test-drb January 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
897 discussions

by jonathan＠canuck.com

Hi, folks. I'm new in these parts, having been referred to the list during a quest for some (very) old Data I/O programming equipment. Before I stray from that subject, if anyone has any "Programming Paks" and accompanying socket adapters, I'd appreciate hearing from them by mail. I need a number of particular sets for 1702, 5204, and 6653 EPROMs. If'n anyone's interested, they're for an original Intel MCS-4 (4004) development system, National SC/MP, and Intersil 6100 (the pdp8-compatible one) respectively. I'd also like to hear from anyone who has or is familiar with any of these machines. After a couple of days lurking, I'm finding the endless discussion of Altair prices and email "formats" dreary. The former was a rather badly built piece of crap compared to the IMSAI (though we obviously have to acknowledge the Altair's historical importance - right BEHIND the Mark 8), and the latter has nothing to do with antique computers. I should think that the list owner should have clamped off that discussion some time ago. In other news, Miles O'Neal (meo(a)netads.com) queried: > I'd really like to get hold of a functioning > (or close) Compucolor or Intecolor from the > early 80s. The ones we used at Georgia Tech > were all in one unit (I think), a big color > monitor console sort of thing, like God's own > ADM3a, in technicolor. (I could be wrong, > but that's what I seem to remember.) I'd > prefer one with a disk drive. > > I think this was the coolest thing ever for > learning graphics stuff. > > Anyone have one a mere mortal can afford? I can't imagine why you'd want one. The big Intecolors were mildly interesting, but the 8-track cartridge tape drive was junk of the first order. The later Compucolor IIs (in the hacksawed portable television case with the 5" floppy where the tuner used to be) was one of the most unreliable hacks of the time. I serviced them circa 1980, and they were really bad news. One of the worst excuses for a roll-yer-own switcher I've ever seen, and nonexistent development software. Words of advice: If you want to learn graphics, go track down an SGI Indigo - the purple cube. They're down in the couple-of-hundred-bucks zone now, and one of the most elegantly built machines I've touched in almost 25 years in the biz. On the subject of home-supers, I'd be interested as well in hearing what's out there. We're anticipating getting our hands on a Cray YMP-EL/98 soon, and it appears there are a number of these air-cooled boxes being dumped in various parts of the world. Jonathan Levine

25 years, 7 months

supers

by jonathan＠canuck.com

William Donzelli <william(a)ans.net> desperately wished to know: > > That's why we're after our first Cray, > > Please tell... 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, but there's a certain amount of corporate bureaucracy left to clear. Apparently we're going to be asked to vow not to sell the machine - or cycles - to terrorists or other unsavory sorts. Whether participating in distributed crypto challenges (like RC5) qualifies as "unsavory" is yet to be determined. At the moment, we know of two other machines of the same family that are now in private hands. More news when we've got it. Jonathan

25 years, 7 months

5.25" Floppies on a P2 system

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

OK, I realize the subject line looks off topic, but it really isn't since this deals with handling and archiving classic media. I seem to recall someone mentioning some of the utilities such as 'putr', 'teledisk', and various other won't work on a modern PC with a 5.25" floppy drive attached. Am I remembering correctly? If so does anyone remember which programs are effected? Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |

25 years, 7 months

R.I.P. Hayes

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Sat, 9 Jan 1999 rhblake(a)bigfoot.com wrote: > They still have an active and alive webpage at http://www.hayes.com/ without any > mention of demise. Where did you get this info? ZDNet. I think Hayes probably forgot to update their webpage, they probably have better things to do. ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

25 years, 7 months

Tic-tac-toe (was: RE: Bulbs in parallel)

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

>> ObOT: BTW, does anybody know approximately when tit-tat-toe got renamed >> tic-tac-toe? Or is a regional thing? > > Don't our "Queen's English" friends (uk and au) call it "naughts and > crosses"? Well, I _did_ call it that when I wrote a programme, sorry, program fom my PET to play it. But it was a pun on the more conventional spelling, "noughts and crosses" AFAICT, Nought = Zero, Naught = Nothing Tic-Tac-Toe is a name I had met even then, but Tit-Tat-Toe I've not come across before. Any etymological connection with Tit for Tat? Philip.

