Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id VAA01271; Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:47:52 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:47:52 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199802270247.VAA01271@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #31 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Feb 98 20:47:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 31 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Requires 7.0 or Above Error (Babu Mengelepouti) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Robert Lindh) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Name Withheld by Request) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Jack Daniel) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Michael P. Deignan) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Lee Winson) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Name Withheld by Request) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Ryan Tucker) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Dave Close) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Andrew Crawford) Windows Suggestions For Pat (Wulf Losee) Glad You're Back (Dave Stott) Your Recent Winderz Problems (John Herrbach) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Peter Gross) Re: Did You Miss Me? (Robert L. McMillin) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@telecom-digest.org * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 773-539-4630 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. 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Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* In addition, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 13:47:56 -0800 From: Babu Mengelepouti Reply-To: dialtone@vcn.bc.ca Organization: US Secret Service Subject: Requires 7.0 or Above Error Hi Pat... One thing that may not have been mentioned to you is that Windows 95 is considered DOS 7.0. If the io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com files are replaced for some reason with an earlier version of DOS, then Windows 95 will not run (claiming it needs 7.0 or above). Is there a possibility that anything you ran prior to your system going kablooie may have replaced those critical system files? Or worse, is there a virus on your system that may have damaged them? I would recommend double-checking both, as soon as possible. That way --hopefully! -- your system won't puke. Finally, *never* trust large chain-store techs. Small, independent computer stores are your best bet, especially if they have been in business a long time. If you're small, you won't last long if you don't treat your customers right. ttyl... ------------------------------ From: robert.lindh@huddinge.mail.telia.com (Robert Lindh) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 21:50:20 GMT Mr Townson, I think the suggestion by Mr Jim Gorman, below, is a good idea. My (IBM Aptiva) PC was delivered with a CD-ROM like the one he describes, and I have used it several times to restore the contents of the hard disk to exactly the state it had when I bought the PC. The only difference, compared to what he is describing, is that the floppy was not included with my computer, it needed to be created by a built-in tool, stored on my PC's hard disk. The floppy is called an "emergency recovery" floppy, whose purpose is to load enough of MS-DOS, to make it possible to format the hard disk, and then fill the hard disk with its proper (initial) contents, from the CD-ROM. The disadvantage with this emergency recovery is that all changes to the contents of the hard disk, made after the purchase of the PC, is lost. This unfortunately consist of all software you have added, and all data files you have changed or added on the hard disk. A free tool, that can be used for backup of your data files, are called "PKZIP for Windows" It can be downloaded from "http://www.pkzip.com". When I use it for backup of my data files, I tell it to make a compressed copy of all CHANGED files, compared to the last backup event, towards my ZIP-drive. It can also work towards a set of ZIP-disks, or towards a set of floppy disks, if the backup file does not fit into one ZIP-disk or one one floppy. I do not think it can work towards magnetic tape. Please note that this free tool can not make a successful backup of the operating system, to be used to restore everything on the hard disk, to the state the hard disk had, when the backup was made. It can only be used for the more simple task of restoring your data files, in a PC that is working normally. What I do, when the software on my hard disk is destroyed, is: 1. Restore the PC to original state by the emergency recovery floppy, and the CD-ROM. 2. Install the software I have bought, from their own CD-ROMs, or floppy disks, according to their own installation instructions. Among these are "PKZIP for Windows 3.50", which fit into one floppy disk. 3. Use "PKZIP for Windows" to restore my data files, from the backup files containing the gradual changes in my data files, starting with the oldest backup file, and restoring from younger and younger backup files, until I have restored from