3.46 ghz, is running parallel video cards, together, with 12 pipelines each. Set up for gaming. The one card does all the upper half, and the other, does the bottom half. 800 on the front side buss. Never gets a glitch, and zero lag now.

I don't know anything about red hat, but I have read up on it a few years back, and to me, that is a techs project. It was hard enough for me, just starting out, trying to learn the systems, and how they all clicked together, so I never took it any further. I'm at the stage now, where I try things out, and have a better understanding of what's going on. All it takes is buying the right parts that work well together.

Denny, download a copy of Mandravia or PC Linux os and run the Live CD of ither, there both beginner/ newbie linux distros. anyone just starting in linux jumping right into Redhat you'll get confused quickly.

I figured since no one has posted on this thread for months that I could resurrect it to re-ask a question that I didn't take any action on (sorry Denny and others )

I still need some design software and have found Turbocad Deluxe V14 for less then $20, delivered, on Amazon.

Anyone have comment on how good this is for a rank amateur? Easily learned??

Originally Posted by DennyW

Don, I have several cad programs. A few, I am still learning.... If you want a nice simple one, where you can even set the grid size for quick drawings, Deltacad is a very user friendly program. I use that one for quick drawings sometimes. The newest version is version 6. I believe it's like 40.00. I use an older version 3.1, because it works very quickly, and practically no learning curve at all. They do have a demo you can download and try it out. There are so many types of cad programs, it really depends on what you want it to do, and how you want the drawings to show up.

http://www.deltacad.com/

ps: Also if you want it to scale, don't forget to get the desk top ruler, it's free, and they also have a degree ruler.

This one looks a lot simpler then TurboCad for a newbie. Amazon has what looks like an earlier version available for about $18 with shipping vs the new 6.0 @$40. I wonder how much is different. Regardless, I wouldn't get that one (3.??)that may no longer be supported by the supplier for the extra bucks.

Another thought - I downloaded XP2's Service Pack 3 ~3-4 weeks ago. A bad idea with an AMD processor I found afterwards. It will occasionally stall the computer or make the cursor jump instead of moving smoothly. I did some research and it is a glitch in the MS programming that until today has not been corrected

Dave

I used Turbocad years ago and thought it to be a pretty easy program to learn and use (that's saying something for me ). I used it to design my deck and it worked out great.
Like I said, that was years ago, so I would think the new versions would be even better than the ones I used.

I found a 'deal' on Turbocad Deluxe V14 that included the 528 page ref manual and two tutorial discs (sorry Denny - I tried but $19 vs $40 was too much). Unfortunately, I can't load it until next week. Another CD/DVD burner died, according to the event recorder, on 27 Nov - at the exact(??) same time we had a power blip and the super duper surge arrestor didn't catch and am waiting for a replacement. That's one mid range LG and one Lite-On this year Now - I have to try to learn some of the basics - there is a LOT of power in that program.

I have my Turbocad - and am "playing" with it but have had little personal time for much actual 'training' myself yet. I find so far it is fairly powerful but not overwhelming (yeah sure)

New question - a Xmas present to ourselves - an inexpensive ($221) Dell auction Latitude D600 laptop to travel with us - question, what do I need to have to use it occasionally instead of the desktop unit on line - cable, that is one or the other but not both at the same time. Doing a web search has confused me - again