RJT> Speaking of which,  I was in a radio shack store the other day and
 RJT> they're selling some kind of a camera -- a *color* camera -- with a USB
 RJT> interface for around $20!  The guy in that particular store was too
 RJT> busy talking on the phone to bother with me,  
 
I once hung around a computer store for 20 - 30 minutes
with two sales people catering to window shoppers and another
at the cash register doing nothing.
I wasn't dressed to the nines but had clean jeans, nice shirt
and nice shoes on... and three thousand dollars cash in my pocket! 
Even tried to flag some attention a couple of times with no success,
walked out of the store disgusted and they lost a sales commission.
 
 RJT> and the girl behind the
 RJT> counter wasn't knowledgable about any of the product,  so that store
 RJT> won't be getting my business,  but I need to stop in another one and
 RJT> find out a bit more about that camera.

 Should have got their stocking number I could have looked it up
 here. I've seen these sort of cameras around quite a bit lately
 at 19 -30 dollars, usually not full motion video but web cam
 style video with varying refresh rates.
 I just missed a sale at www.x10.com where they were offering
 a color video camera with transmitter and remote commander to
 turn on your VCR to record when the included PIR sensor
 sensed body heat and all for the regular price of the camera
 80 bucks! Of course to record other than to VCR you need a 
 video capture card.

 WC>  I've tossed a bit of that, I draw the line at 8 Meg. sticks.

 RJT> You don't mess with less than that?  Heck,  if you don't want 'em I'll
 RJT> take 'em off your hands.  Particularly 4M 30-pin parts.  

 Sorry, just threw out a bunch, not the 4 meg. but 256 banks
 out of a Cyrix.  I knew the 30 pin 4M parts were in some demand so
 I'd have kept any of those I'd seen.

 WC> on jumper setup... or even a DX4 -100. All my original software on
 WC> disks and four tapes I feel reasonably secure now :-)

 RJT> Just make sure you can *read* that stuff!  :-)

 WC>  I DO need to diskcopy the original setup disks as my second copy
 WC> disks had failures but than that software is becomming unusable as
 WC> even now the latest release of Netscape 4.08 for 16 bit O.S.
 WC> locks up on some sites :-(

 RJT> Yeesh!

Well latest release in this case is four years old as Netscape is
no longer supporting this 16 bit platform.

 RJT> I have assorted utilities here to read cmos and save it to a file,
 RJT> stuff like that...
 
Yeah, I've cmos.com and others are readily available from the
SimTel mirrors.
 
 RJT> I guess it'll get here when it gets here.  The emails I answered in
 RJT> this session seem to be a bit earlier.  This ain't your typical dialup
 RJT> 'net connection I'm using.

 WC>  I gathered that some time back.
 WC>  Some kind of gateway that used to be popular with local dialups a
 WC> while back?

 RJT> A friend who happens to run a unix box at home.  :-)

 Handy.

 WC>  I can recall using gateways with offline readers and a couple of
 WC> lines kludged in where you could send to net e-mail from fido and
 WC> vice versa, was spretty kool but haven't seen that sort of access
 WC> available much lately.

 RJT> I do that here.  *I* run the gateway software.

 That's pretty much what I figured.
 
 I'd like to find an unlimited DSL provider and allow dialup local
 access to the web through WildCat Navigator at some point in time,
 perhaps when I get the Pentium going.

 WC> Yeah, I never got the kludge to get X-windows running on the darn
 WC> Headlands Tech. onboard video, bet it would work fine here on this
 WC> one with Cirrus card.

 RJT> Probably would.  Not only do you need the card specs but you also need
 RJT> to know what the monitor can deal with,  that was a lot of the hassle
 RJT> in my case.  
 
I got the card specs right off the CD in a file but applying them did not
work. Mind you this was an on motherboard video card clone.
I've found freeware diagnostic software at SimTel that'll tell
you what your monitor can handle though usually there's a disclaimer
about risk of the higher resolutions and refresh rates and you should 
only run them briefly and at your own risk.
Due to failing eyesight and the fact there are already digital
T.V. computer video cards out I've been looking at larger monitors
in the 20 inch range. Hey if I'm going to buy a digital T.V.
it'll be integrated with the computer to cut down on
redundancy.
Currently I've a minor problem with this monitor as it loses 
vert. sync when recovering from power saver mode however as it was
salvage I suspect the kiddies were playing at the 2 available 
recessed trimpots in the back. 
When first I got the thing horizontal sync was gone
and was likely the reason the monitor was tossed, I turned the 
trim pot from end range to midrange and it sync'ed right up.
Also the A drive had been trashed and the _retractable cup holder_
broken off. However as all these parts were good on my machine
everything worked out fine.

