June 21, 2004
Blows-as-in-chunks
So my hard drive crapped out last week. Suck. I've been kind of disconnected from all things wired for about that long, and will be for about another week at least. At that time, my new hard drive and DVD burner will make their appearance, and I will mooch space and bandwidth from Coptix where I may exorcise the evil Windows demons therein and replace them with the gentle and esoteric spirits of Gentoo. At that point, two things will obtain: 1) My career as a gamer will be more or less over. This is okay, because they'd just be a distraction at Columbia anyway; 2) Once I get Gentoo working I will probably never have to mess with my computer ever again. I like this thought. I have reached the stage in my life where I want my computer to not only just work, which Windows can fake half the time, but stay working, a state which Windows approximates in the same way that three hundred and twelve slightly greased lemurs approximate a vat of second-hand instant pudding.
Things I need to learn how to do:
1) Install Gentoo on an SATA drive without making use of a floppy
2) Burn data DVDs with Linux
3) Rip audio CDs with Linux
The above don't seem all that daunting, but the next few could be rather interesting:
4) Install Linux on my iPod to configure it for future use
5) Deal with my existing NTFS partitions from a Linux environment and/or back up the disk entirely with DVDs (see step 2)
The goods should arrive by the end of the week, hopefully. We who are about to delve into the innards of electronic devices that should be left well enough alone salute you.
