hobbit@pyrite.rutgers.edu (*Hobbit*) (02/10/90)
Having just bought a used PC-lookalike, the first thing I did was to install a write-protect switch in same for the hard disk. It simply opens up the lead to pin 6 of the larger ST506 plug, the write-gate. So there's no fucking way a Nasty Thing could shit on my hard drive, and I could boot and run evil virus-containing games and such with impunity. This machine even comes with a REAL hard-reset button, so I don't have to be forever powering it down and up again when it gets wedged. I cannot *imagine* why manufacturers of these things don't install these two features and similar ones. The neat thing is that due to disk buffering, if you go to create a file, MS-Loss thinks it actually *did* create a file and write it out there. There's no way it actually senses if the write-gate successfully got to the drive or not. Next time you do a directory, however, apparently while it's computing the free bytes at the end it flushes the buffers, and the "file" you just created mysteriously disappears. [Perhaps someone more handy with MS-Loss than I can enlighten us on how this buffering works.] _H*
spike@world.std.com (Joe Ilacqua) (02/13/90)
In article <dogshit-0@pyrite.rutgers.edu> hobbit@pyrite.rutgers.edu (*Hobbit*) writes: <This machine even comes with a REAL hard-reset button, so I don't >have to be forever powering it down and up again when it gets wedged. <I cannot *imagine* why manufacturers of these things don't install >these two features and similar ones. Many PC/XT/AT clone motherboards do have a hookup for a reset switch. It is usualy a pair of pins (like for a jumper) some where on the front left of the motherboard. If the machine is a 'Turbo' (multi-speed) there may also be pins for a Turbo switch and for a LED to indicate Turbo mode. Why do I know this? I spent a summer assembling clones. And you thought they only did that in the Far East. ->Spike -- "The World" - Public Access Unix - +1 617-739-9753 24hrs {3,12,24}00bps
scott@csusac.csus.edu (L. Scott Emmons) (02/13/90)
In article <1990Feb12.171208.29372@world.std.com> spike@world.std.com (Joe Ilacqua) writes: > Many PC/XT/AT clone motherboards do have a hookup for a reset >switch. It is usualy a pair of pins (like for a jumper) some where on >the front left of the motherboard. Or...you can also do what I did on my old and ancient Zenith...pull the reset pin of the processor high via a pullup resistor through a switch....nasty, evil, and warrantee expiring...but it works! Hackwise...Well, I just wrote a cute routine that runs a script every so often (user specified time, of course). Great for preserving things in /tmp (you know...the usual reasons) when sys-mgrs rm things there regularly...And of course my routine disconnects itself from the tty, is niced, and handles other things correctly.....with a new version coming when I get done with other projects...want a copy? Written for BSD4.2. -- L. Scott Emmons --------------- ...[!ucbvax]!ucdavis!csusac!scott ucdavis!csusac!scott@ucbvax.berkeley.edu