Re: stuff and the thing

[Tesla Coil <tescoil@rtpro.net>]

May as well reply to three posts at once here...

On 7 May 1999, Jason Burke wrote:
> I would think that a 486 box would be a better "Look what
> Linux can run on" box since there is probably alot more 486s
> still around, but it's your call. =).

Gotta go lowest end for full effect.  Still feel like I'm cheating,
because it's a nearly top-end 386 (put that in the oxymoron file).
DX-40, will do 32Mb RAM--tho' maybe not if it were DOSed.
I've got a Promise EIDEMAX card, so Linux reads linear block
addressing and would do an 8Gb hard drive with no fuss.
    I *would* max the cache; I've even got the extra chips, but the
manufacturer has ignored two requests for jumper specs on this
antique (PC-Chips, lousy tech support on current boards too, I'm
told).   Haven't found any independent documentation on the web.
If I just gamble, I suppose a 99.1666% chance favors it would fry.

Jay Link wrote:
> I usually buy "obsolete" parts from Action Audio-Visual in
> Chatham.  They're small potatoes, but the guy is really
> knowledgeable and has really low prices.

Thanks!  I'll definitely follow up on that one.  I used to frequent a
couple area shops that dealt old parts, but one went under, other
got tried of being the landfill for CGA monitors and cleaned house,
somewhat to my dismay.

I've wanted to do a web site devoted to hacks on old hardware.
Insanity like running an IDE drive on an IBM 5150, retrofitting
a Compaq Portable I case with a Pentium board and a Miracle
Business MT209 Monochrome VGA monitor (both plausible,
done neither)--stuff that got lost in the technological churn,
astounds the uninitiated, and occasionally throws a curve ball
("a photo of a 286 with the vinyl-ROM unit that preceded the
use of CDs").   Searched, there's computer museum sites, and
sites with ordinary sort of maintenance resources, but nobody
really doing anything of this bent.  I haven't done it, because,
I guess, one of those projects that's much less fun when it's
your personal madness alone...

And Cloudmaster asked:
> Did you buy it at 450, or do like mine and push your 350 to
> well over 450?  :)  I know if I'd bought a 450, it'd darn well
> better be running at least 500 ish...

It's a 450 CPU.  I've always been superstitious of overclocking.
I think maybe I was traumatized as a small child by a NextGen
machine, but we'll hafta wait for hypnosis to confirm that.  My
other weird superstition is insisting on base-2 numbers on RAM.
I'd let a 64Mb DIMM do nothing, cause I've got a 128 installed,
and adding it would total an unacceptable 192.  These are related
to my metasuperstition that I must have a few superstitions to
free up rational addresses in my brain for other applications  : )


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