the youngest backup file. (This is because I save only the changed files, so in order to restore my hard disk, I need to apply all changes, one after another.) Sincerly, Robert Lindh robert.lindh@huddinge.mail.telia.com PS. I do not work with PCs as my profession. I only use PCs at work and in my home. (My work environment is the OS of the AXE central office, from Ericsson.) DS. ------------------------------ From: withheldonrequest@telecom-digest.org (Name Withheld) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:01:47 GMT On Fri, 20 Feb 1998 00:15:43 EST, in comp.dcom.telecom you wrote: > remotely and looked at it from his end via the modem. Finally everyone > decided I would need to reload Windows and start over ... > > Oh, you mean from the 29 diskettes I did not make ... ... Did they not provide you Windows CDs (if the machine has a CD-ROM drive) or floppies? Were the Win95 install files preinstalled on the machine's hard drive? > not find out how bad it was until later. The rep said to go to where > I bought the computer and buy a new copy of Windows. Okay, I went to NO NO NO. This shouldn't have happened. Toshiba should have SENT YOU A COPY OF WINDOWS. > is known as OSR-1. You need '2', not '1' ... you need the > OEM version. > I asked him where can I get '2'; I'll try over again with that. > You can't get it. It isn't sold to the public. And I am=20 The question remains: Why didn't Toshiba volunteer to send you disks or a CD? Since OSR2 is only provided with new machines or certain critical components (motherboard etc.), and not available as a retail "upgrade" version, it should have been provided to you by Toshiba! It's VERY likely that there is specific support for your machine included in OSR2 and not the retail version. (There are other specific machines that required OEM versions of the original Win95, IIRC.) I just bought another PC (a P166-MMX desktop from HiQ Computers) and got a CD of OSR2 -- in case I need to reinstall Windows -- in the documentation pack. This is virtually standard practice. Some makers who make "mass-market" PCs, such as Compaq, put an image of the Win95 install files on the hard drive and expect the buyer to copy the files to floppies -- something I don't approve of. > playing cards? Just collapse and stop running? Might there be a > hardware-related concern that caused this? Can't you bill Toshiba It's possible that this is the case. > What I can do is agree to take back the software -- which has > been opened -- give you credit for it against the repair At least they did this. Some stores wouldn't refund the price of opened software. > I cannot do a recovery on a Toshiba Satellite 220-CDS. > I do not have the recovery disk for that unit. I did All they need is a generic copy of OSR2. Since CompUSA sells PCs, they should have had one. (But then again, this IS CompUSA we're talking about. They're the object of numerous flames in misc.consumers and various Web sites...) > A payphone was nearby and I immediately called the 24 hour ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A COCOT, probably. The CompUSA stores around here ALL have COCOTs... :( > almost. There was still no audio; I still could not get a full screen, > and things were still sort of flaky looking, but at least no more > 'illegal operation' messages. The only thing this guy did not replace > for me was sndrec32.exe ... the 'Sound Recorder' and the volume > control knob which appears on the screen when you press the speaker > icon on the task bar. Does anyone have a copy of sndrec32.exe they Do RealPlayer or other audio apps work? If they don't, there is no sense in trying to get a copy of sndrec32. This should've been fixed. > Now shut off the computer, and reinstall the card. > Turn the computer back on. > As the computer booted up still again, this time a small window popped > up saying a new piece of hardware had been found, a 28.8 fax/modem Plug and Play worked for once... :) To say the least: Both CompUSA, and (more importantly Toshiba) screwed up big-time. Guess who won't be buying a Toshiba anytime soon, or going to CompUSA (I have gone there twice in the past week getting supplies for the new PC, and both times had to go to Micro Center or even Office Depot to find what I needed...)... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The above was sent by someone who asked for it to not be attributed to his name in the Digest; but he is a regular here. All the sound works fine now; really good in fact. Last night I found a *marvelous* midi file of the entire 1812 Overture and another site with a huge collection of classical organ music in midi files. Toshiba got the sound up and running for me the day after the Microsoft guy did his thing. The Satellite 220-CDS of Toshiba is a bit of an orphan I guess. It was manufactured for some special promotion(?) or other corporate deal with some company, Ameritech perhaps. It reminds me a bit of the old 'Black Apples' put out by Apple in the late 1970's. They were nothing more or less than an Apple ][ +, and even included the same DOS and 'Applesoft Basic' that Apple used on all their machines in those days. 