1.21 Quickiewatts 109
mobiux wrote in about the
resurrection of Packard Bell PC's.
michael.creasy told us about Darth Vader's MBE.
An anonymous coward wrote in to tell us about the GameSpy interview of Martin Feldhausen, inventor of the 'extra life.' Thanks for helping me get through all those games!
mcryptic shared the link to an online gallery of mousepad art.
payneinthe told us that Randal Schwartz uploaded pictures from the Perl Whirl.
Another anonymous coward told us about someone's visual response to the loss of Paul Steed at id.
HerrNewton noted the symphony written primarily for dot matrix printers, and rasterbator told us about a web site for the distribution of free GNU and Open Source related artwork.
Ant sent in the link to Star Wars Origins, and illumina mentioned RSA en/decryption in JavaScript. Have a good weekend, everyone!
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
Four of my relatives have (had) packard bells. I understand that the very nature of their specific market niche is not to the upgrade or tech inclined. They produce a settop box preloaded and not to be dittled with. Fine. Every other pc manufacturer does that. BUT.
Packard bell had always used shitty components, failed to specify components/configs/etc...or even worse, misspecified. Sure, they are not made to really be upgraded..but the least they could do is provide the correct info for the parts. Jumpers were opposite, settings were nonstandard...etc..etc. And though nearly *EVERY* techsupport person I had contact with was extremely friendly and tried their best....it seemed they knew very little of packard bell specifics.(And they admitted it too).
Dont get me wrong...I've seen experiences like this with other pc manufacturers(HP...hmmm another damn packard), but still..when you purchase a product..things shouldn't be so undocument and misrepresented so as to confuse you if you did want to delve further into it.
dunno
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
But I have to say that I *love* Packard Bell keyboards.
The one I have now is ancient and filthy, but I wouldn't give it up for the world. It's perfect (well, except for the enter key and spacebar with tend to stick every so often). I can use other keyboards, but none I've tried feel as comfortable as this Packard Bell.
Though I did find a black Packard Bell keyboard lying around the house a while ago, and may consider seeing if that one is equally wonderful if someone doesn't claim it soon (My house seems to be on the other side of some hardware black hole. Hardware just magically appears from time to time. The odd part of this is that my two roommates aren't really geeks. If they were, the random hardware would be entirely understandable. But they aren't, so it's just odd).
My second computer was a Packard Bell, and I loved it. It was terribly reliable, and I never had any trouble installing new components (though I never actually tried to upgrade it - got it secondhand). Then again, the computer I had before it was a truly hideous POS - I left the cover off of it because half the time it wouldn't start up until I went and massaged the motherboard a bit to get some connection or other back into place. So it wasn't a terribly good comparison.
PB made a good machine (Score:1)
I still have that machine. I threw out the soundcard/modem (piece of crap) and I recently replaced the CDROM with a tape drive (and added a SCSI card)--but everything else is original equipment. It's running Linux headless (no monitor, kbd or mouse) and acting as the server for my home network. Provides file space, print services (laser and soon-to-be color), proxy/nat/firewall, etc. It's a horse.
--
ROSELIPS!!!! (Score:1)
Was it my unfeeling facade, my unloving demeanor?
Did you want to be treated better than my golden retriever?
If I stooped so low as to speak to you would you love me again?
Or can I continue to ignore you raising my chin?
Is your love so dearly bought that I must love you too?
Why aren't you happy that I treat you so cruel?
Oh, Roselips! Why don't you love me anymore?
Packard Bell (Score:2)
Re:quickie/gigawatts (Score:1)
Of course, 99.44% of the population does not know how to pronounce "gigabyte/gigaherz", making them the most misprounced words in the industry (edging out "silicon", which about 95% of people do not know how to pronounce properly).
Inventor of the Extra Life? I don't think so. (Score:1)
Twenty One point One Gigawatts!? (Score:1)
Re:Real link to Packard Bell article (Score:1)
Now NEC is reinvigorating the remnants of the company with cash, new executives and a marketing
push planned for later this year, said Steve Boogar, who was appointed chief operating officer two months ago. Boogar, a former NEC employee, had been running his own management consultancy for
about ten years, he said in an interview at PC Expo yesterday.
