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Frequently asked (and sometimes even answered) questions
This section brings you answers to most of the questions that could be interesting for your life. If you've got one, simply send mail! I'll add it to the F.A.Q. if it's worth it.
Mr Knowall: What about copyrights? I heard that in the internet, there are none, and I might use any content I find on my own homepage, correct? Detlev Lack: It's all so slow on my 28.8k modem... Someone: For which configuration is Sothius'Home optimized? An AOL-user: I have just disabled graphics-compression, and my display-depth is 24/32 bits - but still JPGs are ugly like hell! Someone: Colors look so strange and gay! The button and logo text is pink, and the background bright violet or purple! Is this the way Someone: With which configurations was it tested? Someone: I'm using *put favourite browser* on MacOS/ Solaris/ IRIX/ *put favourite OS*, and fonts are so small! Someone: Sothius' Home tries to write a cookie, with some weird number in it, to my machine! Someone: Since I upgraded my browser, the 'News-Cookie'/ PREFS feature I love so much doesn't work anymore. Why's that? Someone: The navigation bar says there's been an update, but there are no news! What the hell is wrong here - are you trying to poke me, man? Someone: What are all these buttons to the left for? Someone: What about linking to Sothius' Home! I really love it! Karsten B.: Why is there no german version of Sothius'Home? Someone: Sometimes, when I come back to Sothius' Home (i.e. every day, of course), I get a message 'that page doesn't exist anymore'. Why?
Someone: Now I've read about you, tried all of the links (even the secret one), what to do next? Someone: And next? Someone: So what's MIL2 now again, and how can I get there?! Someone: But I also want to see pictures! Reading is so difficult for me... Someone: Where can I see pictures of all the peripherals made by this company/ Someone: There's a picture on MIL2 below the table, showing a very rare machine. Does that mean you've got that one? Someone: There's no picture of resistor R18 (or chip 'xyz') on the machine's page! Someone: But on the machine xyz's page there's a really important part/chip missing! Someone: In some machines' technical specifications table a part/ chip is listed twice or even more often (e.g. in Sound and I/O-sections of the table) - is that a mistake? Someone: Are all your machines still functional? Someone: Why don't you open all the additional pictures (e.g. internals) in a new window (using JavaScript), instead of putting them all on one page (which is
A nice girl: Do you have hair on your back? I like hair. Still a nice girl: I just love hairy animals! Are you single? Someone: What is your personal motto? Share your wisdom with me! Someone: What are your other hobbies apart from the museum, and 'punishing others with your existance' Someone, again: Was that all true? Anything of it? Someone: Do you believe in god? Someone: And what is the meaning of life, then? Someone: Now where have these bold fonts gone? Someone: Why do you do all this museum stuff, don't you have anything else to do? Someone: What was the first computer you ever had? Someone: What are the things that you like? Someone: And what do you dislike? A critic: Why do you never finish something that you begin?
Christian Blach: Why don't you write something about me? Someone: Can't we end this F.A.Q. now? I'm so bored...
All trademarks mentioned on these pages belong to their respective owners (if they still exist). All other content, including pictures is
1. About Sothius'Home in general
2. About the museum
3. About Sothius
4. Miscellaneous
5. JavaScript notes
1. About Sothius'Home in general
Sothius: If you wanna go to jail, yes. But serious now, kid: you are not allowed to use any of my content without my written permission (except for private use on your home PC only - I can't prevent you from downloading a picture of me and masturbate on it, of course). And that's true for all pages in the internet! However, in some cases (such as online auctions) I may give you permission to use some of my content, but only for a limited period (i.e. the auction time), and only if you clearly mention where it came from and that you're using it with my permission. So whatever you do: ask me first!
