Nekonomicon - josehill

josehill
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Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.
and authored 2194 notes

Wrote on the subject of Just got into 230V 3-Phase power... Who here has 3-Phase? at June 9, 2010, 9:53 a.m...

pentium wrote:

hamei wrote:

It's super simple and cheap to build a rotary three-phase converter. You do get one high leg but most motors don't seem to care. Not sure how an Origin would feel about that, tho.

Hmm. That would be interesting to look into.
I'm sure a few of us might like their iron running off converted three phase.

Careful, pent, or that puff of magic blue smoke might be you!

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of SGI top executives to speak at eighth annual SGI User Group at June 9, 2010, 9:56 a.m...

smj wrote:

Didn't find coverage of the conference in a cursory search, but I did find this article covering a visit by CTO Dr. Eng Lim Goh with the Greater London LUG a couple weeks later in London. It doesn't seem like a bad piece in terms of what "SGI" appears to be up to these days. Perhaps it's not unfair to say this -- that SGI's brilliance was in making complex and difficult things much easier to accomplish. For most of their history that was graphics, animation, visualization and video/film. Nowadays they may still be making the complex manageable, just with respect to single-system-image clustered computing.

Nice to hear someone say something mildly positive about today's SGI, even if I might quibble with one or two things the article's author wrote.

I'm now taking bets on how long it will take for someone to piss all over the current strategy. Oops - never mind. I read the comment thread on the Inquirer article. Looks like people already have that covered. Still, it was nice to read some favorable coverage for a change.

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of What did I do?! at June 10, 2010, 9:47 p.m...

Nice sleuthing. Good luck!

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of What are people doing for Classic support now? at June 15, 2010, 10:28 p.m...

I do a little bit of all of the above.

I still use my 12" 1.5 GHz G4 running Tiger for 80% of my personal computing, but the growing lack of support for Tiger, particularly by third party vendors, has me thinking that I will soon update it permanently to Leopard, obviously dropping Apple's Classic environment at that point. Fortunately, my use of Classic has been plummeting over the past couple of years.

For really old MacOS software, I mostly use my SE/30 running MacOS 7.5.5, or I use Mini vMac on current hardware to emulate a Mac Plus running MacOS 6.08. Mini vMac is actively maintained, and the developer says that a version capable of emulating a Mac II is on the way. Mini vMac has been ported to a lot of platforms, and it's definitely worth a look for preserving access to Mac Plus era software.

I have a Powerbook Duo 270c running OS 7.1.1 and a Duo 2300c running OS 8.6, but I rarely fire them up. The Duos are tiny enough that they are never in the way. I also have a nicely tricked out PowerBook 1400c (dock, RAM upgrade, external video card, all by NewerTech, and PCMCIA ethernet and modem), which IIRC is configured to dual boot OS 8.6 and 9.1.

As I will likely move either to Leopard or finally migrate fulltime to my MacBook Pro, the idea of running SheepShaver to maintain access to Classic apps has a lot of appeal. I've only tinkered with it so far, so I can't comment on how good or bad it is for routine use. I haven't tried Basilisk recently, but that's only because I haven't had time, not because of its quality.

josehill
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Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.
and authored 2195 notes

Wrote on the subject of HFS striping/RAID at June 19, 2010, 5:37 p.m...

pentium wrote:

Wait a second.

Variables to consider:

HFS vs HFS Extended (aka HFS+)
Version of MacOS the filesystem is being used on.
Specific model of Macintosh that the filesystem is being used on.
Limits on file sizes versus limits on filesystem sizes.

A little googling yielded
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27115
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21924
which should give you the info you are looking for.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of List of SGI CDs at June 30, 2010, 7:19 a.m...

Building a catalog of the basic 6.5 discs, including overlays, has been on my "to do" list for a while. I have nearly every overlay in my collection, and I think it would be super useful to have a database of discs in one place.

What I'd really like to do is to include a list of packages (and maybe even the target destination of installable files, although the output of that would be pretty huge) on each disc, too. It would be a little tedious, but it would involve feeding in each disc, issuing the "showprods -f <dist directory>" and the "showfiles -f <dist directory>" commands, and then parsing the output for database import or wikification. Maybe this summer...

