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Inflation in action!
Poundland wants to buy 99p stores![^]
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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
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If they can knock them down to 65p they can say "I'd buy that for a dollar".. 
(I'll get my coat before the exchange rate changes)
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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On the wireless the question was asked "Poundland has confirmed it will buy out 99p Stores, what will this mean for prices". If I'd been asked I couldn't have resisted the temptation to say "one penny, presumably"
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Movie Quote Of The Day
If I find out you're lying, I'll come back and kill you in your own kitchen.
Which movie?
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TV shows aren't valid, I'd say this is Kitchen Nightmares
Geek code v 3.12
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- r++>+++ y+++*
Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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One Paris in Night ? 
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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Gordon Ramsay: First Blood
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Ratatouille
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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"Under Siege 3 - La Grande Bouffe"
(yes|no|maybe)*
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Gone with the Wind.
Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.
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Doesn't surprise me they've really gone down hill over the years. Used to be a great place for hobbyists to go and get electronic items and such.
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
My goal in life is to have a psychiatric disorder named after me.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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There aren't too many electronics hobbyist these days.
You can probably blame surface mount for leaving the kitchen table experimenter behind. With thru-hole everything is big and dorky like a Radio Shack store.
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Yeah I agree electronics has come a long way and with the Chinese producing everything for nothing we are becoming an endangered species. But I still love to do it!
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
My goal in life is to have a psychiatric disorder named after me.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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And just today I ran out of Tandy heat sink compound.
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I hate that when it happens.
It's something you don't need often but when you need it, you need it!
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
My goal in life is to have a psychiatric disorder named after me.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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Why? Through-hole parts are still available reasonably priced.
But anyway.
I use SMT parts on perfboards for trying out circuits all the time.
1206 resistors & caps are *huge*, even if tweezers are needed to solder that, even beginners should have no trouble using them or 0805 parts, which fit exactly between two copper pads with 0.1" spacing.
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I thought of upgrading my old computer from 4k RAM to 16 mb, using 628512 static RAMs[^].
Using SMD versions would save a lot of space and I would get the expansion done on a single board, but soldering so many tiny connections appears to be a huge pain.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
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What "old computer" that came with 4Kbytes can be made using 16Mbytes? And with 32x 512KB modules?
*scratches head*
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One of those.[^] Mine, just like the one on the picture, still has some expansion slots free.
The addressing logic will expand the address bus with an 8 bit latch to access up to 256 64k pages. And it has to be static RAM since I don't have any reliable DRAM controller. Also, this particular SRAM is still easy to get, is inexpensive and also still works fine with a 5v power supply.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
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Looks nice  Never heard of it.
But what the heck would that thing do with all that Memory?
Well. Have you soldered SMT before?
The SO package is just 1/2 of the usual 0.1" pin spacing, if you're really bored you could even get that on perfboard, splitting pads - but I guess you wouldn't want to handwire that mess then Entirely possible with thin "coil wire", but pretty dull work.
Do you have a PCB layout program?
If not, or you hate the one you have - try the lite version of DipTrace (and if you mail them confirming this is for non-Profit use, you'll get a code to up the pin limit from 300 to 500 per board). If you tried EAGLE and hate it - welcome aboard, try DipTrace 
As said, SO package is a piece of cake, also not so painful routing wise when you have only two layers (max of what free diptrace supports). But if you don't have many traces crossing due to clever placement, rotating & layout, maybe you'd even manage smaller packages with 2 layers.
The soldering of smaller packages is done differently from the big ones. You don't usually solder individual Pins, but several pins at a time, or even all in one drag movement. Look on YouTube for tutorials on "drag soldering SMT".
Rule 1) apply lots of flux, Rule 2) don't forget to add some more flux! ("no-clean" flux, if you don't want a mess) If you still accidentally create a solder bridge between pins, this can be removed with fine solder wig and - flux!
I'd not recommend putting a blob of solder, bridging lots of pins "on purpose" and then removing surplus with wig, though. Some ppl do that as it seems easier than practising drag solder or soldering ~3 pins at a time with a usual chisel tip (my preferred) - but more mass of hot metal means increased likelyhood of killing the IC.
For drag soldering & generally doing fine pitched stuff to work, you need to do your PCB with a solder mask layer (usually created by the CAD Software, but parameters Need to be adjusted to design rules of PCB manufacturer)
Then oshpark makes good quality PCBs, for 2-layer I think it's $ US 5,- per square inch, for 3 PCBs of that design. So smaller is cheaper, and since with those many same ICs you probably have quite some repetition in circuit, the "3 PCBs of 1 design" may be exploited nicely, when several identical smaller boards are made, maybe then pluggin into a main board that connects to your computer.
(if that "3 PCBs" rule bothers you, I don't know international PCB fabbers with good price, sorry)
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unshavenbastard wrote: Looks nice Never heard of it.
It's my first computer and it still works. I doubt there are more than 1000 still left on the entire world.
unshavenbastard wrote: But what the heck would that thing do with all that Memory?
I just cut the memory size in half. Let's switch between 256 pages of 32k (= 8 Mb). This way I have enough real address space left for video memory, I/O or ROM. It would be very wise to do the page switching from a memory location that is not being switched, like a ROM.
Anyway, I still enjoy writing code for the old dog. Memory used to be the biggest constraint, but that will change then. 
unshavenbastard wrote: Do you have a PCB layout program?
Yes. Eagle. I don't hate it, but the restriction to only very small boards makes it practically unusable.
Actually, I have been pregnat with the idea to leave the old computer as it is and build a more modern little computer into a small PC case. I already have a main bus with 10 slots and designed a CPU board. The memory board will not be much work and then I will need an IO board and some kind of suitable graphics card. I may still have an old MC6847 graphics chip somewhere...
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
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