On November 17, John Foust wrote:
> I think (old) electron microscopes are regularly given away to anyone
> who wants to pick them up - or so it seems from a few months' reading
> on a microscopy mailing list.
Yes, they are. But, having gone down that road, I would advise most
people to stay away from anything *too* old...going back past
1975-1980 or so, the machines get very large and very heavy. There
are plenty of solid machines from JEOL, ETEC, Zeiss, and other
manufacturers built in the 1975-1985 range that can be had relatively
cheaply (most less than $5k, some as cheap as $1500.00) that would be
MUCH more serviceable. They'd be easier to move and maintain, easier
to get parts for (and they DO break, they're very finicky machines),
and much smaller and lighter.
Sure, a huge 60's-era Cambridge Stereoscan would be a lot of fun...but
it weighs six thousand pounds, it'll be down more than its up, you'll
spend your weekends looking for vacuum leaks, your power bill will be
astronomical. YMMV, just my opinions from very recent but limited
experience...
I'd be interested in casual correspondence with anyone else around
here who either has an electron microscope or is planning on getting
one.
-Dave McGuire
On Nov 17, 5:56, kebabthesheep wrote:
> The box in question is a RML-380Z-D model, with dual 5
> 1/4" drives, and I think, 32K RAM.
> You guys are possibly my last hope - I've spent a
> total of over 20 hours scouring the web for info, and
> have come up with very little. I'd like to get as
> much on this box as possible, for preservation reasons
> - and so I can build a website about it.
I think I have an RML380Z CP/M disk somewhere here. I suppose I could make
an image copy, but I'm not sure if it's bootable. I know it has ZASM and
various utilities on it. I'd bet Don Maslin has boot disk, though.
I also have 12 A4 pages of circuit diagrams for the 380Z, and a photocopy
of the appendices to the TXED manual, if they're any help.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
On November 17, Megan wrote:
> Excuse me? $70k spent on stuff from ebay in two years? Some of
You seem to be assuming that anything I buy on eBay is "playtoy stuff"
that comes out of the "playtoy budget". The car I bought on eBay I
would have otherwise bought from a dealer or an individual outside of
eBay. As it turns out I got a pretty good deal. Let's not overlook
the fact that some of it is stuff that got resold for major profit,
and a lot of it directly supports my work.
Sure, that $70k is a solid one-third of my income. But when you
consider that I buy nearly everything except groceries, gasoline,
household utilities, and medical care via eBay most of the time,
that's not a very big number.
The notion that EVERYTHING that gets sold on eBay get sold for more
than it's worth is incorrect. Also incorrect is the notion that
everything that gets sold on eBay is for hobby or play activities.
Further incorrect is the (seemingly prevalent) idea that all the
computer-related activities of the folks on this list are pure
hobbyist activities and are thus expendable as "play", even with our
older machines.
> us don't have the budget for more than a few hundred a year for
> stuff...
Ok, so that means I'm not supposed to buy the things I want to buy?
See above. Add your "automotive" budget to your "playtoy" budget.
Then add in your "equipment to support work for customers" budget.
Does that affect those numbers?
> And the fact that you pay more than is reasonable (and it appears
> you have the deep pockets to do that) has a direct affect on the
> prices of things for the rest of us... No wonder prices on ebay
> are unreal.
Oh yeah, it's ALL MY FAULT. Shoot me now. Many of the people I
frequently bid against (to astronomical numbers) are on this list, and
they have MUCH deeper pockets than I. I have an income that is
reasonable for a person with my level of experience, which is no less
or no greater than most of the folks here. I'm very lucky that I
currently live alone, have no children (yet), and have a girlfriend
that doesn't presume to tell me what I can do with the money that I
make. Since that will probably all change within the next couple of
years, I'm getting my "goodies" purchases done now, so I won't have to
fight for them later...the Crays, the electron microscope, stuff like
that.
Sheesh. This is the LAST place I'd expect to get criticized about
obtaining and hacking on cool stuff.
-Dave McGuire
> Does anyone have any experience with Mac-NT compatibility? I want
the Mac
> to have access to my NT server so that I can move large files across my
home
> network which is decidedly Windows-based.
I run Services for Macintosh for a very few legacy Macs here...
> Here's the setup. NT4 Server has the Services for Macintosh
installed. The
> NT configuration is set for routing, seeding the network, and a node range
> of 11-254.
Ok, I don't have SFM set for routing. It's simply bound to the
Ethernet adapter. In that mode, the NIC is in the "default zone".
> The IIci has an Asante NuBus Ethernet card which passes internal
> diagnostics and indicates "link". So, I know the connection to my hub is
> good.
Ok.
> I have the AppleShare 3.0.1 client installed. The ci runs System
7.0.1.
> Re-reading the NT docs, I'm supposed to see the AppleShare icon in the
> Chooser, which I don't. I only see AppleTalk. Hmmm...
