But before I get into more detail on my three systems, I'd like to describe a few things about my den. As soon as one walks in here it becomes obvious that the computers are in control here. I have always joked that the decorum reflects a "Modern Entropy" style. There are floppies and CD-ROMS everywhere (even the floppy organizers are strewn about!) It just gets worse from there. Looking around right now, I can find:
As much of a mess my den is, the three computers are the ones who "rule" my den. If he were around today, Sigmund Freud would have a field day with computers and the way we interact with them. We even attribute human qualities to them. Even without a network, we often have names for our PC's (although frequently many of us just call them names.) We blame them for a lot of the problems we have (I mean, these days you can blame almost anything on a computer error, and someone will believe you!) In my case, the systems were all named out of necessity, since they are all networked together. As I mentioned before, I have learned by experience of all of the little quirks and neuroses of these systems.
"Kids", my oldest system, is a chronic procrastinator. It's hard not to procrastinate when you have a 386SX/20 for a processor. It also has 6 megs of RAM, a single-speed CD-ROM drive, 8-bit sound card, and a whopping 200 megs of disk space. Despite this anachronistic configuration, I have had some interesting adventures with this system. Most notable of these was the time I tried running Win95 on here, but that's another story. Watch for it.
"Dads," the next system we purchased, is a DECpc 420SX (yes, it's hard to believe that anybody ever bought a 486SX-based system.) The main problem of this system is that it resists change. Essentially, any further major upgrades on this system would be impossible, as all three expansion slots are full, and the video and I/O are on the motherboard, meaning that in order to upgrade anything but the RAM, the entire main system unit would have to be replaced. I'm not sure if it's for character or because we just lost it somewhere along the line, but there is a missing block-out bezel in the front, exposing the innards of the system. Nonetheless, this machine (the one I am writing this on) has the largest hard drive (2.1GB) and is the only one with a working modem, so it has the only Internet connection in the den. I'm quite sure the other two systems are quite jealous.
"Zippy", our Pentium, is the most recent addition to our den. It suffers from multiple personality disorder. At last count, I found five different personalities. Some of these are more colorful than others (at least until we can find the proper video drivers.) This one is a Pentium 75 with 16 megs of RAM, a quad speed CD-ROM and a gig and a half of disk space. This system has been around for only about six months, but already it has run DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 workstation, and Netware 4.1 server. In addition, Zippy is also our choice system for somewhat less productive pursuits (translation: It's the only system that runs games at any decent speed.)
Three systems can definitely make life a lot easier, unless they're networked. Then they can make things positively nightmarish. Already there have been plenty of "adventures" that we have faced with these systems. I will write about a few of our past adventures, and when they happen. Watch for them. Meanwhile, I think Zippy may be plotting something evil here...