Post B3NpilaYiAlE6D5AKO by sigflup@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by sigflup@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B3MrLapSYTaUooAagq by sigflup@mastodon.social
       2026-02-16T03:33:28Z
       
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       Tom Jennings!! When I visited him he showed me this transistor-based computer. Very cool stuff!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOctD_4na8
       
 (DIR) Post #B3MrLckDQwa6l7jQnI by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2026-02-16T04:30:43Z
       
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       @sigflup I was wondering what was going on with it! But there is LGP 21 code -- on that memory. It could be cecovered *optically* using a long-obsolete product:magtape inspection fluid, which was essentially iron power (micron sized) in an alcohol suspension. You pour it out, the low viscosity alcohol allows the particles to align with the flux puddles on the disk/tape, rendering it visible. Wiipe it off and no harm done.Its long obsolete,but I bet the computre museum folks would at least know about it.
       
 (DIR) Post #B3NpilaYiAlE6D5AKO by sigflup@mastodon.social
       2026-02-16T15:47:09Z
       
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       @tomjennings interesting stuff.  For context, do you know what it was last used for?
       
 (DIR) Post #B3OYZ04MVuDO3GjvI8 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2026-02-17T00:09:39Z
       
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       @sigflup Sort of. It was from the X Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The folks who made plutonium cores. I doubt it has anything juicy on it.  The machine was surplused many decades ago. I have the inventory sheet for it somewhere. It cost $16,800 in 1963. LASL got any toy they wanted before anyone else.
       
 (DIR) Post #B3OYjAjFjjG60WiTUe by sigflup@mastodon.social
       2026-02-17T00:11:26Z
       
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       @tomjennings It's funny how a lot of the old memory technologies were actually non-volatile, for example core memory.
       
 (DIR) Post #B3Oa9dfgqqV3FqEZwu by sigflup@mastodon.social
       2026-02-17T00:27:29Z
       
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       @tomjennings crt memory always interested me, that's pretty volatile
       
 (DIR) Post #B3OjBRNgPuyxIqkHYm by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2026-02-17T02:08:41Z
       
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       @sigflup They all used a lot of energy per bit, so often persistence just fell out of the solution. Now they're counting electrons!