1.21 Quickiewatts

mobiux wrote in about the resurrection of Packard Bell PC's. michael.creasy told us about Darth Vader's MBE. An anonymous coward wrote in to tell us about the GameSpy interview of Martin Feldhausen, inventor of the 'extra life.' Thanks for helping me get through all those games! mcryptic shared the link to an online gallery of mousepad art. payneinthe told us that Randal Schwartz uploaded pictures from the Perl Whirl. Another anonymous coward told us about someone's visual response to the loss of Paul Steed at id. HerrNewton noted the symphony written primarily for dot matrix printers, and rasterbator told us about a web site for the distribution of free GNU and Open Source related artwork. Ant sent in the link to Star Wars Origins, and illumina mentioned RSA en/decryption in JavaScript. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Comments

Re:Packard Bell

[Zebbers]

Ya. I'll believe it when I see it. And though I do not recommend any storebought system for any of my friends or relatives anymore( I either custom build for them or have them order a custom from comp shopper, VA, etc.) I will pay attention to these.

Four of my relatives have (had) packard bells. I understand that the very nature of their specific market niche is not to the upgrade or tech inclined. They produce a settop box preloaded and not to be dittled with. Fine. Every other pc manufacturer does that. BUT.

Packard bell had always used shitty components, failed to specify components/configs/etc...or even worse, misspecified. Sure, they are not made to really be upgraded..but the least they could do is provide the correct info for the parts. Jumpers were opposite, settings were nonstandard...etc..etc. And though nearly *EVERY* techsupport person I had contact with was extremely friendly and tried their best....it seemed they knew very little of packard bell specifics.(And they admitted it too).

Dont get me wrong...I've seen experiences like this with other pc manufacturers(HP...hmmm another damn packard), but still..when you purchase a product..things shouldn't be so undocument and misrepresented so as to confuse you if you did want to delve further into it.

dunno

Re:Packard Bell

[orangecat]

I've heard all the horror stories about Packard Bell, including from a friend who worked for PB tech support.

But I have to say that I *love* Packard Bell keyboards.

The one I have now is ancient and filthy, but I wouldn't give it up for the world. It's perfect (well, except for the enter key and spacebar with tend to stick every so often). I can use other keyboards, but none I've tried feel as comfortable as this Packard Bell.

Though I did find a black Packard Bell keyboard lying around the house a while ago, and may consider seeing if that one is equally wonderful if someone doesn't claim it soon (My house seems to be on the other side of some hardware black hole. Hardware just magically appears from time to time. The odd part of this is that my two roommates aren't really geeks. If they were, the random hardware would be entirely understandable. But they aren't, so it's just odd).

My second computer was a Packard Bell, and I loved it. It was terribly reliable, and I never had any trouble installing new components (though I never actually tried to upgrade it - got it secondhand). Then again, the computer I had before it was a truly hideous POS - I left the cover off of it because half the time it wouldn't start up until I went and massaged the motherboard a bit to get some connection or other back into place. So it wasn't a terribly good comparison.

PB made a good machine

[FascDot Killed My Pr]

My dad bought me a Packard Bell in, oh it must have been 1995--from WalMart no less. It was a 486 75 (DX4...4? yes, 4). Came with Win3.1.

I still have that machine. I threw out the soundcard/modem (piece of crap) and I recently replaced the CDROM with a tape drive (and added a SCSI card)--but everything else is original equipment. It's running Linux headless (no monitor, kbd or mouse) and acting as the server for my home network. Provides file space, print services (laser and soon-to-be color), proxy/nat/firewall, etc. It's a horse.
--

ROSELIPS!!!!

[zeusjr]

Oh Roselips, why don't you love me anymore?
Was it my unfeeling facade, my unloving demeanor?
Did you want to be treated better than my golden retriever?
If I stooped so low as to speak to you would you love me again?
Or can I continue to ignore you raising my chin?
Is your love so dearly bought that I must love you too?
Why aren't you happy that I treat you so cruel?
Oh, Roselips! Why don't you love me anymore?

Packard Bell

[hanway]

Why would anyone want to bring out a new line of PC's under the Packard Bell brand? You'd be better off starting at ground zero. I guess the only thing that can really kill a brand name is an airline crash (think ValuJet, now AirTran).

Re:Packard Bell

[Magus311X]

Stupid motherboard/case shapes prevented meaningful upgrades

Yes, riser boards weren't that great. Never heard of anyone complaining about the shape of their case though.

Monitor lost sync at anything better than 640x480x256

You were expecting much better in 1992? Seriously. Lotta machines used the long ISA or VLB boards mind you. It wasn't meant for performance. Coulda bought your own monitor too

Hard drive had an ever-increasing number of bad sectors

Not common, but happened. PB used Conner Peripherals for a while. I believe they've gone out of business (Conner that is) but not sure. Before Packard Bell was dead though they were using Seagate's in a lot of machine, which no one can complain about.

