Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than human companions ?
On 2/14/26 23:52, scole wrote:
In article <10mleug$1pllc$1@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than human
companions ?
There is a semi-regular strip in Viz Comic* called Robbie's Robot Carer that's worth Googling up. Bleak, but a likelier future outcome than
fantasy helper bots depicted in the movies, imo...
*For those not in the know, Viz is a long-running UK adult comic - adult
in the sense of swears and toilet humour, not porn. I have been an avid reader of it since the very early 1990s, when I was but a young'un. It is very good.
In the USA, VIZ is a publisher of translated Japanese manga.
On 2026-02-15 20:20:10 +0000, scole said:
In article <10mt3lc$8a2c$1@dont-email.me>,
blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com wrote:
On 2/14/26 23:52, scole wrote:
In article <10mleug$1pllc$1@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than
human
companions ?
There is a semi-regular strip in Viz Comic* called Robbie's Robot Carer >>>> that's worth Googling up. Bleak, but a likelier future outcome than
fantasy helper bots depicted in the movies, imo...
*For those not in the know, Viz is a long-running UK adult comic -
adult
in the sense of swears and toilet humour, not porn. I have been an avid >>>> reader of it since the very early 1990s, when I was but a young'un.
It is
very good.
In the USA, VIZ is a publisher of translated Japanese manga.
Ah, yes. Viz Comic (the UK sweary publication) routinely publishes on its
letters pages occassional misdirected emails from Manga enthusiasts
trying
to contact VIZ asking questions about obscure Japanese comic series,
ususally with the Viz Editor commenting beneath along the lines of "We
have no idea what the fuck you are talking about"...
It's odd that VIZ chose that name to distribute translated Japanese
comics
under - Viz Comic began in 1979, and it's not like it was an underground
thing that nobody could possibly have heard of - it became a relatively
major part of UK culture; TV shows, computer games, characters
licensed to
advertisements, Christmas annuals (which are well worth hunting out if
you
ever wanted to dip your toe into the Viz cesspit - the Golden Age of Viz
is generally considered to be late 80s/early 90s, but the last decade or
so's worth of Viz has been really very good and funny, any annual from
either of those those periods should have something in that'll raise a
smile - the 2000s-era was a bit flat by comparison, cruder but not
funnier). A 5 second Google would have helped them avoid the name
clash...
Technically they are legally different names.
The UK comic book is called "Viz" published by "Viz Holdings Ltd." (a sub-brand of Metropolis Internationl).
The US company is officially "VIZ Media LLC" (originally "Viz, LLC"),
but does use the shortened trading name "VIZ".
Legally, it's often only when used within the same country that problems occur.
There are numerous examples of different companies using the same name, especially in shortened forms. One I often see here in New Zealand is "Apple" which is used by both the computer company "Apple Inc." and a
local appliance repair business "Apple Appliances Ltd" (which does not repair computers, just fridges, dishwashers, etc.)*. Plus of course the
big lawsuit when Apple computer company tried to move into music and it collided with The Beatles company "Apple Records" / "Apple Corp".
* It's surprising that the US computer company hasn't, that I know of,
tried to get the appliance repair company to change their name and logo. Apple computer company did try (and fail) to get he supermarket chain Woolworths to change their logo, claiming it was too similar ... depsite being completely different images:
-a-a Apple Inc. logo <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/ Apple_logo_black.svg/250px-Apple_logo_black.svg.png>
-a-a Woolworths logo
<https://brandlogos.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ woolworths_supermarkets-logo-brandlogos.net_-512x512.png>
-a-a Apple Appliances logo
-a-a <https://lirp.cdn-website.com/c27c7ba3/dms3rep/multi/opt/ logo-343w.webp>
On 2/15/26 15:29, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-15 20:20:10 +0000, scole said:
In article <10mt3lc$8a2c$1@dont-email.me>,
blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com wrote:
On 2/14/26 23:52, scole wrote:
In article <10mleug$1pllc$1@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than human >>>>>> companions ?
There is a semi-regular strip in Viz Comic* called Robbie's Robot Carer >>>>> that's worth Googling up. Bleak, but a likelier future outcome than
fantasy helper bots depicted in the movies, imo...
