First off, I think I really, really despise old Wintel hardware. I know, I
know, I'm working with old stuff, and I can't compare it with what's out
there now, but it's still pretty obscene.

Check this out:

#!/bin/sh
echo "The following checksums ought to all be the same:"
cd /
cp netbsd foobsd
cksum foobsd
rm foobsd
cp netbsd foobsd
cksum foobsd
rm foobsd
cp netbsd foobsd
cksum foobsd
rm foobsd
cp netbsd foobsd
cksum foobsd
rm foobsd
cp netbsd foobsd
cksum foobsd
rm foobsd
echo "I bet they were all different. Right?"

I ran this in a chroot environment, incidentally, just for kicks. The
results are the same outside of the chroot. I was just in a chroot because
I wanted to pretend for a moment that I had a real, working system, with
everything in place. So, anyway, here's the output:

The following checksums ought to all be the same:
516552295 1915692 foobsd
959436651 1915692 foobsd
2634406170 1915692 foobsd
984535928 1915692 foobsd
1163808251 1915692 foobsd
I bet they were all different. Right?

Pretty cool, huh? I hate this hardware. It took an extreme amount of
control to not lob it out my second-story window.

If I manage to dredge up employment any time soon, I'll probably end up
getting a Pentium-based box, at which time I'll try again. I don't blame
NetBSD for the problems... I blame this ragged collection of decrepit, evil
hardware that I've got. If/when I get a Pentium, I'll make sure it has a
SCSI controller. This IDE stuff is pretty horrible. Or, I don't know. Maybe
it's just my controller, or something. It's old and generic.

I'm seriously wondering, now... Should I give up? I don't know what's
changed, but I can't successfully copy large files any more. Obviously
SOMETHING has changed, but I can't say what.

ARGH!

Oh well. At least my SE/30's chugging along happily, albeit slowly.

This just bothers me. It's been a really long time since a computer has
beaten me. It never happens any more. It hasn't happened for years. This
486 machine REFUSES to work, and I can't coax it into behaving. I feel
utterly out of steam.

If anyone can think of anything that might get this decrepit heap working,
I'd love to hear it. If anyone thinks I should give up now, I'd like to
hear that as well. If anyone has random, meaningless, disassociated
thoughts or incomprehensible Discordian gibberish they'd like to air, you
might as well send that along, too.

Yours in utter, abject defeat,
  Mason

:P

--
        Mason Loring Bliss    /\    mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us
     www.webtrek.com/mason   /()\   awake ? sleep() : dream();
<barbaric>YAWP!</barbaric>  /    \  Squeak to me of love!