This replaces a generic Compaq keyboard, which dates back to the earliest days of Fozzie (1999!). In addition to just being generally old, the keys were starting to lose responsiveness. I think it’s understandable that it started to die after almost 10 years of use.

This keyboard marks one of the last components of Waldorf that can be upgraded without a major renovation — everything else is tied to the motherboard in one way or another. This computer was originally built from parts cycled out of Fozzie, and I have been systematically upgrading all of the individually replaceable parts ever since. Now we’re at the point where the next step will be to renovate the remaining parts of the computer — motherboard, CPU, PSU, case, video card, and memory.

So, we quickly replaced it with a Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000, which seems to be working great. Goes to show that even companies with good histories can make mistakes!

It’s corded, because this computer doesn’t really require a wireless mouse & keyboard. I was surprised when we went to a certain big-box retailer, and there only 2 corded mice, and 1 corded (no-name brand) keyboard. I didn’t realized wireless had become so pervasive (although I do love the wireless sets on Fozzie and Clementine, but Waldorf just didn’t need one).

Luckily, one of the two corded mice was this Logitech LX3 model, which is very similar to the mouse that’s part of my highly-recommended wireless set — the Logitech LX7 — except it’s a) corded and b) optical in stead of laser. Great high-quality mouse.

Waldorf is currently my mother’s computer, although I still consider it part of my “family” of computers. When I first built Waldorf, I built it entirely out of used parts, and intended for it to be a secondary computer to Fozzie. Fozzie is still my primary computer, but now that Waldorf is my mother’s primary computer, I’d like to try and update some of the hardware components. I’ll focus first with the most pressing needs — like this monitor.

The biggest change is that I’ve upgraded the video card in my primary desktop computer, Fozzie. The new video card is an XFX GeForce 7300GT, replacing the existing PNY Verto GeForce 5200FX. The reason for this upgrade is that my system is AGP-based, and the graphics card industry has recently switched to PCI-Express, so AGP cards will be becoming more rare. As such, I wanted to put a rather high-end AGP card in Fozzie, effectively maximizing its graphics capabilities, until the time comes that I upgrade the whole system to a PCI-Express-capable motherboard. I’m very happy with the GeForce 7300GT card so far. It runs Doom 3 amazingly well, and also lets me use the digital connection to my recently upgraded LCD monitor.

On Fozzie, I also upgraded both the keyboard and mouse with a new desktop set, the Logitech LX710 cordless desktop. There were several motivations for this upgrade. On the keyboard side, the keyboard that I had (a Logitech Cordless Access keyboard) was relatively low-end when I bought it, and the “feel” of the keys has significantly degraded over time. Since I am a software engineer, I do a lot of typing, and the feel of the keys is very important to me. This new keyboard is a slim profile, with quiet keys. On the mouse side, the mouse I had (a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Blue) was getting to be 4 years old (the longest I have ever had a mouse!), and was showing significant wear-and-tear on the surface. Additionally, in the four years that have passed, new optical mouse technologies have come out, most notably laser mice. I am quite impressed with this new mouse — with the laser technology, it seems to perform almost identically to a corded mouse. I always felt that my previous cordless mouse was very, very good for a cordless mouse, but it was noticably different than using a corded mouse. Not so with this laser mouse. Also, going to this new set allowed me to consolidate the two different wireless receivers I had into just one. And, this one receiver is just a USB dongle, so it doesn’t even need to sit on my desk. Amazing.

Lastly, Waldorf saw an upgrade in that I added a printer, a Canon Pixma iP4200 to it. Waldorf previously had no printer. Waldorf is a computer I originally built out of spare parts for myself, but now it is serving as my mother’s computer, so it warranted having a new printer. The last three printers I have purchased have been Canons, and I have been consistently impressed.

Waldorf was without a sound card, while Fozzie had two (a Sound Blaster Live as well as the on-board sound on the motherboard, which is actually rather good). So I took the SB Live card from Fozzie and put it in Waldorf, and am currently using the on-board sound with Fozzie. Due to this, a top-priority upgrade for next year will be to buy a new sound card for Fozzie. The removal of the SB Live card from Fozzie is actually rather “historic”, in that the SB Live card was one of only 2 components left in Fozzie that date back to when I originally bought that computer in December, 1999. Now the only remaining component from that date is the speakers.

With a sound card, Waldorf also was in need of speakers. So, I pulled an old set of Labtec speakers from my very first computer, an IBM PS/ValuePoint. These speakers are now the oldest component I have in use in any computer. I am not sure of the exact date they were acquired, but it was sometime when I was in middle school I believe (so, mid-90′s). Suprisingly, despite their age they still sound great and work fine.

