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Mail 105 June 12 - 18, 2000

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Monday  June 12, 2000

A great deal of mail last week, especially Sunday night.

Welcome to the wonderful world of rebates. The entire computer industry's approach to rebates is to make it as difficult as possible for the consumer to get the $$. The hope is that no more thant 1-2% of consumers will actually take the time and complete the paperwork "correctly" or "without errors" and get fullfillment. I know this since I used to rep for manufacturers and this was the "understood" policy for retail rebates.

Robert Grenader Vector Resources 

 rgrenader@vectorusa.com

I have always suspected this, but what is the point? Most people  forget to mail in their rebate materials -- I generally forget -- and don't end up hating the company as a result. But when you do take the trouble, and they just plain don't honor their own commitments, you end up wishing the sponsoring company ill. As I do about Western Digital, a company I had some reason to think well of until this scam.

I can only say "hear hear" to your recent rant about Western Digital. I no longer will buy anything that has a mail-in rebate. I travel a lot in the U.S. on business (from my home in Canada) and mail-in rebates on US purchases would be iffy at best. Even ones here in Canada are almost always done by promotional houses that are engaged by the real vendor (it is possible that Western Digital isn't even aware that they have jerked you around).

My theory is that if the rebate isnt good enough to slap on at the register then I'll buy something else or nothing at all.

Vote with your wallet!

¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´

Kerry M. Liles kerryl@inglenet.com Inglenet Business Solutions Inc.

Interestingly, I have never had any problem with Microsoft rebates. Western Digital is another story. And now something more serious:

> Western Digital drives are not particularly better or worse than anyone else's

I don't know about that. WD drives have been on my "don't-buy" list for some time now. I bought two WD AC34300L 4.3 GB hard drives about two years ago. With all the shifting around I do, both of them ended up in my spares box. When I was building my RoadRunner machine this weekend, I pulled one of them from the box to use for that machine. After considerable time wasted, it turned out that the drive was bad. Western Digital diagnostics tell me that it has "errors that are not repairable." That was aggravating, but drives do die sometimes.

So I pulled the bad drive and installed the other identical drive. Same problem. Exactly. "This drive has one or more errors that are not repairable. The final status code is 0207. Please contact Western Digital Technical Support, and report the status code shown here." Thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with the cable or the IDE interface on the machine, I pulled the second dead WD drive and installed a Maxtor 91000D8, expecting that perhaps it would also exhibit similar problems. It fired right up and is working normally. Apparently, the WD drives really are dead, and both were fine when I put them on the shelf.

So now I have two dead WD drives, and given your problem getting WD to cough up the rebate they owed you, I don't think I'll waste my time trying to get them replaced under warranty. Nor is this an isolated problem. I have a stack of dead WD drives accumulated over the years, or did have until Barbara made me clean up recently. There weren't any dead Maxtor or Seagate drives in that stack. I've discarded a few of them when they became too small to be useful, but I haven't had a Maxtor or Seagate drive die in years.

Don't forget that WD is the company that shipped something like a million hard drives last fall before they noticed that they'd all been built with a defective component which gave them an expected lifetime measured in months. What kind of quality control allows a company to build a million defective drives before they notice that anything is wrong? They recalled that drive, but I wonder how many people weren't aware of the recall and got stuck with defective drives. Perhaps my experience is anomalous, but I certainly won't be buying any more WD drives

--

Robert Bruce Thompson

thompson@ttgnet.com

http://www.ttgnet.com

I didn't get one of those bad drives, and I have had no problems with the WD brands I have bought. Mr. Rice informs me that Maxtor drives are made by Western Digital: one wonders if there is some difference in quality control between the brands, since I seldom see Maxtor at huge discounts. Mr. Thompson questions that. See below.

 


Jerry I have an ORB External SCSI drive. I have two computers. One running NT 4.0 FixPack 6 and the other Win2000. They have both worked from the get go without the need for installing any drivers. I regularly move them, along with an IOM JAZ and an old Optical (all SCSI) back and forth with no problems.

Morton Kaplon

Interesting. But what I have is USB ORB and IDE internal ORB and both explicitly say in the installation manual that they are not for Windows 2000 and not for NT. I used SyQuest drives with SCSI too. Maybe I'll try the USB with a Windows 2000 machine as a test. Thanks.


While listening to a radio program on stock investing, (I think it's called Foolish Investing, they have a website called fool.com and the name derives from a quote where only a fool would invest without a stockbroker, of course they say your foolish to let someone else mange your money), the inevitable Microsoft debate came up. In the course of the question and answer period with the experts the query came up as to whether Gates lack of financial contribution to the DNC and the Slickmiester caused Microsoft to be targeted. One of the inhouse experts brought your name up as having commented that Gates' lack of payment of tribute may have indeed been the reason for the DOJ targeting Microsoft. Beware the Jack Booted Thugs!

