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4676

Living Room / Re: History of CP/M

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 12:11 PM »

You´re mean 40hz, now I want to play with one again. I owned one A1000, several A500´s, several A2000´s, one A600 and several A1200´s. Over time with expansion kits and processor upgrades for practically all of them.

Amazing machines, amazing OS and together with Directory opus 5 amazingly capable.  

-Shades (November 04, 2012, 10:50 AM)

Agree. I "lost" my Amiga1000 in a move many years ago. Of all the computers I no longer own, that is really the only one I truly regret no longer having.

For those who are wondering what we're going on and on about, there's a nice half four long video on YouTube called Why use Amiga in 2011? (AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, AROS, AmigaOS 3.9) that will give a good idea of what that amazing machine was all about. If Commodore didn't stupidly shoot itself in the foot so many times, the Apple Macintosh would have been the historical curiosity, and we wouldn't have had the pleasure of putting up with Steve Jobs all those years - or living with his legacy today.

 

4677

General Software Discussion / Re: organize data for research

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 11:53 AM »

No fan of MS Office here, but I do have to say their OneNote is a real gem.

-Shades (November 04, 2012, 10:53 AM)

+1. Much as I disagree with some of the design decisions and concepts behind it, if you're looking for a multi file type "grab bag" organizer, OneNote is about as good as it currently gets. It's one of those "Jai alai xistera" sort of tools. (i.e. "It's not very often you'll need a xistera - but if you do need one, there really isn't any substitute.")

If you can get comfortable with it's unusual paradigm, OneNote should fit the bill.

4678

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Zero-Day Exploit

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 09:51 AM »

Sometimes I can't help wondering if some of this activity is being financed by parties interested in building the case for closed software ecosystems and single-source app stores. 

-40hz (November 04, 2012, 08:28 AM)

Well I wouldn't put it past Apple to poke holes in MS software, that's a cinch to see. But for MS to do it to themselves gets all into Tin Foil Hat territory that I don't wanna get dragged into : (

-TaoPhoenix (November 04, 2012, 09:06 AM)

Agree. But I doubt any of the companies would be stupid enough to do something like that.

But they're not the only stakeholders that would stand to benefit. Anybody holding significant stock positions would also do so. And these people are much more likely to resort to dirty tricks. Especially with the growing amount of hack talent coming out of certain state sponsored university programs and "computer clubs."

Not all these black hats want to work for their governments. Many have found lucrative freelance work.

Global village. Global economy. Global market. 

4679

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Zero-Day Exploit

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 08:28 AM »

Sometimes I can't help wondering if some of this activity is being financed by parties interested in building the case for closed software ecosystems and single-source app stores. 

4680

General Software Discussion / Re: organize data for research

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 08:19 AM »

Try starting with Microsoft OneNote and Office.

That's the closest I can think of that has all the bells and whistles you seem to want in one package.
 

4681

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 07:17 AM »

4682

General Software Discussion / Re: DragonFly BSD now best platform for PostgreSQL and database hosting

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 07:05 AM »

...

4683

Living Room / Re: History of CP/M

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 06:10 AM »

This brings back memories. My first computer was a Kaypro II, CPM based transportable. Like my first car, I wish I had kept it.

-edbro (November 02, 2012, 09:22 PM)

  My CP/M machine was a Commodore 128C.  The 128C had 3 OS's, CP/M and the C-64 and C128 OS's.  About the only command I remember when booting up the 128 was "Go 64", which would boot up in C-64 mode.  Great little machine, I had a lot of fun on it.

-Tinman57 (November 03, 2012, 04:47 PM)

Ooooo....

I bought one of those too. What a crazy machine. It had both the Zilog Z-80 and a Motorola 6502 CPU chips in it. Two separate CPUs from two completely different manufacturers! Talk about a kludge - although it was an extremely clever one. And it worked very well too, although IIRC sometimes switching from C64 mode back to native C128 mode was a little dicey and required a power cycle. CP/M, in true CP/M style, worked beautifully on it. Like CP/M did on everything it was ever ported to.

The only real "problem" (challenge?) with the C128 machine was programming it. And by programming I mean in assembler. The C128 had the weirdest memory architecture I had ever seen. The whole V20/C64 family's architecture was pretty weird to begin with since the memory map got shifted around whenever a cartridge was plugged into them. The Vic-20 was the most confusing. They fixed that mess somewhat with the C64. But not by much.

