-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 WC> Well I've seen a number of exceptions to that. Gigabyte is
 WC> putting out a board with every imaginable port _and_ has 5
 WC> or 6 available slots, 4 gig memory support. Real bleeding
 WC> edge critter it is too, optical audio ports and such.

 CA> I know where you are seeing these and they are doityourself
 CA> sever class kits, not your typical system at all.

Well at the higher end Pricewatch is selling them assembled burned
in and tested at near 500 bucks with a 2.5 GHz or better processor.
Usually this does not include RAM or hard drive but does
include case, power supply all your connectors and such.
Given I've got a hard drive, 3 CD-ROM drives here(one too ancient
to be acceptable but works, two software modems, one hardware modem
and an ethernet card and it's mighty tempting
to wait the six - 8 months it'd take to purchase one.
Lots of beans, rice and carrots  to trim the budget
to get there. Right now one of the local retailers is offering
128 Meg. PC133 DIMM's for 49 dollars but don't know if they'll
go in this machine as it's manual says PC100.
Great thing is I don't need matched size pairs as currently
two sticks at 64 and 32 Meg are in there from different manufacturers
and they co-exist just fine.
Installed Hyperterminal P.E. and got one packet downloaded alright
but need to read the docs as something didn't go right this morning
and the packet wouldn't decompress. Next move is to create
an icon for MultiMail so I don't have to drop to DOS box.

 CA> Usually video is accompanied by audio. Just doing audio
 CA> properly eats up 100s of man hours here on an 800mhz machine. I
 CA> don't think a faster machine would help a great deal. It's just
 CA> time consuming to review the results, make changes, and review
 CA> the results, etc. Add video to that and you're really into
 CA> something best done by a team IMO.

You're talking a whole different kind of video editing I'm 
contemplating as I'm using _editing_ in the most limited
interpretation of the word.

 WC> A hardware 56K modem is desirable too. Done some thinking
 WC> on my resources and budget and think I shall in fact soon
 WC> go DSL.

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

 Not certain of much of anything just yet except RAM
 for both machines and a large drive are priorities
 as well as changing ISP's.
 Attempted to sign up on www.ij.net yesterday
 and it flat out told me it wouldn't accept NS 7.0 :-(
 So I log back on with Explorer and it tells me I'm 
 not encrypted so I can't get to that page.
 Never encrypted anything out of lack of need
 so I guess I'll have to look into my settings here.

 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 shipping.

 No credit card as before I got hurt I stupidly paid cash
 for everything except my first cycle.
 Got a source for Linux CD's that accept checks or
 money order? I'll check cheapbytes today myself.
 That being the case I might just go with Internet Junctions 
 9.95/ month unlimited however this is without a server
 option which from my brief look at their pricing kicks in
 at 60 bucks a month DSL, phone lines extra which is
 way out of my reach. But at 9.95 unlimited, 20 meg
 space on your account dialup not bad at all.
 This is a Florida ISP.

 WC> 6 month goal along with the beer making equipment. BTW the
 WC> URL for my local supplier is www.beerandwinemaking.com

 CA> Saved to my files. :-)

I'm sure there's one local to you and you can search
the net for mail order outfits for the malts and hops
at better prices in larger quantities but I thought
I'd clue you in to the site for a looksee.
I'm not planning  on kegging or getting CO2 charging canisters
but doing it the old way with natural carbonation in the bottle.
Besides it's half the price.
The trick here is to use the hydrometer to determine
the specific gravity of the brew before bottling
and adding precisely the correct amount of corn sugar before
you bottle and cap.
I _never_ blew up a bottle... yet 
 
--- MultiMail/PBellDOS v0.42