'Applesoft Basic' was really Microsoft Basic sold in large quantities to Apple for their machines, much like OEM Windows is sold in large quantities today, already pre-loaded, etc. But the 'Black Apples' were in a black or very dark grey case as opposed to the light cream-colored cases Apple ordinarily used, and instead of the little metal plate on the cover with the Apple logo, the black apples had a logo saying 'Bell and Howell'. Even the external disk drive cases were the same black/dark grey color. The software for one was identical to the other although it was alleged there were certain minor, very obscure differ- ences in the OS, or operating system. If you tried to get tech help on it from Apple, they'd refuse to help and say 'go to Bell and Howell about it ...' Bell and Howell had purchased a few thousand of these things from Apple at the insistence of their (then) company president Chuck Percy (later a senator in Illinois) and as for the leftovers when B&H decided to use other stuff? Well .. they were 'disposed of' ... via various third parties, etc. That *appears* to be the case with the Satellite 220-CDS. When I got it, it came with a CD Rom inviting me to sign up with an IPS known as ameritech.net ... gee why does that name 'ameritech' sound so familiar? :) Totally 'reconditioned' (although it never appears to have been used at all before I got it), it came with a tag on the bottom noting 'Compu-USA Equipment ID #xxxxx', and what I was able to glean from Moses, the repair tech there was that Comp-USA had been in on the deal, but it was unclear exactly *how* they were involved. He, and the store manager insisted no such model was ever on sale in the retail stores, although they had heard that 'corporate has cut a couple deals in the past with Toshiba on behalf of large customers with whom both Toshiba and Comp-USA had mutual dealings.' Hmmm ... A Toshiba supervisor insisted to me that 'there is no recovery disk devoted to the 220-CDS, and futhermore, no disk of Windows was included in the sale. ... either you back it up or when you lose it you don't have it any more ...' She noted that, 'what you should have recieved and apparently did receive was a CD-Rom of the Toshoba drivers and other utilities, a smaller diskette to use to boot the computer if necessary, a very small reference book on Windows with the OEM certification seal on it, and a larger reference book about the Toshiba machine itself. I told her the CD-Rom was conspic- ous in its lack of ANY of the Windows' drivers or software. That's right, she said, no Windows backup. None ... nada ... YOU take charge of that part of it. I told her I 'had been told' the 225 recovery disk would work, and her response was 'maybe so, but that's beside the point ...' She would not actually come out and say the 220 was a special job off their bench, but in her words, 'the 225 is intended as a personal/home-use laptop, while the 220 is a 'business machine'. In other words, no difference, just that if I had lots of money I suppose I could order a couple thousand of the 225's and tell them to use a glow-in-the-dark purple case and refer to them as the 'Townson Telecom Professional Computer' or similar in markings on the cover. And would you mind giving me about X percent off the price if we don't bother with backup stuff from Windows? At least that is my impression as of now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Daniel Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:21:37 -0800 Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Reply-To: JackDaniel@RFSolutions.com Welcome back, Pat. And thanks for your tale of windows VS humans. I have been so browbeaten by countless 'experts' that I had almost started believing I was the only person that was 'too stupid' to operate Windows '95 or NT. I have been attempting to stabilize Windows 95 and NT for over 2 years now and have simply given up and accept the fact that I can expect a crash or lock-up at any time and in any program. In the four hours the machine has been on today I have only experienced three crashes, but two were "my fault" because I attempted to use Explorer instead of Netscape to read some mail that had a "MS proprietary" file format attached. The other one was just a routine WKW (who knows why) problem that resulted in just the left button of the mouse dying in the middle of typing a MS Word letter. I no longer hesitate to turn off all power to the machine to do hard re-boot. That is often the only option left to me. I have also purchased tons of software (I stubbornly, and perhaps stupidly, refuse to bootleg)to 'solve' my Windows problems. I have several upgrades as well as a complete set of NT and matching MS programs (they are not always compatible between '95 and NT) as well. I accept the fact that Windows will decide for itself what hardware and software will operate every time I start the machine. I dare not intervene for fear for having to reformat my hard drive and reload the operating system, although that's only happened 5 times in 26 months. The best investment you can make is a very high capacity back-up system. To have any sleep at all, I purchased a Jaz drive with 1 GB disc cartridges. Although the software doesn't integrate into Win '95 too well, I have found a way to