Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

«‹›914 »

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

DrBouvenstein posted:

Some car repair shop in Poland is still using a Commodore 64 to do some driveshaft balancing:
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-old-rear end-commodore-64-is-still-being-used-to-run-an-1787196319

At this point the filth is integral. If you clean it you'll kill it.

# ? Sep 29, 2016 20:29

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 22:21

Trabant: Nov 26, 2011; All systems nominal.

Dick Trauma posted:

At this point the filth is integral. If you clean it you'll kill it.

Load-bearing filth.

# ? Sep 29, 2016 21:01

Teriyaki Hairpiece: Dec 29, 2006; I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

Ahh, a 300-pound television with a v-chip. Those truly were the good old days.

# ? Sep 29, 2016 21:28

TerryLennox: Oct 12, 2009; There is nothing tougher than a tough Mexican, just as there is nothing gentler than a gentle Mexican, nothing more honest than an honest Mexican, and above all nothing sadder than a sad Mexican. -R. Chandler.

Thats not an exaggeration. Back when I worked server support at Dell, I remember getting a call from a panicking sysadmin that had moved a rack a foot forward to clean behind it after unplugging it. When he reconnected it, his old rear end Power Edge 2000 that probably had lumber powered PSUs refused to power on again. The man sobbed when I told him that no, we did not carry spare parts for that machine anymore. I provided him a few links from ebay for whole servers and wished him luck.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 04:34

coldpudding: May 14, 2009; FORUM GHOST

DrBouvenstein posted:

Wow considering it's age that thing is pretty clean for a workshop computer, it's not covered in cigarette burns and still has all the keys,
I have seen machines less than 5 years old in worse shape.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 05:21

Wasabi the J: Jan 23, 2008; MOM WAS RIGHT

coldpudding posted:

Wow considering it's age that thing is pretty clean for a workshop computer, it's not covered in cigarette burns and still has all the keys,
I have seen machines less than 5 years old in worse shape.

The best shop keyboards

# ? Sep 30, 2016 06:39

Code Jockey: Jan 24, 2006; 69420 basic bytes free

TerryLennox posted:

Thats not an exaggeration. Back when I worked server support at Dell, I remember getting a call from a panicking sysadmin that had moved a rack a foot forward to clean behind it after unplugging it. When he reconnected it, his old rear end Power Edge 2000 that probably had lumber powered PSUs refused to power on again. The man sobbed when I told him that no, we did not carry spare parts for that machine anymore. I provided him a few links from ebay for whole servers and wished him luck.

This happened to me with an old Compaq Deskpro I used for a file server back in college. It ran like an absolute champ for a long, long time... until I disconnected it to move furniture around, and it refused to boot again. :smith:

RIP you wonderful beast, you.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 06:57

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

Usually the problem is that the hard drive bearings are long worn out, but as long as they stay warm and spinning they work. Let them cool down though and they won't start back up.

Power supplies can also keep ticking forever with worn out components, but if they're power cycled the inrush current will be the final nail in the coffin.

Collateral Damage has a new favorite as of 07:54 on Sep 30, 2016

# ? Sep 30, 2016 07:50

moller: Jan 10, 2007; Swan stole my music and framed me!

Or one of these apocryphal sysadmins neglected to issue a necessary PARK or halt (etc) command.

I suppose a command line utility to manually park your drive heads so you can turn off your computer fits this thread.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 08:13

Jasta: Apr 13, 2012

coldpudding posted:

Wow considering it's age that thing is pretty clean for a workshop computer, it's not covered in cigarette burns and still has all the keys,
I have seen machines less than 5 years old in worse shape.

Yeah, the monitor also looks fairly bright still.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 08:52

Gaz2k21: Sep 1, 2006; MEGALA---WHO??!!??

KozmoNaut posted:

Yeah, it's a pretty rad setup you've got there.

I was actually originally just looking for any MX TV, but a really inexpensive (possibly free) MX8000 popped up and well, it was the top-of-the-line end-all-be-all final gasp for the B&O CRT (disregarding the Avants), so I gotta have it. Unlike a lot of the previous model, the service menu is directly accessible from the remote, and there are a few other nice exclusive features as well.

The MX 8000 only has two SCART inputs, unlike the 7000's 2x SCART plus 1x S-Video, but they're both RGB-capable and I don't mind using an external switch. I'm only going to hook up my Gamecube (or Wii) and PS2 initially, anyway. Are both the SCART plugs on the 7000 RGB-capable? And are you using the hidden scanline feature for that pure retro gaming feel?

