The problem with those controller cards, as I understand it, is that if the CARD dies, and you can't find another one exactly like it, you've also lost that HD's data, due to whatever nonstandard species of LBA these cards use. Just like using a drive overlay (Disk Manager or whatever) except done in hardware. If the DDO gets toasted and you can't find a copy of the very same DDO version to reinstall, or if its installer won't allow "updates" (or you can't find the seriously non-intuitive instructions for applying said update), say bye-bye to your data.
Which is why I decided NOT to use a controller card to upgrade disk capacity in my beloved DOOMin' machine, with its BIOS's 7.9GB HD bu^H^H limit (and the BIOS refuses to be flashed). Someday maybe I'll break down and buy it a big SCSI HD. At least that data would be readable via any SCSI card, plus give the old P233 a nice thruput boost.
And yes, I think most people DO treat their computers like a TV. Get a new one, chuck the old one out, what's that about fixing or updating the old one??
And here *I* can't bear to pitch out a healthy XT, even if it no longer has any mission in life. *sigh* (Folk hereabouts should have more respect for their elders.. that XT is older than most of 'em:)
But if someone's done gone and reverse-engineered stuff to the point of being able to write a substitute BIOS, doesn't that render hiding low-level hardware details kinda moot?
One suspects there's another factor at work: pressure from Phoenix/Award (and to a lesser extent AMI, but the huge majority of OEM BIOSs are from Phoenix), since if an opensource BIOS becomes viable enough for motherboard manufacturers to start using it, there's no reason to *license* BIOS code from Phoenix. Yeah, someone's still got to make the physical chips, but they don't exactly have an exclusive lock on that process. And I'd bet their profit lies almost entirely in licensing the base BIOS code.
That is exactly the problem. How many people here have had to chuck a perfectly functional motherboard, that does everything else needed for its everyday job, solely because it doesn't support modern-sized hard disks?
OTOH, having heard plenty of horror stories about BIOS updates gone wrong even when the update was designed for a particular board, I'm leery of a solution that by its very nature, cannot be fully familiar with all the quirks of every board.
Guess it depends on whether their laws distinguish between "proof of HAVING a license" and "need to CARRY said license". I'll have to check what California's laws say about it (that being where I'm at).
You'd think carrying it would be redundant since the CHP does have all your data in their system -- frex, they no longer require that you carry proof of insurance IF you're insured with one of the big companies whose database inferfaces with theirs.
Besides, as I've been given to understand how the law reads, you can legally call yourself anything you want so long as there is no intent to defraud. So if I want to call myself "George Washington", that's my business, so long as I don't try to pawn myself off as a Founding Father!
Used to be that banks kept "signature cards" and what you put on it, as well as whatever name you had them print on your checks was your business. (Yes, I have personally had a bank signature card with a sig that bore no resemblance to my "legal name".) And the only requirement for starting a new account was that you showed up and handed the bank the requisite funds. -- Don't know about other states, but in Calif. you must now provide a state ID to open an account (and getting a state ID now requires a birth certificate).
In 1973, my college roommate was jailed for refusing to produce ID when he was doing nothing wrong (just sitting on a public curb, enjoying the evening). His family had escaped from the Ukraine during the height of the Cold War, back when crossing the border could get you shot, and he had strong feelings about personal rights. So he objected to being asked to present ID when there was no crime in the area, no investigation happening, and when he had done absolutely nothing to generate suspicion.
I forget exactly how events went after that, but he spent the night in jail and was released the next morning.
BTW, interesting point about the requirement being not that you carry the license, but rather than you have proof that you are licensed to operate that class of vehicle (see my related post above, re "operator's permit" -- which is NOT inherently the same thing as an "ID card"!) Tho many states will fine you if you're not carrying the "driver's license" that they issued you, whether you're licenced or not.
Originally, it was NOT for identification, but to show that you knew what you were doing behind the wheel.
Over the past 20 years or so, the concept of a "driver's license" has changed from "proof that you are tolerably competent to operate this type of vehicle" (witness that in some states, it is still called an "operator's permit") to "ID for the benefit of any authority who thinks they've seen you doing something wrong".
