test-drb December 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

243 participants
1096 discussions

Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by CLeyson＠aol.com

In a message dated 31/12/01 Tony Duell writes >> Most of the engineers I work with have never heard of Amphenol or Cannon, >Then I would suggest you're working with engineers who are not > particularly knowledgable about practical electronics. If they're (say) > mechanical engineers or civil engineers, then no problem. If they claim > to tbe electronic engineers I'd probably dispute that claim. I agree, last year they couldn't even build a set of LED Christmas tree lights without blowing them up, never heard of constant current drive !!! I'm not talking about graduates straight out of college but people who've been in industry for a few years. In the engineering department I work in there is only ONE other true practical engineer who lays out his own PCBs, is keen to learn about new and emerging technologies etc. He is, like myself, mostly self taught, and has a passion for this stuff - a rare breed these days. But there we are - pay peanuts and get monkies. > Far too many courses (in all aspects of science and engineering) miss out > the simple practical stuff. Without which the complicated stuff is essentially > useless.. Agreed, I believe any so called engineer should have a practical "hands on" experience in both hardware and software, after all if they don't understand the basics they are of little use. >> On the subject of D-sub connectors I've sometimes come across some with >> metric threaded jackscrews instead of the usual UNF thread, or is it UNC ? > I thought it was 4-40 UNC.... Thanks Tony, wasn't sure of the thread. > FWIW, the stnadard for HPIB jackscrews is M3.5 (metric). I've had to make > such parts on occasions. One HP manual I was reading recently said that > the instrument used metric screws on the connectors, and that a > conversion kit (presumably consisting of 2 jackscrews) was available for > converting older HPIB cables. So I assume that the original HPIB used UNC > jackscrews (probably 6-32). One day I will have to do a search for the original IEEE-488 standard just to see what they specify. I suspect that jackscrew threads are not part of the standard. Chris

23 years, 11 months

Trailing-edge compute farm seeks gainful employment

by Golemancd＠aol.com

i agree about the os but i dont agree on the attempt part dont attempt it. do it. a computer is not that complex of a machine at least a pc. an os is all theory and vision. u can think up an entire os away from any pc. u could then just go in and code the entire thing. the hard part is thinking up what it is that u want and how it has to work. the coding and so forth is the easy part. this is the exact project i am working on now joee

23 years, 11 months

Happy Holidays!

by vcf＠vintage.org

Happy Holidays! *<:) Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 11 months

OT: Older inventory programs for home computers

by lgwalker＠mts.net

A local general purpose mechanic who mainly works on Ski-doos in the winter and pumps and everything else in the summer gave me a complete Adam (!) collecting dust on the shelf, when I told him I collect computers. He mentioned he could use an old box to keep track of his parts inventory if I had any spares. I volunteered to supply him with something that would serve simple needs thinking of everything from a C-64 to an A2 or an XT to a 386 and that there must be 100s of programs that would be available. And no I don't want to configure a Database program. I did a Google search and found only the newest Gee-Whiz Winblows 9x, 2k, XP, and OSX programs, and while I haven't searched Simtel, out of frustration I've decided to defer to the list about older programs to track inventory and if it also has billing and labour, so much the better. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It would serve as an example that older machines don't have to be delegated to land-fills. This area is in north- central Manitoba,Canada and not exactly a hotbed of technology. The temperature at present is -20 C, but the air is breathable. Lawrence Lawrence Reply to: lgwalker(a)mts.net

23 years, 11 months

One More PCB Dishwasher Question

by charlesleecourtney＠yahoo.com

Hi all, The thread on cleaning cards by running them through the dishwasher was timely as I am resurrecting an HP3000/XE. The system came from Pacific Pipe in Oakland and is the *filthest* system I have ever seen. The "computer room" on the second floor was left open to the work yard and all matter of dirt, dust, grime etc was sucked into the CPU, disc drive and tape. The CPU boards literally had a layer of grime covering them. Of course since this was an HP box it booted right up even though it was basically "clogged". Many of the HP cards have paper stickers indicating part number, revision, etc. Any thoughts on preserving these through a dishwasher cycle? Or should I just gently hand rinse? THanks! Lee Courtney __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com

