test-drb June 1997

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

115 participants
569 discussions

Floppy drive type for North Star controller?

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

Hi all, Anybody know what type of drive I can connect to the popular North Star MDS-AD3 S-100 disk controller board? I'm confused with all of this old floppy terminology. I know single vs. dual density (FM vs. MFM) is determined by the controller, and soft vs. hard sectoring is determined by the controller, so neither of these should matter as far as the drive is concerned. What bothers me is single vs. double sided and all of those jumpers on 5 1/4" drives. Will dual sided drives work on single sided controllers, with only one side operating? Do those jumpers need to be set differently for different controllers, and how would I find documentation for the various brands (I'm sure I wouldn't!) Any advice appreciated, thanks Kai

27 years, 1 month

USING classic machines

by BROBSTONA＠wartburg.edu

>I see a LOT of traffic about restoring and collecting old computers, >and the typical member here is one who has a large collection of >different machines, but except for a rare question about boot disks, >there isn't much said about using these machines. When I turn on my >99/4A or Geneve, it isn't primarily to bask in a nostalgic glow, but >to write something or balance my budget or do some programming. >Certainly the nostalgic glow is there, and it adds a dimension to >the computing experience that peecee devotees cannot understand. But >it IS my primary workhorse, not just a desk queen. That's part of what I love about my Apple IIGS. I'm the original owner. I know what this machine has done for me and continues to do for me. I love its simplicity. In the rare event of a crash, I pretty much know what the problem is, because I know the machine much better than anything Wintel came up with or any of the Macincrash line. >Don't get me wrong; I love to hear about these old machines, so keep >those messages coming. But I would like to hear from others out there >who use their obsolete machines (I prefer "non-mainstream machines") >for practical, everyday, household computing uses. Well, I'm a college student, so I use my IIGS for writing papers (though I transfer them to a Mac to print because my Imagewriter II isn't in good shape - I'll get around to fixing it one of these days). Mainly, I use it to connect to the campus computer system. I've also used it to run a BBS, play games, program - more than most people do with their PeeCees. >In fact, I'm wondering how widespread my idea is (shared by a >few, apparently) that the smaller, simpler machines really are well >suited for home use, and you don't need a high-end peecee for nearly >everything you want to do. You bet it is! This machine does everything I want or need it to do (or at least is capable of it, if I'm too cheap to buy things like a laser printer). -- Andy Brobston brobstona(a)wartburg.edu ***NEW URL BELOW*** http://www.wartburg.edu/people/docs/personalPages/BrobstonA/home.html My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Wartburg College as a whole.

27 years, 1 month

IBM System/36

by rcini＠msn.com

Dan: Although I have never seen one up-close, a company that I formerly worked for had a System 36. I think that it is one of IBM's older mainframes/minis that was the predecessor to the AS/400 (our S36 software ran unmodified on the AS/400). It's based on a TwinAx-based network and has terminals connected to it with snappy names such as the "3270" and the "5250". Line printers are also Twin-Ax based. I hope that this is the same one that I was thinking about (otherwise, ignore the above <g>). ------------------------ Rich Cini/WUGNET - ClubWin Charter Member (6) - MCPS Windows 95/Networking

27 years, 1 month

pieces of metal and plastic

by dlormand＠aztec.asu.edu

>And it was more than just the machine itself, but the culture that >spawned around it. The culture I am referring to mainly is the BBS >culture with all its lingo, the pirate groups who banded together and >cracked software, the holy wars with other computers. >The history behind the machine is what I am most interested in. What >company built it, what year it came out, what technology it used (its >processor, RAM, etc), what its predecessor and successor were, etc. I >like to know each machines historical perspective. Part of the thrill I have of being a TI junkie is BEING part of that history! The interesting part of the 99/4A is not so much the level of technology involved (although it IS there, relative to other home computers of the period) as the legend of how TI could make a market run with it, strain every nerve in true TI tradition, and then dramatically dump it when the effort finally proves to be too much. And now, I am part of the history of the TI-99/4A too, by perversely supporting it in preference to other (e.g. modern, more capable) platforms. -- ********************************************** * David Ormand *** Southwest 99ers * * dlormand(a)aztec.asu.edu *** Tucson, Arizona * **************************** TMS9900 Lives! *

