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DNova posted:I love when humongous split-flap displays go apeshit. I would love to have one in my house or office that would just randomly go off. Maybe something to display that day's schedule, or my Inbox headers.  Here's something fun! http://hackaday.com/2011/01/03/driving-an-8-digit-split-flap-display/
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Jun 29, 2013 01:29
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Yahoo just announced that it's shutting down AltaVista. Apparently AltaVista still existed.
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Jun 29, 2013 02:19
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Monkey Fracas posted:Man, this is way cooler than USB drives. Not as practical, certainly, but much cooler. It looks like something out of a 80s/90s scifi movie/TV show bobua posted:All the kazaa talk reminded me of some short lived ftp search engine. I don't recall what it's name was, but you could submit your ftp for indexing, turn on ratios, and let the filez come to you!  mystes posted:People really still use direct connect?
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Jun 29, 2013 03:50
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mystes posted:Yahoo just announced that it's shutting down AltaVista. Apparently AltaVista still existed. Oh man, they're discontinuing FoxyTunes.  It was a browser extension that would let you control your music player from in your browser. Not that it takes that long to switch programs on a modern computer, but it was convenient.
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Jun 29, 2013 04:21
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mystes posted:Yahoo just announced that it's shutting down AltaVista. Apparently AltaVista still existed. They've also announced that in another few weeks they're going to start deleting Yahoo e-mail accounts that have been inactive for a year and recycle them, letting new people claim them.
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Jun 29, 2013 04:28
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JediTalentAgent posted:They've also announced that in another few weeks they're going to start deleting Yahoo e-mail accounts that have been inactive for a year and recycle them, letting new people claim them. Just the other week I helped my mom delete her Yahoo email account after it was hacked and sign up for Gmail. I kinda thought that most of their userbase was people like her, who only used it because it's what they've always used. Why would anybody ever want to possibly sign up for a new account there?
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Jun 29, 2013 05:13
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Datasmurf posted:When we're slightly on the topic of moving files illegaly. Do people still use IRC and DCC for their 2004-2005? Wow, that was like 1994-1995 for me.
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Jun 29, 2013 05:25
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clockworx posted:I would love to have one in my house or office that would just randomly go off. Maybe something to display that day's schedule, or my Inbox headers. That XX:XX:XX format makes me think of using it to display MAC addresses, but I have no idea why you'd ever need that.
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Jun 29, 2013 05:27
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Before the satnav receiver, there was the Jones Live-Map, first sold in 1909:  This was a large odometer wheel on which a paper disc was mounted that gave directions for a specific route between two cities. At specific distances, it would have marks on it that said things like "turn right after bridge," "watch for dangerous curves," and so on. Each disc covered a hundred miles of road, so for long trips, one would use multiple disks, purchased from The Touring Club of America. After ten years, there were 500 routes available.
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Jun 29, 2013 06:02
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Datasmurf posted:When we're slightly on the topic of moving files illegaly. Do people still use IRC and DCC for their Personally I haven't used DCC* since 2006, but used it regularily from 2003. Since then I've only used file lockers (and rarely torrents). I never used IRC (only had 56 kbit/s line until 2003) and it was $1,5/hour. Edit: Ooops I guess DC++ is something else (P2P)? Never mind. Rambling Robot has a new favorite as of 06:32 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 06:27
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I periodically use certain channels on EFnet to grab random songs I want to listen to. Most of the time they end up being non studio versions or crap out halfway through. Since I'm almost always connected to EFnet anyway it's no great loss.
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Jun 29, 2013 07:17
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Wanamingo posted:Just the other week I helped my mom delete her Yahoo email account after it was hacked and sign up for Gmail. I kinda thought that most of their userbase was people like her, who only used it because it's what they've always used. Why would anybody ever want to possibly sign up for a new account there? I know I still use a lot of Yahoo for most of my email stuff, and prior to that it had been Hotmail and I know I ended up making a few side accounts over the years there just for random websites and contest entries. I just never felt really all that in a hurry to make Gmail my primary Email account and mainly only use that as a means for being able to access the Play Store or watch videos and red band trailers on Youtube that make me swear I'm over 18. I know one of the big complaints/concerns about the Yahoo plan of recycling addresses is the potential for identity theft and privacy issues. Despite having your old account's emails deleted, a person who scoops up your old address could just as easily start to go around to a lot of popular sites and do a password retrieval for them to see what sticks and what they can glean.
