test-drb November 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

185 participants
940 discussions

History of "Multimedia" (Was:iMac AddOn (was:Future Collect

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

Fred: > On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Doug Yowza wrote: >> The term "multimedia" was known -- I remember suffering through some bad >> performance art back then. And the MindSet PC (1984) was positioned as a >> graphics and sound machine to differentiate it from IBM, but the Amiga did >> a better job (I bought mine to play with computer music). > > In 1970 a college art prof told me that "multimedia" is 2 or more Kodak > Carousel projectors plus a sound track. In response to questions he did > insist that no substitutions were permitted. > > In 1979 I used the cassette relay of a TRS-80 model 1 to advance slides > on a Carousel. But it was only one. I've never had a "multimedia" system. > > Has "multimedia" changed since then :-? :-) At the camera club to which I belong, a presentation with 2 carousel projectors and a sound track is called "an AV", presumably meaning audio-visual. A friend recently gave me a good description of multimedia: "... the use of two or more media that don't go well together. If they did, they wouldn't be multimedia, but form a new medium, like cinema (film + sound)" Your prof sounds like an ultra-conservative don out of touch with the world. I encountered similar at [high? Age 16] school - the German teacher (i.e. he taut the language, not came from Germany) who didn't admit the existence of the verb programmieren. > Now all of the hype is "3D". I have used some 3D illusion systems, such > as StereoGraphics. But all of the "3D" stuff that is being hyped is on > purely two dimensional video monitors. What's going on? > > Can anyone explain to me in what way a processor is "3D"?? I don't know how a processor can be 3d, though a transputer array (or similar) could easily be 3D. A 3D graphics system on a purely 2D display is AFAIK one with functions like shading, hidden line removal, etc. that you need to display 2D views of virtual 3D objects. Philip.

26 years, 6 months

Saved Altair 4K BASIC

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

> Bill Gates, in his "Open Letter to Hobbyists" mentioned earlier, tells And for those who don't have the issue of BYTE that this appeared in, here's the letter. Note the "old" address in New Mexico, and the hyphenated version of "Micro-Soft": AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS February 3, 1976 By William Henry Gates III An Open Letter to Hobbyists To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market? Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000. The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour. Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is some to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid? Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft. What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at. I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software. Bill Gates General Partner, Micro-Soft -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 6 months

Compaq portable questions (not laptop)

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

which came first, this compaq model, or the IBM 5155? > >I have recently obtained a machine that when carried resembles a sewing > >machine in a carry case, marked Compaq Portable. It has a built in CRT > >and is evidentally an 8088 or 8086 machine judging by the 8 bit slots. > > > >Anyone have any info on it, and is there any collectability to these?

26 years, 6 months

Elf99 - rebirth of a classic

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< > What's wrong with 2114s? I've used them in a lot of projects and produ < > and they fine if a x4 orginization is handy. I have 24 of them in use < > for a intersil 6100 (12 bit pdp-8) based system. < < Any schematics? ;-) Yep! < I've seen schematics, and it's not the 6845 end of things that daunts me < it's the 1802 end, trying to adapt a 6800/6502 bus interface to the mor < limited 1802 interface implementation. Effectively it's the difference < between memory mapped I/O and non-memory mapped I/O thaat have got me. Memory mapped IO on the 1802 was trivial to do and could be used to good advantage (1861 used it for the display). < Coincidentally, I purchased a PDP-8/L at 16 for the princely sum of $35 Had an 8e years ago and gave it away, looking for another. < Still, the latch required +5.0VDC, the only part with a tight power < requirement. The latch was not fussy about power, the led portion was power hog. Allison

26 years, 6 months

Power interlocks (was Re: [OT] Alphaserver Oops!)

by roblwill＠usaor.net

-----Original Message----- From: Eric Smith <eric(a)brouhaha.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, November 10, 1998 8:51 PM Subject: Power interlocks (was Re: [OT] Alphaserver Oops!) <<<snip!>>> >I'd suggest defeating interlocks only if you are *sure* you know what >you're doing, not if you *think* you know. In the case of the Alphaserver >that was cited in the earlier email, it is clear that the person opening the >machine did NOT know what was inside it, and it would have been entirely >inappropriate to defeat the interlock.