The C128, however, was a complete nightmare to get your head around. I must have spent hundreds of hours pouring over the Commodore 128 Reference Guide for Programmers and Mapping the 128 along with the other 4 or 5 books Compute Magazine published for the C128. This box was being viewed as a "very serious" machine back then because it had 128 kilobytes of RAM - which was huge for the time. Easily twice that of any of it's competitors. And the programmers were drooling! IIRC even Sams Books had a few programming titles out for it.

Too bad it was so complex not much got written to take advantage of the native mode. And since the 128 could run virtually all the old C64 programs (compatibility was close to 100%) - and the C64 was still selling well - most developers took the safe route and just continued to crank out C64 software. And the business programmers just continued to release their stuff for CP/M, so the native 128 mode never really took off.

Commodore also didn't market the C128 anywhere near as hard as they had the C64. Which greatly puzzled most industry watchers.

But it wouldn't be until later that we found out why they didn't when Commodore unveiled the very much ahead of its time Amiga1000. Two years after that they would release the incredibly popular Amiga500 model - and the rest was history. Amiga sold more successfully in Europe than it did in the USA. But it still had a very loyal and respectable following here. In Europe it actually became the most popular personal computer for a few years. They're still used today. And an Amiga2000, kitted out with a NewTek Video Toaster card, brought broadcast quality video editing within the reach of a small studio or serious hobbyist. For about $4000 you could do what it used to take a $100,000 video editor to accomplish. Truly amazing product! The Amiga/Toaster combo did to the world of video what the Macintosh would one day do to the world of publishing.



Ah...memories! It all seemed so magical back then...

4684

Developer's Corner / Re: FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 05:27 AM »

^Code it in poorly written Java while you're at it. Make sure it hangs or crashes every third time it runs.

-40hz (November 04, 2012, 12:37 AM)

Hmmm... I think we could get this done pretty quick! 50/50 on the $50,000 sound good to you?

-Renegade (November 04, 2012, 01:02 AM)

It's all yours. You have a daughter to send to college someday.

4685

Developer's Corner / Re: FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« Last post by 40hz on November 04, 2012, 12:37 AM »

^Code it in poorly written Java while you're at it. Make sure it hangs or crashes every third time it runs.

4686

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Virtual KVM

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 03:54 PM »

there's a seamless transition between the edge of the monitor on one screen and the edge of the monitor on the other, so you just move your mouse between screens and then your KB input goes to the connected computer.

-wraith808 (November 03, 2012, 01:11 PM)

Very cool that feature! I really like how the focus follows what you're doing without your having to directly invoke it to switch.

This is Synergy right? I never really got it to work with any degree of reliability. If I was lucky it switched maybe two or three times between two boxes before it just stopped working.  Most times I had it running however, it didn't seem to work at all. And that was despite the sysmon showing it was loaded and not hung. Experienced this with two Nix boxes and two totally different Windows desktops, so it doesn't seem to be an obvious OS issue. My test network is a vanilla IPv4 100/1000BT running on CAT-6 with no security on the LAN side beyond what little address translation provides. I even swapped out the net switches and temporarily disabled all security on the boxes just in case something was causing problems there. No joy I'm afraid.

Is there some trick to getting it to work? Or is  there some tweak or gotcha that you need to be aware of - and probably everybody else knows about but me?  

I do keep hearing good things about it. But these users apparently don't exist in the same time/space continuum I live in.

4687

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 01:14 PM »

Geat find Deo. Good dancer too!

Parts of it remind me of something Moses Pendelton (founder of the Pilobolus and Momix dance companies) used to do. He created a white suited character with a valise and cane that used to do some truly amazing dancing. Closest I could find is this really poorly made and choppy vid on YouTube that is a clip from a bio special done on him by A&E. Worth watching in that Moses has a bit to say about the artistic design that went into this character. And Moses Pendelton is one artist who is really worth listening to. Too bad the vid is so lousy because Moses has this weird ability to make time seem to speed up and slow down during this dance. You can get a sense of some of it. But whatever was used to compress the original probably got confused and tossed out too many frames in places when Pendelton almost hangs in the air or while in motion. Sitting in the theater, it makes you blink because you'd swear the universe itself had just frozen up for a second or two. Truly amazing stuff. I'll keep looking to see if there's a better quality vid available somewhere.

