HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu (John Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: why does everybody hate microsoft?
Keywords: n
Date: 26 Aug 92 07:56:35 GMT
Organization: Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon

In article <Aug24.103534.26466@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>, peters@CS.ColoState.EDU (eric peters) writes:

>reason)....  but why is everyone so opposed to Microsoft?


For a supposedly high-end company, Microsoft puts out remarkably low-quality
products for a remakably high price tag... but this is not a reason to hate
them, just to not purchase their products.

I learned to hate them through a different method:

  I work as a programmer/consultant/sysadmin for a research lab here, and am
in charge of 5 micros running MS-DOS, a Sun workstation, and about a zillion
obscure or custom made pieces of hardware.

  During a project a while ago, I came up with a question I needed answered
very badly -- it was a very complicated and rather difficult problem for me,
but the info to solve it would require maybe 10 minutes to look up for MS.

  The question was regarding how DOS dealt with oversized hard disks in
certain situations. First off, I did a thorough search through my collection
of information, then scoured the library, computing center, and bookstore.
No dice. So I called MS. After wading through their phone maze, I came
up upon a beauty of a recording informing me that I can obtain support
by either:

	a) Calling an 800 number and having a flat rate billed to my
	   credit card, or

	b) Calling a 900 number and getting billed per minute.

  Well, I do not have credit cards (to minimize my paranoia about computer
records on me), so the first choice was out. The University phone system
here does not allow 900 numbers to be called, so the second choice was
out, too. I was left out in the cold.

  Well, I was pretty pissed, but understood that they probably get a million
calls a day asking them which side of a disk faces up, so they want to recoup
the loss.  Then I got to thinking:

  MS-DOS is *the* biggest selling piece of software ever. This OS _is_
what made Microsoft what it is today, and it is still very lucrative. Yet,
they choose to support it inadequately.  I mean, they could avert lots
of stupid calls in other ways, saving everyone time and money, but they
obviously don't care.

  On top of that, MS wants to dump DOS.  They have newer things they want
to push, and DOS doesn't fit in anymore...

  Anyway, I realized that there is no way I can trust a company that cannot
support their main cash cow any better than this. When people ask for
my official opinions and recomendations, I always recomend against MS
products, because I know that they will eventually get bored with it and
junk it at best in the same manner they did with DOS.

  Of course, it's no loss, as for any given MS product I can think of, there
is at least one (usually more) better, more solid, and cheaper product that
does the same work, made by another company...


-- 
John Martin                                        johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu
Institute of Neuroscience,   University of Oregon,    Eugene, OR,    97402
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: stangel@sparc3.cs.uiuc.edu (Mike Stangel)
Subject: Re: Q: Are the Baud Rate and BPS same?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 16:16:37 GMT

smahn@vx.cis.umn.edu (Seokmin Ahn) writes:

>Hi! netters,

(Hi...)

>The advertisement about modems confused me about Baud rate and BPS.

>Would someone please clear up this for me ?

I hope someone will correct me where I'm misleading, but I'll take a
stab at it --

Bits per second is something most of us understand; a bit is a 1 or a
0, and eight of them make a byte, or a character.  Normal modem trans-
missions will have anywhere from 7 - 9 bits per character.  N/8/1 has
become somewhat of a standard:  No parity bit, 8 bits/character, 1 stop
bit, for a total of 9 bits transmitted for every character received.

Baud is defined as symbols per second.  Some protocols, such as QAM
(Quadriture Amplitude Modulation) make a "constellation" of symbols,
where the symbol received is somewhere on an X-Y axis.  It's not im-
portant to discuss this in detail, except to say that it may require
more than one bit/symbol, and that 2400baud modems use QAM -- it's
called the V.22 protocol.

This latter paragraph is technically correct, although I believe most
ads will say "baud" and then give you a BPS figure.  I don't think I've
ever seen an ad where what they advertise as "baud" is actually symbols
per second.