On an alternate topic---In the late 80's I was a company commander of a reserve Tow Light Anti-Tank Company in Philadelphia. Jeeps with TOWs hunting T-72's, HOOOWAAAAH! All of my senior NCO's were civil service of some sort, and many were Vietnam Vets. Of my junior NCO's most were either civil servants, waiting to be civil servants, or college students who more than likely would stay in for twenty, regardless of their profession, as they would have 7 to 8 years in by the time they graduated. As an OPFOR commander at FT Dix and FT Drum, one of the units we trained was the scout troop of a ARNG calvary sqaudron. Virtually the entire unit was made up of cops from NYC and Northeastern NJ, and they were quite good. The problem is when you have ARNG units in rural areas. Many use the Guard as supplementary income, and the civil service is not an option. Teachers have always made good Gaurdsmen and reservists, you would be surprized at the number of principals that have eagle or stars!

Finally, as an S-1 of an infantry battalion in a Seperate Infantry Brigade, we had clerks assigned to us that normally would have been in a division rear depot. Some of our missions involved such things as securing a section of Autobahn to use as an airfield for A-10's. Someone got the bright idea that the attached PAC should field train with us for at least 5 days, and pass basic field survival skills, such as digging foxholes, firing weapons, and MOPP gear usage. We tried it twice, and failed both times, as the females complained that there was inadequate field sanitation, in particular showers.

Maybe a majority of women from the Bronze age may put up with dirt and yuck for weeks at a time as soldiers. But the best place for women warriors is in the pages of S.M. Sterlings' fantasy. I've met a few who could hack it, but not enough to build effective policy around (and they weren't gay either Steve).

thanks, JODY

Jody Dorsett

Thanks. The name of the show is "Motley Fool" I believe. I've heard it a few times and they seem to know what they are doing. 

One problem is that honorable men don't let women stay in danger; which means we must either get the honorable men out of the military and have a military service that doesn't include them, or change a centuries old definition of honor and do it rapidly. I suspect the latter is impossible.


RE: But *WHY* did MS legal dept screw up so badly.

Pierre Mihok said: > WHY did they screw this up? It makes no sense to me. >I figured all along, they have something up their sleeve. >But what? And when will we find out?

Some of our minds turn naturally to conspiracy theories. We have no evidence for the non-obvious intent, but such theories make life more interesting. I have seen speculation on SlashDot (I have the time to wade the merde) that MS is up against development barriers and that the internal complexity of Windows is heading for some major fall. Security was not designed into the kernel and is a difficult thing to retrofit. A lot of APIs that seemed like a good idea at the time are locked into an interface that no mortal can keep track of.

So MS forces the government to split it. The principals pick up the Explorer+Office side of the new company, move their leverage efforts to "hidden Explorer APIs", and wait for the New Windows Corp to fall on its face. They can then blame the collapse on the government rather than a spongy foundation.

No evidence. I just view it as an interesting speculation. But that's just the way my mind works. Give me an inch and I'll tell you all about the OJ prosecutors and Oswald too...(grin)

.../ Greg Goss (mailto:gossg@mindlink.com)


Dr. Pournelle,

 I bought an HP6648C package from Sam's Wholesale Club(a WalMart subsidiary) and Red Hat ver6.2 at the same time so that I would have a receipt showing that I did have a 'valid' OS. Contacted HP through their customer support forum as to how to get refunded the cost of Windows. Actually, the cost of the Windows Recovery CDs but that horse is being flogged to death in another thread. Their public response on the forum is copied below for you.

 Seems that you don't have a choice about the matter. Buy HP = = buy Microsoft. First, no true systems disks and, now, you cannot even return that crud. The only recourse is to return the whole PC. I used to be somewhat sympathetic to Micro$oft but now it is 'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.'

 Keep the faith,

 Will Ganz

  

//========= message posted on HP's customer support forum. =====/

Written by: HPpavtech67 (Steve)
On: June 12 2000 at 2:05 AM
Subject:HP Software License Agreement and software refunds.

Will,
Thank you for participating in our Forum. When software that is purchased from HP directly is found to be unsatisfactory, that software can be returned for a full refund within the specified period of time. However, when software that is part of the packaging for another product is found unsatisfactory, the product itself, including the accompanying software must be returned. Additionally, since the Windows 98 program supplied with the Pavilion is an OEM version, not the retail copy, Microsoft is not responsible for exchanging the software since you did not buy it form them, you purchased it as a component of the HP Pavilion.

For a more thorough understanding of the information detailed above, please visit the on-line copy of the HP Software License Agreement, which can be accessed by clicking on the Hyperlink below.

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/esclicense.html

We hope this information adequately addresses your concerns.

HPpavtech67 Steve

 Fascinating, but not unexpected. I am hardly part of the hate Microsoft crowd, but it bothers me that issues like this, which are important, were not raised in the anti-trust trials yet are used in the "remedy". That is bad law, I think. And what Microsoft was found guilty of isn't going to be fixed by the proposed remedy, which was proposed before the trial ever began.


To clear something up:

Jerry,

Sorry it took until today to get back on this, but this is my work email account. In checking back, it turns out this was on "Marketplace", not "ATC". Here is a link to the transcript: http://www.marketplace.org/archives/rundown/2000/06.08.html

Here is a portion of the transcript. The statement to which I was referring is at the end. Sorry again about the confusion. As you always say, 'never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by (in this case my) incompetence'.

John DeVries

========================= 

It's Thursday, the 8th of June. I'm David Brancaccio.

