Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

WC> Haven't figured out how to completely block trojans and viruses on
WC> the 98 box while I've managed it quite nicely on the Windows 3.1
WC> box without antivirus software.

RJT> Run the traffic through a linux box first?  :-)

WC> Thast's actually a goal but as yet not sufficiently proficient.

You'll get there.

WC> Yeah but the newer stuff is self executing inserting a key into the
WC> registry and it has built in SMTP and scans and incorporates your
WC> address book into it's SMTP.

RJT> Windoze design...

WC> Yeah that which renders it user friendly to those without skills
WC> also renders it vulnerable.

RJT> I suppose,  but I'm damned if I can see why it has to.

WC> It doesn't, Windoze has become a huge bloated kludge that requires 
WC> a complete rewrite but as long as it stays broken and they can 
WC> market the _new and improved_ Windows that won't happen. Personally 
WC> I think an optimized Linux O.S. with a well thought out GUI overlay 
WC> would be quite the thing if you could get it to run out of the box, 
WC> functionallity at once and the promise of more versitility once you 
WC> familiarize yourself with the command line. Mandrake is supposed t 
WC> approach this but here too I'm about 64 Meg short of RAM to run it 
WC> allowing for a small margin extra.

They're getting there.  Considering that mickysoft has had one heck of a
head start,  and a whole lot more resources to play with to get things
going,  linux has a *lot* more momentum going for it.  They'll eventually
catch up and pass 'em.

RJT> And those who are designing this stuff just don't seem to get it,  
RJT> don't seem to be able to get stuff put together in a way which is 
RJT> both friendly and at the same time secure.

WC> Which demonstrates just how badly they've strayed from solid
WC> programming.

Yeah.

RJT>  They've had the biggest bunch of hackers worldwide who show them over
RJT> and over again where the vulnerabilities are,  and yet they don't seem
RJT> to be able to change their design approach overall to do away with
RJT> them,  somehow.

WC>  It's so messed up that no-one even seems to be able to adaquately 
WC> protect it.

Nope.  But that doesn't stop them from pushing ever more resource-hungry
versions of the stuff out the door.

WC>  Your idea of putting it behind Linux is a good one  but if you get 
WC> Linux up to par why bother running Windows?

Depends on what you want to do.  If there are win apps you need to run, 
until you get some alternatives going,  for example.  It's also way easy to
get linux going on limited hardware for just CLI,  leaving the GUI stuff
until later.  The stuff you gotta configure for that is a totally different
aspect of things than the GUI stuff anyway.

WC>  Heck I can remember 8 years ago X10 module controller software was 
WC> available free for Linux.

WC> I've got to check my settings in NS mail and see what they are 
WC> before going to the other ISP. AOL loused up the Netscape browser 
WC> and to a lesser extent newsgroups and mail. Found a decent tutorial
WC> site on Linux on the web, quite comprehensive and fairly readable 
WC> for the newbie.

RJT> Oh yeah?  What's on it?

WC>  Kinda looks like EVERYTHING but it's not quite as obscure as some
WC> sites I've visited.

Have you hit on the Linux Documentation Project yet?  That seems to be the
home of a lot of stuff.

WC> Well Roy it looks like there's no going back for me  and the 486
WC> boxes but I will snag some cheap EDO RAM off of Ebay for the NEC.

RJT> I've got a couple of boxes going here now,  the K6-200 and the P200 I'm
RJT> doing the install on,  and even on these with a fair amount of machine
RJT> resources I'm still being a little choosy about what gets installed and
RJT> what doesn't.

WC> As well you should be! Well over three quarters of this Winblows 
WC> install needs to be deleted but I'd lose some of the enhancements 
WC> I've made to do so. Who knew you couldn't delete the icons and 
WC> still uninstall the crud. I'd have to install over the existing 
WC> stuff to get it off the drive and having learned what I have put 
WC> any additional add on software within my "My Documents" or some 
WC> other folder to preserve the software enabled hardware standby 
WC> functionality. An unsteady hand and accidently clicking the mouse 
WC> really messed up my desktop beyond all belief last night requiring
WC> me hours to straighten out. When I get the big drive I'll be able 
WC> to experiment far more and have backup ready to go.

