[BladeRunner]

Unfortunately I'm still a dial-up user, my trusty External USR 56k modem is still doing its job.
Was pretty nice to see that my modem is flash upgradeable to the new V92 standard and as my ISP has said "V92 upgrades coming shortly" I decided to go for it.
USR make you go through hoops getting the flash update, installing a GUI that automatically goes off and collects the file rather than allowing you to simply download the upgrade.
Towards the end of the automated process, the firmware downloaded and flashing about to begin it automatically displays a Readme message.
Here it is, honestly a cut & paste job, please not the part in bold at the end:


************* U.S. Robotics Modem firmware update *************

The flash modem process will automatically begin upon the completion
of the current download process.

After the modem is done with the flash process, you will need to
exit ControlCenter and uninstall your current modem and have
Windows redetect the modem.

You can do this in Windows 95/98/ME, by going to "Modems" in the
"Control Panel".

You can do this in Windows 2000 or XP, by going to "Phone and Modems"
in the "Control Panel"

Once you are in "Modems" or "Phone and Modem Options" you can remove
the current Modem, "U.S. Robotics 56K Fax EXT". After you have removed
the modem click on "Add", And let windows detect the modem.

When Windows prompts you that it found new hardware, point it in the
direction of the install directory that you installed ControlCenter.
Path based on default install of ControlCenter is as follows:
"c:\Program Files\U.S. Robotics\ControlCenter\xx56300x". The INF was
downloaded to this directory to install the new hardware windows has
found.

Note: In rare cases modem or other hardware may blow up, but as
the probability of such a bug is low we will not fix it, because
this is not reasonable for us.

Now am I the only one rather scared by such a message, especially as the flash process is already running by the time you get to that part!!

Side note, nothing blew up and all is working as it should do

[clutch]

L-O-L

[Christianb]

That is hysterical. What a bunch of cheap bastards. They probably knew about it, and shipped anyways. I had a Matrox video card that would loose it's bios data about once a month. Once that data was lost the system wouldn't display anything. You had to call Matrox and they'd e-mail you a boot disk that you could boot even with a broken video card and it'd re-flash the bios into the card. You'd wait about 3 minutes, hear a beep and reboot, and then everything would fine, like nothing ever happened. Matrox knew about it and shipped not one card, but multiple cards with that problem! Now would somebody like to tell me how some old lady out on a farm in boonies would be able to check her e-mail when the freaking computer won't display?

However, you're "the modem might explode" bit sounds worse, although extremely rare. I can guarantee you that if any other hardware was damaged their warranty wouldn't compensate you for damages. I've flashed a lot USR modems and have only had problems with their OEM USR/DELL 1749 modems. These modems would ID as real USR modem and then after you flashed them, they wouldn't work as a modem, or enumerate in a PNP environment. I had to manually flash the Com port and home the modem was there and receiving. Finally I got it to work. Is it just me or isn't that a gargantuan bug if you can flash any piece of hardware with the wrong data?

[Christianb]

Now if we could only get all the computer illiterate folks to quit using their fax machines and start using e-mail. By the way does anyone know how old e-mail is? It's probably as old as main frames.

[Christianb]

Personally, if you are a good shopper (IE your read the Sunday Computer Ads) you should be able to find a scanner for free. If not for free 20-60 dollars aint all bad either. If you have a scanner you can send COLOR e-mails. If you are paranoid about security buy an e-mail encryption program. Phone lines can be tapped too you know. If you want to spend all your time worrying, knock yourself out. There's plenty to worry about. Faxes may be more secure, but they're also 200 DPI black and white and mighty easy to forge. Not only that, someone can trick the phone system into IDing their phone number as a different #. Security is an illusion. Just keep things reasonable. Suppose you want to be secure and you have security and you pass your top secret design off to a co-worker by hand, what's to say they won't just sell it your competitor? Nothing! So maybe it's not such a great idea to worry about that which is out of your control.

[Christianb]

Wow AlecStar you have a very good attitude. I figured my post would annoy you. I also couldn't agree more about the value of one's health. I'm a raw foodist so I definetly value and enjoy good health.