>
>Subject: Re: Newton
> From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
> Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:09:13 -0700 (PDT)
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>> > Apologies for this, but what sort of politically correct homogenised
>> > saccharined Americanised word is 'repurposed'?
It's double speak!
Reused, recycled, reapplied oreve plain english as in:
"We found a different application other than designed for.".
Right up there with destinated, argh!
Allison
On 9 Aug, 2006, at 11:27, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>>> When you make a *quality* keyboard, the keycaps are shot
>>> *twice* during the molding process -- once for the legend
>>> and once for the key itself. So, the legend's color is
>>> "in the plastic" instead of screened *on* the plastic.
>>>
>>> Obviously, costs a fair bit more to do things this way.
>>
>> But who makes them?
>> and with no windows ++ keys.
>
> Dunno -- I was just talking from past manufacturing experience.
> The only keyboards that I have which suffer from this
> "screened on legends" are laptops. And, I have decided that
> laptops are intended to be replaced as often as the OS
> is upgraded :-(
>
>>> Just like equipment cases that re *painted* vs. those
>>> where the color is molded into the plastic.
>>
>> What plastic? Big heavy painted racks on this list. :)
>
> <grin> Many have molded plastic "decorations" attached.
My 1962 machine does not have a keyboard or a screen or
even a printing terminal. It has a control panel five feet wide
and three feet high. It is made of blockboard faced with laminated
plastic :-)
On the 'how processors work' topic, my machine's documentation
describes not just the logic signals but within each gate, how
the transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors, inductors,
transformers and delay lines work together to achieve the
gate's function. If I need to, I can put a scope probe on any
part of the circuit within the logic element.
My latest machine is a laptop, a MacBook Pro, which has a
keyboard which seems to have two shot moulded keys, the
key legends are transparent plastic which is illuminated in
low light levels so the legends can be read even when working
in pitch black where there is no light pollution.
So, has anyone tried using a modem over VoIP? We just signed up through our
cable company, and have unlimited long distance dialing, so I could
theoretically dial up anywhere in the CONUS for free. I'm concerned that the
VoIP box uses some sort of adaptive noise-sensing compression what would
kill a modem connection. Has anyone given it a try?
>
>Subject: Re: End of PeeCees?
> From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
> Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:58:01 -0700 (PDT)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>> On today's BBC "Analysis", there's a little segment on the issue of
>> personal computers being obsolete because of the rise of The Internet.
>> Supposedly, we're going to be using our televisions or mobile phones in
>> place of them. The whole segment hinges on the statement of MS that the
>> desktop PC is dead and that the future is The Internet and we'd all better
>> get used to it.
>
>This whole "the Internet is the Platform" is rather amusing when you think
>about it. It's basically Mainframe thinking. It's also about taking
>control of peoples data away from them, and transferring ownership of that
>data to the corporations.
>
>Granted you have plenty of people that use computers to play games, surf,
>do email, and *maybe* a little light word processing or spreadsheet usage.
>They could care less about thier data or thier privicy.
>
>OTOH, you have those of us that are writing software, articles, and books,
>or creating music and video. You also have people with either very slow, or
>no internet access. Plus there are the people that just value their
>privacy.
>
>While the first group might sucker into this "Internet is the Platform", how
>many of the second group will?
>
>For certain types of users, it might make sense, but one size does not fit
>all. Take for example the computers available right now that are targeted
>at home use. You have handhelds, mini-laptops, laptops, giant-laptops,
>desktops, mini-systems, and power-user setups, video game consoles and
>set-top boxes. Each of these is a computer, each has its own "niche".
>While some can be replaced by others, others can't. For example very few
>laptops come even close to being able to take the place of a "power-user
>setup", yet a mini-system, video game console, and set-top box are largely
>the same system and could largely be replaced by the "Internet is the
>Platform" idea.
>
>Am I making sense, or just rambling, who knows. All I know is that I'm not
>the least bit interested in the "Internet is the Platform", and I'm beating
>that there are a lot of other people that feel that way. At the same time I
>fear the corporations and governments might just force this down our
>throats.
>
> Zane
Didn't the promoter named Barnum that suggested that betting on peoples
stupidity was a a safe bet.
For a lot of "stuff" to me the net is a platfom and free storage. For
other things it's a minefield of security issues. I still remember when
Geocities got picked up and every ones "content" was deemed the new
owners property.