That said, a simple part number list sounds like an excellent idea for the wiki. No reason we can't get started on that right now! Time for a little crowdsourcing?

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of List of SGI CDs at July 1, 2010, 6:32 a.m...

While my inner architect is screaming, "Database! This has to go in a proper database!", I fear that if we wait for that, it won't get done any time soon. (The perfect is the enemy of the good. Pick your cliché.)

For now, let's just get a basic list on the wiki. Including, at a minimum, part number, disc title, and optionally the date as a separate field. It's a wiki, so we can always clean it up and de-duplicate records later. Not elegant, to be sure, but I'd rather see data published than not published.

At a later date, we can add links to detailed pages for the contents of particular cds, or we could build the type of database that jan-jaap suggested, which I think would be the "perfect" eventual solution.

What do you think?

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Ooh! Someting of REAL value! at July 4, 2010, 5:51 p.m...

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing!

josehill
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Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.
and authored 2196 notes

Wrote on the subject of ONScripter-EN 20080823 ported to AIX 6.1 at July 5, 2010, 7:29 a.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

AFAIK MS Services for UNIX was never released for PPC. It also doesn't run on NT 3.5 or 4.0. Back when it was Interix maybe, but the MS version requires XP or newer.

You have an unusual piece of hardware there. Why you'd want to turn it into a rusty peecee running an outdated version of Windows is well beyond me.

In the same way that I usually recommend avoiding OSs other than IRIX on SGI MIPS kit (though I don't begrudge people who want to experiment with them), I suggest sticking with AIX on the ANS. Especially when trying to raise an old system from the dead, I prefer to do so using the OS that the machine was designed for first.

As for MS Services for UNIX, some quibbles, I know, but here we go:

SFU 1.0 required NT 4.0 SP3 on x86/Alpha
SFU 2.0 required NT 4.0 SP4+ or Windows 2000 on x86
SFU 3.0 required NT 4.0 SP6a, Windows 2000, or Windows XP Professional on x86
SFU 3.5 required Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Server 2003 on x86

Emphasizing: any version of Windows 2k worked with SFU 2+, but only the Professional version of XP was supported on SFU 3/3.5.

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Windows 2000: Retiring July 13, 2010 at July 5, 2010, 7:45 a.m...

Those of you who have systems running Windows 2000 might want to check for any last updates this week, as Microsoft will move all remaining flavors of the venerable OS from Extended Support mode to Retired mode on July 13, 2010.

In other words, Microsoft will no longer officially support Windows 2000 after next Tuesday. While some support material will likely remain on the website, there are no guarantees about what will remain or for how long, so be sure to download any necessary patches, service packs, and security fixes if you actively run W2k. (Microsoft indicates that "self support" materials will remain for one year after retirement.)

General information about Microsoft lifecycle policy is at http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/

Microsoft's Windows 2000 End-of-Support site is at http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1131

EDIT: Somewhat more detailed info about what goes away on July 13 is at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean46

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Windows 2000: Retiring July 13, 2010 at July 5, 2010, 8:56 a.m...

deBug wrote:

But it will be a much bigger scramble for us when they drop support for 2003 as the majority of our servers are running on 2003R2, and our AD is on 2003R2.
I wonder how many IT shops there is out there that are still running on 2003R2 instead of 2008 ?

At least there is a little bit of time left to plan a W2003 migration, since most flavors of Windows Server 2003 are under Extended Support until July 14, 2015 .

I suspect that you are not alone in continuing to run W2003. W2003 seems to be one of those "good enough" products that make the cost/benefit of upgrading to a newer version less than obvious.

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Awesome Craigslist Octane ad at July 5, 2010, 7:24 p.m...

For the day the link goes dead:

Quote:

Silicon Graphics SGI Octane + detritus - $25 (san mateo)

For sale - the last remnants of my former career at Silicon Graphics, featuring the enclosure (but not the electronics) for the Octane workstation (excellent condition), a set of clear feet for the Indigo2 workstation and the original machined prototype for the feet, the wristwatch that the CEO gave all the employees in 1993 when we reached a one billion dollar revenue run rate, two stupid Indigo2 Extreme colored cloth tubes intended to be worn as hats, and best of all, the Octane Soundtrack CD, featuring the hit single "Ignite Your Mind" and Octane Love Song. No wonder their main campus is now the Googleplex. Years of hard work and dashed hopes all yours for the miserly sum of $25. Act now and I'll throw in some old SGI graphics boards and a CPU from (I think) the Indigo2.

