Steam-powered computers: Retro cool or old and busted?
- Reference: 1627380069
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/27/bork/
- Source link:
Lurking in the town of Swindon is a [1]museum dedicated to the UK's Great Western Railway (GWR) , on the site of an old railway works. It's an excellent place, and well worth a visit – indeed, there is an authentic GWR Signal box in which enthusiasts can yank signal levers, replete with helpful information on the... oh dear.
[2]
Click to enlarge
Despite the exhibit taking pride of place on the museum's web page, when our eagle eyed reader, Alastair Stevens, took a trip there, he found that all was not well in the digital world, even if the decidedly analogue controls of yesteryear remained available.
At first glance, we'd suspect this is another case of a dying CMOS battery. We're not sure of the age of the kit in question, but that Samsung drive is hardly a spring chicken and exactly why a rig used to educate and inform a viewer on the finer points of signal operation needs a DVD writer is anyone's guess.
Sadly, there is no keyboard present upon which to strike the F1 or F2 keys, unless some wag has helpfully rigged up the levers to function as an impromptu input device. Perhaps a bit of Arduino action and a USB connector would do the trick (certainly, that's how we [3]persuaded a Raspberry Pi to recognise a 40 year-old TI99/4a keyboard.)
[4]
A keyboard operated by elderly signal lever would also most likely be a good deal more reliable than some of [5]Apple's efforts in recent years .
[6]
As for the museum itself, we are delighted to report that it reopened in May. It's a splendid place for likers of steam-powered big iron (no, not the IBM mainframes of old) and industrial history fans alike and has some really rather excellent locomotives on show, as well as rolling stock. A recreation of the Swindon Works is also on offer and, frankly, who wouldn't enjoy a go on a steam train simulator?
Sadly, the age of steam seems to have passed for the stricken screen. If only the CMOS had been coal-fired, the computer might still be running. ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.steam-museum.org.uk/
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/07/23/bork.jpg
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/29/retropie_4_6/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQAtuziGhmPLFCf@37ScCAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/23/apple_butterfly_lawsuit/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQAtuziGhmPLFCf@37ScCAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "who wouldn't enjoy a go on a steam train simulator?"
Visit the UK, lots of steam locos still in use.
I recommend Bridgnorth.
e.g. travel to Bridgnorth by train & last leg from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth will be on a steam train (they are in "proper" mainline use rather than trundling around on disconnected track sections of some of the more "hobbyist" lines, though must say those can be great fun too, live a few miles from a couple of different ones and enjoy occasional trips on them)
Plus it has a funicular railway in the town as an added bonus..
A steam-powered predecessor of Unix?
I remember a temporary sign at the computer centre at the University of Bath, in the late 1980s, saying:
MULTICS is down owing to boilerhouse failure at Bristol.
I didn't enquire for details.
I would rather not, why?
Well I have ridden in a few cabs, both steam and Diesel, so a pretend one, no I will stick to my 4mm to the foot versions.
Best are
1) A Castle during GWR 150 around a depot
2) A Peak a couple of years later
3) Full length of a railway in late 80s I was a member of.
Oh And I rode behind the same Castle to Swindon on one of the daily services.
Went there a few years ago
Great museum, particularly the bit where you get to walk right underneath [1]Caerphilly Castle . Was a bit disappointed that the audio-visual displays at the start of the tour were very much past their best, though as it's been seven or eight years, perhaps they've been renewed since. Intrigued that one exhibit - showing massive burn-in on a CRT - seemed to be Acorn-powered :-)
Good birthday outing for a train-mad young boy though.
M.
[1] https://www.steam-museum.org.uk/venue-hire-room/caerphilly-castle/
I'm trying to fix a 30 year old HP Vectra 486U PC at the moment. When new it was top of the range with EISA slots on a big motherboard with white footprints screened on the the PCB price tag about $4,000. Anyone out there know how to fix em?
That's likely to depend on what is wrong with it. There is a good chance it may have some dry electrolytic caps (both PSU and motherboard).
Its a museum, shouldn't its computers by definition be old ones ?
ARGHHH
Missed opportunity. Many many years back I wrote a small app that snagged the windows failure and rebooted - hands off and automatically. Seems I should have sold it.
Re: ARGHHH
Maybe you just forgot that you had sold it to the museum, hence the reason why their PC has now restarted and is stuck in the BIOS stage...
Note the previous fan failure. Maybe important bits are browner than they ought to be?
And "strike" a key? Won't simply pressing it do, or do the BIOS authors simply anticipate aggression in response to a failure?
Twenty years from now...
The failure modes are going to be different. Windows will probably fail with something like "Upgrading to Windows XXX requires more modern hardware". Linux on PC could still fail from CMOS battery expiry but PC hardware might follow Pi's example: time from the network and configuration from flash. In that case the system will die in unpredictable ways from flash bitrot.
Magic Roundabout
It may have come to grief trying to calculate the best way to navigate the Magic Roundabout just outside Swindon. I once watched someone go around the whole thing the wrong way and then just give up and stop.
I have a Queen Elizabeth and [1]I give her a run now and again .
Admittedly it's an N gauge locomotive so not as impressive as the real thing would've been :)
[1] https://photos.app.goo.gl/zgRp9xho8QuDxhWAA
"who wouldn't enjoy a go on a steam train simulator?"
Indeed.
In the age now past of public gatherings, I used to participate in certain Steampunk events at a particular place in Luxembourg called Fond-de-Gras. They have 2 working steam-powered locomotives and you can basically park and take a train ride to an imaginary past.
I personally think it is the absolute best place for a Steampunk convention or gathering, and that train ride is the perfect setting to take you from the modern world to an entirely different world in 20 minutes of coal-huffing rail.
I really would like to be the driver of that train, so yeah, a steam train simulator ? Sign me up.