What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[LightBulbFun]

The computer my website (and a few local services aside) lives on decided to lose interest in responding to http requests a couple of days back for no readily explicable (therefore difficult to fix) reason.

 

That machine had been running CentOS for a while, which I'd never really got along with. Having used Debian variants for 10 plus years, I know my way around them quite well by now. CentOS is different enough that I seemed to spend a lot of time on Google trying to figure out where that configuration file or option that's not where I expected it to be is actually buried. Plus it tended to want to reboot for far more updates than I'm used to, made worse by the fact that it took forever to boot. Granted, it is running a horrible old Celeron D CPU!

 

25 minutes after dragging it out of the stack of knackered computers that makes up the little computing cluster, we were back up and running.

 

IMG_20180906_205433.jpg

 

Never ceases to amaze me how rapidly you can get a modern Linux distribution installed and set up. Granted this one only really has the base system, the Window Manager, Apache and the client for a distributed computing system installed.

 

Hopefully it can remain buried back in its corner now for another couple of years.

 

Can't believe I used to consider taking the best part of an evening to install an OS, and the best part of the remainder of a week's worth of spare time to get all the other software back on and configured to be normal! Centralised package managers/repositories make stuff so much easier...

 

EDIT: Yes, the website does look like it's from the late 90s, that's because that's when I started writing it, and for the intended purpose it still works well enough. I do need to think about getting things set up to be more mobile friendly though - not to mention a general overhaul, weeding out of dead links, taking down a few pages that are embarrassingly poorly written etc... it's on the "to do eventually" list.

 

 

I do hope you keep it 1990s browser friendly like ians bus stop is ( countrybus.org )

 

I actually use ians bus stop when im setting up my vintage computers to make sure they are connected to the internet properly (as seen a few pages back when I got a bondi blue iMac G3)

[richardmorris]

It'll have put a smile on the faces of the surviving members of Queen, because royalties....

I don’t think they’re short of a bob or two. I haven’t seen roger Taylor in the news for years, but Brian may lives in windlesham about 2 miles from me. He’s often in the local news saving badgers and hedgehogs.

[SiC]

 

I'm now just hoping the weather holds out on Sunday and Monday! The aim is to get the floor in at a minimum. I'd like to be started on the sills too to be honest.

[Wack]

It'll have put a smile on the faces of the surviving members of Queen, because royalties....

Like they need the money

[richardmorris]

Itv4 spy who loved me has the lotus scene on now, after the 2cv chase it’s the best one.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I don’t think they’re short of a bob or two. ...

Every little helps.

[Zelandeth]

I do hope you keep it 1990s browser friendly like ians bus stop is ( countrybus.org )

 

I actually use ians bus stop when im setting up my vintage computers to make sure they are connected to the internet properly (as seen a few pages back when I got a bondi blue iMac G3)

That would definitely be the hope.

 

The biggest headache with it currently is the lack of ability to have text reflow when zooming in on a mobile browser - so it can lead to a lot of scrolling left to right while reading.

 

I think IE3.01 is the oldest browser I've seen it displaying correctly in from memory.

 

Annoyingly, Google actively de-rank sites with what they seem to be "poor mobile compatibility" in search results according to the documentation with the webmaster tools...which given the proliferation of tablets, smartphones etc may have a lot to do with why my usual daily traffic has dropped something like 95% in the last couple of years. The vast, vast majority was from random Google (other search engines are available - AltaVista was my favourite until the ads started crippling my PC) searches rather than direct traffic...so my...sporadic...update schedule probably isn't a huge factor.

 

Trying to maintain full legacy compatibility *and* the above will be a challenge.

 

I think the oldest I have a photo of is a version of Netscape from around 1996.

 

 

That might be a silly test for one day if I ever have any proper free time again for silly projects...see how old a browser on as many platforms as possible it works on.

[LightBulbFun]

Well you have me beat with the old toshiba laptop there (the Oldest computer I can currently hook up to the internet would be one of my 1996/7 PowerBook 3400s running Mac OS 7.6 or so)

 

that is until I get my Macintosh SE hooked up to the internet somehow   (I need to order me an 8 pin DIN RS422 crossover cable...)

[beko1987]

Www.vacuumland.org renders spot on in whatever version of ie comes with windows 98 (not se). That amazed me! Autoshite.com failed to load though...

[1970mgb]

Well you have me beat with the old toshiba laptop there (the Oldest computer I can currently hook up to the internet would be one of my 1996/7 PowerBook 3400s running Mac OS 7.6 or so)

 

that is until I get my Macintosh SE hooked up to the internet somehow   (I need to order me an 8 pin DIN RS422 crossover cable...)

 

What about your PM 4400?

 

I'll give my 7100 a shot if I ever get 8.6 installed(and I'm sure I'll need your help on that) so that I can run Classilla. It's a shame my 7200 won't boot, as that would make life a whole lot easier. At least the 7100 does have ethernet(via AAUI) installed.