The judge in the Microsoft anti-trust case says, while the door remains open to a settlement, such an outcome is "unlikely." In an interview with Marketplace less than a day after he ordered the breakup of the software company into two parts, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson says he has no desire to punish Microsoft, but wants to end its monopoly. Marketplace's Washington editor John Dimsdale spoke with Penfield Jackson at his office in the U.S. District Court building today.

Dimsdale: "Thomas Penfield Jackson looks like a judge. A distinguished, 63 year-old pipe smoker with a judicial shock of silver-white hair. A veteran of the law, but not technology. Judge, what was your personal computing experience before this trial? Did you surf the web? Did you download files? Did you word process?"

Judge Jackson: "Relatively little. I'm from the pre-computer generation. I sent, received email. By and large that was the limit of my computing experience."

Dimsdale: "So you had to bone up on what browsers are and what a server is and application programming interface?"

Judge Jackson: "It was a lot of learning that was involved in doing this case."

Dimsdale: "Do you have a computer now?"

Judge Jackson: "Yes, we have a computer at home."

Dimsdale: "And is it a Mac or a PC?"

Judge Jackson: "I don't recall who the manufacturer is. It's got Windows software."

And see below


This debate continues:

Sir,

I will just drop one quote from a previous writer for comment:

"I'd combine this with no further pay increases for E-1 to E-4, no marriage clauses in the first term contracts or even living outside the barracks for the first term (and no POV's for the first three) and a large scale revival of correctional custody facilities. Not enlisting misfits is an excellent idea. An Open Door policy during the entire contract is a different matter. Domestic troubles at the trailer park home are a leading cause of mid contract attitude problems. We've had enough experience with 16 year old non-driver-licensed child brides with two kids. We just don't need this kind of dead weight hanging on our forces. Those child brides are also a leading conduit for enticing otherwise upstanding troops into temporary drug usage."

Well, this is someone who should NOT be involved in military decision making. First, it would require conscription, because no one of sufficient qualifications would enlist under such draconian rules. Second, while true that we have our share of problems with young married soldiers who are below the poverty level (primarily because the spouse has a hard time finding decent employment with PCS moves every 2-3 years), eliminating married soldiers as an option isn't a good solution. "Domestic troubles at the trailer park home" is a bit condescending, and misses the point: we have those domestic problems with Colonels and Generals, and they ain't in the trailer park.

What exactly does he think "large scale revival of correctional custody facilities" will do? We court-martial at will now, and our crime rates are way down. I know, as I teach military prosecutors, and my main hurdle is lack of experience in the court-room. In 1989, I was lead counsel on 50 courts-martial; the average counsel now will do 5 in a year. That's GOOD news, though it makes my job difficult.

I have opinions about the military's troubles. I do what any soldier can do, try to make things better on my end, and push ideas up the chain, and down to my subordinates. Reorganize the military? Good idea, but with what goal? Low intensity conflict? Operations other than war? Are we going to be the classic army of history, a hybrid, or something different entirely? Good questions I cannot answer. Perhaps more debate here?

Please withhold the name

The Army of the Old West didn't allow (legal) marriages, nor life outside the barracks, without the Army's permission, which was rarely given for anyone below buck sergeant; but that was a different army of different people.

You might be able to form some kind of Legion out of jailbirds, but hardly a modern high tech army. As to conscription, while I think it necessary for any republic that wishes to both have a large standing army and remain a republic, you certainly will not have conscript citizen soldiers living as single men in barracks for more than a few months...

Dr. Pournelle,

Quoting your Sunday 11 June mail: "Interesting. But I gather that morale is at rock bottom, in part because of the integration of women; at least in the combat branches. Perhaps things will soon all be well as the kinks get shook out?" I don't think the inclusion of women is a key issue, but it belongs on the list. My opinions, and even though I have been out of the service for seven years I think they are still valid: 

1.) "Don't ask, don't tell"- I relate to my experience as an Infantryman, most grunts are a macho bunch. Hopped up on testosterone with a bit of homophobia thrown in. Not a good combination, since it leads to distrust of even your best buddy, and teamwork really suffers, which is the lynch pin of a successful unit. This also ties in to the integration of women, for many of the same reasons. Also, many resent the women's relaxed qualifications for essentially the same job. There is still a lot of politics involved in the service, right from promotion in the ranks through job assignment. Personally, I could care less who was in the fighting hole next to me as long as this person did the job competently. Unfortunately, there aren't enough like-minded people in the services. Maybe eventually.

2.) Low pay. Now, a service member gets enough pay when you consider that their meals and housing are free as long as they remain unmarried. I blew my check completely twice a month on goofing off, with a little spent on maintenance of my personal equipment. However, most civilian counterpart jobs pay a lot better, so the kids join the civilian market, rather than the service. This is made even worse if the kid is married, perhaps with kids. Even with the basic allowances for food, housing and cost of living thrown in, a paycheck isn't much. Most of the junior ranks qualify for and need food stamps to feed their dependents. After I was married, I wouldn't take food stamps, though I could have, and my wife tried to work every night when I wasn't. Still, it wasn't enough, and we fell behind. I am sure my situation isn't unique.

