24 Mar
2000
24 Mar
'00
7:55 a.m.
OK, I got a 6.4 GB laptop drive hooked up and right now
the iOpener is
running DOS/BATCH V10-01A on an emulated PDP-11/40+RK05 system. I love
it!!!
It's going to take some real butchery to get the
case closed, but I guess
that's to be expected. The low-profile 3M connector barely fit under the
CPU heat sink w/o needing it to be clearanced, that was nice.
BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But it
still gets only
about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow.
I heard last night that Netpliance is making modifications so that people
can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling
the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges...
Can someone confirm this... and maybe confirm the change that they
have done (which I understand is simply removal of the cable connector
for the drive).
Oh, and supposedly back-ordered units will have the mod...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
24 Mar
24 Mar
8:50 a.m.
I heard last night that Netpliance is making
modifications so that people
can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling
the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges...
Can someone confirm this... and maybe confirm the change that they
have done (which I understand is simply removal of the cable connector
for the drive).
Oh, and supposedly back-ordered units will have the mod...
Well, the word from Netpliance is that they've locked out the ability to
modify them. It looks like this is at least in part in the form of the
following blurb, "Modification of the i-opener in any way is in violation of
our terms and conditions". To which my answer is, sorry I don't buy that.
No one knows for sure *what* the modification is, as no one has gotten one
of the modified machines.
My guess is they made one of two changes, either the OS is better locked
down, they removed the Hard Drive connector, or both. Of course it's also
been theorized they did something nasty to the BIOS, that seems unlikely
to me, but unfortunatly is possible.
Zane
9:10 a.m.
On Fri, Mar 24, 2000 at 04:55:25PM -0500, Megan wrote:
I heard last night that Netpliance is making
modifications so that people
can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling
the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges...
There's some mention of this on www.i-opener-linux.net, they seem to think
it's an empty threat, since Netpliance has *also* set up a place-holder
"developer's corner" page (at http://www.netpliance.com/devcorner) where
they say how tickled they are by the whole open-source concept and they want
to sell machines to hackers.
John Wilson
D Bit
9:24 a.m.
I think that for every one iOpener sold to a hacker, at least 100 are sold
to the general public for its intended use. Look at all the free publicity
they are getting out of this. How many more are they going to sell because
their product is now mentioned all over the media? I feel any "loss"
suffered because a hacker buys one will be more than compensated for in
increased sales.
Just my $.02 worth.
Bill
whdawson(a)mlynk.com
-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
-> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of John Wilson
-> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2000 6:11 PM
-> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
-> Subject: Re: iOpener
->
->
-> On Fri, Mar 24, 2000 at 04:55:25PM -0500, Megan wrote:
-> > I heard last night that Netpliance is making modifications so
-> that people
-> > can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of
-> money selling
-> > the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges...
->
-> There's some mention of this on www.i-opener-linux.net, they
-> seem to think
-> it's an empty threat, since Netpliance has *also* set up a place-holder
-> "developer's corner" page (at http://www.netpliance.com/devcorner)
where
-> they say how tickled they are by the whole open-source concept
-> and they want
-> to sell machines to hackers.
->
-> John Wilson
-> D Bit
->
1:29 p.m.
Its possible that they could goo the area with epoxy which will make it very
difficult but not impossible to add the drive. I have seen other manu's do
this as a quick fix until a more permanant solution can be
engineered.(remember Videocipher?)
I still have one ordered hoping the mod will still be possible.
Brian.
Megan wrote:
OK, I got a 6.4
GB laptop drive hooked up and right now the iOpener is
running DOS/BATCH V10-01A on an emulated PDP-11/40+RK05 system. I love
it!!!
It's going to take some real butchery to get
the case closed, but I guess
that's to be expected. The low-profile 3M connector barely fit under the
CPU heat sink w/o needing it to be clearanced, that was nice.
BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But
it still gets only
about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow.
I heard last night that Netpliance is making modifications so that people
can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling
the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges...
Can someone confirm this... and maybe confirm the change that they
have done (which I understand is simply removal of the cable connector
for the drive).
Oh, and supposedly back-ordered units will have the mod...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
9039
days inactive
9039
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
broth＠heathers.stdio.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
mbg＠world.std.com -
whdawson＠mlynk.com -
wilson＠dbit.dbit.com