Commodore PET

I rescued this from my school when the department was clearing out some old "junk". I have a particular affection for the PET because it was the first computer I ever got my hands on. My high school got a handful of PETS when I was in grade twelve in 1981 and started a computer club where I taught myself how to program in BASIC. They didn't have an actual computer class until I was in grade 13 (the Ontario curriculum had a university preliminary year back then - much for the better), but they wouldn't let grade thirteens take it because the school wanted us concentrating on "more important" subjects.



I can't say for sure if our school had 4032s, like the one pictured here, but it sure was very similar to this, and the release date of May 1980 would sure make it likely.

Amazingly, the thing does boot (as you can see if you look closely at the first picture), but somehow the external drive has been lost so I have no way of saving data (internal hard drives were still a few years in the future). The computers we had in grade 12 had cassette tape drives. When they got a full class set the next year, they got 5.25" floppy drives, but I would love to score an old tape drive for this machine.

My other problem is that all but a few of the keys don't work. I'm hoping a good cleaning out will fix that. I'm planning on keeping it in the back of my computer classroom. 32K of RAM with a 1MHz CPU, it's a nice reminder of the past.

Mike

Okay, Now I Want One For My Dog

Yahoo! I've Been Spammed

I was just looking at my dashboard and noticed that I've received eight comments, all spam of course. Needless to say, I deleted them.

Okay, perhaps I shouldn't be celebrating, but at least the bots are finding me.

Mike

Model Ship Update

Here are the latest pictures.


The little blue guy that you see in two of the pictures I found in my kids' old Brio set. I included him because his height is pretty much to scale with the boat.

If you compare this to the last set of pics you'll see that what was mostly added were railings, trim and the keel. You will also notice some holes that were made: some for cannon ports (fourth picture - I know they're a pit ragged but they will be trimmed out nice) and two at the bow called hawse holes that will eventually have the anchor ropes feed through. I had also attached some hardware: bitts that went into the holes you can see in the railing around the forecastle (at the bow) and curved bits of railing that connect the different levels together. These were pre-cast metal, but I removed them because the next step is some painting and then a few coats of varnish on the whole thing. After that is done, I'll put the hardware back on and attach the rudder.

In the second picture, you will see a curved piece of metal that cleans up the stern. If you look closely at the same piece on the other side of the boat in the third picture, you may notice that here it has been cut up. That is because, instead of port and starboard pieces in the kit, I got two starboards. Grrr! The company is based in Spain, and I did manage to contact them, but the cost to have them ship me the right parts were silly so I'm simply working with the ones I got. I went through the parts list and noticed a similar issue with some trim that will be going on the bow soon. I think in the end it should work out alright.

In the second picture, you may also notice the double wide piece of brown planking. This will be painted black next, so I used some coloured Minwax putty to fill in the crack between the two pieces (that's why it looks a little darker). The stuff comes in different colours so you can mix to match, but I made no effort to match the colour. Never-the-less, I'm rather pleased with the look of the Minwax and am encouraged because after the varnishing is done, I plan to use it to fill the numerous cracks that are in the hull - a carpenter I ain't. We'll see how it comes out.

Mike

Florida Vacation

I recently returned from a family vacation in Florida visiting my parents. Thought I would post some pics here.

The Family At Busch Gardens

At Aquatica in Orlando

Debbie and I in Venice

Keeping It In Fifth

Okay, the last picture needs some explanation. On the drive down, in Ohio, the car (a 1998 Toyota Rav4 with manual transmission) would no longer stay in fifth gear. We completed the journey never going above fourth and moderating our speed a bit to keep the engine from working too hard. In Venice, Florida, we planned on taking it into a transmission place. We decided on Aamco, figuring it was a chain, but upon doing some online research we simply found too many horror stories of people in similar situations having their car held hostage for weeks while it was being repaired. Obviously, this wasn't something we could afford to do.

We ended up calling the local Toyota dealership (Cramer Toyota) who were extremely helpful. They agreed that taking the car into a shop could become a serious mistake. After listening to us describe the situation, he felt we should be able to hold it in fifth. We ended up rigging the bungie in the picture above and not only successfully made our road trips to Tampa and Orlando, but all the way back to Peterborough, Ontario too.

The car is now at Peterborough Transmission (whom we've worked with before and trust). We'll see what the final damage report is soon.

Mike

Sometime I Need To Remind Myself Of What Country I Live In

Taxpayers being abused by film funding: lobbyist

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/02/29/mcvety-film.html#skip300x250

Bill C-10, an omnibus bill now before the Senate, includes provisions in the Income Tax Act that would allow the federal government to deny tax credits for films that are offensive or not in the public interest.

Gee, that certainly wouldn't be open to abuse.

"I find it outrageous that government takes our hard-earned tax dollars and funds movies like Young People F---ing," McVety told CBC News, a clergyman who is careful not to say the offensive word.

Hey, it's my tax money too. Who the hell are you to say where it should be spent.

Instead, it[Canada Family Action Coalition] presented to officials in the Prime Minister's Office and worked with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and with backbench MPs who support its position.

"The government finally looked at this issue and agreed," McVety said. After a written presentation, "Verner responded and she did not want to keep funding for films like this."

You know, the one good thing about the current incarnation of the federal Tories is that every time I might be leaning to the thought that, maybe they aren't that bad, along bubbles up something like this. Thank God they don't have a majority ... yet. The real problem is that I don't think Dion and company have anywhere near the gonads to prevent Harper from getting his majority whenever the trigger gets pulled on the next election.

The idea that some closed-door committee (especially if this McVety character is on it) decides which Canadian films get funding and which don't is personally repulsive. Funding the arts is simply not about pushing a particular "moral" agenda.

What we need is folks to get pissed about this so that the opposition parties won't be afraid to squash this thing and send it back from whence it came.

Mike