test-drb August 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

166 participants
848 discussions

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 12:38 AM 8/20/98 -0500, you wrote: >On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, dave dameron wrote: > >> I found a book I would recommend if anyone finds a copy, although I am still >> getting used to it. It is "Computer Structures: Readings and Examples" by >> Bell and Newell. It uses strange notation (for me) and even the table of >> contents is "virtual". > >That wouldn't be Gordon Bell, would it? The book sounds familiar, but >it's not on my shelf. > >> Anyway, it includes descriptions of 2 desktop calculators, both about 1968: >> an Olivetti 101 (USD$3500) and a HP 9100A. The HP uses core memory, its >> program ROM uses 16 layer PC board technology. The HP article is a reprint >> from the HP Journal. Does anyone have either of these? > >Somebody with a better sense of calc history should chime in here, but I >think Monroe, Olivetti, HP, and Wang all had programmables in the 60s. > >I have an HP9100A manual and the first HP _Keyboard_ that describes it. I >think I recall at least four people on the list having a 9100. It was not >the first programmable, but it was the first HP, and it is pretty cool >with its built-in CRT and expansion bus. > I have a HP 9100 and the original HP Journal. You can order reprints (color, I think) of the HP Journals through HP's website. Joe

25 years, 11 months

Update on Mac Run

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

well, if people are putting in requests for various mac models that are getting ready to be scrapped, i wouldnt mind having an se/30 or colour classic. a IIfx wouldnt be bad except for the fact that it can only use special simms.

25 years, 11 months

Punch cards (again)

by peacock＠simconv.com

>She said that they were invented by Hollerith at the end of the last century for use with the census. Was I drunk or did we just go through a whole discussion about the cards being invented for the Jacquard loom? Different types of punched cards. Hollerith invented the modern computer punch card. The Jacquard loom used punched cards in a linked belt type arrangement, similar to a player piano, to control the shuttle of his loom. Jacquard had more in common with pianos than computers. Jack Peacock

25 years, 11 months

FW: Old VAX hardware for sale

by cfandt＠servtech.com

FWIW Dept: Found this in comp.os.vms.... You Southwest folks may be interested. If they were close I sure would consider them as I'd like to find a Qbus SCSI controller (or simply use the machine as is instead of upgrading my MVII.) From: mesprime(a)aol.com (MES PRIME) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Old VAX hardware for sale Lines: 24 Message-ID: <1998081415580800.LAA06833(a)ladder01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder01.news.aol.com X-Admin: news(a)aol.com Date: 14 Aug 1998 15:58:08 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Xref: post.servtech.com comp.os.vms:190118 We have just retired our old VAXs and are looking for a nice home for them. We have two systems: System 1is a Micro Vax 4 with 128M ram, expansion bus, Q-Bus, CMD and UC08 SCSI Controllers, Emulex communication multiplexor boards and CP34 Panels, Drive bay and 19' Rack and DR11-C interface. System 2 is a Micro Vax 3 with 64M ram, exapnsion bus, Q-Bus, Emulex UCO8 SCSI Controllers, Emulex communication muliplexor board and CP34 Panels. Also available ( serious ) a couple of working Deckwriter's If intersted, e-mail me for more information: mslaughter(a)basstickets.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Slaughter IS Manager BASS Tickets 1855 Gateway Blvd. Suite 630 Concord, CA 94520 Anyway, contact Mr. Slaughter directly! -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/

