Ltning

@ltning@weirdr.net

He/him. This is one of my alter egos in the retro world. Read about this instance on front page. My goal is to be able to post here from a 286* running DOS. Might be a while..

and enthusiast with a craving for retro (mostly PC) hardware. Four kids and a wonderful patchwork family.

*Speaking of 286es: http://floppy.museum/

29 following, 77 followers

4 ★ 3 ↺
/brúno antúnɛs/ boosted

[?]Ltning »
@ltning@weirdr.net

Welcome to my mini ISA VGA shootout!
TL;DR: ISA Matrox cards are really, really slow in DOS.

I recently built an original Pentium 60MHz system, built on an ECS motherboard. Around the same time I received a "mystery" VGA card: A Matrox MGA Impression ISA card. And since most of my builds are "open builds" and therefore easily accessible, that machine got the pleasure of becoming the test bench for the Matrox.

As already revealed, the Matrox performs atrociously bad. So bad, in fact, that I had to test a couple other ISA cards to make sure it wasn't a system issue. I used my go-to benchmarking tool from Phil's DOS Benchmark Pack. I really don't want to experience Doom with this card..

And without further ado, the contestants and their results in this spur-of-the-moment benchmark run:
- Baseline: A 32-bit PCI S3 Virge/DX based card with 4MB RAM: A perfectly workable 48.2
- The low-end Trident TVGA9000C with 512KB RAM (this is a real garbage card): A pretty shitty 14.2
- The mid-range Cirrus Logic CL-GD-5422 with 1MB RAM (this is a decent card, know for compatibility but not necessarily speed): A barely bearable 24.7
- And finally, the "star" of the show, the Matrox: A whopping 10.9!

I said it was atrocious, didn't I? But hey, I'm gonna use this one with anyway, so who cares about DOS performance, right? ;)


Montage: Close-up of the S3 card installed in the system, next to picture of the 3DBench result

Alt...Montage: Close-up of the S3 card installed in the system, next to picture of the 3DBench result

Montage: Picture of the Trident (a small ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

Alt...Montage: Picture of the Trident (a small ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

Montage: Picture of the Cirrus Logic (small ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

Alt...Montage: Picture of the Cirrus Logic (small ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

Montage: Picture of the Matrox (a very large full-length ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

Alt...Montage: Picture of the Matrox (a very large full-length ISA card) next to picture of the 3DBench result

    ...

    [?]derSammler »
    @derSammler@oldbytes.space

    @ltning The Trident is not a garbage card. It's just that people can not do benchmarks correctly or do them in a way that creates the result they have already in mind anyway.

    First mistake: testing ISA graphics cards in a PCI system - which seems to be a very common mistake these days. On a PCI system, the ISA bus is bridged. You never get really good speed from ISA graphics cards in a bridged bus.

    Second, the Trident cards were aimed for 286/386 and lower-spec 486 systems. When used in these, you won't see much difference between a TVGA9000 and a GD-5422.

    Not long ago I tested a Tseng Labs ET3000 and a Realtek VGA card, the latter according to badly done benchmarks is one of the slowest VGA cards. Guess what? In a 386DX-33, they both performed almost exactly the same.

    But yeah, put it into a Pentium system and it becomes crap. But that's not the card's fault...

      ...
      0 ★ 0 ↺

      [?]Ltning »
      @ltning@weirdr.net

      Hey there :) Trust me, I know testing ISA cards in PCI machines is "wrong". And that there are many reasons for this, but the bridges you mention are not, in themselves, the problem. I'd like to say "not all bridges are created alike", and also that the direct cpu-to-ISA thing has not been true since the 286 era. From anything 386 onwards there has always been a bridge of some kind involved. So yes, it's "wrong", but only in the sense that "there's a PCI bus here, wtf am I punishing myself with an ISA VGA?!?".

      ISA performance can be "as good as it gets" on a PCI machine, and most BIOSes will allow you to configure it to a point that it can easily saturate the bus and even break stuff - just like in the good old days. Wait states and bus speed tuning being the most important things.

      I also know that Tridents are not all garbage, but it is fair to say that the 9000-series (which is essentially a 8900C with some additional integration) isn't going to win any performance prizes no matter what machine you put it in. The 8900D on the other hand is quite impressive in DOS, keeping up with all but a small handful of much more expensive cards. It is, of course, useless for a GUI system since it has no acceleration functions, but for plain VGA it's pretty good.

      All that said, I have not made any attempt at tuning for speed in these tests, and as I'm sure came across in my post - this is a highly un-scientific test that is only meant to gauge the relative difference between those cards (and with room for failure even at that). Fact of the matter, and what I wanted to confirm, is that the Matrox is unbelievably slow; I'm fairly sure the original VGA implementation with discrete chips (rather than a "VGA chip") would've performed better. Hell, even UniVBE warns me when configuring it that the card is unbearably slow in DOS, and doesn't even expose more than 1MB in VGA mode, so I should not expect much from it. Well, I guess I confirmed that, at least. :D

      The reason is, of course, that the Matrox is made for GUI applications. And in those, compared to its peers, it absolutely shines according to reviews at the time. I'm looking forward to testing it in a GUI environment, and I'll surely post about that somewhere as well. And I'll use more period-correct hardware, I promise! :)

        [?]HP van Braam »
        @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

        Finally I can ditch my tired old Sparc station, and switch to like everyone else!

