On 2014-05-19, wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 02:30:30 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:


Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

Since the computers (both Sun Blade 2000 machines) were not
*made* for wireless keyboard or mouse, I would need to get one of
Logitech's USB plug-ins to listen to the trackball. The keyboards don't
have all the keys which the Sun is happy with, so I'm going to stick
with the wired keyboard anyway -- but the trackball on the arm of my
chair keeps pulling out its plug, so the wireless would be nice there..

I'm actually using a Sun keyboard on the Mac Mini as well, so
the keycaps are where I want them -- e.g. Control to the left of 'A'
instead of a Caps-Lock which I never use and would be happier without.

the Sun keyboard on the Mac Mini works fine. The key which has
a diamond symbol on it works as the cloverleaf key for the Mac Mini.
But he Mac Mini doesn't know what to do with some of the extra Sun keys. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 11:58:43 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2014 02:30:30 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:


Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

They pretty much got most of the bugs out of Bluetooth and Wifi a
decade ago.

Yes -- but if the computer does not *have* either BlueTooth or
WiFi, that makes things a bit more difficult. :-) Certainly the Sun
workstations which I have seen never had those.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-19, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 19 May 2014 02:48:53 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-18, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 18 May 2014 02:51:57 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

tubing to direct wired, to 37 pin Amphenol connectors (with the crimp
insert pins) to the 50 pin D connectors. Then finally to networked
connections.

37-pin Amphenol in the D series (e.g. DC-37)? Amphenol makes a
wide range of connectors -- including the "miniature circular) ones
which used to be made by Bendix, and made with the connectors on the back
of aircraft instruments from the 1967 period.

No, it was one of the green round shell ones, about 1" or a little
bigger in diameter.

Green? Sort of OD on metal? Sounds like the military
connectors which started out from Bendix and which Amphenol took over.
Five keys -- One wide one at 12:00 o'lock, and two pairs of narrow ones
at about 5:0O o'clock and 7:00 o'clock? These are the ones I am
currently fighting with to interface to some mid 1960s military aircraft
instruments. I happen to have already had the crimper (Daniels
Manufacturing Company), but needed the positioner bushing for these pins
(about $45.00), and the pin inserter and extractor tools. All three
just arrived today, and I'm diving back into the project.

None with exactly 37 pins, though a number within that vicinity.
A 22-34 and a 22-36 which are both shell size 22 (mounts in a panel hole
with 22*1/8" , and 34 and 36 20 ga pins.

You had to crimp the tiny little mating bits on
each wire with an expensive tool that did a circular crimp, then
insert in the connector.

Yep. Actually, the connectors are available with solder cup
terminals or crimp terminals. Having just installed a 41 pin one with
the solder cup terminals, I now prefer the crimp version. On those
connectors, there is a grommet with the number of holes matching the
pins, with a fairly tight poke-through with the 22 Ga wire I'm using.
When you've got 41 of those soldered to the connector, and you try to
slide the grommet into place on the back of the connector, it is a *real*
pain to slide. I'm so glad that my 55 pin connector turned out to be
the crimp style -- for all that I had to get the pins for it at $2.20
per pin. :-(

But yes, in the same catalog is the scoop-proof version which
has the pins retracted enough so they can't be hit by the mating
connector until it is properly aligned with the keyways -- thus no bent
pins.

Bad choice on my part, drove us nuts keeping all the signals straight.
D connectors and ribbon was a lot better. I found quick release
latches for the D's, plus shielded ribbon cable which was rolled up in
the shield and outer insulation. I mounted the mating connectors in
the bottom of 6" Hoffman hinged trough suspended overhead.

That shielded ribbon (assuming fast signals) wants a particular
source and termination impedance. The simple termination is a 220 Ohm
resistor to +5V and a 330 Ohm resistor to ground on each data pin, such
as on SCSI cables. If the signals are slow enough, and the cables are
short enough, you can get away without proper termination, but for fast
you need it.

[ ... ]

There was talk of wireless when I retired, but I concluded that was a
bad idea in the chemical industry. Maybe I was just too old
fashioned, but the thought of someone interfering with a potentially
dangerous process with a cell phone or appliance, or intentionally by
some other means made me very nervous.

I happen to agree *fully* with you. Even if they don't try to
set up a second wireless network overlapping the first in coverage. :-)

Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)

[ ... ]

I'm going to try one of those on a current project. I'm trying to put
together a cheap, very simple to operate cd voice recorder. I'll use
a headless microcomputer to run the show, interface with pushbuttons
only. I'll use a monitor, keyboard, etc. to develop, test, and down
the road if this works, repair.

Good Luck,.

My wife volunteers with some folks in women's prisons here in Texas
recording inmates reading children's books to their kids, then sending
the recordings and books to the kids. They used to use cassettes, but
can't find the players any more. They're changing to cd's, also
obsolete, but at least cd's are cheap and available. The problem is
the volunteers are using laptops and recording thumb drives, and about
half the volunteers have difficulty running the recording, file
conversion, burning, etc. Never mind the inevitable bloatware and
pop-ups.

All of which makes things more difficult for those who are not
high-tech savvy.

We looked all over for cheap voice recorders with cd capability. They
exist, but not cheap. So I'm trying a $45 Beaglebone Black, $12 cd
burner, then I'll probably need a custom cape to handle audio, mic and
speaker, buttons, and battery management. Code will be the big deal.
I need auto-start and a graceful shutdown. Don't need no stinkin'
network, etc. Except for troubleshooting and repair, and that won't
be accessible to the users. I've got a lot of learning to do. And
networking (not my strong suit) to find the right help. Ultimately
they'd need over 30 of these. They cover six prisons once/month.

Good Luck with that project.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2014-05-19, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I have two computers on, about six inches apart, and wireless mice on
both. This computer has a wireless keyboard, but I haven't bought one
for the other system.

