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5551

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday TRS-80

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2012, 01:26 PM »

mine is the model I (which used a cassette player to save programs not a disk drive)

-mouser (August 05, 2012, 09:25 AM)

That damned cassette player!
I still recall the pain of huddling all night over a TRS 80, producing the worst kind of spaghetti code in order to beat a deadline. Finally, as dawn broke and before sending it to cassette, I just had to stretch and in so doing inadvertently kicked the power plug out of its socket.
Ouch!

-cranioscopical (August 05, 2012, 11:31 AM)

Ah Chris...you're bringing back memories. Bad ones!

I always HATED this thing:



I had the same thing happen to me once with my C=64 and a 1530 Datasette drive. 4 hours of assembly programming using HesMON down the tubes! Went out and bought the 1541 Floppy Drive unit the following weekend.



Of course that drive had it's own problems if you too frequently loaded games off it. Electronic Arts and Origin games used deliberate bad sector/track tricks for copy protection. It used to cause the read/write heads to "slam"  themselves dozens of times while loading Seven Cities of Gold, M.U.L.E. or Ultima III. You could actually feel it vibrate the tabletop sometimes. (It was usually four or five minutes of: Takka-takka-takka-takka *grind* whip-zip-zip-zip *grind* - and then... abrupt silence! It was scary.) All that head banging caused major alignment problems after a while.

Half-ass recalibrating these drives wasn't difficult if you had: a screwdriver and a few other tools, a special 'calibration' floppy disk, and the matching utility software. (A 'real' calibration required the above plus an oscilloscope so it was always good to have a friend or family member who was also a ham radio operator living nearby.) It was sort of a C=64 power user's rite of passage doing one of these. You had to crack the drive case (and void your warranty) to do it. But it was no harder than setting the dwell on a pre-fuel injection automobile engine. A little practice and a light steady touch were all that were needed. Most of us left the drive cases unscrewed and only elastic banded together after doing a few of those.

Fun times! Sure don't miss them.

5552

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday TRS-80

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2012, 11:25 AM »

Anyone ever use a PET?

-Renegade (August 05, 2012, 11:17 AM)

Me! (I'm a lot older than I look.)

Loved that trapezoidal monitor casing it had. Hated the little chicklet-ty keyboard, although it had a nice professional adding machine touch to it. Definitely more geared towards data entry functions than touch typing.  And at least the numeric entry pad was full sized. Looked something like a modern cash register. Saw one abandoned by the trash bins outside an old office building recently. I would have grabbed it except the monitor and insides had been smashed up. Quite recently too from the amount of glass all around it. Probably done by some passing kids who didn't realize what a collector's piece it was. *SIGH*

Used a DEC Rainbow too! That packed both a Z80 and an Intel 8080 chip in the same box. It could run CP/M 8 or 16, and also could be used as a straight data terminal too. I forget if it was VT-102 or just straight ANSI.

Commodore duped some of that design with their elegant C=128 which packed an 8502 plus a Z80 chip and allowed for three separate modes of operation: the traditional C=64, the jazzed-up C=128, and CP/M mode.

5553

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday TRS-80

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2012, 11:12 AM »

[/url])[/i]
According to Wikipedia, the photo in the first post is for the TRS-80 Model III, where mine is the model I (which used a cassette player to save programs not a disk drive).

-mouser (August 05, 2012, 09:25 AM)

It is the Model III. IIRC the Model I got yanked from distribution by the FCC because of excessive RF emissions. Radios supposedly used to make all kinds of weird noises if put too close to it.

The Model III was succeeded by the Model 4 (no more  Roman numerals!) which was a real nice version. White case, better hardware (128Kb RAM + 4Mhz CPU, nicer 'real' monitor (80x24 vs the old 64x16), larger capacity floppy disks, etc. ) and could run CP/M or an alternative 3rd-party souped-up version of TRSDOS called LDOS. You could have used LDOS on the Model III too although it really came into its own with the faster CPU and higher capacity floppies on the Model 4.

Radioshack also did something called a Model II (and later the Tandy Model 12) (see below), which was their "big iron" offering .