        Introducing SSH2WIN a port of SSH2DOS to Windows. No win32s here!

        This was both harder and easier than I thought it would be.

        Official release coming soon, once I clean up some details.

        A screenshot of a Windows 3.11 session. On the session there is a blue window with Qbasic showing the gorillas.bas source code. There is also a clock, mspaint, and the focal point is a window labeled "SSH2WIN - SSH Client For Windows". The SSH client is showing "neofetch" on a Fedora 42 system.

        Alt...A screenshot of a Windows 3.11 session. On the session there is a blue window with Qbasic showing the gorillas.bas source code. There is also a clock, mspaint, and the focal point is a window labeled "SSH2WIN - SSH Client For Windows". The SSH client is showing "neofetch" on a Fedora 42 system.

          ...

          [?]Eskild Hustvedt »
          @zerodogg@hachyderm.io

          @hp This means I could probably comfortably use win3.11 for actual work. It’s silly and I love it.

            ...

            [?]HP van Braam »
            @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

            @zerodogg Gotta be able to do some work in between bouts of skifree and descent, right?! :D

              ...

              [?]Nina Kalinina »
              @nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt

              @hp @zerodogg and SimFarm and Civ I!

                ...

                [?]Eskild Hustvedt »
                @zerodogg@hachyderm.io

                @nina_kali_nina @hp Well maybe not that much work then

                  ...

                  [?]HP van Braam »
                  @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

                  @zerodogg @nina_kali_nina

                  'Are you stealing those LCDs?' 'Yeah, but I'm doing it while my code compiles.' Transcript (from explainkcd) The #1 Programmer Excuse for Legitimately Slacking Off: "My code's compiling." [Two programmers are sword-fighting on office chairs in a hallway. An unseen manager calls them back to work through an open office door.] Manager: Hey! Get back to work! Cueball: Compiling! Manager: Oh. Carry on.

                  Alt...'Are you stealing those LCDs?' 'Yeah, but I'm doing it while my code compiles.' Transcript (from explainkcd) The #1 Programmer Excuse for Legitimately Slacking Off: "My code's compiling." [Two programmers are sword-fighting on office chairs in a hallway. An unseen manager calls them back to work through an open office door.] Manager: Hey! Get back to work! Cueball: Compiling! Manager: Oh. Carry on.

                    [?]Timo Grün »
                    @khoji@ieji.de

                    @zerodogg @hp
                    It will probably also run Zork.

                      3 ★ 0 ↺

                      [?]Ltning »
                      @ltning@weirdr.net

                      Is ssh2dos anywhere near usable these days, without running decades-old opensshd on the server end? :D

                        ...

                        [?]HP van Braam »
                        @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

                        @ltning someone did a fork with sha256, the screenshot is undoctored! It really is natively connecting to a fedora 42 system.

                        The only config change was to allow password auth!

                          ...

                          [?]HP van Braam »
                          @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

                            ...
                            1 ★ 0 ↺

                            [?]Ltning »
                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                            Yea sorry, I thought that was the "old" code. I was thinking EC crypto, since that's much, much faster on slow hardware. It surprised me a bit when I started experimenting, but given the much shorter keys it actually makes some sense.
                            See https://git.anduin.net/ltning/sshbench - I have not tested on anything slower than a crappy 486 (because no modern BSD will work on any of them) but EC ciphers generally come out on top every time - by a huge margin, too.

                              ...

                              [?]HP van Braam »
                              @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

                              @ltning Oh, that *is* interesting! Maybe I will try and implement EC ciphers then.

                              It'd be really cool if this would work on a 286 or a 386, the code will run but how fast? I don't know yet! :D

                                ...

                                [?]ltning »
                                @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                This is one of the boxes I tested SSH ciphers on. :D See http://larry.weirdr.net/ for the HW spec ..

                                  [?]ltning »
                                  @ltning@pleroma.anduin.net

                                  @hp I know I kinda asked already - but how long does a handshake/login take on a win31-era machine, if the server is nice and fast and you're using relatively modern crypto? Last time I tested in DOS it took "minutes" on a period-correct CPU.

                                    ...

                                    [?]HP van Braam »
                                    @hp@mastodon.tmm.cx

                                    @ltning Handshake on a 486 dx2-40 is slightly over a minute, but after that it is pretty usable. I might be able to make the DH code a bit faster and have it take a bit less time.

                                      ...

                                      [?]ltning »
                                      @ltning@pleroma.anduin.net

                                      @hp If you manage to shoehorn some of the EC cryptos in there, it should be reduced to seconds. :)

                                        7 ★ 2 ↺
                                        Pun Boleh boosted

                                        [?]Ltning »
                                        @ltning@weirdr.net

                                        Was wondering why my /2 installation kept crashing randomly.

                                        Also, testing hashtags on snac ;)

                                        Memtest86 5.01 reporting loads of memory errors. Yay.

