Today I Received...

[bwinkel67]

I wonder whether, once the initial feeding frenzy for The Spectrum is over in the UK and Europe, they might start shipping surplus stock to the US, where I suspect there is more of a demand for it than might be expected. After all, we got the Atari 400 Mini here, and I don't know anyone who used to own an 8-bit Atari.

As to your new equipment - hard core!

I hope so. If not, I'm sure some enterprising folks in the UK will put them on eBay at a marked up price to sell outside the UK. I've taken a peek already on eBay's co.uk site and the best price I found was £125 plus relatively reasonable shipping.

[Derek_Stewart]

Rescued this Bekin Omnibus 4 port KVM Switch from eBay, only a tenner ..

[Derek_Stewart]

Received this today:

Thanks Sparrowhawk.

[Sparrowhawk]

You are very welcome - happy reading

[bwinkel67]

My QL related question, can bulk erasing an MDV cartridge help it format more sectors? I'm assuming bad media is lack of magnetic ability to accurately hold whatever signal you try to write on and degaussing it wouldn't make a difference -- just curious. I'm assuming if I try it it wouldn't destroy the MDV cartridge.

Likely not. Assuming the foam pad has been fixed, most of the Microdrive's defect sectors today are caused by mechanical stress over time, and damage done to the magnetic coating by heat or moisture it has seen over its lifetime. I wouldn't expect a demagnetizer to "fix" any defects, though (The QL's Microdrives have their own demagnetizing - the erase head, which should do everything you can do with an external device.) But experimenting shouldn't hurt, I guess.

Tried it with a couple of cartridges and didn't see any improvement. What was funny is that I was trying to find some crappy carts and all of mine format to between 225 to 230 and are pretty consistent about it. I guess I have later Samsung drives...I don't remember struggling that much with MDVs for the year or two until I bought an external 3.5" floppy and Kempston interface.

So does that mean the erase head on the microdrives is just really strong or the way the signal is put on the tape is more resilient? I just recall, with audio cassettes back in the 80s, that I would get crappier recordings if I had something on them already. Maybe the erase head on the tape recorder was crappy?

Of course it also didn't solve my Greaseweazle issue of writing TRS-80 Model 3 floppies. I'm using a HD 5.25 and someone on the Greaseweazle Facebook group guaranteed that my problem was non-erased info on the intermediate tracks that are written with 80 and not with 40 and I really needed to invest in a bulk tape eraser. It's still a cool piece of retro kit...very heavy. I had some fun with my students who didn't know what it was by telling them it's a device that can verify if you have a solid state or mechanical drive in your laptop

[NormanDunbar]

I had some fun with my students who didn't know what it was by telling them it's a device that can verify if you have a solid state or mechanical drive in your laptop

Cheers,
Norm.

[NormanDunbar]

Probably, not quite what you might expect to read here, but.....

Today I received the news that, at 01:30 this morning, my Dad died in his care home.

Now, this is not as bad as at first sight. He had dementia and didn't know who he was. He's been effectively "dead" for a few years now.

It is, as you might expect, a time of sadness, but also, of relief for dad who is at peace now.

Cheers,
Norm.

PS. I'm not looking for sympathy or condolences etc, as I know some of you might wish to pass on! Dementia is the scummiest thing I can think of, and I would not wish it on anyone.

[vanpeebles]

Probably, not quite what you might expect to read here, but.....

Today I received the news that, at 01:30 this morning, my Dad died in his care home.

Now, this is not as bad as at first sight. He had dementia and didn't know who he was. He's been effectively "dead" for a few years now.

It is, as you might expect, a time of sadness, but also, of relief for dad who is at peace now.

Cheers,
Norm.

PS. I'm not looking for sympathy or condolences etc, as I know some of you might wish to pass on! Dementia is the scummiest thing I can think of, and I would not wish it on anyone.

Sad to hear that, my partners mother has also just passed away last week due to parkinsons. It's more a relief as she was suffering a lot in the last few months.

[NormanDunbar]

Sad to hear that, my partners mother has also just passed away last week due to parkinsons. It's more a relief as she was suffering a lot in the last few months.

Aye, Parkinson's is no fun. I lost my step father to it a few years back.

Cheers,
Norm

[stephen_usher]

PS. I'm not looking for sympathy or condolences etc, as I know some of you might wish to pass on! Dementia is the scummiest thing I can think of, and I would not wish it on anyone.

Well, I lost my Mum to vascular dementia, and my Dad was suffering from it too (though still mostly himself) when undiagnosed fibrosis got him last year. It's a slow death where the body keeps going long after the person has gone.