Hope this helps,

Mike Stangel
-- 
 Mike Stangel -- stangel@uiuc.edu | "I can't kill the man I love."   
 Chairman		          | "Then kill the one you're with." 
 ACM at UIUC	                  |                   -Crow, MST3k   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: kreidler@convex.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de (Homer Simpson)
Subject: 386 Blue Max
Keywords: Memory Manager, 386 Bue Max
Organization: Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 13:54:01 GMT

Hi Folks!

In our institute we will get SDK 3.1 for Windows 3.1.
Unfortunately they told us it will not work with himem.sys and emm383.exe.
We *must* use a software called 386 Blue Max (sp?). Has anyone an idea of
configuring such a thing, what shall be a problem.

Thanks a lot

Kay Kreidler
Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry
Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf
Germany
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:12055 comp.os.msdos.apps:4574 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:3398
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.os.msdos.apps,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Looking for Real Estate Software...
From: asamonte@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu (Just some loser...)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 21:49:07 GMT
Organization: Nothing worth mentioning...


I am looking for a software package that will allow me to manage a few
apartment complexes.  With features like separate accounts for each unit,
able to pint up bills, and forms, and most other general property management
features.  Thanks.

-alex

--
From: chrisr@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Chris Ringe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: OS2 - What is it ?
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 08:05:12 MDT
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems #1, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:

- 3. Boot manager - you can have multiple OSes sharing the same disk (or disks)
- UNIX(s), OS/2(s), DOS(s)....please yourself. I think the limit is 5 different
- systems. They can't see each other's partitions - especially UNIX's which are
- formatted differently - boot you can boot which ever one you feel like at the
- time from the boot menu (which you only see if you install this option). Boot
- Manager takes about 2megs of disk space.
- 
- Steve
- -- 
- Steve Withers - Wellington, New Zealand | End the two-party duopoly. Vote 
- Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz         | for the Mixed-Member Proportional 
- withers_s@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz            | (MMP) voting system on Sept. 19th. 
- **** Happy user of OS/2 v2!! ****       | Give yourself a vote that *counts*!

Actually, you can have only 3, since each OS is setup on a separate 
PRIMARY PARTITION.  You are only allowed 3 primaries and one extended per 
hard drive.  However, I haven't tried to setup a PRIMARY with a second 
HD and see if one could use it as well.

BTW - Boot Manager takes up ONE primary partition, leaving 2 for OS's.  I 
have primary 2 as OS/2, and primary 3 as DR DOS (NOT ms-DOS <--lower case 
intent correct!).  The rest (extended partition), is for PROGRAMS.

CR.

< SIG on Summer Holidays!! >
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: J.Newman@icarus.curtin.edu.au (John Newman)
Subject: Re: Shareware Registration rates? Author please comment.
Keywords: shareware
Organization: Computing Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 03:17:32 GMT

In article <714676271.F00001@cloud.pub.uu.oz.au> hamish@cloud.pub.uu.oz.au (Hamish Moffatt) writes:
>From: hamish@cloud.pub.uu.oz.au (Hamish Moffatt)
>Subject: Shareware Registration rates? Author please comment.
>
>I'm also a shareware author (RABIRTH, a BBS utility). I mucked up the
>registration details; when I released it, I didn't know you couldn't cash
>personal cheques from overseas in Australia. In January of this year, I received
>such a personal cheque. Being the kind of guy I am :-), I sent it back, with the
>registration number, hoping that the registree would be honest enough to send
>the proper cash/bank draft. Luckily he was. However, 1.5 months ago, someone
>else did the same - I've heard _nothing_ from him, via electronic mail or post.
>Okay, it took a month for it to get there and back in January, but 1.5 is
>stretching it..    Good thing I'm putting a new key system in the next version
>:-)
>
>PS I've also received 0 problem registrations from Bulgaria, Singapore, and the
>US, so I'm not doing too badly either. Strangely, none from Australia.. (and we
>are only talking $8AUS registration!!)


