✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 25

i finally found this picture again. it has infected me memetically a long time ago

Never touch the terminals.

Please don't. Cause of failure.

This may be the cause.

It is not possible to use multiple computers at the same time.

It is not possible.

Show threadKFears& 🏳️‍⚧️

@whitequark What the fuck is this

Is it... A pluggable PCIe extension card for networking? Why... Would it specify that using with multiple computers is not possible? Why? Who would want that? Why it PCIe x16? Why?

I have so many questions. Explanatory alt text would go so fucking hard here.

Jan 25 at 9:29amWeb
Show threadSebastian GrillJan 25

@KFears It's a PCI (PCIe wasn't a thing then) extension card for IEEE-1394, commonly know as Firewire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394

IEEE 1394 - Wikipedia

Show threadmage_of_dragonsJan 25
@sobek @KFears Could the "it's not possible to use multiple computers" refers to connecting two computers with this then?
Show threadSebastian GrillJan 25
@mage_of_dragons @KFears That's a reasonable assumption, sure.
Show threadgrapeshotJan 25
@mage_of_dragons @sobek @KFears
It is possible to connect two computers with Firewire and use it as either a network connection or a serial link. Windows XP (at least) supports running the kernel debugger over Firewire
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Jan 26

@grapeshot @mage_of_dragons @sobek @KFears

One of the nicest features of Apple's now-discontinued XServe line:

If the machine crashed, you could plug in an iPod and it would take a full memory dump and store it on the iPod then reboot the machine. You could then debug the failure offline.

Yes, Apple really did sell the iPod as a system administration tool. And, yes, lots of people were very happy that this let them expense theirs.

Show threadAndrocatJan 28

@mage_of_dragons

It's just a mistranslation. Original text points out that if you have a built in adapter, you can't use that at the same time as this add-in adapter.

@sobek @KFears

Show threadturmoniJan 25
@KFears @whitequark looks like a PCI (not e) FireWire card to me
Show threadHexJan 25
@KFears So, the original text says "the IEEE1394 connector pointed by the ※ marker cannot be used at the same time as the internal IEEE1394 device connector"
Show threadPOWER Zoey G5Jan 25

@KFears @whitequark this is a PCI (not PCIe, PCI is a parallel protocol) FireWire controller card from the ancient days. You use this to connect FireWire devices to your computer.

FireWire has TCP/IP networking capabilities so you can network computers together. It is part of the standard. However it may be advising you against networking with more than one computer at a time which I haven’t tried yet and could be a little spooky (but it should work…)

Show threadKit BashirJan 26
@KFears It’s a firewire (an early competitor of USB which mostly lost out to USB) card from the era when desktop pcs did not have built in usb or firewire. Unlike USB (at the time, long before usb type C), firewire cables had the same plug on each end. The document is trying to say that this card can only be used for PC-to-device connections not pc-to-pc.
Show threadMacBalanceJan 26

@KFears @whitequark Itnlooks like IEEE 1394 or “FireWire” among other names. Mostly used for external storage.

Many FireWire devices had 2 ports to allow daisy chaining: It essentially replaced external SCSI on Macs for a few years.

I’m assuming this implementation was not tested and didn’t handle a possible layout with computer A to Device to Computer B which I don’t think was intended by the standard. MacOS did support networking over FireWire at some point as I remember, but it may have been OS specific.