These are computers *made* for wireless keyboaards and mice, I
suspect. Mine are not. So the question is whether the plug-in USB
wireless interface can be configured to talk to one trackball and ignore
the other. And if it can be so configured without running a Windows
program, since I don't run Windows and most of my machines could *not*
run it. (No Windows for UltraSPARC CPUs. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
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Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2014-05-19, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

[ ... ]

Just like what happened with the Amphenol miniature blue ribbon
connectors. Centronics chose the 36-pin version of that as the parallel
printer port. Now, anything which uses one of the series of connectors
gets called "Centronics connector", including the most common (the 50-pin
SCSI interface -- which also used the DD-50 and a miniature quick-lock
connector which I first saw on Sun workstations and drive boxes).
Another (less common) one is the IEEE-488 connector (also originally
called HP-IB by Hewlett Packard, and later when it was made public
domain, GP-IB). That one uses a 24-pin version of the connector, and
usually a weird one on the cable end which has both a male and a female
on back so you can stack them, since you can chain a number of test
instruments on one bus.


I have a half dozen pieces of test equipment with the IEEE-488
interface. There are web pages with USB to IEEE-488 interfaces you can
build.

Hmm ... Can they be talked to with something other than Windows?
I've got an HP card in a machine running Ubuntu linux with an open
source driver for that which happily talks to my HP digital 'scope and
my HP DMM.

[ ... ]

The interesting thing about the DB-25 and the RS-232 serial port
is that the standards were very careful about the voltages which the
pins would accept and output, and lots of other things, but it did not
bother to specify the actual connector to use. It *could* have been any
of a number of other connectors, as long as it had enough pins. I think
that the use of the DB-25 for that was started by Ma Bell in their
modems -- and everyone else followed suit. :-)


It was a good choice. A reliable connector from Canon, not something
custom from an unknown source.

Indeed. But interesting that the *standards* did not specify a
connector at all. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 20 May 2014 05:33:51 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-19, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 19 May 2014 02:48:53 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-18, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 18 May 2014 02:51:57 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

tubing to direct wired, to 37 pin Amphenol connectors (with the crimp
insert pins) to the 50 pin D connectors. Then finally to networked
connections.

37-pin Amphenol in the D series (e.g. DC-37)? Amphenol makes a
wide range of connectors -- including the "miniature circular) ones
which used to be made by Bendix, and made with the connectors on the back
of aircraft instruments from the 1967 period.

No, it was one of the green round shell ones, about 1" or a little
bigger in diameter.

Green? Sort of OD on metal? Sounds like the military
connectors which started out from Bendix and which Amphenol took over.
Five keys -- One wide one at 12:00 o'lock, and two pairs of narrow ones
at about 5:0O o'clock and 7:00 o'clock? These are the ones I am
currently fighting with to interface to some mid 1960s military aircraft
instruments. I happen to have already had the crimper (Daniels
Manufacturing Company), but needed the positioner bushing for these pins
(about $45.00), and the pin inserter and extractor tools. All three
just arrived today, and I'm diving back into the project.

None with exactly 37 pins, though a number within that vicinity.
A 22-34 and a 22-36 which are both shell size 22 (mounts in a panel hole
with 22*1/8" , and 34 and 36 20 ga pins.

That 22-36 sounds familiar. That was in the late '80's. Probably 36.
Yeah, it was military stuff.

You had to crimp the tiny little mating bits on
each wire with an expensive tool that did a circular crimp, then
insert in the connector.

Yep. Actually, the connectors are available with solder cup
terminals or crimp terminals. Having just installed a 41 pin one with
the solder cup terminals, I now prefer the crimp version. On those
connectors, there is a grommet with the number of holes matching the
pins, with a fairly tight poke-through with the 22 Ga wire I'm using.
When you've got 41 of those soldered to the connector, and you try to
slide the grommet into place on the back of the connector, it is a *real*
pain to slide. I'm so glad that my 55 pin connector turned out to be
the crimp style -- for all that I had to get the pins for it at $2.20
per pin. :-(

But yes, in the same catalog is the scoop-proof version which
has the pins retracted enough so they can't be hit by the mating
connector until it is properly aligned with the keyways -- thus no bent
pins.

Bad choice on my part, drove us nuts keeping all the signals straight.
D connectors and ribbon was a lot better. I found quick release
latches for the D's, plus shielded ribbon cable which was rolled up in
the shield and outer insulation. I mounted the mating connectors in
the bottom of 6" Hoffman hinged trough suspended overhead.

That shielded ribbon (assuming fast signals) wants a particular
source and termination impedance. The simple termination is a 220 Ohm
resistor to +5V and a 330 Ohm resistor to ground on each data pin, such
as on SCSI cables. If the signals are slow enough, and the cables are
short enough, you can get away without proper termination, but for fast
you need it.


Hah, I misapplied the hell out of it, worked like a charm. I used one
ribbon for analog (24V, 4-20mA) and one for digital, which was cycling
heaters at about 1 Hz or operating valves. I'm guessing that ain't
fast. I controlled all my heaters with ssr's back then. Aluminum
jackets with cartridge heaters over steel components, so plenty of
mass.
[ ... ]

snip
Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)

[ ... ]

I'm going to try one of those on a current project. I'm trying to put
together a cheap, very simple to operate cd voice recorder. I'll use
a headless microcomputer to run the show, interface with pushbuttons
only. I'll use a monitor, keyboard, etc. to develop, test, and down
the road if this works, repair.

Good Luck,.

My wife volunteers with some folks in women's prisons here in Texas
recording inmates reading children's books to their kids, then sending
the recordings and books to the kids. They used to use cassettes, but
can't find the players any more. They're changing to cd's, also
obsolete, but at least cd's are cheap and available. The problem is
the volunteers are using laptops and recording thumb drives, and about
half the volunteers have difficulty running the recording, file
conversion, burning, etc. Never mind the inevitable bloatware and
pop-ups.

