24 Oct
2002
24 Oct
'02
8:29 a.m.
Reminds me of a couple of AT&T 6300's that I used in an exhibit at the Field
Museum of Natural History here in Chicago. The keyboards were mounded under
1/2 inch particle board, with just the keypads showing (to run the program).
We needed to add an extra instructional label beside the keypad, so the
exhibit preparators screened the labels and, to protect them, mounted thin
plexiglas over them. To mount the plexi, they drilled 4 holes all the way
through the particle board -- and the keyboards that were underneath.
Amazingly, neither of the keyboards was destroyed.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk [mailto:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 4:21 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Tandy XENIX Disks
<snip>
There is one other nasty fault I've seen (at least on the M3, and I
suspect the M4 is identical). There's a plastic post moulded into the
bottom case of the machine under the keyboard. If something heavy is
dropped onto the keyboard, it will cause this post to hit the PCB with
enough force to break tracks.
While you have the keyboard apart, examine this area of the PCB very
carefully.
had that problems with M3 and M4 KB's
-tony
25 Oct
25 Oct
10:35 a.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
--- "Feldman, Robert" <Robert_Feldman(a)jdedwards.com> wrote:
Reminds me of a couple of AT&T 6300's that I
used in an exhibit at the
Field Museum of Natural History here in Chicago. The keyboards...
drilled... all the way through...
There were two high-profile incidents at the Physics Department at
Ohio State while I was there (or shortly before)... the inventory
department is charged with tagging all assets. For the multi-thousand-
dollar precision glass grated scale (think ultra-fine diffraction
grating), they chose to etch the asset number into its face with HFl.
The $50,000 hydraulic press received its metal tag at its thinnest
point - the upper hydraulic reservoir (being the only place thin enough
to pierce for riveting). The first time they fired it up, I'm told,
the rivets shot across the room. Naturally, the reservoir was machined
into the main casting, not a replacable item.
The inventory department had replace the items out of their own budget
(which was none-too-large to begin with). After that, there was an
official written policy that no Physics items were to be tagged without
approval of/monitoring by the Department. Too expensive to let the
drones have their way with drills and acid.
(In a related incident, the CIS guys turned away the inventory guys when
they showed up with a bag of aluminum tags and a riveter to individually
drill and tag all the boards in a 6' rack of modems. I think the CIS dude
signed for the bag of tags and stuck them in a drawer).
-ethan
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6:29 p.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
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26 Oct
26 Oct
12:06 p.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
The same Stores also once such their ID plate on the bottom of a mouse,
over the ball (!). OK, that one didn't do any real damage, but...
A similar thing happened where I work. They etched the name into the
bottom of the mice on several Macintosh computers... But the tool they
used created raised edges around the letters, so therefore the mice
wouldn't work very well, because it would catch and drag on the
mousemat. I've also seen a similar thing happen, where they used a
soldering iron to melt the ball covers in place on the Macintosh mice,
and this dragged on the mousemat even worse, and the mice soon became
useless junk because the mechanism got so dirty it wouldn't work. To
fix these, we had to unscrew the top cover of the mouse and disassemble
it to clean it. It was a real pain. And they thought people would steal
mouse balls WHY?
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
12:12 p.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Sark wrote:
A similar thing happened where I work. They etched the name into the
bottom of the mice on several Macintosh computers... But the tool they
used created raised edges around the letters, so therefore the mice
wouldn't work very well, because it would catch and drag on the
mousemat. I've also seen a similar thing happen, where they used a
soldering iron to melt the ball covers in place on the Macintosh mice,
and this dragged on the mousemat even worse, and the mice soon became
useless junk because the mechanism got so dirty it wouldn't work. To
fix these, we had to unscrew the top cover of the mouse and disassemble
it to clean it. It was a real pain. And they thought people would steal
mouse balls WHY?
Because people steal mouse balls. A friend works in a major computer
chain store, and I used to work for University of Texas, in IT. Keeping
balls in the mice is a huge headache. Damn if I know why anyone wants
them, though.
Doc
12:27 p.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
"Because people steal mouse balls. A friend works in a major computer
chain store, and I used to work for University of Texas, in IT. Keeping
balls in the mice is a huge headache. Damn if I know why anyone wants
them, though."
