From: ibuprofin@painkiller.example.tld.invalid
On Sun, 11 Nov 2012, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandriva, in article
, Adam wrote:
>Moe Trin wrote:
[modem-init]
>> suggest using AT&F vs ATZ
>I'm leaving that up to the user -- it's either their default of ATZ,
>or an unspecified "something else". There's lots on the web about
>modem commands and init strings already.
I've always recommended AT&F (1 for USRs, 0 for just about everyone
else) based on the possibility of the NVRAM settings being strange.
That can cause some hard to diagnose connection problems. Using &F0
should work for all.
[boot with wireless]
>>> The [CentOS] boot messages still report failure both for the
>>> wireless device and for ntpd, but by the time it gets to the
>>> level 3 login prompt there's a message that wlan0 is up.
>> OK - slow bringing things up
>Slower than other brands/methods of Wi-Fi interfaces, or just slower
>than wired?
My guess is slower than wired - it shouldn't be all that much slower
(perhaps as much as a second, no more) because the main "extra"
function done is link level authentication.
>> Depends - mentioned before, using 4 catches interference from both
>> 1 and 6, while 9 catches it on 6 and 11.
>"stolid" and its peripherals are running over 90% of the time and
>during all of that, the router's transmitting on channel 9 (even if
>most of the time eris isn't on to receive it).
But the "traffic" at that point is minimal.
>Perhaps whoever's in charge of SSID "frrggl" said "Hey, somebody's
>using channel 9 most of the time, and that interferes with both
>channels 6 and 11. I'm going to set my system to use channel 4 so
>the other guy's channel 9 won't interfere with me."
Is channel 4 the strongest (implication - nearest) other system?
>(That sound plausible?) Most of my neighbors seem to have their
>wireless transmitters off most of the time, but when they're on, it's
>channel 1, 6, or 11.
Channels 1 to 4 don't interfere with 9, and conversely 9 to 11 don't
interfere with 4. Using 1, 6 or 11 is pretty much the standard
advise you see in wireless documentation. The real criteria should
be packet loss/error rates, and with "light" traffic levels, it's
probably not going to make a lot of difference.
[new systems not coming with internal modems]
>> Less parts, less labor, less warranty costs
>And something most purchasers won't miss. Over the years, parallel
>printer ports, RS-232 ports, and even PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
>have been phased out,
Parallel ports - good reason, as the connectors (even the plastic
versions inter-mateable with MIL-C-24308) were expensive, as were the
extra wires (both material and labor). They were only good to 30
feet/9 meters under the best of conditions, and with the demise of
character-based printing (as opposed to bit-mapped graphics), the lost
functionality is minimal. RS-232 serial could reach further, but was
slower, and those connectors are still expensive. The mini-DIN used
with PS/2 was cheaper, but was otherwise the same rough characteristics
as RS-232. USB is (of course) much faster, but also has much less
range. I'm not sure everyone has thought out all of the trade-offs
involved though.
>and I suspect VGA may be heading that way.
I dunno - from a computer monitor standpoint, there's not much to be
gained going elsewhere. HDMI is fine for TV, but how big of a monitor
can you fit on the average desk? I've seen a 32" flat-panel used as
a monitor, but don't seem much advantage over the 24" I'm using. The
largest monitors are still limited to something like 1920x1080, so the
extra size translates to grain size.
>>> Dialup is sufficient for my aunt and uncle (who just celebrated
>>> their 64th anniversary BTW).
>> Wow! Congrats to them.
Saturday's snail-mail contained an invitation to my neighbor's 60th
anniversary party just before Christmas.
>"Too confusing" and that's from someone who was an RN in ICU & CCU
>where the equipment was probably more complicated and certainly more
>critical. My father's active online although mainly for email and
>checking financial websites.
Depends what she's looking for, but it certainly can be. What your
father is doing is more what I expect people to be doing. The ads
for ``seniors'' computers are stressing email, (video) chat, photos
and games, but articles seem to be trying to educate them about the
safe use of on-line shopping/banking. Where you used to read dead-tree
magazines, the on-line editions are taking over. Whether they want
to or not, people are almost being forced to learn/use computers.
>>> Also, they're snowbirds, and have enough problems getting their
>>> POTS activated and suspended each year.
>> Only use it for a month or few?
>I /think/ their ISP is Earthlink dialup, so I'd guess they pay the
>same monthly fee regardless of where they happen to be.
I was referring to the their phone service, not the ISP, but there
are a number of ISPs with national presence.
>> One person he spoke to was a farmer somewhere out in the Boonies
>I just wrote a story set in the L.A. area and I wanted to work the
>phrase "out in the tules" into it, until I realized it would confuse
>rather than clarify.
The word is more regional than something like 'boonies' (which has
a military slang origin), so I can see the confusion. Of course, if
you ask people about the origins of either word, most people will come
up with a blank.
>There's one scene in "The Grapes of Wrath" where a character, although
>not far from civilization, is /literally/ out in the tules.
When I first started working in the Central Valley (South of Modesto
on the West side), the dense winter fogs (known as "tule fog")
surprised me. The tops weren't that high, but at ground level the
horizontal visibility could easily be down to a hundred feet, and
was (naturally) worse near the river. The "Westside Freeway" (I-5
in the San Joaquin valley) is on the West side of the valley, and is
slightly higher, so the visibility is usually better - but it can
get down there, and that's when you have 100-200 vehicle pill-ups.
['route' vs 'ip route']
>Within the script, I've decided to just test for and use /sbin/ip and
>/sbin/route, which are totally independent of any PATH settings.
That's reasonable - I'd actually expect /sbin/route to be there, as
it is "required" by the FHS.
>I can see I ought to recommend invoking my scripts with their full
>paths "/usr/local/bin/netzero" in case /usr/local/bin isn't in either
>path.
Philosophical, but it was beaten into me back in the '80s that when
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