It's just not the same, much as an ebook, for all its searchability, is just not the same as hardcopy. Sometimes you want ALL the information visible simultaneously, and even with a pile of tiny windows, it's simply not as convenient when you're looking for branching information. By its nature, database access tends to singlepath.
Back when 256k and 1mb SIMMs ceased to be expensive, a lot of 'em found new lives as keychains and earrings. And I've seen CPUs used as tie tacks (works quite well -- they're a nice size for it).
BTW does anyone remember where the site is where a guy tells how to make clocks from old HD casings?
Yeah, that's so -- Win3.1x to Win95 wasn't a trivial switch by any means. I remember the screams of dismay from all quarters! Lots of corp setups took years to make the switch; I still have one client on Win3.1 myself. Too bad there wasn't a mature linux desktop available at the time -- that woulda made for some interesting competition!
Come to mention it, my WFWG setup wasn't entirely retired til 2001, and it's archived for posterity. It was perfectly reliable and well-behaved (hadn't crashed more than half a dozen times in 7 years of hard use, and not once in its last two years) so I couldn't bear to just send it to the bit bucket like a worn-out nag:)
Very interesting. Not only not on the floppies, not on the CD (yes, there was a WFWG version on CD, albeit from Gateway -- I have a copy), and M$ support, which at the time was still pretty good, looked at you funny if you asked about any such beast. Sure would have made life easier if it had been a bit more public!! Tho I suppose by then (filedates in SFX: 26 May 1995, tho some internal copyrights are from 1994) they were envisioning a rush to Win95, and didn't want folk backsliding.:)
Might this have been something one only found out about via a TechNet subscription??
Same thing with OfficeXP and WP10. OXP is known to disable WP10; it's even in the M$ knowledge base (with "no plans" to fix the problem). Workaround: Acquire and install WP11.
Back in the v6-for-Win3.1x era, if you installed WP6.x, then installed Word6, Word6 would disable WP6.x. Workaround: always install Word6 FIRST.
At which point I expect the interstitial ad page would simply not display any "continue" link, and after 15 seconds or so, would refresh to wherever you originally thought you were going.
I've already seen one like that, on some news site or other.:(
Not a gamer, so that's not the problem. See other response in this thread (thanks for the reminder that I'd not got around to replying to sepluv either!)
The real issue is, to reiterate: I want it to *NOT MATTER* whether the underlying OS is Linux or Windows. I don't want my PC to be restricted to hardware that has linux drivers, nor have to find substitutes among linux apps, which often don't QUITE do the job.
Every so often I drag home a raft of linux disties and have a private installfest (any disty that I need HELP to install is NOT ready for everyday use!). So far Mandrake with KDE looks like the most likely prospect (tho next round I'll be messing with Novell's version of SuSE, and I'm going to their server-migration seminar next week). I don't find using MDK/KDE itself difficult, but it IS often awkward:
You hit a couple points right on the head: desktop annoyances, and having to KNOW where to look for config stuff. Admittedly MDK has done much for making that more accessable in the GUI. -- Personally, I'd like to see a dual-pane config editor, where one could select an option in the GUI, and be shown in realtime exactly what it does to the config file's text. What better way to learn about what you're really doing under the hood?? (In fact, this is exactly how I learned HTML.)
As to OSX... I've messed with Macs occasionally, and came away with a profound dislike of the desktop, the OS, the hardware, and its whole way of doing things. And I really loathe the idea that "everything is a document" and starting from that end of the operation... cripes, it could be a dumb terminal for all you'd know.:)
If I needed a server or development environment, then I'd focus on whichever OS worked for that task. Or if I did *nothing* with the computer but basic documents, websurfing, and email, and never upgraded the hardware or installed other apps, then pretty much any halfway-functional desktop is fine!!
Why do I need Windows? I'm not a gamer, so that's not a factor.
1) Clients (mine are all SOHO). Linux is not yet to where I can dump them into a linux setup and have everything Just Work, including letting them install whatever random apps they use (and on whatever random hardware they already own), WITHOUT having to hoopjump and RTFM first.
