test-drb August 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

152 participants
352 discussions

Computer Hardware Documentation Bidders Mailing List?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Sellam wrote: > > Sure, but I think there's another problem, which is that this practice is > > most likely illegal :) > > If someone would set up a library, there are lots of exemptions in > copyright law for those. It would probably have to be set up as a > non-profit corporation; otherwise it might be possible for a copyright > holder that wants to stir up trouble to claim that it's not a "real" > library. > > Copyright law allows a library to make a (single) photocopy of a document to > lend out in place of a rare document. I think a case could be made that > a scanned image is equivalent. You'd just have to require that the > borrower return the scanned image when they're done with it. Perhaps a > scheme like netlibrary uses would work. Hey, Eric- Speaking of computer documentation, what did you find out about what's become of my DEC-10 Commands Manual that I sent you for photocopying? I need it back. Thanks, -doug q

23 years, 11 months

Computer Hardware Documentation Bidders Mailing List?

by CordaAJ＠nswc.navy.mil

Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to accumulate some basic DEC documentation. There is quite a bit available on the web, but I've needed a number of manuals/schematics/etc. that I haven't been able to find, and as a result I've been forced to use E-pay more than I would have liked. I don't know how many of you out there have checked the DEC/PDP offerings on ebay, but there has been quite a lot offered recently in the way of documentation. Unfortunately, I find myself bidding against people who share my same interest, and it saddens me since I've always felt that documentation should be available for everyone who wants it (please, no flames! This is just a personal opinion) Documentation is unique in that, in many cases, a photocopy (or scanned image) in place of the actual document would be just as useful to me as the original since my interests lean towards restoring the hardware, rather than collecting the "original" documentation. I also see small manuals/schematic sets/etc. being broken up into indivudual items and going for what I believe is much more than they are worth (again, no flames!, this is just my opinion). It has occured to me that if a mailing list were set up where a person could post their intention of bidding on a specific piece of duplicatable documentation, then other potential bidders could contact the initial poster and work out a deal where they could "share" the cost of the initial poster's bid (plus copying charges), in return for not competing with the initial poster's bid.You may have noticed that I have avoided the problem of copyright infringement. I believe that with documentation of the vintage that I am refering to, such issues are probably moot, especially since In many cases the companies no longer exist. As far as the sellers on E-bay go, they have a significant advantage since their individual items remain on the block for days, rather than minutes as in a "real" auction. (but let's not turn this into yet another "is E-bay fair?" thread :-) Also, I wonder of some of the on-line "Computer Museums" might consider hosting an on-line documentation repository, where people could submit scanned schematics/manuals/etc. for (free) web-based access and archival purposes. It would be a tremendous service to our on-line community. Currently, this is being done by a number of very helpful individuals, but I would think that some of the "real" museum sites might be more capable of organizing such info and supporting the amount of storage needed. Again, I'm just throing these ideas out to see if anyone thinks they have any merit... -al- -acorda(a)geocities.com

23 years, 11 months

New Finds Brings New Needs...

by fmc＠reanimators.org

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > You'll probably find the battery in the Portable+ is very dead. It's a > 6V 2.4Ah lead acid brick, and it's non-trivial to obtain. 3 2.5Ah cyclons > can be kludged into the battery compartment -- in fact it appears that > the original HP battery was just that. Changing the battery is not easy > even with the service manual -- if you follow the procedure there you're > supposed to replace the metal contact straps as well, and they do tend to > break fairly easily. I find it better to pull the machine to bits and > take the battery out after separating the case parts. Huh. You mean you're not supposed to take the machine to bits to replace the battery? I learn something new every day. (But really I take freshly-acquired Pluses to bits because it makes cleaning them easier.) I seem to find two sorts of Portable Plus: one with the Panasonic lead-acid brick, and one with three Gates lead-acid cells. The former don't hold a charge, the latter are somewhat more likely to do so. iGo sell replacements; these turn out to be made by Fedco Electronics >from three Gates lead-acid cells and at least one of the two I got a couple months ago appears to be a dud that won't charge up above about 3v. More on this in a bit. > The machine will run from the mains adapter without a battery (or with a > dead battery?) but you'll lose everything in the RAMdisk (and the > configuration settings) when you unplug the machine. Can I assume you > don't have a 9114 disk drive (which is the normal form of mass storage > for these machines)? Whether the machine will run from the main adapter appears to depend on how dead the battery is, or perhaps on how the battery is dead. For example, the last couple I've turned up have worked OK from the mains adapter but wouldn't hold a charge and wouldn't retain data with the mains adapter unplugged. But...replacing a dead Panasonic brick with one of the iGo/Fedco batteries has resulted in a machine that won't turn on at all -- presumably because the battery is drawing the supply and not leaving enough for the machine to run. So I'm wondering what I'm looking at here: cells that have been left on the shelf long enough that they've shorted internally, or what? Sheesh, given that iGo/Fedco cleverly omit the screw posts from their replacement batteries, I might as well buy my own cells and solder the appropriate tabs together. -Frank McConnell

