The BBS

Read this: The Real Essential Questions of Every Beta

5

^^^^ Please read this instead of the obsolete and misleading blog post that's linked to on meta.

The 7 Essential Questions is outdated; you do need to read that instead. Specifically: (a) don't ask about design in the first day (or year, for that matter), (b) don't ask who the mods should be for a week or two.

Feeds

ArtOfCode has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

(0) don't ask the 7 questions one by one, ask things that make sense

^ one main site feed as a ticker, one meta feed as chat messages

8:19 PM

@ArtOfCode main site feed? Is that useful?

@Gilles It's a pretty standard setup. And as a ticker, it's not intrusive.

Good mornin!

@ArtOfCode not intrusive for me because I have CSS to hide it...

@FUZxxl evening!

Just made the first question!

Made the third!

Hello! Welcome to Retrocomputing Private Beta everyone!

8:22 PM

Yay!

Feeds

Gilles has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

^ feed for bounties

Anyone realize there are seven community managers here?

Q: Do we want questions asking for software or other resources?

0

A common problem with historical computers is a lack of accessible documentation or software. Other sites, like Stack Overflow have a strict policy on prohibiting questions asking for pointers to off-site resources (like this one). However, I believe that questions asking for resources, documenta...

discussion

1

Q: What constitutes "retro"?

Every community has it's own opinion on what constitutes "retro" - more than x generations ago, more than x years old etc. Whilst it's very subjective, and the subject of much debate, will there (and should there be) any restrictions on the cut-off for "retro" here? Or is it enough that the men...

discussion retro-definition

Hello!

@PythonMaster can you clarify your question? do you need specs or... not sure what you are asking!

8:41 PM

@Sklivvz Just asking if anyone realizes the sheer number of mods there are here... never seen so many!

Hehe, I'm here as a common user

How can I disable the feed?

@FUZxxl which one?

The one that pops up in the top left corner and takes up 25% of my viewport.

And I don't mean “dismiss”

@FUZxxl click dismiss

damnit ninja

8:43 PM

I mean “permanently banish from my view”

as in “never ever appears again”

I hate things that creep over the user interface.

It's there as a feed on the chatroom now, so you can't. @Gilles has CSS to remove it, I hear, or I can turn it into a messages feed that you can ignore.

I don't want to interact with that thing, it just interrupted me and that's inacceptable.

@-moz-document domain("chat.stackexchange.com"), domain("chat.stackoverflow.com"), domain("chat.meta.stackexchange.com") {
div#feed-ticker {
    display:none !important;
}
}

@FUZxxl ^^^^ use this in Stylish (can also be imported into the Chrome extension of the same name)

uggh

YOu know your site is broken when the users have to apply custom CSS to fix it.

3

Until I got this, I refused to participate in any chatroom with a ticker

8:46 PM

Ah no, Chrome doesn't support user CSS it seems

54 secs ago, by Gilles

@FUZxxl ^^^^ use this in Stylish (can also be imported into the Chrome extension of the same name)

@FUZxxl I'm using it right now in Chrome (with the Stylish extension)

One could say "your taste is broken"

or as I say, I can convert it to a message feed

and I weon't install extensions out of principle (extensions don't underly the same scrutiny as the browser and I don't want to make my browser [the only thing between me and mean people on the internet] less secure than it is)

@ArtOfCode That would be better.

Feeds

8:47 PM

ArtOfCode has made a change to the feeds posted into this room

A message feed with all questions is pointless

ding

@Sklivvz One could say “your user interface is uncustomizable because you are snobs who don't understand how anybody could have different desires”

@Gilles SFF has it. The advantage being that you can ignore it if it annoys you, rather than having to add CSS.

it was useful in the days before live refresh, but now, the questions appear on the main page instantly

8:48 PM

@FUZxxl bit steep

It is customizable, it can be a feed or it can be disabled

@ArtOfCode I know, but we set it up before the main site had live refresh

shrug

however "it's unacceptable" seems like a poor reason to dismiss something for everyone, don't you think?

someone can always remove it again if it is annoying :)

8:49 PM

@Sklivvz That's my personal opinion about user interfaces. I hate user interfaces that shift around the UI asynchronously (i.e. without me performing an action). It's just annoying. Design the UI so new content appears in a dedicated place without shifting other things around.

open a bug on meta.stackexchange.com so the community can discuss?

