Posts by jake 26710 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007
My official job title at Bigger Blue was "Floating Senior Member of the Technical Staff" ... I wandered from department to department, world-wide, putting out fires. Outside of running my own businesses, it was the least boring, most stressful and most satisfying job I have ever had.
The very used and old at the time MFM drive I put in mine has lasted forever ... the afore mentioned quarter million air miles, and then kicking around in my piling system for a couple decades before landing in the corner of my office here at the ranch. Still works, gawd/ess knows how or why.
"It could also have been an Osborne, a Compaq Portable, possibly a Kaypro(can't remember the size of the screen).
True enough ... but only the Panasonic evoked a sewing machine's looks.
"And the Panasonic Sr. has a 9" screen, not a 7" as mentioned in the article."
I think it's a safe assumption that "Paul" never actually measured it, and was going on memory. It *is* pretty small, although it is easy to use at 80x25. What's an inch or two between fiends?
"Trade me"
One of my nieces has "dibs" on her, sorry.
The first five times I went to Hawai'i, I landed at night, was met on the tarmac by a taxi & taken to the NOC, where I did what was needed in a locationless, windowless space, and then returned to the airport by taxi the following evening. I never saw a beach or any other scenery, not even from the air!
"He packed up his "portable computer" (a sewing-machine sized contraption with twin 5 1/4" floppy drives and a 7" CRT)"
Sounds like the Panasonic Sr. Partner I lugged around the world for a few years, but that was back in the early-mid '80s, not the '90s.
All 38 pounds of her, including case, modem, manuals & floppies. At least she has a built-in printer. Yes, has. I still have her. You get attached to the daftest things after a quarter million air-miles together.
After a little gentle massaging, she now has an MFM controller in the expansion slot, a 20 meg hard drive in one of the floppy bays, and an aftermarket hack that upped the stock 256K of RAM to a more usable768K. I used an external modem. She still works. Came with Panasonic-labeled MS-DOS 2.2, but it currently boots MS-DOS 3.3 ... It might be hard for some of the younger readers to believe, but a LOT of RealWorld work was done with such primitive devices. Along with the usual office crap, she runs Mark Williams C perfectly ... which is more than I can say of the other luggables of the era.
The other day I was looking at the album cover for The Stooges Funhouse (autographed by Iggy and framed, on a friend's wall) and realized it had been well over half a century since I first heard it.
I nearly had to sit down.
Remember, we're all gettin' old ... the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
How about another 90% to the fizzheads who figured broadcast radio needed to have a software controlled receiver which should be capable of displaying pictures. Where I come from, that's called a TV, not a radio, and watching TV while driving is contra-indicated.
They are not guessing anything ... all of those so-called "reality TV" shows are heavily scripted (and most of them are also massively over produced, but that's another rant for another day). Everybody involved knows exactly what is going to happen next. How else do you get the camera in the right place at the right time for maximum titillation of the intended audience?
I've noticed that the Brits most likely to froth are the ones who rattle on about the personalities of the various British newspaper readers ... especially the ones who are prone to make up and/or use negative nicknames for said papers, which I suppose they think supports their frothy cause and makes them look intelligent, but actually makes them look like fully indoctrinated/brainwashed pawns for the cause.
"Why would something be on the table if it is not under current discussion...?"
Because it's not figuratively in the hand of the current speaker, being waved around and having attention drawn to it. Instead, it has been figuratively placed on the table ("tabled"), where it can be ignored or brought up again at a later date.
"cards on the table" is something very different ... it means you have displayed your entire hand to all and sundry; you are not holding anything back.
Separated by a common language, indeed.
As I wrote back in July of 2018:
"My eldest Niece reports that comp-sci students at her Uni implemented a "students only" UUCP network over the existing school network a couple years ago. It's mostly used for email, small file transfer, and a private Usenet hierarchy. Seems the thirty-somethings who are supposedly the administrators never learned UUCP and have no idea that what they are doing even exists. No, I'm not naming the Uni ... but apparently they are connected to other schools, world-wide, and the PTB are none the wiser. To get around draconian filters, they even have a couple links that are dial-up, over POTS, if you can believe it. Good for them! :-)"
How about allowing Parents to actually Parent?
If the UK Government doesn't think that modern parents are capable of parenting, surely the entire Government should resign, based on the fact that they don't think the UK's parents are capable of making proper Adult decisions, which presumably includes voting.
That wasn't just a manual, that was The Coherent Lexicon. Possibly the best over-all operating system book ever published. It is still a valuable tool today, with the caveat that the details of CLI commands have changed, but that's easy enough to check with modern man pages.
It is available for the download here, but I suggest finding a dead-tree copy on fleabay or the like. I've also seen it in used bookstores, mainly in University towns. Why dead-tree? Because it doubles as a reference manual, and to date computers don't come close to actual books when looking up shit in a hurry.
Couple the Lexicon with a copy of ORA Power Tools, 2nd Edition (the Drill Book) and you've got a really, really good starter's kit on REAL system administration ... but again, with the above caveat.
You can also download & play with the actual Coherent OS, should you want to. A legally downloadable copy is archived at TUHS, here.
The IBM manuals from back then are, indeed, good enough to restore the gear. That's why my 1401 (and attendant bits & bobs) runs today as well as it did back then. If you are fortunate enough to own any of that documentation, hang onto it. If you can't hang onto it, find a place to donate it. There are many places that accept such material for long-term storage and proper archiving.
"So how do you think The Register exists?"
I'm fairly certain I provided more profit for ElReg at the Cash&Carrion store (before it went TITSUP[0] back in 2008) that you'll ever provide them doing the pointy-clicky dance for shit you have absolutely no need for, much less any interest in.
"I am sure you are good socialist?"
Me? A socialist? That's a laugh. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm one of the vast majority of normal people who don't identify with any particular religion political bent.
[0] Totally Incapable of Transferring Selected User Packages
"If they hadn't, they'd probably have tried to climb into the sleeping bags too"
In that kind of weather? They'd have wanted to be carried in in their sleeping bags ... and then be placed, bag and all, into our bags. Not a lot of insulation on our primary breeds of choice.
No, those aren't part of our pack ... but the pose is identical.
Three or four whippets in a greyhound's bag is common around here ... funnier is one of the greys attempting to fit into a whippie bag. Lazy-arsed comfort loving heat seekers, the lot of 'em.
"I suspect a few people would be surprised what can be achieved with sendmail.cf if you have half a clue of what you are doing."
Very true. It's Turing complete ... so I once wrote a C compiler in it, just to prove to myself that I could do it. I don't recommend anyone actually use the kludge, though.
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