Rant mode on...
Is it just me, or are others on the list not pleased about what seems to
be a sudden influx of raw HTML code posted here?
Sorry to be such a snit about this, but wading through that crap is making
it a lot harder to read the articles. The Web is not the Internet, and the
Internet is not the web. Last time I checked, CLASSICCMP was a TEXT-BASED
mailing list.
Rant mode off. We now return to our regularly scheduled posts. ;-) BTW, I
would ask those who are posting raw HTML code to please stop!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Hi!
I had some luck today, and picked up and Amstrad CPC464, two IBM JX's,
and an Altos 486. No idea what I'll do with the spare JX - but they are
neat. Did it take JR cartridges, or ones of it's own? And does anyone
know whether they had to have their own system disks, or could they boot
off standard DOS? Currently I'm stuck with the default BASIC.
The Altos is something new for me - it appears to be from 1984, and has a
number of ports for terminals on the back. It says that it is running a
4186 as the cpu, but I don't know that one and the cpu is covered by the
power supply. Was this actually the 80186, or something else? And does
anyone know anything about Altos and the Altos 486?
Thanks heaps,
Adam.
On 1998-03-10 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk
:It's been a long time since I've looked at a CS book, but I
:remember the Turing machine as a *theoretical* machine that reads
:and writes symbols on an *infinitely long* tape. I'm sure somebody
:could build an approximation of this, but the main interest in the
:Turing machine is that it is used as the definition of
:computational "power." One of theories is that no machine built
:today, or at any time in the future, no matter what the
:architecture, will be able to compute anything that a simple Turing
:machine cannot compute..
that's the one. alan turing defined these machines as part of his
contribution to the proof that mathematics has some unprovables.
anything that can be proved, period, can be proved by a turing machine;
anything that a turing machine can't prove is unprovable. kurt godel
(most famously, perhaps?) and alonzo church producd alternative theorems
to demonstrate the same thing, but turing's work laid the basis for
computer science, and turing himself became quite active within the
field of early uk computation (the original ACE design is his, and he
subsequently worked on manchester's computers).
there are even such things as "universal turing machines", which can be
given definitions of turing machines and used to solve such problems,
which we suspect led directly on to universal computers which could be
programmed to simulate special purpose devices.
the "infinite tape" idea is as important as you suggested, however.
--
Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling
you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...
Today's haul...
TWO Aquarius II computers (Serial numbers 8 and 10)
Lots of software for the above (cartridges/ cassettes)
box of 10 disks for the Aquarius drive (no drive, alas)
teletext software/cartridges, several modems for the above
Printer for the above
Two tape drive units
One prototype smart card unit (credit card size card) - for videotext access
Prototype Commodore disk drive interfaces (2) for Aquarius
Schematics and manuals for Aquarius
Extension interface
Prototype 16K RAM unit (functional)
OSI superboard II with homemade case, including voice synthesis add-on
Another good day.
I'll be trading at least one of the Aquarius II computers, probably.
Offers?
Cheers
A
>It was thus said that the Great jpero(a)cgo.wave.ca once stated:
>>
>> > You forgot the AS/400 series.
>> There's one already!
>
> Oops. Missed it.
How about 1130, 1401, 7090, 4300 series? And the ancestor of
the powerPC, what was it, 801?
At 11:09 AM 3/11/98 -0800, you wrote:
>The reason I can't say the same for CD-ROM's is that I don't have any that
>are more than a decade old. Some of my floppies will be 30 years old
>pretty soon.
I have [music] CD's going back to the mid-80's. They all work fine.
(P.S., never buy an Aiwa CD player.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 06:16 AM 3/13/98 -0800, you wrote:
>because A) I was short on cash and B) I'm really running out of room
>around here and trying not to buy everything I see... I'm not at all
Ah, I'm not alone! 8^)
>
>- Amstrad PCW 8256 (z80/cpm system?)
"Personal Computer Word Processor" I have book 1 of the "User Guide - CP/M
Logo & Word Processor Manual". Seems like it came with "LocaScript" a WP,
DR Logo, and CP/M Plus. A pretty interesting looking machine, actually.
>- Sanyo MBC 550 (straight PC clone?)
Not exactly "straight". Semi-compatible, iirc. Very early in the PC
timeline, and probably pretty significant.
>- Olivetti EVT300 (I may have botched the part number from faulty
>memory, it's a stylish black metal PC-ish box with one 3.5"
>floppy--related to AT&T 6300?)
Could be an AT&T 6300; I seem to remember Olivetti and AT&T worked together
or something.
>All were priced in the 10-15 dollar range. Which, if any, would you
>buy?
Well, depends on your interests. If you're interested in PC (i.e., Intel
x86/MS-DOS) history, definitely go for the Sanyo. If you're more into the
older, more proprietary systems (S-100 stuff/CP/M) go for the amstrad. If
you're a Unix/workstation person (Sun, Apollo, UnixPC, etc.) or perhaps
into foreign stuff or something, go for the Olivetti. (Note, I don't
*know* that the Olivetti runs Unix or anything, just a longshot possibility.)
Me, I'd probably go for the Sanyo first, then the Amstrad. The amstrad,
btw, came with a printer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 07:17 PM 3/11/98 +0000, you wrote:
>PCW8256/PCW8512 : AMSM8256/8512 5.48
I have one of these manuals, with some waterlogging, if anyone wants to
avoid UK shipping. Cost is $.55 + shipping from San Francisco. (that's 55
cents, which includes a 1 cent profit. I'm gonna be rich! 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 02:25 PM 3/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>There's also the problem that folks seem to think that CD-R's are
>indestructable so they do not take care of them (i.e. not putting them back
>in the jewel cases, playing shuffleboard with them, etc.).
CD's too. I saw a guy pull a stack of 15-20 CD's out of his pocket, no
case or anything, and start shuffling through them like a deck of cards.
Picked one out, put it on the seat beside him, took the CD out of his
player, and put it and the rest back in his pocket.
I guess they still worked (though his player had a (I think) 10 second
buffer, so it has plenty of time to do retries.) 'course he didn't look
like the sort of bloke who listened to anything older than a week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
