Stuff and such

[altivo]

Woo hoo! Look out, cabcat, only triggur stands in the way of my nibbling at your tail in the us_furries statistics. Unless you're accumulating points faster than I think you are, you'll see my dust trail in two to three days at the present rate.

DECWindows is now installed and working on the [older] Alpha, and I succeeded in getting it to display applications on my Linux screen. Now for the language compilers (it came with a bunch: ada, pascal, c, c++, basic, cobol, fortran, etc.) and editing/debugging environment. In one sense, this is just a sandbox because I don't really need it. Linux already is working on the Alpha and has everything I need. But using VMS is an interesting challenge, and because it is a DEC-native OS and was designed with their equipment in mind, it should in theory be much more efficient on this machine. That's what I'd like to see. I want to port over some amateur radio-related modeling applications and see how they crunch on the famous number cruncher of the 90s.

So... You've probably already seen or heard that J. K. Rowling announced yesterday that Dumbledore is gay. *shrug* So what? I don't find that it explains anything important or significant to the story, or that it matters at all except that it gives extra credibility to some of Rita Skeeter's nastier suggestions. There are many other characters in the books who almost certainly are gay, I'd say, including Profs. Flitwick and Slughorn. Some of the students might also be, and in particular I'd have thought that (no, DID think that) about Neville Longbottom. But saying it of Dumbledore does nothing in my opinion that further enlightens or explains his actions, any more than the pensieve revelations about Snape's attraction to Lily Evans did anything to explain his behavior really. Neither seems a large enough revelation to explain the observed facts, in my opinion.

What I really DO find amusing in the Rowling story is the fact that she had to tell the screenwriters not to invent a female romantic interest for the young Dumbledore. Of course, given the nature of movie making, I also won't be surprised to learn that they rode roughshod over the author's intentions and gave Dumbledore such a love interest anyway.

Comments

[aerofox.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I have a DEC Alpha Personal Workstation 433 that I'm trying to set up. Fortunately, since the facility computer at work is a DEC Alpha running OpenVMS, one of the guys there is willing to help me get the OS installed (The HD is wiped clean).

I learned on MS-DOS, i know DOS very well... but trying to unlearn DOS and learn UNIX seems to be a challenge to me :/

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Going to UNIX from DOS is a bumpy challenge at first. I made that transition back around 1990 and did a lot of cursing and complaining for the first few weeks. Unfortuanately, I had no real mentor at the time and the generally available books were less than ideal. Things have changed a lot, largely due to the popularity of Linux with its UNIX-like user interfaces.

VMS, of course, is yet another animal and unique unto itself. Even among the other old DEC operating systems to which I've been exposed, it stands alone as a powerful multiuser system with both batch and interactive interfaces. It has a history as long as that of UNIX and traditions entirely its own, though in recent years it has definitely begun to adapt itself to the UNIX/Xwindows/Internet-based mainstream.

I'm quite pleased with the PWS 433au. It is rock steady and reliable, even after ten years of almost continuous duty as a server, and has plenty of expansion capability even today. Mine has no graphics card, a situation I want to remedy, but it is running very well as a server with other machines providing the user interface.

I assume you already know about the OpenVMS hobbyist licensing program that will let you get licenses for virtually all the DEC/Compaq/HP vMS software products free of charge? I've found a lot of good resources in the VMS field over the last couple of months, so if you need guidance in that direction, just ask. I won't pretend to be an expert on VMS, because I'm more than a little rusty. I last managed VMS environments on VAX systems in 1988, but I'm getting refreshed quickly by hands-on here.

Is your workstation a 433au (designed to run UNIX and VMS) or a 433a (designed to run Windows NT)? I believe you can convert a 433a to a 433au just by upgrading the firmware and memory, but it's easier to start out with the 433au.

[aerofox.livejournal.com]

Hmm, all it says is "433" on the front.
The bottom has a sticker with a model number of "SN-B3AAA-P3"

As I remember, it has 384 megs of memory. It does have a video card as well as a SCSI card installed. I can't remember what size HD it has...

But yeah, Glen at work (the VMS expert) has told me all about the free licensing ^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Mine has "433au" on the little red plastic button near the bottom of the front. However, I've read repeated statements that this doesn't tell you anything for certain one way or another. The best way to find out what is really inside the box is to boot it into the console mode and examine the firmware and device information.

There are at least two different console interfaces, one designed to support Windows NT 4.x and the other designed for OpenVMS or Tru64 UNIX. It is apparently possible to convert one to the other by reloading the firmware. A machine built for Windows NT will run OpenVMS or Tru64 UNIX just fine after that conversion, but depending on the CDROM drive and IDE controller it has, getting the OpenVMS system installed can be more challenging. Linux can be installed on either configuration, and just needs a different boot loader depending on which console firmware is in use. If you try for Linux, I recommend Debian (though CentOS and AlphaCore, both RedHat variants, are also available and I understand Gentoo has an Alpha version.)

You'll find a lot of useful information on the HoffmanLabs web site, including details about how to tell various versions of Alpha hardware apart, where to get firmware upgrades, etc.

I was lucky. My box was running Tru64 UNIX when it was taken out of service, so I knew it could run OpenVMS.

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

It explains why all his boots had high heels on them. :) Other than that, nothing...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

High heels? I don't remember a thing about that. And all those male wizards run around in dresses, or at least in academic gowns. ;p

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

It's in chapter 1 of "Sorcerer's Stone."

[hrrunka]

Yeah, I was boggled that she made the comment, but I've only read reports, and it might have made sense in the context. Something to file under I for Irrelevant.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

On the whole I find Rowling's understanding and depiction of interpersonal attractions to be pretty shallow and disappointing. Of course, she is supposed to be writing for the pre-puberty set, so perhaps that's not too surprising, but it really just doesn't work for me in the context. I find this explanation of Dumbledore's behavior and motivations no more credible than I found her written context for Snape's behavior (his crush on Lily Evans) to be credible or enlightening.

[hrrunka]

Yeah. There're quite a few places where the main characters do things which seem out-of-character just to move some plot point along, too. It makes for an unsatisfying story, in the end.

Almost... nah...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Hmm... that almost got me interested enough to thumb through one of her books... well, for a second... I wonder if that was the intention... I know next to nothing about Fairy Plotter- I'mean, Harry Potter (I do the same thing with Dildo Dragons, I'm mean, Bilbo Baggins :P)

Re: Almost... nah...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The books aren't bad, despite my criticisms. Especially as fare for teens and subteens, they do pretty well. The humor is good, the plots are twisty and unexpected. I just think she overdramatized in the end and could have given the series a little better wrap-up.

Re: Almost... nah...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I've only read a few books for "teens & subteens", and that was back when I was in high school :P I think they were Christopher Pike books...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I haven't run the triumvirate(sp) of computers for a little while, with my housemate I feel it might be a little unfair because we split the bills.

I agree with your thoughts on that Dumbledore is gay thing, it didn't really add anything to the story.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Do microcomputers really use that much power? I figured you had slowed down compared to some time in the past. I'm using some machines at work so I have an unfair advantage. I should pass you today or tomorrow, though, unless you take a sudden leap forward.