Some random questions...

[Jonathan D. Trudel]

{since this is a forwarded post, please send all replies to the 
 address listed}

From: rlr at toccata.rutgers.edu


I've actually owned a UNIX PC for a while, but a trashed hard drive made it
impossible to make use of.  I told myself that I was looking to get a larger
hard drive anyway (67 or so meg instead of 20), but I never bothered to look
for one, so the box just sat on my desk.  Now, I've just received a brochure
>From Digital Data Systems in Marietta GA.  They offer some bizarre deals on
what look like decent mini-UNIXPC boxes, but on closer examination you don't
really get THAT much for their $495 or $649 price tags (either 1/2 meg RAM
with 10MB drive, or 1/2 meg RAM with 20 meg drive, and UNIX 2.0, not 3.51).

What caught my eye was their upgrade kits and drives.  Specifically, they tout
a 42MB drive for $500, and a 62MB drive for $795.  They claim that these are
half-heights that can fit easily into the UNIX PC chassis, have a 28ms access
time, and they come with good (so they say) instructions for installing it
(good, because I'm a relative novice at such stuff).  This would, of course,
make my machine useable once again and allow me the opportunity to actually
figure out how to use it properly this time around.  (Which ties in to my
subsequent question.)

My question is this:  does anybody out there know of these people (Digital
Data Systems) and their drive?  They are also bundling a bunch of special
software (UniPress emacs, /rdb, Wizard/PS, and C-Trainer (?)) plus some
other books and Lurnix (?) training modules, for $200.  (You have to get the
detail documentation from the developers, though; no real doc provided.)
Does this seem at all worthwhile?  (And/or, is there a better deal out there?)

It may be obvious that I haven't at all been reading the unix-pc groups (my
old machine didn't even carry them), especially if these people and their
equipment/deals have come up in this group before.  Could someone please
respond to me by e-mail (or here on the net if this stuff is actually new news
and deemed useful)?  Also, I have one other question.  I had been desperately
trying to figure out how I could invoke the terminal emulator (for vt100) 
without going through the "Telephone Manager" (i.e., from the shell).  Has
anyone figured out how to do this?  (I would assume so, and I would assume this
is also old news, so please respond by e-mail if appropriate.)  Thanx in
advance to all who respond.
--
rlr at toccata.rutgers.edu