The Frying Pan

Jay

03:00

@rumtscho have you seen this yet?

►

It's a song called I'm not a robot

Arrie

09:25

you guys!

i dunno what room to go to! so please help me, i want to make my windows OS crash on my laptop? anyone know how to make this happen or witch room to o to :)

rumtscho

14:39

@Arrie I don't know who can help you. But this room is for cooking, not for computer issues.

@jay haha

I had to read the lyrics, the song itself is terrible.

@mien glad to hear you had fun.

and @Sobachatina a squat cylinder? You are not trying to replicate the black bread made in rectangular pans?

derobert

15:15

@rumtscho I'd say that this is just barely on-topic, possibly with a little editing. cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/29684/… ... as its not really asking "is it healthy", but rather about nutrient contents (e.g., "how much vitamin X")

Though it'd need a little editing to make it clearly that question

rumtscho

15:45

@derobert ah yes, I guess I didn't think it through after I saw the big red "is it healthy" title

But then, we have already had the question of how temperature affects vitamins, I think

oh, this was a very specific one

9

Q: How does boiling remove vitamin C from food?

It's generally known that boiling vegetables removes a large fraction of vitamin C, but in what way? Does the high temperature destroy it? Is it merely absorbed by the boiling water?

derobert

I'm not saying its a particularly good question, but just that its not off-topic :-P

rumtscho

@derobert point taken, reopened

derobert

@Cerberus Oh, I just found out, BTW, that we have officially denied plans to invade Canada. You know what that means!

rumtscho

@derobert that you are planning to invade Canada inofficially?

derobert

@Cerberus actually, only denied there is a secret plan

worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/19/…

@rumtscho Well, I don't think anyone has asked if there is a plan to invade unofficially.

rumtscho

15:59

@derobert Maybe you don't need a plan for an inofficial invasion. Plans and other documents are what defines officialness/bureaucraty.

derobert

Nah, you need a plan. It just has to be unofficially, e.g., there has to be an official fall guy who will take the blame for working on it "without the administration's knowledge" if it leaks. Or goes wrong.

Ya need a plan to move troops, tanks, planes, etc. I mean, even when there is a plan, we bomb ourselves, who knows what we'd do without a plan.

rumtscho

Good idea. Ideally, this guy will be a Canadian - no need to sacrifice somebody from the American administration, when you can both have the blame taken care off and an enemy leader removed by his own people.

derobert

Indeed. Add it together with an "outdated" map that shows Ontario as a military training ground, and that's all the cover you need.

rumtscho

I had no idea I was so evil today.

But re-reading my last sentence wakes the urge to say "Mwa-ha-ha-ha" in a Fantomas-like tone.

derobert

LOL, yes, That would be a mwa-ha-ha moment.

Or any number of other cliché evil villain lines or actions. (Why does Firefox keep insisting everything with an accent mark is spelled wrong?)

Cerberus

16:07

@derobert Ahh I knew it! Why deny it if there is nothing to deny?

Very suspicious.

derobert

@Cerberus exactly. We've already figured out what the cover will be.

rumtscho

Lol, the word "merrrr" exists. I just found it in the Urban dictionary when I mistakenly pressed a key for too long.

derobert

I'd tell Aaronut to watch out, but he doesn't seem @-able anymore.

rumtscho

He is on vacation.

Cerberus

He's probably an infiltrator. I have suspected as much for a while.

derobert

16:08

Oooh, that could be. Wonder if he works for the CIA.

rumtscho

But Anna Lear is currently active around the network, I think.

derobert

He's going to have a nice surprise when he gets back from vacation, and finds out we've determined he's a CIA infiltrator assisting the unofficial American invasion of Canada.

rumtscho

I think that he's been called worse things on MSO :P

Cerberus

nimbus

rumtscho

@Cerberus sorry, I don't get the context for that. What do you mean?

derobert

16:17

@rumtscho No, it'll be worse, because his cover has been blown.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Oh, I just meant to project a halo of innocence around myself.

BRB

rumtscho

@Cerberus Interesting. Because I wasn't assigning blame; how come you feel the need to point out your innocence?

derobert

Wow, PostgreSQL is loving this Bacula prune command I just issued at work. Who doesn't like deleting 15 million rows? :-P

rumtscho

@derobert what, you have left your Oracle monoculture job? Or infiltrated it with Postgre clandestinely?

derobert

@rumtscho We've never been Oracle monoculture. Just our database problems have always been an Oracle monoculture.

