Charles J Knight wrote: > > > > One note -- he mentioned that he wanted W95 capable machines, > > > which implies a minimum of a 486/50, and preferably a machine > > > that's a lot faster. > > > > Most everyone here, knows what we WANT, and it isn't always what we > > can > > AFFORD, darnit! It's always either, Our Money budget won't buy us a > > True. Life is a series of compromises. But, "with a little help from > our > friends" it's amazing what people can do. OK, so I'm a Beatle's fan. I can deal with that. <G> > > MicroOptical pair of glasses, or, our Battery budget won't last long > > enough, or or or... <G> > > I'll say...I would LOVE a transparent full color display using a side lit > holographic system. But, I don't have $50,000 to develop it, and noone > seems to offer anything like it at a realistic price. I've not heard much about the Nipkow disks lately, anyone? Those could work for wearables, and the parts could be made on-site? > > Win95 will definitely run on a 486DX33 with 8Mb RAM; it's quite slow > > I don't know that I would use the word run. Execute, maybe... :-) I've > used it on a 486/50, and it was tolerable. Maybe you have higher expectations than us who've run Z80's at a couple MHz, off one 8" floppy, with 32k Ram, and eventually a whole 300 baud modem... > > a 386, BUT, remember - a 386 with 8Mb in the hand beats no machine > > Again, I wholeheartedly agree. But, if some of us have some old > 486's lying around, collecting dust, there's no reason to think that he > couldn't put them to better use elsewhere. It's entirely plausible that > some of us have unused Pentiums lying around too. 'Tis true! A pentium in the hand beats the 386 <G> > > all; Linux is a quite good OS; part of my thought was that there > > are > > Linux shells that look/act a lot like Win95, something to consider. > > And, with so many free apps for Linux, it might be a better choice > overall. I was just looking at what he originally requested, which was > W95 machines. > > > Know where Ghana is, don't want to think you're patronizing me here; > > Nah...I didn't say that to patronize you. My knowledge of geography is > pathetic, so I assume that not *everyone* knows, offhand, where it > is. S'Arright, so long as <G> The other thing I find is that so many times we mis-understand each other anyways, it's more a "normal condition" than we'd think, I find... > > > We could certainly just fill up a shipping container and ship a > > few dozen > > > complete machines to him, with relative ease -- cost is the major > > factor. > > My thought was that our "castoffs" are probably more than adequate, > and if he could pick up shipping, it could work for everyone. True! Anyone want to volunteer to be coordinator here? > > for the hardware he wanted, I could have mis-understood... My > > impression, too, is that shipping isn't THAT expensive (I'd bet I > > can > > reasonably quickly ship a monitor & machine to Ghana from here for > > about > > $200 max; Find me a usable wearable display at that price, > > *PLEASE*! > > He also said that shipping is only part of the expense of getting stuff > into the country. Something about the officials at the port adding an > additional "surcharge." ;-) Certainly implied. You know, if you could arrange for a news reporter to accompany those computers through the customs area, video cameras running, to document this wonderful happening, they might temporarily feel "generous"... > > > Why am I picturing something akin to a NeXT cube, as a final > > > product? > > > > Haven't looked inside one, this would've been larger though. I > > The NeXT was a single processor machine -- stacking motherboards > would produce an approximate "cube" though, and perhaps a case > design similar to the NeXT would be workable. I suspect this'll be a little bit larger... > > > Of course, a passive backplane with multiple CPU cards (shades > > > of S-100) might make a good arrangement. > > > > For Beowulfing, if you wanted to make custom stuff, etc. One > > I don't know much about a Beowulf cluster. Are they linked through > the bus, or through NICs? If through the bus, it should be possible > to come up with a backplane, and a right angle connector that would > link the PC bus slots to the backplane would be easy to cobble > together. NICs, hopefully 100BaseT if available. Could set up so the connectors are all easy to get at, on the side or back? > > I've bene offered a couple printers for good causes, may get one to > > the > > neighbor, but shipping those to the East Coast is pricey! > > Exactly. Actually, where is everyone located? I know a lot of members > are probably in the area of MIT -- I'm in Dallas, Texas. I'm in Enumclaw, Washington State, just southeast of Seattle a ways. > > It's really nice if all machines are of "identical" components, I've > > learned from managing 20 machines here, too. It makes debugging and > > finding drivers a lot easier, frankly. It's a nightmare to have 20 > > machines with 20 different hardware configurations, it's at least > > nice > > to have machines put together in a few groups of identical machines. > > Yep. And, if it was available, a custom burned CDROM backup disk > could be used to "restore" the hard drives to identical condition. > That's > assuming identical machines, though. Same disk could have several component files, alternately, pick the one you want (Do-able from a batch file or script.) > > I can find NICs for $1 sometimes, I've been only getting SMC cards, > > I > > can find a few good identical NICs here probably, if that'll help. > > I'd > > suggest we coordinate so he doesn't end up with a ragtag fleet of > > patchwork machines, if possible. > > We're on a listserv -- that's a good starting point. > > -- Chuck Knight Mark -- I re-ship for small US & overseas businesses, world-wide. 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