richfiles

I've got backups going back to 0.25. My complaint, is that as amazing as the game is, post 1.0, the reliance of auto struts as a bandaid to fix the wheel issues (specifically, wheels being invisibly auto strutted to the CoM) has destroyed the usability of my docking port based rocker bogey style mega rovers (like Gilly Vanilli). Where in 0.90, it was a flexible, dynamic system that could handle major flexing and stress loads, even at speeds of near 60 M/S, now it's just a rigid board that destroys wheels. I honestly don't know if this ever changed or not. In 0.90, I had done a 1/3 circumnavigation of Minmus in Gilly Vanilli (took three surface science missions, with the destination being my ground base on one of the flats). I really enjoyed the challenge, and had started a Kerbin circumnavigation. 0.90 had some crashing issues, which really sucked. I was excited when 1.0 dropped, and decided to try and continue there (1.0.5 being the last version of KSP I actively played), but was dismayed at my greatest creation being rendered useless, because wheels were now rigid in relation to the CoM. After about 120-140ish Km in 0.90, and restarting the trip or continuing it in 1.0.5 being a non-starter... It kinda just took the wind out of my sails. Roadblocks in my KSP instrument panel also dismayed me. Then work got stupidly insane, including work injuries. I've honestly not played KSP in like 3 years... YEARS! Heck... I'd started producing a video covering my 1/3 circumnavigation Minmus road trip... and just never finished it either. The bleak future for my Gilly Vanilli rover just really killed my drive... I really want to get back into it, but I worry that the one great innovation that I was so excited to put to use... Will still be dead in 1.6 and on. I used to follow the developer posts, but I haven't even looked at them recently. Not hardly at all since the Take Two takeover. I'm looking forward to the day I can replace my main computer. I'm hoping it'll serve as the excuse I need to start fresh and get back into KSP again. As always, I'll edit my "core crew" into whatever save file I create. I'm a sentimental sob like that! Someday... Three years... I am also well aware of how wrong this base is... So very wrong... I also regret not recording the launch. It was a glorious mess of a disaster where nothing broke, but everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong, and yet, I still went to space that day. That was a monster, not just in the number of asparagus stages (13 stacks of the largest tanks, stacked three tall, with the quad engines on most of those stacks), but also because I forgot to have an upright facing command module on it (or sufficient RCS or SAS), and I had to control it by right clicking the engines and manually managing thrust levels. Mechjeb could only stain it's mechanical pants trying to figure that thing out... I had to kill it before it killed the crew. It launched as a single unit. That base was assembled, in it's entirety, in the VAB! I recall the remaining fuel when orbit was achieved so small... I wanna say I had .13 seconds of burn time left. It was a stupidly small number. I had to launch numerous refueling launches just to restock it with enough fuel for getting to and landing on Minmus. It had landing legs (32 of 'em) and drop tanks for landing on small bodies. I think once the drop tanks were released, there was maybe 30 seconds of thrust before you'd better be landed. Yeah... The two Gilly Vanilli rovers were my last major missions in KSP. This vehicle was the secondary. The primary vehicle (obviously) went to Gilly. Aside from those two vehicles in 0.90 and a career restart that got up to some satellites and stations around Kerbin, Eve, and Duna in 1.0.4, really didn't do much after that. I tried to rebuild a new Gilly Vanilli in 1.2, but the auto struts for wheels was still a thing. After that was crazy hours at work. I've literally not actively played KSP since then. It's hard to even wrap my brain around the time that has passed... I have never had a vehicle or satellite ever go further than Kerbin, Eve, or Duna... I always wanted to save the rest of the game for after I built my instrument panel... I feel like I might play it in a decade or two, at this rate...

The invisible Kerman... I see right through you...

