Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Obscure Modem to Modem Data Transfer

I have an old Compaq 2256 from 1999 (or 1998?) running Windows 98. I wanted to use it to to program a AVR as described in The Ghetto Programming tutorial. I had trouble with the USB drives so I looked for alternative file transfer methods. Without an NIC card, I couldn't get it online. After much thinking, I wondered if I could transfer data using the modem. I came across an article "Transferring Data between Standard Dial-Up Modems". After setting up Hyperterminal and my modems, I used a telephone cable to connect to my XP loaded computer to the old Compaq. I needed to transfer usb drivers in order to recognize flash drives. As I watched the files transfer very slowly, I was reminded of the old days of dial up internet. The speed was around 4 or 5 kb/s. Sadly, after all that work, turns out that the WinAVR program I wanted won't recognize the parallel port. Looks like I got to install Linux.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

My Third Attempt

Yep, that's right. This is my 3rd try at blogging. The first two times, the topic was fixed i.e. cars and DIYbio. Now, I will try a more broad approach although there are some areas that I will stay away from such as religion, politics, etc. Not that I will neglect these topics; only that I will stay away from controversial subjects. My interests are mostky in science, technology, literature. There are also some social topics I might want to write about also such as concerning my homeland, India. My goal is not to make a diary of my thoughts but to full write out my ideas and try to support them with references.