23 years, 11 months

Engieers (was: Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by CLeyson＠aol.com

In replay to my moan about engineers not being able to build Christmas tree lights, Tony Duell writes: > Do you own a suitably large LART? I've given up with the LART, it just doesn't work - re-education is a better approach - but then it doesn't work on the brain dead. > I must have told the story of the 362.8 ohm resistor. In case I haven't, > it goes like this...... I used to own an 8in Shugart drive a long time ago. For some strange reason that I couldn't understand it was stuffed with E96 resisors. Perhaps they were cheaper than E24 ? > I've come to the conclusion that the best (electronic?) engineers and > programmers are all essentially self-taught. It's probably much the same > in all creative subjects. I'd agree > ......You may argue that much of engineering these days is not about making > things, and that engineers rarely need these skills (that is a separate rant)... I'd argue that engineering is all about making things. OK, perhaps engineers don't need practical skills so much these days, but an understanding of other engineering disiplines is essential. You have to be able to understand the "other guy's" point of view, whether it be hardware, software, manufacturing or management. Lawrence Walker wrote: > Well from what I've heard about the "father of electricity" and Henry Ford for > that matter, he would hire a bunch of "promising" engineers like Tesla, > take what they've already discovered, claim them as products of his own > and become a wold-famous inventor. And of course, like Marconi, become the > "inventor of Radio" which we are now celebrating, despite the fact that Tesla > won a court decision in US courts to his primacy with it. History is written by > the Victors. I hope you meant Faraday as the "father of electricity" and not Edison. As for Marconi, I'd say he "pioneered" radio engineering but wouldn't have got very far if it hadn't been for Hertz. I'm not sure how Tesla fits into the picture, he did invent the squirel cage induction motor but I'm not aware of any major contributions he made to radio engineering. Chris

23 years, 11 months

Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 31, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: > The only place that I have EVER met any people who claimed to be > "engineers" who might "have never heard of Amphenol" would be some > university folk who have never set foot into the real world. Ahh, those "engineers" who don't know which end of a soldering iron gets hot. A fond memory from around 1991, while working for a small defense contractor in NJ, talking with a 2nd-year "summer slave" on loan from MIT (of all places!). I'd assigned him to write some data reduction code in FORTRAN for a remote sensing project, and later wound up having to do it myself: Me: "This program needs a lot of work." Weenie: "Hah! Where did *YOU* go to school? See here:" [weenie scribbles some incomprehensible equation on the whiteboard] Me: "I didn't. But I damn well know a REAL*4 on this VAX won't deal with the IEEE-format floating point numbers from the spectrometer without format conversion, for starters. Weenie: "WHAT?! [horrified look] You actually want to RUN this program?" Me: "Of course. Why the hell do you think I asked you to write it?" Weenie: "Isn't this just an exercise?" Me: "We are a defense contractor. We build machines to kill people. Look at the size of my gut...we NEVER exercise around here." Weenie: "Does this mean I have to type this program in, like on a computer?" Me: "No. You're fired." -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 11 months

Try it!!!! (Was - Re: One More PCB Dishwasher Question)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

Be sure of the result before you suggest. I used to also handle automotive product so I have a better than average knowledge of the ourcome. Allison From: William Donzelli <aw288(a)osfn.org> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, December 29, 2001 5:24 PM Subject: Re: Try it!!!! (Was - Re: One More PCB Dishwasher Question) >> But is not that change the same as going from COLD to HOT when you apply >> power to the chip under normal operation of the computer? > >For the big stuff, sure. Not for the small stuff (glue, I/O, memory, and >other stuff that does not suck much power). > >Here is a test. Boil some water in a big pot, as if you were to make >pasta. Turn the gas off, let it cool just a few seconds, then dump all your >favorite chips in. I am sure one will not comeout alive (or maybe crippled). > >William Donzelli >aw288(a)osfn.org

