This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up
daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 -
7,000 words, depending. (Older
columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE.
If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so.
If you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front
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explanation of what we're trying to do here.
If you are not paying for this place, click here...
If
you have no idea what you are doing here, see the What is this
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which tries to make order of chaos.
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Boiler Plate:
If you want to PAY FOR THIS there
are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY
THANKS to all of you who sent money. Some of you went to a lot of
trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic)
mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also
toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
.
Long weekend: the column
ended up at 11,700 words! The new Intel Prescott system (3.2 GHz), sound
cards and video, lots of thoughts on the future of 64-bitness, words about
the Mac, and the usual: I am astonished that it got so long, but I find
nothing I should leave out. This will start next Monday at
www.byte.com.
I haven't yet been out with the dog, and we have to talk to
the detectives: our ancient sort of retired housekeeper was mugged last week
by two bravoes who knocked her down and stole her purse. LAPD assigned a
detective to the case because this was worse than an ordinary purse
snatching. Over the weekend a nice lady about 4 miles from here found the
purse with papers intact in her trash and the detectives will want to look
at it although I doubt they will find anything. Of course we changed all the
locks she had keys to, and alerted the dog. Sable is unusual for a Husky,
she barks at strangers. We like Huskies because they don't bark a lot, but I
am grateful that this one does: she has done more barking in her one year
than Sasha did in 16.
So there will be more here and in mail later, but I have
these and other errands and it's Noon already, and I am dancing as fast as I
can. And if we don't walk Sable she will drive us insane: that's her job. to
see that these humans walk a couple of miles every day, and she's good at
it.
By Richard Leiby
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page C03
Pressure Cookers: The Explosive Truth!
We all know the Middle East is a pressure cooker that produces terrorism.
But here's a new twist, courtesy of a Department of Homeland Security
bulletin issued last week to federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies. Its title: "Potential Terrorist Use of Pressure Cookers."
The memo warns those who search homes, cars and cargo to be suspicious of
the culinary appliance, which it defines (per Merriam-Webster) as an
"airtight utensil for quick cooking or preserving of foods by means of
high-temperature steam under pressure." Pressure cookers, it notes, can be
turned into "improvised explosive devices" with the addition of one
ingredient -- explosives. Terrorists taught this technique in Afghanistan,
according to the bulletin, which cites four international incidents,
including one last year when Indian security forces found more than 80
pounds of explosives in two pressure cookers.
"So let me get this straight," one homeland security operative mused. "The
pressure cooker is the dangerous part, not the 40 kilograms of explosives
that the terrorists placed inside the pressure cookers? Maybe we should
regulate them to ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands."
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said yesterday that the
bulletin was among several recently circulated to warn agencies that
terrorists can turn "innocuous items" into bombs. Presumably, these might
include the Cuisinart, the George Foreman Grill and the microwave oven, but
the bulletin provides one comfort: "Based on this notification, no change to
the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) level is anticipated; the
current HSAS level is YELLOW."
Microsoft yesterday announced what may be the worst
security flaw ever discovered in Windows. This flaw affects all NT-based
Windows versions from Windows NT 4.0 through Windows Server 2003 64-bit
Edition. The problem was reported to Microsoft in July 2003, but it has
taken Microsoft more than 200 days to issue a patch for the affected DLL!
Microsoft rates this problem as "critical", and says:
"An attacker who successfully exploited this buffer
overflow vulnerability could execute code with system privileges on an
affected system. The attacker could then take any action on the system,
including installing programs, viewing data, changing data, deleting data,
or creating new accounts with full privileges."
This flaw is particularly critical because ASN.1 is so
deeply embedded in Windows. The ubiquity of ASN.1 allows this flaw to be
exploited via numerous attack vectors, rather than the single vector
typically exposed by buffer overrun flaws. This flaw potentially exposes
Windows to an attack at least as serious as MS-Blaster. Microsoft
recommends, and we agree, that all system administrators should immediately
download and apply the patch.
I sent a warning mailing on this to Chaos Manor
subscribers and I have this reply:
Just FYI: I applied the fix and looked at the date on
the replaced file (msasn1.dll). The new file is dated 9/19/2003 12:05 PM
replacing one from a different update dated 7/22/2002 2:05 PM.
