A New Life for an Old Dell Dimension Desktop

I recently acquired an old Dell Dimension 4300 desktop from the 2001 era. This old computer was running Windows XP and when it booted up, I was presented with a password protected user log in. Por fin! (Finally!) I ran to my box of computer supplies and found a disc labeled Windows XP password recovery or hacker or something. A friend had given me the disc and I'd never had occasion to use it before now.
Unfortunately, the disc failed. Ahhh...
No worries. Google is my friend and helped me discover that booting into Safe Mode will get you in with administrator privileges sufficient to modify the user accounts as needed. Nice.

I played around with the machine, but ultimately decided that short of a fresh install of Windows XP Home, to which I did not have a handy installation disc. The product key was taped to the side, but I wasn't in the mood to go through all that, especially when I had a Ubuntu 12.04 LiveCD lying around just begging to get installed somewhere.

The LiveCD disc was left to beg a little longer. I read up on the web that the minimum requirements for 12.04 were probably a bit too much for this old heap. Not to be beaten, I ran back to my box of computer supplies and pulled out an even older LiveCD I picked up years ago: Ubuntu 5.10.

I promptly installed Ubuntu 5.10 and then went to work to see if I could install OpenTTD.

This Linux n00b quickly found out that Linux is 'super easy', but only if you're recently updated. I read through numerous forum posts and toyed with the idea of what it might take but retreated to the 12.04 disc instead.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that the 12.04 installer was incapable of recognizing the hard drive. Weird. The 5.10 installer had no problem, and while running in trial mode the 12.04 environment could detect and mount the hard drive. However, as soon as the installation process was started in 12.04, the hard drive was not listed as available installation targets. (Only my USB drive was recognized.)

Back to Google.
Turns out, Ubuntu comes in several flavors. Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu to name a few. I quickly settled on Lubuntu. But, again, another road block, I'm running low on blank CD's!
No problem. That's why they built tools like 'unetbootin'. You can use it to put/install/write/make? your .iso files onto a USB flash drive and then you can go to your target computer and tell it to boot from your USB device instead of the optical drive. Hurray! See this HTG post for more details. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13379/create-a-bootable-ubuntu-9.10-usb-flash-drive/

Oh, no! This old machine doesn't have the option to boot from USB.
No worries. Turns out they built another tool, called PLoP, to solve this problem as well. See this HTG post for more details. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/

Success, right? Not so fast. The troubles kept coming. In fact, I almost posted this question to the askUbuntu forums while I was trying yet again to install Lubuntu 12.04 via the alternate installer, for the second or third time.

Linux n00b. I have only used Live CD's in the past for various things. These are my first install attempts.
I have a 2001 era Dell 4300, to which I successfully installed Ubuntu 5.10, as the live CD for 12.04 appeared too sluggish. (These were the two discs on hand.)
I decided that 5.10 was a bit too outdated to be able to do what I wanted (install openTTD).
Hoping to get a lighter desktop I then sought for Lubuntu 12.04. Rather than burn another CD, I used unetbootin and plop for boot from usb support.
However, the installer for Lubuntu 12.04 failed to detect my hard drive, similar to this thread. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1608255 ( same results from the ubuntu 12.04 disc, too.) During a live session the hard drive is visible. Start up the installer, however, and only the USB drive is listed as available locations.

I then went and downloaded the alternate installer for Lubuntu and tried again. However, now I think I'm getting Bug#658865. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/658865   The solution listed there is to start the live session and make the file change and then launch installation. This doesn't work for me since the installer on the desktop version doesn't detect my hard drive.

If someone can illustrate how to upgrade Ubuntu 5.10 to Lubuntu 12.04 - that would be great. However, after spending all day on this, I'd also like to know how to be able to install Lubuntu 12.04.

While composing the question, I also figured out that you'll have much better luck, like I did, if you don't have a USB keyboard attached to the computer you are trying to use PLoP with to boot from USB. It just doesn't support USB peripherals at this time. Ohhh, see, it helps if you read all the instructions first.



Turns out, I was able to try installation again, this time with a ps/2 keyboard and successfully navigate through installer and things worked. So, I never posted the question I composed above. Almost though.

Oh, and Lubuntu 12.04 works great! Many new adventures in Linux are just waiting to be discovered! Well...first things first. I have to go download openTTD now.

Upgrade Your Hard Drive Without Re-Installing Windows Again

This is another tech support post where I'm just recording my notes for future reference.
A desktop computer running Windows Vista again, but this time, the desire was to just swap out the hard drive with a newer one. How do you do that if your computer originally shipped with a recovery partition and didn't ship with discs? What if you really do not want to re-install Windows again?