                                        Alt...Memtest86 5.01 reporting loads of memory errors. Yay.

                                          4 ★ 1 ↺

                                          [?]Ltning »
                                          @ltning@weirdr.net

                                          player UI shootout! An AMD Am5x86 at 120MHz with a Gravis Ultrasound PnP playing back a VBR (~254Kbps) 44.1KHz MP3 file at full quality.

                                          The contenders: QuickView Pro version (dvpro), Digital Sound System 3.1 (dss) and MPXPlay 1.67 (mpx). The file: Astral Projection's "Bizarre Contact" from the album "Ten".

                                          Enjoy these clips :D


                                          Alt...QuickView Pro: file listing in the background and a simple status dialog in the foreground showing file information and the playback time.

                                          Alt...MPXPlay: File/directory browser below (mostly removed from the video), spectrum analyzer and various playback information on top.

                                          Alt...DSS: VU meters for left/right and playback information along with a lot of information about the file and the sound device.

                                          Alt...DSS: Spectrum analyzer, plus technical information as in the other video.

                                            2 ★ 0 ↺

                                            [?]Ltning »
                                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                                            Ugh. After spending three days trying to compile TUI clients for Telegram and Discord on this thing I'm giving up. The whole Rust ecosystem is just as broken and unfriendly as most everything that came before it, with upwards of 700 dependencies to build just about anything, obscure build errors and a build process that literally takes days on this - admittedly very old - hardware. It's no longer fun. :P

                                            9 ★ 4 ↺

                                            [?]Ltning »
                                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                                            Despite all the things IBM did right with OS/2, there were some absolutely mind-boggling decisions made. Today's example: Using Java (version 1.11 or better, mind you) and a Netscape browser plug-in to install TCP/IP. Other than the chicken-and-egg-problem (which is solved by installing the transport services - NIC and protocol drivers - first), there's the fact that they had a perfectly good software installation framework which ran fine on like 6-8MB of RAM (total!). This variant swaps until my CF card starts sweating with 16MB, and is s-l-o-w!

                                            I mean yeah, great, I get a proper BSD-4.4, 32-bit TCP/IP stack and tools. But it's taken me half a day. Getting the installation files over involved loading packet drivers and using in a DOS session. Which works .. surprisingly well. But still .. FixPak43, reboot. MPTS, reboot. Netscape 2.02, reboot. Java 1.18, reboot. Feature Installer plug-in (no reboot). Then, finally, TCP/IP.

                                            All this to have a machine to play with at .


                                              ...

                                              [?]April :verified8: »
                                              @lepidotos@bitbang.social

                                              @ltning "Oh just download the drivers and necessary prerequisites before you reinstall and keep them on a disk!" is probably what they were thinking, but that seems like the kind of thing that should absolutely just come with the OS itself.

                                                ...
                                                3 ★ 1 ↺
                                                Pun Boleh boosted

                                                [?]Ltning »
                                                @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                In fairness, if there is such a thing which can exuse this travesty: this is an OS released in 1994, with a browser that came along in 1996, a Java version (1.1) from 1997 and a TCP/IP package from 1998 or so. Of course all this would have been easier had I been using OS/2 Warp 4, but that one is just a tad too resource hungry on this hardware. :D

                                                  [?]Ariadne Conill 🐰:therian: »
                                                  @ariadne@social.treehouse.systems

                                                  welp this is the first time i got a 419 letter on mastodon

                                                  a screenshot of a classical 419 letter, but it’s a mastodon DM

                                                  Alt...a screenshot of a classical 419 letter, but it’s a mastodon DM

                                                  ...

                                                  [?]Jim Spath »
                                                  @jspath55@chaos.social

                                                  @ariadne A simple gold-diamond farmer.

                                                    0 ★ 0 ↺

                                                    [?]Ltning »
                                                    @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                    Make them pay!

                                                      [?]💜 pry 💜 »
                                                      @pry@raru.re

                                                      send me your website

                                                      ...

                                                      [?]teacher ciat 🔅 // 🕛〰️🕛💫 »
                                                      @ciatmusings@raru.re

                                                      @pry sure!! sapoweb.neocities.org

                                                      gimme yours so i add you to my friends list! :3

                                                        ...

                                                        [?]💜 pry 💜 »
                                                        @pry@raru.re

                                                        @ciatmusings I'm working on revamping prydt.xyz !

                                                          ...

                                                          [?]teacher ciat 🔅 // 🕛〰️🕛💫 »
                                                          @ciatmusings@raru.re

                                                          @pry oh nice! whenever u got a banner tell me so i add you! :3

                                                            1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                            [?]Ltning »
                                                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                            http://floppy.museum/ :D (Note http, not https)

                                                              ...

                                                              [?]💜 pry 💜 »
                                                              @pry@raru.re

                                                              @ltning that is an awesome domain and site!

                                                                1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                [?]Ltning »
                                                                @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                It's fun to run servers on old, slow computers. Posts that showed up on my big fat server a couple hours ago are only showing up now, simply because it's too busy to receive all relevant notifications at once. Other instances seem to be backing off for a while, and try again at random intervals so the load on this box remains low. Pretty cool, assuming that's actually how it works!

