Ace1000ks1975

Today, I was thinking about an ATX case I used to assemble a computer in 2009. The ATX case that I used was from 1998, and surprisingly, I was able to use it to put together a AMD Athlon Phenom II 945 with a Geforce GTX 260 video card. All the front panel connects could be used on a motherboard made in 2009. More recently, I used a computer case from 2009 to put together a I7-8700 based motherboard. It didn't have some features, like a USB 3.0 front panel connector, so I connected the motherboard to the USB 2.0 port which it had. The computer powered on, and it works. I have to upgrade the case with a 5.25" USB 3.0 front panel, and a 5.25" to 3.5" bay adapter to add more 3.5" HDDs.

I recently assembled a computer using a 16 year old ATX case, and it works pretty good. The case has a 120 mm intake fan, and a one 120mm rear exhaust fan. I added a PCI card exhaust fan, and it keeps the CPU cool which is a Intel I7-8700. The case itself is pretty big, because most cases of that timeline were big and spacious. It is a classic ATX case design, and it works pretty good.

It is surprising how a vintage ATX case from the 1990s can still be used on a modern motherboard. You wouldn't want to use a 1995 ATX computer case on a modern motherboard, because those cases had a inadequate cooling system. Cases from the 1990s used 80mm chassis fans which is too small. ATX cases made in the mid 2000s to 2010 have 120mm fans which is good enough even for modern computers.

20 hours ago | [YT] | 4

Ace1000ks1975

________________________________________________________________________________________
Windows 10 support will end on October 14, 2025, or about a month from now. There are a number of options you can take.

1. Get Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC. This will require you to wipe your hard drive, and install a new operating
system. You will have to buy a license for Windows 10 Enterprise. This will extend updates until Jan 12,
2027 for the regular version, and for the IoT Enterprise LTSC it will extend it to Jan 13, 2032.
2. Get Windows 10 Extended support for $30 which will extend Windows 10 updates for a year.
3. Get a new computer and install Windows 11 home/pro
4. Turn your computer into a server.
5. Install a distro of Linux.
6. Install SteamOS on it, and turn it into a dedicated game console.
7. Continue to use it on a internal network.
8. Continue to use it as is.
____________________________________________
For me personally, I bought 3 new computers, and I will extend Windows 10 for one more year on one of my computers. I will use the others as internal servers which aren't connected to the internet. I turned one into a retro video game console by installing Batocera Linux O.S. on it. For other computers, I have programs on it which have licenses that can't be transferred. I will use those computers via remote desktop access.

One one of my computers, I am getting a Windows 10 support extension for is already 12 years old. I will extend it for a year use it in my internal network only, because there are programs in there I still want to use. I can use it via remote desktop access using another computer with a more up to date operating system.

If you have just one computer, and you want to extend the life of your computer. It may be worth installing a new operating system, like Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC and getting 2 to 7 more years out of it. If you don't have the extra money to buy a new computer, this would be the least expensive option.

If most of the stuff you do is just online then installing a distro of Linux may be an option for you. It doesn't cost anything to do that. There might be driver issues with printers, scanners, graphics cards, and other peripherals.

If your computer is very old, and you have the money to get a new computer. That maybe the option for you.

If you have a extra computer sitting around, you can turn it into a file server, a retro video game machine, HTPC(Home Theater PC), or a dedicated Steam gaming machine.

If you take none of these options, you can continue to use your computer until stuff stop working, or risk vulnerabilities online.

Let me know what you think?
____________________________________________
[Links]

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC
• O.S. Image - www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-window…
• Purchase License - www.vip-scdkeyss.com/software/p202502111054418302.…
SteamOS
• O.S. Image - store.steampowered.com/steamos/download?ver=steamd…
Batocera Linux
• O.S. Image for X86 - batocera.org/download
________________________________________________________________________________________

2 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

Ace1000ks1975

Early MS-DOS games didn't have something called speed adjustment, so if you had the best CPU around then your games would run too fast. It would run so fast that it was not playable. Modern PC games don't that problem, so you can run Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), or Resident Evil 5 (2009) on a computer built in 2023 to 2025 without having it run too fast. The game would run at the right speed regardless of how fast your CPU and GPU runs.

