The title isn’t referring to me visiting New York. Rather, it’s referring to my old computer, which I have replaced as my main computer/server. The new computer serves a few important uses for me that the old one did not:
- It is faster, both due to the improved processor technology and the fact that I bought a dual-core version of the CPU to get 2 processors. It was still fairly cheap since I bought a CPU that is no longer the top-of-the-line. It also uses less power and runs much, much cooler. The old CPU was constantly overheating, even though I had it set to run at a slower speed than normal.
- It is easier to backup. My backup regimen on the old computer was pretty atrocious: I would occasionally kick myself for the fact that I hadn’t backed up anything and would tar up some files and burn them to a CD. I bought an extra hard disk with the new computer to use for RAID 1 (which is basically a hard disk devoted to being a backup drive). So hopefully if one of the drives dies I’ll still be able to recover. It’s hardly a bulletproof backup solution because you still can’t recover files that you accidentally delete, for example, and a corrupt filesystem will ruin your day as well. But it does protect against the threat that I find most credible at this time.
- It is much smaller and quieter. My old computer was huge, using what is apparently a slightly taller than standard mid-tower case. It was also rather loud. The new computer has a nice small case, the fans are quiet, and can be set to run slower when they are not needed for cooling. Also, the video card is fanless as well.
So the old computer was called broadway. The name of the new computer is, in keeping with my current scheme of Nintendo characters, *midna*. Later on I’ll detail how I migrated my data from broadway to midna, including an intervening user name change. Also I helped my gamer uncle with his game hosting problems caused by NAT, which I think is a halfway elegant solution if you have the type of hardware he does. But at this point I have to run.