ZX Spectrum oli masside arvuti

Kommentaar Delfi Forte artiklile
"Koduarvutite tootjad pole suutnud ZX Spectrumi soodsat hinda juba 30 aastat üle trumbata"

Tuleb lisada, et Suurbritannias oli keskmine kuupalk 1982. aastal £780,79, nii et kui arvestada maksud ka maha, siis näiteks £600 maksnud Commodore 64 hinnaks oli sisuliselt üks [keskmine] kuupalk; tol ajal Inglismaal vägagi populaarne BBC Micro umbes kolmandik sellest kuupalgast ja ZX Spectrum maksis vaid £125.

(Samal ajal valitses Inglismaal mitte just väike majanduslangus.)

ZX Spectrumi kõige odavama variandi selline hind tähendas seda, et selle võis suurema vaevata ära osta ja paljudes kodudes oli see ka esimene arvuti. Nii et Inglismaal tõeline masside arvuti, umbes nagu USA-s Commodore C64.

BBC Micro eeliseks oli selle arvestatav laiendatavus ja vastupidavus ning see läks paljudes koolides esimeseks kooliarvutiks ja seda ei peljatud ka kodudes ära.

Kaks aastat hiljem, 1984.a., lasti välja Amstrad CPC464 koos rohelise monokroommonitoriga, mis maksis £249. (Amstrad arvuteid müüdi vaid ekraaniga samal ajal, kui teised tulid "rasedate kalkulaatoritena", mida sai ühendada teleriga). Erinevalt teistest toetas Amstrad C/PM opsüsteemi, millele oli juba arvestatav tarkvarakataloog juba olemas. Seega Amstradi diil oli nii hea, et Lääne-Euroopas kasutati seda edukalt ka ärides.

Aja jooksul alandati paljude nende masinate hindu, nii et nende kättesaadavus isegi suurenes.

Hiljem turg küllastus, peale tulid juba IBM PC-ühilduvad masinad ja 8-bitised arvutid olid põhimõtteliselt oma aja ära elanud. ZX Spectrumi teeb huvitavaks muidugi see, et sellele arvutile tehakse siiamaani tarkvara; veel 2010. aastal tuli välja umbes 90 tiitlit.

Tänapäevastest uutest tehnikavidinatest võib tõmmata paralleele näiteks Android nutitelefonidega; odavaimad sellised maksavad (uuelt) umbes kuuendiku–kaheksandiku Eesti keskmisest palgast (kui see on 900€ bruto).

Cheat sheet and notes for using Knoppix 6 or newer

This I initially made for myself, but then writing got out of hand :-)

For a full-page treatment, see here.

Flash

Knoppix 6.0.1 includes Iceweasel 3.0.6, which does not have support for HTML5 video, so you need to install Flash to watch multimedia. Granted, these versions of Knoppix and Iceweasel are rather outdated, so Knoppix 6.7.1 (or 7) is often a better choice on a new computer.

Another option is to download and install a newer version of Firefox. See below.

The version of Flash compatible with Knoppix 6.0.1 is 10.3. Download it, extract libflashplayer.so into the
/home/knoppix/.mozilla/plugins directory (the plugins directory must also be created). Restart Iceweasel.

02.05.2013. Update

Modern Firefox

By May 2013, Iceweasel 3.0.6 has become so old and outdated that it's not supported by major websites anymore. This includes Google and all its properties (YouTube, Google Drive/Docs, Blogger, and others). The same applies to Yahoo!, twitter, and many other major sites and services.

Using Synaptic in Knoppix 6.0.1 to upgrade to Iceweasel 17 is impractical on account of the Iceweasel 17 package having hundreds of dependencies that must also be upgraded, which really amounts to a whole operating system upgrade. Therefore it's simpler to get the Firefox Linux binary.

The latest official major version of Firefox that still works in Knoppix is version 17, specifically 17 ESR (Extended Support Release). Newer versions won't work.

Firefox 17 ESR can be obtained from Mozilla's FTP site, and I got the latest version here:
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.6esr/linux-i686/en-US
Since Firefox 17.0 ESR is in active maintenance (17.0.6 released on 09.05.2013., which is very recent), then Mozilla is likely to release newer patchlevel versions.

Since new patchlevel versions are placed in a different FTP directory, then...

...here's a beginner's "navigation how-to" for people unfamiliar with FTP

Primer

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is older than the web, and it has been very useful in facilitating large downloads. The content of FTP sites is structured hierarchically, as in folders in a computer file system. Files and directories are listed in alphabetical order UNIX-style: directories are not sorted first, but like all other files; items starting with capital letters are at the top of the list, then followed by lower-case items. In a graphical browser, file and folder names are linked and thus clickable.

