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My plan is to write a daily wrap-up of my experiences during the 2023 edition of the Old Computer Challenge.
This is the wrap-up of day one.
For this edition of the Old Computer Challenge I have revived my twenty year old IBM ThinkPad R31.
The R31 currently runs the 32-bits version of OpenBSD 7.3.
See also my post about the preparations:
gopher://box.matto.nl/0/openbsd73onr31.txt
Unfortunately, the screen is quite dim. During the preparations and on the day before the challenge, it was still workable. This morning I was greeted by a much dimmer display.
When I hit Fn-Home, which is the key to increase the brightness, the system seems to freeze.
xrandr is not able to read parameters like the screen size, and xbacklight does not work.
- CPU: Intel Celeron 1133MHz (GenuineIntel 686-class)
- RAM: 256 Mb
- Display: 14.1 inch, 1024x768 resolution
- RJ45 and RJ11 connectors
- 2 USB ports
- DVD drive
I installed the Ratpoison window manager.
This is a tiling window manager with key bindings that resemble those of GNU Screen.
I use ratmen as a way to quickly switch between windows.
The R31 only has a wired network interface.
Many years ago, at some sale, I bought an USB wifi dongle. OpenBSD recognizes this USB device, and I can use it to connect to my local wifi network.
It is a Belkin device, according to dmesg it is a Belkin 54g USB network adapter.
In ifconfig it shows up as "rum0".
I use the laptop on my lap, without a utp cable, just hooked up to wifi, and I have seen no problems with it.
Unfortunately, OpenBSD does not recognize the TrackPoint. An USB-mouse works, but I use the laptop mostly in my lap.
The idea is to go through the challenge without a mouse. We will see how this goes.
I have installed Emacs, it covers a lot of functionality. At first i had the no-X11 variant installed, but soon switched that to the variant with X11 support.
This way I can use the vanilla key bindings.
The main communication channel during the challenge is IRC.
I run the IRC bouncer ZNC on a FreeBSD jail, which runs on my central FreeBSD server in my home network.
I use ERC, which is the IRC client that comes with Emacs, to connect to ZNC.
ZNC makes it possible to shutdown my R31 and later boot it up again, without missing messages on IRC. Because of FOMO :)
I run the Dovecot imap server on a FreeBSD jail.
I use Gnus, the email and use-net client in Emacs, to read and write email messages.
Just like for email, I use Gnus for reading use-net groups. This also includes following RSS-feeds and mailing lists.
To follow RSS-feeds, I use the brilliant service of gwene.org. This is a RSS-to-use-net service.
Gwene.org offers a lot of RSS-feeds, and if one of yours favorite feeds is missing, you can simply add it.
Just use the web-interface of gwene.org, and a few minutes later you can add the feed to your news reader configuration.
To follow mailing lists, there is the same kind of service, available on gwane.io. It works the same, but than it is email-to-use-net.This is a read only version of the mailing list, of course. There is a massive number of mailing lists that is available this way.
Fetching and opening my RSS-feeds and mailing lists is noticeable slower than on other machines. But is still workable.
Sometimes people mention an URL to a screen-shot or other image.
The easiest way I have found to view those images is:
- Copy the link to the kill-ring
Use C-p to "walk" to the specific line
- Give asynchronous command to open links
M-& links -g C-y
Explanation of those strange codes:
- C-p is Control-p, which is the key binding for "up"
- M-& is Alt-Ampersand, which is the key binding for "async-shell-command", "this opens a new buffer for the output of the shell command and runs the command
- C-y is Control-y, which stands for "paste-from-kill-ring".
- The fan is constantly running.
- Htop shows usage of all the memory
- sysctl reports a CPU temperature of 55 degrees Celsius
- Using Emacs for most things is fine, but as it chokes on a task, everything freezes.
I really wanted to discover how a TrackPoint-only system and with a TrackPoint from the early days works, after so many years with other options. It is too bad that the TrackPoint is not recognized and can't be used.
Older ThinkPads have the reputation of having good keyboards.
I must say that I do prefer the typing experience of my X201 much better.
Hashtag: #oldcomputerchallenge
$Date: 2023/07/10 20:19:43 $
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