Besides even with DSL I don't care If I had 200gb out there free and secure
as it's too SLOW compared to the local disks on my p166.
Allison
Interesting note, a lot of these tapes have hundreds of 0-length files
on them; these seem to be placed between files with actual data in
them. I have no idea if this was a standard practice (maybe
ComputerVision hadn't heard of "tar" :)).
--
What you are seeing are file marks, which will return a zero length file if
you just 'dd' them. I haven't looked at CV tapes in a LONG time, but from
memory they are modified SunOS 3 - 4 distributions. What you should find is
a table of contents at the front, some stand-alone utils, a dump file of the
system, and lots of tarballs for the optional parts of the system.
I have eight little DIPs, all in a row, and am wondering what used
these originally. They are Texas Instruments TMS3409 (AKA Intersil
IM7780) static shift registers. Anyone know? Perhaps an old terminal
once used these?
Anyone need them?
--
Will
>
> From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
> Subject: Re: Newton
> > Apologies for this, but what sort of politically correct homogenised
> > saccharined Americanised word is 'repurposed'?
>
> I don't see it as any of those. What would you suggest instead? (In
> case the meaning really isn't clear to you, to repurpose something is
> to use it for a different purpose - different from *what* is generally
> indicated by context (most commonly, different from what it is
> currently being used for, or from what it was designed for).)
>
> If you know of a better word for the meaning, I'd love to hear.
>
>
Ah! my favorite german word! "Zweckentfremdung"!
Joe.
Thanks to suggestions from this list I've gotten most of the CADDStation
tapes archived into a hopefully more permanent medium. In the event
that there's someone out there who needs it, I've made the archived data
available on my website at:
http://yahozna.dhs.org/computers/software/CADDStation
Hopefully, whoever holds the rights to this software (if anyone) won't
care too much that some 20-year-old software's available for free on the
internet :).
These are archived into separate files, one per tape file. I used a
variation of Scott Quinn's sh script to do the archiving. (The other
suggested utilities, copytape and tapeutils would only copy a single
file and then quit, thinking that EOT had been reached.) Use "dd" to
put the files back onto the tape of your choice, in order.
I have only verified that a couple of these tapes actually work on the
physical machine (I've done my best to verify the copied bits), so there
are no guarantees that everything works. But the 4.2bsd tape boots when
I copy it back to a fresh tape, so I'm hoping that all the rest bits
made it over OK... I'm in the process of attempting to install the rest.
Interesting note, a lot of these tapes have hundreds of 0-length files
on them; these seem to be placed between files with actual data in
them. I have no idea if this was a standard practice (maybe
ComputerVision hadn't heard of "tar" :)).
Of the 50 or so tapes I've got, a dozen or so had read errors which
halted the copying; some of these are on the site and are marked as
"incomplete". I'm going to need to write or find a utility that'll skip
bad spots on the tape (dd dies on my machine even if I specify
"conv=noerror") to archive what's left of these bad tapes.
Additionally, I'm missing a few tapes here and there, if anyone has
copies of the following (or copies of tapes marked incomplete in the
archive), I'd be interested in obtaining a copy:
- CADDS Object Tape, v. 6.0MA, tape 1 of 2
- Platform Applications v. 4.03 and 5.00, tape 1 of 2
Thanks again,
Josh
On today's BBC "Analysis", there's a little segment on the issue of
personal computers being obsolete because of the rise of The Internet.
Supposedly, we're going to be using our televisions or mobile phones in
place of them. The whole segment hinges on the statement of MS that the
desktop PC is dead and that the future is The Internet and we'd all better
get used to it.
Now, I don't think I"m a Luddite, but there's precious little to see on
television that I care to waste my time on (the dogs seem to appreciate the
noise, so I leave it on for them when I'm going to be out of the house for
an extended period). And I can't for the life of me read the screen on my
mobile and have to operate it in "blind" mode. Old eyes, but then, there
are a LOT of us. There's nothing worse than someone shoving their camera
phone in front one's face saying "look at this" and seeing nothing but a
tiny multicolored blur.
So, for someone who doesn't watch television and can't see the screen on a
mobile, is there any better platform than a desktop PC?
I don't know if this is off-topic because MS's announcement is supposedly
of Momentous Import and reflects a change in the way we do things.
Cheers,
Chuck
> If need be, I also might be willing to drop it off...
I guess you're not headed this way any time soon, eh? :-)
Nay. Sorry man -- just a tad too far out-of-the-way. :)
