Re: Why would one ...
The guy that cooked the chicken?
91 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2013
Thorn/ DER/Radio Rentals/Ferguson released 2 chassis which ran for 8 years or so in the 70's. The 3000 and 8000 series. The 19" were blue gun down. Model 3703 and 6713. Changed no end of tubes which were straight imported from RCA USA. I think the 22" and 26" may have been the same. I don't think that made any difference. This was in the UK.
Wrong RCA invented the shadowmask tube in the late 40's and went into mass production in the early 50's. The first colour CRT's were round. I used to repair TV and monitors in the home and in the workshop. I worked for a Sony agent in Peterborough Cambs and could align a trinitron tube in 20 mins. I also could get a factory one far better than how the factory girls and guys got the convergence and geometry. They used to call me Sony Tony. Tubes were indeed set to North or Southern hemisphere and the earths magnetic field was different. You may have been able to have used a 14" CRT with a regular dot pitch in the wrong hemisphere but a PC monitor or a large 32" 36" CRT would have had serious purity issues. I started fixing colour TV's with delta guns, then PIL tubes where the electron guns were horizontal which removed horizontal convergence. As tube and yolk (scan coils and magnets) got better convergence was engineered out. In 50 years colour crt's went from dim with poor convergence and the corners to bright with almost perfect colour registration. Now we have LCD and OLED. Plasma was way too complex for 1080p and too heavy and I hated them. I think a well set up LCD with LED lighting is superb and wonder what the next twenty years will bring.
I disagree I have a Dell T3400 with a Gigabyte 9800 1GB connected to a Samsung 40" TV via a DVI to HDMI cable and it does indeed pass audio. There is even a connector on the Graphics card to connect to the Sound cards digital audio out. This is on a 10 year old PC running Windows 10 for CD, DVD and Blu Ray playback but has the audio on HDMI to the TV for wife mode when I want to play a DVD but don't want to fool with the receiver. Why do we need so many remotes? Many Video cards do produce audio from the DVI but the cable needs to be fully wired.
This would be exactly what caused it. Back in the mists of time in the 2000's I worked for Thomson USA who made RCA and GE TV sets. A certain movie played on FOX and at a certain point in the movie all RCA TV's with a certain version of software lost there audio. 3 Hours later this happened on the West coast. Lots of head scratching and finger pointing at FOX network who transmitted a malformed close caption signal which is fed to the micro and over wrote the audio buffer sections of the micro with garbage. Power off at the wall socket and everything reset back to normal. Turns out this was widespread and the broadcasters had lots of garbage in the Close Captions. A VHS recording would cause the audio to go off again. RCA got the broadcasters to tighten up the Close captioning and the issue went away. Close captions = Oracle + Ceefax subtitles on 888.
I found it ran OK but there were far too many workarounds with the Start Menu and File explorer for it to be usable. I have a large collection of music FLAC files and there are folder icons of the image of the CD/ LP case. Imagine my surprise when I found out to make the system more streamlined they removed the preview from all the folder icons. Music and photos look the same. I thought that is it and rolled back to 10 which I only upgraded to in January 2020. I have advice to Windows 11 potential users. Don't bother it is a frustrating waste of time.
Got my 2 main systems running 24/7 and added a third PC that was not in use. Ryzen 2700X and a EVGA 970 an 8350 and EVGA 960 and a 8320 and a Gigabyte Gt450. In less than 24 hours got 65K points. Have a Radeon HD7770 sitting spare but not sure about to different video cards in one machine. May be I'll have to knock up a system out of a case just to put that video card to use. Joined Team 250966 Folding Vultures.
Officially yes the offer ended. But the upgrade does still work for free. Sidegraded 2 Windows 7 Ultimate machines in the last week. Fully activated with digital licence. I am working on uninstalling all the crap. I shouldn't have too. I liked those little check boxes in 95 & 98 and Windows 2000 lean install. Still using Windows 7 on this machine. It just works and looks so much better.