Yeah,  if you have plenty of drive space and can control what it does,  do
more than one install,  using some kinda boot manager (LILO?) to decide
which one boots.  Then when you make a change and want to keep it,  you can
make it to the backup copy as well.  Me,  I don't do enough to with it to
want to be bothered with that.

RJT> But when it comes to more limited machines,  like a 486 box or 
RJT> similar,  I'm going to be even *more* picky,  and see how small I 
RJT> can get.  We'll see how it goes. I'm thinking that these may be 
RJT> useful for such things as backup server,  print server,  etc.,  
RJT> stuff where a machine gets dedicated to one particular function...

WC>  Yeah, wish I knew what the deal was with the 486 box I've here 
WC> that doesn't properly address the extended RAM stick anymore.  The 
WC> extended stick still works fine in the original box  but that's the 
WC> one with the crappy video onboard card and 8250 UART's :-(

Ain't that always the way it goes?

RJT> So far I have no idea if the sound card in the test fixture works or
RJT> not,  the install is still going on.  The one PCI card I have in the
RJT> other box isn't working yet.  Nor is the network card for some reason
RJT> that I need to figure out,  though the dos boot floppy with 3com
RJT> software seems to say it's functional.

WC> Jameco I see from their catalog is still offering ISA network cards 
WC> at reasonable price so I could network my two boxes, only need the 
WC> one as the H.P. has one.

What kind of prices?  I saw the ones I use here,  3com 3c509,  on sale at a
local used outlet for under $10 each.  I forget if it was $9 or $7, 
somewhere around there.

WC> IIRC they had a 1 Gig SCSI drive for under 70 and a few Gig's at
WC> 99, 50 pin.

Hm.  I've heard of way better prices than that.  The place I mentioned had
9G drives for around $50.

WC> No longer have them, but they were 24 Amp/Hr rated and the 
WC> minicomputer that used them used a lot of them. A number of 
WC> indivduals snagged up on them.

RJT> I'm trying to picture a 24AH unit,  and failing.  I guess it's just
RJT> been too long since I was messing with those on a work basis.

WC> Approximately ten inches square and six high.

The squarish ones I have are like 33AH.

RJT> People who used to buy batteries were often surprised at how this
RJT> worked, thinking that you could draw a heck of a lot more out of them
RJT> than you actually can.  Or that they'd last longer while you did it.

WC> I find if you charge them up quickly after discharge it helps.

RJT> Yes,  that was a constant bit of advice on my part,  "keep 'em
RJT> charged".

WC> Except Nic-Cads which require complete discharge on a regular basis
WC> but not below 1.1 volt IIRC.

That was the source of a lot of confusion,  people used to think that the
lead-acid stuff had the "memory" problem.

WC> I physically _lost_ my last set and they were working like new 
WC> after 7 years.

I've had a few go bad on me,  most often the go to dead short.  Or they
start leaking around teh positive terminal.



WC> Currently e-mailing myself a file attach 6 meg compilation of JPG's
WC> across the room a distance of ten feet.

RJT> Handy,  ain't it?  :-)   Though ftp can also work well,  and direct lan
RJT> transfers even easier,  once you get things set up...

WC> No cable and one network card short.

Easy enough to fix.

WC> fixable for 25 bucks at Jameco but suspect CompUSA would no longer
WC> carry ISA though I could remove the PCI sound card and slap a PCI
WC> network card in there.

$25?  We can do better than that.

WC> I like to do my window shopping online but purchase locally where 
WC> possible.

Yeah.  Where it's easier to deal with the hassles that come up from time to time...

WC> Going online to check out the news at the Wash. Post with this
WC> upload. Gotta slow down again as I keep _hitting the wall_ even 
WC> with my feeble efforts of late.

How do you mean?

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