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Apple powermac G4 at July 8, 2010, 6:48 a.m...

The first generation iPods only work with a Mac. They are not compatible with PCs, but they can take a charge from PCs.

For your third generation iPod, have you tried to see if it is viewable/syncable using USB?

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Apple powermac G4 at July 9, 2010, 9:48 a.m...

pentium wrote:

I would assume that a Windows formatted iPod will work on a MAc no problem as a mac supports both HFS+ and FAT and Windows does ont support HFS+.

Make no assumptions...

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Two weeks in Tokyo at July 14, 2010, 7:39 p.m...

hamei wrote: You know, having a camera changes the experience quite a bit. It would not be a bad thing to forget the camera entirely.

You know, I kind of agree with that. I only snapped a few pictures on one of my trips to Japan, and all the rest of the trips I didn't bother with a camera at all, yet my memories of Japan are extremely vivid. Well, except for that one night where my Japanese coworker asked me if I would like to try some saki...

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of A new French member at July 17, 2010, 11:47 a.m...

arhiman57 wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbyV085Yu3g

Thanks for the video. Nice!

josehill
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Wrote on the subject of Using an O2 as a DVR at July 25, 2010, 7:08 p.m...

eMGee wrote:

As for USB, I believe there's only USB support since 6.5.23 or .24 and that it's mostly HID (for input-devices, keyboards, mice and so on, except tablets) and not block devices.

AFAIK, IRIX only supports USB devices on IP35 machines, not on the O2.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Night of the Living Dead: Resurrecting a Tezro at Nov. 23, 2010, 9:27 p.m...

Nice - thanks for sharing the gory details!

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Night of the Living Dead: Resurrecting a Tezro at Nov. 24, 2010, 9:57 a.m...

recondas wrote: I found out it was dead enough not to bring up an L1 prompt, I had to go and sit through several hours of a small-talk social event. Things were slow enough that I had time to mentally run through every possible gloom-n-doom scenario at least four or five times - regular life of the party I was.

Why do I have a picture in my mind of some couple driving home from the event, having a conversation like this -

Wife: "What's IO9, and who is L1?"
Husband: "Huh?"
Wife: "Dude kept muttering, 'IO9, IO9, L1 failure' at the party."
Husband: "Oh. You know he was Recon, right? Poor guy is having those flashbacks again. I think IO9 was his unit, and L1 was a place. You know, we were all at the bar down the road a couple of years ago, and just he started saying 'O350 Odyssey, L1 environment bad, I can fix it!' over and over."
Wife: "Oh, that poor man!"
Husband: "...but thank god we have men like him!"

josehill
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Who joined June 6, 2005, 8:53 p.m.
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Wrote on the subject of IRIX security at Nov. 25, 2010, 10:14 p.m...

mattst88 wrote:

Well, honestly who is actively looking for IRIX vulnerabilities? And why would they even bother?

All you need is one open door, and if compromising a vulnerable IRIX box gets you through that door onto a local net, then it may well be game over. The IRIX box is not necessarily the target, but the vector, and in an age when botnets control cpu power and bandwidth that were once the sole province of governments with supercomputers, adding a probe for a set of IRIX vulnerabilities does not have to be a costly proposition.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Instruction tracing at Dec. 2, 2010, 2:45 p.m...

Look at the "par" command. It's been a while since I used it, but something like

Code: Select all


   par -i -SS -s -o <outputfilename> <cmdline that you're interested in>

was a good start.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 2, 2010, 8:40 p.m...

PymbleSoftware wrote: NFS and/or SAMBA is more fun with gigabit Ethernet on both ends. I am fortunate that I got a shoebox in my Octane and a gigabit PCI Ethernet card.. I would not be as happy with the Octanes built in 100Mbit. Still I wouldn't have said network no way even with a 100Mbit.