Single IDE port couldn't handle slave devices for some reason

This was IDE, not EIDE. Most controllers had only a single channel, and IDE could only handle 1 device per channel. So you'd have two channels, each which could handle one device. The CD-ROM you say? Lots of CD-ROMs in 1992 weren't IDE or EIDE so they'd have seperate controller cards, which were usually combined with the audio device. So you could have two hard disks and a CD-ROM in a box at most.

Packard Bell and the other low-end manufacturers weren't meant for power and an assload of upgrades. I call these things disposable. When people do buy OEM machines, I tell em that they're going to get what they pay for. I build custom machines and sell em, but I tell em before they gimme what they wanna spend. THe less you wanna spend, the more vanilla the parts, and the less performance and a worse upgrade path yer gonna get.

I can build total brand name Athlon 750 systems for about $1000 (without monitor) with everything being brand name and for the regular user and regular gamer, they're damn satisfying. Though I tell em that if they want a GeForce2 GTS and an Athlon 1GHz and Ultra160 SCSI disks, they're gonna hafta pay for em. And if they don't wanna spend much at all, I just give em a list of what goes in it. They never ask for the manufacturer, specs, or even warranty, because they could careless. If I try telling em, they don't care (which is their loss)
--

Re:Packard Bell

[Sun]

*And* the name's not exactly retired yet in the UK - there's a machine in my local Currys.

Disclaimer - I work for a company called GTek Technologies Ltd. My company did buisness with Packard Bell up until the day it died. We still do buisness with NEC in Japan

The brand name they sell in Europe is a variation (slight) on the brand names they sell in Japan (where I don't know of any Packard Bell sales at all).

Get this - They actually sell quite well. They are reported (I havn't checked myself) to produce systems people are quite happy with.

Re:Packard Bell

[ocelotbob]

A couple other stories to add to your list of Packard Hell notorieties, courtesy of friends/relatives:

• All in one board that was a video card, modem and super I/O board
• RAM soldered into the simm slots. You could only upgrade to 16MB more RAM, and this was on a 486.
• Monitors with lousy glare problems

Now, if NEC were to make Packard Bell systems that had some standardized parts and were inexpensive, they'd have something. Although, I think that computer companies need to start playing with the case shapes, get something other than a cube. A triangular case would kick ass. Either that, or I'm still of the Cray line's toroidal design.

Re:Packard Bell

[skullY]

I had one of those legonds, and it ended up being the server for sysfail.org when that was still going, and then later my router. For what it was, it was a decent machine. Luckily, I was able to get a new bios for it while PB was still in business (cost me something like $80) so I could boot off the large 2.7gb maxtor my dad made the mistake of buying.

Ahh, reliving the old days of making crap hardware useful for something.....

Re:Packard Bell

[Sodakar]

A semi-me-too message, but just to add a few... This experience is based on my PC, and 3 friends'. (so it's not a wide study, but 4 out of 4 is pretty bad..)

• Power supply fan seized (and of course, not easy to replace)
• All monitors behaved like (size - 4)" monitors because their controls were very limited.
• System configurations didn't make too much sense sometimes. (486/33, 1MB RAM, 40MB Hard Drive, Windows 3.1) Hmm... I can run Notepad.
• When I wanted to add a floppy drive, I needed to order custom brackets.
• There was no way to add a modem without violating the warranty.
• Monitor got dark after 2-3 years of use
• Cables (monitor, printer, etc.) were horribly cheap, and often fell apart at the ends

Most of these things can be easily addressed by modern-day upgrades. Of course, the same was true in the early 90's when PackardBell was still making crappy PC's. Basically, no modern-day advance will do them any good unless they start putting in good components in there... So, I shall wish them the best, and if one happens to land on my desk by fate, it can hang out and chat with its 386/16 grandpa.

Re:Packard Bell

[warkeng]

Power supply fan seized.

This is not uncommon. Compaqs, ASTs, home builds, etcetera do this too. Don't know Packard Bell power supplies but replacing the fan is usually very easy ('cept AST cause they put goop on the fan's power plug). Five minute job to replace a fan (like to keep a couple of extra fans on hand).

Re:Packard Bell

[mrfiddlehead]

Packard Bell's are crap. They got nailed for trying to sell off second hand components as new before NEC bought the company. I don't know what kind of drugs the lackwits at NEC are doing to have bought into this fucking company. Before they bought PB I had always respected NEC for quality monitors, at least, now I wouldn't buy a one dollar digital watch from them.