       

 It had two Shugart 8" floppy drives (expandable to 4) and ran CP/M or TRSDOS right out of the box. But you could also get add-ons (hard disk controller, graphics card) and a co-processor board with a Motorola 68000 chip and 512k of dedicated RAM which allowed you to run XENIX on it. That was a popular machine for midsize businesses looking for a relatively inexpensive system to run UNIX-based accounting and payroll apps. It was also popular with what used to be called "data-entry firms" because certain Model II/12 disks could be read by IBM and other minicomputers.



This machine was 'serious business' through and through and competed favorably against some of the lower end DEC and Commodore minicomputers from that era. Which just goes to show how far we've come since then. Especially when you consider any moderately technical hobbyist can assemble a supercomputer quite easily, and for far less money than my sister paid for her single-CPU TRS-80 desktop.

 

5554

Living Room / Happy Birthday TRS-80

« Last post by 40hz on August 05, 2012, 06:57 AM »

RadioShack's much loved (and unjustly maligned) TRS-80 turns 35 this year.



This amazing computer was one of the earliest affordable PCs that actually allowed small businesses to get serious work done. I installed a Model III in my sister's company back when dinosaurs (and me ) roamed the earth. With a 2Mhz Z80 chip, a whopping 48 kilobytes of RAM, dual 5" floppy drives, a butt-ugly silver/grey case, and a built-in and slightly fuzzy B&W TV screen (later replaced with a 'real' aftermarket amber CRT) for a monitor, it was a formidable beastie for its time. Other machines (including my beloved C=64) had panache and pretty graphics. My sister's had VisiCalc for spreadsheets, Electric Pencil for wordprocessing, a surprisingly complete and robust  GL/AP/AR accounting package - and Zork for when nobody was looking. This all cost her about $2700 in 1981 - which would be roughly $9500 in today's dollars.

Anything else you may have needed got taken care of the way most things did back then - by you writing a program (in BASIC or Z80 assembly) to handle it. Radioshack had a particularly nice version of BASIC and a decent monitor for assembler. Which was a good thing. Because sooner or later, you'd end up using one (or both) of them.

For tech "support" you had your local "80" club, the nascent "Trash-80" BBS community (via Compuserve), and a fantastic magazine called 80 Microcomputing.

Although it may not sound like much today, back when big sister had this rig, she was one of the most "computerized" small businesses in her neck of the woods.

Nice article entitled Please Don’t Call It Trash-80: A 35th Anniversary Salute to Radio Shack’s TRS-80 can be found here.

Note: Check out this 80 Microcomputing cover from 1980. Seems like judicial sanity still prevailed back then - even though the editors might not have thought so. (How times have changed!)



 

5555

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2012, 12:35 PM »

Ah!  I see, I install it, then use a regular web browser to manage and configure it.  Pretty nifty, nice on the eyes, and so far easy to use.

-superboyac (August 03, 2012, 10:20 PM)

Aha! I see you've already sussed it out.   (With thanks to mahes2k for getting back to you before I did! )

Couple more to look at:

Zentyal - nice small business oriented server



Amahi Home Server - a "loverly" piece of integration that has everything a home network could possibly use. And then some. Uses Greyhole to allow drive pooling too.
 

 

5556

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday C=64

« Last post by 40hz on August 04, 2012, 06:44 AM »

Probably trying to make one of those "When I was your age we had to WALK to school - in the SNOW - and and it was UPHILL - BOTH ways" points.  

Now if he just loaded up a copy of Ultima III   or Elite   he might have won a few converts.  

5557

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 08:39 PM »

I'll eventually build my server and show everyone how I went about doing it.

-superboyac (August 03, 2012, 07:17 PM)

Check out ClearOS Community Edition when/if you decide do a server. Amazing bit of tech. Very powerful free (i.e. community) edition available for download. Good docs too.
 

5558

Living Room / Re: What do you desire from your job?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 07:58 PM »

From a job as opposed to a career or my life?

• Money
• Responsibility
• Visibility

Just like most other geeks.  

5559

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 07:13 PM »

I don't think there's a single anything currently off the shelf that runs on Windows wirkstation that will do all that. But you could mix & match tools to get it. Windows 8 will be including drive pooling and RAID-like features if that's any consolation.  Or so the plan says.

5560

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 Metro has gone ...

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 04:49 PM »

We need some sanity. My fear is that we don't get it...

-Renegade (August 03, 2012, 12:23 PM)

Some sanity? Never fear Renegade. We won't get it.

