tomjennings

tomjennings, 2 days ago to random

I stumbled on a link to the PDP-8 FOCAL language manual... I used an 8 when I was 18 or 19, a baby programmer, and how lovely the 8 was to use with FOCAL. My memory of it is as "BASIC-like" but the comparison now is very rough, but it has the same sense of playful, as in just type shit in, see what happens.

FOCAL is a programmable calculator with (very) simple flow control. FOCAL was "usable" in 4K (12-bit words). No "OS", it was booted like an os with the bootloader.

Though not nostalgic generally it occurs to me to conjure up some ancient machine experience in say Arduino 2560 (4 serial ports, 8K RAM, 4k EPROM). Lots of pins.

I have a 240x320 LCD and a super cute tiny keyboard... Paper tape is a problem though.

1969. Users were invited to play and experiment. The manual is still kinda friendly and neato.

Umm, this machine was a revolution. But wow what an instruction set! This and the Signetics 8x300 were the weirdest machines I ever wrote code for.

http://www.bitsavers.org/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/pdf/DEC-08-AJAB-D%20PDP-8-I%20FOCAL%20Programming%20Manual.pdf

tomjennings, 4 days ago to random

Lol Dublin to NYC teleportal shut down because genitals, or something.

Aww come on seriously? Of course someone will do that. So what? Sure stop them, whatever.

Doesn't say which end, or both, complained.

Looks like they intend technical intervention, blurring etc. Sigh.

Plus there's no sound, so clearly they didn't intend to encourage conversation, just empty spectacle.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/inappropriate-behavior-shuts-down-dublin-new-york-portal/index.html

tomjennings, 5 days ago to random

There's a lot of this (orcas taking out boats) and I wish we could hear wtf the orcas are thinking.

I assume I'd side with the orcas somehow.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/14/travel/orcas-sink-sailing-yacht-gibraltar-intl-scli-scn/index.html

tomjennings, 7 days ago to random

Oh, Disco. Dogs sure know how to be comfortable.

tomjennings, 7 days ago to random

No publicly-traded corporation can be trusted.

Prove me wrong.

tomjennings, 8 days ago to random

Hairless dogs are vigilant about where they plant their bald butts. It's funny to watch them inspect the ground before dropping back. Sometimes they get lazy and plant their butt on something unpleasant and suddenly leap up with a shocked face when they land on something unpleasant.

tomjennings, 10 days ago to random

I had to go buy a bag of chicken food so I took the two knuckleheads, Disco and Devo. It's a short drive through Elysian Park, which has a 25mph that I generally stick to, half to piss off the speeding jerks who think of it as a high speed shortcut.

These kind of brief, arbitrary drives are totally joyous events for all of our dogs.

They partake of the Smell-O-Vision devices (vent windows) that in a car this old (1960) are LARGE and functional (A/C was exotic then) but also enjoy sitting in my lap (both of them) to rest their head on my shoulder with nose out my window. Possibly not legal... Safe enough.

Car is a 1960 Rambler American station wagon.

Cars without bench seats and vent windows are barbaric and oppressive. And dogs have difficulty navigating cup holders and consoles.

dogs behind the steering wheel, yes we're moving... Devo left, nose out with window, disco looking at the camera. orange instrument panel and novelty oversized steering wheel and chrome shift lever, the road beyond.

tomjennings, 10 days ago to random

Oh no! A review from a customer of 30 years ago!

A pleasant assessment of The Little Garden ISP from a customer POV. It skips over the parts where I/we would be up at 4am sitting in the dark in my underpants in front of a terminal solving panics but hey time wounds all heels or something.

https://blog.dshr.org/2024/04/the-little-garden.html

tomjennings, 14 days ago to random

Seeing chickens operate a machine is frankly mind-blowing.

tomjennings, 16 days ago to random

@liaizon

I signed up to Quiet, and see your post and a few others in # general but I'm unable to reply. Is it working for you?

I tried to read # offtopic, and got s thermometer saying "loading messages" but it never changes.

I can try rebooting phone or restarting app but it looks s bit rough.

tomjennings, 19 days ago to random

Via Simon Penny...

50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know
by Ken Liu

in Uncanny Magazine Issue Thirty-Seven | 1993 Words

https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/50-things-every-ai-working-with-humans-should-know/

tomjennings, 25 days ago to random

The corporation is the worst idea humans have ever had and it will probably literally kill us.

Corporate growth is insanity and perfectly normal and I don't care that this view seems overly simplistic.

tomjennings, 25 days ago to random

Just got a USPS delivery item tracking page. Banner with generic links, some boilerplate, maybe 500 words of text.

3.7 megabytes.

Wtf is wrong with people.

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

Here's what would seem a mundane ask:

Where to buy good quality USB cables? Amazon is out. Reported problems too frequent serious (shorting, melting).

