test-drb November 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

247 participants
886 discussions

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all...new find in...

by Oliver.Bruckauf＠gmx.de

Hi! this is exactly one of the things I alsways wanted to have. Is there somebody around who would want to get rid of one? (daisy-wheel printer that is) Oliver. > my basement of all places! > An Olympia RO printer, that is bout serial and parallel and, uses a > diasy-wheel instead of being dot matrix. Wow, I forgot that I had the > thing! > Eric

23 years, 1 month

NeXTs (was Re: Radio Shack abandons components)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On Fri, 23 Nov 2001, Jeff Hellige wrote: > > > >Apparantly, there are parts of the US where you can't swing > > >a dead cat without hitting a Lisa that someone wants to get > > >rid of... but the three of us don't live there! > > > > Well maybe if the list knew where this place was, we could go > > liberate some of these Lisa's? <g> I know around here they aren't > > plentiful like that. It took me quite a while to come up with one > > and it came from California. > > Yeah, we wipe our asses with them here ;) Damned good thing, too, y'all's asses be in severe need of major wiping... <wink, wink> -dq

23 years, 1 month

Preserving old literature (was: Re: Tandy 10 Info Wanted)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > > We don't have them around here, tho... libraries > > > around here are lucky to be able to keep the > > > electricity on... > > > > Tothwolf wrote: > > > and are very much in need of an overhaul and > > > cleaning (very poor copies). > > > > > > I swear, from some of the things you folks say, it > > seems like most of you live in some third world country. > > Nah, just cities/states where the local government would rather spend > money on fancy buildings and $1000 toilet seats instead of stuff the > community can actually make use of. Yeah; same here in Louisville, but instead, they're thinking about building a stadium downtown in order to attract an NBA team. The Charlotte Hornets were the latest team they courted... -dq

23 years, 1 month

Mac SE Sigma Video Card

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Portrait displays are a technology which is sadly extinct nowadays. > Nevertheless, the old PARC machines used such displays, even at a similar > resolution to Apple's. They occupy less space on the table and are ideal for > wordprocessing. I'd really very much like to have an Apple Portrait Display (I think it was called the Full-Page Display). Very nice, I used on on a IIsi, had Xerox Smalltalk-80 loaded on it, used it just like a little Alto. -dq

23 years, 1 month

Preserving old literature (was: Re: Tandy 10 Info Wanted)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > We don't have them around here, tho... libraries > > around here are lucky to be able to keep the > > electricity on... > > Tothwolf wrote: > > and are very much in need of an overhaul and > > cleaning (very poor copies). > > I swear, from some of the things you folks say, it > seems like most of you live in some third world country. Oh, God, I feel another song coming on... But instead, yeah, Louisville KY metro area. Third World. Ten years ago, in a Wendy's, this guy comes in looking enough like Li'l Abner (plaid shirt, bluejeans w/rolled- up cuffs and bare feet) that I had to check to make sure that a Dogpatch musical wasn't playing... it wasn't, this guy had never heard that you can't enter a restaurant with bare feet. Most people with tech skills leave for better opportunities on the left coast. In the music scene, "The Louisville Sound" is the sound of a 727 taking our musicians to L.A. A major local issue is the destruction of roads by steel- wheeled tractors. They're not just for Amish, you know. And the cable company will be the only provider of "the last mile" to my subdivision for at least the next 5 years. I'm 19473 feet away from my CO, so unless a new technology gets deployed, I'll be on 56k dialup for the forseeable future. That ain't smoke signals or talking drums, but it ain't really high tech anymore, either. Regards, -dq

23 years, 1 month

OT: paging MAC expert(s) --- What's a Performa?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Anybody know what a 40 Gb is at CompUSA here in the US? I think I saw in last weeks flyer they were going for about $80 for an IDE internal 7200rpm Maxtor. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 1 month

