Re: Latest Additions to the Virtual Warehouse of Computing, > Wonders Sale Inventory
FYI, it is unlikely there would have been a VCF without Sellam. He basically started it (with his own money) and continued through the first 10 years or so. Many others help support VCF (and continue to do so even though Sellam backed out some number of years ago.) Many thanks to Sellam those who continue it! I didn't get an adequate chance to thank Evan at the show last year. You're welcome! But I wasn't able to attend in person last year. Erik Klein ran it for us.
Re: Latest Additions to the Virtual Warehouse of Computing, > Wonders Sale Inventory
On 6/29/2019 4:21 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: An Imsai 8080 is s'posed to sell for $599 ($931 assembled) An Apple 1 is s'posed to sell for $666.66 A TRS-80 is s'posed to be $599.95, with monitor and cassette player. A 5150 is s'posed to be $1281, easily $1565 with base features, and up. What kind of "capitalist profiteers" would go with what the market will bear, and charge more? The real question, did any one ever buy BIG IRON computers as NEW on this list. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com Ben.
Re: DNS and Registrar
Seth Morabito wrote: > On Fri, Jun 28, 2019, at 2:07 AM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote: > > [...] so my response is to filter out anything to do with Linode from > > here. > > This is something of a touchy subject for me because I have been a Linode > customer for over a decade, and have always been extraordinarily happy with > their service. > It's going to get interesting for me too because the DNS registrar that is looking after my domain name seems to be using them too and I am now having difficulty reaching their website since I started filtering Linode. This is all going to come to a crunch when it is time to renew my domain name registration in November. I have tried to alert the registrar to the issues I am having with Linode but I have received no response from them. I only changed to the current registrar last year after the previous one kept sending me spam and ignored my complaints about it... > > THAT SAID: I had to stop running my own mail server about two years ago, > after the failure rate of delivery became too high. Part of that was > because of Google, but I'm sure another good part was due to Linode IP > addresses ending up on blacklists. > Speaking of which, I have noticed a correlation between a provider's use of Google email infrastructure instead of their own email infrastructure to accepts or reply to abuse reports (such as Linode does for example) and said provider's attempts to avoid the consequences of dubious practices on their part. > > It has been a very long time since I looked at the competition, but I'm > very open to switching. Do you (or anyone else for that matter) have > providers you would recommend? > Sorry, I don't have any ideas. I expect the market is completely different where you are to where I am, nearly a third of the world away. > > -Seth > -- > Seth Morabito > Poulsbo, WA > w...@loomcom.com > Regards, Peter Coghlan.
Re: Latest Additions to the Virtual Warehouse of Computing, > Wonders Sale Inventory
On Sat, 29 Jun 2019, Marvin Johnston via cctalk wrote: FYI, it is unlikely there would have been a VCF without Sellam. He basically started it (with his own money) and continued through the first 10 years or so. Many others help support VCF (and continue to do so even though Sellam backed out some number of years ago.) Many thanks to Sellam those who continue it! I didn't get an adequate chance to thank Evan at the show last year. I, for one, fully support Sellam in his effots to move out his inventory, and have never seen him sell anything at 10x prices. 10x??!? An Imsai 8080 is s'posed to sell for $599 ($931 assembled) An Apple 1 is s'posed to sell for $666.66 A TRS-80 is s'posed to be $599.95, with monitor and cassette player. A 5150 is s'posed to be $1281, easily $1565 with base features, and up. What kind of "capitalist profiteers" would go with what the market will bear, and charge more? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: Latest Additions to the Virtual Warehouse of Computing, > Wonders Sale Inventory
FYI, it is unlikely there would have been a VCF without Sellam. He basically started it (with his own money) and continued through the first 10 years or so. Many others help support VCF (and continue to do so even though Sellam backed out some number of years ago.) I, for one, fully support Sellam in his effots to move out his inventory, and have never seen him sell anything at 10x prices. Marvin From: Randy Dawson Anybody try business with this guy? His prices are 10X off the chart
Re: Anyone have an Ethernet interface card for an AT&T 730 terminal?
