Posted 2021-05-20 5:08 PM (#2176 - in reply to #2175) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
Yup. I have seen one multi-scanner-printer thingy that was a giant PITA to install on Linux. However I did manage to get it installed on my machine. Some works and some do not. And then there are those that just need a bit more fiddeling to install. It is all up to the maker of the scanner/printer/whatever device, to make a good driver that just works. If it does not work on a specific OS, then it it not the fault of those that makes the OS.
Posted 2021-05-22 9:22 AM (#2178 - in reply to #2177) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618 Location: Hull, UK
I have scanner problems, because I have projects that go back a long way which were scanned on a given scanner with a distinct look, it's hard to find the same one to replace it with. If I have to switch scanner it'll look different, so then I'd have to scan all of the drawings again, some of which are lost and would have to be redrawn. Also most scanners are terrible at grayscale and black & white. Luckily I do now know what the peculiar scanning technology mine uses is called, so I may be able to find an alternative that is close enough, as most of them use CMOS or CCD sensors, mine uses CIS.
As for operating systems, I try to stay in Win3.1 and Win9x as much as I can get away with. 98SE as the last good one, everything past that was trash and Me was intended to fail to push everyone onto the pitiful Windows NT platform, which has no place as a general purpose operating system, let alone on a system with a multimedia oriented workload. I still have more time for Windows 10 than Windows 7, purely as it does run faster for me and the UI makes more sense, if only because it's more consistent than that of Vista and Vista Blue Edition. In any case, it's still bloated and the interface is still far worse than Windows 9x, where 98SE really was the peak of the design - much as I love Windows 3.1 and find it easy to use, I do at least realize there are some frankly stupid inconsistencies in how it is operated that would trip up newcomers.
I have been playing with a new Video Bastardizer;
Brown is now a color instead of morning piss yellow, also low-intensity white and high-intensity black are now two distinctly different shades;
I should note that there is zero support for 64-Color EGA on this one, only 16-Color EGA/CGA. Such a feature could be added, but barely anything uses it and the China converter it plugs into doesn't tend to like those modes anyway.
Posted 2021-05-23 1:08 AM (#2179 - in reply to #2178) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
"Video Bastardizer" lol If only commercial product descriptions were so honest!
Got another Thinkpad T430. Did I mention that you can't have too many thinkpads? Well, this one is in really mint condition. It doesn't have the "discrete Nvidia GPU onboard". This is a good thing as it runs all day without the stupid fan howling away. As I type this the cpu is at 37C with the fan off, the Nvidia equipped one would be in the high 60's with the bloody fan screeching.
Posted 2021-05-26 2:57 AM (#2180 - in reply to #2179) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
"Sometimes, less really is more."
Unless it relates to the internet!
Got a deal with BT to double my speed for not much more money. Seems about as fast as you need to go really, you're only as fast as the server you're connected to.
Posted 2021-05-28 12:57 AM (#2183 - in reply to #2180) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
Recieved the voltage regulators/converter's for my ATX-64 today. Two step-up's and one step-down. Besides a full set of chips, then I am only missing a few parts. ATX-Connector, Cartridge connector, pin-extender-bars for the reiser cards and the bus connectors. Then of course an ATX PSU and a case. Then my next Commodore64 clone/replica will be done.