Cause if ya are walking around with a toe-tag... Woah... Well, don'tcha be chompin' down on me! I ain't too keen on no zombies, eh. As for my complaint... Two things... I've had pets practically my entire life. I love animals, particularly the fluffy ones that definitely like them scratches behind the ears and the rubs under the chin for being such good floofs! Anyway, over the past few months, I've been playing Pokemon for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, I've also come to a crushing realization... Vulpix and Eevee... Twenty years ago, someone clearly thought "We need to design some cute, adorable creatures for this game. What is the absolutely most adorable concept for a creature that we could ever possibly imagine, that NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY HAVE AS A PET... You know, cause they're imaginary vidja game characters." Seriously... It's a crime that it's probably actually a crime to even attempt to genetically engineer something even remotely close to that adorable as a pet... I will never pat an eevee, or scratch behind a vulpix's ears... Darn you Nintendo!!!1one Warning, you will never be able to tell one of these critters they are a good boy or a good girl... Ever... Soul crushing... Isn'it? My second complaint is a bit more grounded in actual reality, but also something equally unattainable for me... Look at this! I am so jelly... I wish I had the 3D printer that made these prototype parts... I don't even know what these are for! They are so huge, and the print resolution was so high that we thought they'd been machined at first, but then we looked closely at it, and could see the layers. Apparently, this was produced on a very large industrial 3D printer in China. I mean... compare the pieces to the chair and table behind them! Spoilered cause huge high res pics, Incredible detail too hot for innocent mechanical engineers and nerds alike! I still don't even have a cheap consumer grade 3D printer, much less something as incredible as what made this stuff! Oh, and apparently, it's nylon filament. NYLON! I'm told this print took over a day to produce. Considering the beastly size, the number of pieces, and the level of detail, I don't doubt it! I want!

My best friend grew up in New Mexico, before moving up to Southern Minnesota, which is just below North Minnesota, located in the general region of Northern Murica.

I am so jealous... Here, we got a layer of snow so think My car door left an impression when I opened it. It's supposed to snow again by the end of the week, and lightly, but continuously over a few days next week!

You know what... That works even better! I'm gonna blame missing that one on not being a morning person, inexplicably being up in the morning! I immediately went to a method for controlling +/- 5 volt meters, but you're right. As long as the total full range of the meter is within 5 volts, a voltage divider is all that's needed! It's actually driving me crazy that I more or less ran out of room on my panel. I want rate meters so bad now, and never thought to add them initially. I've actually considered an electronic alternative, since I no longer have room for physical meters. There is a very tiny bargraph LED that often gets sold on ebay, sourced from Russia or Ukraine. I've considered buying some of those, and seeing if I can JUUUUST squeeze them in around my navball. You betcha!

I. Am. Impressed! The Drake+Willock looks like a really nice bit of kit! nice having the analog adjustable range limits. Regarding the center zero meters, to drive those, you need to be able to flip the polarity around, and that takes two wires to pull off. One analog and one digital. If your digital wire is your (-) connection, then the way it works, is from 0-0.5v+, you set the digital to 0, and PWM the analog (attached to +) from 0% to 100%. To get the negative range, you set the digital out to 1, and PWM the analog from 100% to 0%. A simple resistor based voltage divider is all you need to set the actual voltage range itself. Honestly, between the 16 +/- 0.5v meters, and the Drake+Willock, I imagine you can display every possible analog function there could possibly be! I have basically 10 analog meters in my plans, and I'm having a hard time finding what more I could do... Rate meters would actually be good uses. That adds three. You could create a vector indicator (like a navball stripped into three separate axes), and still only JUST use those meters alone. For the Drake+Willock meter, to read µA, just put the meter in series with a resistive load and feed that load a voltage. You'll need to calculate what resistance you need. Use Ohm's law. V=I•R, where V is Voltage, I is current in Amps, and r is resistance in Ohms. that's 5 ÷ 0.00004 = 125000 Ohms (Ω), or 125 KΩ. You can fine tune that value by measuring the resistance of the meter. Use a multimeter in resistance mode to measure across the main terminals, and subtract the value from 125000... But a current meter will likely have a low enough resistance across it to be negligible. You probably don't even need to do that, as it's probably a mere fraction of a percent of the value of the resistor you'll use. To wire it, wire a PWM line to the 125KΩ resistor, and the other side of that resistor to the + side of the meter. The - side of the meter should go to ground. The 0-30 volt and the 0-20 volt meters will be difficult for you to work with, possibly not worth your time if you're unfamiliar with driving different voltage levels. If they are rated as displayed, then you actually need to use a 5 volt (or 3.3 volt) microcontroller to drive an actual 0-30 volt signal. That means having a 30 volt power supply, and having low voltage from the micro driving the higher voltage through a transistor or MOSFET of some kind. It's possible, but you gotta get it right. It's also wise to consider isolation, in case of a fault... You don't ever want 30 volts to come through your 5 volt circuit if a transistor blows. Just something to consider. Also, the faces of those round meters may have been "rolled" on. Basically, the metal cover is placed on, and a roller bends over the metal to seal it shut, not too unlike the top of a food or drink can, but probably only single seam, like a bottle cap, but with the entire diameter folded in to seal it. If it's secured like that, then you'd have to cut or deform the metal to open it. Good luck!