@ArtOfCode you forgot to create a user

and make it possible to disable notifications. Few things are worse than when you try to focus to write a detailed answer when a red [1] pops up in the top left corner and steals all your focus.

@FUZxxl if you want that level of control, you want custom CSS

sure, please open a feature request and we'll consider it :-)

8:51 PM

@Sklivvz I had bad experience with reports I made there. My last one got 267 upvotes but no response at all from the SE team.tm

the red notifications are ok, it's the green notifications that are aggravating

Q: Promoting retro appropriate sites on SE Retro

0

Many SE sites have a place for "community ads" on the right-hand side. SE Retrocomputing itself was promoted on SE Electronics (and possibly others.) It can also be a place for non SE sites of potential interest. Again, on the Electronics SE, the famous EE Blog is often promoted, because it is o...

feature-request site-promotion

Q: What should I do when some of the keys of my Amiga 600 have stopped working?

0

I opened up an Amiga 600 to install a hard drive, and after reconnecting the keyboard ribbon and powering the computer up, at least one column of keys no longer works. What did I do wrong and what can I do to fix it?

amiga

0

Q: Advantages of a HD6309

Hitachi was a second source for the 6809 Micro Processor. The 6309 had many secret features. What advantages does the HD6309 have over the MC6809?

6809

@Sklivvz meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/317907/…

Consider that you are suggesting a major feature change to something that most users seem to like.

8:52 PM

But you know, yeah, I can make another one.

@ArtOfCode If the team doesn't even answer to a 267 upvotes feature request, what do I have to do to get an answer at all?

@FUZxxl It's also worth looking at things from their perspective. What has greater priority - changing a technically semantically incorrect character to one that looks basically the same, or getting TOS and licensing changes right?

it also has 83 downvotes

@ArtOfCode That's a faulty argument. It's like saying that we shouldn't consider making sure that all people have a home as long as some are starving.

@Sklivvz I'm not saying that it deserves to be fixed (although I would really like it to be fixed), I'm saying that it deserves a response, be it a positive or a negative one, due to the high interest.

But just giving no answer makies me think that there is no actual interest in taking input from the community.

@FUZxxl Starving is a greater need than housing. Just saying. If we have the resources to do both, sure do that, but in the case of SE, we have the resources to do one or t'other.

@ArtOfCode If there are not enough resources, consider creating some. It's not that Stack Overflow is about to go bankrupt.

8:57 PM

@FUZxxl Think about what you just said. "Create some resources" means "hire more community managers and developers". I assume you know what a developer's salary is like? Those aren't resources you can just pull from nothing; they take time, money and more time to get up to speed with the company and the code.

@ArtOfCode Also, to give some context, my post is on the eighth position of highest voted meta posts tagged “feature request.” If the team has not enough time to handle the top ten of all highest voted posts, what do they have time for anyway?

@FUZxxl Getting important things like your privacy right.

@ArtOfCode If you have not enough resources to manage the community you created, you have to create a sufficient amount of resources. Otherwise you are looking at deep trouble down the road.

@ArtOfCode Which is two or three person's jobs. And does not touch the frontend guys.

Q: Methods for Finding, Retrieving, and Archiving Historical Documentation & Information?

0

I'm a long-time CRAV Computing Hobbyist. (Classic / Retro / Antique / Vintage) My area of particular interest is CDP1802 microprocessor, "COSMAC Elf" and related 1802-based hardware, software, documentation, and information. I am a self-styled and self-proclaimed Historical Archivist and Preser...

archival documentation historical preservation collecting

@FUZxxl It's not always within your control. I do think you're taking this a little over the top. Especially given that you don't work at SE, it's difficult to tell what a task would really take. You're giving them more flak than they really deserve.

If you really hate the system, the software, etc, what keeps you coming back? The questions? The communities? None of that would exist at all without the team; you'd do well to realise that.

9:02 PM

@ArtOfCode Sorry for me being harsh, but I have come to understand that “post your request to $communitysite” is just code for “we don't care but we want to give you the impression that you have the chance of being heard.”

It's the same pattern everywhere.

