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The "Bedpost" RC5-72 Project
Oh, look! You've found another long forgotten web page...much more forgotten than usual in fact, since this page vanished in some sort of disaster...maybe the basement flood or a disk failure...it's hard to say. I rescued it from the Internet Archive, only the images didn't survive. I've since remade the illustration image, though it's nothing like the original, which was sourced from a set of IBM PS/2 icons for OS/2 that seem to have vanished and an image from the Microsoft Clip Gallery (which has definitely, and sadly, vanished).

More importantly, and perhaps even somewhat relevantly, this project never turned into anything. The possibility of fire caused by a running computer under my bed wasn't enough to put me off, but noise output and difficulties in getting the software to work ultimately did.

Although "Bedpost" never came into action to process anything, it, along with a DeskJet, briefcase,  a "pictured knowledge" book, and the skeleton of an EISA Compaq Deskpro PC ended up supporting my bed for several years. The bed frame was made of wood and had gone to pieces long enough. Some of this was obviously my fault, because beds are obviously great fun to jump on, even if you're supposed to be an adult. Bed mattress manufacturers will tell you not to ever jump on a bed, but you can be sure that they do so as well. The rest of it was time and dry rot getting even with the wood, various glued joints and the turnbuckle linked wire that was supposed to keep the sides pulled in.
With the project having gotten nowhere and my bedroom ultimately being remodeled, the Model 40SX kicked around for a while and ultimately found its way to the back patio, where it became filled up with yucky yard dross. I still have the machine to this day and perhaps I will clean, test and restore it at some point. It has been moved back indoors.

Ironically enough, around the same time as I've reuploaded what's left of this page, my current bed frame has suffered a broken caster and is in need of some repair.

The rest of this page now continues as it was once presented.
What is "Bedpost"? "Bedpost" is the combination of bed frame "repair" and RC5-72 key cracking...however strange that may sound, it's true. Read on...
Bedpost Image
Specifically, and in great detail, I participate in distributed.net's RC5 key cracking projects. Naturally, I have any computer from a 386SX all the way up to the latest processors participating in the project as the more computers you have cracking away, the more work units you can turn in, and the more likely it becomes that you will win the contest by submitting the winning key.

I have a couple of machines that cannot participate in RC5-72 cracking yet, but these are all Macs and they are working on the OGR-25 project--which keeps them busy even if there is no reward in the end... I guess you have to get what you can take, and Distributed.net hasn't yet gotten their RC5-72 cracking software to work on Mac OS 9.

At least that's how it works in theory. Even with all the computers I have, I still rank right about 5,000 or so as far as submitted results go. So it makes sense that I'd want to devote even more computers to the project. This isn't a problem. I own lots of computers. Problems are space and power outlets..and the fact that running lots of computers, albeit possible, is going to make for a rather high electric bill. So many of my computers sit in storage doing nothing except for occasional power-ups to insure that they still work as they should.

However, storage needs change and machines usually move around. Usually they just get placed somewhere else, but every now and then one ends up as a piece of furniture. Yes you read that right. For example, a nice mini-tower machine that's reasonably sturdy can make a great makeshift chair. A short while ago, my wooden bed frame broke and a PS/2 Model 40SX and several books that happened to be in the way were quickly placed under the box spring so the whole bed would not collapse. I really did mean to get the whole thing fixed, but I haven't had the time. So the 40SX and the books have stayed under the bed, doing a great job of holding it up.

Just the other day I got to thinking how great it might be if that 40SX could actually be powered up while under there. (Yes, I had safety concerns about this, but the machine sits in free air and has books on top of it to keep the bottom of the box spring well above the computer. Besides, it's a cool running 386SX-20!) What would be even better than that? How about giving the 40SX a small set of distributed.net work units that it could work on? I wouldn't need anything except a keyboard attached so that the machine would POST and then we would be on! I could control it via VNC if necessary...

I set in just last night (12/16) to setting the whole thing up, but right now I'm stalled. My network card is presently giving me problems and is keeping the machine from booting into Windows 95. I have no intention of giving up though...the thought of a truly multitasking bed post is reason enough to keep pressing along!

The actual bedpost machine thus far... (Editor's note: the image is long gone.)

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