After a couple days off doing a no-computer challenge over the | |
weekend due to meatspace obligations, I'm starting off the old | |
computer challenge using another trusty mac. This time it's a G3 | |
iMac (Ruby), so even slower than last year. | |
Since the rules are DIY, I'm just settling in a nice comfortable | |
environment without too much regard to rules and whatnot. Not | |
really reinventing the wheel this time. I probably should fetch | |
the mail locally, but I've got mutt already set up the way I like | |
and it would just be an exercise in customizing another machine. | |
On the #oldcomputerchallenge channel, some of the participants are | |
setting up quake and quake2 to play. It seemed like a fun | |
diversion, so I decided to give it a go. It didn't quite get along | |
with the G3, and was quite the slideshow even after tweaking the | |
settings as best I could. Framerate was more appropriately | |
expressed in seconds per frame. So I decided to employ a Wyse 3030 | |
instead, since it's constrained in various ways similar to old | |
computers. I got q2 to run with the demo data pretty nicely, but | |
it would segfault with the full game. Puzzling. trying a few | |
things resulted in running out of disk space. The eMMC on this is | |
only 4GB and it was already a challenge getting AntiX pared down | |
enough to fit, so maybe my journey might end there. | |
Back on the G3, it's pleasant and I like the CRT. It's still | |
sharp. I like that X works on here although most of what I'm doing | |
is in terminals, but it's nice to browse the OCC forum in dillo. I | |
did drop out of X and live a bit in screen for fun and that's | |
quite pleasant too. On the occasional need for something a bit | |
faster (work or bills or whatever) I just pop into a virtual | |
desktop I had set up for the thin client. Keeps me from getting | |
too distracted. The spice client went kablooie so I fell back on | |
VNC over ssh, which is fast and works just fine. | |
So that's the challenge so far. Nothing too eventful, probably | |
since the workflow is a lot more text/terminal based now. Plus | |
it's nice to be outside every now and then too, like how I used | |
computers like this back when they were new. | |
Tags: #oldcomputerchallenge #imac #wyse #text | |
[0] Text-only version | |
[1] gopher://dataswamp.org/1/~solene/article-old-computer-challenge-v4-announce |