test-drb October 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
1141 discussions

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

On this list 'doesn't work' means 'smashed into three thousand pieces' In most places, 'doesn't work' means 'it doesn't do what I want it to' Almost anything that goes wrong with an Osborne (besides physical damage) is fairly trivial to fix for people on this list anyway. > >< "Again, the unit TURNS ON!! Incredible considering >< the age of the thing. " > >Gee, the NS* Horizon that turned 20 years old last march must really be >unusual in that I still use it and it's still reliable! > >Then again I have a battery portable TV I bought in '71 that still works >too. I see little majik in all that. I expect it to work and if it >didn't I'd fix it. > > >What scares me more, is the bozo thinks it turns on and lights and fans >mean it works. > >Allison > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

What is a PX4?

by pjoules＠joules.enterprise-plc.com

I have been told by the software house who supply us at work that there might be some old PX4s and PX8s in their storeroom which no-one wants any more. Does anyone know what these are? I gather that htey may be some sort of intelligent terminal as the chap comcerned said they they used to be used on site and then plugged into a modem to upload the data to their main database. Regards Pete

26 years, 1 month

Ancient machines turning on (was Re: eBay strikes again...)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

It's not that weird. Everyone knows that 286 and 386 machines are crap ;) In fact, one reason is that noone gets attached to them, and also because Pentia aren't that much different from 386s. So, no nostalgia. And, I think that early PCs were a lot less useful than some other machines of the time (like Commodores and Apples) > >> At 06:49 AM 10/31/98 -0800, Seth wrote: >> >> >> >> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=38897455 >> >> >> >> ...with a broken disk drive and still 6 days to go! >> > >> >Aaah, my favorite quote from the auction posting: >> > >> > "Again, the unit TURNS ON!! Incredible considering >> > the age of the thing. " >> > >> >I guess I should consider my PDP-11/04 a bloody miracle then ;) >> >> And I'm going out to the garage to bow in humble supplication to me PDP-8/i! > >Isn't it something that you try to sell the obscure in your local area to have >people ask what you'd pay them to throw it away for you but newer items sell at >reasonable amounts. Get on something like ePay and the weird and no longer >desirable (by the average person) goes for weord amounts and newer machines >rarely get a look (ie 286 and 386 machines). > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

What is a PX4?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I have been told by the software house who supply us at work that there < might be some old PX4s and PX8s in their storeroom which no-one wants an < more. Does anyone know what these are? I assume the are Epson. The PX8 is a portable z80 based CP/M laptop. If memory is correct the PX$ was an earlier predecessor of same. I have a PX8 and it's a nice machine. Allison

26 years, 1 month

eBay strikes again...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< "Again, the unit TURNS ON!! Incredible considering < the age of the thing. " Gee, the NS* Horizon that turned 20 years old last march must really be unusual in that I still use it and it's still reliable! Then again I have a battery portable TV I bought in '71 that still works too. I see little majik in all that. I expect it to work and if it didn't I'd fix it. What scares me more, is the bozo thinks it turns on and lights and fans mean it works. Allison

26 years, 1 month

eBay strikes again...

by aaron＠wfi-inc.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=37938902 ...with more than a day to go! And... http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=38897455 ...with a broken disk drive and still 6 days to go! I would say "sign me up" to officially endorse Haggle, but I was browsing the listings and it seems that everyone starts their auctions at very high prices (at least the antique section, I didn't check anything else)... Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant." --> Scott Draves

26 years, 1 month

eBay strikes again...

by dogas＠leading.net

Thats nothing... how about a TRS-80 Voxbox that just went for $300... - Mike: dogas(a)leading.net From: Aaron Christopher Finney <aaron(a)wfi-inc.com> >http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=37938902 >And... > >http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=38897455 > >...with a broken disk drive and still 6 days to go! <snip> <snip><snip>

26 years, 1 month

What is this? Commodore Magic Voice

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Any idea what this is? It looked interesting so I grabbed it. I looks like it plugs into the ROM socket. It has a ROM socket and two RCA jacks on it. Joe

26 years, 1 month

What is this? Strange keyboard

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Thanks for the info. Any idea what the two cables are for? If you find the brochures, I'd like to get a copy. Joe At 06:24 PM 10/30/98 -0800, you wrote: >On Fri, 30 Oct 1998, Joe wrote: > >> I was wondering through a trift store the other day and found a odd >> keyboard. It's labeled "CompuNET 2000" and looks like a regular 101 key >> keyboard for a PC but it has two extra cables with miniture phono plugs on >> the ends. One with two contacts and the other with three. It also has two >> phone jacks on the back of the keyboard. There are a couple of extra keys >> on the board. One is marked PHONE and the other is marked LINE. Some of >> the numeric key pad keys are marked REDIAL, MUTE, VOL, OPER, etc. anyone >> know what this is for? > >I think this was a keyboard with a built-in phone. This is pretty recent >(within the last two years). It was good for call centers (i.e. >operations with lots of telephone operators for telemarketing or what >not). I have brochures for it somewhere. > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >Always being hassled by the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 09/21/98] > >

26 years, 1 month

About VCF 2.0 and system design

by dpeschel＠u.washington.edu

I keep meaning to post a "reaction to the VCF" message. Since I have to do a lot of compilers homework at the moment, now is the perfect time. :) I enjoyed the VCF and will come next time. (I may bring my Kaypro to show to people, or perhaps just software -- there were other Kaypro demos there. I will probably bring my HP-97 if I still have it. I will definitely bring my electromechanical Marchant desk calculator if it's working then.) I do have to say that it was a little disappointing, because I didn't see some of the machines I wanted to see (or if I did see them, e.g., at the Computer Museum, they weren't running). Those would be old machines that are cool by modern standards, instead of being cool by old standards -- Amiga, Perq, Acorn, Symbolics, Be, NeXT, maybe AT&T 3B, Blit, Sony with NeWS, PDP-10, PDP-11 with GT40, PDP-12, LINC, PDP-1. The speeches were fantastic and I should have gone to more of them. The flea market was useful but not as cool as I had hoped. Also some people were selling worthless stuff or were obviously non-hobbyists who were drafted to sell things. (I don't object to non-hobbyists with knowledge and interest nearly as much as I object to non-hobbyists who have no clues or scruples.) It concerns me greatly that I didn't meet many people my own age (24) and that many people there were in fact much older than I am. Now, as for the "system design" part of the title... I have this ongoing ideal (crusade, project, romantic vision) of designing a fantastic new computer, or at least a *sensible* new computer. We now have computing power to spare for frills as well as function; many design ideas have been tried before and their consequences are known to some degree; disasters have been proved to be dis- asters (often more than once!). It surprises me that I haven't seen much interest in this. BTW, the VCF is quite relevant to this topic because the concept of "look at all these computers at once and compare them" is extremely useful. I can think of two problems, though: - We had a thread about designing your own CPU. We've also had discussions about the lack of schematics and technical info. So it seems that hardware is less accessible to the individual amateur, and it's very difficult for the amateur to break through to the next generation. I don't know if it's true, but it seems that way. - Also, information is disappearing. There's relatively copious documentation about old hardware, but not much about old software (or old software itself). Didn't someone try to put together an archive of software info? I haven't heard much about it. Although hardware is important and my ideal computer is going to have super-kick-butt hardware, the hardware designers seem to be working things out on their own -- it's the software market that needs a poke or two. Let me know what you think. -- Derek

26 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 1998