- cctalk - classiccmp.org

by devin davison

Hello All, I am working to get my two microvax systems working, I have a couple of microvax 3800 systems. While I am waiting to get the real hardware going, I would like to set up simh with vms to use for testing. I don't really need the latest version of vms, any old version with tcp/ip would work. I do have about 16 dumb terminals i want to run as a lab and connect to the vax. Can anyone provide guidance on this matter for setting up and install of VMS in sinh? I realize that there was the openvms hobbyist program, but i may want to grab an older version of the os if it will run smoother on the older hardware. Open to suggestions, I hope to post back with some pictures once the real vax 3800 hardware is running. Thanks, Devin D.

3 years, 2 months

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Divestiture and sqlite3

by Adam Thornton

To clarify a couple of things in response to queries: my time for divestment is "not yet"--but rest assured, when it arrives, I will certainly see who wants things from my assortment (don't get too excited; there's nothing super-rare or valuable in it, and I've always been more concerned with restoring functionality than maintaining period-correctness; I am one of those collectors who restores stuff to play with it, not to then put it in shrinkwrap and preserve it for some uncertain future). And should that time arrive suddenly, well, argh, I've been putting off making a will too long, but I know who I'm going to put in charge of "everything computery," and I trust her to make good decisions about the things she doesn't want. My understanding of sqlite (and it could be wrong) is that concurrent writes aren't supported, and reads should block if a write is in progress until the write completes. In practice it seems like most things are one-sqlite-file-per-process and if that process is threaded, one would hope the programmer understands what they're doing well enough to make it work. There are fairly few cases I've seen where a single sqlite file is shared between unrelated processes, which would take filesystem locking working correctly to ensure correctness. Which is generally OK for local filesystems, but NFS is still a bucket of worms when it comes to locking behavior, and the number of people running systems that genuinely understand NFS has been declining for decades. (I do not count myself among those people.)

3 years, 2 months

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Connecting MFM emulator as both 1st and 2nd drive in Microvax 2000?

by Jonathan Stone

I have a Gesswein MFM emulator from decromancer.ca; who offer an adaptor that yields a 2nd MFM data connector. I'll use mine in a Microvax 2000. Does anyone know how to hook it up as two MFM drives in a Microvax 2000? The vendor sold a 1in high adaptor box, BA40A, with DD50 connectors to a second cabinet (same as CPU box) for a second drive. DEC configured both primary and secondary drives identically (drive 3, IIRC). The Microvax 2000 Technical Manual gives the pinout from the mother board to the MFM/floppy daughterboard, but I can't find the pinout from that daughterboard to the cables anywhere. I've been looking for a BA40A, for some years now, to trace the pin layout for a 2nd drive. Does anyone know it? Has anyone successfully configured a single MFM emulator as two MFM drives in a Microvax 2000? Or to an RQDX3?

3 years, 2 months

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Disposition of stuff

by Adam Thornton

Been thinking about it a little recently, and, no, I definitely don't plan to send my stuff to a scrapper. I have some younger friends with an interest in retrocomputing. They want my stuff when I'm done with it, sure. And if they want _just a little_ of my stuff I'll probably strike a deal like, "you can have the SGI Indy if that box of IDE drives goes with it, and you aren't allowed to throw it away until you're somewhere I'm not going to see it by the side of the road." Adam

3 years, 2 months

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Re: Disposition of stuff

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Mike, Well sadly I have no PDP-8 parts. I do have a few bits of Q-BUS PDP-11. Probably enough to build a complete 11. I am also in the UK …. Dave From: Mike Katz <bitwiz(a)12bitsbest.com> Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2023 3:53 PM Cc: 'KenUnix' <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com>; dave.g4ugm(a)gmail.com Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: Disposition of stuff I will gladly give a nice warm loving home to any PDP-8 equipment and parts that you have. On Aug 19, 2023 6:16 AM, Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: Gentles, The problem is I have stuff no one wants. Large plotter, dec writer in need of repair, Large Alpha server.... Suggestions? Dave > -----Original Message----- > From: KenUnix via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2023 10:14 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > Cc: KenUnix <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com <mailto:ken.unix.guy@gmail.com> > > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Disposition of stuff > > Adam, > > I agree. Give it a new home. Save computing history because when it's gone it's > gone. > > Ken > > On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 10:02 PM Adam Thornton via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > Been thinking about it a little recently, and, no, I definitely don't > > plan to send my stuff to a scrapper. I have some younger friends with > > an interest in retrocomputing. They want my stuff when I'm done with > > it, sure. And if they want _just a little_ of my stuff I'll probably > > strike a deal like, "you can have the SGI Indy if that box of IDE > > drives goes with it, and you aren't allowed to throw it away until > > you're somewhere I'm not going to see it by the side of the road." > > > > Adam > > > > > -- > End of line > JOB TERMINATED

