Text 5476, 97 rader
Skriven 2005-03-20 16:55:04 av Gerald Miller (1:342/512)
   Kommentar till text 5439 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
Ärende: Off line Readers
========================
Hello James,

    Responding to a post in the WIN95 area:
    On Sunday March 20 2005 at 14:25,
    James Bradley [1:134/77] wrote to Gerald Miller,
    about: Off line Readers

 GM>> Yes, I do rotate my DOS and XPP CD-RW backups, but not heavily
 GM>> enough (usually, once a month).  Never had an opportunity to do
 GM>> a backup set for Win2K -- disaster befell me much too rapidly.

 JB> It's ALWAYS the stuff you are trying to cram in *just* before the next
 JB> backup you'll miss the most.

You are familiar with Murphey, I see!  :)

 JB>> Well, #2b is still running Windows 98, on a K6-3 450. <!!!> And
 JB>> it's faster than #2a, which is *begging* for Linux. There is no
 JB>> #2c. #3 is

 GM>> So, #2a has the guts (speed, memory, hardware) to handle Linux?

 JB> Why not? Heck, downgrade the kernel (FW little I understand) and it'll
 JB> run on a 8088! I'd love to speed up the bus on this antique, (Was
 JB> checking out clearance bins yesterday.) but my paltry income will have
 JB> to delay that for a while longer. It was my trying to back up the
 JB> drive in anticipation of throwing Fedora onto it that just brought
 JB> that house of cards down. (See: TECH) Now, I can't see my HDs on the
 JB> first IDE channel. (About to check IDE channel 2.)

Ah, yes.  I believe the technical term is "Oh sh#t!" <g>

 GM>> I have a Pentium 133MHz / 128MB RAM that I'm trying to
 GM>> resurrect for either W98 or Knoppix, but the machine BIOS is
 GM>> giving me problems of not recognizing any HDD that I attempt to
 GM>> throw into the box.  Anything more than 3GB means there's no
 GM>> HDD to be found.  I'll make a couple more attempts before I rip
 GM>> out any potentially useful parts and take the rest to the
 GM>> landfill site.

 JB> Others will be better versed on the issue, but I think it's the
 JB> cylinder count on the HDs that makes the difference. Anything over
 JB> 1024, and something or another throws a hissey-fit. Hence the LBA spec
 JB> and spoofing the head-count.

I was interested in trying Knoppix and was "trying" to follow Alan Z. as he
lead us into v3.8.  I was able to use Nero to burn the ISO image of v3.7
onto a CD-ROM and was going to try it out, but the W2K thing bit me in the
arse end and life has not been kind to me since.

I'll ask here because there is a good chance that Alan will read this...

I think I understand the concept of "torrent" -- you begin a download and
if someone else requires some parts of the file that you've already
downloaded, then it is uploaded to them.  VERY nice touch, lessen the
strain on the server from having to deal with so many file requests.

What I don't understand is how I change the "torrent" file to an "ISO" file
that Nero can burn.  Do I rename the file after the download?  Is the file
automatically renamed after the download has completed?  Or is there
something that I'm missing about the whole procedure?

 JB> Like I say, I'll be next trying the second IDE bus on my machine to
 JB> see if the first bus might be bunk. The HW on this stuff seems to be
 JB> built to last long enough to make you want to buy another of their
 JB> computers in four to five years.

It's called "built-in obsolescence."

 GM>>> I really must apologize for being so presumptuous.  I was under
 GM>>> the impression that James was of masculine gender.  I must be
 GM>>> getting old!

 JB>> L! Mission acomplished... I am male, but adopted the saying for <Lisp
 JB>> on> dramatic effect. <Lisp off> In answer to your next question, no,
 JB>> and NO!!! <Wry G>

 GM>> You have to improve your writing style.  With your your
 GM>> excessive use of Lisp, one might presume you to be a programmer
 GM>> <G,D&RFC>...

 JB> Couldn't program my way out of a wet paper bag. Nice pun though! <L>

It's so refreshing to find someone who can appreciate my (half) wit.

 GM>> ... Let me then switch tacks and change horses in midstream.

 JB> If you can change tack under water, 'You da-man!'

Last time I tried that, my short life flashed before my eyes and I wound up
married.

           Cheers ... Gerald

... You can steal my tagline, but you can't steal my MILLER!
--- GoldED+/DPMI32 v1.1.5-040330 [msg of Sunday March 20 2005]
 * Origin: And for that, you win a fur-lined soap dish! (1:342/512)