Re:Packard Bell

[inquisitor]

Ah... Packard Bell.

I have never, ever used store-bought systems (direct mail or custom-build) but I know a couple of people who own a Packard Bell machine. Let's just say it's a pile of junk. Get ready for some shock...

It's a Pentium-60!!!

That's right, kids! Packard Bell sold to these people, in 1995, a machine with a Pentium-60!

Not only is it not upgradeable in any way (Intel changed voltage from 5V to 3.3V when the P75 and P90 came out) but it has horizontally-mounted cards (in a destop case), one PCI slot, which is not filled, only one 3.5" HDD bay (I gave up trying to fit another), and many other annoying features, such as its wonderful ISA video card or its excre^L^Lllent on-board video!

This, of course, was after NEC bought Packard Bell and made them see some sense (by retiring the brand name). Even now, however, I would not hesitate to tell someone not to buy from them. (*And* the name's not exactly retired yet in the UK - there's a machine in my local Currys.)

So, a pity they're coming back. But will they do better than before?

Only time will tell.

Re:quickie/gigawatts

[VAXman]

You are, of course, correct. Gigabyte and Gigahertz are pronounced with a soft "g". Anybody who pronounces them with a hard "g" is a bumbling moron, and needs to be sent back to kindergarten and needs to learn how to talk. It's really sickening to see people who are supposedly educated about computers, or about things in general, who pronounce these words incorrectly in public.

Of course, 99.44% of the population does not know how to pronounce "gigabyte/gigaherz", making them the most misprounced words in the industry (edging out "silicon", which about 95% of people do not know how to pronounce properly).

Inventor of the Extra Life? I don't think so.

[Foresto]

I glanced at that interview, and it appears to completely overlook the fact that pinball games have granted extra balls and extra games for a very long time. WTF?

Re:Inventor of the Extra Life? I don't think so.

[KnightStalker]

It certainly does not ignore that. To paraphrase the guy, how can you compare a steel ball to the infinite complexities of human life? There's no relationship :-)

Twenty One point One Gigawatts!?

[Soong]

Come now, how many other geeks out there will back me up and confirm that this was the phrase that Doc Brown was exclaiming about?

Re:Twenty One point One Gigawatts!?

[nmx]

No, it was definitely one point twenty-one gigawatts. Watch the video (what, you don't have it on video?)

Re:Twenty One point One Gigawatts!?

[The_Groove]

from the "where we're going we don't need roads" dept. I'll see you in the future!

Re:Real link to Packard Bell article

[Syberghost]

From the article:

Now NEC is reinvigorating the remnants of the company with cash, new executives and a marketing
push planned for later this year, said Steve Boogar, who was appointed chief operating officer two months ago. Boogar, a former NEC employee, had been running his own management consultancy for
about ten years, he said in an interview at PC Expo yesterday.

I'm thinking that he should change his name.

--

Re:Symphony out of printers?

[zeusjr]

Looks like a repeat story to me too...

I won't mention that it was just posted a week or so ago!

Who are the idiots that submit stories *after* they've already been exposed to slashdot?

JavaScript Crypto

[Chris Pimlott]

Hmm, I could see some interesting possibilities here...

This way you could read your encrypted mail via a web-based email provider, just have the javascript do it on the client side... after all, you sure as hell don't want to be sending _ANYONE_ your private key

Re:PERL is much more than AWK

[linzeal]

I'm so sick the endless stereotyping of the pro-life movement that I've seen here on slashdot since I've been reading, perusing, and posting here. As the founder of Anarchists for Life (which subscribes neither to Christian morality nor neo-liberal sentamintality) I find the repeated mention of the pro-life movement as a bigot-filled, female-hating, ass-backwards community of caveman to be hatefull and ignorant.

I expected more from this grouping of people than mindless rhetoric and name calling. Would you stand for a moment if I were to label someone here as a baby killer? Yet you can stand and call me rabid, suiting the prejudices that you can enjoy freely in this online community.

Anarchists for Life

A listing of progressive and revolutionary pro-life groups

You don't say?

[Pentagram]

Did you read that he said he flew over to 'help them implement' the extra life thing?

Seems they couldn't work out

if(score > 10000) {lives++}

I don't know who the geezer he was interviewing was, but if he was genuine he was pretty surreal. Or he was smoking crack.

Re:You don't say?

[alecto]

Excellent! When the score's above 10000, the lives just keep on incremementing!

How 'bout (in increasing order of obscenity):

if ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0))
lives++;

or

lives += ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0)) ? 1 : 0;

or

lives += (int) ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0));

He still didn't need to fly over, though!

Re:You don't say?