I agree. 100 Mbit usually does fine for file share/transfer. It's not the speediest, but then again, the machine itself is not the speediest.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Instruction tracing at Dec. 2, 2010, 11:52 p.m...

emachine wrote: Doesn't par only give me system call traces of a particular processes execution?

Yes, and child processes. Sounds like I misunderstood what you were looking for. (I'm not a programmer, just a sysadmin who knows enough to be dangerous.)

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 2:07 a.m...

smj wrote: Oh sure, and I guess you believe that people were netbooting and filesharing over sub-10Mbps networks a couple of begattings ago!

That's crazy, dude. No way that kind of thing would have been possible! Next thing you'll tell me is that people were booting up GUI operating systems with floppies and only 128k RAM!

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 9:06 a.m...

dc_v01 wrote:

josehill wrote: I agree. 100 Mbit usually does fine for file share/transfer. It's not the speediest, but then again, the machine itself is not the speediest.

My employer's network is 100Mbit. Windows Domain, CAD share, everything.

Exactly my point.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 10:14 a.m...

zizban wrote: Actually, transferring pretty large files via email is possible. Just usb mass storage support would be several degress of awesome.

Yep, the ability to slap a couple of terabytes of USB storage with relatively low power requirements onto an IRIX box for less than $100 without having to worry about glitches or gotchas would be terrific. Unfortunately, I doubt that we're going to see that happen.

As an aside, I use a 10 Mbit/s Challenge S as a bridge between my two home nets. Works fine, and it still has more bandwidth than my backup DSL connection to the internet. That said, I probably will update to a faster bridge, since my cable modem connection to the internet is nominally 20 Mbit/s. I'll keep the Challenge around as a print server, however. Just because...

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 11:54 a.m...

SAQ wrote: Granted, I'm so glib because I know I have not the skills to do either, and won't have them anytime soon, for any definition of soon up to and including geologic time. I'm firmly out in userland as far as programming goes, and don't even do much to speak of there.

...and I guess that's the bottom line. While most or all of us would love to have access to full USB compatibility (or Firewire, too, lol), there are few, if any, of us who have the necessary combination of time, skill, motivation, and knowledge of IRIX internals to make it happen. I wish it weren't the case.

If someone does manage to do it, they will be praised to the hilt, but that's pretty much all that they are likely to get for developing a USB driver for a platform that last saw a newly manufactured machine four years ago and that will be unsupported in two years. Anyone with the requisite skills to do it would be able to do something much more profitable with their time, so it would have to be a real labor of love.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 12:02 p.m...

recondas wrote: While we're on the subject of USB drivers - hamei just mentioned to me that he could probably hire someone <with the skills necessary to do USB driver dev work and other programming issues> in China for a small fraction of what it would cost on this side of the great wall. If anyone is interested in getting involved in that project drop hamei an email <or PM me your contact info and I'll pass it along>.

It's an interesting idea, but even with Great Wall labor rates, it wouldn't be trivial, particularly if real QC/QA, i.e. reliability, is needed. Still, if hamei thinks that can be accomplished with a reasonable investment, and he uses his considerable charm to ensure QC, it might be worth pursuing.

Any idea how many yuan he thinks would be needed? Is it within the realm of a small community contributing shareware money, or is it something requiring some significant philanthropy?

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 1 p.m...

A safe way to do it with minimal coordination effort might be through Kickstarter - someone proposes a fundraising project with a budget, people make pledges to the project via Amazon checkout, but no money changes hands unless the project is fully funded. If the project doesn't get fully funded, no one gets charged anything. I'd be willing to pony up some cash.

A musical acquaintance of mine used the mechanism to fund the manufacture and distribution of her latest cd - pretty neat, actually.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 3, 2010, 1:33 p.m...

Tabalabs wrote: I see just one big trouble on that: Where to connect the USB adapter. I think THIS is the big problem. I have no fast enough interface on my octane to connect it without troubles.

You'd need to find an SGI "PCI Card Cage" or a PCI to XIO adapter (also known as a "shoehorn") and then add a PCI USB card, assuming USB drivers could be developed. See viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16720341 for ideas about other PCI cards that work in an Octane.

The hardest part is the driver, which does not yet exist. The hardware to use PCI boards in Octanes does exist, but may not be easy to find in Brazil.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of USB Mass Storage at Dec. 4, 2010, 2:06 p.m...

