Just for your information: the stepping/speed thing was in the days of the Intel Pentium Pro, and perhaps even some later Intel models. However, it isn't true these days anymore. I have an AMD Athlon MP 2400+, and I did something stupid and one CPU burned. I bought another MP 2400+ on eBay and it worked perfectly fine. They are different, even CPUZ said so...
I also though the same you did, back when I wrote a journal entry (on another user account) on the burned CPU and complained that I'd never get it back in a 2-CPU configuration. Fortunately someone better informed than me told me that it didn't apply to the Athlon MP.
I like the fact that you can map an MAC address to a IP address in DHCP. So, my machines in my network always get the same IP address, even though I all set them to be dynamically allocated. Autoconfig removes this ability, as far as I can see. DHCP is not only used to allocate dynamic addresses, but also to assign fixed addresses.
You can ever set your DHCP server in such a way that it won't allocate IP adresses to unknown MAC addresses. Sure, one can spoof a MAC address, I know, but to the clueless user it's one more barrier.
Basic high-colour VGA was 320x200 at 256 colours from a 16.7million colour choice. The 320x240 mode existed, but it was known as Mode-X and was hard to implement and required some hacks. So, our pr0n back in the day was 320x200 @ 8-bit... That said, I played 4 bit EGA strip poker... I'm pretty sure there was 2 bit CGA pr0n and monochrome pr0n. After all, there was even ASCII pr0n. Seen on the IBM mainframes at my dads work, but then that was probably EBCDIC pr0n;-)
True... I don't know anyone either that used it... I'm however realistic enough to understand that people around me might just be a bit better informed, and those who aren't usually know to find me for advice.
I'm just surprised they still are in business. Their advertisements are the worst thing on TV. (With the overall quality of TV, that's not exactly a compliment)
Won't queue anything here. Anyone who knows a bit about the EU, know that this is bollocks. They go after anyone abusing the market. As Volkswagen, for example... Not a US company at all...
So, you don't get advertisements of Jamba and all those other scum? Lucky you... I also live in Europe and indeed, my wifes phone can play MP3s as ringtones. (Mine is too old and doesn't have such a functionality) She just doesn't use those, since she's a technophobe and using Bluetooth to transfer an MP3 is asked too much.
On the other hand, she wouldn't buy ringtones either...
Ringtones are targeted to people that can't figure out how to connect their phone to their PC and absolutely need "that cool song" on their cellphone. Read: rich teens.... The are not for anyone reading slashdot, nor are they for the likes of my wife... Once you understand that, you know why at this side of the pond, one still can buy ringtones.
Okay, I understand that PATA is disappearing from motherboards.... but SATA optical drives are very rare. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen any yet. This is clearly an oversight of the motherboard manufacturers.
SATA optical drive? I bough some 2 months ago, pure PATA....
Anyway, the point is that if you buy that Penryn, your "good enough" DDR2-533 (266 MHz FSB) you bought with the E4400 isn't guaranteed to work as DDR2-667 needed for the new CPU. If you have an "overkill" DDR2-667, it'll feel right at home with the Penryn...
Well, tell that to the people that bougth an AMD64 socket 754 or even 939.... I know, the article is about Intel, but that's one way one loses faith in futureproofing. The machine I used in my example was a PPro 200. It was a great machine, but Intel came out with the P-II afterwards.... The PPro was given up, even though its legacy lived on in the P-II and P-III. Yes, I still used it in 2001... 5 years, and not a day I regretted it. However, in 2001, one could get P-IIIs for much cheaper than the PPro with so much more power.
We need more "Trolls" her
I noticed your name too... I smiled, because I like to think of myself as A Friendly Troll. Perhaps, I am, perhaps not. You'd be the judge...
