[rescue] New subscriber...

[Dave McGuire]

On Mar 13, 2004, at 2:41 PM, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> I spend a lot of money on "free" computers ... they always seem to want
> upgrading, and the upgrade parts aren't usually quite free.  So, it 
> seems to
> go like this ...
>
> A friend pulls a SPARCstation LX out of a dumpster.  He's a Mac guy, 
> so he
> gives it to me.  It's got 16 MB of RAM and a 424 MB HD, a minimal
> installation of SunOS 4.1.1, and expects to NFS mount a load of 
> directories
> off a LAN.
>
> So, to put this "free" computer to work, I buy (albeit cheaply) a
> Sun-bootable CD-ROM drive, a 411 case, and a SCSI cable.  I borrow a 
> Solaris
> 2.5.1 CD.
>
> Oops, can't plug a PC monitor into it, gotta buy a Mac Plus monitor 
> cable so
> I can run a serial console.
>
> Hmmm.  Solaris 2.5.1 is a pretty tight fit on a 424 MB HD, so I buy a 
> bigger
> drive.
>
> OK, now I can install the OS and various toys.  Geez, it is slow, and 
> the HD
> is going whackita-whackita all the time.  Buy some RAM.
>
> OK, now I have to hook it up to the 10base2 network, so I buy a hub 
> with
> both 10baseT and 10base2 connections.
>
> Set up the LX to be a DNS server, outgoing mailserver, timeserver, etc.
> Still have some disk space left, so I install Samba and let the Windows
> boxes on the network back up their critical files to the LX.
>
> Now we're cooking!
>
> But wait, the stuff on the LX isn't getting backed up ... buy a DDS 
> tape
> drive and a bunch of tapes....
>
> Sound familiar so far?

   Well yeah I guess, fifteen years ago.  I know I'm not the only one 
here who has tons of parts around.  Sun bootable CDROM drives?  I have 
eight of them.  10Mbps Ethernet hubs?  I just threw two in the trash 
because they didn't sell on eBay at $1, so now I'm down to four.  DDS 
tape drives?  I gave away three of them two months ago.  I think I have 
three left.  SCSI hard drives?  You don't even want to know.

          -Dave

--
Dave McGuire          "PC users only know two 'solutions'...
Cape Coral, FL          reboot and upgrade."    -Jonathan Patschke