Luckily, there exists a simple solution. I almost took the more risky solution though. Both solutions that I considered (among several other options) involved Linux. Yeah, you're guessing it. I was reading up on the 'dd' command. Which, surprisingly, is nicknamed 'disk destroyer' because so many people get it wrong. Yeah, that's enough to pause and make you think twice.

What is the 'dd' command? It's essentially a command line tool that does what more expensive tools like TrueImage will do for you - clone your hard drive. And that's exactly what I wanted to do. I used a LiveCD for Ubuntu 12.04 and was nearly convinced I had the correct command. Instead, I went and burned a CD with CloneZilla on it and took that route instead.

If you are going to use CloneZilla, do yourself a favor and boot into BIOS first to verify which disk is which, or look at the disk physically and take note of it's serial number because CloneZilla will likely identify your disks this way. I didn't do this first and had to stop the process and start over because my two disks were very similarly named WDC (Western Digital). Getting it wrong in CloneZilla is just as bad as getting wrong with the 'dd' command in your linux terminal.

CloneZilla worked great. The new hard drive is happily in its new home and thinks it shipped straight from the factory.

Avoid the ID10T Error

You may have heard it, or you may have been told that you were experiencing an ID10T error. And now that you see it written out, you immediately know that you do not want to experience this kind of user error. So, how do you prevent yourself from becoming just another ID10T error, or even several other well known user errors?

Look Twice.

It's surprising how often some of the most frustrating problems are caused by NPI. Not Plugged In!

This is especially true if you've recently ripped open your computer and are frantically troubleshooting what could be wrong during finals week. You're desperately trying different ideas, and suddenly...nothing happens. Wait! It was working, sort of, just a minute ago. What just happened?

Oh, yeah, plug it back in.

• the power cord

• the memory card
• the battery

Save yourself from receiving the ID10T label and check to see if your problem isn't just NPI.

(The Kindle version of the book is currently free on Amazon)

Deal: 8GB Class 10 Micro SDHC Memory Card with Adapter

I try not to spam you too often with deals that I think are mildly interesting or fairly good. :)

But, if you happened to be in the market for a new SD card for your camera - this one might fit the bill nicely.
I personally didn't jump on this deal because we just bought a new 32GB card for our new camera. Yeah, our old camera died. :(   So we had to upgrade. :)


Anyways, the Class rating on SD cards is important when you start saving video and taking lots of high res pictures. The higher the Class rating, the faster the read/write times to the card. New cameras suggest at least a Class 4 or 6. Obviously, the higher the Class rating, the more expensive the card.

Another caveat to this deal is that you'll want to check out your camera's maximum SD card size that it can handle. It won't do you any good to buy this 8GB card and find out that your camera only can handle a 4GB card. Essentially, you'll pop it in, and your camera will only see 4GB instead of the true 8GB. It can be a bit difficult to find the actual specs on max card size for your camera, so some searching may be involved.

The fact that the actual memory is just the microSD form factor size is not an issue. Even if your camera only accepts the standard SD form factor size, the adapter will not negatively affect performance because it is just a direct connection pass through adapter. I just smile at how a standard was adopted and technology zoomed on ahead.

This might be a good deal, if I needed more cards for my camera. I also thought it might work as an upgrade to my current jump drive, but then I'd need a USB adapter like this.
Suddenly, it's not such a great deal. Too bad it didn't come with that kind of adapter to begin with. Although, it's so tiny, it's hard to hold on to and not lose. A friend of mine already lost his.
And if I'm going to spend $12 on an adapter, I start to wonder why I didn't just go for a 17million and one card reader, but that wasn't the original intent, so yeah, back full circle. This might be a good deal if I wanted a smaller card...whatever.

Final thoughts: The deal isn't so hot for some because of the rebate. Additional research on Amazon and Newegg also shows only average reviews. But, regardless, I hope the above information will aid you in your quest the next time you upgrade.

SimCity2000: Screen Shots and Building Tips

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I busted out my copy of SimCity 2000 and DosBox and went to work as the mayor of a thriving metropolis. But it wasn't a metropolis right away. I built this city, slowly, from the ground up. I was surprised that I had forgotten some of the intricate details and strategies for building a successful city. However, these mistakes only set me back a couple of decades of development as I waited for my coffers to refill. 
So, just for fun, here are a few screen shots of my city as it grew throughout the years. Enjoy!