I recently upgraded all my machines capable of it, to 2Gig of DDR2-400. 't was cheap, and it's kinda fun to order 12Gig at once;-)
There is no such thing as "futureproofing" a computer. I thought that once too, and spent ridiculous amounts of money on computers that should last very long. They did, but while I could run most future programs well and fast, the people I knew bought a new computer for much cheaper that did the same stuff faster than my futureproofed machine. In the end buying more PCs, for less money. While they had 3 machines over that time, and I only one, they always had the faster machines except for the first 6 months where my machine was so overpowered that it was insane.
Look at the people that bought the first DX10 graphics card in order to run Vista and play DX10 games. Microsoft has already revised the DX10 "standard" and obsoleted these cards.
Futureproofing in computing is not a good idea. Perhaps in servers, yes, but in desktops... No way.
Partially true. I have a XP SP0 CD and I made a XP SP2 CD from it (slipstreaming, look it up). XP SP0 won't install on a SATA harddisk, but XP SP2 has no problem with that at all.
Its a generation behind that fancy card you got in your laptop, which is two generations behind modern!. Sorry to burst your bubble there.
Oh, but I didn't say it was the latest greatest chipset. I damn well knew it wasn't the latest greatest. Fact is: this kind of stuff is sold *today*. The GP said that "it runs fine on any hardware you can buy today". Well, no, not from the standpoint of Joe-Generic-User. If the sticker on my laptop says that Aero won't run, I believe it won't run. Discussion finished.
So, from Joe-Generic-User point of view Vista is no good, because his laptop won't run it even though he bought it just 9 months ago! Why would I need to replace a 9 month old laptop to run Vista? Heck, Vista was released that month! So, Vista doesn't run on current hardware. Sucky.... Okay, you say: don't worry it will work, but Joe-Generic-User doesn't know that.
By the way, I run compiz on an MX440 and it works great. From the tone of your post, I believe that Aero doesn't run all that great on that MX440. I'm even surprized he could turn it on....
No, but a five year old PC with an old NVidia will probably work. I've plenty of those, if he wants I send him one for his PC;-) It works on an NVidia MX440 and MX4400 which both are very very crappy chipsets derived from the MX2, AFAIK.
So, essentially, you're just supporting his point. I just recently installed Ubuntu on five year old hardware. Hardware that Vista, most probably won't allow to run Aero. On that hardware compiz works wonderfully....
I don't get your point. If I want the eyecandy on Vista I need top of the line hardware: even the new laptop I bought in January (with XP don't worry) had a big sticker saying that it was "Vista Capable", but the fine print said that stuff like Aero will not work. That machine was a Turion X2 / 1Gig RAM / ATI X1100 chipset, which is quite nice. Okay, I do realize that that laptop was on sale to get rid of it before the release of Vista, but you can't call it ancient hardware.
If I want eyecandy on Ubuntu, I just enable "Desktop Effects" and it works... even on a five year old machine! (That said, it doesn't work on my new laptop, but I blame ATI for that)
Can't that pretty much be reset by doing a CMOS reset? I haven't seen a motherboard that didn't have a jumper you could short to reset the CMOS. Alternatively, just remove the backup battery for a day. With laptops this might be an issue, though.
motherboard that doesn't support CD booting or at least doesn't support it properly.
Last motherboard that didn't have a boot from IDE CD option, must have been in the Pentiun I class. I doubt any machine of that class is still running Windows at this point in time. These days, one finds P-IV class machines in the dumpster.... Anyone still running a P-I class machine with Win95/Win98 is not going to change over to Debian. They have already proven to be resistant to change.
USB or firewire CD drive and a bios that doesn't support booting from it
Granted, but I have a hard time finding a machine that supports USB and/or Firewire, that can't boot from CD. P-I class machines came with USB 1.x, and were unbootable over USB, but they certainly could boot from CD. So, just plug in a spare CD drive (I have some 20 spare IDE CD-Rom drives, you can have one if you want...)
No cd drive at all (the loader can be used to set off an install from the network).
See, previous remark...
