thanatoid's computer is 10 years old today, Sept. 27, 2007!

[thanatoid]

thanatoid's computer is 10 years old today, Sept. 27, 2007!

(As one of my good friends in news.software.readers branded me,
I am proud to be a "reverse hardware snob".)

***

Computer custom-ordered and built by some shop in some city in
some country.

Intel Pentium 166 MMX (original)

PC Chips M572 MB (I originally got the M571, two died and there
were no more in stock but the M572 had just come in so they gave
me one)

4 x 16MB EDO RAM DIMM's (original, changed 2 of them for one
64MB DIMM about 6 months ago, total RAM now 96 MB)

Matrox Mystique PCI (original)

Creative AWE64 Sound Blaster (original)

U.S. Robotics Sportster 33.6 Fax internal modem (original)

LG CED-8080B CD-RW (upgraded from Toshiba 12x CD-ROM player 5 or
6 years ago)

8.4 GB Seagate HD (upgraded a few years ago after various drives
ranging from 3GB to 40GB in size kept on dying - so far so good)

15" Sony Trinitron Multiscan 100sx monitor (original, image
quality is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago)

Dell AT-101W switch keyboard (upgraded about 7 years ago from a
pre-Win keyboard that someone gave me)

Logitech Track-Man Marble (Omron switches replaced a couple of
years ago)

APC Back-UPS Pro 280

HP LaserJet 6L printer (original, second cartridge installed
about a year ago - I don't print much)

Beyer unidirectional microphone (over 30 years old but studio
quality)

Realistic Optimus STS 50AV shielded 2-way speakers

***

DOS 6.22/Win95B OEM (Tweaked for several years until it finally
ran the way I wanted it to.)

Last system "patch" or "update" - I put in the ME versions of
scandisk and defrag a few years ago.

***

Core applications:
(N.B. - nothing by Microsoft except the OS)

Total Commander 6.55
OffByOne 3.5a
Opera 7.53
Xnews 5.4.25
nPop 1.01
FileHound 1.2.2

Adobe Pagemaker 6.52
Edxor 1.60
Micrografx Picture Publisher 7
ACDSee 2.22
STP mp3 player

Acronis TrueImage Deluxe
TaskInfo2000 2.2
WinRAR 3.11
CDRWin 4

***

Boot time from BIOS password entry to full Windows load: 45
seconds
Overall speed - IMO, fast as heck
Crashes or hangs - only when I do something really stupid or hit
too many wrong keys at the same time.

***

What it CAN do:
Everything I need it to except music and video editing (see
below). (It actually CAN convert - not edit - music or video,
but it takes hours and hours, which is why I got the other
machine.)

What it can NOT do:
Play games less than 10 years old (but I am not a gamer),
watch/edit/convert video or music (but I have a 2GHz machine for
that). (It CAN however *record* flv video - and any audio,
obviously - as well as allow me to talk online and listen to
internet radio - although the last time I bothered with either
of those was about 8 years ago.)

Many "new" programs or later versions of old ones don't run on
95B. I find the older versions smaller, stabler, and faster,
IOW, much better. AFAIAC, there hasn't been anything new worth
using written for years. (Not counting certain new developments
like mp3 and other audio and video compression methods, DVD-
RW's, or Skype - which won't run on 95, but I have no one to
talk to anyway.)

***

Advantages:

I don't have to worry about patches, updates, crashes, latest
drivers, etc. I know the machine pretty well and don't worry
about anything going wrong (it hasn't for a very long time). I
get everything done faster than I would on an XP let alone Vista
machine (except as mentioned, audio and video which are handled
on the 2GHz machine). I get to spend money on other things.

Disadvantages:

Ridicule by people who enjoy spending several hours a week
patching, updating, or reinstalling their OS's "learning" to
use useless new features putting the computer in the living
room as the second Idiot Box and throwing their money away on
bloated "new" versions of software for the most part originally
conceived by someone else in the late 80's and early 90's. I
also can't DL DVD's or use torrents, but since I prefer reading
and music to movies and TV, I don't care.

