Thinking thinking thinking.
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Sounds like you are about to experience a thrill on my favorite carnival ride, the Learning Curve 🙂
I just did a quick Google search for "Linux USB distro" and the following look interesting:
Pendrivelinux provides simplified tools and info making easy for anyone to install, boot, and run their favorite Linux Distro from a portable flash drive!
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
Damn Small Linux was an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit in 50MB. Over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project which may be used with any writable media including a CD or USB device.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Installing A Linux Distro to An USB Drive - It is important that you understand how the install procedure works, because you might encounter situations where things are a little bit different. In general, this way you can also install Linux on a hard drive.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Installing-a-Linux-distro-to-an-USB-drive-33265.shtml
There is an abundance of tools to help you simply load an ISO image onto a USB stick and make it bootable. But if you want to bypass the point-and-drool process and completely customize the software you install onto your drive, you can do that, too.
http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/362829-weekend-project-create-a-live-usb-key-linux-distribution
Best Linux Distro for USB Flash Pen Drives - There are several methods of turning a regular USB Flash or "pen" drive into a bootable drive running a Linux OS platform, and there are lots of advantages to doing so.
http://www.suite101.com/content/best-linux-distro-for-usb-flash-pen-drives-a191617
I regularly see 8 GB flash drives for $25.00 and less, you might end up disconnecting those old hard drives and going all Flash - no moving parts!
Enjoy!
Thank you Carl and SCWIS!
I will be looking over all of this info.
I really appreciate it!
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
"OK." "KLUMP ONE is on internal power."
"Retract Unbilical." "Check spelling of
Unbilical for log." "Check Negative.:
"Not Essential." "Do not hold count."
"Gantry Retracted." "All looks good."
"All go."
"Ignition." "Engine Start."
"Klump One has cleared the tower."
(Some time goes by.)
"KLUMP at Max-Q." "Seven good engines."
"Roll program." (Some time goes by.)
"Staging." "Stage 2 go." "Trajectory on
plot."
"Go for orbital insertion." (Some time goes
by.) "Radar shows object in path."
"Object in path?" "Checking." (Some time
goes by." "Object in path looks like...")
"Object in path is @#&%*@#@!!!!!!!!!"
"Say again??""
"It's a kids paper airplane!!!!"
"KLUMP ONE cannot correct!!!" "It's going down."
SWITCH SCENE TO SMALL ROW BOAT IN MIDDLE
OF ATLANTIC OCEAN
(Some time goes by.)
"Hey Paw" "Look at all of those big glowing CLUMPS
of metal falling into the water!!!!"
THE END OF KLUMP ONE
With great regret and I'll tell you the real story later.
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Lots of things can go wrong with old computers, particularly 10 year old computers. And lots of times they're intermittent, which makes them hard to trace.
That's why I suggested getting a new motherboard/cpu/memory combination, and reusing everything else from an old computer. You can pretty much tell if a power supply, CD, or hard drive is working. They either do or don't. And by getting that new motherboard/cpu/memory, you're pretty much eliminating any other problems.
I use multiple computers (many, many of them), and generally have at least one fail in a year (running them 24/7 tends to do that for a consumer-level products). All I do is rip out the motherboard, as stated, and rehook everything else up, and voila, new computer.
But then, as I said before, I don't like putzing around - I did this kind of stuff for a living for a long time, and now I just want something up and running so I can do things on them.
Linux/Microsoft, whatever. Doesn't matter. Use whatever you feel most comfortable with, but for the sake of $100 or so (unless you really don't have that $100), I wouldn't fool around. Your time is more valuable than that.
Thank you Artisan Radio! I appreciate the
further input. I am actually taking everything
you and others are saying and learning from
it. I will apply what I can and try to make the
best notes I can of the rest. And your ideas
are very good ones.
The reason I made up that silly story about the
rocket launch failure is because of the way I
felt when I tried to test this old computer.
I hooked it together and powered it all up. To my
surprise, there was no video on the monitor. It was
completely black. It didn't even display a message,
such as, "Check Video Cable," which it usually will
do. Now I know there are many many variables here.
But I didn't expect that to happen. I expected to have
something to look at and work with.
But there are other computers coming down the pipe.
So,I'll try to snag another one as soon as I can.
Anyway, your comments are sure noted. My medical
(eye) situation does result in money being scarce.
But that won't always be the case.
Thanks again, I do appreciate it.
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Bruce, for a while during the dramatic launch sequence I felt like we were in the air. But that was only because of your good play by play.
Maybe the monitor is bad?
Actually, the monitor works OK. It's the
one I use every day with another computer.
But thanks anyway!
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
MICRO:
If you still have a fever for putting Linux on a radio-relevant computer, do a search for the following distros:
ARTISTX
AVLINUX
UBUNTU STUDIO
These are dedicated disks that contain the Linux operating system, and a whole pile of programs for audio, video, graphics, MIDI, page layout and hell knows whatever else. Get one of these disks and you can edit audio, cut together video clips for a promotional YouTube vid, compose a station newsletter or website, use software synthesizers to create production bloops and bleeps, stream to Icecast and, if you're really ambitious, make a station cartoon featuring your jocks. All the software to do so is on these free disks.
I do a presentation every year at the IBS college radio conference in NYC on this very topic: "How to Run Your Entire Station on Free Software".
You might not want to put one of these machines on the air as a mission-critical playout system, but they are outstanding for keeping things behind the scenes rolling along.
I appreciate the info. i am still
working on that. I am having
trouble with the machine that
I wanted to dedicate to this
project - but it's great you added
your input. I work at a local university,
and I am hoping to grab another
computer from a dumpster somewhere.
In my house, our 2 working computers
are constantly in use, especially now that
my kids are using NetFlix on line.
I was in a bookstore yesterday that is going
out of business. They were selling all kinds
of stuff for not much money. I came across
a magazine that just said LINUX on the front.
In the back on the magazine was a disc with
5 different versions of LINUX all ready to put
onto a computer. The whole magazine was
a description of the 5 different versions.
So I have a lot of reading to do, and am in
search for another junk computer.
Thanks again, Alan, for the input. I really
appreciate it. And have fun making all of
those really cool noises!
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2