I don't have too many problems with foreign personal cheques I get
for GRAPHTIME-II. The bank charges $4 for the effort to convert them
though.
With $8 only registration, maybe ask registrants to just send cash.
(Using an $8 note of course :~) ). I am more than happy to receive
US $ notes or UK pounds, Dm, even NZ $.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ 
\ John Newman            Internet: J.Newman@icarus.curtin.edu.au /
/ Computing Centre,                 "There is less to this       \
\ Curtin University,                  than meets the eye."       /                         
/ Perth, Western Australia           - Tallulah Bankhead         \
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
From: sbg@milton.u.washington.edu (Bonggee Song)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Help! Ctrl-C does not work!
Date: 4 Sep 92 03:44:27 GMT
Reply-To: sbg@u.washington.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

Hello, netters.

I've got a new PC and logged in the remote machine.
I used 'Terminal' in group Accessory of Window 3.1 .
Everything is O.K except that it doesn't accept Ctrl-C key.
It causes many problems in unix.
First of all, it can not be interrupted.
And I usually use emacs to make a text file.
But I can not get out of it after I finish editing because 'EXIT' in emacs
is ^X^C.
Can anybody help me to solve that problem?

Thank you.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: fmag9694@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Fouad M. Abdel-Rahim)
Subject: Re: Hard Drive-Write Protect?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 07:57:11 GMT

hst001@muvms3.bitnet (Donna J. Spindel) writes:

>We have a multiuser PC and would like to prevent users from inadvertently
>saving data to the hard drive. Is there a way we can do this? Thanks very much.
>Donna Spindel
>Marshall University


      There's a tiny file  [only 236 bytes] called  PROTECT.COM
      it has the ability to PROTECT/UNPROTECT the hard disk.

      it works great.

      The only problem is that I forgot the ftp site. But, I have it


-- 
	 Fouad Abdel-Rahim                              | _<  .
	 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   \ |  o__o
	 School of Art and Design                     / | _/

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.os.msdos.apps,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Why do people want PD software?
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 17:25:46 GMT

In <1992Aug21.201734.20379@PA.dec.com> reisert@sttng.mlo.dec.com (Jim Reisert) writes:


>I understand the differences between Shareware, Freeware and true
>public-domain software.  My main concern is this:

>People ask for recommendations of shareware to do a job.  It seems to
>me that some piece of commercial software might do the job also.  For
>example, "Please point me at a PD Fortran compiler".  Now I don't know
>of too many PD Fortran compilers, certainly no free ones, but I'm sure
>there are at least several in the commercial market.  So why ask only
>about PD Fortran compilers?  Either the person has another source of
>information about commercial software (strange, since I'm sure a lot
>of us have experience in that area, and could offer good opinions), or
>is unwilling to consider commercial software for some reason.  

You only asked about Shareware.  The question you cite here, however,
specified PD.  I would say this person simply doesn't have the $500 or
so to sink into a Fortran compiler.

>I was
>just trying to understand the reasons that PD software (including
>Freewrae and Shareware) is sought after, above and beyond commercial
>software.  To me, given equal functionality and comparable prices, the
>only difference I can see is that one doesn't necessarily have to pay
>for shareware in order to use it, but one does have to pay for
>commerical software.

Usually it's the money.  Plus, there is the caveat with Shareware that
you can look at it and see if it does what you need before you pay for
it (evaluation of commercial software isn't the same, since usually
only 'professionals' do this, you don't know what they did, how long
they worked with it, etc.).  Unfortunately, there are quite a few
people who use Shareware and don't pay for it.  However, I'm sure that
Shareware authors are aware of this phenomenon.

>My comment about 'buying the best software, regardless of its origin'
>just means that if I have a need (like an address book, for example),
>I want software that will perform the task in the way that is most
>suitable for me.  In fact, I have registered two shareware packages
>(Names & Dates, and NameBase) just for this purpose (N&D won't run
>under OS/2).  I don't have tons of money to spend on software either.
>But I'd rather buy one good $100 commercial package than spend a lot
>of time evaluating a bunch of crappy ones (yes, time *is* money to
>some people).

