Computer in the garage?
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 5,037
Likes: 9
From: Kasson, Minnesota
Funny how the computer is becoming like TVs. Usually there is more than one in the household. I have an old gateway out in mine. Don't usually do anything but play music. The hard drive in the thing is only 10 gigs, so I can't store anything. I have my home setup as a network between the other 2 I have. 3 if I count my wifes laptop. So I just store music on an external HD I have hooked up to one in my house. I can just access it from my garage CPU. Plus, the internet radio is a plus. A CPU has more uses than just a stereo.
Elder User
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 909
Likes: 0
From: QLD Australia
Originally Posted by jake00
Anyone have a puter in thier garage?
i dont use it often in the shop, but when i need to google or fte something, it sure comes in handy.
My wireless reaches the shop with over 1/2 power conection. The shop is built out of block. it has 9 windows. laptop picks up really well.
Last edited by SCWIDVICIOUS; Jan 27, 2007 at 06:43 PM.
Freshman User
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
I had an old crt 19" monitor, so I hooked up an old computer with a TV card. Dont have it hooked up to the internet, but have plenty of MP3s and can watch TV on it. I also have a Kegerator, which does more harm than good when it comes to quality control!
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,782
Likes: 15
From: Lower Mainland B.C.
Thread Resurrection Specialist 
(as I actually use search before posting, this is the only thread to turn up)
Question:
Should I save this for the garage to display CD or DVD auto manuals?
I have an old 600mhz compaq-puter with a 20gig hd and a cd-rom and 312 RAM(weird size 2nd stick)
It has Linux 7.10 installed on it, so drivers for the hardware is not an issue anymore.
Would this be fast enough to read a DVD if I buy a drive to put in it?
I don't have any disc manuals yet but I know I'll probably buy them in the future.
(as I actually use search before posting, this is the only thread to turn up)Question:
Should I save this for the garage to display CD or DVD auto manuals?
I have an old 600mhz compaq-puter with a 20gig hd and a cd-rom and 312 RAM(weird size 2nd stick)
It has Linux 7.10 installed on it, so drivers for the hardware is not an issue anymore.
Would this be fast enough to read a DVD if I buy a drive to put in it?
I don't have any disc manuals yet but I know I'll probably buy them in the future.
Elder User
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 788
Likes: 1
From: Hendersonville, TN
That should be enough processing power to be fine. I think the first machine I had one on without a hardware acceleration card was a 333Mhz Celeron (Overclocked to 416Mhz) & about 64M ram. That was plenty for video, although it might get jerky if anything else was going on. What Linux distro are you running? My garage machine is running Kubuntu 7.04. It's dual-bootable with XP also, but rarely gets used in windows. Currently using it as a file server and backup storage. I have samba shares for each user (wife & kids) that gets mapped to whenever they log into their windows accounts on the den XP machine. So far, it's working good.
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Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 18,488
Likes: 22
From: The Big, Oregon
That should work fine. I had a 475mhz AMD K6-2 running 256megs of ram, and windows 98 that would run just about anything. It didn't like XP, though, so I went to a 1.6ghz AMD first running 256 megs then a gig of ram in my current system and it'll run anything I ask it to.
The Linux has a lot less latent ram use, so it should be fine as long as you don't have any windows-specific programs to load, or you have a good emulator program in it.
The Linux has a lot less latent ram use, so it should be fine as long as you don't have any windows-specific programs to load, or you have a good emulator program in it.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,782
Likes: 15
From: Lower Mainland B.C.
It's running linux Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines...
I have a good friend who does all the major comp stuff for me, he wiped the old compaq of win98 and old files and put on linux for me. He also installs and updates the ubuntu on my current computer and my parents computer. Theres no money involved, he helps with the comps, I help him with his cars.
I guess I'll hang onto the comp then, I didn't really want to get rid of it anyway, thank you guys.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines...
I have a good friend who does all the major comp stuff for me, he wiped the old compaq of win98 and old files and put on linux for me. He also installs and updates the ubuntu on my current computer and my parents computer. Theres no money involved, he helps with the comps, I help him with his cars.
I guess I'll hang onto the comp then, I didn't really want to get rid of it anyway, thank you guys.
Cargo Master
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,220
Likes: 26
"It's running linux Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines... "
I haven't tried the Ford manuals in Wine since I have both Ubuntu and Windows boxes, but it should work. If you succeed please post.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines... "
I haven't tried the Ford manuals in Wine since I have both Ubuntu and Windows boxes, but it should work. If you succeed please post.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,377
Likes: 2
From: Elkhart IN
recently moved into a new house.........got a presscot 2.4 with all the goodies for the garage with 8 meg cable running to it........all the drunken fab nights with interent.........its gonna be good......damn kesslers......
Junior User
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 70
Likes: 0
Originally Posted by monckywrench
"It's running linux Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines... "
I haven't tried the Ford manuals in Wine since I have both Ubuntu and Windows boxes, but it should work. If you succeed please post.
I didn't even think about emulators.
I guess all these manuals on discs would be for windows machines... "
I haven't tried the Ford manuals in Wine since I have both Ubuntu and Windows boxes, but it should work. If you succeed please post.
If you've got the DVD utilities and Flash installed it *ought* to work fine unless the files are in some godawful window$-only format, and there are 'workarounds' for many of those
I'm coming up on 5 years Linux-only, Ubuntu is a great distro but I'm a KDE fan and MEPIS rocks!
Junior User
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 70
Likes: 0
Originally Posted by monckywrench
Ford EVTMs require Windows and are not in .pdf.
IMO ALL manuals should be in .pdf. There is no reason for other formats except to require proprietary software and annoy users...
IMO ALL manuals should be in .pdf. There is no reason for other formats except to require proprietary software and annoy users...
They seem to have a bunch of OS related lockdown features, you might have serious problems if you try reading them with the wrong flavor of Window$ let alone an 'unapproved' OS
Proprietary lockdowns like this are *evil*, how are you supposed to *get* this info after the original issuer abandons you or goes toes-up?
OTOH WINE and it commercial cousins *have* made pretty good progress in 'faking out' old Window$ apps