make back-ups of my complete 4 GB hard drive. Every week end now, I spend about 4 hours backing up and cleaning up the hard drives. Computing sure has enriched my lifestyle. I also have a Toshiba satellite and believe it or not, I actually have an Toshiba OEM version of Win '95 for it!!! It was an 'upgrade' provided by Toshiba because mine came with Win 3.1 installed. I have nit installed Win '95 and the machine works absolutely flawlessly! The old 485 Win 3.1 machine that was scheduled to be replaced by the newer Pentium 200 MHz Win '95 machine remains in the office as a backup when something has to be done in a rush and time doesn't permit the luxury of system crash recovery on the new machine. This is longer than I intended, but, Again, THANKS! I am NOT alone in the universe. Jack Daniel ------------------------------ From: kh6hz@anomaly.ideamation.com.NO-SPAM (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: 26 Feb 1998 21:43:17 -0500 Organization: The Ace Tomato Company In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > and with techs from Comp-USA ... (tale of woe deleted) Gosh. Almost anyone I know in the computer industry could have told you that taking your computer to CompUSA for a "tech" to work on it means utter destruction. The "techs", salesreps, and even managers at CompUSA are a bunch of clueless morons. And, that is being considerate. I swear they hire the rejects from the McDonalds across the street in my town. Two years ago I purchased two identical Pentium systems from them. After one year, one system fried. No video, so I swapped the video card with the other system, same result. I brought the system back, told them I had diagnosed the problem (bad motherboard), and when the "tech" (a 15-year old 'Johnnie') told me "oh, you opened the case? That voids the warrantee." I had to speak to the management to straighten the problem out. They "fixed" the machine, it worked for another month, and the same problem occurred. At that point I gave up. A year ago I went in and saw a great deal on a Toshiba T425CDT. $1k under mail order. I grabbed it. Got it home, used it for a few weeks, and then a friend stopped over and said "That's an active matrix? It don't look like it." Sure, enough, despite the fact that the case said T425CDT, and the screen said 425CDT, the screen was actually a dual- scan passive. Only after threat of lawsuit and immediate visit to the state attorney's office did the manager agree to sell me a T435CDT for "only" $600 more. Right now, a significant number of complaints have been filed with our state attorney general's consumer affairs division regarding CompUSA's advertising practices. Seems over the past year they have been advertising "low cost" items (such as hard drives) which, when you arrive at the store 10 minutes after opening the day the flyer arrives in your mail, they are mysteriously "sold out". No rainchecks, no substitutions, but oh, we have this nice hard disk (.3GB larger) for only $100 more than that other drive ... MD Ted Kennedy has killed more people with his car than I have with my guns. If you don't like my opinions, that's just too damn bad. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You mention the fifteen year old 'tech' spouting the company line about 'voiding the warranty'; I have run into a few of those little snot-noses myself and some of them sure can be obnoxious. At Radio Shack one day I made a comment to a salesman about Windows and some program included with it on the computer they were selling at the time. I then walked over to another area, and picked up a cable to connect a printer to a 'Black Box' buffering unit. This little kid who had overheard my original comm- ents saw me pick up that particular cable and right away he spoke up saying, 'oh that will not work with what you have'. I just looked at him and said (admittedly crudely, I was in a lousy mood that day anyway) 'how the f--- would YOU know what I have and don't have? Better to just shut the f--- up when you don't know what you are talking about.' Oh, he looked so crushed. I hope I ruined his day. I half expected him any minute to run off calling 'Mommeeeee ... that bad man cussed at me ... ' in which case I would have had an opportun- ity to give his mother a piece of my mind also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com (Lee Winson) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: 26 Feb 1998 17:57:38 GMT Organization: The PACSIBM SIG BBS We were concerned you may have been ill. Glad you're health is ok. Interesting report on the PC problems. Last year I replaced my trusty 286 running DOS 3.3 with a Pentium running Win95 so I could access graphics on the Web. (My ISP is a low cost one, providing text-only access.) I don't have a clue how Win95 works, or what my machine is doing half the time. The new modem sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and I have to use my old one (I had a 14.4, but wanted the 28.8 for better speed.) So much of it is automatic or hidden behind "properties" settings. Some settings are via the "options" menu, others via a "properties" menu, and still others from external menus. I lost sound altogether (including simple beeps) because the volume control on the taskbar was turned off, which I accidently discovered. For a lot of individual people, I really wonder if computers are not just expensive toys, as opposed to true productivity saving devices for the home. For home use, do we really need the fancyness of Works for Windows? My MSDOS version of Works was quite powerful and more than adequate for the occassional letter to Visa questioning a bill. I've found for such letters it's actually faster for me to use a manual typewriter, no fuss, no muss. Sometimes I wish we were still using punched cards and IBM 1401 computers. Anyway, glad you're back! Lee. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You ask if 'computers are expensive toys for many people' and the answer to that from me would be a resounding YES. There is nothing I do in my daily routine which *needs* to be done with a computer. I do most arithmetic calculations in my head, and for how many ever years when I had something to write I used (first) a manual typewriter and the (in later years) an IBM Selectric with different 'type balls' or fonts depending on what I was working on. Admittedly a computer makes it easier to look up details quickly. As for this Digest, 99.95 percent of the world has never heard of it -- or me, for that matter -- and I can't imagine the world would be any different if it was not around. A 'fun' thing to do, perhaps, but essential? -- hardly. My understanding is that a huge majority of the people 'getting into' personal computers and the net these days are here to look at fancy web pages, possibly do a little cyber-shopping as part of it, spend some time interacting in chat and newsgroups, and that is about it. And the people who have some difficulty interacting with others in society on a face to face basis can do so 'safely' behind a computer keyboard. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Withheld on Request Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:08:45 EST Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? [not for publication, unless you remove my name. xxxx] You've probably received a billion "me too" responses. Well, me too. I use an IBM Thinkpad 760ED notebook for work. Every few weeks, Windows 95 will lock up the machine, and nothing short of hitting the power switch will bring the machine back. Most of the time this happens, the sound drivers become corrupt. Occasionally, the network stack becomes corrupt. There's no warning, no clear indicator afterward, and the only way to fix things is to re-install the drivers. I have used many operating systems, and I have never seen any so prone to both lock-up and *undetectable* driver corruption as Windows. Windows is fine while it works, but when it crashes, it can take me days to track down the corruption and fix it. Toshiba might sell or give you a `recovery' CD. I strongly recommend that every Windows 95 user have one. And bring it with you if you travel. The right solution, of course, is to switch operating systems. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:06:26 -0600 From: Ryan Tucker Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Reply-To: rtucker+replyto+199802wk1@katan.ttgcitn.com In comp.dcom.telecom, you wrote: > The Microsoft guy said whatever I did, I should IMMEDIATLY find some > way to back up everything. In particular, all of Windows and the > registry. I have no method of doing that short of using about a > hundred diskettes. Maybe at least I will back up \windows\system and > keep it safe. A site I found lately: http://www.atbackup.com/ I haven't tried it yet (my win95 machine doesn't have a modem, and the nearest spare modem is a 2400bps modem -- ehh, no, backing up 12gb nightly will NOT happen with a 2400bps modem), but it looks promising. Hey, it's better than nothing. I hope. -rt (who, being in ISP tech support, knows all too well how utterly, totally, and disgustingly clueless OEM tech support can be... no, we do NOT send out dialup networking on our install CD!!!) Ryan Tucker http://www.ttgcitn.com/~rtucker/ The next line may just show what CD I'm listening to. Ambience: Depeche Mode / Some Great Reward: - [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I took a look at www.atbackup.com based on your mention of it, and wound up getting snookered into downloading their free software which took me a little over an hour only to unpack it and discover it would not run. :( It seems the little 'save your password' bug in Dial Up Networking keeps their backup software from correctly working. You cannot save your password in Dial Up Networking unless you also have a Windows username and password, but the backup software relies on it being able to make a phone call out from your machine in the middle of the night (typically) to their facility. After spending an hour downloading their software, another hour or so trying to get it to run, and several minutes on the phone with *their* tech, I found out from their tech that 'a corrective patch is available for the cannot save password problem from the Microsoft web page.' So off I go to the MS web site, fighting the evening hours rush traffic on the net and comb through several screens of miscellaneous drivers all