>Thats something that has been puzzling me in this discussion, whats this
>about CDROM being better archival than CDR? Kodak is saying 100 years for
>their CDR I think.
Lifetime estimates are all, in reality, just estimates. Most of them
have some good scientific reasoning behind them, and usually take
"accelerated aging" tests (high temperature/humidity/light situations)
and extrapolate these results to more normal storage conditions.
Indeed, the lifetimes of CD-R's are estimated to be at least in decades
if not longer, but these are all estimates. Real pressed CD-ROM's have
been around for about two decades now, and except for a few manufacturing
snafus early on, they are known to be good for at least that long.
In addition, CD-R's occasionally have interchangability problems -
a brand X disk burned on a brand Y recorder might very well be unreadable
on a brand Z player. Interchangability isn't a big problem for fairly
recent CD-ROM readers, but for, say, someone hooking up an ancient RRD40
player it may very well be an issue. Pressed CD-ROM's tend not to have such
interchangability problems (though certainly I think we've all run across
cases where brand Z player won't read one disk, while brand Y will.)
I tend to agree that CD-R's are probably good enough, but better is always
the enemy of good enough, and real CD-ROM's would be better if there's
enough volume to justify them.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
Hi -
Some of you may recognize me - an occasional contributor
to CLASSICCMP - as the maintainer of the PDP-11 freeware archives
at
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/
In between the RSX-11, RT-11, RSTS/E, and PRO stuff there, there's
well over a gigabyte of PDP-11 freeware available for downloading,
spanning 3 decades of sources. Others on this list have contributed
software to the archives, and I can't thank them enough for their efforts.
Recently, the idea of distributing a collection of the PDP-11 freeware
on multiple CD-ROM's has come up. (It'd be at least 2 CD-ROM's,
possibly more.) In part, this idea is motivated by the easy
distribution that CD-ROM affords (it sure beats lugging around
a few hundred 9-track reels), and it is also motivated by the fact that
CD-ROM drives are easily connected to Q-bus or Unibus PDP-11's through
a SCSI host adapter. I frequently make PDP-11 filesystem CD-ROM's
for my commercial customers who are converting from old media to
emulator disk images, and freeware tools for PC's (such as
John Wilson's PUTR) allow convenient access to RT-11 filesystems on
CD-ROM's. Of course, it's also possible to burn ISO9660 CD-ROM's
with disk or tape images, and it is in fact I have made "mixed
format" CD-ROM's that have both a ISO9660 directory structure
(for access on a PC-clone or Unix/VMS workstation) and a PDP-11
directory structure (in the higher-numbered partitions of the CD-ROM.)
My question is: would it be worthwhile for me to package up
the PDP-11 freeware collection on multiple CD's (probably one CD for RT-11,
one CD for RSTS/E, and two CD's for RSX-11 & POS) and distribute them?
Would folks be willing to pay, say, $15 each for duplication and
distribution costs, or is this completely out of line? Of course,
the network-accessible archive at metalab.unc.edu will still be
available for free. While it's clear that CD-ROM is a convenient
distribution medium, it's also clear that most folks on the 'net are
cheapskates and won't pay a dime to get something they could download
for free, so it's not obvious that if I had a batch of CD-ROM's made up
that anyone would ever actually pay a nominal amount for them.
If anyone has any comments, experiences, suggestions, etc.,
I'm all ears!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
Hullo again;
This evening I managed to scrounge up a few HP bits, all in unknown
operational state. I know little about them except that somebody here
should be able to tell me all about them and possibly even use them. I
have no immediate use for them.
Two HPIB external disk units; one 7945 (apparently a hard disk) and one
9122 (dual 3.5" floppy).
8 98257A cards (apparently 1 MB parity RAM). I'm not sure what sort of
system these would belong to (possibly a 9000/300?) but they are about 5"
by 7", have plastic locking fingers (one green, one purple), and the
electrical interface is card-edge, taking up the length of the longer
side.
That isn't a very good description, but oh well.
What've I got?
ok
r.
Hi Kevin,
output after boot:
R0 R4 SP PC(at time of boot initiated)
$
boot device codes, suffix n for unit number n, n=0,1,..., empty=0
TT terminal paper tape
DK RK11 moving head cartridge
DT DECtape
MT TM11 magtape (7 or 9 track, 800 BPI, odd parity, dump mode)
DP RP11 moving head disk pack
CT TA11 cassettes
PR PC11 high-speed paper tape reader
DX RX11 diskette
some M9301 versions additionally support MASSBUS devices.
