Diiiiirty

Non-VW related chat - Moderated
Tahrey1043
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 5184
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 1:15 am
Location: Birmingham! Enjoys: The pseudo-G-Smiles provided by a 1.6 Megane Sport valver...
Contact:

Post by Tahrey1043 »

Here's a fun fact for you - the keyboard i'm using is SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD if not more. And i can take photos to prove it. Not bad going eh? Even more impressive, it's got Made in USA on it rather than Wolfsburg hehe :shock:

I wouldnt have had to type all that stuff if the car wasn't so full of crap however - that really is what i found. Needed more than five trips to retrieve it all, not counting the sleeping bag and spare carpet rolls. Amazing thing is it didn't look at all messy from the usual perspectives...
carmadaaron
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 4350
Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:55 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by carmadaaron »

:shock: 17???

wow... must b good quality inthose days! is it made of metal?
Tahrey1043
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 5184
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 1:15 am
Location: Birmingham! Enjoys: The pseudo-G-Smiles provided by a 1.6 Megane Sport valver...
Contact:

Post by Tahrey1043 »

*cough* whoops *cough*

I can't count :D

Image

28th August 1989, so 15 years and some months. The computer it came with however had an internal date sticker (probably for warranty purposes) that read 1987... guess the first keyboard was crap!

Zoom....
Image

(just so you know it da troot)

flip...
Image

proof positive it's old - no stupid Windows keys :D
and all the function-type keys are dark coloured!

re-zoom...
Image Image
plus a set of switches not only to choose between AT/286 (102 key) and XT/086 (84 key) modes, but also to swap the ctrl and caps keys back to their oldskool positions (which i havent done, only because there arent any suitable size replacement keytops!) ... plus the logo of a looooooong defunct computer corp.

Wierd really - it came from a 12mhz 286 with a stonking 640kb ram (& 2 empty simm slots), a barely-used 40mb hard disc, 5 inch floppy and a "hi rez" (720x350) amber monitor. Hulking great thing must have cost about 3 or 4 grand at the time -- job could have been done far better by a 400 quid, HD-less, 1mb Amiga or Atari, and a single box of 3-inch floppies. But that's business for you.
PS the VW key is in place of the F2 key, which disappeared one night. Baffling.
carmadaaron
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 4350
Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:55 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by carmadaaron »

uve got a really old monitor and keyboard! ive never seen old comps for quite a while
KarlM
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 2353
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 11:11 pm
Location: Sheffield
Contact:

Post by KarlM »

i cant believe a keyboard that old has survived Marks posts.

they dont build em like they used to!
carmadaaron
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 4350
Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:55 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by carmadaaron »

yep i agree! :lol:
KarlM
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 2353
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 11:11 pm
Location: Sheffield
Contact:

Post by KarlM »

this button...

Image
Tahrey1043
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 5184
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 1:15 am
Location: Birmingham! Enjoys: The pseudo-G-Smiles provided by a 1.6 Megane Sport valver...
Contact:

Post by Tahrey1043 »

If only I could get the ST reliably working again I'd give the 19 year old board on that a bit of an experimental bash-to. (well, possibly 19 -- its a vintage model with TOS version 1.0, dated... 20th Nov 1985.. they upgraded to v1.2 early in '86). Ironically enough, it's main current malfunction is a dicky keyboard chip that keeps overheating and failing, taking KB/mouse/joysticks/disk drive/etc with it. It never got that taxed originally by typing, but had to deal with a lot of input for what was probably a re-jigged 505 timer chip :lol:

Nothing much ancient with the monitor - granted its a bogstandard 15" Dell CRT that I bought for forty quid on ebay at least a couple years ago (to replace a busted Compaq which i'd had for about a month... long enough for the 2nd-hand shop's guarantee to run out .... i think i must have got it not long after starting my 3rd year at uni).
There's owt wrong with it save for a couple of annoying scratches, of the type my new phone already has on it's own screen. Endlessly reliable, bright sharp picture, and will run at all resolutions and refresh rate combinations i care to find useful (ie text mode, 1024x768 at 75hz most the time, the odd jaunt up to 1280x1024, and occasional drop to 800x600 for games). About as outdated as a glazed ceramic mug (ie they still make em, and the one you have might be quite old, but you'll never be able to tell save for some minor cosmetic clues)...
That said an LCD wouldn't go amiss for reasons of space saving (says he with an HUGE tower case), easiness on the eyes and energy efficiency, and sharpness, now that they're affordable and much better quality than the first-gen ones.... and now that im no longer pinging up and down the resolutions as much as i used to. (hate hate hate the effect of an LCD displaying in a non-native resolution! looks super ugly!)

the sticker btw is a souvenir from bangor - its one of a few inter-library loan tokens that a lecturer gifted me. they're worth a fiver a pop, and ive still got a couple spare!
Loonball
Bronze Member
Posts: 159
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:30 pm
Location: ON SET

Post by Loonball »

i've got 2 Atari ST's in the room next to me both in full working order
Krupa
Gold Member
Posts: 862
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 6:39 pm
Location: Cardiff Drives: G40 Coupe
Contact:

Post by Krupa »

Talk about a thread hijack!

Got an old Dell keyboard somewhere that goes with my 1995 Dell monitor, and that has no Windows button, but it's horrible to use, the keys are really stiff so I've got a (now old) Microsoft Keyboard.

This gives me an idea for a thread... :lol:
carmadaaron
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 4350
Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:55 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by carmadaaron »

no windows button? just press ctrl and esc at the same time :wink:
Krupa
Gold Member
Posts: 862
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 6:39 pm
Location: Cardiff Drives: G40 Coupe
Contact:

Post by Krupa »

I still do. :lol:
User avatar
bstardchild
Moderator
Posts: 3057
Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2004 9:53 pm
Location: Norfolk - "Its just Black & Dirty"

Post by bstardchild »

carmadaaron wrote:no windows button? just press ctrl and esc at the same time :wink:
Learn summut new everyday!!! Ta

Mind you remembering it will be tricky!!!
Tahrey1043
Bling Bling Diamond Member
Posts: 5184
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 1:15 am
Location: Birmingham! Enjoys: The pseudo-G-Smiles provided by a 1.6 Megane Sport valver...
Contact:

Post by Tahrey1043 »

Yep and Alt-Space for *whatever you call that other annoying button*

Though to be honest i never use either of them (alt-space or the button that is).

Ctrl-Esc continues to be endlessly reliable however. That's the combination for the task manager in windows 3.1 as well ;)

And alt-tab (anyone still use that since the rise of the taskbar? i think it's died out), alt-enter, etc etc....

That "Oh Sh*t" button - does it shortcut Ctrl-Alt-Del? :D

(The key weight is perfect (this thing probably cost at least £150 at the time), and luckily i rarely have use for a F2 button... one thing i'd like is a slightly more positive action and a "click", similar to the control keyboard for one of the scanner gantries at work. never get away with my late night type fests then, though!)
SiDaBa
Sponsor
Posts: 1494
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 12:45 am
Location: Crayford, Kent, UK
Contact:

Post by SiDaBa »

Just to bring this subject back up and return it to it's original purpose. At the weekend my car reminded me of this post. It was truly the worst it's ever been.

Image

Image

Image

Image

This was done in a total of one week.

Saturday - i cleaned the car

Sunday - Drove to Donnington Park (300miles round trip)

Monday - Work (45 Miles round trip)

Tuesday - Work (45 Miles round trip)

Wednesday - Work (45 Miles round trip)

Thursday - Work (45 Miles round trip)

Friday - Car's Day of rest

Saturday - Norwich and back (240 miles round trip)

An impressive 720 miles in a week (impressive for me) so really it's no surprise. However the only day it looked bad was on the way up to norwich where it picked up all the black colour.

And what i'm most impressed by is that for once my rear wheels were dirtier than my front wheels :?
Post Reply