Posted 2021-06-01 9:49 AM (#2185 - in reply to #2183) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
My phone have been acting up at least 6 to 24 month's now, and I have been waiting for a good offer. Like it would start closing app's, reset apps and not store pictures and so on. Like really annoying stuff, that I could live with, yet now have become so bad so I can not live with it anymore. Vibrator have been dead for the last two years and sounds have sporadically been turning off and then on, when I type on the keyboard for the last year or so. Finally it have started to loose contact with the cell phone network, and that is the biggest no-no, because I need to be in contact if my childrens mother call me about something important. Her calls go unnoticed 3 to 4 out of 10 times now. Like... I really.... No. REALLY needed a new phone in this age of digital living. Buying more vintage hardware will have to wait untill next month now. Small price to pay for buying a new phone I guess. :-D :-D
So today I bought an Motorola G30 (the 128gb storage model) for 116 Euro including shipping. I have no idea if the model is with 4gb or 6gb Ram. The description of the model on their website, state 64/128gb storage and they state 4/6gb Ram. And as the model I bought only state 128gb storage, then I have a feeling that it might be 6gb Ram. Oh well.... 116 Euro including shipping, and my current phone have 3gb Ram, then I guess it does not matter if I upgrade with 1 or 3 gb Ram. (6 would be a nice surprise though)
It will be nice to replace my MotoG5s that I bought in on Jan the 1'st 2018. And around 3 and a half year of use, is kind of ok for a smartphone that have a non-changeable build in battery.
Posted 2021-06-01 1:33 PM (#2186 - in reply to #71) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
Good choice there with the Moto phone, I've been using them for the past few years myself. I used to have flagship Sony Experia ones but they worked crap as phones! Not quite what you want from a phone really. I'm pretty happy with my current Moto, I think it's a 6 Plus. The battery is internal but has a large capacity, I get a good couple of days from a charge.
Posted 2021-06-01 9:32 PM (#2187 - in reply to #2186) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
tedster - 2021-06-01 3:33 PM
Good choice there with the Moto phone, I've been using them for the past few years myself. I used to have flagship Sony Experia ones but they worked crap as phones! Not quite what you want from a phone really. I'm pretty happy with my current Moto, I think it's a 6 Plus. The battery is internal but has a large capacity, I get a good couple of days from a charge.
I'm done with spending hundreds on a phone.
Thanks. My last two phones have all been Motorola. They are quite good. Though there are issues in some models. The 5-series had issues with the vibrator, because they used the wrong one. However I did not see a need for getting it serviced, as I could live without.
Posted 2021-06-02 1:47 AM (#2188 - in reply to #2187) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618 Location: Hull, UK
I'd still be on my Nokia 1100 if they hadn't turned off the GSM service here. I hate this buttonless slab phone crap I have to use now.
Meanwhile, I have ordered a Pentium II StinkPad killer laptop, a model I used to own a long time ago, but it's a secret for now.
Ordered capacitors to replace the 40+ year old tantalum ones in the Prophet-5, will also replace the entire PSU while I'm in there as I don't have much trust in the original one's design. I'd sooner sink the ~£100 to replace that with a modern one than just wait for the ancient crappy one to blow up an instrument I can't afford to replace.
Posted 2021-06-02 3:58 AM (#2189 - in reply to #2188) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
Buying caps is a lottery too, most of them are crap chinesium or fakes. I ended up getting some Panasonics from a seller on Amazon marketplace. Some firm in Manchester.
Posted 2021-06-02 10:54 PM (#2192 - in reply to #2191) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618 Location: Hull, UK
I've ordered China capacitors on purpose the last few times, because prior to that even if I went to a supposedly reputable supplier, I still got fakes but at a premium price. In fact, the last time, they weren't even capacitors.
This will be the very last time I try to buy high quality ones.
Posted 2021-06-03 10:31 AM (#2193 - in reply to #2192) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
I always order capacitors from Germany or Denmark. And always from a good and real supplier.
I have been working some more on my ATX-64 build. Still missing to build those extrenders, that connects the two daugherboard's/riser-card's, get a cartridge-connector, have a custom Rom created and buy the last 50% of the chips. Other than that, then I will have to find a case and a PSU.
But the build will not be complete when all that is done. There are Ps/2 keyboard adaptor, that I need to buy and build, as well as an internally mounted PI-1541 drive. (sorry about the last picture's brightness. Hard to take photo's of black PCB's)
EDIT:
The copper standoff's will be removed, once the build is done. They are only there to prevent me from bending components out of shape, when I solder. And to make a flat surface to solder on.
