Monday - October 25, 1999
Top of the morning to you! Another lost weekend. I went to CompUSA to take a look at a 4X 4X 24X CD-RW drive advertised in the Sunday paper for $129US. Only thing is that by the time I got to the store (around 12:30pm) they were already out of the drive. In fact, the last one was held securely in the arms of a teenager still wearing braces just as I was getting to the empty shelf. Sigh. Well, I guess I'll just have to spend my money in some other meaningful way.
Vacation IV: The Ending OK, so you are probably sick of my ramblings about my vacation. Let it never be said that I don't listen to my tens of readers. End of vacation story.
I need to update some proposed legislation. It will probably be introduced in January when the next session of the Legislature convenes but it needs to be worked on now. It went all the way to conference committee last year but died there. Hence, things may be a bit sparse around these parts this week.
This just in. The shipping strike mentioned last week has been averted by the combined efforts of the longshoremen and the shipping companies (pay raises come easier when profits are up 30% over last year...). So I guess we didn't need those 50 roles of toilet paper after all.
Tuesday - October 26, 1999
Spent most of yesterday updating a couple of tables which show what the other 49 states are doing in relation to the subject matter of the legislation. Sorry I can't say what the subject is until the package of bills are finalized. But there is nothing I can think more frustrating (except maybe trying to install Win98SE onto a clean disk when you only have the upgrade version to work with) then trying to compare statutes across states. Each state, as is its right, creates there own system of laws. However, trying to identify the similarities and differences between those laws is fraught with much difficulty. It almost makes you want to look at federal laws, which usually are the same for all states.
So, is there a way of installing Win98SE onto a clean disk when all you have is the upgrade version from MS? I understand that the retail upgrade version can be used to install but I'm not sure the version I got directly from MS is the same as the retail. I tried all kinds of switches to get setup to run but it always said that I needed to run it under Windows (which of course, had not been installed yet).
Ally McBeal (sp?) was on last night. Sometimes that is the coolest show on TV. And sometimes, it just sucks. Last night sucked. If their goal is to make all of their characters as unlikeable as possible, they are doing a bang-up job. Many of the lawyers here already hate it, if the writers keep this up, I may also.
What with meetings and continuing research and updating of the statutes I will be a busy person this week. Hope your week is better than mine is looking like...
Hump Day Wednesday - October 27, 1999
Sports Night last night was a good one. If they keep it up, it may become my new, favorite show on TV (after Ally). The writing and acting are excellent. Which of course means it will be cancelled.
Work on the legislation I am revising is progressing slowly. I've checked 20 states so far. 30 to go! Unfortunately, this morning will be eaten by meetings on the budget and to finalize what will be included in our legislative package.
Saw on InfoWorld that MS has confirmed a February 17 launch date for Win2000. As soon as I can get my hands on a copy I will load it on one of my PCs (Right now I have three. None of which are exactly state of the art but they do what I need them to do).
I will, of course, have to upgrade the target PC first. But I have time to do that. I figure a Pentium III running at 500MHz should be enough. 256MB of RAM. 10GB drive. DVD. And as Dr.Keyboard would say, "All the twiddly bits."
Tomorrow I'll give a run down of what I am using at home. Today, I'll tell you about the Dell OptiPlex GX1 at work. It's about a year old and is a Pentium II - 333MHz. 128MB of RAM. 6.2GB drive. CD-ROM and built-in Crystal Sound card and ATI Rage Pro video (8MB). I have Win98SE on it. The only problem I've had so far was when my Maxtor HD started to make very bad noises. It would sound like the heads were trying to bash their way out of the case. Dell sent out a Wang technician and he swapped the drive.
While I do recommend Dell PCs, I have a bone to pick with their "On-Site" service. It isn't. At least, they try mightily to do everything except provide on-site service. They will talk to you on the phone for hours, but send someone out to service your PC? Only if the problem appears to be in the box itself and you are unwilling to open it and replace the suspected part yourself. If you have a bad monitor or keyboard they will express to you a new one. But you then have to box up the old and ship it back to them (otherwise they charge you for the new part).
This level of "service" may be OK for people who are comfortable with PCs. But what of the great majority of Dell's customers that are not? Of course, I doubt the other manufacturers are any better but perhaps there can be levels of service, each with a different cost structure. "Regular" service like they have now. "Premium" service for those who are willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars extra per year for real on-site service. That is, you call and tell them the suspected problem, and they come out within four hours to diagnose and fix it.
More tomorrow on what kind of PCs I have at home. See 'ya.
As promised, a quick run down of the PCs at home. I don't have names for the PCs since none of them are networked (that will come some time in the future) so I will refer to them as Mo'opuna (grandchild), Keiki (child), Kane (man).
Mo'opuna isn't being used much now. It, as well as Keiki have Shuttle motherboards (HOT-555 I think). It has a Pentium 120MHz. If I remember right, a Fujitsu 800MB HD, 32MB of RAM and runs Win95/Office97. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this. Either rip the guts out of it and replace the mobo/CPU, HD, and RAM or maybe use it to experiment with Linux (Caldera 2.2).
