Re(2): [SunRescue] a sad, sad day

[Chris Kozlowski]

Having just built a router/sendmail/named box on a 386/40 w / 8mb
RAM and a 250mb drive, not for lack of Pentiums or 486s but just
because I can and it is one of the few things this thing can do,
I completely sympathize :)

Chris

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to 
be normal."  Albert Camus

> Ah! the point of my ravings!  The average home non-techie, the same one
> that has to replace light bulbs when they blow, has to paint his house
> every 7.5 years because the paint starts falling off, the one that trades
> in his car for a new one, because he can afford to finally, he never
> notices the slow down when he upgrades an individual program, the machine
> just seems to get slower.  Then Microsoft has a "new" Windows that will
> make everything (and I quote) "faster and easier", so he buys it, and the
> new bells and whistles keep him occupied for a week, then he goes to his
> friends house, with the brand new Gateway with the 31" Monitor/TV, and
> it's way faster than his, and his conclusion is that his old computer is
> just slowing down.  This guy has no concept of clock cycles or even
> directory structure, his machine is expected to crash because he doesn't
> understand what happens when he installs something, he just takes that
> $9.95 disk of COOL GAMES!!! from the check out at the grocery store and
> runs it, so everything is all over the place on his badly fragmented
> drive, he doesn't dare empty the recycle bin, all he knows is it was fast
> when he got it and slow now.  He has no use for a router, he'll buy a
> third phone line for his kids computer before he'd think about networking
> and sharing a dial-up, and he doesn't need any DNS or Mail servers.  
> 
> For useful purposes (useful in context, not reality) his machine is
> obsolete, he should replace it with a newer one.  Our job, the techies
> with a conscience, is to find a productive home for as many of these
> cast-offs as possible, or conversely, to fill as many roles with cheap,
> but totally sufficient, computers as possible.  
> 
> Unfortunately in this day of coporate prosperity (at least in the US)
> companies would much rather throw money at hardware to fix things than
> spend time or people, so if you need a group mail server, by a new
> machine, and throw out that P-120.  The Techies' ability to re task old
> stuff will make him more valuable if/when the tech boom ends, and money
> gets tight.
> 
> And yes, I do have an opinion about everything :-)
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
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