At 04:31 PM 12/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> >From what I've heard, the reason why the US military stopped using
>> airships was because so many crashed in storms...
>
>The first bunch did (1920s-30s), but they were reborn in the 1940s, as
>they were _wonderful_ ASW platforms. They continued to be used well into
>the 1950s, carrying early warning radar stuff.
>
They're still being used for RADAR platforms. There's one flying not 30
miles from here. Supposedly being to used to stop the flow of drugs. Yeah
-- right!
Joe
The following was posted on alt.sys.pdp8... I don't have
any other knowledge of it, and can't save it myself...
SOMEONE, please save it!
I have been asked to post the following anonymous tip about the availability
of a PDP-8 system in Boston:
------------------------------
Two functional PDP-8e minicomputers, 32k, RK8e disk, TD8e DECtape,
bound for dumpster in Boston Friday afternoon, 18 december.
Researcher has finally decided he needs floor space more than potential
access to original data.
Also RK05 disk packs, documentation, tapes, etc. In racks, with wheels.
243 Charles St., Boston, alley beside Mass. Gen'l Hosp. Founders' House,
rolling out between 4pm and 6pm. "Too much paperwork" to donate or sell,
they say. If you have a truck, and make appropriate offerings to
the housekeeping folks, they could be yours.
------------------------------
That is today! If you're in Boston and want a PDP-8 or want to help
someone get one, please act fast! Please pass this note on to anyone
you feel could help rescue this system.
Doug Jones
jones(a)cs.uiowa.edu
For those who are looking for a parts source for these beasts , a new one has
popped up.
Well, Gernware Enterprises >finally< put up some web pages
on all the stuff still in stock for all the old ZDS systems.
Although these systems are long obsolete, Gernware still has both
new products and used parts available for the Z-100, Z-150, Z-171,
Z-248, and other stuff (including a 8-color flatbed plotter!).
It can't hurt to try Gernware to keep an old ZDS system running!
Front of the line ZDS software for the Z-100 is being offered this
time around. And as always at below really cheap costs.
For all the details hit the web pages at:
www.borg.com/~gern
Gernware wishes a merry seasons greetings to all Gernware
customers, both the loyal past customers and future ones!
Cheers,
Gern
I don't know who thsi is but it's a rare source.
ciao larry
lwalker(a)interlog.com
At 10:55 PM 12/17/98 -0600, you wrote:
>And that reminds me, Compass owner that I am, to ask if there are any
>other Compass owners out there? I've got an 1100, 1101, 1129, and 1139.
I've got an 1101 that doesn't work. I'd love any others anyone wants to
part with.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
At 09:14 AM 12/17/98 -0600, you wrote:
>There have been other cases where sites were "framing" content from
>other people's sites - imagine a super-news site that gave you the
>impression all the content was their own, but that only embedded
>(via links) content made by others, side-stepping their menus
>and banners, etc. Today's relevant bit from TBTF below.
I can certainly see the issue with making content appear to be yours, when
in fact it was someone elses (I seem to remember someone framing WSJ
articles this way, and rightfully getting busted.)
However, the simple act of "get your tickets at ticketmaster.com" (with an
embedded link) is more akin to "go three blocks that way, and turn left and
you'll see TM on the right".
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
>(mean?) humorous streak. They taught him a very interesting form of
>English - and colourful. Instead of saying "wow, excellent!", they
>convinced him that the correct thing to say was "most spannerlike!", and
>that a correct form of greeting was "Hello Sailor!". There were many more
>interesting variations, and his English was eventually, suffice it to say,
>unusual :)
Six words: "My hovercraft is full of eels"
Tim.
A few of you may know that one of my first postings to
Usenet (alt.folklore.computers) was a request for a copy
of Ohio Scientific's OS-65U 6502 operating system. I
have been looking for it since 1993. Well, Santa came
to me a little early today in the form of the UPS man
and I have here in my hand (well, sitting on the desk
next to me) a factory original set of 8 inch floppies
of OS-65U! Level 1 version 1.44 CD-23 revision. I also
have demo disks, and level 1 v 1.2 CD-7 revision. I
think to myself, "My quest is over."
Now the real work begins.
