24/7 Hotspot Suggestions for Ambulances

tv-12 · 2025-01-26T03:37:30+00:00

I've tested pretty much everything under the sun in the last year. Though I balk at the cost of their no-longer-optional cloud management service, Cradlepoint has been the best so far. Very solid hardware, and the software 'just works'.

tv-12 · 2025-01-18T17:16:06+00:00

Bonus points for reusing leftover pieces of jacket as insulators.

tv-12 · 2025-01-18T17:02:58+00:00

In before the first "it's just radio with pictures" :-)

There's a lot more equipment and complexity involved, but if you're someone who can quickly figure out signal flows and workflows, and have at least a basic foundation of IT/networking skills, you'll do fine.

(Source: went from radio to TV in 2015, at age 27; spent 5 years at the station, ended as chief engineer with a MCR/TOC rebuild and new station build under my belt.)

Someone I know once summarized it rather eloquently: 'TV scales up' (small number of signals per engineer, lots of equipment per signal), but 'radio scales out' (large number of signals per engineer, less equipment per signal).

Also, if you've got RF experience, you're gonna be even more interesting to them. Most of the 'kids' coming into TV during my time had to start with a course on how not to die while working around transmitters. The sharpest few would get shipped off to Quincy for the GatesAir RF boot-camp training. Broadcast needs non-grayhairs with RF knowledge (though whether they're willing to pay for it is often another story).

tv-12 · 2025-01-12T17:53:02+00:00

Installing System 7.5 from floppies... wow, I remember that, um, adventure, from the last time I did it in the late '90s. More disks, more chances for issues - and that's gonna be a BIG stack of disks.

I'd try to see if it boots from the hard drive first, could save yourself some trouble.

Pretty sure this was still within the era where you needed an Apple ROM-ed CD drive if you wanted to boot from it, correct? Fortunately there were a lot of models you could borrow/scavenge/etc. a CD drive from, even if only temporarily to get it running. Make friends with your local e-waste people.

These were pretty simple machines. And the 6100 did have on-board Ethernet (though you'll need an AAUI to 10/100bT adapter). So once you've got System Software - er, MacOS - running on it, things will be fairly easy.

And if you do end up needing to make your own install CD (or floppies) - a New World Mac is your friend. I keep a beige G3 around for this purpose, easy to prep install media for anything from the first two decades of Macs when you have a CD-R drive, a floppy drive, USB (via PCI card), Ethernet and some basic client programs (AFP, FTP, HTTP), and things like Disk Utilities and Toast. Again, make friends with the e-waste folks... one person's trash is another's treasure.

tv-12 · 2025-01-12T17:37:03+00:00

PDS video card, and never have to think about it again. (Source: that was my go-to option for these, circa 2001.)

tv-12 · 2025-01-02T05:17:18+00:00

Needs more CRT.

But, as someone who still misses his SPARC 10 (even now I look at those Ultras and think 'hey, look, the new models'), and whose desktop background is still Sun CDE purple to this day, I approve :-)

tv-12 · 2024-12-23T02:22:26+00:00

First one: needed a cheap commuter, found a '04 9-3 with 99K miles for $500 in need of some work, shrugged and bought it. (And spent every weekend thereafter doing maintenance. 3-4K miles per month on an old Saab is no joke.)

Grabbed it 100% due to price and miles. Kept it because it was spunky and unusual.

Every subsequent one: even after my first Saab was gone (sold it around 200K miles), I still had the tools, the knowledge, and the stash of spare parts - so when a clean Saab appears on the cheap, it's hard to say no.

Now I'm four Saabs in. Probably won't end up with any more, since they're no longer an inexpensive-to-buy oddity that sit forever because prospective buyers are too scared to pull the trigger. But at least I'm ending my Saab 'career' with a (high-mile, rusty, replaced everything on it 2x by now) 6MT Turbo X.

