test-drb December 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

168 participants
844 discussions

E.I. Homebuilt Computer (was Re: "Single instance" machines)

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

Hi Aaron and all, At 01:57 AM 12/10/98 -0800, you wrote: >> > And the 1/3 part is in the form of the "electronic" computer I'm building >> > from the January 1960 issue of Electronics Illustrated...(flip-flops, >> > light-bulbs, and a rotary phone dial - woo-hoo!) I'm about 1/3 >> > completed... >> >> One of my favorite early personal computers! I regret that the designer >> didn't give it a name, though. Specs: >> >> Name: "Electronic Computer" >> Intro: Jan 1960 >Did you actually build one of these? I was thinking of taking the author's >suggestion and upgrading the memory to 10 bits... > >Do you have the magazine? If you don't, and get around to putting up a web >page, I'll gladly scan the article to put on it. Actually, if anyone else >is interested, I could scan it and make it available for anyone who want's >to hack around on it. Pretty cool, actually. > I would be interested in the article. I built the later one (E.I., about 1966) with 60 neon lamps as 6 decade shift register/counters and a rotary telephone dial. This one used 3 12AU7/ECC82 as 6 buffer amps. The diodes in it I used were from scrapped IBM assemblies. I still have some 6V lamps in orange plastic holders from the same scrapyard, used on some IBM panels. -Dave

25 years, 7 months

Modem tones over television or radio

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>>It's a requirement of the new EBS replacement! >Cynical as I am, the fact that the government is allowed to >do something doesn't tell me it's legal for citizens. :-) Well, broadcasters do, for many purposes, have the status of super-citizens. In today's FCC, all you need to do is have enough cash in hand and you can get the government to sell you whatever chunk of radio/microwave spectrum you decide are necessary. It doesn't matter that the new services stomp all over bands that were previously reserved for medical equipment or radio astronomy - after all, what does it matter whether >I seem to remember something about tone encoding/decoding >being illegal within citizen's band radio, for example. In shared bandwidth applications, modes that can obliterate existing services usually are tightly regulated. There's also the matter of "encrypted transmissions", too. For example, the ARRL had a special waiver written into FCC Part 97 that allows them to send 5-character Morse Code groups solely for the purpose of practice. And when I got started in RTTY, only Baudot transmissions were allowed on the ham bands - ASCII wasn't an approved encoding until a few years later. >The new system is called EAS (Emergency Alerting System), >replacing the old EBS. Thank you! I knew the EBS replacement wasn't called EBS anymore, but I couldn't quite remember what it was called. -- 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

single instance machines

by fauradon＠pclink.com

You've got a brain-fart with an expansion module? >At 07:19 PM 12/9/98, Joe wrote: >>At 02:27 PM 12/9/98 -0700, you wrote: >>> >>>> On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Joe wrote: >>> >>>> > Hmmm. I have two AT&T 3B1 model 310s. Does that count as one or two? >>> ^^^ >>> >>>Whazzat? >> >> That's a brain-fart. It should have said 3B2. > >Well, in that case, i've got one too. (with the expansion module) > >Les > >

25 years, 7 months

single instance machines

by lfb107＠psu.edu

At 07:19 PM 12/9/98, Joe wrote: >At 02:27 PM 12/9/98 -0700, you wrote: >> >>> On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Joe wrote: >> >>> > Hmmm. I have two AT&T 3B1 model 310s. Does that count as one or two? >> ^^^ >> >>Whazzat? > > That's a brain-fart. It should have said 3B2. Well, in that case, i've got one too. (with the expansion module) Les

25 years, 7 months

OT HP Vectra Networking

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 A_Finney(a)wfi-inc.com wrote: > What??? I think I missed something here [bangs thick head on desk]. Did > you just say that Linux is 30 years old or do I have barbecue sauce in my > ears? Is this some kind of metaphorical comparison of Linux to something > else? Did you mean just mean Unix in general? I mean UNIX in general. I consider Linux and UNIX to be similar enough to say that what I am running right now is as directly descended from something that ran 30 years ago on that PDP in Bell Labs (IIRC) as any other version of UNIX. ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

