VMS Spoken Here

I started down the PC road with PC-DOS 1.0 — the first version of DOS, distributed by IBM. My mom owned a real IBM PC/XT, and I bought one of the first IBM PC/AT’s (serial number 356).

Over the years, Microsoft has come out with: MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 (I skipped this one), Wndows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98 (skipped), Millenium Edition (skipped), Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista (skipped).  Windows 7 will be out soon, it’s already in wide-spread beta.  Of course, the required hardware continues to grow exponentially.

I’ve “repurposed” cast-off Windows PC hardware to run Linux, starting with RedHat 5.  Most were HP Vectras dumped by CheckFree Corporation on their annual equipment refresh. The employees and I (I was a consultant) would drag them out of the dumpster and divide the spoils.  I now have a CentOS 5.3 system with 3 TB of storage running on a Dell XPS400.

About a month ago, my primary Windows XP system was freezing every few minutes.  I knew it was time to reinstall Windows and all my applications again.

Since I had to install something, I decided to Install CentOS instead.  I have a tiny Windows XP partition running under vmware because some software isn’t available for Linux, such as Sage Software’s ACT! and its sync software for my Palm phone.  I also have an application to track my time as a pilot for the Civil Air Patrol.

It hasn’t been easy — I still can’t scan on my HP printer from Linux.  And I haven’t found a Linux application that can do a good job editing PDF’s.  But, in all, it’s been a reasonable conversion.

The future?  No more re-installs for me.  Maybe I can eliminate that Windows partition someday…

For many years (15+), I’ve had an ISDN phone line.  It’s kinda neat, you get 2 voice lines on one copper pair.  Full caller ID, 3-way calling, the works.  You can even make a high-speed 128k data call to other people with an ISDN line.  And analog dial-up would always, always, connect at 56k.

Of course, this speed sounds kinda silly these days.  My cable company gives me 10 Mb/sec down, 768k up.  But back in the age of dinosaurs, it was really something.

About once a year, a big thunderstorm would zap the terminal unit on my end.  No phones until I got it repaired.  A few years ago, 3Com stopped fixing their boxes (Impact IQ ISDN modem).  Fortunately, a friend gave me a couple of Motorola Bitsurfr boxes to keep me gong.

Every time I needed a feature changed, it would take me about an hour to convince the phone company that there is a service called ISDN.   And it’s handled by a completely separate department.

On the 26th of this month, they’ll swing my service over to a pair of analog phone lines.  Took “only” 45 minutes and 3 different departments  to set up.  It’ll cost me $7 more per phone initially, but then I’ll be able to swap those lines to Internet-based communications.

Anyway, back to a technology that Alexander Graham Bell invented…

Okay, I jumped a few versions and upgraded to V2.6 from 2.3.3.  Enjoy!

The very first spam was sent on May 1, 1978. Here are the details:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html

This was not one of the high points of DEC advertising.

Here’s a video of a guy who makes his own vacuum tubes!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3wrzo_fabrication-dune-lampe-triode_tech