The 667MHz Machine
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The 667MHz Machine
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#2"Plugging anything in required caution; a hasty, blind reach behind the tower to reconnect the keyboard could easily bend the fragile pins inside the round PS/2 connector, leading to delicate surgery with the tip of a pencil."
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PS/2 connectors were actually not bad in terms of durability... The big plastic key in the centre prevented you from jamming it in with the wrong orientation and then twisting, which would have bent pins for sure. Finding the correct orientation was an issue however.
PS/2 connectors can still be found on many brand new motherboards, which is a boon for those of us still using Model-M's.
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#3"Plugging anything in required caution; a hasty, blind reach behind the tower to reconnect the keyboard could easily bend the fragile pins inside the round PS/2 connector, leading to delicate surgery with the tip of a pencil." ------------- PS/2 connectors were actually not bad in terms of durability... The big plastic key in the centre prevented you from jamming it in with the wrong orientation and then twisting, wh…
I like to joke about what sort of idiot designs a round connector that is keyed, the worst of both worlds. Now, a round keyed connector is not necessarily a bad thing, the round shell can be very strong, but the ps/2 mini-din went too far. the shell was too small and the key not assertive enough. It was a bad connector.
The worst I have seen was an old ati all-in-wonder I had where the video input ports were on a dongle with a ps/2-like minidin but high density, with about 10 pins. It only took two insertion operations before I resolved to do everything in my power to never unplug it again. getting all those thin pins aligned was basically impossible.
I actually had to fact-check myself because I remember that infernal connector having about 20 or 30 pins, But I looked it up and it "only" had 10.
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#4"Plugging anything in required caution; a hasty, blind reach behind the tower to reconnect the keyboard could easily bend the fragile pins inside the round PS/2 connector, leading to delicate surgery with the tip of a pencil." ------------- PS/2 connectors were actually not bad in terms of durability... The big plastic key in the centre prevented you from jamming it in with the wrong orientation and then twisting, wh…
I like to joke about what sort of idiot designs a round connector that is keyed, the worst of both worlds. Now, a round keyed connector is not necessarily a bad thing, the round shell can be very strong, but the ps/2 mini-din went too far. the shell was too small and the key not assertive enough. It was a bad connector. The worst I have seen was an old ati all-in-wonder I had where the video input ports were on a don…
The worst connector IMO is the HDMI connector. I run the mediatec at an university and the amount of well-shielded cable I have to throw into the bin each semester because yet snother perdon levered off that plug is mindboggling.
On top of that, HDMI tries to be to much and do too much
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#5> Disclaimer: I wrote this on a basic text editor which has spell and grammar check, presumably powered by some sort of AI/LLM tech. The ramblings, and run-on sentences, are all mine.
I think I want this at the bottom of the article, “Words are my own; spell checking and grammar tools probably had AI.”
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#6Technically a 666.66666... mhz machine, but that's being pedantic.
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#7> Disclaimer: I wrote this on a basic text editor which has spell and grammar check, presumably powered by some sort of AI/LLM tech. The ramblings, and run-on sentences, are all mine. I think I want this at the bottom of the article, “Words are my own; spell checking and grammar tools probably had AI.”
Guys, these AI disclaimers are ridiculous. If you don't like it, don't pay for it. Oh wait...
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#8Technically a 666.66666... mhz machine, but that's being pedantic.
Beast of a machine.
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#9Technically a 666.66666... mhz machine, but that's being pedantic.
Of course, the 266 (and others) had the same fraction, but didn't have the disadvantage of abs(mhz) being a magic number that might offend some religious types.
Re: The 667MHz Machine
#10> Disclaimer: I wrote this on a basic text editor which has spell and grammar check, presumably powered by some sort of AI/LLM tech. The ramblings, and run-on sentences, are all mine. I think I want this at the bottom of the article, “Words are my own; spell checking and grammar tools probably had AI.”
Fair enough. I've read a bit too much LLM written non-tech posts these year that I'm a bit fatigued. I figured people would just want to know this upfront. Moved it to the bottom now.