CHAOS MANOR MAIL

A SELECTION

October 5 - 11, 1998

Ward Gerlach [wgerlach@earthlink.net]

Yes, you do have an effect on the rest of us. I’m watching your Linux Adventure with great interest.

Why?

I just tried composing this very same message in Netscape Mailbox’s editor, and got an Application Error, which then locked my machine solid, requiring a cold boot. Any decent OS shouldn’t go out to lunch because of an errant application!

On the plus side, my major apps DO run OK under Win95b - WinWord and Excel don’t give me problems. But while I "work" in WinWord and Excel, I have "fun" in my browser/email programs, and I resent the daylights out of having to cold-boot when an application goes South!

If Linux appears to be stable in your Chaotic environment, then I may migrate away from Microsoft, if the basic apps (Word processor, spreadsheet, browser, and email client) are available.

Eric Pobirs [nbrazil@ix.netcom.com]

Sony says they finally ship their 200 MB floppy replacement drive. After my dismal experiences with Imation’s SuperDisk I can only hope they’ve addressed some of the transition issues better.

Bo Leuf [bleuf@mail.algonet.se]

I recently installed Linux as well, going by the comment seen elsewhere that Linux can give old 486 machines new life because Linux is so much faster and easier on resource requirements than Win9x or NT. I had an older 486 notebook (Win3.1) and a spare 240 Mb hd sitting around, perfect for experimenting a bit until (if and when) I set up my main machines for Linux.

I chose the Debian distribution (http://www.debian.org), largely because there is also an up-to-date Debian-m68k version as well, and the thought of having compatible base installations on both my pc and atari(falcon) platforms seemed very attractive. At the source level they would be completely interchangeable. I was going to start with the m68k version on a Falcon, but for various reasons it became the Intel version on the pc notebook instead. (Details can be found on my site http://ww.leuf.org/articles/19981002.htm where I keep *my* informal journals.)

I too remarked on the "silent" installation, and the no-fuss speed of it compared to your typical WinXX. Of course, it *is* a pretty minimal system that is installed initially, but still. (The step up to the X11 graphical GUI is perhaps less simple, I’ve read.)

The Debian version has the kind of user-friendly prompting and online help that I find sorely lacking elsewhere. It was positively chatty, with ample suggestions and clarifications about what was going on and expected at any given time. In particular the Debian install’s select default next / alternative next / anything else from the ordered list of installations steps was very *reassuring*, because it clearly gave me the feeling that *I* was in control. At any time I could revisit earlier stages, change things, even exit the installation to resume or restart later.

I also found the partitioning process a bit better documented in Debian than what you seem to have experienced with Red Hat. I was however a while mystified by the jump from hda1 to hda5. For a "single user" system a "root + swap + user" partition scheme seems perfectly adequate, though I did for myself add a "temp" one too..

Debian has one more prompted step at the end of the installation process, and that is to create a user account, with the safety recommendation that most of the time you will not want to be logged in as the root superuser. In this context the user is reminded of the virtual console concept and prompted to log in as user while still remaining logged in as root, and play with swapping between the two screens. This is a helpful reminder, since in later installation work, I’m told it is not uncommon to want to check or edit a configuration file, or read some documentation (even on the web), without stopping/disturbing the current process, and the best way to do this is to log in as "another user".

Ah yes. Not really a lot one *can* do in one sense, apart from continuing to install further packages (e.g. X11 and a GUI client) and ultimately the applications one intends to use. Anyway, staring at say a WinXX desktop and scouring the menu entries, although superficially having more content, is about as productive until one sets up Office, an Internet package, or something else to work with.

Yep. What sort of surprised me in the base installation, though perhaps it should not have, was the integrated network or PPP-dialup setup with the follow-up sections where the system offered to go out to a specified ftp archive and fetch the latest available package summary. The included package manager seems quite comprehensive, sorts out specified dependencies, tracks available updates to already installed modules, and will automatically both fetch and install selected add-ons or upgrades on demand. This I will like.

Anyway, this is my 2bits worth of reflections.