On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 1:21 PM Josh Dersch wrote: > > > On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 12:17 PM Al Kossow via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> I just finished taking pictures and dumping the firmware from a 730X >> terminal >> but it turns out it has a Starlan and not an Ethernet interface. It would >> be >> nice to get a firmware dump from an Ethernet card. A start of a 630 >> driver is >> in MAME. >> > > Mine has a Starlan 10 adapter in it, which is apparently close enough to > twisted-pair Ethernet that it can be bridged with one of AT&T's Starlan > hubs, which is how I have it wired to my network. I'll see if I can dump > the ROMs, but they're not socketed so it'll take a bit of surgery. I also > have the ISDN adapter, which has socketed EPROMs. > Also my 730X cart is newer -- it's the 730+ X Cartridge, Issue 1.2 (c) 1991. I'll get those dumped too, hopefully this weekend. - Josh > > - Josh > > > >> >> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/730/730X >> >> It also appears the keyboards for the 630 and 730 aren't backwards >> compatible >> with the other 6xx products and the 5620. 5620 keyboards need -12v which >> the 630 or 730 >> don't supply, and the 610 keyboard doesn't appear to work either. Josh >> took a couple >> of pictures of his 630 keyboard and even though they look similar, the >> earlier keyboards >> were made by Teletype and the 630 is made by Keytronic. >> >> >>
Re: Anyone have an Ethernet interface card for an AT&T 730 terminal?
On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 12:17 PM Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > I just finished taking pictures and dumping the firmware from a 730X > terminal > but it turns out it has a Starlan and not an Ethernet interface. It would > be > nice to get a firmware dump from an Ethernet card. A start of a 630 driver > is > in MAME. > Mine has a Starlan 10 adapter in it, which is apparently close enough to twisted-pair Ethernet that it can be bridged with one of AT&T's Starlan hubs, which is how I have it wired to my network. I'll see if I can dump the ROMs, but they're not socketed so it'll take a bit of surgery. I also have the ISDN adapter, which has socketed EPROMs. - Josh > > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/730/730X > > It also appears the keyboards for the 630 and 730 aren't backwards > compatible > with the other 6xx products and the 5620. 5620 keyboards need -12v which > the 630 or 730 > don't supply, and the 610 keyboard doesn't appear to work either. Josh > took a couple > of pictures of his 630 keyboard and even though they look similar, the > earlier keyboards > were made by Teletype and the 630 is made by Keytronic. > > >
Anyone have an Ethernet interface card for an AT&T 730 terminal?
I just finished taking pictures and dumping the firmware from a 730X terminal but it turns out it has a Starlan and not an Ethernet interface. It would be nice to get a firmware dump from an Ethernet card. A start of a 630 driver is in MAME. http://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/730/730X It also appears the keyboards for the 630 and 730 aren't backwards compatible with the other 6xx products and the 5620. 5620 keyboards need -12v which the 630 or 730 don't supply, and the 610 keyboard doesn't appear to work either. Josh took a couple of pictures of his 630 keyboard and even though they look similar, the earlier keyboards were made by Teletype and the 630 is made by Keytronic.
Re: OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
Washington State Ferries still use 50 cent pieces and 2 dollar bills a lot. After years of receiving them as change, I finally asked why? The reason is they reduce the number of hand movements by one half. If you're sitting in a kiosk all day dolling out change, it can reduce repetitive wrist/elbow ailments. On 6/28/19 9:57 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: I saw this half-dollar sized plastic fob on the desk and asked what it was for. On Fri, 28 Jun 2019, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: If I may just say -- only about 5% of humanity know how big that is. I don't. I don't even know if a half a dollar is a note or a coin, and that's without getting extra-pedantic and pointing out that about a dozen countries call their currencies the "dollar". :-( Oh, FAR FAR FAR less than 5%. Most residents of USA haven't seen a half dollar or "50 cent piece" in decades. They are as much of an oddity as the $2 bill. They are nominally still in circulation, most recent being JFK, but I think that they stopped making them in 2002, and there are federal vaults full of uncirculated pre-2002 coins. Most recent has a portrait of Kennedy. They are 30.61mm diameter, which is the largest relatively recent USA coin (not counting the long discontinued 38.1mm SILVER DOLLAR) You could have just ASSUMED THAT IT WOULD BE logarithmically between a quarter[dollar] (24.26mm) and a dollar coin (26.5mm). That would be completely WRONG, unless you use the 38.1mm ancient "silver dollar", but hardly a problem. "50 pence coin" would be CLOSE ENOUGH. Actually, for THIS purpose, "large coin" is as accurate as you need. Just as I am not at all familiar with British currency, that hasn't dampened my appreciation of British TV, such as Doctor Who and a variety of Brit-coms. "Silver dollar" used to be a large coin. (38.1mm) It was the standard for casinos. When it was discontinued (1935), the casinos started to mint their own chips/tokens as a replacement. There was a brief attempt to revive the silver dollar in 1971 with the "Eisenhower Dollar". It is quite rare that you will encounter one of the "large dollars". The Susan B Anthony dollar (1979-1981) http://www.smalldollars.com/ was never widely accepted, mostly because it was MUCH MUCH too close to a quarter in size. (26.5mm V 24.26mm) Different edge milling is NOT ENOUGH. It COULD have been widely accepted, if the gubmint were to have given a tax incentive to have video games that took a quarter to provide five games for a "Carter Quarter"; and the "quantity sale" would have been so profitable that the tax incentive would only have to have been short term. It is quite rare that you will encounter one. It was later replaced with the Sacajewa dollar. Same problem. It is quite rare that you will encounter one. Then there was a commemorative series (gold colored) of presidents of USA. Change of COLOR is NOT ENOUGH. It is quite rare that you will encounter one. And, I understand that the gubmint is planning an "American innovation" commemorative series. We are far too arrogant to learn from our mistakes. It will be quite rare that you will encounter one. But, the states of USA commemorative quarters were so popular that they followed that with national parks commemorative quarters. The quarter is the largest USA coin that you are likely to encounter in circulation. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On 2019-06-29 9:15 a.m., Nemo Nusquam via cctalk wrote: On 06/29/19 06:39, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote (in part): US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. Some countries also put Braille dots (besides the different colours). Does the US have any such plans? N. Canada has had braille dots on its notes. In late 2011 Canadian notes switch from cotton/paper to plastic which makes braille dots easy and durable. Each denomination of note is also a different colourCanadian coins are the same denominations as US coins and are mostly the same size. In Canada the five cent piece was likely called a nickel because when the original silver 5 cent piece, that was smaller than a dime, was replaced by a larger coin of base metal, it was nearly pure nickel. Canada also has a 50 cent piece, but like the US they are not circulated much. The last time I relieved one in change was 40 years ago when crossing the international bridge at Cornwall ON. the toll was an even half dollar increment so when you got change for the toll gates they gave you 50 cent pieces. I still have one or two of them. Paul.
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On 6/29/19 3:39 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > You use nicknames for 2 denominations which most of us foreigners > don't know -- I still don't know which is a "nickel" (which is a metal > to me) and which is a "dime" (which is a Swedish chocolate-covered > sweet bar, of which I'm very fond but can't eat because I'm > overweight). There we share a culture with the British (e.g. "tanner", "quid", "nicker", "guinea"). However,I'll also say that younger Americans are unfamiliar with older US slang for various denominations. For example, "bit" = 12.5 cents hails back to the Spanish custom of dividing the Real (milled dollar--wonder how many young Spaniards know about that?) into eight pieces, hence, "pieces of eight". So "two bits" is a quarter dollar (our term "dollar" hails back to the Bohemian "Joachimsthaler"). Fin = 5 dollars, sawbuck = 10 dollars, double-sawbuck = 20 dollars, frog = 50 dollars, C-note = 100 dollars... --Chuck
Re: Identifying some boards
Originally, System Engineering Laboratories (SEL) out of Fort Lauderdale (later bought by Gould (Gould SEL), then NEC and finally spun off as Encore) built one of the original 32 bit mini computers (and later super-minicomputers) in the 70's -90's. Popular for large flight simulators and nuclear power plant control, they were high performance real-time computers. The instruction set was designed and implemented in many technologies. In the latter days, micro-programmed bit slice architecture enabled the company to squeeze the performance of a multi board CPU set down onto a single board. The VERY large connectors seen were the standard backplane, the SELbus. The central pins were actually the bus itself, while pins on the end were carried through the backplane to create an IO bus where boards plugged onto the BACK of the backplane. The instruction set was nice and easy to code in assembly. The machines I worked with in the early 80s )32/87, 32/8780, 32/9780) were typically about 4 times faster than a VAX 11/780 and considerably faster for interrupt response in a real-time environment. The primary OS was called MPX-32. though machines with a slightly modified instruction set (called PowerNodes - PN9000) ran a Unix variant. Primary programming languages were FORTRAN and assembly. This class of machine (minicomputers) of course fell to the side once microprocessors picked up speed in the 90s... The architecture is generally referred to as SEL32 - there is a mostly complete SIMH implementation of this architecture that needs some more testing and debugging. Those were fun times. Mike Niswonger, crufty old minicomputer and FORTRAN programmer On 6/24/19 10:16 AM, Kyle Owen via cctalk wrote: I picked up these boards many weeks ago, but haven't photographed them until recently. Some of them are pretty disgusting, but some of the others look alright. Anyone have any idea what these came out of? Some are labeled Gould, others are labeled Encore. http://imgur.com/a/d9iK9qb Thanks! Kyle
Re: OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
"Silver dollar" used to be a large coin. (38.1mm) It was the standard for casinos. When it was discontinued (1935), the casinos started to mint their own chips/tokens as a replacement. There was a brief attempt to revive the silver dollar in 1971 with the "Eisenhower Dollar". It is quite rare that you will encounter one of the "large dollars". On Sat, 29 Jun 2019, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: This I had never heard of. Thanks. Go to Las Vegas, and find one of the few casinos that still has coin clot machines (Circus-Circus? El Cortez?) (where's the excitement in scanning a credit card, and winning a piece of paper to take to the cashier's cage?), and buy a dollar coin. It is the casino's imitation of a silver dollar. Put it into a slot machine, and you will never see it again. Unless the machine malfunctions and spits out one or more into a bowl that is optimized for making loud noise.