 RJT> I am currently using a P-B monitor on that system that I
 RJT> bought for $5 at a yard sale.  Took me a while to get off 640x480,  and
 RJT> I still haven't got 1024x768 working right yet,  but 800x600 sure looks
 RJT> nice.

 I've 1024x768 running fine after snagging the proper drivers
 off "drivers.com". 
 
BTW, I've noted thatt NEC and Packard Bell have one really nasty habit
regarding the way their monitors keep the CRT board and socket from
backing off the CRT neck. There's a foam pad at the back
of the monitor case and in two cases I had it was both too 
stiff and too thick distorting the metal shield on the back of the 
CRT board shorting out the driver transistors.
I lost one monitor that way and barely saved another after recognizing
the symptoms. My solution was to open the case and cut the pad
in half so it still holds the socket on but doesn't fry the drive
transitors by shorting them to the shield.
In the first case the heat had toasted the pins so bad some came
out of the CRT with the socket :-(
 
 RJT> Which Cirrus chipset do you have?

 Just a moment and I'll exit the OLR and run
 idchip.exe that came with the driver. It's a CL-GD5428
 but I've also the driver for the 32 bit O.S. saved for when
 I get the Pentium up as the video is of the same manufacturer.
 I couldn't get better than 640x480 before retrieving this driver
 from www.drivers.com.
 Now all I need for the Pentium are the USB and sound card drivers 
 which if I go to Win 98 should be plug and play.

 WC> Still about 6 weeks off before I acquire the parts to take a run at
 WC> it but I suspect it won't be too difficult to get it going some
 WC> way.

 RJT> You strike me as being stubborn enough to make it work,  some how...
 RJT> :-)

 Oh hell yes. My brothers the real puzzle solver but when it comes
 to electronics or computer bugs...
 I recall one Christmas mom got Bill a puzzle with eight rods and 
 wedges that you had to get aligned to where all were to the outside.
 I immediately recognized the principle was based on the grey 
 binary code where only one bit is changed for each incremented
 digit so I took the puzzle that had him flustered from him and 
 quickly ran through the 128 moves it took to solve and really pissed
 him off ;-) I don't think Bill EVER solved that one :-)
 
 WC> With all the trouble Windows 95 and 98 have given me so far if it
 WC> dogs on the Pentium I'll make that system Linux only and load
 WC> Mozzilla and WordStar.

 RJT> They have a linux version of Wordstar?

 Yup, or so I've read offen enough on sellers sites such as 
 CheapBytes which by the way just bought LSL which I recently
 mentioned as another source of CD's.
 BTW, I'm not sure I got the name right, I'm speaking of a full
 featured word processor and not the old IBM utility editor.
 It's 50 bucks retail and I believe it can save to MS Office 
 formats.
 
 WC> Have you mnoticed that certain distros of Linux are going
 WC> commercial and prices are rising on those as it begins to become
 WC> operator friendly enough to give Gates' buggy stuff a run for it's
 WC> money?

 WC> Read several cases of commercial businesses going Linux at enormous
 WC> software savings.

 RJT> It's not linux itself that they're charging for,  it's putting the
 RJT> package together,  and supporting it -- that's how RH is making their
 RJT> money,  anyhow, support...

The heck with the support you don't actually learn anything that way.
If I need support I'll go with users info. available by using a
search engine, Fido or newsgroups which I've lately turned
to to find the good and bad of the new motherboards.

 RJT> And it's not just some businesses,  it's *governments* too.  I remember
 RJT> well a news item on tv a while back where billyboy had been trying and
 RJT> trying for a real long time at some nontrival investment in his time
 RJT> and resources in an attempt to get his stuff sold to Mexico for use in
 RJT> the country's school system.
 RJT>  And how they decided to go with "gnome" instead.  The
look on his face
 RJT> was priceless!  :-)

Heh. I've heard one release of Linux was commercial wide body
jet approved and certified and a version was slated to run on the 
shuttle. Would _you_ fly a 767 with a Windows O.S. ;-)
Adds a whole new meaning to BSOD!
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