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| Author |
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| 25 new of 480 responses total. |
keesan
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response 441 of 480:
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Dec 18 18:06 UTC 2003 |
I thought it was a 1G limit - is 1024 cylinders 8G? We boot from the DOS
partition with loadlin and make DOS the first partition (or Windows 98).
I am still operating as root except when using dosemu (which requires that
it be used by 'user') but someone said to be 'user' when going online with
a browser. I think you can dial as root and then switch to another terminal
and be user before loading the browser or telnet program. I have not managed
to get the dialer working except as root.
What is the purpose of using three different linux distributions? Fun?
We were going to go on our big adventure but I started coughing again. I
cough so hard that my stomach contents starts rising - I can taste it. This
never happened before - is it specific to this particular cold?
How difficult is it to get a CD writer working with linux?
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twenex
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response 442 of 480:
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Dec 18 18:32 UTC 2003 |
I usually do what I suggested in my earlier response - use one as my
"main" (production/work) OS, and try out other distros on other
partitions. I'm using Slack at the moment to get a more "hands
on"/"Unixy" feel to things - slack is closest among Linux distros to
what many consider to be "real distros", with
RedHat/Mandrake/Xandros/Lindows being progressively less "Unixy" as
you read from right to left. I'm having terrible trouble deciding
between Slack and Debian. I was previously leaning towards Debian, as
it comes with tons of software (so I wouldn't have to download much
over dialup), and as I was afraid of compiling packages, which iirc
recall correctly never worked properly for me before. (I might have
needed to comile from source as not many people release software as
Slackware .tgz packages anymore). However, the position is now more
complicated as I have succesfully compiled a few packages (on Debian),
and there is now the prospect of getting broadband fairly soon.
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gull
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response 443 of 480:
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Dec 18 23:12 UTC 2003 |
Re resp:441: No, 1024 cylinders is not the same as one gigabyte.
Hard disks are physically laid out in cylinders, heads, and sectors.
For example, a hard disk with two platters might have 600 cylinders, 4
heads (one for each side of each platter), and 63 sectors. Cylinders
are like tracks on a floppy disk -- they're called cylinders because of
using multiple platters. (Visualize projecting a cylinder down through
all the platters, picking up one track on each one, and you get the idea.)
In the days of MFM hard disks, the cylinder/head/sector settings in the
computer's BIOS would correspond to the actual physical layout of the
drive, but these days they're a fabrication of the disk controller --
they simply form a useful coordinate system for identifying specific
bits of information on the disk. But the total capacity that a
computer's BIOS can handle is limited by how big these numbers can get.
This is where the limits on what the BIOS can boot come from -- it can
only find boot sectors that are on the part of the disk it knows how to
address.
The limit used to be around 540 megabytes, but it was pushed out to 8
gigabytes by BIOS changes. Once the operating system is booted, it has
other ways of addressing data on the disk, so the limitations imposed by
the BIOS disappear.
Re resp:442: If you like to tinker, you might want to try Gentoo.
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keesan
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response 444 of 480:
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Dec 19 06:35 UTC 2003 |
I managed to compile three programs for Slackware and I also managed to
unpackage a Debian package and use it with Slackware. You type ar -x
filename.deb and it produces three files one of which is data.tar.gz and can
be unpacked in the root directory. You can also use RPM packages with
slackware if you unpackage them (using mc-menu or unrpm). SuSe 6 and Caldera
2 programs work with Slackware 7.1 in theory, but they might try to put things
into nonexistent directories.
Redhat has /usr/share/ and Slackware does not, for instance.
Today we copied two music CDs to one 79 min CD (copied all but one piece,
totalling 71 minutes). Jim put a second Cd drive in the computer, an 8X.
One CD went into the CD writer, which reads 24X but copied the CD at 5X, and
the 8X player copied a CD at 2X, both to hard drive. We may put in our 40X
CD. I presume software and data files can be compressed so would copy faster.
After we made the CD we tried to play it on the CD writer and it skipped, so
we tried playing the original and it stopped after 30 sec or so at the part
where it had skipped. We thought maybe we had made a bad copy but both the
original and the copy play fine in the 8X player, so apparently the writer
will copy files to hard drive just fine but not play music CDs properly. We
wondered why someone put it out at the curb in a computer.