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On Sat, 29 Jun 2019, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. I mean, I know America doesn't believe in helping people when they're sick, but it wasn't until I visited that I realised you saved up particular hatred for the blind and partially-sighted and went out of your way to make life more difficult for them. USA makes a pretense of accommodating disabilities, but is actually pretty hostile to the disabled. The "new" paper currency, that is s'posedly good for blind people has slightly different shades of the same colors. USA paper currency used to be the size of punchcards. So, if one were to have a LOT of it, you could use the same trays, and counting machines, etc. Do you suppose that Hollerith had a lot of paper currency? "If Hollerith were alive today, how many birthdays would he have had?" requires being aware that 1900 was NOT a leap year. You use nicknames for 2 denominations which most of us foreigners don't know -- I still don't know which is a "nickel" (which is a metal to me) and which is a "dime" (which is a Swedish chocolate-covered sweet bar, of which I'm very fond but can't eat because I'm overweight). A "Dime" is one tenth of a dollar. Or ten cents. Or $10 worth of drugs. The coin is 17.91mm diameter, and the smallest coin in circulation. A "Nickel" is five cents. or $5 worth of drugs. The coin is 21.21mm, and is between a penny and a quarter in size. "Silver Dollar pancakes" are actually larger than a silver dollar, but nobody complains. And the base unit is a cent, but you call them "pennies", the base unit of _my_ old country's currency, and you didn't even put the symbol into ASCII. Pennies used to be copper. Now, they are mostly zinc, due to copper costing more than a penny. But, they managed to maintain the copper color. During WW2, pennies were briefly made out of steel. 6 decades ago, pennies said "One Cent" on the back, with pictures of wheat; then they changed to a picture of the Lincoln memorial, which is at the end of Memorial bridge in Washington, DC. Very weird. Our parent country taught us to make currency weird, and we have carried on the tradition. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: OT: the end of Dyn DNS
> On Jun 28, 2019, at 10:56 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk > wrote: > >> ... >> > I have had my own DNS for 20 years, it's pretty simple stuff. ... > > So, jumping in late to this conversation, why does it matter that Dyn > and/or Oracle do not supply this service? In my case, it isn't the DNS service but the dynamic part that matters. I want a name for my home system, which gets its address from the ISP and that address changes from time to time. paul
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On 06/29/19 06:39, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote (in part): US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. Some countries also put Braille dots (besides the different colours). Does the US have any such plans? N.
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
> US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same > size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. I mean, I know > America doesn't believe in helping people when they're sick, but it > wasn't until I visited that I realised you saved up particular hatred > for the blind and partially-sighted and went out of your way to make > life more difficult for them. Your knowledge is way out of date. US currency changed about twenty years ago, partially to benefit the blind. Other than the one dollar note, they all now have much larger portraits, big plain numbers on the back, and subtle color variations. There is a tradeoff in the design - the mint makes them distinctive enough for the blind, yet identical enough to force people to actually look at the notes. Additionally, the newer brass color dollar coins are fairly successful with the blind. They have a distinct color and edge, which does make them very easy to distinguish from the Quarter, unlike the earlier Susan B Anthony coin. -- Will
Re: OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 22:55, Steven M Jones via cctalk wrote: > > Two weeks ago I was in London, and had brought my pound notes/coins from > a visit a few years earlier. When trying to buy lunch, the cashier > refused my £10 note since new £5 and £10 notes had been issued over a > year before. I was advised I could change it at a bank... Yep. I had this at Easter last year. The first time I took my Czech girlfriend to visit England. The airport bus refused my "tenner". I have been away long enough, they've changed the money. This shook me as well as annoying me. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Re: OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 22:50, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: > Yea, I'm just the right age to have seen them in circulation and have it as > a unit of measure for "just bigger than an inch". Sorry for the crazy > measurement... It's fine really. It's provoked an interesting if offtopic conversation. I was thrown because I'd never even heard of one before, I think. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Re: OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 18:57, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > > Oh, FAR FAR FAR less than 5%. *Chuckle* > Most residents of USA haven't seen a half dollar or "50 cent piece" in > decades. They are as much of an oddity as the $2 bill. They are > nominally still in circulation, most recent being JFK, but I think that > they stopped making them in 2002, and there are federal vaults full of > uncirculated pre-2002 coins. Most recent has a portrait of Kennedy. > They are 30.61mm diameter, which is the largest relatively recent > USA coin (not counting the long discontinued 38.1mm SILVER DOLLAR) Oh! Well, I thought I'd never seen one in my 3 visits to the USA. > You could have just ASSUMED THAT IT WOULD BE logarithmically between a > quarter[dollar] (24.26mm) and a dollar coin (26.5mm). That would be > completely WRONG, unless you use the 38.1mm ancient "silver dollar", but > hardly a problem. Oh heavens no. Coinage almost never makes that kind of sense. Nor banknotes. When I was a child I was shown an old British £5 note. As in, from my parents' childhood. Not kept as a souvenir but lost somewhere as it was a very significant amount of money. It was _vast_ to my child's eyes. It looked approximately the size of a pillowcase or something. It looked like linen, not money. More like a joke teatowel printed with a spare, fancy currency-like design I'd never seen. It was scored with deep lines as you had to fold them into eighths or something to put them into your wallet. Even as a kid this briefly excited me with the notion that pre-WW2 banknotes scaled for area by value, and I had visions of buying furniture or something with £20 notes the size of bedsheets, or £50 notes that needed to be unrolled outdoors like a carpet for inspection... Of course it wasn't *really...* Sadly... > "50 pence coin" would be CLOSE ENOUGH. Aha! > Actually, for THIS purpose, "large coin" is as accurate as you need. > Just as I am not at all familiar with British currency, that hasn't > dampened my appreciation of British TV, such as Doctor Who and a variety > of Brit-coms. :-D > "Silver dollar" used to be a large coin. (38.1mm) It was the standard for > casinos. When it was discontinued (1935), the casinos started to mint > their own chips/tokens as a replacement. There was a brief attempt to > revive the silver dollar in 1971 with the "Eisenhower Dollar". > It is quite rare that you will encounter one of the "large dollars". This I had never heard of. Thanks. > The Susan B Anthony dollar (1979-1981) > http://www.smalldollars.com/ > was never widely accepted, mostly because it was MUCH MUCH too close to a > quarter in size. (26.5mm V 24.26mm) Different edge milling is NOT > ENOUGH. It COULD have been widely accepted, if the gubmint were to have > given a tax incentive to have video games that took a quarter to provide > five games for a "Carter Quarter"; and the "quantity sale" would have > been so profitable that the tax incentive would only have to have been > short term. > It is quite rare that you will encounter one. > > It was later replaced with the Sacajewa dollar. Same problem. > It is quite rare that you will encounter one. > > Then there was a commemorative series (gold colored) of presidents of USA. > Change of COLOR is NOT ENOUGH. > It is quite rare that you will encounter one. Czech coinage does something unique in my experience. The _small_ denominations are silver. The larger ones are copper/brass/whatever. This is the reverse of I think every other country I've ever visited. > And, I understand that the gubmint is planning an "American innovation" > commemorative series. We are far too arrogant to learn from our mistakes. > It will be quite rare that you will encounter one. :-( > But, the states of USA commemorative quarters were so popular that they > followed that with national parks commemorative quarters. > The quarter is the largest USA coin that you are likely to encounter > in circulation. It's the biggest I've seen, which is in part why a half-dollar threw me. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Re: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR
On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 21:47, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > > Just for fun, I went to the bank and bought about $1000 in half dollar and > dollar coins. My son collects them, and we went through them all. We did find > some silver half dollars. The ones we are not keeping now go to whatever fast > food or corner store is needed. Some like them, some hate them! Most tell me > they have not seen them in years. So they're not made any more? Interesting. Any particular reason? I wonder if that is why I've never seen one. US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. I mean, I know America doesn't believe in helping people when they're sick, but it wasn't until I visited that I realised you saved up particular hatred for the blind and partially-sighted and went out of your way to make life more difficult for them. You use nicknames for 2 denominations which most of us foreigners don't know -- I still don't know which is a "nickel" (which is a metal to me) and which is a "dime" (which is a Swedish chocolate-covered sweet bar, of which I'm very fond but can't eat because I'm overweight). And the base unit is a cent, but you call them "pennies", the base unit of _my_ old country's currency, and you didn't even put the symbol into ASCII. Very weird. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053