-=> ROY J. TELLASON wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 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?  :-)

Long ago but don't recall much now.



 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> 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...

Yeah that which renders it user friendly to those without skills
also renders it vulnerable. I've got to check my settings in
NS mail and see what they are before going to the other ISP.
AOL loused up the Netscape browser and to a lesser extent
newsgroups and mail.
Found a decent tutorial site on Linux on the web, quite comprehensive
and fairly readable for the newbie.
In a couple of days now I'll take another run at splitting this
drive with FIPS and getting back at it, either that or cut
a piece of plywood and move the NEC onto that stereo
stand and place it next to the cart the H.P.'s  on.
Now with this 56K modem getting 50K or better connects
it's time to turn on the juice a little and setup
whatever release I want straight off the Linux net mirrors.
Well Roy it looks like there's no going back for me  and
the 486 boxes but I will snag some cheap EDO RAM off of
Ebay for the NEC.

 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 how it
 RJT> goes,  if I can get somewhere with it.

 WC> I'll even zip up my SoundBlaster directory and delete and see if
 WC> the SoundBlaster software recognises and sets up on the card.

 WC> Hmm, I'd been using Linux to cp to and from a FAT 16 partition with
 WC> no noticable problems without using dd, guess things were just
 WC> serendipidously lined up right here.

 RJT> Was that partition mounted as a fat16 partition?  The dd program
 RJT> doesn't worry about filesystem stuff,  works with tape and boot sectors
 RJT> and whatever...

Yes FAT 16.

 WC> Definately something I'll want to look into.

 RJT> It's handy.

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

 WC> Some experience with those in heavy duty sizes as a company  I
 WC> worked for used a great many as backup and their service conract
 WC> swapped them out well before they were dead and I snagged a few.

 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?

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

 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. I'll
 WC> rely largely on the guys from Electro-Battery as they deal with the
 WC> 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. Also snagged Jameco's PDF. That's 53
 WC> MEG of download in under three 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.

They need to, unbelieveable stuff in there these days, really looks
Sci-Fi to me it's come so far. A lot of familiar stuff as well.
There were a number of pages of high grade UPS's in there 
designed for servers at a little over double the price of
one to be had at a computer shop.
Currently e-mailing myself a file attach 6 meg compilation of
JPG's across the room a distance of ten feet.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5