It also has become desirable for Waldorf to have wireless networking (as it did when it was originally built!) due its location. So, a new Linksys WMP54GS was purchased and installed as well. This is the only truly new component in Waldorf, all other parts have been “inherited” from other computers.

First, the wireless NIC I had been using in Fozzie was removed, and installed instead into my fiance’s computer. Fozzie now is back to using its on-board wired LAN. My fiance and I are moving into an apartment together, and the layout of the place dictated that her computer would have to be the wireless one, and that mine would be close enough to the router to be wired. That’s fine — I don’t care either way. It was a life saver to have the wireless NIC, though, it really gives you some freedom and makes it easier to set up multiple computers in a room.

Second, Waldorf (which has been mostly usused for the last year) has been revived as a “starter” computer for my mother. So, I wiped out the Linux installation and installed Windows XP instead, since it is a easier operating system to use. I also swapped the 15-inch monitor for the spare 17-inch Compaq monitor I have, since 15 inches is almost unusable for a CRT monitor nowadays. It’s a pretty good machine for learning, I think. What’s interesting is that after all of this swapping and inheriting of parts, Waldorf is now almost exaclty the same computer as the original Fozzie from 1999. Waldorf now just has 128MB more RAM, and is lacking a sound card and speakers. Other than that, all the original Fozzie parts are now humming along in Waldorf.

Ah, the circle of life.

First, I recently decided to take the wireless NIC (a new Linksys WMP54G) from Waldorf and put it in Fozzie. I built Waldorf mostly to try and use the old parts I had hanging around, as well as to have a Linux-only desktop. However, since I built Waldorf I haven’t used it a single time. It was a fun project to built, but not very useful. If I want to run Linux I can boot up my laptop, and Waldorf was too underpowered to really use for much. So I took the one new component from Waldorf, and put it in Fozzie.

I took this as an oportunity to remove the modem from Fozzie. This is notable in that the modem is one of the oldest components in Fozzie, dating all the way back to December, 1999. It’s not really needed, though. I haven’t used a dial-up connection in several years, and don’t foresee myself using one again. So, it was easier to just swap the modem for the wireless card, rather than adding another PCI card to the system.

Also, it seems that I added my headset to the page just in time. It just broke the other day. It’s still useable (sort of), but the plastic bends when you wear it. Not bad for $15 six years ago, though. I plan to replace it in the very near future. My current plan is to replace it with a mobile phone headset, rather than a traditional PC headset. When/if I actually do that, I’ll give more explanation here. But for now, I’ve added a Radio Shack computer headphone/speaker switch, which lets you switch between speakers, computer headset, or mobile phone headset, which is a really neat feature. I sort of wanted a switch anyways. It’s tough having both speakers and a headset and trying to switch between them. My previous solution was to set my sound card to 4-speaker mode, and use the headset as the “rear” speakers and my real speakers as the “front” speakers. It works, but it’s not clean. Now I have a switch for that purpose.

Of note, Waldorf is Linux-only. I quietly removed Linux recently from Fozzie. Fozzie’s goal is to be a computer that constantly meets my needs and is constantly relatively up-to-date. But, by dual-booting Windows and Linux, it was frequently a chore to pick out compatible hardware, which sometimes kept Fozzie from reaching its full potential. I also had been having problems getting XP and Linux to dual-boot from my new SATA drive. And also, I just simply don’t like dual-booting to begin with. It’s nice having a large pool of applications available, but it’s annoying to have to reboot in order to use something in another operating system (especially if you run servers on your computer, which I do). A better solution is to just run Cygwin under Windows, which gives you a Linux-like environment and pool of applications. So, Fozzie is now Windows-only, and Waldorf is Linux-only. Since Waldorf is largely “aged” hardware, this seems to make sense.

The one new piece of hardware in Waldorf is a Linksys PCI 802.11g wireless card. Since there is no room in my computer room for another computer, and that’s where the router is located, I either had to get wireless for Waldorf or run cabling around the house. Luckily, the Linksys card seems to work with Fedora Core 3, by using the infinitely useful ndiswrapper program.

I had some problems with IRQ conflicts relating to running FC3 on this older hardware, but those problems strangely only occur on reboots, not fresh startups, so the rule is to not reboot Waldorf… just startup and shutdown. Other than that, Waldorf is functioning execellently.