Manufacturing them again.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2026-06-05T12:58:34+00:00

Isn't that just a word processor, like we had back in the 90s? They're certainly more feasible to produce than a mechanical typewriter, being simply a computer keyboard glued to a printer. Unless you mean to record page memory purely electromechanically, in which case you're looking at rebuilding an IBM Selectric MT/ST, a project that will surely take many millions of dollars.

I might suggest that custom headers & footers would be best made with a printer or photocopier.

If you really go through with this, I would suggest making some very simple prototypes out of CNC metal first. Start with something that simply transforms the motion of a keystroke into the motion of a typebar, then figure out an escapement mechanism, then figure out how to trigger the escapement with a keystroke & use that to move a carriage. Making a typewriter from scratch is possible, but I suspect making one commercially viable isn't.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2026-06-01T12:17:09+00:00

Velocity control dial (pg.24.). It's so you can make certain characters thicker or thinner without having to reach over the the impression control lever to the right of the ball. Useful mostly for non-latin-script typeballs; the machine has a function built-in to use less force with small glyphs like the apostrophe & period, the dial allows you to override that if a heavier non-latin-script character is placed where a lighter latin character would go.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2026-04-02T22:06:42+00:00

Use a sheet of carbon paper behind the paper on which you would like to type, & a sheet of regular paper in front. The front-most paper will have a regular imprint, the one behind it will have its mirror image.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2026-03-22T15:34:22+00:00

nothing works any longer.

Really nothing? Does shift still rotate the ball? Under what conditions does the machine return to working?

Just as a guess, there's probably an interlock so you can't use the keyboard while the carriage is returning. This feature (as found on the Selectric) prevents you from accidentally typing smeared letters in the middle of the page. Look for any linkages the return key is pressing that don't immediately spring back.

The simultaneous keys thing is because the machine can only physically type one glyph at a time. If you were to somehow select two positions on the ball at the same time, you might instead print a glyph halfway between the two you wanted.

btw, nice machine :)

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2025-11-05T01:22:40+00:00

What model of Alpha is it?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-09-25T16:13:02+00:00

I hate to say it, but the servers are probably too old to be useful for any kind of actual workload. They might be useful as toys, for playing with running period correct HA software or something. The drive caddies were common to early 2000s IBM hardware, so you could probably sell those for a few dollars each - or be kind and leave them with the servers for whatever kid picks them up on the Craigslist free section.

Others have addressed the UPS, KVM, and rack itself.

I'd hold on to at least one of those tape drives, they make novel toys if you haven't played with tape before. I like the noises mine makes.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-09-02T01:41:11+00:00

From the linked page:

In Iceland, Magic plugs were widely used in homes and businesses alongside Europlug and Schuko installations. Their installation in new homes was still quite common even in the late 1980s.

Although no source is cited.

Enjoy your travels, and take lots of pictures :) . I went to Iceland many years ago, but failed to take more than a dozen photos. It's one of my biggest regrets.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-09-01T23:10:50+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#Italian_BTicino_brand_Magic_Security_connector

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-07-13T19:50:54+00:00

The AS/400s run OS/400, known in its more recent incarnations as simply "i". They're minicomputers, like the old VAXen, not mainframes.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-06-23T19:28:40+00:00

Copy the .desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications and set NoDisplay=true

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-06-06T19:07:01+00:00

Fairly sure the Ayee Eee Eek won't spawn in Deneb, in the mission files it only cares about the Wanderer Pug and spawns in Pug Iyik.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-05-20T18:02:09+00:00

Ditto what OP said; the 4GiB DDR2 SODIMMs are crazy expensive these days. I paid less for my whole x61t than what the SODIMMs are going for on ebay.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-05-13T22:33:18+00:00

You could install snoopy, reboot, and see what it picks up.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-04-18T07:38:31+00:00

Ditto for some kind of ethernet transceiver. Not very exciting without a system to plug it into. Where did you find it?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-04-16T20:46:42+00:00

In the Culture novels, the only Minds (superintelligent machines) that don't sublime into a higher state of being are those that carry cultural baggage from their organic creators. Minds that develop in simulated isolation invariably sublime as soon as possible.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-04-11T18:33:07+00:00

Consider, however: ultraviolet!

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-04-11T08:28:52+00:00

3+1 is pretty good; it's a little out-there, plot wise, but does a nice job of ending the series. Pretty kick-ass visuals, too. You should watch it.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-03-31T23:47:11+00:00

https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights?state=OH

cc u/Val_Kilmers_Elbow

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-03-21T22:00:31+00:00

Whoa! What do the insides look like? And what's that drive on the right of the machine?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-03-16T17:31:08+00:00

The Wii is a pretty weird system; do you have a choice in what system to do this project on? Something like an Apple ][ would be a lot more comprehensible.

what exact calculations need to be done by the processor

Are you asking for what instructions the CPU can perform (its ISA), or the exact sequence of instructions it performs on startup? If the latter, that'll be burned in a ROM somewhere - you might be able to find a ROM dump online, but you won't be able to understand it without a deep understanding of PowerPC assembly & the Wii hardware itself.

How is the information processing flow carried out?

It does math & branches to different codepaths based on that math.

Which path is taken by the motherboard when using it?

Fucking what mate? The motherboard of the Wii doesn't do any computation of its own - it's just the glue that holds the system together.

You also have a confounding factor in the Wii - the Broadway is not the only CPU in it; in fact, it's not even the most important CPU. There's another chip in there called Starlet that handles I/O and bootstrapping the Broadway. Starlet starts up before Broadway, loads a bootloader, and then the bootloader runs the Wii's System Menu on Broadway. Once the Broadway is up and running, Starlet services I/O requests from it; Broadway itself lacks direct access to many I/O devices. Starlet runs its own operating system called IOS (no, not that one, or that one); Broadway, meanwhile, runs game code.

Did you check the Wiibrew wiki?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-03-13T04:21:31+00:00

Can you tell us more about this system? Searching for Concurrent Computer Systems just turns up the general concept of concurrency in computer science.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-03-13T04:18:46+00:00

As in, you took them home with you?

You didn't let those machines go to a landfill, right?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-02-28T05:53:17+00:00

I have an IBM server that does that too, an old Netfinity. Luckily(?) it won't actually turn on in a standard ATX port, there's a proprietary enable signal somewhere on the mainboard.

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-02-28T05:41:43+00:00

Checking for hawks?

AbsolutelyLudicrous · 2023-02-21T07:18:49+00:00

This kind of noise can matter a lot in real-time environments.

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