I really wish I’d read the specs a bit more closely on that PC I got. Why did I blithely assume that what I needed for this machine was 184-pin SDRAM? The Netvista M41 uses old, slow 168-pin PC133 SDRAM. Not that you’d know that from the product page which is for the wrong computer anyway. And 168-pin RAM, for some reason, is really pricy.
Here I have 1GB of 184-pin SDRAM and an IBM Netvista M41 which is too old for it. Should cut my losses and just re-sell this box on Craigslist before it costs me any more in dollars and grief? Then I can get something compatible with the SDRAM sticks.
Update: My brother dug up two 256MB sticks of 168-pin PC133 SDRAM and is sending them over to me, so I guess the Netvista stays. Since all the cool geeks are naming their boxes, I figure I’d better name this one. I name it Fezzik.