@FUZxxl the answer was given: meta.stackoverflow.com/a/318152/7028

@Sklivvz The answer is a non-answer. It does not say if the feature request was accepted or rejected. It merely ridicules the request instead of taking a position.

I tend to agree, actually. The team isn't great at getting responses out, and the implementation rate is low (even excluding the useless requests). That doesn't mean they can't do anything right; that doesn't mean they aren't doing anything for you; that doesn't entitle them to being abused.

OK, sorry -- it's an ironic answer but it means "no, thank you".

Fixed it now

@FUZxxl You simply don't argue with @Sklivvz especially when a friend of Jon Skeet is in the room (Giles)...

LOL!

9:07 PM

@PythonMaster I don't care who I'm arguing with. If someone throws me out because of my opinion, so be it. I can live with that. Would save a lot of my time I otherwise spend answering questions on Stack Overflow.

@PythonMaster Jon Skeet has a friend called Giles?

@FUZxxl Who's throwing you out for your opinion? Nobody that I can see. You've just been told that the team doesn't think it's worth changing.

@ArtOfCode That was a response to PythonMaster. I don't see anybody doing that either.
I accept if the team doesn't want to implement my feature request, that's fine. I just don't like not being told what the decision was in a clear way.

@FUZxxl Notice the "LOL"? It was a friendly joke, not starting World War III here!

To be fair, that answer wasn't explicit. Also to be fair, it was fairly obviously a gentle mockery of the frivolousness of the request, and a gentle way to say "cheers, but no"

9:10 PM

@PythonMaster Well, okay, I missed the “LOL.”

Well, LOL!

I shouldn't drink Apfelwein while arguing on the internet. Well, the other way round.

You shouldn't drink the Internet while arguing on the Apfelwein?

2

@Sklivvz Thank you for whatever you fixed.

Wow. You know we have translators

9:11 PM

@ArtOfCode Exactly.

@FUZxxl Why are you arguing with cider?

@FUZxxl Don't take it personally, but there are exactly 193,811 meta questions tagged feature-request without a corresponding [meta-tag:status-*]. Not tagging each one doesn't mean we don't care about the community. We care a lot.

@Sklivvz It's okay. I don't expect the average feature-request to be handled, but one that got that much attention.

I think Shog just forgot to tag :-)

When Shog9 comes into the room... oh hell no!

Hopefully I'm not guilty by association...

@Gilles I mean named. Oops...

9:15 PM

@PythonMaster I've never met Jon Skeet. The closest we've interacted is disagreeing on meta.

@Gilles Not even Internet friends? I thought he designed you to be friendly to others and Jon Skeet himself: meta.stackexchange.com/a/9138/278543

@Sklivvz meta.stackexchange.com/questions/278528/…

I hope that's the right place.

I will swiftly take down you post MUAHAHAHAHA! After neve

*never

@Sklivvz Why did you remove the [feed] tag? This is about the feed.

@FUZxxl Ask him on your actual question as a comment please

9:27 PM

@FUZxxl i think [feed] is related to the sites feeds. [design] will put it on the plate of our designers

ah, I see

@PythonMaster PH34R THE @Shog9

0

Q: Vote Early, Vote Often!

I would like to echo a post that Scott Morrison made on Meta.Tex.SE: I'm a moderator from MathOverflow, and this "question" is actually unsolicited advice, based on our experience from the initial launch of MathOverflow. We should encourage everyone to vote positively as often as po...

discussion

Q: How to convert Atari (65XE) tapes to ATR?

0

I still have some tapes for my Atari 65XE, and I'd like to play some of the old games I got, but I don't have the Atari anymore. I have a tape recorder of quality surpassing the Atari one by quite a bit though, and a PC with a good audio input capable of sampling the signal at well above the stan...

atari emulation data-transfer

0

Q: Transferring from Apple II

I have also found a working 1978 Apple II. Now my dad wants me to transfer its data to another device without using fancy Apple II exclusive hardware and if possible, through a cassette port. Now, how else can I transfer the data from the Apple II to another device like my computer without using...

data-transfer apple

0

Q: Cleaning 5 1/4 floppy drives

Going to the store is treacherous for me. So I prefer doing stuff at home, including cleaning up 5 1/4 floppy disks with only home supplies. Unfortunately, I do not know how or which materials/chemicals to use. This is a dilemma for me because I might accidentally damage a disk. How can I safely...

cleaning floppy-disk

0

Q: How to convert Amiga DMS to ADF?