All of which makes things more difficult for those who are not
high-tech savvy.

We looked all over for cheap voice recorders with cd capability. They
exist, but not cheap. So I'm trying a $45 Beaglebone Black, $12 cd
burner, then I'll probably need a custom cape to handle audio, mic and
speaker, buttons, and battery management. Code will be the big deal.
I need auto-start and a graceful shutdown. Don't need no stinkin'
network, etc. Except for troubleshooting and repair, and that won't
be accessible to the users. I've got a lot of learning to do. And
networking (not my strong suit) to find the right help. Ultimately
they'd need over 30 of these. They cover six prisons once/month.

Good Luck with that project.

Enjoy,
DoN.

Thanks. It's a stretch for a retired chemist.

Pete

Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

One computer is a Dell 745 and one is a brand new state of the art
build. Everything is hard wired together and running Windows 7.

Buy the MK 320 combination locally, you can return them to the store
if they don't work flawlessly side by side.

On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:04:46 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2014 11:58:43 -0400, wrote:



On Mon, 19 May 2014 02:30:30 -0700, Gunner Asch

wrote:





Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where

more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless

trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same

time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer

to each other. :-)





I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (

MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,

no problem.



They pretty much got most of the bugs out of Bluetooth and Wifi a

decade ago.



Yes -- but if the computer does not *have* either BlueTooth or

WiFi, that makes things a bit more difficult. :-) Certainly the Sun

workstations which I have seen never had those.



Enjoy,

DoN.



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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Yes, but virtually NONE of the wireless desktop keyboard/mouse things are wifi or bluetooth. They come with a usb dongle that enumerates as a pair of Human Interface Devices (hid). If the Sun machines can work with USB keyboards and mice, I'd be surprised if they couldn't work with, say, a Logitech wireless desktop.

"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:04:46 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:


Yes, but virtually NONE of the wireless desktop keyboard/mouse things
are wifi or bluetooth. They come with a usb dongle that enumerates as
a pair of Human Interface Devices (hid). If the Sun machines can work
with USB keyboards and mice, I'd be surprised if they couldn't work
with, say, a Logitech wireless desktop.
=====

I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their
Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the
trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard
won't talk to the dongle it came with.

jsw

On Tue, 20 May 2014 10:41:21 -0400, wrote:


Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

One computer is a Dell 745 and one is a brand new state of the art
build. Everything is hard wired together and running Windows 7.

Buy the MK 320 combination locally, you can return them to the store
if they don't work flawlessly side by side.
If you want to be safe, just get bluetooth.
MOST wireless mice and keyboards need to be "paired" and run "spred
spectrum". Some old cheap crap ran fixed frequency and did not require
"pairing". 2 of these together can conflict.

On 20 May 2014 05:04:46 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 11:58:43 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2014 02:30:30 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:


Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

They pretty much got most of the bugs out of Bluetooth and Wifi a
decade ago.

Yes -- but if the computer does not *have* either BlueTooth or
WiFi, that makes things a bit more difficult. :-) Certainly the Sun
workstations which I have seen never had those.

Enjoy,
DoN.

If you buy a wifi mouse..get one with the USB receiver or the
keyboard/mouse plug in on the end of a receiver unit.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-W...Black/16207314

If you dont have a usb plug...and are not running windows or mac or
most flavers of linux...

www.microcenter.com


--

"
I was once told by a “gun safety” advocate back in the Nineties
that he favored total civilian firearms confiscation.
Only the military and police should have weapons he averred and what did I think about that?

I began to give him a reasoned answer and he
cut me off with an abrupt, “Give me the short answer.”

I thought for a moment and said, “If you try to take our firearms we will kill you.”"

On Tue, 20 May 2014 14:07:06 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On 20 May 2014 05:04:46 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 11:58:43 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2014 02:30:30 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:


Just as using wireless keyboards and mice is a bad idea where
more than one computer is in use. (I'm sort of considering a wireless
trackball on this computer, but I can't let my wife have on at the same
time. Were sitting about eight feet apart, and the computers are closer
to each other. :-)


I bought two identical Logitech wireless Keybord - Mouse Combos (
MK320 ). They are working on two side by side computers. Plug and Go,
no problem.

They pretty much got most of the bugs out of Bluetooth and Wifi a
decade ago.

Yes -- but if the computer does not *have* either BlueTooth or
WiFi, that makes things a bit more difficult. :-) Certainly the Sun
workstations which I have seen never had those.

Enjoy,
DoN.

If you buy a wifi mouse..get one with the USB receiver or the
keyboard/mouse plug in on the end of a receiver unit.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-W...Black/16207314

If you dont have a usb plug...and are not running windows or mac or
most flavers of linux...

www.microcenter.com

If you want a wireless trackball, reducing your carpal tunnel problems
whether you have them or not, I strongly suggest the Logitech M570.
Thumb-actuated ball, mouse wheel, and two buttons. Plus Forward and
Back browser buttons! I LOVE THESE THINGS, now that I can't get the
old Logitech Portable Trackballs any more. $40 at Amazon.com

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...

If you want a wireless trackball, reducing your carpal tunnel
problems
whether you have them or not, I strongly suggest the Logitech M570.
Thumb-actuated ball, mouse wheel, and two buttons. Plus Forward and
Back browser buttons! I LOVE THESE THINGS, now that I can't get the
old Logitech Portable Trackballs any more. $40 at Amazon.com


I like the M570 to control Media Center from the arm of a chair since
it doesn't fall off, but not for more precise pointing when editing
etc, like clicking the cursor progressively along the word 'editing';
try it.

I spent about 15 years doing CAD design of schematics and circuit
boards with a mouse and have some well-developed skills and
preferences for them that I can't duplicate with a trackball.
-jsw

On Tue, 20 May 2014 18:39:27 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .

If you want a wireless trackball, reducing your carpal tunnel
problems
whether you have them or not, I strongly suggest the Logitech M570.
Thumb-actuated ball, mouse wheel, and two buttons. Plus Forward and
Back browser buttons! I LOVE THESE THINGS, now that I can't get the
old Logitech Portable Trackballs any more. $40 at Amazon.com


I like the M570 to control Media Center from the arm of a chair since
it doesn't fall off, but not for more precise pointing when editing
etc, like clicking the cursor progressively along the word 'editing';
try it.

I've always had a love/hate thing with mouse cursor speed vs accuracy.


I spent about 15 years doing CAD design of schematics and circuit
boards with a mouse and have some well-developed skills and
preferences for them that I can't duplicate with a trackball.

TRAIN that thumb, boy!

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

On Tue, 20 May 2014 18:39:27 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .

If you want a wireless trackball, reducing your carpal tunnel
problems
whether you have them or not, I strongly suggest the Logitech M570.
Thumb-actuated ball, mouse wheel, and two buttons. Plus Forward and
Back browser buttons! I LOVE THESE THINGS, now that I can't get the
old Logitech Portable Trackballs any more. $40 at Amazon.com


I like the M570 to control Media Center from the arm of a chair since
it doesn't fall off, but not for more precise pointing when editing
etc, like clicking the cursor progressively along the word 'editing';
try it.

I spent about 15 years doing CAD design of schematics and circuit
boards with a mouse and have some well-developed skills and
preferences for them that I can't duplicate with a trackball.
-jsw


I suspect its all what one is used to. I do things with the trackball
that I costs me arm pain with the mouse.

And I certainly need less desk top for the trackball


--

"
I was once told by a “gun safety” advocate back in the Nineties
that he favored total civilian firearms confiscation.
Only the military and police should have weapons he averred and what did I think about that?

I began to give him a reasoned answer and he
cut me off with an abrupt, “Give me the short answer.”

I thought for a moment and said, “If you try to take our firearms we will kill you.”"

On 2014-05-20, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:04:46 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:


Yes, but virtually NONE of the wireless desktop keyboard/mouse things
are wifi or bluetooth. They come with a usb dongle that enumerates as
a pair of Human Interface Devices (hid). If the Sun machines can work
with USB keyboards and mice, I'd be surprised if they couldn't work
with, say, a Logitech wireless desktop.

O.K. But how do I convince it to not accept from a second
wireless trackball in the same room? (In particular, how do I convince
it to do that without having it on a Windows system?

=====

I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their
Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the
trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard
won't talk to the dongle it came with.

"Unifying program" -- wants Windows, right? Maybe available for
Apple's OS-X as well. Certainly not for a Sun workstation running
Solaris 10. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-20, Gunner Asch wrote:

[ ... ]

If you buy a wifi mouse..get one with the USB receiver or the
keyboard/mouse plug in on the end of a receiver unit.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-W...Black/16207314

If you dont have a usb plug...and are not running windows or mac or
most flavers of linux...

I do have USB (at least on the newer Sun boxen), but am not
running (and can't run) Windows, nor mac's OS-X on those machines, and
I'm also not running linux on them either. Just running Sun's
Solaris-10 as an OS -- the best match to the hardware.

www.microcenter.com

Easier to get to than Walmart for me. Still not sure how they
would solve problems with Solaris on Suns -- they have no idea what
those are. :-)

Perhaps I should e-mail Logitech to see what they say about it
all.

Thanks,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-20, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 20 May 2014 05:33:51 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-19, Pete Keillor wrote:

[ ... ]

No, it was one of the green round shell ones, about 1" or a little
bigger in diameter.

Green? Sort of OD on metal? Sounds like the military
connectors which started out from Bendix and which Amphenol took over.
Five keys -- One wide one at 12:00 o'lock, and two pairs of narrow ones
at about 5:0O o'clock and 7:00 o'clock? These are the ones I am
currently fighting with to interface to some mid 1960s military aircraft
instruments. I happen to have already had the crimper (Daniels
Manufacturing Company), but needed the positioner bushing for these pins
(about $45.00), and the pin inserter and extractor tools. All three
just arrived today, and I'm diving back into the project.

None with exactly 37 pins, though a number within that vicinity.
A 22-34 and a 22-36 which are both shell size 22 (mounts in a panel hole
with 22*1/8" , and 34 and 36 20 ga pins.

That 22-36 sounds familiar. That was in the late '80's. Probably 36.
Yeah, it was military stuff.

O.K. Then it is like what I am currently working with. I know
that they were present in the mid 1960s, and likely before then.


[ ... ]

That shielded ribbon (assuming fast signals) wants a particular
source and termination impedance. The simple termination is a 220 Ohm
resistor to +5V and a 330 Ohm resistor to ground on each data pin, such
as on SCSI cables. If the signals are slow enough, and the cables are
short enough, you can get away without proper termination, but for fast
you need it.


Hah, I misapplied the hell out of it, worked like a charm. I used one
ribbon for analog (24V, 4-20mA) and one for digital, which was cycling
heaters at about 1 Hz or operating valves. I'm guessing that ain't
fast. I controlled all my heaters with ssr's back then. Aluminum
jackets with cartridge heaters over steel components, so plenty of
mass.

Certainly not the kind of speeds which would give problems with
the signal reflections. Now when you are talking 10 MHz or faster, then
it really matters. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 5/19/2014 10:54 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 03:37:35 -0400, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:

On 5/18/2014 12:41 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sat, 17 May 2014 08:48:07 -0400, Boris Mohar
wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2014 01:33:24 -0400, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:

I had a huge struggle with soldering a couple of DB-9 connectors, my
vision and fine motor control just aren't what they used to be. And, I
only had to make 5 connections on the DB-9's, it took me close to an
hour. These are for a DRO, I've been using a break-out box until now on
the mismatched scales and display. Remember, the display bit the dust a
while ago.

