CHAOS MANOR MAIL

If you want people to use this new format, why not provide an incentive to them to do so? You’ve said that you don’t require the new format, but what you haven’t said is that a given letter is more likely to be published (and replied to publicly) if the sender has made it easier for you to do so by using the new format. True?

Okay, we'll try this format thing. I work in either MS Office or Corel WP as the schizophrenia strikes---(I also teach; and that plant uses WordPerfect).

As you are working in a multiple computer and soon a multi-OS system (keep on working, I'm waiting until you are finished), here's a little tip/trick that may be of some use to you:

After you configure your Win95 machines to TCP/IP, you can use one of several popular communications packages to literally work on any machine from wherever you'd like. I'd been planning on this, but couldn't find my configuration books, so I used Moshe Bar's excellent instructions last weekend and set up my primary machines with TCP/IP. I loaded LapLink 7.5 (newer version out, not tested) on my server and used my working machine to connect with it. If you are not familiar with remote control software, it essentially allows you to see the distant machine's screen on your local machine and to control that machine with your local keyboard and rodent. I use this method to connect to my job site and control several machines at that location from my home and while I'm on vacation.

Well, all I wanted to do at home was be able to pull IRQ and port information from the server (big plans ahead) without having to get up and physically go to it. Bottom line: TCP/IP delivered the goods. The connection was clean and fast.

I can also recommend Symantec's pcAnywhere (in use for one office configuration) and Artisoft's Cossession Remote (new version enroute for testing) for this type of work. I have not applied this to the NT machine yet as I have to plan lots of time when I deal with that beast (and I have to select a program that supports NT).

While I use KVM switches for most close work, this solution is rather elegant for distant work.

Joshua Boyd [jdboyd@cs.millersv.edu]

>I hope you jest. This guy’s Access suggestion is a very bad example of re-inventing the wheel.

>He’s apparently more interested in the golly-gee-whiz neatness of the process itself than the

>results. You could invest weeks of work getting a system like this set up, debugged, and tested,

>and still end up with something that requires much more effort to use routinely and is functionally

>inferior to FrontPage. Not to mention that you’d end up with dynamically-generated pages that

>search engines can’t index. FP98 has it’s aggravations, but it allows you to accomplish more with

>less effort than any alternative like this. FP2000 will be better still. What you’re doing ain’t broke,

>Yes, and thermonuclear devices do a good job of exterminating that pesky

>crabgrass problem, too, so long as you can live with some collateral damage. As

>far as his casual suggestion that you implement sendmail, be aware that most UNIX

He is very correct that configuring sendmail is extremely hard to configure. However, I found that on Red Hat 5.1, sendmail was configured enough that I didn't have to mess with it directly. I just had to configure the programs that download mail and feed it into sendmail, and the programs that take mail from sendmail and pump it to another smtp server. That article I pointed you to in Linux Journal (Feb 1998 issue at www.linuxjournal.com) explains what the basics in easy terms, and you really should look at that article for yourself if you ever find the time.

PS, some procmail wizards (a mail sorting tool that I haven't yet learned well enough to anything useful with) could probably help you to get procmail to place messages that have tons of indenting at the bottom of your mail file, and other cool tricks. However, procmail doesn't come already configured, and it is only marginally better than learning perl.

PPS, boy I really miss Byte. If it weren't for your web site and slashdot.org I don't know what I would do. Keep up the good work, and I hope you find a way to make money off your web site soon.

--

Test only! (Or use it as you wish)

For those of us working in MS Word, should we send this to you as HTML (a little knowledge is dangerous) or does Frontpage obviate that?

I've changed my signature line to a hypertext link: Yes? No? Seems to me that we can help you out by imbedding the links that we are writing about and save you some formatting. Again, your show.

And this time I added the Times Roman lines at the end J (okay, that was interesting: I added the <smiley> emoticon and Word changed it to a smiley face bullet on my screen (gosh, I wish Word had a true "Reveal Codes", ala WP)).

Another thought on remote connectivity for your lifestyle: when you are vacationing/writing and you just simply have-to-have that one file that you didn't put on the laptop because you are simply not working on that project on this trip. Well, it's just a phone call away!