                                                                Only when a post is boosted or replied to do I run the risk of my hot-babe CPU monitor turning nsfw. So better keep it boring, I guess.

                                                                  [?]Pawlicker »
                                                                  @sendpaws@mitra.pawslut.party

                                                                  Linux at 50mhz is pain haha

                                                                  ...

                                                                  [?]fraggLe! »
                                                                  @fwaggle@moodoo.org

                                                                  @sendpaws Oof, flashbacks to it being like 1997 or something and I've got a bunch of machines laying around running JohnTheRipper because reasons, one of which is a 486. It was *pitifully* slow at anything, much less cracking, but it got a hit one time. :blobcathighfive:

                                                                    1 ★ 1 ↺
                                                                    Pawlicker boosted

                                                                    [?]Ltning »
                                                                    @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                    I have a server running under NetBSD on a 486, which also runs X. It's indeed painfully slow but it does work. And surprisingly well, too. An OS from 2025 on hardware from 1994.

                                                                    And if it wasn't for crypto being too slow to actually work I'd be doing the same on the 386SX-class machine that I also have running NetBSD. But with a hyper-optimized SSH handshake taking over a minute, I have no hopes for 2k RSA signatures or any kind of TLS handshakes with remote instances happening in anywhere near the timeframe they would need to..

                                                                      teacher ciat 🔅 // 🕛〰️🕛💫 boosted

                                                                      [?]i cast bnnuy »
                                                                      @linuxenjoyer@blahaj.zone

                                                                      it's always annoyed me how some people talk about hard stuff. like... i remember when i was first learning python all the resources i found were like "Write ADVANCED Python using CLASSES. This Complex Construct for managing your programs.". And for the longest time I put off learning about them, because oh nooo big scary thing. And like when I finally read the godforsaken car example I was so disappointed. Like I thought I was misunderstanding it. It can't just be some variables and functions tied together, can it? Yes it can ! That's basically all it is. And you give it a name so the types can yell at you if they want to.

                                                                      Same with polymorphism. po-ly-morph-ism. Big scary word. "Oh you don't know what polymorphism is? They should cover that soon in your courses haha." It's calling a method. youre calling a method. maybe it's because python is my first&favourite language but youre just calling a method.

                                                                      whenever anything is like "rahh this is hard and complex" i either click off and go look for a different article, or skip a paragraph and hope it gets better. /I/ want to decide if it sucks ​:neocat_scream:​​:neocat_scream:​

                                                                      i think usually i try to frame things like. "hey this is 👉👉my👈👈 experience with this thing, and maybe it sucked for me, but we can get through it 👍👍👍👍👍"

                                                                        ...
                                                                        1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                        [?]Ltning »
                                                                        @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                        My jaw literally dropped here when I read this. It's so, so familiar.

                                                                        I don't know what your native language is, but imagine how this exact same thing feels for someone whose first language is not English .. All the same scariness plus we may not even know what the words mean! And looking them up in a dictionary leads to a whole other kind of rabbit hole, and even if you understand the definitions and use in normal human language, it does very nearly jack shit to help understand wtf it means in the programming context.

                                                                        I know this, I've tried to learn programming since I was, what, 8? In a vacuum too, since I lived in the middle of fucking nowhere in Norway for the first 17 years of my life. Imagine only having the MS-DOS or PC-DOS handbooks and some GWBASIC code written by Bill Gates to start out with. And the vocabulary of a 8 year old kid whose grasp of the English language is limited to what he learned during 6 months of school in Australia when he was 5...

                                                                        I'm almost creeping up on 48 now and still can't code for shit.

                                                                          ...

                                                                          [?][tj] - knows what your packets are thinking »
                                                                          @tj@altelectron.org.uk

                                                                          @ltning @linuxenjoyer a friend a uni did an Erasmus year in France and the hardest thing she said was all the acronyms being very obscure French.

                                                                          I was thinking about this yesterday with my gsoc student. If English isn’t your first language the understanding that top is calculating percentages from procpct is an incredible achievement

                                                                            ...
                                                                            0 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                            [?]Ltning »
                                                                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                            I'd like to say that is an achievement no matter what your first language is ;)

                                                                            CC: @linuxenjoyer@blahaj.zone

                                                                              [?]Parade du Grotesque 💀 »
                                                                              @ParadeGrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org

                                                                              Got spam today from LinkedIn saying: "You are the best candidate! [large hotel chain] is looking for cleaning maids".

                                                                              I mean, nothing against cleaning maids, because they do a fantastic job*, but I have the feeling LinkedIn AI is completely b0rked.

                                                                              Current, official work title: "Cloud Architect".

                                                                              (* And, by the way, I make sure to always leave a bit of change for them when I leave a hotel, and so should you!)

                                                                              ...

                                                                              [?]jack »
                                                                              @jack@mastodon.sdf.org

                                                                              @ParadeGrotesque Regarding the cleaning maids, I'm completely with you.

                                                                              I'm also happy to hear that I'm not the only one with a questionable job title ("DevOps Engineer").

