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Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

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Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#151

Post by myself248 »

core-questions wrote: post #130
glenneroo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this reminds me of when I accidentally figured out playing MOD sound files in DOS 6 with a new and especially beautiful STM/MOD player at the time would sound considerably better from my 486's PC speaker if I pressed the pause/break key to literally lock up the system. Apparently the player would buffer enough of the song that even though everything froze up, the sound would continue playing. I couldn't afford a…

Ooh, which MOD player? I was partial to Cubic Player, and before that VP (Visual Player), which was the first place I ever saw an oscilloscope. 4 channels realtime audio + 5 osc's on a 286 out the PC speaker. Phenomenal. Sounded like shit until I got a Sound Blaster, though....

Galaxy 2.12 (glx212.zip) is my favorite for pre-386 machines. It'll do remarkable things with a covox or even pc speaker, and realtime FFT (not faux bouncing bars, either!) to boot!

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#152

Post by rlonstein »

samstave wrote: post #36
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #13

This wasn't just restricted to COM port based I/O either. Back then I had a Logitech bus mouse. The mouse was connected directly to an ISA card, and didn't use the COM ports as most mice did back then. (I needed the extra COM port/IRQ for my modems.) I too witnessed the 'windows is running slow when installing' bug. I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled fo…

Get off my lawn! But what newbies will bever know the heck of: dip switch settings for IRQ for modems. Thats what literally got me into computers... In order to dial up BBSs and play tthe Pit and dl warez. —- Ive told this story before, but in about 1992? Or so - i got grounded for a month because i had been calling in long distance to a bbs in san jose to play the pit - and racked up a long distance bill of $926 - m…

Similar but earlier story... staying up late at night or waking up early before school to login to BBS's. First with a Practical Peripherals modem that my dad acquired to dial into his business (which still used teletype). I got myself a Hayes 2400[1] and convinced my dad to get the fixed calling within your area code which I mostly paid for with my part-time work. I tried to stay within my LATA which included Sherwood Forest, Camelot, some others with doors and FIDO that can't recall. And then I made a mistake and on the advice of another BBS'er tried one in what I thought was a neighboring LATA. It was great! Active! Doors! gFiles! Warez! But was actually zones away in Texas. I had a good old time until the bill came. My Dad was purple he was so angry and I worked a lot of odd jobs to pay that off.

. .

[1] somehow just before college I got a used USR Courier HST. Then I sent it in with what was probably all of my hard earned beer money for upgrade to a Courier v.Everything... I still have that one, found it while moving https://v.gd/gF83mM)

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#153

Post by inlined »

_trampeltier wrote: post #16

From a comment: Try opening a large file with Notepad on a contemporary machine. The window must not be full screen. When loaded, mark all text using the mouse (the keyboard works as well, it just needs more manual skill). While still holding the button down (and marking) move the mouse down, so the text gets marked and scrolled. Now compare the scroll speed while holding the mouse still versus wiggling it. Depending…

Are you suggesting it’s faster or slower when you wiggle the mouse? If it’s slower it could be because you put more events in the event queue that have to be pumped.

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#154

Post by vageli »

nemo44x wrote: post #37
DonHopkins wrote: post #31

When I used to hang out at Radio Shack in the mall to play on a TRS-80's after school, they would draw a pair of asterisks in the corner of the screen and occasionally flash one of them on and off, as they loaded from cassette tape. One of the older kids who hung out there would tell us newer kids that we could speed up loading by repeatedly pressing the up arrow key on the keyboard. Of course us new kids didn't real…

Reminds me back in the day using a file sharing/community program called Caraccho (for Mac) - similar to Hotline. Often people would queue up on someone's server (running of their desktop computer) to download a file since the server admin could set how many concurrent downloads from all users were allowed. Folks would send messages to people saying that if they hit Command-Q it makes the client run in "quick mode" w…

> Reminds me back in the day using a file sharing/community program called Caraccho (for Mac) - similar to Hotline. Often people would queue up on someone's server (running of their desktop computer) to download a file since the server admin could set how many concurrent downloads from all users were allowed. Folks would send messages to people saying that if they hit Command-Q it makes the client run in "quick mode" which will speed up their download. Of course some folks would fall for this and you'd see their name drop off the server, moving everyone up 1 spot in the queue. Super effective for users that had not setup an avatar indicating they were new to the system and would fall for anything once.

This was also common on IRC to get script kiddies to kick themselves.

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#155

Post by vageli »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #50
DonHopkins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While running emacs over a modem to arpanet or dialup, I got into the habit of regularly typing ^A ^E to pace my cursor back and forth across the current line, to keep the connection and emacs warm. (Like a caged leopard or mad scientist pacing back and forth.) I could feel how responsive the connection and emacs were over time by the delay between typing and seeing the cursor move. Both the network and emacs contrib…

> While running Emacs over a modem, I got into the habit of regularly typing ^A ^E to pace my cursor back and forth across the current line, to keep connection warm. Huh. I got into that habit recently , because over the past year, I've been frequently working on the go, by SSH-ing to my home desktop and using Emacs terminal frame (emacsclient -t)[0]. I do regular "weather checks" with ^A and ^E - because the hardwar…

> > While running Emacs over a modem, I got into the habit of regularly typing ^A ^E to pace my cursor back and forth across the current line, to keep connection warm.

> Huh. I got into that habit recently, because over the past year, I've been frequently working on the go, by SSH-ing to my home desktop and using Emacs terminal frame (emacsclient -t)[0]. I do regular "weather checks" with ^A and ^E - because the hardware has its weather, SSH has its weather, and the link I'm on has its own weather too (particularly when using an LTE hotspot, though I've noticed even when being in the same LAN, the response time is not always consistent).

You may find mosh [0] to be useful, as it buffers input client side to remove input lag.

[0]: https://mosh.org/

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#156

Post by vageli »

blihp wrote: post #89
shawnz wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They claim the PC is emitting the sound, not their speakers. So they are likely describing coil whine, not interference.

You're assuming a precision in their post that I wasn't (i.e. that it's actually coming from the PCB, rather than 'the collection of parts called a PC sitting in front of me'... which would include the speakers for most people)

> You're assuming a precision in their post that I wasn't (i.e. that it's actually coming from the PCB, rather than 'the collection of parts called a PC sitting in front of me'... which would include the speakers for most people)

For what it's worth, this _is_ hacker news. I concede not everyone is tech savvy but I tend to respond to comments as if they are.

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#159

Post by inflatableDodo »

In some applications with scrolling work areas, I'd end up trying to move it in pixel perfect straight lines when dragging stuff past the visible work area, so as to speed up the refresh and keep the mouse in the part of the border where you get maximum scrolling speed.

I always assumed that Windows95 was just scared of mice, so if you shook one at it, it would either run faster in fear, leaving a trail of random disc sectors, or suddenly hide under its special blue blanket and refuse to come out again.

Re: Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

#160

Post by nickpsecurity »

DonHopkins wrote: post #31

When I used to hang out at Radio Shack in the mall to play on a TRS-80's after school, they would draw a pair of asterisks in the corner of the screen and occasionally flash one of them on and off, as they loaded from cassette tape. One of the older kids who hung out there would tell us newer kids that we could speed up loading by repeatedly pressing the up arrow key on the keyboard. Of course us new kids didn't real…

In my day, they told new people that Alt-F4 made all kinds of programs run faster, unlock cheat codes, etc. Especially the online games. You always knew the adventurers when you saw "has disconnected from game."
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