Bill Grigg [bill_grigg@bc.sympatico.ca]

Jerry,

Your said. "Netscape DOES NOT WORK at the Microsoft download site. I wonder if the Netscape lawyers know this?"

Just thought you should know.

I downloaded the newest Communicator 4.5 from Netscape the other night and it ate my IE 4 Search engine. I wonder if the Microsoft lawyers know that? Trying to cut a one-sided deal is one thing, mucking with another company’s code on MY hard drive is another. Besides, I only downloaded the browser to insure that I had the best available browser. I was so infuriated by this hostile and unwanted act that I quickly uninstalled Communicator, thereby eliminating any chance of a Netscape convert from the dark side.

Whether or not Microsoft has done something illegal or not, I don’t know, but one thing I do know...every company I’ve ever worked for has attempted to drive their competitors under. In Business this is known as "doing" business. If this is what the DOJ case is about then Heaven help businesses everywhere.

Netscape used to "own" the browser market. It took over weaker competitors just as Microsoft is accused (guilty?) of. This is the first rule of the jungle. Eat or be eaten. This applies equally well to corporate jungles as well. It’s most common as "leveraged buyout" or "hostile takeover". These ones are used by ego maniacs. Microsoft used "I’m BIG" and that’s because they are. Perhaps too big for their britches as we shall see.

Never weaken!

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I’m sending you this in your new suggested format (which I think is a good idea).

While it’s not really that difficult, it may just be difficult enough to discourage some trivial e-mail, even if it didn't work in this case. ;-)

For those that don’t have Microsoft Word, I’d like to suggest Cetus CWordpad, a freeware word processor that reads and writes Word .DOCs, and even has a spell checker. It probably does everything needed by 90% of the people that use a word processor. (It’s also fast and small – I use it on my laptop)

You can get it at http://www.cetussoft.com/cwordpad.htm

I’ll let you get back to writing now, as I am currently facing a critical shortage of unread Jerry Pournelle books!

From: Jim Lawrence [jimlawrence@hotmail.com]

Regarding the difficulties readers outside the U.S. seem to have in getting payment to you: it is ridiculous in this electronic age that it should cost more than ten dollars to send a ten dollar payment. I don't bother to get traveler's checks when I go abroad; I simply use my ATM debit card to withdraw funds in the local currency from my checking account back in Rhode Island. This has worked for me worldwide: Sydney and Vienna and London just as quickly and easily as in my local supermarket. The exchange rate is much better than in commercial change bureaus and there's no commission charge! So why hasn't the banking world come up with a low cost electronic funds transfer mechanism for the consumer market?

Regarding your UNIX/LINUX comments. As someone who comes from an IBM mainframe background, I used to hear a constant stream of put-downs from UNIX types and, given some of the odd complexities, etc. of things like MVS JCL, I believed them when they went on (and on) about the beauty and ease of UNIX compared with the MVS world. And then a few years ago I got involved with client/server computing and began to study SQL and Sybase, etc. and had to use VI... and I decided then and there that I would never again give credence to claims of UNIX superiority coming from people who thought that VI was an acceptable editor for anyone (other than for someone who did nothing but VI all day, every day).

Hope the format on this works. I’ve told WordPro to format and save this as a Word document.

Thanks for sharing the view from Chaos Manor...

RE: Remote Control Software

I read Dan Bowman’s comments with great interest. I have been using remote control software of some flavor for several years now. In addition to the fine products he mentions, there is one other that I recommend: Remote Desktop from Network Associates.

It works with NT very well. It’s bulletproof, I have not had a single problem with the software since I started using it. It even works well over a modem connection, although you’ve got to get used to waiting when you click on things.

A tip for remote control software: Unless you need high color, set your remote desktops to 256 (or if you can stand it, 16) color mode. It will make the sessions go much faster.

Jay Maupin [jaymaupin@earthlink.net]

Mr. Pournelle:

Can you help me find a "shorthand ball" or "typing ball" for computer input? I’m sorry to pester you with this. I have done Internet searches and literature searches at the UCLA libraries without success. Is the thing even on the market? I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and it might help.