I did have the connectors locked in a miniature vice but I couldn't
think of any other techniques that would help.


Try putting on some wrist weights to act as tremor dampers.

We'll be --== rich! ==-- once we start making Parkinson's Bungees for
Soldering. Not sold in stores everywhere!

Think of the Parkinson's sex aids...

"Just strap it on your arm and relax. Your body does the rest!"

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt



I hope my epileptic girl friend doesn't get jealous!

On 21 May 2014 04:41:17 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-20, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:04:46 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:


Yes, but virtually NONE of the wireless desktop keyboard/mouse things
are wifi or bluetooth. They come with a usb dongle that enumerates as
a pair of Human Interface Devices (hid). If the Sun machines can work
with USB keyboards and mice, I'd be surprised if they couldn't work
with, say, a Logitech wireless desktop.

O.K. But how do I convince it to not accept from a second
wireless trackball in the same room? (In particular, how do I convince
it to do that without having it on a Windows system?

=====

I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their
Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the
trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard
won't talk to the dongle it came with.

"Unifying program" -- wants Windows, right? Maybe available for
Apple's OS-X as well. Certainly not for a Sun workstation running
Solaris 10. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

DoN, yesterday I started a new Logitech wireless keyboard + mouse,
came with one tiny transmitter. It runs fine on that Beaglebone Black
running Debian Linux. We've got wireless mice (mostly Logitech) on
all our laptops all over the house. They don't conflict. Each is
definitely keyed to its transmitter, can't mix & match.

Pete

On 21 May 2014 04:46:15 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-20, Gunner Asch wrote:

[ ... ]

If you buy a wifi mouse..get one with the USB receiver or the
keyboard/mouse plug in on the end of a receiver unit.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-W...Black/16207314

If you dont have a usb plug...and are not running windows or mac or
most flavers of linux...

I do have USB (at least on the newer Sun boxen), but am not
running (and can't run) Windows, nor mac's OS-X on those machines, and
I'm also not running linux on them either. Just running Sun's
Solaris-10 as an OS -- the best match to the hardware.

www.microcenter.com

Easier to get to than Walmart for me. Still not sure how they
would solve problems with Solaris on Suns -- they have no idea what
those are. :-)

Perhaps I should e-mail Logitech to see what they say about it
all.

Thanks,
DoN.

That would be best. See if they have the drivers for your OS

Gunner

--

"
I was once told by a “gun safety” advocate back in the Nineties
that he favored total civilian firearms confiscation.
Only the military and police should have weapons he averred and what did I think about that?

I began to give him a reasoned answer and he
cut me off with an abrupt, “Give me the short answer.”

I thought for a moment and said, “If you try to take our firearms we will kill you.”"

On Wed, 21 May 2014 02:20:48 -0400, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:

On 5/19/2014 10:54 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Mon, 19 May 2014 03:37:35 -0400, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:

On 5/18/2014 12:41 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sat, 17 May 2014 08:48:07 -0400, Boris Mohar
wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2014 01:33:24 -0400, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:

I had a huge struggle with soldering a couple of DB-9 connectors, my
vision and fine motor control just aren't what they used to be. And, I
only had to make 5 connections on the DB-9's, it took me close to an
hour. These are for a DRO, I've been using a break-out box until now on
the mismatched scales and display. Remember, the display bit the dust a
while ago.

I did have the connectors locked in a miniature vice but I couldn't
think of any other techniques that would help.


Try putting on some wrist weights to act as tremor dampers.

We'll be --== rich! ==-- once we start making Parkinson's Bungees for
Soldering. Not sold in stores everywhere!

Think of the Parkinson's sex aids...

"Just strap it on your arm and relax. Your body does the rest!"

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt



I hope my epileptic girl friend doesn't get jealous!

Aw, just tell her to shake it off!

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

On Tue, 20 May 2014 21:04:18 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Tue, 20 May 2014 18:39:27 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
. ..

If you want a wireless trackball, reducing your carpal tunnel
problems
whether you have them or not, I strongly suggest the Logitech M570.
Thumb-actuated ball, mouse wheel, and two buttons. Plus Forward and
Back browser buttons! I LOVE THESE THINGS, now that I can't get the
old Logitech Portable Trackballs any more. $40 at Amazon.com


I like the M570 to control Media Center from the arm of a chair since
it doesn't fall off, but not for more precise pointing when editing
etc, like clicking the cursor progressively along the word 'editing';
try it.

I spent about 15 years doing CAD design of schematics and circuit
boards with a mouse and have some well-developed skills and
preferences for them that I can't duplicate with a trackball.
-jsw


I suspect its all what one is used to. I do things with the trackball
that I costs me arm pain with the mouse.

Top-mounted finger-actuated trackballs are as bad or worse than mice
for pain. Only the thumb-actuated balls prevent that, allowing you to
fully rest your hand and arm on the device.


And I certainly need less desk top for the trackball

And they require less dusting.

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2014-05-20, Jim Wilkins wrote:
....
I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their
Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the
trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard
won't talk to the dongle it came with.

"Unifying program" -- wants Windows, right? Maybe available for
Apple's OS-X as well. Certainly not for a Sun workstation running
Solaris 10. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

The keyboard and trackball remained 'Unified' when moved to a
different Win7 computer. I suspect the program copied the trackball
dongle's recognition code to the keyboard.

I just operated the cursor simultaneously with the trackball, the
touchpad on the wireless keyboard, and another wireless mouse. The
only wireless interference I've seen was from an aftermarket laptop
power supply that also jams the converter box for my old TV and shows
a wild party of spurious radiation on the spectrum analyzer.

