Nerds Like Us

I took the hand-me-down laptop given to me by Susie and Wayne over to Nathan’s on Friday, for a first-class geeking (is that a verb?). We spent several hours working on it (actually he worked and I played with Eliza Jane). After upgrading the memory of this aging Compaq, we set about eradicating anything even vaguely Microsoft related. I’ll let you have it in his words, taken from his blog entry (visit the Eckenrodehouse link on the side) entitled “spreading the love”:

Yesterday, my buddy Mark came over to the house and we installed Kubuntu on his old laptop. Since the laptop was pretty ancient and was still running Microsoft Millenium Edition (silly name if you ask me) I had to do a little bit of geek voodoo to get the computer to cooperate.

Using a Knoppix Live CD of DSL (Damn Small Linux) to boot up and disengage the MSN code, I was able to follow that up with an installation of Ubuntu Linux 5.10 Hoary Hedgehog. Then once that was complete - I used Hoary because it does not have a graphical installer and it does a pretty good job of erasing and repartitioning a hard drive - I was able to boot a Kubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake Live CD and install that version. Then finally, late at night I went into the list of repository sources in /etc/apt/sources.list and changed all instances of Dapper to Edgy.

Then I ran these commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

An hour later, the computer had the basic code for Kubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft installed (it would have been much faster had this laptop had an ethernet connection, instead the install was done completely over WiFi). Some minor changes and then I had completed the process - naturally I take the hard way there could have been a much easier resolution but I had to set it up perfectly!

So now I own a breathtakingly useful Linux machine that is wireless capable, has an awesome array of applications, will play DVDs, is infinitely upgradable in terms of software, and even still has a floppy disk drive (quaint huh?). Of course the first thing I tried was bootlegging in on someone’s WiFi network in my building, only to find that the only one with decent signal strength is encrypted. So I got into my thinking chair and pondered my problem. I emailed Nathan this morning with my big idea:

Dude, so I had another idea (this is usually where the trouble starts).
I realized that in order for me to do dial-up or DSL, I must have phone service to the jack in my apartment. This will cost me additional money that I do not want to spend and a bill each month that I desperately don’t need. Then I had a small epiphany: I could use my cell phone! I found a free dial-up ISP that supports LINUX (Metconnect.com) and registered for it. What I need to do now is get an adapter for my cell phone - I plan to check out the Verizon store this afternoon. My search online made it seem that I was unlikely to find an adapter that will connect my phone to the phone jack in the back of the computer (and the computer does not seem to recognize that it has any modem - another issue), but a USB adapter is available for my phone.
Here is the challenge for your geek voodoo (actually, this may require some serious kung fu): since any software that comes with the phone or adapter is not LINUX friendly, is there a way to get this machine talking to the internet through a cell phone connected to one of the USB ports? With free nights and weekends on the phone and a free ISP, it would be the perfect no cost solution.

If I know my comrade he is on the case – this is what it is all about: just one nerd helping another. Stay tuned, as I’m certain that this computer will be a continual source of blog fodder.