This issue was fixed in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. If you had a 80486 DX or a 80386 DX in 1989, you couldn't run most action games. You could play RPGs, and adventure games, but for games that required movement or scrolling it would not be playable. The best processors for running retro computer games from 1982 to 1990 would be 80286, or a 80386 SX. A lot of these pre 1990 action games aren't worth playing, because they were so poorly written. They were so bad that they weren't even playable in many cases. If a game that had poor mechanics ran too fast, it would be even less playable.

In a lot of computers, you had something called a turbo button, which would lower the frequency or speed. This would allow you to play older games. On a higher end processor, a turbo button wouldn't matter, because the CPU was too fast. On slower processors, games ran too slow, so the way the game ran depended on the CPU. On a video game console, all games ran smoothly, because you only had one type of hardware per platform. This is why PC games were a mess in the 1980s.

Today, we PC gamers have different hardware specs, but all games run smoothly regardless. People have different frame rates due to having different CPUs and GPUs. Games run consistently across the board.

3 days ago | [YT] | 6

Ace1000ks1975

I was remembering about computer service back in the 1980s. One of my friends had IBM AT computer, and he told me that it stopped working. I asked him if he was going to take it to repair shop. He said it was under warranty, and he would call a on site technician to fix it. On site tech support was a thing back in the 1980s with major brands, like IBM, and HP for example. Other companies, like Apple, Compaq, and others had authorized dealers that serviced defective computers. Then, you had independent computer shops which would offer warranty for a year or two. If anything went wrong, you could take it to the shop and have it serviced within the warranty period.

Small and medium sold computers for lower prices, but there was no one site tech support. It would be like buying a regular car versus buying a luxury car. You get treated differently if you buy a luxury vehicle. In a luxury car dealership, they offer you bottled mineral water, soda, snacks, comfortable couches, and other amenities. If you go to a regular car dealership or service center, there aren't that many amenities. It's very basic. It's like that. Buying from a big company, like IBM or HP gave you the Cadillac treatment. The price tag on those big brands cost more, but those companies really stand behind their products.

Today, the only kind of warranty you will get from major brands, like HP has support, but you have to call them. The person on the other line will help you fix your issues over the phone. If it cannot be fixed over the phone then you have to RMA it. It would take a week or weeks for that computer to be replaced or repaired and mailed back to you.

With smaller name computer companies in the 1980s didn't offer on site service. On site tech support went away in the 1990s, and we had on call tech support. If a person had a problem with a computer, video card, sound card, scanner, printer, etc, you would call the company for support. As more and more competition entered the computer industry, this kind of support faded away, because it wasn't that profitable.

These days, customer service for computers is a joke even from major brands, like HP or Dell. These companies don't even have service centers, like they did in the 1980s and 1990s. They hire the most incompetent people to answer their phones, and it takes a long time to get a RMA, like weeks to months. Computer companies can't sell their products at a premium due to all the competition out there. This is what you get. Times have changed.

6 days ago | [YT] | 5

Ace1000ks1975

I never owned a 80286 computer back in the 1980s, so I don't know much about it. I also don't know much about how Windows 3.0 would run on a 80386 SX based computer. All I know is back in 1990 when Windows 3.0 was released by Microsoft, it did require at least 1 MB of RAM. I only had 1 MB on my computer at that time, and it barely met the requirements to run Windows 3.0. I never used Windows 3.0, I just stuck with MS-DOS.

I was playing around with MS Windows 3.0 and GEM 3.0/3.11/3.13 operating systems running a 80386 SX and 80286 based computers using PCEM V.17. There were problems using GUI based operating systems trying to run some programs. Some programs required more V-RAM, and a GUI based operating system used some of that V-RAM. VGA 256 KB did not have a lot memory, so you would get warning of a memory deficit. Other times, the MS-DOS programs you launched on Windows 3.0 would run very slow. However, after you exited Windows 3.0 and ran it on MS-DOS the problems would go away.