And if you like that, take a look at this favorite Pilobolus piece called Shadowdance. None of this is computer generated. They do it live with nothing other than lights, a scrim screen, and a huge amount of talent and creativity.

 

-----

Addendum: Ok! Found it. The whole documentary is available for viewing on Vimeo. Link here. Moses does a biographical sketch about his 33rd birthday which is almost an extended dance piece in itself. How typical of him.

4688

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Virtual KVM

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 12:24 PM »

Does TeamViewer let you do that?

-Renegade (November 02, 2012, 10:18 PM)

Sorry Ren/Wraith... I'm confused. Does TeamViewer let you do what? I think I somehow missed part of your question.

-40hz (November 03, 2012, 10:22 AM)

Does TeamViewer let you control two computers with one Mouse and keyboard, i.e. act as a virtual KVM?

-wraith808 (November 03, 2012, 10:41 AM)

As in toggle back and forth rapidly and repeatedly? No. Not really. You do have to remote into the box(es) you want to control. But it's a very fast connection to establish. TeamViewer can be setup to allow unattended inbound connections. And it's also reachable from anywhere to say nothing of being very light on its feet. Even over a suboptimal connection. So I find it works well for what I need to do since I'm not constantly toggling back and forth. I just connect - do my thing - and then I'm gone. This is how I handle routine administration on many of my client's servers on a daily basis. I'll remote in and out as needed. Start something on one server, then shift over to another and do something else while it's running. Then hop back when I get a minute to check up on the first. Once in a while I'll run some program and work with it as if I were actually there or using a real KVM. But I see your point. It's not really the same thing as what you're looking for.

For situations where I actually do need a more classic KVM (i.e. in a server or hub room) I'll just install something like a Raritan KVM box and call it a day. They have versions that work over an IP connection as well as the traditional cable cluster. Not cheap (they start around $200+ and rapidly move up into nosebleed country), but they're worth it IMO since they're uberreliable, and I'm not doing any of this as a hobby. If I were, I'd probably exhaust all possible free alternatives before I bit the bullet and parted with that kind of cash.

Not to say Synergy KVM or the other alternatives don't work. I just personally couldn't justify the time, or work up the interest, to take on another "science fair project." I'm saving that for the Raspberry Pi I ordered.

------------------
Addendum: if you're not doing high-end graphics or gaming - and you have a lot of machines you regularly need to locally KVM into, one very clever alternative is something called the Raritan TMCAT17216 Rackmount LCD with KVM Switch.



It looks like a 1U rack mounted laptop. But it's actually a 16-port KVM switch with its own 1280x1024 LCD monitor, 106 key fullsized keyboard, and touchpad. Goes for about $1100 street - which seems like a lot until you price a plain vanilla 16-port KVM and realize this puppy isn't that much more expensive.

4689

General Software Discussion / DragonFly BSD now best platform for PostgreSQL and database hosting

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 11:02 AM »

The latest edition of DragonFly BSD has just been released. And it's developers/maintainers are reporting some interesting news (emphasis added):

The 3.2.1 release of DragonFly BSD is available now. Significant work has gone into the scheduler to improve performance, using postgres benchmarking as a measure. See the PDF of graphed results to see the improvements. DragonFly should be now one of the best selections for PostgreSQL and other databases. USB4BSD has been incorporated into this release. More USB devices are compatible with DragonFly, and xhci (USB 3.0) users may be able to take full advantage of their newer hardware.

They've posted a PDF of the performance graph. Link here.

If you are running an SQL database server, or responsible for administrating or deploying them, that claim may be a little too promising to simply ignore.
 

4690

Developer's Corner / Re: FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 10:26 AM »

I do not believe that the problem can ever be "solved", but only "tamed" somewhat.)


I do have a very nasty solution though... Diabolical if I might say...

-Renegade (November 03, 2012, 02:29 AM)

I like your style!

4691

Living Room / Re: Just In Time For The Holiday Season, Apple Loses iPhone Trademark In Mexico

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 10:23 AM »

"Time wounds all heels."

4692

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Virtual KVM

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 10:22 AM »

Does TeamViewer let you do that?

