These days youngies have it easy!

[Ausman]

In pondering sasdisco's issue remote over 4G in RO, he made this comment:

10 hours ago, sasdiscos said:

why is every thing so difficult?

I can't help but answer with "you think this is difficult?"  Bah-humbug!  You should have tried living with computers when, for example, just to get a simple serial port operational you had to fiddle with endless jumpers on plug-in boards, try again and see if it worked....days later.  Or loaded your program from cassette tapes.   Or waited 2 hours for that new you-beaut $800 (then) CD burner to finish making the latest disc....that often turned out to be a drink coaster anyway.

It is all too easy for users these days to simply gloss over the levels of sophistication and size/speeds we have achieved. I'm gobsmacked when I see 128GB flash drives 1 cm².  How do they manufacture that?  Truly....128,000,000,000 little switches in that space?  (OK you perfectionists...theoretically 128 x 1073741824 bytes) Huh?  Who still has their W95 1.44 floppies set stored away?!! And where will we be in 10 years time?

cheers,

Aus

[Flex727]

I used to work for Texas Instruments and we made memory chips (among many, MANY other things). 

14 minutes ago, Ausman said:

I'm gobsmacked when I see 128GB flash drives 1 cm².  How do they do manufacture that?

You don't want to know.  You really don't, but it takes about $2 Billion worth of equipment and people who know what they're doing.

[Joe Tauser]

In my day, we didn't have no fancy In-Ter-Nets!  If we wanted to send a message we wrote it on a rock and threw it!  That was if we could find a pencil!  If not, we grabbed a hot piece of coal from the old Franklin stove and scribbled with that! Then there was this fancy new thing called Ra-Di-O! To make it work, we connected 14 car batteries to a magical box and strung a wire from the house to the barn!  Did I mention the barn was two miles away?!  And it was always snowing!  

So there we were, holding hot lumps of burning coal in our hands and throwing rocks at our neighbors all the while pulling a reel of antenna wire down the road in a blizzard just so we could listen to Little Orphan Annie!

AND WE LIKED IT!!!

 

Joe T.

[Joe Tauser]

4 hours ago, Ausman said:

In pondering sasdisco's issue remote over 4G in RO, he made this comment:

14 hours ago, sasdiscos said:

why is every thing so difficult?

As a more sane follow-up, this is why I shudder when someone starts shouting the praises of IoT.  It is a huge Pandora's box of things that don't want to play together without a spending a massive amount of time getting all the little settings just right.  Then Microsoft introduces a Windows upgrade that throws another wrench in the works, usually breaking stuff in the name of "enhanced security".  

This just happened today-

Saks, Lord & Taylor Hit With Data Breach

Millions of credit cards exposed by hackers; retailer says it has identified the problem

I'm sure that they had a full-powered IT team in place already.  With all the latest patches and upgrades.

 

The Enigma was a simpler machine.

 

Joe NOT IoT  T.

[sasdiscos]

Im not so young i don't remember not having internet chaps. Oh and I just brought a record player as Im bringing vinyl back. Im just new to the depths of computers. Been on plcs for about 3 years on and off but computers have never really delved into in depth. I am keen to learn, hence asking you nice guys for assistance.

 

Steve

[Ausman]

OK Steve.  Welcome to the old codger club.  We are all learning something new every day!

cheers,

Aus

[DerekGodown]

This 'Codger Lodge' really made me look back on how far technology has come in my 23 years. From controllers without joysticks to motion/pressure sensitive Virtual Reality games, from grueling dial-up tones to instant internet in my pocket almost anywhere. From iRobot starring Will Smith to actual iRobots talking to Will Smith. The tech timeline is moving rapidly, so rapidly that I catch myself saying "back in my day" when I am still in fact in 'my day'. I'm glad I got to witness almost all of it, as I enjoy being able to play the latest, most challenging games on console/pc while being able to switch over to Mike Tyson's Punchout! without a look of confusion and disgust as I hold a controller that doesn't light up and vibrate. 

Steve, you may be glad to hear that vinyls are making a big comeback due to sound quality and novelty as well as the awesome artwork you dont get from streaming and downloading sites, I'm not sure when the craze came back but I am going to credit you entirely if ever asked.

13 hours ago, Joe Tauser said:

If we wanted to send a message we wrote it on a rock and threw it! 

Joe, I know this is true as it was my father's favorite method of communicating with me, though it seemed odd at the time, considering we were always in the same room when he did it... But it taught me about times before mine, and how to dodge.