/ Bo

--

Bo Leuf <bo@leuf.org>

The Leuf Project

http://www.leuf.org/

Fred Stevens [freds@teleport.com]

I've been watching your Linux adventure off an on, thinking I should chime in with some advice (I've done programming on unix for years), but you seem to be getting some pretty good advice already, so why have some random stranger muddy the waters?

I will, however, make the following observation. If Linux ever does become successful enough to take on Windows NT, the machine will be shipped from the manufacturer to the user with Linux already installed (there is no way one could require Joe Random User to go through the installation headache). So, arguably, the fairest comparison comes after you see the X-Windows screen in front of you, and (tries to) ignore the hassle you went through to get to that point.

That said, I'm thinking of cutting out a quote from you and posting it on the front of my Linux box. It exactly captures the frustration involved in a Linux installation (and I've suffered through several).

"In fact every time I press return another modem config opens. I am up to my clavicle in modem config screens."

John Rice [coredump@enteract.com]

Hi Jerry,

Sometimes I have a bit of spare time, have a slow day (or want a diversion). It happened today and I spent a couple of hours putting together an index page for ‘View’. If it’s helpful, use it with or without attribution, if not throw it away. It should ‘drop right in’ to your default directory structure as all of the links are ‘fully qualified’ (including the background gif).

My contribution :-).

Muhammad Al-Hashimi [mhashimi@cs.tamu.edu]

I hate to bother you but I have a question and you seem to get more answers than you need. So here goes. One of your readers (Moshe Bar) suggested using the ip addresses 192.168.1.x for your private network.

Most people who advise on this issue strongly suggest getting an ‘official’ network id (the part of the ip address which identifies your network to the world). The reason is that once you connect to the public internet your ip addresses which nobody else acknowledges may conflict with other ‘registered’ ones resulting in packet confusion (the poor things get lost).

The question: what is the significance of the 192.168.1.x addresses? Are they reserved? Does the reader assume that you are getting (or already have) a unique network id which is part of these addresses?

I have been a reader of your Chaos Manor column for a long time, and greatly enjoy your new website. Thanks.

Hi Jerry,

I was just wondering if you have any experience with Word97 and it’s conversion to Html. I have a large Word97 document that I want to convert to Html. The documents format is in a hanging indent format. When Word97 converts it to Html the hanging indent is lost. The Html document is all flush left with no indent. This Word97 document is very long and is updated a few times a month so that is why I don’t want to manually edit it with Html tags.

I would appreciate knowing if you have had any experience with this or if you have any ideas as to what direction I should go in to solve this problem.

Jerry,

In mail, I saw your hesitancy, and hope I might offer some useful advice. I have had good luck with word97 Save as HTML conversions in a couple of specific situations, and would be happy to pass them on to Jackie G if you could send the address, or forward this message directly:

I have my personal phonebook in a word table that I’ve set up to be able to print at several different sizes (printing reductions) but Word always takes a while to load, and I’ve gotten into the habit of printing only once in a while, while more than once I’ve read my HTML version from across the network in another office. The conversion (I’ve found) is rather inflexible and also therefore rather predictable, which allows for easily controllable macros to edit the HTML product file. For Example: update the word file as necessary; save as HTML; view document source; then [the first time] record a macro [the second+ times run it only] which substitutes the parameters necessary. once recorded, the macro can be edited and tweaked to include whatever you need. My substitutions include some of the following examples [with the reasoning]:

.Text = "width51"

.Replacement.Text = "width0%"

[which sets a normal HTML table - as long as I don’t change Word margins, the "351" value never changes and always works the same]

.Text = " size=1"

.Replacement.Text = ""

.Text = "&;#9;"

.Replacement.Text = "&;nbsp;&;nbsp;&;nbsp;&;nbsp;"

[I can’t find a browser that understands tabs well, so I take them out and substitute them with some spaces - poor workaround, but better than nothing]

.Text = "<TITLE>A</TITLE>"

.Replacement.Text = "<TITLE>My Agenda</TITLE>"

[word seems to take the first word as the HTML title, even if it’s not the name of the document]

[Chr(34) is for the quotes in the source code, which the word Macro needs literal codes]

after a couple of test runs, the macro did miracles and my Web Phone book comes out always perfect. After about 30 minutes on the train ride home, I got another 7-8 elements added by modifying the Macro (cutting and pasting new substitutions) to reduce the rather abbundant Word code and make it look better.