The PostgreSQL and even MySQL databases run fine :-P

rumtscho

16:23

No Microsoft technology?

derobert

Nope, thankfully. We tried that for the app thats running on Oracle, Oracle was better...

SQL Server required complete index rebuilds several times per month to preserve performance. Oracle didn't.

rumtscho

I am slowly being turned into a Microsoft SQL Server dev. I am trying to counter that and become at least an ASP .NET dev, but I work at the database group so there is a strong cultural issue to overcome. So your information doesn't make me too happy :(

derobert

We have only one Windows machine in our production stack anywhere, and the only reason its Windows is to run Word.

Which is somewhat silly, but we have OLE stuff to control word and generate a Word doc...

I'm not 100% sure that what we ran into is an actual limitation of SQL Server (and this was a while ago, too...), or if it needed a configuration knob tweaked somewhere. We have Oracle experience (we already had an Oracle db), but no SQL Server experience—so that could also be why.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Ehhh damn! You got me there.

rumtscho

At our place, the powers that be have decided that we are Microsoft through and through. All servers are on Windows, all programming is .NET, the login to everything is ruled by a monstrous Active Directory installation, all users run Windows and get Office Professional licenses thrown at them, so they entangle themselves in Access and then come to us crying how to make their own stuff work.

Cerberus

16:30

@derobert Why not run Windows in a VM, then?

derobert

@Cerberus Because this was set up a while ago. Its a Windows XP machine. 1U sitting in a rack isn't a problem, and as long as it doesn't break, no reason to change it. If I were going to spend time on it, I'd port it to Linux.

Cerberus

Ah OK.

derobert

... actually, if I were going to spend time on it, I'd eliminate that part of the production process entirely. Could be done much better, but the time to redo it isn't really worth it.

Cerberus

nods

Changing things somehow always creates new problems.

I created a hardlink on my father's computer to back up his administration program more easily.

Now everything is messed up.

derobert

LOL

Yeah, there is a lot to be said for "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" on production systems

Cerberus

16:33

Yeah. I thought automated back-ups were a good idea.

But apparently the program doesn't want anyone touching its folders.

derobert

Lack of backups is definitely broken :-P

Cerberus

Indeed.

I have reason to suspect that the old back-up program malfunctioned due to some sort of DRM.

And the administration program too.

What I did was perfect in theory.

derobert

Sounds like you need a better backup program. Ought to be able to just add another path to it, without need of any links.

Cerberus

Yeah. The old program did that.

But it was complaining about licenses when I installed it on my father's other computer, so I switched to another program.

I have removed the hardlink, but the administration thingy is still complaining.

derobert

fun :-(

Cerberus

16:36

To complicate matters, my brother had configured some folders to be shared with yet another computer.

Now that doesn't work any more either.

derobert

wow, that really broke things

Cerberus

Yeah.

derobert

I hate touching other people's random Windows boxes, who knows what kind of weird BS is going on with them

Cerberus

It it is my fault, in that all the problems only surfaced after I made the hardlink.

Yeah.

I thought the other programs wouldn't even notice if I made a hardlink.

derobert

And even if they have a dozen different viruses installed, its your fault because you did some trivial thing

Cerberus

16:37

Exactly.

Well, I should have been more careful.

derobert

A hardlink shouldn't break file sharing. That probably doesn't have anything to do with what you did...

Cerberus

I have a back-up from July, and all documents can be transferred. So no actual data will be lost.

@derobert Then what was it?

derobert

Probably a coincidence. Maybe he installed his 13th virus around the same time, and that was just too much.

Cerberus

My theory was that now two programs were trying to access the same files at once (one through the hardlink, one through the real folder), and there was some conflict.

Heh.

derobert

I suspect format/reinstall/recreate hardlink and everything will work fine.

Cerberus

16:40

He does have a virus scanner.

@derobert But then the network sharing bit still won't work.

derobert

Format/reinstall will fix that.

Cerberus

Then again, it doesn't work now.

Yeah, maybe reinstall.

derobert

Reinstall fixes most Windows problems.

Cerberus

Or I could copy all newly made documents into the back-up from July, see whether that still works.

@derobert It may or may not be Windows. I would rather reinstall the program, then.

derobert

Format/reinstall seems to be something that should be done to all Windows machines every year to three, depending on Windows version and how its used.

Cerberus

16:42

Yeah, sort of.