To celebrate we walked to the library and supermarket, first time we had gone
anywhere for a week. Jim carried back 16 pounds of grapefruits, a
pomegranate, some brazil nuts and some ice cream. The latter two taste funny
to me but I am trying to eat more calories. Jim offered to help eat them.
The supermarket was full of turkeys, hams, electric roasters and broiler
ovens, cookies, pies, and lots of cream cheese in two locations. They were
playing some awful rock music rather than the expected Christmas music.
I got back to the warm house and immediately started to cough, then was okay
for the evening until I went to bed at which point I coughed to the point of
almost throwing up again. Since I don't want to lose any calories, I got up
for a while. I think my immunity goes down in the evening, also the mucus
does not drain as well when I lie down.
Jim's C++ book from half.com arrived. He loves reading computer books.
I got some more CDs. It was actually faster to tape them because first teh
program tested both drives, then it copied from them to hard drive, then it
wrote from hard drive to CD (at 2X). Next Jim wants to try making a CD into
some MP3 files. What compression rate is good for Beethoven? We may try
variations and listen to the results.
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gull
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response 445 of 480:
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Dec 19 15:10 UTC 2003 |
Your best bet is to try some settings and listen to the results, because
what sounds good varies greatly from person to person. MP3 is a lossy
"psychoacoustic" encoding method; it relies on how your brain processes
sound, and compresses files by dropping information where your brain
won't notice it.
A good lower end for testing stereo MP3s is 128 kbps. I find artifacts
distracting at that bitrate, and consider my personal minimum to be 160
kbps, but some people can't hear any problems at 128. Encoders also
vary a lot in quality. Bladeenc should be avoided, as it's one of the
worst in my experience. LAME is pretty good. I haven't tried any
commercial encoders so I can't comment on them.
If I'm not concerned with fitting a lot of music into a small space,
I'll sometimes use MP3 at 256 kbps. At that rate it's essentially
indistinguishable from regular CD audio, to me.
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keesan
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response 446 of 480:
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Dec 19 16:56 UTC 2003 |
Realone (realaudio) comes with a music CD maker that offers three settings
for realaudio quality, one of which was 160 (168?) kbps and was chosen as the
default. So we could also make our own .ram instead of .mp3 files. I think
they also offer mp3 and wav. Does ram sound different from mp3 and do you
know how that is encoded? I presume what they are transmitting at 20 kbps
is encoded that way too. Some stations send at 64K (half of 128) or 48Kbps.
Hard to tell if the cheap speakers or the encoding are what make it sound not
so good. We might hook up a receiver and good speakers.
This morning I woke coughing at 7:30 and got lots of blood on one of my
improvsed hankies but then no blood on the next two, which suggests my
platelets have gone up and maybe neutrophils will be numerous enough now too
to shake off this cough. This particular virus appears to depress the immune
system though, since Jim has had mouth sores and an infected fingernail that
won't heal. Must be how viruses help cause cancer - they stop your body from
fighting things off. Some of them also cause mutations.
I keep getting emails from concerned translators and agencies, most recently
from one in Texas where I used to do lots of medical translating. She says
another of their translators died suddenly of cancer and she knows several
other people dealing with it. The new epidemic. A library book said 43% of
men will get cancer in their lifetimes and almost as many women. Lung,
prostate, and colon are more common than lymphoma. You can reduce chances
of some common cancers by eating properly, not being obese, and not smoking.
This is a book on exercise that says exercise is good for the immune system
(except when you have a fever). A library magazine suggested that you try
to get exercise while doing chores, in order to lose weight, by wearing a 15
pound vest. Jim suggested gaining 15 pounds instead. Chores used to imply
exercise. Another suggestion was to pace while on the phone - it finally
struck me that the phone must not be attached to the wall likes ours are.
SOmeone in the basiclinux mail list posted a link to WORD 5.5 for DOS,
available for free download now from MS. 3.5MB. Supposedly makes smaller
files than WP, but since it is gui I don't know if I can use it on a TTL
monitor to translate with a gif on the VGA monitor of a 2-monitor system.
With dosemu if I can figure out how to mount DOS drives to dosemu. Last time
I tried to mount the C: drive under /usr/jim/ it acted like /tmp instead -
listed me all the files in /tmp but in 8.3 format. There is a SUBST command
- how does this work?
http://download.microsoft.com/download/Word97win/Word55_be/97/Win98/EN-US/W
in5
5_ben.exe
I have no idea why WORD 5.5 for DOS is filed under Word97 for Win98 or what
is be(n). Someone says if you omit the help files it fits on one floppy disk.