obscurely named, various tech notes on all sorts of topics (when the MS web page was willing to respond, which was not all that often) and I found nothing except a 'service pack' which was alleged to correct the problem. But that 'service pack' had a warning on it saying 'WARNING DO NOT INSTALL THIS ON OSR-2/OEM WINDOWS MACHINES'. Being still a little gun-shy after the events of two weeks ago which just would not go away, I took them at their word and did not download it after having spent about an hour looking for it. A search using 'Infoseek' turned up a patch elsewhere that was supposed to do the job. I downloaded it, and promptly blew Dial Up Networking out of the water entirely. DUN had to be entirely reloaded, and Compuserve's techs helped me get the drivers and adapters installed once again. I immediatly went and erased every single thing I could find of the www.atbackup software. That's where I have been the past two days. Do you sense I am becoming a little bitter about all this? Someone is coming over here over the weekend with a backup device and several disks. I intend to copy the entire hard drive -- not just Windows -- in the hopes that if I ever have such an incident again I'll be able to almost immediatly put everything back in place, minus perhaps a few newly created files. But I cannot really see myself accumulating much more in the way of files on here. The Digest stuff is all stored at MIT, and this laptop has as many flashing pictures, sound effects, browsers and services (Compuserve, America OnLine, and -- how could you have a computer without it? -- the Microsoft Network) as I will ever need. Real Player Plus, Media Player, Sound Recorder, Net Show, Net Meeting, IRC .. you name it. Of course in 1981 I did not really understand why anything more than a 300 baud modem was needed either. Tonight I am going to restore GW Basic, an old DOS terminal and fax program I like a lot, and maybe one or two other small things. Then that is it. I happen to still like programming exercises to keep my brain cells from stagnating, and I happen to be very good using (B)eginner's (A)ll purpose (S)ymbolic (I)nstruction (C)ode. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: 26 Feb 1998 22:29:50 -0800 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Ah, the joys of "commercial quality", "supported" software! You KNOW you get better support on-line that those guys will ever give you. Why not bite the bullet and convert to something reliable? Like Linux. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 07:17:25 GMT From: Andrew Crawford Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? On Fri, 20 Feb 1998 editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > It all began a week ago Monday, when about noon or so I turned on my > new (well, three months old) laptop to discover Windows would not start. Pat, It's experiences like that which drive otherwise normal people to Linux. Andrew [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I admit I would rather have Linux/Unix on this laptop. Maybe someday I will. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 17:10:39 -0800 From: Wulf Losee Subject: Windows Suggestions For Pat Pat: Sorry to hear about you Windows problems. I must say I'm very impressed with the support you received from Microsoft, though! I've never gotten satisfactory support from them-- so I just don't bother to call anymore. It must be because you stood up for them a few issues ago ;-). Or maybe your fairy godmother was watching over you. If I might suggest two books: _Windows Annoyances_ by David A. Karp, pub. by O'Reilly & Associates. This is an excellent basic reference for Windows, and I can't recommend it more highly. _Windows 95 Secrets_ by Brian Livingston & Davis Straub. This is more comprehensive, but I've found it to be less useful. I suppose Karp is focused primarily on "fixes" for Windows, while Livingston & Straub's book is more of a general reference. Both are excellent, though. I would also suggest, that if you really are concerned about protecting your data, you might want to purchase a ZIP drive (which can store a 100MBytes per disk). I'm not fond of the ZIP, but it works. I understand a bunch of competitors are entering the market at the moment, so there may be alternatives to Iomega now. But a high-capacity storage device would probably cost less than what you paid your idiot repairmen. Personally, I was thinking of dumping Windows from my laptop as soon as I am able, and converting to Linux or Solaris. However, I have too much work done in Word, InfoSelect, and Visio, to convert easily to another OS. Anyone know of good Windows emulator for Linux? Best regards, Wulf ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:48:03 -0500 From: Dave Stott Subject: Glad You're Back Pat, Glad to see that you are back!! I missed the Digest and wondered where you were - glad you are OK. Sorry to hear about your computer troubles, too. In light of what you went through, consider this: you are a knowledgeable person with considerable literacy in computer topics and the workings of hardware and software, and yet you were unable to get your computer to work. Imagine someone with half your