Two of them are modest Windows 7 Pro AMD Athlon systems that have been plodding away for almost 10 years. Both of those have 2 tuners giving us the ability of recording 4 shows at once in HD (never happens ). They have SSD for the system drive and largish 2 TB drives for recording media. Each machine has 3 DVD drives. One for Blu Ray, One for Region 1 DVD playback and 1 for Region 2 disc playback. I have a few Region 2 discs (The Corrs, Cybil (Don't ask) Other Brits on DVD not released here in USA) and with DVD burners being $20 it was a no brainer to slap in another drive. I have two Windows 8 licenses with media center licences that I will be upgrading to when 7 goes EOL. The 3rd machine only Core 2 Quad with SSD gets used to playback the odd thing in the lounge so maybe will just upgrade to 10 and use another program to playback TV shows. Anyone have any suggestions for a media center replacement that records TV shows to ATSC standard with a guide you don't need a masters in computer science to configure. What I like about media center is it works and just does its job.
I know that I. I have ISO files of all of Windows OS back to 95. 64 bit on the machine would make it slower. It works better with a 32 bit OS. That is how it came from Toshiba with 2 GB of ram and a 200gb rust spinner. I also have an ePcee with 2 Gb ram and an SSD but with 7 32 bit it is slow as molasses.
It has 4Gb of ram and a dual core core 2 CPU and an SSD. I use it rarely but expect it to work. I could run 64 bit windows on it but 32 bit is leaner and faster.
I am still on the fence on upgrading all my machines and the wife's to Windows 10. More likely to use Linux Mint and use a VM of 7 and keep a couple of Windows 7 machines off-line for games.
Updates this AM (just now) and noticed windows explorer kept stopping and restarting making the machine unusable. Removed the (KB4480970) and bingo back up and running. Updated some 64 bit Windows 7 systems and had no issues. Be AWARE. Is the OS sabotage I ask ?
A long time ago (1983 to 1988) in a City far far away Cambridge I worked for a national TV and VCR rental chain. We had all sorts of issues with some customers. One in particular springs to mind. They rented a new Philips TV and VCR (VHS not those V2000 machines available from the Philips staff shop that we also repaired) and the problems started. The machine a Philips Euro designed 6362 plastic heap of crap compared to Panasonic machines which were much more expensive. The machine would go completely mad at random times during the day. It would power itself on and rewind or fast forward. You had no control over it. So another machine was swapped in as we thought we had one with a dodgy system control. Same thing a few days later. So I was sent around to take a look. The machine was installed on a sideboard at a comfortable height in front of a window with a sunny aspect. The woman by now was furious as she kept missing her shows. I figured it out in 30 seconds. I was there on a sunny day and the sun was shinning through the windows onto the tape end and start sensors locking the machine up as it was impossible for the tape to be at the end and start at the same time. The short term cure was to draw the curtains. Long time fix was to move the machine to the other end of the sideboard far from the TV and the sun.
Another issue prevalent at the time was cheap stands for TV and VCRs which put the units too close together and caused all kinds of patterning coloured lines on the tape playing. The cure was to move the VCR forward a foot from under the TV and then line the bottom side of the shelf with tin foil. After a few years this issue went away as the machines were better screened and tested with other equipment to make sure this issue did not occur.
I own a copy of Amiga Forever and all the Roms and games plus a bunch I have acquired over the years. I still like using it ever so often. I even have Pee Cee game versions of Superfrog and Repton. Wasted many happy hours playing games on an A500 then a A1200 with 80Mb hard drive and 8 Mb of Ram. That was hacked to boot to a 1.3 rom for old games (both were actually). Now I can play flac files and run games at the same time on my PC. Happy times on the Amiga. My ex wife called it toy town computing and insisted we get a PC in 1996. Upgraded to another wife in USA in 1999. Much Happier.
