test-drb January 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

181 participants
415 discussions

by antonio.carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>A friend of mine just picked up a VAX 4000/VLC (on my recommendation as a >nice small VAX) and I thought it was broken, because the 'sho dev' produced >"illegal command." Turns out it has had a password set, but of course the >seller didn't know that. Anyway, how does one tell the VAX to "forget" that >it has a password set? Is there a jumper or something somewhere? Turn off the power. Find the two triangular solder pads near the TOY (it has a clock face printed on it) and short these together with a screwdriver. This is from the VLC/4k60 Condensed Service Information so I assume it applies to both. Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

25 years, 4 months

SCreaming RD54 aka Maxtor 2190

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Jim Strickland <jim(a)calico.litterbox.com> >Could you set it up to netboot and copy the disk over before it croaks? >If it was running VMS I'd suggest clustering it. I'm thinking the difference >in performance between having it netboot and run against an NFS disk vs >running against the mfm drive isn't going to be all that big. Check and see if it has DECNET on it and copy the disk via that to another VMS machine. IF not then use TCP/ip to copy the disk. As a machine you can put a lot of different disks into it and if you netboot/mop load it put a small disk in it as SWAP, as swapping over eithernet is SLOW. Also the power supply want that 30W load so you have to have a drive. Possible drives ST225(20mb), Quatum D540(30mb), ST251(40mb), XT21290(160mb) to name a few. that machine can format drives! >> versions as well (KA41 - KA49). Fortunately for me the desktop VAXes take >> up _much_ less room than the deskside variety, also the drive has Ultrix32 >> on it and its my only Ultrix based VAX (I've got Ultrix media for MIPS but >> not for VAX). I'm guessing that if I moved the jumper back I'd see it has >> some sort of frame buffer as well, perhaps it would bring up X even. It just might! Allison

25 years, 4 months

SCreaming RD54 aka Maxtor 2190

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: William Fulmor <wpfulmor(a)dimensional.com> >I've had very good luck shutting up XT2190's and RD54's simply by turning >them upside-down. In my particular set up (old pee cee cases) they also >run _much_ cooler. That might present mounting and cabling >complications in your situation. YMMV. If turning it is a fix then flip the MV2000, they are rather small anyway. Allison

25 years, 4 months

SCreaming RD54 aka Maxtor 2190

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> >Chuck, if it really is an RD54 - aka Maxtor XT2190 - the motor is >internal and inaccessible. There is, however, a Priam 519 that has the >same parameters as the Maxtor, and it has rotating parts external to the >disk housing. I do not know whether DEC used Priam or not, though. the likely hood is its a Maxtor XT2190, and yes some are very LOUD. They do seem to keep working even then. the usual source of the noise is internal bearing being flatspotted due to shock or the motor really working hard to spin the platter. Make sure the 12V is! Allison

25 years, 4 months

Questions about TRS-80 Expansion Interface

by vcf＠siconic.com

I need to know where the serial port connector is on a TRS-80 Expansion Interface. I have two of them. One has its ports labeled, and one of the ports is labeled "MODEM" but it is simply an edge connector. Is this the serial port? If so, what's the pinout? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 4 months

Need online TRS-80 Expansion Interface manual

by vcf＠siconic.com

Does anyone know where a TRS-80 Expansion Interface manual might reside online? Thanks! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 4 months

first programs

by mikeford＠socal.rr.com

I knew about computers for a long time before I actually bought one for myself, and from articles and books knew a bit of basic. One of my first programs was a couple lines of basic I could quickly type in on the demo computers at Radio Shack. It endlessly printed to the screen a string one character at a time with about a 3 second delay between characters, "I am a slow and stupid computer. ". Made a nice pattern on the screen.

25 years, 4 months

VAX 4000/VLC prom password?

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Hello ClassicCmp and Port-vax, A friend of mine just picked up a VAX 4000/VLC (on my recommendation as a nice small VAX) and I thought it was broken, because the 'sho dev' produced "illegal command." Turns out it has had a password set, but of course the seller didn't know that. Anyway, how does one tell the VAX to "forget" that it has a password set? Is there a jumper or something somewhere? --Chuck

25 years, 4 months

SCreaming RD54 aka Maxtor 2190

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

I've got a newly re-functioning VAXStation 2000 which is equipped with an RD54 hard drive. The system boots into Ultrix 3.1 however it is _very_ loud. The drive has got a serious whine to it. I'm wondering if there is a bering or a brush somewhere that I can lubricate to cut down on the noise! --Chuck

