test-drb December 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

192 participants
490 discussions

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Ahh, thanks for the kind offer, but I will pass for now. I'm specifically looking for a Wyse60 keyboard because I have a Wyse 60 on a Cray YMP-EL system I just picked up...but it's missing the keyboard. The '60 is the console terminal that those machines shipped with, so I'm kinda wanting to keep it "standard". -Dave McGuire On December 4, Ram Meenakshisundaram wrote: > Want a Wyse 75 terminal instead??? My days of terminal programming is > over. It is in pretty good condition especially since it was new at one > point. I never came around using it. It is probably covered in dust as > it is in the garage. Free for the taking. I am in New York. > > Ram > > Dave McGuire wrote: > > > > Hi folks. Anyone have a keyboard for a Wyse 60 that they'd be > > willing to part with? > > > > -Dave McGuire > > > > > >

23 years, 7 months

Dissecting a TZ30 drive

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

I have on my desk a TZ30 (half height TK50 drive) and it has a tape inside of it. Powering it up and pressing unload starts a rewind and then it gives up (all lights flash). I'm guessing the tape presense sensor is dirty or otherwise disabled but to get to it I really would like to remove the existing tape. Unfortuately I cannot find how to manually "unlock" the drive. Clues anyone? --Chuck

23 years, 7 months

GG2 Bus+ (was Re: Archiving Amiga floppies)

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> wrote: > Ethan Dicks skrev: > > I still have new, in-the-box GG2 Bus+ bridge cards w/original warranty. > > They come with NE2000 drivers... > > Are you parting with them, then? =) Yes. I make and sell them, but not as many as I used to (no big surprise there). If all you want is Ethernet, they, aren't that big of a bargain, frankly. At one time, when an A2065 was >$200 USD, a GG2 Bus+ for $130 plus a $20 ISA NIC was a deal, especially because I had stock on hand and all the A2065 cards were used and scarce. Now, there are several options that are available more-or-less on demand, but at a slightly higher price. -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! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

23 years, 7 months

NEXTcube

by Scott.Miller＠vandenberg.af.mil

How's the NeXTcube compare to the NeXTstation? I'd never touched a NeXT of any sort until last night. Someone on a local BBS posted a message looking for a good home for an unwanted complete NeXTstation Turbo Color, so of course I was there within the hour loading the thing up. It booted right up and ran pretty dang well for a 33 MHz system. Running the Mandelbrot demo program showed the lack of underlying horsepower, but I think it's still more responsive overall than my old SPARCstations. For that matter, Windows Explorer on a PII-400 can be a frustrating experience and it's nice to see a system that makes good use of its resources. Plus, the whole thing just LOOKS really cool. With a 33 MHz 68040 and 32 MB of RAM, will this thing run a useable web browser? I've got an SGI Indigo2 in the living room for web surfing right now, but maybe it's time to swap it out for an easier-to-use system. A bit off-topic, but do they have a release of AGI's Satellite Tool Kit for NeXTStep? It runs pretty well under IRIX. How does Rendezvous compare, or have you used STK? I'm actually about three miles from the pad where IMAGE was launched, BTW. We all climbed up on the roof to watch that one... pretty nice launch if I remember right. Those Delta II's are really cool at night, though. Scott -----Original Message----- From: Mark Tapley [mailto:mtapley@swri.edu] Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2000 2:12 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NEXTcube Mike Ford wrote: >Is anyone on the list an ACTIVE Next user or collector? Yo! My cube normally sits on my desk at Southwest Research Institute (and is my only desktop machine at work, my other work computer being a Powerbook 3400). I use it for websurfing (OmniWeb), compiling command lists weekly for the IMAGE spacecraft (Perl 5.0, Terminal), pass and orbit visualization (Rendezvous), attitude determination software design, testing, and debug for IMAGE (Mathematica 2.0), newsgroup reading (NewsGrazer), preparing presentations (Concurrence, Diagram), analyzing attitude and other data (cc, Quantrix), and other stuff. I also do incremental backups of my powerbook to it (ftpd, compress). It's got an optical and a 540M hard drive and a floppy internal (using a special bracket to get the floppy to the second faceplate slot and still hold the 3.5" hard drive in that same bay). It also has two 1.2G externals in an old PC chassis (a far far nobler cause than that chassis ever served before...gotta get that thing painted black... :-) ). The machine is now upstairs at home, because while trying to upgrade to Mathematica 3.0, I used for the first time, to hook my CD drive into the SCSI chain, a Centronix-to-Centronix cable that was apparently not a SCSI cable. (What do I know, it came out of a box that said "SCSI cables, $3" at Wierd Stuff Warehouse). The boot hard drive got scrambled, then I discovered I don't know as much as I thought I did about "dump" and "restore". I'm about recovered from that by now, so I'll try again (with a *different* cable setup) on the Mma 3.0 install. BTW, as of a few weeks ago, Wolfram was about to quit doing upgrades from Mma 2.2 and earlier, so if you've been putting that off, don't. The 25 MHz 68040 CPU is not as fast as modern workstation processors. That said, NeXTStep 3.3 on NeXT is a very solid and very useful OS/Development environment for a workstation, and the amount of freeware/shareware/payware out for NeXT is amazing. Since nothing I do requires a lot of serious crunch power (or if it does can be run overnight), the NeXT is a really good machine for me. >I don't know if I would bring one home just >to sell and pack for a profit. Most likely yes, but I know I would grumble >all the way to the bank. I know of a couple of folks around here I'd like to get connected with NeXTs. Also, I'd *love* to find a NeXTDimension board, cable, and color monitor to add to my system at a price my wife will accept. Finally, there are a couple of NeXT resellers still on the market who would likely be interested in hearing about big piles of new hardware. If you see/hear of another batch in peril, *particularly* if it includes a cube tied to a color monitor, let me know and I'll hopefully arrange for you to grumble back and forth to the bank several times. - Mark