Sothius: I've warned you, have I? But nevertheless, all the pics here at Sothius'Home are a compromise between quality and size. For best performance I recommend at least an ISDN-connection. For quickly loading MIL3 (which is the page of additional pics and often more than
Sothius: It looks best (and was built) at 1280x1024 pixels in
Sothius: Are you sure you have restartet the AOL-software? These changes only take effect after restarting. Another cause could be that the old pics are still in the browsers cache (then just refresh the page oder clear all
Sothius: Either it's the drugs, or just a problem with color temperature. As you probably know, color temperature values and other things (like gamma) are used to make computer pictures comparable. With color calibration, it's possible to e.g. reproduce the exact colors on your screen when printing a photo. Color temperature is measured in Kelvin, and of course has nothing to do with 'real' temperature - it's just an artifical standard, which considers blue the 'hottest color', whereas red is the 'coolest color'. Now enough theory, what does this mean for you? Generally, the higher the color temperature setting of your screen, the more 'blueish' it will look, and with a lower temperature it will look 'reddish' (e.g. white looks like yellow). Now there's also a difference between TFT- and CRT-monitors: the latter will come
with higher color temperature presets by default (up to 9300K), whereas most TFTs should be shipped with 6500K predefined (the so-called sRGB standard). Looking at
Sothius: It was tested on the Windoze-platform with different browsers such as Netscape Navigator 4.78 & 7, Opera 7 & 9, Mozilla 1.3 & 1.7,
Sothius: Maybe you'll have to adjust the font-size manually, because by default (tested on MacOS 8 and Solaris 9) many browsers use standard system fonts (which are at about
Sothius: Don't panic! This is just a 'time stamp' which is set every time you read the NEWS. The number is the amount of seconds passed since January 1, 1970 (using the JavaScript-function getTime, and using two capital letters as seperator). Now every time you load Sothius' Home (the navigation bar, to be more specific), a JavaScript-function compares the last time you read the news with its last update. Should there be unread news, you'll be notified!
Additionally, the cookie will contain infos on your viewing preferences, if set with the PREFS page. Read the
Sothius: I also experienced that with some configurations. Generally, you should check your browser's cookie settings, and maybe the configuration of your popup-blocker (integrated in most actual browsers). It might help to just add
Sothius: No, that's just what I call a 'silent update'. The changes are too small to be worth a news-entry, like updates to technical specs (happens quite often), a new machine portrait etc.
Sothius: Well, this is the navigation bar of Sothius'Home . The buttons should be self-explanatory (at least if you're able to read): ABOUT ME tells you everything about - guess whom - me (if you're really interested in that). NEWS is what you should always read when visiting me again after a long time.
Now to the most important section of this site: the MUSEUM. That's where all these pictures and technical data of those 'ancient' computers are. Don't forget yer handkerchief (better is a towel). Then, there's the F.A.Q., which you are currently reading (if you don't believe me just click it again and wonder - you're still here!). The PREFS button allows you to set certain viewing preferences, see the
Sothius: Understandable, but please note this:
If you obey these rules, you're of course welcome to link to me. Contact me should you have any problems.
Sothius: Don't be so pathetic, Karsten! You're well capable of reading english, you're just lazy bones! Anyway, is there anyone on this planet who cannot understand english? I agree: it's sad but it's true... But if someone offers help I would translate it into latin or traditional chinese...
Sothius: Updates may not only add new pages and machines - sometimes I decide to remove some (e.g. a machine becomes defective). The afflicted page is then replaced by a 'dummy' (with the text you described), in order to avoid the standard 'page not found' errors, when someone's redirected to here
2. About the museum
Sothius: Now you're ready to enter the MUSEUM and get information on vintage computers! When having entered the MUSEUM, just select one of the famous companies by clicking its logo or the text to the right. Another option would be clicking on 'LIST OF PERIPHERALS' for each company. Now you have just entered what I call 'MACHINE INFO LEVEL 1 (MIL1)'. Congrats, maggot!
Sothius: Now you see all the machines I got from that company ('MACHINES IN MY COLLECTION'). You can also select 'QUICK HISTORY INFO ON THE COMPANY' or 'PERIPHERALS' if you're interested in that. NOTE: The machines are ordered by their year of appearance. The year of appearance is the year in which this model has appeared, not neccessarily the whole series! Take the
Sothius: When in MIL1 (remember: MACHINES IN MY COLLECTION, QUICK HISTORY INFO ON THE COMPANY and PERIPHERALS) just click on one of the machines' names or thumbnail. Then you get into MIL2: there's a much more detailed picture of the machine (usually the size of about
Sothius: Okay, Mr Braindamaged. For this we've got - tadaa! MACHINE INFO LEVEL 3 (MIL3) (new since 07/20/00). There are now links in MIL2 pointing to a page with additional pictures for each machine! There you'll find pictures of the serial number or type plate, the 'board inscriptions' (silk-screenings) and the machine's special chips (e.g. the VIC-II in the
Sothius: Well, that's quite simple: You can either select the link "List of »company name«'s peripherals" (at the company-choice in the museum), or you can click the referential links within the technical specs (MIL2) to get to this page, just like you do with the special chips.