P.S.
I realize it's almost the 28th, but while I've planned this
announcement for about 6 months, I decided yesterday that I
wasn't going to bother and then changed my mind about an hour
ago. Also, I was in a different time zone, and did not take
"delivery" of the system until the 28th or 29th, so I think it's
OK. Hope you agree.

 

[Dan]

Congratulations. I am glad you are happy with your older PC. Is there any
reason you stick with Windows 95B instead of 98 Second Edition?

 

[thanatoid]

=?Utf-8?B?RGFu?= <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:55FE36D2-244F-46E8-896F-1A9ECC7BCCFD@microsoft.com:

> Congratulations. I am glad you are happy with your older
> PC. Is there any reason you stick with Windows 95B instead
> of 98 Second Edition?

Thank you. The "other machine" I mentioned runs 98SE Lite. I see
no reason to put that OS on my first machine. The OEM 95 "B"
release had almost everything worthwhile that 98 offered (like
FAT32), minus USB which I am not interested in, certainly not on
THAT machine.

IOW, it does all I need it to do, so why mess with it?

And I am NEVER going to XP or Vista. If I can't get 98 drivers
when (if...?) these 2 machines die, I am going to Linux.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, I am thinking of trying out Unix/Linux next year as well as
perhaps Apple. BTW, have you ever checked out secunia.com where you can
research vulnerabilities in all sorts of computer software. I also like the
us-cert site which is run by the Department of Homeland security on issues.

Currently, there is a Gmail issue that I am trying to research in more
depth. It helps to have a few emails over different service providers. I
currently use Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail aka Live Mail, and an APS
email for my work at the Albuquerque Public Schools. Fortunately, I am on
paid leave from APS because of recent events that I have mentioned here in
the past in too much detail but what is done is done and so I accept that as
life and will try to learn from my mistakes, although I usually do not learn,
because I have a stubborn streak, as I know many users like Gary and PCR
already know. <grin>

Anyway, on Windows 9x, I think it would be awesome if Microsoft would
sell their IP if they do not want to use the consumer source code anymore to
develop a new operating system because of high costs and just stick with NT
but this is just a hopeful wish that I realize will probably never happen but
I can hope at least. I have been fairly pleased with XP Professional but it
still has security issues. Windows Vista is very secure but it still annoys
me due to doing things automatically, lack of backwards compatibility and
still the occasional driver issue. I turned off user control in Vista Home
Premium since it was annoying me with constant notices when I was installing
Itunes on my fairly new toshiba laptop. I am still considering whether I
should get a program like BING and I have tried it and liked it in the past
and I think it would be very helpful for my home computer with 98SE and XP
Pro. especially with making more partitions on XP side to test Microsoft
operating systems in the future like I tested Vista for security issues in
2006. <smile>

 

[bobster]

thanatoid,

Like you, I am quite happy with my nearly 10 year old machine. It is a PII
300Mhz unit, built by Quantex (long gone), delivered Feb 1998 with Win 95,
upgraded to 98, then 98SE.

Other upgrades:

2 - 20 GHz hard drives
320Mhz memory
CD Burner
32 MHz video card


I'm still using the 1998 vintage HP DeskJet 890C printer and HP ScanJet
5100C scanner. I have had NO hardware problems with any of this gear. I
use my computer on the average of 5 hours/day. Like you, thanatoid, I am
not a gamer. I use my machine for email, still pix editing, Google
searching, and as a word processor (MS Office 97). I have 50-60 apps that
run nicely -- albeit sometimes slowly -- on this machine. Using free stuff
like Ad-Aware, SpywareBlaster, Hosts file, ZoneAlarm , and Avast!,
spyware/virus problems are non-existent. I am connected to the internet via
broadband cable (always on).

When WinXP came out, I considered buying a new machine but never got around
to it and now that Vista is out, I'm still having problems trying to justify
a new machine. I am so satisfied and comfortable with what I've got that I
just don't want to give it up. I rarely see a BSOD or freeze.

