In a message dated 12/13/98 3:05:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, yowza(a)yowza.com
writes:
>
> The *beggining* of the Internet revolution? You missed it by almost 30
> years :-) (I was just talking to a guy who was there for the installation
> of IMP #1 at UCLA.)
>
You are a pioneer. The revolution starts when it is being adopted by the
masses. This is what is happening right now. Ebay is a part of it. The iMac is
a part of it. Mass use of the Internet will change it so that the pioneers
will have trouble recognizing it. The next few years will be interesting.
Paxton
When you shop ebay you soon realize that to find anything you need to use a
search engine. Search engines use keywords. Finding the right keywords that
will find what you are looking for is difficult. I spend a lot of time going
through completed auctions to try and figure out what keywords people use to
describe their stuff.
The question then becomes "What do I list this as, that will trip the keywords
that people search for?" You end up packing the limited space for the
description with keywords that are only related to the item you are selling.
This is an unfortunate consequence of the Internet revolution, not false
advertising. The Internet revolution is about making contacts. We are making
new modes of how to do this.
I have some gold chips that would be attractive to collectors (8080s, memory,
8008, etc.) but I have yet to figure out what to call them when I list them on
ebay. I am spending considerable time to try and figure out what keywords
people search for. I suspect my listings will be a mishmash of related words
when I get done. When I list these next year I expect to see lots of chuckles
about the prices I hope I am getting.
I find the comments about high prices for collectibles very interesting. Sure
you can find stuff going for hundreds of dollars. However if you search
completed sales you will find that a full range of prices exist. What brings
in top dollar are working machines, with accessories, software, documentation
and original boxes.
If it is non-working, missing parts it often sells at a reasonable price, a
fraction of what the high end machines sell for. Another reason I see is for a
low selling price is a poor choices of keywords. If people can't find
you......
I appreciate the mention of the ebay listings. It helps me with my research
and often provides a few chuckles when I look at what people want for their
stuff.
We are at the beginning of a revolution, I don't think anyone knows where it
will shake out.
Complete ClassicCmp archives related to Altair are now on my website. Also, just added archives from various Usenet newsgroup discussin Altair computer family.
Here is what I currently am working on:
-adding software content
-adding scanned pictures of Altair brochures
-adding scans of advertisements from MITS
-building a virtual museum
If any of you would like to contribute to this effort send me your ideas!
http://altaircomputers.org
>> Interesting item on ebay. I hadn't heard of it but it looks like it is an
>> interesting part of early computer history! The URL is:
>Your ebay advertising service is great for ebay, and great for sellers,
>but please consider what you do to the poor bidders who already know about
>this stuff and have plans to bid on it.
I dunno - I kind of like looking at pictures/descriptions of interesting
items, and folks posting Ebay URL's often (maybe even usually) do a
decent job of finding the "interesting" stuff.
Of course, I also realize that there's no local shortage of interesting
computer hardware free for the hauling, and am damn unlikely to bid
on anything :-).
I didn't think computer-collecting was such a competitive hobby, but some
others evidently feel differently. I see way too many late 60's/
70's minis and micros going through the scrap metal recyclers to think
that there's any shortage of historical stuff to keep me busy.
Tim.
Jay Jaeger <cube(a)msn.fullfeed.com> wrote:
>While I was at the regular weekly UW (Wisconsin) Friday surplus sale
>I noticed a DecSystem 5400 with 2 RA90 disk drives and a
>TK70 tape drive is available out there for $20, including a short rack.
>The system looks very very clean, physically. I have no room for it.
>It is not a MicroVAX, but is instead a RISC system, presumably using a MIPS
>RISC processor.
>The folks over there told me they are having a big sale December 29th, so
>if you want it, you should probably grab it no later than that. They are
>open every Friday AM from 8AM to 2PM, IIRC.
Adam Fritzler <afritz(a)delphid.ml.org>
>Wish I had enough to ship/get such a thing to AZ.... Someone tried to sell
>me one of these locally about 8mo ago for about $800...
>Nice boxes for their time. QBus version of the DECstation line of
>MIPS-based machines.
A 5400 uses a BA213 chassis. The lower portion is a 12 slot Qbus backplane.
The upper section has room to mount a tape drive, and up to three RFxx
series drives. The BA213 can be rack mounted, but mostly found in a stand
alone case measuring around 14x20x27. The case has wheels which, given
the weight of the thing, is nice.
It uses a two board KN210 processor set, slot 1 being the I/O module and
slot 2 being the CPU module. It will take up to four MS650 16Mb memory
cards. The processor runs at 20Mhz. It has an MMJ console connector
and both BNC and AUI Ethernet connectors. It will run Ultrix 3.1B or
later.
The RA90 drives are 1.2Gb.
My point is that someone needs to haul this off. I have already got two
of them, or might think about getting it myself. Actually too far away
and the wrong time of the year. I had a dealer in IL offer me $150 for
one, but I decided it was worth more just to play with.
If someone gets this, I have the 5400 hardware manual and will answer what
questions I can. I also have a manual on the RA90/RA92 and the SA600/SA800
Storage Array (that I suspect the drives are mounted in) that I don't
need.
Mike
>If it's a Univac I, I want it :-)
That's what its labeled. Coleman's Surplus is at 360 Klinger Rd,
Millersburg, PA 17061. Their web site is at <www.colemans.com>. No clue
how much they wanted for it, but getting it out of there is the _real_
problem. Of course, getting it to California might be kind of
challenging as well. :-)
>I really don't know much about the
>history of the Univac, but the same name was used for a bunch of quite
>different machines I think. The first one was the direct descendent of
>the ENIAC, so no, the "Uni" in Univac has nothing to do with Unix, if
>that's what you're thinking.
Yes, that's what I was thinking.
>It sounds like quite a cool graveyard, though.
I felt like quite the computer archaeologist. :-)
Tom Owad
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
For anyone who wants a 17-year-old terminal that looks just like
an iMac, I've got a Lear-Siegler ADM5 here that works and I'd like
to give away. Pickup only, in Bethesda MD (just inside the Beltway).
--
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
>
>Life would be so much easier if I'd ever gotten a floppy drive working on
>my main PDP-11/73.
>
> Zane
What kind of problems are you having getting a floppy working in the 11/73.
If you need an RX50 I have several you can have for the shipping I also have
a few RX33's.
Dan
< How OS specific is DECNET? If I've got a Linux Box speaking DECNET (Yes
< they do that now), can that same box do a 'set host' to a system runnin
< DECNET on RSX-11M? I've used a Linux box to speak to a VAX before and i
< worked quite well. Basically I'm more interested in transfering files t
< the PDP-11 rather than logging into it over the net.
Decnet sethost is similar to TELNET and is not specifically platform
specific. File access maybe as VMS supports 36char filenames and
versioning.
< Oh, and I'm assuming I should get this working, is it possible to write
< tape on RSX-11M that RT-11 can understand. I would assume so, but...
It may be possible but the file system hooks may be subtle in their
interface. I'd ecpect it to work but surprizes are possble.
For me this is a good reason to get into linux.
Allison
Hello, all:
Last night I posted the following to my Web site:
- 10/83 Article from Byte re: Motorola Educational Computing Board
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
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