RealPlayer with Ubuntu

I wanted to make sure there were no issues with using an mp3 codec. I looked up what Thompson, the owner of the mp3 patent had to say, and it seemed that they did not charge royalties unless there was some sort of money involved. The link to that, here. However, I also read LAME (an mp3 codec) was distributed as source code so it was legal, but then you would have to compile it. However, Thompson also said that a free client would be fine, and of course that would include the codec. So, I have been researching this for days now, and I asked Brian to help. While we were searching, Brian found a discussion on a college forum, here. It suggested something I had not thought of, RealPlayer. I found it in Synaptics, and it was already installed. I realized this was a computer on which I had installed multimedia codecs through Automatix. Therefore, I went on a computer without Automatix, and did not find it. I installed Automatix, and it updated the repository. I now found I could install RealPlayer, and that only, from Synaptics Package Manager. I made it the default music player, and it opens mp3 and works fine. This avoids any potential issues. I did not use it, but the bin install is at the RealPlayer site, http://www.real.com/linux/. Here is the Automatix2 install site again,

Dell Poweredge 500sc

Mr. Birchall came in yesterday with a Dell Poweredge 500sc server with a faulty motherboard. It was our job to see if a third party motherboard such as an Asus would work.  We took apart the computer and found it was a socket 370 mobo, an older standard. However, we also discovered that Dell uses a proprietary ribbon front panel connector, however, we were in luck. I found a chart of the pins here. Once we found that it was possible, we searched for 370 motherboards on Newegg first, and we came up with these  DFI ones. We also found an abit one on a site called Global computer, here. In addition, I found what seemed like the actual motherboard here, although the price is a bit steep at $595. So, we found it was possible to do a mobo transplant, but only a few socket 370 motherboards are still for sale, and the front panel pins would require some modifications.