Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013


Thanks for the comments on the vid, as you can see NZ has some rugged country to deal with in both it's north and south islands (this vid's in the south). The K, Ka and Kb 4-8-4's were the largest steam locos (NZ built in the 1930's) to operate there. The fantastic sound comes from the small (by US and UK mainline standards) driver size of 4'6"diameter, almost sound like turbines at times. They were the mainstay of both passenger and freight right up to the change to diesel, only being superseeded in some passenger by the ligher 4-8-2 J and Ja locos of the late 40's. To compare the size of these locos with their US counterparts, note the scenes with the engineer or fireman clearly visible.

There is another vid of 2 of these beasts double heading another excursion on youtube as well.
 
tootnkumin said:
Do any of your computers use "fuzzy logic" Jeffrey? Any suggestions that might cure that problem in my wife's CPU (brain)?
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None of my Apple's use 'fuzzy' logic. They only have 8 bit processors. My HP with Windows 8 and a 64 bit processor base however does a pretty good job of making MY logic fuzzy. Today's computers have outpaced my knowledge. It looks like you're on your own.
 
No rain in the forecast today, not even the barest mention of a thunderstorm. Yet this afternoon a string of large thunderstorms as real as my tabletop here and just as impossible to ignore came rumbling through this area. High winds, nearly sideways rainfall, heavy lightning and thunder were over this area for several hours. Quite a few times I gave thought to getting out and seeking better shelter. How the heck could the weatherman miss that coming in? Storms are still kicking around out there but they're small fry moving to the south-east. I hope we've seen the last of the big ones for a while. The power went out several times but it was right back on within seconds.

In other news, I changed out the 6502 processor in my IIe with a 65C02 processor, starting on the upgrade to an Enhanced IIe. Right now I have Starfleet1 running and it's going from menu to menu faster than it ever has.

I looked at a metal F3A shell on Ebay that I mean to pick up as soon as I can. Then all four of the locos in the F-unit quad will have metal shells.

Well that's it for now. Time to call it a night.

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RexHea said:
Love it! That ole'boy can really get on with it. ;)
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Love how that just pours it on!!:)

Good Evening

It has been a somewhat hectic day here. Files redone, reports written up on some of them, records expunged, that sort of thing...

My Pine lumber is sitting in an air drying rack in my storage barn...yes, I have one of them thar barn thingees...not big, mind, just big enough to store lumber in...

Anyways...got a few things to get finished here...have a good evening!!
 
Further to my fuzzy logic post. Wife decided to call her sister via Skype on my computer. Soon after i can hear the volume on the speakers way up high, so I go and ask why. She turns them down. Not long after they're screaming again. Once again I remonstrate. Her reason. "My sister can't hear me"
 
Here's another NZR vid, but with a difference. 2 of the earliest locomtives to operate in NZ and then later Ka's 942 and 945 double heading in 1994. I'm sure the early part will warm the cockles of a few US hearts.

[YOUTUBE]c02IYnQD8Jc[/YOUTUBE]
 
tootnkumin said:
Further to my fuzzy logic post. Wife decided to call her sister via Skype on my computer. Soon after i can hear the volume on the speakers way up high, so I go and ask why. She turns them down. Not long after they're screaming again. Once again I remonstrate. Her reason. "My sister can't hear me"
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Phone call to ISP tech support: "There's smoke coming out of my computer. Are you guys having a fire down there?"
 
tootnkumin said:
Further to my fuzzy logic post. Wife decided to call her sister via Skype on my computer. Soon after i can hear the volume on the speakers way up high, so I go and ask why. She turns them down. Not long after they're screaming again. Once again I remonstrate. Her reason. "My sister can't hear me"
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Somehow that makes some kind of sense. I just don't know how!:eek::rolleyes:
 
bnsf971 said:
Phone call to ISP tech support: "There's smoke coming out of my computer. Are you guys having a fire down there?"
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That reminds me of the stoner dude with his fuel gauge near empty, trying to make it down the highway to the next BP station, turns the volume down on his car stereo to save gas. :rolleyes:
 
railfan said:
That reminds me of the stoner dude with his fuel gauge near empty, trying to make it down the highway to the next BP station, turns the volume down on his car stereo to save gas. :rolleyes:
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:D :D

Good Morning.

Well!! Did it get kind of chilly out here last night! It got down to 50! Now we are at 52...and sunny....going for a high near 70 later on....

Today I will be rather busy with more files and hopefully some train room time later on...
 
Good morning. It's 74° with 98% humidity. The high will be 95° but will feel like 108°.
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Tried getting to sleep before 11pm last night but my body apparently had different ideas. So I was up until 2:45 this morning when for some reason I finally went to sleep. Woke up just after 6am so I'm not feeling my best this morning.

Yesterdays bad weather left quite a bit of damage in it's wake. There are some pretty good sized branches down in my yard. Maybe someday I'll be able to get the tractor in there and drag them out. No trees down, in my yard at least. I know somebody close by has at least one. I heard it fall. I haven't heard any talk of injuries or worse from the local gossip mill so that's good news so far.

Today I'll change out a few more chips in the IIe and move it further along to becoming an enhanced IIe. That'll allow me to use more of the Apple IIc and IIGS software on it with fewer compatibility issues.

No word back from the docs office on the results of my last cardiac stress test. He said they'd call if there were any concerns so for now no news is good news.

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My wife is a store manager for an area convenience store chain named Kwik Trip. Yesterday, a lady's car died while sitting in the car wash. She came inside and insisted that it was Kwik Trip's fault for ruining her car. "The carwash must have done something!" They tried to be nice and offer her another car wash for next time she came to the store but she said, quite loudly, "I'd hate for this to happen again!" While on the phone with someone she mentioned just having had her oil changed before the car wash. I can't imagine THAT had anything to do with it. It must have been the water on the outside of the car! I guess you can't avoid stupid people.
 
Secondhandmodeler said:
I guess you can't avoid stupid people.
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There's no fixing STUPID. Best to just leave it alone and let it get hit by the 5:30 bus.

*

Well it took a bit of work but Apple IIe #1 is now an Enhanced Apple IIe. It now has the CMOS based 65C02 processor, a new character set for the text modes and the required firmware chips. Of the character ROM that was added thirty-two are 'mouse-text' characters, not that I'm going to be adding a mouse anytime soon. Back when I was using this computer for my business a mouse was something you killed. Some old text and speed problems with 80-column text have gone away as well. I now have the capability of running most if no all of the software developed for the Apple IIc and some of that for the IIGS as well more backward compatibility with the old Apple II software. I just checked and yes, I now get the Apple //e at the top of the startup screen instead of the generic Apple ][ that I was getting just this morning.

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That right there makes all the work worth it.
 
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