Without dictionary.
I will try WORD first in plain DOS, VGA and then HGC.
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klg
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response 447 of 480:
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Dec 19 17:51 UTC 2003 |
Leafing through the newly-arrived Winter 2003 issue of Cure magazine
(www.curetoday.com):
Ortho Biotech Products offers to send "valuable information on managing
chemotherapy side effects." Send in the postcard or call 800.776-8998.
Sidebar on "Unraveling DNA." "Gene analyzing techniques" have found a
way to "(predict) the response to chemotherapy treatment." This "may
help identify patients . . . who are unlikely to be cured by
conventional therapy
A Q&A on radiation therapy answers the query, "Will I be radioactive?"
"Tumor Humor?"
"Cancer isn't funny, but . . ."
Book suggestions: "Not Now . . . I'm Having a No Hair Day" and "I'd
Rather Do Chemo than Clean Out the Garage"
Registration form for the first Patient & Survivor Forum, May 22-23,
Dallas TX. $50 registration fee before 4/1.
"Bexxar: Birth of A Drug" About a new radioactive adnitbody based
therapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).
Reader's Forum article by Doug Strawn, a NHL patient who played back-up
with The Carpenters for 10 years.
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gull
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response 448 of 480:
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Dec 19 18:49 UTC 2003 |
Re resp:446: RAM probably is a different encoding scheme than MP3. I
can't say whether it sounds better or worse at the same bitrate because
I haven't tried it.
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keesan
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response 449 of 480:
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Dec 19 21:05 UTC 2003 |
Ghostscript for linux DOES work in console mode using svgalib but there is
no support for newer S3 cards. I could view as plain vga (illegible). When
I tried to print the same way I do in DOS (-sDEVICE=deskjet) it took a few
seconds and sent the pages somewhere but they did not print. I tried to
understand the book about how to print but I could not, something about a
print spool. How do I print things from a print spool?
I ended up printing the four page file with DOS ghostscript. Someone sent
me a translation.
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keesan
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response 450 of 480:
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Dec 19 23:55 UTC 2003 |
I apparently need to install lpd - what then?
Today things no longer taste odd, they taste bad and my tongue is sore and
there is still slime on my teeth. In just six weeks things will start getting
better for good. We are playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony and someone sent
me a short translation (about bronchial asthma) to distract me. Jim is bug
hunting because his little text editor does not scroll properly on wide files.
First things first.
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twenex
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response 451 of 480:
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Dec 20 01:19 UTC 2003 |
Re: #443: I do like to tinker; Gentoo is off limits until i get
broadband; I get moaned at enough for taking up the phone line as it
is.
Re: #444: Slackware has no /usr/share? Hmm, have to lok at that again.
Re: #450. With lpd installed, you should be able to pipe ghostscripts
output to lp (a la "ghostscript somefile.ps | lp").
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keesan
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response 452 of 480:
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Dec 20 02:44 UTC 2003 |
So if I do that (pipe to lp) will it automatically print?
The format is gs -sDEVICE=deskjet -r300x300 filename.pdf
I wish people would send me gifs instead of pdf files as they are easier to
display and move around in and I don't need to print them. There is no point
that I know of in making an image into a pdf file when there is no text in
it.
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twenex
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response 453 of 480:
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Dec 20 12:27 UTC 2003 |
Yes, the lp command says "print this"
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keesan
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response 454 of 480:
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Dec 20 14:44 UTC 2003 |
Thanks.
Today I only woke up twice coughing and then slept 6 hours straight without
waking for anything but hot flashes and then even sneezed! This is the day
in the cycle that they used to test my blood and discover my blood counts were
back to normal. They could have been back for three days before that - no
tests then. So I am still hoping the cough will go away soon. My tongue
feels less slimy than it did. I noticed yesterday that there is a largish
area of numb skin where they did the spleen biopsy. I wonder if anesthetic
can have lasting effects?
I am told there is some disagreement between grex's vt100 and the vt102 used
by my xterm, which makes lynx display links double. Where might I go for
definitions of the two of them? When I run kermit from xterm lynx is not
usable, when I run it from console it is.
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gelinas
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response 455 of 480:
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Dec 20 14:55 UTC 2003 |
Your xterm may be using "vs100" instead of "vt100". If so, you can change
it with an option when the xterm you connect to grex from is started up.