[Mr Z]

Sorry, you lose. Those will give you a free life if you have EXACTLY 10000 points, but in many games, your score will not necessarily be EXACTLY 10000 points.

How about:

int extra_life(int score)
{ static int prev_score = 0;
int extra = prev_score < 10000 && score >= 10000;

prev_score = score;
return extra;
}

Of course, in a real game, they have multiple 1ups at different score thresholds. So, you might instead do something like this:

int next_1up_tbl[] = { 10000, 30000, 50000, 70000 INT_MAX };
int next_1up = 0;

int extra_life(int score)
{ static int prev_score = 0;
int extra = prev_score < next_1up_tbl[next_1up] && score >= next_1up_tbl[next_1up];

next_1up+= extra; prev_score = score;
return extra;
}

But then, we're being silly. After all, all of these games were programmed in Z80 or 6502 assembler. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader how to do this in said assembly languages.

--Joe
--

Re:You don't say?

[Mr Z]

ack... I killed a <BR> somewhere, and I forgot a comma before INT_MAX. Ugh.

Slashdot needs to allow the <PRE> tag, and just limit areas w/in the <PRE> tag to 80 columns or so. That'd make posting code much easier. Either that, or implement a pseudo-tag which does all the hard work for you.

Filling a post with &nbsp;'s, <BR>'s and so on gets pretty old after awhile. Also, typing an informative, thought-out post in a teeny little 50x10 editor pane is just annoying! Can Slashdot please make the TEXTAREA size configurable on the user-preferences page?

--Joe
--

Re:You don't say?

[Pentagram]

Excellent! When the score's above 10000, the lives just keep on incremementing!

Yeah, yeah, okay, guilty. I should have known that you can't post code on /. without it being corrected. I thought about saying that it would have been written in assembly or something, but decided that would be too anal.

lives += (int) ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0));

Ah, but I was writing in Java!

Re:You don't say?

[alecto]

True, I didn't consider the case in which 1UPs were given for increasing score increments or that the score might not ever become a multiple of a fixed 1UP score!

(I always wished Galaga gave a new ship every 12000 points!)

Re:You don't say?

[alecto]

Ah, but I was writing in Java!

OK, I take back that cast--what's sad is that I kept trying to think of even more twisted ways to do the same thing!

Re:link wrong

[titus-g]

When my boss threatened to replace me with a short shell script I thought he was kidding, but damn, it happens!

ME a team player now!

honest guv

Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras

[ktakki]

He inserted a card encoded with his signature into a computer and entered the code name 'Buddy'

You were expecting him to type monica?

I wonder if anyone's tried to get /etc/passwd from whitehouse.gov released under the Freedom of Information Act?

k.
--
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people
are really good at heart." - Anne Frank

Re:Real link to Packard Bell article

[titus-g]

that they are still using Windows 3.1???????????????????????????????????????

Goshen

why Dave Prowse won't be in Ep3

[Zerothis]

I don't think Lucas will ever forgive him for what he did. Why would Lucas want to get him for the roll now all of the sudden after almost firing him from RotJ? Not to mention, can he go still hopping about swinging a lightsaber while in that suit like he did 17 years ago? IMO he looked pretty clumsy in that suit the first time, second time and third time.

Re: Javascript buggy?

[titus-g]

I guess no language actually has many bugs, in that a language is theoreticl kind of thing.

All languages do have bugs in the implementation though (ok, you can probably prove me wrong intelligent-arses thinking about replying (not u CMiYC - hey I'm just repeating what you said, almost, mostly, blah), but not statistically :P), for instance the fact that many web pages were last edited circa 1/1/70 in the case of Javascript.

(shit fuck bugger - previous paragraphs way to wordy, injecting healthy dose of reality)

Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras

[nmx]

Wouldn't do much good, as noone stores passwords in /etc/passwd anymore anyway.

gnu gifs?

[bmabray]

Did anyone else notice that the images on the GNU art site were available as gifs? Doesn't this go against the philosophy of GNU?

Re:McDonalds => fries

[nmx]

Getting offtopic, but also, Compaq =&gt stupid torx screws

Star Wars Origins

[niekze]

I looked at the page and it mentions a bit of where Star Wars came from, but it neglects the biggest thing of all.

Star Wars came from Akira Kurosawa's "Kakushi toride no san akunin" known in the USA as "The Hidden Fortress" go to your video store and rent it, you'll be suprised. Just like the "Shichinin no samurai" known in the USA as "Seven Samurai" was used for "The Magnificient Seven" which was used for "The Three Amigos." Seems we owe a lot to Kurosawa.

Re:Star Wars Origins

[niekze]

oops. seems Kurosawa wrote the screen play for "The Magnificient Seven" hmmm... seems you learn something new everyday.

Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras

[Ranger Rick]

With luck, it'll be blacked out on a PDF on a different layer than the text. ;)

:wq!

Re:PERL is much more than AWK

[gwalla]

I was just saying that the poster who pointed to "pro-life far-left democrats" as being "typical" was mistaken. I wasn't saying that there were no pro-lifers on the far left, or that pro-life leftists weren't organized, just that they weren't "typical".

You also have to admit that the far right has gone out of its way to identify itself with the pro-life position.

---
Zardoz has spoken!

Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[BradleyUffner]

I believe it's a reference to Back to the future. the amount of power required to go back in time, horribly mutated in so many ways...

RSA en Javascript? When is it going to be...

[Jaime Herazo B.]

another IE exploit or Hotmail hole?

"We will run this with the same kind of openness we have run Windows,"

Re:Symphony for printers

[talonyx]

The first movement is slow and kind of ominous, with a deep continous sound, and various clicking ones layered overtop.
The tempo increases as this movement continues.

The second starts with a more familliar sound of a carriage moving abck and forth, and what might be a daisy-wheel printer tapping the rhythm. This is a continuous theme throughout this movement.

The third starts with a simple squeking sound with rhythm imposed by the carriages moving in unison.
It then has a few slashes, possibly black lines on the page, scraping aginst the ear.
The tempo rapidly increases after this, almost sounding like a klaxon before a final slash and ending.

I like it. Get a crossfading plugin for whatever soundplayer you use, it sounds better that way with all 3 mp3's fading nicely to each other.

Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphrase!

[e7]

"Clinton first signed the bill on paper, then did his own card-swiping and mouse-clicking, expressing apparent relief when it all worked.He inserted a card encoded with his signature into a computer and entered the code name 'Buddy' -- which happens to be the name of his dog. The presidential signature appeared on the screen. The president grinned."

-- Associated Press, 30-Jun-2000. Emphasis added.

OK, kids, now don't go ordering quad Xeons on the President's credit card ...

Re:Mousepad art?

[Ryu2]

The most ironic one in the whole archive: http: //www.cyberden.com/cgi-bin/showsinglesleeve.pl?dir =m&file=microsoft6.gif Rather like an anti-prophecy...

No freaking way

[FascDot Killed My Pr]

Not only will I not back you up, I will raucously deride you:

Just imagine Christopher Lloyd saying it: One...point twenty one...gigawatts!

Trust me, I've seen this movie more times than I care to think of. Heck, I saw it 3 times on the first day I saw it.
--

Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[gwalla]

I think he understood the reference. Otherwise, he wouldn't have put in the "Great scott!" quote (Doc Brown's favorite phrase).

Oh, and "What the hell is a gigawatt" was a Marty McFlyism from the first movie.

---
Zardoz has spoken!

Remember...

[nsane]

IE uses JScript. So technically Javascript hasn't many bugs. Its still a dumb language though.

Re:Interesting Article Yon

[zeusjr]

It is goo to be eating without a knife and/or fork, which may (or may not) have the proper number of lossy jpeg encodings, like the ones found before the arrival of supermarkets to the seattle scene, AND I do mean seen, before you get all worked up about that too. So it is easily seen, that the stan darding slashdot is darding all too well for our own material possessions, which we possess, materially. I oppose those supposing irreverence ever relevant, even from beyond and beyond, considering all things that are simply not considered. To be more obtuse, 99 Degrees (of separation) are required for this fool-proof so the astronomy is DIFFICULT. I must not be leaving now, but I will anyway. Friday is ZJR day, Please to be having my difficult children,
Zeusjr.

Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[cpt kangarooski]

IIRC it's perfectly ok to pronounce giga with the first g being either hard (g) or soft (j).

Re:PERL is much more than AWK

[gwalla]

Your opinions, while I respect them, quite remind me of a anti-abortion anti-gun propagandist far-left democrat.

Anti-abortion far-left democrat? That's hardly typical. The rabid pro-lifers seem to mainly be on the far right. Christian coalition and moral majority and all that stuff.

Not that it matters. Two sides of the same coin, really...

---
Zardoz has spoken!

The Green Cross Code

[Huge Pi Removal]

I don't suppose many people here will ever have seen the man in action, telling us all how to cross the road. The funny thing is, he did 3 GCC "ads", and the first 2 were great: he was overdubbed. For the third, he just got too cocky, and asked for his own voice - it was a complete flop.

Just a 0.02 anecdote.

- Oliver
"exp(i*Pi)+1=0" - Euler

Re:Symphony for printers

[ahaning]

The video is in Quicktime format so you might have some trouble viewing it under Linux. But don't worry, the video was VERY crappy and it pisses me off that I wasted so much time downloading that. Don't worry, you didn't miss anything.

