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It is now official, I am flushing all those tiny 750GB disks out of the house. Above we see the current best use for 3 of these disks. My eyes water just a little when I think about how expensive they were as new in 2006.
And it's not just the cost, software bloat and the move from text to graphics have redefined the amount of storage that I consider reasonable.
Here we see a box of 10, 8 inch diskettes circa 1981 that I'm currently using in the renovation of some Cromemco computers, with a newstyle 3.5" disk shown for size comparison. Each 8 inch diskette could hold a then massive 1.2M Bytes and my entire unique software collection for the Cromemco is close to 150M Bytes.
Compare this to a single Colour document scan of our yearly Swiss Flat reports. 40 pages and 140M Bytes!! now sitting on a 1.5 TB hard drive.
And it's not just data, Cromemco's entire UNIX like operating system Cromix could grow to an impressive 3MB of disk, whereas my Windows 2008 Server seems happier with about 21,000 MB of hard disk.
To complete this trip down memory lane I'd recommend old buffers reading this post to read the excellent book called Fake Your Way Through Minis and Mainframes by Bob DuCharme, and should you enjoy it why not PayPal your appreciation to him
Note to self: My new career as a professional gift wrapper in stores like Saks, Harrods or Mitsukoshi may need to be put on hold.
This is my conclusion having spent about 1.5 hours trying to wrap my curvy Apple 3G iPhone with the Zagg invisible shield.
What is it? Well I'd call it a 2 part protective clear sticky back plastic covering that in the Youtube video takes the guy about 03:20 minutes to install. This will shield your iPhone from the rigours of daily life whilst adding minimal volume.
Here are some official Zagg words:
The invisibleSHIELD™ is a urethane polymer film that was originally designed to protect the leading edge of helicopter blades. Exceptionally clear and virtually indestructible, the patent-pending, full body application of the invisibleSHIELD protects your electronic investment and allows you to use your expensive equipment without worry.
I had wanted to postpone application until my 4 faulty fingers were in better shape. However my iPhone screen had at least 3 worrying surface cracks, so to prevent further damage and crack creep I thought I had to install it today.
Here are my tips so far:
- Yes, the shield is now on, after 1.5 hours of huffing and puffing
- Make sure there are no loved ones in the vicinity, unless they like listening to a variety of frustrating sounds, tuts, screams, and expletives.
- The front cover has a punch out for the home button, which I thought I'd optimise by leaving it as one piece from the applicator paper. Big mistake: You need to apply the front, then the back, then to two edge strips, and last the button covering IMHO
- Getting the main front and back accurately positioned will help keep the frustration level down. Otherwise if your piece is a little off centre you'll find at the edges it curves around some 90 degree angle of the iPhone over which it can't possibly stick (and then you're in trouble)
- It's good to have a lot of light pointing on the iPhone so you can accurately determine where the edges of the plastic are. I used a head torch and a table light
I have to leave it alone now for upto 24 hours so that the applicator liquid can evaporate and so I won't know how I really did until tomorrow evening. So here is hoping then.
Postscript
The case has hardened. Contrary to the cheerful video none of the air bubbles have shrunken, but there are not too many. Overall I'm very pleased, and should I be temped to purchase a further iPhone I'd definitely recommend a Zagg covering.
I really thought it was going to be practically impossible to find a more performant rucksack than my faithful Salomon Raid Revo 20.
First I'd stress that if you are serious about backpacks then I'd suggest you have a few different packs for differing functions. But this (or any) 20 litre pack has a chance of being light enough to run with, large enough to store the necessary tools and rainwear whilst cycling, and big enough to store the gadgets you might buy in the high street (not in Switzerland of course, there are no gadgets here).
Having had 3, Red, Raid Revos it was time for a change and 40GBP later from Wiggle the Salomon XA20 M was mine.
Is it any good? Well in comparison to Raid Revo 20
(-/=/+ means is worse, the same, better)
-
Inside is a single zip pocket. Previously inside there was one long pocket and a short top pocket against the back. This small single zip is less useful, if you put your relatively heavy (say) Phone + PDA + Keys in the top it's worse from a centre of gravity perspective and the zipped pocket is quite small.
-
The waist straps are a bit fancier but arguably are more complicated and don't really add anything
+
There are a set of clips on the front to attach a front bag
=
As before it comes in different colours, but nobody sells anything except red
=
As before there is a special woman's version, nobody sells that either
+
Before there was a mesh pocket on the back but items could fall out. The new mesh pocket is much much better
?
Viewed from the back is a single cord anchored to the left of the rucksack, connected via an extensible elasticated cord to a hook. I suppose the idea is that you can use that to squash down the rucksack. It was a bit complicated for me and I could not figure out how to use it effectively making me feel like an idiot. The old cord was simpler and straightforward but looked a bit ugly and could catch on stuff in the mountains.
=
As before waterproof zip on main compartment and some water exit holes on the bottom (new ones are meshed so creepy crawlies cant walk in)
=
As before, it is tough enough to be put into the washing machine to get it really clean
+
As before a zipped pocket on the left and right waist belt strap. But now on the right waist belt there is an additional sort of elasticated pocket contraption.
+
Bladder compartment is now zippable instead of previous velcro. It's now got velcro straps to hold the bladder to the top. As before this can be used as a top secret pocket, when bladderless.
