test-drb February 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

178 participants
709 discussions

by dlw＠trailingedge.com

I finally had a chance to get out and hit a few thrifts again. I was chained in a studio working on an anime, but I'm free again. Anyway, I found a Xebec Sider harddrive. Was this for the Apple //? Something was loose inside so I checked and found a small rectangle filled with some ceramic like stuff and a wire sticking out of each end inside of the PSU. Can't seem to see anywhere in the power supply where this thing may have come from but also can't see how it could have gotten inside if it didn't belong. Not even sure what it is. Any ideas anyone? Also would like any info on the drive type, size interface, etc. It is a model 9710H. Looks like I can pull the drive from the case and hook up a different PSU. On another note, anyone tell me anything about a handheld unit, I think it was an LK-3000 or some such, I'll have to go back and check. The guy wants $50 for it and also has a Tandy Pocket Computer for $40 I'm thinking of picking up. Other things I grabbed: Odyssey2 in box Coleco Adam in box (damn big box for a home console system) Atari 1040STf (may sell/trade this as I have one and an STfm too) Couple of Apple 5.25" drives Misc software and books For those of you who were interested in the Mattel Aquarius Data Recorders, after two months of no replies to my query on where to drop off the money and pick up the recorders, I have finally given up on them. They said they accepted my offer but then they just fell silent. Guess they found someone else with a better offer. ----- David Williams - Computer Packrat dlw(a)trailingedge.com http://www.trailingedge.com

25 years, 3 months

Massive paralell junk (was: Classic Computer Auctions List)

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

An ideal class of problems is Monte-Carlo simulation. You distribute identical programs to the machines, and different random-number seeds. Then each machine computes any desired amount of time (1 hour ? 1 day ? 1 week ? 1 year ?) without ANY communication. At the end each machine communicates just one or a few numbers to central, which takes the averages - that's the result. I had Cray machines working at theoretical max performance (all processors) that way. John G. Zabolitzky

25 years, 3 months

Handicapping competitions

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Philip said: >My usual method is to hold workpiece in left hand, iron in right hand and >solder dispenser in mouth. I have also been known, when using solder >straight from the reel, to make a fairly rigid structure from solder. >Assuming a fixed workpiece, I suppose I could then hold the iron in my >mouth... Owww.. Don't you get a face full of flumes from the solder? And because of the small parallax (eyes to mouth), don't you have a depth perception problem here? As well as a stiff neck? (Not to mention sucking on that piece of lead in your mouth.) Try this. Holding the iron in your right hand, take about 8" of solder and wrap it a couple of turns around the tip of your little finger (right hand) with about 6" extending toward the tip of iron. You can control the solder by moving your little finger back and forth. Sure, you will wind up with a few short pieces of solder, but you can use them on jobs that don't take so much gymnastics. -Doug ========================================= Doug Coward Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA =========================================

25 years, 3 months

Z3 builders

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

4 PDT = 4 Pole Double Through = 4 Umschaltekontakte exactly what one needs for digital ! Gru? John G. Zabolitzky

25 years, 3 months

TI99: WP and PC

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<What are WP and PC w.r.t the 9995? I'm reading the memory map and I don't <understand what those terms are. A related term seems to be BLWP, which I <don't understand either. (I'm only a poor 6502 programmer. :-) OK, WP... workspace pointer. back when the 9900 was new registers (memory) really ate up chip space and TI had an archetecture in the 990 minicomputer where register were in memory instead of in the CPU. So the WP is a pointer that points to a block of 16 locations in ram that are addressed in instructions as R0 through R15. PC is PC just like the 6502. It's the instruction counter. BLWP is an instruction that does several things. It branches to a specified address. It saves the WP and PC in the R14 and R15 of the new workspace. It then resumes at the newly specified PC. Obviously it nees two parameters a new WP and PC. They are specified by varios means (addressing modes and registers). Think of it as something like a 6502 call and Push combined though it's more powerful. Allison