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but computers made in pretty much the last decade either have CD drive from which one can boot or can be easily "retrofitted".
and I also run in user mode (not administrator), if that makes any difference.
Yup, it makes a difference. I run Windows XP and both me and my wife run as Limited User. Just very very occasionally, I need to log in as Admin, and if that happens almost always it starts downloading additional pacthes and/or asks me to install stuff. This is with Windows Update "On" + "Automatic install".
I don't know why this is, but it does mean that Microsoft expects people to log in as Admin from time to time to stay current.
I gave my Playstation2 to my sister. I still have a PSP, but it's easily hideable from dear wife. The PSP is ideal for people like us, well, if you still had your hands that is.
Besides, FreeDOS does support DOS4GW. Perhaps that game does something strange and actually requires Win98. (Doesn't work under Win95?!?)
FreeDOS is better than any MS DOS or PC DOS that I have ever used. I've also deployed robot controlling software for a DOS machine that died. They didn't have their MS DOS disks anymore, so I installed FreeDOS and the required programs. Works like a charm...
Ehm, DOS 3.11 did not exist.... You're confusing with Windows for Workgroups. In the DOS 4 days, everyone kept DOS 3.3 or DOS 3.1. The best DOSes that existed were DOS 3.3, DOS 5.0 and DOS 6.22... And now FreeDOS, which rocks compared to all those.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably to stick the Styles panel to the right. At least that is what I do on my 4:3 monitor.
That said, I would prefer that the styles panel could dock to the side... But hey, it's a free and good office suite, so I'm not complaining.
because i put a disc in and rarely switch the TV over to the DVD player right away
SCART does this autmatically for you... Insert DVD, TV gets notified and switches to the TV-IN channel.
Just for your information: the stepping/speed thing was in the days of the Intel Pentium Pro, and perhaps even some later Intel models. However, it isn't true these days anymore. I have an AMD Athlon MP 2400+, and I did something stupid and one CPU burned. I bought another MP 2400+ on eBay and it worked perfectly fine. They are different, even CPUZ said so...
I also though the same you did, back when I wrote a journal entry (on another user account) on the burned CPU and complained that I'd never get it back in a 2-CPU configuration. Fortunately someone better informed than me told me that it didn't apply to the Athlon MP.
I like the fact that you can map an MAC address to a IP address in DHCP. So, my machines in my network always get the same IP address, even though I all set them to be dynamically allocated. Autoconfig removes this ability, as far as I can see. DHCP is not only used to allocate dynamic addresses, but also to assign fixed addresses.
You can ever set your DHCP server in such a way that it won't allocate IP adresses to unknown MAC addresses. Sure, one can spoof a MAC address, I know, but to the clueless user it's one more barrier.
320x240 (in a stunning 256 colors)
Basic high-colour VGA was 320x200 at 256 colours from a 16.7million colour choice. The 320x240 mode existed, but it was known as Mode-X and was hard to implement and required some hacks. So, our pr0n back in the day was 320x200 @ 8-bit... That said, I played 4 bit EGA strip poker... I'm pretty sure there was 2 bit CGA pr0n and monochrome pr0n. After all, there was even ASCII pr0n. Seen on the IBM mainframes at my dads work, but then that was probably EBCDIC pr0n ;-)
True... I don't know anyone either that used it... I'm however realistic enough to understand that people around me might just be a bit better informed, and those who aren't usually know to find me for advice.
I'm just surprised they still are in business. Their advertisements are the worst thing on TV. (With the overall quality of TV, that's not exactly a compliment)
Won't queue anything here. Anyone who knows a bit about the EU, know that this is bollocks. They go after anyone abusing the market. As Volkswagen, for example... Not a US company at all...
The norm?.... Prove it to me. Don't say "I do it and most of my friends do it", because you're reading slashot.
I just have one link for you.... Explain me why those bastards are still in business if everyone uses MP3s as ringtones?
