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Where do network cards go to die?

I’ve rummaged through all of my things, and I’m certain I left my
wireless network card in the Philippines. Mumble. That’s the third
now…

I want a wireless card because I’m getting tired of working in my
room. I want to be able to work in the common room of Graduate House,
at cafes, or even at friends’ places.

However, Linux-supported wireless cards are hard to find. I walked all
along the computer strip on College with the hardware compatibility
list on my laptop. I couldn’t find a single PCMCIA card or USB device
that was listed as supported. <sigh> That’s what I get for
needing previous-generation technology. It’s just not sold any more.

I need a serious computer surplus / junk shop like HMR back home, I
guess. One of those places where they’re still selling beat-up 486s.
But no, Canada’s tech junk has been shipped to the Philippines and
other developing countries. Mumble.

Why do I bother with Linux, then? The programs I use are native to
Linux and Unix-like systems, and they’re updated more frequently than
their Microsoft Windows counterparts. Besides, it’s just so darn hard
to set Microsoft Windows up the way I want it to be. I love scripting.
I love programming. Finding and downloading Emacs, Perl, Python, Ruby,
and all these other things is a major hassle under Windows. And let’s
not even start talking about the shell. Sure, I could use cygwin, but
it’s just not the same…

Maybe I should just update my Ubuntu laptop and use that for hardware
compatibility testing. Those Ubuntu folks do strange magic. =)

Anyone who can tell me where I can buy (or even better, anyone will
give me) a Linux-compatible wireless networking card will get a bunch
of cookies and my gratitude.

Random Japanese sentence: 「このねこは、やっぱりとてもきれいですよ!」と、とても年取った、おばあさんが言いました。 “And it is indeed a very pretty cat!” said the very old woman. [kono neko w, yappari totemo kirei desu yo!] to, totemo toshitotta obaasan ga iimashita.

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Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/3338

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