deskthority

I'm too lazy to unclutter my desk for a fancy picture. Either way, hanging on the wall above it, is a large ugly shadow box that I started work on, which was supposed to display my lightsaber hilt collection. But with Star Wars the way it is, I don't see the point in finishing work on it. I thought...

I'm often too much slow or too after the fact to get the nice collectible stuff! Plus I tend to break things, so my Hngmphblarg (I can never remember its actual name) is a custom job. It loses some of the detail of the prop but on the other hand it's a real sword made of sword steel with a full tang...

I look forward to doing the City of London tour as a non-financier. Wonder if they’ll let you walk on in from the surrounding country, too. *shudder* I remember getting on the morning train into Liverpool Street and was dressed like a fairly typical sysadmin (i.e. jeans etc on the basis that the kn...

Oh yeah, found it. The scabbard has subsequently been customised by Tod of Tod's Stuff who lives nearby, adding a few leaves and extra straps. https://vometia.com/images/armoury/elvensword.jpg They all need some serious TLC now though, after several years of me being at a low ebb they've been neglec...

Oh, yeah, the swords. Seems I like collecting things: keyboards, swords, bass guitars, bits of computer equipment. But in the latter regard I really need a major clear-out to get rid of some of the last 25 years' worth of crap. I mean why do I even need a VGA cable any more? Yet I have loads. I'll k...

Haha, yeah, there is a bit of a hierarchy! The fancy leather-bound books go in the fancy cabinet, the OED, hardbacks and so on are on the tall shelves behind me, the paperbacks on the short bookcase that's obscured by the screen, and the "random stuff we don't really want on display" is on the least...

Those "mitt" things are very curious beasties! Colourful, though. As for me, no new chair yet, but I have replaced my desk with the somewhat more cosy one that was in the garage: and as such, I was forced to clear it off so it's briefly fit for photographing before it gets filled with clutter again....

Looks potentially interesting, but I'm a lard-arse and I worry about mesh seats! It's not so much the shipping costs, something that so often seems entirely random and I've seen free postage for heavy, bulky items to extortionate amounts for stuff that's small and light; and no matter the amount pai...

I barely use that finger on my right hand at all and often find it just politely stays out of the way for much of the time. Though while I've been typing this I've been noticing what it is doing which is using the backspace key and other stuff in the vicinity. I think on my left hand it sees more us...

So now I've been directed to The Chair Thread I guess I'll ask my question here too! The title could apply to me: I spend a lot of time at my desk, but not all in one go. I do tend to get up and wander about quite a lot, and the longest I'll set in one, er, sitting is maybe 90 minutes to two hours i...

Same. It's been on my shopping list for a while, since I started upgrading/changing up my setup. This is what I'm planning on getting. I'm not really into gamer chairs - I actually prefer armless task chairs, and don't like to sit more than 30 minutes to an hour without getting up - but I like the ...

davkol wrote: ↑

23 Oct 2017, 12:40

JP! wrote: ↑Any recommendations for a nice office chair?

Ultimate Chair Buying Resource Thread

Interesting: I need a new chair. But we don't seem to have a chair discussion here and this topic isn't really the place!

That's because you're seeing it laid out wrong. e.g. Wikipedia shows the ITA 2 teletype code arranged according to a binary numeric interpration of the signals/holes, like this: [snip] But nothing cared about the binary number interpretation a hundred years ago. The code was ordered by letter frequ...

Fedex handled my Unicomp Ultra Classic order last year, only sending me the import charges three weeks after I received it. Parcelforce are twats. They will hold your parcel and expect you to pay the ransom before you get it. It would be more expensive to travel to the depot and refuse the "handlin...

I can only speak of my experiences in the UK but incoming parcels will usually be held hostage until relevant import duties, local taxes and "handling fees" are paid. The exact mechanism depends on the courier who does the last leg, which is whoever the originating shipping company has a contract to...

The new Tool album is coming out soon… for real this time. A friend of mine is a huge fan of theirs but I haven't a clue what they sound like. Maybe I should find out; I mean given that she's also a massive Numanoid so they can't be all bad, and there's a video right here. Meanwhile, I'm still list...

Sometimes you just gotta. I've been on teh intarwebz since before the web... er, well you know what I mean, and right since the early days I've had periodic moments of "argh"; and have occasionally been the cause, remembering somewhat awkwardly that I nearly got chucked out of college over 30 years ...

What's the board with the yellow and white caps in the center? That's the Shimadzu FKB-1A, a Tactile Fujitsu Magnetic Reed board. I think I have the only FMR board with a case :lol: I was wondering the same thing! I thought it looked (very) vaguely reminiscent of an Acorn Electron, almost like a pr...

So Brits are Europeans nowadays? :lol: I'm quite happy to be any of European, British, English or Northumbrian as the mood takes me; and the mood is usually contrary. Of course there's the "EU Question" which will likely never be resolved, but the EU doesn't have any more of a monopoly on Europeann...

Chyros wrote: ↑

28 Aug 2019, 15:35

That CAN'T be an actual workstation xD . Where's all the mess?!

I agree, I'm slightly taken aback. Surprised, really. Surprised and shocked. In fact I'm disgusted: this is an outrage! Why is the mess not represented? I demand a rerender!

Unlikely that character-case was restricted: the 80 column punchcards seem to have at least eight bits per character. Some punchcards have twelve bits per column, with four bits presumably for error checking/correcting. Only paper tape with five-bit data characters would conceivably have such a res...

Well, this IS a "data entry" layout, which has its own set of rules. I've seen it in other keyboards as well, not just in beamsprings. I think it was the arrangement of function keys that got to me more than anything else. But even if there's a good reason for the remainder, as much as I keep harpi...

Trends and beam-springs. Happily it seems this beam-spring layout didn't catch on. I'm not going to say "I'm sure there was some logic behind it" because it's clearly absurd.

They are quite impressively long legs. Certainly longer than mine.

But it's not a beam-spring, and the 5251's keyboard has a certain charm in that it looks a bit like a VIC-20. Albeit one with 3" of armour plating.

Ah, think I've identified the swivellicious terminal: it seems to be a 5291-2, which also seems to imply the famous "Bigfoot" keyboard.

I thought it was a bit early as I'd just sort of randomly assumed it appeared with the PS/2 or thereabouts, but maybe this thing was its origin? Anyway, as much as I love the buckling-spring keyboards, even more than 30 years later I can still remember the awesomeness of typing on a beam-spring.

Yeah, that's the creature! My back hurts just looking at. The swivelly things in the other office looked like this, but must've been some twinax equivalent. I guess that'll be a Model F keyboard, it's too little for a beam-spring. https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/images/e/e7/IBM_3178_182457871926-1.j...

Slightly longer wait than I'd expected, though far from the longest! Though it may be worth me cancelling and resubmitting assuming I don't just end up having to pay a bunch of bank charges anyway... hopefully the transaction will simply be cancelled with no further faffing about. But, y'know, banks...

The layout seemed to make more sense on a large IBM system but just seemed insane on the PC. Even at the time it looked weird. Never used a 3278; would've been nice paired with a System/370 running VM which was actually a pretty decent interactive system, especially compared to bloody TSO. Didn't ch...