I am a fan of your fiction; both solo and with Larry Niven. I particularly liked your Janissaries series, and the Mote books.

Regards,

T. Patrick Henebry

tphenebry@csi.com

Dear Mr. Maupin (and Dr. Pournelle),

I do not believe a device such as you describe in your post exists.

However, there is a very viable alternative--speech recognition software. The best on the market right now in terms of accuracy is the NaturallySpeaking family of products by Dragon Systems (I use NaturallySpeaking myself due to Cerebral Palsy). With the right hardware you can achieve accuracy rates of 98% or higher as well as dictation rates in excess of 100wpm. The latest versions of NaturallySpeaking allow continuous dictation with full editing by voice into the native NaturallySpeaking word processor, Microsoft Word 97 (be sure you have at least SR-1 installed), and Corel WordPerfect 8 Rev D or higher. Both the Standard and Preferred versions allow the creation of boilerplate text macros. They also have the capability--with limited voice correction ability--to dictate into *almost* any windows 95/98, or NT application.

There is a Professional version which has an extensive macro language to allow for *almost* hands-free computer use. For those situations where total hands-free use is needed DragonDictate for windows is included on the CD-ROM.

I will warn you this software requires powerful hardware. Direct high speed, accurate dictation into Word or WordPerfect requires at *minimum* a P II 266MHz and 128MB of RAM. You may see online some suggesting a P II 400MHz machine. These are people who a) must run DragonDictate at the same time as NaturallySpeaking, b) are being paid to do transcription (the faster the better) c) are using Windows NT. To get the software to work properly a high quality sound card is a *must*.

There are to good e-mail lists about speech recognition from a users standpoint:

the VoiceGroup list to subscribe send a blank e-mail to VoiceGroup-subscribe@onelist.com

the voice-users list send e-mail to majordomo@voicerecognition.com with a blank subject and subscribe voice-users in the message body.

You can also ask questions in the comp.speech.users newsgroup.

NaturallySpeaking is not the only product. You also have the choice of the L&;H Voice Express family, or the IBM ViaVoice family. None of these products produce instantaneous results. You must train them to your voice; currently NaturallySpeaking has more in the way of program features to speed this up (such as 'reading' Word or ASCII files to scan for words not in it's dictionary and to update its language model with your word usage patterns).

I would be happy to discuss speech recognition and/or its benefits to those with disabilities at greater length.

If any of you have read the October 20 PC Magazine article on voice software PLEASE IGNORE IT! Besides being riddled with error the results they report for recognition accuracy are FAR below what you can actually expect if the software is properly used. The consensus among experienced users is that PC Magazine expected poor results and consciously or unconsciously designed tests to obtain the desired results. (This happens more often than you might think in many fields of study.)

[Note to Dr. Pournelle I would be happy to write something up with relevant links for your site if you wish.]

===

From: Tim Werth [twerth@kcnet.com]

Subject: Iomega internal IDE Zip drives

Jerry,

I read your problem with internal Iomega Zip drives and have a few observations to make. I have an internal Zip installed as the Master device on the secondary IDE channel. This is installed on an Iwill P55TV Mainboard w/Award BIOS. I haven’t experienced any of the problems you have had w/the exception that NT likes to assign the Zip drive a higher drive letter than the CD-ROM drive. I dual boot W95b and NT 4.0 and when I lock down the drive letters in 95 they stay put. However, I can assign drive letters all I want in NT and it doesn’t seem to make any difference. The best solution seems to be assigning the CD-ROM drive a higher drive letter (which you already know of course). I also tried rebooting w/a zip disk in the drive in both W95b and NT and had no problems. My guess is that it is a problem w/the AMI BIOS on you m/board.

In three years time I’ve used just about every type of zip drive (parallel port, internal IDE, SCSI) and have generally had good luck. However, occasionally I have come across machines that just don’t work well w/a zip drive or flat out can’t tolerate one. I had a Compaq Deskpro 5133 three years ago that didn’t work well w/the external parallel port version (did all kinds of flaky things to the system). And last spring I put a machine together for my neighbor using a Topgun m/board that hated the external zip drive. This summer someone gave my neighbor a parallel port zip drive, which I installed for him. I had to force the system to recognize the drive using the Add/Remove Hardware app in W98 but it did install. Then, after a week or so his system blew up and would only boot into safe mode. After I uninstalled the zip drive everything worked great again. I have no idea why some machines don’t like the zip drives and others have no problems.

