response 646 of 870:

Feb 7 04:58 UTC 2005

I was able to dial in this morning, but melanief was not, and in the
afternoon neither of us could dial in.  Trying now - the phone seems to be
answered, but there is no connection beep.

response 648 of 870:

Feb 7 15:49 UTC 2005

Twisted pair *is* better than flat cord, for avoiding interference. 
CAT3 is often used for phone wiring.

response 650 of 870:

Feb 7 20:31 UTC 2005

I don't know why ptys aren't being allocated; we only had 26 users on.

I went with flat cord for now; 'twas available.

response 652 of 870:

Feb 7 21:11 UTC 2005

Re. 650: it's because people are breeding too quickly.  :(

(also remember that people can use up ptys merely by telneting in.  they don't
actually have to enter their username and password.)

response 654 of 870:

Feb 8 01:41 UTC 2005

I still can't dial in.  The modem tries to connect - I get the beep and the
answering beep, then some transmission noise, and then a higher beep which
never stops.  The connection is never completed.

Joe, are these two of the same modems that we were using before?  Did you
change any settings?

response 656 of 870:

Feb 8 02:25 UTC 2005

Re: #653. I assume because the modems in question are not plugged into serial
ports, but into the expansion ports at the back of the computer, which require
you to take the case off to get at, and turn the power off to avoid shorting
the motherboard. If this is the case, then frankly, I'm amazed that any recent 
PCI modems have been found that aren't those accursed WinModem things, which, 
as the name suggests, are crippled to only work with That Other OS. 
This is done by moving most of the (already limited) intelligence of modems 
into proprietary modem driver software written for Windows, and distributed 
without source code. It serves Microsoft's purposes because it makes them hard 
(but not impossible! 8D) to use with Linux, et al., and serves the purposes of 
the manufacturers because it makes them cheaper to produce whilst slightly 
raising profit margins.

Thankyou Microsoft, thankyou very bloody much. 

I don't think.

(As an aside, reading, in Knoppix Hacks, about the limitations of the Windows
Recovery CD made me think of a brilliant strategy for punishing Microsoft for
their illegal behaviour towards other OS and application vendors: They should
simply be forced to use their own OS.)

response 658 of 870:

Feb 8 02:46 UTC 2005

Interesting. Perhaps then turning Grex off was just to be on the safe side.
Only Joe can enlighten us, really.

response 660 of 870:

Feb 8 03:21 UTC 2005

re #659...we seem to have a problem with certain users or user posting 
fake url's.  A user posting fake url's is purposely posting bad 
information on the system.  Which in turn cause people who come here 
to see these links and hit on them.  If grex is full of posts with bad 
url links, it makes grex itself look bad.  IMO staff does not need to 
be condoning such activity.

response 662 of 870:

Feb 8 03:27 UTC 2005

if this is the case, we must first as ourselves, why are people hitting on
links instead of on buns?

a neoclassical formulation would b e:  because they're women!

but this was busted up by the implicationf of implied homosexuality in the
work of anciebnt greek scholars combined with the people who supported "greek
life".

so, the next formulation was:  because they'er women and abnormal men!

this held true until the famous french midget jaques derrida came along and
DECONSTRUCTED the idea of gender, positing that women were the euqal and
opposite reaction (i.e. social newtonianism) and that this allowed us to bust
up the gender binary,

and come up with he current forulation:  some PEOPLE like hitting on lin ks,
some like hitting on buns, some don't like hitting on either, and some like
hitting on both.

needless to say, richard shoulod be ashamed of his
discriminatory/sexist/genderbinaryist views of hitting on links.

response 664 of 870:

Feb 8 03:42 UTC 2005

deliberately posting a bad link on grex on purpose should be seen as 
just as bad as deliberately posting bad code on grex.  Or deliberately 
posting any sort of information known beforehand to be bad on grex.  
It is corrupting the quality of the bbs.  Grex should pride itself on 
the quality of its posts, and that means staff taking action when it 
sees users deliberately and purposely posting bad information 
repeatedly.  

response 666 of 870:

Feb 8 04:11 UTC 2005

The 'phone company tells me they hunt.

The phones script is updated.

response 668 of 870:

Feb 8 04:34 UTC 2005

Re #664:  Richard, don't feed the troll!

response 670 of 870:

Feb 8 08:30 UTC 2005

When I get back I could try to dig up my old Newton-based modem configuration.