15 Apr
2013
15 Apr
'13
12:27 a.m.
On 15/04/2013 01:40, MG wrote:
On 22-feb-2013 20:09, Murray McCullough wrote:
My WeightWatcher Points,
get Up-to-date weather forecast,
SatNav,
read alt.folklore.computers
read cctalk
Should we be surprised at how and why
classic-computing, this site in
particular, is so popular amongst the hobbyist/experimenter community
today? There is a modicum of control that?s lacking in today?s
computing, or computing-like, technology. Granted it?s ?easier? to
use/employ, nearly by all; everything, or almost, done without
consumer input but turning the infernal beast on. Or, maybe not with
the ?intelligence agents? been employed today! And even our computers
I dare say going this route. Automatic updates, etc., etc.,
happen?Making a computer or otherwise do what you want it to do,
rather than say an Apple or something akin, is fast becoming a thing
of the past. Freedom. Let?s hope it?s not pass? either!
If you ask me, computing itself is something of the past. What is
actually 'computed' nowadays on the tons of worthless 'smart phones'
and other nonsensical wastes of cycles and electricity?
I'm not even near as old as some of those posting
here and I'm
already bittered (or was, certainly, more so a while back).
I've come to accept that it's a consumerist culture where
everything is disposable. (In this supposedly 'more and more'
"green" world.) So, I've started not to care much and not
attach to much to a computer.
Its getting harder not to dispose. In the UK we are on our third
generation of Digital TV boxes and as analogue broadcasting has ended
you have to have a box that is compatible with the latest incarnation of
the standards. Recently I disposed of a "first generation" box as
although the chipset inside was compatible with current standards the
firmware wasn't. I did search to see if it could be upgraded but
apparently not. Even rescuing SMD components isn't as easy as discrete.
You MUST have an LCR meter to check with.
I do have these SGIs here to remind me of better
times, with
one still very capable (SGI Tezro) to actually do some work
on.
Must fix my SPARC station. I think the hard disk has died and I didn't
have a backup....
- MG
Dave
G4UGM
--
Dave Wade G4UGM
Illegitimi Non Carborundum