AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-05-26

Chat for 2001-05-26 14:00:00

rich: test
rich: refresh
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Guy B. on Athlon
rich: hello Guy
Guy B. on Athlon: Hi Rich, it is raining right now here in Chicago.
rich: well, better now than tomorrow
rich: just so it's dry in Indiana and Carolina tomorrow
Guy B. on Athlon: It finally going to get out of here tomorrow Finally.
Guy B. on Athlon: It must be cool up by you too.
rich: Ha! that probably just means wee'll get it - as if we haven't enough already
rich: actually today despite predictions is sunny and around 60 - 65F
rich: the back yard even dried enough for me to mow it earlier today
Guy B. on Athlon: Well, we're in the 50's here and it's been like that for all this week. But, warmer weather is coming.
rich: yes, though we'll stay in the chill a bit longer
rich: these cold air masses come down from the north so if the edge gets to you, we're deep into it
Guy B. on Athlon: Arizona has been hot there. Phoenix hit 109 yesterday.
rich: it's always like that as summer comes in
Guy B. on Athlon: I wonder if Bob made it to Indy yet?
rich: from nowe till November, I'll be teasing my cursor crony about it
Guy B. on Athlon: I bet.
rich: then from November to May, he'll be needling me about our chill
Guy B. on Athlon: After the winter we got this year. I don't want to think about that again.
rich: don't know Bob's driving habits - if he's early on the road, he should be close
rich: I think he keeps his motorhome pretty road-ready, too, so there's not much last-minute packing
Guy B. on Athlon: Just hope that all this rain will be gone by the time the race starts.
rich: yes - actually I have three races to watch tomorrow - I'll end up with square eyes
Guy B. on Athlon: Don't strain yourself.
rich: Monaco of course goes rain or shine, but not Indy or Charlotte
rich: oh, the big strain will be at Adamcon - on the Sunday CART will be racing in Toronto
Guy B. on Athlon: By the way, I bought a CD-RW drive from Best Buy. It's a Phillips 800 series 8X4X32 for $79.00.
rich: did that include the Adaptec EZ-Copy software?
Guy B. on Athlon: Yes, Apaptec Easy Creater 4
rich: that would be close to $120 Canadian, which is a reasonable price
rich: I'm still trying to find a case for a new computer that will fit in my desk
Guy B. on Athlon: It was a great deal. Cheaper than what Tigerdirect.Com had it for for the same speeds.
rich: depends on make
Guy B. on Athlon: Do you want a tower or a desktop model?
rich: my pusher recommends Samsung or Panasonic, or HP if you want to pay a bit more
rich: I need a mid-tower, max 15-1/2" high
Guy B. on Athlon: Phillips is a very good brand.
Guy B. on Athlon: That would be about what I have.
rich: Phillips doesn't have the market ppresence here it does in the US
rich: AOpen seem to have cases I could use, but it's impossible to get on their website
Guy B. on Athlon: Ahh, so only certain brands up there for you.
rich: now that the Pacific cable is down, they offer speeds in the single bits per second range
rich: mostly we duplicate the US brands, but we have some you dont and vice versa
Guy B. on Athlon: How's the quality of the goods compare to what is here in the U.S.
rich: mostly they are exactly the same goods but our prices (after exchange) are lower
Guy B. on Athlon: That's not bad. I guess you heard about the Ford recalling all the Firestone tires on the Ford Explorer.
rich: well actually it was all the Firestone Wilderness AT tires on all their trucks
Guy B. on Athlon: And Firestone has severed ties with Ford. So, I wonder what tire maker the Ford Explorer will get now!
rich: up here they're going with just about anyone who can supply replacement tires
rich: long term I think Michelin and maybe Goodyear have the inside track for OEM
Guy B. on Athlon: Ford will reimburse for the cost of replacement tires. I think it's $110 per tire or $130 for those 15" ones.
rich: yes, here reimbursement can run up to $210 Canadian for 17" tires
Guy B. on Athlon: Then the $130 is for the 17" tires. I must had that mixed up.
rich: yes, there is a price range, and a erestricted but generous list of eligible replacements
Guy B. on Athlon: I bet that Goodyear will be the new supplier. They have good tires.
rich: since they were the major users, I can see why the Firestone problem surfaced first on Ford products
rich: but I'm curious as to why the bias was toward the Explorer
rich: too long to explain here, but I have not been happy with Goodyear tires
rich: could it be that the poseurs who buy Explorers just don't understand how to handle and maintain trucks?