80286 CPU had limitations when running Windows 3.0 in that it could not multitask. When you tried to run more than one program at a time, the previous one would always close. On a 386 SX, 386 DX, or a 486 DX, you could run multiple programs at a time. It lacked a feature called 386 Enhanced Mode (80386). If you had a 386 SX or higher, you could run multiple DOS applications at one time in separate, resizable windows, in addition with the regular Windows programs. Windows 3.0 had cooperative multitasking. Cooperative multitasking is slower than preemptive multitasking. Cooperative multitasking was less stable, because it relied on applications to voluntarily yield control of the CPU. If there was issue with that then the O.S. would crash.

The Amiga Workbench O.S. had preemptive multitasking. Preemptive multitasking can run multiple tasks at one time by controlling the timing of each process, and this provided a smooth and responsive user experience versus cooperative multitasking. On the other hand, cooperative multitasking requires each task to voluntarily relinquish control back to the operating system to allow other tasks to run. This isn't as smooth as preemptive multitasking.

MS-DOS was a single task operating system, so you couldn't run more than one program at a time. It is surprising to find out Amiga Workbench O.S. had some surprising advanced features. It wasn't until Windows 95 when you had a truly multitask GUI based operating system. Preemptive multitasking is used on all modern operating systems. Most processors in this day and age has at least 6 to 12 cores, some have cores with hyper threading as well. The CPU I am using now which is a Intel I7-10700K has 8 cores, and the Intel I7-13700KF 16 cores. A modern processor like that can run multi programs at one time using a operating system, like Windows 11. Each core can run a process, and it is kind of like parallel processing. A modern O.S., like Windows 11 has newer features which old operating systems didn't have, like parallel computing. Never the less, it uses preemptive multitasking as well.

The history of operating systems is very interesting, because it is what makes a computer work.

1 week ago | [YT] | 7

Ace1000ks1975

I was reading about different kinds of foods that were popularly consumed during the Great Depression, and I learned something interesting. Meat loaf, slugburgers, and Spam were popular foods during the the 1930s. Spam was a very inexpensive canned meat which contained pork shoulders which was a very inexpensive cut of pork. It was invented in 1937, so that was invented during the Great Depression. Meatloaf was another popular dish during the Great Depression, because it is cheap and filling. Why was it filling? It was filling because it used meat and fillers to increase the volume of the food. Meatloaf uses ground beef or pork, but it is mixed with bread crumbs, oats mixed with milk, ground corn, salt, pepper, herbs, chopped onions, and garlic. The non meat ingredients are binders, so it is a kind of filler. It is an inexpensive dish, because it requires less meat to make. During the Great Depression, this inexpensive meal helped a lot of people get through difficult times.

The origins of meatloaves can be traced back to Roman times. In modern times, ground meat was used, and in ancient times minced meats were used. That is the difference.

Taco Bell uses oats with milk mixed with beef to increase the volume of their so called meats. I don't know if other fast food restaurants use binders or not, and many deny that they do.

Slugburgers is like a meatloaf, it uses cornmeal, bread crumbs, potato flakes, and soy grits. This is mixed with ground beef or pork, and it is deep fried. This requires less meat, because filler is used in the meat. Back in the 1930s, this cost about 5¢. It was invented in Corinth Mississippi in 1917.

Potato soup, and baked potatoes were a popular dish in the 1930s, because potatoes are inexpensive. Potatoes are inexpensive today. I bought 10 lbs of potatoes for about $4 about 3 weeks ago. Potato soup is a filling meal. You need some chopped potatoes, milk or cream, butter, and chopped garlic.

The price of groceries are expensive, but if you improvise you can bring down the cost of each meal.

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 6

Ace1000ks1975

In today's comment, I will give you a science lesson. A cellphone or smartphone is a tracking device, so how do you carry a smartphone and not get tracked? Turn off the phone? Wrong.