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Jun 29, 2013 07:46
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I have an @live.ca (hotmail) account. Was the only place where I could get a good username, and my wife had just changed her last name, so we match. Now I'm unsubscribing from xbox live and planning to get a PS4. I was invited to gmail beta early and got (my extremely common first name, last name initial)@gmail.com but didn't like it at the time and can't seem to log in anymore.
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Jun 29, 2013 10:56
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JediTalentAgent posted:We had something like a split flap displays for years around our town. They were large and instead of letters or numbers, they were just 'pixels' that would flip to green or black little paddles to form out a single long line of letters, numbers, and very simple symbols. Just looked it up, that type of sign is called "flip disk", makes sense. My university used to have one of those for displaying the time, temp, events, etc. We called it "kachunk" and it was used until around 2009.
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Jun 29, 2013 11:54
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Three-Phase posted:As far as power semiconductors go (diodes, SCRs, IGBTs), depending on the semiconductor not only kilovolts, but kiloamps of current. (I worked with SCR pucks that could handle around 1500 amps at several hundred volts.) DC transmission, once a mad pipe dream of some rear end in a top hat named Edison, is becoming a reality because we can actually do useful things with DC now. Changing DC voltage is now a matter of solid state voodoo versus having to use two DC motors of different voltage coupled together mechanically. It will have advantages over AC such as no AC line losses and doing away with syncing issues between various grids. Also less wire, as I have heard of them using single conductors at 1MV and the earth as the ground. Smaller wires, less wires because higher voltages and less losses? Yeah, I think the future is going that way. So, Edison, you lousy shitbag inventor, your mad dream of DC is comin true, although AC is still better for a lot of things.
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Jun 29, 2013 19:17
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Nixie tubes! Not sure if they've been mentioned yet, but they're so loving neat. If I wasn't electronically retarded, I'd love to make a set myself.
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Jun 29, 2013 19:55
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mng posted:Nixie tubes! Not sure if they've been mentioned yet, but they're so loving neat. If I wasn't electronically retarded, I'd love to make a set myself. April 40, 2012?
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Jun 29, 2013 20:09
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Old James posted:April 40, 2012? Yes, it's obviously a nixie tube calendar. Question: Do those things get hot?
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Jun 29, 2013 20:10
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Jerry Cotton posted:Yes, it's obviously a nixie tube calendar. Well, they're vacuum tubes / thermionic valves, so yes. Yes, they do.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:19
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Jerry Cotton posted:Yes, it's obviously a nixie tube calendar. I'd like to think it's a clock, and the seconds just zoom by.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:30
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Exit Strategy posted:Well, they're vacuum tubes / thermionic valves, so yes. Yes, they do. Not quite. They're basically low-power neon lamps with funny-shaped electrodes. So they're a lot warmer than LEDs but nowhere near as warm as an incandescent lamp or vacuum tube that needs to get red-hot to work.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:36
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mng posted:I'd like to think it's a clock, and the seconds just zoom by. Well that would make the reading meaningful, but I don't know how well those do seconds.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:37
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Shugojin posted:Well that would make the reading meaningful, but I don't know how well those do seconds. In The Watchmen, they were used for the timer lock when Jon/Doctor Manhattan got trapped inside, and it used seconds at least. It just looked spiffy 
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Jun 29, 2013 20:41
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Shugojin posted:Well that would make the reading meaningful, but I don't know how well those do seconds.  What do you even mean by this?
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Jun 29, 2013 21:09
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DNova posted:
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Jun 29, 2013 21:12
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What would cause any part of it to not be able to "do seconds"?