I need dumb old USB A to USB B's, a couple short USB A to USB C.

Monoprice? They're cheap, too cheap really.

EDIT: possibly Digikey. Quality supplier at least!

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

Post-lunch snooze on the squirrel highway. Old piece of gutter I put up as egress.

This old lady crosses a busy street multiple times a day, and for years now. I guess some squirrels do figure out the trigonometry of moving vehicles.

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

Dammitall. Somehow my roadster eBay thing got listed twice. I had to delete one, the real item is this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204740495453

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

I'm selling my roadster. It's an odd thing.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204740507882

Not mentioned, but if anyone was interested, I'd include the complete electronic cooling system I designed for it. It's pretty goddamn cutting edge, no one has one AFAIK. 100% electronic control of engine cooling, 1-degree accuracy under all conditions, consumes 50 watts (really, not multiple horsepower), software and two pumps, no thermostat.

Also the redundant multiprocessor controllers. I ran that stuff for years, aircraft reliable (no not Boeing).

Presently installed is a conventional belt-driven pump for sale's sake,

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

This totally matches my experience. The sheer numbers are up, but toxic humans are not a modern invention.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/11/no-the-internet-hasnt-gotten-worse-just-your-outlook/

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

I stumbled on this 1994 FidoNews, 14 mar 1004, 11/11 it's kinda hilariously amateurish. I really liked Sylvia, she was a great editor but you can imagine the old white guy crowd wasn't induced to write.

FidoNews came out weekly, for over 20 years, had a large readership, in the dialup BBS days. I don't think many not-for-profit newsletters had that duration.

They are not rare; there's archives all over. I think.

It's pure ASCII formatted text file, raw, not html, and firefox renders it great.

https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/temp/fido1111.nws.txt

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

Climate change at a high level is quite simple: it is the major side defect of coal and petroleum use. Alternative power blah blah -- until petro use is severely reduced climate will worsen (not that AE is not necessary).

Halted tomorrow, the existing carbon in the atmosphere will still increase heating.

So we need to first essentially halt petro production, then some magic futuricians will figure out how to remove carbon.

But we have a planet full of corporations that already do terrible things to us if rate-of-increase of growth/profit isn't upward, never mind stop.

Am I reading this wrong?

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

1994 websites: WPS.COM and CHRISTIAN.ORG.

Coincidentally re-found on the 30th anniversary of this backup snapshot. I doubt I have older, but it's not impossible; and maybe gopher contents.

Well given file size and complexity it too more time to write the wee bit of contextual description than it too to republish the site.

It's so damn small its laughable.

https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/old-sites/index.html

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

I found (...) an April 1994 copy of my website, complete. I'm moving off my Mac Powerbook to a Reform (going well except for me ruining things) and as the rsync was flying by I saw it.

I'll post it soon, but here was the hardware I had at the time.

I do recall that the 386/BSD installed from some 24 (each) 1.44 mb 3.5" floppies (sic) and took a couple days to compile. honk, honk, honk, ... And failures required restarts.

"I have two machines. One is a 40MHz 386, two IDE disk drives (540MB total), a mediocre color monitor, and my one "luxury" (sic), 16MB RAM. It runs 386/BSD unix, and X. It is connected to the Internet via the services of The Little Garden, which would cost me $70/mo (we're talking 24hr/day TCP/IP not dialup) 'cept for the fact that I'm the one that runs TLG on a daily basis. The link itself is a pair of ZyZEL U-1496E 16,800baud modems. This is the machine that the Web and Gopher servers run on.

The other machine is a 386SX with 4MB RAM and an older 140MB ESDI drive. It runs DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. The graphics tools on unix are basically non-existent, as far as input tools go. It is linked to the unix box via Ethernet and some TCP/IP software (about to change). This machine has the $99 handheld scanner. The biggest limitations are 256 level monochrome, and the 4.5"/11.5cm width. Otherwise, the quality is limited by how careful you are. "

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

Very nice. If only here...

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/blueprintforliving/blueprint-for-living/103511268

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random

So I have (I anxiously admit) a facebook account because the group of psytrance folk I like to dance with are exclusively there. Three "friends" and I generally click on nothing, just scroll for events....

But there was a post allegedly from NASA that showed a super res/contrast past eclipse, with moon detail and sun corona. Pretty. Could be real, could be fake, don't know, don't care....

But comments were "turned off" so I had to look...

OMFG the crazy. It's breathtaking. NASA deniers, that can't be real, the eclipse hasn't happened yet, rational but misguided folk trying to explain time zones, there's more than one eclipse? no!

Wow.

I was tempted, but did not, click some of the posters' profiles to see if they were russian trolls or something (probably). It's a bit fascinating... but no.

The level of crazy was AMAZING.

tomjennings, 1 month ago to random