23 years, 11 months

Wanted: One Specific Piece of Software

by vance＠ikickass.org

Specifically, dBase 5 and dBase Compiler. Peace... Sridhar

23 years, 11 months

Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>I install fire alarm systems... Now, if you had asked me which one connects >the handset to the phone, you'd have me stumped! I had been taught that was a Rj-11 "handset", which has never really sat well with me... but it is what I was taught, and it is what my telco catalogs list the part as, so I had to accept it. Thanks to that link, it is claimed to be an RJ-22, which sits MUCH better with me since it has its own designation. I can't speak for its accuracy as it is the first time I have heard that, but if I had to pick, I would go with RJ-22 over RJ-11 "handset". Oh, and I was taught in the field all my telco knowledge, never went to school... it is learned from various Bell and private installers/techs/whathaveyou... so who knows how accurate they are, but I tend to give them more credence than most schools (except maybe some Bell installers, the older ones are good, but most of the younger ones suck royally) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 11 months

Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 30, Chris wrote: > >Would they call common network connectors "8 pin RJ-11"? > >Or would they call them "8 pin telephone connectors"? > > Neither, 8 pin RJ's are an RJ-45 (11 is a 4 pin, comes in either standard > or handset sizes... can also have just 2 pins for "cheap" cords... 12 is > a 6 pin, same physical size as a standard RJ-11) It's important to note that the RJ designations specify not only the connector type, but the pinout. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 11 months

FAQS.ORG needs funding!

by vcf＠vintage.org

Please read this message: http://www.faqs.org/save_faqs-org.html I don't know how many of you use faqs.org to get FAQs (I don't myself) but I happened to run by this message and thought I would pass it along. They're in need of funding as they've lost their previous sponsorship. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 11 months

*DING* Unibus addressing - KZQSA SCSI adapter

by msell＠ontimesupport.com

You DEC old-timers out there will probably chuckle at my little "discovery", but I'm posting my findings for us who are "DEC challenged".... Yesterday I was pulling my hair out trying to get my VAX 4000-500 to recognize an external RRD-43 CD-ROM that was attached to a KZQSA SCSI adapter. No matter what I did, it wouldn't recognize the fact that anything SCSI was connected. The problem turned out to be the address that the KZQSA was set to. It was set to address 761400, and the 4000 was reporting the card to be a DEFQA, which to even a DEC newbie as myself, was VERY wrong. A search through the "VMS wizard" archives at Compaq.com turned up the statement that the KZQSA was shipped with a default address of 761300. So I fiddled with the address jumpers and set it to 761300 and *voila*, the 4000 found the KZQSA. I hooked the external SCSI enclosure to the card, and it found the CD-ROM. It was able to boot VMS from the CD, and I'm on my way. Again, don't laugh too hard, I hope this message helps others who are "Unibus Ignorant".... - Matt Matthew Sell Programmer On Time Support, Inc. www.ontimesupport.com (281) 296-6066 Join the Metrology Software discussion group METLIST! http://www.ontimesupport.com/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler Many thanks for this tagline to a fellow RGVAC'er...

23 years, 11 months

S-100 score!

by erd_6502＠yahoo.com

My sister-in-law works at the Post Office and knows lots of the local customers. She happened to learn that one gentleman had some "old computers" in the attic. When I called him, it turned out to be an XOR S-100 box w/dual 8" drives, a Liberty 100 terminal, and some loose S-100 cards (including a Cromemco serial/parallel card still in the shrink wrap, a few 8K cards (2102 and 2114-based) and a couple of SMS video cards, one as yet unstuffed with the chips under plastic). No OS, few docs (some of the cards _do_ have manuals). He kept the S-100 prototype card he once wrapped for his first CPU (sockets intact, chips missing, wires removed). The sad news is that he mentioned that he used to have an old computer that he threw out... his son brought it home ($20 at a yard sale) back when Dad had a 386 in the living room - it was a Digital Group machine. :-( So... Anyone have any info on XOR boxen? I have a CP/M disk for the C-128 and stuff for the Kaypro, but nothing on 8". Can I mail anyone blank disks to be copied onto? What sort of information would I have to provide to be able to put together a compatible disk? Brand of disk controller? Type and manufacturer of CPU card? Serial card vendor? Also, how did S-100 video cards work? Did you still have a console terminal but use the video card as a secondary peripheral? -ethan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com

23 years, 11 months

Any AMIGA users?