I don't own anything Mac or *nix to try it on. At Mitre I had a
Windows PC, a Mac, a Sun and a Novell network in my lab, set up for
different CAD tools. Windows was by far the most versatile if not the
absolute best for every task. The Mac was particularly difficult to
add custom circuit boards to, not for the NuBus which is easy but for
the complex driver requirements. Windows doesn't like the user
executing low-level I/O instructions either but it allows anything in
DOS, which is still in there. I don't type fast or well enough to be
comfortable with Unix.

In fact the DOS underlying Windows 7 is rather nice, and almost fully
compatible with long NTFS file names etc. I've been using DOS batch
files instead of NTFS scripts to automate my backup process.

-jsw

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

Certainly not the kind of speeds which would give problems with
the signal reflections. Now when you are talking 10 MHz or faster,
then
it really matters. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

What really matters is the length of the signal path measured in
wavelengths at the max operating frequency. If the line is short
enough that you can't see any phase shift in reflections from the far
end then you can consider it a single 'lumped element', if you can
then it's a transmission line.

As a rough rule of thumb electricity travels about 6" or 150mm per
nanoSecond on a circuit board, about half the vacuum speed of light.

You know you are deeply into high technology when the time light takes
to travel one millimeter becomes important to you.

-jsw

On 2014-05-21, Pete Keillor wrote:
On 21 May 2014 04:41:17 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

"Unifying program" -- wants Windows, right? Maybe available for
Apple's OS-X as well. Certainly not for a Sun workstation running
Solaris 10. :-)

[ ... ]

DoN, yesterday I started a new Logitech wireless keyboard + mouse,
came with one tiny transmitter. It runs fine on that Beaglebone Black
running Debian Linux. We've got wireless mice (mostly Logitech) on
all our laptops all over the house. They don't conflict. Each is
definitely keyed to its transmitter, can't mix & match.

Great! I'll go for it.

Thanks,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-21, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2014-05-20, Jim Wilkins wrote:
...
I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their
Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the
trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard
won't talk to the dongle it came with.

[ ... ]

The keyboard and trackball remained 'Unified' when moved to a
different Win7 computer. I suspect the program copied the trackball
dongle's recognition code to the keyboard.

Since I don't need/want-to use a different keyboard, as long as
the trackball doesn't get confused with another in the same room (my
wife's potential one) it will be fine.

I just operated the cursor simultaneously with the trackball, the
touchpad on the wireless keyboard, and another wireless mouse. The
only wireless interference I've seen was from an aftermarket laptop
power supply that also jams the converter box for my old TV and shows
a wild party of spurious radiation on the spectrum analyzer.

:-)

I don't own anything Mac or *nix to try it on. At Mitre I had a
Windows PC, a Mac, a Sun and a Novell network in my lab, set up for
different CAD tools. Windows was by far the most versatile if not the
absolute best for every task. The Mac was particularly difficult to
add custom circuit boards to, not for the NuBus which is easy but for
the complex driver requirements. Windows doesn't like the user
executing low-level I/O instructions either but it allows anything in
DOS, which is still in there. I don't type fast or well enough to be
comfortable with Unix.

Well ... I started with all-text OS's, and unix (at that time)
required less typing (e.g. "mv" instead of "MOVE" or "RENAME"), but
today there are excellent GUIs on pretty much any unix flavor. I still
like to use older programs which do want to be typed to, but my typing
speed is fairly reasonable since I was actually using typewriters at
home as a teen long before computers at home were an option. :-)

In fact the DOS underlying Windows 7 is rather nice, and almost fully
compatible with long NTFS file names etc. I've been using DOS batch
files instead of NTFS scripts to automate my backup process.

Any problems with files with embedded spaces? I understand that
is a problem even in Windows with scripts. And is certainly a pain with
unix. (Though there are work-arounds. :-)

And there are now some pretty nice CAD and schematic capture
programs on linux -- more than on Sun's Solaris -- unless you are
willing to spend more than a car used to cost for a single seat license. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 2014-05-21, Gunner Asch wrote:
On 21 May 2014 04:46:15 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

Perhaps I should e-mail Logitech to see what they say about it
all.

[ ... ]

That would be best. See if they have the drivers for your OS

I've never had to have drivers to change mice/trackballs on my
unix boxen. Just plug it in, and it is recognized and used, including
the current wired LogiTech TrackMan. I would just like to not have the
long tail going to the computer from a rotating Lay-Z-Boy, which has the
trackball Velcroed to the arm. It unplugs the USB cable at a mid-cable
junction. :-)

And *nobody* makes drivers for Solaris 10 these days. Oracle is
really killing the OS and the hardware with their more restrictive
licensing.

Thanks,
DoN.
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On 2014-05-21, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 20 May 2014 21:04:18 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Tue, 20 May 2014 18:39:27 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

[ ... ]

I spent about 15 years doing CAD design of schematics and circuit
boards with a mouse and have some well-developed skills and
preferences for them that I can't duplicate with a trackball.
-jsw


I suspect its all what one is used to. I do things with the trackball
that I costs me arm pain with the mouse.

I'm doing petty well with the wired LogiTech TrackMan (thumb
operated trackball) with CAD and schematic capture software. (All
running on a linux box down in the electronics "lab", while I run them
from up here in the living room working at my Sun Blade 2000 with two
large LCD (or now LED) monitors.

Top-mounted finger-actuated trackballs are as bad or worse than mice
for pain. Only the thumb-actuated balls prevent that, allowing you to
fully rest your hand and arm on the device.

Thumb is what I use -- and I jsut want to get rid of the tail
connected to it. :-)

And I certainly need less desk top for the trackball

And they require less dusting.

Not if you have lap cats. Mine curls up in my lap, displacing
my keyboard (which is in my lap while typing) and leaving me to read web
comics with jsut the trackball.