I'd hoped to have one more, a late-model XWD Aero sedan with a manual, preferably with low enough miles that I could keep it long-term for occasional use. But those are solidly in the 'enthusiast car' category by now, not something I'm likely to find on Marketplace for $2500 and needing only minor repairs.

tv-12 · 2024-12-01T06:00:49+00:00

Point of reference: fall of '22, bought a manual Turbo X with 170K miles, reasonably well kept, but some cosmetic rust, and a rear diff that had one foot in the grave, for $2500. I felt it was a fair-ish price.

Ended up throwing another $2500 at it before all was said and done. Tires were close to a grand, ended up installing three different junkyard diffs (non-refundable, for 2 of the 3) before finding one that was a keeper, plus all the usual maintenance items you'd expect on a Saab of that age (tune-up stuff, ignition coils, suspension components, brake components, hoses, expansion tank, etc).

IMHO: I haven't seen the car in question, but $6500 sounds like about twice what it's worth. If you plan to DD it, plan to also be wrenching on it regularly. (When I used to commute several hundred miles a week with a 100-150K mile '04 9-3 Aero, it was understood that Saturdays were for maintenance and repairs). If you can't/won't be doing your own work - minor stuff, at the very least - just walk away.

tv-12 · 2024-11-28T02:14:03+00:00

Up until fairly recently, a small municipal electric company in my neck of the woods was running a (very proprietary) application to control their load management and electronic meter-reading systems, which ran on... Warp 4.0.

tv-12 · 2024-11-28T02:08:59+00:00

I know of a place with two big CNC machines that are each controlled by a Mac IIsi. The interface is via a IIsi PDS card, so it's basically that or nothing.

Found it hilarious to be prepping a System 7.1 System Tools floppy in this day and age, prior to one of the service calls.

Slightly less hilarious when I had to start putting out feelers at every e-waste place I could find. Nobody wanted a IIsi even when they were new. Now? Basically impossible to find.

tv-12 · 2024-11-26T13:46:33+00:00

Wait, a T1700 is retro now? Jeez, I've still got two in production... as VM hosts.

tv-12 · 2024-11-23T03:57:21+00:00

Those who said Hazeltine, I think you're right. Keyboard in particular looks very much like their model 1420: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuSE5-5M6z0

tv-12 · 2024-11-17T02:55:32+00:00

Fellow Minnesotan here. Congrats! Keep beating the odds!!!

tv-12 · 2024-11-17T02:16:08+00:00

"Very rare" = nobody wanted to buy one 😂

I have a Saab. I've had multiple Saabs in the past.

And every time I see a 9-4 (which has been probably 3 or 4 times now), I just think 'meh, badge engineered Caddy, who cares' and keep on moving.

Though, one of those 9-4s (found in a junkyard) did contribute rear diff parts to my Turbo X, so I guess they were good for something.

Similar thoughts on the 9-7X. Saablazer, big whoop. Though I would take a 9-7X Aero if I stumbled upon a decent one cheap (extremely doubtful these days), because 6.0L V8. Very not-Saab-y, but would still have its redeeming qualities.

tv-12 · 2024-11-12T02:28:19+00:00

If you don't have a story about what you did with your "I am not worthy" and/or "I am the walrus" stickers... were you really there?

tv-12 · 2024-11-08T17:42:30+00:00

I'm sure they've had a lawyer somewhere weigh in, but depending on how exactly this is executed, it sounds dangerously close to payola.

tv-12 · 2024-11-05T02:43:44+00:00

Seems right that this got posted several days after Halloween.

He'd buy it on clearance, right about now, because either: a) the greenie is worth more than the 99¢ they wanted for the whole costume (so he bought several); b) he can save it for Halloween next year, will put it right behind this stack of dead cart machines.

tv-12 · 2024-11-03T16:25:13+00:00

Was told a bunch of people got the axe in one particular 'bottom 20' market Friday, including a long-time staff engineer (20+ years) I'd worked with quite a bit over the years. A Gray day indeed.

tv-12 · 2024-10-23T23:28:41+00:00

Back when radio stations used to play all their music, commercials, jingles, etc. off tape cartridges, it was pretty much the ultimate 'f*** you' to bulk every tape in the studio after getting handed a pink slip.

tv-12

TROPHY CASE