jhallenworld

Always buy the underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. My daughter was hit by a car, the main payout was from my insurance, and not from the person who hit her.

Liability is everything, the cost of the car is nothing. Get the umbrella policy on your house. Buy liability insurance when you rent a car.

It's not just the medical bills- it's also the legal damages.

I don't understand the reset sequence of the KM1801VM1 and VM2, but it's clear for the VM3 (it starts at 0173000 or 026 depending on WO pin).

It looks like it has status signals so that program and data memory spaces can be split, the English translation has this funny comment:

"When working with weapons of mass destruction, system memory is “hidden”, i.e. its addresses in program mode do not occupy RAM address space. "

You should resell them on eBay. IM6100s (PDP-8 CPU on a chip) are going for $50 / each.

Is there a datasheet for these Soviet PDP-11 chips? I mean assuming I want to make something new with it now..

There is one near me, but add $245 for splash guards, $170 for floor mats, and $1115 for "destination fee", so the real price is $17,660. At least they are not adding a dealer markup.

I have slowly rebuilt my wife's old 2000 VW Passat (B5 platform). 232K miles so far.. next year it's officially an antique, can get different plates for it.

Some nice things about this car:

Yes it has a computer, but from just before they serialized everything, so you can easily drop in a replacement (which I've done).

It was used as a taxi in some countries, so spare parts are plentiful.

The complete repair manual is available: https://www.ebay.com/itm/395132634978

I recently repainted it with Rustoleum from Home Depot using a roller (the clear coat had worn off, it looked horrible, but no rust otherwise).

It's always fascinating to see the cheapest new car. In the USA, this is the Nissan Versa for $16130.

But outside the USA, we have the Renault Kwid:

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

~$13,000 in Brazil..

Difficulty: 0 stars safety rating..

Or there is the Fiat Mobi:

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

So you only need to load duplicated code for each different statically linked program. If there are many processes running the same program, they will all share the same physical pages for the code. So for example, having 100s of "bash" instances running does not use that much memory.

You can see this by running "pmap <pid> -XX" (the output is very wide- probably load it into an editor). Look at the shared vs. private pages.

Also: There is another way to automatically share pages between different programs: de-duplication. This would require common libraries to be statically linked on page boundaries. The OS would quickly de-duplicate during loading by hashing the pages. VMs use this technique to increase effective memory when there are many guest OS running.

>A linker typically only includes the parts of the library it needs for each binary so some parts will definately have many copies of the same code when you statically link but it will not make complete copies.

Just to add to what you said: in the old days the linker would include only the .o files in the .a library that were referenced. Really common libraries like libc should be made to have only a single function per .o for this reason.

But modern compilers have link time optimization, which changes everything. The compiler will automatically leave out any items not referenced without regard to .o file boundaries. But more importantly, it can perform more optimizations. Perhaps for a given program a libc function is always called with a constant for a certain argument. The compiler could use this fact to simplify the function.

I'm thinking that you might be giving up quite a lot of performance by using shared libraries, unless you are willing to run the compiler during actual loading.

Even without lto, you can have the same results in C++ by having your library in the form of a template- so the library is fully in the /usr/include header file, with nothing in /usr/lib.

The big achievement of DOS and the 8088 was relocation during loading. For .COM files, this was easy: the program was segment register relative, you pretty much had virtual memory. For .EXE files, MS-DOS relinks all of the absolute segment addresses during the load process.

So this means you could have multiple programs loaded at once: often done with TSRs (terminate and stay resident programs), but it also allowed things like shell windows in Lugaru Emacs (Epsilon) to exist. Languages like Turbo-C had system().

Also the OS was well decoupled from the application programs (it could be independently updated). This was not true for many of the other home computers of the time, but some pulled it off: all CP/M systems and TRS-80. I think the main exception to this was the video system- many programs made assumptions about the address of the screen buffer.

The triple-decker three family is great in that there are windows on four sides and stairs in front and back.

There are also double triple-deckers (six units)- the stairs are shared by two triple-deckers sharing a common wall. Most of these are side by side, but in Worcester, there are also front / back ones like this (134 Elm St.):

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2661816,-71.8159232,3a,75y,1...

or with turrets:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2662587,-71.8167573,3a,75y,2...

The stairs are definitely shared in the side-by-side ones, not sure how it works in these.

So I used to rent in a 10-unit five story brick and wood building with front and back stairs, so I question a bit that the two stair requirement is such a big deal. This building had a central open area, and an old (broken) cage style elevator. Something like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Taboo+Beauty+Salon/@42.264...

Your choice using: 3270, Eclipse IDE or Visual Studio Code.

It needs JCL cards for proper batch processing.

Speaking of mainframes... I ran across this video on the latest workflow for COBOL / CICS development on your IBM mainframe. You have the old 3270 emulation way yes, but then we move into 2010 technology: a custom version of Eclipse IDE that submits the jobs for you, then we move into modern times with Visual Studio Code integration (using something called Zowe CLI):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYUYnKim7U

I went looking for a performance comparison, found this. SDCC looks pretty good, but it doesn't show code size:

https://gglabs.us/node/2293

Also: these old compilers ran on the target system. If all features are supported, the compiler might not fit into memory, and need many passes to work.

