geek week

This is geek week (apparently), since I’ve been focusing mostly on technical issues. The rest of the current chapter is mostly done, but all handwritten (with a very nice fountain pen), so it will have to be typed up, then printed out, then fixed up, then printed again, and so on. I’m a fast writer, but a slow editor.

A friend mentioned MSCONFIG, which has turned out out to be very useful for stopping all the programs which were starting when Windows booted up, and slowing everything down. I basically disabled everything I didn’t need (I can always turn the wifi back on if I’m going to use it, for example), or had never heard of, and now things are quite a bit more sprightly.

As I mentioned before, my dialup connection has been a little unreliable at times (and if dialup isn’t reliable, what are its virtues, exactly?), DSL was a disaster, cable is too expensive, and cell phone options aren’t a possibility at the moment.

So, I decided to try out a new dialup provider. They came highly recommended, but I’m not mentioning the name until I decide if they’re worthy of a plug. Their website says they have shell accounts for $15/month, or PPP (regular dialup) accounts for $25/month. I had a shell account about 12 years ago, and I enjoyed the command-line use of FTP and telnet and email and so on, more than the content of the information I was accessing, in fact (this was before the web was generally available). I thought a shell account would be a perfect backup for my regular ISP. I couldn’t see fancy websites with it, but I could update my site and check my email, and those are the most important things.

Well, they set me up (very quickly and efficiently, and dealing with real human beings, too), but when I dialed in, it was actually a PPP account (which turned out to be $15/month, too). I went back and forth with the tech person a few times, and then he asked if I wanted to telnet into the account, or dial up to it.

Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about telnet. If I got a PPP account, and could telnet to a shell account, that would seem to be the best of all possible worlds. If the dialup was reliable, of course. Which it seems to be, so far.

So, I telneted to my shell account, and was back in very familiar territory. Telnet or ftp to other sites (mostly to this website), and read email through Pine. I can also FTP to my home directory there, so I can move files back and forth.

Speaking of which, I apparently also have a website there, and they provide PHP. I’m not going to move this site, though, I’m completely happy with my webhosting company (Verve, who do deserve a plug) and have no intention of changing. But maybe I’ll put up some other type of website.

So, so far so good.

By the way, if you’re not familiar with shell accounts (and most people aren’t, I know), they allow you to log onto a remote computer and access it as if it was right in front of you. I originally chose “waldo” as my online handle because the feeling of being online in those days was similar to the “waldoes” from the Robert Heinlein story of the same name, like extensions of my arms doing things all over the world. In contrast, a PPP account (the standard internet access available today) is like looking into a window to a faraway place, or maybe like a televsion. You can see things, but not affect them.

(“Wasserman” came from Rob Wasserman, the bass player, and I chose it right after I saw him do an incredible version of “Stardust” on television with Aaron Neville, and now I’m listening to a lot of Ratdog, the band he started with Bob Weir, though I think that’s mostly a coincidence.)