knowledge trying to load Netscape Navigator onto a machine where Internet Explorer is the default browser. Imagine the errors they will get! They will tell their friends what a hassle it is and their friends will worry too much to change browsers. IE takes over!!! Overblown? Sure, but not entirely without merit. Your own experience with Microsoft/Toshiba/CompUSA shows how perilous it is to screw around with Windows. Will the 'common man' risk adding a non-MS browser and risk hosing up the PC? Not on my watch, bubba. "If it comes with IE, IE's good enough for me" will be (is?) the rallying cry. So next time MS adds another application to the operating system, keep in mind that other applications made by other software houses will fall by the wayside. It is the nature of the software market. Once again, glad to see you're doing well! Dave Stott (602) 831-7355 dstott@2help.com http://www.2help.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 20:10:14 -0500 From: John Herrbach Subject: Your Recent Winderz Problems Pat: Nothing really to add, just to say that I've seen this kind of situation too many times. I've had to get smarter than the repair techs so I'm not dependant on them any more. It seems (for me) to have been the only sure solution. I've been crash-free for a few years now. Good Luck and Take Care. John Herrbach, Lansing, Michigan Email: jaherrba@pipeline.com ------------------------------ From: pag@gpf.scg.boulder.co.us (Peter Gross) Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 07:02:14 GMT Organization: Nanosec, Inc. Reply-To: pag@gpf.scg.boulder.co.us On Fri, 20 Feb 1998 00:15:43 EST, in comp.dcom.telecom you wrote: [incredible tale of woe deleted] Pat, I can't believe an old-timer like you would trust anything critical to Win95! You should SERIOUSLY consider using linux, which is rock solid and excels at networking.... Take care, peter gross pag@scg.boulder.co.us ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 09:18:07 -0800 From: Robert L. McMillin Organization: Syseca, Inc. Subject: Re: Did You Miss Me? TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > An explanation is in order: [...] Pat, if you ever needed to know what motivates those of us who HATE Microsoft products and their sadly successful marketing strategies, it's because there are endless stories like yours out there. Need a computer that works, first time, every time? Buy a Mac... but the beancounters of the world, on observing that Macs (at least, used to) cost more initially, have forbidden them in the workplace. PCs, on the other hand, tend to work initially, but (a) special circumstances (multihomed networks, for instance) don't work reliably, and (b) fail far more often once installed, and in more frequently in ways that require enormous amounts of expensive hand holding. Try getting networking support from Gateway -- they'll tell you they don't answer networking questions. (The urban bigot in me says that's because anyone with a reasonable knowledge of networking wouldn't be working in friggin' South Dakota, but let us not be too hasty.) Need an operating system that doesn't accumulate viruses, doesn't require elaborate hacks in order to get the customer's job done, has usable security, scales to hell and gone, and doesn't have a thousand scars to accommodate obsolete 16-bit operating systems from the 1970's? Try Unix ... but Microsoft has already brainwashed your customers think NT will save them from high costs. This is perhaps true, but *only* if what they need comes off the shelf and requires very minimal (i.e., no or almost no) O/S tweaking. Every couple of months I see idiotic Microsoft brown-nosing in the trade rags telling me how "NT is ready for the big time" when MS's alleged TCP/IP stack STILL doesn't reply to broadcast pings. Basic stuff doesn't work, nor does Microsoft deign to fix it. Instead, they keep trying to crush everyone else in the software business... One final caveat: I'm well aware of the fact that with NT, Microsoft is actually doing something about true cross-platform source-code compatibility. This is something Unix has promised for years and never really delivered on. In fact, it's one area I think Microsoft is to be lauded for. But their implementations are frequently mediocre at best. Robert L. McMillin | Not the voice of Syseca, Inc. | rlm@syseca-us.com Personal: rlm@helen.surfcty.com | rlm@netcom.com Put 'rabbit' in your Subject: or my spam-schnauzer will eat your message. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Unix is really what I would like to have in this computer, or something *so close* that it would emulate my account at MIT almost entirely. Then I could pick up my mail and work off-line on the Digest, and call back in to put it in the mail and the newsgroup. That's what I would like ... but I am told it is impossible to do it without partioning the drive, and that the flip side is Windows will not work if I *do* partition the drive. And also, I am not sure this laptop would be big enough to handle it all. I do have a 1.3 gig hard drive, 32M ram (up from the original 16), a floppy drive and a CDROM drive. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #31 *****************************