Wired (no, I don't usually read it) reports that hackers were intending to
disable Iraqui computer networks, which were supposedly accessible by
dialup, and using a 'vintage' protocol called X.25. Could someone tell me
what sort of protocol this is and what machines it's likely to involve?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
-----Original Message-----
From: Victor the Cleaner <jonathan(a)canuck.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 12 January 1999 19:51
Subject: supers
>Not much to tell yet. It's a YMP-EL/98, the 8-cpu version of the
>air-cooled "baby's first Cray" series. It's been promised to us,
Congratulations. Fine catch. Just how big/fast is this thing?
>but there's a certain amount of corporate bureaucracy left to
>clear.
Isn't there always? :^)
>Whether participating in distributed crypto challenges (like RC5)
>qualifies as "unsavory" is yet to be determined.
Nah. I suppose some might think it "unsporting", but it's just
jealousy...:^)
>At the moment, we know of two other machines of the same family
>that are now in private hands.
Well, at least you don't have to set a precedent.....
>More news when we've got it.
Be very interested to hear how you get on. Especially if you get it
running.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)
Posted on comp.sys.dec.micro, contact the person listed, not me:
- - - - -
Hello, I've got the following stuff I'd like to get rid of - time to clean
out the closets - a PRO 350 with a RD52 with the graphics adapter and a net
card, plus it's got daughterboards with the one meg conversion I installed
and a monitor and keyboard. Works fine.
I'm willing to part this thing out as it's too heavy to actually ship
anywhere whole . . . .
please email jboldway(a)cottagesoft.com
- - - - -
I picked up an HDD made for the Atari ST by ICD. It is a shoebox form and
has space and connectors for 2 HDs. The highly proprietory HD interface by
Atari (ATASCI ?) is usually directly converted to SCSI in most newer HD adapter
interfaces for STs.
In the Atari and ICD HDs the DMA output was converted to SCSI by an ICD card
and then to MFM or DLL. via an Adaptec 4004 (MFM) or 4070(RLL) controller.
This one has an Adaptec 4070. The 1 drive present is a Miniscribe 3834P .
I understand that some MFM drives could be coded by a RLL controller if
they were fast enough, etc. I have an ST4096, which according to the specs I
have seen is an 80 meg MFM , as well as several other smaller MFM HDs.
According to a spec sheet the 4096 would work with Perstor Systems ADRT
controllers to double the storage which would seem to indicate it was of high
enough speed and quality to stand the tighter coding.. Anyone know if this is
also true with an RLL controller or what MFM drives do work with RLL ?
ciao larry
lwalker(a)interlog.com
> (including the square brackets) after the PIP command. The syntax is
wierd
> but that's the way DEC did it in all of their operating systems, which
CP/M
> is based on. (Actually, they use the underscore which according to the
> pre-1968 (?) version of ASCII looked like a leftward-pointing arrow.)
PET has a left arrow for that code as well. Sensible, since underscore is
available elswhere in the character set (shift-$ IIRC) but I never knew it
used to be standard ASCII. What other changes have there been? Is there
any precedent for PET using up-arrow instead of circumflex?
Philip.
>Bell and Howell (Hell and Bowel, Ball and Howl, etc.) made plenty of
>their own stuff (mainly peripherels), however.
Affectionately (?!) referred to as 'Belch and Growl' by members of
Techno-fandom.
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
<some forms. There was precedent. But the guy hacking
<DOS was just messing around, trying to do a slightly
<better CP/M (as was Digital Research, who GAVE AWAY the
<whole stinking computer world to Bill Gates on a silver
Specifically it was seattle computer that needed a 16bit os
for their S100 8088 box. They literally took CPM1.4 disassembled
it and lofted it to run on 8088 and called the result Q-dos.
They had no incentive to improve it and cpm1.4 was actually
behind V2.2 (then current!).
Billy took it and modified it some say per IBM to go from the
CPM allocation scheme to FAT (Billy had used that in their
disk basics).
<For crying out loud, the first versions of UNIX ran on
<minis that didn't have any more memory space than micros.
<(OK, so they had 16 bit processors, I know. So did the
<PC! Sort of...)
Unix had been on DEC pdp-11s for years when the Altair
rolled out. It was a $24,000 source license and even though
the PDP-11 is 16 bit the instuction set, memory managment and
disks were about 10 years ahead of the PC. Unix wanted memory
and it wanted a hard disk of some size to work well.
What si forgotten is the path to unix(linux etal) was via C
language for micros. To that Scot Guthry(Tinyc) was the
starting point for Smallc and later SmallVM. Those things were
the catalyst needed to get people interested in C (adverse to BASIC
and PASCAL) as a language. With a systems language people were
thinking about Unix (written in C). concurrent to this DRI was
working on and delivered GSS Kernal, GSS-80, and GEM which was
influential in presenting graphics to the desktop as part of the
OS. Others were doing it but as standalone apps aimed at specific
hardware. This was the early to mid 80s where the PC went from
XT to AT, DOS to desktops and integrated applications and the z80
was still giving them a hard run for the money. It wouldn't be
until the late 80s and the advent of the 386 before the battle
lines were starting to clear. In the mid to late 80s the SUN,
Apollo and DEC (others too) workstation war would extend to the
PC market via apple and the Mac and push 32bit cpus, graphics,
networking and performance.
I's more than Gates getting dos, it was opportunities and near
disasters in the industry that got us here. Even Gates saw a few
really bad years in the mid 80s when dos3.3 was really the harbinger
pointing at an end of the line with something new/better needed.
Graphics we know were not going to happen on PDP11 or most other
16bit cpus as they don't address enough space. OSs were driven by
the environment and it's tasks plus space needs.
Allison
>>the list (which is supposed to be very single-minded) contains a number
>>of people who actually are single-minded (Tony Duell, Allison Parent,
>>Megan Gantry, Pete Turnbull, maybe others). This is good! Don't
>>misunderstand me. It's the way it's supposed to be.
>
>I resent that! I go off topic when the mood or whatever suits, like now.
> ;-)
I'm not 'singled-minded', I'm *focussed* :-)
some would say obsessive-compulsive... :-)
and I, too, will respond off-topic...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
