computer names

Page: 1 2 3
ID:274426
 
Feb 1 2002, 1:18 pm
Well, I broke down and ordered a new PowerMac G4 the other day and just got word that it shipped today. Should arrive sometime next week, woohoo!

So now I need a name for it. A little background on my current computer names:
  • Pandora: my main PC, runs FreeBSD. Named in its original incarnation eons ago after the Aerosmith song and boxed set, Pandora's Box.

  • Doughnut: my current (and soon to be old) Mac. When I got it in '96, I lived with Tom and we had a little apartment network going on there. His PC at the time was named Peanut, so we decided to name all the machines with "nut" names. Our internal domain name was inter.nut (I still use that today on my internal home network). We even renamed existing machines: his SGI "Death" got the alias "Cashew" and I'm almost certain that Pandora got a nutty alias too, but I can't remember. Anyway, when I bought the Mac, I needed a new nut name. Doughnut seemed just about perfect.

  • Liquid: built from parts of Pandoras past (say that fast 10 times in a row), this was my gateway/firewall machine for awhile. Named after a very cool Joe Satriani song.

  • Ice9: technically not mine, it's my SGI at work. Also named after a cool Joe Satriani song.

What do you name your machines, and why?
Feb 1 2002, 1:20 pm
Windows XP told me to give my computer a name. So I put Gizmo.
Feb 1 2002, 1:36 pm
Pandora's iced liquid doughnut?
Feb 1 2002, 1:37 pm
Ol' Guss, it's old it sucks, and it sucks.
Feb 1 2002, 1:40 pm
I think mine is actually named "Mine", as opposed to "The Kids"... though come to think of it, "Mine" died, so now I'm using "The Kids".
Feb 1 2002, 2:05 pm
I haven't been very creative with mine:
dramstud, and dramstud2. One of these days i'm going to reformat dramstud (350mhz athlon) and try installing linux, so maybe i'll rename it then.
Feb 1 2002, 2:07 pm
In response to Sariat
Sariat wrote:
Windows XP told me to give my computer a name. So I put Gizmo.

Heh, I set up a computer for the people across the street, and they named theirs "Max."
Feb 1 2002, 2:46 pm
Air Mapster wrote:
What do you name your machines, and why?

I have three..

  • Tantrix: Mine. All mine. Recently bought with my own money. Strange, because I don't have a job. I've been saving for the past few years, and just managed to scrape up the cash to buy it.. Muwahaha. I made up the bulk of my cash teaching somebody over twice my age PASCAL. Name is sort of a joke involving tantric sex. Best not to ask any more. Oh, and it's an old p75. With 64 meg o'ram, 20 gig drive, one cd drive/burner, one DVD drive, a 5 1/4 drive, and a 3 1/2 drive. I'm quite proud of the 5 1/4 drive. Took me a while to find.
  • Apathy: The machine I'm using right now. Got it for christmas a while ago. Athlon.. 1GHz. 40 gig drive, same drives as Tantrix except the 5 1/4 drive.
  • Geezer: The machine I had before Tantrix. A Tandy 1000Rl. Very impressive.. It has a (gasp) 1200 baud modem.. 3 1/2 drive and (oooooh) ten meg hard drive! With DOS 3.0! Very fun to play old games on. I also write stuff in BASIC on it from time to time, to test assorted things when I'm working on Tantrix. It's called Geezer.. simply because it pretty much is a Geezer. It's older than my youngest sister.

    --Tarmas.
Feb 1 2002, 5:05 pm
Air Mapster wrote:
Ice9: Also named after a cool Joe Satriani song.

Which was presumably referencing Ice 9 from Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.

I'd say call it Influenza.
Feb 1 2002, 5:19 pm
Call it Mapstermonkey. Or Airmonkey. Either is good. Maybe even Cybermonkey or Technomonkey!
Feb 1 2002, 6:09 pm
What do you name your machines, and why?

My computer, NEC Ready 9935, was already named in the store. At one point I thought of nicknaming it "RedNEC", but I rarely speak to it, since it seems content to sit there and do its job without seeking a lot of attention.
Feb 1 2002, 6:13 pm
In response to Gughunter
Gughunter wrote:
since it seems content to sit there and do its job without seeking a lot of attention.



Lucky you, mine likes to sit there make noise, and do stuff that pisses me off..
Feb 1 2002, 6:14 pm
Mine is currently named firekingserverx as it complys to the 15 character limit.

I choose this name because I am currently getting my computer geared up for all sorts of server stuff. I currently built a web server application, and some other server applications as well. I use a static ip to do that stuff. I also use it for my applications that require name based choosing. Such as you log on, a message is sent to my computer, the server, and info of all the clients connected to the server are sent back to that client. Thats pretty much what im using it for right now.

http://www.dynu.com - Get your static ip address for free, today!

FIREking
Feb 1 2002, 6:50 pm
Hmm... since you like to use song names, may I suggest Heartbreak Hotel?
Feb 1 2002, 8:23 pm
In response to Spuzzum
You like macs Mapster?!?! I hate macs, I used to think they were better then microsoft when I was in elementery but when I got older I started using microsoft and software for it and I like it alot more then macs. When I was in the 8th grade I used the mac for the first time since like 4th grade and I forgot about the single click button so that kind of make me mad, becuase I kept trying to right click and I would look at hte mouse and it would be one big button -_-.
Feb 2 2002, 10:27 am
In response to Stealth 2k
Stealth 2k wrote:
You like macs Mapster?!?!