3.) Discipline. Many kids don't want to work long hours for little pay, with someone barely older than they are barking orders, little recognition, and no individuality. Free expression is not encouraged. And since they are doing little more than sitting about, even when deployed to foreign soil, one gets a little restless. Servicemembers want to DO SOMETHING, but they aren't. A couple of friends lost their cool while deployed for Desert Shield, all that sitting around waiting for months, and were disciplined (demoted and fined, essentially). Peacekeeping duty tends to wear one down, since the peacekeepers are getting shot at, but can't return fire, and are sitting in a tent or at a checkpoint far from home, not doing anything. The old saw is "hurry up and wait", but most can't handle much of the wait part anymore.

These are some of my opinions as to why the armed forces are having recruiting and retention problems. Some solutions readily present themselves. Like not allowing anyone below a certain rank to marry, or increasing base pay, or keeping the troops busy actually doing some work. Some problems require a lot of study before a solution is available. I wish I had all of the answers.

George Laiacona III <george@eisainc.com> ICQ 37042478/ 28885038 "Your shots will be more consistently accurate if you keep your eyes open." -Sgt. Schustec, King's Men Drill Instructor "Listen, when I want your opinion, I'll tell you what it is." -Sgt. Ingram

When my daughter was in intelligence officer in the 42nd FA in Giessen just across from the Fulda Gap, she didn't have the experience that there was too little to do: there was too much to do. But that was during the Seventy Years War when the US troops in Germany didn't know what might happen at any time.

It's a different situation today. NATO is not threatened although it does threaten...


And this one is representative of a LOT of mail I am getting:

Jerry,

I've read and enjoyed your columns for years. The newest nonsense from Microsoft hit a real nerve though. I manage a corporate IS group responsible for PC support.

I have two major gripes as a corporate user.

1. We lease a lot of PCs through a major mail order house. When we began returning those systems a couple of month's ago we learned that we must now return the OS CD that came with that system (one for one) or be charged for the OS. It was not that way when the original contract was negotiated but Microsoft changed their policy a while ago and our OEM is forced to comply. Needless to say, most of the original CD's ended up who knows where. We struck a compromise, though. When we replace the leased system we just ship the OS CD from the new system back . . . now this!

2. A while ago Microsoft began replacing their corporate Select Agreements with new Enterprise Agreements. On the face of it, the new agreements are cheaper and easier to manage. As a result they've become extremely popular. There is one significant difference, though. The Select agreement split fees into the original license cost and an upgrade/maintenance component. At the end of the agreement you could then simply continue paying maintenance on the licenses you "owned". Under the new maintenance Agreement you pay a combined fee every three or four years. In essence you get to buy a brand new copy for your installed base at that time! Try getting a straight answer from Microsoft about what you do or don't own if you don't re-new. As most of these Enterprise Agreements have only been in use for about 2 years many companies haven't realised this yet.

I'd appreciate it if you don't publish a name with this, as "thuggish" is an apt description of their behavior to those who question their corporate practices as well. [Read complaints and criticism to everyone up to the CEO . . . but no response on the numbers!]


Jerry,

Well, I like to say I run Windows '84 -- dedicated Mac user that I am. But Justice Expert Penfield who spun up so rapidly for the MSTrial should have been able to say he has a WINTEL box.

Reminds me of the school of "management" gurus who maintain that a great manager can manage in any environment, versus the school that maintains that subject matter expertise is also a requirement. I don't think Judge Penfield was equipped with the knowledge and experience to allow him to apply turn of the last century jurisprudence to a turn of this century technology case.

Also when the Judge says he is not our to get MS, my brain hears that as "I am out to get MS".

jim dodd

Me too. But indulging his whims costs the rest of us a lot. There are things that ought to be done about the industry, but this isn't the way to do them.


> Mr. Rice informs me that Maxtor drives are made by Western Digital

Eh? That's news to me. A quick check of the Maxtor and Western Digital web sites makes no mention of this. WD has their 1999 10K/Annual Report posted (http://www.westerndigital.com/invest/99annual.html) and it makes no mention of any such thing. In fact, it lists Maxtor as one of its major competitors. I did some searching around the web and couldn't turn up anything there about Maxtor drives being produced by WD. Also, the drives appear to be completely different physically.

I'd never say flat-out that someone was wrong about a statement like this, but I'd need some evidence before I'd believe it.

--

Robert Bruce Thompson

thompson@ttgnet.com

http://www.ttgnet.com

That's one of the best things about this place: someone will know this stuff. Thanks. Now we'll find out definitively. Me, I have always liked Maxtor products.


Many retailers of motherboards have the same relationship with Microsoft as full system vendors. Thus they are able to sell the OEM edition of Win98SE with the purchase of a mobo, although so also require a CPU and/or drive be included to constitute a system. The price is usually a good markup over what they pay but still much less the retail. Fry's, for instance, sells OEM Win98SE Full Version for $100 with a motherboard purchase. No word yet on OEM Win2K offerings.

Eric Pobirs


For the when-laws-cease-to-have-moral-force file:

http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost.asp?f=000610/313783

Diane Francis makes an excellent point here. You, an author, have not starved because of public libraries. Arguably, you eat better because of them. Musicians don't starve because kids tape them off the radio. They definitely eat better because of radio.

I still go to the theatre even though plays are often televised. Films are much better on the big screen. Live concerts are better than listening to CDs. Artists will not starve in a world where recordings are free.