???
I don't see AppleTalk in the Chooser; I see AppleTalk in Control Panel.
In Chooser, I see icons for each type of printer driver I'm using,
and I also see the AppleShare icon.
However, none of our legacy Macs are that old; System 7.5.5 is the
oldest in use, OS 8.1 the newest. ISTR that AppleShare Client 3.6.4
is the oldest version of the client in use here.
> I configured the MacTCP to point to my firewall for Internet access.
Maybe
> this should point to the NT Server? It's a private subnet configuration
> where the NT server is for file and print sharing only; the Internet
> connection is through a broadband firewall/router.
NT Services for Macintosh doesn't have the capability introduced in
the AppleShare Fileserver IP 5.0 that permits clients to make connections
over TCP/IP; and the earliest AppleShare Client that supports the TCP/IP
connections is 3.6.4 (we had to make that the baseline while we were
still running a Mac fileserver).
If you're trying to access the NT Server across anything other than
the LAN that the NT Server's NIC is connected to, you're out of luck.
No bridges, routers, etc.
Additionally, you have to create a directory somewhere, share it for
access by Windows clients, then use NT File Mangler to create a Mac
Volume from that shared directory before the macs can see them. But
it sounds like you're having trouble before you get that far.
Hope some of this helps...
-dq
If you include programming on larger machines "for fun" as contrasted with
"working," then
(all dates approximate +/- a year!)
1965 - learned 1401 AutoCoder to solve quadratic equations; learned FORTRAN
to check for legal moves in checkers
1967 - used FORTRAN to compute the exact answer to 37**37 (don't ask why -
it was "fun")
1976 - saw a friend play StarTrek and Adventure on a timeshare system; had
seen the article on the Altair, but I wasn't interested in bit-twiddling and
switch-flipping at the time.
1977 - purchased a ProcTech Sol-20, cassette based, to learn BASIC and write
my own programs. Two weeks to solder - 6 weeks to get working! My wife
became a computer widow.
1978 - added a NorthStar SSSD drive (90K storage!) - needed a Univ. of
Waterloo CS grad to help me do the I/O routines! Co-founded Regina Owners
of Microcomputer Systems (ROMS).
1979 - got into CP/M as well as N* DOS, added a N* Horizon and Hazeltine
1500 terminal. Also added 8" disk drives which I had my parents smuggle into
Canada on their vacation so I could avoid the import tax! Started attending
WCCF in SF. Started writing articles for SOLUS News. Became a Z80 / CP/M
"snob" - the Apple wasn't a "serious" computer, so I wasn't interested in
meeting Wozniak when I had a chance. Wrote a program to test for ESP on the
Radio Shack Model I - became one of the first programs to be rejected by
Wayne Green's Kilobaud program publishing venture!
1980 - helped found the International NorthStar User's Association (INSUA)
in SF. (trivia - John Dvorak was another founding member. He sold N*
software mail order thru his "newsletter" The Software Review). REALLY got
into BASIC to create real estate multiple listing index program for local
realtor.
1981 - founded Interactive Systems, Inc. in Regina, Saskatchewan with 2
partners. Sold small business systems - NorthStar and KayPro. Paid $1333
for a 10MB HD sub-system. Wrote articles for INSUA. Taught multiple
"Intoduction to Personal Computing" classes through University extension
division.
1982 - Got a Morrow Decision I (which could read both N* hard-sectored
formats as well as soft sectored formats). Wrote articles for Sol Libes'
MicroSystems magazine. Taught "Introduction to Data Processing" for U of R
CS Department.
1983 - Created Docu-Power - a generic boilerplate document processor which
worked with any wordprocessor. Became Canadian distributor for Micro-MUMPS
for Disk Walters (at UC Davis ?)
1984 - Moved back to the US and reluctantly bought a PC clone, converted
Docu-Power to MS-DOS (which added scores of sales to already impressive
sales in the low 100's <g> - that's # of units, not $'s). Hooked up with
Steve Ciarcia through the Connecticut Computer Club and became an "Ask BYTE"
researcher - Steve paid club members $5 for each letter they could answer.
Wrote the manual for Steve's Home Control System.
1985 - Reluctantly bought an AT from IBM (but only because I finagled a
UCONN faculty discount through a prof I knew there). Co-authored (under
Ciarcia's name) the HAL-4 brainwave processor construction articles in BYTE.
... and after that it starts to get too modern. But micros's have always
been a passion - even though I am a clinincal psychologist by training, and
I work in program evaluation in health care.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols
On November 17, George Rachor wrote:
> Ebay... an unconfirmed rumor....
>
> I had heard that for the year 1999 5% of United Parcel Service's
> residential business was due to Ebay.
>
> Love or hate... That is a substantial sum.
Wow...that is *frightening*. I live a few miles from a UPS
depot...every day, if I drive past there anytime in the morning, I see
a veritable ARMY of brown trucks just pouring out of that facility.
