this place has a lot to work out. they don't say anything about having help from nasa (which scares the crap out of me) or of what their infrastructure will be. as i looked through the site i notice things like 'space control', 'fusion power on the moon', and 'luna for the disabled'. yet a look into the links for infrastructure reveal a blank page. i'm not a tree hugger or anything but i'd like to be reassured that they aren't going to build a landfill on the dark side of the moon or jetison all their trash into space. as it is, what will saftey be like? laws? no one has soverign control of the moon, therefore the a private lunar colony will be much like the internet, built on good intentions but ultimately ungovernable and a relatively dangerous place to live. i don't think that i would want to go somewhere where there is no true way to stop someone from destroying an air-processing factory. i think that artimis has a lot of thinking to do, and i wouldn't expect for this to take off for closer to 50 years than their anticipated 10. america went to the moon in under 10 years but were we prepared to colonize in that amount of time? no. do we have a vehicle (aside from the saturn v, which are no longer manufactured) that is capable of reaching the moon and returning? no. it's taken us close to 30 years to come up with a feesable *idea* on how to colonize something like mars. this colony is for scientists, nasa isn't even worrying about the commercial possibilities. scientists will wear the same clothes for 3 months and live in a room the size of a phone booth, will workers and colonists? probably not. i'm afraid that if this happens in their projected 10 years, we will be hearing within a year that the project will be evacuated or that all of the colonists are dead due to some 'unanticipated problems'. i don't mean to seem pessimistic, but, well, there it is...
episode 2.3.x: from points across the globe, followers of linus trade rumors that governments in their particular part of the world have switched to linux. linux: the gnu choice of world governments. yes, linux, deposing the totaltarian dictatorship of the once mighty microsoft empire. a weekness has been found in their software and licensing; with the help of a small band of rebel fighters and one penguin the shackels of injustice will be thrown away forever. the world and indeed one day the entire universe will be saved by the open source marvel called the 'linux kernel'.
on a serious note: this is really cool. i wonder what microsoft thinks about loosing american government support? on the point of the royal family sacking solaris, well, i used to play solaris on my atari 2600, it was cool then but pretty out of date now. 8^)
this is a complete and total waste of bandwidth that i will no doubt find myself using several times. i was surprised that it worked so well. i had expected many, *many* more 'site not found' errors. out of the 30 it generated for me, all worked. it's kind of scary when you think about it. unfortunately all of the sites that came up were places i have absolutely *no* interest in visiting whatsoever.
i like the idea of sponsoring a hack contest for civilization. this is a very cool idea that will no doubt get some very, very cool improvments to the game. the only thing that disappoints me is that the contest is only open to thirty participants. but, then again, you have to put them somewhere and i guess that the atlanta linux expo is as good a place as any. i particularly like the idea of locking the participants away for a 48hour hacking run. will jolt be supplied?
i hear all of the great tales of lore about boewulf cluster and their amazing speed yet i am forced to ask if it will perform as advertised. as i understand it, (and i may be way off here, so please correct me) beowulf clusters do not completely overcome the problems that linux has with multiple processors. of course this is something hoped to be fixed in later kernel releases, but does the noaa really have the time to bring down a system such as this for kernel recompiles? a very fast machine? yes. but will it ever live up to it's full potential? i hope it does, but i still have to wonder.
os/2 was important (for its time) in several ways. 1. it provided an alternative to windows 3.x 1a. it provided an alternative to microsoft. 2. it was relatively crashproof (something windows has never attained) 3. it provided for both a windowing environment and a command line (dos) environment that went together much more seemlessly than anything else available. 4. it was relatively configurable
personally, i think that it is time for os/2 to retire. i would miss it. i say miss in that os/2 still has many interesting applications. i remember waiting in line at a store the other day and noticing that the pos system was running on os/2. os/2 may not die for a while but we will certainly be seeing less of it in the future.
