Yeah, after I paid for the rebuild, 'tranny' was worse than a slur ...damn slippin' gearbox.

The important lesson to be imparted is the student's increased sense of entitlement and acceptance of redistribution.

We're now spending 3 times as much on education, adjusted, as 25 years ago, yet the results are no better. Perhaps we should put more effort into insisting on quality outputs rather than increasing inputs -- tossing more money -- into the edu operation...

Somehow I doubt there is a homeowner policy in force...

Transplant the drive, install image on beefier hardware--I've used variations on this technique for years. Works great.

I generally use a desktop box for the work. You need a small collection of laptop drive adapters (less than 20$ for a good selection). Then debootstrap a base image and customize from there; another route is to build your mini-image in a free partion and copy the completed custom install onto the 486's drive....

The take-home is: pull the drive and build/image from a modern machine.

If his intent is to 'just make it work', this is the way to go. I've built LTSP style rigs going back to the days of KDE 1.x and 486's/Pentiums; good initial set-up and ssh have served. Once the BIOS settings are solid, there is little reason to go mucking there again.

The 'plastic' is the carrier.. the stuff that sticks to the paper. The "fuser" melts the carrier onto the paper like an iron on transfer.

about 10G for an old 33k modem pulling 24/7 for an average month.

Yes, Tri-X lives on, available for 55 yrs+ in 135 format. and for color reversal prints (direct positive process), Ilford CibaChrome continues under the name Ilfochrome Classic. You can still make ArT and it is still pricey.

Still viewable via ye olde Coral Cache: http://smari.yaxic.org.nyud.net/blag/2009/03/06/microsoft-skull-fucks-icelands-economy-contracts-syphilis/

One caveat... you best have good muscle memory to line up ole one eye Willy--lack of stereo vision hampers rangefinding.

You may not be a coder, but there is need for other contributions:

• answer usage questions in a forum
• documentation. (patches, even...)
• testing. choose a favorite app and test
• bug reports w/ reproducable test cases

Oft repeated, seldom heeded...

where it is more socially acceptable !? ...are you sure you didn't mean something more like increase the awareness ?

• Junkyard receives old car
• Junkie sorts; lists "interesting" carcass
• Motorhead buy rusting hulk
• ...many weekends later
• Motorhead retitles vintage gem as "Salvaged"
• ...much dancing and joy at local Sonic