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| CaptainJistuce |
Posted on 22-04-16, 07:08
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Custom title here
 Post: #1070 of 1164 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 72 days Last view: 20 hours |
Posted by tommanOr now the bBoard! --- In UTF-16, where available. --- |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-04-16, 14:27
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Dinosaur
 Post: #1090 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
Posted by CaptainJistuce Right, you won't see one outside of an auction catalog, numismatic catalogs, and Other People's Collections! At least on bBoards you get legacy IBMs with your rare bills, so I'll let you have that one :) Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-04-29, 03:19
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Dinosaur
Post: #1093 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
So it seems that airplanes have gotten the Windows 95 disease:Posted by tomman Not to be left behind, Boeing is trying hard to keep their first place at bugged planes: https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/02/boeing_787_power_cycle_51_days_stale_data/ Don't forget to reboot your Screamliner weekly too! The 737 MAX, 777X and Dreamliner: Boeing's trifecta for BUGGYBUGGYBUGGY planes that almost make frickin' Sukhoi look like perfection. This is just sad - please Boeing, leave Chicago behind, sack the beancounters, bring back the engineers, and give those fancypants Neos a good run for their money! Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| creaothceann |
Posted on 22-05-04, 22:51
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 Post: #397 of 456 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 53 days Last view: 5 hours |
Upgrading old videogame systems... while demonstrating Murphy's Law My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10 |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-05-11, 03:58
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Dinosaur
Post: #1097 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/05/the-music-lives-on/ The iPod is officially dead: well, Apple had pretty much pulled the plug on the dedicated offline music player devices arena about a decade ago (I refuse to consider the iPod Touch as a legit iPod - it's just a phoneless iPhone), but it's now official: Cupertino believes everybody* has fully switched to cellphones, streaming services, and Bluetooth earplugs. If you still want a phoneless iPhone, now is your last call (ha!) to pick one, as Apple will keep selling them "while supplies last". I guess we'll never see that 1TB SSD iPod from official sources anytime soon then... "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." *well, I've fully embraced cellphones as my main portable digital music players since December 2006, but I'll stick to offline files and wired headphones 'till the day I die. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| KoiMaxx |
Posted on 22-05-15, 00:51
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 Post: #153 of 159 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 215 days Last view: 9 hours |
Nvidia finally provides linux drivers but with a catch... The catch being a lot of the functionality has been moved onto the actual silicon, with mostly stub code to allow basic functionality on Linux. The capabilities will still be kneecapped, but at least it can integrated into distros now. Sooo... a step in the right direction, I guess? I still have no idea what I'm talking about. |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-05-20, 01:47
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Dinosaur
Post: #1101 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-05-18/japanese-law-office-receives-bomb-threat-following-touhou-project-fans-trademark-rights-controversy/.185799 This is a big pile of WTFs I don't even where to begin: - Didn't knew Japan also suffered of the (highly American) disease of copyright trolls. I guess greedy assholes are pretty much worldwide these days (seriously, charging ~$800 for "licensing" an IP that doesn't even belong to you in first place?! Dude, whoever you are, set the opium aside because you're literally higher than an Airbus!) - Yukkuris are a meme almost as old as Touhou Project itself, so old that your "prior art" is a tag on nearly every imageboard, starting with frickin' Japan-hosted Pixiv. But I guess incompetent "can't do due diligence" lawyers and government employees are also worldwide too. Yes, I can picture a random Japanese government office full of fax machines and rubber stamps, but come on, failing to do their basic prior art research before granting a clearly bogus trademark is grossly negligent at best, and borderline criminal at worst! (Thankfully ZUN and friends have enough ammo to shot down this trademark that should haven't be issued in first place, but it's a complete waste of time and money for everybody involved) - What the hell is wrong with rabid otakus sending death threats to everything they dislike?! Knock off that shit, morons. So this is another fine case of FFS JAPAN!!! Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| KoiMaxx |
