I hate when...

[Doc In UPlace]

my super CAD computer takes a dump!!!! Twice in the last 6 months!!!!! first time was registry errors, much needed maintenance & defragging....
This time it was the $1200 ATI FireGL video card went TU!!!!!! thank goodness my super computer Guru had a stock HP 7000 series spare (an adequate replacement since I no longer do CAD drafting and do not need a $1200 video card)... AAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention that I hate technology because it costs me many cave clams!!!!! (hangs head in shame for being computer illiterate)

I became COMP TIA A+ certified because I couldn't stand being at the mercy of computer repair store personnel who decided what was important and what wasn't worth their time to "get to."

From there started building my own systems, and though that worked as an exercise it resulted in "driver roulette" where manufacturers didn't apparently keep up with OS changes and as time went on, driver hangs and malfunctions would start interfering with proper functioning.

Anymore? I use Acer pre-built systems and can do my own upgrades (such as additional RAM or HDDs) without relying on some "computer guy" and without having to spend unnecessary money on OEM higher tier machines.

No matter what we do these things are like cars, they're gonna get you, either at the showroom or in the repair shop.

 

[jrprich]

My electronics rule-of thumb:
Capacitors live for 10 years. Then they begin to fail.
When they begin to fail, computers will exhibit all kinds of screwy symptoms.
An indicator of a failing capacitor is it's top is bulging.
There was a rash of premature failures, still happening.
A manufacturer had several recipes to make capacitors.
A competitor stole one of them, didn't know it was a failed recipe.

At the time that started part of my job was maintaining about 400 Dell PCs.
Dell was hit really hard by the bad cap issue and was replacing MBs as fast as possible. But the stock of replacement MBs was quickly used up and they had to set up to replace all caps on failed MBs in order to use them to replace failed ones. Lasted about two years for us and I think we eventually replaced the MB in every Dell we had. Some just bulged, others actually cracked open and leaked all over the MB. It was an insane time.

 

[AMProducts]

Well, I'm not gay, or an artist, and solidworks doesn't run on whatever the latest operating system apple stole from the BSD project. So Apple, and their overpriced "lifestyle" is kinda out. Also, when using cad software you need more than 1 button on your mouse, mine has 5, which greatly speeds up my work.

 

[Garg]

Underneath the hood, OSX is Unix. That said, I wouldn't use it as an enterprise server. A home server sure, but not in an enterprise - I would use Linux or maybe some form of Unix, depending on the purpose.

Yup, it really is. It is more or less Jobs vision of Xwindows we used to use on Unix platforms.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Wait till you see a big capacitor pop

 

[AMProducts]

Underneath the hood, OSX is Unix. That said, I wouldn't use it as an enterprise server. A home server sure, but not in an enterprise - I would use Linux or maybe some form of Unix, depending on the purpose.

Really? What runlevel do you put it in to boot to console?

Just because apple appropriated a bunch of BSD code doesn't mean it's unix... Also, Unix is very specific, in that it typically only applies to AT&T System V. To my knowledge the only remaining unix systems out there are solaris, HP-UX, and AIX still running system V code. Linux does a pretty close job of emulating the experience and functionality of SVR, but all of these are a very far cry from what's under the hood of OSX.

Also, don't forget to update your OSX, a big exploit came out for bash recently and while you may not use it frequently (or at all), the DHCPD client does.

 

[The Heretic]

OSX is based on Darwin and is SUSv3 and POSIX compatible.




Darwin is OSS, so no "appropriation" happened.

The proprietary OSX UI is on top of Darwin, and I prefer it to any other desktop.

I am not a sysadmin and I write Java code so I don't need to or care to delve into the innards of the OS. I can get around on the command line if I have to, but rarely do (usually just to ping google to figure out if my connection here on the mountain has dropped - which it often does as it is wireless).

I like it because it is stable, fast, I can run almost any OS in a VM on it, and it does whatever I need it to do. I don't need to mess with config files to get peripherals to work, they just work. Software just works too, and is easy to uninstall - I just delete the folder.