I've tried Firefox, Opera, Maxthon and several other browsers but always
return to IE6 SP1.

I'm sure there are millions of others like me that intend to use Win98SE as
long as it can do the things we need safely and efficiently. Leave
XP/Vista to the bells- and- whistles guys

Viva Windows 98SE!

 

[Dan]

If you want to talk about really old school, then how about my IBM PCjr from
1984 that still works or my IBM 486 with 66mhz. and Windows 3.1 and DOS 5
that I still use and it is not in storage.

 

[thanatoid]

"bobster" <fauxie@bogus.net> wrote in
news:#JQyADlAIHA.2004@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> thanatoid,
>
> Like you, I am quite happy with my nearly 10 year old
> machine. It is a PII 300Mhz unit, built by Quantex (long
> gone), delivered Feb 1998 with Win 95, upgraded to 98, then
> 98SE.

<SNIP>

> When WinXP came out, I considered buying a new machine but
> never got around to it and now that Vista is out, I'm still
> having problems trying to justify a new machine.

Vista = Disasta. (Having read a few recent links, that seems to
be the consensus among those who are not out to buy a nice new
appliance for their living room.)

XP = XtraProblems

There is nothing I am interested in doing that I can not do with
95B or 98SE. Not to mention they are faster and have virtually
no security problems in comparison. Vista is just a big trojan.
XP was a small one.

> I am so
> satisfied and comfortable with what I've got that I just
> don't want to give it up. I rarely see a BSOD or freeze.

Same here. Why fix it when it ain't broke and does everything
you want?

> I've tried Firefox, Opera, Maxthon and several other
> browsers but always return to IE6 SP1.

I consider IE/OE just dangerous, apart from bloated. I haven't
used it since version 3, BION. IE and Office is where 99% of
trouble gets into your machine. Try an older version of Opera
(www.oldversion.com). They are fast and once you get used to
them, VERY nice. And just look at the DL sizes!

IIRC, Maxthon uses the IE components, as do about 30 "other"
browsers out there, they just add a "better" interface, but it's
still the same old hog with some more stuff on top. The only
REALLY different ones are Firefox and Opera. I tried Firefox a
little while ago and thought it really sucked.

I use OffByOne 99% of the time. It does not do Java, swf, or the
ftp protocol (I use FileHound or WS-FTP for that) but it is 10
times faster than anything else and completely safe. Give it a
try. New version added tabs, but I used to open up to 10
separate windows on my 166 with 64MB of RAM!

www.offbyone.com

> I'm sure there are millions of others like me that intend
> to use Win98SE as long as it can do the things we need
> safely and efficiently. Leave XP/Vista to the bells- and-
> whistles guys
>
> Viva Windows 98SE!

Amen.

 

[thanatoid]

=?Utf-8?B?RGFu?= <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:6AC507D0-ED59-4538-8C76-96A49A05C399@microsoft.com:

> If you want to talk about really old school, then how about
> my IBM PCjr from 1984 that still works or my IBM 486 with
> 66mhz. and Windows 3.1 and DOS 5 that I still use and it is
> not in storage.

Oh, I know there are older computers still working (I myself
have an HP Vectra 486/66 which I never use, but it works just
fine and it's built like a tank), but I have been using this one
5-10 hours a day for 10 years for internet access, DTP, writing,
etc. And I enjoy proving that "it'll last 4-5 years if you're
lucky" is just NOT true. (Not to mention I have a PC Chips
motherboard!!!)