So, you don't get advertisements of Jamba and all those other scum? Lucky you... I also live in Europe and indeed, my wifes phone can play MP3s as ringtones. (Mine is too old and doesn't have such a functionality) She just doesn't use those, since she's a technophobe and using Bluetooth to transfer an MP3 is asked too much.
On the other hand, she wouldn't buy ringtones either...
Ringtones are targeted to people that can't figure out how to connect their phone to their PC and absolutely need "that cool song" on their cellphone. Read: rich teens.... The are not for anyone reading slashdot, nor are they for the likes of my wife... Once you understand that, you know why at this side of the pond, one still can buy ringtones.
PowerPC zealot since 1994
Isn't that a lost cause by now? Similar to Amiga Zealot, OS/2 Zealot, or NeXT Zealot?
Okay, I understand that PATA is disappearing from motherboards.... but SATA optical drives are very rare. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen any yet. This is clearly an oversight of the motherboard manufacturers.
SATA optical drive? I bough some 2 months ago, pure PATA....
Anyway, the point is that if you buy that Penryn, your "good enough" DDR2-533 (266 MHz FSB) you bought with the E4400 isn't guaranteed to work as DDR2-667 needed for the new CPU. If you have an "overkill" DDR2-667, it'll feel right at home with the Penryn...
Well, tell that to the people that bougth an AMD64 socket 754 or even 939.... I know, the article is about Intel, but that's one way one loses faith in futureproofing. The machine I used in my example was a PPro 200. It was a great machine, but Intel came out with the P-II afterwards.... The PPro was given up, even though its legacy lived on in the P-II and P-III. Yes, I still used it in 2001... 5 years, and not a day I regretted it. However, in 2001, one could get P-IIIs for much cheaper than the PPro with so much more power.
We need more "Trolls" her
I noticed your name too... I smiled, because I like to think of myself as A Friendly Troll. Perhaps, I am, perhaps not. You'd be the judge...
I recently upgraded all my machines capable of it, to 2Gig of DDR2-400. 't was cheap, and it's kinda fun to order 12Gig at once ;-)
There is no such thing as "futureproofing" a computer. I thought that once too, and spent ridiculous amounts of money on computers that should last very long. They did, but while I could run most future programs well and fast, the people I knew bought a new computer for much cheaper that did the same stuff faster than my futureproofed machine. In the end buying more PCs, for less money. While they had 3 machines over that time, and I only one, they always had the faster machines except for the first 6 months where my machine was so overpowered that it was insane.
Look at the people that bought the first DX10 graphics card in order to run Vista and play DX10 games. Microsoft has already revised the DX10 "standard" and obsoleted these cards.
Futureproofing in computing is not a good idea. Perhaps in servers, yes, but in desktops... No way.
Partially true. I have a XP SP0 CD and I made a XP SP2 CD from it (slipstreaming, look it up). XP SP0 won't install on a SATA harddisk, but XP SP2 has no problem with that at all.
Of course, your mileage might vary.
Its a generation behind that fancy card you got in your laptop, which is two generations behind modern!. Sorry to burst your bubble there.
Oh, but I didn't say it was the latest greatest chipset. I damn well knew it wasn't the latest greatest. Fact is: this kind of stuff is sold *today*. The GP said that "it runs fine on any hardware you can buy today". Well, no, not from the standpoint of Joe-Generic-User. If the sticker on my laptop says that Aero won't run, I believe it won't run. Discussion finished.
So, from Joe-Generic-User point of view Vista is no good, because his laptop won't run it even though he bought it just 9 months ago! Why would I need to replace a 9 month old laptop to run Vista? Heck, Vista was released that month! So, Vista doesn't run on current hardware. Sucky.... Okay, you say: don't worry it will work, but Joe-Generic-User doesn't know that.
By the way, I run compiz on an MX440 and it works great. From the tone of your post, I believe that Aero doesn't run all that great on that MX440. I'm even surprized he could turn it on....
