Robert's situation

Previously last updated 2005.Aug, new edit 2007.Mar.04-10, Aug.11, Nov.12

Macintosh Performa 600 (68030, no FPU), running System 7.5.5, 8MB RAM (was configured for 16MB VM to allow legacy 24-bit-address software to run, but VM gave too many bus errors so I disabled VM circa 2012), 32.3MB (as of 2015.Mar.03) unused disk space out of 160MB total, VT100 emulator (USASCII *only*, max speed 19200 BPS) over modem (SupraExpress56 data/FAX) available but no longer used because dialups no longer support direct VT100 dialup, NiftyTelnet i.e. VT100 TELNET over MacPPP now used to talk to Unix shell account and other shell-like systems such as IGS, DSDD (800k) diskette drive no longer works as of early 2012, CD-ROM drive, SyQuest 230MB drive. The CD for the FAX modem contains a copy of MicroSoft Internet Explorer, but any attempt to run it freezes the entire machine, requiring pressing the COLD RESTART button to get the system working again. Summary, computer is not capable of running GUI Web browser over PPP service, nor even running MicroSoft InternetExplorer locally.
Update 2013.Dec: Cooling fan inside case stopped working, so I can run the Mac only 20 or so minutes per day.
Update 2015.Feb: A guy in Tennessee sent me a replacement fan, which I finally installed, so the Mac is back to running 24/7.
Update 2015.Summer: After I removed non-working diskette drive to read OEM ID on underside (and computer still was working), when I later put the diskette drive back in the computer wouldn't start up again (nothing whatsoever happened when I pressed restart button on keyboard), and still doesn't start after diskette drive removed again.
Dell laptop (Dell Latitude XPi P133ST), with no mouse or thumbpad, only trackball, running RedHat Linux with GNOME, 39MB extended memory, J2SE 1.3.1 + J2EE + BeanShell, no working modem (the PCMCIA modem it has, which stopped working 2005.June, is Xircom RealPort Ethernet+Modem 56 REM56G-10, barcode 9001MBFD1A23; My apartment has no ethernet service, so I have no way to know if the ethernet function of the modem is working or not), no CD-ROM drive, no working diskette drive, battery can't hold charge, very old version of NetScape (4.61) which has an obsolete version of JavaScript incompatible with all modern versions so it's impossible to prototype stuff on the laptop for later use on the actual Web.
Update 2008.Feb: I tried to start the laptop for the first time in several months, but it wouldn't boot up, says the configuration is wrong. I posted a query to a newsgroup (article <rem-2008feb12-001@yahoo.com> thread) and the primary response I got was that the battery that keeps the configuration information correct has probably died and needs replacing. So I opened up the case for the first time, to search for the battery, but couldn't find it, and somehow must have upplugged one of the ribbon cables, and can't find where to plug it back in, so now I can't power up the laptop at all for fear of short circuit. I could tape the loose end of the cable, but I'm sure the laptop wouldn't work with something unplugged even if it's protected from short circuit.
Update 2010 sometime: I found where the ribbon cable plugged in, and was able to re-start the laptop.
With PCMCIA slot bad hence modem unusable in this computer, I haven't been doing any development work on this laptop, and in recent years I've been keeping it stored away in drawer under bed, blocked by left speaker of compact stereo, which in turn is blocked by bags of food from food bank, which in turn is "blocked" by emergency fire-escape path to large window required by Sunnyvale ordinace, so it takes several minutes to move stuff out of the way to get out laptop or put it back away then put stuff back in the way to make my apartment "legal" again, but I can get it out if somebody ever comes over to help me diagnose problem with PCMCIA port, or if I want to show somebody something nifty I developed on it prior to modem becoming unusable, such as my EMACS script that lets it be used as integrated development environment with BeanShell.
Sony PCG-717 laptop running MS-Windows 98, no diskette drive, no drive for removeable CD-ROM, 128MB RAM, 2GB disk about 2/3 full, USB port but no drivers so thumb drive can't be used, empty modem slot (no modem). But the biggest pain is that the left-button under touchpad clicks erratically when it's not being touched, causing it to start programs or open folders or navigate or scroll etc. depending on where cursor happens to be hovering at such moment, such as the link to a Microsoft web site that is in upper-right corner of desktop.
