test-drb December 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

168 participants
844 discussions

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

It looks like the problems with www.blue-planet.com/tech have been fixed. I'm now able to get in with Internet Exploder 4.0 again. -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

25 years, 7 months

Luftschiffe (was:ebay - Minivac 601, 1st pers. digital computer 1960s)

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Fri, 18 Dec 1998 gram(a)cnct.com wrote: > facility. Even if you get a gas leak, you're not going to crash -- > a large airship doesn't have one gasbag, it has a half-dozen or more > ballonets inside the structure separately sealed apart from each > other.

25 years, 7 months

eGroups

by daveygf＠aol.com

Have any of you tried out http://www.egroups.com ? I am trying to get the classicCmp mailing list to work with it, but it doesn't show new messages. It does allow me to post from there though. David daveygf(a)aol.com http://altaircomputers.org

25 years, 7 months

Xerox

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

>I thought about 'hide' in the sense of not showing technical terms >where they are not needed. For example, with Win you still have a >FD named A: and a HD named C: (or with the Amiga df0: etc.) That's what I'm asking. How do you save to floppy on a Daybreak? >Or think about file extensions ... etc. Well, file extensions is questionable. In MS-DOS and relatives, these are very severely misused. On a Macintosh, they're hidden from the user, and all nice and neat. Until you want to change something, when you regret that it's all hidden. In Linux, there are no extensions as far as the system is concerned, and I must say, I don't miss them at all. >One of the best developments of the last years was the Newton. Yes, I sort of like that thing too. I had about an hour of experience with an e-Mate (a Newton with a bigger screen and a built-in keyboard), and though it was somewhat disorienting (there is no distinction between an open file and a stored file, so I was trying to close the word processor for about 10 minutes before I realized that the concept didn't exist), I thought it was pretty neat. >systems available for free (like Smalltalk Express Yes, I downloaded this last night. Do you think it's any good? >And classic Smaltalk implementations can run on a 4.77 MHz 8088 >with graphical environment in a speed good enough to test it. >And on a 386sx with lets say 2 MB mem its a rocket :) Cool! Are any still available? >Gruss >Hans > >-- >Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut >HRK So what does that mean?

25 years, 7 months

Another ~1960 computer kit

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Sun, 20 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote: > Are there really people who prefer video games and TV to making things? > I've never met any, but that maybe because I grew up making things, and > met people with similar interests. You can't begin to imagine how lucky you are! Around here, I've met only a dozen or so people who have any interest whatsoever in making things (not including artists, there are plenty of those). I'm tempted to reduce the number even further, considering how many of those people have never held a soldering iron. The other problem is that those books tony mentioned which started this discussion are no longer easily available. What is are stupid little kits like 'build your own radio' that come with some stencilled cardboard and a PCB. All you have to do is to cut the cardboard, fold, glue, and stick in the PCB. You've made a radio. And this way, people miss the point. I think I missed the point, now that we're having this discussion. I have one example of a 'do-it-yourself' book from 1935 called 'Making Things for Fun' by Frederick Collins. There are lots of nice things in the 'Other Books by Fred..' list. Anyway, in this book, there is a chapter on making a small radio receiver powered off an AC line. And the book says, "for all ages". We don't have these things anymore, it's hard to learn. ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

25 years, 7 months

Another ~1960 computer kit

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>>But worse still is the fact that back in the early years of this century, >>it appears that boys - say about 12-15 years old - were expected to try >>woodwork, metalwork, using a lathe, wiring electric lights, bells, >>telephones, etc, making induction coils, etc, etc, etc. Things that I bet >>few boys ever try today. And yet, today, it could be made a little easier >>for them. Max wrote: >There's little need to make coils these days, and wiring electric lights >isn't very fun when one can play around with things millions of times more >complex. Unfortunately, lots of "fundamental" knowledge gets left out when you skip electric lights and go to things much more complex. Clarke's law says that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", but as far as I'm concerned light bulbs, batteries, and wires still have an element of magic. The concept that by connecting these two pieces of copper, I can make a bulb elsewhere glow, is magic in itself. (Even more magical is what happens when you short out the turns of a hand-cranked magneto and try turning it...) One has to understand these basic elements of technological magic if anything worthwhile is going to be done! Unfortunately, in today's world of glitzy computer graphics and sound everywhere, many kids feel that somehow unless their creations live up to to Hollywood standards that they aren't worthwhile. And this attitude is completely wrong. But talking with educators from the local kindergarten right up to the Provost of Caltech, I've come to realize that this is a very real obstacle to teaching the fundamentals of not only technical subjects, but also of artistic subjects. -- 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

25 years, 7 months

OT: Online auctins an institution?

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

> >No one else has figured out that the real money is in the _information_ >about what sold at auction for what? Ever wonder why Christie's will give >you a catalog of things for auction but will _sell_ you the results? On >line auctions are here to stay and they open a whole new area of >opportunity (as this list knows all too well) > >--Chuck This is a very astute observation. I never cease to be amazed by the smarts exhibited by the contributors to this list. If we could pool the brainpower here we could turn Capitalism on it's head. But, of course, many of us are not partial to Capitalism so I guess we'll have to stay poor. Bob Wood Bob Wood > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 7 months

Another ~1960 computer kit

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Sat, 19 Dec 1998 dpeschel(a)u.washington.edu wrote: > Besides, I really like Squeak. I hated VisualWorks (an expanded, refined > descendant of the original Xerox Smalltalk) when I used it in class. But > Squeak is a lot more manageable, and it helps to be able to tinker instead > of worrying about doing homework. Well, I downloaded both Squeak and 'Smalltalk Express'. Squeak is certainly more complete, SE tries to be an IDE of Smalltalk which isn't what it's about. However, it seems that both use lots of RAM. I often get out-of-memory errors when trying to multitask under Win95 with either of these running. ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

25 years, 7 months

Value

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 06:33 PM 12/15/98 -0800, you wrote: >> Chaque a' son gout, the lady said as she kissed the cow. 8^) > >Can we stick to English on this list? All these Latin and French quotes >are all Greek to me! Sorry... Chaque = Each, a = has, son = his, gout = taste. or, each to his own. (I grew up in a 1/2-french-speaking, dual-piano, opera-loving, book-filled household. Heck, I didn't even know there was any other kind of music besides opera and the various forms of classical until my mid-teens. 8^) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

25 years, 7 months

Commodore machines that never made it?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 09:26 AM 12/21/98 -0800, Charles P. Hobbs wrote: >> For another piece of Commodore software... would Mind Walker count? It >> was (c)1986 Commodore-Amiga/Synapse IIRC (which I may not). I don't know >> if the packaging, etc, was Commodore's or if it was Synapse. Commodore >> had the trademark on the name, though, because Amiga Technologies used >> Mind Walker as the name for a web browser during the ESCOM era. > >Wasn't that originally called "Wynd Walker?" (They had to change the name >because of, you guessed it, trademark issues) No, Mind Walker was one of the very first games (call it that?) for the Amiga. I don't remember the story behind it, but I could ask a friend who knew the guy who wrote it. - John

25 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 1998