deskthority

I got an LCD watch in about 1978/79 exactly because of the LEDs' reputation for battery drain. What I ended up with was something that was almost impossible to make out in any light and a nickel allergy.

General/life: - Python is an ugly language to program in. - Not a fan of dogs. I much prefer snakes or spiders as pets, and so does my grandmother (she's got my tarantula currently). - I'd rather have a Rover (not Land Rover, for those who don't know what Rover was) than any other average. A green ...

Those 2260s are kinda cute, and not just by IBM standards.

Yasu0 wrote: ↑

09 Oct 2020, 00:39

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH BLADING!!!1

I've heard bad things about rollerblading tape-jockeys in computer rooms.

Yeah, pretty much! I was going to just stick with the number of times I need to use backspace* but got a bit carried away.

* this is why I got into such a panic when I re-capped my Vortex and yanked out one of the stems: it was the backspace key, the most essential one of all! D:

I type fairly quickly. Unless I subtract the number of deletions I do. And then going back and deleting a whole word because I missed something. And then proofreading it again. And editing it again. And submitting it and proofreading it again. And only then spotting that I messed up the grammar duri...

The same number as your wife has pairs of shoes. Er, I seem to be the one with all the shoes (I think I managed to get them down to double-digits... for a while at least. Some even fit) and all the keyboards, and bass guitars etc. Fortunately I'm the only devoted acquirer of stuff in our household.

Basically, the title reads: Vintage Apple IIC A2S4100 TESTED WORKING ( BAD DISK DRIVE, READ DESCRIPTION ) (bolding is mine) Reviewed bolding is mine: which is how I'd read it. IMHO the description is deceptive. Yeah, the facts are there but hiding in plain sight. Reading through the topic, obviousl...

Another Mint user here, and also formerly Gentoo. I like Mint because I've done Unix sysadmin since the late '80s and cba any more. Besides, I have a FreeBSD box that needs some care and feeding.

andrewjoy wrote: ↑

26 Jun 2020, 10:39

ARM is a much more simple design

Wasn't it Steve Furber who quipped about Sophie Wilson doing the original design in her head? Even if it is simple, that's quite something... I mean speaking on someone who often struggles to concentrate on just one thing at a time!

I was wondering as he is (or was!) better known as an MVS sysadmin. He's a braver person than I am. On both counts.

I had some problems trying to get it to work at all with my Avocent KVM. I just put it down to being beyond the scope of what the Soarer is about, given that my KVM has been known to be varying degrees of glitchy with other devices too, so I never pursued it further, I'm afraid.

beamspring6.jpg He seems familiar. Jay Maynard (a.k.a. Tron Guy)? IBM 5252. When video displays were so expensive that two people had to share one. It had one CRT, facing down, and a pair of mirrors so that each user saw half the screen. ibm5252.jpg Blimey, that's some contrivance. Reminds me of th...

Tried to think of a sensible, lore-correct name for my character at the time. Failed, so I chose a stupid one instead. Of course that's what people started calling me, so 14 years later, there it still is.

I worked with Julian for a few years. Really nice guy. Wonder what he's up to now?

There was a sculptor in England who made some metal caps for buckling springs, it was probably 5 or more years ago and I don't recall his name. He sent me a few of them that I used in a few odd places, but not a whole board full. They were great but he had cast them out of a pewter-like metal so th...

I wonder if there'll be any persuading them to make the case out of thicker, heavier plastic than their more recent offerings...? Though the narrower width combined with the absence of the Trackpoint's blanking plates may be enough.

You all do realize that is what we look like to the vintage computing guys. Always cannibalizing some old keyboard for switches or keycaps, thus destroying a perfectly good vintage keyboard that could have completed some collector’s vintage system. I’m not sure we are in a great place to judge the ...

Not going to watch the video. I've encountered people who burn stuff to get the metal out and it's extremely unpleasant for anyone else in the vicinity. It's technically illegal but nobody with the power to do anything about it really cares.

My gf's old R40 Thinkpad has keys that aren't entirely worn through but many of them have "craters" and are missing their legends. It's still lying around somewhere, I might take a photo at some point. She has long nails, so there may be something in it. I don't, because it's irritating and I'm clum...

Oddly enough, I don't object to the tiny shift all that much! Which I admit seems inconsistent given my hatred of the small ANSI return thing, and I don't seem to have much of an explanation. Occasionally I adapt to things, though usually after a huge struggle, and at that point it often becomes The...

A very random observation, which I only notice after "lights out" (yeah I know it's only 6pm here, but I have insomnia and I've been up since 2:20am, so I'm knackered). Not so much about the keyboard, which I am really enjoying other than the finger retraining which is still not really developing ve...

Obligatory "I hate ANSI" reply. I think the size of the left-shift key is pretty low down the list of "why I'm rubbish at combat", whereas the small, mean return bar is a significant contributor to "why I'm rubbish at typing".

Amazon are a mixed bag. I often shop there as it's hard for me to get out and many places still aren't great at online ordering or more often really suck at returns: Amazon are less good in that respect than they were but still better than most. But their novelty tax status always makes me grit my t...

Nom nom lovely spam. Er anyway, my variation can be "keyboard that shows the most endurance to having drinks poured into it", in which case it has to be the SSK. The newer Unicomp and Ducky were less thirsty and seemed to object, though they may be fixable. The worst SSK experience just required the...

I'd also beware of certain stores (such as the above) in case something goes wrong. Trouble is, when it comes to tech outlets, I've had more negative experiences than positive ones. Some are worse than others and I'd avoid the likes of Ebuyer like the plague.

I wish my fingers weren't so slow to retrain. I still feel like I'm no closer to getting used to the more amenable positioning of control, for instance, and the editing keys are still causing me pain: as I'm not a touch-typist, I've long since used the edge of the main block of keys to position my r...

In spite of IBM being IBM, the company DID make some mistakes here and there. One look at the XT layout is proof enough. :D :D :D I suppose it could be argued that the PC's entire design was a mistake! I remember a lot of commentators at the time were underwhelmed with its capabilities considering ...

Awesome. Just like mine i.e. one of the best keyboards evar. As much as I've just prattled on about finding "The One™" in my Vortex Race 3, I now want to use my SSK again.

It should be all tucked away and small like \beelzebub intended\1 I admit that did actually cause a RL lol. Re video games, it's left-ctrl that I have excessive difficulty with. Maybe it's the tucking-my-thumb-under-my-hand thing but in e.g. my recent venture into The Outer Worlds ("it's not the be...