23 years, 7 months

NEXTcube

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Scott Miller wrote: >How's the NeXTcube compare to the NeXTstation? Cube is a chassis with backplane, 1 CPU/RAM/etc board and 3 slots usually empty. One more slot can contain the elusive and valuable NeXTDimension card, which drives a color monitor, eats video and does frame captures, etc. I don't know of any other widely available boards for the slots, so 2 slots are essentially superfluous. (Well, there is a hack to put spare CPU boards in spare slots, but those CPUs do not communicate over the backplane - they might as well be in a seperate chassis.) Cubes (only) can accomodate the magneto-optical drive, and other 5.25" full-height drives, in their central tower. Station, as you know, is a pizzabox with less expansion room. Performance, RAM capacity, etc. is generally identical between (Turbo, non-turbo) cubes and mono (Turbo, non-turbo) Stations. Stations, both non- and turbo, came in color versions. These were slightly slower than the equivalent mono, and required external sound boxes. Their color capability was not as good as the Dimension board's (not as many colors, no frame-grabber, etc.) >Someone on a local BBS posted a message looking >for a good home for an unwanted complete NeXTstation Turbo Color, so of >course I was there within the hour loading the thing up. <turns slowly green> ...how ... nice ... for ... you .... <sobs> >...it's nice to see a >system that makes good use of its resources. NeXTs seem to do pretty well with what they have. The MO drive in the cubes is a standout underperformer as far as speed goes, but otherwise they're pretty responsive. >With a 33 MHz 68040 and 32 MB of RAM, will this thing >run a useable web browser? OmniWeb. Look at http://www.peak.org/next/apps/internet/www/ and grab everything that begins with Omni... . It will surf about 95% of the sites I hit. No Java, no animations. I count that a blessing. I also commend to your attention http://www.peak.org/next/apps/LighthouseDesign/ for an office suite of tools. I've got lots more NeXT-related bookmarks if anyone's interested in them. >A bit off-topic, but do they have a release of AGI's Satellite Tool Kit for >NeXTStep? Nope. (I wish. I've suggested it, and for Mac.) Rendezvous is around $100, and amounts to an STK-light. It does about everything the base (now free) STK does, and a bit more, but nothing like as much as the full-up $multi-00,000 STK suite. It's a bit pokey on a 25 MHz Cube. General question: is modern software for classic machines off-topic? I see it as a way to keep the machines productive, and therefore right on-topic. >pretty nice launch if I remember right. Those Delta II's are really cool at >night, though. McBoing pretty much hit our target orbit dead-on. I saw the video from Greenbelt MD. I was in the SMOC, telnetted to my NeXT and waiting to see whether the satellite would turn on when it separated from the 3rd stage. (It did. Whew! :-) ). Try: http://pluto.space.swri.edu/IMAGE/ to see Your Tax Dollars at work. - Mark