What's the problem... Can't you resist clicking it? Don't click this, after all!

Over here, in Minnesota. Come on down, bring trucks, trains, whatever! Load up all you like and TAKE IT AWAY!!! Another 5 inches (12 cm) is supposed to fall tomorrow, or so I've been told... People are rushing to the stores for supplies. This is Minnesota... 2 weeks ago I saw a guy in boxers and no shirt walk out to take out the trash in sub-freezing temperatures... My apartment hasn't had working heat besides my oven and a space heater... Since last winter, apparently. On Thursday, I got my car stuck when I bottomed out on a snow drift. It wasn't even snowing... Just blowing around what we already had! You can't see if traffic is coming down roads anymore, cause the snow plows have pushed up so much snow onto the sides of the roads, that it now tops the eye line in any places. You have to pull out into the lane a little bit to see passed the snow piles. Please, come and take some of our snow!!!

I've bought a few things from GoG, and I intend to do it more often. I never much cared for Steam, but for a while it felt like that was a "necessary evil". I avoided it like the plague for years, then finally gave in, honestly for Farming Simulator and KSP. Thankfully KSP is SANE! On a side note, Pokemon Go had a Valentines day event... One of the tasks was to find a Chansey. I went out in my car twice today, spun the pokestop outside my front door several times... Got my car stuck in a snow drift with 33 MPH winds and 6°F/-14°C temps... I even chilled by the hospital, in hopes it might be a "thematic" spawn (Chansey is always seen with the nurse at the pokecenter in the games and anime)... I was out and about from 4 PM till 11PM... hours and HOURS out in the frigid weather... Well, at least I snagged a porygon out there... I'd been wanting one for a while, and this was the first I'd ever seen out there. Finally, after giving up and going home... A chansey finally spawned once I'd sat down at my computer desk... Really?

I opened steam and got the message "Steam will stop running on MacOS in 0 days" I have not gamed much, outside of playing Pokemon Let's Go on my switch, or Pokemon Go on my phone. Prior to that, I simply didn't have time for gaming, cause I had been putting in 50 hour weeks at my former lab job, and still working a second job at the machine shop Apparently, after supporting Windows XP for a "measly" 18 years, Steam decided to also stop supporting all Mac OS versions older than 5 years old. To put into perspective... Since XP, there has been Vista, 7, 8, and 10. Four primary OS versions since then, in 18 years. On Mac OS, Apple releases a new version EVERY FREAKIN' YEAR, and every year many old (even a old as gasp! ONE YEAR) apps BREAK if they aren't updated to be compliant with whatever changes Apple plonks into the new OS. This isn't even to mention hardware cutoffs, when Apple arbitrarily decides hardware passed a certain date can't be upgraded (It can, with hacks)... Steam decided to cut of ALL Mac OS users who are using an OS older than 2014... Apple has put out in 5 years, the same number of "revisions" Microsoft has done in 18, except those aren't really major revisions in most cases... Apple just has their weird versioning system, and their planned obsolescence. I run 10.10. Since then they have put out 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14... They've been on Mac OS "ten" since the early 2000s! Everything about their stupid versioning is arbitrary! Since I run a Hackintosh, I don't wanna do any update that risks harming my existing install, and since the last time I went from a hard drive to an SSD, it means I now need to buy a second SSD, JUST to safely upgrade my OS, JUST so I can play games, and probably break a bunch of software... Not to mention that on my 2013 era Intel i7 3770k CPU, Mac os 10.14 is gonna be a bear of a slowdown, I'm sure... I'd much prefer apple give their OS away for free to Mac hardware buyers, and offer it for a price to PC owners. At least then installing new versions wouldn't be such a kraken fest! I mean... Once you have your customized boot loader, it works just fine... I've been using this Hackintosh since 2013! In summary... Apple sucks, Steam sucks, and I HATE not having PHYSICAL, LOCAL, DRM FREE copies of my games... Thankfully, as we all know, KSP is one of the few exceptions... I can't thank Squad enough for the fact that this game isn't bound by such absurd limitations! Sadly, that can't be said of most of the rest of my Steam library, but I know this... KSP will ALWAYS be available for me to run, whenever, and wherever I like!