Some people don't have the 'spare change' to make that tradeoff,
though, Jim.  The world is full of poor, starving students.


-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
From: chiu@ucsee.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Speaking of Window NT
Date: 29 Aug 1992 02:37:25 GMT
Organization: University of California Society of Electrical Engineers (UCSEE)
Reply-To: chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsee.berkeley.edu
Summary: SLOW as HELL
Keywords: Microsoft, Window_NT, SLOW
Originator: chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU

In article <1992Aug27.113905.19790@actrix.gen.nz> Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:

>MAC users will love that! I don't know a single MAC user who would give up
>their GUI for the Win3.x program manager.......

Assuming that Window NT will sport the same interface as Window 3.1, I'm not
thrilled (been a both Mac and PC user)

>If NT had the WPS, I might think about it - all other things being equal (
>don't have the dough for a 64-bit computer....not yet, anyway).

According to a friend who's running Window NT beta, it is slow as hell...
(he equated it to Window 3.1 running on 286 with 1MB of RAM) And mind you,
he's running Window NT on a 486DX-50 with 32 MB RAM and 1.2 GIG HD...

>Steve
From: derek@foster.actrix.gen.nz (Derek Foster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: LANtastic, Windoze, CD-ROMs
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 92 23:20:31 GMT
Organization: BLUES INC0RP0RATED

I'm in the process of trying to make the above combination work in
harmony and have run into a slight problem.

In brief - a certain program is required to access data on one of
the servers CD-ROMs, but it does not appear to be network aware.
When executed on another workstation it gives a message to the
effect that it cannot locate the CD-ROM and promptly goes out to
lunch. I assume it's checking for MSCDEX on the workstation and
giving up when it can't find it, or possibly bypassing MSCDEX and
going for the non-existent device driver..

I found a small program called MXSUB by Digital Solutions (Aus),
which appeared to work ok (ie: fooled the program into thinking the
CD-ROM was attached) until I ran Windoze and tried accessing files -
MXSUB gave a message about an 'unsupported call' being made and
froze.

Another program CDSHARE by the same company _appears_ to work, but
I'm hoping to hear from someone else using it without problems
before plonking down the bucks. I spoke to Artisoft (Aus) who
confirm that 'they have heard that it seems to work' but couldn't
give me anything more definite (fair enough).

The setup is 386/SX-25 servers/workstations, LANtastic 4.1,
LANtastic for Windoze, Windoze 3.1, DOS5..

Would greatly appreciate any tips, hints, magic incantations, which
people have used in similar situations.. :-)  My net access is
fairly limited (so mail would probably be the best method - I would
be glad to post a summary) but reply postings will be read and
appreciated. Thanks in advance..

..regards Derek.

--                           _   __
derek@foster.actrix.gen.nz  / `-' (      ,,,  "I've got the
PO Box 12-420 Wellington    | I I ||||||[:::]   loan-shark blues.."
New Zealand                 \_.-._(      '''         - Rory Gallagher
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Switching between IDE drive and SCSI Drive
Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Organization: Snake Island Research Inc, Toronto
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 15:11:31 GMT

I have a SCSI-based (Adaptec 1542B) 486, running ISC Unix 2.0.2.
I also have an old, slow IDE-based 386, running MSDOS 5.0.

I am interested in retiring the 386 (or at least back-burnering it),
by yanking its IDE drive, and placing it in the SCSI-based system along
with the extant SCSI drive. 

Question:
How do I switch between booting from the SCSI side (for UNIX) and
the IDE side( For DOS)?  Use of VPIX under unix is NOT the solution,
at least this year, unfortunately.  

I am willing to write C code if someone can point me in the right 
direction for documentation on how these gismos work, or
to purchase and/or download equivalent facilities.