Don’t know what you think of CMP these days after the whole thing w/Byte. Anyway, enough for now.

L8r

"Offhand, I’d think that making you use the Microsoft Browser to get a service pack—ie a BUG FIX—for your NT operating system is, if not illegal, a pretty shabby trick."

*sigh* Listen to yourself. Nobody is *making* you do anything. If Netscape’s browser supported Active Server Pages (see the .asp in "default.asp"?), you’d have no problem seeing those "things on it" with Netscape, either. If you want to blame somebody, blame Netscape for not supporting Microsoft’s technology.

I don’t see any reason, either in logic or in law, whereby Microsoft is somehow obliged, WHEN DEALING WITH ONE OF ITS OWN PRODUCTS, to ignore its own technologies and "dumb down" to what its competitors have decided to support. That’s like complaining about GM when a Ford dealership doesn’t carry GM parts.

If IE were a separate product for which you had to pay, you might have a case. But it isn’t; it comes free with the operating system—in fact, it’s damned near impossible to avoid, as you well know—and, from Microsoft’s perspective, since it’s part of the operating system, it makes perfect sense to expect people to have it and use it.

"What all the wise men promised has not happened—and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass."

--

Point your Netscape browser at:

which is an alternate site for NT service pack downloads.

Interesting that, although it is an ftp site, WS-FTP cannot access it. I can’t even ping the damned site. Seems to be set up to use some sort of rotating port scheme to keep anything but a browser from working.

In the New Web order, you vill use a web browser for everything, und you vill like it!

--

NT4 SP4 works for me with Netscape 4.5 no problems. I do expect whenever I see DOT asp that the web page will include tricky features to little benefit and that often assorted security permissions must be given (or in IE always trust Microsoft checked). I am more concerned about Microsoft's effort to kill Java by creating custom Windows (Wintel) effects with extensions than by Microsoft's occasional failure to test for all possible browser and plug-in and security configurations. It should never have taken so long as it did for you either (17.6 MB | 2.5 Hours @ 28.8) . Perhaps server loads or backbone issues? I enjoy checking how fast it shows for the connection and how fast the transfer is before I abort. And I do often abort and come back later. Usually on a fast connection and a slow transfer I choose to abort.

Or in the browser view includes inter alia:

Windows NT Server | Downloads

Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4

Microsoft® Windows NT® Service Pack 4 collects the latest fixes for Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

Service Pack 4 (SP4) for Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0 is the single source for all Windows NT 4.0 updates. SP4 provides comprehensive enhancements to a broad range of features including management, security, availability, interoperability, web services, Y2K compatability,[SIC] and more.

System Requirements

42 MB storage space for ALPHA; 31 MB for INTEL.

No Service Pack requirements needed.

Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows NT Server 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0 (Enterprise Edition) installed.

Important Note: Users of earlier versions of Netshow who are upgrading to Service Pack 4 should download the latest version of Netshow --

Netshow 3.01.

For more introductory information about SP4, see What's New in Service Pack 4 and the Service Pack 4 Market Bulletin.

Windows NT Server 4.0 Service Pack 4

Curious, I tried the service pack link in Opera, and everything appeared to work fine. Tried it in Netscape - sure enough the page *appears* to be empty. On further investigation, it turns out the content is there after all, but is incorrectly formed HTML. It looks like they have a table defined for the document body that is supposed to be inside a cell in another table, but only the inner table is closed off with the </table> tag, not the outer one. It appears that Netscape does not want to display tables that aren’t closed off, whereas IE4 and Opera will treat the closing body tag as implicitly closing off the table and display it. I leave it as an exercise for the reader as to which is the "correct" behaviour. How much should the browser accomodate sloppy HTML? Netscape certainly appears to be a better test of whether or not your HTML is correct...