I'll give USB B credit. It is definitely solid. That said, after USB A and B, C is the most solid connector I feel Like I've used. Mini B always felt solid to me as well, but C wins for having higher rated insertions and removals, and for the orientation agnostic nature of the port. Actually, the use of a USB B plug is similar to the instructions for USB A, but with two additional orientations to consider. The Instructions for USB A are as follows... Step 1: Insert into socket. Step 2: Flip around when it fails to insert. Step 3: Flip it back. It was right the first time. You just couldn't line it up right. To utilize USB B, you must add additional pylons steps... Step 1: Insert into socket. Step 2: Rotate 90° when it fails to insert. Step 3: Rotate another 90° when it fails to insert. Step 4: Rotate yet another 90° when it fails to insert. It is important not to throw the device you are attempting to connect, or strangle anyone with the cable. Step 5: Make a full rotation. It was right the first time. You just couldn't line it up right. This is yet another reason why I like USB C: Step 1: Plug it in. It was the right way all along. You realize those straps screw into the case, through the board, so both the connector and the board are solidly secured to the body of the Switch. The plug would still be the weaker point than that connector, but it'd take some force to break it. I couldn't tell you how many times i've knocked my Switch off the desk, by the cord. Two years of that, and it's not showing any signs of notable wear or damage. I've tripped over the cord and launched that thing before. I don't recommend repeating that, but it survived! I do belive the plug would snap before the connector on the Switch would, but unlike USB Micro B, it's robust enough to deal with abuse without just outright failing on the spot. USB Micro B was so thin that the plug could be damaged from even the most minor abuse. USB C doesn't seem to suffer from that same fragility.

Yes. Everything about USB C is more robust. I can't stress that enough. To use the Switch as an example, here's the socket. I'm sure you can buy a cheaper and less reinforced connector, but LOOK at that beast!!! It has a metal screw down strap! One nice improvement for the plug is that the metal shell on every cable i've seen yet is a single, seamless, formed piece (The same way a metal cooking pot, or a beverage can is formed). The plastic insert containing all the pins is inserted into the metal housing, and the edges rolled over to secure it. The base appears more secure, and the plastic bits look thicker too. Also, since it's symmetrical, trying to put it in backwards doesn't mash against the plastic wafer that holds the pins like it would if you flipped a USB Micro plug the wrong way. I've had those get warped... Micro is just flimsy! The front edge of the connector is rolled over, so it easily glides into the opening, it has large, robust metal pins at the edge that help with centering and plug retention, and by the time the plug reaches the socket's pin wafer, it's already aligned. I've never had a USB C go in crooked or jam. Just seeing a modern device still have a USB Micro on it annoys me. I will actively avoid USB Micro.

Is it less prone to fatigue compared to the usual USB-Micro B ? Every USB C connector I've come across so far has been built like a tank in comparison to USB Micro B. It's a little wider, a little thicker, has a very structurally sound hemi-circular side profile, as opposed to the very flat connector used by USB Micro, and even the metal feels like it might be a hair thicker, though that might be just an illusion in how the end of it is rolled over the end of the inner plastic structure. Even ignoring the fact that you can flip the cable around, it has a positive locking feel, and i just find it better overall. Combined with the high speed and high power delivery, no device made today has any excuse to not switch over to USB C. Micro is dead... Just like the dozen USB Micro cables I've had over the numerous years that failed me. My Nintendo Switch still uses the same USB C cable it came with two years ago. Hehe! It goes to show how "make" is such a flexible term, with so many different meanings to different people! It never even occurred to me to consider 3D artwork to be the item being made, and just assumed it was 3D printed. I build things, so to me, make is an act of bringing something into the physical! A fair misunderstanding. I can't actually see what those file's contents are, as I don't have Blender. I wonder if he took the different parts from different files and "assembled" them together in Blender? I could see some people saying they made the final work, assembling it that way. I dunno. Obviously, the guy was trying to impress you. See where it goes. I'd say, don't be too harsh on the guy... Guys tend to be at their absolute dumbest when trying to get a gal's attention!