Microsoft obviously MADE the fix months ago but didn't include it in any of
their bundles so far. They didn't think it important until prodded.
Interesting? (but hardly surprising)
Which is astonishing.
================================
2:10 PM Adelphia Cable modem just died. Going over to satellite.
You don't know how much you depend on high speed Internet connections
until you lose them. Falling back to satellite is painful. The throughput is
just as fast, but the latency is horrible, and far too many web sites use
designs that require downloading dozens of little files. Each of those files
requires a request that goes to orbit and comes back, and the delays can
drive you nuts.
Looking up something can take forever. I'll sure be glad when the cable
modem works again.
=====================
Does anyone know how to get the ORIGINAL (DOS) Railroad Tycoon running on
a modern machine? Preferably on a Windows XP system, but even on a
Windows 98 system would do. I have the game, but I sure can't manage to get
it to open. Even with no sound.
I am hardly an expert on getting DOS games to run on XP systems, but I
thought it wouldn't be a problem on a Windows 98; but it was.
Help? I would be willing to buy a Windows version of the old game. The
new ones, Tycoon II and III, are horrible; but the old game was neat, and I
would like to have it back.
You might want to try http://dosbox.sf.net/
DosBox is "a PC emulator with builtin DOS for running
DOS Games primarily". I've recently used it to replay Gateway, Gateway II,
and Alone in the Dark on Linux, and a friend of mine has run the Windows XP
port successfully. It sucks CPU cycles, but odds are if you've got a
DOS-only game it didn't need many CPU cycles anyway. --- Roy Stogner
And in fact that works. It is harder to set up than you might expect in
that the instructions aren't entirely clear, but RR Tycoon is now running on
a Pentium 4 machine at reasonable speed, complete with sound!
Man, this satellite system is misery. Adelphia, please come back...
Adelphia is back, and all is well in that
department now. Hurrah!
Madam Butterfly opening tonight. I fear this production: minimalist,
which means no sets and not much in the way of costumes: which makes you
wonder, why perform it? Just do it in concert. Costs less.
But perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised. I doubt it.
==============
DOSBOX works, and I have RR Tycoon running, but I can't get the mouse to
work. I even tried substituting a regular trackball mouse but that isn't
doing it either. Without a mouse I can't select trains -- even on the train
report I don't seem to be able to select a train, there must be some trick
to the keyboard that I don't know -- so this has become an exercise in
frustration without a lot of reward. Oh well. At some point perhaps I will
figure it out.
DOSBOX does a lot of things very well. The mouse software seems to have
it buffaloed, though.
On the other hand, running in W95 compatibility mode works, the mouse
works fine, but there is no sound. Why can DOSBOX do sound but not mouse,
while W95 compatibility does mouse but not sound? I suppose at some point I
will figure this out.
The Cherokees is escaped from Fort Mudge!
To Arms! To Arms!
Three Arms! Four Arms!
Besides, forearmed is forewarned.
Four worned what? Because it it's four worned out old guns I ain't gonna
play.
Don't worry, I haven't gone mad. Some of you will recognize that. For the
rest, well, I'm sorry you missed it.
On a sadder note,
Julius
Schwartz, RIP
He was 88, and I have known him since about 1970. Of course he was a
legend before I ever met him, having been Ray Bradbury's agent for Ray's
first story. And editor of Superman. I have a Superman pin from Big Julie.
You won't have any problems finding obituaries on line or in your
newspaper, and they'll have the details right, so I won't try. I'll just
say he was one great character, and I'll miss him. Goodbye, you old goat.
SO what I need, maybe, is better drivers for the mouse? I have been using
mouse.com which works with all DOS programs I know of. The optical mouse
works fine in DOS Commanders under DOSBOX, but when I go to RR Tycoon the
mouse doesn't work. Doing control-F10 will make the mouse cursor appear, but
when you click it in the game nothing happens, and the cursor vanishes as
well.
So for now: Windows 98 run in DOS mode on the one Windows 98 machine I
have left will play the game just fine, but no sound. DOSBOX on a Windows XP
machine has sound but no mouse. Windows 95 compatibility on a Windows XP
machine has mouse but no sound. Sigh.
So I go to look for one of the CD's that came with the Intellipoint Mouse
-- I must have ten of the mice -- and of course I have thrown them all away
thinking I had one in the systems folder.