PymbleSoftware wrote: The best way to a project failure is a all or nothing approach on a grandiose and overly ambitious plan. Start small have a small goal then build on it.

Regan's right. If people are serious, someone who knows what they are doing from a development perspective should identify a small, but meaningful piece of work, make that the first project, demonstrate success, and then proceed from there.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of First the mug, now the shirts :) at Dec. 14, 2010, 8:43 a.m...

Tabalabs wrote: Ask them to get me here in Brazil. And bring toghether some SGI swag. But please, with the old logo.

They might not take you down, but that might not be quite so true of this forum.

geo wrote: oh! what a game stopper... but hmm maybe they don't care about this logo anymore coz they change it to a new one? hmm

In the US (and many other countries), companies that don't actively defend their trademarks risk losing them as a matter of law, which explains why they seem to over-react even when hobbyists do things with good intentions.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Help getting an 02 working again at Dec. 14, 2010, 10:37 p.m...

SAQ wrote: O2 shouldn't need SOG, as it is a fully-capable HD15 "VGA" port.

It's slightly more complicated than that. The O2 outputs both a Sync-on-Green signal and a standard PC H/V sync signal via the HD15 port. Apparently, some/many non-Sync-on-Green monitors --even high quality ones-- fail to filter out the sync signal from the green channel , so while the display is basically usable, the output has a heavy green tint (not a gamma issue). True SOG monitors are probably the safest choice for an O2.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Help getting an 02 working again at Dec. 14, 2010, 10:38 p.m...

josehill wrote:

SAQ wrote: O2 shouldn't need SOG, as it is a fully-capable HD15 "VGA" port.

It's slightly more complicated than that. The O2 outputs both a Sync-on-Green signal and a standard PC H/V sync signal via the HD15 port. Apparently, some/many non-Sync-on-Green monitors --even high quality ones-- fail to filter out the sync signal from the green channel , so while the display is basically usable, the output has a heavy green tint that cannot be fixed through gamma adjustment. I've seen it with several different O2s with various "PC" monitors. True SOG monitors are probably the safest choice for an O2.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Unboxing a "new" MultiLink Adapter at Dec. 18, 2010, 9:50 p.m...

Nice. I had a few of those not long ago, and it does indeed look like you have the full kit. Thanks for sharing the pictures -- that should help others to figure out if they have everything or not.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Finally posted the next Silicon Classics episode at Dec. 29, 2010, 1:51 p.m...

Great job, AJ!

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Secure passwords at Dec. 30, 2010, 9:02 a.m...

After the recent Gawker.com password fiasco, I've been refreshing many of my accounts with a range of new passwords.

I didn't think that I'd be affected by the Gawker problems, since I don't remember ever signing into or caring about the site, but it turns out that they own a bunch of other sites and use the same authentication system for all of them. I made a comment on one of them, Lifehacker.com, years ago, and I used that username/password pair on a bunch of non-essential sites, so my credentials were compromised.

josehill
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From New England, USA
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Wrote on the subject of Secure passwords at Jan. 1, 2011, 1:45 p.m...

foetz wrote: for online accounts i only use generated stuff as well as for local services that can be reached from the outside

Hey, foetz, great to see you here again!

Do you use a password manager to "remember" the generated passwords? If so, is there a particular one that you recommend?

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Unable using LAN in PROM at Jan. 7, 2011, 10:42 a.m...

Moderator's note: I changed the thread title from "Unable using lan in PROM" to "Unable using LAN in PROM."

I kept having visions of poor Ian Mapleson , dressed in a Tron outfit , trapped in an Octane PROM.

josehill
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From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote on the subject of Intro and help with where to start at Jan. 13, 2011, 9:16 a.m...

Welcome to Nekochan! You've come to the right place!

Is the storage the only thing that you received? Did you also receive any workstations or servers? Did you receive any manuals?

SGI has very good online documentation at techpubs.sgi.com. To get started, you may want to check out this search result, which includes downloadable pdfs of the User's Guides for InfiniteStorage 4500 equipment -

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... ALL&rpt=20

Again, welcome, and feel free to ask more specific questions.

The collected works of josehill - Page 6