Jasin Natael wrote on 2021-06-30, 19:25:

In the United States at least vinyl actually outsold compact disc media for the first time ever in 2019/2020. […]
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canthearu wrote on 2021-06-09, 07:35:

While I don't agree with Vinyl Records still living, I guess it satisfies a need some people have for a more touchy, feely side of music.

Which is cool. I can't argue since I resurrect and maintain extremely old hardware for that same touchy, feely reason.

In the United States at least vinyl actually outsold compact disc media for the first time ever in 2019/2020.

Now granted this is large part due to limited edition releases like Metallica's Walmart exclusive colored vinyl releases.

But still....it's something like 62% of all physical media sold for 2020 was vinyl. Which is multi millions of dollars. Not really dead......

the relative sales of vinyl v cd is more likely due to the 'enthusiast' status of vinyl and the plummeting sales of CDs , in turn down to the prevalence of music streaming (and not MP3s! remember 'mp3 players')

you're right its not a dead product though, as it still has a user base willing to spend on new things

for the desktop PC market there are few new 32bit things. lots of old things which I intend to use for a long time though!

^Vinyl, Audio CDs, MP3.. You're very nostalgic people, I see.
What's the next big revival, if I may ask, Schellack records, steam engines or AM radio ? 😉

Speaking of ancient stuff, there's SAQ in Grimeton, Sweden.
It's the world's last functioning machine transmitter and a world heritage.

For those of you not so technically adept in this field, that's essentially a huge electro motor with an antenna.
That behemoth will transmit once or twice a year in telegraphy @ 17,2KHz. This Sunday is the next schedule.

Here's an old thread with some links:
Next SAQ transmission planned soon

Jo22 wrote on 2021-07-01, 15:07:

What's the next big revival, if I may ask, Schellack records, steam engines or AM radio ? 😉

Me. It's me, I'm the revival.

In any case, there are technical reasons for vinyl over other music formats. With a good system you can get very good quality sound reproduction out of it. Even better if you get your hands on a tape dub of the original master, which is available for some recordings, I think. It will remain a niche thing though. Most people want vinyl for reasons they don't fully understand (human beings like physical rather than ephemeral things), plus it's trendy and gets them social status.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-07-01, 17:26:

Me. It's me, I'm the revival.

🤣! You made my day! 😁
😎 👍

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-07-01, 17:26:

In any case, there are technical reasons for vinyl over other music formats. With a good system you can get very good quality sound reproduction out of it. Even better if you get your hands on a tape dub of the original master, which is available for some recordings, I think. It will remain a niche thing though. Most people want vinyl for reasons they don't fully understand (human beings like physical rather than ephemeral things), plus it's trendy and gets them social status.

I remember vinyl, my family still has some records here. Including the very old shellac type @78 RPM. 😁
- An acquaintance of us (in his 70s ?) even argued that shellac was the real classic stuff and that this vinyl is just some newfangled stuff. That statement felt kind of mind-boggling! 😳
If memory serves, my dad has/had a very modern record player with "touch buttons" (capacitive) and moving-coil head.
And after listening, I agree that the sound quality of records can be quite good. Especially because the classics pre-date the loudness-war.

Tube amps are also something special (I love to thinker with radio tubes)..
They have a soft , "warm" sound, perhaps due their non-linearity. Also, they can handle strong signals and go softly into saturration. 👍
Transistors don't do that. A tube's closest relative, aside from the Nuvistor, is the Field-Effect-Transistor (FET). Sadly, it is very sensitive and dies easily.

We are still trying to match the sound quality and characteristics of a good tube amplifier to this day with transistors. We can get close but it's never quite the same.

Jo22 wrote on 2021-06-29, 18:11:

"Nobody has the intention to build a wall" - Walter Ulbrecht, June 1961. (*ahem* 😁)

Some times is better to have a wall, and don`t need it, then not having a wall and needing one 😀

matze79 wrote on 2021-07-03, 17:10:

Jo22 wrote on 2021-06-29, 18:11:

"Nobody has the intention to build a wall" - Walter Ulbrecht, June 1961. (*ahem* 😁)

Some times is better to have a wall, and don`t need it, then not having a wall and needing one 😀

Otherwise you'll have illegal immigrants trampling all over your country..😉

yeah this thread is dead as well.

on another note.
the internet is dead . long live the internet !

Jo22 wrote on 2021-06-06, 17:36:

Windows..

Sounds like bad news for OEMs and anyone who uses Radeon cards.

The rest of us will have no problem staying on 32-bit.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-07-03, 18:40:

yeah this thread is dead as well.

on another note.
the internet is dead . long live the internet !

This thread was dead as soon as the OP started it...😉

The Flying Spaghetti Monster will save us all!

Funny how folk think of just the www as the internet. It's far far bigger than that.

