@tubetime So this is how I find out :o...

@tubetime 48 layers! How thick is that board?

@tubetime Allegro (and Cadence? Schematic capture) was my first tool for making professional PCBs. It was what Sun used for hardware design. Eventually learned Eagle so that we could do more in our department "under the radar". Our Allegro "tape out" had to go through a PCB department and generally had long delays whenever hotter projects had priority.

@tubetime I can still remember laying out boards at 2x or 4x scale with semi transparent red and blue tape. Yes, really.

I should get a colonoscopy - oh I forgot I already did.

@tubetime Impressive that it can manage to be both wildly distasteful and anti-competitive.

@tubetime I’m fascinated by some of the specifics in this ad. They had just moved to AZ (from NY). The logo (there’s an extra notch in the m) and the device they’re advertising doesn’t exist. To my knowledge, this is pre-PIC16.

@tubetime they may actually be serious, the logo does kind-of look like two pistols.

@tubetime What non-techy things are you interested in? And no, a site run by a good friend of and supporter of Elon that Elon is invested in really isn't it. It might be ok now but how many corporate communities in the last couple of years have absolutely turned on their residents? Etsy, Bandcamp? The implosion of Tumblr? And also I would miss you.

@tubetime

IDK I've found a lot of non tech people here. It's important to follow a lot of people here to get a real sense of what's going on.

But, yeah, what sort of things are you looking for?

@tubetime only use this for the few who haven't set up shop on blue Sky. but I have abandoned mastodon for the most part.

hmm, storage module...

@tubetime I have one of those from the 6600 at NYU. It was a very cool machine.

@tubetime Did you see how some memory modules were constructed? I would hate to have to deal with these rope memory modules in any way, shape, or form...
-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckwxq8rnr0 --

That said I had an old mini-mainframe things 30 years back that actually had a few cards of plane ferrite core memory and it used to dim the lights in my place when it turned on, and then again when loading/reading the memory. Quite surreal...

@tubetime could be new ? 🤷‍♂️

yeah looks like a broken trace. that might explain why the drive doesn't work half the time

@tubetime what was this oddball interface? I remember seeing a drive with it exactly once - most IBM PS/2's I've laid hands on had a scsi card and drives

this is the same type of hangar at Moffett Field. the hard hat was required because pieces of wood randomly fall down from the roof (!)

@tubetime I can see the two hangers from my neighborhood, regularly shop near them (as in, drive by about 100 meters away from the still-standing end) —and they are magnificent. I don’t believe either of them had been in use for a long time, and I’m not surprised it reached the stage of dereliction and incongruity where this was nearly inevitable. I’m sure it’s not just Southern California, but large historic structures that stand in the way of some other land use have a habit of burning…

@tubetime
That capacitor seems like something that should just be included as a matter of course.

@tubetime Nice to see it clearly documented with the reason it's present!

that's both sides. phew, lots of work! the next step is to photograph the top and bottom sides of the PCB. I really ought to get a scanner. 😅

@tubetime i should do this for some Sony Handycams.

@tubetime
That feeling when the only tape you have around is kapton.

@tubetime The 9” disk drive is bigger than any 8" disk drive on the market!

@tubetime I expect they’re exaggerating like HDD manufacturers are known to do, and it’s actually more like 8”. I’m more impressed with the 50K hour. They don’t specify what’s rated at 50K hours, but that’s definitely a big number!

First thing I do when encountering a file of unknown format is to feed it to the file unix utility. Sometimes it would say it's "data", then well, good luck.

@tubetime At least 3 years ago this guy had a copy running under Windows7 and was willing to convert axd files to dwg . https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2015/11/got-axd-files-we-got-actrix-2000-for-translation.html

@tubetime reminds me of Kodak's .KDC and trying to make the files usable with high sierra and windows 7 this year. They should have just kept making kodachrome and EK6 instead. (But in all seriousness the DC120 is a fun camera)

@tubetime calling it RISC V was a mistake, rather than RISC Free

@tubetime Data General bravely going down with the ship... https://techmonitor.ai/technology/data_general_says_it_intends_to_stick_with_the_88000_risc_for_aviion_for_as_long_as_possible

@tubetime And they're properly floppy. Neat.

@tubetime I still have them.

@tubetime I’m very much envious of a plastic sleeve allowing me to carry five three-and-one-quarter inch floppy diskettes in my pocket. LOOK OUT YALL COMING AT YOU!

@tubetime @billgoats In the 70s and 80s smoking was very popular. These computers are just a reflection of this habit.

@tubetime RSVP that guy’s monitor!

@tubetime
When you listen to YouTube telling you "don't change the 30 years old capacitors"...

@tubetime Not the typical packaging for a coil, but it’s still just a coil.

@tubetime I want to see the engineering drawing for the mold press. 😁

Also the die attach machine 3D rendering.

@tubetime electrical enginer said do a flip

@tubetime Doesn't forcing electrons to take tight corners release all sorts of interesting radiation?

@tubetime ok where do i buy one?

@tubetime I wonder how this would work as an oscilloscope tube design. It's all electrostatic so in theory you can deflect pretty fast...

@tubetime
Maybe it was designed by generative AI
https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/PA8TLAA2syeRnv1bqFZf

@tubetime Well, these keyboards also have a letter on the key to the right of L that you type using the pinkie finger...

@tubetime @wawik Can’t remember if this is reviving a Finch or a Wren but Usagi Electric does a lot of really old mini and larger computer restoration. https://youtu.be/hbc6n3Ln3bM?si=baaNzTLUGhBgd-zg

1985 illustration of a Maxtor 5 1/4" hard drive.

@tubetime very cool. I had a CDC Wren half height drive at one point from some time shortly after that line was bought by Seagate, it had Seagate labels but the firmware said CDC Wren

@tubetime I like how the 10MB HDD can transfer 5MB/s. I can't remember when was the last time I had a storage device that I could read end-to-end in mere seconds.

@tubetime
The bottom-left drive isn't a floppy driver ... but a cassette tape drive !
I'm very curious about this thing now !

@tubetime There seems to be a real emphasis on power draw. Something almost forgotten on todays’ desktops.