5561

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 04:32 PM »

So, just buy 2 then? Or 4 for mirrored raid?

-Renegade (August 03, 2012, 01:30 PM)

  ...A 4 drive (RAID1) mirror?

-Stoic Joker (August 03, 2012, 02:26 PM)

Umm...Maybe Renegade is thinking of a RAID-10 (aka: "striped mirrors") since he's talking four disks? That would give the best performance and reliability since you get the benefits of both striping and mirroring. RAID-10 is used in many mission critical setups, although newer RAID controllers can give it a run for its money on performance using just RAID-5. It does rebuild more quickly than RAID-5 does following a drive replacement however. (I've only seen one in-production RAID-10 in my entire career BTW.)

The really big downside for personal use is that a controller that supports RAID-10 will be on the expensive side - and tends to be very fussy about the drives it uses. This is definitely more of an 'enterprise' level solution.
 .

5562

General Software Discussion / Re: Immersive Explorer: Oh God why?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 02:03 PM »

I'd suggest Windows IdiotBox

-40hz (August 03, 2012, 09:12 AM)

Wasn't that "common law" trademarked to mean television back in the 70s? ...We can't be confusing the old people now...that's just not nice.

-Stoic Joker (August 03, 2012, 11:43 AM)

Sure we can. They've already confused some of us "old people."

5563

General Software Discussion / Re: Immersive Explorer: Oh God why?

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 09:12 AM »

I'd suggest Windows IdiotBox

5564

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 Metro has gone ...

« Last post by 40hz on August 03, 2012, 09:10 AM »

I generally hate nonsense like arguing over who owns a word.

But in this case, I'll make an exception. 

Those who live by the IP sword shall die by the IP sword. 

5565

General Software Discussion / Re: mswin vs linux in academia

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 10:19 PM »

I LOVE the Enlightenment desktop... oh god... It's just divine! Best one I've ever seen.

-Renegade (August 02, 2012, 02:06 PM)

Gotta agree with mahesk2k in saying I really don't like it. Even Bodhi, which did Enlightenment better than anyone else, was still annoying. I felt like I was sitting in front of some 80s era researcher's notion of what the "Desktop of the Future" would look and work like. It seems funny (to me) how the Enlightenment developers think they're so forward looking when the whole Enlightenment environment strikes me as actually being rather retro. And not in a good way either.

But that's me. I like fairly boring desktop/windows managers that have a minimum of pyrotechnics and eye candy. And I truly dislike anything resembling a widget, or that uses a widget paradigm. Think I'll stick to my old favorite: Xfce.

Actually, this Bodhi desktop doesn't look half bad:



Hmm...

5566

General Software Discussion / Re: Immersive Explorer: Oh God why?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 09:46 PM »

it's the zealot "ZOMG THEY MUST SAY GNU/LINUX EVERYTIME A DISTRIBUTION NAME IS MENTIONED" attitude that gives me the tics

-f0dder (August 02, 2012, 06:09 PM)

Me too. Fortunately the nix zealots are becoming rarer as time goes on. At least around where I work and hang out. Nix is fairly mainstream now. It's not the holy rebel thing it used to be. And thank all that truly is holy for that.

5567

General Software Discussion / Re: Immersive Explorer: Oh God why?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 05:13 PM »

I completely dumped Ubuntu for showing far less hubris than that. And that was before Canonical sold out over UEFI and (more recently) started officially referring to their distro as "The Ubuntu Operating System" without so much as a nod towards its GNU/Linux roots.

-40hz (August 01, 2012, 06:10 PM)

I'm not sure exactly what to think of the whole UEFI Secure Boot thing, but that's a topic for another thread - it's not black/white for me, though, but I definitely think it's creepy. As for the GNU/Linux, come on... yes, those two might be the most important things wrt. defining what a Linux distro is, but there's craploads of software in each and every one that aren't "the kernel" and aren't authored by GNU - and it'd be a bit much adding each and every contributor to the name. As long as the project websites clearly acknowledge everybody, stop bitching about such small things. Even the kernel is the least important thing in an OS these days, being such big & complex beasts as they are (that goes for everything from Windows and OS/X to Linux, and even to the less bloated things like *BSD).

