Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Mathias

Pages: 1 ... 6 7 [8] 9 10 ... 13
106
Hardware / Re: Connect PS/2 hardware...
« on: August 07, 2019, 09:58:38 am »
André, I am not using a ThinkPad, so in which way could that docking station be useful..


> What's nice about expensive hardware, required to use cheap hardware?

Like I wrote, and I am repeating myself here, old input hardware is often messy and overly used. Sometimes even to an extend that one does not want to touch them anymore. New input hardware has the charm that nobody has ever used them, and therefore have better haptics and delivers better user experience.. for me.

Also.. why expensive? If that PCI card would have worked for that purpose it'll be 12-20 EUR. That's not expensive.
Of course it's (as usual) price versus the sensation of using a device. If it is worth 20 EUR to you, to use a brand new keyboard on an old machine, then why not? ;D

107
Hardware / Re: Connect PS/2 hardware...
« on: August 07, 2019, 09:22:20 am »
Hi Olafur!

Sadly the machine has no USB onboard yet. It's a 486.
Newer machines can make use of USB legacy support and co for keyboard and mouse usage in non-USB operating systems, yup.
But still, would be nice to operate without adapters, just a PCI card to expand the possibilities of devices (which are missing on the mainboard).
Such a card would be nice to enable 486 AND new PCs (both without PS/2 ports). And since PS/2 input devices are cheap these days, even brand new ones, it would be nice if we could somehow connect them to PS/2-less mainboards.

108
Hardware / Re: Connect PS/2 hardware...
« on: August 07, 2019, 09:15:46 am »
Hi Ivan! : )

Nono, I'd like to connect PS/2 devices to a 486 (utilizing PCI) as well as later machines, that still have PCI.
486er usually have no PS/2 port, and also machines of today only have one (at best) PS/2 port, rather none. - The idea is to expand their input capabilities with a PCI card that comes with a keyboard controller and the usual two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, as PS/2 input devices are still easy to order and cheap. The DIN keyboards and serial mice starting to get rare and expensive (due to retro mania ebay sellers), and also looking quite used after all these years. In comparisation.. getting a brand new PS/2 device is much more satisfying to use, even on old hardware. Atleast for me. ;>
So.. I either look for a PCI card to connect PS/2 devices for OS/2 and DOS, OR an adapter to connect PS/2 mice on serial ports.
For keyboards, I do have a PS/2 --> DIN adapter.

But as IBM made fun of the adapteritis in the old IBM advertise, 20 years ago... "With the IBM Business Adapter you can get each device running on our hardware.." ; )
A clean and nice PCI card would be better than 2 more adapters at the back of the machine, imo.

There is a company in the US, selling such PS/2 to serial adapters [Vetra]. But that thing has two disadvantages: 1) expensive to buy (price of such a thing) and to order (import costs to DE), and 2) another adapter flying around at the back of the machine..

Shortly I saw this card on Amazon: [click], which COULD be the solution, BUT as I heard and read about it... it comes with USB emulation, which is why you need a driver to operate the card... meaning it won't work with DOS and OS/2. Too bad :/
Could be so cewl.. a PCI card with two PS/2 ports, just right for keyboard and mouse, plug onto the mainboard, turn on and type/point with the PS/2 devices.

Also I have seen a similar PCI card on Amazon, that ONLY has the PS/2 ports... but this one ALSO comes with USB emulation, which is why it also won't work like plug n Play in old machines with the "wrong" operating systems. This one also had the info in the description "won't work with DOS".

109
Excellent idea! - For starters, you could go with topics from [the ArcaNoae Wiki]. Not sure though, if each of them can be handled in under 5 minutes.. ; ) - But still, these will be very helpful videos to link in the forums, or even in the ArcaNoae Wiki itself.

110
Hardware / Connect PS/2 hardware...
« on: August 06, 2019, 11:08:35 pm »
... to a x86 from before the PS/2 era and also to a machine from the USB age... for instance via a PCI card.

I've seen such cards on ebay and amazon.. but they all communicate via USB chip on that card... and therefore cannot be used for DOS or Warp3.

So.. question is, is there such a thing? :o

111
Off Topic discussions / Re: Should I go for it or better not?
« on: July 28, 2019, 12:53:45 am »
Yes, I do agree. It is indeed quite pricy. But this was (up until now) the only complete find of this machine case. In the very end I am only interested in that case. The hardware itself (needs to be an AT board) can be ebay'ed for a couple of EUR.