*For those not in the know, Viz is a long-running UK adult comic - adult >>>>> in the sense of swears and toilet humour, not porn. I have been an avid >>>>> reader of it since the very early 1990s, when I was but a young'un. It >>>>> is very good.
In the USA, VIZ is a publisher of translated Japanese manga.
Ah, yes. Viz Comic (the UK sweary publication) routinely publishes on its >>> letters pages occassional misdirected emails from Manga enthusiasts trying >>> to contact VIZ asking questions about obscure Japanese comic series,
ususally with the Viz Editor commenting beneath along the lines of "We
have no idea what the fuck you are talking about"...
It's odd that VIZ chose that name to distribute translated Japanese comics >>> under - Viz Comic began in 1979, and it's not like it was an underground >>> thing that nobody could possibly have heard of - it became a relatively
major part of UK culture; TV shows, computer games, characters licensed to >>> advertisements, Christmas annuals (which are well worth hunting out if you >>> ever wanted to dip your toe into the Viz cesspit - the Golden Age of Viz >>> is generally considered to be late 80s/early 90s, but the last decade or >>> so's worth of Viz has been really very good and funny, any annual from
either of those those periods should have something in that'll raise a
smile - the 2000s-era was a bit flat by comparison, cruder but not
funnier). A 5 second Google would have helped them avoid the name clash...
I think the publisher of manga and anime started before the Internet. Checked Wikipedia and yes it was 1986. In 2005 they merged with another
company and in 2017 had a 23% share of graphic novel publication.
They are largely Japanese owned.
Technically they are legally different names.
The UK comic book is called "Viz" published by "Viz Holdings Ltd." (a
sub-brand of Metropolis Internationl).
The US company is officially "VIZ Media LLC" (originally "Viz, LLC"),
but does use the shortened trading name "VIZ".
Legally, it's often only when used within the same country that problems occur.
There are numerous examples of different companies using the same name,
especially in shortened forms. One I often see here in New Zealand is
"Apple" which is used by both the computer company "Apple Inc." and a
local appliance repair business "Apple Appliances Ltd" (which does not
repair computers, just fridges, dishwashers, etc.)*. Plus of course the
big lawsuit when Apple computer company tried to move into music and it
collided with The Beatles company "Apple Records" / "Apple Corp".
* It's surprising that the US computer company hasn't, that I know of,
tried to get the appliance repair company to change their name and
logo. Apple computer company did try (and fail) to get he supermarket
chain Woolworths to change their logo, claiming it was too similar ...
depsite being completely different images:
Not really a surprize because Wozniak was a member of the counter-culture of
the 1960s and Jobs was let go to move to Next and begin the integration of Unix into the MacOS.
aa Apple Inc. logo
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/
Apple_logo_black.svg/250px-Apple_logo_black.svg.png>
aa Woolworths logo
<https://brandlogos.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/
woolworths_supermarkets-logo-brandlogos.net_-512x512.png>
aa Apple Appliances logo
aa <https://lirp.cdn-website.com/c27c7ba3/dms3rep/multi/opt/ logo-343w.webp>
I am old enough to remember the discussion in the Computer magazines which were freely distributed in the early years when MS-DOS was still
the main thing. Apple Macs were home appliances then in the same
category as stove or refrigerator with rotten monochrome graphics and simplified GUI interface.
Apple agreed to get along with some of the other businesses that used Apple-like logos.
AmigaOS and computers ran rings around Macs then. It took me years and product upgrades before I got a used A1000.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my machine
in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
bliss
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with it
- business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of the
above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple II
range) as business computers and in education.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my machine
in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
The Amiga was technically the better computer, but the OS was very
kludgey in comparison to the Mac OS, although the Amiga OS was still far better than Windoze.
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with it
- business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of the
above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple II
range) as business computers and in education.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my machine
in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
On 2/15/26 17:10, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
snip
The Amiga was technically the better computer, but the OS was very
kludgey in comparison to the Mac OS, although the Amiga OS was still
far better than Windoze.
But it was based on TripOS which I know nothing else about. The
commands were simple to learn and I was not then as stupid as I am now.
I used to have 3 external 3.5 floppy drives and used multiple terminals
to do format and copy for the Amiga Users Group here in San Francisco.