I'm thinking that he should change his name.
--
Re:Symphony out of printers? (Score:1)
I won't mention that it was just posted a week or so ago!
Who are the idiots that submit stories *after* they've already been exposed to slashdot?
JavaScript Crypto (Score:1)
This way you could read your encrypted mail via a web-based email provider, just have the javascript do it on the client side... after all, you sure as hell don't want to be sending _ANYONE_ your private key
Re:PERL is much more than AWK (Score:1)
I expected more from this grouping of people than mindless rhetoric and name calling. Would you stand for a moment if I were to label someone here as a baby killer? Yet you can stand and call me rabid, suiting the prejudices that you can enjoy freely in this online community.
Anarchists for Life [mindspring.com]
A listing of progressive and revolutionary pro-life groups [mindspring.com]
You don't say? (Score:1)
Seems they couldn't work out
if(score > 10000) {lives++}
I don't know who the geezer he was interviewing was, but if he was genuine he was pretty surreal. Or he was smoking crack.
Re:link wrong (Score:1)
ME a team player now!
honest guv
Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras (Score:1)
You were expecting him to type monica?
I wonder if anyone's tried to get
k.
--
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people
are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Re:Real link to Packard Bell article (Score:1)
Goshen
why Dave Prowse won't be in Ep3 (Score:1)
Re: Javascript buggy? (Score:1)
All languages do have bugs in the implementation though (ok, you can probably prove me wrong intelligent-arses thinking about replying (not u CMiYC - hey I'm just repeating what you said, almost, mostly, blah), but not statistically :P), for instance the fact that many web pages were last edited circa 1/1/70 in the case of Javascript.
(shit fuck bugger - previous paragraphs way to wordy, injecting healthy dose of reality)
Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras (Score:1)
gnu gifs? (Score:1)
Re:Twenty One point One Gigawatts!? (Score:1)
Re:McDonalds => fries (Score:1)
Star Wars Origins (Score:1)
Star Wars came from Akira Kurosawa's "Kakushi toride no san akunin" known in the USA as "The Hidden Fortress" go to your video store and rent it, you'll be suprised. Just like the "Shichinin no samurai" known in the USA as "Seven Samurai" was used for "The Magnificient Seven" which was used for "The Three Amigos." Seems we owe a lot to Kurosawa.
Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras (Score:1)
Re:Star Wars Origins (Score:1)
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
Yes, riser boards weren't that great. Never heard of anyone complaining about the shape of their case though.
Monitor lost sync at anything better than 640x480x256
You were expecting much better in 1992? Seriously. Lotta machines used the long ISA or VLB boards mind you. It wasn't meant for performance. Coulda bought your own monitor too
Hard drive had an ever-increasing number of bad sectors
Not common, but happened. PB used Conner Peripherals for a while. I believe they've gone out of business (Conner that is) but not sure. Before Packard Bell was dead though they were using Seagate's in a lot of machine, which no one can complain about.
Single IDE port couldn't handle slave devices for some reason
This was IDE, not EIDE. Most controllers had only a single channel, and IDE could only handle 1 device per channel. So you'd have two channels, each which could handle one device. The CD-ROM you say? Lots of CD-ROMs in 1992 weren't IDE or EIDE so they'd have seperate controller cards, which were usually combined with the audio device. So you could have two hard disks and a CD-ROM in a box at most.
Packard Bell and the other low-end manufacturers weren't meant for power and an assload of upgrades. I call these things disposable. When people do buy OEM machines, I tell em that they're going to get what they pay for. I build custom machines and sell em, but I tell em before they gimme what they wanna spend. THe less you wanna spend, the more vanilla the parts, and the less performance and a worse upgrade path yer gonna get.