27 years, 1 month

Lisa's scores

by cerebral＠michianatoday.com

>Files are linked lists of blocks. The sector header of each sector on the >hard disk contains pointers to the previous and next blocks in the file, >along with some other info that I've forgotten >Files may be sparse - the fact that block n exists does not mean that >block n-1 does >Block 0 of each file (I think, maybe block -1) contains the 'file >descriptor' - bascially an i-node. >Negative block numbers are the file allocation map. You can use this to >quickly find any block in the file without following the links.

27 years, 1 month

Help identifying ...

by walgen＠do.isst.fhg.de

Hi, today I got a special german (?) computer. It is a "SIEMENS PC100". But inside there is a board labled "R6500 ADVANCED INTERACTIVE MICROCOMPUTER" it is made by "ROCKLWELL" with a small (thermo?) printer a one-line display. Is this one of the legendary AIM65-Machines?

27 years, 1 month

Archive file formats (RE: Archiving Stuff)

by sinasohn＠crl.com

At 06:47 PM 6/25/97 -0700, you wrote: >I'm not so sure that "everything" supports TIFF. After a little looking, >I couldn't even find a TIFF file to test with xv. And my experience has been that TIFF is not always the same, especially Mac vs. PC. >Is there a reason that postscript cannot be used? Most of the schematics >out there that I have seen have been postscript files. [...] >Why not use postscript for publishing the formatted documents? Postscript is fine for Macs, not so great for PC's, and probably unusable for most older (pre-pc) machines. I'm not so worried about the images, but the formatted text should be kept readable. I'm not super-familiar with RTF, but isn't it just tags (like HTML)? If so, than a "reader"(?) could be written, even for CP/M or TRS-DOS or whatever... --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/

27 years, 1 month

atari800xl FOUND it!

by thedm＠sunflower.com

Monitor Jack (all but 400, North American 600XL, XE Game System): 3 1 5 4 2 1. Composite Luminance (not on North American 600XL's) 2. Ground 3. Audio Output 4. Composite Video 5. Composite Chroma (not on 800XL,1200XL; grounded on 600XL) ---------- > From: Bill Girnius <thedm(a)sunflower.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: atari800xl > Date: Thursday, June 26, 1997 10:39 AM > > anyone know the video pinouts so I can build a cable for this? i just > learned it has a video output.

27 years, 1 month

atari800xl

by thedm＠sunflower.com

anyone know the video pinouts so I can build a cable for this? i just learned it has a video output.

27 years, 1 month

TRS-80 Model I info (RE: MSX, TRS-80, Colour Genie, etc.)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

> >The Basic was an 4k microsoft basic with floating point and simple = > >arrays but no alphanumeric operators or transcendental functions. > =20 > >Tiny basic was an integer language of less than 4k. =20 > > IIRC Level I Basic was floating point but it was not a Microsoft = > product. Only Level II Basic came from Microsoft. In fact the source = > for Level I Basic was later released and I think I have a copy of it in = > storage somewhere. I pulled my notebooks from 76/77/78 and yes RS called it Tiny but, is was not. Tiny basic was the generic name given to ALL integer basics. At the time the only source available basic that was floating point was LLLbasic (lawence livermore labs) which as 8080 code fit in 5k of rom. I suspected at the time it could be a z80 recode for space, no match. Of the tiny basics palo alto TB (1976) was well known and fit in 2k of rom without IO drivers. It didn't match L1. My files indicate that the basic was most closely that of MITS altair basic 4k (pre- MS) by gates/allen. Techically is was not MS. It was at least looking at my notebook significantly identical. That particular basic was an early lost one and after about 79-80 its not seen in MSbasic docs. I suspect it was due to it being pre MS and having allens hand in it. FYI mits 4k basic was small enough to fit in 4k of ram and still hold the video and keyboard drivers. Allison

27 years, 1 month

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test-drb June 1997