I used to service VCR's and TV's for a major Regional repair center (PVS) in the 90's and we had all manner of stuff brought in with spillage. There were brand new 27" Philips TV's with lovely Mahogany cabinets that cats sat on the top on pissed in. The first time it got repaired as we could not prove it. The second time it was wet a was scrapped. The owner was not happy. All those Betamax VCR's that fell down the stairs when the video shops stopped renting videos on beta. All those faulty clunky mechanical VHS machines that got coke/pepsi spilt in them. The list goes on. There was also a drunk guy who pissed in his VCR under the TV after a heavy night of drinking. He was told to fuck right off with the machine. Often owners of the machines did not know that cats had peed in the machines causing horrendous electronic corrosion which in most cases wrote off the machine. To a cat this was a purfect arrangement. A nice warm box under the TV so the cat could lie and watch their humans. For me it meant washing my hands a lot. Good times when electronics were both serviceable and not expendable as they were expensive. Also my nephew put pieces of banana in my brothers expensive Panasonic SVHS machine. Luckily he was seen doing it and the banana was removed before any damage occurred. Actually saw quite a few of those, kid stuffed tape loading slot, cd drive bay with whatever was to hand. Usually it was fatal to the device. Sometimes it was coins and they shorted out something which usually was the reason for service. Then the true damage was found. Many a child was no doubt shouted at. My absolute favourite occurred here in the USA. After I had repaired their elderly Panasonic TV which for some reason had developed a faulty front control panel the brat child then decided to start whacking the front of the CRT and new buttons with his toy motor car. I commented to deaf parent ears that that is not a good idea and another set of control buttons would not be under extended warranty nor would scratches to the CRT as I have seen the child whack the TV. I was told it was OK as they were getting a new LCD TV Soon once they could afford it. So six months later I get a call for runny colors on the TV under factory warranty. You guessed it dear reader the brat kid had whacked the 55" LCD screen and broke it. Not covered I said as this is accidental damage. Contact your Insurance agent. Boy were they pissed. But you can't fix stooopid. Had several of those, guy swatted a fly on LCD screen. New TV needed. And so on. Even today very few LCD screens can withstand any kind of a whack without breaking. Only TV's with Gorilla Glass will.
Absolutely agree with you 100%. Sitting here with all the machines in our home running Windows 7. No strange six monthly update feast and setting reset here. Just rock solid stability. Like a good OS should do Windows 7 just runs for weeks at a time. Come 2020 I'll continue to use it as a VM in a Linux Mint installation. I own VMWare Workstation so use that for numerous Virtual Machines back to DOS and through 95 to NT4 to 2000 and XP and so on. My laptop dual boots 7 and Mint Mate. I hope the crapfest that is windows 10 just goes away and dies. Me I have tested it on hardware and in VM since the first betas and like Bombastic Bob I used to comment about the awful "look and feel" and the lack on Aero or Windows 2000 type display mode for lab machines and PC's for work and was shouted down by numerous wierdos. Same on Tenforums, the haven for the 10 love fester. So I gave up decided it was not ready for prime time. Most of the family has stayed on 7 or 8.1 and 10 is unusable. I have used M$ products since 1996 in my home. Before that the Amiga 1200 and 500+. Still have an Amiga emulator. To me Windows 2000 was M$ best ever OS. NT4 was also awesome. Liked XP and 7.
Microsoft should have stopped at Windows 7.
IMHO they did. Still using Windows 7 Ultimate on all my machines. Tried 10 did not like it. Has too much crap bloat and junk. Looks terrible. Windows NT4 and 2000 were my favourite M$ OS. Take virtual machines of those for a spin once in a while. Come 2020 I'll be running 7 as VM on LINUX MINT. It's all over Microsoft.
Non of my keys issued by Microsoft will allow me to download from their website as they fail authentication. The OEM keys bring up contact the OEM of course with the buck passing. This tool does the job. Downloads what you need from M$ with no hoops or other bullshit to apply.
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool
Your welcome.
I understand people who want to live in the USA. I came here from England 18 years ago to marry my love. It cost me several hundred pounds with interviews in the US embassy and a medical test at a doctors office in London. Then I flew over here. More interviews and more costs to prove I deserved a green card which lasts ten years, renewal costs $800+ for a further 10 years and also much more money for citizenship. I went through the legal channels and it pisses me off when people just skirt the system. Why did I bother? I could have just come over for a vacation and stayed? No I did it the legal way and don't have to worry about being rounded up and deported.
