Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

That answers a question. I saw quite a few of them in Denmark in the early 60's but I had no idea what they were. They were fairly beaten-up by then too. I was quite impressed that they had a four cylinder in-line engine,

 

 

Just like buses, see one and.....

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, AndyID said:

The new version of the data-sheet added an external nand gate as a kludge to get around their design error 😁.  They never fixed the chip.

Easy fix then! Better than the Pentium 'divide by zero' problem. A hardware fix was easier than recoding all software to trap for zero divisors (which arguably should be the case with good software design practice anyway).

[DaveF]

I've now got a few minutes to write something, I had several minor interruptions earlier.

 

I had a walk along the Links and beach this morning and found that the temporary fence has been put back up on the beach with signs saying it is to protect breeding shore birds.  This time there are more posts and they are in the sand more deeply.  It might be for terns.  There were a number of larks ascending and descending singing loudly so it was a lovely walk even though it was a grey sky.  On the way back I remembered to post a card and gift token to my godson which I mentioned yesterday,I've worked out he is 28 now.

 

I was home in time for coffee and then had a long chat on the phone with a friend, as usual we put the world to rights and commiserated with each other about our health issues - his are much worse than mine - I should consider myself perfectly OK and should not complain when I hear what he has to put up with at times.

 

After a simple chicken salad I felt tired, probably because I woke early so had a nap before going in the greenhouse to check the plants.  I put in the young plants which germiated a week or so ago on the kitchen window sill.  I stll have a few more things to sow sometime this week.

 

Then I had a delivery of a new footstool to replace one which is worn out, so far I am pleased with it.  Evri delivered it on time and with no problems.

 

I've just watched a programme on BBC 4 about travelling on canals, this time it was from Kaedby through West Stockwith on the tidal part of the River Trent and up the Chesterfield Canal.  Very simple but enjoyable. 

 

Back in the1960s Dad kept his boat at West Stockwith for some years, there were moorings there along with a small yacht club, so the programme was particularly interesting.  You could either travel upstream or down to the Humber and out to sea.  In those days the Chesterfield Canal was closed, it has been reopened. About 60 years  I rowed a dinghy along the first part of it and walked along other bits!

 

Shortly it will be time to watch the French series of Maigret and then I think an earlyish night.

 

David

[AndyID]

The aforementioned computer. Photographed in mum and dad's back garden in Paisley 🙂

 

A whopping 4KB RAM memory. No ROM. You had to key-in a boot loader for the paper-tape reader. But from the get-go it actually ran high-level language programs cross-complied on a DEC PDP-11. Them were the days!

 

 

 

[Hroth]

In 1986 my parents and I took our family narrowboat on a long circular trip from Chester that included the Leeds and Liverpool canal and the North East Commercial Waterways. One portion was the passage from Keadby to Torksey on the Trent, we followed a small coaster which moored at Gainsborough. We locked up onto the Fossdyke to moor overnight before proceeding to Newark the next day.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

No ROM. You had to key-in a boot loader for the paper-tape reader.

Very old school - not even ePROM?

 

At one point I had a punch and die set for 'correcting' paper tape that I found in my desk drawer. It frustrates me no end that I don't know what happened to it. It was a great "what is this for?" item to ask young engineers.

[polybear]

6 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

 

And I was saddened by the departing, last week, of one of my very first favourites. RIP Harry.

 

 

Also Gordon Lightfoot yesterday

 

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

Beggars belief.    Anyone seen a an unmade bed?

 

 

IIRC there was also the Submarine made out of old car tyres on the south bank of the Thames.

And then there were various things pickled in Formaldehyde.....

 

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Honda made a CT110 especially for Australian posties from 1971 until now as they are being phased out for electric buggies which aren't as fun.

 

 

Postie bikes have cult status here and used ones are snapped up quickly.

 

 

 

Who parked that bluddy pickup there.....wonder if he survived or trashed it?

My guess is he rolled the throttle off right at the last minute - it shifts the weight transfer forwards rather effectively......

 

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

I then spent 45 minutes sitting in the car with the engine running.....

 

Bear was rather worried where GDB's post was going when I read that......

 

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Don't start going all  iL Dottore on us, just say fishfingers, chips beans and peas with a glass of Plonk .   😃

 

Ah yes, but it wasn't just any old f/f, chips, beans n' peas.... it was the Haute Cuisine  version.  Sixty quid, to you sir.....

 

Bear here.....

A rather productive day today; this afternoon's fun started with phoning the MG Dealer that supplied Mickey - this time I spoke to one of the Bosses who sounded much more positive about being able to offer a repair; photos have been emailed and I await a response.

Then I totally lost all common sense (or what little I had left) and decided that The Bearmobile was in dire, dire need of a bluddy good wash - Mickey now gleams once more and there's no sign of the Birdsh1t that once adorned the paintwork; one of the downsides of having a bluddy great tree overhanging the front garden - complete with Pigeons that seem to return year after year and cr@p everywhere.  B'sterds.