+
Just like RaidLight rucksacks, Salomon now has a set of front clips allowing you to hang a custom front pocket. Good idea in principle but those extras make an expensive product even more so, and this is a very small rucksack. So barely a plus.
Overall, the XA20 is a small but worthwhile step up from the Raid Revo 20. It has the "Custom System" that I'll probably never use, better pockets, and is still under 500 grams. And as you know lightness is everything
Building on the recent success of using 5.25 inch HD diskette drives in place of 8 inch floppies, I'm now documenting the further success of using a 3.5 inch diskette drives in place of an 8 inch floppy.
The reason that we want to do this is that my old Cromemco computers primarily use 8 inch double sided, double density floppies with a formatted capacity of 1.2MB. Whilst in the last tutorial we saw that we could use 5.25 inch HD diskette drives, it would be even better to be able to use a 3.5 inch HD diskette drive and media because:
- This media is freely available (well just about)
- It is shielded and robust
- It should last another 25 years with ease
How is this going to work?
The Japanese have a standard format not used in Europe of using a 2MB, 3.5 inch diskette in a 1.6MB format. Selected 3.5 inch drives can be jumpered to operate in 1.6MB mode. Note that this format almost exactly mimics the 8 inch drive format and was clearly developed in Japan so that Japanese could move from 8 inch to 3.5 inch design with minimal software changes.
This chart shows the tech specs of the Samsung SFD-321B diskette drive
Notice that in 1.6MB mode the rotational speed is set to 360 rpm. That is important because Cromemco Cromix and later versions of CDOS check that the drive is revolving at around 360rpm else refusing to believe that it is an 8 inch diskette drive.
Here is the initflop Cromix source to show this:
getmode(channel,BMD_RPM,&speed);
if (verbose)
{
if (!print) printf(STDOUT,"\nTesting:\n\t");
printf(STDOUT,"Rotational speed:\t%ld RPM\n",speed);
}
if (!speed) printf(STDERR, "\tNo index pulses or counter not functioning.\n");
if ((oflags & SMALL && (speed <> 306)) || (!(oflags & SMALL) && (speed <> 367))) printf(STDERR,"\tSpeed out of tolerance\n");
Prerequisites
You will need the following
- A Samsung SFD-321B 3.5 inch diskette drive
Chosen because it is still freely available as a New drive from eBay or similar.
- A watchmakers eyeglass magnifier or something similar so you can clearly see the diskette PCB
- A soldering iron and some fine wire
- A PC-AT style twist floppy cable
- A Leatherman
Procedure
First disassemble the floppy drive. This means pull off the plastic front, one screw for one side panel, 4 screws for the other side panel to expose the electronics.
This is how it looked before I changed anything
- Take your Leatherman and rip out pin 2 of the floppy drive on the male IDC connector
Pin 2 is the density select pin of the drive. We will tie this low but we don't want it talking to anything outbound of the floppy
Now identify the 3 areas that need to be modified
- Unsolder the 0 ohm bridge on the DC disk change connector and put it back on the adjacent RDY ReaDY pad set
- Take some fine wire and connect between pin1 (ground) and pin2 (density select) to force it permanently low.
- Locate OPA pads and connect a wire between them
At this point I'll go for the sympathy vote. Since both my hands are still partially paralysed from my fall on January 10th these three steps took literally hours. Eyeglass installed, holding the soldering iron, and wire and drive, well it just wasn't easy. I'm sorry to complain but there it is.
Here we see the PCB after my 3 modifications
Now re-assemble the drive, and connect to the Cromemco 64FDC disk controller thus: You must use the 2 non twisted connectors. First drive is selected as A: (i.e. DS0) and this 3.5 inch drive is already preselected as DS1 (B:)
And it all works
Formatting the 3.5 inch diskette for Cromix, then making a filesystem on it, then checking that the diskette is 100% readable. Finally asking the Cromix Driver to show its reported diskette characteristics.
Copy Cromix 162 files to the formatted diskette, then writing the 162 boot program to the boot sectors of the diskette.
Booting Cromix 162 from a single 1.2MB, 3.5 inch floppy diskette
Never has the modest 15 pounds I spent at Argos recently caused me so much stress! For this money I purchased a bottom of the line Blood Pressure monitor.
I have always had low blood pressure, something that I had thought was good for sports (since during that activity your BP goes up). But some decades down the line I wanted to re-check the situation hence the purchase....
After a few rogue readings indicating Systolic pressure of over 150 I learnt how correctly to attach this budget IBP contraption, thus yielding the above results. I am simultaneously disappointed (and yet relieved) to find that I'm now in the normal category.
So what are the terms?
SYStolic pressure is peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the beginning of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are contracting.
DIAstolic pressure is minimum pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the end of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are filled with blood.
The all important reference table looks like this:
To celebrate I sat back and watched this video, although now I really should be searching for a video called "normal pressure"
After the sad passing away of roombie our faithful blind and slightly clumsy cleaner I am delighted to announce the arrival of, daughter of roombie: roombette.
Before roombie was packaged up for his well earned retirement in our basement to spend his eternity in Silicon heaven we gave Roombette a chance to get to know her predecessor.
Dont take any nonsense kitty!
