< Now *MY* Altair Synth (pardon the ego!) was all done in
< software, with a simple 8-bit d/a converter on an i/o
< port. It used 256 bytes of a waveform (fundamental sin(x)
< plus some harmonics) that were stepped thru by up to
there was a simplfied version by processor tech and a few others with
a less sophisticated D/A (used R, 2R ladders) that were able to do that.
The whole of it is Malcom Wright's _Alphanumeric music with Amplitude
control_ C1975 article. I have a copy of this and have done mucic with
it and voicing was possible.
Allison
I have your magazine, and I copied your article (rather long, about 20 pages). Now if you will tell me where to send it, it will be yours.
Barry Watzman
Watzman(a)ibm.net
----------
From: M McManus [SMTP:mmcmanus@direct.ca]
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 1998 9:46 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)msn.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 1:11 PM
Subject: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?
>Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an
>article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts 1
>and 2, so I need the third.
>
> Thanks!
>
>[ 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 =================>
The local library has Byte on micrfiche. If you live in the Vancouver
Area, you can get a printout or just read it. It is at the Surrey library
in Guilford.
< Apparently it is a vinyl type record with recordings of music made on th
< Altair computer. It closed somewhere around $130 which I thought was
< impressive.
Now I know what mine is worth. ;) I have a few others I collected back
then.
Allison
>the disks and he gave me one, a Maxtor. I had it on a pc, laying
>on top of a table and one day it went "BLAM!" like someone set
>off a firecracker, and the pc shut down. Turned power off/on and it
>came right back like nothing had happened! Turned out to be
<a reversed biased diode across the power lines let got - nothing
>important.
Ah - you got one of those special NED's (Noise Emitting Diodes),
I see.
Tim.
That's the way it is with most inexpensive home micros (I think the
Commodore has one of the more complicated ways of doing it, since you need
to know the drive ID). Most of them are truly out-of-the box. And then
modern engineers came upon a working idea and decided to update it in such a
way that it uses all that power new computers have more effectively. You
know, I was impressed today that an MS Draw image that opened instantly for
me to modify in a Word 2.0 document on a 386 took about 30 seconds in Word
97 on a Pentium-200.
>disk in drive and turn power on. Instant boot. USB? Pfeh!
I dearly hope this doesn't stay this way. Why is it that one of the biggest
headline-makers in computers, Linux, is 30 years old? And why can't they
finally get object-oriented systems right? They've been trying to for
decades, and there still isn't a good version of OLE/OpenDoc that is
_really_ versatile. Flame away.
>Everything new in the computer realm was invented long ago. Engineers
>just re-discover good designs. Heck, the mouse turns 30 this week!
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 12/07/98]
>
Hans B Pufal <hansp(a)digiweb.com> wrote:
> That all sounds plausible, but I do not think that HP Vectras ever used
> the HIL standard. When I get back to Grenoble (where the Vectras were
> designed) next week I will root around and see what I can dig up on this
> machine.
I'd like to know what you find, my recollection comes from having to
support 10-20 of the original Vectras and somewhat more ES and ES/12s
where I worked through most of the late 1980s. (Hey, I thought they
were OK for PC-compatibles.)
I'm not sure how "standard" the HIL support on the Vectra really was.
But the original Vectra had the connector, and its keyboard had two,
and you could plug a 46060A mouse into the keyboard. ISTR you could
put a touchscreen in the 375[34]1 monitors and hook that up with the
HIL connectors on the back of the monitor but we never bothered with
that (we bought Touchscreen IIs without the touchscreen too).
The original Vectra keyboard isn't the same HIL keyboard as used on
the 9000 line -- it has a hybrid layout that looks sort of like the
original PC/AT keyboard crossed with the HP150 keyboard, so it has PC
F1-F10 in two columns down the left, HP f1-f8 across the top, and a
numeric/cursor pad on the right.
The Vectra ES and ES/12 have the PC-standard 5-pin DIN connector for
the keyboard (which has the PS/2 layout with F1-F12 across the top and
Ctrl in the wrong place), but also have an HIL connector next to the
keyboard connector, and I think I remember using 46060A mice with
those too.
-Frank McConnell
>doable but, near unimplementable do to the lack of Qbus. The more common
>situation is unsupported, IE: DEC didn't consider it marketable or test
>it exactly that way. Two RDxx disks in a ba123 is an example.
Two RD5x's in a BA123 was definitely a supported configuration, and is
listed in the late-80's DEC catalogs.
