4 Jan
2010
4 Jan
'10
7:31 p.m.
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com> wrote:
Sounds like the nintendo wii modding scene. ?Nintendo
started putting
epoxy on the key chip the modders were targeting. ?Turns out you can
heat up the epoxy with a small torch and it pops right off.
Or the epoxy or cut pins, etc., on the iOpener.
Some of the "fixes" did make it difficult to mod the iOpener, but in
the end, none were successful in keeping out the determined geeks.
It did take a while to pick that epoxy out, but it can be done. ;-)
-ethan
4 Jan
4 Jan
7:36 p.m.
--- On Mon, 1/4/10, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
Or the early Commodore PET computers with holes drilled through the pads for additional
RAM chips. Of course, once again, nothing really stopping a determined hardware hacker
from bridging wires to the severed traces...
-Ian
Sounds like
the nintendo wii modding scene. Nintendo
started putting
epoxy on the key chip the modders were targeting.
Turns out you can
heat up the epoxy with a small torch and it pops
right
off.
Or the epoxy or cut pins, etc., on the iOpener.
Some of the "fixes" did make it difficult to mod the
iOpener, but in
the end, none were successful in keeping out the determined
geeks.
It did take a while to pick that epoxy out, but it can be
done. ;-)
7:46 p.m.
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Mr Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
Or the early Commodore PET computers with holes
drilled through the pads for additional RAM chips. Of course, once again, nothing really
stopping a determined hardware hacker from bridging wires to the severed traces...
I have one of those - I wouldn't call them early - it was the "dynamic
PET" model that could take one or two rows of 4Kx1 or 16Kx1 DRAMs, so
long after the SRAM PETs (which I _would_ call early). If you bought
the 16K version, they sent you a board with a bunch of ~6mm holes
between the unused RAM spots.
For mine, I could run all the missing wires and drop in 8x 4116 chips,
but I happen to have a CPU-socket ROM/RAM adapter, so I can just
supply the missing memory with one SRAM and get multiple ROM versions
for "free".
-ethan
10:01 p.m.
On 04/01/2010 19:46, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Mr Ian Primus
<ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
Yup, the first two or three 3016's our college bought were fine, so we
bought ten (IIRC) more, and those ones came with added holes -- more
like 3/8, from memory. I used quite a lot of wire-wrap wire on those.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Or the early Commodore PET computers with holes
drilled through the pads for additional RAM chips. Of course, once again, nothing really
stopping a determined hardware hacker from bridging wires to the severed traces...
I have one of those - I wouldn't call them early - it was the "dynamic
PET" model that could take one or two rows of 4Kx1 or 16Kx1 DRAMs, so
long after the SRAM PETs (which I _would_ call early). If you bought
the 16K version, they sent you a board with a bunch of ~6mm holes
between the unused RAM spots. 
11:35 p.m.
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010, Pete Turnbull wrote:
On 04/01/2010 19:46, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I wonder how many people tried to return these machines but were turned
down with "Gee, we can't take these back. Someone drilled holes in the
motherboard!".
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Mr Ian Primus
<ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
Yup, the first two or three 3016's our college bought were fine, so we bought
ten (IIRC) more, and those ones came with added holes -- more like 3/8, from
memory. I used quite a lot of wire-wrap wire on those. Or the early Commodore PET computers with holes
drilled through the pads
for additional RAM chips. Of course, once again, nothing really stopping a
determined hardware hacker from bridging wires to the severed traces...
I have one of those - I wouldn't call them early - it was the "dynamic
PET" model that could take one or two rows of 4Kx1 or 16Kx1 DRAMs, so
long after the SRAM PETs (which I _would_ call early). If you bought
the 16K version, they sent you a board with a bunch of ~6mm holes
between the unused RAM spots. 
5 Jan
5 Jan
11:23 p.m.
David Griffith wrote:
I wonder how many people tried to return these
machines but were turned
down with "Gee, we can't take these back. Someone drilled holes in the
motherboard!".
That sounds like a trick a PC manufacturer would use to avoid honouring
a warranty repair request -- leave a few unstuffed components on a
thru-hole board, then declare the warranty void because "extra holes
were drilled into the board".
Put it this way: given the "fun" I've had with component suppliers and
"warranties", it wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear of someone
doing that.
--
Phil.
philpem at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
6 Jan
6 Jan
7:21 p.m.
David Griffith wrote:
Alternatively I wonder if anyone returned their PET3016 with the comment
'I am not acceptiyn that machine, it's got darn great holes in the PCB' :-)
I also remember reading of a board-swap upgrade (may have been TRS80 M3
to M4) where you were supposed to destroy the old board by drilling a
hole in it. Point is, they didn't tell you where to drill the hole, and
it was possible to do it in an spot that was just ground plane on both
sides. Hmmm...
I wonder how many people tried to return these
machines but were turned
down with "Gee, we can't take these back. Someone drilled holes in the
motherboard!".
That sounds like a trick a PC manufacturer would use to avoid honouring
a warranty repair request -- leave a few unstuffed components on a
thru-hole board, then declare the warranty void because "extra holes
were drilled into the board". Put it this way: given the "fun" I've
had with component suppliers and
"warranties", it wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear of someone
doing that.
I am sure I haev seen at least one warrenty that was technically void if
you tired ot use the product in the standard way. But I forget what it
was. Personally, I ignore warrenties. If the product really is defective
in maufacutre, then you don;t _need_ a warrenty in the UK. And most of
the time I take the view that if a company couldn't make it properly in
the first place, I am not going to trust them to repair it.
-tony
5 Jan
5 Jan
11:24 p.m.
David Griffith wrote:
I wonder how many people tried to return these
machines but were
turned down with "Gee, we can't take these back.
Someone drilled holes
in the motherboard!".
That sounds like a trick a PC manufacturer would use to avoid honouring
a warranty repair request -- leave a few unstuffed components on a
thru-hole board, then declare the warranty void because "extra holes
were drilled into the board".
Put it this way: given the "fun" I've had with component suppliers and
"warranties", it wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear of someone
doing that.
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
philpem＠philpem.me.uk