You can put your smartphone in a metal box, aluminum foil, go in a Faraday cage. Your phone emits high frequency radio waves, which are known as microwaves. Yes, the same microwave you have in your kitchen that you use to cook your food. The microwave in your kitchen uses a lot of power and has a high amplitude which helps you cook your food. Did you ever put aluminum foil in your microwave? I did by mistake when I was kid, and you would see sparks fly. The reason why that happens is, because microwaves cannot go through metals. When a microwave hits metal, it reflects at concentrated points and that is why you see sparks in your microwave.

If I wrap my smartphone in aluminum foil then I cannot send any messages, nor can I receive any messages. Therefore, you cannot be tracked. On a pulse doppler radar on the nose of a fighter jet emits microwaves, and when the microwave hits a metal object. It reflects it back to your antenna, and this gives you the distance of the target. This allows you to track the target as well.

I use a Faraday bag when I am not using my smartphone, this way I cannot be tracked. I can't receive any calls, but I don't like people calling me. For me, the smartphone is used as a one way communication device, I call others, but I don't answer calls. I prefer them to message me or email me.

The smartphone is a tool of surveillance. There is something called a GPS jammer which can do the same job, but it is illegal in most countries. Turning on a GPS jammer can block your cellphone signal, but people who use these things can be tracked by GPS jammer detector. By simply using a Faraday bag, or putting my smartphone in a bag lined metal foil will make me invisible to electronic surveillance.

1 week ago | [YT] | 4

Ace1000ks1975

Today, I will prove that real money(silver) can still buy the same amount of things that it did in 1964 and more.
______________________________________________________
Item Price in 1965 Price in 2025 Silver Content Price in Silver
12 ounce bottle of soda $0.10 $2.00 to $2.50 0.0723 troy oz $2.99
Gallon of gasoline $0.32 $3.19 to $3.68 0.2314 troy oz $9.59
Gallon of milk $0.97 $3.73 0.701 troy oz $29.07
Price of a avg home $19,000 $422k 13,737 troy oz $569,673.39
Price of a avg new car $3000 $48,000 2,169 troy oz $89,948.43
______________________________________________________

The price of these items and assets going up in the past 61 years was mostly inflation. Other things didn't go up so much, because stuff like soda, and milk are produced. Supply and demand dictates if more items are produced the price goes down. As for cars, they did get more complex, and they have more options compared to the vehicles that were produced in 1960s. Manufacturing plants of today are more productive compared to the automotive factories of the 1960s. If you stored your savings in silver coinage, you could still buy a car in 2025.

The real money kept its value, but the fiat currency had not. The people had been deceived!

1 week ago | [YT] | 6

Ace1000ks1975

I was thinking about the Macintosh computer, the first one that was released in 1984. I remember a neighbor of mine having one. It was the first computer that had a GUI(Graphical User Interface). Steve Jobs got the idea from the Xerox Alto, and this was a computer that was released in 1973 by Xerox which had GUI operating system. The price of this computer was $32,000 back in 1973. This was when a car cost about $3200. It had all the features a modern computer had, like a mouse, keyboard, hard drive, networking, and GUI O.S.. It had about 512 kilobytes of RAM. Macintosh 1984 had 128 kilobytes of RAM, mouse, keyboard, floppy disk drive, and a GUI O.S.. Even that computer didn't have a hard drive in 1984.

Xerox is a company that specializes in making copiers, and they were famous for it. If you said Xerox it meant a copier, like I wanted this Xeroxed. Xerox felt that their innovation would undermine their copier business, because a GUI based O.S. would reduce the need for copying documents. After all, you can store documents in hard drives or on servers with many hard drives. As a result, Xerox shelved it, but there were others that got inspiration from it, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others. Before we had GUI based operating systems, it was all command based, so you needed to know commands to operate a computer. O.S. like Unix, Dos, Apple DOS, CP/M, C64 O.S., and others.

