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Forum » Spare computer

Spare computer

Amarth 16 years ago
Okay. Situation. I have a spare computer. It runs Linux (to be specific, Xubuntu 7.10, but headless - without screen or keyboard/mouse). It is old (433 Mhz, 256MB RAM). It does not have internet access, but might have in the future if I find a solution to get it onto wireless (not easy under Linux). It can get temporary internet with my laptop working as router, though. Now, what to do with it?

What I'm currently working on:
*private LAMP server to test web development skills [done]
*SVN server [done]
*print server
*webcam motion detection
*text to speech [50% done]
*speech recognition
*combine previous three into watchdog/personal assistant/whatever ("computer, music!")

Any other ideas? The wackier the idea, the better. The more things it combines, the better. Ideas involving internet are welcome too, though that's a future item. Note that I'm heavily routered, though, so I won't have direct internet access. Some internet ideas to get you in the thinking mood:

*24/7 wolfbot
*web scraper for something, patrolling the forum for posts by Idiota and searching phrases to take out of context
*combine previous two for an IRC bot that directly posts stuff into the funniest quotes from IRC. Hmm, I don't think that would work.
*Jabber (or other IM) bot that anyone from the internet can give a command that makes my computer yell "YOU ARE A CUNT" at me. I wonder how popular that would be.

Add yours. Please, your imagination is the limit. Well, next to my time and money and parents.

I wonder if there is tactile input for computers. Like, a punching bag that would give a signal to the computer when it is hit. I would *love* hearing it scream. Oh well, I have my Wii for that. Hmm.

*Wiimote input

Dammit. I can keep going at this. Your turn.
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E_net4 16 years ago
Well, it does have some memory. My computer had 256MB of RAM too before I got some more 512MB. How about a master server for a game? Well, the problem would be "what game?".
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Amarth 16 years ago
Well, pretty unlikely. I'm behind NAT from my university, can't do anything about that. That means that I'm unable to receive incoming connections unless I made an outgoing connection first. Which means it's pretty hard to make a game server.

Note that IM and IRC DOES work, because my computer then connects to another server first and gets it requests over that connection.
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Anonymous1157 16 years ago
I've got an idea!

Make a little app with this computer as the ideal "recommended requirements" system that uses video overlay to replace the background of the PC with a 360-degree view of some generated-in-real-time 3D primitives pulled out of a directory full of files of a well-known format that describe what to generate so that new designs can be easily created. *Gasps for air*

It might be impossible, but it does sound like something interesting and half-challenging to do, eh? And we get to draw pretty pictures with 3D things!

(I just hope I'm not too late, since the last post for this thread was, like, two months ago.)
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Amarth 16 years ago
But, but, but... The computer runs headless (without screen or keyboard or stuff)... Also, it doesn't have much to do with the computer.

But, nice idea. It should be doable with X, not sure about how in Windows though. And it could involve genetic algorithms. Mmm, genetic algorithms.

(actually, they suck. But shht)
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Pete 16 years ago
Well, you could always use it for one of those have-this-banner-on-screen-for-money things.
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