IMHO the best thing about the 7000/8000, apart from the awesome video quality, are the speakers. They're just ridiculously good and powerful. Of course they run rings around the puny speakers in modern LCD TVs, but they'll put most proper stereos to shame as well.

I'm not a member of any B&O groups, but I used to work at the HQ in Struer, and my dad is a certified tech from back when CRTs were the hottest thing around. I don't think I'm going straight into the deep end, for now. Just the TV, and mostly for retro gaming

The MX's are great little Tv's but if I had the space I'd buy an avant I fell in love with them back when I used to work for lifestyle-av (a pre-owned B&O specialist they often list older TVs on their eBay page).
The holy grail being the black DVD avant.

Beovision 3's are pretty dope to, I'd also love a pair of mark 3 Pentax speakers.

# ? Sep 30, 2016 19:09

KozmoNaut: Apr 23, 2008; Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle

The main difference is that you can get MXs for next to nothing and there are plenty to choose from, but Avants are noticeably more rare and expensive, especially the DVD 32" version. I'll be using it for retro gaming only, and 16:9 wasn't even an option on consoles before the GC/PS2/Xbox generation, except for a very rare few PS1 and N64 games. I believe they generally just chopped off the top and bottom of the image, which sucks. And 4:3 is just more retro

And well, in my strictly personal opinion I never liked how the Avant looked, with the screen sort of sticking out like that. I much prefer the sleek 80s-style looks of the MX series.

Semi-related to this, I recently bought a lot of four used Super Famicom controllers from Japan, figuring that I would end up with at least two good serviceable pads for my USB adapter. Well, one pad is pretty good, one is OK and the other two are a bit crap, due to half-torn rubber membranes. They also required a fair bit of cleaning, drat those Japanese kids are filthy buggers :v:

And now I just found out that I can buy like six of the most highly-regarded SNES pad replicas (Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad) brand new, for less than I paid for those four used Super Famicom pads. Oh well, live and learn. I'll just buy a couple of those and hide away the old ones (and my shame) in a closet somewhere.

KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 22:18 on Sep 30, 2016

# ? Sep 30, 2016 22:10

Spy_Guy: Feb 19, 2013

Gomi Day posted:

i am now actively seeking one of these out to buy.
i am in love.

Glad to hear you like it!

I'm a bit late to the party, but I have a few tips for you, if you're looking to buy one of these.

First and foremost, the electromechanical ones were incredibly expensive back in the day, meaning you didn't buy one to crunch numbers every now and then. These machines were workhorses used by folks with the job title "computer" and will have been subject to very heavy use. Due to this any electromechanical machines you find will most likely be either broken/jammed or in dire need of some TLC. A machine that works flawlessly out of the box like this one is an incredibly rare find.

Watch out for listings where the power cable is missing. The machine will be completely untested and is very likely DOA. Sometimes I suspect sellers who know the machine isn't working won't sell the cable and claim ignorance.
Only buy machines listed as "working", this gives you recourse in case it is not.
Very few people have an idea how these things work. Due to this a description of "working" should be taken with a pile of salt. I once bought a machine sold as "working" where the definition of "working" was "it makes noise when plugged in". It was a shitshow to get my money back and the seller was barking mad.
Always ask the seller exactly which steps they took to verify the machine works. Did they do adding / subtracting? Multiplication? Division?
On electromechanical machines addition and subtraction, multiplication and division are usually done by a different sets of components. Just because some methods of calculation work doesn't mean all of them does.
Look out for control keys (plus, minus, multiplication, carriage shifters) being depressed in pictures of the machine. They should pop up on a working machine. If they're down in the pictures it could mean it hasn't been tested or that there's a fault.
Check the electrical components. They're old and enclosed in an all-metal machine / hull. I usually do some testing for shorts with a multimeter before plugging the thing in.

Speaking of the electrical systems, I once found this thing inside the fuse holder for a calculator. No bueno. :science:

# ? Oct 2, 2016 13:10

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Spy_Guy posted:

Watch out for listings where the power cable is missing. The machine will be completely untested and is very likely DOA. Sometimes I suspect sellers who know the machine isn't working won't sell the cable and claim ignorance.

I always assume the worst as well, but I think there�s more ignorance than malice with used equipment auctions.

Take oscilloscopes for example.

Nearly all oscilloscopes feature a calibration terminal on the front. All you have to do for a basic test is power up the scope, hook its probe into the calibration lug, and spin the dials to something that gives a good display. Take a photo. It�s over in less than a minute.

Sellers rarely do this, choosing to sell as NOT TESTED instead. You�d assume they�re trying to stick you with a completely broken piece of equipment, but more often than not, NOT TESTED oscilloscopes work just fine.