From 1984, you started to see GUI based O.S., like MacOS (1984), Amiga Workbench 1.0 (1985), Atari TOS (1985), Microsoft Windows 1.0 (1985), and others. As processors got more powerful, and the price of RAM started to become more affordable GUI O.S. became a reality. In the PC world GUI based O.S. weren't mainstream even in 1989. Most people used MS-DOS using commands. Microsoft released Windows 3.0 in mid 1991, and after that GUI based O.S. started to become mainstream. The requirements for Windows 3.0 was steep, and many computers had problems running it. People that had 386 DX and 486 DX machines with at least 4 MB could run it without any issues. A GUI based operating system required more computing power, so 8088, 8086, 80286, and 80386 SX machines simply didn't have enough computing power and RAM to run it smoothly. People who didn't have enough power would run into stability issues, and programs would run slowly and sluggishly.

As for other operating systems, like Amiga O.S. or MacOS, they didn't have a hardware problem, because each computer was optimized for the operating systems they were using. For the PC that wasn't the case, because everyone had different hardware specs. Microsoft would try to squeeze in as many users as possible, so someone using a 286 with 2 MB of RAM could meet the system requirements to use Windows 3.0, but it would barely run.

By 1993, GUI based operating systems had become mainstream, but MS-DOS was still used. In the PC world, people could use MS-DOS or Windows 3.X. When I got a Pentium 100 MHz in late 1994, it came with Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.0.

By 1995, GUI based operating systems became the norm. By then, the point and click and operating system had been perfected. It did have a lot of bugs, but it laid the basis of a modern operating system. It was easy to use, and it resembles all preceding Microsoft Windows based O.S.. Unlike Windows 3.X which required MS-DOS to install Windows 3.X, Windows 95/98 had MS-DOS built into it. The version MS-DOS was MS-DOS 7.0 for Windows 95, and MS-DOS 7.1 for Windows 98. Unlike the modern versions of Windows, you can run MS-DOS programs on Windows 95/98. MS-DOS was incorporated into Windows 95/98/Me to handle the lower functions, like booting the system up and to run older programs.

GUI operating systems allowed the masses to use computers without knowing commands. You can still use commands in operating systems, like Dos prompt, Powershell, or terminal for Linux. This will enable you to use your computer more efficiently, and writing scripts. For the basic user, they don't have to know any of that stuff. Today, GUI based operating systems are the standard.

1 week ago | [YT] | 6

Ace1000ks1975

The US was the first country in this world to decouple currency from gold on August 15, 1971 under President Richard Nixon. Gold was $35/troy ounce in 1971. The Dow Jones was 890.20 in 1971. A average price of a single family home was about $29,000 in the US.

Let's analyze how much these assets went up in the past 54 years.
_____________________________________________________________
Asset Value 1971 Value Today Increase
Dow Jones 890.20 45,400.86 50 X
S&P 500 98.32 6481.50 64.92 X
Average Home $29,000 $410,000 13.13 X
Gold $35/oz $3,601.90/oz 101.91 X
Silver $1.58/oz $41.27/oz 25.12 X
Platinum $100/oz $1391.10/oz 12.91 X
Can of Coke $0.15 $1.50 to $2.00 9 X to 12.3 X
Gallon of Gas $0.36/gal $3.21/gal 7.91 X
Compound Interest $35 $487.85 12.93 X
@ 5%/year
_____________________________________________________________
Assets that went up the most from the most to the least

1. Gold $35/oz to $3601.90/oz -> 101.91 X
2. S&P 500 Index 98.32 to 6481.50 -> 64.92 X
3. Dow Jones Index 890.20 to 45,400.86 -> 50 X
4. Silver $1.58/oz to $41.27/oz -> 25.12 X
5. Average Home $29,000 to $410,000 -> 13.13 X
6. Compound Interest $35 to $487.85 -> 12.93 X
@5%/year
7. Platinum $100/oz to $1391.10/oz ->12.91 X
8. Can of Coke $0.15 to $1.75 ->10.67 X
9. Gallon of Gas $0.36/gal to $3.21/gal -> 7.91 X
_____________________________________________________________

Burying your money under the mattress is a sure way to lose all the value of your money. The cost of living had gone up a lot in the past 54 years after gold was decoupled from currency. You could bury your under the mattress when gold was money, but after it was decoupled from gold that is the worst bet you could make. If you want to keep the value of your money, you have to invest it or you'll go broke.

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 7