"The end result is that MS now have no serious DTP package and 2 laughable ones".
Looks in file cabinet for CD's of Office 2000, XP and the last really good version of Office, Office 2003. Fondly remembers no ribbon. Wonders if a VM Ware Virtual Machine of 7 with Office 2003 would run faster than a machine with 10 Supserspy Edition and the latest Office 2016? I suspect Office 2003 will not install on 10.
http://winaero.com/blog/windows-7-games-for-windows-10-anniversary-update-and-above/
You can get the wonderful vibrant coloured Windows 7 free games to add to Windows 10. I have a test install on one PC and 10 is rock solid so far. I had to use Classic Shell for the classic start menu and a lot of registry hacks from tenforums.com tutorials to get it under control. A shoutout to tweakhound.com for the tutorial and tweaks which helped a lot. Uninstalled most of the apps, deleted crap from start menu I am never going to use and also used WinAero tweaker to turn off telemetry etc. Windows 7 which I love is on all of my PC's and just works although I tweak it to my liking. Tweaking 10 to my liking has taken copious amounts of reading and effort for a UI that looks worse than 7. Is 10 more secure than 7? Doubt it has the same core engine win32 and 10 has the new metro stuff too. Now M$ does not have a mobile phone how about a real desktop OS? Or is this what the Window 10 Workstation is at $300 + a copy. Probably a Windows 7 Ultimate OS with the 7 x out and 10 written in its place. Really should not have to spend about 5 days installing my programs and setting stuff up and fighting the OS to get Windows the way I would like it rather than M$ defaults.
The 2 systems were completely different and when the UK converted to 625 lines and colour in the mid and late 60's to the full roll out to all regions in the early 70's a new transmission network was built. The UHF transmitters had smaller range than the VHF ones. For many happy years viewers in Cambridge were proud to be in the London region with dual stacked Ch9 aerials and a Ch1 aerial (huge) pointed at Croydon and Crystal Palace. Some upstart Anglia TV came along on Ch11 (poor reception) in 1959 and later in 1965 on Ch6 from Sandy Heath about 20 miles away but most stayed on London. When colour TV took off in 1971 in Cambridge viewers had to switch to Sandy Heath as London could only be received in colour on a proprietary British Relay cable TV system. Ch23 the ITV London signal was picked up in Arbury Cambridge with 8 high gain aerials at 180 ft. Still suffered from co channel interference from local Anglia on Ch24 and they fitted a specially made filter which just about made the picture from London desirable. So dual standard sets which had UHF 625 and VHF 405 lines on were around until the late 60's. I spent many "happy" hours as a junior bench engineer removing system switches and hard wiring them to 625 lines and setting the tuners to UHF only. This made the sets much more reliable. Also spent "many happy hours" sawing down ITV Ch8 Litchfield, Ch9 Croydon, Ch11 Mendlesham and BBC Ch1, London, Ch2 Cambridge, Ch10 Willington Bedford, Ch5 Peterborough aerials and swinging the odd UHF aerial around from Belmont to Sandy Heath. This was because everyone needed a new aerial when colour TV came out to the masses. I preferred my time on the bench to helping the aerial rigger and TV installer as some of those older metal aerials and poles were very heavy indeed. I was an apprentice TV Engineer from 1975 to 1979 based in Huntingdon and Cambridge and a field engineer from 1979 to 1990 when I got a bench engineer job in Peterborough.
Wasn't ME the first one to come out with "Home" and "Pro" versions?
ME was the home version. The Pro version was Windows 2000 which some home users bought and were flummoxed by it. 2000 is fondly remembered by myself and others as one of the best Microsoft OS's ever. I take a 2K VM for s spin every now and then with Winamp 2.9. XP was the first NT to have a Home and Pro version then M$ decided to milk everyone with 106 versions of Vista and 7. Then back to home and pro from 8 onwards. Not counting Vista, 7,8 10 Enterprise (Starships are cheaper) versions.
"Positively Rhapsodic...