i still remember the old 1992 'popular-science' article on the molner flying car that was supposed to be released in early 1999. i hear stuff on that only occationally. i am now forced to wonder if this idea will go the way of the flying car as well. it seems a good idea, expecially (imo) the extended training program, but, i see a lot of problems with it, not the least of which being cost. because of these problems, i am forced to ask a few questions:
how much would something like this cost? would you have to be in contact with air-traffic control? if so would you have to pay for air-traffic control services? do i really want to spend $100000+ for the opportunity to get hit by a 747? do i want to wait for the molner aircar so i can take a girl out on a date or just stap her to the backpack? will it come equipped with a lightning rod? am/fm/cassette? do i want the possibility of crashing due to an inability to see during a rainstorm just so i can have the freedom of a flying motorcycle? how much will my insurance go up? will the have an option for hydrogen or electric power instead of petrol? can i get it in electic purple? will the guidance system (if any) run on linux?
i have many other questions but those constitute the major ones. in conclusion, i wonder if this will ever take off, and if so, will it be worth giving up my car?
actually, it makes sense (in a wierd governmental-paranoid sort-of-way) that missles could/should fire on y2k. it would be (to me) the ultimate fail-safe. think about it: if a y2k problem brings the computers to their knees what *could* that signify? could it *maybe* signal an all out war? now wouldn't it be best to program your missles with a fail-safe that basically comes down to an if-then statement:
{ if comp!=1 then firethemissles; else continuenormal; }
this way *if* the computers go down (for any reason), the missles will fire no matter what. pretty slick. 8^)
maybe this sounds a little conspiratorial (that's ok), but, just because microsoft isn't telling (what we precieve to be) the truth does not mean that they are lying either. we all know how microsoft loves to twist things, leave certain pertinate information out and tell things from 'a certain perspective' (a la obi wan kenobi), but, if they are doing things like building backdoors for the nsa, do we really believe that the nsa would let them tell everyone that? of course not. as much as it pains me to say it, we all know that windows (in some flavor or another) is by far the most widely used operating system for personal computers in the world. what does that mean? well, you're average terrorist or drug dealer or whatever is probably not running a linux/bsd/un*x box and probably not running os/2 either. we know that they don't use ms-bob (for those who don't know the security reasons behind this i'll explain below). so, what does that leave behind? i'm 99% sure as are most of you that these upstanding, law-abiding drug-lords/terrorists/etc. are using windows. now, instead of having our computer spys spend hundreds of hours cracking a system, why not have a backdoor? would the nsa want this to get out? of course not. microsoft is then payed off/bullied/given lieniency in court/whatever to keep this secret and deny it. don't other companies and indeed intelligence agencies the world over deny that they are doing something only to admit and declassify 20years later? ex. area51/stealth bomber/rosenberg trial.
i'm not out to take microsoft's side in this (not by any streach of the imagination) by making them look like the good guys, but, the fact that they have the so-called 'keys' is (to me) evidence inofitself that ms is working with the nsa. why else would they have them? i don't believe that linus torvalds or patrick volkerding have keys to my slack systems. i simply believe that they aren't telling us because they can't.
a few words on the security of ms-bob: for those of you who aren't aware, microsoft bob was the by far the most non-optimal solution for a 'friendly operating system' that the world has ever seen. it was released approximately 7 years ago. it's whole interface cause scores of curious (as to what crap was being pushed) hacker to madness and reduced strong men to tears (of laughter). it was sold under the adline of 'everyone needs a nice computer'. anyhow, bob had 'password' capability. however, if the wrong password was entered three times, instead of locking the system, bob assumed that the user had forgotten their password and asked if they would like to erase the current one or set a new one. ah, the benefits of a secure ms-system! its kind of scary to think this came from the sick corporation that has the vision of 'windows ce' one day controlling the breaks in our cars.