------------

Re:Symphony for printers

[iCEBaLM]

The second starts with a more familliar sound of a carriage moving abck and forth, and what might be a daisy-wheel printer tapping the rhythm.

A daisy wheel printer in the symphony for dot matrix printers?! Thats harmonic sacrilige! Beethoven is probably turning over in his grave!

-- iCEBaLM

1.21 Gigawatts!

[simceo]

Great Scott!

Gotta love Back to the Future.

Jones' voice as Vader

[Fishstick]

The caption on the picture of Vader says something about being voiced by James Earl Jones.

I know he did the voice in at least in ANH, (probably also ROTJ) but I thought he didn't for ESB (which the picture seems to be from). Does anyone else remember this or am I imagining things again? (Too lazy to dig out the VHS and look for myself -- DAMN Lucas for not releasing those on DVD!)

That's pretty cool that he got his MBE, but what is up with getting it now for something he had been doing from 76? Do they usually award these this far after the fact?

Symphony out of printers?

[sheckard]

Looks like a repeat story to me...

Not to mention that it was just posted a week or so ago!

Who are the idiots that submit stories *after* they've already seen the light of day on slashdot?

Re:Symphony out of printers?

[superkorn]

Seeing as the stories get posted again, perhaps the submitters are not so idiotic?

Or, the more obvious idea, the submitter missed it the first time around...

Re:Maybe I'm missing something....

[PurpleBob]

You are missing something. That is, the joke.
--
No more e-mail address game - see my user info. Time for revenge.

Symphony for printers

[Zoyd]

I thought I'd seen this somewhere before.

Re:Symphony for printers

[daviddennis]

Sounds like a "so bad it's good" sort of thing.

Did anyone have the patience to download the audio? I'd be curious to hear a brief description, and I never did get my sound card working ...

D

----

Re:Symphony for printers

[reve]

Well look at it this way: it shows us that /. is nothing if not consistant.

Re:Symphony for printers

[Wakkow]

Yes, and another person posted it a few days before that..

Daniel
daniel@splink.net

Re:Symphony for printers

[talonyx]

Well, honestly, listen to it... click clack click clack...

it sounds much like a dasiy wheel i used to have.

Either that or they made the carriage move back and forth with nothing to print, and it hit the edges hard? Or it could be individual pins hitting the page.

You, the Reader, Decide!

Packard Bell link broken - fix included

[Krimsen]

Ok so anyone with half a brain could figure this out, but just in case, here is the right link for the Packard Bell story.

Printers

[mindstrm]

Really. This is out of hand.
One day someone posts it in one of their followup comments to another story.
2 days later, it appears as a frontpage link.

Seing as how the page has been there for ages.. could it be that a bunch of /.ians submitted the article based on this? And now we see it keep creeping up? Get real.

It's funny how much /. influences the mindset of geeks. I get geeks phoning me telling me about something a freind told a friend who told a friend.. who I *know* saw it on /..

Bad Yahoo link

[floatdouble]

Yahoo - Document Not Found

The document you requested is not found.
here is the correct one

This comment is interesting why?

[itp]

/me is slightly confused as to why pointing out that emmett (who was recently at LinuxFest 2000) missed the previous posting of the dot matrix symphony is interesting... Personally, I think it's at least redundant (and most accurately, annoying)...

--
Ian Peters

Ya, Slashdot scooped ya on that one. :)

[Booker]

You gotta be quick if you want to survive in this dog-eat-dog online publishing world, emmett. :)

---

RSA

[purefizz]

wow... okay RSA in javascript. JavaScript is non-standard across browser platforms, buggy as hell, and now add the complexity of encryption? I beet read that closer??

kick some CAD

Resurrection link bad...

[Fist Prost]

I guess the ressurection will not be televised?

Packard Bell

[MOSFET]

Heh.. I've heard sufficient horror stories about Packard Bell machines... yet I have an old Packard Bell (I think it's a Legend ..something) that I absolutely love. Config is as follows; 20 megs RAM (4 onboard + 16 in the one 72 pin simm socket), 4.2 gig IDE HD, AMD 5x86 133 Mhz processor installed in "OverDrive" socket. There's an old 486 sx-33 chip collecting spiderwebs in the middle of the oddly shaped motherboard. The machine is running Redhat 6.0 beautifully. Only real limitations I can think of are that the vga doesn't go above 800x600, and the bios doesn't support drives over 1024 cyl's, so it has to boot off a floppy. I wouldn't want to see this box trying to run winbloze...

link wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

The link for the Packard Bell news needs to end in .html not .htm

Re:link wrong

[zeusjr]

Sometimes I wish Fridays were still zeusjr rant days. This Anonymous COward however is to be praiosed for his (and by his I mean a generic term for its) incontrivable contentinency of bloated prime. Marsenne would be pro
ud of this accomplisment to the new orl begon. self-styled pots would be angry - but that isno nudes@!
slashdo
begon jin fty jiopping through the newsgroups (and by that, I mean nice) but there was no in

please to be relesaa
zeusj

Feldhausen joke

[cybaea]

The Feldhausen story is amusing, but it has got to be a joke. My favourite quote is:

The virgin detector was also my idea. Also, games with vegetables.