-f0dder (August 02, 2012, 03:21 PM)

@f0dder- I don't want to derail this discussion either. But I think you might not be up on what's going on with Canonical and Ubuntu's marketing lately. Take a look over at the main page starting here or here. Take a look around to see how long it takes you to spot them even using the word Linux.

The objection I and many others have is that it might not be such a big deal if it were some distro other than Ubuntu doing this. The problem is that with their marketing and presence, the  average Win-PC user's first contact with Linux is through Ubuntu. Which puts Canonical in a unique position to smokescreen the fact that Ubuntu is not all there is to Linux - or that the F/OSS community is not under the rubric of Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical has also strongly implied in other places that Linux was fundamentally unworkable for the average user until Ubuntu came along. Something which is patently not true.

Here's some examples of what I'm talking about that were taken directly from Ubu's website. (emphasis added)

Fast, secure and stylishly simple, the Ubuntu operating system is used by 20 million people worldwide every day.

Not Linux? Not Linux-based Ubuntu but rather The Ubuntu Operating System?

What is an operating system?

An operating system is what makes your computer work, running[/i] all your programs and managing your hardware. Other examples include Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

How about and hundreds of other Linux distributions?

How can it be free?

Ubuntu is free and it always will be. That's because it's the work of open-source software experts from all over the world - people who believe software should be free.

Just Ubuntu? How about "As part of the larger Linux and F/OSS communities, Ubuntu is free and always will be."

It’s open source.
Our global community is made up of thousands of people who want to help build the best open-source operating system in the world. They share their time and skills to make sure that Ubuntu keeps getting better and better. From IBM to Google, Firefox to Wikipedia – some of today's best software is based on an open-source model. Shared efforts. Shared principles. No cost.

Our global community as in Ubuntu?

I don't think it takes a genius or cynic to notice there is a pretty obvious attempt to present Ubuntu as it's own thing and semi co-opt the entire GNU/Linux and F/OSS movement by making it look like it's fundamentally under - and part of - Ubuntu.

Not much different than how AOL did its best to get the average Joe to equate the Internet with AOL's own service.
 

5568

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

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

When in doubt about that sort of error and data is involved? Replace & migrate. Period. No question.  

Or if not, at least check the stats regularly. When these things go they tend to warn you a little but then deteriorate fairly rapidly.

(A drive loaded with files "for the discriminating and advanced collector" takes a lot of time to redownload. And the torrents are starting to get a little dicey. )

5569

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 01:32 PM »

^all modern hard drives ship with more usable data sectors than advertised. These extra sectors are used to  hold data automatically moved from sectors that exceed read/write validation error thresholds. Think of it as a built in spare drive area. Once a sector gets reallocated it's old location is marked as bad and never reused.

When you start running out of spare sectors it means more and more live sectors are experiencing serious read/write errors and being removed from allocable storage space. If you run out of spare sectors you are at risk of data loss since there won't be any place to move your data before the sector it is on gets a "hard" or non-recoverable read/write error.

Small numbers of such errors are normal and usually due to problems with the media. Large numbers, or increasing numbers, are more usually caused by the mechanical part of the read/write mechanism wearing out or going out of calibration. That's much more serious because that affects the entire drive.

Hope that explains things.  

5570

General Software Discussion / Re: mswin vs linux in academia

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 12:42 PM »

If speed and ease are important, and you don't want much of a learning curve, then often Windows is better.

-Renegade (August 02, 2012, 11:23 AM)

But only if you ignore the fact that most people already have a significant amount of Windows learning under their belt whether they realize it or not.

One advantage Microsoft has being the desktop 'standard' is that millions get exposed to it early and often.

All operating systems and system tools need to be learned. You're not born knowing how to use a command line - or a GUI for that matter. You learn them. But when you're exposed to something as often as you are a Windows desktop and mouse, you forget just how much you've actually have learned over the years in order to use it effectively.

Since most people's Nix exposure often comes well after they've become proficient in Windows, they're more consciously aware they're learning something new. And occasionally they also find themselves needing to "unlearn" Windows conventions which they had previously assumed were the only "correct" way to do things on a computer. Small wonder Nix can seem "hard" to someone who's conceptual framework and workflow has been strongly shaped and influenced by Microsoft's vision of how to do things.