Hanging indents I think might cause a special problem (in web pages in general, not just your case of Word>to>Html), and I don’t know if style sheets would help. If it is possible with a style sheet, then you should be able to insert a comment or field (invisible or non-printable) in word, and then simply program the macro to substitute every case of your special comment (which becomes a reference tag) with the style sheet reference. This method DOES require a bit of understanding of the meaning of the HTML tags, at least in comprehension, and to be able to use it best requires a little practice.

Best of Luck, and if I can be of any (as limited as it might be) help,

don’t hesitate,

I hope this advice to another reader is in the spirit of CHaos Manor (assuming it really is of some help) and best wishes to you for continued success.

The Word help files will tell you, see the help file for the full list, as quoted:

>Word features that are different or unavailable during Web authoring

>When authoring Web pages in Word, you can use many familiar Word features, such as spelling and grammar checking, AutoText, and tables. Some features are customized to make Web authoring easier, such >as graphic bullets and lines. Features that aren't supported by HTML are not available for authoring Web pages. The list below explains which features are changed or unavailable when you are authoring Web pages....

HTML alone will not do it because hanging indents like tabs are not directly HTML supported. You might start with tables. Forcing line breaks becomes a nuisance. If you must have hanging indents go with Cascading Style Sheets text-indent which means you have text blocks and remember you are not shifting the borders left with the first line unless you so specify, e.g.:

P.hang {text-indent:-3m; margin-left: 3em}

Quoting again

Solutions Download: MMA Deluxe Word 97 HTML Converter

 
Easily convert your lengthy documents into web pages by using the HTML Converter from Micros Media Associates. This HTML Converter works with the Save-As-HTML functionality in Word 97 to produce beautifully formatted pages with an easy-to-navigate table of contents.

 I posted the following to my Day Notes journal today, and then got to wondering if I’m full of crap. What do you think

"I started reading Murder in Macedon last night. It’s a historical novel about Philip of Macedon, his ex-wife Olympias, and their son Alexander, who would become known to history as Alexander the Great. The pseudonymous author is Anna Apostolu, who is described as "a critically acclaimed author of historical mysteries." The author is harder on Philip than I think is justified and, like most authors, gives Alexander more credit than I believe he deserves. Although I’m in a minority, I’ve always thought that the father was the brilliant one and the son simply rode his coattails. Philip set up the row of dominos, and Alexander just tipped the first one over. From there, the preparations made by Philip pretty much pre-ordained what was likely to happen, so the successes attributed to Alexander were in large part really those of his father. I have no doubt that Alexander himself was a tactically competent general (say, good division leader material), but nothing I’ve read of him leads me to believe that he was in the same class tactically as a Rommel or Patton, let alone strategically as a Julius Caesar, Ghengis Khan, or Napoleon Bonaparte."

Mark Gallicchio [magall@viaccess.net]

This is Gateway’s support page where they list the specs for their motherboards, just scroll down alittle bit on this page to the Motherboard reference link . I have a P5-100 I got in ‘95 and mine was there.

Keith Irwin [kirwin@iglobal.net]

Jerry,

A super explicit summary of my method of doing what you want. It looks a lot more complicated than it is, mainly because I’m not assuming too much. (I’d suggest copying your outlook.pst somewhere else, then give your self free reign to try this without fear.)

In Outlook ‘98:

From Windows 95/98 (maybe NT to?):

From Wabmig: (an import wizard):

In Outlook ‘98:

THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT!

After doing this, you can move the contacts around, putting them in a new subfolder, et cetera, and moving what you had in the saved folder back to the main folder, and so on. Make use of the "View using" system to sort and filter your data.

GOOD LUCK!

Here ‘tis, Jerry. Delete between here and the dotted line if you like, or edit and insert comments at will. You need to plug through my column archives when you have a moment. I’ve been chronicling the rise of the cheap/used computer culture for some years, first in my local alternative newspaper, now online. And with a new, heavily sponsored site about to debut, too, one that’ll be right up your alley because it’ll lead you quickly into the quirky computer underground of L0pht Heavy Industries, CmdrTaco, and the "rootshell" people who detail hacking exploits on their website, complete with scripts and a "don’t use these for any illegal activities" disclaimer.