I can build total brand name Athlon 750 systems for about $1000 (without monitor) with everything being brand name and for the regular user and regular gamer, they're damn satisfying. Though I tell em that if they want a GeForce2 GTS and an Athlon 1GHz and Ultra160 SCSI disks, they're gonna hafta pay for em. And if they don't wanna spend much at all, I just give em a list of what goes in it. They never ask for the manufacturer, specs, or even warranty, because they could careless. If I try telling em, they don't care (which is their loss)
--
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
Disclaimer - I work for a company called GTek Technologies Ltd. My company did buisness with Packard Bell up until the day it died. We still do buisness with NEC in Japan
The brand name they sell in Europe is a variation (slight) on the brand names they sell in Japan (where I don't know of any Packard Bell sales at all).
Get this - They actually sell quite well. They are reported (I havn't checked myself) to produce systems people are quite happy with.
Re:PERL is much more than AWK (Score:1)
I was just saying that the poster who pointed to "pro-life far-left democrats" as being "typical" was mistaken. I wasn't saying that there were no pro-lifers on the far left, or that pro-life leftists weren't organized, just that they weren't "typical".
You also have to admit that the far right has gone out of its way to identify itself with the pro-life position.
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!! (Score:1)
RSA en Javascript? When is it going to be... (Score:1)
"We will run this with the same kind of openness we have run Windows,"
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:2)
The tempo increases as this movement continues.
The second starts with a more familliar sound of a carriage moving abck and forth, and what might be a daisy-wheel printer tapping the rhythm. This is a continuous theme throughout this movement.
The third starts with a simple squeking sound with rhythm imposed by the carriages moving in unison.
It then has a few slashes, possibly black lines on the page, scraping aginst the ear.
The tempo rapidly increases after this, almost sounding like a klaxon before a final slash and ending.
I like it. Get a crossfading plugin for whatever soundplayer you use, it sounds better that way with all 3 mp3's fading nicely to each other.
Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphrase! (Score:2)
"Clinton first signed the bill on paper, then did his own card-swiping and mouse-clicking, expressing apparent relief when it all worked.He inserted a card encoded with his signature into a computer and entered the code name 'Buddy' -- which happens to be the name of his dog. The presidential signature appeared on the screen. The president grinned."
-- Associated Press, 30-Jun-2000. Emphasis added.
OK, kids, now don't go ordering quad Xeons on the President's credit card ...
Re:Mousepad art? (Score:1)
No freaking way (Score:1)
Just imagine Christopher Lloyd saying it: One...point twenty one...gigawatts!
Trust me, I've seen this movie more times than I care to think of. Heck, I saw it 3 times on the first day I saw it.
--
Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!! (Score:1)
I think he understood the reference. Otherwise, he wouldn't have put in the "Great scott!" quote (Doc Brown's favorite phrase).
Oh, and "What the hell is a gigawatt" was a Marty McFlyism from the first movie.
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Remember... (Score:1)
Re:Interesting Article Yon (Score:1)
Zeusjr.
Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!! (Score:1)
Re:PERL is much more than AWK (Score:1)
Anti-abortion far-left democrat? That's hardly typical. The rabid pro-lifers seem to mainly be on the far right. Christian coalition and moral majority and all that stuff.
Not that it matters. Two sides of the same coin, really...
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Re:Twenty One point One Gigawatts!? (Score:1)
The Green Cross Code (Score:1)
Just a 0.02 anecdote.
- Oliver
"exp(i*Pi)+1=0" - Euler
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:1)
------------
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:3)
A daisy wheel printer in the symphony for dot matrix printers?! Thats harmonic sacrilige! Beethoven is probably turning over in his grave!
-- iCEBaLM
1.21 Gigawatts! (Score:1)
Gotta love Back to the Future.
Jones' voice as Vader (Score:2)
I know he did the voice in at least in ANH, (probably also ROTJ) but I thought he didn't for ESB (which the picture seems to be from). Does anyone else remember this or am I imagining things again? (Too lazy to dig out the VHS and look for myself -- DAMN Lucas for not releasing those on DVD!)
That's pretty cool that he got his MBE, but what is up with getting it now for something he had been doing from 76? Do they usually award these this far after the fact?
Symphony out of printers? (Score:1)
Not to mention that it was just posted a week or so ago!
Who are the idiots that submit stories *after* they've already seen the light of day on slashdot?