Why not? So I go looking on line and I can't really find the darned
thing, or perhaps I am just dense this morning.
What I need is to be sure I have the latest mouse.com for DOS I guess.
One that works with a PS/2 mouse (not serial) on DOS, with luck in DOSBOX.
===
I am told that VDM Sound will do the job. Alas, I can't install vdm sound
2.04: when I try I am asked i I agree to a license, I say yes, and the
program stops responding. What I am doing wrong here I don't know. Hah.
Actually, it is working but you have to wait quite a while before anything
happens.
Alas, I still don't have sound: I have a "run with VDM" option in the
rails.bat menu when I right click on it, and that opens the game, but there
still isn't any sound. Sigh.
I get the sound just fine if I run in dosbox but have no mouse. I fear
VDM isn't doing it and I wonder what I have done wrong.
Then this message from Don Farquahar:
I finally noticed a forum link on the DOSBox site. I
did a search there and two people reported having the same mouse problem
you're having. Looks like Railroad Tycoon Deluxe (the version copyrighted
1996) works properly. The very earliest, buggiest version of Railroad Tycoon
(ver. 455.0) works properly. The more common version 455.03 has the mouse
problem. Looks like a problem with DOSBox, especially seeing as Norton
Commander works right.
I used to have both the very earliest, and the Deluxe versions. But all I
have now is the one I've got. Which of course is the one that doesn't
work...
If your wife or girl friend has told you it's all
right to ignore Valentine's Day and you believed her, please make contact
with me. I have a very good bridge deal for you.
=======================
Tony Blankley was one of the brains associated with Newt Gingrich when
Newt was in the opposition, and remained with him for a while when Newt was
Speaker. He has just done a book review that says a lot about how Blankley
thinks.
It's well worth your attention. More comments when you have had a chance
to read it.
I must be doing something very wrong, and I can't figure out what it is.
I have yet to have VDMS do anything right. Attempting to run it for Windows
95 Conquest of the New World: make a copy of the program.exe file; set
properties so that it runs under Windows 95; right click; tell it to run
with VDMS; I am told that there is no pif file for VDM. I say go open the
VDM file manually. I get the message that it opened but failed to
initialize.
Try to delete the copy of the program.exe file on my desktop. I am told
that I can't delete it, it is in use by another program. There are no other
programs running. Reset.
Try again. Try run with VDMS. This time no demand for pif file. Block
opens up to say VDM sound loaded and initialized properly but
stub exec failed
dos4gw.exe
No such file or directory.
After which any key closes that down. And I can't delete the file. I
close all processes that look expendable. Still can't delete that file.
Clearly I no longer understand DOS and windows 95 emulations. But it's
worse than that. Now I have these undeletable icons on my desktop.
Clearly I am going to have to learn more about all this.
---
I have now deleted VDM Sound (which never did me any good anyway, and
it's easy enough to reinstall) and I have also deleted the entire directory
containing Conquest of the New World. At this point the thing on the desktop
is a copy of something that doesn't exist. And it still will not delete.
Of this is a feature it's appalling. I suspect it's a bug in Windows XP.
When we had this kind of problem with older versions of Windows, I could
open a DOS window and run NUKE.COM which always managed to delete a program;
but nuke is a DOS program and doesn't run properly with Windows XP. I need
to dig into this more. I am sure I once understood these things, but that
was long ago.
At this point I will be glad just to get this silly icon off my desktop.
I cannot imagine what is using it, or why anything thinks it can be used.
There is something else wrong on this system since there are other
unremovable icons on the desktop. I have now removed POWER DESK 5.0 which
may have something to do with the problems. Let's see what that does. I can
always reinstall it.
Except that the removal program won't close and now I can't shut down.
Hardware reset. System comes up with garbled video. Power off.
Restart from powered off. Comes up properly.
But I still can't remove that stupid program.
Log off as me. Log on as Administrator for the machine only. Now try to
go into Jerryp's account and delete things off the desktop. Still can't do
it. Still says this stuff is used by another program. If so, what other
program?
Startup Manager doesn't show anything initializing that ought not. This
is insane.
=============
OK I have closed off just about anything that could be doing this.