25 years, 4 months

Death by Poking

by jpl15＠panix.com

On the subject of early 'fragile' monitors, kill-able by the wrong refresh rate: I was always under the impression that, being by neccessity rather cheaply engineered and produced devices... the designers used many of the long-standing "tricks" from decades of consumer TV practice to "get by with less". Anyone who has worked at all with (especially 60s-era) TV sets will know what this means. The beam deflection circuits in most monitors have magnetic deflection coils around the neck of the CRT (called the deflection 'yoke) which carry the vertical and horizontal sweep frequencies and thereby move the internal electron beam around on the face of the CRT screen. Since the early monitors were designed to run at very limited sweep rates (or even at one single sweep or refresh rate) the engineers could use a factor called "resonance" to get by with less wire in the coils and simpler electronics to drive them Basically, the yoke coil is calculated to 'ring' at a certain frequency, and of course this is the horizontal refresh rate. The circuit is designed so that at that freq, the yoke is in resonance, and therefore uses less current to get the job done; hence less wire and lighter, cheaper parts. The circuit is made to be resonant over just a narrow range of frequencies (called the 'Q' of the circuit) and if the driving signal strays very far >from this range either way, the circuit is no longer in a condition of resonance, it begins to draw large amounts of power trying to do the same work, and, in a lot of the 'cheap' monitors, the whole thing actually overheats and burns up while you are looking at the jagged lines and trying to figure out what to do next. Any kind of setting (hardware or software) which could alter the horizontal rate without reagrd to the type of CRT device it's driving is liable to this kind of smoke-producing behavior. Newer multi-sync CRTS have spoiled us... ALSO: Long ago in the Big Iron days... the were some machines in the Philco line whose power supplies in some configs were marginally inadequate. It was possible to load the machine (with programs and data) and trip (or burn) the power units... but this was an isolated case. Program damage to most older computer systems was mostly caused by making peripherals do things they shouldn't... usually in cases of the device handler software being abused or tweaked by The Unwary and causing resultant mechanical damage. Cheerz John

25 years, 4 months

Nuke Redmond!

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>> On the other hand, who knowsif history had been different, perhaps >> Apple and Microsoft would have gone away, Linux and other free UNICEs >> would never have come into existence, and most of us would now be >> using MP/M-IX with a GUI, many security features and long upper-case >> filenames, using 64-bit 300MHz CPUs descended from the Z80. I. The Pentium is related to the z80 by way of the 8088 based on the 8080! II. Before DOS there were people developing OSs, Flex, Unix, OS/9, NS*dos, And an assortment of CP/M clones. III. There were 16 bit decendants of 6502, they had potential. Allison

25 years, 4 months

How to clone an IDE drive (OT)

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

FWIW: Last weekend, Staples had an ad in the local paper for a 20Gb drive for $99 and they'd give you a free 32 Mb SIMM with it. I bought one of the drives (a Maxtor 32047) and just finished installing it in my daughter's Pentium II box that's running WinBlows 98. The software that came with the drive copied everything (about 17 Gb of files) from the old drive to the new one with no difficulties in about an hour. The only problem that I had was that the copy program wouldn't work with both drives on the primary disk controller channel. I had to put one on the secondary channel and one of the primary. After it finished copying, I removed the old drive and installed the new one in it's place, reconnected the two CD drives to the secondary channel and rebooted the machine with NO changes or problems. Joe

25 years, 4 months

Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 floppy drive

by hellige＠mediacen.navy.mil

>It uses the serial port. I seem to remember utilities for >the PC that pretend to be a disk drive for an M100 in this >fashion, as well as tools that would let the drive connect >to the PC. I think the drive came with a disk containing >a utility or two. TS-DOS, available from Club 100, can be either disk or ROM based. Desklink, available on the Club 100 web site as 'DL-ARC.EXE', also includes limited RAM based versions that can be transferred to the 100/102 using a null modem cable. The Desklink archive is what I use to turn my 486 laptop or Mac clone into a fileserver for my Model 102. Once you use Desklink to transfer the RAM-based TS-DOS loader into the 100/102, you should then be able to access the portable disk drive. Jeff