Clones do it too.

And cloning is much quicker.

derobert

Sure, that saves you going through the Windows installer,

Cerberus

And installing all your essential programs.

derobert

But you still have to go through Windows Update, and all the app updates, etc... which is where most of the time is, in my experience.

Cerberus

If you make regular clones before changing new stuff...

Incremental clones are super fast and small.

@derobert All the updates will be inside the clone.

derobert

Sure. Then you can go back a month, but then you don't have the benefit of a fresh install.

Cerberus

16:45

You can have as many clones as you want. I have some from just after a fresh install too.

derobert

That helps when you do something which suddenly breaks it, but it doesn't help with the slow breakage that accumulates over time.

Cerberus

Sure it does. I can go back to any moment in the past, provided that I make regular clones.

derobert

Yes, but the only one that gets rid of the slow breakage over time is the one from right after initial install.

Cerberus

Well, right after installing 7655476 essential programs, rather.

On the first day.

That clones will save me hours once I need to refresh my PC.

derobert

Hopefully not that many, but yeah. And then you need to go check for updates for all of them.

Cerberus

16:47

I have my programs outside the clone.

And my user folders too.

derobert

A lot of programs don't support that—they insist on writing to the registry, or to the Windows system folders.

Cerberus

Possibly...but those are very few.

derobert

Really? Anything that shows in Add/Remove Programs writes to the registry.

Cerberus

That is, once they have been added to the registry, they will continue to work even if you revert to an older clone after the program has been updated multiple times.

Certain very complex programs might be different.

derobert

Oh, OK. Yeah, they may. I guess it depends on what they put in the registry. That's the kind of subtle breakage I'd rather not worry about myself, though.

Cerberus

16:50

If it were a very special, complex, DRM-riddled program, I wouldn't risk it either.

Then I would just make sure to create a copy of the program elsewhere at the time of cloning.

Or just reinstall this one program.

But not many programs care.

And most programs don't require updating anyway.

If they ain't broken...

derobert

LOL, yeah. Except they all seem to have security issues that need fixing :-( ... Depends on the program, though.

Cerberus

Meh.

Like which programs?

derobert

Real solution is to install Debian, then your install will last as long the computer architecture :-P ... actually, with multiarch, longer.

Cerberus

That's great.

I am all for Linux in theory.

derobert

@Cerberus Any program that deals with the network or possibly untrusted content. Web browsers, email clients, FTP programs, remote access programs, codecs, media players, [Libra|Open|MS]Office, ...

Cerberus

16:55

None of those ever give me trouble, but then I don't use an e-mail client, and I don't update Office.

I'm using Office 2003 and it works just fine.

derobert

Well, as long as no one sends you a malicious Word file.

Cerberus

So you need a program that both needs frequent updates and messes up its registry entries upon updating.

rumtscho

@derobert don't forget Acrobat Reader. Really popular vector for malware.

derobert

@rumtscho That's not on my "update constantly" list, that's on my "remove on sight" list.

Cerberus

I would never open an unwanted Word file...but, yes, if someone else's computer is infected with a virus that add malicious code to a real Word file he is actually sending me, then I'm the sjaak, as we say in Holland. But that should be an extremely rare occasion.

@rumtscho Yeah, ugh. But nobody used Acrobat Reader, right?

derobert

16:58

@Cerberus What's wrong with Linux in practice? I've been using it for almost 15 years on the desktop, exclusively for a decade...

rumtscho

@derobert many people use it. And especially in corporate contexts, if you want to do any kind of changes to pdfs, it is rare that you will get the licence for anything else but Acrobat Pro.

Cerberus

@derobert Well, I have 5865 programs that probably won't have Linux versions...

@rumtscho But there is a whole forest of free PDF software!

derobert

@rumtscho yeah, then you have to keep it updated. But if you don't have a reason to use Acrobat, there are several other good PDF readers, even editors.

Cerberus

This.

rumtscho

@Cerberus Now I am intrigued. What do you need 5865 programs for? I mean, if you spend 10 minutes working on each, that's 20 years of work, 8 hours a day with no weekends or vacations.

derobert

17:00

@rumtscho well, he does have three heads, so possibly he can use three at once.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Most work in the background and simultaneously...