Posted on 22-05-21, 02:43
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Post: #155 of 159 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 215 days Last view: 9 hours |
Posted by tomman This reminds me of Toei Animation's notorious copyright crusade against an anime reviewer on Youtube. Although in Toei's defense, it was definitely their IPs, but they went around it was pretty merciless. So yeah, Japan is one the most advanced countries while simultaneously being the most backwards. I still have no idea what I'm talking about. |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-05-24, 02:43 (revision 1)
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Dinosaur
Post: #1102 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
Viz print ads for Sega consoles Those Brits really knew how to sell their Segas - none of this "family friendly" Nintendo nonsense that will conveniently ignore anyone over 12 years old. Only in the former UK of yesterday you could openly say "FUCK" and "SHIT" on ads on printed media for selling game consoles and software, and actually achieving results! Results other than "lawsuits" and "getting the censors on your arse", of course. Too bad none of those ads would fly today on this pathetically "PC" world where we're currently living on (even on adult-oriented media), as puerile toilet humor will quickly unleash the SJW Twatter mobs which have became ridiculously overpowered :/ To be this good takes AGES. To be this good takes WHAT NINTENDON'T. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| creaothceann |
Posted on 22-05-27, 20:47
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Post: #399 of 456 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 53 days Last view: 5 hours |
Secret of Monkey Island Speedrun History My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10 |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-05, 02:42
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Dinosaur
Post: #1113 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
Today I got "blessed" by the Gods of Incompetent Utilities once again: one of those Soviet Venezuelan Special Massive Power Surges™ just zapped my metal. AGAIN. Victim count: - Every single surge protector on the upper floor of the house. At the very least, exploded fuses. - My last APC UPS. When those things go boom, there is no hope to recover... unless you still have some warranty left on your gear. While I've had nothing but great service from APC distributors in Venezuela, they can do nothing (except expensive off-warranty repairs?) when your 3-year warranty ran out in 2019 :/ - A LED bulb that literally became artillery shell! The bulb internals EXPLODED and the cover got shot out during the surge event! Like, WTF, this is my room, not frickin' Ukraine! - The charger from my nx9010. Forget about reading email or playing old VNs, I guess (and this was a beefy 90W brick!) - And of course, Saki, my beloved routerbox. She just stalls at boot without POST, and all keyboard LEDs on. No amount of fiddling helped this time. Apparently the motherboard (that M535/8 AKA PCChips least sucky mobo ever) got shot. Tried swapping every single component (PSU, RAM, CPU, expansion cards), but nothing, no dice. A minute of silence for that awesome girl that served me well through my eager college years towards the hyperinflationary hellscape of last month (if we believe the bullshit of paperboard "lolconomists" here). You'll be REALLY missed! :( BUT! In the middle of darkness, there is always a shining beacon of hope. As any of my retroboxes will testify, Soviet Venezuela is a no-fly zone for retrocomputing enthusiasts. You can't simply go into MercadoLibre and order a random Socket 7 mobo, so instead you need to grab the first thing you can find in your way and run. I did had a spare Socket 7 mobo (a PCChips M571) but it was dead too (IIRC it died when I tried testing a 6x86MX - it never booted again since then), so instead I went looking around and found that one of my uncles was trying to get rid of his old Celeron box. It was a Compaq Presario. YUCK! With a hideous fatass front cover, very yellowed and with stupid Xpress-On swappable faceplates. It screamed "supermarket deal" everywhere (and indeed it was - he had bought