The last complete system our family bought was a 386/16mhz. Since then, we have just upgraded. The wonderful thing about this strategy is that once you collect enough spare parts from the upgrades, you can build another computer. Now we have a celery 366, a P2, a couple of pentiums, and a 386- all of which are almost always on and networked.
Being accustomed to the interchangability and configurability of my machines, I was shocked upon seeing my friend's Compaq desktop (that I am borrowing to install linux on:-) The only non-proprietary hardware on it is the modem and the CD-ROM drive! The power supply and motherboard have 2 normal AT connectors, and a third non-standard connector for the APM. The power switch / power LEDs / hard disk LED are all on one assembly attatched to the motherboard with a custom connector. The floppy drive has a 'curvy' front to it that only fits in their case. Worst of all, it only has 3 expansion slots! The celeron has a big heat sink, and no fan. There is thick tape around the IDE cables so they wont melt on the CPU's heat sink!
The software is also a pain. The BIOS has no configuration menus, it just displays a big Compaq logo and autodetects everything with no hope of changing 'advanced' things like PCI IRQs. My task with this computer was to remove and reinstall Win98, shrink the partition, and install Debian. In order to install Win98 (which was painful to do, but necessary) I had to use the 'Compaq Quickrestore' CD, which without any configuration options, just simple 'are you sure' prompts, repartitioned and reformatted the hard drive, and installed windoze98. Now that it also has a linux partition, there is no way to reinstall win98 without wiping out the linux partition also.
Moral of the story is dont buy proprietary computers! My experience has been with compaqs, but I'm sure the others are no better.
I got a lego mindstorms set for christmas, and haven't had as much time to experiment with it as i would have liked, but I think legOS is the coolest and most powerful environment for legos so far. It supports C or assembler, or anything else that will generate code that is compatible with the lego CPU. Best of all, it gives you 32 kilobytes, not 32 variables! I have heard that it is very cumbersome to download programs to it, but the dynamic loader in version 0.2 appears to have solved that nicely.
I still think NQC is great for quick hacks, though:)
Re:The ROM broke my co-pilot
on
Linux on Palm
·
· Score: 1
The stock ucLinux kernel doesn't run on windows copilot either. This is because windows copilot searches for specific tags in the ROM that are only there in PalmOS. The linux copilot seems to be better about this, although I have had occasional problems with it not identifying the ROM entry point correctly. Another thing peculiar about the PalmOS flash memory is a 32K write-protected area at the beginning, used to store the serial number, and probably some proprietary stuff. I don't know whether this ucLinux-derivative OS avoids this area, or if they have a custom memory card completely replacing that chip.
Some people might call this overkill, or even crazy, but I found a solution that works well, and is open source and relatively cheap. I have small IR LEDs taped next to the IR windows on my VCR and TV. They are connected to a Parallax BASIC Stamp that accepts signals from my linux computer's serial port, and generates the IR signals. (with the help of a 555 chip to modulate it at 40khz). I use X10 on all the lights in the room, and I have an ActiveHome X10 transciever on the computer. I use heyu, some perl scripts, and xtend with the ActiveHome. I can use an X10 remote, the command line, or a small Perl/Tk app to control my lights, my TV/VCR, or even Netscape.
I have done a little RE in DOS, and I have found Borland's Turbo Debugger to be helpful. I was trying to modify an old game so it would run off the hard drive. It had a strange copy protection scheme that relied on a bad track on the 5.25" disk. Turbo debugger isn't the best debugger, but it lets you step through the source code while its actually running, and change opcodes and memory contents on the fly. Once you figure out what you want to do (like insert a jump instruction to bypass a test), you can make the changes in a hex editor.
are there only 2 people whe found it yet??? This definitely needs to go on the main page, because I never noticed the tiny "Radio" link on the side before.
Also, despite all the flames that previous shows have recieved, I like things like this that remind you there are real people behind cool web sites.
Re:Variants would make nice gateway/firewall/route
on
Linux on a SIMM
·
· Score: 1
I have a 386 33mhz with a 250MB hard disk running linux, using it as a dialup router with ip masq. Works great, but it would be nice to have a smaller one. (I want a router that's smaller than my modem:)
Even if the government comes up with some way to tax e-mail (wouldn't they have to own the backbone and put in some kind of filter???) internet users would just start using irc and message boards more, or even e-mail software that uses a different port number. All the gov't would accomplish is wasting lots of $$$ on paperwork and lawyers.
I don't know about the TCP/IP stack, but these 8-pin PIC's use an internal resistor-capacitor oscillator, which is not nearly stable enough to use for software UARTS. I also have never heard of ANY pic being able to do 115Kbps!
Slashdot Mirror
I will not trust micro$oft security until I can /*
chmod o-a -R
(Or at least they have something practical like packet filtering!)