So... Did he say "I designed this model in Blender and then 3D printed it", or did he say "I made this for you", cause those are two very different things. The second is not a lie. it's semantics. If you plan to build your life around semantics, you will only make life difficult for you and those around you. It's a thing he made on a 3d printer. Just like I don't turn threads on steel dowel stock on my lathe to make screws for a project... I go to the store to get the screws pre-made. Likewise, If I wanted to make something on a 3D printer... well, I'd have to have a 3D printer first ... Okay... But if I did... I'd not consider downloading a file for me to print on my hardware any less making the thing, than if I got screws from the store to put some project together. Now you had mentioned he uses Blender. If he said that he designed the 3D model from scratch, and you have absolute proof he didn't make it, then that's another thing, kinda... The thing is, how different are 3D models for Apollo? If you're going by the official dimensions, then every model will generally end up looking approximately the same. Of course your friend found an Apollo model online, cause they will literally all be almost the same. Even details such as the infill can be changed purely based on print settings. Did your friend find "A" model online, or did your friend find irrefutable proof that the model is built from this exact file with this exact printing anomaly matching this exact 3D model anomaly... Cause remember... All those models strive to not deviate from the proper shape. I'm gonna be entirely honest with you... This sounds paranoid. There. I said it. This type of thing is actually one of the many reasons I don't date. I gave up on even trying some two decades ago, after seeing one relationship collapse after another absolutely destroy people. I don't really trust anyone anymore, and yeah, I absolutely see the irony... That's paranoid too. The difference is you have someone trying to impress you, trying to make you happy, and you're nitpicking "would you download a car" in a world where now you kinda CAN download "a car" (sorry, it's an old meme). I can tell you, that that distrust will slowly poison things. I honestly think you're overcomplicating things. Even the definition of "make" can be fluid for different people. Some people think make means they have to create every part from scratch. Others, make means designing something on blender and printing it. For some, make might mean downloading a model and printing it with their materials and hardware. For others, buying a kit and assembling it is what they count for making. So yeah, I think your trying to shoot down a moving target, and I feel like your boyfriend doesn't even know you see that target on his back. That's my opinion though. I'd be so happy to even have someone willing to make, or even to just "make", something like that for me... Looking in from the outside, I think you're lucky, and that your friend is more likely to mess up a good thing out of over-concern. Enjoy it. If it lasts, then awesome! That's absolutely wonderful! Take things slow and see how they develop. If it doesn't last, then move on and let it be a life lesson... We aren't nearly that complex... I was reminded of this the entire time... Ah, was it possibly a model of the Apollo-Soyuz mission that flew in 1975? It was the last Apollo mission to ever fly, and was an incredible meeting of minds across the "Iron Curtain", at the peak of the cold war. It's incredible that it ever even happened, and yet it did. Truly a symbol of peace between intellectuals, at a time when the governments were still at odds with one another. If the file name was something like Apollo_Soyuz_1975.something, that that'd be understandable. If it's Apollo_Soyez_232341987, or some other thing like that, then yeah, he definitely downloaded it. Like I said, the word make is something that can be very loosely applied. Many people will happily download a file, adjust it for their own 3D printer, print it, and say they made it... I still stand by my original question... Did he say he designed the model, or just that he made it.

Speaking of phones... I love that USB C appears to have replaced the shoddy old USB Micro connector as a modern standard. It's more robust, faster (both for power delivery and data rate), and it doesn't have a right way to plug it in. That said, I only have two USB C chargers in my entire house, the one that came with my Switch, and the one that came with my phone. Let me tell you, a 1 meter phone cord is a slap in the face... So, I was at the store yesterday, and saw USB C extension cables that add 2 meters to the length of a USB C cable. They were branded as Switch accessories, and were only $5. When I rang it up, it was actually only $4! Not bad. The cable feels robust, doesn't appear to be cheaply made, and all around looks like a good purchase. My complaint... It's SO ROBUST of a cable, that it tries to drag my phone with it if I so much as bump the cable. It's a big beefy cable, and it's basically a boat anchor attached to the bottom of my phone. Even worse, since it's an extension cable, and not a regular USB cable, I have to plug it into the existing USB C charger cable. The light end is effectively at the wrong end of this now 3 meter long tripping hazard.

