How It Works… The Computer, circa 1971 and revised in 1979. Found via linkfilter. I love this sort of thing. Old technical manuals, old hardware, old software. At one point I had so much of this stuff that the garage became unbearable and had to get rid of a lot of it. The gems, I saved.
Category: Computing Hardware
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If It’s Not One Thing, It’s another
Yet another end-of-the-world callout as the pole shift nears in just over 30 days.
“Given the devastation and resulting turmoil from the coming pole shift, it is imperative that groups of people prepare for communal survival.“
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Another Computer Pioneer Gone
Adam Osborne died recently, apparently. He was 64. Adam invented the first “luggable” computer. From the article:
In 1981, the company’s first year, Osborne sold $5.8 million worth of the Osborne-1 computer. By the end of 1982, he had sold $68.8 million, or as many as 10,000 units a month. Then his classic business misstep occurred. Osborne boasted in early 1983 of an improved second generation of his product — months before it was ready to ship. Sales of older models of his portable sewing-machine-sized computers plummeted. The inventory build-up that resulted led Osborne Computer to collapse in September 1983.
Kind of like the .com era only, he had a viable product and sales to match…
This computer holds a special esteem for me because of the many clones of this luggable that I’ve used. The original Osborne was a tank that could withstand almost anything. My first encounter with them was in the mid-80’s in the millitary. I found some that had been abandoned (for a militarized Kaypro4) and cannibalized for parts. I was able to make a whole unit of the parts and I wrote some little text games for it. Soon, I we were using it to generate simple reports. Good memories.
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Bush-o-matic
Try the amazing Geedubya Speech Generator. I wish I could credit the original author but, I don’t know who it was. Click on the text or pic above to launch the speech generator. Or, you can [right-click > save as] and save it to your desktop and play with it at home. Drag the words down to the blank text area and click play.One of mine: “The United States destroyed afghanistan and beyond. We created conflict, raging disease, persistent poverty, injustice and broken treaties on a massive scale. America stands committed to, one day, the further destruction of Iraq. Justice must never again prevail.”
Well, it’s more funny if you throw a fart or burp in there.
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But it DID Destroy the Data
At a small, rural hospital, IT staffers often have to reformat and scrub the hard drives of old PC’s before re-deploying them.
“Having no access to a regular disk-wipe system, we would always take the hard drive out of the PC and into the room with the magnetic resonance imaging machine..”
“An MRI machine is primarily a huge electromagnet, so simply walking into the room with the drive would scramble the bits.”
But, someone neglected to tell the entire team not to take an entire PC, on a metal cart, into the MRI room.
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It Was A Good Day in the Death Business
Daniel Basile was executed Wed. night in Missouri. He was given a 22 hour reprieve to allow a new witness to give new testimony. Hoping that she would help clear his name. She didn’t.Meanwhile in Texas later this evening, Mexican national Javier Suarez Medina, was also put to death for the killing of a police officer. Medina was executed despite the Mexican ambassador, the Pope, and numerous pleas to stay the execution.
“Court appeals and protests against the execution argued Suarez was not told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his arrest, violating the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations, which the United States has signed.
Dallas authorities have said Suarez, 33, gave conflicting information when asked about his birthplace, identifying both Mexico and Texas. He spent most of his life in the United States and spoke English.”
I’ve already spoken my piece about the death penalty:
“I cannot tolerate the fact that we are allowing the government to murder members of our own society. I do not trust the political, judicial, or any other entity established by our government not to personalize an issue such as this. Hence, this is the real key to the debate on the death penalty. Personalization. No one, in my opinion, can prevent themselves from personalizing decisions made that determine the nature of a punishment as final as the death penalty.
I’ve never heard a death penalty argument (either pro, or con) that is strictly empirical and impersonal. They always start, or end with: “If your (insert relative here) was (insert heinous crime here), what would you want done?” Good god, has anyone thought that that is exactly what jurors are doing? Isn’t anyone else uncomfortable with construct that we have given our government the power to determine the life and death of it’s citizens? Finally, what system other than appeals, have we established to make sure that an innocent person isn’t put to death?
So, it’s impossible to impersonalized these decisions and cases? How about this for personalization:
If I were an innocent man standing accused of a capitol crime, facing death, with my life in the hands of lawyers and career politicians, I would try and find a way to take my own life.”
I still feel this way.
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Two Guys and a Couple of Brains
2 Tinkerers Say They’ve Found a Cheap Way to Broadband
“Layne Holt and his business partner, John Furrier, both software engineers, have started a company with a shoestring budget and an ambitious target: the cable and phone companies that currently hold a near-monopoly on high-speed access for the “last mile” between the Internet and the home.”
