test-drb January 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
897 discussions

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi, ---------- > From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: thoughts on UNIX and older systems > Date: Sunday, January 17, 1999 9:18 AM > > Sure, they're not going > to be secure enough for defense work, Most systems aren't. Not "only" the ones stated before. cheers, emu

25 years, 11 months

Heath H19

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

At 04:57 PM 1/16/99 +0000, Tony wrote: >[H19] > >> Yes, I found the manual and there is both an encoder AND a ROM. Seems sort >> of redundant, can only guess why. Many years ago the encoder chip died in >> mine, and I first tried the generic version of the chip, most likely a GI > >Ouch... Something to watch for if mine ever dies... Or the generic replacement was bad, and the Heath one was good, also the generic part? The 2 bad parts are long gone, so I cannot retest them. > >> part. It didn't work, ended up ordering a replacement from Heathkit which >> did work. > >Didn't work at all, or gave you the wrong characters? If the latter, then >maybe reprogramming the ROM would sort it out. The first (original) had no strobe output, so appeared dead. The generic one I don't remember now, but even so, had no provision to program EPROM's then. Later a built a single board Z-80 computer that could copy, edit (HEX) and program 2716's, 2732's and 2764's. It used the H19 as its terminal. Am trying to remember what I used to program its monitor EPROM..."you need to program a EPROM with routines to get your EPROM programmer to run..." I think I found someone with a Cromemco system that could. -Dave

25 years, 11 months

victor 9000 (also called Sirius) (fwd)

by foxnhare＠jps.net

> From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Subject: Re: victor 9000 (also called Sirius) (fwd) > > > > Here's someone in Belgium wanting to get rid of a Victor 9000. It was an > > early 80's 8086-based machine that came out before the PC but eventually > > was PC-compatible. It was actually a much better machine than the PC and > > had many interesting innovations, but we all know the story. > > Strange machine. It's what you get if you take the CPU from a PC (8088), > add Mac-style variable-speed drives (but 5.25") with a Commodore-like > controller, and then stick on an Apricot-like video system. Keep in mind this was one of Chuck Peddle's creations (along with the 6502 and Commodore PET). > > Interesting features include the sound system (a synchronous serial chip > driving a CODEC chip) which also has a sound input connector, the 2 3-bit > DACs to control monitor brightness and contrast in software, the user > port (a complete 6522 less one pin wired to a 50 pin header inside), the > centronics printer port that can be turned into a GPIB port in software, > the drives/controller, etc. > Sounds cool, maybe one day I'll get one. :)

25 years, 11 months

OT help request: Quantum XP34300 not working

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

OT HELP REQUEST: I've got a Quantum XP34300 hard drive that is giving me grief. It is getting power, it spins up, but it is not being recognized by the SCSI adaptor. I've switched it to a different system with a different adaptor and the same thing happens. On the system its connected to now with a BusLogic adaptor, I switched on the Send Start option and it kicked the drive into operation, but only once. And when the OS loaded (I'm just running DOS) the drives in the drive table showed up as F: and G: but when I accessed F: there were no files (there should be a ton) and when I tried to access G: the computer froze. After that, the drive stopped responding altogether again. Since I have two of these drives my next thought is to swap the logic board on the good one with the flaky one as I really need the data off the flaky one. Any ideas? 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: 01/15/99]

25 years, 11 months

UNIX License plate

by bwit＠ticnet.com

On Saturday, January 16, 1999 3:29 PM, Chuck McManis [SMTP:cmcmanis@freegate.com] wrote: > At 06:36 AM 1/16/99 -0500, you wrote: > >ObCC: Around 1980 or so, I knew somebody with a license plate that said > >"Unix: Live Free or Die". Was this issued by Bell Labs? And who has one > >they'd like to sell? > > The New Hampshire vanity plate (state motto "Live Free or Die") UNIX was > registered to Bill Shannon who worked at Sun (still does actually). Some > vendor did some fake plates for one of the Uniforum conferences but I don't > know if Bill got any royalties :-) I think the vendor that issued these fake plates was DEC. Bob

25 years, 11 months

ISP mania -- can't change editor

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 17, 5:10, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote: > I've tried editing my pinerc repeatedly, it always seems to be reset > the next time I log in. One of the features of pine is that there can be several configuration files, including a system-wide one that contains settings which a user can override in ~/.pinerc, and a separate system-wide one which ~/.pinerc *won't* override. The intent is that a sysadmin can set defaults in the first (usually /usr/local/lib/pine.conf), and set fixed values in the second (usually /usr/local/lib/pine.conf.fixed) -- the sorts of things that users shouldn't meddle with, like the name of the server, the mail domain, the operating-dir (which restricts the part of the file structure users can access) or whether they're allowed to forge cancel messages. It sounds like your ISP has a somewhat overzealous sysadmin; perhaps they just copied every setting into pine.conf.fixed. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 11 months

Reading age of 3 (was: Re: Computers for children)

