there are quite a few machines on our LAN.

- the main ones -

(these are all named for characters in Robert Asprin's Myth series)

chumley is my primary machine. it is a FireWire PowerBook G3 (a.k.a. "Pismo") 400MHz, with 128 MB of RAM, a 6 GB hard drive, a hot-swappable 6x dvd-rom drive or 4x4x20 cdrw drive, and AirPort. (AirPort -- a.k.a. WaveLAN, a.k.a. 802.11 -- is really excellent.) chumley currently runs both MacOS 9.0.4 and LinuxPPC 2000, though i haven't yet configured the linux side enough to bring it to a generally usable state. i got chumley in june of 2000. when at my desk, i connect a usb mouse, an adb keyboard (through an adb-usb adapter), and sometimes an external monitor.

tananda is lisa's primary machine. same specs as chumley, got it at the same time. the Myth series characters chumley and tananda are brother and sister.

guido is my linux box. i ordered it from thelinuxstore.com around april of '99. it came with with RedHat Linux 5.2 pre-installed. i've upgraded the kernel to 2.2.12. the machine has a 350 MHz AMD K6 processor, a 4 GB hard drive, 64 MB of RAM, and a 40x cd drive (and a floppy drive which i've never used). i've also added a second hard drive, with 15 GB, which i use for storing lots of mp3s.

skeeve is a PowerMacintosh 8600, which i got in october of '97. it has a 300 MHz PowerPC 604e processor, which was top-of-the-line way back when, before the G3 came along. it's still a pretty nice machine. it has a 4 GB hard drive, 96 MB of RAM, a built-in zip drive, and a 24x cd drive (and a floppy drive which i use very rarely). it runs MacOS 8.5.1. mostly we use it to listen to music -- it grabs mp3s off guido (over the network), and plays them through the stereo. and instead of a monitor, it's connected to the tv. see the a/v system page for info on how it's connected there.

back when skeeve was my primary machine, i had connected to it the following peripherals: a 4x cdr drive, an external 4 GB hard drive, a sheet-fed scanner, a 56k modem, an HP DeskWriter 600 color printer, and a palm pilot cradle... also, it had three monitors connected. macs have been able to run "multi-headed" for a long time -- probably ever since the first machines which were not "all-in-one" like the original macintosh (and maybe even including some of the later all-in-ones, like the SE). having multiple monitors connected to one mac is a great thing. most people, having never used this great feature, don't realize how great it is. you can drag windows from one monitor to the other, just as if it was one big screen. the extra screen real-estate is really nice.

gleep was lisa's primary machine before we got chumley and tananda. it's a PowerBook 1400c, which we got in march or so of '98. it has a 166 MHz PowerPC 603 processor, a 2 GB hard drive, 40 MB of ram, and either a 6x cd drive or a zip drive (or a floppy drive, which i don't think has ever been used), depending on which is currently in the expansion bay. it's also running MacOS 8.5.1. it's been sitting by the couch in the living room for a while now, but doesn't get used much, since of course we can just use chumley and tananda... so it might get moved somewhere else. we shall see.

- the interloper -

anvil is seth's machine. i don't know its exact specs, but it runs (debian) linux. we don't use anvil at all, but seth does. he's in scotland right now, and brought his laptop with him, and so he's using anvil for an off-continent backup. in exchange for the colocation service i'm providing seth with, he has loaned me his 21'' monitor for the time he's in scotland. it's connected to guido. so when he comes back, i'll probably have to get myself a 21'' monitor, because i don't think i'll be able to go back to anything less than 1600x1200! also as part of his payment to me for the colocation, he helped me figure out how to configure guido to do IP masquerading and stuff... anvil lives in our downstairs closet and keeps our coats warm. seth named it "anvil" because it is (or used to be anyway) where he bangs out code.

- not entirely functional -

wentworth is a PowerBook 5300, which i acquired in october of '99. my dad got a new PowerBook G3, and gave his old 3400 to my sister. she in turn gave me the 5300, which he had given her when he got the 3400. she had given it the name "captain wentworth", for a character in Jane Austen's Persuasion (he's the man anne ends up marrying, apparently). i believe it has a 100 MHz PowerPC 603 processor, a 1 GB hard drive, 32 MB of RAM, and most recently ran MacOS 8.1. it kind of died when i tried to upgrade it to 8.5.1. i think i just need to norton disk doctor it, but haven't gotten around to doing so. if i ever do, i may put it on my night stand in the bedroom.

zephyr is a PowerBook 540c. it used to live by the couch, but when wentworth came along, zephyr was retired to the bedroom, where there had previously been no internet. at some point in the last few months, it ceased to turn on. not sure if it'll boot again. but it has a 33 MHz 68040 processor, a 320 MB hard drive, 36 MB of RAM, and is running System 7.5.3. it was lisa's old PowerBook, before she got gleep, and she named it after a character in Matt Ruff's The Fool on the Hill. (i also had a 540c, which was named "aurora", for another character in that book, but the screen died years ago.)

- no longer with us -

fenchurch has been donated to camp winnarainbow. but previously, it lived downstairs in the living room, in the entertainment center (before skeeve took over that position). it's an old PowerMac 7100, which my dad gave me when he got a G3 around november of '98. it has a 512 MB hard drive, 40 MB of RAM, and recently had its 66 MHz PowerPC 601 processor upgraded to a 266 MHz G3. it's also running MacOS 8.5.1. i named it fenchurch because it clearly needed to be named for a character in a book, to fit with all the others (besides anvil). and i was thinking that since its purpose was to play music, a character who sings or plays an instrument would be good. so then while trying to think of a good character, i started looking at Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, and then i remembered that fenchurch plays the cello.