test-drb June 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

160 participants
580 discussions

Thinker Toys (was: KFC (was: Mark your calendars for VCF 4.0

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> It was the timing problem... the failure rate (soft) for the alpha > particle thing was so low you'd see power hits and other gremlins > first. > > S100 system were prone to bus noise (even with wonderbus) so where a > card was installed could litterally mean fail/flakey/works for the same > card! Bus termination schemes were used to help but the 22 slot bus was > too long and a more modest 18 or 12 slot was always more reliable. > > Dram cards were by and large trouble as they were most sensitive to timing > problems. I always ran static for testing and some systems for that > reason. I never had the opportunity to work with a machine that was IEEE-696 compliant. I'm assuming you did (Danger Will Robinson!)... were compliant boards reliable? Do you know of any attempts to retrofit compliance onto existing S-100 designs? -dq

25 years

by fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net

I think your sister has the right answer. Tell her to notify me of the tragic event and I'll bring a dumpster over. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Thursday, June 22, 2000 7:57 AM Subject: RE: Yo >> >> Every collector should have a will, and it should direct the >> disposition of their collection. Maybe the disposition is "sell it on >> eBay", maybe it's offer it on ClassicCmp", maybe it's "give it to >> Stanford"...or ? > >Since my only family is my sister, I told her "Just think, one day all of >this will be yours". To which she replied "Great... Which dumpster should I >put it in?" > >Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> >

25 years

Legal Question

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 22, 12:46, Owen Robertson wrote: > All this talk about RT-11, RSX-11M,RSTS/E licensing details is making me > wonder. If I acquired a PDP-11 of some kind, and it came with RSX-11M and/or > RT-11 and or/ RSTS/E, would I have to have a license? Legally, strictly, yes. However, I've been told off the record by two senior DEC staff in the UK that if I acquire a machine with the OS and don't use it for commercial purposs, they would turn a blind eye. > but is it essential in running the OS? Does the OS have > any way of checking for one? Nope. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years

How do you finance/afford your computer collection?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 22, 12:38, R. D. Davis wrote: > Why are you sending Luzedoze e-mail to this list? Please either find > a way to send plain ASCII or delete Luzedoze from your system and > install something more useful that can send messages properly. Well, much as I dislike Outlook (depressed or otherwise), it actually is capable of sending plain text. You just need to make sure it's set to generate plain text (not HTML, RTF, or multipart/mixed) in some reasonable character set, for new messages, AND override the use of HTML/RTF/whatnot when replying. Besides, there are plenty of other Windows mailers besides Outlook; it's not a reason to go off the deep end. > However, you need to remember that not everyone here uses that Microsoft > rubbish, so you shouldn't be sending e-mail that requires the recipient > to do anything other than read it. True, in fact the Merrill Lynch survey I saw on CNN a little earlier today showed that less than three-quarters of people using Windows use Microsoft email software. Since only about 2/3 of PCs (in the loosest sense) run Windows, that means only about half use Outlook etc. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years

Tapes

by sring＠uslink.net

Does anyone know where I can locate blank computer cassette tapes for the Commodore, etc.? Music tapes are usually too long. From: "Stephanie Ring" sring(a)uslink.net

25 years

How do you finance/afford your computer collection?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 22, 8:18, Marvin wrote: > Geoff Roberts wrote: > > > > I see your msgs in a stretched font. Quite different from all the > > others. > > > > In the headers of your msg, we see:- > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=x-user-defined > > > > In the top toolbar when you are writing or replying to a msg. > > It will be set to user-defined. > > Set it to Western European (Windows) and it will revert to ISO-8859-1 > > which seems to be straight ASCII. > > Okay, I just changed it from user-defined to Western. Is this message coming > through okay? FWIW, I've been using Netscape for years with no problems that > *I* am aware of :). Yes. The headers in Marvin's message said "charset=us-ascii". But you ought to realise that ISO-8859-x is not ASCII; the lower 128 characters are the same but the remaining 128 (top bit set) are foreign-language characters and additional symbols -- ASCII is a 7-bit character code while the ISO 8859 ones are all 8-bit. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years

Should I add a "Micro" PDP11/73 to the Herd?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Well, as long as the machine comes with a complete version of the > software installed, then there's no problem. The whole licensing > issue is pure lunacy. Someone initially paid a vast quantity of money > to Some Random Computer Manufacturer for the machine, then, got > charged another large sum of money for the software - the OS - needed > to use the machine. Both were products that have already been paid > for. Let's say you bought one of those newfangled automobiles that's > infested with lots of electronic circuitry, including computers with > firmware. Now, let's say you sell the car. If that firmware was > licensed like computer software, the person who bought the car from > you wouldn't be able to use it without being bilked out of a licencing > fee from the auto's manufacturer. What if books were treated like > software? This is just a way of extorting money from people; it > amounts to no more than legalized theft. Together, democracy and free enterprise constituted a severe paradigm shift for the robber barons, but eventually, they figured it out. So, if they're going to stand behind every tree on the highway, ready to exact from us a toll for any thing we want to do, then we have to figure out how to travel without using that highway, rendering their strong-arm tactics moot. -doug q

25 years

IBM System/38 Availible (Again)

by mrdos＠swbell.net

There is still a System/38 available in San Francisco. If anyone is interested, please contact Rbatist(a)aol.com . It works and comes with a tape drive and several disk drives.

25 years

Legal Question

by mrdos＠swbell.net

All this talk about RT-11, RSX-11M,RSTS/E licensing details is making me wonder. If I acquired a PDP-11 of some kind, and it came with RSX-11M and/or RT-11 and or/ RSTS/E, would I have to have a license? I know a license is legally required, but is it essential in running the OS? Does the OS have any way of checking for one? What is required for running the OS? I really don't know anything about the PDP-11 family. Thanks, Owen

25 years

Thinker Toys (was: KFC (was: Mark your calendars for VCF 4.0

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > I am the proud owner of two Thinker Toys products, the Wunderbus, and > > the EconoRAM IV (hope that's the right model, this was one of those > > really EARLY dynamic RAM boards; the ceramic gold-topped versions of > > these chips worked fine, the but the plastic ones had trouble forgetting > > things when they got hit by cosmic rays). > > It was the gold eutectic weld that was the source of alpha particles > that were the concern at the time. The later problem was Dram timing > problems and there were fixes. Ah, I stand corrected... and that would explain why the system was always flaky with that board in, and stable without it (I was blaming the bus). So, knowing nothing about the half-life of the welding material, can you tell me, has the material in the welds decayed enough now that the board should operate in a more stable fashion? -dq

25 years

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test-drb June 2000