Makes quite an argument for optical mice, doesn't it?
--John
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Doc Shipley
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 13:14
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Sark wrote:
A similar thing happened where I work. They etched the name into the
bottom of the mice on several Macintosh computers... But the tool they
used created raised edges around the letters, so therefore the mice
wouldn't work very well, because it would catch and drag on the
mousemat. I've also seen a similar thing happen, where they used a
soldering iron to melt the ball covers in place on the Macintosh mice,
and this dragged on the mousemat even worse, and the mice soon became
useless junk because the mechanism got so dirty it wouldn't work. To
fix these, we had to unscrew the top cover of the mouse and disassemble
it to clean it. It was a real pain. And they thought people would steal
mouse balls WHY?
Because people steal mouse balls. A friend works in a major computer
chain store, and I used to work for University of Texas, in IT. Keeping
balls in the mice is a huge headache. Damn if I know why anyone wants
them, though.
Doc
27 Oct
27 Oct
10:50 a.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
J.C. Wren wrote:
"Because people steal mouse balls. A friend
works in a major computer
chain store, and I used to work for University of Texas, in IT.
Keeping balls in the mice is a huge headache. Damn if I know why
anyone wants them, though."
Makes quite an argument for optical mice, doesn't it?
Yup. Not only do they
provide smoother movement of the mouse cursor, they're
also more reliable and the mouse ball can't be pilfered. Oh, and they can be
had, in some cases, for less than the price of a mechanical (with ball)
mouse.
I've also noticed that my Genius (ho hum) Netscroll+ Eye works on pretty
much any surface, too. I even used it on carpet (once). Shame it ended up
caking the sensor in cack. That was certainly fun to clean...
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/
26 Oct
26 Oct
4:12 p.m.
New subject: Destructive labelling (was RE: Tandy XENIX Disks)
On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Doc Shipley wrote:
On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Sark wrote:
It isn't just the larger companies or universities that have a problem
with this either. At one local school where I maintain dozens of older
systems, some years the kids steal the balls out of the mice. The year
before last, some kid even stole 6-8 mice (and switched 4 of them out with
dead junk mice. This year I'm planning to ty-wrap the cables to something
behind the systems so that won't happen again. I sure wish I could find a
lifetime supply of the older 3 button PS/2 Logitech mice. I've found those
things to be nearly indestructible in a school, and the younger kids will
usually find a way to break anything...
-Toth
And they thought people would steal mouse balls
WHY?
Because people steal mouse balls. A friend works in a major computer
chain store, and I used to work for University of Texas, in IT.
Keeping balls in the mice is a huge headache. Damn if I know why anyone
wants them, though. 
12:33 p.m.
New subject: Ambulatory mouse balls (was: Destructive labelling
Rumor has it that Sark may have mentioned these words:
That's an easy one... Way back when, most mouse balls were just solid
rubber and/or plastic... and they sucked. A few of the "good" mice (that
ran $50+ at the time) had the steel-ball-covered-with-rubber balls and were
1) rather rare, and 2) highly sought after. When I was a tech, when one of
the "good mice" died horribly, the first thing I did was grab the heavier
ball before it hit "File 13." Over the next few months, as the next few
"good mice" died, I *made sure* I had at least a few spares, because on
occasion (when my mouse didn't work nearly so well) I found my nice, heavy,
steel-core mouse ball had "grown legs"... :-/
I had to get rather "inventive" on where to hide my spares so they didn't
disappear, either... :-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
The same Stores
also once such their ID plate on the bottom of a mouse,
over the ball (!). OK, that one didn't do any real damage, but...
A similar thing happened where I work. They etched the name into the
bottom of the mice on several Macintosh computers... But the tool they
used created raised edges around the letters, so therefore the mice
wouldn't work very well, because it would catch and drag on the mousemat.
I've also seen a similar thing happen, where they used a soldering iron
to melt the ball covers in place on the Macintosh mice, and this dragged
on the mousemat even worse, and the mice soon became useless junk because
the mechanism got so dirty it wouldn't work. To fix these, we had to
unscrew the top cover of the mouse and disassemble it to clean it. It was
a real pain. And they thought people would steal mouse balls WHY?
8106
days inactive
8109
days old
8 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
jcwren＠jcwren.com -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net -
zmerch＠30below.com