I’ve been doing a lot of techie tinkering over the past month or so.

First, I tried to install Ubuntu Linux onto an old Toshiba Portege. It got about 80 percent through the installation process, crashed and now I can’t boot into Linux, Windows or anything. The wretched device won’t boot from an attached CD-ROM or from USB so I probably need to reinstall Windows 98 from floppy disks and have another go. Yuck!  Stibbe Zero. Linux One.

Second, I’ve been writing a lot about virtualisation recently. I’ve been doing a series of case studies for HP about blade servers and a lot of marketing material on Server-based computing, VMware and other good things connected with desktop virtualisation. (Most of it is pretty specialised but here’s a post on the HP blog I write about it that has some interesting info.) So, I decided I needed to find out more for myself.  I downloaded the VMware player and an Ubuntu Linux distribution packaged as a virtual appliance. It worked really well and I can tinker away with Linux running in a window on my PC.

One possible use might be to set up a sandboxed web browser for the various people who visit the house. I’m really nervous about them using one of the PCs that are connected to my main network or bringing in their own laptops and connecting them to the wireless LAN. The idea of resurrecting the old Toshiba as a Linux box was to provide a completely safe browsing environment for guests that was insulated from the rest of the network. Perhaps a virtual browser appliance could do it instead?

(Curiously, my first trial of virtualisation - Microsoft VirtualPC - is probably not much use any more. I have finally found out how to run Jeppesen Flightstar in Windows Vista.  All it needed was to run it as an administrator.  D’oh!  I spent hours building a Windows XP Professional environment on my shiny new PC to run it and now I don’t have to.  However, HP’s IT has taken over an old laptop of mine and rendered unusable for anything except remote access to their network. I think perhaps I could virtualise that and get my old laptop back for my wife to use.)

I haven’t even started with my new OQO ultra portable PC.  I bought it to be able to plan routes and file flight plans when I’m flying but I need to get it talking to my Samsung I600 phone. This means getting Bluetooth working on both machines and setting up the phone to act as a modem. In turn this means upgrading to Windows Mobile 6.  But to do this I need the USB cable that I lost.  For want of a nail…

So much tinkering. So little time. I need a young apprentice.