Guy B. on Athlon: I got Goodyears on the Buick and they are still going, but I think I will replace them by the fall.
rich: we're lucky here in that we have Canadian Tire
Guy B. on Athlon: There are so many tiremakers here, it's hard to choose which one.
rich: they have house brands made by major manufacturers but to a higher quality standard
rich: then they sell them at a lower price
rich: I have always been happy with Candian Tire tires
rich: I have also had quite good results from Michelins, though they are a tad pricey
Guy B. on Athlon: Just like when you buy store brands. They are priced lower than the name brands and they are identical in quality.
Guy B. on Athlon: Michelins are very good.
rich: yes, the difference at Canadian Tire is they have their own internal standards and are better dolar for dollar
Guy B. on Athlon: Then I would stick with them if they are good for you.
rich: oh, you can be sure I do whenever possible
rich: it's maybe unfortunate, but now Canadian Tire have to offer national brands too
rich: anyway, do you think Ford or Firestone are "guilty" in the problem?
Guy B. on Athlon: Then you can compare. That's what competition is for. Let the consumers decide what tire and price is right.
rich: problem is, consumers can be kinda dumb about it
rich: but consumers are dumb about a lot of things - look how many join AOL
Guy B. on Athlon: Firestone has had a real problem. But, ever since this tire separation issue exploded. I don't think it's Ford's fault. Firestone should have done better on inspecting the tires before they are sold.
rich: the fact that most of the failed tires were just one size from one plant in one time period is suggestive
Guy B. on Athlon: And the price is going up to $23.90 on July 1st. AT&T and Earthlink are considering price increases too.
rich: just had someone probing my computer
rich: he didn't get in - Zone Alatrm stopped him
Guy B. on Athlon: Good thing you have that on guard. I might look into that myself.
rich: you mean you don't have it??? You're living dangerously!
Guy B. on Athlon: I should get it. I know it's a freebased program.
rich: it's quite a short download from Zonelabs.com and it's free
rich: I've also been trying SurfinGuardPro from finjan.com
rich: but it seems to slow down my computer and conflict with some other programs
rich: I am afraid I will have to uninstall it
Guy B. on Athlon: Ok, I'll go there. And I want to download something else too that's free.
rich: what's that?
Guy B. on Athlon: It's called My Own Backup. You can backup your hard drive to any media. Zip, Jaz CD-RW, network or another hard drive and it will work on floppies.
rich: sounds useful. where do you get it?
Guy B. on Athlon: I think CDnet.com has it in their download library. I read this in my May issue of Practical Windows magazine.
rich: that CDnet or ZDnet?
Guy B. on Athlon: It's ZDnet.Com. Just hit me now.
rich: you really should subscribe to the Langalist newsletter. You would really find it useful
Guy B. on Athlon: Hmm. I don't know, but I'll look into it.
rich: it's twice a week, it's free, and it has all sorts of Windows information
rich: lots opf leads to really useful freeware, too
rich: and as you may have noticed, it has some really hilarious jokes, too
Guy B. on Athlon: Yes, that one part you sent by e-mail was very good.
rich: go and prowl Langa.com you'll end up online for a week
rich: rightv now I'm working on how to clone my hard disc onto the new machine when I get it
Guy B. on Athlon: Ok, I'll check that out too.
rich: I have System Commander and Partition Magic so I know I have the tools
rich: I'm just not quite certain how to use them
Guy B. on Athlon: I managed to get most of everything transfered from the P133. But, I'm reinstalling some of games that I have.
rich: with my multiple-boot setup, things get complicated
rich: especially since I want to add Win98/2 in a new partition
Guy B. on Athlon: Now, I found out that the version of Corel Wordperfect 8 is a network version. I'm going to try to network the P133 using DCC and see if that works, so I can install it.
rich: on that, I suspect it might be easier to just reinstall from scratch
Guy B. on Athlon: I tried that and it was looking for a network drive.
rich: oh, I get it - it's the presence of the network that counts, not the transfer
Guy B. on Athlon: And I can map one of the drives on the P133 through the Athlon. So, I hope this works. The Athlon does have a network card, but I disabled that.
rich: you can enable it again fairly easily though, can't you?
