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  3. What is the weirdest item you have in your box of spare parts?

What is the weirdest item you have in your box of spare parts?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
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  • C cp9876

    It was about 1981 when I was using them - much the same as a 5 1/4 inch but bigger - they held about 100k, see pic[^]


    Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."

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    Pheadjack
    wrote on last edited by
    #38

    Yep that looks familiar. One of the first Architecture firms I worked in had a Lanier word processing machine. It used two 8" floppy drives; one for the OS, one for the data. The thing sounded like a small aircraft on boot up, but we did all our specification writing on that sucker. I have in my garage/tech museum an Alloy Tape backup drive w/ four 40Mb (wow !):laugh: tapes, the floppy bidirectional interface card, cables, and software on 5 1/4" floppy with manual. I believe it would still work. Along with other assorted detritus of technology of old, I have the first computer I bought from a friend. It is a USIT 386 SX 16Mhz small form machine. It had a whopping 40Mb harddrive and I added one of those Kingston memory boards to boost the RAM. I did freelance design work on this computer for several years using AutoCAD 12 for DOS, then upgraded to 12 for Windows and Window 3.1 (whooo Hoo) :cool:. It still have the harddrive and I bet it would still boot up. I try it every once in a while just for laughs; or when REALLY bored. Pheadjack My Purpose is to encourage others to question.... everything

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    • R RoswellNX

      I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

      "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
      Antonio VillaRaigosa
      City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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      Dr Walt Fair PE
      wrote on last edited by
      #39

      I have some old FORTRAN algorithms for making line printer plots. They are on some punch cards in my junk box. Anyone have a card reader handy? I also have a couple rolls of punch tape. One never know when a real TTY machine will show up ... As far as hardware, there were some memory chips from my old TRS80 Mod 1 and a single-sided 5-1/4 floppy drive with a TI99-4A interface in a box in storage. Wonder if I could run Vista on that?

      The PetroNerd

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      • M Malcolm Smart

        I have a small box of screws, the ones that hold the expansion cards in. The box only has 6 screws in it and a 4" model of Nicole Kidman, painted in a suggestive way. I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection. Not sure why I keep them, but once you've had something like that for so long you are reluctant to let it go.


        Last modified: 1min after originally posted -- typo

        "More functions should disregard input values and just return 12. It would make life easier." - comment posted on WTF "This time yesterday, I still had 24 hours to meet the deadline I've just missed today."

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        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #40

        I have some stitches from surgery I had. But, when I had some teeth pulled, once upon a time, I asked if I could keep them and the Dentist said no, that it was illegal to let us take the teeth. Still can't figure that one. My toolbox runneth over with my Father's old hand tools. Like wooden handled awls, augars, etc. Plus some very unique leather punching tools, including a piston style hand pump leather drill. My computer stuff all went bye bye with the wife!:laugh:

        ____________________________________________________________________________ "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -- Douglas Adams -- Shohom67

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        • R RoswellNX

          I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

          "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
          Antonio VillaRaigosa
          City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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          Name Deleted
          wrote on last edited by
          #41

          I have a dataset from my old Commodore 64. An old 64 Meg RLL drive. Oh, and an old 6MHz/12MHz 80286 motherboard with individual ram chip slots. not sure where the actual RAM chips ever went though.

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          • C cp9876

            In the bottom of my filing cabinet I still have an 8 inch floppy from old PDP11 days.


            Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."

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            Delphi4ever
            wrote on last edited by
            #42

            We got a 8" floppy drive lying around in a dank room at the back of the building. It's a double dekker, one drive on top of another. No disks though, only drives.

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            • R RoswellNX

              I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

              "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
              Antonio VillaRaigosa
              City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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              deltalmg
              wrote on last edited by
              #43

              Not sure what's weirder, that I have them, or that I need them on a regular basis. Bi directional, DVI-i to DVI-d converters. 2PS2 to USB converter. Heck I have some old PS2 KVM's that I have to put a DVI to SVGA converter on the monitor, a USB to PS2 converter on the keyboard and mouse to plug it into the KVM.

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              • R RoswellNX

                I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                Antonio VillaRaigosa
                City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                John Bonfardeci
                wrote on last edited by
                #44

                Are you sure it's not a USB to Mac serial adapter? They look just like a VGA hookup, same number of pins too. I had one for a pre-USB Mac modem for my ancient blue and white G3. Probably the strangest device I have is an adapter for connecting a non-standard Mac 10 base T port to a standard Cat 5 jack. It's about 2.5 inches wide 3 inches deep and about an inch thick.

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                • R RoswellNX

                  I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                  "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                  Antonio VillaRaigosa
                  City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                  MrPlankton
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #45

                  Atari 800xl with dozens and dozens of video games on 5 1/4 disks, cartridges and my trusty Paper Clip word processor.... and it occasionly gets used. Oh, and did I mention my Time And Regional Displacement In Space vehicle I keep in my garage.

