From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com
On 12/02/2012 07:40 PM, Moe Trin wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Dec 2012, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandriva, in
article
> , Adam wrote:
>
>> Moe Trin wrote:
>
>> I think the cold is getting better, but a week of warmer weather is
>> ahead so I'm not sure.
>
> The forecast here is still snowbird weather (~80F highs) but I had
> the air-conditioner guy out for the annual checks (it's cool enough
> they can get into the attic without melting to check the air
> handlers) - remember these are heat pumps doing heating AND cooling.
> Did you see the story (CNN and others) about DaVita Inc.? Apparently,
> this complaint (in Georgia) is _much_ larger than the one they settled
> for a $55 million fine in Texas earlier this year.
>
>>>> One of my neighbors is using WEP.
>
>> But even if I did crack my neighbor's WEP, what could I do that I
>> can't do already? All I can think of is access his files, or use his
>> DSL/satellite connection if it was faster than mine or had a bigger
>> quota.
>
> If it's not Verizon, it's certainly going to be faster than NetZero
> or Juno when Verizon is down ;-)
>
>>> Then there were the "personal firewall" programs that used to raise
>>> major flame-wars on several firewall newsgroups.
>
>> Different brands, or the value of them at all?
>
> Mainly the difference in brands and perceived performance, but the
> individuals touting one or the other had no real clue about what a
> firewall was doing. They were quite concerned that it blocked all
> unwanted incoming (never understanding why a port with nothing
> listening wasn't exploitable) and happy that it didn't respond with
> a RST or ICMP Type 3 Code 3, because that made them invisible. They
> really trusted grc.com "Shields Up", even though it only scanned a
> limited number of windoze ports (like 13 ports as late as 2003 and
> only 26 in 2010), not realizing (I suppose) that there were 131000
> other ports, and at least three other protocols they should check.
>
>> Seems to me they keep malware from phoning home if the user's
>> conscientious and doesn't automatically click "allow" for everything.
>
> That's the major problem. It's the old tale of the boy crying Wolf!
> With a significant number of web pages using content providers like
> akamai, there were also a large number of false alarms, and sites
> that "didn't load" because the content provider was blocked as
> obvious spy-ware or something.
>
>>> I don't think so - SIMTEL itself was "wsmr-simtel20.army.mil" that
>>> had the largest archive of MS-DOS material.
>
>> I remember ftp-ing it. The web site now using that name has lots of
>> downloads although most seem to be free demos of products you can buy
>> through that site.
>
> I remember it as "simtel.arpa" with a 10.0.x.x address before they
> got their current range in 1985.
>
>>> They (like uiuc.edu) used to be a significant source. Remember the
>>> wu-ftpd server? (341520 Jul 1 2000 wu-ftpd-2.6.1.tar.gz). Even
>>> U-Washington dropped their development of 'pine' and 'pico'.
>
>> WU is private Washington University in St. Louis, MO, no connection
>> to the state or district also named after George.
>
> Yup - and Washington University (also known as WUSTL) has nothing to
> do with 'pine' or 'pico' either.
>
>>> I think every major university had something...
>
>> I remember (sort of) getting Kermit from Columbia, mostly by email in
>> either a hex ASCII or "virtual punch" format.
>
> I don't recall how it came - much of the stuff for DOS was regular
> ..com or .exe files ready to run. There could be a separate text file
> for documentation. Sometimes it was an .arc archive, compressed with
> "squeeze".
>
>>>> I /almost/ bought a laptop yesterday. I could have gotten a
>>>> refurbished Thinkpad T60 from Staples for a little over $100
>>>> [...] but it was out of stock.
>
>>> Wacha gonna use it for? ;-)
>
>> So I can bring it to LUG meetings and use it there while ignoring the
>> presentation, what else? :-) Also to use while waiting for
>> appointments and such. No urgent need, just thought it might be a
>> nice toy.
>
> Reasonable - don't forget to buy a carrying case for it. I originally
> used a 'courier bag' but replaced it with a purpose designed bag that
> also holds extra stuff like the wall-wart and a network cable. It's
> cushioned as well while the courier bag wasn't.
In the SFBA you can find excellent used bags in thrift shops
like the Goodwill. I bought about 4 different bags over the years
and due to my physical weakness have had a couple of bags on wheels
at a fraction of the price of a new one.
>
>>> Which one?
>
>> T60-2008, or if that was unavailable a T60-0020, not the T60-0019,
>> although all three were out of stock.
>
> Depending on the keyboard and pointing device, they look reasonable.
>
>> And for the refurbished ones, even the HD size. I figured it would
>> be enough for basic Wi-Fi and office apps. "eris" is five years old
>> too, and still can handle most tasks adequately as long as they
>> don't need too much RAM (everything except graphics and VMs).
>
> Seems to be able to hold 4 GB of DDR2 - I see ads for 4 GB (2x2)
> PC6400 for $45, which is close to the price of 16 GB of DDR3, so I'd
> suggest upgrading that as soon as you can spare the cash. The hard
> disk looks to be standard, so that can also be upgraded if needed.
> Does it have a network port, or is it wireless only?
>
> [NetZero/Juno wrapper script]
>
>>> Some shells don't have a built-in 'echo' command, but /bin/echo
>>> does honor a -n option.
>
>> I tried "echo -n something" as unprefixed (just "echo -n whatever"),
>> "builtin echo", "/bin/echo" and "/usr/bin/echo" with every shell from
>> 'ash' to 'zsh' that Mandriva and Fedora had in their repositories.
>
> The zsh I have access to is one of them that lacks the built-in.
>
>> "Unprefixed" and "/bin/echo" both handled '-n' as I wanted in all the
>> shells (including bash and sh) except yash.
>
> OK
>
>> Fedora has /usr/bin/echo symlinked to /bin/echo.
>
> No idea why - the FHS requires /bin/echo, and if it's there, there is
> no need for /usr/bin/echo.
>
>>> "/usr/bin/killall -9q pppd" ??? DO NOT try to kill pppd with
>>> anything other than SIGTERM ("-15"
>
>> I remember one instance when "killall pppd" didn't kill it (and
>> therefore IIRC didn't hang up the phone)
>
> Were you the same user (or root) who ran that pppd? That's the only
> reason it shouldn't work. pppd doesn't block/ignore a SIGTERM.
>
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