Very funny, /.

Real link to Packard Bell article

[Field Marshall Stack]

/. crew left off the 'l' in 'html'...hm, wonder what _that_ means...anyway, here's the _real_ link

NEC resurrects Packard Bell

--
"HORSE."

Re:Real link to Packard Bell article

[istartedi]

Not that it matters. Packard Bells worked about as well as that link. We used to call them Packard H*** in tech support.

#VRML V2.0 utf8

Re:Real link to Packard Bell article

[Mr Z]

Yeah, I was wondering how they picked him...

--Joe
--

Mousepads as art?

[lucidvein]

I've always wondered if mousepads would become a collectors stylepoint of the 90's. Like Pokemon, Magic or Garbage Pail Kids each have their timelines, we will be charting the progress of computer science by what mousepads we can pick up in the thrift store.

In fact, they also make great wall art. Accumulate a couple hundred and you have a mosaic of computer culture tiled on your wall or ceiling. I suppose the similarity of having soft padded walls might make you look a bit crazy though, eh?

Nice collection, though it might be easier to browse if their were thumbnails for each section.

Packard Bell

[antizeus]

I hope for the sake of the uninformed consumers that the new Packard Bell systems are better than the old ones. Back in 1992 my mother bought me a Packard Bell. Here are my complaints: (I may have forgotten some)

• Stupid motherboard/case shapes prevented meaningful upgrades.
• Monitor lost sync at anything better than 640x480x256.
• Hard drive had an ever-increasing number of bad sectors.
• Single IDE port couldn't handle slave devices for some reason.

Nowadays I put together my own systems, but still... I don't like to see other people get burned.

my quickies

[molo]

i think that guy that invented the extra life is crazy. a quote:

I learned early on to channel energies using an aluminum foil dish strapped to my forehead. I have long since ceased to be mortal.

best mousepad: the one with boobs

best pic from the cruise: big iron

best art from the gnu/art site: l33t debian button.. gotta get one

enjoy!

Dot Matrix Printers

[rothwell]

How may times do we have to hear about the dot matrix printers? Is there a secret message in there somewhere? Is this like slashdot's version of the "numbers" stations -- note the time that the "dot matrix" story was posted and use it as a one-time pad or something? Sheesh.

Re:Dot Matrix Printers

[istartedi]

Is this like slashdot's version of the "numbers" stations

No. All 3 of those stories that were posted in the last 1 day have only a 33% chance of containing hidden meanings for 7 specific individuals.

#VRML V2.0 utf8

Silophone - Whoops?

[Digitalia]

If you follow a link on the printer page to the silophone page, you can input sounds into a tube an listen to them echo back live. I was playing a lot of sounds and then the system started uttering static. I hope I/we didn't break it for everyone else.

Extra Life Inventor? Yeah, Like Gore's Internet

[Codeine]

The "Extra Life" was no more or less than "Extra Ball" from pinball, which has been using it since Adam was a cowboy and I got 5 balls for six-pence and a "Free Game" at 1100 points.

Re:Extra Life Inventor? Yeah, Like Gore's Internet

[Ranger Nik]

congratulations! you have won a golden washing machine.

Maybe I'm missing something....

[cmcguffin]

... but isn't an "extra life" in a videogame simply the digital version of an "extra ball" in pinball?

McDonalds => fries

[Alex Belits]

Compaq => unnaturally-shaped cases (containing nonstandard components)
Packard Bell => cheap white plastic (containing absolutely the most shitty components available on Earth).

Re: Javascript buggy?

[CMiYC]

Javascript is buggy? How do you figure? I've seen a lot of Javascript with bugs in it... but not in Javascript itself...I've seen IE mis-interpret code and introduce bugs, but Javascript itself is clean.

---

Offtopic? Maybe. Fun? You decide

[Platinum Dragon]

I'm going to take a moment and burn some karma with -1, Offtopics to pimp my own little thang. I mean, it is Quickies, after all:)

You've seen the movie! You've learned the kung-fu! You've even developed your own interactive version! Now, get the alcohol poisoning!