it at a big-chain hypermarket 20 years ago). But hey, it booted, and it was from a slightly newer vintage than my Socket 7 gold, so what I have to lose? And it was FREE™ (not unlike the $100 from my emergency fund that I had to spend on a new noname UPS and new surge protectors... although those will do nothing for fixing the ticking time bomb known as "my house was built without grounding at all, just like 90% of homes in Venezuela") Here is what I got now: - Compaq Presario 5000LA chassis. The service manual is a pathetic joke. - Craptacular Compaq Socket 370 mobo (codenamed "BMW" according to the service manual) - Celery 766 (66MHz bus). What a weird speed! - 64MB PC133. Yes, SIXTY FOUR MEGABYTES. And unfortunately there is a wide gap on my RAM stash between "late era SIMMs" and "early DDR1". - Integrated Intel graphics sewage. There is no AGP slot, and even if you add a PCI videocard you can't stop Intel's MCH stealing already scarce main RAM - Integrated ESS Maestro soundchip that I absolutely do not need. - Absolutely useless BIOS setup program that (unlike IBM) doesn't let me disable hardware I don't need, or set sane IRQ settings. - Quantum Fireball Low Cost - Four USB 1.1 ports (amazingly, all of them behind a USB hub chip on the motherboard, as Intel's early ICH1 USB controllers only had two ports) - LG 48x CD-ROM drive. But not everything is that horrible - a Socket 370 means that I could actually run non-EOL'd Debian on this thing! But not with 64MB RAM, sadly: I tried plugging Saki's boot drive, and while it tries to boot, it quickly dies after the kernel runs out of RAM while decompressing the initial ramdisk (WTF, talking about bloat!). Incredibly enough, I still held another backup HDD with a even older setup (Wheezy), and this one boots fine (albeit quite slow) on such a constrained RAM setup! So welcome back to 2018, and please don't hack me where I get my shit sorted out ;) Will Saki live on in its new body? Oh hell no. It's time to move on - fortunately PC133 SDRAM sticks are not hard to find, so once I boost RAM on this thing (will try going with 256MB, can't find the real limits for this Compaq hellstew), I'll start from scratch. Watch this space... Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| CaptainJistuce |
Posted on 22-06-05, 03:45
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Custom title here
Post: #1079 of 1164 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 72 days Last view: 20 hours |
Posted by tomman Rest in piece, noble hardware. You've served your master well in the harshest of conditions.
Pimpin' a shitbox is a special kind of fun. Good luck getting that to something respectable. Pity about the graphics situation, though. --- In UTF-16, where available. --- |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-05, 05:10
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Dinosaur
Post: #1114 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
If you're looking for ancient Compaq crapbox BIOS updates, don't search for "Compaq <insert model here> BIOS update", as you'll hit dead ends (and HP support site is unusable webshit which won't even let you select a proper model from a list anymore, unlike Dell). Instead, search for "Compaq <insert model here> System ROM Update", or "ROMpaq". You should eventually end with an .exe file named "spXXXXX.exe", where the X's are digits (Compaq SoftPAQ IDs). If you absolutely don't trust DriverGuide garbage, all you need is the SoftPAQ ID (hopefully whatever shady driver download site will not hide the real filename), and there are plenty of unofficial mirrors of Compaq/HP long-defunct FTP site. Time to wet my underwear for... how many firmware updates have I done this year? Let's recap: - ThinkPad T40... six times (2xBIOS, 2xEC, HDD, RPC-1 DVD-ROM) - Dell Inspiron 15 3500 (had to figure out how to FORCE it, as this laptop would always just hang while trying to reboot during the pre-flash procedure) - TP-Link WR743NDv1 DD-WRT update (involving a jumpflash back to OFW) - Some rubbish AMD-powered Dell Inspiron laptop (unrelated to the Inspiron 15 3500, but clearly one of its predecessors) belonging to my locksmith - A much nicer biz-class Dell Latitude laptop which I did for a client - Modded 3DS for a cousin (that hardly counts as a reflash, but it's still very brick-prone if you aren't paying atention!) - Couple of official updates for my Redmi Note 11 - Some random WD laptop HDD, after failing refurbishing (had to revert everything to the starting point, and one of the steps involve flashing the delicate boot ROM) - HP Compaq something something office-class desktop box for the same cousin from the 3DS - Still with HP, had to revive a HP 16GB pendrive that commited firmware sudoku with some shady Sovietware™. Lost all data on it (thankfully nothing important), and no longer says HP on the firmware, but it's no longer a (tiny!) brick. I guess I like living at the edge... Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-07, 00:04 (revision 1)
