On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de wrote:
> Don't forget: the V(I)C-20 was a bit faster and a way better
> design then the C64.
>
I learned many things about the C64 recently.
First, that it was a underpowered, low quality computer that was more
expensive than an Apple ][ and had less features. I disagree because I
have never liked the Apple ][ more than the C64.
Second, I learn that the VIC-20, a predecessor to the C-64, was better
than it. How is this? Last I heard, it is the VIC that was underpowered
because it only had 8k ram or something like. Please explain; how was it
better?
> --
> Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
> HRK
>
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
J. Buck Caldwell has 7 WANG desktop computer systems available in St.
Louis. If anyone is interested, please contact him directly.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 09 Dec 1998 16:49:41 -0600
From: "J. Buck Caldwell" <buck_c(a)Polygon.com>
To: ware(a)interaccess.com
Subject: Computer Rescue List
I'm getting rid of my WANG computers (for lack of OS) and was wondering if
you want them. Free if you pick up, St. Louis area, I've got 7 Wang
desktop systems - don't know much about them, looks like they can boot
>from a floppy, serial, or network - but it's not ethernet (or arcnet, or
anything NORMAL). Let me know if you're interested.
--
J. Buck Caldwell
Engineer - Technical Support - Webmaster
Polygon, Inc. email:buck_c@polygon.com phone: (314) 432-4142
PO Box 8470 http://www.polygon.com/ fax: (314) 997-9696
St. Louis, MO 63132 ftp://ftp.polygon.com/ bbs: (314) 997-9682
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 running
DECNET on RSX-11M? I've used a Linux box to speak to a VAX before and it
worked quite well. Basically I'm more interested in transfering files to
the PDP-11 rather than logging into it over the net.
Oh, and I'm assuming I should get this working, is it possible to write a
tape on RSX-11M that RT-11 can understand. I would assume so, but...
Life would be so much easier if I'd ever gotten a floppy drive working on
my main PDP-11/73.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
I was at Coleman's Surplus in Millersburg, PA, today. The place turned
out to be little more than a junk yard, but I did stumble across some
interesting mainframes. They units were literally dumped in a pile, all
twisted and broken, most unidentifiable (to me, anyway).
Two of the mainframes, though, looked like they'd be possilbe to salvage,
if somebody was _really_ interested in them. They're listed below, along
with some questions.
The Gould/Concept:
All one piece, but with two doors (like a refrigerator). The top reads
"Gould 32/27", the bottom "Concept /32". I've no idea what this is.
Anybody? Interestingly, the top was full of DEC cards (looked like the
one's for my VAX), most of which have their connectors broken off.
The Sperry Univac:
This one's bigger that a refrigerator, with a reel unit (which is nearly
as big) attached to it. There wasn't any model number on the front panel
that I could see. This is a Unix system, I'm guessing?
The Kodak Automated Disk Library:
I was running out of time, so I didn't look very closely at this, though
it appears interesting. Mounted in the rack that ended up on the very
top of the pile, it's not very big, and doesn't really look all that beat
up. It appeared to be some sort of tape reader. Has anybody heard of
this?
Not salvageable:
Several Vax 11/780's - appeared to be stripped of cards, but power
supplies easy to get at.
2 Wang Units - didn't look too interesting to me, and they were hard to
get at.
"Harris" front panel - so I'm assuming the rest of it is there somewhere
nearby.
Digitech Encoder - this thing was really neat looking - pity its smashed.
It remined me of the Commodore SX64 in appearance. It has a small
monitor on the right hand side, a 5.25" floppy on the lower left, and a
bunch of lights in the upper left. Can anybody tell me what it is?
Several Deckwriter III's - easily accessable, but in very poor condition.
Tom Owad
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
i finally did initialise the machine and now i get two choices, monitor and
basic. machine seems to be working now. i was able to get the tape drive
working by keying in LOAD but thats all.
any web resources for this machine as far as how to use it?
In a message dated 12/12/98 6:04:42 PM EST, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:
<< Did you try pressing Control-@ ? That is a hard reset, which is what you
need to do at that point. It clears the memory.
I am a little worried that choice '2' isn't BASIC. It should be. Maybe
initialising the machine would help.
>>
At 08:55 AM 12/11/98 -0000, you wrote:
>Roger wrote, regarding the printer in the HX-20 and AIM-65:
>> As to five heads versus one, you can print five characters at once. Faster
>> printing.
>
>Disregarding the time spent moving the paper, it is slower (5/8 the speed),
>since you are only printing five dots at a time rather than eight. But
>speed wasn't the point.
I always thought that the more common printheads were 9x1 -- that is, a
single column of 9 dots. This moved across the paper printing 8 or so
times for each character. To have 5 sets spaced out would divide your
horizontal print time by 5.
For the HX-20, because it had only one row of dots, you then have to
multiply the time by 9 to get the 5 full characters. So the HX-20 probably
took 9/5 as long or was about twice as slow. It would have been
considerably slower if there were only 1 pin instead of 5 across.
>The real win was just that the mechanism was cheaper than the more common
>eight-vertical-dot mechanisms.
For the HX-20, that may have been very true, since it may have been prior
to Epson getting into buying/building mass quantities of printheads.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 06:55 PM 12/12/98 -0700, Jim Strickland wrote:
>netscape has older versions, but they're hard to find on their download site.
>
>Mosaic 3.x is available at
>http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/WinMosaic/Install.htm
>
>Previous versions are probably on their ftp site.
>>
>> Does anyone here know where I can get Windows and Linux versions of
>> Netscape 3.x or less, or Mosaic? I need these for computers that are
>> growing classic...
>> --------------------------------------
>> Max Eskin kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com
I actually have Mosaic 0.9 laying around somewhere. Is that old
enough for ya?
Les
Along with a *pile* of DEC stuff (in someone else's behalf, more
later when some details have been worked out..) I adopted a Mac
SE30 with a LaserWriter II... which was being used up to
yesterday.. and a Zenith Data Systems SupersPort 286 Laptop. (This
unit assumes you have a *generous* lap.)
The Zenith is in 8 out of 10 shape, cosmetically almost perfect,
with battery pack and ac adapter. The battery pack works,
unfortunately the CMOS battery has failed it's trust and therefore
no HD access. The unit boots from a floppy, however the neatest
feature of this machine is the ROM Monitor that it boots into if
nothing else works. Now to get out the hacksaw and electric chisel
and see if I can't dig down to that naughty little CMOS batt.
There also might be available a number of new-looking GridCase
portables, but I don't have them yet....
Cheers and Best of the Season
John
At 09:00 AM 12/11/98 -0800, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>C'mon, Hans! Get with it. This is just a cheezy way to dupe people into
>thinking this thing is worth more than it really is.
So entering a description like "It's not an Altair, but..." would
be more accurate and wouldn't attract eyeballs or search queries? :-)
- John
On Sat, 12 Dec 1998 lfb107(a)psu.edu wrote:
> I actually have Mosaic 0.9 laying around somewhere. Is that old
> enough for ya?
Yes, quite
>
> Les
>
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
