test-drb January 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
897 discussions

Anyone have an extra IBM 5155 laying around??

by roblwill＠usaor.net

Hi! Does anyone have, or know where I can get an IBM 5155 Portable computer? I'm not necessarily concerned about originally, just as long as the monitor, P/S, and keyboard work, and it's in fairly good condition ( I have a bunch of parts). I'm basically looking for it for sentimental value, since a 5155 was the first IBM-compatible computer that I used. It was in the elementary school that I went to, and neither the floppies or HD worked, so all it ran was ROM BASIC, and saved the programs on cassette. Since I had an old TRS-80, I was fairly familiar with BASIC, and wrote approx. a whole cassette-full of programs on the thing during study halls, free periods, etc. When I was talking to my teacher over the summer, the subject of the 5155 came up, and I ended up asking him if he would find out if the school would want to sell it. Well, the next year, I asked the teacher about it, and he said that the school told him that I could have it. The only problem was that over the summer, it had been "lost". Big surprise when they never found it. Anyway... If anyone has one that they'd like to sell/trade, please email me. I have various XT parts, a 386 full-AT motherboard (upgrade for the 5170 M/B), and an old desktop case. ThAnX, -- -Jason Willgruber (roblwill(a)usaor.net) ICQ#: 1730318 <http://members.tripod.com/general_1>

25 years, 11 months

Heath H19, was Computers for children

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

At 06:54 PM 1/15/99 +0000, Tony wrote: >> 3 other bits. Much easier to "fix" than the MOS encoder chip, if that chip >> was programmed for a custom matrix, such as the Heath H19 terminal. > >I have the H19 schematics here (well, actually the Z90 schematics, but >AFAIK the 'terminal' part of that computer is a H19), and I'm suprised >that the encoder is custom. There's a ROM between the data outputs of the >keyboard encoder and the data lines of the terminal processor. I would >have thought that would have handled the translation for the custom matrix. > >If they did use a custom version of the encoder chip, then what on earth >is that ROM doing there? > 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 part. It didn't work, ended up ordering a replacement from Heathkit which did work. Also found that leaving the hinged case cracked open helped with the cooling, the metal flange/heatsink on the pc board gets quite hot. Never upgraded mine to a computer- Z89 or such. Thought at the time there was a neat graphics add on for it as well. -Dave

25 years, 11 months

Questions on today's acquisitions

by tomowad＠earthlink.net

>As to the keyboard, the answer is a custom one... I have the HP150 >TechRef here, and if the keyboard connector is 6 pin (and not HP-HIL), >then it's an original HP150. Just to confirm, you have a CRT that doesn't >tilt in the case, and 2 expansion slots horizontally at the back, yes? Well... I wouldn't say it tilts _in_ the case, but it does have a tiltable stand. There are two horizontal expansion slots on the back - and - one of them has an HP-HIL interface card in it. >I have the schematic of the keyboard, and you're in luck. There's nothing >remotely custom in there. Not even a microcontroller or a ROM. It's all >plain 4000-series CMOS running at 12V... I'll respond to this part in the morning. :-) Tom Owad -- Sysop of Caesarville Online Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>

25 years, 11 months

OT? Help with Compaq Deskpro 486-33L

by hansp＠digiweb.com

I am helping a friend add a CDROM to his Compaq system. It has is an IDE cable but the driver that came with the CDROM does not recognize the drive. I suspect the IDE address and/or IRQ may not have been standard at that time. Does anyone have the tech specs on this compaq system? I've checked the Compaq support site and though there is some info it is not terribly helpful. Regards, -- Hans B Pufal Tel: +33 (0)476 12 90 24 /\ Field Application Engineer Mobile: +33 (0)607 71 77 02 /\/\ American Megatrends International <mailto:hansp@ami.com> _---_--__-_-_----__-_----_-__-__-_-___--_-__--___-__----__--_--__-___- Hans B Pufal Comprehensive Computer Catalogue <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc> Hans B Pufal Avigo developers resource <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/avigo> Hans B Pufal DEC PDP-9 Restoration Project <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/PDP9>

25 years, 11 months

Merced - and the ol' Unix story (was Re: OT, but info needed: RAM uprade)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<That was DEC, when they were first plugging Ultrix. It's basically a <New Hampshire license plate from the era. ("Live free or die" is the <New Hampshire state motto, the only notable quote from the commander Yes the same dec where a the teeshirt with: the slashed circle (no/not) with the letters "unix" in it. the caption was: unix, the unsystem never had it never will and the DIGITAL keys (white on blue blocks). Right after I got mine ATT got DOD to go with unix as a standard... Then all of a sudden unix was important. Allison

