Random Thoughts II

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by StN

The vintage scene is funny - goes in waves. At one stage, you would never see an Apple sunflower Mac, then there would be 3 at once.

I note there is a PS/2 8555 - 386SX is *almost* a 286

And a Compaq portable mainboard, sporting an 8088,

And a Tosh 286 portable, Amstrad PPC640 etc

but yeah, the days of an original IBM 5150 popping up, or a swathe of clones seems to be in a lull - I am embarrassed when I remember what I literally binned in the '90s - boxes and boxes of floppies, big iron flip cases and even a Sparc 5 *with* 20" display. Now I've had to go out a buy the same kind of thing again - or at least rescue it.

Commodore stuff seems to be popular now - a few garages getting cleaned out (or maybe parents passing on and kids cleaning out the house) with Vic-20s, CBM64s and Amigas everywhere. Still annoyed that a chap at the pub sought me out, and indicated he was going to dump a box of CBM gear (including a PET with disk subsystem) because he needed the room, went quiet, then came back and said I could have the lot for $1750. Yeah, nah...

I can't watch it. I have a few TradeMe alerts I never read because I know it would hurt too much.

[StN]

Originally Posted by MadMax

There's not a single 286 PC on trademe right now.

Ok, now say BeetleJuice three times...

Or "Dick Smith Super-80 in Canterbury"...

IBM5160

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by wazza

brah how pumped are y'all for ufc 300 this sunday
i'm pumped brah

Haven't seen it come up on IPT yet. Maybe Dana's threats worked?

Saw the last 20 seconds of the Holloway match tho, now I want to see the rest.

[Lightspeed]

Happy birthday MadMax.

[wazza]

HB

[Ab]

HB mate

[MadMax]

Oh chur

[MadMax]

What if … Jaycar had a Maker’s Hub lounge area in their branches where you could sit at a workbench - bringing your own gear and work on projects whilst grabbing stuff off their shelves as required?

They frequently have 3D printers on display with random staff creations so move those into the space for people to use - charged per g of material even.

Make entry required by their VIP cards to help prevent any issues that may arise, limit any powertool and blade usage to cover health n safety…

[MadMax]

Another silly thought. What if you couldn’t be arsed with double glazing, could you get a strip of aftermarket rear window car defrosting sheets and put a couple of lengths across the bottom couple of inches on your windows?

[Ab]

Wtaf

https://throwflame.com/products/thermonator-robodog/

Who the fuck asked for this

[StN]

^^^ Probably someone wanting a free entry into Opensauce.

[MadMax]

I’m wondering how schools will deal with smart watches under banned cell phones.

Have already heard of shenanigans with this at my son’s school.

[_indigo1]

Reminds me of wearing THIS BABY to school:

[DrTiTus]

I found myself dancing with a ~10 year old Downs Syndrome girl at like a Cossie club kind of place on Saturday, but the big smile on her face from having someone to dance with was one of the highlights of my weekend.

[DrTiTus]

Any recommendations for a decent new mid-tier phone to replace my Galaxy A5 (2017)? The Android OS is stuck at v8, and ASB are dropping support for 8 and below. My other banks/apps are fine with my current one for now. But I also got a notification from [Vodaf]One that the 3G network is being turned off next year, and I'm not 4G capable, so I've got to get one soonish.

I had ordered a Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 4G with 8GB RAM/128GB storage, but the supplier sent a 6GB. I had since read a few negative reviews about that model, so I interpreted the mistake as an omen and just cancelled my order for now. I can always re-order if that's the best option. It was $350, which is probably about all I'd want to spend, or slightly more if there's good reason to. 3.5mm jack would be nice but not critical. I don't use NFC payments and I don't currently have wireless charging (although that might be cool because I hate fiddling with the charging cord while I'm driving and then Android tells me there's water in the port when there's not and refuses to charge).

I don't play games on my phone, and I am not a photographer but I would appreciate having better night photos which is probably the only feature I've seen that wowed me in a phone - my friend showed me a photo on his recent iPhone when we were at a warehouse rave and mine was just darkness and blobs of light, while his was almost as clear as day. That said, even when I take photos, I don't do anything with them and no one cares to see them, so it's very much optional.

Does anyone have a Xiaomi or know if they're absolute shit? I read the OS is a bit buggy (something about notifications not working, and apps being closed instead, and also bloatware?), the temperatures can get pretty hot, and the one I ordered can apparently feel a bit slow (compared to what, I don't know). I just want it to feel responsive rather than be slow out of the box. If I'm using Waze and switch to Spotify, I feel like my phone is struggling, although it can do either of those things fine when they're the focus. I would like it to be like a simple Alt-TAB - is this expecting too much? I assumed that was a RAM thing, which is why I wanted the one with 8GB.

Even recommendations for phones which are out of my range that I can keep an eye out for on Trade Me (a 2 year old flagship model is probably better than the latest budget phone), or phones to avoid (either brands or specific models). Value for money is more important to me than bragging rights about how cool my phone is. There's just so many options, and it's really hard to tell from specs on paper which are good and which aren't. Thanks!