Re:Maybe I'm missing something.... (Score:2)
--
No more e-mail address game - see my user info. Time for revenge.
Symphony for printers (Score:5)
Packard Bell link broken - fix included (Score:1)
Printers (Score:2)
One day someone posts it in one of their followup comments to another story.
2 days later, it appears as a frontpage link.
Seing as how the page has been there for ages.. could it be that a bunch of
It's funny how much
Bad Yahoo link (Score:1)
The document you requested is not found.
here is the correct one [yahoo.com]
This comment is interesting why? (Score:1)
--
Ian Peters
Ya, Slashdot scooped ya on that one. :) (Score:1)
---
RSA (Score:1)
kick some CAD [cadfu.com]
Re:Packard Bell (Score:2)
Now, if NEC were to make Packard Bell systems that had some standardized parts and were inexpensive, they'd have something. Although, I think that computer companies need to start playing with the case shapes, get something other than a cube. A triangular case would kick ass. Either that, or I'm still of the Cray line's toroidal design.
Resurrection link bad... (Score:2)
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:2)
Did anyone have the patience to download the audio? I'd be curious to hear a brief description, and I never did get my sound card working
D
----
Packard Bell (Score:1)
link wrong (Score:2)
Feldhausen joke (Score:2)
The Feldhausen story [gamespy.com] is amusing, but it has got to be a joke. My favourite quote is:
Very funny, /.
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
Ahh, reliving the old days of making crap hardware useful for something.....
Real link to Packard Bell article (Score:5)
NEC resurrects Packard Bell [yahoo.com]
--
"HORSE."
Mousepads as art? (Score:4)
In fact, they also make great wall art. Accumulate a couple hundred and you have a mosaic of computer culture tiled on your wall or ceiling. I suppose the similarity of having soft padded walls might make you look a bit crazy though, eh?
Nice collection, though it might be easier to browse if their were thumbnails for each section.
Packard Bell (Score:4)
my quickies (Score:1)
best mousepad: the one with boobs [expa.hvu.nl]
best pic from the cruise: big iron [stonehenge.com]
best art from the gnu/art site: l33t debian button.. gotta get one [onshore.com]
enjoy!
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:1)
Dot Matrix Printers (Score:1)
Silophone - Whoops? (Score:1)
Extra Life Inventor? Yeah, Like Gore's Internet (Score:1)
Maybe I'm missing something.... (Score:1)
McDonalds => fries (Score:2)
Packard Bell => cheap white plastic (containing absolutely the most shitty components available on Earth).
Re: Javascript buggy? (Score:1)
---
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:1)
Daniel
daniel@splink.net
Re:Symphony out of printers? (Score:1)
Or, the more obvious idea, the submitter missed it the first time around...
Re:You don't say? (Score:2)
How 'bout (in increasing order of obscenity):
if ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0))
lives++;
or
lives += ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0)) ? 1 : 0;
or
lives += (int) ((score % 10000 == 0) && (score > 0));
He still didn't need to fly over, though!
Re:link wrong (Score:1)
ud of this accomplisment to the new orl begon. self-styled pots would be angry - but that isno nudes@!
slashdo
begon jin fty jiopping through the newsgroups (and by that, I mean nice) but there was no in
please to be relesaa
zeusj
Re:Packard Bell (Score:2)
Most of these things can be easily addressed by modern-day upgrades. Of course, the same was true in the early 90's when PackardBell was still making crappy PC's. Basically, no modern-day advance will do them any good unless they start putting in good components in there... So, I shall wish them the best, and if one happens to land on my desk by fate, it can hang out and chat with its 386/16 grandpa.
Offtopic? Maybe. Fun? You decide (Score:1)
You've seen the movie! You've learned the kung-fu! You've even developed your own interactive version! Now, get the alcohol poisoning!
THE MATRIX DRINKING GAME [24.42.105.140]
Lose memory now! I'll show you how!
man i'm gonna pay for this one...but i couldn't resist:)
plat
Got Steed? (Score:1)
Re:Real link to Packard Bell article (Score:2)
Not that it matters. Packard Bells worked about as well as that link. We used to call them Packard H*** in tech support.
