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I still use a copy of Calc.EXE from Windows 2000 that I just move from machine to machine. It stopped being useful after that. That old one is nice. Hex mode. S

by dmitrygr 10mo ago

I still use a copy of Calc.EXE from Windows 2000 that I just move from machine to machine. It stopped being useful after that. That old one is nice. Hex mode. Starts quickly.

RankingMember 10mo ago
If I could get regular security updates for Windows 2000 I might still be using it- peak Windows
- netsharc 10mo ago
  I wonder if it's ancient enough that the exploits floating online are too modern for it... Hah, I guess the Internet really is like a sewer, you have to have good protective equipment to wade in it...
  - dmitrygr 10mo ago
    This reasoning is actually why I ran Windows XP 64 bit edition for very very long. Most exploits found that it was XP and tried to do stuff and failed on the 64 bit kernel they did not expect.
    - kyboren 10mo ago
      I'm not going to say that's a good idea, but I've long had an idea along similar lines that a source-only distribution that generates a bespoke calling convention, stack frame layout, syscall number mapping, etc. for each individual machine at install time would do a lot to mitigate RCE threats.
      - dmitrygr 10mo ago
        Gentoo-by-obscurity?
        kyboren 10mo ago
        That's exactly how I think of it. Gentoo plus ABI obfuscation. I'm sure there are issues (particularly around binary blob drivers) but they seem surmountable given enough effort...
spwa4 10mo ago
I have a derive.exe from 1996 that I still use. TI's calculator, as an incredibly fast windows app that's like 20% of wolframalpha. And to think on all "modern" OSes you can't even do that. Neither Android nor IOS let you do this in any way shape or form. Even with portable webapps it doesn't work, as webapps go offline. And microsoft clearly wants to create this situation too (last brute force attempt was windows home)
- dmitrygr 10mo ago
  https://dmitry.gr/89 https://dmitry.gr/89 you can also "add to homescreen" on iOS/android and it acts like a native app & works offline. symbolic math - computer algebra system, integration/differentiation, finance app in rom, 3d graphs. (emu is not my work, i only packaged it for PWA and host it for myself to use, but you are welcome to as well)
  - phonon 10mo ago
    Derive is more sophisticated. TI-89/92/Nspire is close though.
    - dmitrygr 10mo ago
      Derive doesn’t run on my iPhone sadly
  - spwa4 10mo ago
    Sure (and thanks for the link, do you have a TI-82 as well?) but it won't "last". You'll take the site offline, sooner or later and I can't just store an exe locally and use it in 20 years. I'll lose the ability to install it on phones.
    - dmitrygr 10mo ago
      That is my personal site, I do not expect to take it down, since that is where I post my projects. But also, you can just save it from there entirely, and serve from your own site -- there is no server-side part to it. no 82. I only liked the ti-89

I still use a copy of Calc.EXE from Windows 2000 that I just move from machine to machine. It stopped being useful after that. That old one is nice. Hex mode. Starts quickly.

RankingMember 10mo ago

If I could get regular security updates for Windows 2000 I might still be using it- peak Windows

netsharc 10mo ago
I wonder if it's ancient enough that the exploits floating online are too modern for it... Hah, I guess the Internet really is like a sewer, you have to have good protective equipment to wade in it...
- dmitrygr 10mo ago
  This reasoning is actually why I ran Windows XP 64 bit edition for very very long. Most exploits found that it was XP and tried to do stuff and failed on the 64 bit kernel they did not expect.
  - kyboren 10mo ago
    I'm not going to say that's a good idea, but I've long had an idea along similar lines that a source-only distribution that generates a bespoke calling convention, stack frame layout, syscall number mapping, etc. for each individual machine at install time would do a lot to mitigate RCE threats.
    - dmitrygr 10mo ago
      Gentoo-by-obscurity?
      - kyboren 10mo ago
        That's exactly how I think of it. Gentoo plus ABI obfuscation. I'm sure there are issues (particularly around binary blob drivers) but they seem surmountable given enough effort...

spwa4 10mo ago

I have a derive.exe from 1996 that I still use. TI's calculator, as an incredibly fast windows app that's like 20% of wolframalpha. And to think on all "modern" OSes you can't even do that. Neither Android nor IOS let you do this in any way shape or form. Even with portable webapps it doesn't work, as webapps go offline. And microsoft clearly wants to create this situation too (last brute force attempt was windows home)

dmitrygr 10mo ago
https://dmitry.gr/89 https://dmitry.gr/89 you can also "add to homescreen" on iOS/android and it acts like a native app & works offline. symbolic math - computer algebra system, integration/differentiation, finance app in rom, 3d graphs. (emu is not my work, i only packaged it for PWA and host it for myself to use, but you are welcome to as well)
- phonon 10mo ago
  Derive is more sophisticated. TI-89/92/Nspire is close though.
  - dmitrygr 10mo ago
    Derive doesn’t run on my iPhone sadly
- spwa4 10mo ago
  Sure (and thanks for the link, do you have a TI-82 as well?) but it won't "last". You'll take the site offline, sooner or later and I can't just store an exe locally and use it in 20 years. I'll lose the ability to install it on phones.
  - dmitrygr 10mo ago
    That is my personal site, I do not expect to take it down, since that is where I post my projects. But also, you can just save it from there entirely, and serve from your own site -- there is no server-side part to it. no 82. I only liked the ti-89