In short, I can get whatever I need to do on my computer done without messing with it and it is stable. That is more than I can say for Linux or Windows.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

OSX is based on Darwin and is SUSv3 and POSIX compatible.

View attachment 105925


Darwin is OSS, so no "appropriation" happened.

The proprietary OSX UI is on top of Darwin, and I prefer it to any other desktop.

I am not a sysadmin and I write Java code so I don't need to or care to delve into the innards of the OS. I can get around on the command line if I have to, but rarely do (usually just to ping google to figure out if my connection here on the mountain has dropped - which it often does as it is wireless).

I like it because it is stable, fast, I can run almost any OS in a VM on it, and it does whatever I need it to do. I don't need to mess with config files to get peripherals to work, they just work. Software just works too, and is easy to uninstall - I just delete the folder.

In short, I can get whatever I need to do on my computer done without messing with it and it is stable. That is more than I can say for Linux or Windows.

Huh?
Your speaking Greek.

 

[The Heretic]

Huh?
Your speaking Greek.

Geek - not Greek.

 

[BoonDocks36]

Awe gee... I started on CPM, then MSDOS, jnto the first WIN through to WIN 8...

When I bought my MacBookPro, I was in Seventh Heaven (no, I am not starting a Religious Discussion...)

And even though I have several IBM style LapTops, and one Desk Top. I do not use them...

Well I will be turning the Toshiba laptop into a Linux System, but that is only to work in the world of SOC/SBC ... I have three Raspbery Pi's, Four Arduino's of various versions, And Three BeagleBoneBlacks.

If you don't know what they are, you are missing a world of joy... My Arduino Uno is going to be a Full on Weather Station, using XBee transceivers, the W Station is a mere $160.~~ and add in the XBee's rounds out to 2 bills, or One Frank, George and Henry, ahh who knows



The entire system Outside, is powered via a 7.4 Li-Ion Battery, with a solar charger to make it stand alone.

I am still hopeful to go Online with the Three B's, + Version. But got caught up in just living...

philip

 

[Caveman Jim]

I just don't have the mind capacity to understand howthey work, like the career I had for over 30 years & did my job not worrying about how other stuff worked. Not my job man.....

 

[BoonDocks36]

Wait till you see a big capacitor pop

BTDTDWTDIA

But it could be worse... A person could be live clamping onto a 3Phase 440 Volt System, and GOOF.

I also once saw a Journey Man E-Lectrician probe our Circuit Breakers, not remembering the MAINS were 440, and his Wiggly was only 220Volts. We were using my Mini Mag AA flash light for TOTAL ILLuMinAtion, when the SUN burst out in all its GLORY Or, in other words, he Blew UP HIS Wiggly!!!'

As that Lectric Shop was "on Contract" to care for our Apartment Complex (99 Seniors & Disabled HUD) I simply told the Owner, that ~the particular man in question~ Could Never Work on our Complex Again... Send a raw 'Cruit out of E£ectric Shoppe, send his Custodian, but not him... I close my Eyes, and Still see the Power Ball Explosion!

philip, in a former life, I was a Spark Detector.

 

[The Heretic]

I just don't have the mind capacity to understand howthey work, like the career I had for over 30 years & did my job not worrying about how other stuff worked. Not my job man.....

I have a EE degree (haven't used it in 25 years) so I understand how computers work at literally the atomic level - and I really don't care how they work as long as they work.

I also understand metallurgy (to a degree) and I don't care how a hammer works either.

I used to be a diesel mech too - and I don't really care how the bulldozer I just used this last weekend works, even though I once had one torn apart to fix it (crawlers are hard to work on - those tracks are heavy!).

They are tools. I use them. The less I need to mess with them, the more work I can do with them.

That is why I like OSX - it is stable and easy to use. I don't need to mess with stuff - for the most part it just works. For my work, which is cross platform, it is nice to have a computer that will run any OS I want, usually at the same time I run another (in a VM) - so I can switch from one to the other, testing, deploying and so on. I don't need a server and a workstation and another server and a target computer - I can do it all on one computer with a click of the mouse.

