1237a5ca75ed
tech



Hello Wayne - 

CA>> I suspect Knoppix is just the tip of the iceberg

--8<--cut

WC> I'm OK with that if the ability is intrinsic to move to the
WC> hard drive and to send your customized setup to floppy, or
WC> for that matter burn another disk. 

Maybe we'll use those flash cards the digital cameras are using
for our OS configuration data?

WC> Seems the 1.44 diskette drive is on the way out some
WC> manufacturers in the industry say and some machines only
WC> offer them as an add-on NOW. 

Dell isn't putting them into their servers and Lindows has no
standard machine with floppies. I think they'll be around but I
won't miss them when they are gone either. 

CA>> If I am correct, fast CD drives or a good DVD burner would
CA>> put a computer user in the path of the newest 'bleeding
CA>> edge' of technology. 

WC> They still fall short of hard drive speeds. 

Hard drives fall short. The hard drive has to replaced some day
some how or we will hit the wall and there will be no _real_
speed improvements soon. 

WC>> Lots of beans, rice and carrots to trim the budget to get
WC>> there. 

CA>> It's your call but I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents
CA>> anyhow. ;-) 

WC> Always welcome. 

Thanks. 


--8<--cut

CA>> 256 meg is a 'comfortable' place to be for W9x if you can
CA>> get there. 

WC> Seems easy enough except the price I quoted was for PC133
WC> DIMM's and the manual calls for PC100 DIMM's which I found
WC> 128's on the net for 27 dollars each. 52 bucks and shipping
WC> for 256K and those were spec'ed for this machine. Actually
WC> I'm using the NEC just now, wanted to run MultiMail from 98
WC> instead of dropping to DOS and it made a lot of decisions
WC> in the mmail.rc file I didn't like and it crashed and
WC> burned. I'll figure it all out but damned if I  like 98
WC> making the decisions where I put my packets for me. I chose
WC> c:\md for QWK's and when I moved the MM folder to the
WC> desktop it wanted them in
WC> c:\Windows\desktop\mmail\down\qwkpack.q wk :-( I don't feel
WC> like typing all that in Hyperterminal each time and the
WC> like directory convention for qwkpack.rep's going back up. 

I've never tried to install MM on a W9x box but that may be one
reason many use the XT version of MM with W9x to regain some
control? I don't really know why but many do use the XT version
instead of the MM32 version. 

WC>> Installed Hyperterminal P.E. and got one packet downloaded
WC>> alright but need to read the docs as something didn't go
WC>> right this morning and the packet wouldn't decompress. 

CA>> I seem to recall a similar situation for my brother. I
CA>> _think_ he did not have the autodetect for binary/ascii
CA>> transfers turned on? Dim and foggy but seems that was it. 

WC> Comes and goes, I'll figure it out. Was working fine until
WC> I moved it to the desktop shortcut which is when it bombed. 

Alan Zisman recently was having problems getting packets to
uncompress. I don't remember his final solution though? Alan
uses MM. 

CA>> I installed WS_FTP for him to use when doing FTP
CA>> transfers. I use it on my older machines too. 

WC> That is a sweet program, reminds me I need to FTP some
WC> custom voice modem software for the NEC machine. You can't
WC> actually get to the desktop software but just the drivers
WC> unless you FTP in. Now to get 32 bit FTP. I presume WS_FTP
WC> has a 32 bit version? 

Yes, my brother is using it. Slightly different configuration
(more of it) and I'm not sure autodetect is the default when
you install it either. You should check that. 

WC>> Next move is to create an icon for MultiMail so I don't
WC>> have to drop to DOS box. 

CA>> Can't help there. My squabbles with WMcB made me not want
CA>> to depend on MM so I rewrote ATP and use that. 

WC> It's dead simple and where everything went nuts, guess
WC> there's now a registry entry pointing to where _it_ wants
WC> the files. That's where I went astray and fired up the NEC
WC> to reply after resetting message pointers because the
WC> packet won't uncompress on the H.P. anymore since I made
WC> the _shortcut_. 

I'm not really up to speed on how W9x implements 'shortcuts'.
Not clear to me why W9x even has them really. They seem
redundant to me. 