2) Ability to throw it at any random hardware and at worst maybe have to go scrounge a driver for odd or old hardware -- and when I need a driver, it'll be obvious, not a matter of headscratching over a configuration issue. Same with apps. I don't want to have to research how to make some app run under an OS it doesn't know about (and maybe learn it can't be done). I want to just stick the install CD in the drawer and let it do its thing.
In short, I want it to *NOT MATTER* whether the underlying OS is Linux or Windows.
When the day comes that linux can use Windows drivers as-is and run WinApps directly, I'll wave goodbye to Microsoft......at least for new setups. I've noticed that linux disties need about double the hardware to run at the same speed as the concurrent Windows version, and there's no reason to expect this to change much.:(
Maybe we need a "NIXlite" akin to 98lite.:) Actually, that would probably be a good tool, for retrocleaning default setups without the user NEEDING to know what every little surplus thing running on his setup does.
The barrage will continue until merchants get the message that their advertising companies (who sell YOUR EYEBALLS to the merchant) are costing them customers, and real dollars.
Perhaps we need a "I did NOT buy X because of Ad Y" type site, where folk can log complaints about specific ads, advertisers, and merchants.
True -- in fact the best way to get a librarian steamed is to suggest that they're filtering out information!
With the case pointed out, one wonders if it was organizational rather than filtering. Frex, at our local library, children's books are ruthlessly sorted out and plunked together, so much so that at first glance the place looks like a children's library. Conversely, SF/F has only a single paltry shelf. This might lead one to believe that they are filtering out SF/F. In fact, it's just lousy sorting -- most of the SF/F are scattered all over the entire fiction area, thus hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. (Yes, I've complained.:)
Slashdot Mirror
And by the time the film comes out, we'll have a whole planetful of wookiees!! ;)
Somehow I read that as "Whoever posts the *.torrent first gets a wookiee."
Eeep!!
The problem with those controller cards, as I understand it, is that if the CARD dies, and you can't find another one exactly like it, you've also lost that HD's data, due to whatever nonstandard species of LBA these cards use. Just like using a drive overlay (Disk Manager or whatever) except done in hardware. If the DDO gets toasted and you can't find a copy of the very same DDO version to reinstall, or if its installer won't allow "updates" (or you can't find the seriously non-intuitive instructions for applying said update), say bye-bye to your data.
:)
Which is why I decided NOT to use a controller card to upgrade disk capacity in my beloved DOOMin' machine, with its BIOS's 7.9GB HD bu^H^H limit (and the BIOS refuses to be flashed). Someday maybe I'll break down and buy it a big SCSI HD. At least that data would be readable via any SCSI card, plus give the old P233 a nice thruput boost.
And yes, I think most people DO treat their computers like a TV. Get a new one, chuck the old one out, what's that about fixing or updating the old one??
And here *I* can't bear to pitch out a healthy XT, even if it no longer has any mission in life. *sigh* (Folk hereabouts should have more respect for their elders.. that XT is older than most of 'em
True -- but sometimes "good enough" beats out perfect.
OTOH, I doubt any major motherboard manufacturer would care to risk their reputation on BIOS code based on reverse-engineering!
But if someone's done gone and reverse-engineered stuff to the point of being able to write a substitute BIOS, doesn't that render hiding low-level hardware details kinda moot?
One suspects there's another factor at work: pressure from Phoenix/Award (and to a lesser extent AMI, but the huge majority of OEM BIOSs are from Phoenix), since if an opensource BIOS becomes viable enough for motherboard manufacturers to start using it, there's no reason to *license* BIOS code from Phoenix. Yeah, someone's still got to make the physical chips, but they don't exactly have an exclusive lock on that process. And I'd bet their profit lies almost entirely in licensing the base BIOS code.
That is exactly the problem. How many people here have had to chuck a perfectly functional motherboard, that does everything else needed for its everyday job, solely because it doesn't support modern-sized hard disks?
OTOH, having heard plenty of horror stories about BIOS updates gone wrong even when the update was designed for a particular board, I'm leery of a solution that by its very nature, cannot be fully familiar with all the quirks of every board.
Guess it depends on whether their laws distinguish between "proof of HAVING a license" and "need to CARRY said license". I'll have to check what California's laws say about it (that being where I'm at).