The only explanation that makes sense is ignorance. If you have a working scope, a few seconds to take that photo makes it more likely to sell, and sell for a good price.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 13:46

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Platystemon posted:

Take oscilloscopes for example.

Nearly all oscilloscopes feature a calibration terminal on the front. All you have to do for a basic test is power up the scope, hook its probe into the calibration lug, and spin the dials to something that gives a good display. Take a photo. It�s over in less than a minute.

Sellers rarely do this, choosing to sell as NOT TESTED instead. You�d assume they�re trying to stick you with a completely broken piece of equipment, but more often than not, NOT TESTED oscilloscopes work just fine.

The only explanation that makes sense is ignorance. If you have a working scope, a few seconds to take that photo makes it more likely to sell, and sell for a good price.

Great advice, thanks. I have been meaning to buy a proper oscilloscope. Currently I get by with DIY kits and other garbage.

# ? Oct 2, 2016 14:21

Intoluene: Jul 6, 2011; Activating self-destruct sequence!; Fun Shoe

I kinda want an oscilloscope but I have no idea what I'd do with it. I'm no electrical engineer.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 02:32

RoyKeen: Jul 24, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Intoluene posted:

I kinda want an oscilloscope but I have no idea what I'd do with it. I'm no electrical engineer.

Me too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4QlfH-oqk

# ? Oct 3, 2016 02:36

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Intoluene posted:

I kinda want an oscilloscope but I have no idea what I'd do with it. I'm no electrical engineer.

You could play quake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIdiHh6mW58

# ? Oct 3, 2016 02:50

Intoluene: Jul 6, 2011; Activating self-destruct sequence!; Fun Shoe

Lowen SoDium posted:

You could play quake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIdiHh6mW58

I will never stop believing that people doing this kind of stuff is just straight up witchcraft.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 04:38

Pham Nuwen: Oct 30, 2010

Intoluene posted:

I will never stop believing that people doing this kind of stuff is just straight up witchcraft.

lots of scopes have an X-Y mode, where you apply voltages to the two probe inputs to specify x-y coordinates for a cursor. Because it's a relatively slow phosphor screen, you can just wiggle that dot around really fast and it'll look like a picture.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 04:50

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

moller posted:

Or one of these apocryphal sysadmins neglected to issue a necessary PARK or halt (etc) command.

I suppose a command line utility to manually park your drive heads so you can turn off your computer fits this thread.

Or the cardboard inserts for 5.25" drives you'd put in prior to moving them.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 05:14

Buttcoin purse: Apr 24, 2014

Phanatic posted:

Or the cardboard inserts for 5.25" drives you'd put in prior to moving them.

Should I have been using those for my PC drives? :ohdear:

# ? Oct 3, 2016 05:16

Proteus Jones: Feb 28, 2013

Phanatic posted:

Or the cardboard inserts for 5.25" drives you'd put in prior to moving them.

Jesus. I just got a flash back to Commodore 1541 drive head alignment and just how finicky those drives were.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 13:28

Kwyndig: Sep 23, 2006; Heeeeeey

Buttcoin purse posted:

Should I have been using those for my PC drives?

Haha, no, he's talking about these

(not my picture)

One thing I never got about those was the locking lever, was sudden, violent, disk ejection a concern back then? My drive pushed the disk into reading position with the lever so I never found out.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 17:07

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I know this thread loves the occasional MP3 player derail, so here's an article about getting a Rio PMP300 to work: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/diamond-rio-pmp300-mp3-player-today/

Sadly, the author gave up way too easily

mobby_6kl has a new favorite as of 19:03 on Oct 3, 2016

# ? Oct 3, 2016 19:00

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO: Feb 28, 1985

If anyone has ever used dekatrons in any projects, I'd really like to see. Thanks thread.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 19:07

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Kwyndig posted:

Haha, no, he's talking about these

(not my picture)

Actually talking about these:

Maybe not necessary for PC drives since they typically didn't have head issues like the 1541, but I do remember them.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 19:09

pienipple: Mar 20, 2009; That's wrong!

mobby_6kl posted:

I know this thread loves the occasional MP3 player derail, so here's an article about getting a Rio PMP300 to work: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/diamond-rio-pmp300-mp3-player-today/

Sadly, the author gave up way too easily

I had one of those. Probably still works if I install win 98 on an old laptop.

# ? Oct 3, 2016 20:49

este: Feb 17, 2004; Boing!; Dinosaur Gum

wikipedia posted:

Software support
Diamond no longer provides support for the Rio, and the last version of Microsoft Windows to work with Diamond's Rio software was Windows 98. Independently produced freeware programs such as "Dreaming of Brazil" or "RIOsitude" can still be used to upload audio files to the player. Similarly, limited Linux command-line based support for the Rio is provided by the "rioutils" package.

