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Wow - is this thing still on?
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Tom Bortels
May 14, 2015, 5:52:13 PM5/14/15
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Old newsgroups never die, they just... never die. I guess.
So I was looking today for something entirely unrelated, and came across this group, which I have not seen or thought about for a long, long time.
It's me - Tom. I used to answer sup...@qdeck.com and try to answer questions in this group as best I could, as part of my job doing tech support back in the day at Quarterdeck. I also babysat the internal DNS server ("lanai", an AIX box), and ran the very first internal webserver there when we were beginning to mess with NCSA Mosaic. It is comical now to think of how little I knew about what today is second nature - and about how much trivia about DOS and QEMM and so on that I have totally forgotten.
Why am I posting? Nostalgia, I guess. I remember those days fondly - I worked with a ton of good people, a few not-so-good, and I think about them all still; the stories, and the shenanigans, and the highs and lows and in-betweens. Bob's Hawaiian shirts. Carlton's drawings, and camera. The PRPL team and Justin's Rusty Knife. Bill and Gary and Todd and the friday meetings and technotes, and the call path (I use it today!). Robert and the all-hands where he asked Stanton about the "Interview with a Vampire" set. Wonk balls and Gary Saxer at trade shows tossing out the swag. The Qdeck Blimp, and not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Months of beta testing DESQview/X after hours. Kris's face when I told him that "Sea Cucumber" is not actually a vegatable. Driving to and from 150 Pico on PCH thru rain and mudslides and fires and giant falling rocks. Parking on the beach, and eating at Ratburger, or making the trip inland in search of glorious Schnitzel Crystal. #Poopdeck - Oh my god, #Poopdeck. And folios, and the stacker calls that went on forever. Playing Wolfenstein 3D after hours, or spectre with a hacked tank. Rusty and the seagulls. Going to NSA with Evan and leaving the sunroof open on the rental with leather seats during a thunderstorm. The API support team, with Belden when Keven joined ("Leave. Me. Alone."). Running my own team, and having the other leaders wonder why when we had an ugly callback, *everyone* would volunteer, whereas they had to drag it out of theirs. (I saved the really ugly ones as the penalty callbacks for those who don't volunteer, and they all knew it)
I remember once I edited the DOS command.com, replacing all of the "O"s with zeros; in DVX at the time, the two characters were indistinguishable, and I ended up with a DOS window where only I could seem to make most of the commands work. Remember XShotgun?
Do you remember HELPING? The Anthonys were always the best HELPERS. I do not know who decided it was a good idea to put both wonk balls and unlimited acetone in their hands, but I like to think it was intentional.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. No, really. In three short years. They were interesting times.
I am old now. 4 kids, long married. I come to work and it is quiet; I worry about security and uptime and technical debt, and how we can ensure stupid people don't break things too badly. In some ways, I miss a job where everything came pre-broken, and you really had nowhere to go but up. Tech support is a crap job, but when you are good, you ended up saving people's bacon multiple times a day, and that's nice.
I'm done now. I'll post again 20 years from now, maybe. Best to all of you. Let this be my message in a bottle - just a "hello" from the distant past. I gotta go back and get work done...
-- Tom Bortels, feeling very old.
So I was looking today for something entirely unrelated, and came across this group, which I have not seen or thought about for a long, long time.
It's me - Tom. I used to answer sup...@qdeck.com and try to answer questions in this group as best I could, as part of my job doing tech support back in the day at Quarterdeck. I also babysat the internal DNS server ("lanai", an AIX box), and ran the very first internal webserver there when we were beginning to mess with NCSA Mosaic. It is comical now to think of how little I knew about what today is second nature - and about how much trivia about DOS and QEMM and so on that I have totally forgotten.
Why am I posting? Nostalgia, I guess. I remember those days fondly - I worked with a ton of good people, a few not-so-good, and I think about them all still; the stories, and the shenanigans, and the highs and lows and in-betweens. Bob's Hawaiian shirts. Carlton's drawings, and camera. The PRPL team and Justin's Rusty Knife. Bill and Gary and Todd and the friday meetings and technotes, and the call path (I use it today!). Robert and the all-hands where he asked Stanton about the "Interview with a Vampire" set. Wonk balls and Gary Saxer at trade shows tossing out the swag. The Qdeck Blimp, and not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Months of beta testing DESQview/X after hours. Kris's face when I told him that "Sea Cucumber" is not actually a vegatable. Driving to and from 150 Pico on PCH thru rain and mudslides and fires and giant falling rocks. Parking on the beach, and eating at Ratburger, or making the trip inland in search of glorious Schnitzel Crystal. #Poopdeck - Oh my god, #Poopdeck. And folios, and the stacker calls that went on forever. Playing Wolfenstein 3D after hours, or spectre with a hacked tank. Rusty and the seagulls. Going to NSA with Evan and leaving the sunroof open on the rental with leather seats during a thunderstorm. The API support team, with Belden when Keven joined ("Leave. Me. Alone."). Running my own team, and having the other leaders wonder why when we had an ugly callback, *everyone* would volunteer, whereas they had to drag it out of theirs. (I saved the really ugly ones as the penalty callbacks for those who don't volunteer, and they all knew it)
I remember once I edited the DOS command.com, replacing all of the "O"s with zeros; in DVX at the time, the two characters were indistinguishable, and I ended up with a DOS window where only I could seem to make most of the commands work. Remember XShotgun?