23 years, 7 months

Weekend's finds

by witchy＠i12.com

Hi Folks, I don't know if this'll work since I'm posting from home, but I just thought I'd ask if anyone's come across one of these before: Apricot XEN-i XD20. I got it with an Acorn Archimedes A4000 (nice to have a working one at last!) and it's got some really odd features, like external power supply (or so it would seem), an LED on the front panel labelled 'voice' and more input/output ports than something with a lot of ports. The keyboard is also one with the 'micro display' on with programmable function keys :) Since there's a 15 pin D type marked 'DC Input' I assume I need to power the box externally, and since there's also a normal 4-pin style 'DC Output' I also assume I need to feed it +12 and +5V. Pix to come soon. I also got a right odd looking thing - it's a (or at least looks like a) ZX81 peripheral. There's a crystal on it as well as 3 chips, 4060, 4040 and 4087 and its marked 'G4IDE' or 'G41DE' on the front and 'FAX PCB' on the back. Since I don't believe anyone produced a FAX add-on for the ZX81 I'm a bit puzzled! Finally there's an adapter for the Vic/C64 that lets you use 2 C2Ns - one for dedicated saving and the other for dedicated loading. Little things, but sometimes little things are good :) adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum

23 years, 7 months

Apple IIgs Power Question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

It's been half of forever since I've had my IIgs setup. Now the question is, how many floppy drives can its powersupply handle at once? I know I've had 2 3.5" and 1 5.25" drives plugged into it, however, I'm wondering if it's safe to plug in 2 3.5" and 2 5.25" drives. The only cards in it at the moment are a 1MB RAM card and a CMS SCSI adapter (hooked up to a 44MB Syquest). Anyway now to see if I can even remember how to boot the system :^) Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS 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.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

23 years, 7 months

Weekend's finds

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 3, 19:56, Adrian Graham wrote: > I don't know if this'll work since I'm posting from home, but I just thought > I'd ask if anyone's come across one of these before: Apricot XEN-i XD20. I > got it with an Acorn Archimedes A4000 (nice to have a working one at last!) > and it's got some really odd features, like external power supply (or so it > would seem), an LED on the front panel labelled 'voice' and more > input/output ports than something with a lot of ports. The keyboard is also > one with the 'micro display' on with programmable function keys :) > Since there's a 15 pin D type marked 'DC Input' I assume I need to power the > box externally, and since there's also a normal 4-pin style 'DC Output' I > also assume I need to feed it +12 and +5V. Pix to come soon. Did you get a monitor with it? Apricot monitors of that vintage came in two types, colour and monchrome, and contained the power supply for the machine. What exactly are the connectors on the box? The ones I remember had a sort of plstic clip around the monitor video/power connector. > I also got a right odd looking thing - it's a (or at least looks like a) > ZX81 peripheral. There's a crystal on it as well as 3 chips, 4060, 4040 and > 4087 and its marked 'G4IDE' or 'G41DE' on the front and 'FAX PCB' on the > back. Since I don't believe anyone produced a FAX add-on for the ZX81 I'm a > bit puzzled! Given the callsign 'G4IDE', I'd expect this is something like an interface to a weather fax receiver used by a radio ham. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

23 years, 7 months

Anobody familliar with Hypercharger 020 Accel. Card for MAC SE?

by claudew＠sprint.ca

Hi I found this in a pile a boards I am currently sorting... Found nothing on web (just the driver for it). Anybody knows how exactly how this is supposed to fit in an SE? And what do the jumpers A-G do? How about that 12 pin header, how does that connect to the SE? Thanks Claude

23 years, 7 months

Anobody familliar with Hypercharger 020 Accel. Card for MAC SE?

by claudew＠sprint.ca

Still, I am not sure how to install this accel.... I'll try I guess, I have about 6 SE's here, so even if I destroy one... Putting this accel in a SE could be the closest I come to having an Se/30.. I actually have one Se/30 but machine does those horizontal stripes... Changed several caps on board, some obviously leeking, still no start...bars still...will have to probe I guess... Claude > > Nope. Both the Color Classic and the Classic II as well as the > >SE-30s were 68030 16Mhz machines. The CC was a little slower > >than the II due to the color draw. But yes the SE/30 is reputed to be > >faster. > > Larry, > > I'm afraid you're wrong there....the CC II was clocked at > 33mhz and had a true 32 bit data path while the CC was based on a 16 > bit data path, the same as the LC series, and was clocked at 16 mhz. > All were based on the 68030. The 16bit data path is what crippled the > CC so badly, not the 16mhz clock. It's said that it only had roughly > 60-70 % of the speed of the SE/30. > > Jeff (who is happy to be back on his desktop machine after 3 weeks!) > -- > Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems: > Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File > http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757 > I think I'm mixing up the various flavors of Classics. I know the SE/30 was faster than the Classic II due to it's 32-bit data path and the Color Classic was slower than the C II due to color processing. The ringer is the Color Classic II which I'm unfamiliar with. And now I know why I want one. :^) ciao larry Reply to: lgwalker(a)look.ca

23 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 2000