first of all, i don't think that i'm going to buy $490 (+shipping) of 'equipment' from someone on geocities. second of all, 'Machined and powder coated, durable quality all-steel construction' costs a lot of money to produce. why would i buy that from a company that can't spring $2 to buy their model a pair of socks without holes in them? i realize that we all have socks with holes, we all wear them, and we all don't care, but how many of us are trying to sell something? are they trying to show us how natural computing can be? i don't know... and thirdly, someone needs to check their usage of punctuation. it seems to me that 'Machined and powder coated, durable quality all-steel construction.' needs a comma between 'durable' and 'quality'. i don't mean to seem anal retentive, but my compiler doesn't let me get away with leaving commas out so i'm not letting them get away with it either.
a reply to the parent comment:
>I'd fall asleep between Deathmatches.
civil service employees the world over call that power-napping. 8^)
though i never pity a person of whom has a lot more money than they know what to do with and still complain that they need more, i do believe that duchovny does need to protect his interests. as much as i do not want a lot of money (enough to live on and upgrade my systems will suit me nicely), i would also seek to have my employer live up do their end of the bargain if only for the principal of the matter. on the other hand while it is true that the x-files is a great show, i think it's probably a good idea to quit beating a dead alien. after the third season the show began to lose a bit of it's ingenuity and now they are simply rehashing old plots with a new spin. and anyhow, can't everyone find something better to do than stare at a tv all day? i'm all for entertainment, expecially sci-fi, but c'mon people.
no, not really. if i have something that's extremely sensitive that needs to be sent somewhere it gets beamed directly through either modem to modem (security is more important than cost), encrypted email, or, if time doesn't really matter all that much, an insured bubble wrapped zip disk sent via snail mail does rather well.
btw- i'm assuming that you don't want anyone to know that you use netscape for your webmail.
no, not really. if i have something that's extremely sensitive that needs to be sent somewhere it get's beamed directly through either modem to modem (security is more important than cost), encryption, or, if time doesn't really matter all that much, an insured bubble wrapped zip disk sent via snail mail does rather well.
btw- i'm assuming that you don't want anyone to know that you use netscape for your webmail.
well, i always said that the canadians would (and in fact are) invade(ing) the united states. they can have it. with bandwidth like that i'm heading north. everyone may complain that it's cold up there, so what, it's hot as hell down here in florida. just think of it, i won't even need an industrial air conditioning unit to keep my machines cool. i can open the windows and use a ceiling fan! 8^) as for what to use the bandwidth for, i don't know just yet, how about an amazing 42,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 player quake 3 arena game? anyone interested? now i just need a server farm for the needed processing power and my personal powerplant to power them all! ahhhh! just thinking about it makes me spooge...
wow, unisys wants to charge everyone using.gif files. that's pretty bizarre. personally i support the move to.png, why not? if you're not compatable with.png you may as well be using lynx in which case it doesn't matter what graphics format is used by a site. i say move to.png asap. not because of unisys, but simply because of the technological superiority to other 'portable' formats.
too bad the email tax hoax isn't true. imagine the money unisys would be taxed in informing everyone that they owe $5000 only to have them switch to.png instead.
in other unrelated (yet closely paralleling) news: i have just copywritten the question mark (?). anyone wishing to use this wonderful punctuation mark must now pay me as is described below.
note: all charges in us dollars. question marks will only be charged once.
per use - $0.25 (for those who don't generally write) monthly - $25 (all the questions you can ask in a month) yearly - $500 (all the questions you can ask in a year) lifetime- $1000000 (best value! unlimited usage for the extent of your life) student* - $500 (good for all years in a post-secondary educational institution)
*does not apply to professional students who are 40 years old and still live at home.
i do a lot of music composition and i've found that as much money as you through into putting a dual purpose machine together it's actually cheaper (and easier) to just build a dedicated machine. personally i use a low-speed machine for music (486-66), but it's dedicated and does the job very well (would be nice to be faster though), and a high-speed (k6/2-333) for linux. my suggestion is to use your pii 233 as the music machine (dedicated (using (gasp) windows) and go ahead and buy the parts for a pii 450 and use that as your linux machine. you will want to use the 128MB ram in the music box and swap down to 64MB in the linux box (unless you can afford to upgrade (if so, do it)) unless, of course, you do more music (or music is a primary source of income) then simply reverse my suggestion.
