New group member here

[Chris McVey]

Just wanted to say hello.

I have been working on/playing with computers since I was 12, I'm 31 now,
and have experience in all Win variants through XP Pro and Server 2003. I
have minimal experience with Vista as I refuse to purchase new hardware 'til
these beasts die off.

I look forward to learning something and hopefully contributing what I can.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Just wanted to say hello.

I have been working on/playing with computers since I was 12, I'm
31 now, and have experience in all Win variants through XP Pro and
Server 2003. I have minimal experience with Vista as I refuse to
purchase new hardware 'til these beasts die off.

I look forward to learning something and hopefully contributing
what I can.

Welcome to the newsgroups.

For testing out things like Vista - perhaps Virtual Machines? VirtualBox is
free...

 

[CWMcVey]

Sorry, I have no hardware at the moment capable of running Vista in a manner
worth trying for very long.

Someday when one of these machines die I'll see if the wife will let me get
a new one. ; )

The fastest machine I have here in my 'lab' is a Celeron 1.8GHz overclocked
to 2.0 with 512MB DDR.

I do have VMWare, VirtualPC and Virtual Box all installed on various
machines and have everything from Win 3.1 and WFW through 2000 Server VMs
going.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[Big_Al]

Shenan Stanley said this on 1/25/2009 2:47 AM:

Welcome to the newsgroups.

For testing out things like Vista - perhaps Virtual Machines? VirtualBox is
free...

Not trying to hijack the message but how much isolation from your XP
does virtualbox give you. I mean if you are running a test program that
is virused or malware, how well protected is the original OS and HD?

 

[philo]

Welcome to the newsgroups.

For testing out things like Vista - perhaps Virtual Machines? VirtualBox
is free...

I am a bit of an experimenter myself and find that when I need to give
advice
to others, I find that it's often best for me to actually boot to the OS in
question.

I feel obligated to have an installation (on removable HD's) of all the
operating systems
I can get my hands on...so even though I do not use Vista myself,
I did have to give it a try.

None of my machines (all built from junkbox parts) could run it...
until recently a dual core CPU found it's way into my spare parts bin.

I was able to find a cheap mobo (it was an open-box special)
and now I finally have a machine that can run it.

Though I've had problems with it,
I see no possible reason for choosing it over XP.


Anyway, now that Win7 is almost here,
I decided to upgrade a few of my old Win2k machines to XP...
just added a little RAM and the machines seem to run better than ever.

But still have a Win2k machine or two in my work area.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Hello Chris

Welcome and hope to see you posting soon

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Just wanted to say hello.

I have been working on/playing with computers since I was 12, I'm 31 now,

I've been working with computers since I was 24, and I'm 71 now.

Welcome to the newsgroup.

 

[philo]

I've been working with computers since I was 24, and I'm 71 now.

Aha!


Welcome to the newsgroup.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Aha!

then you probably know what a 5963 tube is <G>

Nope. No computer I ever worked with used vacuum tubes, not even the
first one, an IBM 1401, in 1962.

 

[philo]

Nope. No computer I ever worked with used vacuum tubes, not even the
first one, an IBM 1401, in 1962.

Oh, back when transistors were at least pretty new <G>

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Oh, back when transistors were at least pretty new <G>

It's a matter of trivia, but back in those days, IBM machines with
3-digit numbers used vacuum tubes, and those with 4-digit numbers
(like 1401) used transistors.

And to bring the thread somewhat closer to being on-topic, it's also
interesting to me that, back in those days, when I was a 1401
programmer, I knew the 1401 inside and out, and there was almost
nothing I didn't know about it. But today, whether you're talking
about a mainframe or a personal computer, there is so much about it to
know that nobody can approach knowing any machine perfectly.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My memory has faded a bit...

You too, huh? ;-)

but I took my first computer course in 1968. The school had an IBM-360 as I
recall.

The 360 came out around 1964 or 1965 (roughly; if my memory is wrong,
it's only by a year or two).

By 1968, it was very likely to be a 360.

Though my memory tells me it was a vacuum tube machine...

Nope.


according to Wikipedia it was transistors.

Right. All 360s were transistors, and by 1968, IBM was no longer
making any vacuum tube computers.

 

[CWMcVey]

No worries about hijacking the thread, after all we're here for
communication, right?

Viruses/malware is one area I am interested in testing in my virtual
machines, but like you I have some hesitations.

I haven't any experience with it yet, but my assumption would be that since
the VMs run in a disk image, as long as you are not sharing physical
resources, ie shared folders, with the host operating system there should be
no worries.

I suppose I could do another XP Vm and leave it unpatched and see if I get
that Conficker bug that's going around.

