The collected works of guardian452 - Page 5

For cache dimms or small or isolated parts (like a tram) I would say try the oven.
For laptop mainboards or other very integrated parts I would say use a heat gun - anything that has something on it that can melt.

Either way it's a real crapshoot.

I'm typing this on my now-vintage ipad 'classic'. To be honest, I was unaware (and still don't care) they had a new version out until I came across this page: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_cultu ... _18682.asp

Having the camera would be fun but not really.. It's not really something you can be seen with in public

I've seen people poking at them with various stylus shaped devices, which appear to work well. Keep looking

As for me, it is sort of a device that sits in the family room and is used to browse the internet while sitting on the sofa or take it along to share videos with friends. Might have to plug it in once a week or so with occasional use like 1 hour per day.

ipad 1 or ipad 2... It is kinda nifty but it is not going to replace the thinkpad in my bag anytime soon. Thinkpad 2.5 pounds, ipad 1.5 pounds, it's thinner but the other dimensions are about the same, at least when the ipad is in the 'condom sleeve with flap'... What it is good at, it is very good at, but I like a keyboard. I've not used them but BT keyboards apparently work? That will be an awkward setup...

mapesdhs wrote: That's an extremely good price for such a config. In the commercial world, a single DCD can sell for that much, never mind
two of them, with two V12s, in a max-spec complete system. Congrats!!

Ian.

commercial world, aka old-fashioned dealers who sell to firms (often over the phone) that have better things to do than shop around for the lowest price. If you want to pop eyeballs, then go to a commercial dealer's price list and show it to your friends... If you are selling gear, this is the market to be in.

Nothing against 'em, just know that for all the sgi machines I've had over the years (several octanes, indigo2, a couple o2s, onyx), the most expensive SGI product I've purchased was a $30 1.4 octane frontplane and most everything else was free (at least in the $$ sense, some favors here and there, etc). So compare, hobbiest market and commercial market...

Anyway, you can say what you like, what the o.p. bought is still a damn good deal IMO.

I think it's a good deal as well, but the part is rare (at least on ebay) it is hard to say what is a good deal and what isn't. 1700 is a very good deal if you are selling a dcd, USD or GBP. IMHO of course.

another 10 week contract as cad operator starts next monday for me, and hopefully that will be my last indoor job for quite some time (until next winter maybe)

also a university student for another year or two until I graduate.

and the rest of my life is up in the air

fu: you aren't going crazy. I deleted my post, and I will repost once I've shot some film this weekend. (there was something... interesting... in the background of that picture, as well)

There is a program called WINDAS available that can be used to adjust sony monitors. I don't know if it will work with an E21 or to adjust anode voltage. I know it works on some later models to adjust grid/screen/focus voltages, etc. There are cables available on ebay for about $20 usd to connect the header to a PC serial port (and rs323 to TTL conversion)

There might be a pot somewhere to adjust it, if it is the anode voltage. I haven't mucked with a CRT in a couple years, unfortunately.

I tried to set up a flickr account but decided it was too arcane and difficult. So here we are:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3 ... 5a656db604

Due to my ineptitude at loading film (actually, my grandfather gave this equipment to me and he forgot to tell me that you need to hold the film to the spool with a piece of tape ) shot 24 frames without advancing any film, and learned how to pull film tongue out of a canister without opening it. I wound up with some light leaks though. It's a bit trickier than the maxxum 8000i I used for high school photography class. (still have that one too)

I don't have a working normal lens, I have a 50mm with fungus all over it and a 58 1.4 with aperture stuck all the way open. Both should be easy to fix... There is a nice aviation museum within walking distance of where I am staying (in ottawa canada) so I might go this weekend, now that I can get the film in properly

It is a really impressive machine with all sorts of gizmos to hook up i.e. macro rings, lenses from 28 to a big 75-200 zoom, flashes, etc. Very pleasurable to use. Of course, the photo below was taken with my trusty old cyber-shot

I will have it serviced at some point to fix the film spool and there is also the plug for the data back is missing (covered with a piece of tape). I know it would be cheaper probably to buy another off of ebay, but that is not the point

Nononono, today is cinco de mayo, so we can all have a good time and get plastered to celebrate the mexicans beating the french am I write?

erm, you might say that tomorrow is "revenge of the fifth

If you buy me an airline ticket, I will be happy to film the entire event for you

I'll even fly coach!

I registered for mobileme 60 days trial, but everything it does, can either be done better by other services or by myself. Thanks for reminding me to cancel that...