--8<--cut

CA>>> If you are certain you want DSL skip the modem you'll
CA>>> seldom use afterwards. DSL spoils you. ;-) 

WC> No kidding, I tried it when dropping off my phone bill at
WC> Verizon just down the street. I'm still happy with 56K now
WC> and half the time I get 50.667 or so with the rest either
WC> 47 or 49KB/S I have been known to disconnect and reconnect
WC> to get over 50K. Still seems plenty snappy to me and even
WC> Tom's Hardware page is manageable now. 

Sure, 56k (really 53k) is fine until you get used to DSL. ;-) 

I had use of T1's and T3's for almost a year and anything less
was torture for awhile. Now I've calmed down and can watch TV
or even take a nap while downloading. ;-) 

--8<--cut 

WC>> Attempted to sign up on www.ij.net yesterday and it flat
WC>> out told me it wouldn't accept NS 7.0 :-( So I log back on
WC>> with Explorer and it tells me I'm not encrypted so I can't
WC>> get to that page. Never encrypted anything out of lack of
WC>> need so I guess I'll have to look into my settings here. 

CA>> Hmmm ... did they say what level of encryption? There are
CA>> restrictions as to what level of encryption can be
CA>> exported outside the USA. You may have inadvertently
CA>> downloaded the wrong versions of Nestscape and IEx? I
CA>> think most want 128 bit encryption now? 

WC> Well this is the Explorer that came with the machine and
WC> the software packages is labeled May 1998. You mean I may
WC> have to delete 

My gut reaction is to not attempt to delete IExplorer. I think
you install over the top of it? My experiences trying to get
rid of IEx were not good and I recall DUN is similar. If you
don't remove it exactly as Microsoft tells you to it's a mess
and you usually have to reinstall the OS to fix it. 

WC> than download a software package I don't even like to
WC> signup at www.ij.net, sheesh, I was thinking more along the
WC> lines of turning encryption on on my end was the problem. 

Could be. The browsers I have had encryption set to autodetect
and turn on/off automatically. I've never really needed it but
I do see it turn on/off occassionally like for hotmail and
others. I'm not that paranoid that I care if anyone snoops and
I don't buy stuff online. I did make certain I got the Netscape
with 128 bit encryption though just in case I needed it some
day. :-) 

WC>>> Than I'll be able to burn my own Linux releases right off
WC>>> the net!

CA>>> Dubious privilege with CDs selling for 99 cents plus
CA>>> shipping. 

WC>> No credit card as before I got hurt I stupidly paid cash
WC>> for everything except my first cycle. Got a source for
WC>> Linux CD's that accept checks or money order? 

CA>> At least one or two of the links at the BasicLinux webpage
CA>> at 

WC> I'll look into that, CD's are cheap. 

CA>> I pay $15 per month with no server access. It's excessive
CA>> but convenient for me. Saving $5 a month won't help me a
CA>> great deal and I have access to several servers already. 

WC> I'd save 10.00/month which after bills is over 5 percent of
WC> my funds _before_ I buy me or the pooch groceries. 

I agree, I'm occassionally extravagant but I make up for it in
other ways. ;-)

A cat eats less (smaller usually).

--8<--cut 

WC>> I _never_ blew up a bottle... yet (g) 

CA>> You shouldn't have told me that. Now I'm thinking how
CA>> enjoyable cleaning _that_ up would be. :-\ 

WC> Look here, you count the bubbles per minute escaping the
WC> gas trap that excludes oxygen and when it's about right you
WC> take something that looks like an aquarium thermometer but
WC> in fact is a hydrometer. You drop the hydrometer into the
WC> ferment with a spin to loose clinking bubble so as to not
WC> throw off the reading, check the reading than bottle if
WC> it's correct. I brewed a few hundred bottles and never
WC> busted one. 

OK, I believe you. 

WC> OTOH my parents regularly blew up bottles making homemade
WC> rootbeer. 

See? Now you go and do it _again_! 

WC> Come to think of it that rootbeer must have been very
WC> mildly alcoholic to carbonate in the bottles. 

Maybe that's why it is called root-BEER? ;-)

>
>        ,                                        ,
>      o/      Charles_Angelich  - DOS Ghost       \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >  www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/  < \   __\__
 

___ * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/

--- Maximus/2 3.01