That was with my A1000 with an external expansion box with a GVP SCSI+
host card which could handle up to 8 MB of 32 bit SIMMs. I had only 2
MB of simms because of the price for most of the time I used that card
which I later moved to an A2000b (mb/4.3). It like the vast majority of
my machines was second hand.
The flaw tolerated for price purposes was lack of memory management.
The 680x0 range cpus was quite expensive to get up to that capability.
I think the 68020s were the lowest level that could have managed memory
but it was much more expensive than the 68000/14 MHz which is what the AmigaOS was based on. I finally got the cash together for accelerator
card with a 68060/50 MHz and thought I was doing well. Still fell over
when I ran web browser with word processor. Always had Textra, a Forth-based text processor running as well. Textra was shareware and
vastly superior to KWrite or Kate.
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with it
- business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of the
above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple II
range) as business computers and in education.
I can but agree. The ultimate owners never used computers and so they
did not realize what they had. CBM tended to point it at home use for
games and AV use. The AV business had to use Amigas but with a card
called the Video Toaster. It was very expensive but very capable and
was sold under other labels as a Video Toaster computer. Still was an
Amiga hardware base for the same reasons the Video Toaster people chose
it over other platforms in that it was designed from scratch to use
CRT/TV as output display. Oh and if you had to use Mac or MS-DOS we
had cards for that too. Amigas with the Mac card were faster than production Macs.
On 2/15/26 17:10, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
snip
The Amiga was technically the better computer, but the OS was very
kludgey in comparison to the Mac OS, although the Amiga OS was still
far better than Windoze.
-a-a-a-aBut it was based on TripOS which I know nothing else about. The commands
were simple to learn and I was not then as stupid as I am now. I used to have
3 external 3.5 floppy drives and used multiple terminals to do format
and copy
for the Amiga Users Group here in San Francisco.-a That was with my A1000 with an external expansion box with a GVP SCSI+ host card which could
handle
up to 8 MB of 32 bit SIMMs.-a I had only 2 MB of simms because of the price for most of the time I used that card which I later moved to an A2000b (mb/4.3).
It like the vast majority of my machines was second hand.
-a-a-a-aThe flaw tolerated for price purposes was lack of memory management.
-a-a-a-aThe 680x0 range cpus was quite expensive to get up to that capability.
-a-a-a-aI think the 68020s were the lowest level that could have managed memory
but it was much more expensive than the 68000/14 MHz which is what the AmigaOS was based on.-a I finally got the cash together for accelerator
card with a
68060/50 MHz and thought I was doing well.-a Still fell over when I ran
web browser
with word processor.-a Always had Textra, a Forth-based text processor running as
well.-a Textra was shareware and vastly superior to KWrite or Kate.
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with
it - business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of
the above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple
II range) as business computers and in education.
-a-a-a-aI can but agree. The ultimate owners never used computers and so they
did not realize what they had. CBM tended to point it at home use for games and AV use.-a The AV business had to use Amigas but with a card called the Video Toaster.-a It was very expensive but very capable and was sold
under other
labels as a Video Toaster computer.-a Still was an Amiga hardware base
for the
same reasons the Video Toaster people chose it over other platforms in that it was designed from scratch to use CRT/TV as output display.-a Oh and
if you had to use Mac or MS-DOS we had cards for that too.-a Amigas
with the Mac card were faster than production Macs.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my
machine in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
-a-a-a-aWhen I go the A2000b I had to drive down the peninsula to pick it up.
-a-a-a-aI used to say that having the Amiga was like adding a room to my studio apartment.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026.01- Linux 6.12.71 pclos1- KDE
Plasma 6.5.5
Legally, it's often only when used within the same country that problems occur.Your later suggestion that they simply missed noticing is possible.
There are numerous examples of different companies using the same name, >especially in shortened forms. One I often see here in New Zealand is >"Apple" which is used by both the computer company "Apple Inc." and a
local appliance repair business "Apple Appliances Ltd" (which does not >repair computers, just fridges, dishwashers, etc.)*. Plus of course the
big lawsuit when Apple computer company tried to move into music and it >collided with The Beatles company "Apple Records" / "Apple Corp".