My computer squeeks when I press control sometimes. Clearly this thing is
trying to use the sound card. I can't close it and I can't delete it and I
can't prevent it from starting on startup.
I need help.
====
It's worse than I thought. I have now started in SAFE MODE, and I STILL
cannot remove CNWMAIN.EXE from the desktop. It claims that it is being run
by something else. What I can't tell, and worse, there is no way to see what
might be calling it. Nothing in startup that I can figure, and I have closed
all processes that will close down.
I will now run a defrag program on this. I doubt it will do any good, but
I recall that once before I had an unremovable file that was "fixed" by
defragging the disk. I must confess this is all baffling. I am using Golden
Bow VOPT which works very nicely and is quite fast, and I am confident that
it is safe. I had some 15,000 gaps and 9000 fragmented sectors, which isn't
all that much on a big disk; this will get rid of all fragments and all but
a very few gaps. Packing the programs so that they have no gaps in them will
improve performance a little. Data files will get fragmented again fairly
soon. Anyway, once that is done we'll see...
========
CNWMAIN.EXE cannot be deleted, and the registry editor says there is no
such thing as CNWMAIN in the entire registry. Now what?
==============
OK, but after doing VOPT I was able to MOVE CNWMAIN.EXE into a folder;
prior to VOPT it was unmovable. Then I was able to delete the folder, and
that deleted the thing entirely. It is gone.
Can anyone explain any of this?
============
Now what? The DNS servers are down: I can connect to any internet address
if I know the IP Address, but not by name. I presume that will be fixed by
morning. This is getting ridiculous.
But there is mail on this.
===================
Using DOSBOX I am attempting to install Conquest of the New World. It is
installing, but the "building" phase of installation has taken half an hour
and it is not finished yet. But it does look as if progress is being made.
Still, a 3 GHz machine ought to be able to simulate and old DOS box?
Trying to run Conquest of the New World in DOSBOX. Ye gods! It takes
minutes to initialize. It may get there, but few will care if it takes this
long. The sound and mouse did initialize and appear to work, but the
game just isn't coming up: we're stuck at players init ... OK, which is
something one doesn't actually see when running the game in W 95 or DOS. And
it's stuck there: several minutes have gone by and nothing. Sigh.
Eventually it does come up, but it is impossibly slow. It's not just this
machine: I have the same situation with another Pentium 4 system built on a
D845 motherboard.
Conquest of the New World will not run in Windows 95 mode because there
is a command that creates an exception. Running in DOSBOX doesn't work
because it is impossibly slow.
On a Windows 98 machine I can reboot that in DOS mode and then RR Tycoon
will run, but I can't figure out the sound card. Most of these things will
run in that DOS mode, if you can figure out the sound cards properly. There
isn't any such mode in Windows XP systems.
Conquest of the New World runs just fine, complete with sound, in a
Windows 98 system, under Windows 98, without much fussing with the
configurations. It just runs on the 98 machine, and unlike on a much faster
system with DOSBOX it is not jerky or anything. It just works.
Railroad TYCOON runs with mouse but not sound in Windows 95 mode, and
with sound but no mouse in DOSBOX. This is also the case on two different
machines.
And that's the way it is. If there are tricks to this I haven't figured
out, I'd like to know: I need a happy ending before any of this goes in the
column.
I suppose I ought to look into a good DOS boot disk, but in most cases
the sound card hardware is such that things don't work too well with new
systems and old games. And there is the whole memory management situation: I
long ago got rid of QEMM and some of the other third party memory management
programs that worked so well.
The bottom line is that neither VDM Sound nor DOSBOX seem able to cope
with a lot of modern hardware. I suppose I ought not be astonished. The
wonder is that any of them work at all.
DNS servers are working again, and I can
cruise the web. Amazing how one gets used to having that ability and how
much one misses it when it's gone.
Considerable material on Iraq over in mail, starting with
Greg Cochran's ascorbic views.
Cochran must always be taken seriously if only to make one understand why
one holds views contrary to his. Physicists have that characteristic. I
didn't always agree with my old mentor Herman Kahn, but you had to work hard
to understand: which was what he was trying to do, get you to understand why
you thought as you did, and to know on what you based your conclusions.
There's a lot more mail which I will get to after I so a gardening stint.
CLICK HERE for
a Special Request. 