 

One other potential project for me would be the Mac II-I have a pile of NuBus ethernet cards, so it would be a matter of finding extensions and of course figuring out which browser will run on OS 7.6 and actually do a decent job of rendering pages.

[iainrcz]

Banning some spamming cunt on the RCZ forum 1 minute after joining and digging a 3 year old thread up to link their shitty website.

 

Turbo mod to the rescue.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[LightBulbFun]

What about your PM 4400?

 

I'll give my 7100 a shot if I ever get 8.6 installed(and I'm sure I'll need your help on that) so that I can run Classilla. It's a shame my 7200 won't boot, as that would make life a whole lot easier. At least the 7100 does have ethernet(via AAUI) installed.

 

One other potential project for me would be the Mac II-I have a pile of NuBus ethernet cards, so it would be a matter of finding extensions and of course figuring out which browser will run on OS 7.6 and actually do a decent job of rendering pages.

 

 

The PowerMac 4400 is currently awaiting a new CPU... (Yes I know the 4400 uses a BGA CPU no that has not stopped me )

 

before I broke it tho I did have it online on a few occasions  but its from 1996 so still newer then Zel,s Toshiba

[Zelandeth]

Biggest headache I reckon going much earlier than that (1993 I think for that machine) is going to be memory, assuming you're going for something that will actually render most of the page not text only, will be memory.

 

That Toshiba has 8Mb onboard and was still churning away furiously while trying to put the page together - it's a complex bit of rendering by the standards of the time.

 

Don't think my Amiga is really a fair comparison as despite being nearly concurrent in terms of build dates, that's got a 50MHz 68030 accelerator backed by by 64 meg of memory - so isn't really a fair test!

 

I have played around with web pages on the Acorn machines, and even an A3000 with 1 meg did astonishingly well...though that was always the thing with the RISC machines, they punched massively above their weight in terms of horsepower if you were just looking at memory numbers and clock speeds. You want to see what you could do with a fully specced up RiscPC compared to a Windows PC - and being honest - or a Mac of the time.

 

Yes, a decent RiscPC (well...any at this point!) is high on my wish list.

 

Will definitely need to get the Amiga hooked back up before you're next up here though. It's just not right that you've not had a chance to test drive one, given your fondness of Apple machines sharing the same processor architecture.

 

Workbench is...I guess the best description is "messy but powerful" to be honest. It's very much it's own thing. Not quite so alien as RiscOS though, which just took the whole rule book and tossed it into the nearest paper shredder...yet in doing so came up with possibly one of the most functionally (if not always visually - it benefits greatly from a higher display resolution) elegant user interfaces I've ever had the pleasure to use.

[LightBulbFun]

well my Macintosh SE has 2.5MB of which its current OS IIRC is Mac OS 7.5.3, which takes up 2.5MB of that so i literally wont have anything left for a web browser let alone loading any web pages 

 

a downgrade to System 6.0.8 might be in order (that or stop being cheap and max it out at a whopping 4MB of RAM...) 68000 CPU so no MMU which means I cant cheat and use an alternate OS either

 

(I would love to get a Macintosh SE/30 Logic-board for my SE... since the 68030 lets me run Linux and other Unix OSs like AU/X plus you can max an SE/30 out at something silly like 128MB of RAM which for a compact macintosh is pretty nuts   )

 

defiantly looking forward to playing with an amiga for the first time also if im reading your posts correctly you have an Acorn machine or 2? that would be fun to have a bash at IIRC the Raspberry pi ran some form of RISC OS which I played with in 2014 or so but thats about it (I do have a Pi so could always chuck it back on there...)

[SiC]

It's amazing how well 3D printing technology has progressed.

[eddyramrod]

Er, what?

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Liked for the crappy music to go with it too...........

[Cheggers]

In Dublin with Ms_Chegg getting ready to head off for 2 weeks of horse riding, mountain biking, rafting & kayaking in the Colorado Rockies

[Parky]

Wife’s car needs a service. I live roughly equidistant between Romford and Southend so rather than just go to Romford as per usual, i thought I would try the Southend Fiat dealer.

 

Romford price - £259 but that includes a video of the cars engine bay (what the actual fuck?)

 

Southend price - £105. No video but I do get it washed and hoovered.

 

Considering the third service is just an oil change (have to use the dealer because of pcp) I think a day at the seaside is in order!

[Cavcraft]

In Dublin with Ms_Chegg getting ready to head off for 2 weeks of horse riding, mountain biking, rafting & kayaking in the Colorado Rockies

 

You'll need a bloody good horse to ride you to the Colorado Rockies from Dublin.

