[NCLUG] Another simple FTP question

dobbster dobbster at dobbster.com
Wed Apr 4 11:41:28 MDT 2001


> Oh, you are so dead... :)

Hey, I said I was sorry.

> Its usually a bit worse than that.  The sound card /is/ the modem.  You
> make the soundcard generate modem-like sounds, then pipe it through a
> little bit of glue circuitry, and you have a cheap modem.  The problem
> is that you work out the processor trying to create modem-sounding
> waveforms for the sound card.
> 
> Welcome to the world of Winmodems!  You might have noticed that Printers
> are getting cheap, too?  Instead of the printer having a brain, the
> computer is expected to do all the work.  The printer is little more
> than the mechanism.  Again, it makes it cheap, but it makes them hard on
> the processor, and a nightmare to write drivers for.

Hmmm, I thought that "winmodems" were a more general term for certain
plug-and-play thingies that are practically inconfgurable in Linux. 
I've dealt with PCI cards which evidently fall into this category.  I
HATE them.  But then, I might be confused, because the site below seems
to define "winmodems" differently.  I've also noticed that ISA modems
are a lot more expensive these days.

And yes, I have noticed that certain modern printers are becoming
nightmarish to deal with, especially with PS jobs, and/or over a LAN. 
GRR.  We did just buy a Lexmark Z-52, which actually has Linux drivers
and even a GUI installation program - Not bad.  Setting up the remote
lpd wasn't quite so simple, though.
 
> http://linmodems.org/ - for great justice!

What you say!!  I've already seen this site.  Still, I don't know if I
want to deal with it (this is a "favor" for a friend, and I have too
many "friends" asking for "favors" like this, resulting in massive time
consumption.)  I think I should just force this fellow to turn off his
on-board sound & modem and install something else.  He shouldn't be hard
to convert to Linux, after watching Win98 go belly up again and again,
for no explicable reason.

Mark (dobbster at dobbster.com)



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