Got the 10$ used power supply I was talking about in my last post at Dantech. Actually the power supply was of a better design than the original one. After the scare of having lost an hard drive, which was nothing because it was simply unplugged.
So everything is fine, no damage! Almost a miracle, never seen a situation where a power supply goes without frying something on the motherboard.
So the BBS is back, still not totally sure of it’s future, but so far it’s there!
( mtlgeek.synchro.net is down)
So after 11 years of service this poor power supply (on the picture) fried, I had to do a shutdown for an update, when i turned it back on everything was fine, but after like 10 min. “SCrihhhhhhhhhHHHH” and a bad smell (known as “Blue smoke” see the : Blue Smoke Theory) invaded that room.
This old Pentum II 450 as been in operation since 1998. So very antiquated.
So I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was also using this server at home for storage. (this old box has more that 750GB for storage capacity) so it also was the multimedia server too. The data is safe so I’m not freaking out. But I wonder if I’ll still be hosting a BBS, days have changed even from the 2002 when I restarted it (use to have one in the 80′s) . The thing is that in fact the scene is still very somehow active (check synchro.net for example) but yet I feel it’s fading a bit more faster lately.
With technologies like E107, yaBB someone could easily maintain a web board that would be quite similar to forums on an old text based BBS. And it could easily be hosted instead of having to dedicate a box at home for the same purpose. Any hosting with PHP/MySql would do.
The only thing right now tjat i can’t duplicate is Tradewars, it need a windows box. But I didn’t promote it much anyway because i wasn’t sure about the future of this box and if this game was still relevant. I don’t have much player for “The Legend Of The Green Dragon” and it’s simpler to access being web based and all. I feel that if it’s not a game based on facebook it doesn’t work. Sad! it feel like the web is getting too monolithic. I would like to believe that there is more to the web than google, gmail, twitter and facebook.
So I’ll see to get a replacement power supply for that box before next weekend, if there is more damage I’ll probably let it go, I probably could use an old laptop to do the same work, would take even less space. But i don’t know if I have the time and if people have the interest.
I’ll keep you posted.
Sega Dreamcast
09-09-09 was famous for another thing 10 years ago!! And it wasn’t about the Beatles (now that i think of it, I don’t remember anything special about the Beatles back then)
Today 10 years ago was the release of the Sega Dreamcast. It was released on the market almost a year before the PlayStation 2. Sony hadn’t anything ready, but was trowing all kind of promises and specs on a shadow machine that was at least on paper to be technically superior to the Dreamcast! Most gamer still had the bast taste in theirs mouth of the Sega Saturn and where more tempted to wait and see.
I still think the Dreamcast was superior. It had an integrated modem and internet browser out of the box, the VMU (it’s memory cars with an lcd display) it’s still something that has never been duplicated on any other system. I dare someone to tell the difference graphically of playing a title on the DC or the PS2.
But Sega couldn’t play the wait and see game that Sony started. Couldn’t keep a large inventory of console while the PS2 wasn’t still on the market. Being already in the red for the Saturn failure it was too much and Sega dropped it and ceased to be a console maker shifting it’s business to game software development only.
The DC sold around 10 millions unit and was considered a failure where it took years for the XBOX reach 20 millions units and was seen as a success.
It’s all about hype and marketing!
If you want to read more about the Dreamcast : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast (it’s accurate)
