from Erik Huizing <huizing@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>:

>Here's my predicament: my machine's floppy disk drive doesn't work
>anymore, and I don't have a cdrom to boot off of.

Could you buy a replacement floppy disk drive?  I have seen prices like $12.99
+ sales tax here (USA).  ATAPI CD-ROM drives are also very cheap, nothing like
over $400 that I paid in 1993 for Texel 2x internal SCSI CD-ROM bundled with
Trantor T130B SCSI card.  I think you can get an ATAPI CD-ROM for $50 US or
less.  This Texel CD-ROM is still running good, outlasting two external Iomega
Zip drives, 100 MB and 250 MB, on the same SCSI.