DoN. Nichols wrote:
To give an example of another old technology which has not disappeared,
you can still buy gas lamps and mantles. In fact, the most endangered
items are likely older items of high technology. In a hundred years
time, I bet you'll still be able to buy gas mantles, but not SmartMedia
cards or Betamax tapes.
The mantles are becoming controlled -- because they are mildly
radioactive, IIRC -- thorium-232. Some manufacturer's sites have become
"Superfund" sites, so the availability of mantles may not be assured.
As for why they have survived so long -- look at the camping
crowd, which likes the ability to use gasoline fired lanterns instead of
having to carry heavy batteries for a weekend (or longer) camping trip.
Similarly, there are some pretty good reasons for preferring film. While
it may not be the most common method of making pictures in the future, I
have no doubt that it'll remain available.
snip
I have one of the PCI SCSI cards for an Ultra 60 lying around, waiting
to see if I ever get chance to use it.
Not just for an Ultra-60. It will work with the Ultra-30 (half
of an Ulra-60 -- only one CPU), Sun Fire 280R (my current file server),
Sun Blade 1000 and 2000 (my current workstations) the cheap Sun Ultra 5,
Ultra-10, and Sun Blade 100 (all three of these last machines use IDE
drives, not SCSI or FC-AL drives.
My recollection is that the Ultra 5, Ultra 10 and Blade 100 are all
slower that a maximum specification Ultra 2. I think many people thought
that the machines with higher model numbers would be faster, when
actually they were not. For its time, the Ultra 2 was a very fast machine.
But the Sun workstation is heavier to move -- especially if you
have a 19" CRT monitor on top of it. :-) (That was what really motivated
me to move to LCD monitors, since every time I wanted to change
something in the Ultra-2 I had to lift that heavy monitor from on top of
it and find someplace to put it. :-)
True enough. A few years back I was given one of those monitors and I
carried it about 1/4 mile home. It nearly killed me :-).
It *would* have killed me -- to carry it that far. I'm an old
phart these days. :-)
Fortunately I've got space to put my monitor next to the Ultra 2, rather
than on top of it. Instead, I end up piling CD-Roms and books on top :-).
snip
eBay auction # 150309907711 looks pretty nice at $99.98 for:
Sun Ultra 60 2 x 360MHz, 1024 MB, 2 x 18.2 GB HD
Ultra 60s seem to be about twice that price here. I think you get better
deals in the US simply because you have access to more sellers.
Probably so. I've gotten an Ultra-2 (back when I was using
them) from a local used computer vendor for something like $50.00 US.
Well, I think I scored a good deal:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260318379668
Even with the shipping (which is a bit overpriced, but given the low
opening bid I wasn't worried) it's less than $50.
It hasn't arrived yet, so there are still ways in which the deal could
turn bad, but I'm hopeful that this will be an economical solution.
And the access to the less expensive units falls victim to the
costs of shipping across the pond.
What speed CPUs are you running on your Ultra-2? You can move
them into the Ultra-60 if you want to.
At the moment I've got the following in my Ultra 2:
* 2 x 400 MHz processors
* 1280 MB RAM
* 2 x 36 GB hard disks
* 32x CD-Rom
One of the good things about the Ultra 2 I've bought on eBay is that it
has 2 GB of RAM. Not that I'm convinced that this will speed the machine
up a lot, but it's something I've yet to acquire.
As for moving the Ultra 2 processors into an Ultra 60, I have been
variously told that:
* You can.
* You can't.
* Sun says you can't, but actually it works.
I have not looked at an Ultra 60 closely enough to know if it uses the
same processor slot, as I don't know anyone who owns one. But I don't
think I've ever heard of an Ultra 60 with 400 MHz processors. They all
seem to be 360 or 450 MHz. I'm pretty sure that the hard disks can be
interchanged, though.
Incidentally, I have more 300 MHz Ultra 2 processors than I know what to
do with, if you know of anyone who wants some.
I am not sure whether to pull the NVRAM chip from this new machine and
plug it into my existing machine, or whether to take my disks and SBus
cards from the existing machine and put them into the new machine. The
former is much less work, but the latter seems a safer bet. Any thoughts?
Sun Ultra 60 Workstation 2x 450MHz 2GB RAM 2x 36GB HD
Either system (or one found closer to you) will use the same keyboard
and mouse that your Ultra-2 uses.
If you go to a Sun Blade 2000, you have to change to USB
keyboard and mouse.
The Sun Type 5 keyboard is the best I have ever seen. I have heard that
the later keyboards are less solid. I don't want to lose that great
keyboard.
I like the Type-6 keyboard, which has a clip-on shelf on the
near side of the spacebar which serves nicely as a wrist rest when
typing in my reclining chair with the keyboard in my lap (which is how I
normally type.)
They were still grey/cream keyboards, weren't they? I don't think I've
tried the later grey/cream keyboard. But I tried a blue one and hated it.
Someday I plan to make a fixture to allow marking of aperture
rings so I can mill the rings in the proper places, so I can use my
older lenses -- including many of the fluted focus ring design.
It sounds like you have owned your Nikon F system from new, or fairly
new. I got into Nikon manual focus cameras when they were already fairly
old,
Got them when they were already fairly old -- but I could
*afford* them. :-)
And a friend was in the habit of picking up interesting lenses
and offering to trade them for something else which he wanted. :-) This
is the same friend who collected VAX computers. :-)
The final batch (lenses and spare bodies) was in exchange for a
50mm f0.95 for the Cannon-7 rangefinder. He found the camera to fit the
lens before I found one. I got the lens at a hamfest for about $15.00
many years ago. I did make a mount for the lens, and tried it on a
videcon at work for a project -- and it was quite soft and prone to
flare -- but it was *still* fast. :-)
Sounds like an interesting lens. However, I get the impression that many
purchases of the fastest lenses were influenced to some degree by their
poser value. I don't imagine that too many people regularly used those
lenses wide open :-).
Best wishes,
Chris