Kind Regards, Bruce Hollebone: hollebon (at) cyberus.ca

There was a time when the 2000 or so libraries in the US were a substantial part of the market for mid-list hardbound books. In those days authors got about a dollar a book, and you could live, in genteel poverty, on $4000 a year or less. Thus the paradox that authors were taxed in order to support institutions that loaned out their books for free, but at the same time, those sales were an important part of the author's income.

No. I haven't starved. I've been seven times on the best-seller list and once for fourteen weeks as #2 (Lucifer's Hammer) and once as #1 (Footfall). That changes your life. But getting to that status is hard work, and it's harder to do now than it used to be.

But the analogy between libraries and outright piracy breaks down, I think. As to the rest of your message, sure, tastes are different one from another. At the moment most people would far rather read a book as a book than on screen; but the technology is changing rapidly, that won't always be true, and at that point it may not be quite so simple.

I hope you're right and there's nothing to worry about. I hope. 

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Tuesday, June 13, 2000

I too have had Western Digital drives go bad. But WD has been extremely responsive in replacing them. One drive (1.2 gig) went bad with only one month remaining on a 3 year warranty. WD shipped me a 2.1 gig drive at no charge. All that I paid was shipping back to them. WD does require that you run their utility before contacting them. I did all of this through the WEB filling a form with the drive serial number and error code. Pretty easy stuff.

As to Maxtor or Western Digital, I too prefer Maxtor. Maxtor drives (at least the new series) are very quite, quiter than my IBM drive. The Maxtor drives work well, excellent response times, and no rebates. You just pay a good price at the counter. I purchased a 13 gig Maxtor for $149.00 at Staples and that included an Ultra-66 controller card.

Ray Thompson Q Systems 


Jerry,

You forget to mention the orb drive works great with OS/2

I have an external scsi version I use with OS/2 both FAT and HPFS

I connect it to my 2940UW adapter as well as to my 770Z thinkpad (via 1460 pcmcia adapter)

IT's a great device

paul curtis cssw@voicenet.com

Didn't forget, I don't have OS/2 running. IBM gave up one it, so I did too. I wish IBM had not given up on OS/2. With IBM resources and talent (their technical people are the best in the world, even if they do require a lobotomy before promoting someone to "executive") they could have made OS/2 into something both solid and useful, and have been a real rival to Microsoft.

They didn't, and it's absurd to say Microsoft bullied IBM. IBM just didn't show up for the game.

I have more mail from people who don't like ORB, but the ones I have work just fine, barring some silliness with drive letters with the IDE version; that's all in the column.

Thanks, and stay well.

 From: 4Clarks [mailto:brooks@4clarks.com

Subject: User Reviews - Castlewood Orb EIDE 2.2GB Drive 

Jerry-

You may want to check out this site. It has some owner reviews of the Orb drive.

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/userreviews/remove/reviewhtml/Castlewood_Orb_EIDE_2.2GB_Drive.html

This is a collection of mostly horror stories with a couple of approvals. I know no more about it. At least one of the stories certainly isn't true, or would not be true now with the product as shipped. I have never seen a product that didn't have some unhappy users.

My view of ORB remains: it seems to work for me, but I haven't had one long enough to have a definitive comment about long term stability.


Hi Jerry,

If you are interested, I have put up a freeware Win32 utility for identifying your hard drive(s) manufacturor, model number and serial number at:

http://www.winsim.com/diskid32/diskid32.html 

It is similar to the CTBIOS utility for identifying your motherboard.

In the discussion of copy protection on your website lately: Microsoft has written an article on locking Intellectual Property to a specific device: Device Driver Requirements for Readers or Adapters of Windows Media-Compatible Portable Media: http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/imedia/windowsmedia/sdk/wmdriverreq.asp 

Thanks, Lynn McGuire

Thanks. I haven't had a chance to look at this, but doubtless some readers will and I'll get a report. Now I have to go work...


I've noticed you spent a few words on TweakUI. I recommend you also check LiteStep, which is a Shell replacement for the Windows user interface. It does to Windows that 4DOS did to DOS. It is totally customizable, open source, modular and skinnable. Check it out.

www.litestep.net is the most official link I know. www.litestep.com is another good one.

There you will find the standard official release (0.24.5 - if I remember well) which is already pretty neat, a ton of add-in modules and a myriad of pre-cooked themes.

Ciao, Alessandro 

Alessandro Foi

While I knew and liked 4DOS I confess I never heard of LiteStep. Anyone have experience with it? Pro and con?

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, June 14, 2000

Hi

I have just started working as a Technical Consultant (NT, BackOffice, etc.) for Compaq, and my laptop case is getting heavier and heavier. May you could start a "Things every consultant should carry, and they'll fit in your laptop case too" section for your piece in Byte. I don't mind telling you that space is a premium.

cheers Ben

> Ben Rowden > Consulting Associate > Compaq Professional Services 
 Email SMS: benjaminrowden@sms.genie.co.uk 

A good idea for a column section. Let's see what suggestions the readers have. Thanks!

 

 

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Friday, June 16, 2000

Short shrift time...

 

----From: GossG@bcrail.com [mailto:GossG@bcrail.com]  4:58 PM 

To: jerryp@jerrypournelle.com Subject: Suing a rumour publisher for "trade secret" violations

re: Suing a rumour publisher for "trade secret" violations

Even though I usually disagree with you on conclusions, I like your reasoning on intellectual property issues. I'm curious what your opinion is on a company suing a news source for publishing trade secrets? Does it matter that you can protect sources if you cannot protect the press?