Update 2012.Jul.08: I tried moving the Xircom modem from the Dell laptop to this Sony laptop, then using the Connection Setup utility to configure use of "standard PCMCIA modem" and establish PPP connection, then Run program TELNET to shell0.rawbw.com, and quite unexpectedly it worked! So there's nothing wrong with the modem itself, it's just that the PCMCIA slot on the other laptop is somehow broken.
Update 2013.Jan.03: Using Optiplex+56kPPP (see next below), I discovered a Web site that allows download of generic Windows 98SE USB Mass Storage Device Drivers. I then got this Sony laptop to the same WebSite, did download+installation, and now one of my USB thumb drives works in the Sony!
Update 2013.Jun-Jul: I tried to copy some downloaded IGS clients from Dell (see next below) via thumb drive to Sony, but JagoClient doesn't run because there's no Java Runtime Environment, CompoGo runs CPU for 9 seconds then exits without doing anything, and GoKnot won't run because CGDRUN20.DLL was not found.
Update a few weeks later: I tried more IGS clients that had been downloaded to the Optiplex, and found two that actually do work on the Sony: PANDA EGG, and Panda-glGo.
(New 2012.Jun.18) Dell Optiplex PC, 2GB RAM, 74GB disk (12GB used), running MS-Windows XP (home edition), with JRE but not JDK, no modem or other access to network, several working USB ports with drivers for my thumb drives, flat-screen display that's so heavy the stand must be made of solid cast iron.
Update 2012.Nov-Dec: I bicycled all the way to Best Buy (and back in the rain) to get the last 56k USB dialup modem they had in stock. But I couldn't install the USB device drivers drivers from the CD-ROM for 2 days because the CD-ROM drive on the OptiPlex kept getting CRC errors. TELNET then worked fine, giving me a second way to get access to my Unix shell account from my apartment, and I also verified that Internet Explorer worked, taking advantage of the free-15-day-trial my ISP offers for any service upgrade. Then it took several weeks before my ISP's admin got around to upgrading my dialup service to include full PPP instead of TELNET-only so that I would be legally allowed to use full PPP+Web service on a regular basis. Once I got on the Web over dialup for extensive testing/use, I learned that my own Web pages, and Google, and FastMail, are the only Web sites that are efficient over 56k PPP. Nearly all other Web sites take several minutes to load each page. Yahoo! Mail in particular is horrendously slow using IE/FireFox/Chrome, so I use YM via TELNET+UnixShell+lynx whenever I can. The only other service (other than vanilla TELNET or PuTTY) I've found that is efficient over dialup is PandaNet IGS, but it's TELNET-based so I was already using it anyway before dialup service upgraded to permit non-TELNET services, but couldn't download GUI IGS client until after PPP upgaded to allow Web access. Synchronizing clock via time-a.nist.gov takes appx. 16 seconds but does seem to work!

From home (unlimited online time, but times out and requires redial every 8 hours), indirectly: VT100 emulator (NiftyTelnet) on Mac, over dialup modem into FreeBSD Unix shell account
At public library (1 hr per day only if a terminal happens to be available, which is rare, 20-minute bike ride each way): MicroSoft Internet Explorer, no way to view available space on diskette to plan where to download images, no NotePad or TELNET.
Update 2008.Mar: Library now has MS-Word available, but doesn't allow saving an edit to hard disk, so it's pretty much useless except for scratch notes which are automatically expunged when the hour-per-day expires.
At CONNECT/EDD/NOVA (in same block as public library, 1.5 hours per day M-F only, usually only a short wait for an InterNet terminal): MicroSoft Internet Explorer. Strict policy that only job-search can be done, but with no tools to find any job I might qualify for, so it's totally useless.
Update circa 2012: My picture ID has expired, so they destroyed it, and I can no longer use their computers.
If I'm ever at a place that supports both Web and TELNET clients (haven't been anywhere like that since 2005.June until 2007.Feb, see below): Web browser to my public_html and also TELNET access to my shell account, whereby I could switch back and forth between editing a Web page via TELNET and viewing the result over the Web.