                                                                                1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                [?]Ltning »
                                                                                @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                Reminds me of all those times we were hiring sysadmins for our "hosting organization". And the majority of applicants came from the hospitality industry, despite our ads very clearly using words like FreeBSD and MySQL and titles like Command Line Warrior and stuff..

                                                                                  4 ★ 3 ↺

                                                                                  [?]Ltning »
                                                                                  @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                  I'm having the weirdest problem on this machine .. Trying to use on to profile , sometimes it works sometimes it will not actually give me any data (just print the headers). I'm using the hotuser script from the OpenDTrace toolkit.

                                                                                  Another issue is that the only way to stop dtrace is to kill -9 it, which takes the watched process with it in the fall..

                                                                                  Halp? :)

                                                                                    [?]Quester 🌤️🌈:heart_pan: :enb: »
                                                                                    @quester@mstdn.games

                                                                                    We’re finishing Babylon 5, and a couple of episodes ago I was thinking… I really want a coat like G’Kar’s!

                                                                                    A fuzzy closeup of G’Kar speaking to his fellow Narn on Babylon 5. The focus of the image is his cool coat

                                                                                    Alt...A fuzzy closeup of G’Kar speaking to his fellow Narn on Babylon 5. The focus of the image is his cool coat

                                                                                    ...

                                                                                    [?]SuperIlu »
                                                                                    @dec_hl@mastodon.social

                                                                                    @quester ok, you get the coat and I the mind reading lyta alexander thing 🤣

                                                                                      ...
                                                                                      3 ★ 1 ↺

                                                                                      [?]Ltning »
                                                                                      @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                      It's so sad when it's over ... I envy anyone who's able to see it for the first time in this day and age.


                                                                                        [?]ltning »
                                                                                        @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                        So tell us about your experience! 🙂

                                                                                          ...

                                                                                          [?]Quester 🌤️🌈:heart_pan: :enb: »
                                                                                          @quester@mstdn.games

                                                                                          @ltning Well, it was great! It started a bit slow but by the time the foreshadowing things started to make sense I didn’t want to stop watching!

                                                                                            ...

                                                                                            [?]ltning »
                                                                                            @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                            I've watched the whole show many times, with a few years between each re-watch. And yet it always feels disturbingly relevant.

                                                                                            Fave character? (Yes, this is a trick question ;) )

                                                                                              ...

                                                                                              [?]Quester 🌤️🌈:heart_pan: :enb: »
                                                                                              @quester@mstdn.games

                                                                                              @ltning Ooh, now that’s a tough one, because they’re all really well written. But I did really like G’Kar and Londo (despite his flaws) instantly.

                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                [?]ltning »
                                                                                                @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                Yeah, the dynamic between them is brilliant. And as far as character development goes, it's pretty unique - especially for that TV era.

                                                                                                The scene you shared a screengrab from is among my favorites. :)

                                                                                                But then it's also unfair to not mention Lennier and Vir, Marcus, Ivanova, Delenn - or even Sheridan. Or Garibaldi! Also Walter Koenig as Bester leaves a mark..

                                                                                                  ...

                                                                                                  [?]Quester 🌤️🌈:heart_pan: :enb: »
                                                                                                  @quester@mstdn.games

                                                                                                  @ltning Vir I enjoyed a lot, too, he showed a lot of maturity and growth for being what felt like a comic relief at first. And Lennier, although I do feel a bit bad about how his story ended.

                                                                                                  I will say I did like Sinclair a bit better than Sheridan, but only as how his storyline developed towards the end. But knowing about the actor’s later years it’s understandable why the story went the way it did. Still, it would had been very interesting to have had a few episodes looking back on the past of Minbar. How Sinclair was written into that was brilliant. Exactly the sort of storytelling I enjoy.

                                                                                                  Garibaldi was great. And his friendship with Zack. I really liked Zack, too!

                                                                                                  There really were no badly written characters. Even the most loathesome antagonists were really good. I don’t know if I can see Chekov on Star Trek the same way anymore 😂

                                                                                                    ...

                                                                                                    [?]ltning »
                                                                                                    @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                    This is when the fanboi in me just has to mention that there's a movie (In the Beginning) which you absolutely must see (the others are nice but kinda optional). There is actually a point during season 4 that would have been the perfect moment to see this movie, but I guess you're past that point now :D But do not delay, go see it, it is absolutely fantastic.

                                                                                                    And there are three trilogies and two standalone novels that fill in a lot of blanks in the universe (and tells really, really good stories about some of your favourite characters!) - you may want to look them up:
                                                                                                    - "The Shadow Within" by Jeanne Cavelos; covers the Icarus expedition
                                                                                                    - "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" by Kathryn M. Drennan; Sinclair on Minbar, need I say more?

                                                                                                    And the trilogies:
                                                                                                    - "The Psi Corps Trilogy" by J. Gregory Keyes; the origin story of the Psi Corps and Bester
                                                                                                    - "Legions of Fire" by Peter David; picks up where Season 5 ended on Centauri Prime
                                                                                                    - "The Passing of the Techno-Mages" by Jeanne Cavelos; more relevant than it sounds, and perhaps my favourite

                                                                                                    All of these are considered canon, and are written with JMS's input and approval.