That number might be a somewhat rough estimate, though.

derobert

anthony@Zia:~$ dpkg --get-selections | grep '[[:space:]]install$' | wc -l
4082

depends on how you count "programs", I guess ;-P

Cerberus

But I need programs like Autohotkey and the Oxford English Dictionary, for example.

rumtscho

@Cerberus And you think that you would notice the difference if you replaced them with their Linux counterpart? The usual problem with Linux is the different user experience - most OS programs are inferior in this, they just don't have the same amount of manpower poured into that.

Cerberus

@derobert Hmm is that your name?

rumtscho

17:02

@Cerberus Automating Linux is much easier than automating Windows. No need for ugly hacks like Autohotkey.

derobert

@Cerberus yeah, Anthony is. But of course, its on my SO profile, so...

Cerberus

@rumtscho Changing my routine is a whole reason unto itself not to switch OSes, this is true. But is there a counterpart to Autohotkey and the Oxford English Dictionary on Linux? I bet not.

@derobert Damn, I thought I had advanced stalker skills.

@rumtscho Well, I'd like to see it before I believe it.

rumtscho

No, I guess the Oxford English Dictionary is not available for Linux. I use online dictionaries when I need a word, but you are probably a more advanced user.

Cerberus

Yeah, I need the entire thing.

derobert

I'm confident anyone with half an ounce of Google skills could find my name & address trivially...

Cerberus

17:04

I also need Golden Dictionary, which can access all sorts of advanced dictionaries.

@derobert Same for my name. Address, probably not.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I guess it depends on what you would call "easier". It works better. But you have to use the command line.

Cerberus

Phone number, possibly.

derobert

@Cerberus You'd have to try them under Wine at some point. May work.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Well, there you go. But even then, can an unskilled person create a GUI with buttons that searches certain stuff on the Internet and in the OED, and has a button to add more buttons?

To name just one of the many things I use Autohotkey for. Or create an IPA typer that works just the way I want it?

@derobert But then I can't integrate them with my regular work flow. For example, I use mouse gestures for lots of stuff.

And I want this particular mouse-gesture program, unless Linux has a better one, which I doubt...

rumtscho

A button to add more buttons?

Cerberus

17:09

Yes.

rumtscho

As for the IPA typer, I guess you can just create your custom keyboard layout.

Cerberus

But I don't want that.

I press double capslock, then when I press a once it becomes a, twice becomes æ, thrice ɑ, etc.

The "add" button lets me add more buttons.

derobert

@Cerberus I guess you could set that up somehow. I press caps a e to get æ.

I know when I switched from Mac OS to Linux, getting used to the new key special key mappings took a bit

Cerberus

I may or may not be able to set it up just as I want to.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I am sure that there are convenient solutions for Linux. But yes, the "I am accustomed to exactly X and it will take me lots of time to learn another good solution" is a convincing argument.

Cerberus

17:13

But I don't want to press capslock for every letter: I want to press capslock twice to enter IPA mode, then I want to be able to type in IPA quickly, without any modifier keys.

rumtscho

@Cerberus How about pressing Alt+Shift and then having each key create an IPA symbol? That would be a custom layout.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Yes, that alone is good enough an argument for me. But somehow I doubt whether Linux can do exactly the same thing with as little effort as through Autohotkey.

@rumtscho But I want multiple characters under one key.

derobert

@Cerberus you could set capslock to a mode-switch key, I'm pretty sure that's built in to X11

rumtscho

But hmm, you would still need modifiers for the different symbols.

Cerberus

And I don't want modifiers.

@derobert But I want double capslock.

I want single capslock to do nothing.

And shift-caps is actual capslock.

derobert

17:15

and you want double capslock to actually produce a character... I'm not sure if you can do that with the built-in X11 keyboard mappings

Cerberus

No, double caps just enters IPA mode, does nothing by itself.

derobert

wait, I thought caps caps was supposed to produce æ ?

Cerberus

Maybe triple capsclock will enter Greek mode someday.

I double-press capslock. I thereby enter IPA mode. What this means is that pressing the same letter key several times in a row cycles through IPA characters behind that key.

derobert

I think you could actually pull that off in X11 then. You'd set capslock to a modifier that modifies the next characters only, then caps-caps would be a mode switch to IPA, and caps-anything else would produce anything-else.

Cerberus

So when I press double caps, then k, double h, triple o, I get this: kʰʊ ?

derobert

17:19

I don't know how well X11 supports cycling through characters on a single key. That's a good question. I guess you could ask it on Unix.SE :-P

Cerberus

This is what I want, and I want to be able to easily change or edit or switch the mapping by having a simple list in a text file.

derobert

alternativeto.net/software/autohotkey/?platform=linux ... btw

@Cerberus well, the X11 keymapping is all set up by lists in files, that's for sure...

