Cheap PC for EverQuest

My sister is an EverQuest player, and she just asked me for advice on buying a new computer. She’s been limping along for the last year with a 1.2 GigaHertz Celeron using some sort of low-end integrated graphics — I forget which. She would like to replace it with something that could handle EQ well right out of the box. She’s also on a tight budget. Since she and her husband play together, they have the ongoing expense of maintaining 2 EQ-ready computers. She will also put her DVD burner into this computer, so it needs to be up to that task as well. Looking around Tiger Direct, I found a refurbished HP Compaq computer with the following specs:

* Microsoft Windows XP Home
* AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Processor
* 512MB DDR Memory
* Nvidia GeForce4 MX integrated graphics with 64 MB memory
* 120GB Hard Drive
* DVD-ROM Drive
* CD-RW Drive
* Floppy Drive
* Integrated AC’97 audio
* 56K V.90 data/fax PCI Modem
* Integrated 10/100 Ethernet controller
* USB 2.0 Interface
* Integrated FireWire

Notice the items I bolded, those are the things EverQuest cares most about. Memory, CPU Speed and a decent supported graphics card. This computer has all three. Even the integrated graphics should be fine for EQ, being based on NVIDIA’s GeForce 4 MX chip set. However, there is an AGP slot if a graphics upgrade is wanted later. Best of all is the price, Just $399 without a monitor. That’s a lot of computer for not much money. Here’s the link

I mentioned that the computer is “refurbished”. I wouldn’t let that scare me off. I’ve purchased several refurbished items from Tiger Direct, including a PDA and a laptop computer, and I’ve been impressed by the quality.

Macromedia and Linux

Web developers have been pushing Macromedia for years to offer linux support for their development tools, Dreamweaver and Flash. It looks as if they are llistening. According to a CNET story, Macromedia plans to begin experimenting with Linux versions of their programs. Initially, the Wine compatability layer will be used, according to the story, with native Linux apps possibly coming later.

I can personally testify that Dreamweaver MX is very usable under Linux using the wine-based Crossover product from CodeWeavers. In fact, much of this site was coded in Dreamweaver running under Linux. Obviously, a native application would be better. Performance and stability aren’t terrible, but there is room for improvement.

Michael Dell Steps Down

Michael Dell will step down as CEO of Dell. He is to be replaced by the current president and COO Kevin Rollins. Dell will remain chairman of the company’s board of directors. The change will be effective July 16.

New Design

Techlizard has a new look. The new table-free CSS layout is based on code generated by layout-o-matic and list-o-matic. Both tools are just awesome.

Not every page on the site has been redesigned yet, but they all will be shortly. I tested the index page in the latest versions of IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and Konqueror, and it looks fine in all of them.

Feedback, suggestions, and problem reports are welcome.

Haunted Web Site

KingdomHospital.com is a clever idea. It looks like a real hospital web site, but the site is actually a tie-in for the new Stephen King series, Kingdom Hospital. The first two hours were on tonight – still on, actually. It’s certainly an odd show, but I think I like it so far.