Re: Online copies of games are not owned

Posted on 2024-04-17, 11:19

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

Even games from GOG that you can download won't be playable forever since newer OS can break them and old hardware will die. Any game big enough to have DRM will have a group crack it sooner or later. somehow the prospect of eventual hardware, vm and OS problems disabling software doesn't seem as …

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Re: Online copies of games are not owned

Posted on 2024-04-15, 11:23

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by gerry

in Milliways

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as a rule i would think of everything that relies on being online as being rented - even if its a hardware system that wont work unless it downloads periodic updates or 'phones home' to function really, there are enough films, music, games and so on that are outside of the 'rental' conditions, i can …

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Re: Amiga - better graphics because of worse monitors?

Posted on 2024-04-15, 11:12

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by gerry

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as a side note - remember how we all watched movies over braodcast tv onto relatively small CRT tvs back before larger TVs came along in the later 90's (and well before 'hd' and led). I think the brain makes up somewhat for a shortfalls in actual detail often I remember this! :D I've watched quite …

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Re: How hard is it to find retro/vintage computer hardware where you live?

Posted on 2024-04-12, 08:11

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unknown_K summarised it pretty well As e-waste facilities grew and general recycling became more prevalent there was also a growth in online selling. the result is that the stuff for free is becoming an ever smaller proportion of the total stuff being discarded, being squeezed out. the flow of …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2024-04-12, 08:01

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think it is a oscilloscope at all. BNC connectors are labeled as "output". Maybe it is one of those electrotherapy machines for muscle pain relief. Could be the CRT is there just to monitor the output. The prefix myo does mean muscle and the suffix scope means it's a device for viewing or …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:19

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mandrew wrote on 2024-04-10, 05:49: Also managed to snag 2 working matrix printers and some weird medical scope thing. It was a good run. can you tell us if you found out more about that 'myotest scope' from omszov? looks interesting

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:15

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by gerry

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enshittification is when something's gradually degraded into a paywall. This is just google killing off useful things as they're too big to give a shit. who knows how long the "before:" feature will last in this AI crapulisted cyberspace... i have moved away from google as a search engine to some …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:08

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by gerry

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Assassin's Creed II I've become somewhat addicted to this, even though you never really feel like you are accomplishing anything, because you are just following icons on a map and you feel absolutely indestructible. Normally I would have no interest in this, but sometimes it's fun to just turn your …

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Re: Anyone else noticing the large number of misleading titles/descriptions on ebay for items?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:05

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by gerry

in Milliways

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Heh, these days it’s impossible to do an eBay search for retro items without this seller polluting the results with his stupidly expensive no picture listings. Not only are the prices absurd, they also seem completely random… meaning you can find a very expensive but somewhat rare item but also an …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:03

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reminds me of a friend back in the late 90's. He ripped all his CDs at 128Kbps (took 1 night for 1 CD) and then he sold all his CDs. Only a few years later hard drive space was a lot cheaper and he was annoyed that he didn't ripped at a much higher bitrate... :) Ouch, for me it's the 3rd time: I …

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Re: Multimeter recommendation

Posted on 2024-04-11, 15:57

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I personally use an old 90's ITT Métrix DMM, I believe it's the MX20. It may not be a Fluke with all the desirable bells and whistles, but back in the day this was a very well regarded model. It has autoranging but that can be overriden by the push of a button. like this : https://www.davidhaillant …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 15:52

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got no room to judge, I have to use classic, some would call "vintage", TV trays like the ones seen below as my workbench whenever I work on anything. Setup all my tools, do the work, tare it all down and put it away. Projects take so much longer than they would normally. I really need to …

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Re: Amiga - better graphics because of worse monitors?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 15:45

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

an interesting viewpoint! i do note that CRTs were often more 'forgiving', i.e. softer and fuzzier and this could give an illusory gain to graphics where as the same on a more precise screen would be more jarring, harsher edges and color changes etc as a side note - remember how we all watched …

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Re: Anyone else noticing the large number of misleading titles/descriptions on ebay for items?

Posted on 2024-04-09, 13:18

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

I see this with GPUs in boxes a lot, a number of times I have kindly let the seller know they have a wrong description and they sometimes take the auction down and fix it, most sellers just leave it up incorrect hoping to catch some sucker. Even had a few take it down and put it back up correct but …

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Re: no impact live Linux distros

Posted on 2024-04-09, 13:13

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by gerry

in Milliways

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To me, the "use case" for a 100% ephemeral linux session, is literally: There IS NO HDD. yes, in simple terms if i was using linux live and didn't want it to 'see' my hdd i would simply unplug the hdd i have used lighter linux live variants via usb on machines without a drive, its often …

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Re: System Requirements Database?

Posted on 2024-04-09, 07:47

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by gerry

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Indeed. At any rate, I figure that anything before 1998 is a sure thing, and that limits how many games I need to look up to just a handful of 1998 and 1999 games. Most 1998+ games will go on a PII or PIII, and a couple may get installed on my AthlonXP. Now I need to find a list of DOS games which …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2024-04-09, 07:43

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, April is of to a magnificent start. VP6s and 486 are now at customs in the country (Bucharest) so in a few days they might be here. Meanwhile, I was looking over some classified ads and these caught my eye. Eagle eyes should tell very easily why I didn't THE SLIGHTEST hesitate to click the " …

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Re: Multimeter recommendation

Posted on 2024-04-09, 07:38

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

whilst Fluke and other high end brands are ideal for high power stuff and where precision and responsiveness are important, i have used one of those cheap but ok vici ones for a few years and its ok perhaps we shouldn't be surprised but collecting and using vintage meters is also a hobby 😀

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Re: Why two screw types in PC cases?

Posted on 2024-04-03, 11:55

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd imagine, if there is a coherent design reason at all, its more a reflection of the specifications of differing parts of computers being in the hands of different engineering teams - eg case, motherboard and more - and there being different cost/design reasons for it. They wouldn't be thinking …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2024-03-29, 19:58

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

Finished Red Faction . Alright, I'll try to look at it from objective 2001's perspective and as such it's pretty alright. i think your assessment is about right. I enjoyed it on the whole (even that weird end boss battle if i remember it right...) i agree that the geomod thing is not really central …

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