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



WC> They're working on new microlithography techniques using far 
WC> ultraviolet LASER's to make chips now so terrahertz processors and 
WC> RAM memory in the tens of gigabytes will be available in about two 
WC> years!

UV lasers?  Wow.  I guess xray lasers will eventually show up,  probably
starting out in some weapons program...

WC>  I just got another thing added to my things to do list, buy 
WC> antivirus software :-(

Me,  I don't plan to hook a modem to the w98 box at all,  when it sees the
'net it's gonna be through a router/firewall box.

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.

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

RJT> Sure sounds like you're having fun at least,  and good luck with your
RJT> acquisitions.

WC> I'm frequently overextending myself and changing ISP's and buying
WC> antivirus software is going to eat this months discretionary funds.
WC> Oh yeah found out what that oddly named slot was neither of us had
WC> heard of, name escapes, it's an interface for a UPS so your UPS 
WC> alerts the computer to shutdown properly when the power goes out. 
WC> The H.P. has one. STILL haven't ID'ed the USB port revision though.

There's stuff even in Slackware 4.0 that would deal with that.  The one UPS
I had here that stopped working had a serial connector on the back of it, 
I never got the right cable,  but you could hook that up to a serial port
on the machine and certain kinds of activity would shut the machine down in
an orderly fashion,  as opposed to it keeping on running until the battery
died.

RJT> I'm doing so-so,  and can't complain too much as at least I didn't 
RJT> go out and *buy* most of the stuff that's here.  About the only 
RJT> thing I've really had much of a problem with lately is that sound 
RJT> card going *bad* on me.

WC> That sucks. Got 2 PCI and 1 ISA Sound cards here.

Got one PCI one in the machine but it doesn't seem to have an interrupt
configured and I'm stalled at the moment in terms of figuring out how to
make that happen.  Also a couple of ISA ones in a box here,  I'm going to
try and see what I can make work shortly.

WC> So far my loses from failure over the years are 2 floppy drives,

I've had a number of those fail on me.  They don't seem to make them as
well as they used to,  or something.  I had one,  an Alps,  that I bought
brand new,  and when we put this computer together (what used to be the
w3.1 box) it actually *smoked*.  Had a few others fail,  here and there. 
It's a shame as I'd shuffled a bunch of stuff off to floppy and they turned
out to be unreadable in some cases.  These days when I go to snag one, 
even at the used place,  I try for Sony.  They haven't disappointed me yet.
 And they invented the damn things.

WC> one motherboard, three momitors and two hard drives the latter two
WC> of these items suffering unnatural deaths.

I can't recall any HDs actually out and out failing on me,  though the old
40M seagates I used to run got *really* noisy bearings before I stopped
using them.  Monitors,  yeah.  I have three of them sitting here in the
room,  plus one that went to trash that I'd bought new,  plus whatever the
heck is sitting over in storage,  they go on me.  And power supplies!  I
know that a couple of the XT-class supplies got cooked,  mostly from
running 24/7 with two of those above-mentioned seagate drives in the box.

WC> I killed a 230 Meg. drive swapping it when my elbow touched the 
WC> monitor screen and me and the ex-girlfriend killed a 2.5 Gig drive 
WC> when I loosed the scissors from her hands with which she'd first 
WC> tried to stab herself and than me on the nearest available object,
WC> the running computer :-( 

Which didn't have the cover on?  :-0

WC> That one was still in warantee but I couldn't avail myself as under 
WC> the circumstances it would have been unscrupulous to do so.

WC> Omly problem with the Paviliom 433 is I've no tools to examine the 
WC> hard drive and check and eliminate any hidden system files at the 
WC> end of the drive to repartitian with FIPS without worry so as to
WC> install Linux.

RJT> I still think you oughta be able to snag a reasonable used HD out there
RJT> without having to spend much,  maybe a gig or so...

WC>  I'm not touching anything under 40 Gig.

Under a gig there are reliability questions,  though I still have a couple
of 500-540M drives that do okay here.  But once ou get over that,  there
aren't too many problems with 'em.  The one I first installed Slackware on
was given to me after I helped a friend of mine upgrade his system with an
8.4G.

WC>  Was one on sale locally for 66 bucks and was going to snag it  but 
WC> when I checked it was out of stock.

That's a pretty good price.

WC> Guess I'll wait until I get CDR backup or start from scratch on a 
WC> clean fresh drive splitting the first partition to the same size as 
WC> the Quantum drive, xcopying over everything and than hacking up the 
WC> rest of the drive for Linux.

RJT> Or boot linux from a floppy (got tomsrtbt handy?) and use dd,  instead.

WC> Close as an internet logon. What's dd?

From the man page: "dd - convert and copy a file".  Copies from
stdin to stdout,   using specified block sizes (default is 512 bytes),  and
optionally performing conversions.  Options include things like
"if=" (input file) and "of=" (output file) where the
"file" in question here can also be a device.  So,  for example, 
if you have an image file for a floppy you can do a write to /dev/fd0 and
do the boot sector,  filesystem stuff (like FAT,  etc.),  and so forth. 
Should work with a hard drive,  too.  Just one of them unixish tools...   
:-)

WC> RE: Plug and play

RJT> It seems to work better with PCI hardware,  though for some reason I
RJT> can't quite figure out the one PCI soundcard I have here is refusing to
RJT> come up with an interrupt for the system to work with.

WC> Perhaps a conflict with a another device?

Nope.  There are three PCI "devices" listed,  one being the video
card and one being the bridge chip.  There's even supposed to be some
potential with PCI for sharing interrupts.

