Posts by TechTangents@dialup.space
(DIR) Post #B6CUlVJpkuZqTIJhKK by TechTangents@dialup.space
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At first blush you'll notice the really unusual disk latch. It clicks in and is held down with a latch unlike Tandon TM100's that have a lame channel system.And when you open it, it is spring loaded to eject and present the disk!https://youtu.be/79UAq5HT9xw
(DIR) Post #B6CUlVaqjeBjK4HHqi by TechTangents@dialup.space
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However, if you try to install it into a computer, you're going to notice something odd. It's too big, no wait, it's too small?It is not a standard height. It's not just the bezel being big either, the drive fills in all the space vertically. Using what seems like a full size NEMA stepper in the back probably didn't help.
(DIR) Post #B6CUlVofuFFO0wkKOm by TechTangents@dialup.space
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But it gets weirder!This is the only 5.25in drive I have ever seen that is the same vertical size as a Sony OA-D3#V series drive! I have wondered about the origin of their size for a long time and was speculating it was a one-off. But clearly not!
(DIR) Post #B6CUlW0NCkbYbEDfdI by TechTangents@dialup.space
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And here's the kicker, the Remex was first!Bitsavers has a manual for it scanned: https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/remex/floppy/Remex_RFD480_RFD960_Product_Reference_Manual.pdfIn the manual there is a mechanical draft, with a date barely legible, I believe 08/12/81. This most likely predates the original Sony OA-D30V drive that was made for a word processor that the was released in late 1981. So this "standard" is earlier than the Sony drives!.
(DIR) Post #B6CUlWDqOfNdH0WQd6 by TechTangents@dialup.space
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I still have no idea where this size comes from, but now I know I can stop associating it with the Sony drives. I will be continuing my quest to find more information on this unusual form factor.For now I've added this drive to my wiki so the info is in a more publicly available place: https://wiki.techtangents.net/wiki/Remex_RFD480
(DIR) Post #B6CUlWQFeXIxtUKKy8 by TechTangents@dialup.space
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Oh yeah, I left this out. That manual does give the drive form factor a designation. But it is "slimline". So...yeah. I'm not going to find many helpful results searching for "slimeline 5.25in drive" here.
(DIR) Post #B6CUyrnvT0dByOlQBc by TechTangents@dialup.space
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@vwestlife That's what I'm going with so far for the name on the wiki page. Ironically, the space left between the Remex drive and the normal half height drive is exactly the same height as a modern slimline optical drive.
(DIR) Post #B6G3bUWhvVBMzKBAAa by TechTangents@dialup.space
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Welcome to our future. My grandmother bought a book on Amazon a few days ago and this is what arrived. My BS radar went off like crazy as soon as I saw it.This is an almost completely AI generated book, printed on demand, and sold as a physical product.
(DIR) Post #B6G3baBItzcuWgD9do by TechTangents@dialup.space
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This is the first thing you see when you open it. A kerning nightmare followed by three lines that all just reiterate what the "book" is about, quantity without quality is the name of the game here. There is a reason I'm not saying this is 100% AI generated yet that I will get to in a moment.It is obviously full of AI garbage like this generated image of a forest full of balls of yarn with I presume the grim reaper waiting at the end of the path to claim more souls to fill the slop machine
(DIR) Post #B6G3bdCpeldDuHwuwK by TechTangents@dialup.space
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After that is a table of contents, sorry, table of "content". There are of course, no page numbers in the book so it is completely useless.I think this is more to do with how amazon publishing works. It's full of layout errors like titles on the page before subject, more kerning issues, and the empty square glyph in the bullet list because the print font didn't have the character needed.
(DIR) Post #B6G3bi6zPuvf7cFp1k by TechTangents@dialup.space
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But here is the crux of the issue. This whole book contains ONE pattern spread over 4 pages. It's the super faint text because they didn't change the color before printing in monochrome.It's also surrounded bye "markdown CopyEdit", I've never used ChatGPT/any-LLM but I'm guessing this is a copy paste error from the prompt.I think they stole a pattern from someone and then generated a book around it. The rest of the ENTIRE BOOK after this just just waffling on nonsense.
(DIR) Post #B6G3blC3xVlmgDePqq by TechTangents@dialup.space
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It also repeats information, the copy/pasted pattern defines the shorthand, and earlier in the book the LLM built a whole table out of that. Everything else in it just reads like the life story you got before the recipe you were looking for online, completely pointless padding.
(DIR) Post #B6G3bnlEPj5cds7Wwi by TechTangents@dialup.space
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This is a waste of compute, a waste of energy, a waste of physical materials, a waste of transportation, and a waste of money. My grandmother got a refund. But think of how many people won't, on an unlimited scale across genres. The amateur end of this this and many other hobbies will be choked out by garbage.I don't have call to action for this, I have no idea what we can do other than educate those around us to make individual choices to not engage with deluge of slop around us.
(DIR) Post #B6ONjGFCSqwPMAeTB2 by TechTangents@dialup.space
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I pay for Google Workspace to host custom email domains so they don't get blocked by the cartel. And gmail has stupid AI nonsense in it (that is broken and impossible to disable without support due to the age of the account, I don't use it).But the thing that drives me the most nuts about it is its insistence on replacing idioms with bland corpo speak.I get that these don't translate well to other languages. But sanitizing all language down to a lowest common denominator is awful.
(DIR) Post #B6bYrsQI1blmdLd2wq by TechTangents@dialup.space
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Turns out the trick to getting Google Classic sans-AI is to just browse the web on a 3DS!I can't see any possible down sides to this!
(DIR) Post #B7OWeBiqJ1kYrQFCFc by TechTangents@dialup.space
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So that's who made the fun color IBM Model M keys!
(DIR) Post #B7VVtZinDvLWhOaoue by TechTangents@dialup.space
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Today I got something I thought I might never be able to get, this is an IBM Model 01 from 1935, the start of the IBM Model ## naming sequence. It might also be their first consumer productIt is the first model of typewriter they ever sold, bought out from Electromatic Typewriters, Inc. and essentially just rebadged to IBM. This format would be remade several times as the Model A, B, C, and DThe Model B Executive I featured in my video about manual correcting methods:https://youtu.be/c9O76v9eKqo
(DIR) Post #B7VVtfswJ71lobO0Yq by TechTangents@dialup.space
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I've got some work to do before it will work, I was told the hammers don't strike and I haven't put power to it yet. But I am *ecstatic* to get to work on this thing. I have a huge IBM typewriter collection and this was one of my grails to get.I love how barbaric it is, the tab set on the back is literally just a poker and a sweep exposed. And I think the impression strength is just set with a clutch on the back of the motor.
(DIR) Post #B8BQfCw4Enq0ec4fGy by TechTangents@dialup.space
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@vwestlife Good lord, it's so bad and invasive. I had no idea that was in there. It is horrifyingly good as well in ways I would not have pegged as AI.I didn't watch the video yet, but I did click the button for a supporter video in the interest of knowing the evil and will share the results. The video is a single static camera shot. What it came up with frighteningly detailed.At least it failed *miserably* at recreating my face. More notes in alt text.
(DIR) Post #B8NhZU0DajIgEf7eU4 by TechTangents@dialup.space
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@vwestlifeClearly the answer is both, CDs for the good copy, records for fun (and to not decompose).The CDs are almost always so cheap to add into a record order anyway it kind of seems like a no brainer to get both.