Seems silly, but for a personally owned machine I find it convenient to order with some oem version software loaded and also to buy a duplicate on the street or upgrade an existing street copy when the first service pack comes out. Of course I don't pay list for the street copy. The OEM version allows instant productivity and hardware manufacturer support but in my experience has always been a dated release. Kind of like shooting only factory ammunition in a new gun until satisfied it works then going to handloads, it avoids issues with the computer manufacturer. Once I get into upgrades, even so allegedly routine as Windows 95 to Windows 98 support from the manufacturer for anything but hardware failure goes away anyway.

I do download upgrades in addition to ordering the CD's because I like to have the newest but I like being able to restore my chosen configuration starting from a freshly formatted hard drive.

From davcefai@keyworld.net

Viruses, Money and UNIX

I think you might be taking a risk in asking for mail as Word Attachments. Have you considered the virus factor?

Personally I discourage Word format files and prefer to receive .RTF files. Word can handle them just as easily and they can't carry vuruses or harmful macros.

Money:

I agree with other correspondents that banks should create a system where money can be transferred cheaply. On the other hand these are the people who stand to lose from such a system! The only realistic way to be able to send $10 to you is to find an American friend and exchange money with them.

Luckily I did and a banknote will be winging its way across the Atlantic tomorrow. Otherwise I would have needed either an invoice or a valid air ticket plus an extra $6 charge on the transaction.

In other words governments don't make it any easier.

UNIX / LINUX

Mucking around with computers is great fun but it's nice to produce some output occasionally. My impression is that the UNIX bunch have less time available to do the latter. At least with Windows one can get some real work done. (If you publish this, should I bring my affairs up to date?)

regards

Jon Dowell [jdowell@pdq.net]

The other day I saw a web page which contains the author’s notes to The Microsoft File. It lists a few sources (naturally leaving out many names, of course). Apparently the publisher or editor decided not to include this in the first printed version of the book. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the wits to bookmark it. Maybe another reader will remember it or find it for you. Later editions of the book are supposed to include the author’s notes. BTW, I tried looking at the publisher’s web page, but no joy.

Neil Sherin [nsherin@mindless.com]

Hi Jerry,

I am very sorry to hear about the collapse of Byte - your column was always the first place I would go to when I bought the magazine. I love the web site - the View From Chaos Manor is a joy to read - I often pick up useful information from there! Keep up the excellant work - it is a great read!!

Regarding Service Pack 2 - I downloaded the 34MB file (NT4SP4I.EXE) on Monday - I got back from the University of Portsmouth (thats the Portsmouth in the UK), where I am studying a degree in Business Information Systems (this is the first year) and grabbed the file. I used CuteFTP, since a Web Browser has a tendancy to crash after a while. Seven hours later, I had the 34MB file sitting on the hard drive of the notebook. It installed fine and like you, notified me to download the Y2K service pack. I spent nearly two days trying to get it from home over the modem. I gave up and booked a couple of hours at the University PC labs and grabbed the file in two hours onto a ZIP disk (another item I’ve bought that was recommended by you orginally). Those drives are invaluable! When I got the file home and extracted it, I noticed the \i386 directory contained a copy of Service Pack 4. Does that mean that I can safely delete the NT4SP4I.EXE file and just hold on to the NT4Y2K4I.EXE (the Y2K NT Service Pack 4) file? Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Lastly, I notice you are using a Panasonic CW-7502B CD Writer - you’ve mentioned it a couple of times. How have you found it? I bought mine in Hong Kong (my parents are still out there and I return there during vacactions, so it is still on my PC out there). When I bought it, I managed to get it for about US$260 - it was cheaper than the 2X Sony IDE I was going to buy and since I had SCSI for the Zip Plus it seemed a good buy. I’ve had it since July and it writes at 4X without a problem with Adaptec’s EasyCD Creator Deluxe on Kodak discs. The only other discs I’ve tried are Philips ones and I wouldn’t recommend them for data writing at 2X or 4X speed - I’ve had a few coasters. Apart from that, the drive has been invaluable to me!

Well, once again, keep up the great work on the site and good luck with your book that you are writing. The hardware book that you and Robert Thompson have planned sounds good - I’ve looked at his Web Site too. Stay well.

