Updated 21-Feb-2023 This is a history of all the main computer systems I've ever owned, going back to 1983 when I got my first system. It is mostly maintained for nostalgic reasons. 1983 - Apple II+ acquired. 48K RAM, 1MHz 6502, 300bps modem. Total disk storage 140K per 5.25" floppy disk. First computer. 1990 - II+ motherboard fails. IIe acquired for $250 at yard sale as interim replacement machine. Interim extends three years. Ugh. 1993 - 486SX25 / 4MB RAM / 170MB HDD / 2400bps modem acquired. (first PC) 1994 - Above 486 receives various upgrades. Is eventually named SARABI (after Simba's mother, from The Lion King) when Internet access is first achieved in late 1994 and a hostname is required. 1994 - 2400bps modem -> 14400bps USRobotics Sportster 1995 - SARABI gets Linux installed for the first time. It is a 486DX2/66 w/ 12MB of RAM and a 730MB HDD at this point. Kernel 1.2.13 baybee! 1996 - MILVA (named after my girlfriend at the time) comes along: 386DX/33, 5MB RAM, 20MB MFM hard drive, CGA monitor. First dedicated Linux box. Ran Linux-On-A-Floppy very slowly. 1996 - 14400bps modem -> 33600bps USRobotics Sportster. I remember this shopping trip because Milva was present during. 1996 - Later: SARABI upgraded to Pentium 133 / 32MB RAM / 1.6GB. Old SARABI becomes new MILVA and obtains 260MB HDD. At this point it's a 486DX2/66 w' 24MB RAM, still with CGA monitor. 1997 - 17" AcerView 76ie monitor acquired to upgrade SARABI's display; 14" monitor goes down the chain to replace the CGA monitor on MILVA. 1998 - MILVA upgraded to Am5x86/133, gets bigger disk. MILVA later renamed HUSHPAD (after the character in Tailchaser's Song). 1998 - Modem goes X2 and eventually v.90. Life sucks slightly less. 1999 - Mobile: Palm IIIxe acquired. My first PDA! 1999 - BigAss(TM) case acquired, along with a ton of SCSI disks for HUSHPAD. This was my "SCSI KICKS ASS!!" phase. Six disks in a full tower case are NOISY. I'm glad I got over this. 1999 - Apple IIgs acquired. Transferred all important old Apple II floppies to disk images for eternal preservation. 2000 - SARABI completely replaced with DUCHESS (named after the cat in Disney's The Aristocats), Pentium III 600MHz w/ 128MB RAM running Windows 2000. HUSHPAD inherits SARABI's motherboard and thus becomes Pentium 166 (overclocked) with 96MB of RAM. 2000 - ISDN line installed. 128000bps. Modems retired forever. 2001 - HUSHPAD upgraded to Pentium II 233MHz w/ 128MB RAM. BigAss(TM) case retired. DUCHESS stagnates. 2002 - HUSHPAD CPU upgraded to Pentium III 600MHz. DUCHESS continues to stagnate. 2002 - Cat hair becomes a new contaminant to clean out of computers, due to the arrival of Lynxie the Highly Furred GreyTabby. 2002 - First flat panel, a ViewSonic VX900, is acquired. 1280x1024, 19", lousy refresh time (even for back then) 2003 - NALA (Powerbook G4) acquired. HUSHPAD's CPU fails. DUCHESS mobo+chip used to resurrect HUSHPAD. DUCHESS retired. 2003 - Samsung Syncmaster 21" flat panel acquired. 2004 - Mobile: I acquire my first cellular phone, a Kyocera 2235 on MetroPCS. No, I'm not too proud of it. 2004 - HUSHPAD motherboard fails. Good friend Rieshal loans a Pentium III 600 chip that fits in HUSHPAD's old motherboard. 2004 - DSL line installed. 2004 - HUSHPAD upgraded to P4-3.0GHz/512MB/160GB. Old HUSHPAD becomes SARABI (fileserver off-site). 2005 - Mobile: PalmOne Treo 650 acquired. 2006 - NALA upgraded to Macbook Pro. Old NALA sold for peanuts since it had been dropped. 2006 - SARABI upgraded to AMD Sempron 2800+. Old SARABI collecting dust at the moment. 2006 - MEERCLAR (named after the cat goddess in Tailchaser's Song) (Mac Pro 2.66GHz / 2GB / 250GB) acquired. Replaces HUSHPAD as primary desktop system; HUSHPAD relegated to server duty. 2007 - MEERCLAR upgraded to 4GB of RAM and ATI Radeon X1900XT. 2007 - Samsung monitor fails. Replaced with Dell 2407WFP. 2008 - NALA upgraded from 100GB to 200GB hard drive. 2008 - Video card in HUSHPAD fails, resulting in failure to boot. Nvidia GeForce4 MX harvested from previous SARABI to resurrect it. 2009 - SAVANNAH (MythTV box) acquired. Lil' Dell Optiplex 745 Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz / 2GB of RAM / 80GB HDD 2009 - Mobile: Palm Pre acquired. 2010 - NALA upgraded to new Macbook Pro 15" / Core i7 / 8GB RAM / 500GB HDD / high-res antiglare display 2010 - DSL line replaced with Comcast Business Class connection. (16mb down, 2mb up) 2010 - Mobile: iPhone 4 acquired due to Palm Pre's inadequacy. 2011 - SARABI upgraded to Dell Optiplex 755: Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz / 2GB RAM 2011 - Mobile: iPad 2 acquired. 2012 - HUSHPAD dies a horrible death. Memory controller failure. Dell PowerEdge T110 II purchased to replace it. 2012 - Mobile: iPhone 5 acquired. 2013 - Mobile: iPad 4 acquired. 2013 - MEERCLAR upgraded to iMac 21.5", 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 16GB RAM, Core i5 quad-core CPU @ 2.9GHz with VESA mount. Old MEERCLAR retired as it's a big-time power hog. 2014 - Mobile: iPhone 6 acquired. 2015 - More cat hair as Annie the grey sweetiecat joins the fray. 2016 - Mobile: iPhone 7 Plus acquired. 2017 - Mobile: Work issued iPad Pro 9.7" acquired. 2017 - MEERCLAR upgraded to iMac 27" 5K, 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM, Core i7 quad-core CPU @ 4GHz. 2019 - Mobile: iPhone 11 Pro Max acquired. 2020 - Work-provided Dell Precision 3420 acquired. Runs Windows, used for any tasks requiring Windows including gaming. Named FIFI after purple skunk. 2020 - Nvidia 1050Ti acquired to put in FIFI. 2020 - HUSHPAD upgraded to a Xeon E31260L (quad core) and from 2GB to 16GB of RAM. This is sufficient to migrate storage to ZFS. 2022 - NALA upgraded to 2021 Macbook Pro (M1 Pro). MEERCLAR retired; NALA will replace its functions, docked to Apple Studio Display when using it at home. Current systems: HUSHPAD - Dell PowerEdge T110 II - 16GB RAM Linux server/router. Handles net connection, DHCP and local DNS. NALA - 2021 14" M1 Pro Macbook Pro (work-provided) FIFI - Dell Precision 3420 workstation SARABI - Dell 3420 SFF Core i7 / 16GB of RAM Hosts this site. Colocated at work. Handles my E-mail too. !MEERCLAR - iMac 21.5", 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 16GB RAM, Core i5 Quad 2.9GHz (RETIRED) !SAVANNAH - Dell Optiplex 745 USFF -- Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM -- MythTV box. It's for watching TV. Runs Mythdora 10. (LONG RETIRED)