Hello Stephen.

29 Dec 02 14:59, you wrote to me:

 MM>> Could be related to USB. Win 98 has trouble with that.

 SM> Hey, for all I know, it could be related to the phase of the moon.

Probably is...

 SM> My desktop does have a couple of USB ports that I'm not using,
 SM> but surely that wouldn't?    ...No wait, we won't "go there."

I once fixed a 'puter that was pukin' bad for a dentist-friend of mine. It
would only boot in safe mode; the problem was that he had a joystick hooked
up to the USB port. Once I disconnected it from USB and hooked it up to the
sound card's joystick port, everything worked fine.

And don't call me Shirley...

 SM> I'll spare you any more details, partly because I'm saving them for a
 SM> "rant" when the kingston.bbs.fido.users249 newsgroup
slows down again.

I might "fix" that one from my news server, just for fun. If you
listen carefully, you might just hear me lurking...

 SM> Anyway...   For whatever reason an improper shutdown, and then
 SM> the subsequent disk scan during the next boot, has become a
 SM> regular feature of using the laptop.  It's probably what I
 SM> deserve for trying to keep using antique computers.  After all,
 SM> this laptop is around six or seven years old which makes it
 SM> quite ancient.

Ah, it's just getting "worn in"...

 SM> By the way, wasn't it really subtle how I worked in a disguised advert
 SM> for the kingston.bbs.fido.users249 newsgroup?  Mentioning it is sorta
 SM> part of my long-term "virtual moose migration" policy.  While that
 SM> newsgroup was originally started to "gate" a Net249 BBS
Users echo, in
 SM> the longterm I can see it morphing into a place where current and
 SM> former BBS sysops and users can indulge in nostalgia and occasional
 SM> technical discussion.  Or. whatever comes to mind, including
 SM> Moose-like satire or silliness.     ...After all, having a widely
 SM> distributed newsgroup is nothing to "sniff at."  :-)

Wasn't there once a moosechat newsgroup?

 MM>> Although those "daemons" (or is it
"demons"?) Have been mucking

 SM> That depends on a few different factors.  Aside from the actual class
 SM> of program that's running, and whether it is "good" or
whether it has
 SM> been seduced by "the dark side," there is also the question of
 SM> spelling.  I think that the Unix and Linux gurus like "daemons"
 SM> because it's has a sort of archaic "coolness" about it. 
Or, is that
 SM> "kewlness" I'm referring to?  Anyway, you've definitely
asked a very
 SM> deep question.

The problem was that my computer was too shallow... on disk space, that is.
It seems NT based systems are a bit of a hog for free disk space; they
don't like being restricted to around 100 MB. I guess they're a little bit
like Meese in that respect, because they like wide open spaces. Actually, I
kind of like that; it's got a nice Zen feel to it...

A good sweep of all the junk and clutter off of my hard disks made NT quite
happy again.

 SM> It's a shame when various pieces of hardware and software "will not
 SM> play well with others."

I'm having some trouble with my onboard "plug & pray" sound
card on the new Dell computer I switched my NT machine over to. If I can't
find a working NT driver for it, I may just disable it. The Dell computer
doesn't seem to like the fact that I formatted my D: drive with NTFS,
either. It keeps complaining about it being "out of specs" on
bootup. I guess some Dells just don't know nothin' but Winsloth 9x...

 SM> I need to try and remember some of that early history.  Somehow I
 SM> always blame the M$ success on their deadly ninja marketing teams.

Ah, so /they/ must have been the guys that attacked the "Presidents of
the United States" while they were shooting their video for the song
"Peaches"...

 SM> It seems the M$ is a true new-millennium group.  In fact, if
 SM> they pull-off the whole "convert users to the NT-style kernel
 SM> without telling them what XP really is," I foresee a whole new
 SM> crop of books extolling their genius.  Naturally though, they
 SM> won't mention the true reason for their success.  At least, not
 SM> until the statute of limitations runs out.

When it does, then maybe we'll see "Ripping off OS ideas for
Idiots" on the shelves?

 SM> that the same wording and error message is used whether it is only the
 SM> one application that has screwed-up or whether the complete OS is
 SM> hosed and needs a re-boot.  Regular Windows users have since told me
 SM> that you know when the computer needs a re-boot by noticing the subtle
 SM> fact that your computer has totally "frozen,"
"crashed," or "died" of
 SM> embarrassment...

That's one nice thing about NT; it allows the administrator to gracefully
kill the offending program without the need to reach for the reset button.
Although the usual "three-finger salute" maneuver is still
required, when you do so it actually gives you a useful program to work
with, and the OS itself rarely freezes like the proverbial "deer in
the headlights".

 SM> In defense of my confusion, I'll point out that I've mainly been
 SM> using Linux and OS/2 for the last few years and I was therefore
 SM> not used to interpreting system error messages.  They were just
 SM> so rare, eh?

I've now moved on to having to interpret the mysterious and cryptic NT
scroll known as the "system log"...


--- GoldED/386 3.0.1-dam3