In A Brief Lull

Not a lot of physical action on the project while I'm waiting on the RAM to arrive. The guys at Thinkpads.com tell me that in order for the TP-600 to recognize the 288MB the bios will have to be updated to the latest. After asking a few more questions, I knew how to determine the bios level on the machine, and it turned out to be Ver. 1.03, dated 4/2/98. I'd say that's a little out of date. I went to the IBM web site and downloaded the most current bios update for the TP-600 - Ver 1.22 dated 10/12/2001. Hopefully, the bios update will go on smoothly and the laptop will be ready for the RAM upgrade when it arrives.

I've been doing a lot of reading and research on desktop Linux distributions and have narrowed my focus down to four. There are literally 100's of Linux distributions to choose from, so I'm primarily been relying on published reviews. In my mind, I'm looking for: 1. Free, 2. small hardware footprint, 3. proven compatibility with the laptop and wireless, and 4. non-complex, ease of use, Newbie proof.

My search hasn't declared a clear winner, but the following four stand out as candidates worth trying: Ubuntu, Simply Mepis/MepisLite, Kanotix, and PClinuxOS. I've downloaded Ubuntu and Mepis and have the other two coming on CD.

I did discover something of interest, and probably the route I will follow. Most of the distributions are available on a "Live" CD which allows you to boot the linux OS off of the CD without disturbing your existing installed OS. This allows you to try it, verifying compatibility, look & feel, ... Etc. This way, I can fairly quickly try all four and determine which one works best for me and my application.

More on that as we go along. I'll likely be pretty quiet for a day or so until I get the laptop upgraded.

Related, However Loosely

I know I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know, but the internet is absolutely wonderful. Even a techno-geek-wannabe like me can take on a complex technical project with little existing knowledge of the details required to completee the project.

No matter what the topic/subject, you have access to very qualified technical advisors and technical information 24/7. There are forums, blogs, wikis , and technical reference sites on any subject and I do mean any subject. You may have to apply a little judgement to qualifying individual responses, but that generally sorts itself out.

So far, I've needed to research technical information on the Thinkpad 600 laptop since I know little about it. A couple of sources of info on the laptop itself as well as implementing Linux on it have been invaluable:

ThinkWiki provides great reference material for implementing Linux on a Thinkpad

Thinkpads.com Forum a great forum for q&a on everything you want to know about any model of Thinkpad.

For getting started with Linux, Distrowatch.com has been terrific. Anything you might want to know about the latest Linux distributions, reviews, links, .... etc, it's there.

I'll add others as I come across them and when they are significant and repetitive contributors to this project, I will add them to the link area on the sidebar.

Now We're Off and Stumbling Around

Well now, we're physically underway.
I picked up a working laptop off EBay and received it this morning. It's an IBM Thinkpad 600 and I got it for $130 with shipping. Yeah, I know, that really eats into my $200 limit.


It has a Pentium II - 266MHz processor and 96MB of RAM. The screen is bright and clean and should serve my purposes nicely. The Hard Drive is 4GB and that should be more than enough for this project. I'm a little concerned about the RAM as most of the Linux distributions that I've looked at want 256MB. I can pick up a couple of 128MB sticks for $20 and I may go ahead and do that and bump up a little closer to the $200 ceiling.

Oh yeah, and it has a 24x CD ROM -- which will be real handy for installing the Linux OS and the slide show application.

I really want to have wireless network capability for ease of adding slideshow photos ...etc and I can get a Linksys Wireless B PCMCIA adapter for $16....... hmmmmmm, let's see - $130 + $20 +16 is $166 so that would leave $34 for unknown emergencies -- that's not so bad, but the higher math to do the calculation was a bit taxing .

My approach from here is to get one of the Linux distributions successfully implemented with wireless networking(more on that in the next post) before I start tearing apart the hardware. Once I start the hardware distruction, I mean dismantling I'll provide more pictures - should be interesting.

Well, we're off and treading more or less carefully -- check back.

The Project is Underway (Mentally)

Well, the project is underway (mentally at least), and I've outlined some basic objectives.

1. Cost for the project not to exceed $200 (out of pocket)

If I had the knowledge and skills to troubleshoot & fix a non-working laptop, I could probably do the project for $100 or less. I don't have those skills, so am starting with a working laptop and therefore raised my cost limit.

2. Insure ease of loading/updating photos for the slideshow.

I'm considering a couple of ways to do this -- wireless since I already have in place a wireless router and network, and/or USB flash drive. The wireless solution will put pressure on my cost objective unless the laptop I find already includes a wireless adapter (not likely).

As is often the case when I get into one of these projects - one or more sub-projects evolve. In this case, one sub-project is already in place and it may be more difficult for me than the overall project. As an admitted Microsoft bigot, I've recently developed an interest in Linux and have considered setting up a Linux machine just to see what it's like. Hmmm, this might be a great opportunity to do that -- and thus, the first sub-project.

It's my understanding that Linux has less stringent hardware requirements than Windows, and this may help me keep the cost down by using a less powerful (expensive) laptop. I should be able to determine fairly quickly if this is a reasonable approach or not and may scrap the Linux idea altogether if it's too far over my head.

Now This Sounds Like A Fun Project

As I was in the middle of the my prior project (Don's HTPC), I came across an article about some geeky nerd types who had salvaged parts from an older laptop computer and re-assembled those parts into a standard picture frame. A minimal OS and a Slideshow application were installed. A set of digital photos were added and voila -- a digital photo slideshow in a picture frame running continuously.

I had previously seen a few commercial versions of this concept (DigiFrame and others) but all had obvious draw-backs, primarily small screen size and high cost. The above project was the first DIY project that I had seen and it quickly got my interest. I put it on the back burner with the intent to drag the idea back out and study it further when time allowed.

A lot has changed during the time that has elapsed. You can now purchase commercial digital picture frames up to 19" size, but the cost is excessive IMHO ($1500+)

The initial project that I had read about was done for significantly under $100. After finishing the HTPC, I was really in no rush to start this project -- If fact, I was some afraid to start it as I really thought it was over my head. That may yet prove to be the case, but I'll never know as long as I just sit here thinking about it.

DigimagR - What the He@# does that mean?

Well, I really like the name DigiFrame, but that's already taken. So I'm using DigimagR which stands for Digital Imager. It's basically an LCD screen powered by a computer - all mounted in a standard picture frame. The computer/LCD screen then will display a slide show of digital photos continuously and can be mounted on a wall or upright on a desk or table top.

This is not a new idea and has been previously done several times. For me though, it's the ultimate Geeky project ( at least until something geekier catches my attention/interest). I thought the HTPC project (my prior blog decribes this one - Don's HTPC) was very geeky, but this project will surpass that one in geekiness by a wide margin.