I'm sure there will be quite a few disparaging remarks about the NIMF in this thread. And while some comments may be deserved, we should all just step back and take the time to say something good.
My dog provides me with entertainment, an incentive to exercise and security by protecting my property from intruders. So no, I'm not about to eat him.
The authors of this article however, serve no purpose to me and are therefore fair game.
Every program contains at least one bug, and can be shortened by at least one instruction. By induction, every program can be reduced to a single instruction which doesn't work./old, I know.
Other than that, it's not much good for anything. It's too small to carry any amount of power, whether supply or audio, it's unshielded and may not even be twisted pair.
It's as useless as iron telegraph wire in this day and age, or close to it.
An engineer from the UK I worked with in the late 80's had a NASCOM-1 he hung on the wall of his office. It was well built and he assured us it still worked but since the video wasn't compatible with US standards, we had to take his word for it.
The AIM-65 was my 3rd computer. My first was a wire-wrapped RCA1802 based on a design from Popular Electronics. I managed to fit the whole thing in an 8x5x3.5" bakelite box including front panel, LEDs and four D-cell batteries for power. My second was an Infinite UC1800. Good luck trying to find any info on that rare beastie. Basically it was a single board computer with a 72 pin expansion connector and three optional boards for control, display (hex led modules) and a hex keyboard. Opcodes were typed into the 16 key keyboard and the 'enter' key was on the control board. I built a memory-mapped video display for it using a MATROX 3216 (32x16 character) video board, rewired an surplus keyboard for ASCII and used it as a terminal for a while before moving on to something better. Good times.
That reminds me, I've got a T3100e/40 stored somewhere. Gas plasma displays rock!
It probably still has the interface card in it for an EEPROM programmer I designed, built and programmed for programming GE radio equipment. Those were the days...
I'm wondering, if Grandma wants to buy a new video game for little Bobby, how is she going to know about any sales in her area? All she's going to get on her TV is commercials for arthritis rub, denture cream, cat food and the like.
On a related subject, I've also wondered why they target ads to kids anyway. They can't drive, don't have much money and from my experience if I whined and pleaded with my dad to buy me something I saw on TV I generally got sent to my room.
"After Node 3 is installed, the station's crew will transfer over many of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) currently stored in various places around the station."
Perhaps they should name it 'Basket,' as they seem to be putting all of their eggs into it.
I have personally seen a 1981 KayComp power up after being stashed under a desk for 25 years.
I think you got lucky. A coworker brought in a Kaypro II a couple of years ago that had hardly been used and stored in his father's garage. He fired it up and let it run for about a hour. Then there was a loud pop, a shower of sparks and smoke rolled out of it. One of the capacitors had blown a hole right through the power supply's circuit board.
The electrolytic capacitors are going to dry out in 50 years and will cease to function. There's a chance they will damage other components when the power supply is powered up again. I've seen it happen with equipment that is less than 25 years old. I don't think there is any known solution to this problem.
I'm currently restoring a 50 year old stereo receiver (Harmon Kardon TA230) and the electrolytics are almost completely gone. Everything else is in excellent shape; the resistors, coils, tubes, even the lamps test good but the caps are all shot. This receiver has a old style transformer power supply, so I can bring the voltage up slowly using a Variac for testing. Your computers are going to have switching power supplies which will not like having a lower voltages applied to them so that's not an option.
I honestly have my doubts that much from this era will survive 50 years. It's all made as quickly and as cheaply as possible with the expectation that it will be replaced in 3 or 4 years.
I currently have an Apple ][ that no longer can read its boot disks, a PC XT that doesn't always recognize one of its ST-506 drives and a few months ago I went through my Amiga disks and found that most of them were no longer readable. All of these are far less than 50 years old and have been stored carefully and well cared for.
However, my AIM-65 made in 1977 is still able to read data from my ASR 33's paper tape reader, which is 45 years old and still working fine.
Slashdot Mirror
...oops ;-)
My clock says today is Setting Orange, Day 73 of the Aftermath in the Year of Our Lady of Discord 3175.
I suspect that anyone who wanted it has already downloaded a copy by now.
I'm sure there will be quite a few disparaging remarks about the NIMF in this thread. And while some comments may be deserved, we should all just step back and take the time to say something good.
I'll start.
They're gone.
Good.
Hey, give him a break. He probably has a very high IQ.
My dog provides me with entertainment, an incentive to exercise and security by protecting my property from intruders. So no, I'm not about to eat him.
The authors of this article however, serve no purpose to me and are therefore fair game.
What'll you have? White meat or dark?
Yes, the lines are DC with converters at each node that connects to the indivuidual grids.
That's why I always keep my fly on vibrate.
Woo-Hoo! I'm getting a call!
You young punks are lucky.
In my day we didn't have ones and zeros, we had to use l's and O's and we were damn luck to have them.