I love my new phone, but after a month of using it, I wish so much that they had added 1 mm to it's thickness, cause I bet you that would have made the battery that much thicker... Yes, I get it... Fast charging is great, I can plug in and top off more easily... BUT I DON'T WANT TO!!! I want to plug in overnight, and have a phone that doesn't reach teen percentages by the end of the day! This phone is HALF the thickness of my last phone, and it was half the thickness of the one I had before it... I mean... Enough is enough! I'd rather bring it back a bit! I want my phone's battery to be T H I C C !!! Given that I picked up Pokemon Go on said new phone, I at least have one motivation to move... I have a Pokestop 50 meters in front of my front door. Free items every 5 minutes! Also, the game has the following requirements for my progression... "Catch a Ditto" "Evolve a Grimer" "Make 3 New Friends" Great... I find no dittos, find no grimers... Dittos appear as low level pokemon and change after capture... Joy! I'm wasting my pokeballs on low level fodder, and grimers just simply aren't spawning at all... As if I had many pokeballs left if I even saw one. Of course, I'm just screwed on that last one... No one I know plays this! Good Lord... What do they expect me to do... Socialize!?! Of course... Since it's Minnesota, land of 10000 flakes/m2, it's a feat of acrobatics to walk even that 50 meters! I took the trash out (which is conveniently 45 of those 50 meters), and promptly danced a little jig the second my feet hit the hard packed icy snow. Managed to not fall, drop my trash, or my phone, but my knee is pretty sore now...

Same... @ExpandDong... I worked from 5AM till 8PM yesterday... Today, I let myself sleep in for a solid 8 hours... Nope! I just got up, went back to bed another two, and then lazed the rest of my day away. Honestly, i went to the store with a friend, just to make myself move. LOL

First, OUCH!!! I work for a company the builds brushless motors. I've been in that industry since 2001. I can vouch for the capability of some of those motors. The ones I used to work on at my first motor manufacturing job had servo drives that ran on 3-phase AC, and drove the motors at 295 volts at up to 30 amps continuous, 45 amps peak, driving 3-8 inch diameter rotors with motor housings (including magnets) being 8 inches up to just over a foot in diameter and a foot to a foot and a half long (that's just the stator length, the motors were closer to 2 feet long, to accommodate for the sensor hardware). A touch bigger than what you were using. Definitely powerful. You could reverse it, even at full speed, and you only saw the shaft for a fraction of a second before it was already at full speed the other direction. Crazy torque! Also amazing how it can hold torque, even when stopped, thanks to the closed loop feedback. We used to use an analog tachometer for torque feedback, and hall sensors for commutation. Yeah, you painted quite the picture in words! Is the elevator for staging or storage, for some in layout structure, or is the layout a split level layout, or something else entirely... Or did I miss you actually saying what it was for? Either way, it sounds like an incredible layout. What scale? Pics anywhere? I do N scale, but have no layout... Only trains and buildings. It's what I have space for at the moment. Back when I had two jobs and no time, I was buying up all the cool stuff, while I could afford it. Now I have time, and one job, but a whole lot less money. Might have to switch to buildings again... Scratch building can be done on the cheap!

Saw all those rings, and I was just waiting for a devastating snap!