Our demoscene group managed to release only one demo before it fell apart, but these being the early days of the Internet in my country, and me getting lucky with obtaining access to it and creating our own webpage, I published the demo on the net in the most common Amiga floppy archivisation sys...

amiga emulation

0

Q: With a 15 kHz video signal (240p or 480i), does VGA have any real-world advantage over S-Video?

It's difficult to find a modern LCD monitor that can display a 15 kHz signal through VGA, so I'm wondering if S-Video is just as good when displaying 240p and 480i? I've looked at screenshot and video comparisons online, but I can't see a difference.

video display color vga s-video

0

Q: How does "bit-slip" copy protection work?

Some Apple II 5.25" floppies used a special pattern of bytes that could not be automatically detected by disk copying software. How could the pattern be invisible to disk copiers but detectable by the program itself?

floppy-disk apple2 copy-protection

@PythonMaster oh, no, I'm not one of these 99 top SO users who are Jon Skeet's bots

Q: How does the 4MB mod for 8-bit Atari work?

9:44 PM

0

On the local auction portal I have spotted ads for some "supercharged" 8-bit Ataris (800XL, 65XE etc) - modified to support 4 megabytes of RAM. The auctions were scarce in details, more concentrating on praising the product than providing any actual technical details. Can someone tell me more a...

atari hardware-mods

0

Q: Adapting a "modern" keyboard to a ZX Spectrum

Is there a way, such a specific interface adapter, which would allow me to connect a PS/2 keyboard to an original ZX Spectrum? I expect the keyboard to work similarly to the ZX Spectrum itself -- in other words, pressing P would trigger send the same interrupt to the CPU as the rubber keyboard. ...

zx-spectrum hardware keyboards

0

Q: How to obtain 4096 arbitrary colors with limitation of 64 per line in Amiga (ECS)?

The game Universe for Amiga boasted ability of use of all 4096 of Amiga colors available through the ECS chips, with only limitation of 64 colors in halfbrite palette (32 arbitrary + 32 at half brightness of the first 32) per scanline. This was pretty much unachievable in common use, and while t...

amiga graphics

Q: How do I use shadowed memory to render Super Hi-Res quickly?

10:04 PM

0

The Apple IIgs video memory is controlled by the 1MHz Mega II chip, so directly accessing the Super Hi-Res page in bank $E1 is slower than accessing other memory. How can I render in "fast" memory, and then just copy the final result to "slow" memory?

apple2 graphics appleiigs

Quill

haha the feed bot

Q: Tag: "apple" or "apple2"? "apple2gs" or "appleiigs"?

0

It's early, but we already have both "apple" and "apple2" tags. My thought is we should use "apple2" for anything related to Apple II, as the old 128K Macs are very much retro. I'm not convinced we need to subdivide into separate tags for Apple ][+ vs. Apple //e, but the Apple IIgs was a very d...

discussion tags

Q: How did "full memory" Spectrum tape copiers work?

0

There are some tape copiers, such as LERM that claim to be able to copy tapes which contain software that takes the full 48kbyte of RAM. However this seems impossible on a Spectrum, when the whole 48k are read from a single file on disk. How do they work?

zx-spectrum copy-protection software

2

Q: What are the differences between a PAL and NTSC C64?

A lot of programs released for the Commodore 64 contained different software for the PAL or NTSC computer. Why did they have different versions of the hardware? Did the software have to be different too?

software hardware c64

10:24 PM

1

Q: Is emulation on topic?

I think we should discuss whether emulation is on-topic, and in particular these three cases are substantially different and probably deserve different treatments: Usage or recommendations of emulation software (e.g. "how do I do X on MESS?" or "Is there a clock-accurate emulator for Y?") Retro...

discussion scope

Q: My Compaq Presario CDS 633 outputs color in Windows 3.1 but not in DOS. How can I get color in DOS?

11:05 PM

0

My Compaq Presario CDS 633 outputs color in Windows 3.1 but not in DOS. How can I get color in DOS? I have tried the MODE setting, but it did not change anything. ANSI.SYS also has a LOADHIGH line in CONFIG.SYS.

display color dos