The Sickness is Revealed

The Sickness: Why my T42 randomly hangs.

This is what is wrong with the Thinkpad. The T42 is hanging because the linux kernel does not manage the video memory correctly on it's Radeon 9600.

I can now only sit here and wonder how long the patches will take to be merged into the main linux kernel, then into the ubuntu system. Of course, I suppose I could try compiling a patched kernel myself...

... But it has been pointed out that I have spent a great deal of free time, perhaps a couple of weekends and all the free evening I can muster over the past 2 weeks attempting to solve this little thinkpad crash faux-pax. I think my interests are better served by just being patient, at this point. This is one of those things I would like to -work- so that I can get other things done. I am somewhat dissenterested in crossing all the bridges it takes to effectively debug kernels when I would really like to be thinking about my photography or looking for exciting new ways to analyze geographic data. Or writing...

I keep thinking I will stop using the mac due to it's age and incredible milage, however, it keeps turning on when other machines go up in smoke. It's not hard to really like a computer that works this well.