-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-
 
 CA> I suspect Knoppix is just the tip of the iceberg (I hear there
 CA> are other Linx that execute from just the CD now). I expect to
 CA> see many such CDs out there soon and definitely on DVDs when
 CA> more of us can afford them. It really makes more sense to take
 CA> your install with you to whatever machine and be comfortably
 CA> 'at home' with the applications you know and can make use of.
 CA> Seems so to me anyhow.

I'm OK with that if the ability is intrinsic to move to the hard drive
and to send your customized setup to floppy, or for that matter
burn another disk.
Seems the 1.44 diskette drive is on the way out some manufacturers in
the industry say and some machines only offer them as an
add-on NOW.

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

They still fall short of hard drive speeds.

 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 anyhow. ;-)

Always welcome.

 WC> Right now one of the local retailers is offering 128 Meg.
 WC> PC133 DIMM's for 49 dollars but don't know if they'll go in
 WC> this machine as it's manual says PC100. Great thing is I
 WC> don't need matched size pairs as currently two sticks at 64
 WC> and 32 Meg are in there from different manufacturers and
 WC> they co-exist just fine.

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

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

 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 _think_
 CA> he did not have the autodetect for binary/ascii transfers
 CA> turned on? Dim and foggy but seems that was it.

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

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

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

 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 to
 CA> depend on MM so I rewrote ATP and use that.

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

 WC> You're talking a whole different kind of video editing I'm
 WC> contemplating as I'm using _editing_ in the most limited
 WC> interpretation of the word.
 
 CA>> If you are certain you want DSL skip the modem you'll
 CA>> seldom use afterwards. DSL spoils you. ;-)

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

 WC> Not certain of much of anything just yet except RAM for
 WC> both machines and a large drive are priorities as well as
 WC> changing ISP's.

 CA> Sounds like a good plan. :-)

 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 exported
 CA> outside the USA. You may have inadvertently downloaded the
 CA> wrong versions of Nestscape and IEx? I think most want 128 bit
 CA> encryption now?

Well this is the Explorer that came with the machine
and the software packages is labeled May 1998.
You mean I may have to delete than download a software package
I don't even like to signup at www.ij.net, sheesh, I was thinking more
along the lines of turning encryption on on my end was the problem.

 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 at

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

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

 I'd save 10.00/month which after bills is over 5 percent of my
 funds _before_ I buy me or the pooch groceries.
 
 WC>> 6 month goal along with the beer making equipment. BTW the
 WC>> URL for my local supplier is www.beerandwinemaking.com
 
 WC> the price. The trick here is to use the hydrometer to
 WC> determine the specific gravity of the brew before bottling
 WC> and adding precisely the correct amount of corn sugar
 WC> before you bottle and cap. I _never_ blew up a bottle...
 WC> yet (g)

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

Look here, you count the bubbles per minute escaping the 
gas trap that excludes oxygen and when it's about right you 
take something that looks like an aquarium thermometer
but in fact is a hydrometer.
You drop the hydrometer into the ferment with a spin
to loose clinking bubble so as to not throw off the reading,
check the reading than bottle if it's correct.
I brewed a few hundred bottles and never busted one.
OTOH my parents regularly blew up bottles making homemade rootbeer.
Come to think of it that rootbeer must have been very mildly 
alcoholic to  carbonate in the bottles.
 
--- MultiMail/PBellDOS v0.42