I did find ONE other offer a while ago, selling a SkyTower 400, but that one was incomplete (case foot was missing, side panel was bended.. etc)


Anyway! Big thanks for your opinions. I value them a lot! - Not going to bid on this offer.
I already asked him if we could leave away the CRT screen, as I don't need it, just the case and the software. - He replied, yes, this is possible, but he can't change the price anymore, he wrote.
Well.. I suspect if this is true, he cannot sell it cheaper anymore, until he ends this auction.

Ivan, this is a very interesting question. IF I am able to get such a Highscreen SkyTower 400 or 500, I'd need an appropriate hardware to put into that casing. I'd favour an AMD 486er (as I already have such a machine with a SkyTower 400 (was my very first PC in 1992)). If possible, I'd contact you for appropriate hardware. : )

112
Off Topic discussions / Should I go for it or better not?
« on: July 26, 2019, 11:20:42 pm »
:D - Found  an article on ebay: Pentium 90... would be perfect for a retro machine running OS/2 Warp 4.x, I thought.
(First I only saw the computer case.. wich I also have a 486er machine of, but then I investigated further, as the guy selling the thing gave no infos at all about that thing..)

The case says Intel Pentium, and the back says Model 90.. so chances are that this is a P90... might be even with a P90 fdiv bug.. :o
But I love this ultra rare case.. and want it! :D - It is a Highscreen Sky Tower 500.

The case also includes a Colorado 250 tape drive, a SCSI ISA card, PCI graphics card, an ISA sound card, 3.5 inch and 5 1/4 inch floppy drive, numerous software (not specified, just pictures of floppy disks), and a CRT monitor.

I wrote this seller.. as I wanted to know, atleast, which CPU this is, how much RAM is installed, mainboard type, etc
And he appears to have no clue.. he offered me to take more pictures from inside the case and for me to visit by. (too far away from me unfortunately)

Appears like he does not know what he has there.
But pricing is a bit hard, imho...

Bidding starts at 300 EUR (333,80 Dolar), (immediate buy at 450 EUR (500,70 Dollar)), no bids yet.

Since this is kind of buying a cat in a sack, I do not know... whats your opinion?
And what is this fdiv P90 bug? I heard about it back then. And all I remember, is that a specific calculation always gives a wrong value. But how badly does that impact usability of that machine/CPU, if at all?

113
Marketplace / Re: Warp Server - NOS Free
« on: July 26, 2019, 10:53:25 pm »
Woah, who is still using DM? ; ) - Since the year 2002 DM is no longer, and has been replaced by the infamous EUR. :D
65$ --> 58,41 EUR

Well.. I have asked ebay.. and it only gave me Warp3 Connect. Even a sealed one from the US, which is 104 EUR plus 60 EUR for shipping. URX... :D

Naw, I think your package is still the better deal, and also Warp Server on top! : )
Which one is it btw? 4.5 or 4.52?
And which way to pay? Do you support Paypal? : ) - should be the easiest way.

114
Marketplace / Re: Warp Server - NOS Free
« on: July 26, 2019, 08:37:39 pm »
Language EN?
What is this NOS version? (Supposedly not to be built into the car to make it warp faster.. ; ) )
Can you estimate the shipping costs to DE?

Thank you in advance. : ))

115
Applications / Re: Generating an image of an HPFS HDD.
« on: July 26, 2019, 12:14:55 am »
Indeed! Partimage is a great piece of software! You may also consider the dd command under linux or the bootable [Clonezilla] distribution. This one supports a whole lot of partition types. And if one is not supported, the software switches over to the dd method by itself.
Using all three free software products at times, and each one supports its own methods. Clonezilla is the one supporting and automating the most functions on its own. It also supports imaging over the network via different methods, or of course locally.

116
Article Discussions / Re: NY Subway switching to contactless
« on: June 27, 2019, 09:12:18 am »
Ahh okay. - Thanks for the quick reply Neil. : )

But where is OS/2 in that new chain? :>

117
Article Discussions / NY Subway switching to contactless
« on: June 26, 2019, 10:52:21 am »
Regarding to [this article], linked in the news, I might be a bit old school, but why should one switch away from analog stuff to digital, completely?
Wouldn't it be way smarter to have both systems running alongside? I mean, in the end, it's just about "returning true" to the process of the entry-gate to open, so you can get on train.

When it comes to pay-by-app these two things instantly come to my mind:
- What about people without smart phones? (Yes, they DO exist) - Or people WITH smart phones using them only with wifi, having no mobile contract)
- What about tourists and foreign phones? Will they also work?


