Re: How can you obtain 100% legal copies of DOS and older versions of Windows?

Posted on 2020-07-28, 14:43

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I'm sure MS doesn't care about these old systems, but its the principal of the thing. No doubt, in spite of obsolescence, Microsoft would be quite happy to make a buck off this hobby by selling new copies of old Windows (the long tail + long copyright). However, the result of Sun v. Microsoft barrs …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-07-27, 21:21

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On this subject, I really believe a time will come were 60 years old folks won't hunt for XT-286-386-486s any more, our modern equivalent won't give a damn about them and collections will be liquefied for peanuts. I mean I don't see ISA sound of VGA cards going for that much in 10-20 years, once …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-07-26, 19:30

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sometimes a seller would put in "rare" even if it's blatantly untrue lol. It's such a commonly abused word I makes me laugh rather than have a look at the item. Like a PlayStation listing with 'rare' in the description. Over 100 million were manufactured, and it's not even one of those audiophile- …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-07-24, 18:51

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Speaking about the search engine pollution, GPU hunting is the worst. Try searching GeForce 256 in eBay. All you get are cruddy 8800GTs and low end nvidia trash with 256MB VRAM. Coupled with the distinct lack of PCI video cards, it makes looking for new parts very annoying. My search string on eBay …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-07-24, 18:05

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

and also screw the search engines and their algorithms that are ultra fast when it comes to removing stuff due to DMCA but fail miserably when it comes to detecting all these scummy sites. I've given up on search engines. They all seem to be over-engineered toward figuring out what you want, …

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2020-07-09, 20:07

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yea, the prices of those Iram drives are almost more than what they cost new... I wasn't aware there was such interest in it (I was just looking for something to do with all the RAM I have lying around). Especially since I was the sole bid for days. That is, until multiple bidders piled in at the …

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2020-07-09, 18:07

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

At the risk of some punk telling me to get to back to the 1950s with my DDR3 slots, this isn't old enough for the vintage hardware thread. x2 Viking Technology 100GB SATADIMMs, first released in 2010. Picked them up for the novelty more than anything else... also as consolation for not winning the …

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Re: Story behind your avatar?

Posted on 2020-06-08, 16:33

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

For some unfathomable reason IBM paid a fortune to use the Pink Panther character to promote their PC line in the early 90s. The sight of IBM lorries branded with the character driving past my house on the way to the local factory is etched into my childhood memory. Very odd. Apparently that …

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Re: Monitor alignment

Posted on 2020-06-06, 23:07

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you know if it can display DOS correctly? My ASUS screen cuts off the left edge of the prompt too (although the manual claims to support DOS modes) and I'm sure I've seen a PhilsComputerLab video showing the same problem with whatever screen he was using.

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Re: Bought these games today

Posted on 2020-04-28, 20:56

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Speaking of Pocket PC, my copy of SimCity 2000 for Pocket PC arrived from the US. I'm interested to see how it plays on the old iPAQ.

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Re: International mail shipments and COVID-19

Posted on 2020-04-24, 14:06

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Definitely same thing here in Ireland. Ordered a custom-made Sulzer PSU from Bulgaria 4 weeks ago and still don't know when it's going to show up, in normal times it would have been here 3 weeks ago. I was ready to dismiss this thread as peculiarly North American. I'm in Scotland and stuff I've …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-04-04, 14:21

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My devotion to period-correctness led me to spot this Pentium 3 SL48S "1000G" on the Bay of E. Datecoded Week 18 of 2000 (first week of May)! An early production run for OEMS?

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2019-12-20, 20:46

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Been absent for a while, but picked this up earlier this week... IBM Aptiva 2153-E44, AMD K6-2 300Mhz Aptiva.JPG Bit poorly at the moment, but will keep me busy over the Xmas break I was stuck with an Aptiva 2153 as the family computer right up until 2005. Took a photo of the internals in December …

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Re: What to do when Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks time?

Posted on 2019-11-07, 18:09

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

What Secure Boot really does... ... is provide a mechanism that can (and, let's be honest, probably will eventually) be used to ensure we can't do silly things like boot an OS that has known vulnerabilities that can be exploited to do things like rip Blu-ray 2 discs, some day in the future. The …

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Re: What to do when Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks time?

Posted on 2019-11-04, 21:20

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

nowdays with modern bios, the concept itself it's not difficult to see which road has taken; at some point it was for some reasons needed to have like an o.s. itself But now you can use a mouse in the BIOS! It truly is the 21st century. :blah: I miss the old BIOS design where I could actually tell …

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Re: What to do when Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks time?

Posted on 2019-11-04, 17:28

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

There're tutorials/apps to know about these boring stuff that will be forgotten a minute after. People as terminals. No local storage. On topic, though. I only installed Win 7 in January. The OEM PC I bought back in 2010 came with an upgrade coupon for 7. Which had already expired. It was one of …

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Re: What to do when Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks time?

Posted on 2019-11-04, 15:07

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

bfcastello wrote: I am still waiting for the BTTF dehydrated pizza to be invented... Not hoverboards or flying cars? Dehydrated pizza!? 😉

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Re: What to do when Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks time?

Posted on 2019-11-03, 18:18

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

The whole evolution from technology as was an eventually useful closed box you payed for to become nowdays something almost "free" but that you -must- have and use it and in the only way designed to, basically a lifetime service. It's all about information control. The open IBM PC platform was a …

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Re: Is the risk from static damage overblown?

Posted on 2019-11-02, 18:34

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Given the price of many vintage components these days, I wouldn't take the risk of handling components without my ESD wriststrap on. But then half the time I realise I've forgotten to reattach the alligator clip to the case and nothing's ever come of it. I did install a graphics card last year clad …

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Re: PIII 800 MHz (E or EB) release date evidence?

Posted on 2019-11-02, 14:55

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Period-correctness, and this hobby at large, is mostly emotionally driven (nostalgia) and that's something personal to everyone - you're going to find plenty of contradictions and irrational behaviours like people shelling out for another PC133 DIMM just cause it has a 99 datecode on it :blush: …

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