212 lines
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212 lines
9.3 KiB
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<title>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers LG #85</title>
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<IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/left.jpg" WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"><A HREF="okopnik.html"><IMG ALT="[ Prev ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/prev.jpg" WIDTH="16" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Table of Contents ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/toc.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Front Page ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/frontpage.jpg" WIDTH="137" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/talkback/all.py?site=LG&article=http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue85/foolish.html"><IMG ALT="[ Talkback ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/talkback.jpg" WIDTH="121" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../lg_faq.html"><IMG ALT="[ FAQ ]" SRC="./../gx/navbar/faq.jpg"WIDTH="62" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="ortiz.html"><IMG ALT="[ Next ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/next.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/right.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" ALIGN="bottom">
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<TABLE BORDER><TR><TD WIDTH="200">
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">
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<IMG ALT="LINUX GAZETTE" SRC="../gx/2002/lglogo_200x41.png"
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WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="41" border="0"></A>
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<SMALL>...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I></SMALL>
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<CENTER>
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<BIG><BIG><STRONG><FONT COLOR="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</FONT></STRONG></BIG></BIG>
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<BR>
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<STRONG>By <A HREF="../authors/orr.html">Mike ("Iron") Orr</A></STRONG>
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<H2>Washing flooded chips</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:linux@rousselot.org">Philippe Rousselot</A>
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<P> Here's what happened to me a few years ago when computers were not so cheap
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and a group of 5 very old machines were worth saving from a flood.
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<P> I was working in a Laboratory at the time. We had a room with 2 big
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microscopes and 5 old Macs used for image analysis.
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The room ended up flooded during the night after an autoclave (kind of
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big pressure cooker that biologically-inclined geeks use to sterilize
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things) broke down.
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Although the microscopes were safe, the table with the Macs got hit. All
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the machine ended up covered with a muddy rusty water.
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<P> The next morning, I decided to bring the Macs to the lab to dismantle
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them. By chance the drives and power supply were dry but the motherboards
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were in really bad shape.
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<P> I washed all the cards in distilled water and then in alcohol.
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I then put them in an oven at 40 degrees Celsius for a day.
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<P> Everyone was smiling at me until I rebuilt the Mac and got them running
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again. At the time, I did not know that it was the way electronic boards were
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washed in fact, and I was not really sure of the result before it came.
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<P> In the meantime, the machines got reimbursed by the insurance that did
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not consider worth getting the old one back, so we doubled our investment
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in the computers.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
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<H2>A foolish HDD fail</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:onuryalazi@mersin.edu.tr">Onur Yalazý</A>
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<P> Once upon a time (maybe 4-5 years ago), I had a 80286 case for
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old timess sake. But its floppy drive wasn't working. So I decided
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to use my Pentium II' s floppy with it. I was trying to install a DOS
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6.22 system on it think.
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But i wasn't able to take the floppy out of its original case. A bit
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acrobaticly I put the cases in parallel and with a long cable connected
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the floppy to 286. Everything was OK.
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<P> But there was something wrong. (Did I metioned the pentium was where my
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father did his civil-engineering tasks?) The floppy's LED was on
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continuoussly. I was in a hurry and didn't think
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the cable was wrongly plugged. The PC didn't boot. The system was down.
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It should be the doom. I got angry and started to hit the floppy drive
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with a hammer. After that I got the idea of the cable. HIT! Everything
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seemed to be ok then. But i got a damaged HDD. The HDD was below the
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floppy.. The real doom :) But the good thing was that I had that drive
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backed up.
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<P> So never work without backups and hammers when working inside the case.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
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<H2>Computer Abuse</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:donovan@colberthouse.com">Donovan Colbert</A>
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<P> Probably the most expensive learning experience in my history was hooking up
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a second drive, a used 20mb Miniscribe SCSI 3.5" as the second in a chain to
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my Amiga 2000 years ago. I didn't know about SCSI termination, and back
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then, it was real important. I watched in dazed amazement as a single wire
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on the cable smoked and burnt down toward the first drive, like the black
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powder burning toward the weapons room in a Looney Toons featuring Bugs
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Bunny and Yosemite Sam as the pirate. At probably the last possible second,
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I broke the trance and lunged forward, groping around the back of the
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machine for the power switch. I got it just in time. I only lost the 20mb
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SCSI.
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<P> About a year later, I got a job at a used retail computer store, and found
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a dead miniscribe 20mb among the waste products. I removed the controller
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card, swapped it out with the controller on my drive, and brought life back
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to my drive. That evening, it was resting on the corner of a desk, and a
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co-worker bumped it and it fell onto the concrete floor. That was the end of
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that drive.
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<P> I think I paid $200 for the drive, used. Needless to say, I
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shortly became an expert in proper termination of SCSI chains. :)
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
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<H2>The Monster Hard Drive</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:josef.moffett@mauripharm.com">Josef Moffett</A>
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<P> Years ago now (about 1989 or so) I was the grateful recipient of an old XT
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that no one wanted. I hadn't had much to do with computers up until then on
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the hardware side - but this one came in pieces, so it was a matter of
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getting my sleeves rolled up an' putting it all together.
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<P> It was great - a complete change to the ol' Commodore 64 and plus 4 that
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I'd played with before. But I kept getting this wierd problem. The hard drive (
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a monster and a half) -- all of twenty megabytes, and in a double-height casing
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(so it weighed a ton) -- was connected to the IDE controller card, which in
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turn was seated into the motherboard). When switching on the computer
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everything was fine. The old XT booted up with its old (DOS 3 I think) OS and
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worked fine. But whenever I tried to format or delete any of the old stuff on
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it it seemed fine until next reboot, when everything was still there. Wierd.
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<P> So I took it along to a computer shop with a workshop and admitted to being
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completely baffled by the phenomenon. The techie took one look at the ribbon
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cable connecting the hard drive to the IDE controller and unplugged it and
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plugged it so that it was seated over BOTH rows of pins. I had plugged the
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cable in so that one whole row of pins had been missed.
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<P> Needless to say, I was one really embarrassed teenager! Needless to say as
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well that it has never happened again - some mistakes are just too stupid to
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repeat!
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<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
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[If you have a story about something foolish or ingenious you
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did to your computer, send it to
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<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>. -Iron.]
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</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
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<hr>
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<CENTER><SMALL><STRONG>
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Copyright © 2002, Mike ("Iron") Orr.
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 85 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2002
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</STRONG></SMALL></CENTER>
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