You'd think carrying it would be redundant since the CHP does have all your data in their system -- frex, they no longer require that you carry proof of insurance IF you're insured with one of the big companies whose database inferfaces with theirs.
"If I have nothing to hide, then the government has no need to know. Period."
That's the most succinct summation I've ever seen of the essence of privacy.
Besides, as I've been given to understand how the law reads, you can legally call yourself anything you want so long as there is no intent to defraud. So if I want to call myself "George Washington", that's my business, so long as I don't try to pawn myself off as a Founding Father!
Used to be that banks kept "signature cards" and what you put on it, as well as whatever name you had them print on your checks was your business. (Yes, I have personally had a bank signature card with a sig that bore no resemblance to my "legal name".) And the only requirement for starting a new account was that you showed up and handed the bank the requisite funds. -- Don't know about other states, but in Calif. you must now provide a state ID to open an account (and getting a state ID now requires a birth certificate).
In 1973, my college roommate was jailed for refusing to produce ID when he was doing nothing wrong (just sitting on a public curb, enjoying the evening). His family had escaped from the Ukraine during the height of the Cold War, back when crossing the border could get you shot, and he had strong feelings about personal rights. So he objected to being asked to present ID when there was no crime in the area, no investigation happening, and when he had done absolutely nothing to generate suspicion.
I forget exactly how events went after that, but he spent the night in jail and was released the next morning.
BTW, interesting point about the requirement being not that you carry the license, but rather than you have proof that you are licensed to operate that class of vehicle (see my related post above, re "operator's permit" -- which is NOT inherently the same thing as an "ID card"!) Tho many states will fine you if you're not carrying the "driver's license" that they issued you, whether you're licenced or not.
Originally, it was NOT for identification, but to show that you knew what you were doing behind the wheel.
Over the past 20 years or so, the concept of a "driver's license" has changed from "proof that you are tolerably competent to operate this type of vehicle" (witness that in some states, it is still called an "operator's permit") to "ID for the benefit of any authority who thinks they've seen you doing something wrong".
It's just not the same, much as an ebook, for all its searchability, is just not the same as hardcopy. Sometimes you want ALL the information visible simultaneously, and even with a pile of tiny windows, it's simply not as convenient when you're looking for branching information. By its nature, database access tends to singlepath.
Sez you. YOU still have all your fingers! :)
'My Favourite Twisted Pair' -- oh man, that's rich!
Back when 256k and 1mb SIMMs ceased to be expensive, a lot of 'em found new lives as keychains and earrings. And I've seen CPUs used as tie tacks (works quite well -- they're a nice size for it).
BTW does anyone remember where the site is where a guy tells how to make clocks from old HD casings?
Our BBS is still up and running, you insensitive clod! :)
:)
Earthquake City BBS, (818) 368-3337. Don't everyone call at once, there's only two lines.
Yeah, that's so -- Win3.1x to Win95 wasn't a trivial switch by any means. I remember the screams of dismay from all quarters! Lots of corp setups took years to make the switch; I still have one client on Win3.1 myself. Too bad there wasn't a mature linux desktop available at the time -- that woulda made for some interesting competition!
:)
Come to mention it, my WFWG setup wasn't entirely retired til 2001, and it's archived for posterity. It was perfectly reliable and well-behaved (hadn't crashed more than half a dozen times in 7 years of hard use, and not once in its last two years) so I couldn't bear to just send it to the bit bucket like a worn-out nag
Very interesting. Not only not on the floppies, not on the CD (yes, there was a WFWG version on CD, albeit from Gateway -- I have a copy), and M$ support, which at the time was still pretty good, looked at you funny if you asked about any such beast. Sure would have made life easier if it had been a bit more public!! Tho I suppose by then (filedates in SFX: 26 May 1995, tho some internal copyrights are from 1994) they were envisioning a rush to Win95, and didn't want folk backsliding. :)
Might this have been something one only found out about via a TechNet subscription??
Same thing with OfficeXP and WP10. OXP is known to disable WP10; it's even in the M$ knowledge base (with "no plans" to fix the problem). Workaround: Acquire and install WP11.
Back in the v6-for-Win3.1x era, if you installed WP6.x, then installed Word6, Word6 would disable WP6.x. Workaround: always install Word6 FIRST.