Short comment about your experience of Netscape and MS sites. I had noticed something similar, but had not realized it was a global problem. About FTP and MS support files, this may be a global problem too, because since about last spring, ftp.microsoft.com has consistently "refused" to accept my connection attempts using WS_FTP. Not that I have tried very often, and I have until now attributed it to user overload at the site.

There are very few users on the net who will download 32 Mb worth of

dubious fixes. And getting a CD from MS is proving just about as

great a waste of time. They were supposed to send me an IE4 CD

--

Jerry,

I just found this great article called "Degrees of Freedom". It’s one of the best essays I’ve ever seen on why a software "monoculture" is bad for American business. You can find it at:

Talin (Talin@ACM.org) -- Systems Engineer, PostLinear Entertainment.

[http://www.sylvantech.com/~talin]

Dr. Pournelle,

This is horrible. It is because the update set my default browser to

IE 4, and it has settings that do not allow you to SAVE YOUR WORK in

Front PAGE if it ‘cannot find a connection at port 80’ or whatever

that is. I had hung up the damned phone to change things. This is

". OK, what is the alternative to Front page. Things that LOSE WORK FOR YOU are unspeakable. Will not let me save. I tried to EXPORT the file and it said it had done taht, but it won’t even EXPORt it. This is so rotten as to be unbelievable. WARNING: USE FRONT PAGE AT THE PERIL OF LOSING YOUR WORK."

I don’t mean to be obnoxious, but why exactly are you surprised by this? This sort of program behavior has been Microsoft’s style since *at least* the release of Word 6 for the Mac in ‘94, which had the charming trait of being totally waddling, yet also irreversibly reformatting your document from Word 5 to 6 (which got fixed, but only after the entire Mac market went absolutely berzerk).

Also, how many times have you had this experience with MS software in the last few months; how much of your time has it eaten, in aggregate; and how does that compare to the time you’ve invested so far into learning Linux? For that matter, what would your experience be like if you got an iMac and just worked with MacOS 8.5? Given that 1 MHz on a G3 chip can match ~2 MHz on the non-RISC Pentium chips, you’d probably find that you got a reasonable amount of computing power for your $1.3K.

In short, why do you keep working with Microsoft and Windows? What *possible* benefit are you getting? It isn’t price—Steve Jobs has pretty much squashed the bad old Apple habit of boutique if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it prices. It isn’t the incredibly superior power of Intel’s chips running Win98’s sleek code; G3 chips really *are* superior, MacOS’s ease of installation and use makes any flavor of Windows look like a sick joke, and Linux can use the same Intel chip at about twice the efficiency of Windows or NT. It isn’t the killer apps; even Microsoft sells Office for Macs and you get to have the Office without the we’re-REALLY-not-a-monopoly-honest sort of easter-egg default commands that have just destroyed your day’s work. It isn’t the patina of coolness. Anybody who thinks that Bill Gates is really more technologically skilled than Linus Torvalds is so clueless that he’s beneath refuting, and I have never in my life seen a Wintel box that has the classiness of a G3 PowerBook.

It can’t be the dollar worth of Gates and Microsoft, can it? Please tell me that you’re not equating stock-market prices with actual technological efficacy. The man who co-wrote _Inferno_, _Lucifer’s Hammer_, _The Mote in God’s Eye_, and who wrote _A Step Further Out_, *can’t* be that confused. Right? Please say yes.

So why not just *move* your stuff off Windows NT/98 to MacOS and Linux, and get out of this codependent relationship with Redmond? I’m serious.

That was then. This is now. At this point, Micro Warehouse routinely sells refurbished Mac hardware for 60% discounts, which is why I’m writing this on a G3 despite living on a mere postdoc’s stipend. The iMac gives the equivalent of 500 MHz on a Pentium for $1.3K and without the eternal hassles of Microsoft OSes that are, somehow, never quite fixed.

As for "funny stuff", yes, Apple’s had bad management. So have a lot of other American companies, including all of the auto companies, Xerox, and probably IBM. All of them bounced back and were better off for it. What in the last two years has Apple done that was a *bad* decision, and just what MacOS bug is as crippling as the Windows bugs you’ve been writing about since summer?