I chose C (Turbo-C) because it was much better at strings than Pascal: specifically it had strdup() and their length was not limited to 255 characters. Also C had escape sequences- actually Turbo Pascal had them, not sure about standard Pascal.

I think earlier versions of Pascal had only fixed length space padded strings.

Yeah, 6809 and 8088 (arguably an 8-bit CPU) supported C just fine. The other 8-bits, not so much. I wish the CoCo had been a better computer than it was (crappy keyboard, not a real serial port, terrible video). My Atari 800XL was better except for its CPU.

AT&T PC 6300 also had this level of detail-

https://www.pcjs.org/machines/pcx86/att/6300/

https://www.amazon.com/Model-6300-Computer-SAMS-Computerfact...

For IBM, service parts and information were available due to the famous 1956 consent decree:

https://www.gadgetreview.com/ibm-1956-consent-decree#what-di...

Some ham radio guys with a jet engine in the backyard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsR8pCkSFW4

Runs fine in Ubuntu Linux using Firefox, but not in Google Chrome on my Lenovo Core i7-12700H 32GB laptop with Nvidia T600.

63 of them have been killed:

https://cpj.org/2023/12/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-...

There is one thing you can do as a tax payer: go on strike. Think of what effect this would have on the federal government's tax revenue as well as the effect on the rich and powerful's incomes if half the country did this.

I bring it up because of this news story:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/11/gaza-israel-...

Direct experience? Learning from their parents? Typical young person reaction to perceived injustice? Dangerous to have a differing opinion?

They have internet, but unfortunately it's not a force for moderation.

I've been watching Project Ask recently:

https://www.youtube.com/@CoreyGilShusterAskProject/videos

It's fascinating to hear opinions on the ground from both sides. Some things I've learned or concluded:

Young Palestinians are much more radical than older ones, who seem more flexible.

I personally think the two-state solution is a non-starter, and watched these videos to see if a one state solution is at all viable (meaning make Palestinians into Israeli citizens with full rights- basically the Zionists conquered the land, but they must also take the people). The problem is that neither side wants this.

Many Jewish Israelis think the Arabs would outnumber them due to birth rate, but recently Ultra-Orthodox Jews have an even higher birth rate, and Palestinian birth rate has fallen (I speculate due to increased education). Extremist settlers absolutely won't have it, and there is rampant racism. Palestinians want the Jews gone from their lands, but when pressed would probably accept those of Palestinian descent.

Sadly, I think we are going to continue with the one state with Apartheid. And, an interesting thing has happened in post-Apartheid South Africa: the realization that they are collectively poor, and not a rich first world country. One example from SA is that the electrical infrastructure was sized for only the whites, now that the full population is counted, there is just not enough, it's a big current problem. Any per-capita measurement of Israel should include the Palestinians to see the depth of this problem.

This channel is excellent. Gilles is awesome. I love it when he's shooting grenades while wearing some WWI military outfit.

"Gilles Messier is a former mechanical engineer and current scriptwriter for the YouTube channel Today I Found Out. When not writing, he produces videos on the history of technology for his own channel Our Own Devices, restores historic aircraft, and designs 1920s/1930s Art Deco posters. Calling All Stations is his first novel and the first of a planned 4-part series. Gilles lives in Winnipeg with his two cats."

Also used in a bunch of movie soundtracks:

https://forum.vintagesynth.com/viewtopic.php?t=72349

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnpYowxlwsU

I was trying to find which CPU was used for the DX7.. didn't find it, but did find that Ken Sherriff reverse engineered the sound chips:

https://www.righto.com/2021/11/reverse-engineering-yamaha-dx...

Well I found the schematics: it uses a 6805 and a 6303!

http://www.midimanuals.com/manuals/yamaha/dx7/schematics/yam...

On the 6800/6809: don't forget to look at the Fairlight CMI and the Qasar M8 developed by Tony Furse: the sampling synthesizer that was the sound of the 80s.

This past summer, Tony has been retrieving his 8-inch Motorola Exorciser floppies. He encouraged me to work on my Motorola Exorciser emulator- it now emulates a 6809 version of the Exorciser:

https://github.com/jhallen/exorsim

(check out the long discussions in the issues...)

"Blue Monday" on QasarBeach Fairlight CMI emulator:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXqM7qrkfc

John Cadogan on VW...

https://youtu.be/u1UfDOLk8ic?t=2103

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn0U55n7Vwg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjToFe1oAAI

He's anti-EV, but the main point is pretty good: cars from different companies are all pretty much the same, so the next thing you should look at is the company itself- will they help you after the sale? Are they a good corporate citizen?

Oh, one more:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/29/vw-condemne...

Chevy Bolt?

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/06/my-first-ev-part-iv-202...

Also, at least in Mexico, cartel guns come from the US:

https://www.marketplace.org/2023/10/19/how-a-booming-gun-bus...

The legal situation there is quite interesting:

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