Woman With a Cool Sword

[kerravonsen]

I am typing this from my new PC (whee!) which has been christened "colbrand" (which means 'cool sword' -- very Teutonic). My original intention had been to do as I usually do, and that is, the replacement machine gets the name of the machine it's replacing (in this case, 'welkin') (Yes, I like archaisms, you got a problem with that? Blame my parents for feeding me LOTR at an impressionable age.) However, I found that it would be possible to canibalize certain parts from welkin without disabling it, so it could keep running, which was much more convenient for transferring files and referring to old configs (since I had to get the network running in order to fully install GenToo on colbrand, but that's another story...). So. Since welkin would still be alive, the new machine needed a new name.

So I did as I often do when searching for new names for fictional characters -- I hit "The Great Australian & New Zealand Book of Baby Names", which is a trade-paperback about an inch thick, with nice cross-references. I was looking for something sky or weather related (since I had a theme going with 'welkin' and 'zephyr') but 'colbrand' leapt out at me and kept on poking me even as I kept on looking. I'd even decided to call it "velox" which is Latin for swift, but I took a second look at it and it sounded too much like the name of a pill. So "colbrand" it is.

My system is now running in all essentials, though it's been "up" since last Saturday. But now, all the important things are working! You might say, hey, what a stupid O/S where everything isn't running out of the box; well, you can say that, but that sort of system tends to be rather vulnerable, since it has too many things running. But, no, the main difficulty is not that this is a new machine, but that this is a "new" O/S -- I'm running a different distro of Linux, so the way things are done, and where things are, is all different.

But apart from a few annoying hitches (like my X problem, and my mjpegtools problem...) I'm really liking GenToo. Because even the problems, if you go and search through the forums, you can usually find out what to do about it. And some of the things which I was expecting to be a real pain, like setting up my webserver and the printing, they were actually amazingly easy.

So, I have local internal network, I have X, I have sound(mostly), I have DVD playing, I have mail, I have internet, I have firewall, I have DNS caching, I have DNS for my internal network, I have webserver (with virtual hosts, yippee!), I have printing (with "virtual" printers, one of which I set up to print 2-pages-per-page, whee!).
Remaining hardware to be tested/fixed: DVD burning, scanner, external CD-burner, Zip disk, graphics tablet
Other remaining software can be downloaded and installed as I feel the need. Like I just installed logjam.

The biggest downside of GenToo is that it's really intended to be used by someone who has broadband. Which motivated me to track down Telstra and figuratively wring their necks. Progress is now more likely to ensue.

And my lovely machine is very fast. And my lovely LCD monitor is very crisp. And I am tired and hungry...

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool stuff! And you're back in action. :-)

[kerravonsen]

Indeed. Though I think I will give everyone an extension on the Lyric Wheel , because I'm not sure that my site stuff is up and working yet -- and I need time to write my story myself too!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! Because mine's not even half done. :-P

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you have much more deep and classier names than I usually come up with - the one at work is called Fred (for Flaming Ridiculous Electronic Device, because it *is*) and the one at home's not named at all - by order of Sis (I think the fact that I wanted to christen a previous one Bob Jerunkle may have had something to do with it...)

[kerravonsen]

the one at work is called Fred (for Flaming Ridiculous Electronic Device, because it *is*)
LOL!
Actually, my router is called 'fred', because it was easier typing that than the IP address, and because it seemed a very unlikely name for a router.

and the one at home's not named at all
Well, I have to name my machines, being on a network and all, though I've been naming them since I first got Linux, at least. My first named PC was called 'shirka', from the computer in a sad little animated show where the only good thing going for it was the name of the computer... And the theme tune, possibly.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I've never felt the urge to name my PC, or any other inanimate object. At work some twenty years or so ago, when we acquired a linked cluster of three Vaxes my suggest of calling then Groucho, Chico and Harpo was turned down, in favour of the more mundane Earth, Moon and Sun.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid mine are fairly boring. The previous computer was Kermit (after the guy from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, not the frog). This one is called Vila, which makes it a bit disconcerting to be giving the reading program commands addressed to 'Vila' and getting back output in a completely wrong voice.

[kerravonsen]

That would be disconcerting.

[bktheirregular]

It's funny - I never thought of naming computers until I became an ad hoc sysadmin and had to choose names for the machines on a home network to recognize one another. I ultimately decided to run with the names of A.I. characters from games: "Cortana" from Halo, "Shodan" from System Shock, and if I ever plug a PDA into the network, it will go by the name "Floyd".

Only because you've got to call them something...

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Yay for being back! Rah!

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[temeres.livejournal.com]

My computer doesn't have a name. I used to have a bike called Boromir, though. Current bike doesn't have a name though, but since it's a British Eagle I could call it Thorondor.

Colbrand sounds quite cool, I presume it's some kind of early English in origin (doesn't quite sound Germanic enough to be 'teutonic'). There are a number of kings in my worldbuilding project called Colbrann but that means 'King of the Hill'.

[kerravonsen]

Thorondor?

I presume it's some kind of early English in origin (doesn't quite sound Germanic enough to be 'teutonic').

You are right; the book says "English from Teutonic", which presumably means it's early English which still has its Germanic roots.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Thorondor?

Ah, she might know her Lord of the Rings, but she's not so hot on the Silmarillion:)

Bloody big eagle, ancestor of Gwaihir.

[kerravonsen]

Ah, she might know her Lord of the Rings, but she's not so hot on the Silmarillion

Perfectly true. My father didn't record the Silmarilion on reel-to-reel tape and play it to us on long car journeys in the summer holidays. He did, however, do this with The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Narnia stories.

Some of the tapes may still be in my parents' garage somewhere, but we don't have a machine to play them on. Pity. They really need to be preserved.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Perfectly true. My father didn't record the Silmarilion on reel-to-reel tape and play it to us on long car journeys in the summer holidays.

So he wsn't a sadist then. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of my reading career was starting on the Silmarillion and quickly discovering that it was unreadable. How could the author who wrote Lord of the Rings produce something quite so dire?

[kerravonsen]

How could the author who wrote Lord of the Rings produce something quite so dire?
It was never meant to be published -- it was his world-building notes, the background of Middle-Earth. If I recall correctly, it wasn't published until after his death.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I used to have a bike called Boromir, though.

Did it give you trouble, but redeemed itself at the last minute?

Current bike doesn't have a name though, but since it's a British Eagle I could call it Thorondor.

If it's a British Eagle, you should call it Dan Dare.