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Post by Tom Maneiro on Dec 31, 2006 12:37:03 GMT -5
That XM is somehow a good drive, but it's tray mechanism is pure crap. About the Maxtor: The 2Bxxxx series (and some DiamondMax made in early 2000s) were bugged with a "suicide" firmware, that could vanish, cause spinup/spindown issues on boot, refuse to be recognized by the computer, or could develop errors in the bad sector table, killing the drive. After my incident with another DiamondMax, and with a 7xxx-series drive (my old 7420AV, from the WORST Maxtor series EVER), i will NEVER EVER touch a Maxtor drive again in this life. My new Dell laptop came with a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160: this drive is damn silent! And comes with a lot of "hitachi-created" technologies, mainly the perpendicular recording stuff, that can push up to 160 gigs in a single drive (160 GB was the limit for laptop harddrives until Fujistu's 300 GB model). My old laptop has a noisy and slow Seagate Momentus (odd name, eh?), but it's pretty reliable too. And about Samsung drives... i have lots of these (well, only 4, two of them extracted from my dead Celeron, a 4GB SV0432A and a 20GB SV2042H). They're very reliable (except for that SV2042H, that has data corruption issues, although may be OS/motherboard related). OK, the ATX issue is not an issue. I've already traded that PSU and the Maxtor harddrive, so they're no longer my business. Since Seagate has purchased Maxtor, i will avoid their drives in the future. Better stick to Samsung and Hitachi (and their unknown Deadstars, er, Deskstars)
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Post by GiGaBiTe on Jan 1, 2007 17:23:27 GMT -5
If Seagate is smart like Hitachi, they would probably turn the drives around and make them better. Take a look at IBM, I've had so many drives of theirs fail on me that I can't count.
When Hitachi bought IBM's HD division, they completely turned the drives around, and the drives I've seen since have had no problems at all.
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jan 1, 2007 22:37:17 GMT -5
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 2, 2007 21:04:06 GMT -5
I never had problems with IBM HDs (i work everyday with these in the university), and i NEVER have seen a WORKING Fujitsu harddrive in my life (all Fujitsu HDs that i have seen were dead as a rock, and they're a lot...) (Homer(TM)) Mmmmm.... Toshiba RAM... PS: Seagate HDs are certified for p0rn. I now understand the meaning of "Momentus"... Maybe the next "SeXgate Barracuda" will be sponsored by Playboy? ;D
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jan 5, 2007 12:11:57 GMT -5
LOL! ;D Hmm...I checked out the auctions, so you didn't go for the RAM @tom...
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 5, 2007 16:42:28 GMT -5
Maybe someday... when i get a creditcard (i've tried to get one for purchase my Core 2 Duo, but i need a job for it and to fill some forms to be able to do shoppings in foreign currencies due to a fuckin' goverment that limits such stuff). For now, my only worry is: how do i carry a laptop in a coachbus full of all sorts of possible dangers? (accidents, Schumacher/Fitipaldi-clone bus drivers, curious people, and of course, the most obvious danger: thieves in each corner).
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jan 6, 2007 22:05:26 GMT -5
Answer - you DON'T, well - not literally inside the coach. The best bet you have is get a padded case for the laptop that you can use to protect it. Then buy a HUGE hold-all luggage case to put all your clothes and stuff into. The laptop goes in the middle of the case among all your clothes and won't get bumped accidentally, spotted by theives, curious onlookers. As for crazy bus drivers - well just hope for the best! (I'd be more concerned about myself if I had a crazy bus driver!)
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 6, 2007 22:44:22 GMT -5
The laptop already has a bag (and a pretty big one for a pretty big widescreen). Maybe i should pay an extra seat for my luggage (a not-so-big sports bag), although some drivers are so lazy that they actually let you to board the bus with BIG luggage pieces (the luggage bay on a double-decker bus is a high and tiny hole in the back of the bus, over the axes, and most drivers don't love to deal with luggage anyway).
Some idea will come to my mind tomorrow...
Now, a totally different question: How much lasts a Dallas 1287 RTC module battery? 10 years? 20 years? My 386 has one of these that, rarely, bail out to BIOS due to corrupted hour/minute data.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 8, 2007 13:34:41 GMT -5
I'm back to my base, and i have good and bad news: The good news: - The laptop survived the bus trip - I even can reach 3 wireless networks from my room!!! - The 386 still works fine The bad news: - All of those 3 wifi networks are WEP-protected... and the signal is too weak for apply a password sniffer/cracker (currently using aircrack-ng on Fedora). My only hope is to leave the laptop working at overnight for see if i can do something about the connections... So the "can i surf Slashdot in a 386" experiment is on stand-by until i can crack those damn passwords. - I've installed a PS/2 mouse in Decemebr to the 386... unfortunately, it refused to work today The odd news: - Hitachi TravelStar drives honors their name: they survived a travel in a 360HP Scania-powered bus. The suspension on the Scania chassis helps filter the irregularities of these damn roadways. Good for travel with your expensive hard drive. On the other way, Volvo-powered busses kill delicated items, because their suspension sucks plain bad. I'm unsure about Mercedes-Benz chassis (these are the most common chassis brands used in busses in Venezuela) Bonus media: My 386 as of today, with a IBM Pentium 133 box over it (works as a nice desk for put my stuff too ;D) Yes, i love busses The one in the 386 desktop is brand-new. This bus is safe for carry hard drives... at 120KPH!!! The driver of this one was a pro-class driver: never lose the control while running under too much fog. More pics tomorrow (like my new Pentium 225MMX for a top-secret project, and the BIOS logo hack done in the IBM board).
