I'm not sure the 12AU7 was invented by the time of the ENIAC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC

It probably used loktal tubes like 7V7s or something, untless it was even before that.

Tell you what, I wish I had maybe a 386 just for the hell of it. Even though almost all my old stuff still runs there is this one game called Johnny Vegas Poker that will not run on anything newer. It comes up with a divide by zero error. I'm not sure now but I think it would run on a 486SX but not a DX, something like that. I used it during my expensive gambling education.. Yes I went out and played real poker (that's what was expensive of course) but this game had a help section that was pretty good. It would give you the odds and recommend bet or fold. It told you the odds versus the pot odds. If your odds of winning the hand are better than the bet/pot amount ratio, you bet. You can win poker fairly consistently if you play it right, until you run into others who can play it right, then your chances are equal. If you can't play it right then they will take your goodies and send you home.

Anyhoo, this $40 gizmo looks pretty good. In fact I plan on getting one. My main fetish when it comes to this was not to have DVDs, but to have PC files. The box itself does it, and if I want to put something up on youtube I just stick the stick in the PC apparently. Once I get one and get busy I will probably be THE preeminent star of youtube. The reason ? I GOT BETA ! LOL

I won't even play the beta tapes right now, they are kinda old and I might only get one chance. Plus I have a Sony SL-HFR60 and I don't trust the reel motor very much as it was a high failure rate part. Actually I wish I had a beta rewinder. I think eBay's search engine would return "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" if I looked for one there.

Us dinosaurs have to stick together.

My boss is from Austria and of course went to school there for electronics. He had to design a radio or something "showing all connections and component values" as an exam. He had forgotten to include the filament supply and the instructor drew a picture of a candle on it as a hint. When he told me this I responded "Hey, you were ready for sold state". Can't help it if the world can't catch up to us dinosaurs.

J