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Nine year old - Cardboard arcade

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Google " Dark Porcelain" Project Free WIFI Broadband

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Raspberry pi. Has yours arrived yet?.
Our's has and is now being abused by my son as a web server.

So now we need a case, and it got me thinking what about an Acorn Electron or BBC case from a dead machine. that would be nice!.
But alas I have been unlucky finding one for the right price
But what I do have is this.

Nice large case with ample space beneath the key's for the Raspberry pi meaning we can leave the Dragons innards in place, just need to investigate how to get the Dragons keyboard to talk to USB, it's a nice easy to get to ribbon cable.....and it's made in England great stuff .

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RFC 1149 RFC 1149

A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers

1990's addition to the hallowed tradition of April Fool RFCs was RFC 1149, A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers. This sketched a method for transmitting IP packets via carrier pigeons.

Eleven years later, on 28 April 2001, the Bergen Linux User's Group successfully demonstrated CPIP (Carrier Pigeon IP) between two Linux machines running on opposite sides of a small mountain in Bergen, Norway. Their network stack used printers to hex-dump packets onto paper, pigeons to transport the paper, and OCR software to read the dumps at the other end and feed them to the receiving machine's network layer.

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Windows 95, The Hard Sell Windows 95, The Hard Sell

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Commodore USA Lanuch the Amiga Mini Commodore USA have just announced the lanuch of the Amiga Mini. Very like a Mac Mini this little power house is aimed at PC users that want to relive their Amiga days.

Here are the official notes:-

The Best Things Come In Small Packages

The wait for our first Commodore AMIGA model is finally over, and it's been worth the wait. The new Commodore AMIGA mini is a tiny powerhouse, featuring one of the fastest i7 Quad Core processors on the market. Made of 100% aluminum and presented in silver or black, it is slick and eye-catching in appearance. Equally as good sitting beside a computer monitor on your desk as it is in any living room, the new AMIGA mini is perfect for use as either a Home Theater System, a Workstation or as a gaming machine.

Dimensions of the New AMIGA mini

The new Commodore AMIGA mini case is ultra small and is made of 100% all aluminum housing, finished by sandblasting and anodic oxidation. It also includes a slot load Blu-Ray drive and internal space for two 2.5" hard drives. It measures 7.5 inches square, with a height of only 3 inches. There is no end to its placement possibilities.
(see Technology)

The AMIGA mini includes an engraved AMIGA logo (front) and Commodore logo (top) as well as a metallic Commodore badge on the front.

The Commodore AMIGA mini comes with:

A massive 16 Gigs of fast DD3 memory.
Integrated nVidia Geforce GT 430 Graphics with 1 Gig of DD3 memory.
The ability to drive 3 monitors displays.
HDMI, 2-Dual DVI and DisplayPort output. (includes VGA adaptor)
7.1 channel high definition sound.
6 Gb/s SATA for incredibly fast HD reads.
4 USB 3.0 and 4 USB 2.0 ports for exceptional external data access.
A slot loading Blu-ray drive that can also write DVDs.
2 WiFi antennae for outstanding signal reception.
A 1 Tb Hard Disk to store video and personal data.
Optional 300 or 600 Gb SSD drive for lightning quick load times.

Lets hope they can keep it cool

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THE SOUL OF AN OLD MACHINE THE SOUL OF AN OLD MACHINE

Clive B. Dawson 1984

I started work for the University Computation Center in 1975 as a systems programmer for the DEC-10, just a couple of months after it arrived on campus. My previous experience with a DEC-10 had ended when I graduated from Stevens Tech. Since then, I had spent four rather painful years doing graduate work on a CDC 6600 system for which I had to learn how to keypunch again. I welcomed the arrival of the 10 with the joy of someone being released from prison. I can't begin to count the hours I spent on that system--well over 10,000 connect hours-- developing software for it, fixing bugs, and helping users. In turn, it helped produce dissertations for both my wife and me, and was an endless source of fun and relaxation as well. (It was also responsible for extending my graduate school career by at
least four years!)

The KI processor had served the campus well for seven and a half years. Now the user population was drifting over to the two new DEC-20's, and it was only a matter of time before the rising maintenance costs could no longer be justified. A flurry of last-minute rescue efforts followed the announcement that the system would have to be shut down. It seemed incomprehensible that a perfectly good machine would be removed from service given the chronic state of saturation common to most computer systems on most university campuses. The efforts failed, and on October 31, 1982, the DECsystem-10 at the University of Texas at Austin was turned off for the last time.

The event did not pass without due ceremony. We held a farewell party on that Halloween Sunday, well attended by current and ex staff members as well as a few users. Many brought cameras to record a vanishing breed--they don't make 'em with lights anymore. In one of the stranger moments we cranked up the PTP: and had paper tape (might as well use it up) and scratch magtape draped all over the place. The laughing and joking helped. Many of us on the staff had built up an extremely close-knit group over the years which had slowly drifted apart as new machines and new responsibilites came along. This "wake" had a good cathartic effect, bringing us together at a time when we needed to share feelings that had hit us harder than we might have cared to admit.

