Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5F5B32.A06DFBFB@smartsoft.cc>...
>Here comes the dumb question:
>What is a Nixie Tube???


A nixie tube is a vacuum tube with 10 elements in it, each of which is bent into the shape of a single digit. By applying power to the right pin, the corresponding digit would light up like an orange neon light. Nixie tubes were used for digital numeric displays before LEDs were perfected. The first digital desk calculator I saw used nixie tubes. You can still see them if you look carefully on sci fi movies done before 1975 or so.

Back in 1977 or so I visited an electronic surplus store in Pasadena, and they had some real live core memory modules for sale (with the toroidal magnets carefully threaded through the wires, etc.). I wish I'd bought one, it would make a great desk ornament today.

That's true... The information on LASIK I read was quite honest about the fact that it the results are not nearly as good once you hit 40 or older. As I have no idea what you 'advancing age' is, but just guess that you're at least 5 to 10 years older than I am going for LASIK might give more trouble than good.

Hmmm, how do they know you're at risk for macular degeneration?
I guess UV blocking is important, also I always wonder how much slips by with
glasses. With every kind I've had I've always looked at the frame or outside
the frame at times.



Walter wrote:

> I considered the laser surgery, but due to my advancing age I would need reading glasses anyway so I thought why bother. I also want the UV blocking I can get with glasses, since I'm at risk for macular degeneration, and lifetime UV dosage is a risk for that.

Hmmm, did I ever forward you the page I found on the web with their name, address and phone number? Than again, you might have found them yourself that way and learned that they are no longer there.

Anyways, if you have MAKE and the sources for MAKE and it is as good, why bother...



Walter wrote:

> Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5F5EAF.9FE11F4A@smartsoft.cc>...
> >Walter wrote:
> >> Rewrite the makefiles to use MAKE instead of SMAKE. (Licensing issues
> with
> >> SMAKE).
> >Hmmm, there is no way of getting it from "Innovative Data Concepts Incorporated"?
>
> I can't find them <g>. Who actually has the IP rights to SMAKE I have not been able to determine, nor can I locate the source to it. It doesn't seem worth the bother to deal with since I have unquestioned IP rights to MAKE and the source for it.

OK, I know what you are talking about now...
I actually liked those tubes too. From what you write I get the impression that
you like to keep certain things around.
I actually still have my first PC I ever bought. (Had to go to the bank to get a
loan). Because I moved to the USA that thing is still in the Netherlands, but it
is at a safe place with very good friends. It's amazing. I think it over 10
years old and still works!

Back in 1977 I was in elementary school, but you might have figured that from
reading my resume at janknepper.com. I first got into the computing stuff just
before the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum became famous. At the time I
started with those when I was 16 I also was allowed to use a Philips P880 that
we had stowed in a special class room in school. This machine had 64 K RAM, but
the memory was "ring kern" (magnetic memory). To start it you had to manualy
punch in a boots trap...
For some time I even had a huge rack at home. My parent couldn't really
appreciate it because it was HUGE...



Walter wrote:

> Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5F5B32.A06DFBFB@smartsoft.cc>...
> >Here comes the dumb question:
> >What is a Nixie Tube???
>
> A nixie tube is a vacuum tube with 10 elements in it, each of which is bent into the shape of a single digit. By applying power to the right pin, the corresponding digit would light up like an orange neon light. Nixie tubes were used for digital numeric displays before LEDs were perfected. The first digital desk calculator I saw used nixie tubes. You can still see them if you look carefully on sci fi movies done before 1975 or so.
>
> Back in 1977 or so I visited an electronic surplus store in Pasadena, and they had some real live core memory modules for sale (with the toroidal magnets carefully threaded through the wires, etc.). I wish I'd bought one, it would make a great desk ornament today.

Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5FA30B.2050748B@smartsoft.cc>...
>That's true... The information on LASIK I read was quite honest about the
fact
>that it the results are not nearly as good once you hit 40 or older. As I
have
>no idea what you 'advancing age' is, but just guess that you're at least 5
to
>10 years older than I am going for LASIK might give more trouble than good.
>
>Hmmm, how do they know you're at risk for macular degeneration?
>I guess UV blocking is important, also I always wonder how much slips by
with
>glasses. With every kind I've had I've always looked at the frame or
outside
>the frame at times.


I'm 41. I don't need reading glasses yet, but I will within 5 years, as I'm borderline for them now. My father & grandfather both suffer from macular degeneration. Genetics are a risk factor, but also both of them had careers that involved excessive exposure to UV light, so who knows? The glasses I have have a UV blocking coating added on. Ordinary window glass will naturally block UV light to some extent, but my lenses are plastic. I also have blue eyes, which block less UV light than brown.

The ironic thing is my eye doctor suggested I avoid sunglasses. He says that with sunglasses, your pupils expand letting in even more UV. In any case, never even consider using sunglasses that are not UV blocking.

Besides, I've worn glasses essentially my whole life. I've accepted my fate <g>.

If you did, I have forgotten, for which I apologize.

Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5FA396.576125D4@smartsoft.cc>...
>Hmmm, did I ever forward you the page I found on the web with their name, address and phone number? Than again, you might have found them yourself
that
>way and learned that they are no longer there.
>
>Anyways, if you have MAKE and the sources for MAKE and it is as good, why bother...
>
>
>
>Walter wrote:
>
>> Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5F5EAF.9FE11F4A@smartsoft.cc>...
>> >Walter wrote:
>> >> Rewrite the makefiles to use MAKE instead of SMAKE. (Licensing issues
>> with
>> >> SMAKE).
>> >Hmmm, there is no way of getting it from "Innovative Data Concepts Incorporated"?
>>
>> I can't find them <g>. Who actually has the IP rights to SMAKE I have not been able to determine, nor can I locate the source to it. It doesn't
seem
>> worth the bother to deal with since I have unquestioned IP rights to MAKE and the source for it.
>

Don't worry.
It was a matter of typing "Innovative Data Concepts" into altavista...
I sent it to you already.