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Jun 29, 2013 21:23
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DNova posted:What would cause any part of it to not be able to "do seconds"? A sub-1Hz refresh rate, so it couldn't update to one second before it had to move on to the next one. It's generally not a problem with nixie tubes, but it's not an unreasonable thing to think about. This was posted a bit upthread, but it illustrates the (potential) problem perfectly. See how it can't display a seconds field that ends in 1, because it takes too long to update? Same deal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhlQDS03KM&t=17s
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Jun 29, 2013 21:28
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Space Gopher posted:A sub-1Hz refresh rate, so it couldn't update to one second before it had to move on to the next one. It's generally not a problem with nixie tubes, but it's not an unreasonable thing to think about. A (alphanumeric, in your example) split-flap display, one of the slowest refresh-rate live displays can't display seconds perfectly well, no... but that is not at all related to Nixie tubes. If the one in the example you posted was just the digits, it would work fine, despite being extremely slow compared to even an old slow LCD. Nixie tubes are electronic and have the most instantaneous refresh you can achieve because there are no phosphors, no electron-hole recombination lifetimes, no liquid crystals to twist around, no thermal mass to heat or cool, and no charged beads to re-position in an oil capsule. sleepy gary has a new favorite as of 21:41 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 21:32
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You wanna talk slow refresh rates, this was the first video linked from that splitflap clock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_mA72r3ZiQ
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Jun 29, 2013 21:36
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DNova posted:A (alphanumeric, in your example) split-flap display, one of the slowest refresh-rate live displays can't display seconds perfectly well, no... but that is not at all related to Nixie tubes. If the one in the example you posted was just the digits, it would work fine, despite being extremely slow compared to even an old slow LCD. Ah cool. I didn't word it well but not knowing their refresh rate (or in fact anything about how they work) I thought it potentially possible that they would update slower than seconds. I suppose I should have just googled it real quick but it's the weekend and I work 10-12 hour startup days during the week so 
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Jun 29, 2013 21:50
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Phy posted:You wanna talk slow refresh rates, this was the first video linked from that splitflap clock: Cool, now make one that displays tweets. Shugojin posted:Ah cool. I didn't word it well but not knowing their refresh rate (or in fact anything about how they work) I thought it potentially possible that they would update slower than seconds. For a quick demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU8GiaKptBM&t=28s Note that in that video, the weirdness is because the calculator is actually outputting constantly while it computes, not any nixie-related issues. sleepy gary has a new favorite as of 22:10 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 21:53
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It's a shame so many things like that Casio get gutted for parts so someone can make their clock without buying NOS.
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Jun 29, 2013 22:00
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Ron Burgundy posted:It's a shame so many things like that Casio get gutted for parts so someone can make their clock without buying NOS. Guys check out my sweet steampunk nixie tube tophat. I couldn't figure out the electronics so I just painted in the numbers...
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Jun 29, 2013 22:23
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DNova posted:Cool, now make one that displays tweets. I love that, I wish that modern calculators did the same thing, at least as an option.
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Jun 29, 2013 22:48
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Does anyone know where to find split flap displays? I've been looking for some to play around with and have been pretty unsuccessful finding any for sale (NOS/Removed from service/etc) This is pretty similar, not old or obsolete, but cool. It's flip dot, and just listen to that sound. I want to play conways game of life on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oSH-aZKyU8 Brother Jonathan posted:Before the satnav receiver, there was the Jones Live-Map, first sold in 1909: Honda did something even more insane.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_Gyrocator
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Jun 29, 2013 23:19
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Brother Jonathan posted:Before the satnav receiver, there was the Jones Live-Map, first sold in 1909: That is the coolest drat thing.
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Jun 29, 2013 23:33
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Mescal posted:That is the coolest drat thing. Not to mention entirely practical, too. (edit: for its time.) I guess all you'd need is a couple of signposts along the way that say "Calibrate Now" or something, where you adjust the disc a bit to a marked calibration point (in case the odometer reading got skewed along the way). Well, I guess you're screwed if you turn off the marked route for some reason. But still.
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Jun 30, 2013 00:53
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A more recent travel aid is the Traveller, a digital route finder: Like a modern satnav receiver, it would calculate a route between two cities. It gave directions for each individual road intersection, and the driver would then press a button to advance the directions to the next intersection. Stuart Ashen has a video review of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYfFTynCpZo
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Jun 30, 2013 01:28
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blugu64 posted:Honda did something even more insane. I realise GPS and large, HD screens that can do other things than show a map are ultimately better technologies, but this is so loving cool.
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Jun 30, 2013 03:34
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I think sometime back mechanical computers were mentioned. I found on YouTube a really neat Navy video explaining how the mechanical parts of the computer work. I love these really old films because they do such a good job explaining how these things work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4 The barrel cam at 10:30 is really amazing. 
Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 04:14 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 04:11
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