 

[PCR]

thanatoid wrote:
| thanatoid's computer is 10 years old today, Sept. 27, 2007!
|
| (As one of my good friends in news.software.readers branded me,
| I am proud to be a "reverse hardware snob".)
|
| ***
|
| Computer custom-ordered and built by some shop in some city in
| some country.
|
| Intel Pentium 166 MMX (original)
|
| PC Chips M572 MB (I originally got the M571, two died and there
| were no more in stock but the M572 had just come in so they gave
| me one)
|
| 4 x 16MB EDO RAM DIMM's (original, changed 2 of them for one
| 64MB DIMM about 6 months ago, total RAM now 96 MB)
|
| Matrox Mystique PCI (original)
|
| Creative AWE64 Sound Blaster (original)
|
| U.S. Robotics Sportster 33.6 Fax internal modem (original)
|
| LG CED-8080B CD-RW (upgraded from Toshiba 12x CD-ROM player 5 or
| 6 years ago)
|
| 8.4 GB Seagate HD (upgraded a few years ago after various drives
| ranging from 3GB to 40GB in size kept on dying - so far so good)
|
| 15" Sony Trinitron Multiscan 100sx monitor (original, image
| quality is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago)
|
| Dell AT-101W switch keyboard (upgraded about 7 years ago from a
| pre-Win keyboard that someone gave me)
|
| Logitech Track-Man Marble (Omron switches replaced a couple of
| years ago)
|
| APC Back-UPS Pro 280
|
| HP LaserJet 6L printer (original, second cartridge installed
| about a year ago - I don't print much)
|
| Beyer unidirectional microphone (over 30 years old but studio
| quality)
|
| Realistic Optimus STS 50AV shielded 2-way speakers
|
| ***
|
| DOS 6.22/Win95B OEM (Tweaked for several years until it finally
| ran the way I wanted it to.)
|
| Last system "patch" or "update" - I put in the ME versions of
| scandisk and defrag a few years ago.
|
| ***
|
| Core applications:
| (N.B. - nothing by Microsoft except the OS)
|
| Total Commander 6.55
| OffByOne 3.5a
| Opera 7.53
| Xnews 5.4.25
| nPop 1.01
| FileHound 1.2.2
|
| Adobe Pagemaker 6.52
| Edxor 1.60
| Micrografx Picture Publisher 7
| ACDSee 2.22
| STP mp3 player
|
| Acronis TrueImage Deluxe
| TaskInfo2000 2.2
| WinRAR 3.11
| CDRWin 4
|
| ***
|
| Boot time from BIOS password entry to full Windows load: 45
| seconds
| Overall speed - IMO, fast as heck
| Crashes or hangs - only when I do something really stupid or hit
| too many wrong keys at the same time.
|
| ***
|
| What it CAN do:
| Everything I need it to except music and video editing (see
| below). (It actually CAN convert - not edit - music or video,
| but it takes hours and hours, which is why I got the other
| machine.)
|
| What it can NOT do:
| Play games less than 10 years old (but I am not a gamer),
| watch/edit/convert video or music (but I have a 2GHz machine for
| that). (It CAN however *record* flv video - and any audio,
| obviously - as well as allow me to talk online and listen to
| internet radio - although the last time I bothered with either
| of those was about 8 years ago.)
|
| Many "new" programs or later versions of old ones don't run on
| 95B. I find the older versions smaller, stabler, and faster,
| IOW, much better. AFAIAC, there hasn't been anything new worth
| using written for years. (Not counting certain new developments
| like mp3 and other audio and video compression methods, DVD-
| RW's, or Skype - which won't run on 95, but I have no one to
| talk to anyway.)
|
| ***
|
| Advantages:
|
| I don't have to worry about patches, updates, crashes, latest
| drivers, etc. I know the machine pretty well and don't worry
| about anything going wrong (it hasn't for a very long time). I
| get everything done faster than I would on an XP let alone Vista
| machine (except as mentioned, audio and video which are handled
| on the 2GHz machine). I get to spend money on other things.
|
| Disadvantages:
|
| Ridicule by people who enjoy spending several hours a week
| patching, updating, or reinstalling their OS's "learning" to
| use useless new features putting the computer in the living
| room as the second Idiot Box and throwing their money away on
| bloated "new" versions of software for the most part originally
| conceived by someone else in the late 80's and early 90's. I
| also can't DL DVD's or use torrents, but since I prefer reading
| and music to movies and TV, I don't care.
|
| P.S.
| I realize it's almost the 28th, but while I've planned this
| announcement for about 6 months, I decided yesterday that I
| wasn't going to bother and then changed my mind about an hour
| ago. Also, I was in a different time zone, and did not take
| "delivery" of the system until the 28th or 29th, so I think it's
| OK. Hope you agree.