DX<cr> should work fine for you.
The DX boot appears to be at address 173546. I will fax the
program code at that address. Do you have the RX11 controller register
descriptions ?
John
Hi Tim,
count me in for the RT11 volume.
Much better than downloading - but the ISO _OR_ RT11 format surely
would be good both to have !!
John G. Zabolitzky
Hi,
Does anyone have any info on the T426 (yes it is a 6). What was
different
>from the T425?? Any new instructions, etc.
Thanks
Ram
--
,,,,
/'^'\
( o o )
-oOOO--(_)--OOOo-------------------------------------
| Ram Meenakshisundaram
| Senior Software Engineer
| OpenLink Financial Inc
| .oooO Phone: (516) 227-6600 x267
| ( ) Oooo. Email: rmeenaks(a)olf.com
---\ (----( )--------------------------------------
\_) ) /
(_/
>speaking of that, how does the rrd40 connect? Not via rqdx3, surely....
There seem to be two flavors of RRD40 (or maybe one has a different
designation). The earlier one connects via its own special controller
which looks like an MSCP device. It has one ribbon cable connecter, and
the cable usually runs to a breakaout panel with two connectors (A and
B). The other style is indeed a SCSI disk, with the typical centronics
type connectors on the back.
I have both types... the SCSI one I have on one of my DS5000/200s, and
the MSCP one I will (now) be installing on one of my 11/83s.
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Dear classiccmp
URL: WWW.PULSARLUBE.COM
We have learned that you are a leading company in lubrication-related
business & heavy industry and enjoying high reputation for a long time
in your area. And, it's our pleasure to introduce ourselves as the only
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Through a long experience in this field, we are now in the position of
taking 100% domestic market share. Actually, we had been competing with
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advantages in quality and price finally made us the only domestic supplier
in SPL market here.
To promote our products in your area, we are now looking for a proper
business
partner in such form as Distributor, Technology Licensing, OEM production,
Joint Venture or others.
For double sure of our quality, we'd like to say that one of major
Petroleum companies in the world have been keeping an agreement with us for
the past 3 years on the purpose of OEM production. Of course, the company
name could be released on your request if necessary.
Should you are interested in this high margin-oriented business
opportunity,
could you reply us at your earliest convenience We will contact you by
phone
sequentially.
For your reference, you can reach us with points below:
(Phone) 82-348-943-5584
(Fax) 82-348-943-5684
E-Mail: mddh(a)att.co.kr
May we expect to hear from you soon.
Sincerely yours,
Steve
I was able to trace the lubrication products spam the list got hit with to
the offending domain. I'm trying to convince them to suspend or terminate
said domain, but am not having much luck.
If you want to express your own displeasure at getting hit with such crap,
you may send your mail to: paik(a)NETis.NET (Netis.net hosts the
pulsarlube.com domain).
Please keep the notes polite, but firm. At the moment, he's content to let
pulsarlube.com's owners off with a simple warning.
To my eyes, that's not good enough. I want their domain suspended or
terminated. Period.
If someone kept a copy of the original spam, could you please drop it my
way? I mistakenly deleted the copy I had.
Thanks!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies
http://www.bluefeathertech.com
Amateur Radio:(WD6EOS) E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
SysOp: The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272, 253-639-9905)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Well the mystery is pretty deep. Is it possible for an "ID Plug" to be bad?
Using the DUP code on the KFQSA I set the UNITNUM on one of the RF71's to
'1'. When I put the ID plug with the '0' on it, in its slot, it still
reports as DUA0, however if I set FORCEUNI to 0 using DUP then it reports
as DUA1 even though the ID plug says 0. The weird thing is that only the
drive with the ID 0 plug in its slot responds to the controller, but both
are tested on power up.
I'm guessing it has something to do with the controller since the darn ID
plug is just a piece of plastic!
Oh, and it turns out I have two versions of this controller. One has a flat
four position switch, the other a right-angle switch that I can adjust from
the back. The latter has 3 open jumpers in the center of the board and the
former has one open jumper. Curious.
--Chuck
