@streakmachine On it's predecessor, the PET, you could PEEK and POKE your way into a motherboard repair.
Toggling the built in cassette motor relay off and on too fast and too many times would burn it out.
One of the few systems I know of, (Aside from mode switching your analog monitor and blowing the flyback transformer up), where you could damage hardware via software.
@streakmachine Or if it got flaky and you still had a prompt…
SYS 64738
Amazing that I remember that after all of these years :D
Notification systems are wonderful things. Would that software developers not abuse them so.
Yes, I am full of complaints today.
Windows 10: Overly aggressive telemetry nonsense running in the background that needs killed after utilizing 100 percent of a disk's activity and slowing actual working tasks to a crawl. In Microsoft's sick version of humor, they refer to this process as something that improves "Customer Experience".
MacOS: Similarly aggressive nonsense running in the background doing the exact same thing. Battled a quad core i7 brought to its knees this weekend and my decidedly wimpier Air gets the stuffing knocked out of it. The former went through a series of black screen/no cursor reboots after the latest round of updates. Had to pull every trick in the book to get it functional again.
Enterprise Linux: Decided that I was going to use 1024x768 and like it. I actually had to write a damned modeline to make it stop. Writing a modeline. In 2017. Ridiculous. Mind you - Nothing changed. No updates run. Nothing. It just has it's "whims".
Ubuntu: I didn't bother turning that machine on. It's a Core Duo Acer tower. Even if everything ran flawlessly, I had things to do in Android Studio and Android Studio on a Core Duo is ulcer inducing.
I really miss DOS.
DOS never gave me this shit. It just worked until it didn't. Power cycle machine. Clean slate. Off to the races again.
@matigo I'm considering something along those lines. I'd move to another platform entirely if the others weren't equally awful.
Reporting in via phone as softwareupdated has rendered my Air all but unusable.
Is it just me or has MacOS seriously regressed over the years?
@streakmachine You have to allow a very healthy following distance. People will slam on their brakes and pull to the side of the road in a instance.
Happened twice on my way back from lunch.
There is a good side to the Lee Highway Yard Sale event.
Testing batteries in our UPSes.
Driver rubbernecks. Exclaims, "My, was that a Ronco Pocket Fisherman I saw on that tabl…" BAM Hits utility pole.
Lights flicker. UPSes go beeeep.
The silent ones need new batteries.
@kdfrawg Power blinked off and on a little while ago. Someone, doubtlessly gawking at some roadside sale, slammed into a utility pole.
Happens every year.
Turns out, it's a good way to make sure the UPSes are still working.
If the legions of housewives in SUVs who slam on their brakes in the middle of the highway are any indication, it's the annual, "Let's turn Lee Highway into a big yard sale", event. (Yes, it's actually a thing)
The drive home is going to be interesting.