Linux is no harder to use (on the desktop level) than Windows. And beneath the hood, it's not really any harder to master either. (If you don't believe it, try tackling the Windows Registry, Group Policies and Objects, or Active Directory components before you say Linux is difficult to understand or work with. Especially when something goes wrong. Or when you start getting into serious shell scripting. ) Linux doesn't, however, hide its underpinnings and clockwork like Windows does. You can get into much deeper levels in Linux than Windows will allow. But that doesn't mean it's more complex. It just means the complexities are more accessible. Underneath the pretty GUI, Windows is every bit as complex - or possibly even more complex - than Linux is. But that's only to  be expected. Operating systems are complex beasts. No getting around that. No matter who wrote it.

How deep into it you need to go, and how much complexity you need to deal with, will be determined by your individual interest and needs.

It's no different than anything else that's "technical" when you think about it.

5571

General Software Discussion / Re: mswin vs linux in academia

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 11:08 AM »

An OS is an OS is an OS to paraphrase the Bard.

It's not so much a question of technology as application software availability. Nix environments are legally and culturally more "open" which encourages the cooperative and collaborative efforts educational and research institutions naturally gravitate towards.

If more is available in the Nix environment, it's mainly because it's a better fit for the way things get done in those settings. It's not for any technical reason. And since these users tend to be very bright, learning a new OS doesn't really pose a significant challenge to most academics.
 

5572

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 09:47 AM »

^From my experience, drives fail when they fail. And each drive has its own probability of failing. Multiple drives actually increase the likelihood of having at least one drive fail in a given system. And a backup drive is no less likely to fail than a main drive.

Perhaps wear & tear from regular use increases the likelihood of a "busy" drive failing. But in my experience it hasn't worked out that way. I strongly suspect variations in manufacturing and quality control have more to do with a drive going south than wear and tear does.

One thing I've observed that does have a direct effect on service life is heat. Cases packed with multiple hard drives, inadequate airflow, and "hot room" environments do experience more drive failures than single-drive PCs in normal office or home environments.

Just my 2¢. YMMV.

5573

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 08:34 AM »

@Mouser - I agree with the majority. There's no real advantage to doing preemptive drive replacements since the increased 'safety' of installing a new drive gets offset by the risk of "infant mortality" that comes with any new electronic component.

Disk drives are like airliners. The greatest likelihood of crashing comes during takeoff or landing. In the case of hard drives most fail very early - or very late in their service life. In-between they're usually just fine.

A simple disk utility will let you monitor how your drive is doing. Too many, or steadily increasing number of errors, is usually a good indication your drive is aging. Same goes for to seeing repairs reported regularly whenever you use chkdsk. If Windows or SMART throws you a warning however, I'd replace the drive as soon as possible since things are starting to get pretty serious by the time SMART squawks about it.

For my clients, we usually stockpile a few quality name brand hard drives. We try to buy them on sale, or whenever we spot a a good deal. As long as they're on-hand we're pretty much covered.
 
And while it may sound 'unscientific,' I've discovered you usually "just know" when a drive needs to be replaced since most drives don't abruptly fail without giving you some indication that "something is wrong."

Having a replacement drive ready to go, and replacing your old one when you feel something isn't quite right seems to be the best and most reliable way to protect yourself. That and regular backups.

Luck!

5574

Living Room / Re: Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?

« Last post by 40hz on August 02, 2012, 08:14 AM »

Speaking of hard drives!

I've got a bad Linux (Xfce) installation and would like to wipe the drive.
Can't even access Firefox or Synaptic!

Probably need a software to run from usb / cd or dvd.

-dantheman (August 02, 2012, 08:01 AM)

@dantheman - Download a free copy of DBan (Darik's Boot and Nuke).

Boot it from a CD or USB, select the "quick" option, and let it run for about 5 minutes. It doesn't need to run to completion for what you want to do.
 

5575

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook.com

« Last post by 40hz on August 01, 2012, 06:29 PM »

At the end of the day privacy on any service is illusory - any provider can access all of your email. If they want to waste server space storing it for a while after deletion I can't really see it is a cause for too much concern.

-Carol Haynes (August 01, 2012, 04:49 PM)

And there's also message encryption for anything you're that worried about. You can get fancy with Gpg4win and Kleopatra, or just attach an encrypted text or other file to an innocuous cover letter if you don't do a lot of this. Freeware products like AxCrypt and dsCrypt are good for encrypting individual files. Both provide more than adequate security for normal personal uses.