Do you remember HELPING? The Anthonys were always the best HELPERS. I do not know who decided it was a good idea to put both wonk balls and unlimited acetone in their hands, but I like to think it was intentional.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. No, really. In three short years. They were interesting times.
I am old now. 4 kids, long married. I come to work and it is quiet; I worry about security and uptime and technical debt, and how we can ensure stupid people don't break things too badly. In some ways, I miss a job where everything came pre-broken, and you really had nowhere to go but up. Tech support is a crap job, but when you are good, you ended up saving people's bacon multiple times a day, and that's nice.
I'm done now. I'll post again 20 years from now, maybe. Best to all of you. Let this be my message in a bottle - just a "hello" from the distant past. I gotta go back and get work done...
-- Tom Bortels, feeling very old.
colone...@yahoo.com
May 20, 2015, 1:35:40 PM5/20/15
to
On Thu, 14 May 2015, Tom Bortels wrote:
> Old newsgroups never die, they just... never die. I guess.
The original social media!
> Old newsgroups never die, they just... never die. I guess.
> So I was looking today for something entirely unrelated, and came across
> this group, which I have not seen or thought about for a long, long
> time.
a P2 recently & have been trying DSL, antiX etc. on it, though about DV
but don't have DOS disks anymore.
> Why am I posting? Nostalgia,
> I remember once I edited the DOS command.com, replacing all of the "O"s
> with zeros; in DVX at the time, the two characters were
> indistinguishable, and I ended up with a DOS window where only I could
> seem to make most of the commands work. Remember XShotgun?
polymorphics system 88 --``no disk in drive or door open'' became ``no
disk in drive or CPU missing''. It escaped to a customer & we got a call
``It's xxxx from yyyy and they say the computer says the CPU is missing''
Ron
WangoTango
May 20, 2015, 6:37:03 PM5/20/15
to
In article <alpine.BSF.2.00.1...@bunrab.ronnet.moc>,
colone...@yahoo.com says...
I have a VM of it running under DrDOS somewhere around here.
colone...@yahoo.com says...
> On Thu, 14 May 2015, Tom Bortels wrote:
>
> > Old newsgroups never die, they just... never die. I guess.
> The original social media!
>
> > So I was looking today for something entirely unrelated, and came across
> > this group, which I have not seen or thought about for a long, long
> > time.
> Still at least one lurker. Haven't had DV on anything in a long time. Got
> a P2 recently & have been trying DSL, antiX etc. on it, though about DV
> but don't have DOS disks anymore.
Try running it under FreeDOS.
>
> > Old newsgroups never die, they just... never die. I guess.
> The original social media!
>
> > So I was looking today for something entirely unrelated, and came across
> > this group, which I have not seen or thought about for a long, long
> > time.
> Still at least one lurker. Haven't had DV on anything in a long time. Got
> a P2 recently & have been trying DSL, antiX etc. on it, though about DV
> but don't have DOS disks anymore.
I have a VM of it running under DrDOS somewhere around here.
colone...@yahoo.com
May 24, 2015, 7:14:13 PM5/24/15
to
On Wed, 20 May 2015, WangoTango wrote:
> In article <alpine.BSF.2.00.1...@bunrab.ronnet.moc>,
> colone...@yahoo.com says...
>
> In article <alpine.BSF.2.00.1...@bunrab.ronnet.moc>,
> colone...@yahoo.com says...
>
> Try running it under FreeDOS.
>
> I have a VM of it running under DrDOS somewhere around here.
>
Thought I'd read qemm didn't like freedos & I failed to mention my
>
> I have a VM of it running under DrDOS somewhere around here.
>
perfered desqview is X which I think needs qemm. P'haps I'll try it
with a newer version of freedos.
Wouldn't hurt to mention you can get desqview from:
http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html
for any lurkers.
Ron
WangoTango
May 29, 2015, 5:08:12 PM5/29/15
to
version of DrDOS. I think they are just sitting around hoping for a
check in the mail, but not holding their breath.
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