While apple is "aggressively moving to the cloud", I also like what they are doing with lion server. I might get a mini when lion comes out.

bri3d wrote: I'm not very convinced of the iCloud music offering's superiority to Google Music/Amazon Cloud or to Rdio/Rhapsody/Zune Pass et. al...

That is the one thing I miss about windows, I now run zune in virtualbox (the only thing I need virtualbox for!). Does anybody actually use itunes to listen to music? what buffoon designed that piece of shit? (I could go on for hours...) Also, from what I understand, itunes store doesn't use mp3s but some proprietary format (aac?) which my mazda mp3 player does not support. So I'll stick with zune/amazon for now

Never used the zune service tho. I buy mp3's from amazon and borrow CDs. and tapes, vinyl, listen to the radio, etc.

sybrfreq wrote: I registered for mobileme 60 days trial, but everything it does, can either be done better by other services or by myself. Thanks for reminding me to cancel that...


While apple is "aggressively moving to the cloud", I also like what they are doing with lion server. I might get a mini when lion comes out.

I mis-understood
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597

Even though my account was only a trial, it was also extended until the end of June 2012. Very Cool! It's a little iffy for $100 a term, but free can't be beat!

Most significant of all, however, is the aggressive move to the cloud. At the moment, Apple has no plans to offer Lion via DVD -- if you want it, it's a $30, 4 GB upgrade, installable from the App Store. Will people really want that, or will people insist on DVDs? Will this mark the real beginning of moving all of a user's computing experience to the cloud, abandoning the device-centric computing model of the last few generations?

The app store isn't really cloud computing... I've bought aperture and xcode from the app store and they run square and dandy on the computer right in front of me. It's more about not having to waste a dvd and hunt down a drive to install the OS.


I'm more excited about the new lion server than icloud... I would prefer to run my own server as others have mentioned.




I got bit by the sony atrac monster back in the stone ages and refuse to use anything other than mp3 or good old-fashioned CDs, tape, vinyl, etc.

I was given a nice apple IIe and amber screen kit (no drives or anything tho, but the machine itself is working great. It's my first vintage apple.

I was also given... this. I didn't notice any identifying marks anywhere on the board. If anybody has info on this please let me know:


up close:

There are some notes, a parts list, and also a partial photocopy of a schematic, etc:


Judging by the list of problems, and also the fact that the roms have no window covers (they were also sitting partially in the sun all day as I had left my hatchback open most of the afternoon, it was in a translucent bag) I don't think it is currently working. Think I have a chance at getting this working? (of course, all the chips are socketed, the tricky part would be to find the proper ROM image and have it written in) Are these clones/knockoffs even worth anything or interesting from a historical perspective? Blue happens to be my favourite colour, btw

Update: See the Unitron name around coordinates D8?

Wikipedia wrote: Unitron, a Brazilian company, produced another clone, named ApII. Unitron used a copy of the Apple's ROM translated to Portuguese. The operating system was Apple's DOS 3.3 translated to Portuguese. During this period, it was illegal to import microcomputers in Brazil, and buying those (illegal) clones was the only way to have a microcomputer. Unitron stopped manufacturing the ApII a few years after the introduction of IBM PC clones in Brazil.

Is this an ApII mainboard? It would be pretty hip to get it working with the translated ROM It looks like http://www.museo8bits.com/unitronap.htm#E/S

Another one:
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB- ... n-raro-_JM

metallizer wrote: Your apple clone is from the taiwanese unitron, not the brazilian branch. These where independently manufactured. Taiwan unitron used that distinctly blue color in their boards.

What you're looking for is unitron U2000 roms

I found an article that mentions that there are in fact two different Unitrons here: http://www.applelogic.org/UnitronAndI.html

I can probably chase down an eprom burner.. Thanks for that site Neko, it looks like a lot of fun! (they have all the manuals too, which I needed but hadn't had the time to look for)

Connector needs to fit behind onyx door, 13w3 male on both ends about 3m or 10 feet long. Shipped to USA 45140. Needs to fit a student budget

There's about 3 or 4 inches. There are a few reasonably priced ones on ebay but they are the sun type with the ferrites moulded into the connector, those won't work. There are some 6 footers which would be just a touch too short. etc... (I am really not too fond of ebay, anyways) For example, this cable works great, but there is not room for much more:

I'm actually trying to connect to a HP L1955 panel, I have one 13w3 M to M cable with a 13w3(F) to hd15(M) adapter, and another panel that is sitting dead since I got rid of my PC and moved the octane to storage. Now that I think about it, a 13w3 (M) to hd15(M) (or VGA, or whatever it's called nowadays) cable would work better, without the adapter. 1280x1024x60 isn't pushing any limits with pixel clock, though!