The there's the fact precious few external monitors support Thunderbolt...
Apple's therefore halved the cost of its USB-C-to-USB, USB-C-to-Lightning..."
"Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me"
Up voted for the Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen song line. Excellent work I say.
Ah there it is my Windows 98 SE CD. Looks better than Windows 10.
All the mobile BS does not belong in a desktop OS period / full stop. When will Microslop come to their collective Borg senses and release a Windows 7 style interface. It is what the users want as over 50% are still on 7. So who bets 7 gets an extension to end of life until 2025?
I was there too. My suggestions of Aero and a basic Windows 2000 mode for lab computers was ignored. I was also at 10 forums too. I gave up even trying to get some sense into the fanboiz. So what do we have, a product that is universally loathed by users and technical support alike. Only the fanboiz swooning over every new build sent there way.
Me I am on Windows 7 Ultimate and I have 10 on several virtual machines. My wife's work computer failed and was replaced with a 10 Pro machine. So I have been helping her navigate the settings for single click and so on. Why has all this been moved around she asked? I have no idea. I don't care now either. Sooner or later Windows will have to change or die. Which will it be?
I had a Gigabyte Nvidia GT9800 1Gb silent with a massive heatsink that failed twice. Once under one year and I returned it to Gigabyte Service and it was repaired and was OK for another six months then it failed again in the same way. Digital noise and ghosting. The card was used in a huge Lian Li Server case which has 4 case fans and was not overheating. Not even a gamer other than casual stuff like Bejeweled 3, Luxor and Mahjong. It was replaced by Gigabyte with an equivalent Radeon card. Gigabyte have 3 year warranties. My other Gigabyte GT9800 1Gb Silent is chugging along in a Dell T3400 Core 2 Quad and has been no problem. I have had GPU's from both the Red and Green teams fail and have no loyalty to either side apart from I would never buy an Intel CPU new. Only used when they have dropped in price to less than $100 which is why I have AMD CPU's in my newer machines I build. When I am given a good Core 2 Duo machine (T3400) I upgrade it to Quad core, SSD, USB3 for not much cash. I am happy to be several generations behind as on a fixed income on disability I can't buy new and shinny very often but can get 90% of the performance with my old bangers and my 2 x FX 8350 and FX 8320. It is possible to be really Geeky and Nerdy on a budget and I always buy and support shareware authors such as D Opus, XYPlorer, Xplorer2, Bitsum Process Lasso, Goldwave, Terracopy and WinAmp 5. With Windows 10 sucking the big one I am still on 7 and I am using Linux Mint so that is where I'll be headed. It'll be cheaper and less hassle than the Microsoft route.
Micro$ only listened to what they wanted to hear. The never heard any of the Tens Of Thousands of requests for Aero, for the return of the 3D intuitive interface, for the return of Media Center for recording encrypted cable channels, for the return of the classic menu system and desktop viz Windows 2000 for lab PC's and equipment. No they only heard what they wanted to hear. So I responded with blocking Windows 10 from my 12 PC's and my friends and family were on their own if they upgraded to 10. If they needed support I will wipe what is on there and put 7 back on the PC's I built for them. I am a happy 7 user who hopes the current administration in charge at Micro$ realize they are heading in a direction some of their users are not going. They will eventually.
"D Opus
Wait till xmas, They usually offer a 50% discount. As I discovered. A week after shelling out £££ for it:"
Yes I purchased D Opus 10 then purchased a second copy with USB and FTP add on D Opus 11 upgrade 2 copies the same way. Xmas discount will probably get me D Opus 12 which is in beta right now. Opus is a true essential for large music file and photograph collections. When the developers consider and release a paid for Linux version the writing will be on the wall for Microsoft.
Did Microsoft write the article and pay for it as advertising? No way am I downgrading to 10. Loss of Media Center, No Aero. Ugly UI. Control Panel Wrecked, forced updates spyware and so on.
I'll keep 7 Ultimate 64 bit until EOL then on Mint Mate which I already run on a Toshiba laptop and dual booting on other PC's. When GP Software release Directory Opus for Linux I'll be all set.