"... the best app for the Mac is Office 98, at least as far as the kind of work I do is concerned."

Well, what apps do you need that *aren’t* available for MacOS 8? And would your Web pages be nearly as much of a nightmare to upgrade if you worked with an OS that didn’t have these bogus "upgrade packs" that oh-so-cleverly kill your defaults if they’re not already set to IE?

"And Microsoft will fix this..."

Given their damned bloated stock prices, their stupid blather to David Korn that he doesn’t know the specs of the shell he designed, their "helpful" features that have cost both you and a lot of other people a lot of lost work and time, and their general substitution of attitude for competence, one would indeed hope that they will indeed fix this in the fullness of time. But whether they deserve your fealty is another question entirely.

Right click on Recycle Bin. Select Properties. Under "Global" tab, check box that says "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove them immediately on delete." Problem solved.

=========

"What all the wise men promised has not happened—and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass."

-- Lord Melbourne

==========

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

"My guess is that you have the answer. I probably have an old Netscape. Now I

have forgotten how to go get the upgrade. I used to pay for the service and

they told me. Now that it's free they don't.. Sigh."

Jerry,

You commented " between removing borders, and removing lines of == that make me have to do horizontal scrolls, it just takes too long to reformat, especially since I didn’t notice the long === lines(...)."

Even though you have covered this in pieces, could you describe exactly what constitutes a border to Word/Frontpage? Those of us who use who are not using the latest Win9x/NT applications are guessing in the dark on this. think I’ve figured out not to put a line of dashes or equal signs under my sig, but that’s about all that I can tell you...

Dr. Pournelle,

I noticed you are looking for a good utility to convert mail to html.

If you can save your mail as plain text documents (I don't use

outlook, but I assume it is possible), I may have a solution

for you.

I've attached a simple perl script by Oscar Nierstrasz (his e-mail

address is included at the bottom of the script) to convert

plain text files to html. I tested it on several of my own mail

files, and it seems to work great... even converting html

references to links. If you know a little about perl, you could

add your own formatting tags and even place properly formatted

e-mail addresses where you want them.

for 'perl' on their downloads page.

Alternatively, perl should be already installed on your linux

box, so just use the command,

perl txt2html.pl file.txt > file.html

to test it out.

Hope it helps,

- Dan Homan

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

Dan Homan, Graduate Student - Brandeis Astrophysics Group

e-mail: dch@quasar.astro.brandeis.edu

Mark Gosdin [mgosdin@softwareplus.net]

Just received the latest issue of LAN Times which also proclaims itself as the LAST issue of LAN Times. It seems that CMP Media has decided to close it down and is offering to subscribe me to Network Computing or Internet Week. While both of those are good publications, I don’t think I want to deal with the CMP people. Something isn’t right here.

Why buy BYTE, LAN Times, and NTSL only to close the first two? (I don’t know what has happened to NTSL, the signs aren’t good.) Seems to me that CMP was just throwing money away.

As the editor of LAN Times said, "It’s Business". I quess that means that it doesn’t have to make sense.

linux is improving. you’re having difficulties at the moment, but you can solve them in two ways: contribute code or write a book. since linux is, as developing things are, a moving target the latter option isn’t so easy.

if you want to try wine and report on it *do not* bemoan it’s ease of use. it’s a pre-alpha product. for one thing you’ll need to download the source code and compile it (and it is huge). then you’ll need to edit a rather complex config file. but once you get it you’ll have an application that can run windows programs with varying success (100% -> 0%). most people bitch about the lack of documentation and poor design of windows api’s, these guys live it.

Neil Sherin [nsherin@mindless.com]

Hi Jerry,

Regards,

Roger G. Smith [rgsmith@c-gate.net]

Jerry,

You wrote: " First, your signature block was indented far enough over that if I had left it that way, it would have caused the html converter to make a huge pile of bloc quotes(...)"

Well, no... at least not that my system revealed to me. I use only a block format, meaning I don’t indent with tabs or spaces, my sig included. I might set-off a URL with <i>one</i> tab, but generally everything starts at the left margin, typically one CR (blank line) between paragraphs.