Mozilla's FTP site

FTP URLs are given as examples
As Mozilla releases a new version of Firefox, then all files specific to a version are given their own directory. Genereally, all Firefox versions are placed in /releases folder of Mozilla's FTP site:
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases
The latest version at this time is 17.0.6 and you can scroll down the list to enter that directory:
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.6esr

As Knoppix is Linux, choose /linux-i686
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.6esr/linux-i686

What you get in the /linux-i686 directory is a longish folder listing of different Firefox language versions (Firefox is released in many languages), listed in the format of ISO-639-1 two-letter language code followed by ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes.

The respective code combination for English-United States is en-US —
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.6esr/linux-i686/en-US

There you'll see the archived Firefox binary firefox-17.0.6esr.tar.bz2 —
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.6esr/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-17.0.6esr.tar.bz2

Download this file to the Desktop. Once the tar.bz2 file is downloaded, go to the desktop, right-click on the file, choose the Extract > Extract To... command. You'll get a file/location picker and the default should be the Knoppix folder. Press OK to extract.

The Firefox executable is then in the /home/knoppix/firefox/ user directory (knoppix being the user account folder).

Even after Firefox is extracted, a shortcut won't be created to the Knoppix LXDE desktop environment menu.

Do keep in mind that since Iceweasel is code-compatible with Firefox, they both share the same user settings located at /home/knoppix/.mozilla/firefox

It is thus recommended to create a different profile for Firefox.

You can start Firefox from the command line:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ ./firefox/firefox -P &

./ stands for specifically targeting a folder from within the current directory;
-P forces the start of the Firefox Profile Manager;
& (ampersand) makes sure that Firefox starts independently from the terminal window.

After that, the Firefox Profile Manager opens up and you can create a new Firefox profile. When doing so, assign a new and simple profile name.

If you close Firefox, you can start Firefox again from the command line using the new profile:

./firefox/firefox -P newprofilename &

Alternately, the easier way is to unset starting Firefox or Iceweasel in a profile automatically. That way it's slightly more user-friendly to choose a profile, at least when starting Iceweasel. Whereas with Firefox only the ./firefox/firefox command without can be used without having to invoke additional command-line options.

So much for now. I might continue and expand on this further.

Updates information not visible in Windows Vista

So here's a scenario: When using Windows Update in Windows Vista, and the Windows Update front page shows an x number of critical updates and an x number of regular updates, and you click on either of them, the detailed updates listing is all blank; a user doesn't know then which updates should he choose (or not) to download and install.

The specimen in question was Windows Vista Home Basic Service Pack 2 in a Dell Studio 1535 notebook.

I tried and searched for many solutions, and somehow got the thing to work normally again, but I can't exactly put a finger on what it is that I did, partly because I was too lazy to restart after every move or document too diligently. #tired

Assuming everything else is more or less in order, then —

Services started in-between:
1. COM+ System Application, but didn't set it to start automatically.
2. Microsoft .NET Framework NGEN v2.0.50727_X86 (Delayed Start).

I had read somewhere that in Windows Vista, Windows Update for some reason required .NET Framework 2.0 to run.
So, if memory serves me correctly, I did install it one day, but at the time it didn't yield the required effect and I had to let it be...

And yes, there were regsvr32 things started and re-started from the command line, but that didn't quite help.

After a few hours of searching for a solution, with many a discussion thread suggesting starting and stopping services, registering and unregistering system files, I stumbled upon a set of suggestions that matched the conditions that I had. See the forum thread here.

Since there was a match in error conditions registering Windows Update files, I was confident about the solution as much as the tech guys were on the forum.

So the solution was to run

SFC /scannow

in a Command Prompt window run as Administrator. If you decide to do the same, then beforehand, create a system restore point or rely on a very recent one, for example one made just a few days ago.

SFC is the System File Checker command-line tool and its variant in modern Windows versions checks protected Windows system files against tampering and replaces those it that appear to be wrong.

I ran the tool, it took its while, but then it finished.
I also got to check out its logs (requires administrator mode to view in WordPad) and separated the most recent check into a new file for the sake of posterity. I couldn't see any substantial errors when changing files over, but there was a lot of movement going on.

Then did a restart, and lo and behold, details about individual updates in Windows Update were visible again! Yay!