"Adobe requests the court to enjoin Macintosh News Network from soliciting or disclosing Adobe's trade secrets and for recovery of damages"

The example is described at http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/

View&;c=Article&;cid=ZZZHLJ8I79C&;live=true&;cst=4

( in case that URL chokes, I'll break it into several pieces. http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/ AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View &;c=Article&;cid=ZZZHLJ8I79C&;live=true&;cst=4 )

Greg Goss (mailto:gossg@mindlink.com)


I majored in astronomy (until the department moved out from under me) and used to work under the late General Graham at High Frontier.

I finally got a chance to find and read your piece on "The Proper Study of Mankind" and the included "Pournelle Axes" and comments by Jim Baen. Very interesting, although I, personally, would list Welfare Liberals and Socialists as less rational than you have them on the diagram: especially after you have just and properly lambasted their pet social "science" theories as being essentially irrational. May that as it be, the copy of the Pournelle Axes which I have did not specify which was the "prime" (') axis, so some of Baen's commentary had me scratching my head, although I'll also take a 2 x 4 ("2/4'") to most politicians any day! <;-D> Could you please clear up the mystery?

I would also assume you know about the Libertarian Party's two dimensional classification system as posted on their web site (http://www.lp.org): it's a little bit different than yours, but they also recognize the inadequacy of the all too common one dimensional political classification.

May God bless,

Jim Cumber -- planetcumber@uswest.net

“Politicians and diapers should ** both ** be changed regularly...and for ** exactly ** the same reasons!”

"Indeed I fear for my country when I reflect that God is Just and that His Justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson -


Jerry, a little off topic, but from the title I was hoping you might mention somewhere how one can turn off the Outlook (2000?) feature which insists on linking me to the sites associated with many promotional emails whenever I happen to scroll past the item. I really don't want Outlook to "look-ahead" into the note and try make the connection to the site when I am just scrolling down a list of messages. Some of the MP3 music sites are real offenders. I suppose that feature is what allows some viruses to activate without me seemingly have tried to do anything. If you do know how this might be accomplished, consider mentioning it in one of your articles. Thanks!

Good question. I probably can think of the answer, but I am fresh out of time tonight.


Saw your mention about the portable storage devices. The computer school I attend (for my MCSE then Linux) has an innovative solution. Each student and all classroom computers have back frames for the "MobileRack", an EIDE hard drive portable plastic case not much bigger than the hard drive itself. I cannot tell you who manufactures it as the box has no company name listed and there are no instructions included in the sealed box! But I can tell you it works well. Put a 40 GB 7200 rpm EIDE drive and go! Maybe dream about an IBM 87GB! It's perfect for work to home or home to school or you to your friends if they are equipped with the back frame for the case, of course. It locks in place with a flip up handle, good for carrying the loose drive case, and has a security lock, 2 keys and the mounting screws included. Cost me $25, and seems worth it. They claim ISO 9002 on the box, and it seems sturdy enough, as long as you are careful to align the Centronics male on the drive case to the female on the back frame as you insert the drive, a process which takes seconds as long as your case is at desk height. Users with a floor case may have problem, but it still would be manageable I think. Maybe you can use your contacts to find out who makes it and where, and if they can make an ATA 100 capable model? The brightly coloured graphics on the box only have "MobileRack Removable Frame, Magic In-Out, for 3.5" and 2.5" Hard Disk Drive" on them, and no name or country listed. I will enquire at school, but I know they bought them wholesale and have little information on them, other than knowing that they work. I commute 50 miles to school over some rough country roads and highways daily, and the case seems stiff enough to keep the hard drive intact as long as you cushion it with somethin in the truck If you ever find out anything or a sik\milar product, please mention it in your column. I would be interested in your evaluation of this type of solution. Thanx, Peter Dale.

There was one of those on Phil's Chinese Rocket, and I must say it worked well.

 

 

 

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Sunday, June 18, 2000

I am at the beach so this will be short shrift.

My editor needs a hand:

Excuse me for acting like some dumb civilian, but I have been unsuccessful in searching for an external ISA card cage. I have an $800 digital sound card, the vendor of which is not going to make a PCI version. CMP will buy me a new computer, but it has only PCI slots in it. I have tried the PCI digital cards, and they all have problems I don't have the time/intelligence/energy to work out.

So the question is: is there such a thing as an external  ISA card cage for a PCI-based computer?

Paul E. Schindler Jr., Editor, Winmag.com and Byte.com 1

I know there used to be external ISA card cages. My own solution to that would be to build a fast machine that has at least one ISA slot in it. Anyone know of a box he can simply add to what he has? Me, I prefer to take the ISA bus out in the parking lot and shoot it.

And see below.


Hi Jerry,

Depending on the vintage, the Snap drive either came from Meridian (its original developer) or Quantum (who bought it last year). We have a little Snap farm at the office, and they've been sitting in a corner, humming away, for at least a year without a millisecond's trouble (I do have them on a UPS, BTW). In fact, we just acquired another that I'm installing next week - a 120 MB RAID 5 unit.

