Hi Bob,

BV> Sorry that I haven't got back to you sooner...customers...AAArr
BV> rggghhh!!!
BL> .... aAAARRRGH!

You're not wrong. I'm going to give my bloke at Burwood a "Dear Bill",
letter on Monday. He's getting stupid again and this time, I'm giving
him notice that I won't be looking after them from the end of August.
I'm sick of it. It's going to be hard kissing off someone who I
extract about $150k p.a. out of, but I've got foreign governments
courting me at the moment, so now is as good a time as any. Besides,
Brenton's Retirement Plan #7365 is close to a reality, so what the heck.

BV> They're not all bad though. I'm sure I told you about the mob
BV> that were the catalyst for Brenton's Retirement Plan #7365.
BV> They're the lot that paid 50% up front back in Feb/Mar even
BV> though I tried to talk them out of it. Anyway, I gave them
BV> their first preview of the system on Tuesday and they were
BV> quacking like ducks :)
BL> Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...

Perhaps, but he's a bit of an arsehole.
BV> My bloke at  Burwood must have had a personality transplant too,
BV> coz he's been quite polite and courteous to everyone for the
BV> last couple of weeks.
BL> Is this before or after you went crazy and bit him on the leg...?

Whatever, it didn't last long. He's back to his old tricks again.
We've lost some data which gets sent from another host to us and
he's gone ballistic. The part that really pisses me off is that we
have no way to check that we get everything and the fucked system
which is sending it has no way to ensure that they send everything.

I'm sitting in the middle of two systems which have absolutely
no error checking. This is a problem which I have been trying to
get addressed for six years now. Nobody has done anything about it,
but now that data has gone missing it's all my fault. Fuck em!
They can't prove that they sent it the same as I can't prove that I
lost it. The idiots that I look after naturally assume that it must
be my system which has fucked up and start abusing me. The fact that
the sender tells me that they have other clients who suspect data
loss is irrelevant to them, it's still my fault.

BV> I've made a couple of enquiries and it seems that nobody
BV> produces an ISA card which only has one or two IDE ports. There
BV> is a PCI card available but I haven't found an ISA one yet. I
BV> haven't given up, though it might take a while until I can find
BV> one.
BL>  I'd be surprised if they exist... the primary/secondary idea seemed
BL> to come after VLB. How about two separate ISA cards - one IDE cable
BL> each?

Que ? That doesn't really make sense. I've read elsewhere that
you've got it sorted out now anyway, so I won't bother with it.

BV> Have you sorted out the serial port yet ?
BL>  I didn't bother... it's just as easy to plug in the old ISA card for
BL> two extra COM ports and use the cable on that.
BL>  But I'm up shit creek again. Remember it said I got an occasional
BL>      Hard Disk Fail   (80)
BL>      Floppy Disk Fail (C0)
BL>  ... well it's coming from the bloody VESA card when I disable the
BL> floppy drive. God only knows what they do in there!

Hmmm...

BL>  I've got three cards, and the only one that works as advertised is
BL> the ISA one I managed to stuff for the IDE driver! ROFL! I can disable
BL> all or any part of that and there are no conflicts, the ASIC works
BL> perfectly well on the address lines... it just won't read the IDE
BL> cable right. There must be a poor connection to the pin header but
BL> I'm stuffed if I can find it. I could cry!

I'm sure that we can fix it. Remember, "We have the technology".

BL>  And if I go out and buy another ISA card with the works and modify
BL> it, it's odds on that the floppy won't disable (or something), like
BL> my bloody VESA card stuffup. I get the feeling that computers are a
BL> shambles...!

Hey, you're learning :)

Cheers, Brenton
@EOT:

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