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

> Well, my parents were told by the local school _not_ to teach me to read, > or to handle numbers as 'you won't do it the right way'. Fortunately they > ignored this (it was too late anyway - I was already reading), and taught > me the good old-fashioned way. Guess what? I never had any problems > learning things, unlike some kids.... AAAAugh! You had a narrow escape. The arrogance of educators talking about "the right way" to teach a child, when theories as to what this is seem to change every three years, is amazing. I recall in 1975 (I think - I was only about 8 at the time) we knew a retired teacher who sometimes did supply work for a local school. She was given a remedial class to look after, and started teaching them by traditional methods. Result, in a few weeks they were ahead of the main class. Our retired friend quite reasonably asked why the school couldn't adopt such methods as a matter of course, and apparently they were "not allowed to". She could get away with it since she was retired and not a permanent employee, or something. I heard a story similar to yours from a friend (Tony - did you ever meet ACAW1?) at university (last heard of doing a PhD in the history of German). He told me that it is a commonly held belief in Germany that there is no point in teaching a child to read until it is 6 years old - the age of starting school in Germany - since children younger than that lack the necessary development (unspecified). Apparently his German friends were always amazed to discover that his parents, wanting him out of mischief at age {nearly 4}, and unable to get him a school place until {nearly 5}, taught him to read. Any comments from our Geman readers? How prevalent is this myth? Two shorter comments to finish. I too have heard that playing music to very small children (age <2) helps them develop intelligence. The music has to be of the sort that takes some thought to listen to, of course. Mozart, Beethoven etc. are good choices, as are some of the better-thought-out pop styles, but minimal music or thud-thud-thud pop music are probably not. (Sorry, as a mainly classical listener, I don't know the correct terms for the pop music styles) And finally a saying attributed to the Jesuit order: Give us a child till he's 6 years old and we have him for life. Philip.

25 years, 11 months

OT: humans are the most advanced form of life- Yeah Right!!

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I know this is OT but it's too good to miss! Joe > >They have finally been released! For anyone not familiar with the Darwin >Award: it's an annual honor given to the person who provided the universal >human gene pool the biggest service by getting killed in the most >extraordinarily stupid way. As always, competition this year has been keen >again. Some candidates appear to have trained their whole lives for this >event! > >1998 DARWIN AWARD CANDIDATES: > 1. In September in Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in >two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer >grate to retrieve his car keys. > 2. In October, a 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally >zoned when he ran," according to his wife, accidentally jogged off a >200-foot-high cliff on his daily run. > 3. Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had >dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beachgoers said Daniel >Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been >sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, >burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach on the outer banks, >used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident >of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using >heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. >Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital. > 4. In February, Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA, as he >fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. >Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to >keep his hands free) rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor. > 5. According to police in Dahlonega, GA, ROTC cadet Nick Berrena, 20, >was stabbed to death in January by fellow cadet Jeffrey Hoffman, 23, who was >trying to prove that a knife could not penetrate the flakvest Berrena was >wearing. > 6. Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Selbyville, >DE, as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded >with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger. > 7. In February, according to police in Windsor, Ontario, Daniel Kolta, >27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus earning a tie in >the game of chicken they were playing with their snowmobiles. > 8. In September, a 7-year-old boy fell off a 100-foot-high bluff near >Ozark, AR, after he lost his grip swinging on a cross that marked the spot >where another person had fallen to his death in 1990. > >1998 DARWIN AWARD HONORABLE MENTIONS: > 1. In Guthrie, OK, in October, Jason Heck tried to kill a millipede >with a shot from his 22-caliber rifle, but the bullet ricocheted off a rock >near the hole and hit pal Antonio Martinez in the head, fracturing his >skull. > 2. In Elyria, OH, in October, Martyn Eskins, attempting to clean out >cobwebs in his basement, declined to use a broom in favor of a propane torch >and caused a fire that burned the first and second floors of his house. > 3. Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover Township, NJ, in >September, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, by a quarter-stick of >dynamite that blew up in their car. While driving around at 2 AM, the bored >couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what >would happen, but they apparently failed to notice that the window was >closed. > 4. Taking "Amateur Night" Too Far: In Betulia, Colombia, an annual >festival in November includes five days of amateur bullfighting. This year >no bull was killed, but dozens of matadors were injured including one gored >in the head and one Bobbittized. Said one participant, "It's just one bull >against [a town of] a thousand morons." > >SOME MORE ALSO RANS: > 1. Four people were injured in a string of related bizarre accidents. >Sherry Moeller was admitted with a head wound caused by flying masonry, Tim >Vegas was diagnosed with a mild case of whiplash and contusions on his >chest, arms and face, Bryan Corcoran suffered torn gum tissue, and Pamela >Klesick's first two fingers of her right hand had been bitten off. Moeller >had just dropped her husband off for his first day of work and, in addition >to a good-bye kiss, she flashed her breasts at him. "I'm still not sure why >I did it," she said later "I was really close to the car, so I didn't think >anyone would see. Besides, it couldn't have been for more than two >seconds." However, cab driver Vegas did see and lost control of his cab, >running over the curb and into the corner of the Johnson Medical Building. >Inside, Klesick, a dental technician,was cleaning Corcoran's teeth. The >crash of the cab against the building made her jump, tearing Corcoran's gums >with a cleaning pick. In shock, he bit down, severing two fingers from >Klesick's hand. Moeller's wound was caused by a falling piece of the >medical building. > 2. Taos, NM: A woman went to a poison control center after eating >three birth-control vaginal inserts. Her English was so bad she had to draw >a picture describing how she believed she had poisoned herself. A translator >arrived shortly thereafter and confirmed the doctors' suspicions. Marie >Valishnokov thought the inserts were some kind of candy or gum, being unable >to read the foil wrappers. After the third one, she realized something was >wrong when her throat and mouth began to fill with a sour-tasting foam. She >ran for the Poison Control Center, only a few blocks away where doctors were >able to flush the foam from her mouth, throat and stomach with no ill >effects. > 3. La Grange, GA: Attorney Antonio Mendoza was released from a trauma >center after having a cell phone removed from his rectum. "My dog drags the >thing all over the house," he said later. "He must have dragged it into the >shower. I slipped on the tile, tripped against the dog and sat down right >on the thing." The extraction took more than three hours due to the fact >that the cover to Mr. Mendoza's phone had opened during insertion. "He was >a real trooper during the entire episode," said Dr. Dennis Crobe. "Tony >just cracked jokes and really seemed to be enjoying himself. Three times >during the extraction his phone rang and each time, he made jokes about it >that just had us rolling on the floor. By the time we finished, we really >did expect to find an answering machine in there." > 4. Tacoma, WA: Kerry Bingham, had been drinking with several friends >when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the >Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more >heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 >am. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one >had brought the bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, >volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. One >end of the cable was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied >to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore >his foot off at the ankle. Miraculously, he survived his fall into the icy >river water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. "All I can say," said >Bingham, "is that God was watching out for me on that night. There's just >no other explanation for it." Bingham's foot was never located. > 5. Bremerton, WA: Christopher Coulter and his wife, Emily, were >engaging in bondage games when Christopher suggested spreading peanut butter >on his genitals and letting Rudy, their Irish Setter, lick them clean. >Sadly, Rudy lost control and began tearing at Christopher's penis and >testicles. Rudy refused to obey commands and a panicked Emily threw a >half-gallon bottle of perfume at the dog. The bottle broke, covering the >dog and Christopher with perfume. Startled, Rudy leaped back, tearing away >the penis. While trying to get her unconscious husband in the car to take >him to the hospital, Emily fell twice, injuring her wrist and ankle. >Christopher's penis was in a styrofoam ice cooler. "Chris is just plain >lucky," said the surgeon who spent eight hours reattaching the penis. >"Believe it or not, the perfume turned out to be very fortuitous. The high >alcohol content, which must have been excruciatingly painful, helped >sterilize the wound. Also, aside from it being removed, the damage caused >by the dog's teeth to the penis per se is minimal. It's really a very >stringy piece of flesh. Mr. Coulter stands an excellent chance of regaining >the use of his limb because of this." Washington Animal Control has no plans >to seize Rudy. > >AND THE WINNER: >Paderborn, Germany: Overzealous zookeeper, Friedrich Riesfeldt, fed his >constipated elephant, Stefan, 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a >bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally >let fly and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators >say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an >olive-oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him like a dump truck >full of mud. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation >knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and >lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of >him," said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no one >there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a >watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. It seems to be >just one of those freak accidents that happen." > >