THE MATRIX DRINKING GAME

Lose memory now! I'll show you how!

man i'm gonna pay for this one...but i couldn't resist:)
plat

Got Steed?

[Sonicboom]

*lol* That link was great!!! I hope someone makes a quake mod so I can chop up Mario with a chainsaw! *vrrt!*

extra life

[farkinga]

I am pretty sure that article is to be taken with a grain of salt. :) Nevertheless, it is entertaining and I suppose there is a shred of historical value to it as well. I wonder why it is that most people involved with technology have such a similar sense of humor.

The American Heritage Dictionary...

[unclei]

...of the English Language, 3rd Edition indicates that either a hard g or a j sound is correct.

Look for yourself.

I'd post the pronunciation here, but I don't know how to make i-breves and stuff in html.

Re:The American Heritage Dictionary...

[VAXman]

1. j- is the preferred pronounciation 2. They only added g- because a bunch of morons kept saying it that way, so it became a word. It doesn't meant it's correct.

Dear CmdrTaco

[tealover]

would you please submit to a Slashdot interview? I would like to ask you some questions, most notably, are you still having fun? I hope you don't feel that doing this is just a job. Anyway, let me know if you plan on doing that anytime soon. I think it would be vey interesting.

Thanks.

not to mention

[Negadecimal]

An interface that reminds me of Verisign's old registration forms...

One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[roystgnr]

"Great Scott!"

"What... What the hell is a Quickiewatt?"

Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[talonyx]

that was Gigawatts, mispronounced by chris lloyd as "jigawatts" :)
But you're right about the number, 1.21 Jigawatts :)

Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!!

[Glamatron]

I was once told that the prefix giga- comes from the word gigantic.. so etymologically, "jigga" is probably more correct. Seems that the "gig uh" pronunciation is far more popular, and ipso facto correct. Now if only I could get people to start saying "guy gah." :)

Mousepad art?

[brank]

Classic computer art:

The Official 5.25" Disk Sleeve Archive

they're in good hands

[jazzman45]

"Boogar, a former NEC employee" hmmm...i don't even want to go near that.

bye,
-jimbo

Bell Canada did a cool thing with mousepads

[PooF]

They made their little add thingie and had it printed on about 50 "pages" of mouse pad like material, had it bound

If one layer got dirty/trashed (they were almost as good as the el cheapo brand pads) then tyou'd just rip it off and have a fresh pad.

Cool 'eh? Mouse pad art in a different way

Aaron "PooF" Matthews

Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras

[istartedi]

I wonder if anyone's tried to get /etc/passwd from whitehouse.gov released under the Freedom of Information Act?

FOIA has exceptions for national security, and I'm sure that's how they'd argue against releasing that information. Either that, or they'd give you a printout with lots of black rectangles where the sensitive data is. That's always fun.

#VRML V2.0 utf8

Re:Interesting Article Yon

[titus-g]

I demand that as of now a 'Nutter' option (+ or - is up to you) be added to the /. moderation system, I mean how am I am meant to deal with shit like this????

Quickie FAQ Violation

[KingJawa]

This posting by emmitt is in violation of the Quickie FAQ, which clearly states that quickies must contain at least two of the following:

* Something by Eric Raymond
* Something blasting Microsoft
* Something by Eric Raymond blasting Microsoft
* Something about Natalie Portman (close on the SW quickie)
* Something about hot grits (whatever.)
* Something blasting Metallica
* Something trumpeting (heh!) Napster
* Something by Natalie Portman blasting Metallica while eating hot grits
* The Furby Autopsy link that always always always get reposted
* My site, which has funny eBay auctions and only made the quickie list once, and that was a year ago.
* Something blasting Microsoft
* A bad argument about why Jon Katz is a giant giant loser
* A good argument about why Jon Katz is a giant giant loser
* CowboyNeal

Nice threads for Perl

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there ANY Perl bigwig out there who has good taste is shirts?

Gamespy and the *Extra* Life

[fluxrad]

I think what's really cool is that games are starting to take a turn for the more realistic.

case in point: Counterstrike - the extraordinarily popular half-life mod that basically gives you one life. when you die, you're dead. No respawn (at least till the 5 minute or so match has ended).

Perhaps, in a addition to teaching our children about violence, games will begin to teach children about the consequences of violence. It may be a bit basic, but then again, so is the video game violence. - Maybe some of these "violent" video games will show kids that, while violence may seem fun on a TV screen, there are *real* consequences for our actions...people do get hurt, and some times, that person is you.

On one other note. I really want to say thank you to the guys over at Gamespy - that has got to be one of the biggest bang for your buck i've gotten out of any piece of software in a long time. (Linux anyone????) - Really good design, configurability without any learning curve. The only thing i could ask for is a linux port :)


FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network