I don't know if I can agree with that, but congratulations on lasting 10
years anyhow. Very impressive. I see on my sales ticket that I purchased
this Compaq 7470 on 1/14/00-- but I never plugged it in for maybe 3
months!

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

 

[Dan]

<snipped for length concerns>

I like Mozilla Firefox and I tried Opera 9 but did not like the
features of it. I know the latest Opera does not have any known security
vulnerabilities according to secunia.com but I just found the browser to be
annoying. Internet Explorer is okay and I like some features of it better
than Mozilla Firefox. I like Mozilla Firefox and the 256 cipher strength and
not having Active X vulnerabiliites. I like Internet Explorer in how you can
choose not to display non secure items on encrypted pages.

This really bugs me and why would companies like Verizon Wireless and
Google on their Gmail site do this. My thought is to save money and if that
is the case then that is really annoying because as a consumer with such a
page I do not know if my information has been encrypted or not. I think this
is another problem with companies that could potentially lead to identity
theft. Anyway, I am just venting about problems with the industry again and
now back to Windows 98/98SE.

 

[Dan]

I see that you have been using your computer over 7 years and that is also
impressive PCR. <grin>

 

[Ingeborg]

Congratulations! I hope this machine will last another 10 years.

I have a computer which according to it's BIOS is 15 years old. It's used
often, though not daily, as a printerserver. It contains an 486SX/25 16MB
(4*4MB)(which could be expanded to 32(!)MB if I could find 4MB simms. Alas
I can't add smaller ones), and a 700MB harddisk (from which only 528MB is
recognized by the BIOS). It's running W95 OSR2. There's a Brother
laserprinter connected, which driver default tries to let the host
processor do a lot of the rendering, because the driver programmer assumed
that it would have more muscles than the printer processor. Fortunately
this option could be disabled, since the printer processor is much faster.

 

[Galen Somerville]

"Ingeborg" <a@b.invalid> wrote in message newsp.tzgwyyg4kpmw55@siemens...
> Congratulations! I hope this machine will last another 10 years.
>
> I have a computer which according to it's BIOS is 15 years old. It's used
> often, though not daily, as a printerserver. It contains an 486SX/25 16MB
> (4*4MB)(which could be expanded to 32(!)MB if I could find 4MB simms. Alas
> I can't add smaller ones), and a 700MB harddisk (from which only 528MB is
> recognized by the BIOS). It's running W95 OSR2. There's a Brother
> laserprinter connected, which driver default tries to let the host
> processor do a lot of the rendering, because the driver programmer assumed
> that it would have more muscles than the printer processor. Fortunately
> this option could be disabled, since the printer processor is much faster.

I have some 4 MB (1Mx36) 80 ns ones like NEC MC-421000A36BE-80 which you can have if you want them.

Galen

 

[Ingeborg]

Galen Somerville wrote:
>
> Ingeborg wrote:
>
>> Congratulations! I hope this machine will last another 10 years.
>>
>> I have a computer which according to it's BIOS is 15 years old. It's
>> used often, though not daily, as a printerserver. It contains an
>> 486SX/25 16MB (4*4MB)(which could be expanded to 32(!)MB if I could
>> find 4MB simms. Alas I can't add smaller ones), and a 700MB harddisk
>> (from which only 528MB is recognized by the BIOS). It's running W95
>> OSR2. There's a Brother laserprinter connected, which driver default
>> tries to let the host processor do a lot of the rendering, because
>> the driver programmer assumed that it would have more muscles than
>> the printer processor. Fortunately this option could be disabled,
>> since the printer processor is much faster.
>
> I have some 4 MB (1Mx36) 80 ns ones like NEC MC-421000A36BE-80 which
> you can have if you want them.
>

I've send a mail to you.
BTW, you have 'botcrypted' your reply-to: address, but forgot your from:
address.

