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

WC> I originally wrote the same about X-ray LASER's in the post but
WC> editted it out.

RJT> Ever read any Larry Niven?  :-)

WC> Long ago but don't recall much now.

Think about the shadow squares in Ringworld.  

WC> 

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.

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

RJT> I never could see the sense of taking _data_ and _running_ it!  That
RJT> seems to be at the root of a lot of those kinds of problems.  Things
RJT> like email attachements that you execute,  etc.

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.

I suppose,  but I'm damned if I can see why it has to.  And those who are
designing this stuff just don't seem to get it,  don't seem to be able to
get stuff put together in a way which is both friendly and at the same time
secure.  They've had the biggest bunch of hackers worldwide who show them
over and over again where the vulnerabilities are,  and yet they don't seem
to be able to change their design approach overall to do away with them, 
somehow.

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.

Oh yeah?  What's on it?

WC> In a couple of days now I'll take another run at splitting this 
WC> drive with FIPS and getting back at it, either that or cut a piece 
WC> of plywood and move the NEC onto that stereo stand and place it 
WC> next to the cart the H.P.'s  on. Now with this 56K modem getting 
WC> 50K or better connects it's time to turn on the juice a little and 
WC> setup whatever release I want straight off the Linux net mirrors.
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.

I've got a couple of boxes going here now,  the K6-200 and the P200 I'm
doing the install on,  and even on these with a fair amount of machine
resources I'm still being a little choosy about what gets installed and
what doesn't.  But when it comes to more limited machines,  like a 486 box
or similar,  I'm going to be even *more* picky,  and see how small I can
get.  We'll see how it goes. I'm thinking that these may be useful for such
things as backup server,  print server,  etc.,  stuff where a machine gets
dedicated to one particular function...

WC> I was contemplating the experimental swap anyway to get that big 
WC> honking card out of the way but still retain the sound in the ISA 
WC> slot to free up a PCI slot occuied by a PCI sound card. Give me a 
WC> yell if you if nothing you've on hand works and I'll see if I can
WC> manage to send it to you.

RJT> I'll take anything I can get,  and in the meantime I'm limited to 
RJT> weekends to do any serious fiddling with this stuff.  We'll see 
RJT> how it goes,  if I can get somewhere with it.

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



RJT> That's how I got some of the ones I have,  they were swapped out.  How
RJT> big are the ones you have?  And,  are you keeping them charged?

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.

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

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.

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

WC> I'll rely largely on the guys from Electro-Battery as they deal 
WC> with the stuff all the time. Downloaded a 39.4 Meg. PDF of Digikey's
WC> catalog last night to find some hefty stud type rectifiers to
WC> isolate the UPS charger from external battery. Unbelieveable amount
WC> of stuff in their new catalog and I was wishing I was a kid again
WC> with good eyesight to play around with all the surface mount
WC> prototype boards and such. 

That's why I bought one of those lighted magnifiers.

WC> Also snagged Jameco's PDF. That's 53 MEG of download in under three 
WC> hours time :-)

RJT> Whoa!    I am way behind on their catalogs,  haven't gotten any in
RJT> several years,  since I stopped regularly buying stuff from them.
RJT> Looks like I'm gonna have to get a hold of some.  But I don't think
RJT> I'll be downloading them any time soon.  Maybe they'll put 'em out on
RJT> cdrom sometime soon?  I know a lot of companies are going that route.

WC> They need to, unbelieveable stuff in there these days, really looks
WC> Sci-Fi to me it's come so far.

I oughta get some recent catalogs...

WC> A lot of familiar stuff as well. There were a number of pages of 
WC> high grade UPS's in there designed for servers at a little over 
WC> double the price of one to be had at a computer shop.

Hmm.

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

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

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