                                                                                                      ...

                                                                                                      [?]Quester 🌤️🌈:heart_pan: :enb: »
                                                                                                      @quester@mstdn.games

                                                                                                      @ltning We did already watch the movie you mentioned 😊 I do wish they’d included more of the episode it’s linked to into the movie, but yeah, should had rented it during the season it belongs to. There are other movies available for later.
                                                                                                      My partner has seen Babylon 5 before me so I’m in good hands here 😄

                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                        [?]ltning »
                                                                                                        @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                        Haha okay then, I approve of the guidance that has clearly been given. :D

                                                                                                        If you ever get to read the books, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. I have not met a lot of people who did.

                                                                                                          Parade du Grotesque 💀 boosted

                                                                                                          [?]𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight" »
                                                                                                          @Lana@beige.party

                                                                                                          I'd like to take a moment to congratulate all Americans for now legally being defined as women.

                                                                                                          According to Executive Order 14168 (federalregister.gov/documents/), the "biological truth" of the genders has been legally defined:

                                                                                                          (d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
                                                                                                          (e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

                                                                                                          Here's the problem, turns out that the universe isn't taking attendance at the time of conception and handing out little pink and blue genderino badges before your gonads even exist. At the moment of conception, EVERY embryo's default state is set to produce, eventually, the larger reproductive cell (the ova). It's not until 6-8 weeks AFTER conception that the Y chromosome, if present and activated, decides to show up to the party and begin the process of differentiation into a body that will, eventually, produce the smaller reproductive cell (the sperm).

                                                                                                          So, once again, I'd like to congratulate literally everybody in America for, at this moment, being legally AFAB.

                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                          [?]Parade du Grotesque 💀 »
                                                                                                          @ParadeGrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org

                                                                                                          @Lana

                                                                                                          Well, first of all, I, for one, welcome this unexpected change to my gender.

                                                                                                          I have to say I don't really mind, as long as I can dress fabulously! Does that sex change means I can wear a skirt now?

                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                            [?]𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight" »
                                                                                                            @Lana@beige.party

                                                                                                            @ParadeGrotesque Put On A Pink Princess Dress As God Intended

                                                                                                              ...

                                                                                                              [?]Parade du Grotesque 💀 »
                                                                                                              @ParadeGrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org

                                                                                                              @Lana

                                                                                                              Let's goooooooooooo! 👘

                                                                                                                [?]Kevin Cheek »
                                                                                                                @kcheek@mastodon.online

                                                                                                                @ParadeGrotesque @Lana everyone should feel free to wear skirts, don't you think?

                                                                                                                I won't try to start an argument about kilts, or should I?

                                                                                                                  1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                  [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                  @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                  Larry Laffer approves this message!

                                                                                                                    11 ★ 4 ↺
                                                                                                                    Jay 🚩 :runbsd: boosted

                                                                                                                    [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                    @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                    I haven't obsessed this much with my desktop since I was .. much younger. Trying to make it functional and purrty on 30 year old hardware is challenging but fun. Thanks to and the fact that most old X and tools are still around and do all the things they always did - and haven't bloated much in those 30 years - helps a lot.

                                                                                                                    I'll take Wayland when it comes my way without me having to lift a finger, but until then I'm glad the X Window System is still around. Keeps this old hardware useful.

                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                      4 ★ 2 ↺

                                                                                                                      [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                      @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                      Running the hot-babe CPU monitor. [SENSITIVE CONTENT]And the obligatory screenshot .. maybe a bit nsfw due to the ancient CPU monitor ;)

                                                                                                                      Since this screenshot was taken after posting the previous message, the box is quite busy, so Ms. Cynthia is a bit underdressed for the occasion..

                                                                                                                      Screenshot of a NetBSD desktop showing HexChat IRC client, a couple xrootconsole instances tailing logs, WindowMaker WM, GKrellM and Hot-Babe system/CPU monitors.

                                                                                                                      Alt...Screenshot of a NetBSD desktop showing HexChat IRC client, a couple xrootconsole instances tailing logs, WindowMaker WM, GKrellM and Hot-Babe system/CPU monitors.

                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                        [?]ltning »
                                                                                                                        @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                                        Damn, my old 286 can't ever look this good!

                                                                                                                        CC: @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                          8 ★ 5 ↺

                                                                                                                          [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                          @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                          Trying to optimise http://floppy.museum for (even) older browsers. Some of the issues I'm trying to solve include utf8-to-latin1 translation (the original HTML has some silly double- and triple-byte characters), and variations of JPEG that simply aren't understood.

                                                                                                                          Turns out Netscape 2.02 is too easy, so in this picture is IBM WebExplorer v1.1h running on OS/2 Warp Connect. Using the magic "work area" feature of folders (mark a folder as a work area to have the OS manage objects within it as a kind of unit), I can open several windows at once. True multi-process browsing 😉


                                                                                                                          OS/2 Warp Connect with four browser windows, a text mode editor editing config.sys, the parent "work area" folder and the launch pad.