- Update 2007.Feb.12: The apartment complex where I reside now has three brand-new computers with both Web and TELNET access, except that only one is working, so each resident can use it only a half hour per day, and the only person available to open the computer room and supervise is there only 3 hours per day, 4 days per week, so I get at most 2 hours total per week, and the supervisor allows very loud talking almost constantly, making it impossible to concentrate on even so simple a task as going through my e-mail InBox to separate spam from the very rare non-spam, completely impossible to concentrate on JavaScript programming or WebPage formatting. So-far the only Web debugging I've been able to do is:
- One day I was able to view either CookTop or Matrix and see that the <h1> titles I was using all over the place were grossly large and ugly, but there was no remaining time of my half hour to try <h2> or <h3> and see what it then looked like, so I had to wait until I was back in my apartment and just guess that <h3> might be a reasonable size, but not be able to see what it looked like.
- Update 2007.Feb.26: The other two computers (total three) are now working, so there's no longer a half-hour-per-user rationning, but the supervisor's hours have been reduced to three hours twice a week. So far the only Web development I've been able to accomplish is:
- I finally got to view the <h3> that I had guessed blind a week earlier, and it looked good enough to let stand.
- I found another <h1> which likewise looked grossly large and ugly, and I had time to try <h2> and view it right away, and it looked good that way.
- Update 2007.Mar.05-09: Supervisor increased schedule to four days this week, but changed schedule mid-week so now I'll be gone for one of those days, but in any case 2-4 hours each of those days. It's still too noisy to do any serious software development, but Friday I was able to write a quick script to convert a downloaded file of UTF-8 (Chinese translated from English by http://www.systransoft.com/) to UniCode numbers expressed in hexadecimal so that I could then look up each character in a code chart and then download the pretty image of the character (because our MS-Windows system doesn't have Chinese fonts available). Unfortunately there are more people wanting to use computers simultaneously than the three computers available, so I was forced off my computer before I could save the URL where I found the code charts, and a Google search today as I do this edit failed to turn up that particular Web site, so I can't do any further work on that task over the weekend.
Update 2007.Jul: The computer lab is very popular, and the supervisor has reduced her hours, so we're allowed only a half hour per day per person. Also the supervisor insists on running a large noisy fan all the time, making it impossible to concentrate due to loud noise and cold air blowing at me for half of every three seconds. Also the supervisor arbitrary disallows any Web site whose name "offends" her, regardless of the policy of that Web site, in particular both MySpace and HotOrNot are forbidden.
Update 2007.Sep-Nov: The leftmost computer now has a flatbed scanner attached, but lots of times the software is not working, the whole application freezes during scanning, it's not even possible to close the window, and the person in charge has no idea how to get it working again. Also the computers have several other problems which nobody here knows how to fix.
Update 2008.Feb: Scanning is very slow! It takes a half hour just to scan selected portions from just three pages of a Chinese newspaper, eight JPG images in total, hardly worth doing at all.
Update 2008.Feb.28: Last day the computer lab was open for use by residents, because the person who used to be in charge has gotten a different job somewhere else and will no longer be working here.
Update 2008.May.27: New person hired to manage computer room, and it'll now be open M-F 4-7 PM.
Update 2010-2011: new person hired to manage computer room, with very limited hours only M-morning Tu-afteroon W-morning, and she likes to talk loud much of the time so I can't concentrate on anything there.
Update 2011.Jun: computer-room manager on medical leave for extended period so computer room closed for foreseeable future.
Update 2012: computer-room manager back briefly, then gone forever, and Edna from Catholic Charities has lab open only two hours once per week.
Update 2012.Jul.06: new person hired to manage computer room, to have it open several hours per day, five days per week, most weekly time it's ever been open. But one of the mice has been missing for weeks, so only 2 computers are usable at any one time unless one of the users brings his/her own USB mouse.
Update 2013.Jan-Mar: Computer lab closed for 2 months for remodeling, and now they have new computers with no diskette drive and running a new version of Windows that nobody here knows how to use. In particular, START menu is now totally different, so it takes us ten minutes to find anything such as My Documents (which has been renamed). Also there is no TELNET or FTP program whatsoever on these computers, so I can no longer connect to my Unix shell account from them and I can no longer upload/download large files that require 3 minutes per megabyte on dialup. Also there's no Chinese-character input on any of them, so the fifteen or so Chinese residents can't use them to compose e-mail etc. The only good thing about them is that they're so small that the fit on the table under monitor instead of on floor, so there's more legroom now than with the Optiplexe "towers" they used to have.