Thanks... Bob

Robert Bernecky      rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky@itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:11999 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:22875
From: amorsin@cs.vu.nl (A. W. Morsink)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Where do I get VideoMachine in New York? For how much?
Date: 28 Aug 92 12:13:14 GMT
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Originator: amorsin@galjoen.cs.vu.nl

My friend wants to get himself a VideoMachine - I think the manufacturer
is Fast Elektronik from Germany. Is it available in the US? (Preferably
New York City.) If so, I'd like a dealer listing (unless you can get it
at every PC shop). Also, I'd like to know the approximate price. 
If you have ANY information, please mail me:


-
Arnoud W. Morsink             | INTERNET: amorsin@cs.vu.nl
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam  |           amorsin@econ.vu.nl
The Netherlands               | BITNET  : v67cam01@hasara11.bitnet
From: crow@coos.dartmouth.edu (Preston F. Crow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: DR DOS EMM386 Error
Date: 28 Aug 92 00:39:16 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In <1992Aug27.182935.26156@oneb.almanac.bc.ca> kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay) writes:

[...]

>One more time - EMM386.SYS loads _by itself_, without config.sys entry, but
>I can't find out why, although I assume it's because of the SSTOR drives.. I
>can't get rid of it...

>(I may have to wipe the disk and reboot with QEMM.SYS, and THEN try using
>SSTOR, but it's more work than I want to take on right now.)

I don't believe that EMM386.SYS will load without something telling it to.
You may be a bit confused with the DR-DOS boot process when SSTOR is used:
If the entire hard drive is compressed, a small partition is saved which
holds the boot information since it can't decompress files on the SSTOR
drive until the driver is loaded.  Normally, the boot drive is drive C:,
but DEVSWAP.COM is loaded to make it drive D: and the SSTOR drive C:.
Furthermore, DR-DOS looks for DCONFIG.SYS before looking for CONFIG.SYS.
The last line in the standard DCONFIG.SYS is a command to chain to the
user's CONFIG.SYS.

In short, check for DCONFIG.SYS on drives that you don't think you have,
such as D:, E:, or F:.

--PC

--
preston.crow@dartmouth.edu
crow@nes.nersc.gov
by008@cleveland.freenet.edu
crow@coos.dartmouth.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod)
Subject: Re: why does everybody hate microsoft?
Keywords: n
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 02:17:39 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.221152.2372@nntp.uoregon.edu> johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu (John Martin) writes:
>In article <92240.124636REE700A@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, REE700A@MAINE.MAINE.EDU writes:
>
>>
>>  Among the dozens of other excellent reasons given, who could love a
>>company that has monopolized the PC world with trash and whose only
>>decent program is Word (for the Macintosh!!!).  Finally, Word for Windows
>>2 is a decent port of Word Mac - but it runs under windows, which is
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Word written originally for DOS, then
>ported to the Mac -- in which case is the Wonders (ahem... Windows) version
>really a port from DOS??  And from what I have heard from people fluent
>in both Word and WordPerfect, WP is the better of the two (I wouldn't know
>firsthand, so don't flame me!  Please!!)
>
>
>-- 
>John Martin                                        johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu
>Institute of Neuroscience,   University of Oregon,    Eugene, OR,    97402

You are correct in that DOS was the first platform to receive WORD,
not the Mac. The Mac version was a port from DOS, with the
intentions of developing a word processor down the road to run
under the fledgling Windows 1.0, which I had the unfortunate
experience to evaluate.

Word for Windows 2.0 is a big departure from the DOS version, but
carries many of the same work habits with it. If you are/were
fluent in Word 5.0/5.5, then Word for Windows will be an easy
transition. If you are fluent in WP, then W4W 2.0 will also be
fairly easy, since they have taken great pains to support many of
the keystroke commands and frequently used featured of WP.

As for which of the two is better, that is a flame war for another
thread.


-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
            Bureaucracy: noun, plural - Bureaucracies.
         The process of turning energy into solid waste.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Which is faster Qbasic or GWBasic
Distribution: world
Date: 2 Sep 92 09:36:19 EST
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

QBasic is NOT compiled.  It is an interpreter version of QuickBASIC which
IS a compiler.

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

Jim Johnson-
*** Remember, they're only tools - Not a way of life! ***