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 9, 2007 13:23:14 GMT -5
More pics: This one is my IBM board BIOS logo hack: i've changed the old and dull IBM logo for a better one: the logo of one of the biggest Japan music records label (lots of anime shows soundtracks are from artists under this label): I will write soon a program to automate this hack a bit... there are not too much IBM boxes of this model working today, but they're pretty common in goverment agencies
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 10, 2007 17:19:38 GMT -5
Even more pics ;D - This is my collection of CD drives (and some HDs too, between some old phonebooks and some boring books about OS, PHP, Java, and databases)... all of them are in (almost) good condition: You can see there the following drives: - Mitsumi FX001DE: early 2X drive, damn difficult to dissasembly - Toshiba XM-5302: 4X, tricky tray - Cyberdrive 240D: 24X, THE WORST CD DRIVE IN THIS WORLD: it chokes even with original, brand-new CDs! - Cyberdrive 482D: 48X, much better, hacked to add the Play button. Disposable. - JVC-LiteOn (JLMS) XJ-HD166S: 16X/48X DVD drive: joint-ventures are not so good, this sucker no longer reads DVDs. The harddrives there are two dead Maxtors and an old Conner CP30084E (seems to be dead too). And here is my Pentium 200... yesterday: ...and today: Got an used case to put it (and to not kill another harddrive). Once i finish my (not yet started) "project" with this one, i could put it as a router, or something.
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jan 10, 2007 21:33:25 GMT -5
@tom - since you're back home now, do you want me to post your IIT 387 FPU? I'm going to the post office either Friday / Saturday - so try and P.M. your address to me soon! Oh and do you know of a good WiFi pass cracker for Windows?
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 12, 2007 11:29:28 GMT -5
There are two password crackers: Kismet and aircrack-ng. Both are available for Linux and Windows, but in Windows, they require special drivers for "promiscuous mode" on your Wi-Fi card. Such drivers are commercial, and available for some cards. On Linux, almost any wireless card will work, and that's the best choice for crackers Kismet is a litte difficult to use, so i recommend aircrack-ng for n00bs (like me ;D) However, you need a STRONG signal from the protected AP for capture enough IVs ("Initialization Vectors", the data needed for crack the password). You need at least 250000 for quickly crack a 40-bit WEP password, and more than 800000 IVs for a 128 bit password. (i only captured 1500 in one night because the APs are far from home, and the laptop integrated antenna sucks plain bad. Add some bugs in the Centrino wi-fi driver for Linux, and you will most likely not try this, unless you're willing to left your laptop ON for the next six months!). Once you get enough IVs, cracking the password take only 30 seconds in a dual-core CPU. With very few IVs, cracking will take SEVERAL DAYS, or will not end at all. WPA can't be cracked... yet (unless if the AP uses an easy-to-guess password). I suggest you to get an PCCARD/USB Wi-Fi card, with an external antenna socket, and install Linux (or boot from a Knoppix live-CD) Try to get one based on Atheros or Prism chipsets, experts say that these are the best for this tough job (stable drivers, and very configurable). Add a good antenna (try a "Pringles(tm) Can-tenna"), and you're set! EDIT: Here are more pictures of my P200MMX (i did a lot of work on this box this week). BTW: the Samsung 2GB HD has DMA issues... so i may replace it Replaced with my immortal 4gig SV0432A (this one REFUSES to work as slave!). Also replaced the CD drive with a burner, and the Trident videocard with a Pine 8MB card (based on the SiS 6326). Add an USB optical mouse, and you're ready to do some heavy-duty work there: Thanks to the SiS 6326, now Kurumi can say "Hello" at 30 FPS (only VCD-quality MPEGs can be played there at a decent speed, but if you have a Trident or S3 Trio card, it will struggle, EVEN WITH CHEAPO VCDs!)
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Post by jlf65 on Jan 12, 2007 19:32:29 GMT -5
Nice pictures, but some of the writing seems to be in some weird foreign language. ;D Some of that stuff is pretty ancient, for a PC. Of course, so is the Genesis we all love so much.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 12, 2007 20:52:08 GMT -5
Sometimes i forgot that my English is a bit more like "engrish"... But practice makes the master. My old Genesis is gathering dust right aside of my TV. I use it two or three times per year Someday i will buy or make my own flashcart... Hey, i got a crazy idea! How about wire a standard FlashROM from a old motherboard to a old, spare Genesis cart (i will need to learn how to solder without making a mess), and use any motherboard as a generic Flash dumper/writer? The idea is to do "hotflashing" using Uniflash (a generic, open-source Flash BIOS dumper/programmer for almost any PC flashable-mobo), then put my fresh FlashROM into the cart, and do some gaming... Since i have no money for purchase that expensive Tototek flashcart, and no way to create custom PCBs or purchasing ROM programmers, this looks like the perfect "Wacky-Poorman's Flashcart(R)(TM)"... Very cheap! Just use spare parts. Fire/electric shock hazard is medium ;D
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