zxmpi | dull and dreary that is how you spell dun leary | 10:34 |
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daftykins | happy Friday! | 12:09 |
* zxmpi has just copied micromen to my media player for later | 12:10 | |
daftykins | ooh | 12:11 |
zxmpi | now available on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM | 12:14 |
daftykins | first few mins suggest that will be fun | 12:42 |
zxmpi | it is | 12:42 |
daftykins | hmm he beat the likes of casio to the calculator eh o0 | 12:43 |
zxmpi | it's more about the bbc micro birth | 12:43 |
daftykins | yeah just didn't realise that wasn't a Japanese thing | 12:45 |
daftykins | ok i'm finally doing it, i'm walking over to the post office with the Psion gear! | 14:32 |
zxmpi | good luck! | 14:33 |
daftykins | not sure how to really write out the customs form to not get clobbered with VAT on the way in, but ah well | 14:34 |
MattJ | "Electronic programmable calculator, c. 1991, requires 2xAA batteries (not included)" | 14:43 |
zxmpi | the 3mx batteries have lasted 20 weeks so far :-) | 14:48 |
daftykins | decided to wing it with no cover in the end, declaring no value... ought to be fine | 15:29 |
zxmpi | may it's journey be swift and true | 17:23 |
daftykins | just come to the end of Micro Men | 17:31 |
daftykins | cor it's really beginning to look naff outside of evenings | 17:31 |
zxmpi | dull and dreary here today, had light on at lunch time it was so dark | 17:31 |
daftykins | what an incredible story overall, must have been one heck of a rollercoaster ride from start to finish | 17:51 |
zxmpi | so many of the 8 bit systems of the 80s had similar from nowhere to millionaires to nothing again journeys | 17:53 |
zxmpi | apart from acorn who invented arm | 17:54 |
zxmpi | even commodore the behemoth of the 80s died a death | 17:54 |
zxmpi | but fans still keep commodore, sinclair alive through sheer force of will and loyalty | 17:55 |
daftykins | yip, probably only fade once the generation goes | 17:57 |
m0nkey_ | zxmpi: watched Micro Men last night. How I missed it when it first came out I don't know. | 18:33 |
m0nkey_ | And I totally forgot that Acorn was responsible for the ARM processor | 18:34 |
* m0nkey_ loved going into the computer room at school filled with BBC Micros | 18:35 | |
m0nkey_ | I'd love to get my hands on an Archimedes to play with. | 18:38 |
* penguin42 flicks the big switch next to m0nkey_ and theirs a chorus of slightly mistimed Beeee......Beeep! | 18:40 | |
m0nkey_ | haha! yeah.. totally forgot about the master power switch in the room | 18:41 |
penguin42 | and then the universe implodes from the simultaneous degauss on a rooom full of CUB monitors | 18:41 |
m0nkey_ | lol | 18:42 |
m0nkey_ | In that Micro Men movie, they talk about the QL.. my neighbour had one, complete with two working micro drives. | 19:27 |
daftykins | any good? | 19:29 |
m0nkey_ | From what I remember. It was basically a 128k +3 with microdrives instead of a tape drive built in. The microdrives were pretty fast for their time | 19:37 |
m0nkey_ | then when amstrad got their hands on spectrum, the 128k+3 was released with a floppy drive | 19:38 |
m0nkey_ | i grew up on spectrums | 19:39 |
m0nkey_ | i think it was one of the first spectrums that could be networked | 19:40 |
penguin42 | m0nkey_: The QL was very different - it used a 68008 | 19:41 |
m0nkey_ | sure, but the built in basic pretty much worked the same way as the original. the only difference is you didn't have to choose a function from the keyboard, instead of hunting around for the world 'print' you would type 'print' | 19:42 |
m0nkey_ | on my original 48k, I fondly remember hitting J for LOAD and two quotes ... LOAD "" | 19:44 |
zxmpi | the spectrum disk drive as 3" not 3.5" just different enough to make them awkward and fail | 20:03 |
zxmpi | the microdrives were brilliant but first ones were made cheap by contractor iirc and the tapes stretched when it got hot. was fixed but never quite shook the bad start | 20:04 |