Update 2015.Summer: New policy, computer lab open unattended M-F 08:30 to 16:30, allowing social worker to work in her office or make "home visits" etc. without needing to close computer lab during such times, so most of the time computer lab is available for new person to just walk in and use it without waiting for a computer to be free, and most of the time it's relatively quiet in the room, and most of the time it's possible to do online banking and other confidential tasks in a secure manner (nobody walking behind user able to look over shoulder).

Features of my current ISP:

System: FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE-p9
Accessible via TELNET, and a couple other methods I never use
Local (Mountain View) telephone number for customer support, such as when phone company makes all the regular dialups unusable and I need to find out number for any dialup that is currently working.
Update 2012: The Mountain View number is obsolete, takes messages that aren't seen for days, current customer support number costs 18 cents per minute to call.
Default shell: tcsh
All shells available: /bin/csh,sh,tcsh /usr/local/bin/bash,ksh,tclsh,tcsh,zsh
Line editor whereby up/down arrows change to prev/next lines and left/right arrows move cursor within line
Total disk space: 409600 KB = 400 MB
public_html as part of that disk allocation
An additional 100 MB allocated to a single MySQL database, accessible from PHP scripts.
PHP files allowed anywhere within public_html tree.
cgi-bin directory tree allowing any Unix executable, either native binary, or any script that any native binary can directly interpret from CGI script, for example:
- Perl: v5.8.0 built for i386-freebsd
- Lisp: CMU Common Lisp 18b, Python 1.0, target Intel x86, CLOS based on PCL version: September 16 92 PCL (f)
- Java (J2SE): Classic VM (build jdk1.2.2-FreeBSD:root:2000/11/25-02:08, green threads, nojit)
- See CGI hello-world plus for a complete list of shells and other scripting/programming languages I've discovered here which are suitable for CGI applications.

Sorely missing or disallowed features/capabilities with current ISP:

Filtering incoming e-mail at SMTP level, so SMTP status codes can be used to reject spam and thereby prevent it from ever entering our system and leaving it to the SMTP client to inform the sender when e-mail was rejected.
Setting up my own TCP socket listeners for experimental or ad hoc protocols that don't follow the PHP or CGI models. I'll probably hack my way around that lack by writing pseudo-TCP servers that run as CGI applications, using XML and/or s-expressions (embedded in URLENCODED-FORM-CONTENTS going from client to my server, verbatim after HTTP/MIME header going from my server to client).
Running heavily compute-intensive or network-intensive applications that use more than a tiny share of total system resources
J2EE with JSPs HttpServlets RMI etc.

Assets: Nearly zero cash on hand or in bank, offset by appx. $64,000 credit-card debts, no way to make minimum payments hence defaulting on eight out of nine credit cards. -- Update 2006.Mar-Jul: I was mis-diagnosed by a quack and consequently held prisoner for 3 1/3 months, tortured by inappropriate drugs due to the mis-diagnosis, and assigned an incompetant conservator Rhondi Opheim who failed to make payments on my one remaining useful credit card, causing it to be revoked, thereby stopping making payments on storage of 90% of my personal property that won't fit in this eensy teensy micro-sized <SoCalled>apartment</SoCalled>, causing my most valuable 15% of property to go to auction only a week after I got out of the hospital, but fortunately I was able to save it just 2 days before auction, but causing the remaining 75% of all my personal property to continue to default because there's absolutely no way to catch up with payments after my conservator waylaid much of my SSDI and SSI both while I was in the hospital and also after she was dismissed by the court and had no legal right to intercept my SSDI and SSI but nevertheless she doesn't care about my legal rights, anyway that 75% is going to auction 2007.Mar.17 and there's nothing I can do to save it except rob a bank to get enough money to pay the accumulated storage charges. Nevermind that a week before the court finally realized its mistake and released me, I acquired a case of Scabies, probably from improperly washed clothing, and the nurse I showed it to said it was nothing worth treating so I should just leave it alone and it'll go away on its own, but after a month it had spread to most of my body, and finally I could get it treated but developed a secondary bacterial infection that has resisted treatment until just a couple weeks ago when the itchy boils all over my butt finally began to diminish significantly.
