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<title>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers LG #101</title>
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<p id="fun">...making Linux just a little more fun!</p>
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<h1>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</h1>
<p id="by"><b>By <A HREF="../authors/okopnik.html">Ben Okopnik</A></b></p>
<p>
<h3>Whack-A-Rack, or Impact-Based PC Repair</a></h3>
<p id="by"><b>from Thomas Adam</b></p>
<p>
[ ** This was posted to my LUG. I have obtained permission from Isaac, who
said we can publish this for next month's edition of LG. ** ]
<pre>
--- ISAAC CLOSE <nospam@somedomain.com> wrote:
--- Thomas Adam <nospam1@somedomain.com> wrote:
> --- Paul Tansom <nospam2@somedomain.com> wrote:
>
> > Strangely enough I think that is all I remember of my assembly
> > programming on either 68000 or Z80 processors, although I still have
> > my faithful Z80 programming reference book somewhere. Were computers
> > really more fun back then or am I just jaded now?!
>
> Nope, it is all good fun. I have a unit at the moment, which is
> assembly programming on the 68HC05 (a motorola chip), although most of
> my assembly programming I learnt from my BBC Micro.
the ol' 6502 - 2MHz ?
cant remember nothing else tho ;)
funny...
A possibly well known trick to bring an hdd back to
life, is to smack it on the side with a soft hammer.
not too hard, but a whack indeed and presto.
born again.
One time, I dropped a 14" Samsung monitor face down -
smack onto a concrete step and watched helplessly as it
rolled down a further twenty or so, in the pouring rain.
No problem, took it home, let it dry out a couple of
days, works fine - still gottit, but a bit 'chipped' on
the screen!
and...
My development server was found lid off in horrendous
rain, (old ibm p166), I payed five quid for it.
(i166MMX/64MBRAM/2.5GBHDD/100MB/s-LAN)
Took it home, two days later switch on - fine !
even put a 40GB drive in it. Bios thort it was 8.5GB
(the old limit) but nope all 39GB useable.
Then one day, I overclocked it, and it died!
but came back to life strangley about a day or so
later, I did nothing to it, just tried the power
switch and it returned to life ?
Then, another day, I set it up on the floor, dead.
put it on a table, fine. back on the floor, dead,
table, fine - wtf.
Then, sold it to a woman in Lewisham SE London,
she phoned me about a week later saying it bust.
So I went up their with spare bits. This damn computer
would not accept any hdd or cable! just ignored them
all. So, I took it back home. Plugged it in.
Guess what...
It is now sitting in my cupboard, last reboot 10 days
ago. Longest uptime (before I had to swap some plugs)
was over four months.
And the only computer I ever heard of that suffered from
the millenium bug was mine! (seen a few since) when I
booted my 30 day trial paint shop pro had expired by
about 32000 days, but worked fine for six months.
I could go on and on, but maybe another time.
Isaac
</pre>
<hr>
<h3>Rootless Wanderer Saved By SSH</a></h3>
<p id="by"><b>from Heather Stern</b></p>
<p>
Once upon a time I was logged into a system. I wasn't too careful about
the terminal type setting - and I certainly wasn't careful enough -
let's just say the setting was a little iffy, going from this nice
FreeBSD box to my remote Solaris account. I didn't let this faze me
since I know vi even in primitive keys mode without cursors, and I just
needed something edited rather quickly.
<p>
As root. Whoops.
<p>
The passwd file, to fix a path. Carefully, carefully. Not carefully
enough to avoid bumping into an extended key code just before the magic
of ZZ took effect and saved the file...
<p> ...with the username <strong>root</strong> changed to the case
sensitive and utterly different name <strong>Root</strong> from what shows
in shadow, and guess who can't log in now. To put an even finer point on
it, Solaris of that particular vintage has a few system functions that want
to be the user <strong>root</strong> except - can you guess? Bet you
can... by name, not by number. No such user. Bad things start happening
like that great Garfield cartoon where all the things are going kerplooey
and he races to the kitchen to see that all the warranties have expired.
<p>
Luckily having been logged in only moments ago I know what the problem
is. Unluckily I know it will require root ... err... user 0 type
access. Can I do it? ssh ... long pause ... authenticates me, and I am
in. Hooray. THe normal authentication mechanism was one of the dying
breed but ssh ignored it as I passed muster with my key. With sudo I
raced to repair the damaged character and the day was saved.
<p>
I'll always be a fan of ssh and sudo. No doubt at all.
<hr>
<h3>A Nice Clean Computer</a></h3>
<p id="by"><b>from Tom Brown</b></p>
<p> A while back, I had the case off an old 486 "pizza-box" computer:
removing something or adding something, I don't remember what. Anyway,
while my back was turned, my son (who was 5 years old at the time) had come
into the room. He was looking into the guts of the computer when his hand
slipped on the glass of water he was holding, and the entire contents
spilled into the machine. Only the fact that the computer was off, and the
power cord pulled, saved us both from what would have been a dramatic light
show.
<p>Recognizing the better part of valor, my son vanished from the room,
taking his now-empty glass with him.
<p>The first thing I did was carry the computer to the nearest sink, and
pour the water out of it. There was quite a lot, as the glass had been
nearly full. From there, I disassembled every last part of the machine, and
spent the rest of the afternoon applying my wife's hair drier on the soaked
motherboard, memory, and assorted IDE cards. Lucky it was water, and not
something like juice or soda! Surprisingly enough, when everything was dry,
and reassembled, the computer worked, although, periodically, the machine
would refuse to boot, and I had to push and pull on the components a bit,
flexing the motherboard until it booted. Guess I missed a spot.
<p>As for my son, he never again went near a computer with a drink in his
hand.
<hr>
<i>[ If you have a story about something foolish or ingenious you did to
your computer, send it to <a
href="articles@linuxgazette.net">articles@linuxgazette.net</a>. -Ben ]</i>
</p>
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<P>
<P> Ben is the Technical Editor for Linux Gazette and a member of
The Answer Gang; this month, he's also standing in for the Editor-in-Chief,
Mike Orr, who is away on vacation.
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HEIGHT="200" ALIGN="left" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="10">
<em>
Ben was born in Moscow, Russia in 1962. He became interested in electricity
at age six - promptly demonstrating it by sticking a fork into a socket and
starting a fire - and has been falling down technological mineshafts ever
since. He has been working with computers since the Elder Days, when they
had to be built by soldering parts onto printed circuit boards and programs
had to fit into 4k of memory. He would gladly pay good money to any
psychologist who can cure him of the resulting nightmares.
<p>His subsequent experiences include creating software in nearly a dozen
languages, network and database maintenance during the approach of a
hurricane, and writing articles for publications ranging from sailing
magazines to technological journals. After a seven-year Atlantic/Caribbean
cruise under sail and passages up and down the East coast of the US, he is
currently anchored in St. Augustine, Florida. He works as a technical
instructor for Sun Microsystems and a private consultant. His current set
of hobbies includes flying, yoga, 18th century reenactment, blacksmithing,
sea-shanty singing, and writing; his Palm Pilot is crammed full of alarms,
most of which contain exclamation points.
<p>He has been working with Linux since 1997, and credits it with his complete
loss of interest in waging nuclear warfare on parts of the Pacific Northwest.
</em>
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Copyright © 2004, Ben Okopnik. Copying license
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Published in Issue 101 of Linux Gazette, April 2004
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