 

 

 

Meanwhile

 

[1970mgb]

a downgrade to System 6.0.8 might be in order (that or stop being cheap and max it out at a whopping 4MB of RAM...) 68000 CPU so no MMU which means I cant cheat and use an alternate OS either

 

 

I know you and I have "argued" about it some, but I REALLY don't like going past System 6 on a 68000. System 7 is way too bloated for my taste, and I want at least a 68020 and ~8mb of RAM to run it.

 

Even my Quadra 700 with 20mb of RAM is a bit of a pig on System 7.5.5. I'm constantly running out of memory on it. Of course, it has a lot of "bloat" from the fact that I don't think it's ever had a clean install. I had to do a lot of clean-up when I first got it just to get a decent amount of virtual memory on it.

 

I'm kind of sorry that I've never really gone "nuts" with 16mb 30-pin SIMMs the way I did with the 128mb EDO sticks a while back. That would get me up to 68mb in the 700, which should be a lot.

 

Meanwhile, I'm not sure if there's much of ANYTHING I could do to fill up the 1.5gb of RAM in my 9600. Running Tiger on it might have come close, but then it was also difficult to load Activity Monitor to actually see.

[bramz7]

164 insurance now switched to the incoming 156 with FJ...somehow a 2001 car is a classic, fair enough.

 

I'm quite excited to drive this.

[Zelandeth]

Finally unearthed it's desk long enough to get this set up again.

 

 

It got moved a couple of months ago when I decided to give the case and keyboard a proper deep clean as they were gross.

 

In the intervening couple of days, the desk got buried.

 

You guys who are into your vintage Mac stuff, you don't need any 100Mb Zip discs do you? I know Apple pushed the format quite heavily, and I've got probably a few hundred of the things! I do use them, but don't need anywhere close to as big a stock as I have.

[Floatylight]

This just made me grin, someone call the H&S Executive!

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[LightBulbFun]

Finally unearthed it's desk long enough to get this set up again.

 

IMG_20180907_155845.jpg

 

It got moved a couple of months ago when I decided to give the case and keyboard a proper deep clean as they were gross.

 

In the intervening couple of days, the desk got buried.

 

You guys who are into your vintage Mac stuff, you don't need any 100Mb Zip discs do you? I know Apple pushed the format quite heavily, and I've got probably a few hundred of the things! I do use them, but don't need anywhere close to as big a stock as I have.

 

its an old computer so of course its running some sort of Solitaire 

 

that Acorn monitor looks suspiciously like an old IBM PS/2 Monitor...

 

defo looking forward to playing with that setup tho as for the ZIP disks ill be happy to take a couple off your hands (my mum used to use em with her PC back in the day when the broken floppy drive on the PC was an actual problem... so theres a few kicking round the house but they still need to be gone over and the data on them sorted or formatted etc luckily for my mum, as you say, I have a macintosh with a ZIP 100 Drive ready to go, a PowerMac G3 Beige Tower to be exact)

[Zelandeth]

No solitaire here!  Just the file browser in Workbench.  Here's a closer look.

 

 

Seriously need to get a Scandoubler...taking photos of a CRT is a pain!

 

The monitor is a Microvetec multisync one which I've seen branded Acorn, Amiga and Atari - they're all the same internally, just differing in the cable plugged into the signal processing board and the badge.

 

Plan is eventually to swap the electronics from this one across to the Amiga one I've got which has a better case and far lower hour tube, as this one has a lot of miles on it and is both dim and has poor focus.  The actual Amiga one unfortunately has a fault resulting in no red in the image... it's buried sufficiently deep in the signal processing board that it's defied all efforts to repair so far.  Hence my plan to do some board swapping at some point.

[Pillock]

Any chance I could nab a few ZIP disks? I had some somewhere but they've gorn missing which is a shame as I'll have my Amiga SCSI'ed soon and fancy another drive

 

And I'm as guilty as anyone here but just a shout-out for the techy thread which is probably the best home for this chat so we don't confuse any of the non-geeks...

[Zelandeth]

Any chance I could nab a few ZIP disks? I had some somewhere but they've gorn missing which is a shame as I'll have my Amiga SCSI'ed soon and fancy another drive

And I'm as guilty as anyone here but just a shout-out for the techy thread which is probably the best home for this chat so we don't confuse any of the non-geeks...

There's a techy thread?

 

You can have as many Zip discs as you want pretty much...

 

 

These are just the handful I've dug out, securely formatted and subject to a full data write and re-wipe, and documented ready to be passed on.

 

They were used by my old work to transfer concessionary travel passenger numbers to the council, and once that was done and the data was input they just sat in a filing cabinet until they were going to bin them. I've got at least three times as many as that to hand, and another holdall full of them in the garage.

[Pillock]

Yeah, open forum has both techy thread and computershite.

[Zelandeth]

Have to admit to having looked in there a couple of times and given the speed at which the topic list changed because everything is in one big list just found I couldn't ever find anything again so rarely went near it again. Granted, that's probably more my fault than the forum though.

 

Might have to give it another shot at some point.