* It's surprising that the US computer company hasn't, that I know of,
tried to get the appliance repair company to change their name and
logo. Apple computer company did try (and fail) to get he supermarket
chain Woolworths to change their logo, claiming it was too similar ... >depsite being completely different images:
On 2/15/2026 9:10 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 2/15/26 17:10, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
snip
The Amiga was technically the better computer, but the OS was very
kludgey in comparison to the Mac OS, although the Amiga OS was still
far better than Windoze.
aaaaBut it was based on TripOS which I know nothing else about. The commands >> were simple to learn and I was not then as stupid as I am now. I used to have
3 external 3.5 floppy drives and used multiple terminals to do format and copy
for the Amiga Users Group here in San Francisco.a That was with my A1000
with an external expansion box with a GVP SCSI+ host card which could handle >> up to 8 MB of 32 bit SIMMs.a I had only 2 MB of simms because of the price >> for most of the time I used that card which I later moved to an A2000b
(mb/4.3).
It like the vast majority of my machines was second hand.
aaaaThe flaw tolerated for price purposes was lack of memory management.
aaaaThe 680x0 range cpus was quite expensive to get up to that capability. >> aaaaI think the 68020s were the lowest level that could have managed memory >> but it was much more expensive than the 68000/14 MHz which is what the
AmigaOS was based on.a I finally got the cash together for accelerator
card with a
68060/50 MHz and thought I was doing well.a Still fell over when I ran
web browser
with word processor.a Always had Textra, a Forth-based text processor
running as
well.a Textra was shareware and vastly superior to KWrite or Kate.
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with it >>> - business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of the
above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple II
range) as business computers and in education.
aaaaI can but agree. The ultimate owners never used computers and so they
did not realize what they had. CBM tended to point it at home use for games >> and AV use.a The AV business had to use Amigas but with a card called the
Video Toaster.a It was very expensive but very capable and was sold under other
labels as a Video Toaster computer.a Still was an Amiga hardware base for the
same reasons the Video Toaster people chose it over other platforms in that >> it was designed from scratch to use CRT/TV as output display.a Oh and
if you had to use Mac or MS-DOS we had cards for that too.a Amigas
with the Mac card were faster than production Macs.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my machine >>>> in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
aaaaWhen I go the A2000b I had to drive down the peninsula to pick it up.
aaaaI used to say that having the Amiga was like adding a room to my
studio apartment.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026.01- Linux 6.12.71 pclos1- KDE
Plasma 6.5.5
I still have my A1000 (with SideCar RAM expansion) down in the basement.
Fun fact: Some of the CGI for Babylon 5 was done on the Amiga with
Video Toaster.
pt
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:29:36 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
wrote:
<snippo>
Legally, it's often only when used within the same country that problems occur.
There are numerous examples of different companies using the same name,
especially in shortened forms. One I often see here in New Zealand is
"Apple" which is used by both the computer company "Apple Inc." and a
local appliance repair business "Apple Appliances Ltd" (which does not
repair computers, just fridges, dishwashers, etc.)*. Plus of course the
big lawsuit when Apple computer company tried to move into music and it
collided with The Beatles company "Apple Records" / "Apple Corp".
* It's surprising that the US computer company hasn't, that I know of,
tried to get the appliance repair company to change their name and
logo. Apple computer company did try (and fail) to get he supermarket
chain Woolworths to change their logo, claiming it was too similar ...
depsite being completely different images:
Your later suggestion that they simply missed noticing is possible.
And I don't know how this works in New Zealand.
But, in the USA, a firm that /consistently/ called itself "Apple
Appliances Ltd" (well, "Inc") might squeeze by on the grounds that it
was clearly a different business than "Apple Computers, Inc" (or
whatever they call themselves) and so that nobody could be confused
and so that the reputation of the Apple Computers' name could not be
damaged by anything Apple Appliances did.
There once was a printing company named "Avalon Hill" which began
publishing a series of paper-and-cardboard games based on military
campaigns. This was fine until a cosmetics (?I think?) company in
Florida named "Avalon Hill" went nationwide. The result, after
considerable angst among the gaming community, was that the game
company had, from that point onwards, to be referred to as "The Avalon
Hill Game Company" or "TAHGC" for short.
The concerns that usually appear here are either customer confusion or trademark dilution. New Zealand is, of course, free to have a
different approach.
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'.
That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but
it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >Britain.
