Tonight, in preparation for getting a second monitor at home, I swapped out my trusty Voodoo 3 2000 video card for a newer Geforce 6200 (stolen from a workstation I wasn't using anymore) which has dual outputs. While doing this, it occurred to me that this video card was the only piece of pre-college computer hardware I still had.

Part of me is sad to see it go.

My ensuing battle with ubuntu to get the @#%$ing nvidia drivers to work definitely ranks in my top 10 linux battles. I think I eventually resolved the problem by applying the monte carlo method (*) to apt-get invocations and downloaded the latest driver from nvidia myself, which failed compile many times until I again applied the monte carlo method to make targets in the kernel source (make oldconfig prepare scripts something something?). I remember something about the apt mirrors no longer having anything resembling my kernel version so installing the 'restricted' modules wasn't an option until I randomly updated 'linux-image'. "Image" obviously means "kernel and initrd friends" :(

I'll miss you, Voodoo 3.

(*) Turns out 1000 monkeys with 1000 typewriters will eventually get nvidia drivers working in ubuntu.