Re: *Sigh* (Was Re: Proposal: alt.hackers.aol :))

Article: 7653 of alt.hackers
From: bpheintz@bu.edu (Bradley Heintz)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Re: *Sigh* (Was Re: Proposal: alt.hackers.aol :))
Date: 14 Apr 1995 00:46:37 GMT
Organization: Information Technology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
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Status: RO

James Hines (jhines@titan.oit.umass.edu) wrote:
: OBHack:
:   down here at UmassAmherst, we've got some not-so-cool DecSystem 5500's
: as our main (UNIX) machines.. (the vaxen don't really count <g>)

Hey!  I went to the Zoo, and I loved those VAXen...  So hackable...

ObIttyBittyHack:  Finding free queues, like, say, the email queue to get
run projects that were a little too close to their deadlines.  It earned
me a NastyGram from the SYSMGR, and I realize that it was terribly
discourteous, but hey, the result of that course (and a fair bit of
hustling) was a PhD candidacy at BU to do computational physics.  Life
is full of tradeoffs...  Hmm...  courtesy, career...  courtesy,
career...

: anyways,
: a few of us wanted to run ytalk... but, none of the new versions
: compiled.. (we were stuck with like 2.0 or so..) so I took a look at the
: source, and tryed to see if i could get v3.2 to compile. Finally i got it
: to compile, but it would SegFault.. that's no good.. damn, guess i've
: gotta get dirty.. so I started looking through the source.. i found some
: system calls which titan didn't seem to like, and i removed them, and the
: program compiled fine.. unfortunatly, if you tryed to use the
: built-in-shell-in-the-window-function (tm) it would not let you back to
: normal ytalk mode.. so i had to disable that.. which was easily
: accomplished with a little more source code tweeking. *sigh* perhaps
: that's more of a kludge then a hack, but it's the best I've got..

: james
:  (btw: if anyone on titan wants it, or has a better solution, email me!)

Cool.  I'll remember that, I play with Ultrix systems now and then.

ObSomewhatBetterButStillWeakHack:
Another CMOS battery hack, for those who may have groaned at my last
post.  At work, we have an old Compaq 286 DeskPro that talks to an
identical one of a 9600 analog leased line to do terminal-mode stuff
with a mainframe.  (They use NetWare Router 2.?, btw and talk to the IBM
iron through a NW gateway.)
The hackish bit:  The link was going down.  Frequently.  My job to get
it back up.  We were looking at cheaper options than ISDN or a 56K
leased line, like using one of our spare 386 workstations for the same
misbegotten purpose.  I was cracking open the case on the 286
"router"
to see if the hard drive was MFM or IDE (just swap the HD and a couple
of boards, and you got a brand new router, Bubba), and I glanced over at
the little white box velcroed to the case:  TADIRAN 7.2V CMOS BACKUP.
Vintage 1987.  Popped it out, walked half a block to Radio Snack, got a
new one, popped it in, and it hasn't gone down in the past three days...

Total Cost:  $5.97 + tax.  Not bad, when you consider what installation
and supporting hardware cost for a 56K line.

- Brad

--
Brad is better known as bpheintz@sunflower.bu.edu
"I owe my soul to each fork in the road, each misleading sign..."
             - Poi Dog Pondering

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