Twisted by the dark side, StoneWolf has become...

I just picked up one of those Force FX Lightsabers made by Master Replicas. As you can see, I chose the Darth Vader model. It definitely has to be the coolest lightsaber toy ever created. This is the lightsaber every Star Wars fan has been wishing for since they were a kid. Now if only I could find myself a Jedi to duel with...

Before I even took it out of the box this thing was getting all sorts of attention. People of all ages were asking me all sorts of questions about it. And when I say "people of all ages," I mean it! Kids, parents, and even grandparents were asking about it. I guess I was fortunate to get the last one!

Now I just need a replica Ghostbusters Proton Pack and I'm set.

What to do with an old computer?

I have an old computer which has not seen much use in the past year-and-a-half. I want to get some kind of value out of it, but not sure how. The specs are as follows:

Pentium III 800Mhz Coppermine
384 MB RAM
30 GB HD
GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB

Other than that the hardware is very typical. It has a couple of generic network cards, a 56k modem, and a very old 24x CD-ROM drive. The monitor on it is not functioning properly (Acer, go figure). I haven't been using this computer because my Thinkpad T42 out-performs it in every way.

Anyone have any suggestions for what to do with it? I do NOT want people outside the network to be able to access it, so a web or FTP server is out of the question.

One idea I have been kicking around is to have it as a Linux-only box. However, I don't think that will be terribly useful because I already have a WinXP Pro/Ubuntu Linux dual boot on my laptop. Another idea would be to just have it as a Windows printer/file server for everyone on my network to use. Then again, I can't see much value coming out of that.

The computer may be "obsolete" depending on your perception of how fast a computer needs to be, but I know this machine is far from useless. I am open to any creative suggestions anyone out there may have!

New Job (Co-Op Term)

Rather than go to school during my summer semester, I decided to do an 8 month co-operative education term. What that means is that I learn in a real workplace and get paid for it. It sounds like a pretty good arrangement to me! Some of the stuff has been kind of interesting so far, but it has been a little slow thus far. I am sure the pace will quicken later, though.

I won't go into any specifics about where exactly I am working. What I will say is that the people have been nice, and we get free refreshments! Plus there is another co-op student learning the same things I am. Since her and I are going through all the same stuff we help each other out and keep each other company during any downtime. So far, so good!

New Lappy!

To replace that stupid Acer that doesn't work anymore, I got myself a new IBM Thinkpad T42! Thanks to Prolepsis for the hookup!

Pentium M 1.8
1gb RAM
15" SXGA+ screen (1400x1050)
ATI 9600 64mb
60GB 7200rpm drive
DVD-RW
802.11b/g
Windows XP Pro
Office 2k3 Basic
10/100/1000 ethernet
Fingerprint reader
3 year warranty

Very nice machine. To be honest, it's probably more power than I need right now. But I got a good deal, and it has a 3 year warranty. Plus Ubuntu linux works very well with it "out of the box"!