Welcome to the Deep Dark Net. Wooooooo it's spooooky...😉

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-03, 19:13:

This thread was dead as soon as the OP started it...;) […]
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weedeewee wrote on 2021-07-03, 18:40:

yeah this thread is dead as well.

on another note.
the internet is dead . long live the internet !

This thread was dead as soon as the OP started it...😉

The Flying Spaghetti Monster will save us all!

Funny how folk think of just the www as the internet. It's far far bigger than that.

Welcome to the Deep Dark Net. Wooooooo it's spooooky...😉

Time to get out my pastastrainer and wear it proudly !

When you go to the deep dark net, make sure to bring a flashlight... which might be problematic, since flash is dead also. So maybe just a portable light with a hydrogen fuel cell and a little microcontroller for some signalling. Just in case.

Look, let's stop being so inefficient, and just call it "4 byte", ok??? By going to 2 syllables we've doubled the IPC right there.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-07-03, 20:04:

Look, let's stop being so inefficient, and just call it "4 byte", ok??? By going to 2 syllables we've doubled the IPC right there.

Agreed. 👍

Could also be called an "quad octet" (since"byte" isn't always 8-bits), "8 nibbles" or "octa nibble" - to those who love nibbles. 😀

PS: I think this thread can now safely be closed. It has reached a "dead" end, I'm afraid. 😉

It's an interesting discussion to see what various vogon members opinions about 32-bit kit and software are.

Especially when it can be used on older kit and make it useful for stuff other than just games.

It's not gonna go anywhere, 8 bit micros are still putting in a solid days work around the globe, even 4 bit ones were handling the timers and programs on new microwave ovens until relatively recently, and there's probably a good few of those still in service.

How are your 32-bit computers running guys n girls? My Xpc is running excellently. Just installed 32-bit Devuan Linux BeoWolf on it. Install action whentwithout a hitch 😉 and detected all the systems hardware. AMAZING!

I'm running a 32-bit PC with linux and its fast for most things. but some new websites like bestbuy.ca are awfully slow because they load so much javascript junk and other junk in the background.

I'm also programming 8-bit 8051-based chips with my 32-bit PC through the parallel port. Yes, I'm one of the only few people in my area that has a computer with a serial and parallel port and even a CD/DVD drive which I could take out and replace with a floppy drive if I wanted to.

Sadly, new computers get rid of all this stuff which makes it harder for hardware developers to program simple thinks like making a computer turn on an LED light.

In the olden days, the simplest way to make an LED turn on is this:

1. Connect a data line (say D0 or pin 2) of the parallel port to an LED, a resistor and to ground (say pin 25)

2. solder the connections together (but not the port pins together)

3. Setup the parallel port for SPP (standard mode). This would be the only mode if the computer is super old.

4. Launch Quick Basic (included with MS-DOS boot disks)

5. In Quick Basic, Type:

1Out &H378,1

to turn on the LED, or

1Out &H378,1

to turn it off

but after typing the instruction, press F5 and check the LED. If it doesn't work then the LED connection needs to be flipped around.

Now lets fast forward to now. and try programming the LED now to stay on or off at will. If you try connecting it to the USB, you'll be lucky to see random flicker. That's because the USB shares different data formats with different devices connected to it and the system has to issue special commands to make the USB devices work. So in the end, its more of a pain trying to make the LED work exactly the way you want over a USB port (which seems to be the only port modern computers have other than maybe an SD card, power and monitor port and audio jack port).

^Hey, that's my specialty!! 😁
Using the game port as a switching output ?

Btw, my father's steam engine is still going strong! My grandma's mechanical typewriter, too! 😂

So it is exactly like BIOS used to be as well. Buggy and exploitable.

I think in the past it has been more a myth than a real problem. It's not rare old bios is even "difficult" to update using official tool and on minimal o.s boot where a different official version could not work on the many different eeprom chips to actually upgrade 90's mainboard official updated bios. Anyway with such low size memory I always wondered if the old 'myth' about ipotethical old bios viruses, what might have realistically done beside just breaking the mainboard boot sequence. I'm not saying it was impossible only realistically very rarely happened and fortunately the bios limitations themself were probably the original idea where it just configured the low level settings and leave everything to the o.s. I understand the point the UEFI logic feels like a not needed overlayed o.s. adding complexity which maybe in some specific sector like IT administration is a real benefit but still for a common user sounds like just more complexity requiring o.s-like updates that will not be released for much time, at least of the UEFI boards I've seen with only few bios updates and then forgotten for the next mobo released (some with only a single bios update release).
And all that just for a laggy high resolution user interface with mouse support and some more components sensors readings, clocks or whatever.

mike_canada wrote on 2021-09-12, 05:58:

Sadly, new computers get rid of all this stuff which makes it harder for hardware developers to program simple thinks like making a computer turn on an LED light.

You could just buy a USB GPIO Module:

https://numato.com/product/32-channel-usb-gpi … -analog-inputs/

Little risk of cooking your expensive computer hardware if you wire it wrong.

Alternatively, a Raspberry PI is also excellent for this task.