Two RD3x (half-height) disks in a BA23 is also supported, and indeed is
the reason behind the 6-button BA23 front panel. Many 11/53
configurations were shipped from the factory this way.
Two full-height hard drives in a single BA23 was never officially supported
(at least for the various microPDP-11 configurations), because
they refused to support a base box sold without removable media.
Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)
Come on you guys! This is now something emitting something, ad
nauseum.
I must admit, though, that I liked the concept of the shrapnel-emitting
diode. I, too, have seen some of these!
William R. Buckley
At 11:12 12/04/98 -0800, Aaron C. Finney wrote:
>This is giving me fits. There's something strange with my minivan, that it
>generates a *ton* of static electricity whenever I drive even a few
-- snip --
>box of Bounce dryer sheets (don't laugh) in my jockey box. Does anyone
>know what could be causing this?
Yes. It's not the car but it's the tires. I've had the same problems with a
couple of Toyota Camrys I've leased over the past years. Extreme and rather
painful shocks are generated especially in this part of the country when it
is very cold and low humidity.
Finally getting tired of the fireworks, I asked a few tire dealers and auto
dealers about this and they told me that modern tires nowadays have
somewhat less carbon black, which is conductive, in their rubber compounds.
Something about reduced wear, etc. Static charges built up from the motion
of the tires over the road don't drain off as fast. Hence, when you step
out of the car you get nailed. This is because the resistivity of the tire
rubber is higher because of less carbon black content. Carbon black,
incidentally started to be put into tire rubber back around 1910-1912,
IIRC, when it was found that it drastically reduced the damage to the
natural rubber caused by the sun's UV rays. Tires up until then were as
white as the original rubber tree sap was when harvested and did not last
very long. You can see examples of reproduction white tires on
correctly-restored antique cars from around the early teens and earlier at
an antique car show or auto museum.
I found a solution by holding my fingers on the unpainted door jamb
hardware as I turn and step out of the car (if I'm wearing normal
rubber-soled shoes). This keeps my body and the car at equal potentials as
the static continues to drain off through the less resistive tires. Minimal
or no zaps anymore.
I worry a bit about those shocks at the gasoline station if somebody is
fueling their car and there is a significant concentration of fuel vapors
and no wind about. It takes at least a 14:1 air to vapor ratio for ignition
to occur which is not too likely at the gas bar.
I have a pair of ESD-type work shoes which I wore at work and still wear
around the house. There is a high amount of carbon in the heels and soles
which allows them to be used as an anti-static device for electronics
workers. I never get nailed in the house on a carpet nor from my car
whenever I wear them. They're great! Made by Titan Safety Shoe Company.
Needed them in the cleanroom at work and when repairing electronic controls
around the plant or working up in the R&D lab. Additionally, I recall that
I had very little problem when I wore leather-soled shoes back in the days
when I had them. Seems the leather was a bit conductive especially when damp.
Incidentally, do some of you remember the automobile accessory fad from
back in the 70's which was an anti-static strap that hung from the bottom
of the car? If it was conductive it would serve a good purpose for you
today Aaron. You've probably seen fuel tanker trucks with a metal chain
dragging. It too was used as a static drain for obvious reasons ;)
Happy zapping! --Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
-----Original Message-----
From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 16:00
Subject: Re: DG Aviion video
>The green connect is labelled "G/MONO" so I'd be inclined to agree with
>you.
Mine are just labelled "R" "G" and "B"
>I at least knew that much. (: I was given a fat wodge of QIC tapes and
>DG/UX 5.4R3 at least was included as well as some older versions and
>possibly one newer.
Did better than me, I just got the bare boxes, no mice, no monitors, no
keyboards, no docs.
>Not surprising; they're an Intel/NT shop now for the most part. q: How
>boring.
How right!
>> is the same connector as on a Sun, but not sure if the Sun mouse would
>> work or not, and I don't have one to try.
>
>Outwardly they are identical. Both are Mouse Systems optical mice
>(although the DG mouse doesn't say so). I dismantled the DG mouse and a
>spare Sun type-4 mouse to make sure, but the electronics and signalaling
>are wildly different. From cord conductor-count alone, I'd say the DG
>mouse is quadrature and the Sun mouse is serial.
Erk. That's going to make life difficult. Sun mice are $$ but at least you
can
get them. Any ideas where one would obtain a couple of the appropriate
rodentia?
>It is the same connector as on a Sun mouse, though.
Trap for the unwary I suppose.
Thanks for the info.
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)
