this decade old article shows how to transmit AM radio using your CRT. From there you only need to pulse the data and collect it on the other end using an AM radio attached to your sound card. I recommend Kansas City standard used for datacassettes as a good starting place for modulation over AM radio band.

Part of the problem is the CYA issue.

If you're writing the code, you sound like a laborer ("I have to..."). If it breaks, it's your fault and you're on the hook publicly.

If you present a third-party component in a meeting, you sound like a manager ("I propose that we..."). Once three or four other people in the meeting have concurred, if something breaks it's the third party's fault. A ticket or two are initiated, it's someone else's problem and everybody gets to cast blame somewhere beyond the walls of the company.

Rational behavior, regrettably.

Motorcycle riders.

That's right, folks, when you get your Class M1 license, be sure to check the organ donor box.

We've spent more time discussing this than it would have taken for this guy to transfer his harddrive over.

it takes about 10 clocks to transfer a byte over RS-232 in the most common configuration, 1 start bit, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. So you can't use kbps here, because Google assumes there are 8 bits in a byte.

3.9 Hours is still the correct number, when ignoring overhead for X/Y/ZModem.

Ha! You're right. I was so intrigued with Google's calculator I forgot to check the basics. Trying again:

(160 Megabytes) / (11 520 (bytes / second)) = 3.85802469 hours

I think the checksum or CRC in the ZIP or RAR should be enough for him, it's going to be as good as whatever the firmware for that 160 MB harddrive uses, which is where the errors are most likely to occur. Xmodem and Zmodem are pretty good at detecting the common errors that occur over serial and modems, like truncation and dropped and duplicated bits.

SLIP and rsync would be the least effort solution to get you some good MD5 hash introduced in the transfer. If he has an Ethernet PCMCIA card then that would be even faster to transfer, but I sometimes getting networking and stuff up on an old computer takes close to 3.9 hours. ;)

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.

All of your "potential" scenarios are so fucking crazy, either from a technical or business standpoint I gotta ask you for the number of your drug dealer. That's some good shit.

When Linux has a worthy Office competitor.

Libre Office not good enough for you?

That's some grade A word salad there.

Hey, Liberals are nazis now, so transparency being fascism is perfectly cromulent in this worldview.

Add that to the long list of other things you don't know.

LOL. Care to make it interesting? Unlike most assholes here, I don't just say shit to make myself feel good, I'll back it up with cash. Care to wager some money that the GOP will take the White House in 2 years?

Back in my day, we had to look at actual naked folk.

In a normal world, your argument would be persuasive. But since the GOP has spent the last 30 years jumping every shark they can get, the problem isn't whether Dems can win 2016, it's the whether the GOP can untangle itself from the crazy long enough to not scare off most "independent" voters.