25 years, 11 months

Someone Looking for Help

by rax＠warbaby.com

Is this iron old enough that someone here could help Vicki? To: silent-tristero(a)world.std.com From: Vicki Rosenzweig <vr(a)zebra.acm.org> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 17:01:18 -0400 (EDT) Subject: help--trailing edge equipment Sender: silent-tristero-approval(a)world.std.com Precedence: list Reply-To: Vicki Rosenzweig <vr(a)zebra.acm.org> Status: U I'm not sure this is relevant to tristero, but I can't think of who else to ask. I have a network of three Sun Sparc IPXs, plus an Annex II terminal server and a bunch of dumb terminals hanging off the Annex. Xylogics, the company that made the Annex, is no longer supporting that model, at all--the last time I tried calling them about something, the only suggestion they were willing to make was "we could sell you something more modern." It may come to that, but I hope not. Here's the situation: for Reasons Too Complicated To Explain (in other words, I'd start frothing at the mouth), the cables that connect the Annex to its dumb terminals and to the Ethernet are in the open, under a desk. Thus, they get kicked semi-regularly. Someone kicked the cable connecting the Annex to the Ethernet transceiver loose this afternoon. The first I knew of it was when someone came to find me, and asked why all the terminals were dead. When I tried to plug it back in, I found I couldn't--a couple of the pins on the transceiver had been bent out of shape. I replaced the transceiver (with one of a different model, but which I know is good--it worked elsewhere in this network). Nothing. I rebooted the Annex: it gets as far as a set of lights that translate to "trying to reach the Ethernet to download software." I got desperate, pulled the only other cable of the same kind off the network (which involved undoing about eight NFS cross-mounts), and plugged it in instead. Nothing. So, basically: I tried replacing the transceiver, I tried replacing the cable, and the Annex box insists that it's fine, it just needs to download software. Does anyone have any idea of what might be going on here, or of how I can fix it? (I do know where to buy a live chicken, but I suspect management would look askance if I brought it into the office.) Signed, Desperate in New York Vicki Rosenzweig vr(a)cr.acm.org | vr(a)interport.net http://www.users.interport.net/~vr/ -- Warbaby The WebSite. The Domain. The Empire. http://www.warbaby.com The MonkeyPool WebSite Content Development http://www.monkeypool.com Dreadlocks on white boys give me the willies.

25 years, 11 months

In search of working XT IDE drives

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I need a couple Seagate ST351A/X hard drives in working condition. If you have some for sale, trade or otherwise let me know soon. Any other IDE drive that will definitely work with a Seagate ST05X controller also wanted in 40 or more megabyte capacity. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

25 years, 11 months

Mac Portable problems (was Re: Mac Portable batt charger)

by Marion.Bates＠Dartmouth.EDU

--- Markus Blumrich wrote: My portable powers up without the battery inside it as well. I'm assuming by your email address "dartmouth.edu" that you are in Nova Scotia? (If not - pardon my ignorance). If so these machines have probably been subjected to some cold weather. I have lost 2 Mac Portable hard drives to cold weather - I'd put them in the trunk of my car, travel to location X and then fire up the Mac only to learn that the drive didn't work anymore. This was most likely due to condensation inside the drives. ---- Actually, it's Dartmouth College (NH) but I'm telnetting in from Miami, FL because I'm home for the summer. As far as I know, these drives haven't seen cold weather, but it's certainly possible. ---- If I read your post correctly the drives aren't spinning up at all, but they emit noises which make it sound as if they are trying to - in this case they are most likely stuck. I have convinced old hard drives to become 'unstuck' by whacking them on the side. I know it sounds cruel but if the drive isn't working there is nothing to loose. ---- Yeah, I tried that -- it's worked many times before, but not now. (The technician I worked for six years ago used to fix Mac SE's with sticky hard drives by picking up the whole computer and giving it a quick half-spin with a sudden stop -- the torque loosens the lubricant.) ---- Also, when the death chimes sound, is there a picture of a sad mac on the screen with an error number? The error number (if I remember correctly) may be a key indication as to what is happening. If your mac is repeatedly sounding the death chimes it is in some kind of endless loop and you are most likely not getting to the error #. ---- When I let it go long enough, I get a sad mac with error codes which I haven't looked up in the TIL yet. They all translate to some hardware (occasionally software) problem diagnosis. ---- I have also opened the drives and lubricated the 'spindle' or whatever it's called - however doing so allowed dust particles inside the drive. The end result though was a reliable, non sticking drive that works to this day. Perhaps I was lucky... --- end of quote --- Huh, I always thought that opening up a drive would wreck it -- maybe I'll try that with one of them. Thanks. But wait, there's more! New problem. I have an external hard drive attached to the least messed-up Portable, which boots nicely, but anytime I insert a floppy disk, the machine restarts over and over. What triggers it is pushing the tiny white button just inside the floppy (it gets pressed by the disk usually, but I was trying to see what exactly was setting the restart loop in motion, and when I pushed down on that button alone that did it). It WAS working fine with floppies before. Guess the logic board is having problems handling both at once. Aaargh! Three bad drives and now *two* fouled-up motherboards. -- MB

