Five or six years ago, I bought a lot of three ThinkPad R40 Celerons sold for parts, hoping to get one useable machine. I did, ending up with a rather pedestrian LXDE Linux laptop.

Just this week I got a second one running with a whopping 256 MB of RAM, and put OS/2 (ArcaOS) on it. It’s quite a snappy machine. Loads of fun.

I had an R40 run as a router / home server for 12 years, until this January. Lovely machines.

https://snafuhall.com/home-lan-1-the-beginning.html#cracktop

Its not quite low end but I use a T480 with ubuntu as a home server for plex etc.

I set it up to boot from the ACPI signal and run with lid closed so it boots from the wall switch.

"Not quite" is an understatement, that's a nearly brand new premium laptop. Isn't it a shocking waste to use such a thing for a server, and not - say - a Raspberry Pi 4? Like using a Porsche as a standing generator.

I actually used a raspberry Pi for a while as a Plex server but it's underpowered for transcoding.

I dont use that laptop at all these days so I put it to use there.

I had an r40 from 2003-2006. Shipped with XP, then I put Linux and later OpenBSD. I had to stop using it when the GPU soldering came loose. (I was able to fix it with a heat gun the first time. For a while. Then I gave up.)

Is it a collector thing? Do you use it or was it a fun project and now it’s idle?

I’m just playing. It will probably be idle before too long. The Linux box was used in anger for a couple of years.

The English word “apron” comes from the French “napron.” “A napron” became “an apron.”

Isnt "an orange" also supposed to have come this way?

The French word is napperon.

Also, Florian was an inspiration for David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider” from the “Heroes” album.

https://youtu.be/fWkCMD7woV0

Plenty of exceptions though. e.g. KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and WACO Waco, Texas.

Of course somebody has compiled a list of the exceptions: https://earlyradiohistory.us/kwtrivia.htm

LM358 op-amp?

Yeah. That and the LM393/LM339 type comparator-not exactly unknown though. But if I see those used appropriately in a circuit, it's the opposite effect of seeing 741 op-amps and 555 timers and TIP120 transistors.

Another one - the 33063/34063 type low-voltage DC/DC switchers. Like the TL431, hobbyists almost never use them but they're all over the place.

I'm a big fan of the LT3574 switching regulator[1]. Makes it very easy to split an input supply out to dual rails for op-amps, or just for general regulation. It provides an isolated output without needing optoisolators or a sense winding on the transformer. And since they're flyback converters they can output a voltage above or below the input, allowing for wide variation in the input needed. And in typical LT fashion the datasheet is extremely thorough and well-written. Including a step-by-step design example. And plenty of reference designs. I use the +-12V output one quite a bit for powering op-amps, it lets me make use of the fixed 5V output third channel on my bench supply!

Not the cheapest though, about $7 each in qt1 on DigiKey, but that's rarely an issue at the hobby scale. And the ability to use a cheaper transformer and not need an optoisolator can make it save BOM cost even at large scale production.

[1] https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data...

I learned about those while google searching every component on my first Arduino in hopes to better understand how the thing worked.

Point spreads negate common sense and understanding. Remember touts sell you who to bet on, not who is going to win.

If you’re trying to avoid the paywall, note that the NYT has removed the paywall on Coronavirus related articles. Including this one.

Try 63/37 tin/lead instead of 60/40. 63/37 alloy is eutectic, meaning its melting and solidifying temperature is the same (183C). 60/40 has a semisolid state around its melting point (~=190C).

totally agree.

I use kester 66/44 eutetic tin-lead solder on anything I care about.

It's said that light-dark auto helmets make someone a welder nearly overnight; I think that same way about eutetic solder and soldering, it makes the job so much easier that the quality of the work skyrockets.

Any idea why, if the parts don't add to 100, they don't reduce the fraction in the solder name from 66/44 to 3/2? Un-reduced portions are handy if they're percentages, but if they're not going to be percentages, why not reduce the fraction?

Might be a typo? Usually you have 60/40 and 63/37.

because you're comparing it to 63/37. it's much easier to grok the comparison when you use the same "units".

in racing, they say to drive 10/10ths. not 1's. for the same reason.

If they don't add up to 100, and neither of the numbers matches the default, they're not the same units.

This guy hams! With your solder knowledge and call sign, I'm surprised you're just a tech!

Maybe this isolation we’re going through will give me time to upgrade. -73-

What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Haha thanks :-)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html

What did rms use? GDB?

That's not as weird as it might sound (perhaps you knew this). He used /bin/sh until bfox wrote bash.

But on ITS, the PDP-10 OS we mostly used until the mid 80s, DDT (the debugger) was the shell. There were no core dumps for interactive programs; if your program halted abnormally you were already in the debugger so it was no big deal. The Lispm, of course, worked this way too although the debugger was more sophisticated than DDT.