You Got On The Internet How?!?

Every so often, I come across a post about whether or not a certain computer is Internet capable. Too often, this is with regards to computers that are a decade or so old.

Well, I've got news for you; this computer is a little over a decade old (Dell Inspiron 3500, 1999 vintage). It is running a very new operating system, Xubuntu 9.10, and I am typing this in Zoho Writer via Firefox 3.5.8. The performance is a little lacking, mind you, but it is better than what I got used to in the late 1990's.

The equation for what to expect really comes down to this: a willingness to accept that the computer will not be the fastest, that watching videos may not happen, but that access to content as well as the ability to post content is paramount. If you had to write that out, it might look something like this -

E(P/A)

That is, Expectations times Performance over Access. Basically, living with lower expectations while still having access to the Internet.

This still doesn't answer the question of how new does a computer need to be to be able to access the Internet. In truth, any computer capable of supporting a modem or network card can gain access (gasp!). Just be prepared for somewhat less than dazzling results. Based upon personal experience, here's what I've found -

0 - 8 years - Good Flash support, videos play fairly well. All modern browsers will work, most major modern operating systems as well.

9 - 13 years - Browsers lag by average of three years if run on major operating systems. Open source solutions offer better possibilities, but videos play poorly if at all. Java is somewhat compromised, .NET sites (and specifically, ASPX) run sporadically. Secure sites might have problems. Email access is still good.

14 - 18 years - Some computers still have the ability to run newer operating systems actually designed for their processors. Better options exist within the open source arena, but browser performance is greatly compromised. Secure sites are very difficult to access.

19 + years - Very limited access.

Chances are pretty good that these numbers will roll forward and perhaps hold as much relevance in ten years as they do today. To be honest, very few computers over fifteen years of age are likely to run properly due to aged hardware (faulty hard drives, power supply issues, etc). Let me stress again that I said it would be difficult, not impossible, to get older computers online, I've done so.

Just be prepared for lackluster performance. Access, however, is access. So, to my friends out there who are getting on the Information Superhighway using the digital equivalent of bicycles, I salute you.

It's All About The Ferric Oxide

Magnetism. It's what really powers the computer. Not all those microscopic transistors and circuits in a CPU. It's magnetism. Information is locked in a magnetic matrix in solid state circuitry; that's where you get your ROM, your BIOS, what makes the computer run. Information can be changed, replaced, modified, deleted, all due to magnetism. Newer devices, such as compact flash and the various forms of memory stick, all store data that way. They owe this legacy to floppy disks, the original removable storage media.

There is no point going into the history of the floppy disk here; Wikipedia has an especially good entry on the subject. No, instead, I would like to address a real problem that exists for us lovers of old computers.

Floppy disks are dying.

Not just dying in the sense that they are no longer being manufactured (in fact, you can still get them). No, the problem lies in the fact that older disks are losing their data.

Recently, in an attempt to get my IBM ThinkPad 500 sublaptop up and running, I burnt through some fifteen disks, five of which were unusable straight out of the box. This is not good; these disks had never seen the light of day, and now on a molecular level were severely compromised. That is a 33% failure rate, which back in the 1990's would have facilitated a trip to the office supply store with a major chip on my shoulder. These disks came from a thrift store, no such trip could be made.

Normally, on older systems, I like to preserve the operating system as much as possible. In the case of my ThinkPad 500, though, having it usable trumps nostalgia; it is the smallest laptop I own, fairly lightweight and IBM tough (though, to be honest, I suspect that it is a contracted item, designed by IBM but manufactured by another company). For in the field work (and here I am thinking some astronomy work) it would be pretty handy. Even one of my favorite old digital cameras, my Sony Mavica FD-83, uses floppy disks, and I am rather fond of the pictures it takes.

