Test Equipment Anonymous

Another version of our signature music along with eye candy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1onIh_c ... saProcenko

Specmaster wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:50 pm Another version of our signature music along with eye candy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1onIh_c ... saProcenko

Well, that reminds me of something I hated as a kid: classic pop/rock songs "as interpreted by X". X is a "clean TV audience" act who has to fill a show aimed at people who are 30 years too old to appreciate the original, or a sub-prime act that isn't capable of originality but is capable of mangling somebody else's work. (For those in the UK, think Lulu, Cilla Black, or the Northern Light Orchestra).

Three questions:

1. if you aren't searching for such things, how do you blunder upon them?
2. if you are searching for such things: why oh why?
3. do you think the split in her skirt goes high enough?

Bah humbug.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 11:20 pm

Specmaster wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:50 pm Another version of our signature music along with eye candy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1onIh_c ... saProcenko

Well, that reminds me of something I hated as a kid: classic pop/rock songs "as interpreted by X". X is a "clean TV audience" act who has to fill a show aimed at people who are 30 years too old to appreciate the original, or a sub-prime act that isn't capable of originality but is capable of mangling somebody else's work. (For those in the UK, think Lulu, Cilla Black, or the Northern Light Orchestra).

Three questions:

1. if you aren't searching for such things, how do you blunder upon them?
2. if you are searching for such things: why oh why?
3. do you think the split in her skirt goes high enough?

Bah humbug.

I'll attempt at answering the three questions.
1. Being a cheapskate I often download music from YT and pop into my iTunes folder, so I get all kinds of music pop up in my suggested box.
2. To partner with 1 above, I have a program that allows me down music, videos or music and videos for YT and saves them in a format that allows other programs to play them. so I do search for bits and bobs from time to time and stumble across all kinds of interesting stuff in the process.
3. No I don't, do you

Actually, this belongs here much more than as a riposte on a random topical thread aboot lost/stolen packages...

FX Cake is some really fucked-up shit entirely designed to make you think, and it runs the gamut; some is excellent, some not so much. But that's what you get on the bleeding edge; sometimes you go a bit too far.

Highlight recurring segments, IMO, are Two Pink Doors, Drifters, Dicktown, 9 Films About Technology, Oh Jerome No, Troll, and Quarter Life Poetry. Seek the show out on your preferred streaming service.

mnem

This channel is actually really good: https://www.youtube.com/@atkelar

Production values are excellent as well!

Example...

bd139 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 4:44 pm This channel is actually really good: https://www.youtube.com/@atkelar

Production values are excellent as well!

Example...

Dear dog, that makes me glad I'm deaf. It is a toss-up whether that is better or worse than a talking head.

You are too young to remember Roland Rat https://www.tv-am.org.uk/roland-rat

I wish I was too young to remember Roland Rat. Unfortunately I'm not

And now for something completely different:

https://antidepressantsortolkien.vercel.app/

Do we have here any Makita fanbois?

https://imgur.com/gallery/F04he31

bd139 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 6:05 pm I wish I was too young to remember Roland Rat. Unfortunately I'm not

Whenever I saw Roland Rat I always felt I was seeing Phil Daniels in puppet form.

Ok that gave me a chuckle that

Nice plot twist (iMessenger vs. Google/Android):

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11 ... rkets-act/

True or not true?
Quote:
"CHINA — Road safety authorities in China have implemented a novel solution in a bid to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel at night.

Called “high speed anti-fatigue laser lights”, these flashing light displays are meant to help night time drivers stay alert while on the road."

https://www.todayonline.com/world/china ... ms-2301281

A helicopter as a replacement for a railway which needs maintenance for the next two weeks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFgsUVF82OE

Why? only Trendy Sadists only would find these keyboards attractive https://nerdtechy.com/best-40-percent-keyboard *shudders*
the only use case I can think off is as a keyboard for equipment that doesn't need number entry.

Reddwarf3r wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:00 pm Why? only Trendy Sadists only would find these keyboards attractive https://nerdtechy.com/best-40-percent-keyboard *shudders*
the only use case I can think off is as a keyboard for equipment that doesn't need number entry.

Looks like a smartphone keyboard, with letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

I started computing using a 5 bit teletype that obviously required those abominable keys to have >32 characters encoded on 2⁵ codes. Moving to ASR33s and ASCII was sheer bliss. Never did I imagine having to regress to letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:29 pm

Reddwarf3r wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:00 pm Why? only Trendy Sadists only would find these keyboards attractive https://nerdtechy.com/best-40-percent-keyboard *shudders*
the only use case I can think off is as a keyboard for equipment that doesn't need number entry.

Looks like a smartphone keyboard, with letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

I started computing using a 5 bit teletype that obviously required those abominable keys to have >32 characters encoded on 2⁵ codes. Moving to ASR33s and ASCII was sheer bliss. Never did I imagine having to regress to letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

Oh my sainted godfathers those things must of been a delight to type with.
I remember my Dad had a big hulking Teletype sat on his bench, that thing fascinated me no end.
I also still have my grandfathers adding machine, which doesn't have full number rows they only go to 5, so if you want 8 you have to press 5 then 3. Still mostly works but its cheap innards are well worn.