23 years, 11 months

Last week's haul & some questions

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> The two drives in question are indeed 8mm, but only support the 8200 > format. Can anybody enlighten me on that, who used that format, etc. The Exabyte 8200 was used by several computer manufacturers; IBM, Pr1me, Sun (I think), and maybe Apollo... however, IBM used a custom SCSI card in theirs (called a DI card, maybe diff SCSI?), and Pr1me used custom firmware. Additionally, tape interchange between identical drives was often chancy, although if you have the docs and a head sync tape, you should be able to align it to read tapes written on other drives. I'd be shocked if DEC never used the 8200... Full docs are available on Exabyte's web site. If you can't find them, let me know, I'll dig out the URL. hth, -dq

23 years, 11 months

Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer]

by PasserM＠umkc.edu

Thank you for posting the pointer and making the facts and identity of the seller known so that rest of us can caveat emptor. Many would have sucked it up and kept quiet rather than let others know they had been cheated, and letting us know took some guts. I would have been fooled by this picture too--but what you bought may well be valuable as an advertising mockup. I think there would be some poetic justice if (after trying all the remedies available to you) you sold it on eBay as what it was and doubled your money--and made sure the seller knew! An aside: I had to create an ID just to view the auction--this was somewhat irritating, and I hope the information I gave suitably contaminates their marketing database. The seller's ID (in case that's all someone was after and he doesn't want to go through the trouble of making up a birth date, occupation, etc.) is jwzerocool. Of course, it's pretty easy to crunch all the user ID's one wants on any of these sites.

23 years, 11 months

Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer]

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

I'd say its a bit suspect that someone 90 minutes away would insist on shipping the thing.. as if they didn't want you to discover the fact that it had no mainboard and be able to personally confront them about it... Just my 2 cents... Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

23 years, 11 months

New Finds Today

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Had a good day today as I got a digital TK25 with cable and a Sharp PC-500 portable computer with a built-in printer for 10 bucks total. The PC-5000 has a very small but long liquid crystal display of 640x80 dots and is one weird laptop computer. No power supply was with it and the battery seems to be dead. Anyone know anything about it. Also picked up a neat 3 foot robot for $1 here at a thrift store. No remote was with it a and one cover plate is missing, have not tried to power it up yet. Keep computing John Keys

23 years, 11 months

Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer]

by agraham＠ccat.co.uk

On seeing those pictures I'd have immediately asked the seller what condition it was in and whether it came with any books, cables etc. I'd also go with the fact that maybe it IS an Exidy mockup, but since I haven't seen one 'in the plastic' I couldn't comment and wouldn't know where to start asking, except for on here of course :) a > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Battle [mailto:frustum@pacbell.net] > Sent: 16 August 2000 08:40 > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer] > > > At 12:49 PM 8/15/00 -0800, you wrote: > >Since we are snooping so much on this, what was the auction > ID, or maybe > >just post the auction listing ad. Looks like Yahoo doesn't > let you search > >for completed auctions (ebay recently GREATLY restricted > this to subject > >only and drops items after about 60 days). > > http://page.auctions.yahoo.com/auction/33861557

23 years, 11 months

Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer]

by agraham＠ccat.co.uk

I thought that too, plus I wondered what the original text of the auction actually said with regard to the state of the machine and whether the seller knew it was a prop or not. If it simply said 'Exidy Sorcerer in good condition' I'd maybe have emailed asking for a picture rather than just bid on it outright. More often than not I don't look at auctions that don't include pictures anyway. a > -----Original Message----- > From: Will Jennings [mailto:xds_sigma7@hotmail.com] > Sent: 15 August 2000 19:02 > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Sad auction story [exidy sorcerer] > > > I'd say its a bit suspect that someone 90 minutes away would > insist on > shipping the thing.. as if they didn't want you to discover > the fact that it > had no mainboard and be able to personally confront them about it... > > Just my 2 cents... > > Will J > ______________________________________________________________ > __________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at > http://www.hotmail.com >

23 years, 11 months

Online Altair, CP/M, RDOS emulators

by vcf＠siconic.com

Check out this k-k00L website: http://elena.sysun.com/museum/ The Online Software Museum It has telnet-based Altair BASIC, CP/M, RDOS and Unix 7th edition emulators. You telnet in and you are then put in a shell of one of the mentioned OS'. Pretty nifty. Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... VCF 4.0 is September 30-October 1 San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California See http://www.vintage.org for details!

23 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 2000