> > Define "non-Classic", after all by this lists definition of
>"Classic" you'll
>> be able to run Windows 95 in a year. If you're limiting yourself to your
>> VAXen and the like, the time is going to come when you won't be able to get
>> Hard Drives to replace dead ones.
>
>Should it ever come to that -- that is that I can't get the parts to
>_repair_ the hard drives (note : I would certainly consider making a
>'clean box' to work on the inside of the HDA if necessary), then I would
>grab the soldering iron, raid the junk box, and design an interface to a
>more modern storage device. Heck, I've seen flash memory cards with more
>storage than the hard drives in most of my machines....
Unfortunately this isn't an option for a lot of us. I can pull off
some board level maintenance, but designing new parts is beyond me.
Thankfully my main PDP-11's and most of my VAXen have SCSI interfaces.
> > Or perhaps it shows how you are limiting yourself. Many of the things that
>> I use a computer for are either not practical, or just plain impossible on
>
>It depends on what you want to do, I guess. I have no interest -- at all
>-- in digital audio or video processing. I will only _consider_ buying a
>digital camera when the results available are better than those from my
>currnet film-based cameras (which, considering I have a number of
>large-format sheet film cameras, won't be for some time!). For the
>applications I use a computer for (text processing, programming,
>supporting my classics by doing automatic testing, EPROM dumping,
>assembling/disassembly binary programs, etc) a classic computer does all
>I need!
>
>-tony
I just realized that I included you in that comment, sorry about
that. I find your reasons for using the computers that you do to be
very rational.
The mention of camera's is an interesting point. I love digital
camera's and find them *very* useful, but at the same time, I don't
think they'll be able to replace any of my favorite cameras, as
they're for 3D photography, and I don't think anyone will release a
3D digital camera anytime soon, at least not an affordable one,
though I'd love to be proven wrong. The newest of my 3D camera's is
still about 50 years old, and the projectors that I use are just as
old. At the same time I am looking forwards to when digital camera's
matching 35mm resolution become affordable.
I do mess with audio and video processing (my Digital Audio
Workstation is nearing the 10 year mark), but I must confess the
addiction that isn't really practical for me on classic HW is
"Desktop Publishing", and that's mainly due to image editing. The
video is only possible on modern HW as I'm doing Anamorphic
Widescreen home movie DVD's with Dolby Digital sound.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh_at_aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
Received on Sat Jan 29 2005 - 00:14:56 GMT