"Commerce needs connections."  I kept getting this message until I realized what it meant. The commercial sector needed a way to do business with the world outside of my immediate city. Building roads that extend to to the neighboring cities is one way of connecting your city to the outside world. Additionally, building seaports and airports will also do the trick. Another tip regarding ports - they need roads and power like any other zone - however, unlike residential, commercial, and industrial zones, do not stretch power lines across the available squares to speed up development. The power lines actually hinder growth at ports. So, only stretch the power lines across the road in a few places and let the ports grow from there.

Your sims need to travel. You can use the query tool to check on how much traffic a section of roadway is getting. Add subways and rails, or build a complete highway system with on ramps and off ramps. The bus system, however, is one of the most effective at moving your sims along. This allows them to travel further distances and reduces pollution. Sims will only attempt to travel so far. They need to be able to reach each of the different zones. They need to live and go to work and go shopping. The better the transportation infrastructure, the further they can travel and the more valuable the zoning arrangement will be. Remember, this game is all about developing the most expensive real estate because property taxes are what fill your coffers at year's end.

As property values increase, you will notice the building types to look cleaner and crisper. Use the query tool to view each property and its characteristics.

Hydroelectric power is the overall cheapest method to power your city. Every other power plant looks cooler, is more expensive per megawatt, may produce lots of pollution, and also has the expensive requirement of needing to be replaced after every 50 years. Hydro is also nice because it can fit in nicely where ever you have a slope with water to build it on. While this is not very realistic sometimes, it also has the added advantage of spreading out your power supply. During an earthquake, any number of buildings could be lost - and if one of them happens to be a costly power plant - your city could be without power while you try to recover from the wreckage. Disasters are the primary reason it is recommended that your power and water grids be as interconnected as possible. In the event of a disruption on one block, power can still be rerouted around the problem center. Take the time and place extra power lines around the block.

Another trick I remembered was how well water pumps perform based on their location. The amount of water each pump can produce is directly dependent upon the number of fresh water squares that are adjacent to it. That is why most of my water pumps are sitting next to my hydroelectric dams - it increases their output tremendously. One adjacent square of fresh water will increase output by nearly 50%. This will ultimately help reduce the number of water pumps you need to quench your thirsty city.

The military will come knocking on your door when your population reaches 60,000 residents. Apparently, you need to have a pretty hilly terrain in order to get the elusive Army base. They are useful when you have a disaster because they are additional units to deploy to assist your police or firefighters in containing riots and fires and whatnot.

If you do not want to play the original SC2000 inside of DosBox - you can pick up SimCity4 along with its expansion and a few other games in the SimCity Box. I have been wanting this latest version for some time. If you have it and have played both, please share your comments below.

Tuesday Tip: Microsoft Office Update Fields

Do you need to update all the fields in your Microsoft Office Word document when you don't have a table of contents?

CTRL+A to select all text and then hit F9. 

It will then update all your fields instead of having to right click and select "Update field" for each one individually. 

Do a quick search for any errors, for example, "Error! Reference source not found." 

It may be helpful to save right before you do this so you can open up the last saved state and compare if you suddenly find yourself scratching your head wondering where a reference link was supposed to be pointing towards.

How to add a percentage sign without multiplying by 100 in Excel

I become frustrated with software that tries to do everything for me. Automatic install wizards dumping icons all over my desktop without asking or my word processor auto correcting things it thinks are wrong. Luckily, while we all universally hate Microsoft (yet use it every day) there are options to customize and do it your way. Maybe that is why I don't hate them entirely. But, hey, today's post is about a trick in Microsoft Excel, not in hating software giants!   



There are lots of websites that have thousands of Microsoft Office tips and tricks. But today I wanted to feature a less well known trick that is harder to find online. 


How to add a percentage sign without multiplying by 100 in Excel?


For example, when I do my work I do my own calculations. After calculating a row, or column of numbers I wanted to format them so that they displayed with the percentage symbol. If you have ever used Excel for your budgeting you know that a simple Right Click and Format Cells will allow you to choose Currency and voila! All your cells are instantly formatted to two decimal places with the $ sign. 


If you choose the percentage format, there is this caveat. 

"Percentage formats multiply the cell value by 100 and displays the result with a symbol."

If your number is '4' it will be represented as '400%'. Argh! I don't want Excel to do anything to my numbers. What can I do?


Option 1) Create a new column or modify the equation preceding your results to divide them all by 100.

But what if they are already divided by 100? Or you have your own reasons…


Option 2) Right Click, Format Cells, Custom. Manually type in "0.0\%" without the quotes.

If you want more decimal places to show, just add in zeroes. "0.000\%"


For example, if your cell contents are '4.35' then with the above custom format it would appear as '4.350%'.

This solved a big headache for me. I found it answered by J. E. McGimpsey on a Mac forum for MS Office users! Hence, my jab at the controversy for fun at the beginning of this post.

