Old Computer Challenge 2023 - Day One
           =====================================

My plan is to write a daily wrap-up of my experiences
during the 2023 edition of the Old Computer Challenge.

This is the wrap-up of day one.

              Twenty year old IBM ThinkPad R31
              --------------------------------

For this edition of the Old Computer Challenge I have
revived my twenty year old IBM ThinkPad R31.

The R31 currently runs the 32-bits version of OpenBSD 7.3.

See also my post about the preparations:

  gopher://box.matto.nl/0/openbsd73onr31.txt

                        Dark display
                        ------------

Unfortunately, the screen is quite dim. During the
preparations and on the day before the challenge, it was still
workable. This morning I was greeted by a much dimmer display.

When I hit Fn-Home, which is the key to increase the brightness,
the system seems to freeze.

xrandr is not able to read parameters like the screen size,
and xbacklight does not work.

                      Specs of the R31
                      ----------------

* CPU: Intel Celeron 1133MHz (GenuineIntel 686-class)
* RAM: 256 Mb
* Display: 14.1 inch, 1024x768 resolution
* RJ45 and RJ11 connectors
* 2 USB ports
* DVD drive

                       Window manager
                       --------------

I installed the Ratpoison window manager.

This is a tiling window manager with key bindings that
resemble those of GNU Screen.

I use ratmen as a way to quickly switch between windows.

                            Wifi
                            ----

The R31 only has a wired network interface.

Many years ago, at some sale, I bought an USB wifi dongle.
OpenBSD recognizes this USB device, and I can use it to
connect to my local wifi network.

It is a Belkin device, according to dmesg it is a Belkin 54g
USB network adapter.

In ifconfig it shows up as "rum0".

I use the laptop on my lap, without a utp cable, just hooked
up to wifi, and I have seen no problems with it.

                          No mouse
                          --------

Unfortunately, OpenBSD does not recognize the TrackPoint.
An USB-mouse works, but I use the lapẗop mostly in my lap.

The idea is to go through the challenge without a mouse. We
will see how this goes.

                           Emacs
                           -----

I have installed Emacs, it covers a lot of functionality. At
thirst i had the no-X11 variant installed, but soon switched
that to the variant with X11 support.

This way I can use the vanilla key bindings.

                            IRC
                            ---

The main communication channel during the challenge is IRC.

I run the IRC bouncer ZNC on a FreeBSD jail, which runs on my
central FreeBSD server in my home network.

I use ERC, which is the IRC client that comes with Emacs,
to connect to ZNC.

ZNC makes it possible to shutdown my R31 and later boot it
up again, without missing messages on IRC. Because of FOMO :)

                           Email
                           -----

I run the Dovecot imap server on a FreeBSD jail.

I use Gnus, the email and use-net client in Emacs, to read and
write email messages.

            Use-net, RSS-feeds and mailinglists
            -----------------------------------

Just like for email, I use Gnus for reading use-net groups.
This also includes following RSS-feeds and mailing lists.

To follow RSS-feeds, I use the brilliant service of
gwene.org. This is a RSS-to-use-net service.

Gwene.org offers a lot of RSS-feeds, and if one of yours
favorite feeds is missing, you can simply add it.

Just use the web-interface of gwene.org, and a few
minutes later you can add the feed to your news reader
configuration.

To follow mailing lists, there is the same kind of service,
available on gwane.io. It works the same, but than it is
email-to-use-net.This is a read only version of the mailing
list, of course. There is a massive number of mailing lists
that is available this way.

Fetching and opening my RSS-feeds and mailing lists is
noticeable slower than on other machines. But is still
workable.

           Opening screen-shots and other images
           -------------------------------------

Sometimes people mention an URL to a screen-shot or other
image.

The easiest way I have found to view those images is:

* Copy the link to the kill-ring
 Use C-p to "walk" to the specific line

* Give asynchronous command to open links
 M-& links -g C-y

Explanation of those strange codes:

- C-p is Control-p, which is the key binding for "up"

- M-& is Alt-Ampersand, which is the key binding for
 "async-shell-command", "this opens a new buffer for the
 output of the shell command and runs the command

- C-y is Control-y, which stands for "paste-from-kill-ring".

               How the machine is holding up
               ------------------------------

* The fan is constantly running.
* Htop shows useage of all the memory
* sysclt reports a CPU temperature of 55 degrees Celsius
* Using Emacs for most things is fine, but as it chockes
 on a task, everything freezes.

I really wanted to discover how a TrackPoint-only system,
specially with a TrackPoint from the early days works, after
so many years with other options. It is too bad that the
TrackPoint is not recognized and can't be used.

Older ThinkPads have the reputation of having good keyboards.
I must say that I do prefer the typing experience of my X201.


Last edited: $Date: 2023/07/10 17:07:00 $

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