Jan



Walter wrote:

> If you did, I have forgotten, for which I apologize.
>
> Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5FA396.576125D4@smartsoft.cc>...
> >Hmmm, did I ever forward you the page I found on the web with their name, address and phone number? Than again, you might have found them yourself
> that
> >way and learned that they are no longer there.
> >
> >Anyways, if you have MAKE and the sources for MAKE and it is as good, why bother...
> >
> >
> >
> >Walter wrote:
> >
> >> Jan Knepper wrote in message <3A5F5EAF.9FE11F4A@smartsoft.cc>...
> >> >Walter wrote:
> >> >> Rewrite the makefiles to use MAKE instead of SMAKE. (Licensing issues
> >> with
> >> >> SMAKE).
> >> >Hmmm, there is no way of getting it from "Innovative Data Concepts Incorporated"?
> >>
> >> I can't find them <g>. Who actually has the IP rights to SMAKE I have not been able to determine, nor can I locate the source to it. It doesn't
> seem
> >> worth the bother to deal with since I have unquestioned IP rights to MAKE and the source for it.
> >

> I'm 41. I don't need reading glasses yet, but I will within 5 years, as I'm borderline for them now.

Well, I needed glasses ever since I was 8 years old... Could not read without
them. I used to be very far sighted.
Right now after the LASIK surgery it's pretty funny, but I think I am a little
over corrected. Also, my right eye's sigmatism has been corrected, so my brain
still tells me that my left eye is the best while my right eye is right now.
Basically, my vision, expecially for reading jumps around a little. However,
it's always good at nights when I get relaxed and tired.

> My father & grandfather both suffer from macular degeneration. Genetics are a risk factor, but also both of them had careers that involved excessive exposure to UV light, so who knows?

Well, I would not... I am certainly no specialist in that area.
It's good to count with those factors though, but they do not always work.
My father has had back problems as long as I can remember, and so do I. However
it turns out that my lowest back bone exists in two halfs instead of one whole.
Next to that my body seems to be in survival position because of some kind of
trauma which makes it worse. I am planning on going to a clinic in Springfield
for a week to get it fixed. (Non-surgery!) My fathers back problem is quite
different as far as I know.

> The glasses I have have a UV blocking coating added on. Ordinary window glass will naturally block UV light to some extent, but my lenses are plastic. I also have blue eyes, which block less UV light than brown.

Hmmm, did know about glass blocking UV light as I got welding lessons when I was younger and had to go through quite some theory before I was allowed to actually weld. I never heard of that difference between blue and brown eyes though.

> The ironic thing is my eye doctor suggested I avoid sunglasses. He says that with sunglasses, your pupils expand letting in even more UV. In any case, never even consider using sunglasses that are not UV blocking.

I don't. I don't like sunglasses to begin with.
I've got a pair of Ray Ban I got 10 years ago in New Orleans, still have them,
hardly ever use them.

> Besides, I've worn glasses essentially my whole life. I've accepted my fate <g>.

So have I, or at least for a long time. It was amazing to be able to forget about them though.

My first computer was a Heathkit H11. It's gone now, I gave it away. The second one I bought was an IBM PC type 2, which is in the garage moldering away. Last time I checked it the hard disk was kaput, but it would still come up in rom basic. I got rid of my dad's trash-80 too, though I regret that now. It will be a fine collector's item!

That old IBM PC still has the zortech BBS software on its disk <g>. It was a good old workhorse, it would run that BBS for literally six months at a stretch without requiring a reboot.

This newsgroup is a lot better than the BBS!

Walter wrote:

> My first computer was a Heathkit H11. It's gone now, I gave it away. The second one I bought was an IBM PC type 2, which is in the garage moldering away. Last time I checked it the hard disk was kaput, but it would still come up in rom basic. I got rid of my dad's trash-80 too, though I regret that now. It will be a fine collector's item!

The first computer I bought was a 386... 16 Mhz zero wait state... 640 Kb Base
and 1 Mb Ext, 40 MB HD...
I replaced the mother board with a 486, 25Mhz (one of the first that was
available in the Netherlands) and 8 Mb RAM...
Replaced the HD with 100 MB SCSI, than 340 MB SCSI and finally 1 GB SCSI which
is still in there and running.

The machine has run at lot, from different version of DOS, Windows, SCO Xenix, SCO Unix, Interactive Unix, OS/2, CMOS, QNX to FreeBSD and Windows NT...

> That old IBM PC still has the zortech BBS software on its disk <g>. It was a good old workhorse, it would run that BBS for literally six months at a stretch without requiring a reboot.

Cool!
I used to write production data registration systems that run on DOS+Novell.
They used to do that. i.e. Run for 6 or more months without a reboot.
I really wonder why it is so hard for NT or 2000...

> This newsgroup is a lot better than the BBS!

Thanks!
It's was first time I setup a newsgroup... Only took a couple of hours. The most
difficult thing was finding the right port from the collection...

It's kinda different though...
Connection is 24/7. Speed is incomparable.
Machine it runs on is a PIII with enough memory and disk space.