Hope is not lost!

# ? Oct 4, 2016 00:18

Goober Peas: Jun 30, 2007; Check out my 'Vette, bro

Phanatic posted:

Actually talking about these:

Maybe not necessary for PC drives since they typically didn't have head issues like the 1541, but I do remember them.

Geez, I remember those. And dust covers. I'm not going to lie, I don't miss either of those. Although they did bring some drama to computing - you didn't just walk up to a computer and start using it. No, you must remove the dust covers, fold neatly, then remove the drive protectors. Insert the system disk, find the power button, and wait for it to boot up.

# ? Oct 4, 2016 00:52

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

pienipple posted:

I had one of those. Probably still works if I install win 98 on an old laptop.

Same, it was a piece of poo poo

# ? Oct 4, 2016 00:52

Trabant: Nov 26, 2011; All systems nominal.

If you've got the time, here's a 38-minute video from a guy who revived nixie tube manufacturing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA

# ? Oct 4, 2016 02:49

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

I want this machine, but not for $1400.

In action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWf-jub1tac

Page about how it works: http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/compucorp122e.html

Platystemon has a new favorite as of 12:24 on Oct 5, 2016

# ? Oct 5, 2016 09:39

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Trabant posted:

If you've got the time, here's a 38-minute video from a guy who revived nixie tube manufacturing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA

On my watchlist for tonight!

# ? Oct 5, 2016 11:43

evobatman: Jul 30, 2006; it means nothing, but says everything!; Pillbug

mobby_6kl posted:

I know this thread loves the occasional MP3 player derail, so here's an article about getting a Rio PMP300 to work: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/10/diamond-rio-pmp300-mp3-player-today/

Sadly, the author gave up way too easily

His failure had everything to do with not getting an LPT1: port set up, and nothing to do with the MP3 player at all. Parallel ports are old when it comes to consumer stuff, but you can buy a brand new ThinkPad or Latitude computer and get them by using a legacy port expander, or a million other solutions!

# ? Oct 5, 2016 13:55

Samizdata: May 14, 2007

flosofl posted:

Jesus. I just got a flash back to Commodore 1541 drive head alignment and just how finicky those drives were.

I remember installing soft stops in my drive so the head wouldn't hammer during errors...

# ? Oct 5, 2016 14:38

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Samizdata posted:

I remember installing soft stops in my drive so the head wouldn't hammer during errors...

The 1541 didn't just hammer during errors, it hammered intentionally. It had no way of detecting when the head was at track 0, so any command to send the head there resulted in the drive just moving the head 40 tracks over. So if it was on track 1 at the time, the head bounces off the hard stop 39 times!

# ? Oct 5, 2016 18:23

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

I bet you PC speed demons don't even have a zero wait state machine. :eng99:

# ? Oct 5, 2016 18:43

Code Jockey: Jan 24, 2006; 69420 basic bytes free

I have three 1541s sitting in my garage right now, and have never had a problem with head alignment on them [or the ones I grew up with, either], and now I am nervous. :ohdear:

Also, if we want to talk about pain in the rear end floppy drives, the Famicom Disk System drive. gently caress you, FDS drive. I bought a Twin Famicom years ago, and the belt was broken, which is super common. I took it apart to replace the belt, and the thing was basically this semisolid goo that I had to scrape out [which left a permanent stain on my carpet, too].

Even with that loving belt replaced, I still have to calibrate the drive after, and that is why the FDS drive on the Twin is still not working to this day. :argh:

The calibration is done by adjusting a tiny hex bolt, running the thing, and seeing if it errors out, and repeating.

Code Jockey has a new favorite as of 18:49 on Oct 5, 2016

# ? Oct 5, 2016 18:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 22:21

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Code Jockey posted:

I have three 1541s sitting in my garage right now, and have never had a problem with head alignment on them [or the ones I grew up with, either], and now I am nervous.

I don't know that I ever did either. I mean, sure, it hammered a bunch but poo poo loaded and saved properly and that's all I cared about. But then I also had one of those IBM Deskstar 75GXP drives that were so famously faulty that they helped drive IBM out of the hard drive business, and *that* never failed on me either even though it did occasionally make noises like a dump truck full of loose change tumbling down a hill.

Unrelated. Apparently Nintendo actually was planning on producing this, and showed it off at CES in 1987:

# ? Oct 5, 2016 20:17

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

«‹›914 »