FRNCTM(*), this is gererated somewhere in the combination of my WFW3x/IE3.02a and your Outlook/FP/Word. Where or how this happens, I don’t know. It;s unthinkable that one MicroSoft product could be subtly incompatible with another.

I Slamma bin Ladin [bunkie666@hotmail.com]

Jerry:

I got a good laugh on the net the other day, someone’s sig line had Angus McIntyre saying that you had achieved your fame as a technologist more or less by not being able to get your PC to work!

And btw, if you set your recycle bin properties to delete immediately

and move the slider bar to zero per cent of your drive you won’t have

Enjoyed your comments on Linux, and wanted to welcome you to the wonderful world of linux. Your criticisms are very much to the point, and arguably the biggest obstacle to a wider acceptance of linux. It is the responsibility of the linux community to make it ‘newbie-friendly’ - something that elitists are generally loath to do. Fortunately, I’m not aware of any responsible, mature members of the linux community that I would categorize as elitist, but it is often difficult for those who are technically proficient in a particular area to view things from the perspective of the initiate.

Dr. Pournelle,

Saw the missive you recieved re Linux and VW engines. Also, earlier this week I heard something on NPR (All Things Considered, on Thursday, I think) about the lack of tinkering in America today. To wit: That when the first cars were introduced, tinkering was neccessary to keep them running, and tinkering with them continued until the 80's, when they became too complex for it, and now tinkering is done with computers. I, too, had a VW, several, in fact. I bought cars that were destined for the junkyard, and kept them running for 2 more years. With my copy of "How to keep your VW Alive", by Muir, in hand I could do anything neccessary to keep them running. Now I have books like "Inside the Win 95 Registry" and "Running Linux" to keep my PC going. After reading the aforementioned missive, and hearing the NPR story, I wonder how many programmers my age (mid-30's) or older were also car tinkerers. That is, how many know what a carburator jet is, how to change it, why the venturi effect is important, and have rebuilt engines. Remember the days of the "shade tree mechanic"? Now think about the many "shade tree" system administrators we know. The 17 year old down the street that can do anything with a PC, as their fathers' could with a Mustang. I lament the passing of the auto that could be maintained and repaired by its' owner, but welcome the owner maintainable computer.

"How to keep your volkswagen alive: a manual of step by step procedures for the compleat idiot" is a wonderful book. Written by an old (he wasn't at the time) hippie named Muir, It starts off with "How to buy a VW" and "How to change a flat" and continues through "How to rebuild an engine" . Full of work-arounds, trouble shooting advice, and the best illustrations I have seen in a car repair book. Highly recommended for VW owners. When I bought my first VW, I picked up that book and $150 worth of tools, thay paid for themselves in less than a year.

In many ways, the philosophy of the various "For Dummies" books from IDG is the same as "How to keep your VW alive". Don't worry about theory, just get the job done. I got my start in C++ from a For Dummies book. Many computer professionals disdain For Dummies books, but they are important for getting regular people to fully use the capabilities of their PCs. And, they give a starting point to those who like to tinker...

Sincerely,

David Turner [moremids@meta3.net]

Dear Mr. Pournelle:

When I was first entering the world of computers some 8 years ago and researching what computer system to buy, a friend told me to check out Byte Magazine. Although most of the info in Byte was way over my head, I became a subscriber primarily to read your articles. I eventually purchased a Mac Powerbook because, at the time, I had to have something to carry on the road and the powerbook was the only one that had everything I needed in one package. In the mean time I have purchased several computers and have become Windows and Dos literate. The Mac remains my platform of choice.

Since Byte put your columns on the web, I have saved, archived and indexed them to have them readily at hand as a source for trouble shooting my systems. And though you haven’t done a lot of articles about the Mac, I have found yours to be the most fair and unbiased. I really appreciate that because, although you are obviously a Windows fan, few Windows columnists have anything nice to say about the OS I love.

I mourn the loss of Byte but have renewed hope having just this morning found your web-site. I am typing this on my Powerbook while running Norton Utilities on my Mac Desktop. Later today I plan to fire up my Windows machine to do some trouble shooting. I will, no doubt, find the answer to the problem in one of the many excellent articles you have written as you have no doubt run into the same problem somewhere.