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UncleSlacky

1,035 karma · joined February 17, 2016

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UncleSlacky··on Digital Audio on the ZX Spectrum's 1-Bit Beeper
There was also "Meteor Storm":

https://spectrumgamesuk.com/index.php?game=Meteor-Storm

I think it said "Meteor Alert!" or something similar, though the quality was terrible.

UncleSlacky··on Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?
FreeDOS exists, no need for AI:

https://freedos.org/

UncleSlacky··on Used ThinkPad Buyer's Guide (2019)
Yeah, I have a couple of e6220s, one running MX Linux and the other Win 10 IoT LTSC. The MX one is my "road warrior" travel laptop as it's tough and still acceptably fast, but I also don't care too much if gets lost or damaged.
UncleSlacky··on Used ThinkPad Buyer's Guide (2019)
T60 user here - just upgraded the CPU to a T7400 C2D, added an SSD and increased the RAM to 4Gb (3.25 or so usable thanks to Libreboot). It's actually still quite usable. I'm currently running Exe GNU/Linux for a modern yet retro look (Trinity DE), and the 4:3 screen and decent keyboard really make it.
UncleSlacky··on Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties (2001)
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism :

"Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law."

Technically both major parties in the US are liberal parties, it's a "liberal democracy" where they both share a certain set of beliefs, though they may differ on the details. Only in the US is the word used as a slur by one party towards the other.

UncleSlacky··on IBM Bob
Funny, because "bob" is slang for shillings in the old LSD pre-decimal British currency system (coins worth 5 pence in the modern system).
UncleSlacky··on Commodore 64 released September 1, 1982
They had high market shares in countries with much smaller populations than the US, so in terms of number of countries (particularly in Europe and South America), it dominated in far more of them than the C64 did.
UncleSlacky··on RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source
It's based on helloSystem (at least the GUI is), which you may remember from a few years ago?

https://hellosystem.github.io/docs/

UncleSlacky··on EVE Online moves to Python 3
WKRP lives!

https://www.wherethemusicwent.com/stream

https://www.iheart.com/live/wkrp-10724/

UncleSlacky··on France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026
> they filter traffic/block IPs/force website to imposes checks (like age checks) that aren't done elsewhere, block torrents, etc.

Is that with Orange (France Telecom)? I don't have such issues with Free.

UncleSlacky··on Tim Curry has died
Dammit!
UncleSlacky··on Oceans hit highest temperature on record
We'd be using wind and water power, as we've done since well before the Industrial Revolution.
UncleSlacky··on Using an old Android phone as a music player
I use the F-Droid apps Transistor to listen to streaming radio and Antennapod for podcasts on an old phone:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.y20k.transistor/

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/

UncleSlacky··on The Road to MS-DOS 2.0
And BASIC in ROM.
UncleSlacky··on uBlock Origin Is Giving Up the Fight to Keep Ads Off Facebook
Why not just use Fluff Busting Purity?

https://www.fbpurity.com/

UncleSlacky··on ZX Spectrum System Tour: Sound
Some games even used it for (attempted) speech synthesis:

https://spectrumgamesuk.com/index.php?game=Meteor-Storm

"...possibly the first game with speech synthesis, albeit sounding like an unintelligble gargle."

UncleSlacky··on US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search
The well-known country of Europe with its single set of laws? That Europe?

Self-defence can be a valid justification for manslaughter, at least in the UK.

UncleSlacky··on The IBM PC, Part 1: Arrival
And of course, in the UK, every school had at least one BBC Micro (about the only good thing Thatcher ever did).
UncleSlacky··on Amiga 1000: Ten years ahead of its time
The UK also had the Sinclair QL (68008-based) in 1984 for £399, famously owned by Linus Torvalds:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL#Linux

UncleSlacky··on It's a shame what's happened to radio
Lots of Radio 4 programmes are available as podcasts, and it is possible to stream BBC radio outside the UK without a VPN - see the links here:

http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk/

UncleSlacky··on It's a shame what's happened to radio
I quite like the "new" WKRP (in Cincinnati of course), it doesn't seem to be a corporate cookie-cutter kind of station, and it plays the kind of thing the TV version would probably play today (and they even use the same jingles):

https://www.iheart.com/live/wkrp-10724/

UncleSlacky··on Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux
You should run something like Void, Alpine or antiX on these. HaikuOS also runs really well on them if you don't need actual Linux.
UncleSlacky··on Linux on the Atari Jaguar
Also, honourable mention for the Sinclair QL (though it was a 68008 machine).
UncleSlacky··on WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)
https://github.com/lproven/usb-dos

"To get your work off the key, just insert the key into a computer that's already running any more modern OS than DOS."

UncleSlacky··on Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide
Haiku OS is a better choice. Runs great on my eeepc 701 4G with 512Mb RAM.
UncleSlacky··on Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide
Yes, I was surprised that MX didn't get a mention. It's great on anything with 2GB or more.
UncleSlacky··on Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15
You can also emulate a Pi using QEMU to run Mathematica (slowly!) on other platforms, see e.g.

https://www.thelinuxvault.net/blog/how-to-run-the-raspberry-...

UncleSlacky··on A Nipkow Disk Mechanical TV Simulator
Obligatory mention for tvdawn.com, which I've just discovered has gone, but has been archived:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260413085517/https://www.tvdaw...

UncleSlacky··on Entanglement Builds Space-Time. Now "Magic" Gives It Gravity
Well, interesting things are expected to happen above the Schwinger limit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit

UncleSlacky··on Testing the WWI concrete ships and WWII concrete barges
Reminds me of "pykrete" which was also a potential construction material for ships (notably aircraft carriers) proposed during WWII:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete

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