The boatloader runs immediately after the POST, when the BIOS starts loading a boot drive. It loads before the OS, to tell the OS that "Yeeeees... This is totally a legit an Apple machine... Honest! Just use these drivers, not your stock stuff, and run this kernel patch... okay, good, now you're a Mac". Then Mac OS starts up, once it's been tweaked enough that it'll run on stock standard PC hardware. Those flags are what boots me in verbose mode (text booting, rather than the "shiny" but uselessly uninformative grey apple logo with a progress bar), and loads my Nvidia drivers. I rather like my 980ti to NOT lock me to a single low resolution with no graphics acceleration. The driver's pretty important. All this happens before the OS itself loads. I am very concerned about signal integrity and what feeding SATA data signals through a relay would do. SATA uses differential signaling, typically with two pairs of individually shielded conductors, often twin-axial, in good cables. Not having the appropriate shielding and electrical characteristics could allow noise to be introduced into the signal, reducing or preventing reliable transmission speeds or capacities, especially with higher speed SATA connections. The issue with the machine, is it's not a real Mac, and the motherboard is from 2013. Something in the BIOS, even though the board has it's latest BIOS, or the SATA controller, just does not like some aspect of that 8 TB hard drive. I think the board may just be too old to be able to handle volumes of that size. Once it's passed the boot process, the OS has no problem dealing with it. I was planning on making this the year I replaced it, but with my job loss, that's not looking likely. My HP color laser printer does the same network garbage... What's the point of having WiFi printing, if I have to turn it off, and then back on again to get it to work after 15 minutes! Ugh!

A while back, I bought an 8 TB hard dive, cause I was running out of space (I have a lot of video on my machine, and have multiple 2 TB, two 3 TB, a 4 TB, and a 6 TB drive already full). Something about my hardware is just... NOT compatible with that drive, and the BIOS will hang right after post, when it starts looking for a boot drive, if I boot with it attached. I have to PHYSICALLY detach the SATA cable (which I have configured as eSATA to allow hot swapping), power up or reset the computer, let my Hackintosh boot loader load up (cause it hangs too, if the drive is plugged in), manually type in my "-v" and "nvda_drv=1" flags (cause I'm too much of a derp to figure out how to get them to be saved permanently), and once the boatloader has started booting from my Mac OS drive, THEN I can plug in the SATA cable, and the drive operates normally within the OS. It's... Inconvenient and troubling... Enough that I hate restarting my computer. I'll go months between restarts... Unfortunately, my power went out yesterday. Well, I derped... I grabbed the power cable, not the SATA cable, and went through that. Drive didn't mount. Went into my Disc Utilities software, saw the drive, but with no volume name, only the disc ID. Tried to mount... Nope. Tried to verify... Nope... Disc needs repairs. Tried to repair... NOPE! Disk Utility can not repair this disc. Backup files and reformat disc. It was able to load the disc as Read Only, but at this point, I'd already figured something happened with the boot process... I hoped. Drive is already more full than not. I did a restart, this time pulling the SATA cable, and not the power cable. When the computer was booted again, the drive mounted properly, as a read/write drive, and I checked it with Disc Utility. It did detect some corruption in about a dozen files, and in part of the directory structure, but it was able to rebuild the directory. Really hate those unexpected power failures. Hate even more that "Oh God, did I just lose 4.1 TB!" feeling!

Oh, a Curta is definitely my second holy grail for mechanical calculating machines, mainly for it's elegance, size, and the incredible story of it's creator. The reason it's not at the top, is mainly cause they are not actually rare. A good many curtal were sold, and they are generally always available, if you have the cash to fork over for one. As for my first choice of holy grail for a mechanical calculator... That would be the Friden SRW 10. This thing has one key press square root calculation, and is 100% mechanical. You enter your number on the main keyboard, then press a single key at the bottom row to indicate where the decimal point is, and it'll spit out a square root! If you are wondering how decimals are handled for other calculations... That's handled up at the top carriage. Really proficient users of these could take advantage of the fact that you could enter entire numbers simultaneously, using up to all 10 fingers at once, pressing multiple digits simultaneously. Needless to say, not many of these are around... They were rare when new, expensive when new, and so complex, that I think the Old Calculator Museum only knows of three working examples. I'll probably never have a chance to own one. === And to anyone curious about the machine I'd mentioned earlier, the HP 9100, this is it, with the printer accessory. A broken version of this is what I saw on ebay right now. I want one so bad, but it's out of my league! This one is entirely electronic. CRT display, scientific functionality, programable, expandable, with magnetic card strip based data saving capacity. It allowed for self modifying programs, and was blackout safe... You could turn it off, even mid calculation, and when you turned it back on, it'd continue without a hitch, error free! It was released in 1968, when slide rules were still king. There is not ONE SINGLE DIGITAL CHIP inside of it! All the logic is done with transistor based flip-flops, and resistor-diode logic gates. The RAM is magnetic core memory (each bit is made from a single ferrite bead woven into a mesh of wires). The unit has two ROMs... The control ROM is 1.8k bits (64 29-bit words) and used a wire braid toroidal core design... Kinda like a non-rewritable core memory. The main ROM was 32K bits (512 64-bit words) and contained the main microcode program that allowed the calculator to function. Back in 1968, the traditional way to make a ROM was to use individual diodes, but a diode cost about 25 cents back then. Assuming an average of half ones and half zeroes, a 32Kbit ROM could take possibly 16000 diodes, or in other words, be physically massive and take possibly $4000 in diodes alone (in 1968 money), on top of the already high cost of the rest of the machine! The solution to this dilemma was genius! The program ROM was built on a 16 layer printed circuit board and achieved a density of 1000 bits per square inch. Pulses were sent down drive lines and were inductively coupled onto a differential pair of sense lines. Based on whether the drive wires "zigged" or "zagged", this produced either a 1 or 0 based on the polarity detected on the sense lines. 64 sense amplifier/latch circuits read the results and in turn drove the calculator's logic circuits. The engineers went from requiring an estimated 16000 diodes on a circuit board to requiring absolutely no components at all on the circuit board to store the 32-Kbits of data! The only components required are the line drivers and sense circuits at the edge of the ROM, reading it's componentless contents! Now that's a stroke of genius! ... And I CAN'T AFFORD even a BROKEN one!!!