3 years, 2 months

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Nixies..

by Holm Tiffe

...only for a look.. https://www.daliborfarny.com/project/h-nixie-tube/ I'm not related with that czech factory, this is no advertising. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

3 years, 2 months

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Good Inventory Program

by Evan Linwood

This is almost an impossible question to answer (!) but it might be worth mentioning Pimcore. This is an open source master data management tool, meaning that it supports both schema (data model) design and generation/design of UI elements via a reasonably decent management interface. It might even be overkill for this particular use case., but from memory the web UIs that it generates don’t depend on front end libraries / Angular / React etc & so may work with older browsers. Perhaps another option is LibreOffice Base?

3 years, 2 months

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Re: Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there

by Mark Matlock

Chris, I would be interested in getting a copy of the SSPS/X software for POS. I have a manual for SPSS/11 and would love to try to get the software running under RSX11M+ if possible. Thanks, Mark > On Jul 26, 2023, at 12:00 PM, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > > From: Chris Zach <cz(a)alembic.crystel.com <mailto:cz@alembic.crystel.com>> > Subject: [cctalk] Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there > Date: July 26, 2023 at 9:30:10 AM CDT > To: CCTalk mailing list <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> > Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> > > > Starting to go through my boxes of POS stuff. I know of course that 3.2 is out there (minus the Pro/Communications option which has a bad disk in the distro) however are these disks out there now? > > Pro/Venix 1.0 on floppies > POS V2.0a on floppies > > POS version 1.5 (with test diskette, maintenance application, a thing called Pro/Pre labelled "Diskette system", system overview and instruction disks) > > POS V1.7 (I have that here somewhere) > > Pro/Basic Version 1.0 and 1.2 > > SPSS/X For Professional (this is a really interesting one, anyone heard of this?) > > If so let me know and I won't copy them. If not I'll go over to the mighty Deskpro/XE and start sucking the data off for archives.... > > Thanks! > Chris > (Hoping to find old drivers or scaffolding or something that will give me a hint into how DEC ported POS)

3 years, 2 months

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50 pins in three rows

by Cameron Kaiser

In a shipment today I got several AMP-labeled dongles that look like SCSI terminators ... except the 50 pins are arranged in three rows (17-16-17), not the Centronics-style 50-pin connector nor the usual 2-pin configuration. Anyone seen those before, and is it actually SCSI, or is it something else? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. -- Oscar Wilde

3 years, 2 months

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Polymorphic Systems Poly88

by Marvin Johnston

FWIW and as some of you might know, Polymorphic was manufactured here in Santa Barbara (also Lobo Drives/Systems, and Street Electronics.) After Poly had gone out of business, a friend of mine ended up getting all (or most) of the remaining Poly documentation and most of the remaining hardware from the person who owned the Polymorphic remains. After he had sold off some of that "stash", he gave the remaining stuff to me. I spent a week or so taking the remaining original masters documentation and putting it in a filing cabinet. That stuff included approximately 200 S-100 boards in various states of being built and maybe up to ten thousand (WAG) 1/4" and 8" disks of stuff that was being worked on at Poly when they shut down. On my to-do list is to scan the remaining documentation (about a four drawer filing cabinet) as well putting together the remaining Poly88s (four- six) and other boards. I had planned on bringing some of that "stuff" to VCFMW, but found out last night the exhibit area was filled. So at this point, I don't know if I will be attending or not. I am more concerned with getting the documentation scanned and archived and will most likely end up buying a high speed double sided scanner. So this is just a heads up that a lot (most?) of the original Polymorphic documentation does still exist. Years ago, some highly uninformed individual said this could not be original since there were no graphics in the Circa early 1970 docs. He was wrong about this not being original documentation!!! I also tried to keep any marked diskettes with the docs. Those disks were primarily system disks. And those disks NEED to be backed up before they degrade to the point they would be difficult to read. FWIW, I would have liked to get this stuff scanned, etc but at that time, I didn't have enough money to pay attention let alone buy a scanner to scan this stuff :). Marvin

3 years, 2 months

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