Re:old computer art and illiterate parents
on
High Tech Junk
·
· Score: 1
unfortunately the only thing (except linux) is to suck it up and put windows on it. red hat would be a good start for your parents though, as it is reasonably user friendly. you could always try to find a copy of os/2 somewhere. its about as friendly as windows 3.x, not microsoft, and relatively crashproof (and when it does crash you get a familiar looking bsod!). or you could put dos 6.22 on it and run the klos ppp dialer/stack (or a better one) and use 'arachne' as a web browser. it is fully graphical and works great if you can get klos correctly set up (it took me nearly a week).
for the dos stuff check out http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/
a lot of places like the goodwill will take your old machines and give you a tax credit for it (if you use something other than the 1040ez for tax purposes. or you could contact me. i take everyone's old machines, salvage what i can and toss the old rusted hulks that remain. because of this i currently have five ancient machines, four of which run linux (not counting my k6/2 333 (the fifth is a dedicated music composition machine)); and hopefully several more to be built. or you could take around 300 386s and make a beowulf cluster that would run about as fast as a p5 200 8^).
maybe i'm stupid (and it's probably true) but as a us citizen i find this stupid too. taxing email? most of the world is not the united states. so therefore taxing email would either involve only taxing us citizen or the assent of all world governments. if only it were feasable it would be nice to get several influential networks to shutdown mail service for a day. of course all of the senators/reps who are proposing this are using government servers, but, they'll still encounter quite a few problems when the external servers aren't running mail processes and all of their messages are funneled into a black hole. the other option is to implement the processes that it would require to add taxes to the existing mail logs. take the time used on this (bump it up by 100 hours), and send every senator/rep a bill for services rendered for programming/accounting/billing costs. but that's just my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
this place has a lot to work out. they don't say anything about having help from nasa (which scares the crap out of me) or of what their infrastructure will be. as i looked through the site i notice things like 'space control', 'fusion power on the moon', and 'luna for the disabled'. yet a look into the links for infrastructure reveal a blank page. i'm not a tree hugger or anything but i'd like to be reassured that they aren't going to build a landfill on the dark side of the moon or jetison all their trash into space. as it is, what will saftey be like? laws? no one has soverign control of the moon, therefore the a private lunar colony will be much like the internet, built on good intentions but ultimately ungovernable and a relatively dangerous place to live. i don't think that i would want to go somewhere where there is no true way to stop someone from destroying an air-processing factory. i think that artimis has a lot of thinking to do, and i wouldn't expect for this to take off for closer to 50 years than their anticipated 10. america went to the moon in under 10 years but were we prepared to colonize in that amount of time? no. do we have a vehicle (aside from the saturn v, which are no longer manufactured) that is capable of reaching the moon and returning? no. it's taken us close to 30 years to come up with a feesable *idea* on how to colonize something like mars. this colony is for scientists, nasa isn't even worrying about the commercial possibilities. scientists will wear the same clothes for 3 months and live in a room the size of a phone booth, will workers and colonists? probably not. i'm afraid that if this happens in their projected 10 years, we will be hearing within a year that the project will be evacuated or that all of the colonists are dead due to some 'unanticipated problems'. i don't mean to seem pessimistic, but, well, there it is...
episode 2.3.x: from points across the globe, followers of linus trade rumors that governments in their particular part of the world have switched to linux. linux: the gnu choice of world governments. yes, linux, deposing the totaltarian dictatorship of the once mighty microsoft empire. a weekness has been found in their software and licensing; with the help of a small band of rebel fighters and one penguin the shackels of injustice will be thrown away forever. the world and indeed one day the entire universe will be saved by the open source marvel called the 'linux kernel'.