[Flex727]

37 minutes ago, DerekGodown said:

vinyls are making a big comeback due to sound quality

I'm convinced this is delusional. CDs were originally pretty bad because sound engineers failed to properly tailor the sound for the new media and instead used the equilization curves for vinyl with insufficient modification. That's no longer the case. Nowadays, the abysmal compression of MP3s may be worse than vinyl, but no one who really cares about sound quality should be listening to either compressed MP3 or vinyl. Vinyl necessarily has extreme equalization in order to achieve any bass response, necessarily lacks sufficient channel separation, and degrades every time the record is played. </rant>

 

37 minutes ago, DerekGodown said:

as well as the awesome artwork you dont get from streaming and downloading

THIS I agree with wholeheartedly.

[DerekGodown]

I'm speaking purely from observational standpoint on the reasons why. I myself don't collect them, but the people that do list the sound as a big reason why, whether it be that the quality is better (which you disproved) or playing a vinyl has a distinct sound as opposed to any other method, I know only what they've said. I trust your take on them, I should have worded it differently implying the music's sound  or listening experience might be better not the overall quality. Might buck up and see for myself soon though, I'm a sucker for collectible items. 

 

PS. Thanks for the lesson! Learned something new today.

[Flex727]

7 hours ago, DerekGodown said:

playing a vinyl has a distinct sound as opposed to any other method

This is certainly true. And no doubt "better" is in the ear of the beholder.

By the way, the rant wasn't aimed at you, just the audiophile community in general. I apologize if it was taken wrong.

Meanwhile, back to PLCs...why did Unitronics use RJ-45 for the expansion cable. everyone always gets the expansion cable and ethernet cable reversed. Not surprisingly, neither works when wrong way round. (I can rant about anything! That's what we old codgers are best at.) Hey! I just realized we need a gray-haired emoticon.

[Ausman]

Here you go, you old codger: 

cheers,

Aus

[sasdiscos]

Can of worms has been opened, Personally I like the warmth of it. Used to have a sacd player but they seem to have all but gone.

[Cara Bereck Levy]

On 4/3/2018 at 5:30 AM, Joe Tauser said:

f we wanted to send a message we wrote it on a rock and threw it! 

You had rocks. Rocks!
 Luxury, I'm telling you, pure luxury.
We wished we had rocks! We made do with wet clay and triangle shapes.

 

[Cara Bereck Levy]

Codger-ette digression:
I still have about 4 feet of vinyl. Rarely play them, but I love them.
Replicated a lot of them in my digital collection, invested in a good DAC and good speakers. The sound is beautiful.

16 hours ago, Flex727 said:

Nowadays, the abysmal compression of MP3s may be worse than vinyl, but no one who really cares about sound quality should be listening to either compressed MP3 or vinyl.

Yup. I realized  one day when listening, to a proper digital version of a number I know very well (specifically BB King doing The Thrill is Gone), that my memory had been filling in nuances missing from the crappy MP3 I had in my playlist.

On a similar: I keep downsizing my library of bound books. Still have shelves of favorites...and have purchased some of them as ebooks. I prefer reading on my tablet to reading a bound book.
Wait! Does that disqualify me from the codgers club? 

[Cara Bereck Levy]

9 hours ago, Flex727 said:

Meanwhile, back to PLCs...why did Unitronics use RJ-45 for the expansion cable. everyone always gets the expansion cable and ethernet cable reversed. Not surprisingly, neither works when wrong way round. (I can rant about anything! 

Historic reasons. I can't remember exactly why, because...CRS 

[Cara Bereck Levy]

18 hours ago, Flex727 said:

18 hours ago, DerekGodown said:

as well as the awesome artwork you dont get from streaming and downloading

THIS I agree with wholeheartedly.

This is probably why I never let them go...

[DerekGodown]

10 hours ago, Flex727 said:

I apologize if it was taken wrong.

Not at all, you were more informative than anything. Most people would have stopped at "delusional"
Im glad I got to learn a little of how it evolved. Much appreciated! 

[Flex727]

1 hour ago, Cara Bereck Levy said:

11 hours ago, Flex727 said:

Meanwhile, back to PLCs...why did Unitronics use RJ-45 for the expansion cable. everyone always gets the expansion cable and ethernet cable reversed. Not surprisingly, neither works when wrong way round. (I can rant about anything! 

Historic reasons. I can't remember exactly why, because...CRS 

Don't tell anyone, but I once extended an expansion cable by using a regular ethernet cable and a coupler. It worked perfectly, but it wasn't a noisy environment.

[Flex727]

10 hours ago, Ausman said:

Here you go, you old codger: 

Hey! I'm gray, not bald.

[Cara Bereck Levy]

On 4/3/2018 at 5:30 AM, Joe Tauser said:

Little Orphan Annie!

I'm partial to the Lobe Ranger myself...

[Ausman]

Gee whiz.  What a hot potato!

I'll have to put my other rants onto this forum as well!  And Cara, maybe we could/should  have an "experienced old codger" emoticon?  But of course it can't be bald.....to keep Flex happy!

cheers,

Aus

[Flex727]

9 hours ago, Ausman said:

to keep Flex happy!

This is ALWAYS a top priority!