Upon the date 09:00 PM 3/9/99 -0800, Sellam Ismail said something like:
>On Tue, 9 Mar 1999, Mike Ford wrote:
>
>> Can you tell me much about the AC adapter? (why is it the adapter always
>> gets lost. I didn't get one with the PowerBook 5300CS I bought last
>> Saturday either.) I wonder if a generic adapter will be OK to use?
>
>DC 6V; 600mA.
Hi Sellam,
Could you tell him the polarity of the connections too? I just thought of
this. It may be important for him if he has to replace the connector on a
new generic adapter or and old, used unit. Power connector polarity may not
be marked on the 5300CS as it occasionally is on computers, radios, tape
decks, stuff.
Sounds like from your authoritative reply, Sellam, you have one of these or
at least a manual. Hence, my suggestion.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/awa
Once upon a midnight dreary, Sellam Ismail had spoken clearly:
>On Mon, 8 Mar 1999, Roger Merchberger wrote:
>> 1. His keyboard from the sounds of it, is (at best) *seriously* wounded...
>The //c keyboard wants to be torn down and rebuilt. It had these
>ridiculous metal hinges attached to each one to give them their feel.
>After a while the hinges go bad and start making the keys stick. So the
>solution is to lift the keycaps and remove each hinge. The click will be
>gone but the keyboard will be much nicer to type on.
Sounds like a good idea, but nicer for whom to type on? Personally, I like
the key click - but I could live without it. This person is disabled and
seems to need some tactile feedback so he can tell if he pressed the key
enough... he may not want to give up the keyclick...
Can the keyboard be torn down, cleaned, and restored to original (or
damn-near original) condition? I'm not afraid of work...
>> 2. He's got some software on disks that (i believe) he's assuming are
>> unreadable. He speaks of the disks being dirty & worn, but doesn't actually
>> mention that he's attemted and failed to see if they still work. He is
>> willing to purchase new (if possible) disks of this software, which he's
>> not sure what it was called... but he says it was the word processor and
>> spelling checker from "border bond" [sic] software... which I'm assuming
>> would be "Broderbund." He cannot remember the actual titles, but he says he
>> has the original disks, so I do have access to them if necessary.
>Sounds like Bank Street Writer. I don't know why he'd want to use that.
Maybe because that's what he's accustomed to? He'd used the system for many
years, and seems insistant that this is what he wants. Darned near everyone
seems to hate vi on the unix platform, but a *very* close cousin to that is
TS-EDIT, which I used for years, and actually liked it. And vi is the only
*guaranteed* text editor on a Unix box, so it's a good idea to learn the
very basics if you decide to become a *nix administrator-type person.
>It was terrible in my opinion. Tell him he wants APpleWorks instead.
Erm... he's what is commonly referred to as a "customer." Last time I
checked the definition, they're always right. I'm not about to try to
shoehorn him into new software that he'll "have" to learn, when it's not
what he wants.
>Integrated word processor, spread sheet and database. A much nicer
>package,
*if* you need a spreadsheet and database. He needs just the wordprocessor
and spell checker.
> and in 80-columns too (Bank Street Writer was implemented as 40
>characters in the hi-res mode).
I don't know for sure, but he may like the lower column count for his
less-than-optimal eyesight... but I've not asked him on that part.
[[[Editor's Note: And for those of you who think you *cannot* do decent,
business-type correspondance letters in 40column... My Tandy200 says
otherwise...]]]
>> *Any* help or information at all on this project would be most appreciated,
>> so thank you all in advance.
>
>I'd be happy to help him out. Give him my e-mail address and we'll take
>it from there.
Normally, I'd have no problem with that, but he doesn't want his e-mail
address public, and he wishes that I take care of the work -- he doesn't
want to be bothered with all of the particulars of why, what, and how to
fix the thing... he's just interested in the final product -- a working
//c. He's by no means technical (I shielded his description of the 7"
floppy drives from the list members... ;-) My being good with classic
machines (tho mostly on the Tandy side of things), I mentioned I might be
able to help him. He's put the ball in my court, now.
==========================
And in other news.........
==========================
Once upon a midnight dreary, Mike Ford had spoken clearly:
>Start by taking it apart and giving it a good cleaning. Its just a few
>screws and a little convincing, and the keyboard comes off as a unit with I
>think just one more screw inside (which I hope to remember to put back in
>one of mine next time I open it up).
[snip]
But does this only get the keyboard out of the computer, or does this tear
down the keyboard itself... I've tried the "keyboard in the dishwasher"
routine, and the "keyboard and the toothbrush" routine... and personally,
I've not had any success with them. (This is not to say that it doesn't
work... the only thing I've *ever* successfully glued together with
superglue are my fingers. The stuff must work, to sell so much - but I must
just be plain stupid regarding its use 'cause it doesn't ever work for
me... that's why I use epoxy - works every time.) Subsequently, the only
way I've ever successfully restored a keyboard (to better than new, I might
add) is by full teardown, clean, lube (judiciously...) and reassemble. I
have done this with several keyboards, and always had a winner.