on a serious note: this is really cool. i wonder what microsoft thinks about loosing american government support? on the point of the royal family sacking solaris, well, i used to play solaris on my atari 2600, it was cool then but pretty out of date now. 8^)
this is a complete and total waste of bandwidth that i will no doubt find myself using several times. i was surprised that it worked so well. i had expected many, *many* more 'site not found' errors. out of the 30 it generated for me, all worked. it's kind of scary when you think about it. unfortunately all of the sites that came up were places i have absolutely *no* interest in visiting whatsoever.
i like the idea of sponsoring a hack contest for civilization. this is a very cool idea that will no doubt get some very, very cool improvments to the game. the only thing that disappoints me is that the contest is only open to thirty participants. but, then again, you have to put them somewhere and i guess that the atlanta linux expo is as good a place as any. i particularly like the idea of locking the participants away for a 48hour hacking run. will jolt be supplied?
i hear all of the great tales of lore about boewulf cluster and their amazing speed yet i am forced to ask if it will perform as advertised. as i understand it, (and i may be way off here, so please correct me) beowulf clusters do not completely overcome the problems that linux has with multiple processors. of course this is something hoped to be fixed in later kernel releases, but does the noaa really have the time to bring down a system such as this for kernel recompiles? a very fast machine? yes. but will it ever live up to it's full potential? i hope it does, but i still have to wonder.
os/2 was important (for its time) in several ways.
1. it provided an alternative to windows 3.x
1a. it provided an alternative to microsoft.
2. it was relatively crashproof (something windows has never attained)
3. it provided for both a windowing environment and a command line (dos) environment that went together much more seemlessly than anything else available.
4. it was relatively configurable
personally, i think that it is time for os/2 to retire. i would miss it. i say miss in that os/2 still has many interesting applications. i remember waiting in line at a store the other day and noticing that the pos system was running on os/2. os/2 may not die for a while but we will certainly be seeing less of it in the future.
i still remember the old 1992 'popular-science' article on the molner flying car that was supposed to be released in early 1999. i hear stuff on that only occationally. i am now forced to wonder if this idea will go the way of the flying car as well. it seems a good idea, expecially (imo) the extended training program, but, i see a lot of problems with it, not the least of which being cost. because of these problems, i am forced to ask a few questions:
how much would something like this cost?
would you have to be in contact with air-traffic control?
if so would you have to pay for air-traffic control services?
do i really want to spend $100000+ for the opportunity to get hit by a 747?
do i want to wait for the molner aircar so i can take a girl out on a date or just stap her to the backpack?
will it come equipped with a lightning rod?
am/fm/cassette?
do i want the possibility of crashing due to an inability to see during a rainstorm just so i can have the freedom of a flying motorcycle?
how much will my insurance go up?
will the have an option for hydrogen or electric power instead of petrol?
can i get it in electic purple?
will the guidance system (if any) run on linux?
i have many other questions but those constitute the major ones. in conclusion, i wonder if this will ever take off, and if so, will it be worth giving up my car?
actually, it makes sense (in a wierd governmental-paranoid sort-of-way) that missles could/should fire on y2k. it would be (to me) the ultimate fail-safe. think about it: if a y2k problem brings the computers to their knees what *could* that signify? could it *maybe* signal an all out war? now wouldn't it be best to program your missles with a fail-safe that basically comes down to an if-then statement:
{
if comp!=1
then firethemissles;
else continuenormal;
}
this way *if* the computers go down (for any reason), the missles will fire no matter what. pretty slick. 8^)
maybe this sounds a little conspiratorial (that's ok), but, just because microsoft isn't telling (what we precieve to be) the truth does not mean that they are lying either. we all know how microsoft loves to twist things, leave certain pertinate information out and tell things from 'a certain perspective' (a la obi wan kenobi), but, if they are doing things like building backdoors for the nsa, do we really believe that the nsa would let them tell everyone that? of course not. as much as it pains me to say it, we all know that windows (in some flavor or another) is by far the most widely used operating system for personal computers in the world. what does that mean? well, you're average terrorist or drug dealer or whatever is probably not running a linux/bsd/un*x box and probably not running os/2 either. we know that they don't use ms-bob (for those who don't know the security reasons behind this i'll explain below). so, what does that leave behind? i'm 99% sure as are most of you that these upstanding, law-abiding drug-lords/terrorists/etc. are using windows. now, instead of having our computer spys spend hundreds of hours cracking a system, why not have a backdoor? would the nsa want this to get out? of course not. microsoft is then payed off/bullied/given lieniency in court/whatever to keep this secret and deny it. don't other companies and indeed intelligence agencies the world over deny that they are doing something only to admit and declassify 20years later? ex. area51/stealth bomber/rosenberg trial.
