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Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

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Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#61

Post by low_tech_love »

kergonath wrote: post #32
low_tech_love wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but would you expect Fraunhofer (or something like that) to just give away resources and human hours to just burn a computer case? Of course Europeans have fun, that was just hyperbole; but institutionally speaking, it’s an extremely rigid place. You might even question whether it was ok to spend those resources. Maybe it wasn’t. But every time I go to the USA I’m positively impressed by how much they have the f…

I don’t know about Fraunhofer but my experience in other European countries (mainly the UK, France and Italy) is that you just need to be nice with someone with access to the facilities you need. Unless you need something very specific (read dangerous), there is no problem. We don’t let visitors play with the instruments or anything, but we’re happy to do it for them if we have the right gear and our schedule permits…

Great to know your experience! Maybe I’m in the wrong country, but my experience here is that nobody will lift a finger for you unless (a) it is part of their previuosly allocated workload and (b) it is risk-free. By risk-free I mean really risk free; even wrongly spending 10 euro in a ham sandwich could get you fired and in legal trouble. Plus, just getting people to spend a few minutes to talk to you (if it’s not their preallocated duty to do so) is a nightmare, let alone expect them to actually make an unorthodox decision.

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#62

Post by Aaron2222 »

astrange wrote: post #51
reaperducer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m deeply amazed at how much help and support he got for free from a bunch of people from one of the most important (and expensive) laboratories in the world As a former journalist, it truly is amazing the amount of free information that comes out of America's government, and the vast number of truly helpful people who work there. I can't count the number of times I didn't understand something I read in a federal do…

I always wonder where they find people to give quotes in response to events in news articles. Obviously in politics news it's usually used for evil - like the NYTimes or local TV stations are both famous for quoting a man on the street who's just a concerned citizen, and then you look their name up and they're a lobbyist or something. But in science news you often see expert X releasing a paper and then someone from…

Can't comment for America, but in New Zealand most of our universities ether have an opt-in media expertise database, encourage browsing through the normal staff profiles to find someone, or encourage media to get in touch with a central point of contact to find someone to comment.

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#63

Post by jacquesm »

aliqot wrote: post #57
jacquesm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was making 100's of boards in probably the best equipped tech lab in Europe because the project I was working on was fun and the people that ran the lab figured that if it is going to be done it might as well be done well. Oh, and here are they keys to the parts locker, please do tally what you use and don't worry, we won't charge you, it's just so we know what to re-order... So yes, that does happen. And that was…

I hope you bake those people cookies every winter. That melted my heart to read. This is how you treat peers.

I did better: I helped track down a really nasty problem in one of their series boards, which happened to use a CPU that I was pretty good at programming at the time. Lots of fun!

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#65

Post by rbanffy »

low_tech_love wrote: post #6

Living in Europe, I’m deeply amazed at how much help and support he got for free from a bunch of people from one of the most important (and expensive) laboratories in the world. All of that just to basically have some fun and take some pictures. I’m absolutely sure that here he would never have any support to do this. We unfortunately have forgotten how to have fun and be creative here in the old world.

Living in Europe has, so far, made me very frustrated by how well and how completely (and responsibly) people have recycled their old computers. There is no sign IBM 3270 terminals ever existed, no DEC VT-[2|3]30s, not even our very own, very European (and very gorgeous) Nordata, Nixdorf, Olivetti, and Nokia terminals and computers. BBCs are more often found (very interesting and unique machines), as well as Commodore and Atari STs, but there is no vestige of the breathtaking richness one finds abandoned in warehouses in the middle of the US.

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#66

Post by jhbadger »

wpietri wrote: post #50
Hellion wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the Phoenix like rise the platform made, it was accurate at the time but short sighted.

Eh, sort of. Important parts of the OS did eventually get recycled. But NeXT was sold in 1996, and OS X didn't come out until 2001. And the hardware ambitions were a total crater. I'd say it worked out much better for Jobs than NeXT.

The guy who did this (Simpson Garfinkel) was known for writing several books about programming for the NeXT. He later wrote a book on Cocoa programming in the early years of OS X that was clearly just a modification of one of his NeXT books (as especially in the early versions OS X was basically still NeXTStep underneath), so Garfinkel managed to get something out of his NeXT days despite the symbolic ending of it by burning his cube.

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#67

Post by ztrww »

rodgerd wrote: post #19
zabzonk wrote: post #7

i once blew up the monitor of a next. it had been sent back to the us from the uk for repair, but when we recieved it back in the uk i didn't notice that the power selector was set to 120 rather than 240 volts. and ... bang. the cube itself seemed a bit more resilient. there were reports of the mag alloy airframes of lancaster bombers burning in the raf offensive on germany in ww2, but i can't find any confirmation o…

Honda made an all-magnesium Formula 1 car at one point. The result was horrific.

The 1955 Le Mans disaster was even worse. 84 people died in large part because nobody close had any idea how to put out a magnesium fire…

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#69

Post by jacquesm »

omnicognate wrote: post #59
jacquesm wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really don't want to use pure magnesium anywhere you can avoid it. But alloys are perfectly safe and are even permitted for airplane cabin construction. It's quite ok to machine, though it tears easily so you have to be careful on your final pass not to accidentally remove much more material than you intend to. And if it is pure magnesium you'll want to be pretty careful about your cutting speeds and coolant ;) T…

> A second RA302 was built, with slight modifications, earmarked for Surtees to drive at the 1968 Italian Grand Prix, but he again refused to drive it. They built a car so flammable their driver refused to drive it. The driver they used in his place was then incinerated on the 2nd lap. So they built another equally flammable car and asked the first driver if maybe he'd now be up for driving it? I'd love to have heard…

I'm guessing that it was short and contained a couple of choice expletives. What on earth were they thinking.

Re: Burning a NeXTCube (1993)

#70

Post by guenthert »

xvedejas wrote: post #44
low_tech_love wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but would you expect Fraunhofer (or something like that) to just give away resources and human hours to just burn a computer case? Of course Europeans have fun, that was just hyperbole; but institutionally speaking, it’s an extremely rigid place. You might even question whether it was ok to spend those resources. Maybe it wasn’t. But every time I go to the USA I’m positively impressed by how much they have the f…

It's not something I would expect to happen in the US today; the 90s were a very different time. Maybe due to 9/11? But the same amount you're impressed here, I as an American am also surprised. It feels like this story is from a different country than the USA to me. All we do now is follow the rules.

Yeah, 9/11 changed the mood considerably here, but I blame the no-fun-at-work on the Internet bubble of the turn of the millennium. Since then everything is about money and only about money.
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