[Nelug] Speedtouch USB modem

[Martin Ward]

On Thursday 19 May 2005 15:36, James Le Cuirot wrote:
> Ah but isn't that Gentoo nosh heavenly! =D Seriously, it does demand
> some extra work but you do get a lot out of it. Having to install SSH
> though? Did you not start from stage 3? That would have saved you a
> little bit of work. In any case, it's all about choice. You get to fine
> tune your distro just the way you like it and believe me, Gentoo still
> does a lot of the work.

I was supposedly starting from stage 3, but it wanted to download everything
anyway!

When there are 57 separate choices, each one of which has a "working"
choice and a lot of "not working" choices, then I would prefer if the computer
just made all the "working" choices for me!

Having solved the speedtouch modem problem, I'm afraid I blew away
the Gentoo install and put Mandrake 10.1 back. Next step was to get
the USB printer working: plug it in and click on the "Printers" icon in
drakconf. I told it to install the printer and it downloaded and installed
a total of 13 RPMs automatically. Click on the box to make the printer
available on the local network, and the job is done!

For some reason, Gentoo reminds me of this passage from "Three Men
on the Bummel" by Jerom K. Jerome (I can't think why!):

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle:  you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  On the whole, I am not sure
that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the
best of the bargain.  He is independent of the weather and the
wind; the state of the roads troubles him not.  Give him a screw-
hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down
upon, and he is happy for the day.  He has to put up with certain
disadvantages, of course; there is no joy without alloy.  He
himself always looks like a tinker, and his machine always suggests
the idea that, having stolen it, he has tried to disguise it; but
as he rarely gets beyond the first milestone with it, this,
perhaps, does not much matter.  The mistake some people make is in
thinking they can get both forms of sport out of the same machine.
This is impossible; no machine will stand the double strain.

-- 
			Martin

Martin.Ward at durham.ac.uk http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/ Erdos number: 4
G.K.Chesterton web site: http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/