test-drb May 1997

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

79 participants
197 discussions

by BigLouS＠aol.com

In a message dated 97-05-18 01:02:33 EDT, Sam writes: > Exactly. The Apple ][e bootstrap does a lot of work to read the boot > sector off the disk. It creates the 6&2 encoding table, looks for the > boot sector and reads it, decodes it and then jumps to it, all in less > than 256 bytes. Impressive as all hell. Woz is a god damn GOD. AMEN brother. Jobs who? Lou

27 years, 7 months

Digital RX-02 dual 8" drive unit

by dastar＠crl.com

Hmmm, I don't know if it was caused by last night's drunken stupor, but the e-mail from the person interested in the RX-02 got lost somehow. If you were the person interetsed, could you pleae e-mail me again? Sorry about that. Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

27 years, 7 months

strange storage devices

by dastar＠crl.com

On Sun, 18 May 1997, Jim Willing wrote: > On the line of interesting storage devices - does anyone remember the > "scanner" that read strips of encoded data. I don't remember what it > was called, but for a little while they printed some of these strips in > Nibble. I think it was an Apple II only thing. I guess you could read > and print these strips and they generated programs when you scanned > them. Yes, I very much remember these and very much remember it always being on my wish list of things to add to my Apple. I never did get one. I posted a WTB ad on an Apple newsgroup a while back for one and some guy responded but he gave me this bullshit "tell me what you're willing to pay" line for it and so I told him $25 and he never replied. Anyway, if anyone's got one and wants it to go to a good home, let me know. > Also, some personal bad news - my van was broken into on Friday night > and a large load of classic equipment was stolen (I'm preparing to move > and the it was the easiest place to store it). So, if you live in the > greater Seattle area and you see a good amount of the following show > up when you're poking around, please let me know (I'm not as much > concerned about the equipment as I am about my addressbook, insurance > folder, and vehicle registration.). > > Stolen: IBM 6360 disk drive, Macintosh, Mac 512, Box of CompuPro s-100 > boards, Box of misc. manuals, Commodore DPS-1101 printer, TI99/4a > expansion box, Turbo C64 disk drive, CBM 8050 dual disk drive, Atari > 520ST, 2 commodore vic-1541 disk drives, 1 blue chip disk drive. Now this is some seriously fucked up shit. > I'm sure the thieves thought they really scored but I'm guessing it > will soon turn up at a thrift store or pawn shop when they can't > move it. Some of the equipment may be blood-stained. I have mounted > razor blades across the bottom of my car stereo and they found them > when trying to rip it out ;). The dash was very bloody - quite > gratifying. HAHAHHA! That's great. Well, I hope you get your stuff back, but at least you made the assholes suffer. Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

27 years, 7 months

Digital RX-02 dual 8" drive unit

by dastar＠crl.com

I picked up a Digital RX-02 dual 8" drive unit today that I have absolutely no use for but figured someone in this discussion group would want. Please contact me personally if you are interested in taking it off my hands (dastar(a)crl.com). Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

27 years, 7 months

Magazine retrospectives

by MPritchard＠ensemble.net

Sam, That's not entirely true. ;-) I'm being paid to write optimized assembly code for an upcoming game from (of all people) Microsoft. 12,000 lines of hand tuned assembly, with some truely wonderful gems of small, efficient code in it. I must admit though that we had an editor >from one of the gaming magazines come by the other day and mention that the only other gam company still writing serious assembly was NovaLogic... It does seems like a dying art. But I'm off topic. What I wanted to bring up was Creative Computing Magazine , pre 1981. I was only 10 - 14 years old during that time period, but I remember the content as being fantastic. There were fewer rules and a much more hardcore audience then. Does anyone remeber "Computer Myths Explained" and the great line drawings of robots and wierd machines that took on a life of their own. I'd love to get a collection of those drawings... -Matt Pritchard mpritchard(a)ensemble.net > -----Original Message----- > From: Sam Ismail [SMTP:dastar@crl.com] > Sent: Saturday, May 17, 1997 2:41 AM > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers > Subject: Re: Magazine retrospectives > > On Fri, 16 May 1997, Captain Napalm wrote: > > The Apple disk conrtoller ROM which read the boot sector off of a disk > > was 256 bytes! Amazing piece of code. You won't find anything > comparable today, at least in any mainstream software (ie. windows). > > Sam >