#VRML V2.0 utf8
extra life (Score:1)
Re:Symphony for printers (Score:1)
it sounds much like a dasiy wheel i used to have.
Either that or they made the carriage move back and forth with nothing to print, and it hit the edges hard? Or it could be individual pins hitting the page.
You, the Reader, Decide!
The American Heritage Dictionary... (Score:1)
Look for yourself. [dictionary.com]
I'd post the pronunciation here, but I don't know how to make i-breves and stuff in html.
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
This is not uncommon. Compaqs, ASTs, home builds, etcetera do this too. Don't know Packard Bell power supplies but replacing the fan is usually very easy ('cept AST cause they put goop on the fan's power plug). Five minute job to replace a fan (like to keep a couple of extra fans on hand).
Re:Extra Life Inventor? Yeah, Like Gore's Internet (Score:1)
Dear CmdrTaco (Score:1)
Thanks.
Re:Packard Bell (Score:1)
not to mention (Score:1)
Re:Real link to Packard Bell article (Score:1)
Yeah, I was wondering how they picked him...
--Joe--
One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!! (Score:3)
"What... What the hell is a Quickiewatt?"
Re:The American Heritage Dictionary... (Score:1)
Re:One Point Twenty-One Quickiewatts!!! (Score:1)
But you're right about the number, 1.21 Jigawatts
Mousepad art? (Score:1)
The Official 5.25" Disk Sleeve Archive [cyberden.com]
they're in good hands (Score:1)
bye,
-jimbo
Bell Canada did a cool thing with mousepads (Score:2)
They made their little add thingie and had it printed on about 50 "pages" of mouse pad like material, had it bound
If one layer got dirty/trashed (they were almost as good as the el cheapo brand pads) then tyou'd just rip it off and have a fresh pad.
Cool 'eh? Mouse pad art in a different way
Aaron "PooF" Matthews
Re:Another quickie: Clinton gave out his passphras (Score:2)
I wonder if anyone's tried to get /etc/passwd from whitehouse.gov released under the Freedom of Information Act?
FOIA has exceptions for national security, and I'm sure that's how they'd argue against releasing that information. Either that, or they'd give you a printout with lots of black rectangles where the sensitive data is. That's always fun.
#VRML V2.0 utf8
Re:Dot Matrix Printers (Score:2)
Is this like slashdot's version of the "numbers" stations
No. All 3 of those stories that were posted in the last 1 day have only a 33% chance of containing hidden meanings for 7 specific individuals.
#VRML V2.0 utf8
Re:Inventor of the Extra Life? I don't think so. (Score:2)
Quickie FAQ Violation (Score:4)
* Something by Eric Raymond
* Something blasting Microsoft
* Something by Eric Raymond blasting Microsoft
* Something about Natalie Portman (close on the SW quickie)
* Something about hot grits (whatever.)
* Something blasting Metallica
* Something trumpeting (heh!) Napster
* Something by Natalie Portman blasting Metallica while eating hot grits
* The Furby Autopsy link that always always always get reposted
* My site, which has funny eBay auctions and only made the quickie list once, and that was a year ago.
* Something blasting Microsoft
* A bad argument about why Jon Katz is a giant giant loser
* A good argument about why Jon Katz is a giant giant loser
* CowboyNeal
Gamespy and the *Extra* Life (Score:2)
case in point: Counterstrike - the extraordinarily popular half-life mod that basically gives you one life. when you die, you're dead. No respawn (at least till the 5 minute or so match has ended).
Perhaps, in a addition to teaching our children about violence, games will begin to teach children about the consequences of violence. It may be a bit basic, but then again, so is the video game violence. - Maybe some of these "violent" video games will show kids that, while violence may seem fun on a TV screen, there are *real* consequences for our actions...people do get hurt, and some times, that person is you.
On one other note. I really want to say thank you to the guys over at Gamespy - that has got to be one of the biggest bang for your buck i've gotten out of any piece of software in a long time. (Linux anyone????) - Really good design, configurability without any learning curve. The only thing i could ask for is a linux port
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network