Yes! We lived in a penthouse apartment in Surry Hills (the old hat factory) for 2 years from 2010 and the first time the choppers came in and dropped troops off on the rooftop opposite I was terrified! Became a regular source of entertainment, to sit on the terrace watching them be dropped off
I have an old Roland S760 sampler from the early 90s. One of the innovations Roland made in this (lower cost) space was to add the ability to hook up a monitor and a mouse, to make chopping samples and programming patches much easier than peering at a tiny screen like on an Akai S1000 of the time (which I also have), or even worse on the S760's tiny two-line display
The mouse connector is MSX, which are very difficult to find these days, so mine came with a DIY MSX->PS2 connector. Sadly the PS2 mouse it came with was on it's last legs, so I wanted to replace it with something more modern. All I could find at the time were MS mice that came with a USB-PS2 connector. When I plugged it in, it barely worked and I could never understand why.
I did finally manage to track down a NOS PS2 mouse and it worked perfectly again. Until this post, I never understood just WHY it didn't work, so thank you!
The S760 is a fantastic sampler. It's kinda like a JD990 but as a sampler and without the full synth engine complexity. Made famous by Daft Punk and a lot of others as the S760 digital multimode filter became one of their signature sounds.
Interesting, I have a Roland S-330 from the late 1980s and my main concern getting it was the floppy drive viability. It didn’t occur to me that the mouse would be difficult.
You probably already know this stuff or have decided against it for authenticity or whatever, but just in case, you can use some of the Gotek USB flash drive floppy disk emulators:
I never thought to check the Japanese auction houses - I have a workmate there who can purchase locally as well. There is one for sale, but it's a bit expensive - I'll keep my eyes open thanks
> For the old SunRay thin clients one could disable the USB ports ....
>The same is possible in Windows 10 and 11, but the users will revolt, if a >sysadmin were to enforce such (the same users who insist on using Windows instead >of a more secure system).
Can I add a little more colour here (and have worked in and designed-for very secure environments) - users will revolt if removing the USB ports makes their life more difficult. This can work if there is an effective feedback loop that makes sure the users can still do their jobs efficiently in the absence of USB ports, and corrects for them when they can't. Users won't go around something unless it gets in their way!
It is simply heart-breaking when you journey to somewhere like South Korea, where there are miles and miles of huge shipyards churning out tankers, as its a grim reminder of what we once had here on the Clyde and the skills and jobs we have lost.
In a salient lesson to everyone on complex software projects, one yards latest attempt to build an innovative new car ferry has been a financial and political disaster - move fast and break things doesn't work very well with ship design! It's almost finished and doing regular sea trials at the moment to find the last bugs .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Glen_Sannox_(2017)
There's a real sad lesson for everyone involved here; enough patriotism was built up to support the idea of giving Scottish shipbuilding one last go, to bridge into the 21st century, and Ferguson Marine dropped the ball so hard that it's not coming back.
Can you imagine the response you'd get to suggesting that you build miles of shipyards up the West coast of Scotland these days? You'd die under an avalanche of environmental impact statements.
I live on the Firth of Clyde and the Waverley passes my house twice a day during the summer, plus it sales round the local lochs so when you are out and about you always catch glimpses of it. Part of it's charm and allure is that not only is it beautifully restored, but you can visit the engine room to see a traditional piston engine, and observe the paddles in the water as well - it's a gateway drug into engineering for many a child here. There is something magnificent about watching the Waverley catching and passing a Vanguard-class Trident submarine on it's way into or out of base. The paddle steamers certainly aren't slow - the Waverley is one of the fastest boats on the river - it's faster than the cross-clyde Ferries normally - I check them all using the magnificent Marine Traffic app! For anyone in London, it does a short Autumn season down there, sailing under Tower Bride and out to Southend for a trip round the big windfarm etc
fellow firth of clyde-r here so I love the point about seeing the Waverley pass the subs!
Family and I went for a trip on Waverley last summer and it was great. Seeing the engine in action up close really is something for someone who's so used to moving bits around.
And when she gets up to speed on the open water it really feels fast.
> SSE’s £100m commitment to further developing Coire Glas comes as the leading low carbon energy infrastructure company awaits the UK Government’s decision on how it intends to financially support the deployment of long-duration electricity storage, as set out in last year’s British Energy Security Strategy.
> This could include the introduction by the UK Government of a ‘revenue stabilisation mechanism’ in the form of an adapted Cap and Floor scheme to support investment in long-duration storage. This would also be alongside broader consideration of how the electricity market, including the Capacity Mechanism and the Flexibility Markets, value the contribution of low carbon flexible assets such as pumped storage.
AKA... They're waiting for a government handout before they begin build. While they can 'buy low, sell high' and make a lot of money, they also want a government guarantee that they will make that much money. Payouts from that guarantee will effectively become an electricity tax.
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