Hehe. I live there, and my heat isn't working... Pic related. The boiler sprung a leak, and has been slowly rotting the floor. Yesterday, it went from long soak to steady dripping and dropped pressure. Also, cause I grew up in Minnesota... I still went outside to catch some Pokemon on my phone.

Just saw an HP 9100A calculator go up on ebay... It's my holy grail. My dream machine. My most sought after masterpiece of constrained engineering... My... GOD it's expensive! Starting bid is $1999, and I know from past experience, that that's a fair price... It doesn't even WORK, and yes... That's STILL a fair starting bid!?! I want it SO BAD... I've never been able to afford one, and I don't live anywhere near where these would be discarded... And yes, I've read stories of people just picking these up for nothing. That's what drives me crazy... That they are out there, out of my reach. Ugh... To make matters worse, the seller starts out their description with the WORST POSSIBLE THING... "Everything powers ON!!!!! The display of the calculator is out, however, I have not fiddled with it or opened the machine up." NOOOOoooo........ Let's see... You have a 51 year old piece of electronics in unknown condition, with a high voltage power supply and a glass CRT. You've never opened it up, never tested the condition of any of the parts... and you just apply line voltage to it and see if it comes on!?!? NO! That is how you turn small problems into forever problems! The HP 9100A and 9100B have a unique CRT... NO other device used that CRT, and it is irreplaceable. It's so rare that people have actually taken damaged CRTs to glass signage shops (neon sign makers) and paid to actually repair the CRT itself! There is a very fragile glass support inside the CRT that can be easily broken if the machine is dropped or impacted hard enough. If it moves a certain way, it can short the beam deflection plates to the anode, pumping high voltage into the logic circuits... It's a CATASTROPHIC failure, if that ever occurs. Even if that's okay, it's best to TEST for it before powering on, just to not take that gamble. Likewise with he power supply. 51 year old electrolytic capacitors are definitely past their use by date. Any one of them could fail as a short, an open, or even explode! It's not with the instant gratification of seeing the thing MAYBE power up, when you have literal ticking time bombs inside the machine, waiting to ruin your day, and possibly spray foil and paper confetti all over your high voltage circuits and logic, or possibly short out something. I know it's because of ignorance... People just don't know better, but it's SO discouraging to see people randomly power on vintage electronics as if it were as ready to run as something brand new! Nothing lasts forever. It'd be like cranking an engine for the first time in 51 years and just letting it run... Are you really gonna trust that 51 year old oil? Are ya not even gonna think about pre-lubricating the reciprocating and rotating parts, even that they've certainly all gone dry in five decades... Electronics is the same... Certain things do not stand the test of time. There's basic maintenance that ought to be done to make sure those electrons are corralled correctly... Don't need an electron stampede ruining your day, and your device!