General Stuff(tm)

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Maximilian
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by Maximilian »

stephen_usher wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 1:38 pm The caterer thought that the kebab was free of onion or garlic, and that was the only food they thought was OK, so I had that. A day or so later and the symptoms started. It's quite normal for there to be a delay of a couple of days after eating something for things to start. Usually things die back down to just a few cramps for a couple of months but this time I'm getting the full running to the loo experience, feeling slightly sick and pains. I'm going to have to call the IBD "hotline" at the hospital on Monday. :-(
I feel the pain.
Sounds a lot like IBS, the doctors told me that that one was my enemy.
But just holding on to my diet works good enough,

Having Icecream was the key for me, it wasn't the icecream but the cone that had Soya in it.. the real culprite.
And I also have to watch out for garlec and onions..
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stephen_usher
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

Yeah, Crohn's is IBS on steroids. Actually steroids are one of the treatments. :-)
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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stephen_usher
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

Oh, in other news, I've had a roller-coaster ride with the preparation of machines for Lavecon.

Most of the machines are fine and I've got all the systems which will be running ready (pretty well) now.

However...

The prize for this year's high score competition is one of my spare BBC Micros. I've had a couple given to me over the last year and I just don't have the space for them. So one, which I got late last year and has a massive sideways ROM (and battery-backed RAM/ROM) and Replay unit is being donated to one of the other people exhibiting. Another machine, which I rescued from work almost 25 years ago, will be the prize.

So I set the prize machine up and connected a floppy to it. Would it read disks? Nope! Tried everything. Reseated chips with contact cleaner, everything. Signals seemed to be getting to and from the disk controller.. I just couldn't see what the problems was. So I looked at the schematics and puzzled. I then happened upon the instructions for installing the floppy interface and it mentioned cutting a link wire to allow interrupts. I thin checked on the machine. Low and behold the link wire pulling the interrupt line high hadn't been cut! Whoever installed the floppy interface chips forgot to do it! The machine had obviously never been used with a floppy drive and only ever used as a terminal using software on ROM.

Anyway, the machine works fine now... Then on to the floppy drive.

I have a drive which I rescued at the same time. It's a full-height drive and it's not 40/80 track switchable so I'll never use it. So I bring it down and re-glue one of the feet. Put a cleaner disk in the drive, clean it and then try a floppy... Works! Excellent. Job done. Or so I thought.

Anyway, someone suggested that I write a disk with Elite on it as part of the prize, good idea! I've got "Omnidisk" on the Windows 98 PC in MSDOS mode. Should be easy, right?

Try as I may I couldn't get a working floppy when written by Omnidisk. Tried again and again. Sometimes getting a sort of readable disk and sometimes not.

Now we get to Thursday evening. I thought I'd try again, first formatting the disk on the BBC drive using the Cumana utilities I got with my original floppy drive in late '87. It wouldn't read the disk, "Error 0/80" tried other floppies, mostly "0/80" error, sometimes others. *sigh* Mostly dead drive. (It's a first generation TEAC, the very first floppy drive they produced in 1980/81.)

So, this evening, after it cooled a bit, I went up in the loft to retrieve a box for stuff to take next weekend and also brought down the Cumana drive.

Used the Omnidisk program in BBC mode and write using the "*backup elitebbc.sdd 1" command to write the contents of the 80 track floppy image to the disk, swapped it into the Beeb and... it worked. So, all along the drive was just about marginal and it wasn't the disk copying after all.

Anyway, the upshot is that the prize will just be the Beeb and no floppy drive. Maybe in the far future I'll try to diagnose the old drive, but not now.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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stephen_usher
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

I've now got practically everything ready to take to Lavecon and on my living room floor. No Atari machines this time, well not on the way out anyway...

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I should be picking up a Falcon at the event and now also a Jaguar as of this morning! The prices have been agreed. I'll talk more about this after the event when I know I have them.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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stephen_usher
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Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

It's been busy in the retro-gaming room today and had very little time to take pictures...

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No sign of the bloke who wanted to sell his Falcon and Jaguar though.

P.S. I've just re-read his messages, he's actually booked for tomorrow.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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mrbombermillzy
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Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:37 pm

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by mrbombermillzy »

My nerves would be shot from the anticipation and delay of a deal to buy a Falcon/Jag bundle being prolonged!

From what I can tell @stephen_usher, you are likely less easily excitable than me, so can probably cope with this situation better! :lol:

Hope to hear some great news tomorrow. :D
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stephen_usher
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

They arrived...

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At least the Jaguar works...

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Only two games, the bundled game and Doom.

I've not looked at the Falcon in detail yet but from what the previous owner described the IDE hard disk is a bit unwell at the very least and the clock battery is probably dead but it otherwise works fine.

So, I was being cagey about the price previously, well now I can reveal that I paid £300 for the Falcon and £100 for the Jaguar.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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JezC
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Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:44 pm

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by JezC »

Sounds like a bargain for both bits of kit!

Welcome to the Falcon owners club! :thumbup:
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stephen_usher
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Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by stephen_usher »

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm not really into consoles.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
User avatar
mrbombermillzy
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Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:37 pm

Re: General Stuff(tm)

Post by mrbombermillzy »

stephen_usher wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:04 pm I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm not really into consoles.
If programming is your thing, there's Raptor BASIC/Raptor API that seems to be very good.

Great deal for these BTW! :dualthumbup:
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