We’re used to there being an array of high-end microprocessor architectures, and it’s likely that many of us will have sat in front of machines running x86, ARM, or even PowerPC processors. There are other players past and present you may be familiar with, for example SPARC, RISC-V, or MIPS. Back in the 1990s there was another, now long gone but at the time the most powerful of them all, of course we’re speaking of DEC’s Alpha architecture. [JP] has a mid-90s AlphaStation that doesn’t work, and as part of debugging it we’re treated to a description of its unusual boot procedure.

Conventionally, an x86 PC has a ROM at a particular place in its address range, and when it starts, it executes from the start of that range. The Alpha is a little different, on start-up it needs some code from a ROM which configures it and sets up its address space. This is applied as a 1-bit serial stream, and like many things DEC, it’s a little unusual. This code lives in a conventional ROM chip with 8 data lines, and each of those lines contains a separate program selectable by a jumper. It’s a handy way of providing a set of diagnostics at the lowest level, but even with that discovery the weirdness isn’t quite over. We’re treated to a run-down of DEC Alpha code encoding, and should you have one of these machines, there’s all the code you need.

The Alpha was so special in the 1990s because with 64-bit and retargetable microcode in its architecture it was significantly faster than its competitors. From memory it could be had with DEC Tru64 UNIX, Microsoft Windows NT, or VMS, and with the last of which it was the upgrade path for VAX minicomputers. It faded away in the takeover by Compaq and subsequently HP, and we are probably the poorer for it. We look forward to seeing more about this particular workstation, should it come back to life.

hackaday.com/2025/04/03/the-we…

Everyone knows that ultrasonic cleaners are great, but not every device that’s marketed as an ultrasonic cleaner is necessarily such a device. In a recent video on the Cheap & Cheerful YouTube channel the difference is explored, starting with a teardown of a fake one. The first hint comes with the use of the description ‘Multifunction cleaner’ on the packaging, and the second in the form of it being powered by two AAA batteries.

Unsurprisingly, inside you find not the ultrasonic transducer that you’d expect to find in an actual ultrasonic cleaner, but rather a vibration motor. In the demonstration prior to the teardown you can see that although the device makes a similar annoying buzzing noise, it’s very different. Subsequently the video looks at a small ultrasonic cleaner and compares the two.

Among the obvious differences are that the ultrasonic cleaner is made out of metal and AC-powered, and does a much better job at cleaning things like rusty parts. The annoying thing is that although the cleaners with a vibration motor will also clean things, they rely on agitating the water in a far less aggressive way than the ultrasonic cleaner, so marketing them as something which they’re not is very unpleasant.

In the video the argument is also made that you do not want to clean PCBs with an ultrasonic cleaner, but we think that people here may have different views on that aspect.

youtube.com/embed/GUmaT2IhUJo?…

hackaday.com/2025/04/03/teardo…

"Zero Day", su Netflix, interpretato e prodotto da Robert De Niro.

Sei episodi.

Ve lo consiglio.

When you think about the dawn of modern computers, you often think about the work done in the UK and the US. But Australia had an early computer scene, too, and [State of Electronics] has done a series of videos about the history of computers down under. The latest episode talks about SILLIAC, a computer similar to ILLIAC built for the University of Sydney in the late 1950s.
How many racks does your computer fill up? SILLIAC had quite a few.
This episode joins earlier episodes about CSIRAC, and WREDAC. The series starts with the CSIR Mark I, which was the first computer in the southern hemisphere.

The -AC computers have a long history. While you often hear statements like, “…in the old days, a computer like this would fill a room,” SILLIAC, in fact, filled three rooms. The three meters of cabinets were in one room, the power supply in another. The third room? Air conditioning. A lot of tubes (valves, in Australia at the time) generate a lot of heat.

It is hard to put an exact cost on SILLIAC, but the original estimate was about AU£35,200. That sounds modest, but at the time, you could buy about ten suburban homes near Sydney for that price. Like most projects, the cost rose, and completion depended on a larger donation from a horse race. At the end, the cost was about AU£75,000!

SILLIAC had a reputation of being more reliable than some other computers based on the same design. That was probably because most computers use 6J6 tubes, but SILLIAC used 2C51 devices. Bell Labs created the 2C51 for use in undersea cables. Of course, they were also about six times the cost of a 6J6.

The computer did important work until 1968. It was, sadly, dismantled, but pieces of it are hanging around the Powerhouse Museum and at the University as display items.

This series is a great look at what was happening in the computer world south of the equator during these days. While SILLIAC is fascinating, you might want to start with episode 1. Supercomputers have come a long way.

youtube.com/embed/tJdB3QZpVKA?…

hackaday.com/2025/04/03/austra…

Eh sì amici miei, non lo sapevate, ma siamo i peggiori.

Siamo delle bruttissime persone. Orribili. Così raccapriccianti e temibili da farci definire "i peggiori" da parte di Trump.

Peggiori perché?

Perché abbiamo osato dire che, se ci avesse imposto dei dazi, li avremmo messi a nostra volta. E così, come se niente fosse, Trump ci ha messi tra i peggiori, affibbiandoci dazi del 20%, e ci è andata pure bene rispetto alla Cina che ne subirà il 30%.

Quindi, ricapitoliamo: è come se io dicessi a qualcuno che sto per dargli un pugno. Questo mi risponde che se glielo do me ne darà uno anche lui, e decido che l'altro è violento. E così, per difendermi, gli do un pugno per primo.
Non fa una grinza, che ne dite?

Il problema è che in questa sagra delle post-verità che è diventato il mondo, si rischia che chi vedrà la cosa a posteriori pensi davvero che il violento non sarei io, ma l'altro.

Comunque io, se fossi in voi, mi vergognerei un po'. Prendercela così tanto con un pover'uomo anziano (Trump) che, evidentemente, ha ormai varie rotelle fuori posto.

Cioè, non vi fate un po' schifo da soli, quando vi guardate allo specchio? Da oggi, io sì, perché sono tra i peggiori. Mica i terroristi, o chi invade un Paese straniero.

Noi, i peggiori.

#trump #dazi #tariffs #boycottusa #USA #tariffswar #guerradeidazi #Politica

La biografia definitiva di Robert Johnson. La mia recensione su Free Zone Magazine.
#libri #biografie #blues #RobertJohnson

Bruce Conforth, Gayle Dean Wardlow - Il diavolo, probabilmente. Vita di Robert Johnson | FREE ZONE MAGAZINE freezonemagazine.com/articoli/…

Bruce Conforth, Gayle Dean Wardlow - Il diavolo, probabilmente. Vita di Robert Johnson | FREE ZONE MAGAZINE

Robert Johnson è un bluesman fondamentale, e questo libro fa pulizia degli aspetti mitologici per approfondire il musicista.

^{FREE ZONE MAGAZINE}

Siamo ormai nel 2025 ed è ora di aggiornare anche i teoremi scientifici più blasonati.

Il gatto di Schroedinger non è più attuale; passiamo al foglietto illustrativo di Schroedinger.

Si trova sia a destra che a sinistra nella confezione del farmaco, finché non apri la scatola: allora sarai certo che si trova nel lato che hai aperto.

In sostanza: non importa quante volte giri la scatola o in che senso, il foglietto sarà sempre nella posizione migliore per romperti i coglioni.

#Teorema #scienza #humour #medicine #farmaci #schroedinger #gattodischrodinger #bugiardino #bigpharma