Sothius: Most probably not, but you're welcome to donate it. The machines in my collection are browseable on MIL1. What you talk about is a complementary (=additional) picture, just for your information (e.g. the C64DX prototype-pic in the Commodore-section). But the pic is mentioned in the 'Miscellaneous'-part of the table! If I should ever get one of those machines, the additional pic is of course removed and you can click them on MIL1 like all other machines I've got.
Sothius: What do you think I'm doing the whole day? Of course you'll only find the most important, interesting or odd chips or parts in the machine's description! I can't mention every little resistor on a machine's board! By the way these are 'standard components' and therefore uninteresting...
Sothius: Have you searched for a link saying 'see page xyz for a picture of abc!'? If the part/chip is still missing then there could be various reasons for that. One could be that in some companies' cases (e.g. Apple), many otherwise recognizeable components are relabeled with the companies logo and under another name! And when then there's no real documentation (like a hardware reference guide or something), I may not have found out what this chip is for. In this case I just add the picture with a comment like 'unknown part' - comments welcome!
Another cause could be that this part has been changed in the forthgoing development of a machine, e.g. the MOS 6510 in the first
A third reason for a missing part or chip could be that I was just unable to open the machine without risking damage to it (you know all my machines work and they shall continue to do so). If so, it'll also be mentioned.
Sothius: No. Some chips are designed to reduce production cost by providing more than just one function. That's why they are then listed in more than one section of the tech specs. Good examples for these multifunctional chips are TED (used in CBM's
Sothius: What do you take me for? A crap collector? Of course they're all fully functional! Sometimes I take them out and play around with 'em (just like I do with some of my body parts), thinking of the good ol' times and crying for a while (again, that's what I sometimes do when playing with bodyparts of mine). Of course I've also got some defective machines, but only use them for spare parts and don't consider them part of the Museum.
Sothius: To be honest, I also thought about that in the beginning. But there are some major disadvantages of that: a) some people disable JavaScript. No chance to make it work then, except for offering both variants... b) What about more than one window? Should every click on an internal open a new window? And how should they be arranged?
3. About Sothius
Sothius: Some people call me an animal - and not only because of my hairy body!
Sothius: Are you kidding? Take a look at my picture and guess - of course I am. But should you accidently look like
Sothius: Don't read about history - make it. That's also my advice to you.
Sothius: Well, I like drinking coffee - I'm of the opinion that life evolved from it, not from water. I also enjoy torturing old people with heavy metal music, or scaring the hell out of them when I drive my car like a blind psycho. And of course I enjoy knitting, like all real men! Nothing like your own, knitted underwear... But I'm also very exciting! I play chess, collect stamps, fold paper. Should I ever be bored, I sometimes tend to burn down churches or turn around crosses inside them (or the other way round - depends on the mood).
Sothius: Well... no. Apart from the coffee, of course.
Sothius: Of course I do - it's me. No, honestly, such a thing simply doesn't exist. Wake up and get
Sothius: That's easy: multiply (if you can) and then die. And paying your taxes, of course.
Sothius: Well, just didn't want to exaggerate it.
Sothius: Of course, in fact too much (I'm a man with a one-track mind...), but these vintage machines remind me of my youth, so long ago. The 80s and early 90s were just a great time, and computing equalled pioneering these days. Although I spent most of my days in the forest or partying with friends, computing itself was just far more interesting than today...
Sothius: My ZX81 (in 1983, me being seven years old). Shortly after came a Plus/4, then followed a
Sothius: Coffee (I mentioned that). The forest, and nature in general - I just love to go there for a long walk, preferably at midnight. Pipe-tabacco; I like pipe-smoking, makes me feel comfy.
Sothius: Hmm. That's difficult, because I simply love everything! Okay, let's see: generally, I hate most of todays computers, and people telling me about their problems with them. Windoze is a good example. Everybody's complaining about it, but everybody's using it. No wonder - compared to Linux, you don't have to deal with a patchwork of a thousand packages of varying quality (problems, which standards or a unified distribution would solve)... Anyway, both opponents are nothing compared to the simplicity and efficiency of AmigaOS. And if you need Un*x, why not Solaris? It's free, and being a standardized and rock-stable system, you can avoid lots of trouble of a patchwork system... In short: just use whatever you like, but just don't bother me (I'll ignore mails on that, btw).
Hmm, next thing I hate is advertising
Sothius: That's probably because I soon get impatient and bored. I'd like to tell you more about it, but - well, I'm bored now.
4. Miscellaneous
Sothius: I did. Look at the NEWS of 07/20/00, where I sent greetings to you!
Sothius: So am I. Let's end it here before it gets worse!
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