i'm not out to take microsoft's side in this (not by any streach of the imagination) by making them look like the good guys, but, the fact that they have the so-called 'keys' is (to me) evidence inofitself that ms is working with the nsa. why else would they have them? i don't believe that linus torvalds or patrick volkerding have keys to my slack systems. i simply believe that they aren't telling us because they can't.
a few words on the security of ms-bob:
for those of you who aren't aware, microsoft bob was the by far the most non-optimal solution for a 'friendly operating system' that the world has ever seen. it was released approximately 7 years ago. it's whole interface cause scores of curious (as to what crap was being pushed) hacker to madness and reduced strong men to tears (of laughter). it was sold under the adline of 'everyone needs a nice computer'. anyhow, bob had 'password' capability. however, if the wrong password was entered three times, instead of locking the system, bob assumed that the user had forgotten their password and asked if they would like to erase the current one or set a new one. ah, the benefits of a secure ms-system! its kind of scary to think this came from the sick corporation that has the vision of 'windows ce' one day controlling the breaks in our cars.
first of all, i don't think that i'm going to buy $490 (+shipping) of 'equipment' from someone on geocities.
second of all, 'Machined and powder coated, durable quality all-steel construction' costs a lot of money to produce. why would i buy that from a company that can't spring $2 to buy their model a pair of socks without holes in them? i realize that we all have socks with holes, we all wear them, and we all don't care, but how many of us are trying to sell something? are they trying to show us how natural computing can be? i don't know...
and thirdly, someone needs to check their usage of punctuation. it seems to me that 'Machined and powder coated, durable quality all-steel construction.' needs a comma between 'durable' and 'quality'. i don't mean to seem anal retentive, but my compiler doesn't let me get away with leaving commas out so i'm not letting them get away with it either.
a reply to the parent comment:
>I'd fall asleep between Deathmatches.
civil service employees the world over call that power-napping. 8^)
though i never pity a person of whom has a lot more money than they know what to do with and still complain that they need more, i do believe that duchovny does need to protect his interests.
as much as i do not want a lot of money (enough to live on and upgrade my systems will suit me nicely), i would also seek to have my employer live up do their end of the bargain if only for the principal of the matter.
on the other hand while it is true that the x-files is a great show, i think it's probably a good idea to quit beating a dead alien. after the third season the show began to lose a bit of it's ingenuity and now they are simply rehashing old plots with a new spin.
and anyhow, can't everyone find something better to do than stare at a tv all day? i'm all for entertainment, expecially sci-fi, but c'mon people.
no, not really. if i have something that's extremely sensitive that needs to be sent somewhere it gets beamed directly through either modem to modem (security is more important than cost), encrypted email, or, if time doesn't really matter all that much, an insured bubble wrapped zip disk sent via snail mail does rather well.
btw- i'm assuming that you don't want anyone to know that you use netscape for your webmail.
no, not really. if i have something that's extremely sensitive that needs to be sent somewhere it get's beamed directly through either modem to modem (security is more important than cost), encryption, or, if time doesn't really matter all that much, an insured bubble wrapped zip disk sent via snail mail does rather well.
btw- i'm assuming that you don't want anyone to know that you use netscape for your webmail.