                                                                                                                          Alt...OS/2 Warp Connect with four browser windows, a text mode editor editing config.sys, the parent "work area" folder and the launch pad.

                                                                                                                            Ltning boosted

                                                                                                                            [?]ltning »
                                                                                                                            @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                                            "You find armed women in swimsuit sexy."
                                                                                                                            (But then again, you find all women sexy!)

                                                                                                                            This is a game I think would like (A short thread).

                                                                                                                            Picture of screen showing an ex-girlfriend of Larry's wearing a swimsuit and pointing a gun at him.

                                                                                                                            Alt...Picture of screen showing an ex-girlfriend of Larry's wearing a swimsuit and pointing a gun at him.

                                                                                                                              ...
                                                                                                                              2 ★ 1 ↺
                                                                                                                              Anders Gulden Olstad boosted

                                                                                                                              [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                              @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                              The sound of a 486SLC doing a SSH handshake.

                                                                                                                              Alt...Electronic noise from the CPU/RAM while handshaking.

                                                                                                                              8 ★ 5 ↺

                                                                                                                              [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                              @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                              Baking my next project, a thread...
                                                                                                                              [Edit - fixed attachment]

                                                                                                                              I've said somewhere I want to run NetBSD on a . Now obviously that's not actually possible, but I should be able to do the next best thing - run it on a 286 upgraded to a 486SLC!

                                                                                                                              But wait, most 286es only support 4MB RAM, although the ol' chum of a chip supports a whopping 16MB. So I have to find a motherboard that can do this.

                                                                                                                              Thing is, I already have one. See picture. But it's currently occupied doing very important Enterprisy stuff - it runs IBM OS/2 1.3 Extended Edition..but at least I know what I need!

                                                                                                                              otherboard with a soldered 20MHz 286 CPU and a Citygate chipset.

                                                                                                                              Alt...otherboard with a soldered 20MHz 286 CPU and a Citygate chipset.

                                                                                                                                ...
                                                                                                                                3 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                So as usual, its eBay to the rescue. Found a board just like it, except there's good news and bad news: the good news is the CPU is socketed on this one, making the upgrade job a lot easier.

                                                                                                                                The bad news? See picture.

                                                                                                                                Zoomed-in picture of the new mainboard, showing green gunk on the board itself and in the RAM sockets. Yuck!

                                                                                                                                Alt...Zoomed-in picture of the new mainboard, showing green gunk on the board itself and in the RAM sockets. Yuck!

                                                                                                                                  ...
                                                                                                                                  1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                  [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                  @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                  I'm a bit of a n00b at this, but I have salvaged a couple of boards before using vinegar and a toothbrush, so I'm trying my luck with that. After applying the vinegar and watching, hearing and smelling it sizzling, I dunk the affected part thoroughly for a few minutes...

                                                                                                                                  Kitchen paper dunked in 12% vinegar, placed on the affected part of the motherboard to allow the vinegar to do its magic without disappearing into thin air.

                                                                                                                                  Alt...Kitchen paper dunked in 12% vinegar, placed on the affected part of the motherboard to allow the vinegar to do its magic without disappearing into thin air.

                                                                                                                                    ...
                                                                                                                                    4 ★ 1 ↺
                                                                                                                                    Network == Abstraction Layer boosted

                                                                                                                                    [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                    @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                    And I know one should not apply regular water to electronics, but I'm trusting Oslo Waterworks to supply me with nice, clean water from the tap. It comes at high pressure to boot, so I can quickly get rid of all the vinegar to prevent it from slowly eating through everything. As long as I dry it properly and quickly, it should be fine, I'm told.

                                                                                                                                    I said I was baking - It was not a randomly chosen term.

                                                                                                                                    The mainboard is literally in the oven! 60 degrees Celcius in hot air-mode for, say, an hour or so should do, I guess.

                                                                                                                                    Alt...The mainboard is literally in the oven! 60 degrees Celcius in hot air-mode for, say, an hour or so should do, I guess.

                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                      3 ★ 1 ↺
                                                                                                                                      Network == Abstraction Layer boosted

                                                                                                                                      [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                      @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                      And it lives! Apparently I'm officially operating a Motherboard Bakery! :)
                                                                                                                                      Now I need to get it properly configured and tested with DOS, then I can move on to the next steps - which involve the CPU upgrade, and assuming that works, creating actual, physical floppies.

                                                                                                                                      (In other news, the instance on this poor Pentium Pro server is sweating hard whenever I post something. So let me know at @ltning@anduin.net if you have problems receiving/reading my posts. I've made some tweaks but it will be unavoidably detained for a while following each post, my apologies for that..)


                                                                                                                                      Picture of BIOS during boot. It's a 1990 American Megatrends BIOS, for the TD60C board, BIOS version 2.42B. It shows a 20MHz CPU clock and 15872 KB RAM tested OK.

                                                                                                                                      Alt...Picture of BIOS during boot. It's a 1990 American Megatrends BIOS, for the TD60C board, BIOS version 2.42B. It shows a 20MHz CPU clock and 15872 KB RAM tested OK.