Hope it helps!

How do I add a second Y-axis to a Microsoft Excel plot?

I keep forgetting how to add a second y-axis to a plot made in Microsoft Excel. And I figured this might be helpful to other people as well.

Remember the plots from my little dollar cost averaging example? They all employed two y axes; a primary and a secondary. For illustration, here is what the plot would look like without the second y axis.

The price data appears to be zero because it is so small on the range of the value of the fund which reaches nearly $30,000. Utilizing a secondary axis is helpful whenever you want to compare trend lines of data that share the same abscissa, or x values, but do not share the same range of ordinate, or the vertical y axis values.

How do you get the secondary axis to appear?
First, add the data to your existing plot. I always forget and try to add a secondary axis first - it doesn't work!
Once you have your data and it looks poorly represented, then you can select it, and right click on it.

From the right click menu, select "Format Data Series" and you will the following screen. Here you can choose to plot the data on the primary or secondary y axis. Woohoo!

Need further help in Excel?
One book that I would like to recommend is actually a textbook...


So, where else can you find good excel advice? I am not really sure. If you know of a good site - please share below in the comments.

Vertex42 is a great site for Excel templates. I have found some useful tools there.

Free Open Source Games

Yesterday's post about free productivity software made me think about the free software that I use most and enjoy most. Free Open Source Games!  We can't always be productive. Sometimes we just need time to unwind and have fun. And sometimes it is just fun to be on top of the world, be the conquering hero, whatever.

With computers always advancing and upgrading I found that some of my favorite games were being left behind. They would no longer run properly on my new machine and I really didn't have the space to keep working relics of an old 486 DX processor, an old Pentium II MMX, etc. But how do you go about playing those old classics?

Look for diehard fans on the internet. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many world wide open source projects exist solely to re-imagine our favorite games from times long before the advent of quad cores and 64bit processors. Here is a link to a list of open source games in all stages of development according to Wikipedia. You will be surprised at the wide range of possibilities. Some are very simply like you can find in your daily arcade downloads and some are behemoths that rival their paid counterparts.

Which ones are my favorites? My favorites stem back to the mid 1990's.

OpenTTD is an open source remake and expansion of the 1995 Chris Sawyer game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It is an 'Urban planning and simulation game'.You start the game in 1950 with a bank loan of $100,000. It is your job to become a transportation mogul. Use vehicles of the road, rail, air or sea to transport goods, commodities, and passengers. In order for towns to grow they need you to transport them goods from factories which require raw materials. The AI in the original game could be frustrating. As the years progress technology brings you newer and improved methods of transport.

OpenTTD duplicates most of the original game's features but also has numerous additions, including much bigger, or smaller, maps, a multiplayer capability, improved language support, better AIs and ports for several commonly used operating systems. It offers LAN and Internet play via public and worldwide servers for up to 255 players. OpenTTD also includes numerous usability improvements not present in Transport Tycoon Deluxe. OpenTTD also incorporates many features from TTDPatch.
According to a study, of the activity of the 61,154 open source projects on SourceForge in the period 1999-2005, OpenTTD was the 8th most active patch/contribution receiving open source project.




FreeCol is a clone of Sid Meier's Colonization. (The original, not the newly released CIV4 expansion)
FreeCol starts in the year 1492. With a few settlers, the player builds up colonies in the New World, struggling for power with other colonies from rival Europeans. The player gradually builds up these colonies with help from the European king until no help from Europe is necessary, meaning that the colonies can stand alone without any exterior aid, and declares independence from the King and, if the colonies are able to resist the attacks of the royal expeditionary force, victory is obtained.

The player may trade with Europe using various natural resources which are collected by cities or acquired from trade with natives. In each city the player can also build up industrial buildings to convert raw materials into processed goods, which sell for more in Europe, providing a significant economic advance. Some industrial buildings will convert materials into goods useful for running the colony, such as converting wood into Hammers and ore into tools.


 Finding re-imagined games via the open source community is a lot more fun than trying to keep your ancient PC running. Although, I have re-purposed a lot of old PC's in my day, too.

What is your favorite open source game?

Free Applications for your Computer

I am on ZDNet's mailing list and get an email compiled of their latest articles and updates every so often. One article that caught my eye was their list of "Seven great (and free!) applications for Windows 7."  Truthfully, I wondered why it was necessary to include Windows 7 in the title. There wasn't anything on the list that you could not run in Windows XP. And, ironically, most of these programs are coming from open source operating systems like Linux. Why pay for software?

I have found it helpful to see what programs people use to accomplish their work. It gives you an insight to examine the alternatives and decide for yourself if there might be a better way that you simply did not know about before.