 

In other news....

Whilst I was washing Mickey an Amazon delivery guy arrived at Bear Towers clutching a parcel .....for the same Guy that (a) doesn't live here, and (b) this isn't his address either - the house number  is the same but it's the wrong street name and post code.  Yet the (obviously foreign) delivery driver showed me the map on his phone and the little map piccy shows the "dot" on Bear Towers.....

I guess a lot of Amazon Drivers can do their numbers and little pictures but haven't progressed to reading yet....

I've a feeling this won't be the last parcel for him that I see - hope he buys something really, really good n' expensive next time - a nice small milling machine, for example.  If he buys an American Fridge- Freezer I'll be totally b*ggered, however.....

 

Bear saw a bit of "Love your Garden" earlier....they had SEVEN decently sized sheds in their garden.  Just sayin'.....

 

Bear gone.

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by polybear

[Ozexpatriate]

This is a bit flippant and glib, but at a 'top-level' it's not a terrible list.

 

CNN Travel: 10 best cuisines in the world

 

I suspect the 10th spot is a bit of a <insert your country here> choice.

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Very old school - not even ePROM?

 

 

Nope. Hadn't been invented. Around that time DEC had a PDP-16 card with 16 ferrite cores and you could create ROM words by threading wires through the cores where you wanted a '1'.  Probably only allowed for 16 words. It was quite cool but it was not small. I did work on an even earlier machine where the "initial orders" were created by threading plastic or ferrite cores in the first plane of a core-store.

[Ozexpatriate]

Just now, AndyID said:

Hadn't been invented.

PMOS ePROM was around in 1971. The 8080 came out in 1974.

 

I imagine the early ePROM was quite expensive.

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

It was a great pity we never got whole stories from my dad. Some years ago he did an interview for a living history project connected to an exhibition about the people of Birmingham. We knew he had been in Normandy and through Belgium including Caen and the Falaise Gap, but he just dropped out the name 'Operation Market Garden' in the conversation. He never said more about it but it turned out that his Redcap Provost were attached to ground troops trying to link up with the airborne attack. They did manage to capture Eindhoven while they were there but were then stranded for the winter due to ground conditions. He was sent home on leave where he met my mother before being transferred to the Indian Army.

I had a colleague who was also with the ground troops trying to link up with the airborne troops. He was a sergeant in the REME and he received the MM for erecting a Bailey Bridge while under fire.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Around that time DEC had a PDP-16 card with 16 ferrite cores and you could create ROM words by threading wires through the cores where you wanted a '1'.

All the text books I had referred to 'core memory' in chapter 1. By that time (early 1980s) no one was using it in new designs anymore and while it was no doubt still present in many existing 'mainframe' style designs it wasn't something my cohort ever dealt with.

[pH]

19 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

At one point I had a punch and die set for 'correcting' paper tape that I found in my desk drawer. It frustrates me no end that I don't know what happened to it. It was a great "what is this for?" item to ask young engineers.

We used to have a couple of non-interpreting single card manual punches in the office to avoid the need to walk across to another building to get the “punch girls” to correct a single card. That’s not to say we could all use them - you had to know the punch combination for each character. One of our system programmers could use one and carry on a conversation at the same time.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

I made up a trial batch of Coronation Chicken*.

It's one we do all the time.  Roasting a cluckbird on average every other Sunday we are left with at least half the meat for Later Ron.  Dr. SWMBO, not one for re-heated meats, came up with the idea of "Coronating" it.

 

Mix Keen's curry powder (other brands are available but she insists ..... ), mayonnaise, mango chutney, raisins and flaked almonds in a bowl; a little salt and pepper if you wish.  Roughly chop cold chicken meat and add to the bowl.  Mix the goo and the meat together well and serve.  

 

So easy.  

 

And if you still don't use it all the remains will still keep for a few more days.  

 

As a student I learned how to get six decent meals from a chicken; we still do.  Two breasts, two legs, trimmings and soup back in the day.  Nowadays it's usually two roasts, two Coronation Chicken salads and two Coronation lunches.  Plus stock or soup now and again in season. 

[pH]

13 hours ago, polybear said:

The simplest ideas are often the best - has anyone been on it?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-65429882

Not on that one. But I was on several of the others that were around in the west of Scotland (as the lady being interviewed said)  “back in the day”.

 

13 hours ago, Hroth said:

I should imagine there's nothing worse than a black, dripping banana gaffataped to your newly painted wall, surrounded by a dense cloud of fruit flies!

But then you re-brand it as a mobile.

 

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Honda made a CT110 especially for Australian posties from 1971 until now as they are being phased out for electric buggies which aren't as fun.

 

 

Postie bikes have cult status here and used ones are snapped up quickly.

Like the BSA Bantams that were used by PO telegram boys when telegrams were still a thing. One of my cousins got one for something like 7GBP - it came as a kit of parts in a large box, which he rebuilt.