Cashflow: Income exceeds normal living expenses (not including food) by less than $10/month. No income to purchase any significant amount of food (getting almost all my food from a food bank, which will no longer be available after September).
- Update 2005.Oct: My authorization at the food bank where I used to live (basically a mini-store we could browse up to 5 days a week, taking one ite from each shelf, plus varying quotas on fresh produce, in any case picking just what I can use and leaving the rest for others) ended near the end of September, so now I have to switch to the food banks in Sunnyvale, where you get a bag of food already selected by people who have no idea what I can use and what I can't use, so a good fraction of what I get is crap I have to just leave in the kitchen for others to scavange. So now I have excessive amounts of dry pasta (mostly spaghetti) with hardly ever any sauce to put on it, and not enough canned food to get me by, and hardly ever any dry/breakfast cereal.
Limits on expenditures: Neither assets nor income to replace/repair modem in laptop, nor to pay for special spam-protected e-mail service, nor to buy new computer, nor to buy printer, nor to buy MicroSoft Word, nor to pay Kinko's or public library for printing or copying or word-processing services, nor even to get a new television to replace my old (circa 1985) one that my former wife poured water into and which has finally (2006.Dec) stopped working totally almost all the time.
Update 2007.May: My old TV finally stopped working completely, after I was able to watch the season finale of "Surface", but later that same day the season finale of "24" was supposed to be shown, so I missed the latter.
Update 2007.Jul: I found a used television that somebody had abandoned in the kitchen, and it works, so I've junked the old TV, and now I can watch TV once again. But the remote control for my VCR isn't working, so I can't see the time counter when rewinding, and I can't use the programmed-recording feature at all. Target has a Universal Remote Control that might work, but I haven't had time to check if it handles the correct brand of VCR (Hatzlachh/Broksonic).
Update: The clerk said it does handle my VCR's brand, so I bought the universal remote control, and it works for basic functions, but doesn't provide any way to set record speed (defaults to standard whereas I normally use triple play), and doesn't provide any way to set clock or timed record schedule, so I returned it and ordered a brand-new unit from Hatzlachh/Broksonic, which arrived and works great!
Update 2008: TV has switched to digital, so auto-record on VCR is now useless, so I can no longer be away from home when one of my favorite TV shows is on and have it auto-record, so I have to stay home any time one of my favorite TV shows is scheduled.

Tiny half-studio apartment smaller than a typical motel room.
No room for my paper file. Nearly all my personal papers are in storage instead.
Just barely room for my Macintosh, on small end-table with modem, telephone, caller-ID box, and timer to wake up in morning, consuming the rest of the end-table. No room for keyboard for Mac except semi-precariously on top of a box in front of the computer, or very precariously on corner of TV table, which are the two places I store it when I need to get it off my lap which is the only place I can use it. No room for computer table nor swivel chair nor dining room table nor sofa nor loveseat nor queen size bed nor bookcase etc. etc. all in storage. I haven't connected my SyQuest EzFlyer since I moved here because there's no place to put it.
- Update 2006.Jun-present: Disaster caused by hospitalization causing loss of 3/4 of all personal property (see details earlier).
- Update 2007.Mar: I finally had enough incentive, namely Jan Kok's circa 1974 e-mailed English/Mandarin dictionary, combined with urgent need to learn some Mandarin to communicate with several potential users of my ESA program, to rearrange stuff in my micro-apartment to have room to connect the SyQuest drive next to the computer. But sadly my list of SQWA (Specific Questions Waiting for Answers) is nowhere to find. I have no idea why it didn't get on the Full Backup of all my diskettes (did I miss one??) on the SyQuest cartridge. But Jan Kok's English/Mandarin dictionary was there, so I was able to copy it to hard disk, and make some flashcards from it, and learn nine Mandarin words during the first two days (Mar.02-04) and a total of 22 so-far after 7 days of occasional study. If you're curious, here it is online, errata would be much appreciated if you're bilingual in English and Mandarin and willing to deal with Jan Kok's handcrafted notation for Chinese tones.