 

[thanatoid]

Ingeborg <a@b.invalid> wrote in
newsp.tzgwyyg4kpmw55@siemens:

> Congratulations! I hope this machine will last another 10
> years.

Thank you...

> I have a computer which according to it's BIOS is 15 years
> old. It's used often, though not daily, as a
> printerserver. It contains an 486SX/25 16MB (4*4MB)(which
> could be expanded to 32(!)MB if I could find 4MB simms.
> Alas I can't add smaller ones), and a 700MB harddisk (from
> which only 528MB is recognized by the BIOS). It's running
> W95 OSR2. There's a Brother laserprinter connected, which
> driver default tries to let the host processor do a lot of
> the rendering, because the driver programmer assumed that
> it would have more muscles than the printer processor.
> Fortunately this option could be disabled, since the
> printer processor is much faster.

....and likewise.

 

[PCR]

Dan wrote:
| I see that you have been using your computer over 7 years and that is
| also impressive PCR. <grin>

Thanks. But there was an HDD crash that did put my head through the
ceiling. Also, there were horrible sounds one day with the CD-ROM, & I
couldn't get the CD out of it for three days-- however, that has worked
well ever since. On that 3rd day, the sliding door would pop in/out real
quick at each boot-- until finally I was a tad quicker! This is my 3rd
monitor & 2nd mouse. Finally, my left speaker conked out, but has
revived. I have added a 2nd HDD, additional RAM & briefly had a
Promise/Maxtor Ultra100 PCI IDE Adapter card in there. (That isn't the
actual order it all happened, though, & bits/pieces of plaster still
occasionally do fall on my head.)

SO, yea, I'm not all that far behind thanatoid in longevity! And I have
reason to believe he will be assassinated before me!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

 

[thanatoid]

"PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in
news:uGELWK6AIHA.4444@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:

> Dan wrote:
>| I see that you have been using your computer over 7 years
>| and that is also impressive PCR. <grin>
>
> Thanks. But there was an HDD crash that did put my head
> through the ceiling. Also, there were horrible sounds one
> day with the CD-ROM, & I couldn't get the CD out of it for
> three days-- however, that has worked well ever since. On
> that 3rd day, the sliding door would pop in/out real quick
> at each boot-- until finally I was a tad quicker! This is
> my 3rd monitor & 2nd mouse. Finally, my left speaker conked
> out, but has revived. I have added a 2nd HDD, additional
> RAM & briefly had a Promise/Maxtor Ultra100 PCI IDE Adapter
> card in there. (That isn't the actual order it all
> happened, though, & bits/pieces of plaster still
> occasionally do fall on my head.)
>
> SO, yea, I'm not all that far behind thanatoid in
> longevity! And I have reason to believe he will be
> assassinated before me!

Thnaks for the laugh. Yes, I think my computers will outlive me.

 

[Dan]

I wonder if my dual-boot 98 Second Edition on C:\ drive in Fat32 and XP
Professional on D:\ drive will outlast me. <?!?>

 

[Dan]

Thanks so much for the great thread and discussion, thanatoid. I think many
of us and I know I really appreciate you for going the distance to post your
information about your cool computer.

 

[thanatoid]

=?Utf-8?B?RGFu?= <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:86689535-FA74-4FDC-8EF2-0C0E31F9F892@microsoft.com:

> Thanks so much for the great thread and discussion,
> thanatoid. I think many of us and I know I really
> appreciate you for going the distance to post your
> information about your cool computer.

Are you being sarcastic? I was actually REALLY surprised how few
people flamed me and how quite a few shared their "I also have
an old machine that I use and love" stories.

Maybe almost everyone just has me killfiled!