h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you have other windows open, you can drag and drop the links into the windows and they will open there.

Hope this helps

G.

My system crashed, in such a bad way that I had to reformat. Needn't bore you with the details... suffice it to say, IE5 is not, unfortunately, bullet-proof.

Sorry, I was being unclear. My point is, micro$oft $oftware, on the whole, only works with micro$oft $oftware. This is very sad, for the rest of us, but good for billy g. I'm all for thinking differently, but, o.t.h., do you want your expensive 'puter to work, or not?

I'm very sorry and it is very very sad, but if you go with bill, y'hafta go with him all the way.

My thoughts - go with Linux and may the grep/chmod/daemon be with you.
Personally, I don't like 'puters enough to want to recompile them, so I'm stuck with bill.

clarifying 'thinking different' and options to bill:
the best 'option to bill' is the different thinking that has been going on at Apple since 1985. Re expensive computers; the iMac at $800-1200 [current US prices] gives ole bills 'puters a run for their money. That aint 'spensive compared to what you have to do to bill's computers to get the same stuff. And for REAL power, a new, blue, G3 desktop Macintosh runs rings around bills' stuff, starts at $1500-1800, and is totally expandable, hardware-wise, so your initial investment is protected.
And then there is my beloved Powerbook. I run mac stuff, I run windoze stuff when I have to, and I run Linux when I want to. I can use it sitting on the couch, in the car [while someone else is driving, usually], sitting by the river. And if I'm bored I can watch a DVD movie on it instead of the inflight movie. [And as long as I have a REALLY long phone cord I can access the HH Guide from all of these places]
Linux is another option to Bill, but I agree, not for everyone, at least right now. But the penguin IS cute.
Internet Exploder IS a nice piece of software [she said grudgingly] especially the Mac version...but I dont trust bill enough to rely on him for anything. [the security holes...the privacy issues...the desire to rule the world]

Anyway, there ARE options to the whole 'bill-package' -- and good ones, too.

Yep, you are right about everything you said. I like macs too, I spent 3 years with them.Wonderful when they work, some kinda insane pile of kak when they don't. Which is, not often. All except one tiny little thing. Two actually.

In the UK they cost a complete fortune.

And you cannot upgrade them. I can double the power of my tatty old PC for 200GBP and I can do it myself. Complete new motherboard and processor for an unfeasibly small amount of money. If I lived in the U.S. it would be too cheap to mention.

Sorry. Apples are too expensive for most people.

I, too am in the comp trade, and you are quite right in what you're saying, BUT:
you can run a w95 pc with lots of freeware/shareware/gamedemos/younameits virtually crash-free. One of my machines is w95 only, and I can't even remember the last time it crashed.
The difference might be that I installed it w/out the IE (that's an easy one - just edit the install script) and I'm not using any M$ software at all. If you'd like to know more, please let me know.

hullo again Researcher 38840. I am curious about how much an iMac costs in the UK. Apple's online store says they dont ship outside the US, but MacMall, etc do have international ordering [but not on all products]
.
You can get the original "bondi blue" iMac online at MacMall and similar places for $888.00 US. This is not quite as powerful as the later 'fruit flavored' ones but still pretty handy to have around at: 233MHz CPU, 32MB RAM[expandable to 256mb], 4GB hard drive, 24XCD, 56K modem, and a 15" monitor which gets rave reviews everywhere. It also has a 100baseT connection if you have a network handy. For only 1198.00 [$310 more] you get the same configuration plus 333mhz, 6gig hd, ATI RAGE 128 graphics card. Now I agree that the iMac is not expandable [except for ram] but it is designed as an entry level machine for those who would not feel comfortable 'tinkering'.
You want expandability? the new blue G3 Mac opens up as if you were lifting the hood [er...bonnet] of your car. It is totally expandable. And for $1599 you get 300MHz G3/512K L2 cache, 64MB SDRAM[expandable to 1gig!], 6GB Ultra ATA drive, CD-ROM drive, RAGE 128 graphics card, 16MB graphics memory, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet. This is the entry level desktop. [The 400mhz benchmarks better than 450mhz pentium processors]. You wont have to replace this one until they redesign computers...
Now if it isn't possible to buy from an online store, how much would it cost for one of these babies in the UK? The myth that Mac is more expensive may have been more true in the past, but that is not the case today. And besides, you get a computer that smiles at you when it starts up...
NOTE: I am not affiliated with Apple Computer in any way [don't even own stock-darn it]. I am not Steve Jobs relative, either. I just believe that mac is a sound and reasonable alternative, and hope to dispel commonly held myths about them.
Good luck to all Researchers, regardless of platform of origin. I am sure we will all have an equal amount of trouble uploading our data and having our articles rejected.

Yes, I'd like to know more. How do you mean, you don't run any M$ software at all? Have you not been asimilated?

Me, assimilated? Rather not. As I said, I know my trade so I know many many alternatives that run just as well as the MS gear or even better.
To start with, there's StarOffice personal edition - it's a bit of a download, but it's absolutely free for the home user and it comes in all sorts of lnguages, too.
The 'single interface' that MS are working on has been a fact for StarOffice users for quite some time now, just for example, and the picture/paint prog that comes with it actually deserves its name.
If you want loadsa details about SO and other software I'm using, you can reach me at [email protected] evenings. Til then!

Intial impressions subject to change, it still crashes, oh pants. Well there you go.

Not anymore.... Yeah, right! The more observant amongst you may have noticed my earlier post where I mentioned tempting fate....

Well, guess what? Yup! System failure. Bigtime. Complete reformat required, and I *do know the softer alternatives. None worked.

FDISK... Format.... Blah about m$cdex.exe E:\Win95\setup

Grrrrr

If you want to get rid of IE, here's how to:
1, copy the 'win95' directory from CD to harddisk and remove the 'read only' attribute.
2, use 'extract.exe' under DOS or, if your W95 is still running, install 'cabview.inf' (lets you extract single files from .cab files) in order to extract 'SETUPPP.INF' from 'PRECOPY2.CAB'.
3, edit setuppp.inf this way: put a semicolon ; in front of the entries "o'hare.inf" and "athena.inf" - these are responsible for IE sneaking into your system. Save.
4, look a the properties of setuppp.inf and write down the EXACT file size.
5, edit 'layout.inf' (all in that same directory), look for the entry "setuppp.inf" and replace the number there with the new file size. Save, yet again.
6, Do whatever you think is appropriate to remove your old W95 installation.
7, Run setup from within the win95 directory on your HD.
NB: if you are using other M$ software, all of the above might be futile, since the little shop of horrors in Redmond have configured their recent software to insist on the IE being installed. See for yourself whether or not you want to play along to them.

That's right it was written by microprose. But the OS for the Commodore 128 was definately MS...right enough that was a pice of shit. (tou had to boot load the damn thing every time form 51/4" floppies, it took bloody ages. Am I trying to prove a point?

Yes. Sirius is everywhere.

I know exactly what you mean, and I've heard of something vaguely similar. If my brain keeps operating, I'll try and look it up...

Getting a Winmodem (truly evil devices) to work with Linux would be very clever indeed. Some Linux type is probably working on it right now. Or not.

My first computer, a Dragon 32 (anyone remember them?) came with Microsoft 16K BASIC. And software that loaded off tapes...