No room anywhere in open for the laptop I already have (given by Java instructor 2004.Nov). So the only places I can use it are:
- in same chair where I have the Mac keyboard on my lap, putting Mac keyboard on corner of TV table when I have the laptop on my lap, and putting laptop on box in front of Mac when I have Mac keyboard on my lap.
- sitting on bed, unable to see Mac, putting the laptop beside me on the bed when I need to get up
And when I need to take a nap, and the laptop is running, the only place I can put it is in the middle of the floor where I have to be careful not to step on it. That's not good except in emergencies. When the laptop is not on, I have to keep it in a drawer where I won't step on it.
My portable radio is wedged between the back of the chair holding the VCR with box of bathroom supplies on top of it, and the entrance to the shower stall.
- Update 2007.Jul: The portable radio finally completely stopped working, so I have no way to listen to KCEA or KKUP.
- Update: I bought a boom box at Target, with digital tuner, thinking it'd get good reception of KCEA, but the tuner is very low quality and can hardly get KCEA at all.
- Update: John, 3 doors away, got compact sterio from people who were moving out, but it has only 3-CD carousel whereas he already has compact sterio with 4-CD carousel, so he gave me the 3-CD, which gets KCEA better than the boom box.
My portable cassette tape recorder is in its carrying box, on the floor under the TV table, where I haven't gotten it out since I moved here because there's no room to use it where it wouldn't be stepped on or tripped over.
- Update 2006.Mar: I've finally gotten my cassette out occasionally, such as when baking something in kitchen when I need some music to avoid total boredom while waiting, but have to keep it put away when not in use.
My main reel-to-reel tape recorder, with medium-size speakers, is in storage because there's no room whatsoever to put it in this tiny so-called apartment, not to mention that it hasn't worked since sometime 2001 or so. My collection of music on reel-to-reel tapes is also in storage.
As you can see from the above, there's absolutely no room for any more equipment in this tiny apartment, except possibly another laptop computer which would fit in the cupboard stacked on top of or under the old laptop depending on which was last used, and just like it would be "in the way" whenever I got it out for use, so I wouldn't be able to make any regular use of it.

Somebody in the local area with the same kind of modem my laptop has, but currently working, to swap the modems to verify whether the problem is in the modem or in the laptop. (The modem software started giving trouble immediately after I changed the hardware clock on the laptop to be correctly on GMT instead of seven hours ahead of correct time, claiming the modem was already in use by another process when it wasn't, but then coincidentally shortly after that is when the new problem started occurring, whereby the modem software is unable to transmit the initialization sequence to the modem, claiming the modem is already online, when it isn't, so I can't be sure it's really the modem, rather than the software, that is currently bad.)
Update: Swapping the modem into the Sony laptop works fine, so it isn't the modem that's at fault. So I need RedHat Linux expert to diagnose why it doesn't work there.
A one-time job that pays up to $70 during one month, which has to be reported to Social Security but which doesn't cause reduction in my SSI benefits, whereby I could have some money to replace the laptop's modem, if it's actually bad, if it isn't the computer itself or Linux that is bad.
Referral to somebody who can competantly glue together (again) the main lever that holds the idlers (drive transfer rollers) in a Sony TC-464 (not sure if I have that number correct). The person who did it previously closed his shop (on Los Altos Avenue just south of El Camino Real) about ten years ago when he moved back to Mexico. The person who tried to fix it just previously to that, on Hamilton in Palo Alto, did a totally shoddy job whereby it broke again within weeks, and I was too shy at that time to convince him to re-do the work at no additional expense to me.
Help finding a lawyer who knows how to sue spammers per California law, and who will get moving quickly on at least one case so that we can get a judgement, immediately sell it to a collection agency at a discount, and re-invest the proceeds in filing fees and investivative services to track down more spammers to bootstrap ourselves into a major spam-investigating/suing business.
Info (legal name, service address) about spammers in the local area, where I might be able to get court summons served on them easily by my own effort in lieu of any useful lawyer, and/or volunteers in Los Angeles and other non-local areas within California who would serve the court summons on the spammers, so I can sue them in Small Claims court in lieu of getting any useful help from a lawyer. As you can see from my desperate financial situation, I can't afford to hire a professional process server to serve summons in Los Angeles etc.