"Journalist" Stephen Glass made up a hacker club in Montgomery County, Maryland. But the finest part of the joke on him, and on all the editors who assigned stories to him, is that there <i>really is</i> a hack club in Bethesda much like his fictional one. I live in a world where bikers and street whores have web pages, and free, collaboratively developed software is getting more powerful and reliable than the "Mr. Bill" stuff. And from Germany, the Ice Digga Mod Olympics (http://www.icedigga.com) is an online showcase where new techno music groups strut their stuff. (.mod is a file compression format for .wav and midi music, much as .zip is a compression format for ASCII. You can download your choice of .mod players free from sites linked to Ice Digga’s.)

And here’s the ultimate site recommendation for you personally: http://www.zeldman.com. Before you redo your website, look at his "dr. web" section. Jeff Zeldman may be the world’s best website designer. Almost all the hotshots follow in his footsteps. And maybe, if you’re real nice, one day he’ll interview you for his celeb page. As an "old media" star, of course, next to Jodie Foster and Clint Eastwood. (If the Hand of Jeff ever reaches down to touch me, I’ll probably end up in "new media," along with Halcyon Stim and Alexis Massie.)

Take care,

--------------------------------------

I’m using the "sustained 1 Gigaflop+ performance" definition. And there’s a sense in which I, being handy with a screwdriver and having access to plenty of old computers, network cards, and cable, could build a "supercomputer" for $0 if I could scrounge a fast enough switch for free somewhere and find someone who would loan me a copy of Extreme Linux. Or I could send $29.95 to Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com) and actually buy it. The rest of the software needed, notably Beowulf (http://www.beowulf.org) and a C++ compiler, is free under GPL.

I could just use Red Hat 5.0, I suppose. I already have it. That’s what runs Loki and Avalon. Remember Avalon at Los Alamos? Ranks among the world’s "top 500" supercomputers and is built from a stack of Alpha Sparcs wired together. Cost about $165,000 to make, using all-new components.

"What is a supercomputer?" gets different answers from different people these days. The old guard, with their priesthood-run $1 million+ big boxes are rapidly losing ground, just as they once lost ground to the sillies who wanted to put a fully functional computer on every office desk.

Remember when you got your first personal computer, and CS people said, "That’s not a _real_ computer?"

Also remember something when you ask me a question: I’m a fine chronicler of events in the computer biz, and I interview more people than necessary, and do more fact-checking than most, and spend more time than I really should on background reading, but I’m no more capable of building and using a supercomputer for any practical purpose than your favorite sportswriter is capable of playing quarterback in the NFL.

Robin Miller

Cheap Computing weekly column online @

Mike Lucas [mikelu@skylink.net]

Is there any chance that this is heat related? I had a very similiar problem on a totally different system.

On a K6-233 running win95, on warmer days, my screen would start losing fonts, and a little while later I would get an error of some sort, then something that would force a reboot. I know that you use those special cases, but have you looked inside lately? The best case will not stop the dust bunny factor. Also, check the air flow around the computer. Have you installed any new equipment in the area that throws off a lot of heat? That might be a factor.

Clark E. Myers [ClarkEMyers@email.msn.com]

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/field98.htm You may already have looked at this, all the Annoyances people are pushing it.

I would like to know whether you have actually reverted to Ascend for some things or stuck with Outlook 98 or both. I have the impression you are sticking with Outlook 98, as I am, waiting for Outlook 2000 and beyond.

I should have said the point of watching the left margin with hanging indents is to avoid having the first or left indented line moved into the margin. Where there is for example a colored border on the left margin the type can overlie the graphic and become unreadable on screen requiring the user to view source for the text. Writing clearly for understanding at a later date by people who came in late is harder than I though; probably why commenting code is a skill all its own. Zeke may have meant never having to retype, clicking send sure means wishing I had!

Clark E. Myers
e-mail at:
ClarkEMyers@msn.com
I wouldn't Spam filter you!