Sleepy
| Case |
O.S. |
C.P.U. |
RAM |
H.D. |
Sound |
Video |
Monitor |
Drives |
Modem |
Network |
| Desktop |
W2k |
686-300 |
64MB |
6.4GB |
sb live |
9685 1mb |
15" LCD
swingarm
|
31/2,cd |
none |
10/100 |
Sleepy is, fittingly enough, the computer set up next
to my bed. I have recently taken to doing a fair amount of writing from
this machine however, as there is something to be said for not having to
get out of bed to use your computer. This is my one of my two remaining
Windows 2000 machines, and the size of the hard drive(6.4gb), although once
impressive, is now barely adequate. Sleepy is one of the oldest computers
that I am still using. This means I must be rather discriminating about
what I put on this machine. I have limited myself to Office Pro 2000, Quark,
Photoshop, Illistrator, some of my computer tutorials, Act 4, PC Anywhere,
and a couple of games, along with one encyclopedia. I would upgrade it,
but I am afraid that I might never get out of bed and would eventually lose
the use of my legs and arms (except for the right wrist which I use to operate
the mouse). I can't really get a good picture of Sleepy himself since he
resides under my bed, but I did get a shot of a him as he appears to a certain
lazy individual lying in bed.
I have done what will probably be my only upgrade to
Sleepy. I replaced the old machine, with the one, which had formerly been
watchman. I have also replaced the Windows 95 operating system with Windows
2000, and installed a newer version of Internet Explorer. These were changes
that needed to be made, as I was getting very frustrated during my late night
jaunts across the internet. I tend to spend some time on the net, in bed,
before grabbing a book, and reading myself to sleep. The old os and browser,
along with the dated hardware, were taking so long that I could doze off waiting
for a page to load, or so it seemed. The 6.4gb Hard drive remains, as I do
little other than write, and browse the net on this machine. For more involved
activities, I have a share on my server, which Sleepy can use as a storage
space. Presently, the only real function of this machine is as a glorified
dumb terminal to allow me internet access.
The photo shows the size of Watchman, but does
not do justice to his weight. Watchman is built into an old IBM AT case (the
genuine article). This case originally held a 286 motherboard and cpu, along
with a full height 5 1/4" hard drive with a 10mb capacity. The hardware
has, of course, been replaced, as I think that I might have run into some
trouble getting NT4 (not to mention W2K) to run on a 286. What was left
behind after I cleared out the old components, was a marvelous case and
power supply. The entire frame of the case is brass with a baked on black
finish; it is heavy, and it is strong enough for me to stand on. The power
supply is built to what used to be called computer grade, before computer
grade standards got to be so low. I have read critiques of this old IBM power
supply in Mueller's great book (Upgrading and Repairing PC's), and it is
very impressive indeed. Compared to this massive, heavy case, the towers
of today have an almost toy like quality. Much of what has gone into this
machine is hodge podged out of old parts, and grabbed from other machines
that have been upgraded, but the result is very satisfactory. Sleepy's main
use these days is as a big dumb terminal for accessing the internet through
my proxy, while in bed.
I have connected the audio outputs from Sleepy into
the auxiliary jack of the stereo at my bedside. The speakers are at either
side of my bed. I have also mounted the keyboard, and LCD monitor on a swing
arm. The whole unit is very relaxing to use, and I hope that it frees me
up to enhance my writing, and researching. I have access to all of the other
computers on my net, as well as the internet, from this machine.