The problem exists in moving the data from this machine to others or to the Cloud. With the increasing failure rate of the floppy disks, another method must be found to move information. The ThinkPad 500 can support PCMCIA Compact Flash adapters and even CD-ROM, but the age of the drivers necessary means that they are becoming increasingly harder to find. There are many sites out there that have taken up "driver squatting", finding old, hard to find drivers and hoarding them, allowing access only if you become a member, which sometimes involves a fee (many, if not most of these drivers were formerly free).These were originally free; I will not pay someone for the privilege of downloading them.

Beyond the issue of whether the drivers are free or not lies the simple issue of what media to use. In the case of my ThinkPad, we really have three options; floppies, an external CD-ROM or using the PCMCIA slot for the various older media it will support such as Compact Flash. The media itself, though, has issues. Moving past the aging floppy disks, CD-ROM is really carving your information in digital stone, for once it has been written to a disk that's it. I have never had much luck with CD-RW; call me a doubter based upon experience. So, once data is added to a CD-ROM, it can only be copied, but never modified on the disk itself.

Compact Flash was fairly popular and in fact should have been more so. But they have found a limited audience, namely with camera enthusiasts. Also, not every operating system supports them.

A modern solution could be USB thumb drives. I've been using them for a while for moving data from system to system, regardless of OS, and always with a fair degree of success. For older systems, though, that is not an option. The oldest computer I have ever owned that would support USB was a Toshiba Satellite laptop running at 133 MHz. There may have been older systems, though I have yet to find anything less than a Pentium class chip (or, for that matter, a PowerPC 603e) that has been capable of dealing with USB. This really poses a problem for another recently acquired machine, a lovely IBM ThinkPad 760XD. It is on the lower cusp of being able to handle a USB PC Card, at 166 MHz, but I have yet to find one.

Which brings us back to how do I move data from that lovely old laptop to my other systems or the Cloud. When I bought it, the floppy drive was missing. It has a CD-ROM only. But it also has two lovely PC Card slots. I would like to replace the OS (Windows 98SE) with a more modern OS, a Linux (probably a Ubuntu derivative with a lightweight desktop). It cannot boot from the CD-ROM, and in order to install any of the modern OS's, it is a necessity. I can boot from a PCMCIA card, or even a network, however.

That ThinkPad gets saved.

My other ThinkPad, the 500, becomes a question mark. What do I do once my floppy disk collection has been burnt through, when I keep encountering problem after problem, once the read/write heads on the floppy drive can neither read nor write. How about my oldest computer, my Apple IIc? I have an Apple UniDisk 3.5” drive, so it has bought some time. The 5 1/4” disks, however, are beginning to fail in number.

One thing that is ironic is the fact that my 800 Kb 3.5” floppies for my Macintoshes seem to be faring fairly well. This actually has to do with the size of the ferric oxide particles themselves on this media. On the 800 Kb (as well as the associated 400 Kb for the Apple II and older Mac and 720 Kb for DOS) the particles are twice the size, and seem to have improved staying power. The 1.44 Mb disks, however, seem to be weaker, and to further complicate matters, cannot be really formatted to work in the older floppy drives. They might work for a while as 720/800 Kb, but they eventually lose their integrity and fail. And when they do fail, it is frequently thoroughly, making them unable to be formatted as either lower or higher density disks.

So, what to do?

As it stands, I have to make do with the situation. My ThinkPad 500 (part of my ongoing experiments with smaller, older laptops) is more than likely going to be reformatted back to a DOS machine with some sort of graphical shell (probably Desqview/X), its PCMCIA slot being prepped to handle CF cards for the inevitable failure of my last disk. My ThinkPad 760XD will, hopefully, become a full-fledged lightweight Ubuntu machine with a USB 1.1 card installed, so it too can share with others. My older Macs have SCSI, and I have have a couple of external hard drives that still have plenty of life. Incredibly, there are other options for them, such as SCSI to IDE to CF; they will be running as long as those options exist.

As for the still older Apple IIc, only time will tell. Perhaps I will stumble upon a place where 800 Kb disks can be purchased and perhaps buy the machine another few years. Eventually, however, the floppy drive itself will die, taking with it the Apple's only way to communicate. There are plenty of projects out there to improve the odds for these eldest of computers.

