Gregory's ServerThis hotel room has a _baffling_ artefact in it embedded in a wall panel.
These are keyboard LEDs embedded in a… wall panel? What _is_ this? What was it?
 58 comments
  Further: there are three (what appears to be) rj45 jacks under the table, one labelled “data port” and two unlabelled. I didn’t bring a network cable but… I’m curious? I could get one? Maybe there’s a secret Irish internet? Oh my god, these are terminal connections. In the late eighties, - before the PS/2 port existed because also before the PS/2 existed -- IBM Model M keyboards had metal-shrouded RJ-45 connectors that connected to terminals-as-in-dumb-terminals, like the IBM 3101. For a while you could buy adapters that would let you plug the RJ-45 models into PS/2 connectors, but all that's long gone. These are 40-year-old keyboard and data ports. Ok now I definitely need to get a network cable, just to see if something's still living on the far side of these wires. I mean, there's no chance. None, there is just no way. But now I have to know. More likely RS232 serial than ethernet. When I saw the wire hanging down I was thinking about the current loop interface. You have to know that if it’s labelled with these ancient stressed-plastic stickers, this is like seeing a url with a tilde in it. This is where the old magic lives, this is the good shit.  @mhoye I misread it as DATA FORT and for a second imagined some sort of pillow fort but with mainframes. @mhoye (slowly hides my precious label maker... preciousssss....sssss.... gollum!)  “My profile page URL has a ~ in it. Your profile page has an @ in it. We are not the same.”  @gsuberland @rk @mhoye also running proxies for gaming through it because it was blazing fast compared to the sluggish dorm nat  Would be interesting to see what cabling that is and where it might go 🙂🤷♂️ @mhoye my friend's pubnix still uses the @mhoye That's not entirely true. These stickers are Dymo labelmaker output, and while Dymo's big advantage, mechanical simplicity, is not that advantageous these days, Dymo labelmakers are still in fairly common use. I'll need to check it the next time I go out, but I think even the sign next to my doorbell button, only a couple of years old, is a Dymo label. @mhoye The right hole on this picture, is it a screwhole with a missing screw or, say, a 3.5mm TRS socket? @mhoye see everyone is data lake this, iceberg that - but nobody’s selling the comfort of staying in port @mhoye Someday I will move my techblog to a new host, and when I do I will be very tempted to preserve the '~cks/' bit for various reasons.  @mhoye Looks like that data port has no connector... Is this the /dev/null equivalent of Ethernet? @mhoye Maybe some long-gone antique system for controlling the telephone or television with a wired remote device? @mhoye heh, it's not quite a dead concept yet... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nf2WhPhZjI @mhoye 'Data port' is probably meant for Ethernet, although it may or may not be connected. Ethernet connectivity used to be quite common in Irish hotels, and has not entirely gone away yet. But it might also have be meant to connect a modem, in the times of dial-up. Modem connectors tended to use the narrower RJ11 connectors way-back-when, but RJ45 with only the middle positions populated was not unheard of, and IIRC, there was a bit of a push to popularise RJ45 for phone lines in the early noughties. @mhoye if we can find a way around the Air Canada strike I have a cable in my bag . . .    @dan131riley @mhoye They’re both photos of the same thing. If you zoom in, it says “num, caps, scroll, power” in both photos.  @mhoye That's an IR receiver for an old wireless keyboard. Looks like someone decided to put it in the wall.   Could be a TTD, or other terminal setup for deaf or blind folk. "Ask at the desk" lol. Edit: damned spell corrector!! Update: I was wrong; Micca found this, this is a receiver for an IR keyboard? Built into a wall? https://mastodon.social/@Micca@charr.engineer/113137549223908842 |
@mhoye [realizes everyone in a room is shouting] wait a minute... capslock is on