The last complete system our family bought was a 386/16mhz. Since then, we have just upgraded. The wonderful thing about this strategy is that once you collect enough spare parts from the upgrades, you can build another computer. Now we have a celery 366, a P2, a couple of pentiums, and a 386- all of which are almost always on and networked.
:-)
.sig it would go here
Being accustomed to the interchangability and configurability of my machines, I was shocked upon seeing my friend's Compaq desktop (that I am borrowing to install linux on
The only non-proprietary hardware on it is the modem and the CD-ROM drive! The power supply and motherboard have 2 normal AT connectors, and a third non-standard connector for the APM. The power switch / power LEDs / hard disk LED are all on one assembly attatched to the motherboard with a custom connector. The floppy drive has a 'curvy' front to it that only fits in their case.
Worst of all, it only has 3 expansion slots!
The celeron has a big heat sink, and no fan. There is thick tape around the IDE cables so they wont melt on the CPU's heat sink!
The software is also a pain.
The BIOS has no configuration menus, it just displays a big Compaq logo and autodetects everything with no hope of changing 'advanced' things like PCI IRQs.
My task with this computer was to remove and reinstall Win98, shrink the partition, and install Debian. In order to install Win98 (which was painful to do, but necessary) I had to use the 'Compaq Quickrestore' CD, which without any configuration options, just simple 'are you sure' prompts, repartitioned and reformatted the hard drive, and installed windoze98. Now that it also has a linux partition, there is no way to reinstall win98 without wiping out the linux partition also.
Moral of the story is dont buy proprietary computers!
My experience has been with compaqs, but I'm sure the others are no better.
--
If i had a
I got a lego mindstorms set for christmas, and haven't had as much time to experiment with it as i would have liked, but I think legOS is the coolest and most powerful environment for legos so far. It supports C or assembler, or anything else that will generate code that is compatible with the lego CPU. Best of all, it gives you 32 kilobytes, not 32 variables! I have heard that it is very cumbersome to download programs to it, but the dynamic loader in version 0.2 appears to have solved that nicely.
:)
I still think NQC is great for quick hacks, though
The stock ucLinux kernel doesn't run on windows copilot either. This is because windows copilot searches for specific tags in the ROM that are only there in PalmOS. The linux copilot seems to be better about this, although I have had occasional problems with it not identifying the ROM entry point correctly.
Another thing peculiar about the PalmOS flash memory is a 32K write-protected area at the beginning, used to store the serial number, and probably some proprietary stuff. I don't know whether this ucLinux-derivative OS avoids this area, or if they have a custom memory card completely replacing that chip.
Some people might call this overkill, or even crazy, but I found a solution that works well, and is open source and relatively cheap.
I have small IR LEDs taped next to the IR windows on my VCR and TV. They are connected to a Parallax BASIC Stamp that accepts signals from my linux computer's serial port, and generates the IR signals. (with the help of a 555 chip to modulate it at 40khz).
I use X10 on all the lights in the room, and I have an ActiveHome X10 transciever on the computer. I use heyu, some perl scripts, and xtend with the ActiveHome.
I can use an X10 remote, the command line, or a small Perl/Tk app to control my lights, my TV/VCR, or even Netscape.
I have done a little RE in DOS, and I have found Borland's Turbo Debugger to be helpful. I was trying to modify an old game so it would run off the hard drive. It had a strange copy protection scheme that relied on a bad track on the 5.25" disk. Turbo debugger isn't the best debugger, but it lets you step through the source code while its actually running, and change opcodes and memory contents on the fly. Once you figure out what you want to do (like insert a jump instruction to bypass a test), you can make the changes in a hex editor.
It looks like that link has been hit by the Slashdot HREF Gun [tm].
Hexadecimal MS word code embedded in XML?
:(
I hope they won't go that far...
are there only 2 people whe found it yet???
This definitely needs to go on the main page, because I never noticed the tiny "Radio" link on the side before.
Also, despite all the flames that previous shows have recieved, I like things like this that remind you there are real people behind cool web sites.
I have a 386 33mhz with a 250MB hard disk running linux, using it as a dialup router with ip masq. Works great, but it would be nice to have a smaller one. (I want a router that's smaller than my modem :)
Even if the government comes up with some way to tax e-mail (wouldn't they have to own the backbone
and put in some kind of filter???) internet users would just start using irc and message boards more, or even e-mail software that uses a different port number. All the gov't would accomplish is wasting lots of $$$ on paperwork and lawyers.
I don't know about the TCP/IP stack, but these 8-pin PIC's use an internal resistor-capacitor oscillator, which is not nearly stable enough to use for software UARTS.
I also have never heard of ANY pic being able to do 115Kbps!