CDROM Drive Test Report
Here is yet another article on hardware testing. Similar to the one on floppy drives and hard disk drives from earlier. Now for my collection of CDROM (and DVD) drives, to filter out which ones still work and which ones doesn't. I have compiled a complete (LaTeX typesetted) report on the test results here. A total of 14 drives were investigated, where 10 were OK, 3 were untestable and 1 was broken.
There are tests on the following hard drive models in the report:
* Aztech CDA 268-01A
* Aztech CDA 468-02I
* Creative CR-587-B
* Goldstar CRD-8160B
* HP XJ-HD166S
* Matsushita CR-504-B
* Philips CDD3600/51
* Pioneer DR-A12X
* Plextor PX-712A
* Plextor PX-716SA
* Samsung TS-H352
* Sony AD-5260S
* Sony CRX320A
* Toshiba XM-5302B
Collection:
Hard Drive Test Report
Here's another article on old hardware testing, like the one on floppy drives from before. This time I decided to go through my collection of hard drives test those, again to filter out which ones still work and which ones doesn't. Once again, I have compiled a complete (LaTeX typesetted) report on the test results here. A total of 13 drives were investigated, where 10 were OK and 3 were broken.
There are tests on the following hard drive models in the report:
* Quantum ProDrive ELS
* Quantum ProDrive LPS (x2)
* Seagate ST-1144A
* Seagate ST-1239A
* Seagate ST-157A
* Seagate ST-3096A
* Seagate ST-3144A
* Seagate ST-3195A
* Seagate ST-351AX (x2)
* Conner CFA270A
* Conner CP-3104
Collection:
Floppy Drive Test Report
I decided to go through my collection of old 3.5" floppy drives and test them all, in order to filter out which ones still work or not. I compiled a complete (LaTeX typesetted) report on the test results here. A total of 20 drives were investigated. In short, 13 were OK, 4 were broken and 3 were untestable.
There are tests on the following floppy drive models in the report:
* Citizen LR102061 A.L.
* JPN ZFDD1.44M
* Mitsubishi MF355C-252M
* NEC FD1138H
* Panasonic JU-256A276P
* Panasonic JU-257-204P
* Panasonic JU-257A604P
* Panasonic JU-257A606P (x2)
* Sony MPF920 (x4)
* Sony Model MPF40W-00
* Sony Model MPF520-1
* TEAC FD-235HF
* TEAC FD-235HG
* TEAC FD-335HF
* Y-E Data YD-702B-6039B (x2)
Collection:
Battery Leakage Report
I have several old retro PCs lying around. And as explained in detail here, battery leakage is a risk to some of these PCs depending on the type of battery. So I have gone through a total of 13 PCs and removed leaking NiCd and NiMH batteries from 4 of them, which had those. I have compiled a complete report of all the PCs with image collages here.
Information on the following branded PCs can be found in the report (in addition to 4 custom builds):
* Commodore PC 20-III
* Commodore PC 30-III
* IBM PS/ValuePoint 433DX/Si
* Zenith ICL-4434-KT
* NCR System 3330
* Compaq Deskpro 386s/20
* Compaq ProLinea 590
* Brother BCN3386SX/52
* Laser 486DX2-50E
Here is one of the worst cases of damage:
Amiga 500 Advertisement Leaflet
A colleague at work approached me yesterday, presenting a leaflet. It was a Norwegian advertisement for the Commodore Amiga 500, presumably printed during its heyday in the late 1980s.
I have scanned the leaflet and put it up here for you to enjoy. Some readers may notice the similarity compared to other home computer advertisements at the time: Everybody is happy, because computers are fun! :-)
Higher resolution TIFF images can be downloaded here and here.
Copenhagen Airport uses VLC.
It seems they are using the VLC media player to run some of their advertisements in Copenhagen "Kastrup" airport. Unfortunately, they have some stability issues.
I took this snapshot as proof on my way home from a business trip:
Here is a closer look of the error message (in danish):
Linux towels
My sister and I got a tip from a friend that someone were selling Linux towels at a nearby store. We had high hopes of finding Tux the Penguin everywhere, but instead we found this:
Better than nothing I guess. :-)
But I am wondering if their design department (or whatever they have) is aware of their product naming? Are they aware of the reference to an operating system kernel, or is it pure coincidence?