27 years, 7 months

Osborne computer (fwd)

by scott＠walde.cprompt.sk.ca

I don't think I have to add anything to this email I recieved today... Can anyone out there save it? ttfn srw ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 19:09:49 +0100 From: Mike O'Neill <mikeon(a)globalnet.co.uk> To: walde(a)dlcwest.com Subject: Osborne computer Hi and I wonder if you can help. I have and Osborne computer (I'm not sure which one but it is an 80 col display with 2 x 185k drives and EProms fitted to hot it up and allow burning in of favourite software such as Wordstar and dBaseII). I don't want to trash the machine and am trying to find out a contact in UK who might be interested in giving it a home as a piece of computing history. The machine still works and is in good order although I havn'e fired it up for some time. Any help you can give would be appreciated. I can be reached at mikeon(a)globalnet.co.uk. Hope you can help and thanks in anticipation. Best wishes Mike O'Neill

27 years, 7 months

DD vs QD (Was: Re: FAQ updates/changes)

by jeffh＠eleventh.com

>On Wed, 21 May 1997, Scott Walde wrote: > I've actually had very little problem using _good_quality_ 360k (DSDD) > disks in my Tandy 2000, which has a 720k drive (DSQD). I believe the > magnetic material was the same from the DD to QD, just packed > tighter/finer(?). Am I wrong? I do know that some later T2k's preferred the usage of HD diskettes vice DD ones. This could possibly be a change in the drive mech that Mitsubishi used for the basis of the M4853-1. Mine used to use DD disks just fine, which is what I used since the QD ones were difficult to find and were expensive. Other people I talked to had no luck with the reliability of DD diskettes though and found that the HD ones would work just fine. Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Collector of classic home computers: Amiga 1000, Atari 800, 800XL, Mega-ST/2 and XE System, Commodore C-128D, Plus/4 and VIC-20, IBM 5155, Kaypro 2X, Osbourne Executive Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3 and Model 4, plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.

27 years, 7 months

IBM 6151

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

I dont know if this machine qualifies for discussion, but i know nothing about this model, and perhaps someone does. Its an IBM, and the model number is 6151 and appears to be in a slightly modified IBM AT case. it has an led display and a 5.25 drive and non standard connectors inthe back. i get nothing but a blinking cursor on powerup and some incrementing numbers on the led display. i think it might have sort of unix on it, as a piece of paper has the root passwoid taped to it. anyone know what this is? what is worth $20? david

27 years, 7 months

Call for Help: Retrieve files from 14" DEC platters

by MPritchard＠ensemble.net

I'll post the results to this news group. I've been out of touch for the last couple days, so I don't know what plans have been made so far. As I said before: the response from this list has been fantastic. Another piece of classic computing history will be rescued from oblivion and made available for users everywhere (via the emulator project). -Matt P > > You can help preserve a bit of history. > [...] > > I don't have a VAX handy, so I can't help, but would you please > notify > this list if you succeed in reading the data? Things like this don't > happen > every day. :-) > > Alexios > >

27 years, 7 months

arcade game advertisements

by dastar＠crl.com

The other day I was looking at an ad on the back of a comic book. It was for a nintendo or sega game or whatnot. I then remembered how when I was a boy how Atari and other such companies used to advertise their games on the backs of comic books. Anyway, my point is that looking at the backs of old 80s comic books is a neat way to look back at the games that were available back then. It gives a nice historical perspective. Speaking of historical perspective (or something) I just got Pitfall for the Atari 2600 today (a game I had way back when I had my first 2600) and I must say even by today's standard it is a bitchen game. As far as creativity and just the sheer fun of playing it, it beats a lot of the dreck out today. I can't wait until my Pitfall II comes in. Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

27 years, 7 months

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test-drb May 1997