And my wife has her trackball beside her on the sofa, and the
same cat likes to put her paw on my wife's had when the hand is on the
trackball. Fur in trackball (in particular in the optical encoder for
the scroll wheel) so it has to come apart about once a year to be
defurred. :-) Mine does not clog as rapidly, but sometimes it does.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2014-05-21, Jim Wilkins wrote:

In fact the DOS underlying Windows 7 is rather nice, and almost
fully
compatible with long NTFS file names etc. I've been using DOS batch
files instead of NTFS scripts to automate my backup process.

Any problems with files with embedded spaces? I understand that
is a problem even in Windows with scripts. And is certainly a pain
with
unix. (Though there are work-arounds. :-)

Yep, that's the 'almost'. A command which expects a single operand
like "cd Recorded TV" can handle embedded spaces but if it wants more,
"fc /b %1 %2", it stops parsing the filename for %1 at a space.

I fixed it by renaming the default destination for recordings to
\RecTV.

-jsw

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

And *nobody* makes drivers for Solaris 10 these days. Oracle is
really killing the OS and the hardware with their more restrictive
licensing.


I'm no fan of MS, they are good only by comparison. Now that I'm
retired and don't have to know how to hack front office hand-me-downs
for lab use I think I'll look harder at *nix. The roadblock has been
lack of a Conexant Winmodem driver but I found an old external US
Robotics Sportster to try.

Is Mint a good choice to just use for browsing, rather than study as
an art form?

jsw

On Wednesday, May 21, 2014 12:41:17 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2014-05-20, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"rangerssuck" wrote in message

...

On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 1:04:46 AM UTC-4, DoN. Nichols wrote:

On 2014-05-19, Gunner Asch wrote:





Yes, but virtually NONE of the wireless desktop keyboard/mouse things

are wifi or bluetooth. They come with a usb dongle that enumerates as

a pair of Human Interface Devices (hid). If the Sun machines can work

with USB keyboards and mice, I'd be surprised if they couldn't work

with, say, a Logitech wireless desktop.



O.K. But how do I convince it to not accept from a second

wireless trackball in the same room? (In particular, how do I convince

it to do that without having it on a Windows system?



=====



I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and a trackball and ran their

Unifying program to make the keyboard run in parallel on the

trackball's USB transceiver. That works fine, but now the keyboard

won't talk to the dongle it came with.



"Unifying program" -- wants Windows, right? Maybe available for

Apple's OS-X as well. Certainly not for a Sun workstation running

Solaris 10. :-)



Enjoy,

DoN.



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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Don - These things enumerate on USB as a keyboard and a mouse, just as if you had wired keyboard and mouse plugged in directly. The wireless part is invisible to the computer. If a "standard" keyboard and mouse work when plugged into the Sun, the wireless versions should, as well. As a previous poster mentioned, there shouldn't be any problem running more than one of these in a room.

If Microcenter is convenient for you, they are (at least around here) very good about refunds if there's a problem.

On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 5:07:06 PM UTC-4, Gunner Asch wrote:

If you buy a wifi mouse..get one with the USB receiver or the
keyboard/mouse plug in on the end of a receiver unit.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-W...Black/16207314

Once again, wirless != wifi.

On 22 May 2014 05:40:20 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2014-05-21, Gunner Asch wrote:
On 21 May 2014 04:46:15 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

Perhaps I should e-mail Logitech to see what they say about it
all.

[ ... ]

That would be best. See if they have the drivers for your OS

I've never had to have drivers to change mice/trackballs on my
unix boxen. Just plug it in, and it is recognized and used, including
the current wired LogiTech TrackMan. I would just like to not have the
long tail going to the computer from a rotating Lay-Z-Boy, which has the
trackball Velcroed to the arm. It unplugs the USB cable at a mid-cable
junction. :-)

Must be rough, poor boy.


And *nobody* makes drivers for Solaris 10 these days. Oracle is
really killing the OS and the hardware with their more restrictive
licensing.

So scream loudly and repeatedly at Oracle for drivers, mentioning the
reason for the dearth of drivers. If nothing else, it'll make you
feel better, knowing that you're a burr under their corporate saddle.

--
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

On 2014-05-22, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...

And *nobody* makes drivers for Solaris 10 these days. Oracle is
really killing the OS and the hardware with their more restrictive
licensing.


I'm no fan of MS, they are good only by comparison. Now that I'm
retired and don't have to know how to hack front office hand-me-downs
for lab use I think I'll look harder at *nix. The roadblock has been
lack of a Conexant Winmodem driver but I found an old external US
Robotics Sportster to try.

Winmodems are a real pain on other OS flavors because half the
modem is built into the OS -- and they really don't want to release the
information so someone else can write a driver to work with it in linux
or unix. They are really made to lock you in to Windows.

Do you really still *need* modems anyway?

Is Mint a good choice to just use for browsing, rather than study as
an art form?

I've never used (nor heard of) mint. I do most of my browsing
with FireFox on the Sun Blade 2000 systems -- with the problem of being
locked into older versions of Flash (which are known to have security
problems) so I minimize my use of Flash.

I've got NoScript running to limit what is using what, except
for certain trusted sites.

But if I need something with no limitations, I move to the
Ubuntu linux box (while still sitting at the keyboard of the Sun Blade
2000) and use the newer Firefox on that machine -- with newer flash and
such.

That is one of the benefits of unix machines. You can use ssh
to log onto another machine in your collection, and have it set $DISPLY
to point back to the machine you are sitting at, and you run the program
just like you would if you were sitting at the other machine. (SSH and
the X-11 Windowing system make it pretty seamless -- and you can't snoop
on the communication between the two systems, since SSH does
*everything* encrypted.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2014-05-22, Larry Jaques wrote:
On 22 May 2014 05:40:20 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

And *nobody* makes drivers for Solaris 10 these days. Oracle is
really killing the OS and the hardware with their more restrictive
licensing.