Yikes, I hope this doesn't ignite a flamewar. Darnit, I probably shouldn't post this but I just have to get the word out...

Macs are great, just ask Deadron. They've always been easier and more intuitive to use than any PC with a Microsoft OS. Sure, the Mac OS has had its problems, but as of last March, the Mac has had the world's most advanced consumer operating system in Mac OS X. The reason PC/Windows is so much more prevalent is simply a matter of questionable marketing practices on the part of Microsoft. Everyone wants Windows now because that's what everyone else uses and they want to be compatible. Microsoft, through their aggressive and sometimes unethical marketing, has achieved a near monopoly, which is like a self fulfilling prophecy. Most people won't even consider a Mac because everyone else uses Windows, regardless of which one is better and easier to use.

Then there's the cost issue. Macs do cost more than typical PCs, but the old addage that you get what you pay for definitely applies here. Apple sells a complete system - the hardware and the OS are designed to work together. One of many reasons Windows is so flakey is because it has to run on thousands of no-name brands of cheap crappy hardware in addition to the good stuff. And Apple hardware is top notch. My 5 year old Mac is still chugging along and is still usable. How many 5 year old PCs out there (besides Nadrew's, heh) can say the same thing? A Mac is like a BMW. It is high cost but also high quality, and holds resale value like nobody's business.

Then there's usability. I think Apple is really going in the right direction with this. iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto and more are included free and enable you to do things so much more easily than in Windows. The computer becomes less of a complicated, difficult to use thing, and more of an appliance that just works. My mom needs a new computer to do email, some games and put pictures on the internet for relatives to see. iPhoto would be perfect for her - it's about 100 times easier than anything available in Windows. Unfortunately both of my parents are experienced Windows users and will likely stick with it. Too bad.

OS X rocks. It's unix underneath, providing far more stability than Windows or previous versions of Mac OS. I can run all my unix stuff plus all of the above great software on one machine. It will satisfy the hardcore unix geek in me as well as the amateur movie maker, musician, etc. I can't wait to start making DVDs with this new machine. Honestly I don't know if I'll use my PC much after this thing arrives.

Sure, Windows does a lot of this stuff now with XP, but it's still nowhere close to Apple in usability. Mac users don't have to think about using the computer/OS (though they can if they're so inclined, like me with the unix stuff). It just works. Microsoft is always playing catch up with Apple in every way except for marketing.

Some people, after using both extensively, will still prefer Windows. That's fine. I'm not here to sway anyone from their true opinion - just to give mine and perhaps some food for thought. I use Windows every day (I'm typing this on NT) and I hate everything about it. It just doesn't work the way I want it to - things that should be simple and quick aren't. A lot of factors went into this: poor management, design, forcing backwards compatibility (something I hear XP drops somewhat, giving it better stability), and convoluted hardware requirements. The programmers at Microsoft are certainly among the best in the world. It's just too bad their leaders don't have a similar vision of computing like Apple does (well, they do, but only after Apple announces and delivers on its vision).

Macs certainly aren't for everyone - but I firmly believe that for the average non-computer-geek consumer, the Macintosh is far superior an option than any Windows based PC. It really is worth the money. I really hope Apple can gain some more market share and show consumers what they really have to offer. The world will be a happier place. ;-)

I'm very excited to start using this new machine when it comes - if only BYOND were available in gui form on Mac OS X, I'd be all set!
Feb 2 2002, 10:32 am
In response to Air Mapster
Yeah, Macs are great (for some things, anyway), but most people seem to be more familiar with PCs, at least the vast majority are. At the rate it is, being really good at Mac is like being really good at some programming language no one has ever heard of, and trying to get a job with it.

In other words, owning a Mac is about as good as me applying for a programming position as someone who knows "DreamMaker", regardless of how great it may be :oP
Feb 2 2002, 10:46 am
In response to Foomer
One of the Mac's least contestable good points, though, is that unlike Windows, it doesn't require you to be good at it to use.
Feb 2 2002, 10:52 am
In response to Lesbian Assassin
Neither does DM :o)
Feb 2 2002, 11:03 am
In response to Air Mapster
Air Mapster wrote:
I'm very excited to start using this new machine when it comes - if only BYOND were available in gui form on Mac OS X, I'd be all set!

Dude you must get yourself VirtualPC. It is an excellent program that lets you run Windows along with everything else.

Heck a couple of days I had Windows running in the background all the time and I forgot about it!

Anyway, I now do most of my BYOND programming on my PowerBook, with the exception of some that requres client/server communication that doesn't seem to work. For actually trying to hook up to BYOND games using VirtualPC I have to run from OS9, since OS X doesn't seem to allow some port access by default. Since you actually have a clue though, you can probably figure that out.

A game player still absolutely needs a Wintel machine -- and VirtualPC is certainly no substitute for a game playing machine -- but yeah Mac OS X is hard to beat for getting your job done.

As for learning Mac vs. WIndows...pishposh. Any of the OSes you can be up and running on in relatively short time, and both have MS Office and MS Outlook and all, so it's not like they are alien to each other.

Saying that it's a waste of time to "learn" one OS is like saying it's a waste of time to visit a website, since each website has its own set of navigation links.

Anyway, some day maybe the Linux community will wake up and realize that all the things they are hoping will show up for Linux "some day" exist in Mac OS X today and they can start putting their energies into something useful.
Page: 1 2 3