25 years, 4 months

SCSI? card identification

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Jeff Hellige <jhellige(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > >I've got an Amiga external SCSI drive made by Tecmar that has a 37-pin > >connector... > Is this the Tecmar T-disk? I've got a 20meg version and it > requires a sidecar for the A1000, which also provides a 1meg memory > expansion. That's the one. > It has it's own CPU that branches off to both the sidecar > and the disk drive and there are a number of files that have to be > added to the A1000's Workbench disk in order to access it. It won't > boot from the Tecmar. That was absolutely typical of Amiga 1000 disk interfaces. I had a "WEDGE" for a long time - an 8-bit ISA adapter that came with drivers for the Western Digital WX-1 interface. It was replaced with a Microbotics StarBoard - mine was fully loaded - clock, 2Mb RAM and SCSI (the "StarDrive"). I was able to go from two ST225 drives (40Mb) to one Maxtor LXT213S (200Mb drive from a SPARCstation) with that upgrade. Between the two interfaces, I was set from about 1987 until I replaced the A1000 with an A3000 in 1993 (it lasted until I brought an A4000 home with me from N.Z. after replacing the 220/50Hz PSU with the guts from a PC PSU, around 1996) I still have my premiere copy of _Amiga World_ that has the T-Drive and the rest of the peripherals advertised *months* before they were ready to ship. They were billed as the first Amiga hard disks, but ISTR they took so long to finalize their product that there were several offerings out there when you could _finally_ buy one. Infamous vaporware in the early Amiga days. -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!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

25 years, 4 months

Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 floppy drive

by LFessen106＠aol.com

In a message dated Thu, 18 Jan 2001 11:19:14 AM Eastern Standard Time, John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> writes: << I've got one. I was so cool in 1987 or so, carrying the M100 and a disk drive, writing articles on airplanes. I even remember using CompuServe via the M100. It uses the serial port. I seem to remember utilities for the PC that pretend to be a disk drive for an M100 in this fashion, as well as tools that would let the drive connect to the PC. I think the drive came with a disk containing a utility or two. - John >> Wish I did! I just got my first M100 this week! Picked up a 32k m100 in pristine condition with the manual (no case or drives though) for $10. 4 AA bateries later and it was running great. Have to say these are really cool little computers! -Linc Fessenden.

25 years, 4 months

Interact (was Death by Poking)

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I remember reading somewhere that Gates' last real project was the BASIC in the Radio Shack Model 100 (1983??) ========================== Richard A. Cini, Jr. Congress Financial Corporation 1133 Avenue of the Americas 30th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 545-4402 (212) 840-6259 (facsimile) -----Original Message----- From: THETechnoid(a)home.com [mailto:THETechnoid@home.com] Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 10:41 AM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Interact (was Death by Poking) Thanks! Bill talks kind of like Tonto. I've never really known what Gate's personal contribution to coding has been. Did he write on Mbasic, Msdos, or any of the Windos's? When did he quit coding? Regards, Jeff In <200101181442.GAA10586(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu>, on 01/18/01 at 10:40 AM, Cameron Kaiser <spectre(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu> said: >http://www.tcp.com/%7elgreenf/bill.htm -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley President Complete Computer Services, Inc. 30 Greenwood Rd. Asheville, NC 28803 828-277-5959 Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com THETechnoid(a)home.com -----------------------------------------------------------

25 years, 4 months

operating system integrity (coming from Nuke Redmond)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> In <8763AE987517D2118C0500A0C9AB234C509D72@TEGNTSERVER>, on 01/17/01 > at 04:54 PM, Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> > said: > > Yea! Object Desktop is GOD'S OWN TOY. I love it! They ported it to > Windos, but it caused lots of stability problems. The OS/2 version runs > beautifully and I've been addicted to it for years. I have to agree with the others in this thread... Windows is inherently not stable, while OS/2 is.... thus Object Desktop on Windows doesn't CAUSE instability, it merely illuminates it. I am biased, however, as I'm a Stardock Avatar. > My favorite component is the virtual desktop feature. I couldn't live > without it. > > The Windows version is a program. The OS/2 version is not. It is a > collection of Workplace Shell objects simply taking advantage of the OS/2 > Gui's object inheritance and polymorphism. Pretty darn impressive. True, Windows doesn't provide the underpinnings to do what was possible under OS/2. My two most-used features are ObjectDrivescan and ObjectEdit; however, I really do love the eye candy (Windowblinds, WindowFX, DesktopX, and ObjectBar). Regards, -dq