At which point I expect the interstitial ad page would simply not display any "continue" link, and after 15 seconds or so, would refresh to wherever you originally thought you were going.
:(
I've already seen one like that, on some news site or other.
Not a gamer, so that's not the problem. See other response in this thread (thanks for the reminder that I'd not got around to replying to sepluv either!)
... I've messed with Macs occasionally, and came away with a profound dislike of the desktop, the OS, the hardware, and its whole way of doing things. And I really loathe the idea that "everything is a document" and starting from that end of the operation... cripes, it could be a dumb terminal for all you'd know. :)
The real issue is, to reiterate: I want it to *NOT MATTER* whether the underlying OS is Linux or Windows. I don't want my PC to be restricted to hardware that has linux drivers, nor have to find substitutes among linux apps, which often don't QUITE do the job.
Every so often I drag home a raft of linux disties and have a private installfest (any disty that I need HELP to install is NOT ready for everyday use!). So far Mandrake with KDE looks like the most likely prospect (tho next round I'll be messing with Novell's version of SuSE, and I'm going to their server-migration seminar next week). I don't find using MDK/KDE itself difficult, but it IS often awkward:
You hit a couple points right on the head: desktop annoyances, and having to KNOW where to look for config stuff. Admittedly MDK has done much for making that more accessable in the GUI. -- Personally, I'd like to see a dual-pane config editor, where one could select an option in the GUI, and be shown in realtime exactly what it does to the config file's text. What better way to learn about what you're really doing under the hood?? (In fact, this is exactly how I learned HTML.)
As to OSX
If I needed a server or development environment, then I'd focus on whichever OS worked for that task. Or if I did *nothing* with the computer but basic documents, websurfing, and email, and never upgraded the hardware or installed other apps, then pretty much any halfway-functional desktop is fine!!
Why do I need Windows? I'm not a gamer, so that's not a factor.
...at least for new setups. I've noticed that linux disties need about double the hardware to run at the same speed as the concurrent Windows version, and there's no reason to expect this to change much. :(
:) Actually, that would probably be a good tool, for retrocleaning default setups without the user NEEDING to know what every little surplus thing running on his setup does.
1) Clients (mine are all SOHO). Linux is not yet to where I can dump them into a linux setup and have everything Just Work, including letting them install whatever random apps they use (and on whatever random hardware they already own), WITHOUT having to hoopjump and RTFM first.
2) Ability to throw it at any random hardware and at worst maybe have to go scrounge a driver for odd or old hardware -- and when I need a driver, it'll be obvious, not a matter of headscratching over a configuration issue. Same with apps. I don't want to have to research how to make some app run under an OS it doesn't know about (and maybe learn it can't be done). I want to just stick the install CD in the drawer and let it do its thing.
In short, I want it to *NOT MATTER* whether the underlying OS is Linux or Windows.
When the day comes that linux can use Windows drivers as-is and run WinApps directly, I'll wave goodbye to Microsoft...
Maybe we need a "NIXlite" akin to 98lite.
The barrage will continue until merchants get the message that their advertising companies (who sell YOUR EYEBALLS to the merchant) are costing them customers, and real dollars.
Perhaps we need a "I did NOT buy X because of Ad Y" type site, where folk can log complaints about specific ads, advertisers, and merchants.
I guess that points out the difference between living in an attic and a basement. ;)
"...the overall quality of bloggers' work is no worse than the output of the vast majority of so-called "writers" who submit manuscripts."
True... but writers and their gawdawful manuscripts are filtered by editors and publishers.
Blogs are filtered only by the brain of their authors, who typically are neither editors nor publishers.
I just had a horrid vision of the internet as the ultimate slushpile...
True -- in fact the best way to get a librarian steamed is to suggest that they're filtering out information!
:)
With the case pointed out, one wonders if it was organizational rather than filtering. Frex, at our local library, children's books are ruthlessly sorted out and plunked together, so much so that at first glance the place looks like a children's library. Conversely, SF/F has only a single paltry shelf. This might lead one to believe that they are filtering out SF/F. In fact, it's just lousy sorting -- most of the SF/F are scattered all over the entire fiction area, thus hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. (Yes, I've complained.