Craig Box's journeys, stories and notes...


Posts Tagged ‘hardware’

Cool shit for cheap. Support a good cause!

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Note: this stuff is all sold.

Today's cool shit you can get for cheap:

  • IBM X220 4U tower server
  • IBM X232 5U tower server
  • IBM X346 2U rack server w/Windows 2000 SBS
  • IBM X300 1U rackmount server
  • IBM X225 4U rackmount server
  • Compaq Proliant ML350 G3 w/Windows 2000 SBS
  • IBM X200 4U rackmount server
  • 3Com OfficeConnect VPN Firewall
  • Cisco C1912 Catalyst 1U Rack 24x10Mbit/2x100Mbit
  • Farallon Ether10-T Starlet/16 Rackmount Hub
  • HP LaserJet 1000
  • Pleaides USB 2.0 / LAN disk enclosure

FoamyEspecially cool is the G3 server, which has its hard drives packed like this.

This should be the last run of servers we sell before I leave IT Partners. Also, be warned that the X200 is my personal machine, and the more you bid on it, the more money I can put on the bar at my leaving party!

Pimp my junk!

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Note: this is all now sold. 

Compaq Proliant ML350 G3

Just because we don't need it any more, doesn't mean you don't!

The bottom three are servers we've used internally, and I'd be sad to see go if I was that kind of nerd. Especially the quirky one. Ever seen a 6GHz processor? That server has one, if you believe the BIOS. Or a 1.4GHz processor, if you believe the summary screen. Or a 3GHz processor, if you believe what it had when we bought it.

T9 dictionary editor for a Smartphone

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

I have problems with my T9 on my Smartphone. For example, it seems to like the word "diem1t" rather than "didn't". Someone must have written a dictionary editor, right?

  • Pocket PC dictionary editor - runs on the device, but doesn't want to run on my iMate SP5 (crashes with an exception).
  • T9 Editor - doesn't like the T9AW.UDB my phone has (crashes with an exception).
  • msT9ed - also doesn't support the new format, but loads it with some weird looking data.

In other news, shareware authors could do to handle exceptions better.

Any suggestions?

I like bargains

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

 Note: this is all now sold.

ServerAnd I have many to offer today.

How about an IBM X226 server, kitted out with 3GB of RAM, for $1? Or perhaps you'd be more interested in a Mac Mini, for $1?

Cheap server

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

Note: this is long since sold.

IBM X335, $1 reserve.

Obviously, close friends need not enter.

How much would you pay?

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

AP9887 cord

APC IEC C19-C20 jumper cable, part AP9887. Ingram Micro part number APC1883. How much would you pay?

$194.80+GST?

$42/metre?

Not technomarketplace

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

A couple of days ago, I listed some Thinkpads on Trade Me on behalf of my employer, who has accumulated too many of them. He specifically wanted them listed so they would fetch what they were worth, rather than us putting a dollar figure on it and selling it cheap to a friend.

Then, I told you all about them. My boss likes to sell things off cheap. You might get a bargain. Promotion is everything.
A friend of mine, who now lives in Australia, said "Oh, yes, I'd like one of those", and created a Trade Me account for the purpose. Someone posted on the auction saying "Beware of saidperson, they're a new user in Australia", and I responded along the lines of "thanks, but I went to Uni with this person, and they're genuinely interested in purchasing it because of the favourable AUD-NZD rate at the moment"

NO! shouted Trade Me:

Dear Craig,

Your listing for THINKPAD X41 TABLET WITH DOCKING STATION (S=R)
Listing no. 69170303 has been withdrawn.It has been brought to our
attention that shill bidding has occurred on your auction.

Shill bidding occurs when members of the same household or friends bid on
each others auctions. We do not allow this on the site. This is because we
are unable to determine if this is with genuine intent to purchase the
item or is an attempt to increase the price on an auction.

It is a breach of our terms and conditions. Please ensure that you do not
allow friends or family members to bid on your auctions in the future.

Your co-operation in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

So, I try and take the path that leads to Trade Me making a successful sale, openly and honestly, and this is how I get rewarded.

Kyle very accurately observes "if it was happening to things you wanted to buy with sellers creating new accounts and bidding against their own items we'd be pissed off if they didnt stop it". Correct, but this happens all the time. My friends list auctions and say "Here is stuff I'm getting rid of", and if I'm interested, I bid. I only ever bid up to a point that I'm prepared to pay, should I win the auction. That's not shill bidding. Where's the beef?

Technomarketplace

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Want to buy a Thinkpad?

Open source graphics drivers (Part 2)

Thursday, August 10th, 2006

Quoth Ian:

Great to see [Intel open-sourcing their graphics drivers] - now if only AMD/ATI and Nvidia would follow suit.

They've had open-source drivers for their hardware for some time: quoth the truely excellent Keith Packard:

Intel has made free software drivers available for all of its graphics adapters since the i810, so if it says 'Intel graphics' on the label, you can be sure that free software will support it.

The release today adds support for the brand-new i965 chips which add advanced rendering capabilities to Intel's graphics adapters, including the ability to support OpenGL vertex shaders and hardware T&L. As far as I can tell, while the hardware has been announced, it's not yet available from retailers yet.

But, as for AMD/ATI? Ask, and ye shall receive? If it happens, it's yet another reason to love AMD. Good to see competition in the chip markets.

Envision a world where IBM staffers run HP laptops...

Monday, June 5th, 2006

This may be close to the truth, if it turns out to be true that Lenovo intend to shun Linux, supporting only Windows on their Thinkpads and desktop machines.

In saying that, they hardly support anything anyway, but the general consensus is the build quality is decreasing with cost cutting, and I expect that Linux people will start shunning Lenovo anyway, in both developing drivers for, and buying, the hardware. But IBM were meant to move to a total Linux desktop internally by 2005 - a target they missed - and much of their development work is done on Linux desktops. I'm sure they have an arrangement to buy gear from Lenovo at or near cost, and probably without Windows licenses, and I'm also sure that the worlds largest IT services company can probably orchestrate their own driver writing and distribution maintenance. However, with the speed at which Lenovo are distancing themselves from the powerful IBM brand, it's not hard to imagine that IBM staff will end up using another vendors desktops and laptops in the future.

There were a lot of Thinkpads at Linux.conf.au in January.

At about the same time, the Chinese government purchasing agency announced that all new PCs they purchase must be Linux compatible, and Lenovo are a supplier on that list. Go figure.

Edit: turns out that the manager commenting was responsible for only the cheap 3000 series, and his comments weren't meant for Thinkpad. Foot in mouth please.