Computers

Last Updated February 14, 2012 1:44pm ET

Current Machines

Excelsior

My home powerhouse, Excelsior maintains my music collection, manages photos, edits videos, runs various operating systems in virtualization, and serves as my development machine for web and mobile applications. It’s the first machine I ever built myself!

Model: SBCE Custom, Model 001.
Processor: Intel Core i7 Quad 3.4ghz (x86-64).
RAM: 12gb DDR3.
Hard Drive: 120gb (SSD) + 1tb (7200rpm).
Operating System(s): Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (native). Crunchbang Linux 10, Haiku R1A3, and Mac OS X 10.7 ‘Lion’ (virtualized).
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 Sonic, 1gb; Nvidia GeForce GT 520, 1gb.
Displays: 22″ Acer LCD at 1680×1050, 19″ Westinghouse LCD at 1280×1024 resolution, and 19″ Insignia LCD television at 1360×768.

Intrepid

Intrepid serves as my mobile workhorse, letting me keep up the good work when I’m on the move (or when I’m sitting in front of the television). It’s meant to be ‘good enough’ for my mobile computing needs, but certainly won’t set any speed records (nor did it break the bank).

Model: Asus UL80J.
Processor: Intel Core i3 Dual 1.2ghz (x86-64).
RAM: 4gb DDR3.
Hard Drive: 500gb (5200rpm).
Operating System(s): Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce G 310M, 1gb.
Displays: Built-in 14″ wide LCD at 1366×768 resolution.

Eelserver 2

The Eelserver is our home file and network server. It runs Windows Home Server, has three 1tb hard drives for data storage and backups, shares two printers over the network (black & white HP LaserJet 1022; color HP DeskJet 940c), provides remote network access, streams iTunes music across the network, and much more. It replaced the venerable Eelserver which served long past its expected useful life (it was ten years old when we retired it).

Model: HP MediaSmart EX490.
Processor: Intel Celeron 2.2ghz (x86-64).
RAM: 2gb DDR2.
Hard Drive: 3-disk array (1tb x 3).
Operating System(s): Microsoft Windows Home Server.
Display: None (managed via RDP from remote machines).

Computer History

‘Primary’ Computers

These are the machines that, at one time or another, served as my main day-to-day workhorse. They have mostly been desktops, except for a period where I used Apple notebooks as my primary machines.

Katia 2 (MacBook Pro 15″ 2.16ghz; Mac OS X 10.6)
Katia (PowerBook G4 15″ 1.67ghz; Mac OS X 10.4).
Nadia (Power Mac G4 733mhz; Mac OS X 10.3).
Maurice (Compaq Presario AMD K6-II 266mhz; MS-DOS 7.1/Windows 98).
Ziggy 3 (Acer 486 90mhz; MS-DOS 7.0/Windows 95).
Ziggy 2 (Gateway 2000 386 25mhz, upgraded to 486 75mhz; MS-DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11).
Ziggy (IBM PC-AT 286 6mhz; MS-DOS 5.11).

Servers

Not long after Melissa and I were married, we discovered that we had a need between the two of us for a server to back up our data, share files back and forth, and generally keep our home network under control.

Eelserver (Dell OptiPlex GX300 Pentium III 667mhz; Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Server LTS).

‘Secondary’ Desktops

Because I’m a nerd, it is rare that I limit myself only to my ‘primary’ machine. These desktops have floated in and out of my life as-needed.

Robin 2 (Custom AMD Athlon XP 1.8ghz; Ubuntu Linux 10.10).
Robin (Dell Dimension 4100 1ghz; Ubuntu Linux 8.04).
Bloomaroo 2 (Apple iMac DV SE G3 500mhz; Mac OS X 10.3).
Bloomaroo (Apple iMac G3 233mhz; Mac OS X 10.2).
bbMac (Apple Power Mac G3 266mhz; Mac OS X 10.2).

‘Secondary’ Laptops

Additionally, I usually have some extra laptops floating around. These have either been my portable machines to supplement my ‘primary’ desktop, or spare ‘coffee table’ machines, or whatever else I need at any given time.

Selina (Google Cr-48 Atom N455 1.66ghz; Google Chrome OS 0.13).
Kitka 3 (Asus Eee PC 900A Atom N270 1.6ghz; Ubuntu Linux 10.10).
Kitka 2 (Asus Eee PC 4G Surf Celeron M 900mhz; Ubuntu Linux 8.10).
Dinky Thinkum 2 (PowerBook G4 550mhz; Mac OS X 10.3).
Dinky Thinkum (IBM Thinkpad 770 Pentium MMX 233mhz; Ubuntu Linux 7.04).
Kitka (iBook G3 500mhz, Mac OS X 10.3).

A Word on Naming

In case you were wondering, there is a (little bit) of method to the madness of how I name my computers. Initially, I name a computer out of thin air. Then, I typically re-use that name three times on machines of a similar form factor and purpose. For example, my first secondary notebook was Kitka (named after Catwoman’s false name, ‘Miss Kitka,’ in the 1966 Batman film). When I replaced it, the new one was Kitka 2. Its replacement was Kitka 3. Then, having used the name three times, its replacement used a new name (Selina).

I also tend to have themes that last many years. After retiring the Kitka name, its replacement was named after the Catwoman character’s ‘real’ name, Selina Kyle. My main Apple Macintosh computers have long had psuedo-Russian names like Nadia, Kitka, and Katia.

These are not hard-and-fast rules. Sometimes a name just doesn’t feel right for a particular machine. This is why Bloomaroo was only used twice; it felt right for a colorful iMac, but didn’t seem to fit right for the Dell Dimension that basically replaced them…so it got named Robin instead. Go figure.

Starting with Excelsior, I am planning to name my new machines primarily after ships from Star Trek, because I’m just that nerdy.