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Dinosaur
Post: #1116 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
No reflash fun for the Compaq (DMI string: Compaq Presario 5000LA 470010-120 /06C0h, BIOS 686C3 04/18/2001) - it already had the latest BIOS ROM release available for its series. Boo! Anyway, went into another computer junkyard research expedition today to avoid paying yet another $4 to a certain parcel shipping company. The results will surprise you... NOT! - My trusty laptop "hardcore repairs" shop charges $15 to revive fried laptop chargers... and a used charger for my HP costs $15 online plus $4 shipping. It's like it isn't even worth purchasing online unless you're buying $2 USB OTG adapters from a big store that can do free shipping. Also: the daughters of the guy that owns the repair shop (and who are the attendants there) were born AFTER Socket 370 and SDRAM became a thing! I've spent half of the weekend explaining to random people that Socket 7s were the ones that we dinosaurs used back when Clinton was still president, and when that 21th Century Socialism™ asswipe was yet to reach the polls. - Found another seedy repair shop. The place had CRT TVs and monitors (with colder solder joints, natch!) still in use - that should be a good signal that I was at the correct place? Anyway, the guy (a kid slighty younger than me) knew what I was looking for. Paid $5 for 3 random SDRAM sticks as-is, with the hopes that at least I would complete 128MB here. Here are my results: * HP-branded Samsung PC100 64MB stick (8 chips, single-sided) made in mid '99: works as expected (and this Celery is FSB100, so it's working at its optimal speed). Sadly it won't be of any use here if I ever upgrade to a Pentium III on this thing :/ * Noname "MADE IN USA" 128MB stick (16 chips, dual-sided): no dice. The computer won't even see that the module is installed there! There was some heavy corrosion at some pins, but even after getting rid of as much as that crud as possible, there was no way that this Compaq mobo would even detect the module - for all effects, the MCH was detecting an empty slot. * Markvision PC133 128MB stick (8 chips, single-sided): Works... kinda? The machine only detects HALF THE RAM (and memtest86+ would gladly give a clean pass to that). How is that even possible??!?!?! Either the label is fake (plausible: back then, Markvision was "cheaper than herpes, lower-than-dumpster-diving tier, GET AIDS INSTEAD!" junk that proliferated at every single corner computer shop), someone switched labels years ago, the module is defective, or there is some incompatibility with this i810-powered box. EDIT: Nailed it! i810E chipset + Compaq world-class pennypinching design = anything over 64MB sticks are a game of Russian Roulette, and you can't go over 512MB if you hit jackpot (even lowly supermarket-special-tier SiS 630 chipsets went beyond the GB, FFS!) So... uh, yeah. Upgrading RAM on this thing won't be neither easy nor cheap. I've just got Compaq'd, it seems. But for now, with only 118MB RAM available to OS (even after installing a proper PCI videocard with own memory), at least Saki's brain is back to life... on a completely new, even more terrible body. The Date Clocks Stopped Forever for a rather legendary no-frills Socket 7 box: My room still smells of burnt plastic :/ Oh, the rear USB ports on this Compaq are so flaky they're unusable. At least the front ones are still good... but throwing all of them behind a bandwidth-starved hub chip instead of splurging $0.50 on another USB OHCI controller is so Compaq... Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-08, 19:21
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Dinosaur
Post: #1119 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
If the kid that runs the repair shop looks younger than you, or if the oldest piece of hardware you can see is attached to a 32" TV, you have no business looking for vintage junk there. Yes, "Socket 370" is now considered to be vintage, AKA "burn and bury". Even "DDR1" is kryptonite to computer repair shops here! (MercadoLibre seriously needs a "retrocomputing/vintage" category, but they're too busy lumping all HDDs and SSDs on the same sack) Went to another seedy junkyard (more specialized on ink refills rather than computer repair). The guy had to look hard for one of his RAM stashes, but ended scoring 4 random SDRAM DIMMs for the low price of $FREE (yes, really - "that's all I can do to help you, buddy"). - 256MB PC133 Markvision crapola (double sided): no POST! - 128MB PC133 noname crapola ("16Mx64", single-sided): works fine! It even recognized the full 128MB on the stick! - 64MB PC100 noname crapola (single-sided): works fine. - 32MB NEC made in France with NEC UK chips (HP OEM sticker, 4 chips, single-sided): surprisingly no POST! You rarely discard low-capacity sticks because of failure, but it seems this one was retired due to that. So: 7 modules, $5 spent, and I'm now at 192MB (180MB usable). Hope that the next junkyard expedition yields better results, but at least progress at last! Maybe that "16Mx64" is the key to something? I need to research more - sounds like the hell of "for Intel only/low density" DDR1 sticks... Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| Nicholas Steel |
Posted on 22-06-15, 05:03 (revision 2)
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Post: #416 of 426
Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 508 days Last view: 23 days |
I've experienced Windows failing to detect half my DDR3 RAM before, this happened when applying a "extreme" XMP overclock to the RAM (1866MHz DDR3 with tight timings). Backing it off allowed Windows to detect all of it. The RAM sticks included 2 XMP profiles with one of them being more extreme than the other. Both caused issues so I just set the Speed and left all the Timings on Auto. AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64 |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-15, 09:22
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Dinosaur
Post: #1123 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
There is nothing to tune on a supermarket Compaq from 2001, sadly. Those machines were just real picky with RAM. Found another PC133 256MB Samsung (single-sided, 8 chips) for ~$2 (module looks spotless, unusually clean for a random junkyard find). No way Jose - this one wouldn't work too... although memtest86+ could read the SPD EEPROM! Speaking of SPD EEPROM data: on my working 128MB stick, memtest86+ says it's a "32MB" module, go figure. While on the "half-working" 128MB Markvision, SPD reads "64MB"! WTF. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| desudesu |
Posted on 22-06-16, 21:52 (revision 2)
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Post: #26 of 62
Since: 01-29-22 Last post: 874 days Last view: 874 days |
Posted by tomman I don't think I've ever even come across a single Nintendo fan in the UK that didn't end up fitting some kind of stereotype about its fans (either 'pre-adolescent' or 'obviously spends a lot of time on this side of the internet and doesn't have a great reputation compared to most of their Western European peers*'). As well, I went to a special needs school and the only fans of Nintendo there (this was from 2013-2018) were once again the extreme end / really visibly autistic people who didn't cope well whatsoever (in other words, usually 2/3 people within an entire year group). * In terms of online, the only Nintendo fans that seem to gain a good reputation from mainstream Twitter/Discord circles that they tend to align themselves with often come from around Surrey, Birmingham/Midlands in general, Cornwall or Glasgow for whatever reason. Pretty much all the others end up just causing drama wherever they go, the worst seemingly being Kent given well, let's just say, a certain lowlife who seems to have shat up this board a couple times... ... maybe it has something to do with the UK's stance on men having to be masculine to serve this country and whatnot, that and TERFism which is more about 'the men aren't being manly enough' more than anything else at least in those cases where the person in question claims to be attracted to men and is on that side of that political fight... |
| tomman |
Posted on 22-06-17, 01:44
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Dinosaur
Post: #1125 of 1318 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 6 days Last view: 16 hours |
Sega's solution to Saturn performance woes? Let's shove in MOAR PROCESSORS YEAH!!! Sure, Nintendo already had prior art and stuff, but man, just imagine adding 3 extra processors to an already toxic hellstew of EIGHT processors... Be glad that corporate/accounting don't let arcade folks design consoles anymore, or MS and Sony would be rehashing the 32X over and over and over... Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| CaptainJistuce |
Posted on 22-06-17, 06:14
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Custom title here
Post: #1082 of 1164 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 72 days Last view: 20 hours |
Posted by tomman At least it would be more interesting than "IBM-compatible PC in the 2001 monolith" or "IBM-compatible PC in a very large router shell" --- In UTF-16, where available. --- |