25 years, 7 months

RT - the rude, the bad, and the ugly

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Miles O'Neal <meo(a)netads.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Saturday, 9 January 1999 19:03 Subject: RT - the rude, the bad, and the ugly <snip> >Quick vignettes... > >1) I contracted for IBM here in Austin for a while. There > was an RT on the austin.ibm.com network named "doorstop". > AFAIK, about all it was being used for was to answer the > pings for "doorstop". > >2) At PSW, Frank King (the IBM upper manager who more or > less built the IBM workstation division) had just been > installed as president when we took him on a tour of the > premises. As we escorted him into the secure lab, his > eyes lit up as he saw an RT. > > ``An RT! Wonderful! What do you use this for?'' > > Tom Stewart pushed it in front of the door to hold it open. > ``A doorstop? What else?'' <snip> >The high bidder would get to step out back onto the rifle range >(why have 5 acres in Texas without a rifle range?), and put a >7.62mm bullet into the RT's evil, beating heart. <snip> >Nah, I'm sure there are 3rd world countries that would take them. >But after they had them a while, they'd be even more pissed at >the US than they are now... 8^/ Is that possible??? ;^) Having almost choked on my coffee (actually it, was a West End Draught, but I digress) and had my leg scratched by the resident cat who took flight off my lap whilst reading the above, I think it may be time that we required such posts to have an obligatory warning of C&C (Coffee & Cats) variety, so I don't do it again. :^) Any seconders? Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au >

25 years, 7 months

RT-11 Help

by dogas＠leading.net

Thanks for the URL, Zane. Looks like I'll have to turn on the Bat... errr... Magen signal. ;) *throwing switch* - Mike: dogas(a)leading.net -----Original Message----- From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)aracnet.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 1:29 AM Subject: Re: RT-11 Help >>I dont know RT-11 (yet.) and am looking forward to the experience. But >>before that happens the seller wants to purge some sensitive employee files >>on the system. Can someone tell me how to tell him to 1) move through the >>directory structure, and 2) how to delete specific files ( some that span >>partitions 0 - du4 according to him ), and... > >No idea on this I'm afriad. My RT-11 system is no where near this complex yet. > >>Where can I find a good source of RT-11 info? > >The RT-11 manuals, and good luck finding a set :^( > >On the other hand the following URL will have some basic info if you take >the time to do some serious looking. It also has all kinds of other >interesting info, DEC and other. >http://www-ols.fnal.gov/ols/documents/docpn.html Of course this is all >pretty specific to some government lab. Wish they had more of the >documentation they list on line. > > Zane > >| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | >| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | >| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | >+----------------------------------+----------------------------+ >| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | >| and Zane's Computer Museum. | >| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | >

25 years, 7 months

SCSI floppies

by roblwill＠usaor.net

Hi! I've got a question: has anyone ever heard of a SCSI floppy drive? I was talking to someone about one, and he said he'd never even heard of one, and when I thought about it, I hadn't either. Anyway, my question is about a WANG WLTC laptop that I have. It has an internal 10 MB JVC 16pin HD (ID 0), and an external (no internal) 360k SCSI floppy (ID 1). In the manual, it says that a 720k floppy and a 1.2 MB floppy was also available for it. My question is will a 1.44 MB floppy work on it? If so, where would I even be able to find one, since I've never even seen one until I got this huge WANG. (weighs about 18 lbs, plus the floppy is about another 18). Happy Holidaze -and- ThAnX, -- -Jason Willgruber (roblwill(a)usaor.net) ICQ#: 1730318 <http://members.tripod.com/general_1>

25 years, 7 months

Bulbs in parallel

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Sorry this is so late. I just don't do email when I'm at home. And so over Christmas a lot of email piled up and I'm way behind in my reading. If this question has been answered, well I havn't gotten that far yet in my reading. >On Sat, 19 Dec 1998 CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: >> Unfortunately, lots of "fundamental" knowledge gets left out when you >> skip electric lights and go to things much more complex. Max Eskin said: >OK, now I have the feeling I may have forgotten something. When you wire >some bulbs in series, and one burns out, they all fail. If they are wired >in ||, and one burns out, the others keep burning. What more is there? OK, what would you say if I told you that you could build a two input AND gate or a two input OR gate using just two neon bulbs (in parallel), one resistor AND NO TRANSISTORS? Or, how about a one bit readable, writable memory circuit consisting of one neon bulb, two resistors, and a capacitor? How about a ring counter with no ICs, no transistors? I put some scanned pages up on my web page so you could grab them. The .ZIP file consists of 11 .GIF files. Each file represents two pages. So lamp4546.gif (pages 45 and 46) is the first two pages and lamp6566.gif is the last two pages. The zip file is at http://www.best.com/~dcoward/lamp.zip If you can't view .GIF files offline, then just bring up each file with your browser. Start with http://www.best.com/~dcoward/lamp4546.gif I'll leave the files up for at least a week. I hope this rekindles your interest in lamp circuits. ========================================= Doug Coward Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA =========================================

25 years, 7 months

Fw: What is a VAX 8350 fully loaded worth?

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

This one is for all you British collectors. -----Original Message----- From: Jamie Stallwood <jamie_stallwood(a)bigfoot.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.os.vms Date: Monday, 11 January 1999 9:54 Subject: Re: What is a VAX 8350 fully loaded worth? >There will be a pair of 8350's with CI and dual HSCs coming free in about 3 >months in Britain. If anyone can suggest a good home for it, or wants to convert >it into a large freezer or something, dop me a line at >jamie.stallwood(a)cwcom.co.uk and I will let you know when it will become free. 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)

25 years, 7 months

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test-drb January 1999