Blog entries from March, 2006

Sometime this afternoon I found my installation of Transport Tycoon so I decided to fire it up and see what screen resolutions it could support. To my surprise (not so much in hindsight) it supports 1920×1200 (and above) which is the native resolution of my shiny new display. Like one day a year ago I then proceeded to spend quite a few hours trying to lay out an efficient train network.

After my last update just over a month ago I spent time time tonight adding descriptions to the photos of my Apple IIgs.

For months now I had been thinking about replacing my 19″ CRT with two 17″ LCD’s or (more recently) a single 20″ widescreen LCD. On Tuesday night I decided that I might as well give myself a treat so I ordered the Dell 2405FPW, a 24″ widescreen LCD display which has had decent reviews. One contributing factor was that they are currently 20% off as a replacement model is due to be released soon.

It arrived today and it is impressive… Unfortunately my KVM doesn’t support the native resolution of the display so I am taking advantage of a direct DVI connection to my main workstation and leaving my two Linux boxes running through the KVM on the analog input of the display. This now makes switching less convenient than it used to be so am I considering running VNC to bring the display from Preston up in a window.

One other issue at the moment is that the included USB cable is not long enough due to the configuration of my desk. This will be as simple as buying a longer cable…

Note: a few days after I originally posted this I changed the title from ‘Lots of screen real estate’ to the current 2010 inspired title. Although I thought it was from 2001 but that may be the book instead of the movie…

For the second Sunday in a row I have gone for a bike ride, something I would have been less inclined to do if I had to pay the regular price for a train ticket.

Last week Damien and I caught the first train (at 7:30AM) from Glen Waverley in order to get to Laverton by 9:00AM. We then rode around the bay through Altona, Williamstown, Port Melbourne and Elwood to get to Brighton where we jumped back on the train to get home. On any other day of the week we would have had to purchase a Zone 1+2 daily full fare ticket at a cost of AU$9.70 each. However we only paid AU$2.50 each for a Sunday Saver which allows travel over all three zones for the entire day.

This morning I rode up along the Dandenong Creek to Bayswater where I caught the train into East Camberwell. From there I rode down the lower section of the old outer circle and then back home along the Glen Waverley train line. For my single trip from Bayswater to East Camberwell I would have had to have spend AU$7.20 on a Zone 1+2+3 two hour full fare ticket. Again I was spared this by getting another Sunday Saver.

My current plan is to go for a ride every Sunday morning which will be much more interesting if I include a train journey…

A few days ago I decided that a week was long enough to wait for a response since I offered my two DECstations to the ClassicCmp mailing list and I would probably have a better response with eBay. So after lunch today I listed them for the grand total of AU$1 (buy it now) and by the time I got home someone had bought them. I haven’t been in contact with them yet but I expect that by the end of the coming weekend they will be gone…

I have just posted a message to one of the ClassicCmp mailing lists in which I offer the DECstation 5000 and the that I have. For free. Hopefully they will go as quickly as the SGI Personal Iris‘s that I found a home for via the same method a little over eighteen months ago.