>I would not spend more effort than that, they are just too cheap.
>Reluctant machines become organ donors for the more promising.
Define "cheap." This is probably the only //c in existance in over a 50
mile radius of here... There's no source for spare parts around here (in
any form) for at least 200 miles. No spare parts available... so all I have
going for me *is* effort. What else is there for a poor, backwoods country
geek to do??? ;-)
Thanks to all, and I'm still open for ideas...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
Marvin <marvin(a)rain.org> wrote:
> Russ Blakeman wrote:
> > Anyone heard of a Hazeltine? Not sure of the model but I have a black
>
> They made quite a few different models of terminals, and one thing I have
> heard but not yet confirmed, is that one of the models had some core memory
> in it.
If this is so, I wouldn't be surprised to find that that model is the
Hazeltine 2000, a real piece of work.
It's kind of boxy: one rectangular box for the monitor, with a black
front and sort of goldenrod-shade-of-beige metal case, or maybe the
ones I saw were just yellowed by exposure to chain-smoking
programmers, and a matching yellowish boxy keyboard attached by way of
a thick cable.
The display is a relatively long-persistence green CRT, capable of
showing twenty-something (24 I think) lines of 74 columns each. The
ones I saw could not display lower case, but as they were talking to
something whose native character set was FIELDATA there was no lower
case that needed displaying.
Best of all, it's too stupid to clear the screen when powered on, and
likely as not what it greets you with first thing in the morning is a
garbled version of what it was showing you last night when you turned
it off. (There is a reset button, one of the round pushbuttons on the
right edge of the keyboard, which clears the display should you like
to start fresh.) So while I wouldn't be surprised to find that the
display memory is core, I'd be even less surprised to find that it is
some kind of acoustic delay line.
I wish I had had the foresight to grab one when that PPOE got rid of
them in the mid-1980s, because I haven't seen one since. I do seem to
have kept a manual and my inventory says it is dated January 1975.
-Frank McConnell
> I have, about six feet away from me, a brand spanking hardly used Apple
> Network Server 500. Nice unit. I've managed to get AIX 4.1.4.0 on it
(provided
> with the system) and CDE runs well. No cc or xlc, but we have some
RS/6000s
> here, so I built gcc on one of them and copied the binaries over and now
I
> have a Perl and a decent compiler (had to steal as from the RS/6000s
also).
> It's a 603e PPC emulating an RS/6000 (!), 132MHz, 32MB RAM. Fast sucker.
> Bookstore buys this guy to handle their database system, vendor says we
don't
> support it, so it goes into the server room powered off for almost two
years
> until the tech guy decides he doesn't want it anymore and tells me I can
use
> it to my heart's content if I can fix it. So I did! :-)
>
> Quick question: are there any AIX gurus out there? I need to upgrade this
> box to 4.1.5 or some Y2K compliant version. I have a contact at IBM who
might
> be able to get me the upgrade, but I was wondering if anyone out there
has the
> patches already. 4.2 is apparently right out as I doubt IBM supports the
> POWER architecture anymore, but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.
Um. I don't claim to be an AIX guru, but... There are supposed to be
patches to make 3.2.5.0 Year 2000 compliant, but I haven't managed to
download them. However downloads for 4.anything should be readily
available.
There should be no surprise at Power PC chips emulating RS/6000 machines -
the PPC instruction set is based on that of the POWER RISC chipset used in
early RS/6000s. The last POWER RISC machines were obviously an end of line
product when we were looking to buy a new server last year - all modern
RS/6000 machines in our price range were based on PPC chips.
(Unfortunately all those in our price range had rotten floating point
benchmarks compared to the old series, so we bought a Sun instead. With
luck I get the old machines. But I digress.)
I have just looked at the one e-mail remaining from my conversation with an
IBM rep on the subject. I quote almost in full:
*********************************************
> Phillip,
>
> try this URL :-
>
> http://service.boulder.ibm.com/aix.ww/aixfixes?HBW=no
>
> Select APAR number and type in IX76413 in the box
>
> they can be downloaded from there
This site behaves just like the one I tried, viz. it gives me the
message:
Fix packages for AIX 3.2.5.0 environments are not supported by this web
service. Please use the FixDist tool or contact your authorized IBM
Business Partner or IBM support center to order the fix on tape.
> There is also an AIX program called fixdist that can be run on
> RS/6000s to download fixes, this can be downloaded from:-
>
> http://service.software.ibm.com/aix.ww/downloads?HBW=no
I take it fixdist requires our rs/6000 machines to know how to get at
the internet, which ours don't at present.