Cerberus

I happen to know IronAHK, which is a port of AHK. It has been under development for years, and it still only have a few functions.

I don't know AutoKey...

@derobert Oh, that's good.

> * Write Python scripts to automate virtually any task that can be accomplished via the keyboard

See, I don't know Python.

Autohotkey is probably much easier.

derobert

I'm sure what you want can be done, only question is if it can be done with a reasonable amount of work (X11 actually allows you to plug in your own input methods...)

Cerberus

Autohotkey really can do a lot.

I honestly doubt whether any similarly easy programming language exists for Linux.

I'm not a programmer.

I don't know any other language.

derobert

17:25

@Cerberus Well, we never finished FreeCard, so possibly not :-P

Cerberus

What's that?

derobert

@Cerberus An open-source version of HyperCard that I and a couple other people were working on a while ago.

Cerberus

Oh...and what is Hyper Card?

derobert

Programming environment from Macintosh. A very easy one to use, with all kinds of nice GUI stuff...

Cerberus

I do hope that one day Linux will gain a larger user base than Windows and then everyone will write programs for Linux first.

@derobert Ah! So Hyper doesn't work on Linux, while Free does?

Or will.

derobert

17:28

Well, the project was long ago abandoned. HyperCard only ever ran on Mac OS classic.

Cerberus

Aww.

I'm not afraid to admit it: I'm squarely locked into Windows.

derobert

It ran in the virtualized Mac OS Classic under Mac OS X... which AFAIK died with the switch to amd64

Cerberus

I managed to escape the Apple trap, and I enjoy the openness of Android very much.

derobert

So it last ran on PowerPC-based macs

Cerberus

nods, pretending to understand

derobert

17:30

@Cerberus do you know the little hand cursor that appears in a web browser when you hover over a link?

Cerberus

Yes!!

derobert

That comes from HyperCard

Cerberus

Do I have a virus now?

Oh.

derobert

As does the Myst computer game series

Cerberus

Oh!

rumtscho

17:31

@derobert Hm? Myst comes from a book series, I thought.

Cerberus

Quite a versatile program, then!

I remember how exciting the first Myst was. Never played any of the others.

derobert

@rumtscho No, I don't think there was ever a book it was made from

@Cerberus Yeah, we got it first on Mac OS ... as a HyperCard stack. It was later rewritten with something else to port to Windows

rumtscho

@derobert I found it. The book was made from the game, not the other way round.

books.google.de/…

And there is at least one other book in the series.

Cerberus

Everyone should just switch to Linux and there would be peace on earth.

derobert

Probably still have a copy of the original Myst HyperCard version somewhere.

rumtscho

17:34

Actually, it is one of the better works of Wingrove. Chung Kuo starts nicely, but degrades terribly by the fourth part, and the last ones are a waste of time.

@Cerberus Well, no. Different people need different types of software. I am quite happy that the Linuxverse doesn't get polluted with the type of software preferred by people with very different needs than myself. If I wanted them, I would get a Mac.

derobert

Apparently, HyperTalk (the programming language HyperCard used) inspired JavaScript.

Cerberus

@rumtscho But what if you need seven toolbars in your browser to search Ask.com and other websites?

Doesn't your usable browser space make you feel agorophobic in Linux?

This is what a proper browser looks like.

derobert

@Cerberus I was surprised to find out my Dad actually likes his Yahoo toolbar...

@Cerberus QUICK! REINSTALL!

rumtscho

@Cerberus Goodness, I had forgotten about that. If everybody switched to Linux, people would start writing Linux viruses and I would need an antivirus. I should stay with my OS because it is so unpopular.

I never knew that I am so hipster.

derobert

@rumtscho you could always switch to FreeBSD then

Cerberus

17:40

@derobert Hmm what? Oh, look, now it says I have downloaded a criminal song, and I need to pay € 1000 to the American Federal Police to unlock my computer.

@derobert Haha aww.

derobert

Debian will probably support in-place kernel switches by then.

rumtscho

@derobert what do you need them for?