For now, those damaged floppy disks will live on... as coasters and other objet d'art.

The Internet as a Right

There have been a few moments in my life where an idea was cooked up and should have been followed. Those who know me personally would probably agree. One of the biggest missed opportunities in my life happened at the end of 2000. I had discovered a device known as the iOpener a few months before. Basically, the iOpener was an Internet only computer, which had a format similar to today's iMacs; a flat LCD screen with the computer built in behind it. It ran the QNX operating system, and used a dial-up connection. It was being offered as a package by one of those companies that has long since left this earthly realm; within a year of its introduction, the iOpener was gone, its company ruined. Their business model (basically, you got the computer cheap if you signed up for their Internet service) was flawed.

The iOpener only allowed access to the Internet, nothing more. It was an interesting idea to me at the time. Considering its price, it could have provided the end user with a basic computer, but no provision was made for it to load anything but the built in operating system. However, it could reach the Internet, albeit limited to 56k dial up.

That is where the synthesis for an idea took place. What if we provided the client with applications on line; cloud computing.

As is typical with me, I never followed up on the idea, one which, I might add, is becoming fairly ubiquitous. Even now, these words are not being typed in a word processor or even an editor, but ZOHO Writer, an online application. Since my initial idea of almost a decade ago, the notion of cloud computing has grown.

So, for that matter, has the on line community.

I cannot even estimate the sheer number of people who use the Internet today, but I do know from some of my contacts that Internet access is almost universal, it seems. I receive Linux tips from Uganda, talk astronomy with friends in Belgian, Ireland and Bulgaria, read the news in Tokyo, the list goes on. If I am accessing these sites, then surely the citizens of those host countries are doing the same. We have gone beyond cloud computing.

In recent years, a number of countries have declared Internet access as a human right, notable amongst them France, Finland, Greece and Estonia. They feel that there is more to the Internet than just entertainment, and of course they are right. This is interactive, this is international, this is community of the broadest scale.

It has been tempting to compare the Internet to television. Many pundits here and abroad have done so already. The difference is participation. You watch television, you cannot interact with it. If a news anchor reports on something, you cannot comment on it, for instance. If a news agency or even a blogger makes a similar comment on line, in most cases you can. This is the participation society at its best, and it knows no bounds.

Beyond the entertainment aspects of the Internet, there is information. Ideas can be shared, collaborations made. Communication is open, uninhibited. The Internet has provided the planet with a neural network.

More and more, information is being moved to the Internet that is crucial to many people worldwide. Information such as how to repair cars, plant crops, avoid diseases, community engineering, even personal development is being moved on line. While libraries are still a precious part of this information chain, there are many communities that lack them. Furthermore, in some areas, libraries are losing material, cutting staff and hours, and in some instances, being shuttered. Information is being throttled, restricted.

The ideas that are being presented here are neither unique nor revolutionary. What is needed is the will to follow up on them and the capital to do so.

Internet access should be universal and, in impoverished communities, free.

These networks will be open to all, regardless of economic strata.

The tools needed to access the Internet should be easy to use.

These tools should inexpensive; use recycled equipment where available

If these tools lack the necessary software, it should be provided, again for free.

We should not restrict access to the Internet to the newest, most up to date devices. Legacy access should be allowed.

It shall remain device and software neutral, requiring no additional software to serve as a gateway.

It may not be much of a manifesto, but these ideas are potentially powerful. We live in a time where the opposite sides of the planet are simply a millisecond away digitally. This is the path our world is taking. It is time to let others begin walking it.

Who wishes to join me?

