I don't
beleive those are still in production (and if they are, they're
not cheap new). And if I buy second-hand equipment, I expect to have to
repair it, and I would guess that service information is not (easily)
available.
You're right, they're not still in production but they handle every
EPROM, PAL and PROM that I'm interested in so what's wrong with them? The
There is nothing wrong with equipment that's no longer in production (in
fact I think just about every instrument I use is discontinued), but you
can't _depeend_ on a supply of them. I've not seen these units in the UK,
for example.
> your time
than to reinvent the EPROM programmer for the 10,000th time?
Care to suggest some???
Is this a trick question? I guess you don't get out much. Here's the
short list: Cold beer, hot cars, hot women, sports, tv, movies, old
computers, friends, traveling, pets, reading, family, tending my garden,
taking care of my house, etc etc etc.
I truely pity anyoe who regards drinking alcohol, women, sports, TV (at
least the TV we get over here), (watching) movies as being more
interesting than constructing anything.
Well I know I'm a lot more selective about my TV and movies than the
majority of people but are you trying to tell me that there's NOTHING worth
watching on TV or movies? What do you have against women, beer and sports?
I watch _very_ little TV, and wouldn't bother at all if I had to pay for
the license (as opposed to watching my parents' set). UK TV is pretty
darn awful....
Nothing agaist women, except that hacking is generally a lot more fun
:-).
Don't like beer, in fact don't like alcohol much at all (apart from
cleaning disk heads :-)).
You've met me. you know I'm not the athletic type. And I have absolutely
_no_ intersest in spectator sports (or watching overpaid idiots doing
anything for that matter). In fact the only thing I'd like less than
watching sport is participating in it!
You also overlooked the rest of the list or do you
have something against
all of them too?
No, the rest of your list seemed to be possibly as intesting as making
something. But not _more_ interesting.
I haev never
treated anything as just an appliance...
If you spend as much time, money and energy on a Microwave oven (or an
EPROM programmer) as you would, say, a PDP-8 then something is seriously
wrong IMO.
OK, something is seriosuly wrong. Period.
I choose my tools (and this includes test gear and EPROM programmers)
very carefully. It's a lot easier to do good work with good tools.
Now, I don;t have a microwave oven, but yes, I'd spend more time choosing
it than choosing a PDP8, if only because you can't choose the latter. You
generally get what's being thrown out (or at least I did with my 8/a and
8/e). Whereas with the microwave oven, there are several models to choose
from, and I'd want to pick one that was solidly built, didn't leak, and
had spares available. I am going to have to maintain it, after all.
In terms of using it, I'd spend a lot longer using the PDP8, of course.
But that's obvious.
In terms of maintaining it, it's close. The PDP8 needs maintence for its
'health'. The Microwave oven needs maintenance for my health.
I assume you think the chap who wrote 'The Voice of the Crystal' and
'Instruments of Amplification' was wasting his time. His home-made valves
and transistors are, to be blunt, lousy. But he had a go, and that, I
think, was well worth doing. I intend trying some of his experiments
sometime too. Maybe I'll learn something...
I know I learnt a few things when I built my first EPROM programmer --
and not just about EPROMs.
-tony