25 years, 11 months

micropolis 1355

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> > The other cure is to open up the HDA and free the head manually. If you <> > do this in reasonably clean conditions (not necessarily a proper clean <> > room) then you should be OK. <> <> I've done that, but now it spins up, and after appr. 1 minute spins down <> again and spins up, .... < <Hmm... I've never seen one do that. The microcontroller is obviously <finding _something_ wrong, but no idea what (yet). The 13xx series has a rubber bumper the head actuator contacs when resting and from heat and age it gets sticky... the head can't seek as it's glued and the drive spins down. The fix is to unstick the head and somehow deal with the sticky material. Allison

25 years, 11 months

Almost OT: How can that be?

by zmerch＠30below.com

On or about 01:24 AM 1/15/99 -0500, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) was caught in a dark alley speaking these words: >On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Roger Merchberger wrote: > >> Mind you, it's not a whopping lot faster, but how it can be faster (by a >> few to five percent) is this: Larry Wall (who wrote Perl) optimized it in >> such a way that any ol' schmuck (like me) says "I could do this in C!!!" >> and does so, but not as efficiently as Larry did... therefore, code in Perl >> is faster than the reworked version in C. > >This isn't always true. 'Tis why I said *can* be faster... not *is*. :-) > When I wrote a de-artifacter for images captured >from a video source, I wrote it first in PERL to prove to myself the >algorithm I conceived would work; I used PERL because I am more familiar >with it than any other language. > >Later, I ported the program to C which netted me a dramatic performance >increase: 15 minute processing times dropped to around a minute, while >CPU usage during the processing dropped from 100% to about 30%. Certainly... but what does "perl" stand for? 2 answers: Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister... or Practical Extraction and Report Language The strong points of perl are its strong array & list processing capabilities and the file management commands. The former are where Perl gets it's speed, and the latter, while prolly slower than C, are much easier to code to do file manipulation. Sure, if a proggie needed 20 lines of C versus 20 lines of perl, sure C's gonna win. However, if your proggie relies heavily on perl's associative arrays, it'll be tough to program in C, let along program *more efficiently* in C... >This isn't to disparage PERL at all. I like PERL. There are some things >other languages are better suited for, though. Of course. Perl (for me) is best for that "quick & dirty" program. Get it done, and fast, and move on. Tho I use it more often than C, C certainly does have its advantages. ObCC: IMNSHO, Basic09 has more...... Neener, Neener... ;^> Off to DreamyLand, Roger "Merch" Merchberger ===== Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- zmerch(a)30below.com SysAdmin - Iceberg Computers ===== Merch's Wild Wisdom of the Moment: ===== for (1..15) { print "Merry Christmas\n"; } (from perl.1 man page, version 4.)

25 years, 11 months

formatting gunk [Re: Commodore 1541 on ebay for $8500.00]

by pctech＠davidbowie.com

I never got so many nasty messages as this, and for what because I forgot a setting???Last i checked i was just human, but you never know i might be a system engineer and that would make me impervious to mistakes or something. Again i am sorry!!!!! Brian -----Original Message----- From: Joseph S. Barrera III <joebar(a)microsoft.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, January 15, 1999 10:01 PM Subject: Re: formatting gunk [Re: Commodore 1541 on ebay for $8500.00] >>Erm, are you speaking mailer as in mail *client* or mail *server*. If mail >>client, there should be a setting that states "Never send HTML." > >Mailer client. A pre-pre-release version of Outlook Express 5. > >There is such a setting, but it gets ignored (apparently) when replying to >an HTML message. > >Feel free to keep beating this dead horse. I'm sure everyone else on this >list cares. A lot. > >- Joe > >

25 years, 11 months

Computers for children

by kurtkilgor＠bigfoot.com

> This'll probably offend many. (followed by a description of a circa 1991 powerhouse system) Well, it has been shown that it's not any more challenging to learn UNIX than Windows than DOS than MS BASIC 2.0 if it's the first exposure to computers. I think that if it can be helped, a person's first exposure should be as encouraging of good computing habits as possible. This means not windows, and preferrably not macintosh. Just like many intelligent people like to say that a child should learn to do manual calculations before using a calculator, same with this. A child should get a proper introduction to computers. No child needs to be stuck with stupid paintbrush programs for four years before graduating to doom. I agree with a C-64, though that's not really to great either. I recommend either a UNIX/Linux system, because that will allow learning about networks and so on, or a machine like a PDP-8 or an Altair that would encourage really low-level tinkering. I hope no one here makes the decision to raise a Microserf!

25 years, 11 months

formatting gunk [Re: Commodore 1541 on ebay for $8500.00]

by joebar＠microsoft.com

Sorry. I do have plain text set, but sometimes the mailer thinks it knows better than I do how my mail should be sent. Excuse me while I send off some nasty internal email about this issue (again). - Joe

25 years, 11 months

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test-drb January 1999