My Computers



 Computers and I have a long history together - I played with my first computer, a Texas Instruments TI 99/4a when I was 4 years old. From there, I progressed to the TRS-80 Color Computer and later to the Atari 130XE. By the time I was 6, I was writing programs in BASIC and LOGO. In 1988, we got our first IBM-compatible system, a Leading Edge Turbo XT that ran at a whopping 8.77MHz and had 640K of RAM and a 30MB MFM hard drive. I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing King's Quest in front of that awesome 4-color CGA monitor. I became an expert in MS-DOS by the age of 10, and I first started playing around with Linux in early 1996. I've also had quite a bit of experience with OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp 3.0, DOS 3.3 - 6.22, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, NT 3.5-4.0, 2000, 2003, and XP, and NetWare 3.12 - 6.5.

 In the years I've been using and fixing computers, I've developed a strong set of opinions on what I like and what I don't like, and I don't mind sharing them. :) I have a strong dislike for GUI-based operating systems (I say that as I'm writing this page using the vi editor on my Linux box), especially for servers. In fact, anyone I work with can tell you that I generally dislike Windows, even though I hold a current Microsoft Certification.


 I'm not as much of a fanatic as this guy, but I make a point to recommend Linux any place where it will perform a particular job at least as well as a Microsoft OS (which for server functions, is nearly every time). I've watched as this OS has grown from an interesting toy to an enterprise-class OS with all the functionality you would expect from a commercial product. I also happen to like Novell NetWare - nobody even comes close to this product in terms of security, scalability, and file server performance. Unfortunately, NetWare is just about dead. Fortunately, Novell has taken the path of porting most of the best features of NetWare to Linux, so there is hope for the company's future, as long as they don't let their own marketing people ruin it.

 I used to have a paragraph here extolling the virtues of a particular manufacturer of excellent server hardware, but since I now am employed by that manufacturer, I'll just stay quiet about it.

 As you can tell, I enjoy playing with this stuff in my spare time even though this is also my full-time job. The servers do serve useful purposes, though. My Linux server, among other things, controls my home automation system. It's strangely satisfying to be able to turn on the porch lights, close the garage door, or see live video of my driveway from anywhere in the world (at least anywhere I have access to a web browser). The NetWare server is also very handy to have - I've been through two complete hard drive failures in workstations, and the most I ever lose is configuration settings, since I save all my data to the NetWare server, which is protected by a RAID 5 disk configuration, weekly tape backups, and redundant power systems.

 Below you can see the specs for my servers, in case you're curious.



My Servers
 
enterprise.internal.courter.org
Function File and Print Server
OS Novell NetWare 6.5
Hardware Compaq ProLiant 1850R
Processor Pentium II 450MHz
Memory 1GB
Total Hard Disk Storage 100GB (RAID 5)
Tape Drive (1) Compaq 40/80GB DLT Drive
SCSI Controllers Compaq SMART-3200 Array Controller, Integrated Fast-Wide SCSI-2 Controller
Network Card Compaq NC3122 Dual Port 10/100 Ethernet Card


defiant.courter.org
Function DHCP, DNS, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Home Automation(X10), HTTP, Streaming Video Server
OS Fedora Core 4
Hardware Compaq Proliant 1850R
Processor Dual Pentium II 450MHz
Memory 640MB
Total Hard Disk Storage 18GB (RAID 5)
Tape Drive Compaq 15/30GB DLT Drive
SCSI Controllers Compaq SMART-3200 Array Controller, Integrated Fast-Wide SCSI-2 Controller
Network Card Compaq NC3131 Dual Port 10/100

Network Information
 
Topology Switched Ethernet, 100BaseTX
Switch 3Com SuperStack III 24-Port 10/100Mb/s Switch
Router Cisco 2500 DSL Router
Cable Belden Category 5, DataTwist 350