On 2/16/2026 12:09 PM, Paul S Person wrote:
On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:29:36 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>problems occur.
wrote:
<snippo>
Legally, it's often only when used within the same country that
There are numerous examples of different companies using the same name,
especially in shortened forms. One I often see here in New Zealand is
"Apple" which is used by both the computer company "Apple Inc." and a
local appliance repair business "Apple Appliances Ltd" (which does not
repair computers, just fridges, dishwashers, etc.)*. Plus of course the
big lawsuit when Apple computer company tried to move into music and it
collided with The Beatles company "Apple Records" / "Apple Corp".
* It's surprising that the US computer company hasn't, that I know of,
tried to get the appliance repair company to change their name and
logo. Apple computer company did try (and fail) to get he supermarket
chain Woolworths to change their logo, claiming it was too similar ...
depsite being completely different images:
Your later suggestion that they simply missed noticing is possible.
And I don't know how this works in New Zealand.
But, in the USA, a firm that /consistently/ called itself "Apple
Appliances Ltd" (well, "Inc") might squeeze by on the grounds that it
was clearly a different business than "Apple Computers, Inc" (or
whatever they call themselves) and so that nobody could be confused
and so that the reputation of the Apple Computers' name could not be
damaged by anything Apple Appliances did.
There once was a printing company named "Avalon Hill" which began
publishing a series of paper-and-cardboard games based on military
campaigns. This was fine until a cosmetics (?I think?) company in
Florida named "Avalon Hill" went nationwide. The result, after
considerable angst among the gaming community, was that the game
company had, from that point onwards, to be referred to as "The Avalon
Hill Game Company" or "TAHGC" for short.
The concerns that usually appear here are either customer confusion or
trademark dilution. New Zealand is, of course, free to have a
different approach.
Generally speaking, if the two product lines are different enough that >consumer confusion seems unlikely, a name can be used by both. Apple
Computer had promised Apple records to keep out of the music space, but
got re-sued over the iPod and Apple Music.
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'.
That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but
it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >Britain.
pt
In article <10mt3lc$8a2c$1@dont-email.me>, blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com wrote:
On 2/14/26 23:52, scole wrote:
In article <10mleug$1pllc$1@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than human >>>> companions ?
There is a semi-regular strip in Viz Comic* called Robbie's Robot Carer
that's worth Googling up. Bleak, but a likelier future outcome than
fantasy helper bots depicted in the movies, imo...
*For those not in the know, Viz is a long-running UK adult comic - adult >>> in the sense of swears and toilet humour, not porn. I have been an avid
reader of it since the very early 1990s, when I was but a young'un. It is >>> very good.
In the USA, VIZ is a publisher of translated Japanese manga.
Ah, yes. Viz Comic (the UK sweary publication) routinely publishes on its letters pages occassional misdirected emails from Manga enthusiasts trying
to contact VIZ asking questions about obscure Japanese comic series,
ususally with the Viz Editor commenting beneath along the lines of "We
have no idea what the fuck you are talking about"...
It's odd that VIZ chose that name to distribute translated Japanese comics under - Viz Comic began in 1979, and it's not like it was an underground thing that nobody could possibly have heard of - it became a relatively
major part of UK culture; TV shows, computer games, characters licensed to advertisements, Christmas annuals (which are well worth hunting out if you ever wanted to dip your toe into the Viz cesspit - the Golden Age of Viz
is generally considered to be late 80s/early 90s, but the last decade or
so's worth of Viz has been really very good and funny, any annual from
either of those those periods should have something in that'll raise a
smile - the 2000s-era was a bit flat by comparison, cruder but not
funnier). A 5 second Google would have helped them avoid the name clash...
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'.
That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but
it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >>Britain.
They are extremely similar. They both have pipes and filters. And
the DEC floating point really sucks.
On 2/15/26 15:29, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-15 20:20:10 +0000, scole said:
In article <10mt3lc$8a2c$1@dont-email.me>,
blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com wrote:
On 2/14/26 23:52, scole wrote:
In article <10mleug$1pllc$1@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Monty: Future Companion Bots
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/02/12
What, do you think that future companion bots will be better than >>>>> human
companions ?