It's Yesterday Once More

When last I left these pages, I was lamenting about the impending loss of two of my beloved Macs; my Plus "Selena" and my Portable "Galatea". Fate has a strange way of turning things around it seems.
I was gifted with 22 Macs in various condition (13 ended up being dead or at least inoperable) in early February 2009. Amongst this collection were two Mac Pluses, including one that was an original Mac 128kb that had the Plus 1mb update. Both of the Pluses worked, but the elder of the two was a little flakey. The problem? The main logic board. The answer? Simply replace it with the MLB from Selena. Result? A functioning Mac Plus, sans bad analog board. Selena lives!
Which brings us now to Galatea. When I attempted to fire this Portable up in late December 2008, it would stutter and die. After trying this a couple of times, I decided that the power management unit had finally bid the the last farewell. That wasn't the case. The problem was the hard drive. By disconnecting the hard drive, the Portable would boot via floppy. It took a couple of tries, but I was even able to get the hard drive to boot. Plans call for a replacement drive to be dropped in. This is no simple task; I have to build a customized cable. I have the parts, though, and that's half the battle.
Needless to say, it is Very Good to have these machines running again.

A Time To Put Aside

So, it has been some (many) months since I last posted here. Just been busy. Terribly so, in fact. Alas, that is life. Many things have changed, and some things not necessarily for the better.
One of those things that has gone wrong is Selena, my Macintosh Plus. There is a very real possibility that the flyback transformer has gone awry, and I simply am not up to doing the necessary repairs. Besides, some things about this machine, while wonderful, are now more of an inconvenience, like moving data from the Macintosh 800kb floppy disks to a more modern machine by way of intercessors. Not efficient though romantic.
Sadly, that is the fate of many of these older Macintosh classic designs. Parts will eventually breakdown, and the want for replacements goes unfulfilled. As is, the computer has not been fired up in three months at this time, sitting there on my living room bookshelf like an antique, which it nearly is by the regular measure of such things and definitely is in terms digital.
But letting it go is hard. This has been a loyal friend, always there, especially when I need access to something that will run only under System 6.
I have another computer of similar vintage, my Macintosh Portable "Galatea". While this machine lacks a backlit screen, it does at least boast a 1.44mb floppy drive. It may move into Selena's spot while my old friend is retired. Perhaps the spot will be filled by my PowerBook 540c "Excalibur", which is far more practical (and many times more stable). I may lose System 6 in the deal, though, and that is a hard bargain.
However, the fact is that, as I mentioned before, these machines do get old, and the earlier the design, the greater that possibility. It may be hard, but I may have no choice but to move forward, if only a little.
EPILOGUE -
Last night, played around with Selena one more time to see just how long it would take before the screen flickers would begin. In total, around 25 minutes before they made the whole task of using the computer unbearable.
But as if that weren't enough, I decided to pull out Galatea (my Mac Portable) and power her up to begin the process of moving data over. The Portable simply would not boot; total power management unit failure. In less than an hour's time, I discovered that two of my oldest machines were either unusable or quite simply dead.
I have discovered one workaround, though. By using vMac, or its descendant mini vMac, I can at least continue using some of my System 6 software on a much newer machine. In order to accomplish that, I had to copy over the ROM image from Selena, so in a very real sense, the Plus is not dead, just a ghost inside another machine.

My What Tangled Webs We Weave...

I decided to take a little time today and map how my little computer collection interacts with one another and the Internet. This little chart was the result.
Suffice to say... that's... quite a mess.
Some of those machines are truly legacy machines that I just don't want to part with. Others were meant for some glorious ideas... and ended up becoming machines I didn't want to part with. No doubt you can see the mess that creates.
Looking over the diagram, I'm bemused and rather concerned. Have I become on of those hoarders whom I often decry?
Time to thin the herd, I suspect...

In Remembrance of Futures Passed

What happened to my future?
It seemed so bright and clean
With towers of glass and steel
Rising above me in shining splendor
While people, happy people,
Went to their business
In electric cars
And everyone wore a computer
And we were all happy
Or at least content
No empty stomachs
And people on the Moon...
...and Mars
And the Solar System was our backyard
And the Milky Way our neighborhood...

RRL