My Garage PC (Pentium 133 MHz)

[Bungo Pony]

I've mentioned my Garage computer a few times in the past, but now I have pics! Here's the specs:

Pentium 133 MHz
1.7G hard drive
128M RAM
3 internal DVD-ROMs, 1 external DVD-ROM
USB 2.0
Running Damn Small Linux

The sole purpose of this machine is to play music. There's 2845 MP3s on this machine. It can play for over a week without playing the same song twice! :)

I have more pics on my blog, along with descriptions of all the mods and hacks I've done to it (includes the playlist!): http://classicalgasemissions.blogspot.com

[kahlil88]

Nice! Glad to know people are still putting their dinosaurs to good use instead of sending them to the junkyard.

[MONODA]

kmandla would be proud :D

[mikjp]

Cool!

BTW, why do you consider DSL 3.4 better than the later releases?

[tel93]

I want that so badly.

[Bungo Pony]

Cool!

BTW, why do you consider DSL 3.4 better than the later releases?

I've found version 4 to be quite user-unfriendly. The mount tool is no longer included. Instead, you're supposed to use EmelFM to mount the drives, and I've found the included version (or setup) of EmelFM to be unfriendly as well. I'm also not very fond of JWM being the default window manager. I'm much happier with Fluxbox.

If I want DSL 4 to work for me, I'd have to make a lot of changes. DSL 3 seems to be very straight-forward and user-friendly, well at least for me. Why change something that works? :)

[mikjp]

OK, thanks.

Have you considered feeding the mp3's over WLAN or wired ethernet to the garage? So you could get rid of the DVDs and would not need e.g. usb memory sticks to replace them.

Greetings,

Mikko

[Bungo Pony]

Have you considered feeding the mp3's over WLAN or wired ethernet to the garage?

I've definately thought about it and may eventually go that route. As it stands right now, there is no network connection in the garage and I don't have a wireless card.

I've played the MP3s over wireless on my laptop (running Win98 ). It seems a bit chunky and crashes quite often, but that may be a Windows problem.

The physical media seems nice and reliable for now, and it puts old hardware to good use :)

When I wire up internet to the garage, I'll give the network option a try and see how it goes.

[timzak]

Great job!

I thought I was the only one who put a Linux box in the garage to play music. :)

Although, your project is much more ambitious than mine ever was. I started off with a Celeron 466 with 256 MB paired with Xubuntu 7.04. I got 100 feet of cable and wired my garage for internet through the attic (this allows Streamtuner in addition to local music).

Currently, through a computer upgrade to my main system, I had extra parts become available, which allowed me to replace the Celeron 466 with a much more modern rig. Currently it's running Ubuntu 8.4.1 with an AthlonXP 1.8 Ghz and 1 GB RAM. The Celeron has become my 4 year old's first "real" computer (which he hardly ever uses, just for receiving emails from his dad at work, or playing on Tux Paint).

Enjoy!

[wolfen69]

It can play for over a week without playing the same song twice! :)

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mine can play for over 4 months without repeating a song. :confused:

[K.Mandla]

I feel all weepy and proud right now. I think I may cry. It's just so beautiful ... ;)

[TheSlipstream]

mine can play for over 4 months without repeating a song. :confused:

W-wow. How many songs do you have? o_O

[kris kincaid]

Take a look here: http://www.pandora.com/

I use that on my garage PC and haven't felt the need to run any MP3's. Cool stuff!

[mikjp]

Take a look here: http://www.pandora.com/

I use that on my garage PC and haven't felt the need to run any MP3's. Cool stuff!

Pandora was OK a few years ago. Nowadays, it just sucks:

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We believe that you are in Finland (your IP address appears to be xx.xx.xxx.xx). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com

Greetings,

mikko

[xen-uno]

Hmmm ... Pandora's pretty cool. I'd like to stick something out in my detached garage too but I'd rather just pipe the music out to an amp via a 3 GHz AV sender. Distance is 50 to 75 feet.

[wolfen69]

W-wow. How many songs do you have? o_O

35,000. actually, i had 35,000 up until last night. i accidentilly wiped out my drive with the songs. i'm not too worried though, because i didn't listen to 75% of them. i was just a music collector. i still have about 10,000 of my favorite stuff backed up on many discs. it's just a matter of copying the mp3's back onto the drive. yes i know i could have recovered them, but i guess i'm just too lazy right now.

[wolfen69]

Take a look here: http://www.pandora.com/

I use that on my garage PC and haven't felt the need to run any MP3's. Cool stuff!

thanks for the link. just checking it out right now and seems to be very cool.

EDIT: this has to be one of the coolest web based music apps i've ever used. wow. everyone should check this out. (if you're in the US)

mikjp:
Pandora was OK a few years ago. Nowadays, it just sucks
yeah, it only sucks if you don't live in the US.