Things look quiet here. But I've been doing a lot of blogging at
dan.langille.org because I prefer WordPress now.
Not all my posts there are FreeBSD related.
I am in the midst of migrating The FreeBSD Diary over to WordPress
(and you can read about that here).
Once the migration is completed, I'll move the FreeBSD posts into the
new FreeBSD Diary website.
It's
almost 1pm now. I spent most of the morning modifying my slides for my FreshPorts presentation. It was originally written in
Powerpoint. Now it's a StarOffice document. I must say, I'm impressed with my first
introduction to StarOffice. If the rest of the suite is as good as the presention product,
I'm positive it's a fine set of programs.
Hardware update
On the hardware side, I have managed to order my CDRom and a motherboard.
As someone has donated two XEON 550MHz CPUs, I've been able to raise enough money (via
advertisements and cash donations) to buy a SupermicroSUPER S2DGE
motherboard from Next International and a Plextor internal SCSI CD-RW
drive from Multiwave Technology. I placed orders
on Saturday via their respective websites. I telephoned them today to check on the orders.
Both should be shipped today. Which means they should arrive at BSDi by Friday, when I
drive back in the convertible, with the blonde (don't tell her husband).
On the sad
side, the 2x9GB SCSI Ultra drives didn't make it here from England. The drives didn't get
to the courier (a BSDCon 2000 attendee) before he left for the airport. But I hear there
are other drives on the way and should arrive on Tuesday (or so).
Ordering stuff via the web
If I was ever going to do this type of ordering again, I would place the
orders well in advance of arriving in USA. You don't want to spend your vacation dealing
with this type of thing. Also, remember to use a USA credit card and ship to the same
address as the card's bill is sent to. With these steps, the purchase should be quick and
easy. If time is important, be sure to verfiy that the goods are in stock.
Fry's Electronics
Fry's Electronics is quite well known
in the San Francisco area. They started off as a grocery store. Then, bit by bit, they
started to get into computer gear. Now, they are *the* place to get computer gear *if* you
know what you want *and* you can cope with the service. They have the reputation of being
low of price and service. On the drive down, we passed a Fry's just off 680. I just wanted
to go in and have a look, but we didn't have time. But if you've got the time, and the
patience, have a look. Apparently, if you're a geek, they are the only shop you need. They
stock all the necessary geek food and geek hardware. And if you need a washer or a dryer,
they have that too.