Those people move A LOT of packages.
I mean, it should be obvious, they're a shipping company. But I had
no idea of the true scale we're talking about until I saw those
hundreds of trucks pulling out one morning.
5% of that is ONE HUGE PILE of stuff.
-Dave McGuire
--- Neil Cherry <ncherry(a)home.net> wrote:
> > He was writing about the very early days of computer programming, when
> > every computer was unique. In these days of bloatware, there are very
> > few programmers that still practice the art of achieving the maximum
> > results from the minimum system (hardware and software). But those of
> > us that do so *still* derive "an immense intellectual satisfaction". :-)
> >
> > Eric
>
> Hey there are still those of use who have managed to write an asm prog
> for a PIC based Cheese box in less than 50 bytes!
What kind of cheese? :-)
I was a participant in an official contest a few years ago - write the
smallest useful program for the Amiga in C... My two submissions were
well under .5 KB. One reduced the WorkBench color depth from two bitplanes
to one (so that text could scroll twice as fast), the other peeked at the
processor status bits in a system structure and printed out what processor
and co-processor were installed. The asm version of that one was just over
200 bytes, the C version was under 256 bytes. The trick - no startup code
linked in (which is where argv/argc are populated) and no libraries. The
printf that was used was the tinyprintf in ROM - integer, character and
string qualifiers only.
-ethan
=====
Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to
vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com
The original webpage address is still going away. The
permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/
See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
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A Better Model
==============
Sung to the tune of "A Modern Major-General"
by Gilbert and Sullivan
I've built a better model than the one at Data General
For data bases vegetable, animal, and mineral
My OS handles CPUs with multiplexed duality;
My PL/1 compiler shows impressive functionality.
My storage system's better than magnetic core polarity,
You never have to bother checking out a bit for parity;
There isn't any reason to install non-static floor matting;
My disk drive has capacity for variable formatting.
Chorus: His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable format-formatting.
I feel compelled to mention what I know to be a gloating point:
There's lots of room in memory for variables floating-point,
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Cho: Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
The IBM new home computer's nothing more than germinal;
At Prime they still have trouble with an interactive terminal;
While Tandy's done a lousy job with operations Boolean,
At Wang the byte capacity's too small to fit a coolie in.
Intel's mid-year finances are something of the trouble sort;
The Timex Sinclar crashes when you implement a bubble sort.
All DEC investors find they haven't spent their money well;
And need I even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
Cho: And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honey-Honeywell?
By striving to eliminate all source code that's repetitive
I've brought my benchmark standings to results that are competitive.
In short, for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Cho: In short for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
In fact when I've a floppy of a maximum diameter,
When I can call a subroutine of infinite parameter,
When I can point to registers and keep their current map around,
And when I can prevent the need for mystifying wraparound,
When I can update record blocks with minimum of suffering,
And when I can afford to use a hundred K for buffering,
When I've performed a matrix sort and tested the addition rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of my asynchronous transmission rate.
Cho: You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission-mission
rate.
Though all my better programs that self-reference recursively
Have only been obtained through expert spying, done subversively,
But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Cho: But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
On November 17, Geoff Roberts wrote:
> If I knew you were bidding for something, I wouldn't bother, because I'd
> probably undershoot
> your opening offer.
> Still, it's the same old story everywhere, fish aren't aware of water I
> guess..
You don't need to do that, though, Geoff. I don't always recognize
folks' names on eBay, but I generally do back off when someone I know
>from here is bidding on something. Though Al Kossow and I have gotten
into a few good bidding wars...Hi Al! ;)
So no, I'm not the root of all evil because I make money and spend
it on cool stuff. Sheesh.
-Dave McGuire
Back in 1998, groberts(a)mitre.org (Glenn Roberts) wrote:
> i have recently been given an old Zenith laptop model ZFL-181-92. batteries
> discharged or dead. no power supply. i would like information if anyone
> can help me on what type of power supply to use. the label on the bottom
> of the systems says: DC 12 V, Plug-in power supply Model 150-272.
I myself am in the process of returning one of these to active use and
am in search of some hardware docs for it. I've been using mine with
a Xircom PE3 and the packet driver with Kermit as a TCP/IP terminal. I
would like to self-power the PE3, but there is no PS/2 keyboard connector
to plug the power cord into.
There is this external floppy drive connector on the other end of the
laptop. Is there a pinout somewhere for that? Additionally, I checked,
and there _is_ enough room to stuff the PE3 behind the modem door, so
I could tap power off the internal modem connector if I had a pinout
for _that_ as well. Conversely, I *might* be able to wire in a tiny
network card that could handle 8 bits if the right sort of signals were
present on the modem connector. Anyone have any idea what goes there?
Thanks,
-ethan
=====
Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to
vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com
The original webpage address is still going away. The
permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/
See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/