                  MrPlankton

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                  • P Peter_in_2780

                    Still got any single-sided 5.25" floppies? I've got (in original box, with KMart $10-48 price tag!) the chomper so you can turn them over and use the other side.:-D Peter

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                    Dan Neely
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #46

                    Peter_in_2780 wrote:

                    I've got (in original box, with KMart $10-48 price tag!) the chomper so you can turn them over and use the other side.

                    :laugh: A hole punch will do the same for much less. :rolleyes:

                    -- Help Stamp Out and Abolish Redundancy The preceding is courtesy of the Department of Unnecessarily Redundant Repetition Department.

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                    • R RoswellNX

                      I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                      "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                      Antonio VillaRaigosa
                      City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                      David Crow
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #47

                      How about a SnapIt2 Power Command box? I've yet to figure out what it's for. I've received plenty of speculation but nothing definitive.


                      "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

                      "To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne

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                      • M Malcolm Smart

                        I have a small box of screws, the ones that hold the expansion cards in. The box only has 6 screws in it and a 4" model of Nicole Kidman, painted in a suggestive way. I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection. Not sure why I keep them, but once you've had something like that for so long you are reluctant to let it go.


                        Last modified: 1min after originally posted -- typo

                        "More functions should disregard input values and just return 12. It would make life easier." - comment posted on WTF "This time yesterday, I still had 24 hours to meet the deadline I've just missed today."

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                        keeleyt83
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #48

                        I think we were talking about computer parts, not people parts.... :)

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                        • T Tom Delany

                          Malcolm Smart wrote:

                          I also have a small plastic container holding 4 of my teeth and the complete toe nail from my right big toe that came off whole as the nail bed had a severe fungal infection.

                          :omg::wtf:

                          WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.

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                          Mark J Miller
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #49

                          Tom Delany wrote:

                          WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.

                          I need a tissue, I've been laughing so hard my eyes won't stop tearing up! :laugh:

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                          • R RoswellNX

                            I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                            "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                            Antonio VillaRaigosa
                            City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                            bendodge
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #50

                            I think my weirdest would be a serial to cat5 adapter.

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                            • P PIEBALDconsult

                              That's why they invented Viagra.

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                              W Balboos GHB
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #51

                              I nominate this for the "Best Answer To A Straight Line of the Year" Award.

                              "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

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                              • R RoswellNX

                                I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                                "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                                W Balboos GHB
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #52

                                A CD-ROM holder from my SONY External CD-ROM (1x $600). Actually, I've about a dozen of them.

                                "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

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                                • R RoswellNX

                                  I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                                  "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                  Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                  City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                                  patbob
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #53

                                  For a long time I kept a 5.25" floppy drive around, just in case :) These days the weirdest thing is probably the CueCat. Noncomputerwise, it's probably the CD personal cumulative radiation monitoring system (for those too young to remember, CD=civil defense).. ya just never know when it's gonna come in handy. There's also the SR-10, Amiga 1000 and CDC-6500 core, but not because I think those might be handy someday.

                                  patbob

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                                  • L Luis Alonso Ramos

                                    If you look at my profile, I was born in 1981.... What's an 8-inch floppy? ;P

                                    Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico

                                    My Blog!

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                                    tsdragon
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #54

                                    Luis Alonso Ramos wrote:

                                    What's an 8-inch floppy?

                                    Insert obvious Viagra joke here...

                                    Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

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                                    • L Luis Alonso Ramos

                                      If you look at my profile, I was born in 1981.... What's an 8-inch floppy? ;P

                                      Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico

                                      My Blog!

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                                      paul144hart
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #55

                                      Around when you were born, I was writing code, 8 inch floppies were the rage, running OS off them and having ones dedicated to compilers and source. Intel 'blue boxes' used them as primary storage if you didn't have the $10,000 for a 10MB hard drive. The floppy held incredible amounts of data, 160KB. Unbelievable?? Truth is stranger than fiction. Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time. paul

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                                      • R RoswellNX

                                        I recently came across a VGA to USB adapter. Not quite sure what it's for, but it may be useful someday i guess. I used to also have an internal tape drive circa '91 that used a "clip" type floppy cable. I had a few other things, but i don't remember anymore, though nearly everything i wouldn't intentionally buy is salvage stuff. Roswell :)

                                        "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                        Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                        City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

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                                        tsdragon
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #56

                                        Not a spare part, actually, but more of a conversation piece: I have a circiut board containing actual core memory. A 16x16 array of tiny magnetic donuts and wires.

                                        Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

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                                        • P paul144hart

                                          Around when you were born, I was writing code, 8 inch floppies were the rage, running OS off them and having ones dedicated to compilers and source. Intel 'blue boxes' used them as primary storage if you didn't have the $10,000 for a 10MB hard drive. The floppy held incredible amounts of data, 160KB. Unbelievable?? Truth is stranger than fiction. Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time. paul

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                                          molesworth
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #57

                                          "Unless you were playing a game with twisting passages, all alike.... also before your time" I was just about to post that I still have an 8" floppy with the Collosal Cave Adventure on it - and no way to read it... Luckily there are lots of ports of it availabe these days :-D

                                          There are three kinds of people in the world - those who can count and those who can't...

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