What I Learned Today

1. Frickin VMS - looks like we lost a disk in the vms cluster. So all I wanted to do was go in and remove the automount command for said disk. I consulted some manuals, all of which said - "set the boot flags to get into a conversational boot" sounds easy enough, and then it said that each type of console had its own boot flags. Ok. I've got a MicroVax 3100/95. I think the manuals for that box have already decomposed. Anyway.. The boot flags for the MicroVax to get into a conversational boot are boot /R5:0000001 DKA300: Then you get a nice prompt called sysboot> at that point you can modify the default startup parameters so i did a set startup_P1 "MIN" so that way the machine would boot with minimal services and would allow me to edit the systartup_vms.com file. So I finally get in there and edit/edt didn't work so I had to set the terminal type first. So I get into the file and see that it actually calls mount.com to do the mounts, so I go into mount.com and see that it refers to a file named disk_names.dat and it goes on and on. Still haven't fully stopped it from trying to mount the drive on all the machines in the cluster.

2. So Comcast's new thing is that if you dont pay your bill they will try to force you to download their crappy "enhancements" and then enter your account number. Then they will tell you that your account needs "Servicing". You can grab an IP address and you can ping your local gateway but you can't get past it and no inbound ports work either.