31 May
2006
31 May
'06
2 p.m.
On 5/30/06, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Why not? I would think a PDP8 would be a lot easier to
keep running than
a modern PC.
Only to somebody with what is rapidly becoming a /very/ specialist skillset.
You are speaking to somebody who is reading/writing
mail on
an old PC mainly because it is easier to maintain than a more modern machine.
Fine. But for most people, modern PCs are a damn sight /easier./ All
in one integrated motherboards, simple mix&match DIMMs,
interchangeable commodity disks and screens and keyboards, simple USB
peripherals. The day of the ?100 PC is just around the corner. Soon
they'll be as disposable as transistor radios.
Q.v. http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1824094.php
No, I disagree totally. I have no problem at all with
making reverseable
modificuations to old machines (be they computers or anything else). I
certainly see no problem in plugging in a modern peripheral.
Are you trying to convince me that I shouldn't use 74Fxxx parts to repair
a PDP11 (they are much easier to get than 74Sxxx and work in most
circuits). You'll really hate what I've done to a lot of machines here, then
I don't even know what a 74Fxxx is. I've been repairing and working on
PCs and Macs for 20y now, I've built dozens and dozens of computers,
and I don't own a multimeter or an oscilloscope and never have. I have
a soldering iron; I use it occasionally to fix the lights on my
bicycle.
This is great stuff if you know it, but it's no more relevant to C21
computing than the correct bloodletting and the correct administration
of laudanum is to C21 medicine. It's an admirable skill and I salute
you, but it's not mainstream any more. I'm not saying it's not
worthwhile; I'm just saying that things have moved on. If a circuit
board fails in a modern machine, recycle it & bung in a new one.
For many people, it's already a case of "if the PC fails, or just gets
a bit slow, bin it & get a new one." My front-room Linux box came out
of a skip in Brighton; a perfectly-working Cyrix 550MHz PC with 128M
RAM, a 40G HD and a CD burner. Now it's a 1.2GHz Duron with 256M RAM,
2 x 10G HDs and Ubuntu, and it was all built out of scrap. The 40G
disk is part of the RAID in my fileserver, a dual PII 400, all from
free junk kit.
So far, no emulator has come anywhere near the
experience of running the
real machine. And I don't think it ever will for me. I want to be able to
connect my 'scope (a real Tekky 555, please) to any pin of any component
in the machine. And have all the feelings associated with so doing.
Yeah, it's not quite the same, but you do realise, we're talking of
something of the level of a glass case in a museum, with a few shiny
buttons and lights for people to play with for 5min? They will neither
know nor care.
Secondly, as far as preserving old kit for posterity, your
hacked-about with machines will confuse other techies, who would
probably have more chance of getting the original unmodified kit they
know going than something with home-made one-off upgrades. In the
longer run, after you are no longer in a position to maintain it, the
stock kit has better prospects.
--
Liam Proven ? Blog, homepage &c: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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