Every program contains at least one bug, and can be shortened by at least /old, I know.
one instruction. By induction, every program can be reduced to a single
instruction which doesn't work.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
You left out 'yore.' I see that one about every other week.
Is that like Fist Post?
Use the old wiring as a pull-rope to run Cat-6.
Other than that, it's not much good for anything. It's too small to carry any amount of power, whether supply or audio, it's unshielded and may not even be twisted pair.
It's as useless as iron telegraph wire in this day and age, or close to it.
will Scientologists have to wear yellow, six-pointed stars on our clothing?
Actually I was thinking they should be marked with something like a scarlet letter on their foreheads.
Perhaps a big "I" for Idiot.
It would certainly make them easier to spot.
Does it still work?
Mine kept getting stuck in some mode that caused the processor to overheat and start smoking. I must have replaced it 5 times before I gave up.
I've never trusted Microsoft hardware ever since.
And I'm not too keen on their software, either.
An engineer from the UK I worked with in the late 80's had a NASCOM-1 he hung on the wall of his office. It was well built and he assured us it still worked but since the video wasn't compatible with US standards, we had to take his word for it.
The AIM-65 was my 3rd computer. My first was a wire-wrapped RCA1802 based on a design from Popular Electronics. I managed to fit the whole thing in an 8x5x3.5" bakelite box including front panel, LEDs and four D-cell batteries for power. My second was an Infinite UC1800. Good luck trying to find any info on that rare beastie. Basically it was a single board computer with a 72 pin expansion connector and three optional boards for control, display (hex led modules) and a hex keyboard. Opcodes were typed into the 16 key keyboard and the 'enter' key was on the control board. I built a memory-mapped video display for it using a MATROX 3216 (32x16 character) video board, rewired an surplus keyboard for ASCII and used it as a terminal for a while before moving on to something better. Good times.
That reminds me, I've got a T3100e/40 stored somewhere. Gas plasma displays rock!
It probably still has the interface card in it for an EEPROM programmer I designed, built and programmed for programming GE radio equipment. Those were the days...
I have one as well; they're aparently more common than I thought.
Computer related? ASR33 teletype (1965). I occasionally fire it up to show off my AIM-65 (1976).
Audio equipment? 1958 Harmon Kardon Stereo Festival TA230. I play MP3's through it on a pair of Klipsch KG2s (1982). Still sounds great.
They're lucky the winner was Colbert.
Imagine what it could have been named if the 'b-tards' over at 4-chan got involved.
You're assuming this will be used against foreign countries.
There's no reason it can't be used domestically as well.
Or entirely.
Nothing to see here citizen, move along.
I'm wondering, if Grandma wants to buy a new video game for little Bobby, how is she going to know about any sales in her area? All she's going to get on her TV is commercials for arthritis rub, denture cream, cat food and the like.
On a related subject, I've also wondered why they target ads to kids anyway. They can't drive, don't have much money and from my experience if I whined and pleaded with my dad to buy me something I saw on TV I generally got sent to my room.
"After Node 3 is installed, the station's crew will transfer over many of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) currently stored in various places around the station."
Perhaps they should name it 'Basket,' as they seem to be putting all of their eggs into it.
I have personally seen a 1981 KayComp power up after being stashed under a desk for 25 years.
I think you got lucky. A coworker brought in a Kaypro II a couple of years ago that had hardly been used and stored in his father's garage. He fired it up and let it run for about a hour. Then there was a loud pop, a shower of sparks and smoke rolled out of it. One of the capacitors had blown a hole right through the power supply's circuit board.
The electrolytic capacitors are going to dry out in 50 years and will cease to function. There's a chance they will damage other components when the power supply is powered up again. I've seen it happen with equipment that is less than 25 years old. I don't think there is any known solution to this problem.
I'm currently restoring a 50 year old stereo receiver (Harmon Kardon TA230) and the electrolytics are almost completely gone. Everything else is in excellent shape; the resistors, coils, tubes, even the lamps test good but the caps are all shot. This receiver has a old style transformer power supply, so I can bring the voltage up slowly using a Variac for testing. Your computers are going to have switching power supplies which will not like having a lower voltages applied to them so that's not an option.
I honestly have my doubts that much from this era will survive 50 years. It's all made as quickly and as cheaply as possible with the expectation that it will be replaced in 3 or 4 years.
I currently have an Apple ][ that no longer can read its boot disks, a PC XT that doesn't always recognize one of its ST-506 drives and a few months ago I went through my Amiga disks and found that most of them were no longer readable. All of these are far less than 50 years old and have been stored carefully and well cared for.
However, my AIM-65 made in 1977 is still able to read data from my ASR 33's paper tape reader, which is 45 years old and still working fine.
Yeah, my wife hates me for keeping all this junk.