Cerberus

@rumtscho That's a good reason! Although I'm not using anti-virus software either, not permanently. I just scan my computer occasionally.

derobert

@rumtscho Well, when you want to switch from Debian GNU/Linux to Debian GNU/kFreeBSD

Cerberus

Linux ≠ FreeBSD?

derobert

17:42

Nope, there are free Unix systems other than Linux. FreeBSD is one of them. There are several more BSDs as well.

Cerberus

Ah OK.

BSD = Blue Screen of Death?

derobert

Berkeley Software Distribution

rumtscho

@derobert No, if this is so easy, other people might do it too. I'd better find the custom OS my dad's colleague wrote for the Pravetz computer back in 1986 (it was cutting edge, I am told) and run that one.

Cerberus

I think I have BSoD installed too. It looks really pretty and simple.

Kenny Rasschaert

Death to the false gods of BSD

derobert

17:44

@rumtscho Nah, it'll be OK. They'll all be running Ubuntu, and there is no Ubuntu kFreeBSD

Kenny Rasschaert

Linux is the True Open Way!

Cerberus

@KennyRasschaert *BSOD to the false gods of BSD.

@KennyRasschaert Linux is the only truly free and tolerant way! Let's kill all unfree intolerants!

Or enslave them.

Hasn't Ubuntu turned evil?

With its Amazon spam?

Kenny Rasschaert

only takes one apt-get to fix that

meh. i use mint on the desktop and rhel on servers

rumtscho

There might be some hardware problems getting it to run on amd64, of course. I think it was written for that one:

Pravetz 8D - 8 bit home computer, uses TV instead of computer monitor. Not compatible with Pravetz 82 but inherits its architecture from the Oric home computers and compatible with their software

Cerberus

I'm locked behind a big window.

rumtscho

17:46

Pravetz computers

Pravetz (Правец in the original Cyrillic, series 8 and series 16) were Bulgarian computers, manufactured mainly in the town of Pravetz. Some components and software were produced in Stara Zagora, Plovdiv and other Bulgarian cities. History The first Bulgarian-made personal computer, IMKO-1, was a prototype of the Pravetz computers that was developed by Ivan Vassilev Marangozov, who was often accused of just cloning the Apple II. A few early models were produced at the ITKR (pronounced ee-teh-kah-reh, Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics), a section of the Bulgarian Academy of ...

Cerberus

makes funny faces, presses nose against Window

derobert

@rumtscho you could try OS/2 or even CPM.

rumtscho

@derobert There is still a chance somebody else in the world would be running those.

derobert

Well, then you'd best write your own OS. That'd be safe.

@KennyRasschaert apt-get install debtakeover ? :-P

rumtscho

As for the OS I am talking about, there are probably less than 10 copies of the installation medium in existance. One of those is a pack of 5.5'' diskettes in our attic.

Kenny Rasschaert

17:48

@derobert sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

derobert

@KennyRasschaert ah, serious answers! Can't have those!

Cerberus

@rumtscho I like this.

derobert

@rumtscho does it have a IP stack? Might want to get to work on writing one :-P

rumtscho

But I still don't know if the OS is written for the Apple II-compatible computer or for the Oric compatible computer. The second one would be way ~~hipper~~ more rad.

At its peak, Bulgaria supplied 40% of the computers in COMECON. The electronics industry employed 300,000 workers, and it generated 8 billion rubles a year (US$13.3 billion). Since the democratic changes in 1989 and the subsequent chaotic political and economic conditions, the once blooming Bulgarian computer industry almost completely disintegrated.

Interesting. Seeing that they started with a production series of 3 machines in 1979.

This Wikipedia article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…) is full of heart-warming-nostalgy. Good old BESM. "literally "Large Electronically Computing Machine""

The Soviets must be the only country which moved from smaller to bigger computers.

derobert

@rumtscho Well, I'm not sure. Clusters get fairly big.

rumtscho

17:57

@derobert But the Large electronically computing machine was not a cluster of Small electronically computing machines. It was just a bigger mainframe.

derobert

Well, that was a pre-IC design, I guess?

rumtscho

@derobert In the 60s? I think so, yes.

But it was digital at least.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Aww.

You will rise again!

derobert

@rumtscho I suspect computers getting larger in the pre-IC days was normal. After all, Moore's Law is about ICs...

Though I guess if your starting point is ENIAC, getting larger may not be possible :-P

rumtscho

@Cerberus You think so? Our best try seems to be in commodity markets. Which already have other, larger, names, and are not terribly big as a whole.

olimex.com

Cerberus

18:10

You'll see.

derobert

Lunch time!

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