test-drb May 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

148 participants
673 discussions

TI99: Anyone reading this with a TI-99/4A?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<To my knowledge no flavor of unix runs on anything less than a 32-bit <processor. There's a unix-workalike for the C-64/128, but that's not Your knowledge is limited. Unix was started and lived for years on PDP-11s (a 16 bit machine) in the form of V5, V6, V7 and 2.9BSD and 2.11BSD. I may add it was on other machines like the Interdatas. <quite the same thing. Anyway, it's called Lunix. I haven't tried it yet, There is also ELKS embedded kernal linux aimed at XT class(16bit) and other small machines. <but it's possible that Lunix could become fairly popular amongst the <8-bitters. The point I was trying to make about running Minix (since you Linux is is one form of popular free unix and was launched on PC hardware that happens to be 32bit(386 and later). Fitting unix on most 8bitter means a minikernal and swapping as most 8bitters have only a 64k address space unless some banking logic was added or the CPU is only of the later z80 varients with MMU(z180 1mb, z280 16mb). <generally run that on a PC anyway) is that it just simply makes more <sense to run Linux or FreeBSD or some other supported operating system. Minix is supported exactly the same way LINUX is. <It's possible to run those operating systems with 8MB comfortably <(provided you're not running XFree86)...all the text-based stuff runs <just fine. Besides 8MB RAM doesn't exactly break the bank nowadays. :) Well, my 386 is running it in 8mb with xfree86 and while not blindingly fast it does run well. Not everyone has bundles of cash for their computer. I find the idea of not less than 32bits, 200mhz cpus and large memory being a must to be patently retrorevisionist to the history of what was done before those things were available. Allison

26 years, 2 months

A British piece

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Today I picked up a G.R. Electronics Ltd "Pocket Terminal" and I am <> looking for some user information on it. I have two of them, it's a mini terminal. I have no data even though I know mine work. Allison

26 years, 2 months

'Classic' typewriter?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I once saw one of these w/CRT and two floppy drives at a thrift store. It looked quite old ;) I tried it out, coudn't really tell how to use it, and didn't bother to take it. The thing on the screen looked a bit vi-like. Another thing that's more complicated than it should be... > Yes, you read correctly. One of the local thrift stores turned up a Xerox >'MemoryWriter 630' for all of $8.00. Since I was in the market for >something to fill out forms with, and curious about the MW series in any >case, I picked it up (with a grunt -- these are not light!). > > It's built very robustly inside, and appears to be based heavily on the >8085 chip. The design and layout resemble (no surprise) the Diablo 630 >series daisywheel terminals. A good vacuuming and a little oiling later and >it works just great. Original manufacture date is around 1984 (based on the >date codes I found on the components). > > No CRT on this one, though I understand that was one option. If anyone >happens to have a user's guide, accessories, options, or diskettes for this >beast, please let me know. > > Thanks in advance. > > >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >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..." > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 2 months

Seagate info

by scottk5＠ibm.net

-----Original Message----- From: Joe [SMTP:rigdonj@intellistar.net] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 1998 2:44 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Seagate info I just picked up a couple of old Seagate SCSI drives and I'm looking for jumper information. (YES, these DO have jumpers.) I can't find a Seagate site. Does anyone know of a site that has this kind of information? [Kirk Scott] Try: http://www.blue-planet.com/tech/no-frames.html I've gotten a lot of information help on older drives from them. Kirk scottk5(a)ibm.net

26 years, 2 months

Another IBM S/

by william＠ans.net

At first I thought it was some sort of typo, but now I have another reference... What the heck is an IBM System/7? William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

26 years, 2 months

HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 16:53, PG Manney wrote: > The head had gouged its way through the entire thickness of the platter; > > Anyone ever seen a worse failure? Not seen, but heard... Some time ago, I had a little Seagate 50MB drive on running on the shelf above a workstation. I knew it had a stiction problem, so I tended to leave it running most of the time. So there I was, minding my own business, as they say, and suddenly there was a very loud BANG. I couldn't see anything amiss, but I shut things down anyway. Then I realised any damage that was going to be done by whatever went bang had presumably already happened. I wasn't going to find much out by staring at a blank screen, so I powered everything up again. All came to life, but the Seagate just reported disk errors. Tried reformatting; no joy. So I took it apart. Every platter had huge circular gouges, and two of the heads were in bits, mostly embedded in the walls of the disk chamber. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

Seagate info

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 22:20, Joe wrote: > Yes, I tried that URL. It said that that webpage was not available!?!?!?!? > I don't know about Impris but Seagate just bought Conner (who had already > bought Maynard, who had already bought Irwin.) There goes a lot of their > competion! > >Uh, did you try www.seagate.com? They have information on even their > >oldest SCSI drives, Conner drives, and Imprimis too. They also have an ftp site (ftp.seagate.com, I think) which has all the jumper info in text files. They also have zip files giving the info for griups of drives, eg all the scsi drives, all mfm, etc. I use them so often that I always have a reasonably up-to-date version on my server. BTW, I find seagate's site and similar sites much more useful than TheRef. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

For direct to ugly... Commodore PET netronics explorer-85 intel mds800 minutman missle computer (lots of ways ugly!) I can think of others but those were pretty ugly on an esthetic basis and a few were ugly from a human factors standpoint (pet chicklet keys). Programming the serial disk computer of the MMC was really nasty. Allison

26 years, 2 months

Apologies... Was Re: Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by lfb107＠psu.edu

I am truly sorry for sending that huge file to the mailing list. I had intended it for Daniel only. Sorry for any inconveniences it may have caused. Les

26 years, 2 months

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I believe KISS tends to apply in these cases. In general, I find that I like blockier ones more. I won't get myself started on modern case design, but I will say that I do not find any of the "home computers" by Compaq, Toshiba, Acer, and Sony to be very nice-looking. Of classic computers, the TI 99/4a probably is in that vicinity... >On Sat, 2 May 1998, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote: > >> On Fri, 1 May 1998, William Donzelli wrote: >> >> > Speaking of which, what are the ugliest machines? >> >> Apollo DOMAIN computers and every last intel based PC manufactured since >> 1993 and _especially_ since 1995. Except the new IBM GL machines which are >> actually kind of nice. > >I'm actually keen on the contemporary Compaq designs and the cool Acer >designs with the neon colors and artistically drilled venting holes in the >dense pattern. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/25/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 2 months

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test-drb May 1998