25 years, 4 months

SCSI? card identification

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- THETechnoid(a)home.com wrote: > In <3.0.5.32.20010117183929.007bf6f0(a)yellow.ucdavis.edu>, on 01/17/01 > at 10:18 PM, "Edwin P. Groot" <epgroot(a)ucdavis.edu> said: > > > 37 pins? What an oddball number. I have seen floppy cables with 50, > >34 or 20 pins. 5-1/4" MFM hard drives have 34 pin plus 20 pin. SCSI hard > >drives have 50 pins. I've got an Amiga external SCSI drive made by Tecmar that has a 37-pin connector. Don't have the interface to go with it, though. It's a modular extruded aluminum case (like some modems) with a 3.5" MFM drive inside and some flavor of SCSI<->MFM bridge card to do the dirty work. Mine came from university surplus, so I have never seen it operate, FWIW. -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!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

25 years, 4 months

SCreaming RD54 aka Maxtor 2190

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

At 11:09 PM 1/17/01 -0700, Bill wrote: >Sounds about like a first generation DC-9 revving up for roll out? Yup. >I've had very good luck shutting up XT2190's and RD54's simply by turning >them upside-down. In my particular set up (old pee cee cases) they also >run _much_ cooler. That might present mounting and cabling >complications in your situation. YMMV. Actually this is a VAXStation 2000 so turning it upside isn't a problem (nothing else cares about orientation) but alas it did not noticeably change the whine. I'm really torn by this little machine. On the one hand I sort of swore off MFM drive based systems and was sticking to Q-bus based VAXen in the collection, but now with the VS2000 I've got a bunch of the workstation versions as well (KA41 - KA49). Fortunately for me the desktop VAXes take up _much_ less room than the deskside variety, also the drive has Ultrix32 on it and its my only Ultrix based VAX (I've got Ultrix media for MIPS but not for VAX). I'm guessing that if I moved the jumper back I'd see it has some sort of frame buffer as well, perhaps it would bring up X even. --Chuck

25 years, 4 months

Honeywell/Bull Terminals HDS 5

by spamoff001＠excite.com

From: Doug Stalker (doug(a)notme.com) Date: 07/21/99-11:37:42 PM Z Reply: Maybe This Applies............... HDS 7 setup access is bottom row of num. pad. - CTRL-, (comma) Setup left hand corner (gray key) - CTRL-. (period)Test Loop bottom row - CTRL- - (minus) Screen Test right hand corner _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/

25 years, 4 months

Nuke Redmond!

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Richard, >Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 18:30:01 -0700 >From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> > >Sir, you damage your credibility with statements like some you've made here. >While it's true that the Microsoft products may not be the "best" thing for >thos of us who are inclined to fuss and fiddle with our computers, they're >WAY better for those who can't, won't, or shouldn't. There are errors of commission and errors of omission. You make one of the latter here. While it is true that Microsoft packages its OS's and Applications in such a way that they are easier to install, configure, and use than most similar unix software, it is also true that Apple packages its OS's and Applications so that they are *much* easier to install, configure, and use than Microsoft software. Mac OS software is far superior to equivalent Windows anything (as well as to Unix anything in my experience) for those of us not inclined to fuss or fiddle with our computers. This I know from personal experience with MacOS, Windows 95/98, NeXTStep (a variant of unix), Solaris, and AIX. I cannot speak for Linux, and there may be other OS/Application sets (Amiga?) on either end of the spectrum that are pertinent here but not familiar to me. >They enable a whole range of people who, 15 years ago, wouldn't have been >allowed in the same room with a computer to accomplish useful work, >something which FEW of us do, computer design, programming, and maintenance >all being overhead rather than useful work in most environments. They also >enable people to use resources such as the internet, who otherwise might >never have that experience, never mind that they use it primarily to save a >trip to the convenience store to buy a magazine in a brown wrapper. Although the market has disagreed horribly with me for many years, I can see no valid argument for choosing the Microsoft middle ground between Macintosh ease of use and unix power, security, and flexibility. (The most-cited argument, lower cost of underlying hardware, has been shown repeatedly to be invalid in most cases because of the time typically spent/lost trying to get Windows and its applications to play nice together, fighting viruses, configuring networks, etc.; I'll admit that competent power users like you and Allison can probably circumvent that and make Windows systems essentially as cost-effective as MacOS or linux systems.) As always, if the application you need is available on only one OS, that OS is the best for you and there's no valid argument against that, whatever the other characteristics of the OS. But for people who wouldn't have been allowed in the same room with a computer, or who just want to access the internet, Microsoft is a *long, long* way behind Apple and its third parties for ease-of-use. >I would exhort you to eschew reiteration of other people's falsehoods and, >instead, search for a solution to the problems you so clearly perceive. >Squandering bandwidth on matters that most of the computer world doesn't >perceive as a problem will only hasten the day when we have to pay for our >internet use by the bit. My solution is maintaining a Microsoft-free zone at home and minimizing use of Microsoft at work. This is not only because I dislike their products (excepting Excel, which has merit IMO), but because I really regret and fear what their illegal business practices have done to the industry in many areas, including file interchange standards, expected reliability and pre-release testing of software, customer support, etc. etc. >Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:06:10 -0700 >From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> >... >Both Windows and the popular varieties of LINUX are pretty easy to install >these days. However, Windows suffers greatly from the fact that it has >tried to maintain the usefulness of those applications that were written for >and bought concurrently with much earlier versions of the OS. >... I must point out that MacOS has the same "burden" - and bears it *much* better, as "antique" Mac software is far more likely to run on a new Mac system than same-vintage Win/DOS software on a Windows machine. (I *hate* to think I may have accidentally brought this back on-topic...) >Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 01:20:43 -0700 >From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> > >It's just the American way of doing business. Detroit's been doing it for >50 years. Get over it! By definition, it's not the American way if it violates US antitrust laws. MS was convicted in court of criminal practices (anticompetitive actions) essentially victimizing me, the consumer. Am I going to willingly send them more money? Is this a trick question? Based on their record, I believe that if they can find a legal or illegal way to decrease Linux' effectiveness, they will do it immediately. I'd much rather see Linux reduce MS to a footnote. CorelSuite, AppleWorks, NetScape, Adobe, Filemaker, and StarOffice would all still be there, I'd still be able to get my work done - and file standards would stay a lot more standard. - Mark

