Remote

Dave Fischer

@davefischer@hachyderm.io

mastodon 4.7.3

C programmer / artist from Providence.

990 Followers

342 Following

50 Posts

Joined November 25, 2022

Home:

https://www.cca.org

Museum:

https://rcsri.org

Photos:

https://www.cca.org/gallery

Books:

https://www.cca.org/books/

Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Seventeen years ago! I bought this multi-million dollar hoard of Sun servers from a scrap yard for $300. After testing, fixing, and swapping parts to max out some of them, I traded a couple for an SGI Onyx for the museum, a few more for parts of what eventually became my personal 16-proc Origin-2000, and kept two as compute servers for my film making. (A maxxed-out E4000 has 14 x 400 Mhz UltraSparc II's, and 14 gig of ram (In 128meg sticks! Ha ha ha. Warm.)). #RetroComputing #SunMicrosystems #HomeLab

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social Usenet post: "It's moot now. September 1993 will go down in net.history as the September that never ended."

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

Joan, Core, Cat. #Caturday

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 1w ago

Replying to

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social Oh yes. Also, reminds me of Moebius' Fauna of Mars. https://50wattsbooks.com/products/la-faune-de-mars

50wattsbooks.com

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

Cat on a stepladder.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

L-shaped cat receiving light. #Caturday

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

I recently got a symmetric FIOS business line at home with a block of five static IPs, and started moving my web sites and email from the hosting company I've been using since... the 90s I think? over to my own servers.

It's been fun. (It's REALLY weird for me to look at the public section of my core switch and think: that's OUT THERE. That's part of the public INTERNET! I have ALWAYS been behind NAT...)

I was really worried about the various crypto certs I needed to set up because... I kinda suck at crypto. Anything more complex than setting up keys for ssh confuses the fuck out of me.

But I got through it, HTTPS works, and google accepts my email! (Using "Let's Encrypt" via the "certbot" program for HTTPS.)

Weeee!!!

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Awww yeah. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/inside-the-machines-dave-fischer/1141395275 #Books #Photography #RetroComputing #RCSRI

barnesandnoble.com

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Hachyderm.io

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

I usually don't do sunsets, but this looked nice.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Printdrum. Printdrum! PRINTDRUM!

#Photography #RetroComputing #RCSRI

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

If it fits... #Cats

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@streetartutopia When I first saw this image online, I KNEW I had seen it in person, but I only just recently remembered where. It's still visible, on Broad Street, just east of Summer St.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

There is no airflow whatsoever inside the ROLM militarized version of the DG Nova, so the IC's and other components straddle metal bars that conduct heat to the edge of the board, and from there to outside the chassis.

#Photography #RetroComputing #RCSRI

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social I realized something BIG had happened on 9/11 when cnn.com wouldn't load. Presumably The Blessed Day will be similar.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

My current "to be read soon" pile:

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

The back part of a DECwriter 3 is perfectly sized for #caturday.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

That was good. I did not see the "this is why we really bought you" twist coming.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mcc I'd ask the red button what pressing the blue button would do.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

Highway. #Photography

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

Alright, CRT's have found a home.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

Based on the music video, I'm assuming the members of Shocking Blue met in 5th century Syria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmW8IuaIdmQ

#Music #Stylite

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@DeltaWye@tiggi.es @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social @BernardSheppard@mastodon.au Mid-80s: 1 gig, 1gig/sec, 1 million dollars. (There was an earlier version for the X/MP, but way slower. Bah.) "SSD" was a registered trademark of Cray Research for many years.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@galacticstone Most of them? Rolled up or in a flatfile thingy. Most screenprinted by friends. The B&W pieces are by me. This was 2023:

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@arensb@mastodon.social @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social @BernardSheppard@mastodon.au And there was a Microvax-II buried in there.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@fazalmajid "pair of Sun E10K" Lord those are big!

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@MollyBeth@toot.lgbt "Came Out It Rained Went Back In Again" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDp2HlmxYY

Claire Dowie's Came Out on TV 1991

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@pseudonym@mastodon.online More of a BSD beard.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Nice article on one of the greatest photographers ever. https://www.zeroninemagazine.com/icons/magaret-bourke-white #Art #Photography

zeroninemagazine.com

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@arensb@mastodon.social @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social @BernardSheppard@mastodon.au It used on of the weird RAID levels that NO ONE uses. Like bit-level parity, or something. Also, it did multi-dimensional file transfers, similar to the multi-dim arrangements of CPUs. I think all slower IO peripherals (tape, etc) hung off Suns?

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@x2ero@ieji.de Military coveralls are comfy, but I don't want to be mistaken for a military cosplayer/wannabe, so only random foreign military castoffs.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@alicemcalicepants Anyone "just tell me which track I'm allocated" old?

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com F86, for two years. CS. I was there when hamp got its first unix system! (4.3BSD on the (second) VAX-11/750.) Learned tons, maybe half from classes.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org Aye.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mrundkvist@archaeo.social The console is a Friden Flexowriter.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ralfmaximus Ohhh... "peak theoretical" was around 11 gflops per maxxed-out unit, if I remember correctly? The original machines were around 2/3 maxxed. Around 60 gigaflops for the entire cluster?

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@vowe@social.heise.de

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@thalia @alicemcalicepants Found this mixed in with some TX-2 docs, pretty sure it's assembler listing, haven't had a chance to look into it really closely. Def has a "let's try some new ideas!" feel to it.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social FREEDOM OF RELIGION, BITCHES!

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@tillybridges@mastodon.social I have the same model!

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com And probably some Suns by then? Do you remember hostnames of the Suns?

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@scottcheloha@bsd.network They were amazing in their day.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org Rhode Island, inbetween NY and Boston.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Considering Ice-T's past affiliation with the Crips, I don't think this is as neutral a criticism of the two parties as it seems at first.

VOTE BLUE, NO MATTER WHO.
VOTE CRIP, NO ORANGE WHIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAbV0eV1zd8

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@rootwyrm All upgraded CPU modules (mirrored cache), so that wasn't a problem.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mbpaz@mas.to @flexion@oldbytes.space @davidseidl@mstdn.social SOOOOOO heavy! Ugh. (Fantastic machines though. At least for my problems/code, completely trivial to get 95+% user CPU across 14 procs...) Edit: Oh, I'm thinking of E4500's, never dealt with x4500's.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com Oh, I'm curious about the first few Suns at Hampshire. Maybe Sun-2, at latest Sun-3. Pre-SPARC.

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@scottcheloha@bsd.network Well, it's got four 300 watt power supplies...

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Dave Fischer @davefischer@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com Come to the next RCS open house: https://rcsri.org/

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