IBM - Fixed URL

118
Hardware / Re: Warpstock Europe
« on: May 21, 2019, 10:42:02 pm »
Most interesting (for me) was Lewis' announcement, where DTA is renamed to DTAudio (no idea what A stand for before), but it's initial release is planned for ArcaOS 5.0.5 . This means sound in WinOS/2 sessions and DOS VDM via wrapper to Uniaud. - Very cewl for retro gaming! *__*

119
Games / Re: ArcaOS - Retro Gaming Machine
« on: May 17, 2019, 04:56:46 pm »
AndrĂ©, sure thing; But I doubt regular users would be able to bring the machine to its limits with DOS games. :> - Therefore, I suppose a crazy and much more modern PC case would do the job already, attracting people in between all the old Amigas and retro things.  - No need to spend hundreds of EUR just to run retro applications, where some already run way too fast on the Intel Atom. :D

The aim is to attract people first, and then make them sit down and play around with the stuff installed.

Sound.. yes.. that would then complete the user's retro experience, as soon as they have started a game. - But that's nothing that I could do much about. I have to wait for the devs to come around with a solution.


Ivan, it's crazy what bugs and potential security holes are found by some individuals and laboratories. - All this renders whole computer fleets unsafe all of sudden, and what was state of the art a moment ago, is now unsafe trash from one to the other second. It's true that AMD has not yet been impacted by such kind of bugs, but why didn't these "boffins" come around with that stuff some years ago, when these CPUs had been released? - Not sure, but I think that is somehwat on purpose, so we all have to buy new hardware all the time. - Lucky AMD users for the moment, but I suppose when these scientists would check AMD CPUs, they might find one or another similar bug too.. :o

It's unfortunate, but today everything is unsafe, as long as it has not been proven to be safe.. but then, the next day somebody comes out of nowhere, telling you "all your hardware is unsafe and needs to be replaced".
Same with Volkswagen and co: First they tell you all is excellent, and the other day they take the car out of order, as you produce much much more toxic output as you are allowed to. - Who pays for this? Of course not the industry, but the customer needs to buy new stuff to comply with regulations. (Atleast german customers need to. I have heard VW is sentenced to give buyers their money back in the US, which IS RIGHT, just why not here in DE??) Why does industry never pay for their own faults?
I would say that Intel needs to hand me my money back, as I need to buy new CPUs now.. since the old ones are unsafe in any aspect.. rendering them almost useless.. if I care for data security.

Mathias


120
Article Discussions / Re: ArcaOS - 2nd Year
« on: May 17, 2019, 03:24:09 pm »
My AracOS experience is, until now, a quite good one. It also brought me back to the good old DOS gaming world, brought back some Win 3.11 memories and lets me start with Visual Age 4 (didn't have that one back then in OS/2 3 days).

Stability wise I had quite some issues. Even out of the box, especially with Panorama, when switching between resolutions from DOS fullscreen mode back to desktop resolution.. or click the SNAP advanced button works at first, but when you want to return to the desktop, the whole thing hangs (always reproducable on all my hardware)

But.. as long as you know where NOT to click on, or what to do to avoid stuff, that could break the OS, it's great and stable.
I am sure these things are all minor and will be fixed over the time. As for now, browser, USB3 and UEFI are the big things to concentrate on.. so let's not bother with stuff like freezing desktop when switching between consoles.. ; )

Still, there is that bug from the old OS/2 days, where Windows 3.x sees there is nothing free on the hard drive, but infact there are 2+ GB of free space left. (there is a patch for that, which is acutally not yet delivered with the OS)

All in all you need to know what you are doing, or else you might run into problems.. like for instance let a computer n00b use it... it might not be a good experience for him... also only until they know what to do and what better avoid to do..
It's not as bulletproof as Linux Mint or Windows 7 yet. But as it is only two years old yet, I think, it's likely to have small quirks and problems. (Remember Windows 95 and Bill Gates trying to scan some paper, resulting in a bluescreen? :D)

Also, since ArcaNoae is still active and still releasing more and more features, the journey will most likely continue and hopefully bring this OS/2 based operating system a future on modern computers. : ) - Which is GREAT and I like to thank ArcaNoae and all its supporters for maintaining and developing such a nice operating system!

And let's not forget VOICE, Bitwise and co for their VERY nice support for the whole OS/2 platform, porting stuff to OS/2 is always appreciated from my point of view, and enriches the OS with new possibilities. : )

Mathias

Pages: 1 ... 6 7 [8] 9 10 ... 13