LapLink lets you use the parallel port without having to configure TCP/IP stuff. It's raw bytes, more like a really fast null modem cable.

But why bother getting the right cables (I have some, easy to DIY, but you can't buy them off-the-shelf anymore) and software (some piracy required I imagine). Instead you can use RS232 at 115.2kbps. Google did the arithmetic and unit conversion for me:

160 Megabytes) / (1125 (bytes / second)) = 1.64609053 days

Zmodem is pretty slow, but ZedZap/8K-Zmodem is pretty quick and easy to find software that supports it for DOS, Win9x and Linux. If you do not require error detection and flow control, then Xmodem is fast. (recommend you use a null modem cable with flow control RTS/CTS wired, this is almost always wired correctly with off-the-shelf cables). Don't need a 16550 UART for this to work, an 8250 is adequate if you have flow control enabled.

I'd highly recommend you send ZIP files over your link rather than uncompressed data. If you have enough disk space free, you can use pkzip's multivolume support and archive the entire disk into several managable files. (rar's is even easier to use than pkzip's)

I don't have crank generators in my shed. It's mostly shovels and lawnmowers.

but my shed is weird, you'd be as likely to find a model airplane engine that can run on methanol/ethanol. Which is nice because you can make and distill ethanol if you're got a lot of time on your hands. (in a primitive location for months).

ps - yes, I usually run nitromethane in my glow engine, but it is known to run on methanol & castor oil mix. just needs more air to run without it and the performance suffers at altitude.

What if you don't have a pedal generator handy either?

Why would I lug such a thing around when I could lug a large solar panel for about the same effort and not have to pedal it? I think I'd rather use my feet to move my body and lift things rather than make electricity.

If I had a pedal generator up at my cabin, I would immediately look at making a waterwheel for it.

They make a lot of noise too.

I switch to motorcycles. (seriously)

The year of the Linux desktop already happened, but now desktops are no longer relevant.

Better late than never Linus!

(X-day is coming July 5, 1998)

High tech robots ought to self destruct so the enemy can't repurpose them.

My robot designs may kill everything they see, but the marketing brochure will assure the buy that the robots never kill rich old white men.

Yes, land mines were a wonderful advancement in war technology. Just what we all need, children being chased by walking shooting landmines.

When you are able to keep hackers from defacing your national websites.

A bit like Leonard in "Leonard Part 6" operating on himself.

Terrible movie, you should see it if you want to see what happens when a huge ego is let loose unchecked.

No sir, I do not.

I'd take any of the cheap OSR stuff over 5E. It has the same feel, but way more material for it. Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Beyond the Wall (my favorite), and many others with varying degrees of compatibility. The quality of materials in the 5E starter kit was a big disappointment, the price was nice and low because there were sections of the manual they didn't bother printing out and offered for free on the website instead. "Free" meaning not really all that free in this case because the PDFs are useless without the beginner box and I had to pay money for the beginner box. Even though it was very inexpensive, I think I would have paid $10 more to have another $1 of materials added to the box.

My main group does Pathfinder, but they have dumped the battle maps and we use a quickly sketched notepad and jellybeans. (yes, you get to eat the jellybean if you kill something). Everything is solved by the DM ruling on issues that arise from our loose game style. I don't know if you can call that an OSR style or not, I seem to recall a lot of original D&D gamers doing graph paper maps back in the day.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good hex crawl. I just don't want to move my character around a chess board every time its my turn. I don't even want to have well defined turns, I want to take actions whenever it makes sense for me to take an action. (ie, when it is necessary or dramatic to do so)

Dear Mr. Bill Nye,
I will suspend my judgement of your statements until Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson can have his say on the subject.

I agree! Those damn proles, why did we bother teaching them to read? Education is wasted on them.

Just because our enemies (other unix platforms) can't get thier shit right doesn't mean we have to give up trying to kill systemd.