I own six 8 inch floppy drives that came with OSI machines.
None of them have had a disk in them since I have owned
them (I haven't had one to put in them until now!).
three are:
Siemens FDD 200-8P
one is:
Shugart Model 801
the other two are in a box, I'll have to check later.
One of the Siemens has the gold face plate I mentioned in
another post. The Siemens look like double sided drives,
the Shugart is definitely a single sided drive. Nothing
on the disks indicate single or double sided. I think
they are soft sectored (only one index hole). How should
I proceed? Could I get full repair and calibration
instructions for these drives? Does anybody have an 8 inch
set up that can read and duplicate most formats? Maybe recover
questionable/compromised data on the disks?
Thanks,
Bill Sudbrink
Actually, in the US, the FCC regulations on emissions did not go into effect until 1981 or 1982, before that the only laws were those general laws against operating an unlicensed or unauthorized transmitter. You could make an argument that any given item constituted such a transmitter, but even the FCC did not interpret things this way until the formal Class A / Class B certification rules went into effect.
Kits are a "grey" area, but generally it would be expected that they would comply when assembled according to the instructions (and believe me, pre-1980 computers are generally WAY out of compliance). Since you are dealing with a "regulation" and not a "law" (in the US, anyway), enforcement is an administrative function of the FCC rather than a civil/criminal action by the courts (although in some cases it can spill over).
The safety issue, in the US, is NOT a legal requirement (except in the state of Oregon and some cities/counties, including Los Angeles). Otherwise, there are generally no laws requiring UL approval. But just try to get insurance or defend a lawsuit if you are a company that markets a non-UL approved product. UL only applies to devices that use certain threshold levels of voltage; a board would not be impacted, but an IMSAI chassis that plugs into the wall, for example, would - and it would not pass (there is exposed full line voltage, among other things).
----------
From: Tony Duell [SMTP:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 1998 8:38 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: SOL feeding frenzy?
>
> I would actually like to be able to buy a "new" IMSAI (for example), =
> even if it wasn't made by IMSAI, but I would want it to be understood =
> that it was a newly produced copy. It won't happen, however, in part =
> because it would be illegal to make any of these computer as "new" =
Well, there might be interlectual property/copyright problems, but do the
other rules apply to kits/bare boards?
The UK rules are strange IIRC. Kits have to pass the appropriate
directives (covering EMC/safety, for example), when assembled as per the
instructions. But I seem to remember that bare boards can be classed as
components, and are thus exempt. Of course if you then populate the
board, you'd better make sure it causes no interference.
Or at least I think that's roughly how most people interpret the
regulations. The people who composed them seem not to realise that
experimental designs exist, that example circuits exist, and that nobody
can know what a circuit will do until it's built and tested...
> products. There were no FCC regulations when these machines were =
I am sure there _were_ FCC rules, mainly to do with causing interference
to other services.
Now, if it causes no intereference outside your house, who is to know or
care :-). OK, if %random-public buys a computer he should be able to
assume it'll not interfere with his TV in the same room. But if you build
one, then provided it only wipes out _your_ TV and not those of your
neighbours, then there's no real problem.
> originally built, and none of them are in compliance, and they couldn't =
> be put in compliance without a complete redesign (in fact, they are WAY =
> out of compliance). Most of these were also not UL approved either. So =
I don't see how UL approval can be applied to a bare board (OK, if it's
designed so user controls are live or something...), since whether it is
safe or not depends on how it is constructed, what parts are used,
whether or not it is cased, etc.
-tony
>> I seem to recall that there were commercially available 2650 S100 cards....
>Do you have more information ?
I recall this as well. The source of more information would
undoubtedly be to page through a big stack of _BYTE_'s from the mid
and late 70's.
Remember, in the S-100 world "commercially available" means that someone
etched a PC board and maybe, if you're lucky, they actually typed
up a manual with hand-drawn schematics.
Tim.
Somewhat apropos the recent thread about sending mains power
through modems, can anyone tell me if it's legal or illegal
here in the States to send data in the audio of television or
radio? Certainly there would be bandwidth and therefore speed
limitations, but does the FCC allow this? Is it legal in other
countries?
- John