Got any viruses to share? I'd be willing to test them out; what's another OS
install between friends? ; )

Chris

 

[CWMcVey]

Yes, I too feel it 'necessary' in a way to have any OS I claim to be fluent
in going at any point. If a question comes up it's much easier to go
straight to the horse's mouth and be sure than to try to guess or recall
from memory.

I haven't lucked out and gotten any dual core 'junk' yet, but as hardware
gets better each passing day I'll keep scrounging around the thrift stores
and eventually something will appear.

Unfortunately all of my local independent parts stores have closed due to
the economy, along with CompUSA and Circuit City, and all I am left with is
Best Buy so no more Saturday afternoon bargain huntings on the repackaged
barebones in shrinkwrap.

Chris

 

[Jim]

What really upset me was that we had to use punch cards!
I hated that so much I stayed away from computers for a good long time...
but gave it a try again in the late 70's but *still* had to use punch
cards.
By 1982, when IBM came out with the PC and the whole world turned to
computers...
I got out completely...and never touched on again until 1999.
Finally, no punch cards!!! <G>

(A lot better)

Punch cards do have the advantage that there is no doubt about whether there
is any content on the card or not...

I did spend a little time with DEC's Paper Tape Operating System. I told my
boss that if this is what programming uses, programming is not for me.
Fortunately, they also had a PDP-11/45 which had a disk based OS. So, I
didn't need to follow through on my threat.

I barely remember that the 7094 was the first IBM to quit using vacuum
tubes. For a time all of the surplus electronic places were full of vacuum
tube rectifiers.

Jim

 

[Twayne]

"Ken Blake, MVP"

in message

lol, I do! In fact, I have one sitting on the
other desk, encased in resin that someone gave me;
it's an award of some kind for an end-production
run at that plant. Each employee got one. It
has an LED array under it that flashes different
colors and looks pretty in the dark. lol, Being
rather old, the LEDs are absolutely HUGE!
Still got a box of power tubes out in the
garage in a box; mostly 12A7's I think.
Ahh, mammaries; err, memories.

Cheers,

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I barely remember that the 7094 was the first IBM to quit using vacuum
tubes.

Although I never worked on either one, I thought the 7090 didn't have
vacuum tubes either.

 

[philo]

Punch cards do have the advantage that there is no doubt about whether
there is any content on the card or not...

I did spend a little time with DEC's Paper Tape Operating System. I told
my boss that if this is what programming uses, programming is not for me.
Fortunately, they also had a PDP-11/45 which had a disk based OS. So, I
didn't need to follow through on my threat.

I barely remember that the 7094 was the first IBM to quit using vacuum
tubes. For a time all of the surplus electronic places were full of
vacuum tube rectifiers.

Jim

Well, back in high school we used to use those cheap , surplus computer
tubes in our ham radio modulators.
the 5963 was avail for just pennies and was a great substitute for the 12AX7
dual triode.
I actually preferred the 5963.

As to punch cards though, here is was 1968, we were about to put a man on
the moon...
and computers still used punch cards...It seemed unbelievably crude.
Of course there was *one* actual terminal on campus but that was for the
upper classmen only.
BTW: For any of the younger generation here...a terminal was not a CRT but a
teletype machine

 

[philo]

lol, I do! In fact, I have one sitting on the other desk, encased in
resin that someone gave me; it's an award of some kind for an
end-production run at that plant. Each employee got one. It has an LED
array under it that flashes different colors and looks pretty in the dark.
lol, Being rather old, the LEDs are absolutely HUGE!
Still got a box of power tubes out in the garage in a box; mostly
12A7's I think.
Ahh, mammaries; err, memories.

Cheers,

Well my 5963's are up in the attic somewhere...

IIRC they were Tung-Sol's

However, right near my desk I have a George A Philbrick dual flip-flop
(Model GAP/R K2-W)
it has two 12AX7's in it and was from an early computer lab at the
University of Wisconsin.

 

[Twayne]

Well, back in high school we used to use those
cheap ,
surplus computer tubes in our ham radio
modulators.
the 5963 was avail for just pennies and was a
great
substitute for the 12AX7 dual triode.
I actually preferred the 5963.

As to punch cards though, here is was 1968, we
were about
to put a man on the moon...
and computers still used punch cards...It seemed
unbelievably crude. Of course there was *one*
actual terminal on campus but
that was for the upper classmen only.
BTW: For any of the younger generation here...a
terminal
was not a CRT but a teletype machine

Oof! I forgot that little point<g>. The first
CRT terminals were almost exactly that and not
much more: Just a CRT and a keyboard connection.
Remember those huge, heavy Wyse terminals? They
were built like tanks!

A terminal is a terminal except when ... <g>