daftykins | a bag of skittles i got has a code which just won me a free bag, but it requires a colour printer and wants me to run an 11 MB .exe to print the coupon | 21:15 |
zxmpi | easy! buy more skittles to win the laptop and printer to do it | 21:16 |
daftykins | xD | 21:16 |
zxmpi | you could print to pdf and send that? | 21:16 |
daftykins | have a feeling they are able to detect PDF printing | 21:17 |
zxmpi | as a qr code just to annoy them :-) | 21:17 |
zxmpi | convert to jpeg and print at chemist as a pic | 21:19 |
daftykins | that's the whole thing behind the secure utility, is it won't let you see it ahead of time | 21:19 |
daftykins | it wants to squirt toward a printer direct | 21:19 |
zxmpi | i last captured print output to a file in dos. only done it 1-2 times in windows | 21:20 |
zxmpi | i wonder if there's a usb version of an interfaker :-D https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6069/6074303957_8d92001eb8_b.jpg | 21:24 |
daftykins | well, their software doesn't do anything | 21:24 |
zxmpi | it does something, i daren't imgaine what | 21:27 |
daftykins | :D | 21:28 |
zxmpi | it'd be nice if there was a hacking challenge page where you could upload the details of the skittle giveaway and see what they make of the 'offer :-) | 21:30 |
zxmpi | the race for a free bag of skittles | 21:30 |
daftykins | having a real printer may well help, might have to victimise someone | 21:33 |
zxmpi | see if there are any colour printers on your neighbours wifi networks :-D | 21:33 |
zxmpi | oh dear i seem to have sent it to the wrong printer by mistake | 21:34 |
daftykins | but then they get my free gear! D: | 21:34 |
zxmpi | however did that happen | 21:34 |
zxmpi | they're british, they'd be too honest to not give you the printout | 21:34 |
zxmpi | and of course if they didn't then that would mean war -bugs bunny | 21:35 |
zxmpi | what % of houses don't have a printer at all anymore. it's getting quite high | 21:36 |
zxmpi | and especially during the pandemic i have heard of people during lockdowns who needed to print 1 page with no printer available. | 21:36 |
daftykins | :D | 21:36 |
zxmpi | was an issue in france during first lockdown where you needed to print off a form with reason you were out of house during lockdown | 21:37 |
daftykins | a couple a bit ago were trying to get fax going because of one lockdown task that they considered critical, i wasn't having anything to do with it | 21:37 |
zxmpi | i have pondered using an old fax machine as a cheap thermal printer for grocery lists, directions/maps sorta thing. | 21:38 |
zxmpi | the zx spectrum thermal printer was a simple genius device. some have made printers like it but they are not cheap | 21:38 |
daftykins | Dymo label printer! "here's my authorisation occifer, no you can't borrow a magnifying glass" | 21:39 |
zxmpi | i have the mechanical version with a dial here somewhere. used to label all power suppliers and leads with it. now i just use postal labels | 21:40 |
zxmpi | was never a fan of the electronic versions. fussy, expensive for a rarely used device | 21:40 |
daftykins | ah the office minions love 'em, i just resurrected one at a new client the other day whilst tidying up his office / setting up a new PC | 21:41 |
zxmpi | i don't think the batteries in the one we bought at work lasted 3 months on batteries and did far less work then my psion :-) | 21:42 |
penguin42 | small random devices really should just be USB powered these days | 22:47 |
zxmpi | which usually means an unreplaceable rechargeable battery that will be dead in 2-3 years | 23:20 |
zxmpi | electronic landfill | 23:20 |
zxmpi | one of the reasons i love the psion. | 23:20 |
daftykins | i think penguin42 meant tethered devices like desk-ridden ones | 23:22 |
zxmpi | usb-c is moving in that direction... slowly | 23:27 |
penguin42 | well I meant actually small portable random things; get rid of the batteries in them, just put a USB socket on tehm | 23:28 |
zxmpi | i'd be ok with that for the most part | 23:29 |
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