Feb 06
12
A Flurry of Changes
There has been a flurry of small changes with my computers lately.
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.