-Renegade (November 02, 2012, 10:18 PM)

Sorry Ren/Wraith... I'm confused. Does TeamViewer let you do what? I think I somehow missed part of your question.

4693

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 07:21 AM »

IIRC, Tim Paterson's OS was named QDOS, for Quick and Dirty OS.

-xtabber (November 02, 2012, 10:50 PM)

Wow. Been a while so I may be getting confused. But IIRC, although 86-DOS was sometimes informally referred to as QDOS as in "quick & dirty" it was never marketed or officially referred to by Seattle or MSoft under that name. QDOS was used, however, as the official name of the operating system written by Tony Tebby for the Sinclair personal computer.

HA! I still have one of those, plus a copy of the book The QDOS Companion, sitting in a box somewhere. Wonder if it still works? I'd guess it probably does.

4694

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by 40hz on November 03, 2012, 07:02 AM »

Also interesting is the chapter on CP/M in Bob Cringely's book Accidental Empires:
How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date.

Especially the part where he tells a slightly different version of the famous story about how Digital Research missed the boat when IBM came calling looking for an OS for their PC. It puts a whole new face on the incident even if the details and outcome of the story are the same.

The chapters on Bill Gates, his first "business" (the TrafOData program) and the early days of Microsoft are even more so since they provide insight into how Gates & Co. sees the world.

Cringely's book was also the basis of the 2-1/2 hour 3-part PBS series Triumph of the Nerds. It's a must see IMHO. You can find it on Youtube(see below), or at the Top Documentary Films website.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Youtube links (may be blocked for some regions):

Part 1: Impressing Their Friends
Part 2: Riding the Bear
Part 3: Great Artist Steal

4695

Living Room / Re: History of CP/M

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 11:30 PM »

It wasn't much of an operating system. In fact, it wasn't really an operating system at all. It was mostly just a console command processor with a rudimentary file system, some very basic disk operations and a primitive BIOS added on.

It was neither beautiful to look at nor fun to use. Its capabilities were limited. And it performed them with neither style nor panache. But it worked as advertised once you took the time to learn it. With no bad surprises. Or good surprises either come to think of it.

Besides, it was pretty much all we had to work with anyway.

Strange how, so often, it was enough.

4696

Living Room / Re: Hurricane Sandy Discussion Thread

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 09:04 PM »

Ok...these are the three last things I want to say about Hurricane Sandy in CT:



1. We still ain't ready worth a damn.

Despite assurances by those in power, and tens of billions spent on "preparedness" and "homeland security." the Northeastern United States still remains unable to effectively deal with even a moderate regional emergency. I shudder to think what a repeat of a natural disaster on the scale of Katrina would do to this area.






2. Voluntarism during emergencies may become a thing of the past.

After hearing about the plight of the elderly people who were being sheltered in her town's Senior Center, my sister thought it might be nice to bring them some homemade cookies since she (to her amazement) had power restored while most of her town was still out. She got up at 6:00am and spent a few hours making over six dozen cookies, which she then brought over to the Senior Center. However, when she got there, the prissy town bureaucrat in charge declined to accept them - or let her hand them out - because the shelter was "dealing with the general public" and my sister's cookies were "privately made."

She then unhelpfully suggested my sister bring them over to the volunteer fire department building about a mile away. "They'll probably take them," she was told. So my sister did - only to find the firehouse locked up - and nobody home.

This afternoon, she and I consumed about two dozen of her cookies while we talked about her morning over a pot of coffee.

My sister's conclusion: "Never again."





3. You can't expect rational or responsible behavior from some elected officials when the chips are down.

Read this story about how utility crews were being subjected to abuse in the wake of a city mayor accusing the utility of having a policy to restore power to the "wealthier" surrounding communities ahead of the "poorer people" in his city.

4697

Developer's Corner / Re: FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 08:30 PM »

Drag out the recycle interval. Force a 15-second minimum delay between hanging up and being able to place the next call on all business lines?

Robocalling is volume driven.

Of course if they did that I risk losing the opportunity play head games with political party campaign callers.

4698

Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux Amazon Integration & EFF

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 08:15 PM »

I'm not sure whether or not legalizing marijuana is the solution to the problem here... Would it simply make you no longer care? Or would you get even more paranoid about the nastiness that is inevitable? I suppose moving to a different distribution solves that problem without the need to smoke a pound of pot.

