The nice thing about mechanisms is that all one needs to understand
them theoretically is a finger, some Advil, and the ability to
multiply/divide. Following a circuit board is much less intuitive.
>I have access to the maintenance manuals for the later (ca.1940) types,
>but they are very thick books jammed with drawings. Copying one would
be a
>real chore. Next time I am in Fall River I can see what I can find in
>terms of drawings of the "big picture".
>
>The computers have _thousands_ of precision moving parts. The nice
thing
>is that they never broke. I am sure that one could lube up various bits
of
>one today and it would perfectly. One, a torpedo data computer on the
>Submarine Pampanito, has gotten this treatment and does in fact work
just
>as it did 50 years ago.
>
>William Donzelli
>william(a)ans.net
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
<It reads a set of instructions off the punch card, the gears or what hav
<you interprets the pattern, and finally displays the output on the fabric
<Sounds like a computer, in the broadest sense. The purists would say tha
<it's not a computer unless it computes. I'm sure you could do math on it
<with a few simple modifications though.
The correct catagory is data processing. Specifics are that it's a
predecessor to current CNC!
Allison
>I'd give the honours of 1st computer to the Zuse Z1 - a relay machine
>between the Wars, I think. But some mechanical calculators at that date
>were quite sophisticated. Comments, anyone??
Well, I'd give computer credit to Babage's machine, ca. 1896, IIRC. He is,
after all the one who coined the phrase "computer."
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
>It's a popular? misspelling of Xenix by people who can't read. If you
>see Zenix on a resume, don't hire that person.
Unless they were working for the company of the same name that made PC Mice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 01:41 PM 6/15/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, John Higginbotham wrote:
>
>> Computer: GRiDPad 1912 (V20/2mb/20mb HD/640x400x2 6300 CGA mode
>
>CGA is 640x200. If you install GEOS, for example, you'll want to use the
>AT&T graphics driver.
Right. The manual states that 640x400x2 is a "tweaked" CGA mode.
>IIRC, Pen Windows 1.0 was for Windows 3.x, and Pen Windows 2.0 was for
>Windows 95. GEOS is by far your best bet if you want to burden the thing
>with a GUI.
I just tried to run it on my desktop. First question it askes was "What
22xx series of GRiDPad are you installing to?" Back to the drawing board. I
doubt it'll work with the old 1912. If I could find GEOS, I'd install it.
Only version I have is for the C-64.
________________________________________
john higginbotham limbo.netpath.net -
webmaster, http://www.pntprinting.com -
"Teamwork is essential; it gives the -
enemy other people to shoot at." -
< Actually, you have one thing incorrect... IDE IS speed dependent. SCSI
<a COMPLETELY asyncronous bus, IDE is simply an extension of the ISA bus a
<does require a MINIMUM throughput of 1 megabit, which is not possible on
<4a without buffer space and a DMA controller.
Don't tell my z80 that... I debugged the interface using Basic right down
to sector reads and writes.
I read the spec as it must support 1mbyte/sec minimum to the host
not that it required 1mbyte/sec from the host. The IDE is locally
buffered just like SCSI so there is no need for speed save for the host
can make requests very fast (Pentiums). IDE is also an async bus.
Allison
<> Actually the NS* contrller and the apple one are very close in that the
<> are minimalist. The NS controller can read media without index/sector
<
<As is the H17 - a USRT and a few TTL chips. Most of the work is done in
<software.
A USRT is far mor than minimalist as the NS* con troller is really just
bare shift register with timing logic around it.
<The H17 waits for a sector hole, waits for sync, reads a sector header (a
<checksums it in software), waits for sync, reads data and checksums that
Same with the NS*
<Does anyone know a source of hard-sectored 5.25" disks (10 sector ones in
<particular). I guess they're no longer made, alas. I have thought about
<making up a jig, dismantling a soft-sectored disk, punching the extra
<holes and putting the disk back in the jacket. Problem is resealing the
<edge of the jacket which I've opened.
Or doing it insitu using a old drive as a positioner.
Allison
>
> <Is there anyone who DIDN'T make a UNIX port?
> <Apple - A/UX
> <IBM - AIX
> <MS - Xenix
> <AT&T - UNIX
> <DEC?
> <DR?
>
> DEC ported ULTRIX which is close to BSD unix to both PDP11 and VAX.
>
> DR? I don't think so.
>
> which is which?:
>
> Venix
Venix86 / 286 By VenturCom - IIRC, an (almost) real-time UNIX variant
> Zenix
Never Heard of this one . . .
> Xenix
>
> What and who for those.
>
> Allison
>
>
>
>
What was so "interesting" about it? Who made it, why, and when?
>
>>Don't forget Eunice! OK, maybe it's better that you forget.
>
>Sounds of VMS administrator running screaming around the office. I
thought
>I'd got over that "interesting" piece of software, but clearly not :-)
>
> Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
> Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3
9479
>1999
> La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in
the
> Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> > 1. An Amdek color monitor, originally for use with Apples (I think). RCA
> > video input, eighth-inch audio input. I've used this as a spare TV, but
> > the screen has a strong green tint to it. It's heavy.
>
> This was typically used on the Apple ][ line.
That's the way I remember it. There was one on the Apple ][+ in my
second-grade classroom.
> > Spammers: How can you be sure that I don't live in Washington State?
>
> Did something happen in Washington that I'd like to know about? I've seen
> mention to this twice now.
The Washington legislature passed anti-spam legislation, and the governor
signed it. Here's one site a quick altavista search turned up:
http://www.mcnichol.com/spam.htm
--
Ben Coakley http://www.math.grin.edu/~coakley coakley(a)ac.grin.edu
CMEL: Xavier CBEL: Xavier OH
Spammers: How can you be sure that I don't live in Washington State?
