Clippy Doesn’t Get It

Posted on 2009-01-20 by M. Eric Carr

There are some things that computers do quite well.

Correcting English grammar, apparently, isn’t included in the list.
(“Subjunctive? We don’t need no steenkin subjunctive!”)

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Highway Robbery

Posted on 2009-01-14 by M. Eric Carr

Sometimes it pays to be a dinosaur.

One of the AET students at Drexel sent me an email asking about a serial add-in card for an older CNC milling machine. The manufacturer’s site listed a used one that was available for $250.

Custom boards for CNC machines and the like can get expensive — so that in and of itself wasn’t too surprising. The student mentioned that the card went into a motherboard, which had two slots available; he wanted to know if a less-expensive card would do the trick.

Here’s the card shown on their site. $250 MSRP, used. (Click for larger.)

Yes — it’s a garden-variety ISA “Super I/O” card (and not even the VESA Local Bus version, at that.) These things were obsolete fifteen years ago — people have a hard time giving them away for free at yard sales. If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny.

I found a very similar one in a box in the "museum" at work; I’m sure it will work fine.

Posted in Digital, Nostalgia | Leave a comment

Windows 7

Posted on 2009-01-09 by M. Eric Carr

What could the newly-released beta of Windows 7 have to do with paleotechnology, you ask? It has everything to do with it, when good ol’ DOS is looking better and better all the time!

I don’t know about you, but the following disclaimer on the Windows 7 download page bothers me. The emphasis is mine; the apocalyptic language is all Micro$oft’s…

To protect your MP3 files
1. Before you install this Beta release, back up all MP3 files that might be accessed by the computer, including those on removable media or network shares.
2. Install the Beta release of Windows 7; download and install the Update to Windows 7 Beta (KB961367) located on this page.

I think I just got inspired to try out Linux as a desktop OS this weekend. No OS — and no application — should ever consider itself as the be-all and end-all music file Gestapo. This is exactly what I don’t like about iTunes/iPod (and to be fair, similar features in Windows Media Player; I’m an equal-opportunity curmudgeon.) Data (be it text, graphics, mp3s, presentations, whatever) should be in as open a format as possible. This is why mp3s are so popular in the first place.

Whatever prompted Microsoft to issue such a worrisome disclaimer about mp3 files (and not hide it deep in the EULA-that-nobody-ever-reads) has got to be bad. What does it do, automatically collect all mp3s it can find into a WMP library and “thoughtfully” convert them to WMA for the user’s “convenience??”

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Energy Star — Paleotechnology style!

Posted on 2008-12-15 by M. Eric Carr

A while back, I realized that the Z80 was drawing (relatively speaking) a lot of power. I know modern CPUs can both crunch your numbers and cook your dinner; the Intel Core i7 datasheet specifies a maximum of 145 AMPS of current. (I don’t think my car’s starter motor draws that much, some days.)

The Z80, though, being from the ancient glory days of yore when CPUs didn’t even require a heatsink, let alone sophisticated cryogenics, didn’t really strike me as a power hog. In fact, the version the DrACo/Z80 uses is CMOS-based (for static clockability) — it couldn’t be drawing some 700 milliamps of power all on its own, could it?

No, as it turns out. The Z80 itself is quite efficient. The 74LS245 buffer chips, on the other hand, draw 40 or 50 mA apiece, even when doing absolutely nothing. They just sit there and get warm! “Low-power Schottky,” my paleotechnological posterior!

A quick look online turned up the drop-in replacement 74HCT245 version, which is much more power-friendly. (These only draw a few microamps when idle.) The results speak for themselves…

Much more Earth-friendly! (…and now the computer can be run from a USB port or from NiMH batteries. Whether the Department of Security Theater would let me on a plane or on Amtrak with it is most likely another story, though.)

I’m also experimenting with removing the ‘245 chips connecting the Z80 to the bus. It works well enough to do the Prime Number program, but may not be as stable for high-speed operation. More on this later (time permitting).

Posted in Digital, DrACo/Z80, Drexel | Leave a comment