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) [mailto:cisin@xenosoft.com] > Has anybody ever actually SEEN and USED any software for the catweasel > that will make an Amiga disk (NOT duplicate one that is present)? Not me, though, I've seen documents (probably in UAE) that say you can write disks to images and images to disks if you use it. The linux/netbsd/freebsd drivers, from all I've seen and heard, should access disks fine for making images and the like. > I think that "MatchPoint" might be their board that you're > thinkking of. I was thinking of compati-card, actually. I was un-aware that it had this same limitation. I may have to see if I can find one of these "MatchPoint" boards now, though. What are my chances? > What software is available for Mac to do Amiga disks? Again, I seem to remember from docs that UAE will use it directly. So you'd be stuck with a chicken-egg scenario where you need an image of the O/S (or boot disk) to get it working. :) Otherwise it would work fine. I have seen mappings for the linux fdparam (I think that's the program..) which will make your system use the format at a low level, and have heard that catweasel works with linux. In that case you can image/unimage the disks pretty simply. As for a program that reads/writes the filesystem (I assume that's what you're asking...), I don't know of one, but I believe that given the number of people interested in amiga emulation, somebody must have written one. If they havent, get an amiga emulator set-up, and chances are that will do it for you. (Again, I seem to remember mention of this in the UAE docs) I would, of course, be interested to hear from anyone who's really tried it. :) Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

23 years, 11 months

Trailing-edge compute farm seeks gainful employment

by jwbirdsa＠picarefy.com

Supposing one has a farm of older, relatively slower machines (Sun-2's, Sun-3's, early SPARCs, 386es, very small VAXen, 68k-based Macs, etc.) running various Unixes (mostly NetBSD), networked together and connected to the Net. What does one do with it? I've been trying to think of some interesting, moderately useful distributed-computing project that they could sit and crank away at and haven't come up with much of anything. All the distributed projects that I know of are distributed because even fast machines aren't enough by themselves -- a trailing-edge farm can't make a useful contribution. If network Tierra (an artificial-life research project) had ever come to pass, that would have been a superb application for these beasts. But it didn't. Ideas, anyone? Please? --James B.

23 years, 11 months

Any AMIGA users?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

Decided to pull out my amiga 500 and a PHOENIX hard drive that fits it. plugged it all in and the hard drive spins up, but the amiga still prompts for a system floppy. can a PC download and create an amiga system disk? i want to see what this computer is capable of. -- Kwanzaa is NOT a real holiday.

23 years, 11 months

Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mhstein＠usa.net

Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 12:30:31 -0600 (CST) From: Doc <doc(a)mdrconsult.com> Having not only been a rider myself, but also a Triumph/BSA dealer in a past life, not to mention having owned my share of Austins, Hillmans, etc., I'm ROFLMAO... mike ------------Original Message------------ Subject: Re: Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: > > The only place that I have EVER met any people who claimed to be > "engineers" who might "have never heard of Amphenol" would be some > university folk who have never set foot into the real world. > "I'm an automotive engineer; I've never heard of 'Lucas Electric'"? Being a long-time British/European rider, I gotta ask... Was Amphenol *that* bad? :^) Doc ____________________________________________________________________ Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1

23 years, 11 months

KIM-1 (was Re: Cheap Video cookbooks and machines WTD)

by CLeyson＠aol.com

Ethan Dicks wrote: > The KIM is one of the items on my list from that era to aquire (got a > SYM-1 and an AIM-65). I'd love to see a website about a clone. Was it > this - http://home.hccnet.nl/g.baltissen/kim-rb.gif - you were thinking > of? A schematic, but no board layout (I can generate schematics all day > long with OrCAD, but for a variety of reasons, I've never been able to > successfully migrate one of my designs to a layout package, which is why > the Elf99 project stalled). Ethan, I have Orcad 9 Capture and Layout and could provide some PCB resourse if needed. Design would probably be double sided. A single sided PCB design would be prefered from a "homebrew" point of view but I don't think it would be practical. Chris Leyson