Trinary circuits

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Iggy et al., > This might interest some of <you> out there: http://www.trinary.cc/ Yep. Interestingly there is an alternate formulation known as the *Balanced* trinary number system. (One of the folks around here wants to label it "BaTeNuS".) The idea is that the digits, rather than being 0, 1, 2 for each place value, are (-1), 0, 1, meaning subtract, don't do either, or add the place value in which that digit appears. For convenience I'll write (-1) as "n" below, though in (LaPlace's?) original work it was written as 1 with an overstrike. Decimal Batenus Explanation ... -9 n00 (-1) * 3^2 + 0 + 0 -8 n01 (-1) * 3^2 + 0 + 1 * 3^0 -7 n1n (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0 -6 n10 (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + 0 -5 n11 (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0 -4 nn 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0 -3 n0 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + 0 -2 n1 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0 -1 n 0 + 0 + (-1) * 3^0 0 0 0 + 0 + 0 1 1 0 + 0 + 1 * 3^0 2 1n 0 + 1 * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0 3 10 0 + 1 * 3^1 + 0 4 11 0 + 1 * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0 5 1nn 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0 6 1n0 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + 0 7 1n1 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0 ... you get the idea. Notice that negative numbers are built in - no need for an additional (-) symbol leading a number. Also notice that to negate a number, you just negate each digit. Fractions, addition tables, etc. are left as an exercise for the reader. This system is great if you have a balance beam and want a minimum number of known weights. To get an (n), you put a known weight on the same side as the object being weighed, while to get a (1), put that weight on the opposite side. With 4 weights, (27, 9, 3, 1) you can generate every integer weight from -40 to 40 - try that with a decimal set of weights (or binary, for that matter). The problem I see with putting either Batenus or trinary in silicon (or gallium arsenide, etc.) is that all the electric technologies I know of are fundamentally binary. On/off, charge stored vs. not stored, current flowing vs. not flowing, etc. You need two binary bits (4 states) to hold a trinary digit (3 states), so there's a 33% loss. Even ignoring this, you only get a 50% increase in information capability and processing speed at best. Would you rather rebuild your computers from the gate level up, including all of the software, or just wait 6 months for the semiconductor industry to get you the 50% speedup in binary? However, I do notice that SQUID circuits, and some other superconducting phenomena, might well be made to work in a trinary fashion (no current, current circulating left, current circulating right). If so, that might make Batenus or trinary pretty interesting again. Am I Off-topic if I'm 10 years into the future? :-) - Mark Linc, >Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11. Calculating in Batenus is as easy as 1,1n,10

23 years, 1 month

panasonic hhc found hhc chips

by Golemancd＠aol.com

so i found the chips to the hhc but they are all those allstate chips i dont know if they have anything on them other than the insurance programs Joee

23 years, 1 month

Trinary circuits

by mranalog＠home.com

"Iggy Drougge" <optimus(a)canit.se> wrote: > This might interest some of the perverts out there: > http://www.trinary.cc/ The web site's tutorial says: > The trinary math system utilizes the 3 natural states > of electrical current flow. A wire conducts in one > direction, or the other, or not at all. Base 4 would > need to have 4 states, which don?t naturally exist. Somebody forgot to spread the word! Scientists Build Tiny Computer From DNA http://news.excite.com/news/r/011121/14/science-science-dnacomputer-dc > The double helix molecule that contains human genes > stores data on four chemical bases -- known by the > letters A, T, C and G -- giving it massive memory > capability that scientists are only just beginning > to tap into. Regards, --Doug ========================================= Doug Coward @ home in Poulsbo, WA Analog Computer Online Museum and History Center http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog =========================================

23 years, 1 month

Mac SE Sigma Video Card

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>>B: What kind of monitor it connects to? (looks like a CGA or EGA >>connector, but could be just about anything... from what I am finding >>Sigma offered a cool SCSI based monitor that had its own custom stuff, so >>I am fearing that it needed a custom monitor too) > > >I'm pretty sure it's a TPD monochrome card IIRC. (TwoPageDisplay) Is their anything special about a two page display? or can I use a more standard monitor (like CGA, or VGA with some kind of adaptor)? -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 1 month

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test-drb November 2001