old scsi adapters and the benefits of open source [was: Anthony's issues [Slightly OT]]

[David Kelly]

On Mar 22, 2005, at 10:11 AM, Peter Risdon wrote:

> By contrast, I maintain a networked Windows machine that controls 
> plasma
> cutting systems for a manufacturing business. It uses a serial port
> connection to send cutting patterns to the plasma controller. The 
> serial
> port communications software was custom-written and runs only on
> versions of DOS that shipped with Windows up to and including 98. It is
> specifically incompatible with Win ME and all the NT family including 
> XP
> and 2000/2003. I don't have access to the source code either of the
> custom application or any currently maintained version of Windows (of
> course), so no hacked upgrades are possible and we have to run Win 98 -
> which is desperately horrible and insecure in a networked environment.

I don't use Vmware, but what you describe sounds like a good 
application for it. Run a Win98 virtual machine. Let a modern OS host, 
wrap and protect the virtual machine. Do all the networking with the 
host.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly at HiWAAY.net
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Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.