23 years, 11 months

Trailing-edge compute farm seeks gainful employment

by Golemancd＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/30/01 11:41:32 PM Eastern Standard Time, bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca writes: << www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk/index.html >> y do u need a bigger network

23 years, 11 months

Trailing-edge compute farm seeks gainful employment

by Golemancd＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/31/01 11:36:12 AM Eastern Standard Time, jkunz(a)unixag-kl.fh-kl.de writes: << http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/ >> i would say connect it to the web with a modern pc and use the bandwith of whatever connection u have with that pc and write a program to write messages to each compute on the network joee

23 years, 11 months

Trailing-edge compute farm seeks gainful employment

by Golemancd＠aol.com

my thinking was to just devide the data up into threads and have each thread work on a part of the data at a time. whether this be one cpu or several. one thread could be listening and deligating and other threads could be doing the rest of the work. not sure how much processor power it would take but originally i was just thinking about the network sort of just passing messages with each bot having its own processor internally. and handling it itself or maybe having the network do the work and pass text to the bot . joe

23 years, 11 months

Too much college? (was: Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 31, John Allain wrote: > I remember in the interval graduation+(1..10) I used > Integration only once, and it was to calculate the position > on a VHS tape given its spindle speed(s). > Nowadays every VCR does real time display. Wonder > why it took so long to happen? Imean it was only a 1-line > polynomial. Yes, but could it have been done back then without increasing the cost of the hardware very much? It probably would've involved a small microprocessor. Hmm, could such a thing be accomplished with a lookup table in a ROM? -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 11 months

Too much college? (was: Connectors (was: NEXT Color Printer find

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 31, Mike Ford wrote: > >OB_CC: That makes the old Apple ad exceptionally out of line. Apple's ad > >said that if Edison were to have had an Apple, he could have simulated > >everything, instead of actually having to try things out in his > >workshop. Would he? > > Edison was much more a technition than an inventor. He took other peoples > unique ideas and made working units. True, but creativity certainly isn't limited to the "all theory and no practice" crowd. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

23 years, 11 months

Secret Weapons of Commodore update

by spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu

The 10th edition of the Secret Weapons of Commodore has been released, a collection of articles, photographs, specifications and lots of conjecture on unreleased, rare or unusual Commodore peripherals and computers. Here's what's newly discovered: * New entries: * The Multi-User Cash Terminal Register, with pictures! (thanks T.J.T. van Kooten) * Microchess for the Commodore 64 and KIM-1! By permission of Peter Jennings, the original programmer, the source code and hex dump of the original Microchess is available for download, along with a port to the C64/128 by yours truly authorised by Peter for those without a KIM-1. See also the Chessmate entry! (thanks Peter Jennings, Paul Foerster) * New pictures: * The VIC-21, including badge and box (thanks Bo Zimmerman) * TV Game 200K (Bo encore) * Ultimax MiniBASIC portrait and screenshot (thanks RaYzor) * Updates: * History of the VIC-21 (Bo double encore) * Updates to the 900 entry, including new photos link, cleanup of the history of the Z8000/80000, and footnote about the ZEUS (thanks Claus Schoenleber, Tony Duell, et al.) * Hardware information and complete history of the Chessmate thanks to its original creator (yes, Peter Jennings created the Chessmate too) * Analysis of the VIC-1001 ROMs vs. the VIC-20's (thanks Marko Makela, William Levak) * Where Agnus really came from (thanks Jim Williams) * What ICS means, Amiga graphics notes (thanks Ville Jouppi) * Where to find Magic Voice 6525 chips, and another MV cartridge (thanks Nicolas Welte, Nick Coplin) * various custodial updates The URL is, as always, http://www.retrobits.com/ckb/secret/ Have fun, -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- "I'd love to go out with you, but my personalities each need therapy." -----

23 years, 11 months

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test-drb December 2001