                                                                                                                                        ...
                                                                                                                                        2 ★ 1 ↺
                                                                                                                                        Headbanger75 boosted

                                                                                                                                        [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                        @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                        Herewith, the actual machine. Some specs ..
                                                                                                                                        - Motherboard: Zida TD60C
                                                                                                                                        - CPU: Harris 286 28MHz
                                                                                                                                        - RAM: 16MB "RainbowRAM", 55ns (check out the LEDs!)
                                                                                                                                        - Graphics: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5422, 1MB
                                                                                                                                        - Network: 3com EtherLink III (3c509)
                                                                                                                                        - Floppy: 2-in-1 90mm (3.5") and 1.2" floppy drive
                                                                                                                                        - Storage: Promise DC200M caching IDE controller, 2.5MB cache
                                                                                                                                        - SCSI: Sound Blaster 16 SCSI :D


                                                                                                                                        Dark-ish picture showing motherboard mounted horizontally on a transparent acrylic surface. Underneath a combined 5.25 inch and 90mm floppy drive. The installed RAM lights up in different colours, four sticks with blue, purpole organge and yellow LEDs, respectively. VGA, network and sound cards are also visible.

                                                                                                                                        Alt...Dark-ish picture showing motherboard mounted horizontally on a transparent acrylic surface. Underneath a combined 5.25 inch and 90mm floppy drive. The installed RAM lights up in different colours, four sticks with blue, purpole organge and yellow LEDs, respectively. VGA, network and sound cards are also visible.

                                                                                                                                          ...
                                                                                                                                          2 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                          [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                          @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                          Well .. that went sideways. Despite many attempts, I have yet to find a 286 - or a 386sx for that matter - that will boot the NetBSD floppies without failing in some way or other. I'm not yet certain (perhaps someone here knows?), but there may be instructions missing from the various 486SLC and 486DLC CPU variants that my ugprade modules have. Or there are other bugs that I have not been able to figure out.

                                                                                                                                          Anyway, I've reduced my ambitions ever so slightly, and am now in the process of installing NetBSD (-CURRENT) on what is essentially a 386SX-class machine: 16-bit bus, 24-bit addressing, 16MB RAM, and nearly as unpleasantly slow as the 286 I had planned to use. It is however equipped with an IBM-branded 486SLC, which is from the Blue Lightning series. This one definitely has a full 486 instruction set. More hardware details will follow when I've completed the build (and installation).

                                                                                                                                          Meanwhile, the obligatory screenshot from the installer. Note the ETA for simply unpacking base.tgz ..

                                                                                                                                          Screenshot from installer. Shows base.txz being extracted, at a speed of 110 KB/s. ETA given is about 30 minutes, which turned out to be relatively accurate.

                                                                                                                                          Alt...Screenshot from installer. Shows base.txz being extracted, at a speed of 110 KB/s. ETA given is about 30 minutes, which turned out to be relatively accurate.

                                                                                                                                            2 ★ 0 ↺
                                                                                                                                            in reply to »

                                                                                                                                            [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                            @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                            I had on another 286 for a while, and there's some 16-bit "port" of Linux that is not as old as it should be. And of course the venerable OS/2 1.x, and a few actual variants as you point out. I didn't know about V6on286, that's a beautiful little nugget, thank you!

                                                                                                                                            All of those things are absolutely wonderful and make many of todays software developers look ... spoiled? What I want, however - and what I love doing - is making this old hardware do stuff its makers never dreamt of, things that are as far removed from their time as possible. That's why I will, if permits, run bleeding edge BSD on a 286-on-486steroids, and why I run web+ftp+irc servers (yes, multitaskign) on one 286 and multiple BBS nodes on a 386 - like one used to do, of course.

                                                                                                                                            I cannot state often enough how amazing it is that there's still software developed today that will work under such constraints.


                                                                                                                                              ...
                                                                                                                                              Ltning boosted

                                                                                                                                              [?]ltning »
                                                                                                                                              @ltning@larry.weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                              for the win: Using ctwm (window manager), urxvt (terminal emulator), mrxvt (tabbed terminal emulator), pload (network monitor) and, in the spirit of the 90s, hot-babe (CPU monitor), I have a nice and borderline usable "desktop" on this 486.

                                                                                                                                              Until starts doing work of course. Then I just sit back and wait.

                                                                                                                                                ...
                                                                                                                                                5 ★ 2 ↺
                                                                                                                                                in reply to »

                                                                                                                                                [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                                @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                                For the server hosting this instance (Pentium Pro machine):
                                                                                                                                                - https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=8170
                                                                                                                                                - https://bsd-hardware.info/?probe=f6feb27f87

                                                                                                                                                For the 486 running larry.weirdr.net:
                                                                                                                                                - https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=8169
                                                                                                                                                - https://bsd-hardware.info/?probe=2ec3f61bc7

                                                                                                                                                Enjoy. :)

                                                                                                                                                CC: @jaypatelani@bsd.network

                                                                                                                                                  1 ★ 0 ↺
                                                                                                                                                  in reply to »

                                                                                                                                                  [?]Ltning »
                                                                                                                                                  @ltning@weirdr.net

                                                                                                                                                  Yes, been doing some hardware work. :)

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