As always, feedback will be greatly appreciated, and public
response is preferred. Previous parts are at
<http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics#ham>

 >> Now, presenting Harnum's HaM Commentary... Part Three in a series.

Sponsored by Purina Puppy Chow, and Panglossian Pessimist Society of
Western Canada.

Wazzat...  do they go around claiming that everything is the worst of
all possible worlds?  Where's my local branch?

Wherever it's least convenient for it to be.
 

       Gosunkugi Hikaru saved the message on his computer with the
others. The hard drive on his obsolete 486-DX was nearly full; he 

made 

a

note to clear out some old messages before checking mail again.

Five years have passed since the end of the manga, right?  Even if 

you

consider the manga to have ended in 1996, that still makes it 2001. 
A 486-DX isn't just obsolete by that time, it's an antique... Heck, 
the one and a half year old computer I have now (Pentium something 
or other) is already obsolete, and in three years, it'll be an 

antique.

If you want to stickle for details, I'd give Hikaru something more 
powerful than a 486-DX as his obsolete computer...

Now, come on, here.  I'll give you a practical example:  konatsu.ml.org
is a 486DX2-66 with 20MB of RAM.  It handles my incoming mail (~400 

messages

per day), the Synopses List submission line, the webpage, and it 

provides

Internet connectivity to the rest of my home network via Linux's 

ultra-neat

IP Masquerade function.  I've never seen it's load average go above 0.1 

in

normal use.  (actually, it's usually stuck at 0.0)  In other words, it
could handle many, many times the load it does now without much 

trouble.

You're talking to a person whose last submission to the Synopses list 
address at konatsu.ml.org never showed up on the list, so...  ;p

This for a computer that is hopelessly obsolete, and will be an antique
in a couple more years... :D

Five years (even three years, counting from 1998 and assuming HaM takes 
place in 2001) is a pretty long time in computer terms.  And there's no 
evidence Hikaru's hooked up to a network here; it's a single computer 
for personal use.  

Look at it this way...  You can check your mail with a 486 today; 

what's

preventing you from being able to do so in 2001?

Nothing at all.  I only pointed it out because it seemed to me a 
distinct possibility that Gary chose a computer for Hikaru that would be 
obsolete _today_ rather than obsolete five years from now.  

Ciao,
-Alan Harnum

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