Tag Archives: hardware

September and the inner demons of detritus

My desktop machine had died overnight. Just like that. No warning. This was not the downtime I had in mind for my holiday. Whilst we took our three furry monsters to the beach, another demon waited for me at home. This was as good a time as any to upgrade my 8-year-old machine. Has it really been that long? Continue reading

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Canis fidelis verum vox

After several years of collecting components and a similar number of weekends of woodwork later, last December I finally completed the Hi‑Fi rack I’ve been wanting since what feels like an eternity. Continue reading

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Of Duke Nukem and aborted laptop ideas

Another use for an old laptop was to turn a donated Thinkpad into a “play-station” dedicated to preserving and showcasing old DOS games. And so, finally, Duke Nukem 3D was completed, start to finish. Continue reading

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Windows Phone is dead

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the iPhone. The first commercial Android device was released a year later; today Android has the largest installed base of any operating system. In 2010 Microsoft also heeded the call with the ill-fated Windows Phone 7 (based on Windows CE). “Too little, too late”, one might say, nor was there an upgrade path to 2014’s superior Windows 8/8.1 generation (now based on Windows NT). And they were pretty damn good. Continue reading

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Hard drives and sponges

Hard drives are the under-appreciated workhorses of a standard PC configuration. The other day I discovered some old documents and specifications about hard drives as well as a bunch of real hard drives in the basement. Here’s a page of tales and photos about seven workhorses getting slaughtered. Continue reading

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The Gadget Graveyard

Let the final order of the old year be the announcement that I’ve added a new chapter to the archive.hmvh.net section: The Gadget Graveyard, where old technology goes to die. I’ve obviously got problems, and hoarding old components is just one. Continue reading

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BBS News: GROUP 2

File Group 2 (Hardware Utilities and Information) is no more. As part of a downscaling and outsourcing operation, Group 2 has been deleted and will, at a personal level, continue to survive on CD-ROM only (under the name of THUD … Continue reading

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BBS News: CHANGES IN THE PIPELINE

The purchase of a certain and fabulous piece of hardware has made it possible for us to increase the storage capacity of our ever-growing collection of JPG images. Additionally, we might change over to OS/2 as the operating platform in … Continue reading

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