25 years, 7 months

Latest Project: homebrew paper tape reader

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

-----Original Message----- From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)msn.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, 10 December 1998 13:38 Subject: Latest Project: homebrew paper tape reader >Well, another project to further divide my free time... > > I saw a project in one of my old Bytes for a hand-pulled paper tape >reader. Very simple - 9 photodiodes, a light, a latch, a pulse-stretcher, >and some guide posts. Hmmm, any chance you could post/email the circuit and article? Might be able to help. > Well, here's the parts I have lying around: a BasicStamp-II, two R/C >servos modified for constant running, a few switches, and photodiodes. > > If I get this thing working over the Christmas holiday, I'll post a >construction article. > > Any recommendations for rubber pinch rollers? I'm thinking rubber >stoppers from a plumbing supply shop. These are pre-drilled and come with a >washer, bolt, and wing nut. How about some VHS VCR Pinch Rollers. They'd be around the right size. In fact, might not some of the tape path components be used to make it a motorised version? A repairer probably has a swag of used ones that have gone a bit concave or slick to be any good in a VCR, but probably just fine for what you want. You might also ask around the ham radio community, lots of Siemens teleprinters have tape facilities. Baudot of course, but some of the transport might be useful. You might even get lucky and find something that handles ascii tape. Some later machines, like the SAGEM certainly had it as an option. RTTY has pretty much gone computer these days, so you might find there are lots laying about gathering dust. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Marks College Port Pirie South Australia. My ICQ# is 1970476 Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)

25 years, 7 months

Latest Project: homebrew paper tape reader

by rcini＠msn.com

Well, another project to further divide my free time... I saw a project in one of my old Bytes for a hand-pulled paper tape reader. Very simple - 9 photodiodes, a light, a latch, a pulse-stretcher, and some guide posts. Well, here's the parts I have lying around: a BasicStamp-II, two R/C servos modified for constant running, a few switches, and photodiodes. If I get this thing working over the Christmas holiday, I'll post a construction article. Any recommendations for rubber pinch rollers? I'm thinking rubber stoppers from a plumbing supply shop. These are pre-drilled and come with a washer, bolt, and wing nut. [ 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/ <================ reply separator =================>

25 years, 7 months

networking newbie

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> Now let me get this straight. You say Linux worked -- that implies >> that it was in place at one point, then NT was put in there and that >> NT didn't work. Ah, but there's the problem. NT - about a day to get set up and working (or not at all in this case!). Needs lots of hardware. Costs lots. Linux - about an hour to set up, runs on old Pentium 60's (yes, I know it runs fast even on 486 machines, but in this case a P60 was all that was around and free). Doesn't cost anything. Management - "oh, that's quite impressive. But we don't know anything about Unix, but do know NT, so we have to stick with that". Not that I'm rather stressed out at the way the computing industry blindly follows the big players round (sarcasm mode is on here, folks!) - but I run up against this brick wall time after time. People high up in a company see something as a risk unless they have to invest lots of time and money in puchasing it and supporting it - they just don't seem to feel safe if the product in question is low-cost (or free!) and runs itself without any trouble, even if such "features" are rammed down their throats. It's a very scary industry. >> you then wrote a _Java_ program to do >> what should be handled by something two or three layers down? yup, took about 30 minutes too. I got fed up with NT wanting to reboot every ten minutes, the PC taking five minutes to boot, the 32x-speed-all-the-bells-and-whistles CDROM drive taking a minute to spin up to speed before I could access it to install software... I'm sure most of you have been there! cheers Jules >

25 years, 7 months

Modem tones over television or radio

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>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? Yes - and it's commonly done. The new Emergency Broadcast System replacement transmits 1200 bps (I believe Bell 212A modulation) bursts over TV and radio audio. And many different digital services are encoded in the video blanking interval of TV signals - closed captioning, timestamps, and program information, among others. > Certainly there would be bandwidth and therefore speed >limitations, but does the FCC allow this? It's a requirement of the new EBS replacement! -- 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

Modem tones over television or radio

by grant＠anachronism.sol.co.uk

There was a program once, here in the UK which sent data via a flashing dot in the bottom of the screen. You attached a little photo-sensor on the bottom of the screen while the show was being broadcast (similar I guess to those casio watches). I'm not sure what the data rate was though, as I never made one of the gizmo's for decoding it. On a similar note, does anyone own one of those toys for the Captain Power TV series. Apparently it picked up the "interference" pattern on the bad guy's chest, and allowed you to shoot it. It also, if memory serves, picked up the enemy's laser, and would tell you if you had been shot. Anyone know of any other good interactive TV attempts? Grant. ---------- > From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: Modem tones over television or radio > Date: 10 December 1998 15:36 > > AFAIR the BBC did also transmit software thru teletext > pages (in GB). > > Gruss > hans > > -- > Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut > HRK

25 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 1998