-Renegade (November 02, 2012, 01:08 AM)

It's not so much that some distros feel the need to negotiate a "separate peace" and play Microsoft's game. The bigger problem is that it plays into Microsoft's long-term legal strategy. What Microsoft wants to do is establish that there is a de facto broad industry agreement that GNU/Linux infringes on Microsoft's IP without providing a court the chance to look too deeply into the allegation.

By getting major distros to individually cave to Redmond's arm twisting, Microsoft can make the case that a significant portion of the Linux world has already acknowledged Linux is infringing - else why did these sophisticated and knowledgeable developers feel it necessary to obtain software licenses from Microsoft in the first place?

Once a few more major distros have caved in - say maybe 10 or so of the top dozen  - Microsoft could then make the case (which would hold some water in a legal setting) that if Suse, RedHat, Fedora, Centos, and the Ubuntu family have all agreed to license from Microsoft there must be something to Microsoft's allegations that Linux is infringing. Especially since these distros employ some of the top coding talent - and who is better qualified to judge Microsoft's claim of infringement than these very same coders?

It's almost circular logic. But it plays well in court. Especially with a technically clueless judiciary and a moron jury.

I would like to see Microsoft attempt to prove its case in court. But Microsoft doesn't want to have to prove anything. (Likely because they can't.) Microsoft would much rather do a 'divide & conquer' in advance, and then have the cooperating distros turn Microsoft's assertions into a fiat accompli.

Pretty cute huh?

4699

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 07:52 PM »

Goes way back to how MS stole code from CP/M.

-Tinman57 (November 02, 2012, 07:31 PM)

My understanding was it was Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products who borrowed certain parts of CP/M for 86-DOS which was famously acquired for $75K by Microsoft and renamed MS-DOS.

But it's not really right to say it was stolen since it was generally understood (back in the early 80s) that software was neither patentable nor able to be copyrighted since code was considered merely a set of instructions.

Programmers freely "borrowed" what they could. Sometimes with the original creator's consent. And sometimes (ok...mostly) without. About your only options - if you didn't want pieces of your product reworked into somebody else's - was to obscure your code, lock up your source, and attempt to copy protect your distribution media.

Short of direct theft by breaking into a vault, or resorting to some form of corporate espionage, pretty much anything else was considered fair play. Reverse engineering. Cloning the "look & feel." Cross-compiling. Porting to a new piece of hardware. All was fair in love an software back then.

It's one reason why so much progress (and money) was made so quickly. A broken patent system, complete with its IP Troll entourage, wouldn't rear its ugly head till many years later.
 

4700

Living Room / Re: When Kickstarters Fail

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 06:04 PM »

They only reason that they're concerned is because of the volume.

-wraith808 (November 02, 2012, 05:46 PM)

That's the only reason we're concerned about anything really. Below a certain "noise level" nothing is ever much of a big deal.

But hardly disingenuous. I think this is more an act of recognition than a desire to regulate. It's an acknowledgement that crowdfunding may indeed be the next big thing in business or project financing. So there's the potential for large amounts of money to change hands with a fair degree of regularity if it really takes off. And I think most of the legislation I'm seeing proposed is intended to be proactive. I don't see some big conspiracy with Wall Street and big banking looking for ways to torpedo something like Kickstarter. They would love to see informal off-book arrangements like this become the norm. Because they want to be out from under regulation more than the most rabid libertarian ever did. It's not about principle either. Regulation is costing financiers money as well as denying them the "flexibility" to run roughshod over good business practices.

If Kickstarter really takes off, the VC world willl just copy it - or buy it outright. There's nothing that's remotely proprietary in Kickstarter's non-business model, so there's no IP to get around.

No. I don't have a problem with some thought being given to oversight when it comes to crowdfunding. I know too much about how business gets done, and how aggressive business finance can be to ever trust it to self-regulate. Because even with regulations in place they constantly push the boundaries of the rules. And the current state of our domestic economy bears mute testimony (and some scars) to what the lack of enforceable financial regulation can result in.

I'm all for laissez-faire capitalism. But not to the point of where I'm willing to give businesses carte blanche to do whatever they want. We already tried doing that. It doesn't work.