I bought a Compaq Deskpro computer the other day, with the intention of using it as a gateway/web server. It's a PII-350, 64Mb of RAM, 6Gb hard disk, onboard fast ethernet, etc... and I got it for £40 from the local once-a-month computer fair. I thought (and still think) it was quite a good deal, but it's been a total pain in the ass.

For one thing, it doesn't accept standard-sized CD drives, so I had to keep the CD drive outside the case while I was installing linux on it.

It also keeps throwing kernel panics all over the place. I think it's related to the cheapo ethernet card I stuck in it, but I can't really be sure.

I stayed at my parent's house for the weekend, and left my computer to download a lot of things off edonkey. When I came back I discovered the goddamn thing had switched into standby mode. When I resumed it all I got on the screen was "Kernel Panic:SKPUT:OVER" (and then a load of numbers, probably related to System.map). I rebooted the box, and went to bed. When I got up in the morning exactly the same thing had happened.

I'm not quite sure whether the panic was caused by the system switching into Standby mode automatically or vice versa, but I've disabled standby mode just in case. If that doesn't do any good, then I'll replace the NIC with another one but I don't have any spare 100Mbit ones lying around, and I really want one for the network side of the firewall.

Found this on a discussion about the Matrix:Reloaded on imdb -
"I wont be seeing this film or the other one after it cause a Anti-American type like Laurence Fishburne is in it and I am sick of him and the other rabid Hollywood Leftists telling america what to do."

Can anyone say Kneejerk reaction?

I can't even be bothered to argue with this moron.

At the moment they are attempting to discredit open source software, which I make use of extensively. I run linux pretty much 24/7 on my main computer. In fact the only time I ever reboot into windows is to run applications that I can't run otherwise, and that's only after having a good go at getting them to run in wine first.

What REALLY infuriates me is that Microsoft thinks they have the right to kill a software movement that provides cheap, reliable, secure software to anyone and everyone that wants to use it. What the hell? This is a bit like Wal-Mart shutting down a voluntary organisation "Because it conflicts with their business plan". I cannot BELEIVE that the US department of justice ruled this as acceptable behaviour. RMS and co are trying to do some good for the community, and Microsoft is only interested in getting richer through peddling inferior products.

Anyways, given against open source were initially things like "it's un-american" or "it's a form of communism".

Un-American? That would make the definition of American "severely limits freedom". Seems a bit odd to me, especially as America is supposed to be the "Free world".

People (in the US anyway) take a bad reaction to the word "communism". Yes, it's never worked in practice (The Russian regime apparantly wasn't "true" communism however) but that's not to say it doesn't have a few desirable characteristics. However, during the cold war there was so much anti-communist propaganda on the go that anything associated with it is instantly branded evil.

Bah.