Eriotstarbeline vaba tarkvara

Kommentaar artiklile Delfis hakkas väikselt pihta ja siis kulus selle peale jälle mitu-mitu tundi, peale mida tundus kompositsioon juba nii kokkulitsutud, et vääris juba oma postitust (ilma lingita sealtsamusest). Alguses oli umbes 40-45 rida, alles jäi 34 rida ilusat teksti. Ennast meeldib ikka kiita :-).
Lõpuks tuli iga siinne lõik tõmmata kokku paariks lauseks, et kommentaar Delfis ei tunduks nii väljapeetud ja keerukas.

Umbes 10 (ja veidi rohkem) aastat tagasi samal teemal Delfis:
• Windows/Office on kallis, ei jõua osta, litsentsi hind maksab *kuue kuu palga!*
Nüüd:
• Windows/Office (karbi)litsents maksab ühe kuu palga!
^ Pange nüüd tähele, kuidas elatustase on vahepeal tõusnud :-)

Ühest kommentaarist jääb ehk liiga väheks, et kõiki teemasid põhjalikult puudutada.

Tehnilistel argumentidel põhinev võrdlus näitab Linuxi ja vaba tarkavara¹ kasuks olulist arengut, mispuhul isegi suured tootjad pakuvad Linuxiga eelinstalleeritud masinaid, küll kitsamas sortimendis, aga siiski. Samuti pole Windowsi ökosüsteem enam kõige-kõige olulisem, eriti mis puudutab laiatarbeprogramme, mõnesid mänge (põhjuseks Wine ja mängukonsoolid) ja internetiseadmeid (Android, MeeGo).

Iseasi on eriotstarbelise tarkvaraga, mis mujal ei jookse kui Windowsil/Macil ning kus spetsiifilised tööülesanded sõltuvadki ainult niisugustest programmidest. Et kõik kasutavad
suletud omanduslikke failiformaate, on monopoliseisus karanteeritud [sic] ja selliseid ökosüsteeme on raske murda. Säärane omanduslik eriotstarbeline tarkvara on kallis.

Kahjuks ei olda niskses olukorras vabatarkvaralistest alternatiividest väga teadlikud; ometi on niisugune teave kõigile ühest kohast kättesaadav, parimal juhul inglise keeles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AFree_computer-aided_design_software (näiteks)

Ehkki kahtlusteks palju ruumi pole, on kahju eeldada, kui koolitustasemel puudub omanduslikuga vähemalt samaväärse eriotstarbelise vaba tarkvara väljaõpe ja et vabade programmide juurutamise vajadust reaalelus justkui polekski. Võib väita, et õppematerjalid puuduvad või veel pole neid koos praktiliste näidetega süstematiseeritud, sest praegune omanduslikul tarkvaral põhinev olukord rahuldab. Seega nokk kinni, saba lahti ja vastupidi.

Või nähakse erialase tarkvara vabades alternatiivides vajakajäämisi, kus omanduslik variant on asendamatu. Sarnane oli olukord kontoritarkvaraga, mil edasiviiv vabatarkvaraline jõud alguses puudus ja peale tulemist oli mitu aastat kaasajooksiku rollis.

¹ Paluks vaba tarkvara mitte segi ajada vabavaraga, sest viimast terminit kasutatakse tihti tasuta ja omandusliku tarkvara kohta.

Why Iceweasel versions before 2.0 are not Debian-based

One nice day I found a screenshot of Iceweasel that looked like a version prior to Iceweasel 2.0 and added in its description that it was Debian Iceweasel, as browsers named Iceweasel with a lower-case w are usually Debian-based. (As opposed to GNU IceWeasel, which in 2007 was renamed to IceCat to avoid confusion.)

It then turned out for me, this particular screenshot, and other screenshots in the database that it was not so for the reasons that follow.

The uploader of the screenshot had the unintentionally good sense of including the taskbar of the operating environment, which happened to feature a program window with the title of package iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386. While this got me to get the version number right, the package name was just enough information to start looking further, results of which only pointed to Gnuzilla servers and mirrors. This put me into some doubt as to whether the browser in the screenshot was Debian Iceweasel, and looking even further, my doubts were confirmed.

Locations for iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386 available here:

From a selective search of most GNU mirrors, I found only one mirror still actually hosting some original files:

ftp://aeneas.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuzilla/
http://www.ftpdir.hu/aeneas.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuzilla/

The relevant binary files there were last modified on 06.09.2006 00:00.