There is a semi-regular strip in Viz Comic* called Robbie's Robot Carer >>>> that's worth Googling up. Bleak, but a likelier future outcome than
fantasy helper bots depicted in the movies, imo...
*For those not in the know, Viz is a long-running UK adult comic -
adult
in the sense of swears and toilet humour, not porn. I have been an avid >>>> reader of it since the very early 1990s, when I was but a young'un. >>>> It is
very good.
In the USA, VIZ is a publisher of translated Japanese manga.
Ah, yes. Viz Comic (the UK sweary publication) routinely publishes on its >> letters pages occassional misdirected emails from Manga enthusiasts
trying
to contact VIZ asking questions about obscure Japanese comic series,
ususally with the Viz Editor commenting beneath along the lines of "We
have no idea what the fuck you are talking about"...
It's odd that VIZ chose that name to distribute translated Japanese
comics
under - Viz Comic began in 1979, and it's not like it was an underground >> thing that nobody could possibly have heard of - it became a relatively
major part of UK culture; TV shows, computer games, characters
licensed to
advertisements, Christmas annuals (which are well worth hunting out if
you
ever wanted to dip your toe into the Viz cesspit - the Golden Age of Viz >> is generally considered to be late 80s/early 90s, but the last decade or >> so's worth of Viz has been really very good and funny, any annual from
either of those those periods should have something in that'll raise a
smile - the 2000s-era was a bit flat by comparison, cruder but not
funnier). A 5 second Google would have helped them avoid the name
clash...
I think the publisher of manga and anime started before the Internet. Checked Wikipedia and yes it was 1986. In 2005 they merged with another
company and in 2017 had a 23% share of graphic novel publication.
They are largely Japanese owned.
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> schrieb:
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'. >>>That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but
it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >>>Britain.
They are extremely similar. They both have pipes and filters. And
the DEC floating point really sucks.
It was _far_ better than IBM's hex format. I think DEC pioneered
the hidden bit.
On 2026-02-16 15:21:35 +0000, Cryptoengineer said:There is (or was about a decade ago) a website floppydisk.com that
On 2/15/2026 9:10 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 2/15/26 17:10, Your Name wrote:
On 2026-02-16 00:13:36 +0000, Bobbie Sellers said:
snip
The Amiga was technically the better computer, but the OS was very
kludgey in comparison to the Mac OS, although the Amiga OS was still
far better than Windoze.
aaaaBut it was based on TripOS which I know nothing else about. The commands
were simple to learn and I was not then as stupid as I am now. I used to have
3 external 3.5 floppy drives and used multiple terminals to do format and copy
for the Amiga Users Group here in San Francisco.a That was with my A1000 >>> with an external expansion box with a GVP SCSI+ host card which could handle
up to 8 MB of 32 bit SIMMs.a I had only 2 MB of simms because of the price >>> for most of the time I used that card which I later moved to an A2000b
(mb/4.3).
It like the vast majority of my machines was second hand.
aaaaThe flaw tolerated for price purposes was lack of memory management. >>> aaaaThe 680x0 range cpus was quite expensive to get up to that capability. >>> aaaaI think the 68020s were the lowest level that could have managed memory >>> but it was much more expensive than the 68000/14 MHz which is what the
AmigaOS was based on.a I finally got the cash together for accelerator
card with a
68060/50 MHz and thought I was doing well.a Still fell over when I ran
web browser
with word processor.a Always had Textra, a Forth-based text processor
running as
well.a Textra was shareware and vastly superior to KWrite or Kate.
The biggest problem with the Amiga was that it was bungled by
incompetent Commodore management who couldn't decide what to do with it >>>> - business computer, audio-video computer, home computer, all of the
above. Apple pushed the Macintosh (and the previous Lisa and Apple II >>>> range) as business computers and in education.
aaaaI can but agree. The ultimate owners never used computers and so they >>> did not realize what they had. CBM tended to point it at home use for games >>> and AV use.a The AV business had to use Amigas but with a card called the >>> Video Toaster.a It was very expensive but very capable and was sold under other
labels as a Video Toaster computer.a Still was an Amiga hardware base for the
same reasons the Video Toaster people chose it over other platforms in that >>> it was designed from scratch to use CRT/TV as output display.a Oh and
if you had to use Mac or MS-DOS we had cards for that too.a Amigas
with the Mac card were faster than production Macs.
