[Coco] terrifying sysadmins for fun with UUCP was Re: old backups, RESTORED!

[Tim Fadden]

On 1/7/2011 4:54 PM, gene heskett wrote:
> On Friday, January 07, 2011 06:45:43 pm Willard Goosey did opine:
>
>> On Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 05:41:14PM -0500, gene heskett wrote:
>>> Be careful&  don't step on it or kick it.  I've used the 1984 time
>>> frame for that and been called a liar by many.  It was 85 when I
>>> discovered os9, and I was off the the races.
>> Actually, I think I said "the early 80's" which is comfortably vague.
>> I know LII goes back to 86-ish.  Back when the CoCo was a current
>> product I was a BASIC boy, I never could have convinced Dad to buy
>> software that cost as much as the computer did. :-(
>>
>> But at least my sysadmin didn't give me The Look he used when I told
>> him about setting up UUCP so my 3b1 could trade email with my Linux
>> boxes.  He's a Model 100 nut so he's not completely unsympathetic, but
>> he does have limits. ;-)  He gets this wonderful look of abject terror
>> when I say things like "I wonder if Taylor UUCP has been compiled for
>> MS-DOS with a packet driver."
>>
>> Humm, I wonder if Rick Adam's UUCP would work over a Drivewire 4
>> network link....  HDB config files aren't *that* obscure... :-)
>>
>> Hehehe!
>> Willard
> Hehe.  I'll 2nd that.  And no they aren't.  It takes a while to grok them,
> but with enough connecting of the dots, its pretty much all there.
>
> I've been toying with the idea of setting up the dw4 stuffs here, but the
> one question I've asked, is one no one has hazarded a guess answer, a SWAG
> if you will, of how long I can make one of those cables and expect it to
> work.  I can't get the run down to any great amount less than 25 feet here
> without re-arranging the whole house and still get it to work at at least
> 230k.  At that length, we definitely have a transmission line that might
> have to have active drivers and active terms on both ends.
>
> Anybody want to offer a SWAG?
>
As for the serial cable length, I was having trouble with a 6 footer, 
and was advised to keep it as short as possible.  I went to 3 feet, and 
the problems (io errors) dissapeared.

I am using a usb-to-serial adapter, so I got me a 12 foot USB extension 
cable for a total of 15 feet.  That works without a hitch.  So,  IMHO,  
keep the serial cable SHORT, and make the USB long.  :-)

Good Luck!

TIm