I actually found the list of 30 that Trent Hamm, from The Simple Dollar, compiled way back in 2006 to be quite useful. He has since updated it to include a list of 25 for Mac users and recently included an updated list of his nine most commonly used pieces of free software.

I have used a lot of open source software and think that is great. Firefox is the first thing I install on a new machine. I actually still use Microsoft Office - but that is only because I am able to purchase it through enormous company discounts. Otherwise, I would always use OpenOffice. I also use CutePDF and my wife plays around with GIMP to do serious photo editing.

What are your favorite free applications that you use?

FrankenTech

Success! Finally!
As I sit here writing this I am finally experiencing the relief and joy that only comes as you patiently watch as Ubuntu installs on your newly assembled system.

I have come a long way in building computers and playing around with them. This recent construction project was a ground up approach. I bought the pieces all separately and began assembling them inside a old case that I owned, an eMachines computer that followed the rest to a sudden and unexpected death. Unexpected until I read story after story of the poor quality power supplies, Bestec, that failed and consequently fried your motherboard one day.

I took my time and downloaded the manual for this board as it was slightly used and verified and checked myself at every step. I was being a bit more meticulous than I usually am when tinkering around with my old PII's or PIII's I have cluttering up my basement much to the ire of my wife.

This build was slow and methodical and I was like a kid waiting for Christmas when I pushed the power button for the first time only to have my hopes dashed as nothing appeared on the monitor. The fans were running but nothing was happening.

A note that I think should be made about using a motherboard from someone else - it might be a good idea to clear the CMOS settings back to factory default to prevent the system from running as it shouldn't - overclocked when you weren't expecting it. If you knew how it was ran before and under what setup - then this might not apply.

My system will not boot!
Two possible choices - software failure or hardware failure.
Since I wasn't even making it to POST, power on self test, or even the memory count, I couldn't even enter the BIOS. Software was definitely not my problem.
I actually found this website to be the most helpful in uncovering the root of my problem.
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread27079.html#

As you guessed, I had built the system and wanted it to just run perfectly the first time it powered up. It was not to be. So following the general advice of a trouble shooter I eliminated possibilites and started with a barebones system.
Still, with only the motherboard, one good stick of RAM, and the CPU with heatsink - -nothing was happening. Edit - I was seeing the motherboard graphic appear on the monitor about half of the time.
Since the system was not even entering the BIOS portion of the boot sequence I knew there was a problem with my barebones system. Had I received a bad board?

I tried the advice listed in the website above and swapped out the CMOS battery.
Voila! The motherboard graphic on screen gave way to a RAM count and a system halt on the error of no floppy drive connected. I was in!
This is where I made my next mistake. Thinking I had solved all of my problems I promptly reconnected everything again and triumphantly pressed the power button only to see the motherboard graphic stare me in the face and refuse to proceed on to the normal boot sequence.

Now what? Back to the basics. Try it, yes it works. Okay, back to trouble shooting mode.
One by one I reconnected the floppy, test, the optical drive, test, and the hard drive, test. And I failed.
Now what? Was it the IDE channel, the cable, the drive, or a jumper setting? First, I swapped cables. Test - failed. Cable is not the problem.

Secondly, I swapped drives because I could see the jumper setting and had verified it was set to master. Test - failed. Drive was not the problem.
Finally, I tried a third hard drive that was actually working and not supposed to be an empty drive. Test - successful.

Then I connected my first attempted HDD as the slave. Test - failed.
Why? Oh, yeah, switch the jumper on my drive to slave if I am going to have two hooked up. Test - Successful.
Then I realized that this supposedly empty drive must not have been empty and may have been used previously as a slave and did not like being hooked up as a master.
Next I rechecked that jumper. I switched it to cable select instead of master. Test - successful

I reset up the original configuration, including resetting the jumper pin on the hard drive this time to cable select, knowing the drive worked and popped in my install cd and let the installer tell the drive how to behave.
The result - just as I finished writing this, my installation of Ubuntu is complete and I am smiling once again!

Lessons learned -
That CMOS battery is actually important.
Don't disregard the rules of trouble shooting. Eliminate possibilities and work slowly not skipping ahead cause your excited.
Provide a flow diagram that visually shows the steps and the tests and their outcomes.

Here is something else that might help. What are those POST codes?
http://www.postcodemaster.com/

I am reinstalling windows on an upgraded machine and now my recovery discs don't work!
http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-252418.html
-Yes, call Microsoft to get an activation code and download an iso, also slipstream in sata driver support.
Or use a Dell recovery cd with your own coa, certificate of authenticity.