WC> When I swapped the drive into the older NEC box it not only 
WC> recognized the PCI sound card and modem but also setup and 
WC> configured the external hardware modem and ISA Sound card as well!

RJT> Probably oughta just find that 500M w98 drive I have,  plug that 
RJT> into the system w/o linux being hooked up,  and see if that won't 
RJT> initialize it,  but that's a last resort,

WC> It's a quick diagnostic method, I'm beginning to figure out 98 and 
WC> have found some of the tools that ID hardware and let you know if 
WC> there are conflicts.

I'm not sure which stuff you're talking about there,  but I know enough to
get into device manager and fiddle with the settings,  or at least find out
where it's got things set...  :-)

RJT> I'm enjoying the challenge of finding out how things work and 
RJT> maybe getting it going without doing that.  At this point I'm able 
RJT> to see (and maybe set?) all sorts of configuration registers,  
RJT> stuff like that.  I'll get there with it...

WC> I'm down for a few days, overdid yesterday. On top of that I may 
WC> switch to the secured Win 3.1 machine until I get some antivirus 
WC> software here on 98, never needed it before I _upgraded_.

WC> 12 days and I order a new 1/2 price ISP, cancel Verizon and than it
WC> becomes upgrade time for both machines with me torn between getting
WC> the CD burner or large drive first.

RJT> I'd get the drive first.    But that's just me...

WC> Well it's get the antivirus software and ISP first or antivirus and 
WC> hard drive but every month on Verizon is costing me twice the other 
WC> ISP. Then too is the RAM that Jim Holsonback has finally convinced 
WC> me that PC133's will work in this machine contrary to what I say to
WC> Charles prior to receiving e-mail from Jim H. Just found "PC SDRAM 
WC> Unbuffered Specification revision 1.0 in the manual regarding 
WC> memory so I guess I'll plug that into google and see what that 
WC> reveals if anything.

Good luck with that and let us know how it works out.  If I can take
advantage of some of the cheap prices to snag something that'll work with
my current hardware and still (maybe) be usable later on,  that'd be neat.

WC> THan there's a UPS to figure in too, going to get an oversize one
WC> so it won't be stressed and I'll be able to parallel in some
WC> outboard deep discharge batteries.

RJT> That's what I'd like to get going here.

WC> Don't forget to get a hefty bridge rectifier to isolate the
WC> outboard battery as I plan to do to protect the charging circuits.
WC> As I've already a heavy duty charging transformer here it'll be no
WC> problem to charge separately. Pulling 20 amps I should get a couple 
WC> of hours out of a deep discharge battery don't you think? 
WC> There's a huge battery warehouse quite near me that stocks most 
WC> everything at about the best price you could expect.

Most batteries are rated in "reserve power".  Automotive-type
batteries,  anyhow,  not so much gels and such.  That spec usually involves
a given discharge rate,  a given temperature,  and a given cutoff point
where you'd consider it discharged.  Typical stuff is like 20 or 25A,  80
degrees F,  and maybe 10.6v (I'm not real sure,  just doing this from
memory and it's been a few years since I was doing that).  Typical numbers
for a group 31,  the size that a tractor-trailer would use three or four
of,  are anywhere from 120 minutes to 180 minutes.  Automotive batteries
are rated somewhat lower.  The marine-style batteries were similarly rated,
 and not in AH,  which would've made more sense to me.

Gels are rated in AH,  but that's at a _20-hour_ rate -- so a 10AH gel is
spec'd for a 500mA drain for 20 hours.  You can pull a lot more out of
them,  for short periods of time,  though they don't seem to last real long
in that type of use,  and of course at lower rates they last longer.

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

I had some interesting times working with that stuff on a couple of
occasions.  One time a guy wanted a gel to run a small motor that was used
to start model airplane gas engines,  which pulled maybe 2-3 amps.  I
recommended one,  he picked something way smaller,  and ended up cooking it
and coming back for the bigger one later.  Then there was the group of kids
at the local college who wanted to build a small electric-powered
submarine.  We ended up talking about a set of six (minimum!) golf cart
batteries,  and they weren't too happy about the weight involved,  never
mind the bulk,  and the cost.  But it made for some interesting
conversations,  anyhow.

WC> I've about 10 items in quick start amd 73 percent available 
WC> resources, to date the lowest figure I've seen and it runs well.

RJT> I don't keep *anything* there.  Only icon that shows up in the taskbar
RJT> in the 98 box here is the little speaker,  for the volume control.

WC> I _am_ planning on removing a number of them and have RTFM on how
WC> to do so but it's not a pressing issue at the moment. On a 
WC> completely unrelasted matter I saw on the news last night this 
WC> really incredible spinal procedure for those with my sort of 
WC> incapacitating spinal injuries. Doctors have discovered an enzyme 
WC> they soak into a sponge and place in the proper spot on the spinal 
WC> column and it regrows discs or bone, not precise on the details as 
WC> it was just the evening news and not very well reported but this 
WC> sounds spectacular and perhaps relatively cheap.

Hm,  ain't it nifty the way technology just keeps on moving along?

WC> This Windows XP bodes very well for you and I as well as others 
WC> snagging good solid machines at rock bottom prices :-)

RJT> Yeah.  :-)

WC> You know I'm getting a little spooked by these plugins that 
WC> install on the fly and shockwave activating and streaming MP3 
WC> suddenly coming out of my speakers never even having left the web 
WC> site, Charles Angelich's, that I was on.

That *is* weird.  I've little experience with that sort of thing,  and am
not sure I'd care for it too much.  And if I did have that sort of thing
happening,  I'd want to be *real* sure of what was running on any system I
had here.  It amazes me how much people will trust in stuff like that...

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