25 years, 4 months

Nuke Redmond!

by jtinker＠coin.org

Richard Erlacher wrote: > > It's because, not only are other companies as devious, in fact ALL other > surviving companies are, in their way, as devious, but that's what they're > SUPPOSED to be. No, companies are limited liability constructs of the state. They fall under the same social contract that the state does, even more so. Yes, we can, and should, insist that corporations be ethical. The nature of a corporation's "rights" is quite different than the nature of an individual's rights. The corporation exists at the pleasure of the state. Corporations are SUPPOSED to be what the state intends them to be. The same is not true of individuals. The state has the power to regulate the ethical behavior of corporations, even to the extent of demanding that the corporation be altruistic. But altruism is not the issue with Microsoft. Rather the issue is unethical business practice. Beyond that, you have not answered my question as to why you are defending unethical behavior. Why not let those who would promote ethical behavior take the lead, even if you don't think they have much chance at success? Why try to shoot them down? What is to be gained by it? -- John Tinker

25 years, 4 months

Nuke Redmond!

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> > >And Zilog developed a 16 (or 32-bit?) descendant of the Z80 themselves, too, I >might add. The Z8000. Z80 and Z8000 are not even close to each other. The Z80 is superset of 8080 and 8088 is more an offshoot of that. The 16bit Z80 and the later 32bit are the Z280 and 380 series and they are z80 code compatable. >The 65816, right? Used in the Super Nintendo, amongst others. AppleIIgs as well. Allison

25 years, 4 months

Aquarius?

by russ＠rbcs.8m.com

My friend has a Mattel Aquarius computer on eBay - thought I'd mention it since it's still cheap and may be of interest to someone that collects older machines. It's item 1208196262 if you're inclined to check it out. I believe it's a fairly complete setup and in good condition. I can however attest to the fact that the seller is very repautable and very good to work with.

25 years, 4 months

operating system integrity (coming from Nuke Redmond)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> There is the OS/2 operating system, the workplace shell, the MPTS product, > the TCP/IP product, and the multimedia product to name a few. This > modular approach is one thing that makes OS/2 so scaleable. Like Linux and > BSD and unlike any Windos product, you don't NEED the GUI to have a useful > machine. Without the GUI, a 4mb 386sx with a small hard drive can be made > to perform useful work with good performance. There are also several > alternate GUI's provided that are not as processor intensive as the > Workplace Shell/Presentation Manager product. With OS/2 2.0, 2.1, and > 2.11, there was even an alternate GUI that gave OS/2 a Windows 3.x look > and feel. Just like changing the Windows 9x gui to Progman.exe by editing > System.ini will give 9x a 3.x look and feel. Under 9x, you can also > "Start, Run, Progman". That sounds like Stardock's Object Desktop for OS/2... I believe they brought this product up to version 3/Warp revision level, but just recently dropped support for the product. Regards, -dq

25 years, 4 months

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test-drb January 2001