Why would someone get network attached storage rather than a server? Two good reasons are money (they're a relatively inexpensive way to get lots of easy to manage storage) and administration. All we needed was a whack of disk space, not another server. The Snaps can handle our user community very well, they have good security, and they're absolutely no trouble to administer - mostly we just ignore them! Try that with Windows NT ....

Regards, Lynn

Thanks. Others say they find them useful too. My son Richard says theirs went South fairly soon after installation and took a lot of data with it. Whether or not it was abused isn't known to me.


 

Looking for Electric Pencil

Many years ago I used to distribute a package Canada called "the electric pencil". It was when Harve Pennington sold it through IJG. Do you know anyone who might have a copy of the Intel version I could buy?It was the first Word processor I learned to use, and if I remember correctly it ran very well in a DOS box of OS/2 Warp. I still prefer to use Warp as my OS of choice, but I would like to use Pencil again as a simple text editor without the silly mouse GUI crap that abounds in so many of the current products. I was told you were a one time users of Pencil and might know who or where the stuff can be acquired.

Thanks in advance.

Mike Stephen

I have not seen Pencil since S-100 and CP/M days, and it only worked with a VDM 16 x 64 board so far as I know. It required that you do "line feed" rather than carriage return to mark the ends of paragraphs. It was a heap better than nothing, and I wrote a book and some early columns with it, but I sure wouldn't use it now in preference to many other text editors. Including XYwrite and Symantec's Q&;A Write, which is the editor Niven and I used for many years until we finally went over to Word for Windows 6.3a. I probably have Pencil on 8" floppies but I have no way to read it, and since it was assembly language hard coded to 8" floppies, S-100 Buss and a VDM video board, I can't think it would be much use.


Hello,

Jody Dorsett wrote: <<One of the inhouse experts brought your name up as having commented that Gates' lack of payment of tribute may have indeed been the reason for the DOJ targeting Microsoft. Beware the Jack Booted Thugs!>>

The "inhouse expert" (ha!) was me. I am an unrepentant Microsoft evangelist -- must be the MS-brand water I was drinking down in Orlando at TechEd. I'm a Techie at the Motley Fool who was tagged as a pro-MSFT wag to talk about Judge Jackson's ruling on the program last week. I'm also a daily Chaos Manor reader -- hence my reference to your quip about "tribute".

I remember well the days of batch files, WordPerfect 5.1 and Lotus 1-2-3 r3.0, when I wished there were a single macro or batch programming language for me to automate some of my daily tedium. Now I can use a BASIC-derived programming language to write Word, Excel, or even Outlook macros (VBA), script web pages (ASP), write full-blown applications (VB), and automate operating systems operations (Windows Scripting Host). One thing I pointed out on the radio show was that sometimes choice is bad -- just look at the bewildering array of long-distance phone options. Sure, there are deals to be had, but how many people check and re-check over time to be sure they have the "best" deal. In the end, the Operating System doesn't matter -- it's whether or not you can get your work done. And MSFT tools let me get my work done without hiring expensive UNIX/Linux gurus and admins. For me, that's the bottom line.

You wrote: <<The name of the show is "Motley Fool" I believe. I've heard it a few times and they seem to know what they are doing. >>

Thanks for your kind words. The Motley Fool Radio Show ( http://radio.fool.com/  ) can be heard each Saturday at noon Eastern time. If you're interested, the referenced show (which aired June 10th) can be heard at http://playlist.broadcast.com/makeram.asp?ID=499959 . One of the callers to the show pointed out that this was the "Version 1.0" MSFT defense. Just wait until version 3.0 (as I said on the show). Maybe by then the government will be acting against MSFT's competition! :)

-Carl Writing as Carl, not as "Some Guy from The Motley Fool"

Carl Leubsdorf, Jr. carl@carlthewebmaster.com 

Well, that clears that up... Thanks.


Dear Jerry:

Sony has just come out with a replacement slash major upgrade of my favorite little computer, the laptop that's smaller than a piece of paper (and the only true "portable" I've seen). They've doubled just about everything, from processor speed to hard disk space, while keeping the same wonderful form factor. My concern is that the new machine is only being offered with Windows 2000, and I'm a single-user type from way back.

You have a lot of experience using both Windows 98SE and Windows 2000; am I biting off more than I might want to chew by tackling the "big boy's" OS??

Sony, you may not know, supplies a slew of software with its laptops, a lot of it proprietary, that is quite useful for digital video and sound editing, so just wiping WIN2000 off and putting WIN98 on the new machine may not be a viable option - or it may be, I just don't know. I may run into the new MS policy and only have a "recovery" disk (they should be broken up into dust-sized motes for this policy alone - what arrogance!).

The basic question I'm asking, I guess, is will a) ALL b) MOST c) SOME d) LITTLE or e) NONE of the software and peripherals I have now for WIN98 run under WIN2000, in your experience? I come to you because I think the answer might be interesting and useful to many of your readers, not just me.

Thanks!

Tim Loeb

Except for games and some drivers for ORB and DVD-RAM and Adaptec Direct CD  I have no W 98 software that won't run with W 2000, and I expect Adaptec to get its act together Real Soon Now. My Zip drives work although I am having to download new software to get the icons and some utilities to work; I'm downloading those now.