Keiki is used by SWCNBD (she who can not be denied). Up until last night, it was the PC I was using to experiment with Linux (more on that another day). As of last night, its running Win98SE. It has a Pentium 166 MHz, 64MB of RAM, a 2GB Maxtor HD, SB AWE64 sound card, and a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 video card. She will be using it for making her monthly calendars with PrintShop Premier Edition. Later, I'll add Office2000 so she can do her letters and stuff.
Kane is mine. It has an Abit BX-6 Rev. 2 motherboard with a 400MHz Celeron, 128MB of RAM, 6.2GB Maxtor HD, 3D Blaster Riva TNT 16MB AGP video, and SB Live! audio. This one also runs Win98SE and will have NT2000 installed on February 17, 2000.
Friday will have the tales of Linux and other horror stories. Just in time for All Saints' Day
Aloha Friday - October 29, 1999
But first, this message. I've been following the America's Cup (or follow the link here) races via the web since no one seems to be televising anything on TV about it yet. Even more frustrating is that the Hawaii team Abracadabra2000 is not doing well. They are 8th out of 11 at the end of the first round with a record of 4 wins and 6 loses. The Italian team, Prada Challenge, is a perfect 10 and 0. If things don't change soon, it may be a New Zealand vs. Italy cup race! Unfortunately, the only thing that would be proven by such a race is that them who has the money, wins...
And now, this. You may have noticed the new email address link at the top of the page. It took me two days to get it going (an eternity in Internet time) so feel free to start sending those cards and letters in. Replies, albeit not necessarily prompt, are guaranteed. Your mileage may vary. Objects are larger than the appear. The door is ajar. The dog ate my diskette. And now my first official email (Brian was actually the first but that doesn't count *grin*). This in from John Doucette. He writes in reply from my question about installing Win98SE onto a clean drive if you don't have the retail version to install from. He writes:
Hi Dan
Got the link to your page from Brian. I have only read the
current week so far but looks good to me.
I also saw Sports Night this week and thought it was one of
the best written episodes of any show I have seen in a very
long time.
I am as I write this working on an install of Win98 Upgrade.
You can use the Win3.1 disks as an upgrade product. As I
recall Win95 only wanted to see Disk 1 of Win 3.1 but Win98
just asked me for disks 1,2,4, and 5. Too bad Win98 isn't
like Dos upgrades which if you use the /g switch acts like
full version of Dos.
John
Doucette
Thanks John for the information and the kind words. I think that Sports Night may be one of the better, if not the best written series this season. It seems to me that Frasier lost its edge last year and has not regained it yet. And Ally can go off into the deep end sometimes while exploring her psychological problems.
As to the install, what I ended up doing was using a copy of the commercial version of the original Win98 (is there a term now for this version - First Edition?) first, then used the upgrade to get to Win98SE. And as DrKeyboard has said, MS is getting ridiculous in the length of the product keys now-a-days. They are long and prone to miskeying (is that a word?).
And now my children, gather round while I begin the scary tale of how I installed Linux and learned to love the bomb. But to those who are wise, RUN! Run for you lives!
Not being one to scare easily, I figured I would see what all of the hubbub was about and bought a copy of Caldera's Linux 2.2 on the advice of several reviews which said that it was the easiest distribution to install. And I guess that (the install) could be true if the hardware you have matches what is on the very small compatibility list. Unfortunately, if you have a video card less than 5 years old the GUI-based install won't work. Which is still OK, its just not as easy.
On the other hand, if you were planning on using Linux as a desktop operating system as a replacement for Windows, think again. Because you need to get KDE up and running so that you can use the StarOffice office suite or WordPerfect. Either of which you would need to have to actually do some work on. So, the first problem is hardware compatibility.
The second problem is that if you can't get the GUI running, everything else becomes long and sleepless nights learning how to change configuration files. Many of which are hidden from you so you won't change them. And in the case of one of the communications programs (which actually runs under KDE), a file needs to be there, but it has to be empty...
If you do get the GUI running, which I did eventually after playing email tag with Caldera support for a couple of weeks (they no longer talk to me because their "free" support structure literally includes a ceiling on questions) then you get to see all of the bugs in programs designed to run under Linux. Bugs? you say. Yes bugs. These programs that run under Linux are FULL of bugs. While the Linux kernel may be rock solid, almost everything else looks like it was written by a six year old.
Over and above the bugs is the fact the even when the software runs, its not as easy nor as powerful as what runs under Windows. Say what you will about MS Office, but I can't find anything better. And MS Office stands way above StarOffice 5.1.
So the moral of the story my children is that you can fool some of the people all of time, and all of the people some of the time, but Linux, as a replacement for Windows, has no clothes.
Have a Happy and Safe Halloween! See you Monday.