I had a car then and drove all over the SF Bay Area and got my machine >>>>> in Sunnyvale or Saratoga at a shop that was exclusively Amiga.
aaaaWhen I go the A2000b I had to drive down the peninsula to pick it up. >>>
aaaaI used to say that having the Amiga was like adding a room to my
studio apartment.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026.01- Linux 6.12.71 pclos1- KDE
Plasma 6.5.5
I still have my A1000 (with SideCar RAM expansion) down in the basement.
Fun fact: Some of the CGI for Babylon 5 was done on the Amiga with
Video Toaster.
pt
Yep. "Babylon 5" and "SeaQuest DSV", among others. Apparently the later >Video Toaster 4000 version was product tested by Wil Wheaton (Wesley in
Star Trek The Next Generation). After Commodore's collapse, the Video >Toaster mvoed over to Windoze PCs,
The Amiga was also used for some of the earliest "VR" games in games arcades.
I still have a pile of Amiga floppy disks, but no way to access them.
The CatWeasel, etc. cards are simply too expensive for the one-off use.
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:"floating point" is implemented.
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> schrieb:
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'. >>>>That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but
it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >>>>Britain.
They are extremely similar. They both have pipes and filters. And
the DEC floating point really sucks.
It was _far_ better than IBM's hex format. I think DEC pioneered
the hidden bit.
HFP was even more terrible, it's true. The Honeywell scheme with
36 bits of mantissa, 8 bits of exponent, and 28 bits of useless waste
was even worse than that. But ignoring underflow should be a big red flag. All of which, I suspect, led to the eventual standardization of how
On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:31:33 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> schrieb:
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'. >>>>> That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but >>>>> it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >>>>> Britain.
They are extremely similar. They both have pipes and filters. And
the DEC floating point really sucks.
It was _far_ better than IBM's hex format. I think DEC pioneered
the hidden bit.
HFP was even more terrible, it's true. The Honeywell scheme with
36 bits of mantissa, 8 bits of exponent, and 28 bits of useless waste
was even worse than that. But ignoring underflow should be a big red flag.
All of which, I suspect, led to the eventual standardization of how
"floating point" is implemented.
Of course, if you need /accuracy/, floating point is not acceptable.
For using really large numbers that fixed point can't handle, it will
do until something better comes along
Imagine if your checking account were maintained using floating point...
When I worked at Irving Trust (a big Wall Street bank) in the 80s, one
of our transaction management systems stored currency amounts as 96
bit integer quantities of pennies.
On 2/17/2026 11:58 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:31:33 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:All of which, I suspect, led to the eventual standardization of how
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> schrieb:
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
DEC used to make a popular line of minicomputers under the name 'VAX'. >>>>>> That name is also used by a brand of vacuum cleaners in the UK, but >>>>>> it did not lead to any legal issues when DEC started to sell Vaxen in >>>>>> Britain.
They are extremely similar. They both have pipes and filters. And
the DEC floating point really sucks.
It was _far_ better than IBM's hex format. I think DEC pioneered
the hidden bit.
HFP was even more terrible, it's true. The Honeywell scheme with
36 bits of mantissa, 8 bits of exponent, and 28 bits of useless waste
was even worse than that. But ignoring underflow should be a big red flag. >>
"floating point" is implemented.
Of course, if you need /accuracy/, floating point is not acceptable.
For using really large numbers that fixed point can't handle, it will
do until something better comes along
Imagine if your checking account were maintained using floating point...
When I worked at Irving Trust (a big Wall Street bank) in the 80s, one
of our transaction management systems stored currency amounts as 96
bit integer quantities of pennies.
The concerns that usually appear here are either customer confusion or trademark dilution. New Zealand is, of course, free to have a
different approach.
On 17/02/2026 06:09, Paul S Person wrote:By "free" I meant, of course, "free so far as I am concerned". I do
regarding Trademarks, Copyright.
The concerns that usually appear here are either customer confusion or
trademark dilution. New Zealand is, of course, free to have a
different approach.
New Zealand has never been free to have a different approach.
The story of NZ citizen, Kim Dotcom, might be of interest to you.
Armed policemen in helicopters supposedly protecting USA copyright laws.
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