On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 19:37:31 -0500
Chuck Yerkes <chuck+nbsd@2003.snew.com> wrote:

> Quoting Arlen Cuss (acuss@optusnet.com.au):
> > Hi.
> > 
> > Ah yes, as have been said multiple times since I sent this, sorry about
> > the lack of information.
> > The system is SLOW, and I mean SLOW: 75mhz, 20mb of RAM, 540mb hdd. It's
> > a ThinkPad 755Cs.

FYI, you may find that you'll need to monkey with the
PCIC_ISA_INTR_ALLOC_MASK option in order to get a pcmcia card to work once
you've got everything installed. See the options man page for more info.

> 
> Oh pish! Slow.  My Sun IPX (33MHz is slow).  My (working) NeXT
> at 25MHz is slow.  My MacSE/30 running OpenBSD 2.3 is slow.  RDI
> brightlight?(IPX in a 15 pound case) - slow.
> 
> the Kaypro portable?  1MHz, IIRC.  It's under the 2 Apple ][s (1MHz, but
> one has a chip upgrade that double clocks internally).
> 
> The powerbook 180?  Not so bad, 40MHz I think.
> 
> So don't even talk about 75MHz being slow.  It's enough to saturate
> a T1 as a firewall.  It's got over 100MB of disk.  I've got systems
> booting into less disk than you have RAM (soekris compact flash down
> to 19MB).
> 
> You kids, you're spoiled.
> We used to have to  chip our programs into ice.
> Lost everything each summer.
> 
Very Monty Python. 

I had a TRS80 Model 1, 1.1 MHz Z80 (with custom clock mod for that extra .1
MHz), 16K Ram, programs stored on audio cassette tapes. I had to write code
in assembler and use the PEEK and POKE commands of BASIC to manually enter
programs. Still, running a version of APL, I kept it around for a few years
because it made a bitchin' desk calculator. 

Now days people use 16K for a string buffer thinking that by throwing
memory at it, they won't have to worry about buffer overruns. :-)

> > I've never considered putting the harddrive into my desktop (400mhz,
> > 8gb, 64mb ram WinME Pentium II) machine,
> Well, that WinME thing has got to go.  I think they only sold ME for
> 45 minutes.
> 
> > but that is a v. good idea, however I'm not sure how differently laptop
> > hdd's are designed, and also my desktop
> > is a slim-line box; not really designed for additions.
> 
> Bad design can always be fixed with a hacksaw.

Or run the pc with the case open or cover off.

> I dunno if it's an IDE drive.  There are "little IDE" to regular
> IDE adapters.  

Yup. power and your ide ribbon cable plug into one side, and get funneled
down into a series of smaller pins  that plug right into the back of the
laptop drive. Since the desktop machine is running windows, I'd just
disconnect the cable from the pc's boot drive, and plug it into the
adapter. Then install netbsd on your desktop machine, with it's "new" drive,
and move the drive back to the laptop. It may be expedient to boot the
GENERIC kernel while working on teh desktop box, but remember to also place
a laptop kernel in / as well before you reinstall the drive in the laptop.

> Then stick a nonconductive, I dunno, mouse pad,
> under it.  No reason not to have cables and drives hanging out of
> your machine.  Puts hair on your chest.

I just turn the drive over on it's back, or let it hang vertically from the
ide cable inside the case because I'm lazy and fearless. Insulation is for
wimps.

-- 
Harry Waddell
Caravan Electronic Publishing
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"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm
beginning to believe it." - Clarence S. Darrow