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Is anybody here watching this show? It is on AMC, Sunday nights in the US.
It is loosely based on the birth of the Compaq portable IBM PC clone in the early 80s. Set in Texas.
I am finding it extremely fun to identify with engineers and software nerds on tv.
It is, of course, not a 100% match to the 80s experience, but I am finding it pretty good fun and no-one to talk to about it.
Anybody else? What do you think?
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Nope, never heard of it.
If it hits this side of the pond, I might catch it.
But...I miss the old Assembler instructions: HCF, XPI, CAI, WJP, RPI
For the young, a translation. These were Machine Code instructions which executed directly on processors (in this case IBM) in big mainframe computers. Generally three letters, they were acronyms for memorable phrases.
HCF Halt and Catch Fire
XPI eXecute Programmer Immediate
CAI Corrupt Accounting Information
WJP Write and Jam Printer
RPP Read Printer Paper
Regrettably, we don't have direct access to all of these any more.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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The RCA CDP 1802 had the SEX (Set X) command.
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It did - but geeks could only type it with one hand for some reason... 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Yeah, I've been watching it; it's kind of fun, except for this last week - the lead engineer hunting up a cabbage patch doll for 20 minutes - what was that? It was the first episode that didn't remotely move the story along and left me worried that it's stalled. This last episode was a real snore-fest for me, and has left me debating to whether or not to watch the next.
My favorite part was the 10 second wait while they all stood around the old familiar hum of an old power supply warming up, waiting for a POST.
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dexterama wrote: My favorite part was the 10 second wait while they all stood around the old familiar hum of an old power supply warming up, waiting for a POST.
You're not selling it to me... 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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That Cabbage Patch hunt was a nostalgia trip for the folks that aren't into the tech stuff. I'm not sure it is enough for them.
That is one example where the show is not 100% about the engineering theme.
I'm having fun with all of it. My cousin had a mazda like the marketing guy's. With the flippy-up headlights. That is a mazda, right? RX-7?
I'm not sure what car the engineer is driving. A toyota maybe, but it has a little bit of a look like an old Saab. But his character doesn't seem like a saab driver to me.
And the code girl is not recognizable to me. But I like her anyway. In fact, the first thing that I thought in the pilot ep was that they *never* would have picked a girl for that job.
But the way the depicted IBMers in their intimidating blue suits at least resembled the way I remember thinking of IBM: an elite club. I like the way that ep broke that down.
I enjoyed the celebratory feel when they turned the thing on for the first time. Nobody every gets that outwardly happy anymore when we reach a milestone.
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I wasn't aware of this show - thanks for the tip. 
/ravi
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My client is planning on using the BeagleBone Black for the kiosk controller in dance clubs, and we've been working on getting the BBB to talk over RS232 to the MEI bill acceptor, which has this nutso protocol of using the parity bit to distinguish the command byte from the data and checksum bytes.
Now, we were having problems with getting the parity bit to work, which of course means pulling out the scope and seeing what's going on. Problem is, he's in San Diego CA and I'm in Philmont NY.
No problem! He has this scope that dumps the trace into a UI on Windows and has a cool UI for controlling the scope from Windows as well. So last night:
1. remote in using (in this case) GoToMyPC
2. fire up Eclipse on Windows using gcc-linaro for the ARM cross-compiler
3. set up the scope remotely to trigger on the RS232 send from the BBB and also monitor on a second probe the response
4. play around with sending some commands and data and take a look at what the parity bit is doing on the wire.
Turns out the BBB doesn't support this undocumented feature to "stick" the parity bit into either Mark or Space parity. Instead, I modify the little C test program to set even/odd parity based on the # of bits in each byte, and voila! It worked!
And that is why there are times this job of software development is truly fun and amazing (and very very geeky), when you put various pieces of technology together to solve problems, and it can be done nowadays from 3000 miles away!
Marc
modified 10-Jul-14 8:15am.
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Marc Clifton wrote: RS232
Maybe the main loss of most modern PCs : the RS232 connector.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Preaching to choir, USB-RS232 can be awkward at times (i.e. "Well that blew up, was it the Device or the driver?) 
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Here we still have old W2000 PCs only for flashing SW on the microcontrollers, because they have a native RS232 port.
Yes, there are cards out there, yes, there are usb converters, but these definitely add a level of awkwardness, so our good'ol' machines still are the best solution.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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At home I have a Win2000 box with a parallel port for just sort of thing. The PCI to RS-232 cards are 'dodgy' you can't be sure they will work as quickly as one on the motherboard. Parallel ports are another one of those use things that have gone. 
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Ha, I once took a tech support call from a guy at NASA. On his new Pentium 166Mhz computer, he had hooked up an oscilloscope to confirm that the signal to the parallel port was delayed compared to his old computer. 
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Mmm, dangerous, feel like I ought to site a Dilbert comic but can't be bothered. The delay in getting the port to respond is a vital thing for real time systems (bet you he wasn't running 95, some roll your own Linux thing)
mind you if he was calling Tech support for it, what an earth were you to do ? 
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Yeah, I responded that it was outside the specs of the basic business computers that we sold. At the time, I didn't think much about it, but it probably had to do with the increased bus speed of the motherboard and the more complicated controller for all the ports. It was one of the first systems with USB.
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It was a handy little friend, for so many reasons.
I think I miss the old parallel connector as well - there were so many things you could do with it.
But not floppy drives.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Floppy drives are good for one thing a good motor! really I don't miss them as they were so small. You couldn't really fit much more than one Word doc if you were lucky.
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Aye: but it's cheaper to buy the motor than the drive!
glennPattonWork wrote: You couldn't really fit much more than one Word doc if you were lucky.
In the days when the floppy was king, you fitted your whole operating system on it, plus the apps, and (if you were seriously unlucky) you data files as well! 1.44Mb was a lot of space, once. (The first HDD I bought was 32MB, and it cost 4 times what I recently paid for a 4TB USB3.0 drive! Even more if you translate the cost into "modern money" - beer was under £1 a pint in those days, and so was a gallon of unleaded)
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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OriginalGriff wrote: beer was under £1 a pint in those days, and so was a gallon of unleaded
I for one preferred a beer.
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I preferred both, but not in the same glass.
I used one to get me to the other!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Shirley you meant to write
Nagy Vilmos wrote: I for one preferred a gin. beer
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A gallon of unleaded for less £1?, 4* surely?
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Nope. When I first started riding motorcycles, fuel was 39p a gallon - and I could fill my tank and get drunk for under a fiver. Mostly because I could get drunk on very little alcohol - I hadn't built up the tolerance I developed in later years! 
Hang on - I see what you mean. 4* - probably was in those days, yes. I remember buying 4* in preference to unleaded because it made the engine a little more powerful (and in those days every 1/2 mph counted!)
I assumed you meant "four times" as a rough conversion of litres / gallons 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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