 

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I find it amusing that a right-wing organization would start questioning the admissibility of certain individuals but not certain others 😁

Adjectives other than ‘amusing’ are available.

Edited May 2, 2023 by pH
Revised price of a Bantam.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I had to do some shopping this afternoon, usual things, bread, milk and eggs. Despite being back to normal there wasn't many eggs left. Those that were were XL size so I bought a dozen. They're Tess Coes own eggs and are normally very good.

[AndyID]

3 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

PMOS ePROM was around in 1971. The 8080 came out in 1974.

 

I imagine the early ePROM was quite expensive.

 

Yes, but IIRC we had that chip in '73 (it might even have been late '72 but maybe not.) The planning went back a bit before that too.

 

I also have a lot of experience with the earliest ePROMs and they were a complete load of crepe 😁  To avoid the manual bootstrap a small fusible-link PROM would have been ideal but I don't think they were around or easily obtainable quite then.

 

You have to remember that at that time there was no such thing as a micro-computer. There were plenty of competing minis but the whole idea of a programmable micro-computer made little sense (or so it seemed).

[zarniwhoop]

Since some people here recognize TeX and its variations, here's a little image.

Supposedly it says something like 'Let's speak (or write in) Japanese'. Created with uptex and dvips, although for modern documents it would be much easier to use lualatex, and yes, that can now do vertical japanese typesetting.

 

Now back to your normal program of food, motorcycles and scenery.

 

[AndyID]

26 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

All the text books I had referred to 'core memory' in chapter 1. By that time (early 1980s) no one was using it in new designs anymore and while it was no doubt still present in many existing 'mainframe' style designs it wasn't something my cohort ever dealt with.

 

Then your text books clearly missed the point. DEC's PDP-16 (a product of the early 70's) was not intended to be any sort of general purpose computer. It was for process control applications, a predecessor if you like for the way microprocessors are embedded in everything from pencil sharpeners to nuclear power stations. DEC sort of missed the boat but they had the right idea and they understood that a small cheap-and-cheerful control system needed an easy way to boot-up.

[polybear]

Oh yes....

And a Rant to end the day on......

Bear has one of those clever hose pipes that magically "grows" in length when you put water thru' it.....or did.....

I was fighting to get it to connect onto the quick-release pipe coupling on the outside tap this afternoon (it was a bit of a p1g the last time I used it too); when I eventually managed it and turned the water on it was fine....for a few seconds, after which it started leaking big-time thru' the wall of the pipe itself.  Turdycurses - another one bites the dust 🤬  They seem to last for 3 years or so, after which they give up and die.  Fortunately I have a decent old-school style of hosepipe in the shed so that's now the go-to jobbie;  I'll not bother buying another clever one for the foreseeable whilst this one does the same job.

BG

[pH]

7 minutes ago, polybear said:

They seem to last for 3 years or so, after which they give up and die. 

3 years??? Honestly, we have had three different brands of those and none has lasted through a summer. We’re back to heavy rubber ones - nowhere near as convenient, though.

[DaveF]

10 minutes ago, polybear said:

Oh yes....

And a Rant to end the day on......

Bear has one of those clever hose pipes that magically "grows" in length when you put water thru' it.....or did.....

I was fighting to get it to connect onto the quick-release pipe coupling on the outside tap this afternoon (it was a bit of a p1g the last time I used it too); when I eventually managed it and turned the water on it was fine....for a few seconds, after which it started leaking big-time thru' the wall of the pipe itself.  Turdycurses - another one bites the dust 🤬  They seem to last for 3 years or so, after which they give up and die.  Fortunately I have a decent old-school style of hosepipe in the shed so that's now the go-to jobbie;  I'll not bother buying another clever one for the foreseeable whilst this one does the same job.

BG

 

Mine did the same last summer.  I've also gone back to my old fashioned one I kept as a spare.

 

David

[Sidecar Racer]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Ah yes, but it wasn't just any old f/f, chips, beans n' peas.... it was the Haute Cuisine  version.  Sixty quid, to you sir.....

 

 

 Served on some ridiculous form of table ware .

 

 http://wewantplates.com/

[Ozexpatriate]

38 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Then your text books clearly missed the point. DEC's PDP-16 (a product of the early 70's) was ... for process control applications

The text books were about general computing - not the PDP-16 and process control.

 

My degree specialized in electrical power generation/distribution and linear control theory. By the mid-80s there were a number of microprocessor-based microcontrollers in the control lab. That had become the main focus for the control theory teaching staff projects. A third-year project involved a 6502-based system running (of all things) FORTH, rather than "bare metal" assembler. (It turned out to be slightly too slow for my project.) My undergrad thesis was a process control lab setup using a PLC for later student experiments.

[Barry O]

Good game today.  Yorks ridings won by 9 wickets but boy was it freezing. Wasn't helped by a cold, thin wind.

 

More umpiring tomorrow.  50 over MCCU Women's game.

 

Time for some eyelid inspection. 

 

Sleep well/ enjoy your day wherever you are on Planet Earth!

 

Baz