So scream loudly and repeatedly at Oracle for drivers, mentioning the
reason for the dearth of drivers. If nothing else, it'll make you
feel better, knowing that you're a burr under their corporate saddle.

Sun used to allow downloads of Solaris 10 for free, along with
the development system (Studio 12) to go with it, as long as you don't
need support. This simply meant that you had to have a machine capable
of running the OS (which included machines bought at hamfests or through
eBay.

They would even sometimes offer free DVDs of the OS for both
UltraSPARC and X86 machines, plus the Studio 12 development system.
plus whatever.

And -- they allowed the source for Solaris 10 to go into an
open-source project.

When Oracle took over, they allowed you to download and use a
copy for *one* month before you had to pay for a license. And to get a
license, you had to either be running on a machine which *you* alone
bought from Oracle -- or be able to show a receipt showing that you had
bought the machine from Sun before the changeover.

Nobody running hobby machines need apply, since you can't get
license for it. (Oh yes -- with the license, you also need to get a
support contract. -- Lots of money. :-)

And the open source project has been shut down.

So -- I'm using the old pre-Oracle Solaris 10 on some machines.
I'm also using OpenBSD on other machines. That way, I don't get on the
bad side of Oracle.

So complaining about the drivers would do me negative good. :-)

I've heard that Oracle is not enforcing the time limit for hobby
users, -- but they have never said so, and they have a *lot* of lawyers. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2014-05-22, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...


...The roadblock has been
lack of a Conexant Winmodem driver...

Winmodems are a real pain on other OS flavors because half the
modem is built into the OS -- and they really don't want to release
the
information so someone else can write a driver to work with it in
linux
or unix. They are really made to lock you in to Windows.

Do you really still *need* modems anyway?

I have antennas and thus no cable TV service to add Internet to.
Dialup is fast enough for text like newsgroups, Gutenberg e-books and
Wiki, and it's reliable when the power goes out, most recently on May
8. The Telco Central Office has its 48V battery and my laptop and old
analog phone don't need AC power. I -really- like having Internet
weather radar after a storm when I need to repair or tarp roof damage
and can see exactly when precipitation will arrive Right Here.

The phone company hasn't convinced me that fiber service will survive
a week without power, especially the user's terminal which has only a
12V 7.5A-H backup battery that may not last over 8 hours, and will
soon become a $10/Mo extra option. They also have a terrible
reputation for Internet support, though they have usually treated me
very well, e.g.this past Monday when they switched me to a cleaner,
shorter copper pair.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_...fairpoint.html
"This company is a complete and utter joke..."

The Virgin/Sprint Broadband2Go prepaid cell service I enable every few
months for large software updates is also a COM port modem. Linux
support for it is said to be possible but difficult. BB2G data has
lower priority than cell phone calls and it slows below dialup or
halts entirely during work hours when phone traffic is high, otherwise
I'd use it all the time, for $20 per month. It stayed up all through
the last week-long power outage. New England suffers from hurricanes
and ice storms instead of tornados (mostly).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Halloween_nor'easter

...
But if I need something with no limitations, I move to the
Ubuntu linux box (while still sitting at the keyboard of the Sun
Blade
2000) and use the newer Firefox on that machine -- with newer flash
and
such.

That is one of the benefits of unix machines. You can use ssh
to log onto another machine in your collection, and have it set
$DISPLY
to point back to the machine you are sitting at, and you run the
program
just like you would if you were sitting at the other machine. (SSH
and
the X-11 Windowing system make it pretty seamless -- and you can't
snoop
on the communication between the two systems, since SSH does
*everything* encrypted.

Enjoy,
DoN.

That depends on who and how interested "you" is.

I've acquired some [3-letter] habits of communications security, and
physically isolate off-line machines and run a sacrificial 'sandbox'
hard drive in this one. I store the hundreds of Gigabytes of
recordings that I transfer between laptops on 1 TB drives in CD-bay
caddys. One is a Momentus XT hybrid that boots like a solid-state
drive but costs not much more than a rotating one.

My gripe with Firefox is that it hides the cache contents so I can't
directly examine and scrub them from another administrative (root)
account as with IE8, to verify its built-in purge tool. CCleaner is
good but doesn't remove everything. It's taken me a while to set up to
periodically clean out all the junk without losing the settings that
are tedious to re-enter, like my custom TV listing configuration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_cache

This guy has written a nice set of administrative and cleanup tools
for Windows, some so powerful they trigger antivirus warnings.
http://www.nirsoft.net/

jsw

On 05/22/2014 11:48 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:

So -- I'm using the old pre-Oracle Solaris 10 on some machines.
I'm also using OpenBSD on other machines. That way, I don't get on the
bad side of Oracle.


So what antivirus software do you use?



technomaNge
--
Me either, all my machines are Linux.

On 2014-05-24, technomaNge wrote:
On 05/22/2014 11:48 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:

So -- I'm using the old pre-Oracle Solaris 10 on some machines.
I'm also using OpenBSD on other machines. That way, I don't get on the
bad side of Oracle.


So what antivirus software do you use?

That is a joke, isn't it?

The people who write viruses don't bother with machines with as
few total users as these OS's -- especially since a Windows box is so
easy to compromise. :-)

And unix flavors are a lot easier to harden against attacks as
well -- especially the OpenBSD ones.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 05/25/2014 07:11 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:

So what antivirus software do you use?

That is a joke, isn't it?

The people who write viruses don't bother with machines with as
few total users as these OS's -- especially since a Windows box is so
easy to compromise. :-)

And unix flavors are a lot easier to harden against attacks as
well -- especially the OpenBSD ones.

Yeah, I was yanking the chain of the Windows users here.
I don't use any antivirus programs either.

As my sig said, Me either, all my machines are Linux.



technomaNge
--
Sarcasm doesn't translate into text very well.