25 years, 11 months

thoughts on UNIX and older systems

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<None. I haven't seen an NT box up for months at a time without <a reboot due to something trivial like a network change that can be done <with a Unix box without a reboot. Well I have. Current up time for the three NT 3.51 servers I live with at work is over 6months. We do however have things like memory leaks from Cold Fusion's OBDC driver that forces the running of a batch job every night to shut that down and restart the one peice. Often the OS gets blamed for cranky apps. <> We're switching to Linux at work only because there's more software <> available, and we have more knowledge available for Linux than BSD. < <Sounds reasonable... I've been using FreeBSD with 6+ months <uptime on web servers (only rebooted because of equipment moves in the lab) This thread is interesting to me (though OT for Classiccmp) as I plan to introduce a FreeBSD(or linux, slakware, redhat or debian) and not haveing much unix expereince it's an interest to me. Personally a VMS node suits my liking. Allison

25 years, 11 months

thoughts on UNIX and older systems

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> > FreeBSD = Cathedral development <> > Linux = Bazaar development <> > <> > Read "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric Raymond to understand what <> > mean. Organized with scheduled releases and maintainers vs ad hoc team with frequent builds. is this what were talking about? Also Freebsd is linked to the BSD school of thought VS other more radical factions. From the playing I've done the differences are insignificant and either works assuming it supports the hardware. What's more significant is that linux has Attracted third party vendors producing products that run in that environment. <The analogy was only intended to indicate that DOS survived and CP/M <basically did not. To a point that is true but CP/M really didn't die. It mutated and DOS was the result. Also while dos was developing we had MPM, DRdos and CCP/M to name a few. To date DOS As far as I know does not have the CCPM multitasking. If there is an analogy CPM supported more different platforms than DOS. Allison

25 years, 11 months

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test-drb January 1999