From the Internet Archive I found another mirror which has hosted iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386:

web.archive.org/web/20070507153807/http://ftp.download-by.net/gnu/gnu/gnuzilla/
(also features a later capture)

The binaries were last modified on 05.09.2006 23:59, so a minute earlier than those at aeneas.mit.edu.

Note that researching this kind of history through the Internet Archive has three or so limits:
* I tested to see if only an HTTP mirror had an archive page. Although I did not try to see if the WayBack Machine archives FTP pages, too, I didn't find any necessity for it either; Assuming also that the WayBack Machine does not archive FTP folder listings in the first place;
* The Archive has its own exclusion list of servers that it won't crawl (limited in relation to the GNU mirror list);
* Many mirrors had blocked crawling through robots.txt, as mirrors anyway host large files, which can be taxing to the Internet Archive. It's still useful for the WayBack Machine to archive programs — especially device drivers and obscure program packages, because the Internet Archive can sometimes be the only place where these can be found.

Through my searching whether an HTTP mirror has an archive page, then in the process a substantial number of those ftp-as-http mirrors that allowed crawling had their /gnuzilla folders captured by the Internet Archive. This should serve useful at tracing browser history with a similar method in any possible future research.

No other mirror services in the list of GNU mirrors that I searched at contained the original packages of iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386.

Left out from the search:
- South America: Brazil /only country in the list;
- Africa: South Africa;
- Asia: Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan;
- Europe: Greece, Portugal, Spain.

(Funny, Israel was in Asia, too :-)

There were two reasons for leaving these countries out of my search: Either a non-sensical URL (which I couldn't recognize as something resembling legitimacy), or the country is not trustworthy enough to visit its websites, no matter how harmless on appearance. The amount of servers not checked was approximately 10-15%, based on guesswork.

A user-published package of 1.5.0.8pre2 available at safeweb.sitesled.com/iceweasel

Now, Debian started including Iceweasel as a rebranded replacement of Mozilla Firefox only since version 2.0, after which GNU slightly renamed their package to IceWeasel (note capitalisation of W), then a year later renamed their package to IceCat to finally avoid confusion with Debian's own package.

In conclusion, all Iceweasel versions prior to 2.0 are Gnuzilla-based.

I had to add to that screenshot file's notes that this was a screenshot of a Gnuzilla-based Iceweasel and not one of a Debian-based Iceweasel. The GNU IceCat Wikipedia page was also of great help in determining the right source.

Comparing text lists with conditional formatting in OOo/LO Calc

· Given that I hadn't found enough completely satisfying information myself, I had to make a separate blog post about it, as an acquaintance asked me for how to solve list issues.
· I deem my explanation better than others', as I think this one explains the relationships much better (:smug:).
· Applies to both OpenOffice.org Calc and LibreOffice Calc.

This post actually assumes the following:
• That you already have two lists of textual information that you want to compare;
• That you've already created your own custom styles for formatting the necessary cells, but that it's hard to get one's head around about how to do all that comparing.

So, then:

• Select the column range that you want to format (for example A1:A15);
• From the menu bar choose Format > Conditional Formatting;
• In its window, "Condition 1" is selected by default; below choose "Formula is", and in the next field it gets important,

  where inside COUNTIF brackets you specify the target column (range array) you want to compare the selected column against:

  So, you have A1:A15 selected (which eventually gets formatted) and you want to compare it against B1:B15;

  the latter you have to write in array format, with a dollar $ sign before every column letter and row number in the range ($B$1:$B$15;  );

  After the semicolon, specify the last cell of the selected range (the one you want to format, not the target range), which is A15. The whole formula line goes almost exactly like this:
  
  COUNTIF($B$1:$B$15;A15)=1

=1 means that you apply the format only if there is a match;
  =0 is inverse: most cells are formatted, those that match are not.
  
• Don't forget to specify your custom formatting style for cells, then click OK.

All this should work in older OO.o versions, too.

Source: Conditional Formatting: Comparing two Lists (has screenshots), archived from www.openofficetips.com/2006/02/01/conditional-formatting-comparing-two-lists/

Smith-Corona Personal Word Processor

For some odd reason I rather vividly remember an early 1990's ad for the Personal Word Processor in the "Smithsonian" magazine I got my hands on when alone at home; the item in that ad looked nice enough to my not quite yet post-Soviet eyes... I also remember a very nice looking businessman pretending to work on a file there.

The fun part of it nowadays is getting to enjoy the sardonic read of almost completely failed attempts to recover all that data saved to obscure Mitsumi diskettes from those machines.

A similar comment was posted here first.