Guy B. on Athlon: I have to move the jumper back on the motherboard.
rich: oh, great. I am not a fan of playing with jumpers
rich: I recognize the necessity, but I don't like it
Guy B. on Athlon: It was straightforward according to the manuel and I free up a PCI slot.
rich: do you have that many PCI cards on your board or that few slots?
Guy B. on Athlon: Here's how this works. I have 4 PCI slots. Since the audio, network are built in. They use a PCI slot according to the jumper settings. The sound takes one, the network another.
Guy B. on Athlon: So, the sound has one and the video, even though I have an AGP card on it.
rich: I'm looking at a Microstar K7T Turbo R board - it has six slots
rich: also on-board sound and a communications riser for a modem
rich: the R variant has the Promise chip - supports up to four IDE devices on its own
Guy B. on Athlon: I have what they call an AMR slot. That's where the modem is on.
rich: and allows "striping" and RAID arrangements
rich: right - AMR - that's on the Microstar board too
Guy B. on Athlon: My board does support four IDE drives too and two floppy drives.
rich: yes; without the Promise chip the MSI board has two dual IDE connectors
rich: so with the Promise chip you can actually have eight IDE devices connected
Guy B. on Athlon: Is your board an ATX? Mine is.
rich: yes, the one I want is ATX form factor
Guy B. on Athlon: Seems to be the new standard now. You have two USB ports on yours?
rich: you can check it out at msi.com.tw, if you can get through with the cable troubles
rich: the K7T has two USB ports and sockets for two more
rich: don't want to refer to it as "my" board till I've actually bought it
Guy B. on Athlon: I believe mine has the same thing. Some boards don't have a joystick port, mine did come with one.
Guy B. on Athlon: Well, you know it will be yours soon enough.
rich: well, the K7T is pretty high-end, and shows it
rich: but if I go with that, and a 1 gig Athlon and 266FSB, it should have a fairly long useful life
Guy B. on Athlon: When are you getting it?
rich: like, it will take a month to be obsolete instead of a week
rich: well, first I have to find a case, then place my order with the supplier
Guy B. on Athlon: You'll love the speed of it. That's a guarantee on that.
rich: he will likely have it assembled by Daiwa who will supply the internals
rich: but I'll proceed as fast as circumstances permit - which won't be that fast
rich: still, it occurs to me you took a while from order to online, too
Guy B. on Athlon: This one is quite fast. I have Windows 95 up in less than a minute.
rich: I can't compare, since with my multiboot setup the process is different
Guy B. on Athlon: I'm still planning to put System Commander Deluxe on this one and another hard drive for maybe Linux and Windows 98.
rich: machine just hiccuped - am I still on?
rich: I see I am
Guy B. on Athlon: Yes, you're still here.
rich: anyway, you don't need system commander to run Linux with Win98
rich: you can just install it as a directory within Windows
rich: of course if you'd rather have it separate you can have that too
Guy B. on Athlon: I think it would be safer that way. The P133 has Windows 95 and DOS 6.22 with a dualboot.
rich: and it doesn't have to be on the C drive either - Linux will boot from anywahere
Guy B. on Athlon: That's why the second hard drive for Linux. You don't have it right?
rich: of course when I say I'm dual-booting with Win 3.1 I really mean DOS6.22
rich: since Win 3.1 is a program not an OS on its own
Guy B. on Athlon: That's right.
rich: I have Corel Linux but do not have it installed
Guy B. on Athlon: Are going to install once you get the new system?
rich: oh yes, sooner or later, I hope sooner
Guy B. on Athlon: Now that I have a CD-RW. I might get Linux too.
rich: if only so I can sound half-clued when I talk with Ron
rich: well, it's free as you know, so go for it
rich: of course it's a fairly long download, but you have a fast machine
Guy B. on Athlon: I probably will use this one for the download, since the P133 does take a longtime to download files.
rich: anyway, I need to take a shower and want to get it done before Frances gets home
rich: so I am going to have to drop off soon
Guy B. on Athlon: Ok, I'll see you on Wednesday night then.
rich: yes, and you'll have a bigger hard disc to store it on with the Athlon, too
Guy B. on Athlon: I have a 13GB in the Athlon now.
rich: right - I'll log off now and see you Wednesday. Take care
Guy B. on Athlon: Bye.
rich: bye
Guy B. on Athlon left chat session
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AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-05-26
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