Computer Hardware

Vinhejm is what I call our home network (and my parents), and this is the computer hardware that its made up with.

Servers

Servers are headless computers with the purpose of serving others, usually with daemons (background processes). Servers as almost gods, so I name them with names of gods and goddesses; preferably from the Norse mythology.

Oden

Oden is the Swedish name for the Norse god Odin and that is what I call our networking server; popular called a router.

Tor

Tor is the Swedish name for the Norse god Thor and that is what I call our multi-purpose server that, amongst other things, hosts this web site.

Loke

Loke is the Swedish name for the Norse god Loki and that is what I will be calling our server for offsite backups that I am in the midst of getting.

Balder

Balder is a PC Engines APU servering as a local music server (using MPD).

Snobben

This is a BeagleBone Black and it is therefore named Snobben (Snoopy in English). It runs Arch Linux ARM and it was supposed to be used as a local-only music server (using MPD). So, this is currently my only server without OpenBSD, but on the other hand it does not provide any services to the big and dangerous Internet. ;)

OpenBSD currently lacks a USB driver for the BBB otherwise I would probably be running that. FreeBSD and NetBSD is possible options, but I felt a need to keep things ''interesting''...

My original intention was to use the BBB to play with Minix3. Then I decided to go for Linux to keep up with the crazy shit happening in that world (systemd). I seattled with Arch since it is (sort of) following the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. I will argue that systemd does not fit that bill, but that is my opinion; overall it is a fine system, but I cannot stand systemd so currently I do not know what to do with it.

Helios

My parents networking server (a.k.a. router) that me and my siblings gave to them in present the Christmas of 2014. It is a APU from PC Engines, it runs OpenBSD and I manages it (including Althea, their MacBook Pro).

Desktop clients

Desktop clients are the kind of computers that you sit and hack in front of. This is what usually will be called a personal computer (PC) and regardless of common belief it is not a synonym for a computer with Microsoft Windows; my Commodore 64 calls itself for a PC, to take one example.

I currently name my clients after characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. My girlfriend names hers after characters in Disney movies.

Bilbo

My mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13" and currently my only laptop.

Frodo

My late-2014 Mac Mini and for the moment my main desktop system. I need a few applications that makes it impossible to use OpenBSD for everything, but my long-term goal is to use OpenBSD for as much as possible.

Toker

My girlfriend's MacBook Pro.

Mobile clients

Everything that I wrote about desktop clients applies here as well. The difference is that mobile clients usually lacks keyboards and has touchscreens in its place. Oh, and their operating systems are more or less dumbed-down. They are, in other words, less suitable for hacking.

Pippin

My iPad 3 (or, the New iPad, as Apple tought it was a good idea to call it).

Merry

My iPhone 6.

Sam

My work phone, well, it is actually owned by my employer, but never the less. It is a Sony Xperia SP and since Sony stopped to release updates for it years ago I have went through both CyanogenMod 11 and BlissPop; currently I am using AICP (Android Ice Cold Project). With this device I have went from disliking Android to really enjoying it: Sonys old firmware was not really good (that have changed) and when I installed CM11 and got (almost) vanilla AOSP, root access and KitKat (Android 4.4.4) things went better; I even tried an HTC One (M8) as my personal smartphone for a short while after that (with stock firmware, ViperOneM8 (a Sensed-based custom ROM) and CM11). With BlissPop and now AICP I have Lollipop on it (Android 5) and things is even better, especially since the amount of apps using Material Design is growing. I would not call this device fast, but it is more smooth with Lollipop today than it was with Ice Cream Sandwich in the beginning (that would be a good thing for Apple to take after because the environment cannot take us changing smartphones every other year for performance reasons).

Wall-E

Kloker

In Valhalla

Old computers of mine that has went to the waste bin but is worth mentioning.

Narag/Blueberry

Narag is a crazy character I made up as game master during a session of ''Drakar och Demoner'' many years ago. ''Drakar och Demoner'' is a classic Swedish roleplaying gaming similar to ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and we used to play the sixth edition that took place in a world called Trudvang. I do not remember when I named this computer after this character, but it had that name for many years. Later, when all my computers were named after berries I called it for Blueberry beacuse its chassi was a dark blue.

This was my first own and new PC, assembled by myself late in 2003. The first years it was my one and only desktop system, in the beginning with FreeBSD 5 and then later Windows XP (due to lack of time and interest to maintain a FreeBSD installation at that time).

In the summer of 2006 it was replaced by a new, white and shiny MacBook and early in 2007 I started to use it as a server, with OpenBSD of course. ;) Last summer, 2014, it started to fail, most likely due to dry capacitors and was then replaced by Oden (after I had try to save it by replacing all bulk capacitors at the motherboard).

Elderberry

This was my first MacBook (or Mac(intosh) for that matter), a mid-2006 in white plastic; bought new and retired somewhere during the first half of 2013. From the summer of 2006 to the spring of 2010 it was my desktop system and when Hackberry/Bilbo replaced it, due to a failing fan, I fixed it and used it as an HTPC for a while.


Last updated: 2016-06-08 20:23:54 CEST