 

[AMProducts]

For a while back in the late 1990's I had a sun E5K as my workstation.

Once upon a time I had some idea of what I did for a living, the lines are now so blurred between IT, security, industrial computing, simulation, big data, design, machining, and mathematics I'm completely lost.

 

[AMProducts]

That is why I like OSX - it is stable and easy to use. I don't need to mess with stuff - for the most part it just works. For my work, which is cross platform, it is nice to have a computer that will run any OS I want, usually at the same time I run another (in a VM) - so I can switch from one to the other, testing, deploying and so on. I don't need a server and a workstation and another server and a target computer - I can do it all on one computer with a click of the mouse.

Right tool for the right job always wins. Toys are a poor substitute for tools.

 

[BoonDocks36]

Right tool for the right job always wins. Toys are a poor substitute for tools.

That is why I am playing with SOC, AKA: System on Chip AtMel's & SBC, AKA: single board computers...

When IBM was in design process, for the original PC, they wanted a RISC style chip, Reduced Information Set Computer. The designer of ATMel & ARM chips, could not meet the requested number for initial order, so Intel was asked to produce for IBM.

ATMel, and ARM chips were used in the first Graphical User Input systems ever made...

Today, those same chips, are outselling Intel's chips, due to the fact that virtually every modern car in the World has between 5 - 20 of them now, they are the Basis of computer studies, from 1st Graders, through MIT Students & the like.

They are so easy, to program, and have much easier programing language Abilities, because they start with that Reduced Information Set!!!

The iPhone 3 used them, Almost All Androids use them, in fact the Android Linux variant is one of the Many OS's for SOC & SBC

philip

 

[Joe13]

I just don't have the mind capacity to understand howthey work, like the career I had for over 30 years & did my job not worrying about how other stuff worked. Not my job man.....

If you are familiar with Windows, you can use a Mac. Microsoft stole pretty much the whole interface when they launched Windows.

Macs have looked and worked more or less the same for decades.

Yes, there are a few things that have slightly different processes but a quick google search will tell you exactly how to go about it.

I'm done beating the Apple drum. If you've never tried one then your missing out more then likely.

 

[AMProducts]

That is why I am playing with SOC, AKA: System on Chip AtMel's & SBC, AKA: single board computers...

When IBM was in design process, for the original PC, they wanted a RISC style chip, Reduced Information Set Computer. The designer of ATMel & ARM chips, could not meet the requested number for initial order, so Intel was asked to produce for IBM.

ATMel, and ARM chips were used in the first Graphical User Input systems ever made...

Today, those same chips, are outselling Intel's chips, due to the fact that virtually every modern car in the World has between 5 - 20 of them now, they are the Basis of computer studies, from 1st Graders, through MIT Students & the like.

They are so easy, to program, and have much easier programing language Abilities, because they start with that Reduced Information Set!!!

The iPhone 3 used them, Almost All Androids use them, in fact the Android Linux variant is one of the Many OS's for SOC & SBC

philip

I've been doing a fair amount of stuff with arduino lately... I'm using an arduino based PLC as a controller on some of my machines. The version I use was originally designed as an access control module, it has 4 relay outputs, a bunch of digital and analog IO, and support for a PP screen. I havn't had as much time as I would like to mess with it, but it certainly will do what I want it to.

 

[BoonDocks36]

I've been doing a fair amount of stuff with arduino lately... I'm using an arduino based ... snipped ... but it certainly will do what I want it to.

Yes! each of the varieties I mentioned has unique characteristics, and their own ~following~ but they are all from the Original chipset, designed by Texas Instruments, in conjunction with Basic Computers (???) of England, way back when...

I am sort of leaning towards the Rasp Pi style myself, but the Texas Instruments BeagleBoneBlack has a Lot going for it...

But I think the Arduino's are out selling both, And although All three are Open Sourced builds, meaning you can acquire EVERY part including the PCB, Arduino's can be built easier, and upon a solderless breadboard, really easy, I have built one! ....by Sparkfun.com

it is a great method of Learning Computers, and the internal tickings of same... for not a whole lot of $$$

philip