19990829-1051.42
well, i always said that the canadians would (and in fact are) invade(ing) the united states. they can have it. with bandwidth like that i'm heading north. everyone may complain that it's cold up there, so what, it's hot as hell down here in florida. just think of it, i won't even need an industrial air conditioning unit to keep my machines cool. i can open the windows and use a ceiling fan! 8^)
as for what to use the bandwidth for, i don't know just yet, how about an amazing 42,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 player quake 3 arena game? anyone interested? now i just need a server farm for the needed processing power and my personal powerplant to power them all! ahhhh! just thinking about it makes me spooge...
wow, unisys wants to charge everyone using .gif files. that's pretty bizarre. personally i support the move to .png, why not? if you're not compatable with .png you may as well be using lynx in which case it doesn't matter what graphics format is used by a site. i say move to .png asap. not because of unisys, but simply because of the technological superiority to other 'portable' formats.
.png instead.
too bad the email tax hoax isn't true. imagine the money unisys would be taxed in informing everyone that they owe $5000 only to have them switch to
in other unrelated (yet closely paralleling) news:
i have just copywritten the question mark (?). anyone wishing to use this wonderful punctuation mark must now pay me as is described below.
note: all charges in us dollars.
question marks will only be charged once.
per use - $0.25 (for those who don't generally write)
monthly - $25 (all the questions you can ask in a month)
yearly - $500 (all the questions you can ask in a year)
lifetime- $1000000 (best value! unlimited usage for the extent of your life)
student* - $500 (good for all years in a post-secondary educational institution)
*does not apply to professional students who are 40 years old and still live at home.
i do a lot of music composition and i've found that as much money as you through into putting a dual purpose machine together it's actually cheaper (and easier) to just build a dedicated machine. personally i use a low-speed machine for music (486-66), but it's dedicated and does the job very well (would be nice to be faster though), and a high-speed (k6/2-333) for linux. my suggestion is to use your pii 233 as the music machine (dedicated (using (gasp) windows) and go ahead and buy the parts for a pii 450 and use that as your linux machine. you will want to use the 128MB ram in the music box and swap down to 64MB in the linux box (unless you can afford to upgrade (if so, do it)) unless, of course, you do more music (or music is a primary source of income) then simply reverse my suggestion.
unfortunately the only thing (except linux) is to suck it up and put windows on it. red hat would be a good start for your parents though, as it is reasonably user friendly. you could always try to find a copy of os/2 somewhere. its about as friendly as windows 3.x, not microsoft, and relatively crashproof (and when it does crash you get a familiar looking bsod!). or you could put dos 6.22 on it and run the klos ppp dialer/stack (or a better one) and use 'arachne' as a web browser. it is fully graphical and works great if you can get klos correctly set up (it took me nearly a week).
for the dos stuff check out http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/
a lot of places like the goodwill will take your old machines and give you a tax credit for it (if you use something other than the 1040ez for tax purposes. or you could contact me. i take everyone's old machines, salvage what i can and toss the old rusted hulks that remain. because of this i currently have five ancient machines, four of which run linux (not counting my k6/2 333 (the fifth is a dedicated music composition machine)); and hopefully several more to be built.
or you could take around 300 386s and make a beowulf cluster that would run about as fast as a p5 200 8^).
maybe i'm stupid (and it's probably true) but as a us citizen i find this stupid too. taxing email? most of the world is not the united states. so therefore taxing email would either involve only taxing us citizen or the assent of all world governments.
if only it were feasable it would be nice to get several influential networks to shutdown mail service for a day. of course all of the senators/reps who are proposing this are using government servers, but, they'll still encounter quite a few problems when the external servers aren't running mail processes and all of their messages are funneled into a black hole.
the other option is to implement the processes that it would require to add taxes to the existing mail logs. take the time used on this (bump it up by 100 hours), and send every senator/rep a bill for services rendered for programming/accounting/billing costs.
but that's just my opinion.