Some useful DOS programs for your DOS'ing pleasure:
TechW0rm
The ULTIMATE starting point for AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS programs that use less memory (replacements etc).
MaxDIR
A colour-coded version of the DIR command that shows much more information.
CuteMouse
CuteMouse uses FAR LESS RAM than the bundled Microsoft Mouse drivers. Can even load itself in the high memory area itself without the need for other loaded system programs, neat.
This morning I went to the coffee shop down the road for a heavily caffeinated beverage only to come home and discover a parcel on the kitchen table: My Toshiba 486 machine! The shipping was pretty fast considering I only ordered and paid for it yesterday!
Here are the complete specs of this monster machine:
Toshiba Satellite T2150CDT
Graphics
Official Toshiba Driver & Information Page
I'm going to install PC DOS 2000, Windows 3.0a and all my retro games on one partition, and FreeBSD on the other for a uni project. Yeah!
For those (lucky) enough to have an Intel Core based Apple machine (like me as of this morning, exciting stuff!), these are some useful links for Universal Binary versions of the major Mozilla programs:
Mozilla Intel Wiki Page
Information and download links for Firefox and Thunderbird (experimental builds only at present).
Camino Browser Page
Stable, universal release of Camino now available. My favourite web browser :).
My killer combo is Camino and Thunderbird; Camino because it uses the same engine as Firefox but uses Cocoa so it loads faster and looks sexier, and Thunderbird because it lets me take all my email data and profiles to a Windows or Linux machine very easily.
© FOX Network
With all the junk clogging up television these days I've been watching it less and less. Or maybe it's because I have way to much work. Or both.
Anyway I was channel surfing late at night a few weeks ago and I saw this TV series "Wonderfalls", and I was hooked. It is one of the best written shows I've ever seen, it's bizzare, it's funny, it has talking monkey statues…
The show tells the story of "Jaye Tyler" who has a higher education degree but is stuck in a dead-end job in a Niagara Falls gift shop. The main quirk of the show is that Jaye sees statues of animals, printed animals on boxes etc… talking to her; which of course complicates her life when others see her "talking" back.
Other characters are Jaye's love interest who is married (again) to his first wife, her parents and her councilor who is fed up with Jaye's antics.
Jaye is played by Caroline Dhavernas, a Canadian. I know she's 8 years older than me, but I really like her :). And she's a great actor… or maybe she really is that insane… and her arch rival is none other than Jewel Staite… as in the engineer on the Serenity in Firefly!
But of course…
In the US only the first four episodes were shown on FOX before it was canceled (Just like Firefly!!!) but all 13 episodes were released on DVD and are now all being subsequently shown on Network 9 back in Australia.
I'll definitely have to do a full review of this on Rubenerd Show #75 tomorrow. Brilliant show. And so is Wonderfalls ;).
Ruben picks apart the useless spam he receives from the spamming spammers who spam him with their spammingly spammish spam.
there’s a fight we’ll be a lot more help there than here.”‘moved away from the typewriter, laid a hefty file on the desk, and startedhis burned neck. The pain and lack of air made Redrick think that he was
the wind was a solid beating wall of sound against which he could move no
Huh?
Well how was my 20th birthday?
Aside from the mountains of uni projects and work I had to get through which took most of the day, looking for a laptop for a few hours for Sarab on eBay, it was pretty good. Kevin, Chris and I went to the Boatdeck Italian cafe for dinner for a Ruben-style birthday ending… pretty low key which was just my style.
As for the 486? I decided not to get the 486 I saw before, but instead a Toshiba Satellite T2150 series machine. Here are the specs of this incredibly fast monster:
Yee ha :D. I will be able to use this for retro gaming, and my uni assessment task on low-powered machines. Yee ha :D
No more being a teenager! Yes I know it's only a number but given my personality not having 'teenager' stigma stuck to me can only be a good thing. Problem is even now if I go to a bottle shop etc and buy a light beer, they ALWAYS ask for ID because they say I look 16-17. Great.
Anyway for my birthday I'm considering reversing the trend of getting rid of crap by buying this laptop on eBay that's currently on $15.00:
Check it out, it has… wait for it… a 486 processor! And a 700MB Hard Drive, Floppy Drive, PCMCIA, VGA Out, PS2, Serial Port, LPT Port, Colour 11.3'"Screen, ext 336 Modem, Carry Bag and Power supply.
Why do I want such a blazingly fast computer? Well our family's first machine was a 486SX back in 1989 and it was damaged beyond repair when we moved to Singapore in the 90s. Ever since then I've wanted another 486 just to play my classic DOS games such as Commander Keen 1-3 (never had 4-7, only the demo of 6) etc… all on a Windows 3.0a machine of course ;).
Should I get it? I know I'm trying to get rid of crap, but it's awesome. And I'm 20. Yeah.
Ruben's Last Day As A Teenager Episode!
Podcast: Play in new window · Download
30:00 – Ruben's Monologue (illegal phone tapping, AFL players doing drugs, four year olds at school), March 27 celebrations (Ruben turns 20, Overnightscape turns 3), Commonwealth Games update (Australia wins most medals, England 2nd, Canada 3rd, Singapore 11th, why I like watching table tennis), Frank Edward Nora What?! (smokin' a pipe here!), drinking Pepsi Max (don't worry, there's no sugar), The Top 5 (most overused words and phrases in pop songs), Make It Great with Phil Gerbyshak (what managers SHOULD be doing!) weather for tomorrow (plus a birthday present from nature for me!) and Will It Sink (headphone jack).
Recorded in Adelaide, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
Women.
You can’t live with ‘em…
and you can’t kill ‘em!1: With the turn of this key I can kill 2 million of your people INSTANTLY
2: What key?
1: Ah crap.- Good Guy
So I'm 20 years old tomorrow, less than 12 hours to go! :D
I never liked being a teenager, yuk. So tomorrow I'll be a useless 20-something :D