25 years, 11 months

Update on Mac Run

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

So far I have heard from 12 people wanting a total 35 cpu's and 4 monitors. I would have liked to make them a offer this Friday but this is not enough units to purchase it all. This what I will do now, I will connact a scrape dealer I know and offer to buy it all with him only if he allows me to pull the units you guys want first and he gets what's left. This way we all can get our units at a low price with a bulk purchase by the pound. I have not heard back from Eric if his boss is willing sell and the date of the employee sale. I will until Monday to see how many more people want in otherwise the 12 of you will get your items if the sale is a go.

25 years, 11 months

Punch cards (again)

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

I was watching a local show called New Media News (http://www.newmedianews.com/) last night and they had a bit with Gwen Bell talking about punch cards. She said that they were invented by Hollerith at the end of the last century for use with the census. Was I drunk or did we just go through a whole discussion about the cards being invented for the Jacquard loom? --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

25 years, 11 months

here's a Lisa/Apple /// resource

by Marion.Bates＠Dartmouth.EDU

I'm posting some info I already sent to someone privately. I wanted to get permission from Mr. Craig first, in case he was trying to keep the volume of requests down or something. My apologies for wasted bandwidth if y'all already knew about him -- just trying to help. - MB --- awhile ago, Sam Ismail wrote: Ok, so I'd like to make use of the recent discussion we had concerning hard drive repair and attack the "widget" drive in my Lisa 2/10 to see if I can bring it back to life. Does anybody know where I can find technical info on this drive? A web resource that I don't know about perhaps? --- end of quote --- David T. Craig, email 71533.606(a)compuserve.com, has just about EVERYTHING ever written about/for the Lisa. (Even the Product Introduction Plan!) There's a list of his stuff at http://www.atomicnet.com.au/simon/lisa/LisaLegacy/References.html. While you're there, check out his Lisa Legacy paper. He sent me copies of Lisa repair stuff from Apple, Sun Remarketing, and Larry Pina's "Mac Repair Secrets" book, as well as some historical info and a set of Lisa Office System 3.0 diskettes and LisaTest diagnostic diskettes w/ instructions. He copied the written stuff for ten cents a page and the diskettes for a buck apiece, plus shipping. He also has some stuff for the Apple ///, but I don't know what. Email him for info. If anyone wants Lisa help right away, I can look up error codes and other stuff in the manuals he sent me, and email an answer usually within a day. My 2/10 displayed error 84, which means the boot blocks had been erased, but luckily LisaTest reported no damaged blocks, so all it needs is a low-level format. Sun Remarketing will reformat Widget drives and send them back (which is, according to the manuals, your only hope if LOS installer refuses to do it, as was the case with mine). It costs $75 to have them do it, which includes return shipping. They will install the OS of your choice (LOS or MacWorks, maybe Pascal Workshop but I don't know for sure). Sun Remarketing's phone number is 1-800-821-3221. If you get someone who's never heard of the Lisa or some such nonsense (which happened to me the first time) ask for Brian, ext. 340. He seems to know what's up. -- MB

25 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 1998