I wondered about the users--all the faceless people scattered throug out dozens of small offices and terminal rooms throughout the campus--the complete opposite of our small, close-knit staff. Were they feeling the same emotions? If so, who could each of them share with?

At home very late that night, I felt the urge to dial up one last time. As I went through my normal routine of checking mail, the Bboard, and the various system mailboxes, I discovered something completely unexpected. During the last few hours users had logged in and sent mail to the bboard and to other system mailboxes like Operator. The curious thing is that these people had no way of knowing that anybody would ever be around to read these messages. They were, in the best way they knew how, sharing
their feelings directly with the machine. Some of the messages are reproduced here as I found them, with only the senders' names altered.

. From: R. B.
. Subject: Dec10
. To: GRIPE
Farewell DEC10 and thank you!

. From: [4435,244]
. Subject: The death of a friend
. To: Bboard
Goodbye, DEC-10, you've been a great friend and co-worker. I'm
going to miss you for a long time. I feel worse than when they
killed Hal in 2001.

. From: B. J.
. Subject: November the 2 is too late
. To: Bboard
it feels like this is the end of an old friend. who says
computers haven't got any personality?

. From: GVCE333
. Subject: Good-Bye old paint
. To: Bboard
The glue factory beckons... Sigh!

. From: [1276,1]
. Subject: Good-bye, DEC-10
. To: Bboard
As a well-spent day bring happy sleep,
so life well used brings happy death.
Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452-1519
Notebooks [c. 1500]

DEC-10, you've been a good and faithful (for the most part)
servant and companion. Farewell.

. From: BSAB553
. Subject: bye
. To: GRIPE
This is last "bye" to the DEC 10; too bad. I liked the DEC 10
better than the DEC 20. I find it hard to believe that this
system could not have been supported to some extent... So long
forever!

. From: LSDT141
. Subject: Bye
. To: OPERATOR
BYE BYE FAITHFUL FRIEND - THE DEC-10

. From: C
. Subject: Farewell
. To: Operator

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light...

The next day, one more message appeared on the DEC-20 Bboard:

Date: 1 Nov 1982 2133-CST
From: P.M.
Subject: the death of the dec-10
To: bboard

I was there till the bitter end. First, the one or two
faithful logged on via the micom were detached and
automatically logged off. As the only telephone hook-up, I
was privileged to be at his side a little longer. I fondly
reread the last farewells of those who had cared enough to
write a bboard message. Then I, too, was detached and logged
off. But even then the DEC-10 lingered on. Systat and help
functioned for several more minutes until the operator sent
the last message I or anyone will ever receive from the
DEC-10:

Time sharing is over permanently! Good-bye.

The stone has been rolled in front of the grave, my friends.
The DEC-10 is no more.

---------------------------------------

About six months later in St. Louis I heard DEC announce the end of the 36-bit systems. I wondered then how many times in the next few years the events told here would be repeated.

Recently I had occasion to visit the machine room where the old KI had stood. On one side of the room was a shiny new VAX 11/780. The other side of the room had boxes of IBM PC's stacked to the ceiling. Someday these machines would be old too. But somehow I knew that they would never have a day for themselves like Halloween of 1982. They don't make 'em with souls anymore.

----------------

Contributed by:
Clive B. Dawson
Advanced Micro Devices
Austin, Texas

I used an email address to try to contact the author, but it dead ended, so I hope you do not mind me reposting this, as it is one of many stories from back in the day that has so much meaning for those that were there and experienced the " New Tech " of that era and felt a loss when it was deemed that their day was over. Thank you, Clive, For sharing this.

To those of you reading this whether or not you lived through " Back in the Day ", or not, I hope you sense the feeling that was there for the beginning of what we have today.

Below is how wikipedia describes the DEC10

PDP-10
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Prince of Persia for Commodore 64 In 1989 they said the system was too old to do a conversion... 22 years on
here it is.
Wow, that took a lot of hard work - awesome effort.

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60 Minutes Interview of Grace Hopper Grace Hopper was an amazing woman and a cornerstone of all modern computing. We owe her a great deal. This interview in 1982 by 60 minutes is a superb watch and only entices you to want to know more. Watch this and then go find your own info and post some more.

There are few heroes in the world, Grace Hopper is most definitely one of mine.
Enjoy.

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Sean Connery ( 007) Response to Steve Jobs I just now received this in my mail box, with no link to where it originated, but found it amusing , whether or not it is a fake or true. I am trying my hardest to try to confirm or add this as wishful thinking on someone's behalf.

In the mean time, enjoy.

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