Philip.
*********************************************
Hope this helps.
Philip.
Derek Peschel wrote:
> As for the DisplayWriter, the situation is pretty similar. I think you need
> IBM's software to get it to work. I don't know how much reverse engineering
> has been done (thus, how easy it is to run other programs).
Eh? IBM Displaywriter was one of the first platforms to support CP/M86 (if not
the first!)
Philip.
At 09:43 PM 3/10/99 -0800, Sellam Ismail wrote:
>
>I was just watching Beverly Hills Cop.
>In the police station offices, several shots:
>DEC Rainbows.
The folks dressing the sets of movies scrounge almost as hard as
computer collectors. If they can sweet-talk some hardware maker into
lending machines for scenes, they'll do it. It's product placement.
Don't forget, many of the people working on movies are effectively
sub-contractors, and if they can do it for less money, they're
making money. And if they can get something that will "fall off
the truck" or re-sold when the sets are demolished, all the better:
I remember a particularly egregious example of a tech for the movie
"Twins" who was systematically begging software makers for actual
product (not just boxes, but disks, he insisted) to clutter some
laboratory scenes. What a scam!
- John
Would anyone happen to know where I could find a copy of Tom Pittman's
Tiny BASIC for the 1802, as described in Personal Computing, March 1979?
-Bill Richman (bill_r(a)inetnebr.com)
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r - Home of the COSMAC Elf Microcomputer
Simulator, Fun with Molten Metal, Orphaned Robots, and Technological Oddities.
Anyone heard of a Hazeltine? Not sure of the model but I have a black
one piece terminal looking unit that I'm curious of the sentimental,
astetic or collector value of this brand of machine. Any input
appreciated and maybe there will be one up for adoption soon.
Allright, I have the list of stuff that I can ship. Please reply to me
personally, first come - first served. Read the whole e-mail there are
some goodies at the bottom. Much of this stuff I would prefer if it went
to someone who has historical interests in mind. Most of this stuff I will
ship anywhere for the price of shipping.
Package of original Mac IIci manuals includes thin Macintosh Reference
booklet, Getting started book, and the system software disks (6.0.?).
Microsoft Works: Lessons booklet
Hypercard 1.2.2 package includes User's Guide, Introduction to Scripting,
and the hypercard disks.
Mac SE Owner's Guide (2x) (thin)
Mac Plus Owner's Guide (thin)
System Software 6.0 User's guide (fairly thick)
Applelink 6.0 User's guide (average thickness) (old network program. I
could be persuaded to find the floppies)
Macintosh Utilities User's guide (average thickness) (for System 6)
A disassembled Macintosh IIx in unknown condition. This is missing the ROM
SIMM, but it has RAM, the hard drive, a video card, a PSU, and the
motherboard. It's an '030 w/math coprocessor. Would like some small
payment beyond the shipping charge.
System 7.0 demo CD (EBAY ALERT!) This is simply an awesome CD. It is the
demos that would be run in-store, using hypercard. It only runs on System
7 and below, though. This is a future classic, or simply e-bay bait.
Apple Nov. 1990 Service Source CD
Apple reference/presentations lib. v.4.0 and v.7.0 CD
Apple Lan Literacy 1000 CD
1989 Welcome to Macintosh demo CD
Sigma demo CD
Farallon's Greatest Hits Black Album CD
Mac Showcase (1988) CD
Macromind demo CD
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
Hi group,
The person who's message is copied below heard that I was a listmember of
ClassicCmp from the Greenkeys list (it's for Teletype, other teleprinter,
RTTY, and data comm interests). He asked me to post the availability of
some of his equipment on the list. I don't know the fellow nor have any
interest in the gear. Contact him directly.
Regards, Chris
PS: LAAG@... sounds familiar. Had he once before been a member of our list
or is it just that I had occasionally seen some postings from him on
Greenkeys and other amateur radio-related lists? CRF
>From: LAAG(a)pacbell.net
>Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 08:07:02 -0800
>Reply-To: LAAG(a)pacbell.net
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en]C-PBI-NC404 (Win16; U)
>To: Christian Fandt <cfandt(a)netsync.net>
>Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Fwd: ASR 33 manuals
>
>HI... I AM A COLLECTOR OF CLASSIC COMPUTERS AND HAVE SEVERAL MINI COMPUTERS
>FROM THE 1970'S... I HAVE ENOUGH OF THESE THAT I HAVE SOME EXTRAS...
THEY ARE MODEL ALPHA-16
>MADE BY COMPUTER AUTOMATION OF IRVINE CA. THEY HAVE 8 KBYTES OF CORE MEMORY...
>COULD YOU ADD THIS TO THE CLASSIC COMPUTERS LIST FOR ME THANKS
>LAAG(a)PACBELL.NET 909-359-0250 BOB LAAG
>
>