26 years, 6 months

OT: General power supply question

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

Sam: (It was Sam, wasn't it?) > > If I have a center negative power supply (the diagram shows that the > negative is in the center of the connector) does that mean the center of > the connector on the device to be powered should be connected to the > ground plane? Tony: > One of Vonada's Laws is 'There is no such thing as ground'. This has 2 > distinct meanings, BTW, both of them applicable to classic computers. The > first (and the one we need here) is that voltmeters have 2 probes and you > can take the reference where you like. The other is that a ground > connection has impedance, so all the points you thought were ground may > in fact be at different voltages. > > Anyway, that said, it is common in most systems to have the ground plane > at the -ve supply voltage. Exceptions are most ECL systems (which run off > a -5.2V supply, and thus the +ve side of the supply goes to the ground > plane), some discrete transistor machines (the HP9100's main supply rail > is at -15V wrt the ground plane), and probably others. > > But in 99% of TTL machines (and things using TTL-compatible > microprocessors, etc), the ground plane is, indeed, -ve. I've forgotten who else attempted to answer the question - Tony's was by far the best reply - but one or two things need clearing up. Person who said check continuity between centre pin of socket and ground on the machine. That tells you if it _is_ connected to the ground plane. Sam wanted to know if it _should be_ connected - i.e. he seems to be adapting a machine for which he has no PSU to work with a PSU he has. Person who talked about safety earthing. All true, but I think the question was about the ground plane within the machine, and whether it should be connected to the negative supply rail, not whether the machine needs to be earthed. Tony: Agreed 99%. But there are one or two exceptions as you imply - wasn't it you who eold me about the machine which regulates the negative rail with a -5V regulator and makes that the ground? The positive rail is then +5V and the unregulated negative is around -5V for serial ports and things. If the supply you are using is a regulated 5V supply, then + and - terminals go to +5V rail and ground plane respectively. If it is not, try and trace supply rails back to a regulator. It should then be possible to work out which way the regulation is done. But as Tony says, in 99% of machines the answer is yes. If you tell us what the machine is, there will probably be someone on the list who can tell you how to wire it up. Philip.

26 years, 6 months

iMac AddOn (was: Future Collectibles)

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 03:07 PM 11/9/98 PST, you wrote: >significance, I doubt it will be remembered any better than many other >machines. It seems hard for me to imagine the iMac or any other >technologically vanilla modern computer will ever end up in a museum. So the IBM PC was hot stuff? I don't think so. It sold, and will be remembered, because it was IBM's stamp of approval on the (then) latest round of "Computers will change the way you do business." Back then, the theory was "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" and so it was that even though it was "technologically vanilla", the PC sold and made a serious impact. Likewise, many of the other very collectible or desireable computers are much less technologically innovative than they are socially (computer-wise) important. [From another message] >Even if we ignore that the plain G3 systems would likely have been >enough? I heard that Apple sold out of their new G3s even before the >iMac came out. All of the detail to which you refer will be forgotten The iMac is cute. It is friendly, something Grandma's are more likely to feel comfortable with than your standard PC. It is something that the upscale will be happy to have in their home -- you know, those weird people who have exactly three magazines (and nothing else) on their coffee table and don't have dozens of cables running (visibly!) through their homes, the way we do. Richard Fish (of Ally McBeal) had one in his apartment. BMW's are not exceptional cars. They're fine, much like many others available on the market. But all the yuppies want them, because they're beemers. The iMac is the same. And for that, it will be remembered and, eventually, collected. >in 15 years. By historic, I mean of the magnitude of the original >macintosh, or the PC XT, or Apple II, or Altair, or C64, and others. >These truly changed the face of computing, unlike the iMac. The iMac will change (or at least attempt to change) computing by bringing in a whole new layer of users -- ones that even the cheapy clone PC's couldn't attract. Similar to the ones that were attracted to the original Mac, but less adventuresome. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

26 years, 7 months

Collectable PCs

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 05:56 PM 11/8/98 EST, you wrote: >on a piece of equipment this would be a good example. My reasons in order of >priority: 1) first popular clone, 2) all the original -parts (including ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Exsqueeze me? Um... Don't think it qualifies as "popular" at all, and I have to question the "first" part as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

26 years, 7 months

Altair Speculation

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 09:46 PM 11/9/98 PST, you wrote: >>Maybe, but zero feedback isn't realy a thing to rate - > >You are right in your assertion that feedback for someone >who is a bidder makes little difference. However, for Well, I disagree... It's perhaps not as important for bidders as it is for sellers, but it is still important. I have had sellers ship stuff right away instead of waiting for my check to clear because I have a decent feedback rating. I do the same when I sell; if the high bidder has decent feedback, I'll ship right away. >items. This happened because I have a perfect feedback >profile and that alone results in higher bids. I have seen I don't know that I would bid higher based on feedback, but maybe I bid on different stuff. (I did once not bid seriously because the seller had a feedback of 1, posted by a user from the same domain with a feedback of 0.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

26 years, 7 months

DOS browser

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 01:35 PM 11/2/98 -0600, you wrote: >Take a look at this on C/Net >http://cnet.com/Resources/Topdownloads/PC/Result/Download/0,162,57820,00.ht… I use Arachne a lot -- I do all my web dev in a DOS Text Editor, and then (if I'm not running Windows at the moment) use Arachne to Preview it. Works great, except that the latest version (that I have) builds a couple of directories whereever you happen to be, so I wrote a perl pgm and batch file to jump to the Arachne directory and load the web page from there. Anyway, I haven't used it to go on-line, but it apparently can. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

26 years, 7 months

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test-drb November 1998