25 years, 3 months

electromechanical calculator

by aknight＠mindspring.com

Hi, At Sat, 30 Jan 1999 06:25:14, Derek Peschel wrote: >There are calculator-collecting lists out there, for both mechanical and >early electronic calculators. I'm tempted not to say this... calculator >collecting so far has been a very quiet hobby. (I hope it stays that way!) Hmmm, I suppose that depends on your point of view. With the "collector's guide" for pocket calcs coming out in '97, and the message traffic of stuff for sale on some of the web sites, seems to me there is quite a lot of interest in pocket calcs and prices are going up very quickly. I've been active in this stuff now for about a year & a half. I see lots of new names bidding on calc stuff each month, FWIW. >That doesn't mean things are cheap, or that you can always find what you >want. But the list I'm on has very light traffic and a very high S/N ratio. Very true, I'm not sure why there isn't much traffic on the lists. I know quite a few folks who collect calcs, and there seems to be a lot of private e-mail exchanged, but not nearly the volume of postings as on this list, for instance. >The Web sites I've seen are informative and rather "gentlemanly". Use of >eBay doesn't seem to be encouraged. Seems like the trend is towards eBay, however - on the web sites that provide calculator classifieds it seems like more & more of the calcs for sale are listed on eBay rather than at a fixed price. >Now... to bring this message back ON-TOPIC, can anyone suggest some URL's >or a mailing list for collectors of _electronic_ calculators? I already >know about the MOSCOW site, but others might not. And I'm sure there are >other interesting resources out there! Well, another calc-related URL is for my site: Calculator History & Technology Archive http://aknight.home.mindspring.com/calc.htm I have a bunch more calculator links on my site, and am a part of the Web ring that Andrew set up. FWIW, I'd set up an "egroups" list for calculator discussions and you'll see a link to that from my web site, but there has been no traffic and due to the difficulty of using egroups I may discontinue it altogether. On my site right now I'm leaning more towards coverage of early desktop calculators - they seem to have more in common with classic computers (particularly micros) than do the pocket calcs, and plan to expand coverage to certain early computer stuff as I can. One of these day's I'll show ya'll the insides of my H9 terminal, man what a lot of ICs. Maybe even my homebrew pre-PC 8086 machine... Regards, Alex

25 years, 3 months

Bernoulli cartridges

by dburrows＠netpath.net

I recently picked up about 30 150meg Bernoulli cartridges that have never been opened. According to the chart on the back they should work on the 90meg. Dan > >I picked up two drives at the MIT flea's last year... I was only >able to get two disks... if you find a source, please let me know >as well (yes, I have the 90 MB version too). > > 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 | >+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ >

25 years, 3 months

Euro on old computers

by MagerValp＠Goth.Org

>>>>> "Cameron" == Cameron Kaiser <ckaiser(a)oa.ptloma.edu> writes: Cameron> What *does* the Euro symbol look like, anyway? Like a C with two horizontal lines in the middle[0]. Umm. Kinda. Look at http://europa.eu.int [0] Not to be confused with a certain computer company's logo. *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink* -- ___ . . . . . + . . o _|___|_ + . + . + . . Per Olofsson, konstn?r o-o . . . o + MagerValp(a)Goth.Org - + + . http://www.cling.gu.se/~cl3polof/

25 years, 3 months

IBM XT

by radack＠juno.com

Have an IBM XT with keyboard and monitor. Anyone interested? ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

25 years, 3 months

Parallel C64's...

by zmerch＠30below.com

On or about 10:21 PM 1/26/99 -0800, Sam Ismail was caught in a dark alley speaking these words: >On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Max Eskin wrote: >> Using 80 C-64s in a single project? Heck, I'm curious... >Were basically in the preliminary feasibility study stages of building a >massively parallel vintage computer. The point? To demonstrate that old >hardware that can be picked up for pennies can be combined to attain >amazing amounts of computing power. How much of the documentation / flowcharts / source code / etc. will be open source / GPL / freeware? I've always wanted to build a multi-processor CoCo (the 6809 was designed with simple multiprocessing in mind) but never quite figured out where to start. These documents might actually give me a clue. Just wondering, Roger "Merch" Merchberger (a.k.a. Daddy) ===== Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- zmerch(a)30below.com SysAdmin - Iceberg Computers ===== Merch's Wild Wisdom of the Moment: ===== Sometimes you know, you just don't know sometimes, you know?

25 years, 3 months

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test-drb February 1999