No, but a five year old PC with an old NVidia will probably work. I've plenty of those, if he wants I send him one for his PC ;-) It works on an NVidia MX440 and MX4400 which both are very very crappy chipsets derived from the MX2, AFAIK.
So, essentially, you're just supporting his point. I just recently installed Ubuntu on five year old hardware. Hardware that Vista, most probably won't allow to run Aero. On that hardware compiz works wonderfully....
I don't get your point. If I want the eyecandy on Vista I need top of the line hardware: even the new laptop I bought in January (with XP don't worry) had a big sticker saying that it was "Vista Capable", but the fine print said that stuff like Aero will not work. That machine was a Turion X2 / 1Gig RAM / ATI X1100 chipset, which is quite nice. Okay, I do realize that that laptop was on sale to get rid of it before the release of Vista, but you can't call it ancient hardware.
If I want eyecandy on Ubuntu, I just enable "Desktop Effects" and it works... even on a five year old machine! (That said, it doesn't work on my new laptop, but I blame ATI for that)
it's also difficult to find good ISO burning apps?
It is? CDBurnerXP Pro and Deep Burner are two I have used. Deep Burner being the preferred of those two.
As for not having a burner or a blank CD.... You have a point...
forgotton bios password.
Can't that pretty much be reset by doing a CMOS reset? I haven't seen a motherboard that didn't have a jumper you could short to reset the CMOS. Alternatively, just remove the backup battery for a day. With laptops this might be an issue, though.
motherboard that doesn't support CD booting or at least doesn't support it properly.
Last motherboard that didn't have a boot from IDE CD option, must have been in the Pentiun I class. I doubt any machine of that class is still running Windows at this point in time. These days, one finds P-IV class machines in the dumpster.... Anyone still running a P-I class machine with Win95/Win98 is not going to change over to Debian. They have already proven to be resistant to change.
USB or firewire CD drive and a bios that doesn't support booting from it
Granted, but I have a hard time finding a machine that supports USB and/or Firewire, that can't boot from CD. P-I class machines came with USB 1.x, and were unbootable over USB, but they certainly could boot from CD. So, just plug in a spare CD drive (I have some 20 spare IDE CD-Rom drives, you can have one if you want...)
No cd drive at all (the loader can be used to set off an install from the network).
See, previous remark...
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but computers made in pretty much the last decade either have CD drive from which one can boot or can be easily "retrofitted".
and I also run in user mode (not administrator), if that makes any difference.
Yup, it makes a difference. I run Windows XP and both me and my wife run as Limited User. Just very very occasionally, I need to log in as Admin, and if that happens almost always it starts downloading additional pacthes and/or asks me to install stuff. This is with Windows Update "On" + "Automatic install".
I don't know why this is, but it does mean that Microsoft expects people to log in as Admin from time to time to stay current.
I gave my Playstation2 to my sister. I still have a PSP, but it's easily hideable from dear wife. The PSP is ideal for people like us, well, if you still had your hands that is.
This might be your problem. I've never had problems with DOS4GW on FreeDOS, but hey, apparently some do.
DOS4GW ran fine on DOS 5.00 and 6.22...
Besides, FreeDOS does support DOS4GW. Perhaps that game does something strange and actually requires Win98. (Doesn't work under Win95?!?)
FreeDOS is better than any MS DOS or PC DOS that I have ever used. I've also deployed robot controlling software for a DOS machine that died. They didn't have their MS DOS disks anymore, so I installed FreeDOS and the required programs. Works like a charm...
Cool!
Ehm, DOS 3.11 did not exist.... You're confusing with Windows for Workgroups. In the DOS 4 days, everyone kept DOS 3.3 or DOS 3.1. The best DOSes that existed were DOS 3.3, DOS 5.0 and DOS 6.22... And now FreeDOS, which rocks compared to all those.