Reddwarf3r wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2023 4:07 am

tggzzz wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:29 pm

Reddwarf3r wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:00 pm Why? only Trendy Sadists only would find these keyboards attractive https://nerdtechy.com/best-40-percent-keyboard *shudders*
the only use case I can think off is as a keyboard for equipment that doesn't need number entry.

Looks like a smartphone keyboard, with letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

I started computing using a 5 bit teletype that obviously required those abominable keys to have >32 characters encoded on 2⁵ codes. Moving to ASR33s and ASCII was sheer bliss. Never did I imagine having to regress to letter-shift and figure-shift keys.

Oh my sainted godfathers those things must of been a delight to type with.

Let's just say you didn't touch type with them; two fingered was good. Key travel was about an inch with force required, and if you weren't punching tape there was a noticeable pause before the character returned and the whole thing vibrated due to carriage movements and the "ball" hitting the paper.

Playing with one at the best museum (TNMoC, natch) brings back memories audibly and viscerally.

All in all they make it blindingly obvious why unix commands and the vi(m) commands are "terse".

But they were much better than putting crosses on punch cards for later OCR, or handheld punch cards with 12 keys (each digit had a single key, other letters required pressing a combination of two keys). Tried those for half an hour, and realised I had better things to do in life.



DecWriters (dot matrix) and TI Silent 700s (thermal) were wonderful.

I remember my Dad had a big hulking Teletype sat on his bench, that thing fascinated me no end.
I also still have my grandfathers adding machine, which doesn't have full number rows they only go to 5, so if you want 8 you have to press 5 then 3. Still mostly works but its cheap innards are well worn.
IMG_20220319_111535.jpg

My first electronic calculator did have limited transcendental functions, but didn't have an "=" key (good) and didn't have an "enter" key (annoying). It was remarkable in that it was 1/10 the price of an HP35, and everything including key scanning and display was encoded in 320 instructions.

My latest calculators are older than that...

The working one is 1000in long (well, really 500in extending to 1000in), and I was inspired to get one after seeing two on display in TNMoC. They are available on fleabay, at about £350 each.

For old time's sake I got the other, purely to remind me of what we were taught to use at school (even though slide rules were the normal tool). It is mechanical and can do square roots at maybe 10s per digit - iff you have a skilled operator. Must try and repair that.

FFI: viewtopic.php?t=174 and viewtopic.php?t=235

The classic IBM 029 Keypunch Terminal made it a lot easier.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:33 pm The classic IBM 029 Keypunch Terminal made it a lot easier.

Not when they were 20 miles away and I didn't have access to them

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:33 pm The classic IBM 029 Keypunch Terminal made it a lot easier.

I used a thing like that in the early 70s, except the one I used was ICL.

Writing FORTRAN on Hollerith cards, a painful memory of long ago. The deck was kept together with elastic bands, which I swear were carefully designed to break at the most inconvenient time.

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:40 pm

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:33 pm The classic IBM 029 Keypunch Terminal made it a lot easier.

I used a thing like that in the early 70s, except the one I used was ICL.

Writing FORTRAN on Hollerith cards, a painful memory of long ago. The deck was kept together with elastic bands, which I swear were carefully designed to break at the most inconvenient time.

Wasn't it SOP to mark diagonal lines on the edges of decks, to help you get the cards back in order after having been dropped?

I managed to avoid cards, using paper tape in the 70s, and then mag cassettes on the 9845b, and floppies on PCs and Macs.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:33 pm The classic IBM 029 Keypunch Terminal made it a lot easier.

When I went to the CHM in Mountain View (strong recommendation, but go on a day (wed,sat) when they run the 1401) I tried out the manual punch, and the 029; as a matter of fact I punched my name card for the banner program on the manual one, and then we checked the punch on the 029 by using the duplicate function which prints an identical card save for adding the punched characters typed along the top. I'd been a good operator and made a flawless manual punch. It did not, however play a little melody as I pressed down the key.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 7:59 am I'd been a good operator and made a flawless manual punch. It did not, however play a little melody as I pressed down the key.

I had a principle of not admitting I could type, except for programming.

Wasn't playing tunes traditionally done on the line printer?

The nearest I have is a tape of an Elliott 803 playing music by blipping a loudspeaker whenever it did one operation (ISTR). Given that the instruction time was 576µs, the higher notes tended to be distinctly flat

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 11:53 pm

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:40 pm
Writing FORTRAN on Hollerith cards, a painful memory of long ago. The deck was kept together with elastic bands, which I swear were carefully designed to break at the most inconvenient time.

Wasn't it SOP to mark diagonal lines on the edges of decks, to help you get the cards back in order after having been dropped?

I managed to avoid cards, using paper tape in the 70s, and then mag cassettes on the 9845b, and floppies on PCs and Macs.

That was a partial solution. I recall the better solution was to number the cards, which meant extra typing. Then if the band snapped, the deck could be sorted by machine. Of course, if you went to the trouble of the extra typing, the band would never snap. I came to the conclusion that those elastic bands were demonic.

Of course there were a few hold outs, but Hollerith cards seemed to disappear into welcome oblivion by about 1980.

Another nasty thing was using consumer cassette tapes as storage for microcomputers. I never had direct experience of it, but it seemed to be a PITA.

Floppy discs weren't that bad. Even in the day they had a limited capacity and were rather slow, and some applications came on ten or more floppies, but they were reliable enough.