Something like
xterm -tn vt100
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twenex
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response 456 of 480:
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Dec 20 14:57 UTC 2003 |
Hmm, interesting. what's a "vS100"?
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gelinas
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response 457 of 480:
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Dec 20 15:03 UTC 2003 |
Among other things, it uses an "alternate screen" for less, vi and the like.
so your command-line text is hidden while paging/editing, and the paged/edited
text disappears when the pager/editor exits.
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keesan
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response 458 of 480:
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Dec 20 15:07 UTC 2003 |
The xterm is defined with -tn vt102 - should I change to vt100? I am using
one that was supplied to us with a few modifications to make it full-screen
and have a scrollbar. I tried vt300 and it made things even worse - Pine
displayed the cursor one line or two lines down from where it should be.
In order to see things at grex without them wrapping I needed -geom 78x25,
anything narrower made it wrap. But 78 cuts off the vertical right line of
the terminal, not that I care. I can see all the characters. The scrollbar
takes up a space or two but I need it to scroll back when using kermit.
Kermit works fine without xterm but no scroll buffer that way.
A friend offered to drop us off some Christmas cookies, on the porch.
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twenex
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response 459 of 480:
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Dec 20 15:12 UTC 2003 |
AFAI am aware, if it has modifications then your terminal (a) only has
support for them compiled in for vt102, or (b) should present a
scrollbar with all vt types, so sswitching to vt100 would be a good
idea.
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gelinas
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response 460 of 480:
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Dec 20 15:22 UTC 2003 |
I suggest reading the man page for xterm, Sindi. You can probably find the
command line options you need, like "-geom 78x25". (I'm surprised your screen
can't display an 80-column terminal, though.)
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keesan
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response 461 of 480:
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Dec 20 18:21 UTC 2003 |
I fixed the problem with lynx by changing the font from 10x20 to linux8x16
but now bbs is messed up. Someone suggested specifying -fb (boldfont)
as well as -fn since the links in lynx are in bold. Will try that next.
To print I need to install lpr.tgz (contains lpd) and three parallel port
modules parport parport-pc and lp. Will be back when I fix my terminal.
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keesan
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response 462 of 480:
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Dec 20 18:43 UTC 2003 |
If I use -fn 10x20 the bold parts (links) in lynx are doubled.
If I use -fn linux8x16 lynx is okay but bbs is scrambled.
Someone suggested setting -fb (bold font).
I could not find 10x20 bold but I did find 9x15 bold and set
-fn 9x15 and -fb 9x15bold and it all works now but the print
is awfully skinny. I will keep experimenting. Maybe I can mix
10x20 and 9x15bold or some other bold?
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keesan
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response 463 of 480:
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Dec 21 04:49 UTC 2003 |
Today we learned to make mp3 files from Bach and Dvorak music CDs.
Roxio and RealOne both have audio to mp3 conversion programs. RealOne
converts at about 3 times as fast, Roxio at 1X but offers a few more sampling
speeds. We tried 32 (sounds really garbled with sort of a whirring sound)
48 (which I think was a bit buzzy on the violin), 64, and 128, the latter two
indistinguishable from the original to both of us. Jim now wants to record
10 CDs worth of music to one CD and play it all day long on the computer,
which he hooked up to the stereo system with a very long cable. A couple of
blocks from here we saw a discarded rubber thing that is used to go over
electric cords so you don't trip over them - might go look for it again.
Burn4Free free CD burning software, about a 1M download, will let you copy
tracks from audio CDs, rearrange the order, rename the tracks, and burn them,
and you can do almost all of this without a mouse (except for moving files
around into different orders). We will use this and RealOne.
I am putting ice cream on my oatmeal and eating it again for supper. The
coldness sort of numbs my tastebuds. Jim is eating the chocolate with soggy
rice crispy candy ice cream. The rice crispies taste sour to me. Anything
starchy tastes sour, including cookies. A friend brought us cookies. I put
cheese on the potatoes and managed to eat two bowls of them. I continue to
shed. Jim had some old photos of me in the hospital with thick hair and very
skinny arms. I would rather have thicker arms and thinner hair. I might try
some exercises from the library book tomorrow.
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keesan
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response 464 of 480:
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Dec 21 15:56 UTC 2003 |
Cough seems somewhat better this morning!
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twenex
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response 465 of 480:
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Dec 21 16:10 UTC 2003 |
Goody! ;-)
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