What’s your computer’s name? It has to have a name; all computers are named something. UNIX and Linux folks (probably Mac OS X folk, too) call their computers by their “hostname”. Windows users just use a plain ol’ “name”. I’m curious about the names that people give to their computers.

Personally, the names I use tend to reflect the hardware or the computer’s role. My main desktop is P4MONSTA, as in “Pentium 4 Monster”. It’s not much of a monster now, but when I built it almost 3 years ago, it sure was. Today it’s not so much a monster, as it is a gremlin now. My notebook’s name, INSPIRON6400, is rather lame. It is what it is; a Dell Inspiron 6400. I’ll probably change it at some point. I have plenty of VMWare virtual machines on both of my aforementioned computers. Again, I follow a similar naming convention. One VM running Ubuntu Linux, which I use for Apache/PHP/MySQL/Postgre development, is known as YOUBUNTU. The VM running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, which I use for IIS/ASP/ASP.NET/SQL Server development, is called WIN2K3SRV. My Windows Vista Beta 2 VM is given a formal salutation with MISTAVISTA. Finally, I have a Windows XP VM that I use for testing apps that I’ve written called SANDBOX.

I’d be the first to admit that my naming convention for computers is pretty lame. Although it must be said that it is not as bad as the default that many computer manufacturers use (and consumers never change). I’ve lost count of the number of nasty Packard-Bell PCs that I’ve had the misfortune of touching that were all named PREFCUST. Or how about the names that Windows setup will choose for you if you don’t enter one; would you want to be named WDF43SE or MSR7R09?

In an enterprise setting, I’ve seen servers named after all sorts of things like Greek mythology (ZEUS, HERCULES, APOLLO), Godzilla monsters (GODZILLA, MOTHRA, RODAN) and astronomy (NEPTUNE, ORION, PHOBOS). Those aren’t bad, but I recently found a computer name that made me laugh a little. On August 4 of this year, I looked at the web server logs for chrisbellini.com and saw that my site got a unique visit from justbadpot.xxxxxxxxxx.com (‘x’ characters added to protect the privacy of whoever that person is). Who calls their computer JUSTBADPOT? Perhaps a stoner, or maybe the computer in question is problematic and exhibits spazzy performance as if it has just smoked a joint laced with PCP? At any rate, I thought that was a pretty funny name 🙂

Maybe I should use Simpsons names for my computers and virtual machines. Server computers could be named after Springfield “bosses” like CMBURNS, QUIMBY and WIGGUM and workstations could go by names like BART, OTTO and MOE. I’m open to suggestions.

In my last post, people commented that I should write about whatever I want. I’ve posted many despairing things in the past little bit – deservidely so given the situation – but I think I’ll try to get back to what I usually do…writing about whatever the hell strikes my fancy at any given moment. I may write more about my mom; stay tuned. For now, though, I’ll mention something dorky. If it ain’t dorky, then it ain’t me 😉

Backup tip: tape sucks, optical is kludgy and RAID5 (or better) isn’t practicle for everyday computing budgets. Thanks to Red Flag Deals, I nabbed a 160GB WD Caviar drive for $90. I then popped down to a local computer store in downtown Waterloo and found a Vantec USB/Firewire 3.5″ drive enclosure for $35. After throwing the drive into the enclosure, I had myself a nice ‘n’ fast backup drive. Oh sure, I could’ve bought one of those fancy pre-built “external hardrives” from a store, but those end up being $100+ than it would cost to just simply buy a drive and enclosure and put it together myself. I’ve been recommending this to people for a couple years, but I finally actually did this for myself recently. Do as I say, yada yada… 😉

Also, again thanks to Red Flag Deals, I found a Dell Inspiron 6400. I configured it to have a dual core CPU, 1GB of RAM, DVD burner, ATI Radeon x1300 graphics and 3-year warranty for ~$1350. Dena and I totally needed a second computer and this one works like a champ. I’m a dual-core CPU believer because of this notebook. I can have iTunes (yes, I’ve dumped Winamp for iTunes…I’ll explain later), Firefox and Visual Studio running while I have Windows Server 2003 coupled with IIS and SQL Server kickin’ inside of a VMware virtual machine. No hiccups or sluggishness at all. None. Yes, it’s still smooth with Ubuntu (LAMP-style) in a VMware virtual machine too. ZSNES runs like the wind, if you were wondering 😉

Being proactive is better than reactive, I suppose. With a warranty well in the past, the fan on my GeForce4 Ti 4400 was ready to pack ‘er in. To stem any “hot” issues, I picked up a GeForce FX 5700LE from Bestek; just up the street from Dena’s office. For whatever reason, they were the cheapest in town and online. $97 for that card isn’t too shabby 😉

I didn’t want to go hardcore and get a high-end Radeon or GeForce6, and figured the FX 5700LE would be a slight improvement, but not a killer one, over what I had. Ideally, I’d get a PCIe card which requires a new mobo. In that case, I’d be building a new computer. But since Dena and I have had enough of apartment dwelling, we’re saving our money. If I had my way, I’d have a few systems. For day-to-day stuff like email, IM and Web browsing, I’d go with a Mac Mini. My gaming rig would have to be a tricked-out Windows computer. I’d keep another Windows computer for Windows apps development and also have a Debian or Ubuntu computer for UNIX-y development stuff. And of course those dev computers would have a dual-monitor setup; I’ve been spoiled by it at work and constantly wondered how I’ve gone without it for so long 😉 Finally, I’d have a server running OpenBSD or FreeBSD to store and share everything. Maybe toss in a MythTV box as a PVR like the dudes from Systm mention here.

It’s ever so true…bad RAM does bad things. A couple of weeks ago, my computer blue-screened with this error while NSW2005 was running a scheduled LiveUpdate. I dind’t think much of it. Then last week my computer blue-screened while booting with this error. The second parameter on that blue screen was 0xC000016A (aka: STATUS_DISK_OPERATION_FAILED). I immediately thought the hard drive with the partition that contains my page file went wonky so I ran SpinRite on it but all was good. Then last weekend I was pwn-ing on a Half-Life2 Team Deathmatch server when my computer froze. Thinking back to this error, I decided to run Memtest86 and sure enough, error o’ plenty. To make sure it wasn’t my motherboard or CPU, I ran Memtest86 on some memory that I borrowed to plug into my computer. That test produced no errors. Bad RAM, argh. After buying a new stick from Kingston, all is well again. Ah, the trials and tribulations I have to go through 😉

My new motherboard is back! I have a computer again! But no more soundcard. My Audigy gave up the ghost. It appears to be inflicted by a bug that’s common to the Audigy and Live! line of cards. I hadn’t heard of it until now, but if you Google “Audigy” and “EEPROM”, you’ll find a bunch of info on it. I hope Creative has this under control now. My card’s warranty was up so it’s garbage. Isn’t it great how hardware problems happen all at once? 🙁 So for now, I’ll use my motherboard’s onboard sound. Sure, I have to forego EAX or hardware acceleration that I was accustomed to with my Audigy but those settings distort the sound in UT2K4 on my system. The only games it rawked were Warcraft 3/Frozen Throne. I guess I won’t miss it that much.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in my last post-vow-of-blog-silence posting is that I got a wisdom tooth extracted.

The computer is up and running again 🙂