I can’t wait… this is the true future in networking. Only one problem:
“Thank you for calling Comcast Wireless Customer Support, you call is important to us. Currently there are 25649 incidents ahead of you…”
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When You Lie Down With Dogs… You Get Fleas
A student at the School of Law at Louisana State University is being sued (login required use: paxtonland|paxtonland) by the university. Claiming trademark infringement and requesting an unspecified amount of money and the law school’s legal fees as a result of the website he maintains. The website in question is a information site about LSU’s law school and has info, links, schedules, as well as some slight negative propaganda (not slander hopefully) about the school.
Assuming that he makes money from the website, the school seeks to stop him from representing the site as an LSU entity as well as recoup losses.
This stuff is so typical and common. I understand the position that the university has taken up, really I do. I also understand why this indivudual is digging in his heels and fighting. What better publicity for a young attorney? After all, in many forms of law, it’s all about publicity to distinguish yourself among your client/case hungry peers. These idiots handed him his career on a golden platter. A wise young man will ride this out and make his name a household word in that state.
Might I make a suggestion to the young barrister: Get bumper stickers printed that say “LSU Law Eats Its Young.” Make sure they are in purple and gold too.
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Rare Apple On Auction
The Vintage Computer Festival is auctioning off an extremely rare Apple I. The machine is one of only 50 known to exist. The older Apple I was barely more than a breadboard. Users had to add their own monitors, cases and keyboards. The tape drive for storage was optional. In those days, you had to write your own software if you wanted it to do anything for you. They (Jobs and Wozniak) made more than 200 of these things and were able to found Apple on them. Most of them, were sold to hobbiests and went for a retail price of $666.66, which royally pissed off “the churches.” Woz was still working for HP at the time and they built them in Jobs garage. Woz is a very groovy kind of person who has done good with most of his time since Apple. Jobs, of course, stumbled several times with several companies… but, is still regarded as one of the 800,000 lb. gorillas of the valley.
Anway, Apple history is interesting indeed… it’s crucial to understanding computing and how we got where we are today.
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Comcast Frustrations
At Ars Technica, Comcast customers vent frustrations help each other around connection and transition issues as Excite@Home ceases operations in a few short hours (12:00 AM PST). They have outsourced NNTP news server access to Giganews, whom only allows 1 GB of downloads a month, hardly enough for cable customers.To make matters worse, they have opened their proprietary networks to competitor ISP’s in a effort to make a peace offering to the FCC, whom is likely pissed about the ATT/Comcast broadband merger. This isn’t bad in and of its own accord but, many feel that the network has been poorly designed and cannot suffer much more strain from existing users. Much less new customers and competitors customers. Many of us look at Cox, Rogers, Road Runner and Charter customers with envy. Not to mention any DSL customer is in a much better position that a cable user with Comcast or AT&T.
The real problem is that there is not a good alternative besides dial-up access for many of us. I have not spoken to a single individual who is satisfied with the transition, the level of service from Comcast, or is confident that things will improve. I fear that business scholars will look back upon this time as the dark ages of broadband… and marvel at why a compny such as Excite@Home, with millions of users paying $40.00 – $60.00 a month, could collapse under it’s own weight.
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Your Old Computer Crap
Report says U.S. is exporting “e-waste”. Environmental groups say there’s a good chance it ended up in a dump in the developing world, where thousands of laborers burn, smash and pick apart electronic waste to scavenge for the precious metals inside — unwittingly exposing themselves and their surroundings to innumerable toxic hazards. However, odds are that your old computer crap ended up here at paxtonland and my kids are using it to play Mario Brothers.
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Lost Your Tax Forms, Eh?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service, which holds taxpayers strictly liable for accurate tax returns, is working to account for more than 2,300 computers that have gone missing over the past three years.
A recent Treasury Department audit was unable to determine whether the laptops and other small computers were lost, stolen or simply not properly documented. The IRS is reasonably sure that none contained sensitive taxpayer data or could provide a way for hackers to break into the tax agency’s secure main computers.
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Pentium 4 Breaks 2 GHZ
Making the news will be the Pentium 4, 2.0 and 2.2ghz. release today. Big deal… not sure why that is news worthy. Pricewatch shows them in the $380-440 range. In my opinion, wait for the AMD Athlon XP to drop to the sub $200 range. They are already $340. I’m seeing that the AMD Athlon XP and MP series 1.7ghz chips are already giving the wheezing Williamette’s a run for the money. Intel should just go to sleep.