Also, I found another great website, our lab rat at school gets all sorts of cables and stuff from Monoprice: http://www.monoprice.com/products/searc ... w3&x=0&y=0

These are sun adapters of course, but as I have proper SOG panels, I don't care.

Sounds great, I see you've already checked your PM.

So imagine 5 years down the track, Lion has been deprecated, and the latest release of Cougar won't run on your recently defined as inferior machine. Which will probably only run on 64bit ARM. Your now new Intel Mac will be looked on with the same disdain as a PPC model is now.

While I agree with R10's statement (don't hate the player, hate the game) maybe there is good reason for not upgrading your crappy 5 year old computer to a shiny new OS; grandma's 5 year old macbook still runs tiger just fine.

high-priced, high-turnover commodity machines.

but macs are cheap and 5 years is a low-turnover... Isn't this an SGI site where machines cost $100k+ and had a typical useful life of two or three years?

Most of this stuff is old news since most if not all modern consumer PCs and electronics are designed from the chip level to be ESD resistant . That's why you can get away with ESD abuse on modern equipment. But if you're here, then you are likely dealing with older equipment (SGIs) and industrial equipment (SGIs) that was designed to be serviced only by qualified people. The big iron and older stuff is particularly vulnerable with large PCBs (long traces can pick up static like antennas), late 80s/early 90s tech, age, and being designed for clean, climate controlled environments.

If you don't have an ESD mat and strap, GET ONE. a mat is like $20-$30 and handy (a clean white surface is great for lots of things not just electronics). A wrist strap is $3. Make sure your work, the machine, and you are grounded together. I never really consider earth ground to be too important for most things. For the love of god: carpet, cardboard, melamine/laminates, and plastic bags should be nowhere near that super rare option card or top of the line processor. If you are ever unsure of where to store such a thing, the best place is INSTALLED INSIDE A MACHINE. You should put a sticky label on the outside of the machine so you know what's inside it. Second best is in a conductive/shielded bag, and ESD safe bubble wrap around that, and then in a sturdy cardboard box that is not too big or small.

I am also sorry to say that your favourite football shirt and/or fleece hoody and/or silk dress shirt should be kept away as well. I know nowadays the trend is with conductive coatings and silver ions and all that jazz. Yes, this makes synthetic fabric conductive. No, it is not certified to any degree to be ESD safe. These treatments are designed mainly to resist smells (and typically wash off after one or two times in the laundry anyways, so save your money) A cotton tshirt and jeans is your best bet.

If you're going to take the collecting and wrenching hobby seriously you should check out your humidity as well and consider running a humidifier during the winter.

The Shocking Truth ESD traning video from oldschool apple, In 4 parts on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WHbcd4NGJQ

EDIT: A Wiki article based on this post is also available: http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/ ... _and_Video

Well. The guy who gave me the apple //e found a box full of apple //e stuff. So I got a disk II drive (complete with installation kit, cable clamp, the screws, the wrench with the apple stamped in it, the books, the stickers, dos 3.3, the welcome to apple demo, etc)

I also got a couple boxes of fun games, and since the guy is the IT guy at our school there were a couple old disks from some of the greybearded professors. so there are a lot of cool little programs like characteristic polynomial root finder, partial fraction expansion, antenna calculations, logic simulator, etc

trying to decide if I should go back for the printer or not. At least, I really like "snake byte"

I also got all the books for the apple, so now I can learn to use it

If anybody wants to see pictures of the machine, you must go here
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 969&type=1

I figured there would be nothing too exciting, I mean, everybody has an apple II! but here we go.

Oskar45 wrote:

recondas wrote: [...]peering into their world through the looking glass can be interesting.....

Great shots. Yes, small can be beautiful...how about this mating pair of butterflies [in the spirit of the present thread]?
_PH17801_neko.jpg

Oskar I find your photos amazing. If you cannot get an account on the nekochan gallery please let me know where I can see more than thumbnails of your work. This reaction is surprising, since we have had an online gallery set up for years.

I've found the best sites for uploading and sharing photos online are facebook (simple to use and your friends can see too) and mobileme which also very easy to use, but the online gallery does not browse well with most browsers (safari included)

neverball/neverputt are fun, as are the screensavers in the rss-glx package.

you can me to the environment gallery if you wish now I can only access the hardware gallery... but I'm moving in december anyways, so it will change.

here's photos taken with a real camera and not the craptastic webcam on my laptop...

I have been having delusions about doing a cross-america road trip (from canuckistan to argieland and back) next autumn on the fz6. Not sure if it can happen or not but it is fun to dream..

My parents are in NS now so that would be the starting point.