Posted 2021-06-04 10:11 PM (#2195 - in reply to #2194) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
tedster - 2021-06-04 12:08 AM
Blimey, get it built already!
Money are small in my budget, so I am working slow each month. It will get finished in time.
As for today. I sewed my new back patch onto my battle vest. I am a fan of multiple genres of metal, so I went for an old Memento Mori artwork instead.
Posted 2021-06-09 9:46 PM (#2198 - in reply to #2196) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
DXZeff - 2021-06-09 12:04 AM
And so the more beat up of the laptops arrived. As usual, my policy of "always buy broken" proved successful;
Sweet and congrats.... Yes. Some times broken stuff are just untested but working. I suspect it is because sellers do not want or have the time to test.
Posted 2021-06-10 3:19 AM (#2199 - in reply to #2198) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618 Location: Hull, UK
Oh even when the seller does test, it's usually less broken than the supposedly working stuff.
If anyone has a Pentium II StinkPad (probably the 600?), either 266 or 300MHz versions, I'd be curious to see what SpeedSys says. I can find a result on the internet, but I'm not setting too much store by that - notably the StinkPad is much newer than this thing, so I had expected it to be faster than my system, yet memory alone was around 33% slower on the IBM example I found online despite it having a faster CPU. This doesn't add up to me.
Posted 2021-06-10 3:58 AM (#2200 - in reply to #71) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
Looks pretty good, despite its lack of Thinkpad pedigree!
I've not got one that old myself. I'm typing this on my oldest now. My R50e, it's an XP era one though. Running the MyPal browser, it's still a usable machine. I've just treated it to a TP-Link nano usb wifi dongle. £7 off the 'zon.
I could really do with a large capacity HDD but the prices are insane! I'm trying to set-up some decent and robust back-up solutions for all my crap.
Posted 2021-06-10 5:25 AM (#2202 - in reply to #2200) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 618 Location: Hull, UK
Maybe I should try playing with that 'Community Post' thingy on YouTube some time, if I can figure out where it is and how to work it. Someone might see it and someone there probably owns one, plus it's neat to occasionally get someone else's stuff into a video, even if only something small like that. Of course I'll make it clear that I'm probably going to rag on their machine.
A Celery? I can't imagine still being on my retired K7 laptop for modern web browsing, let a lone a Celery. Most sites already manage to drag this mobile i7 down as it is.
Hard drive in that P2 laptop will be going up to 20GB at some point, purely as I have a stack of them that aren't being used. No point wasting things. No backup solution because it's not doing anything important, although the Ethernet PC Card it came with also worked without fuss, so that would be an option.
Posted 2021-06-10 1:46 PM (#2203 - in reply to #71) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
Rise MP6
Posts: 263
Nah, it's got a Pentium - M 1.8GHz in the thing. Kinda like a Pentium 3 1/2 or the true stop-gap between the P3 and the C2Duo's, if we ignore the P4's, which seems a good idea.
That MyPal browser is single threaded still, that's what keeps it almost usable.
There must be loads of those "collectors" with shelves full of the bloody things, they probably never use them though!
Posted 2021-06-10 4:00 PM (#2204 - in reply to #2203) Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with
TM Crusoe
Posts: 671
Bought a Cannon Pixma TS-3151. And I can once again print. I have named it Probaganda on my Linux laptop when using USB and as it is a network printer, then it is named "Probaganda On The Network" on my Linux machine. I have set network printing as the default. USB are only for backup use, if the router dies.
Actually straight forward to install the printer. I went to Cannon's webpage, found DEP packed drivers. Downloaded them and opened the 64bit DEP file with GDebi. Clicked on yes, and the system found whatever was needed on the Internet and installed. From there it was just selecting the printer in printer-setup in the control-center.
And they say Linux is hard?! Hmmm... I don't see the issue. Of course it is different, and so is Win98se compared to Win10.
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