>Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 00:41:04 -0500
>From: Kenneth Alan Boyd Ramsay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Cheap 386s
>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 20:55:00 -0500
>From: Robert Deering <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> There's been a lot of OT lately, and it's been good! But the above
>> brings me to something that's right down the center of ON topic:
>> 386/12 8M 120M machines (no monitor, etc) are now being sold for $11 US
>> plus shipping by a company in business for profit. Where's the OS and
>> apps that _truly_ work for these machines? We need them. You, I, or
>> anyone else could probably earn a living (depending on "lifestyle")
>> selling these machines at a profit _and_ at a price that almost anyone
>> at all could afford. We'd probably have enough left over to donate
>> machines to those who couldn't afford even our modest price.
>> Bob
>> Now for the tagline:
>> 01 April 2001
>I gather that this has not yet happened (and is not likely to happen) -
>but if or when it does happen, please supply an URL. The suspense
>is driving me crazy... 8-P
>Boyd Ramsay
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hi All
Our local freenet refurbishes old machines and makes them Internet ready
for low income families. I don't imagine it's very profitable.
Two months ago I bought a 486dx for $25. This included 8 mg RAM, an
onboard SCSI interface, a 200 mg hd, and DOS 6.22 system files. A month
ago, I transferred stuff from my old 386 sx and now I'm really smokin' !!
Due to a combination of downsizing (thanks, all you hardworking automation
technicians) and physical disability, it's unlikely I will ever be able to
buy bleeding-edge technology off the shelf.
I've made do with the 386 since I bought it in 1993. When I moved to the
city two years later, it had DOS 4.0, Qbasic, and Qmodem. Apart from the
DOS 4.4 which came with the machine, everything I've put on it since then
has been shareware, freeware, or garbageware. I found a copy of DOS 5.xx
in a garbagecan and it didn't do anything nasty to my machine when I tried
it out.
Qmodem may have been built for a 286 or earlier. It produced a whole lot
of screen garbage; but, it's all I had when I purchased my $15 text-only
account from the Edmonton Freenet and I used it. Then my brother
downloaded a copy of Telix from somewhere and I discovered that turning on
the 32 bit crc block-checking feature would eliminate about 90% of the
garbage. When trying out old communications software, it's a good idea to
know whether it's compatible with your UART chip.
I had a secondhand copy of LotusWorks on my machine for some time. It
didn't place too much of a strain on my limited resources - 1mg RAM, 50mg
hd and 16 hz processor; but, I really didn't like the word processor and
the communications module had the same problems as Qmodem did. When I
found Pedit, which is freeware, I downloaded that. It claims to be a word
processor and not just a text editor; and it lives up to it's name.
I've never had a browser as such, just terminal emulators and a fax
software program called QuicklinxII. Of them all, only Bananacom has been
compatible with the UART chips in the 386 (16450) and my new 486 (16550).
It's also the only one that can read text other than ASCII, such as
whatever MS Word uses. I guess what I have with the freenet is called a
shell account. I dial in and use their software - Linx for browsing, Pine
for email, and Tin for newsgroups.
I have seen tiny browsers; but, they all need more than 1 mg RAM. I think
Opera needs 6; but, that requires Windows. I had Win 3.xx on my machine;
but, it took up 15 mg on my 50 mg hd; so, I chucked it. When I got the
486, I put the 1.44 QNX floppy in right away; but, QNX doesn't believe I
really have 8mg RAM. It tells me I have 720 (or thereabouts). The setup
program tells me I have shadow ram enabled; but, doesn't show me how to
turn it off. So, I guess I just have to get more memory.
NetTamer does work on low resource computers; but, with my 14.4 modem, it
takes forever to load Web pages, even with graphics turned off.
Last time I visited Heimo's page, I saw a link to IBM's WebBoy, which
didn't want to work for me. All the links I've found on the net lead back
to a page in Japan, which is undecipherable to me, since it's in Japanese.
Is there any place else I could download this? Or could someone just tell
me if it needs more than 8mgs RAM; 'cause if it does, I won't bother.
Another indispensible program would be something like VIEWER, which can
read HTML and non-ASCII pages offline.
Given all the incompatibility problems associated with older equipment, I
have to think that rebuilding them would be too labour-intensive to be
very profitable. It took my brother the better half of a year to get his
second-hand CD drive going because it came with a soundcard that wouldn't
work with DOS drivers. It had some kind of weird, proprietary code in it.
Ditto with his modem and it's screwy Rockwell chip-set.
Last year, when everybody was worried about the Y2K thing, I contacted NCR
about my CMOS battery. They thought it should be dead by now, but assured
me they had replacements.
I have a big sign on my 486 "Do not move this box! Hard drive d is loose!"
The 50mg drive from my 386 is stuck in there with masking tape.
Eventually, I'm going to stick Linux on my 486 and turn the 386 into a
radio. I've been looking at second-hand fm tuners.
Joan Cameron
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