* Posts by jimmyj

13 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Dec 2015

ZX Printer's American cousin still in use, 34 years after purchase

jimmyj

CliveS education

still have both the ZX81(s) & that printer in my 'museum'. was a major forward step to learn 'Basic' programming. was ~$30 CDN back then so cheap indeed. also have a collection of utilities & games including the loved Flight Simulator. most valuable though was(is) the tape (yep-cassette) ZX ASSEMBLER 16K . I'm an inventor.. & need servo software that will react in 'real time'.. so, although a lengthy pain to write.. assember works fastest. thanks Clive !

Web ads are reading my keystrokes and I can’t even spel propperlie

jimmyj

Re: Netflix recommendations engine

as if anyone actually followed the 'recommendations'...

rather like the definition of insanity:

"repeating the same thing & expecting a different outcome"

jimmyj

Re: Hip flasks

hippy!

worked at an ad agency (doing electronic stuff) & was amused by the obvious use of 'white powders' by the over-active 'writers' who personify the pox of 'ad-follow-up'. "said 'X' so let's suggest 'U,V & Y,Z'

jimmyj

long may they sit in their own offal

A Logic Named Joe: The 1946 sci-fi short that nailed modern tech

jimmyj

Re: Libraries pah!

libraries -yay!

educated me.

began when my mom read the classics to get me to sleep

which led me to read

that which interested me

and then to write my own work = in a journal

of progress

Toaster cooks network and burns 'expert' user's credibility to a crisp

jimmyj

although only slightly related: my introduction to pro audio - in a brand-new recording studio. this 'way back when' their Ampex 2" 24 track recorder was the very latest 'state of the art' ... was asked to 'look at' a problem which was "the machine sometimes goes nuts & throws the tape around the room". as I'd never been near or even in such a facility... I arrived with concealed trepidation to find most of the boards pulled out & the maint guy quivering in a corner. questioning got "when the musicians come into the control room to listen back..." some hither-to unused common sense prompted me to pull the monster out & away from the wall to reveal the big AC plug. 'gosh' I thought... 'let's examine it'. ha - aha ! = most/all 3 'screws loose'. tighten, replace, start up... golden ! asked to be head of maintenance... accepted !!

Fleet of 4.77MHz LCD laptops with 8088 CPUs still alive after 30 years

jimmyj

Re: Fleet of 4.77Mhz...

yes Hertz. remember being pleased that his name replaced cps = cycles per second !

jimmyj

yes - 'exercise' for longevity - electrolytics need some polarizing voltage to maintain the chemical layer between the plates. remembering a 'make work' project that involved charging all the spares ! controls like being rotated to clear up and quiet down. I've found that sprays tend to get into the bearings and start more than they solve(nt)

How a power blip briefly broke GitHub's boxes and tripped it offline

jimmyj

Re: What? No UPS?

living in 'the' country (rural) with frequent outages I soon learned to have a UPS running @~ 1/3 capacity. also have solar charging a pair of gardentractor sized 12v to 'backup the backup'. what I didn't expect was the actual voltage value... after losing several power supply boxen (!) in my tower, I took my trusty Fluke (!) to the utility socket... & measured 131 volts! 'yikes' I exclaimed... & found a 6v transformer which I wired as a "buck' to supply my IT gear. for those unfamiliar : a 'buck' or 'boost' is simply a transformer fed from the mains with its output wired 'out' or 'in' phase with the same mains to subtract (or add) it's output to that which is delivered to the equipment. in my case 125v solved the problem.

Server retired after 18 years and ten months – beat that, readers!

jimmyj

educational & entertaining !

much delight over the last couple days... thanks to you gurus & historians. I'm an inventor, with drawers of tools in several disciplines.. son of a prof & a schoolmarm (I'm now 72!) that began with a Meccano set & the early issues of Popular Electronics magazine. I've accumulated a 'museum' due to "it's old (or) broken - so Jimmy probably wants it" (yes) with now truly valuable instruments such as a working galvanometer (compete with a tiny mirror on the support shaft meant to reflect a point of light onto the wall for expanded measurement !!) & naturally many vintage computers, including an Osborn, an HP 386 (a jewel !) and (laughter off) my Sinclair ZX81 on which I learned assembler - complete with B&W TV (monitor) & audio cassette recorder for programs & storage! works fine. as my invention requires 'real-time' computing.. nemind they pesky slow hi-level languages! thanks all !! Jim

jimmyj

Re: Not surprising

ah yes... longer fan life : I've got two versions in my elderly XP (ha) tower -

1) two fans connected in series at the rear - so 2 at ~ half speed '=' one

with ~same air flow, ~ twice life & ~ half the noise! & 2) a large squirrel-

cage axial fan kludged onto the P4 (ha) 'sink with 5 diodes in series which

subtract ~ 2.5v from the 12 for, again, enough air (under 40*C P4) and

much less whine even with 20% o'clocking. repurpose & rest !

Fan belts only exist, briefly, in the intervals between stars

jimmyj

vacuum - not just for space !

Ah... 'bottles' - still have several boxes of them - 'for replacement purposes only' ha.

the venerable 6J6 morphed into three flavors of dual triode = the 12 AX,AT&AU 7 s,

that had identical pin-outs and differing transconductances. I still have the 'bible' -

a very thick red Radiotron Designers Handbook by yep... RCA. As a long time bass

player, I and many others swear by Fender amplifiers for their glorious sound. The

AX as preamp & the AT as phase inverter driving a pair of 6L6s for output. amusing

that ~ 1952 I built my first radio using a ooh..! 'semiconductor' !!! before transistors !!

yep.. a 'crystal set'. look ma - no battery ! long antenna though. thanks for the review.

Electrician cuts wrong wire and downs 25,000 square foot data centre

jimmyj
Holmes

a 'Classic'

between the laughter (& tears)... remembering - I was the 'Designated Old Fart'

on the install of a new Production Studio at an elderly TV station located on a

hill so as to increase coverage for the antenna (ooh, Analog eh!), when a storm

'struck' literally - with a lightning hit, that took out the main power. 'lights out'

fershure but stayed out! with panicked people proliferating I ran to the back-up

gennie to hear it going 'rur rur rur rur rur..' due to yep = empty fuel tank.

"oops/oh-that..." ha - odds of a lighting strike on a hill ? yes