I would get a cheap to free copy of W 95 and buy the UPGRADE edition of Windows 2000; that way you get the disk. I agree this is bad Microsoft policy, but I don't see how breaking them into a software applications and an operating system company will help.

 


The Foreign Legion has a rank called "Chef Caporal", which is basically a permanent career E4 who can't be promoted. Those wanting to go for sergeant have to agree to drop back down to 'caporal' to compete. IOW a troop who finally gets his head straight. Instead we have 'up or out'.

The game we played in the early 1980s with massive pay raises, Ronnie Reagan pep talks, a mediocre economy and threats of 'chapter action' and 'bar to reenlistment' has run out.

The proof? Current personnel status of the forces. If it was long term workable, it would have.

So far as my ideas about no marriage on the first term, I'm nt alone. James Webb and the US Marine Corps agree.

So far as honest answers to the woman trooper question goes, you won't get one from active duty officers due to the OER "Supports EO/EEO" block check. They ain't that stupid (especially after Linda Tripp's indictment)

"Enigma"

We also used to have what amounted to permanent PFC's in the army; I had some of them in Korea, who had been through WW II and were career privates and liked it. Decent soldiers, willing to do what was assigned, never volunteered, and wouldn't be leaders; but good troops for an artillery outfit. I don't know why we think we need "up or out"; if a trooper can't do the job because of age and physicals, fine, but so long as he can do it, and wants to, why not keep him? Gun layers and shell passers, and cook's assistants: none of these are critical to a career path so they have to be cleared out to make room for incoming troopers. There are plenty of jobs that need to be done, don't lead anywhere, and if you have someone good at it who wants to do it, why not?  The Legion understands this. The US Army used to.


re: Suing a rumour publisher for "trade secret" violations

Even though I usually disagree with you on conclusions, I like your reasoning on intellectual property issues. I'm curious what your opinion is on a company suing a news source for publishing trade secrets? Does it matter that you can protect sources if you cannot protect the press?

"Adobe requests the court to enjoin Macintosh News Network from soliciting or disclosing Adobe's trade secrets and for recovery of damages"

The example is described at http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View &;c=Article&;cid=ZZZHLJ8I79C&;live=true&;cst=4

( in case that URL chokes, I'll break it into several pieces. http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/ AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View &;c=Article&;cid=ZZZHLJ8I79C&;live=true&;cst=4 )

Greg Goss (mailto:gossg@mindlink.com)

Well, I read that, but I hope I misinterpreted what is happening because it sure seems wrong, wrong, wrong to me...


Dr. Pournelle:

I wish to draw your attention to James Gifford's new book, _Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader's Companion_ (ISBN: 0-9679874-0-7). This is an attempt to give a complete listing of Heinlein's works, with short descriptions of each of them. There is further information on the book at the Robert A. Heinlein Home Page at:

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/index.htm 

In his acknowledgements, Mr. Gifford lists you as one of his "valuable sources", so I thought that you may be interested in it.

-- Bryan "If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons." --James Thurber

Yes. I have a galley copy, and had been waiting until it was available to talk about it. I recommend it highly.


Just a brief note to mention that either the ide or scsi versions of the Castlewood Orb work just fine under Linux. There have even been articles in the Linux press about how to install and configure an Orb, step by step. I know you make use of Linux on some of your machines so you might find it convenient to be able to also use the Orb there. Unfortunately the USB part of your configuration is likely to be a little strange at this moment in history.

Traci Collins, Professor of Computer Education Colorado Mountain College

Thanks!


Regarding the need for an ISA external cage:

Anyone who would prefer an ISA sound card to a Creative SoundBlaster Live! PCI card needs to rethink his position. The PCI cards are far superior, and the Live! is the creme de la creme. I have the Live! working under Windows 98 (for most games), Windows 2000, and Red Hat Linux just fine (I had my Live! working under Linux over a year ago). What in the world is Mr. Schindler thinking?

In fact, the Live! works beautifully with Quake 3 Arena under Linux. I'm running an Elsa Gladiac GeForce2 GTS card (you really need to check out the nVidia-based GeForce2s; they're the best 3D cards money can buy) with XFree86 4.0 and my Live!; I play Quake 3 at 1600x1200, 32-bit color, trilinear mapping, and high detail, and the Live! works admirably in such a demanding setup under -Linux-.

If that's not enough for anyone, I don't know what is.

 --  Roland Dobbins <mordant@gothik.org> /


I saw your comment about go.com, which you described as a search engine where "idiot companies bid to see who will be at the top of the search hits"

That engine is goto.com, not go.com. I confirmed it with a search for Iomega. As you mentioned, www.goto.com returns "100 URL's listed, not one of which was Iomega," while go.com (www.go.com) has "www.iomega.com" at the top of its search list.

Go.com used to be Infoseek until it was acquired by Disney. Now, it's the "Portal" area of Go Network, which includes ESPN, Disney.com, ABC and ABCNews.com, along with a number of other entertainment and information sites. I think its search engine is as good as any and better than most. (My first search stop, though, is usually google.com.)

The two companies have nothing in common except similar URLs and geographic area (GoTo is in Pasadena while Go is headquartered in the San Fernando Valley).

And if you hadn't guessed already, I work for Go.com in beautiful North Hollywood. 

//name withheld by request

Sorry. Thanks for clearing up the confusion.

 

 

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