December 2001 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

Zen and the art of computer collecting (was SuperFast PDP11)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > Both Zen and the English translation of that manual > come from the far east. Somehowe they always talk > like "one lip whispering" over there........... > Joshi and two monks were watching a flag waving atop a flagpole. One monk said "Look, the flag moves." The second monk said "Look, the wind moves." Joshi spoke thus: "Mind moves."

23 years, 7 months

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Prints for an 11/70

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 11, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote: > > Would 200MHz be fast enough ? A lot of the Xilinx fpga's offer 5ns pin to pin > > In a word, no. 8-) Jeeeeezus Sridhar, how fast did you have in mind? -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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Prints for an 11/70

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Ian Koller wrote: > > That's the only thing I don't like about sbus. You can fill up an > > sbus card with three good-sized chips. Ridiculous. > > They make doubles. They also make double-decker triples. That's not the point. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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RIP: Betty Holberton

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

12 inches for a thousandth of a second sounds a little off...though I'm too lazy to do the math... -Dave On December 12, Geoff Reed wrote: > 12 inch copper wire IIRC for MS > > Packet of cracked pepper for NS > > packet of salt for FemtopSecond > > IIRC.... > > At 11:08 AM 12/12/01 -0800, you wrote: > > > >On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, Gene Buckle wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Dave McGuire wrote: > > > > > > > On December 11, jpero(a)sympatico.ca wrote: > > > > > Look to /. > > > > > > > > > > This is one whom coined the bug and debugging I think. :-) > > > > > > > > If you're talking about the terms, that was Rr. Adm. Grace Hopper. > > > > > > > > > > Speaking of whom, do you know where I could obtain a video tape of the > > > talks she used to give? I'm especially interested in the one where she > > > related the anecdote about her needing a wire a nanosecond (pico?) long. > > > > > > g. > > > > > > >She used to pass them out in her presentations, Gene. They were > >approximately 12" long. > > - don > > -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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What's with this Lisa?

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Jeff Hellige [mailto:jhellige@earthlink.net] > Also, the auction states that the green CRT is easier on the > eyes...isn't that false? I always thought that the paperwhite > displays, such as used on some DEC terminals and monitors such as the > Multisync GS, were easier on the eyes than the green? That depends on the eyes. ;) I certainly prefer the white. 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, 7 months

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Need manual for Everex digital cassette drive

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Douglas Quebbeman [mailto:dhquebbeman@theestopinalgroup.com] > I remember reading an ancient article about how this wasn't > the case; I'm sure someone less senile can recall the exact > details, but dropouts in particular couldn't be tolerated > by digital systems, where the ear (mind) will just ignore > many audio inconsistencies... I'm sure it could tolerate them fine if it had any decent error-correction mechanisim built in. :) 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, 7 months

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Pinouts for Vaxstation 3100 monochrome cable?

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

I have a VS3100 m38 also, running NetBSD 1.5 on the built-in mono adaptor. I also have the VR262 19" mono screen to go with it. I can take my cable home tonight, where my multi-meter is. I can double check for you... BTW, are you not going to use color (adaptor) in it? --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818 ! -----Original Message----- ! From: Doc Shipley [mailto:doc@mdrconsult.com] ! Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 1:27 PM ! To: Classic Computers ! Subject: Pinouts for Vaxstation 3100 monochrome cable? ! ! ! Hi, all. ! I have a vaxstation 3100 m38 running NetBSD, and I'd like to be able ! to use the local monochrome display. I've removed the SPX ! color adapter, ! and made up a cable according to the pinouts on Kee's VS3100 page. His ! pinouts are composite on pin 9 and ground on 3 for a BC23K-03 cable. ! However, with the cobbled cable attached, I don't get any output. ! Question 1: Did I miss a jumper on the mainboard? ! Question 2: I assumed that the pins were numbered in the ! same order as ! an AUI ethernet connector. Looking at the female, I have 1-8 ! right-to-left, and 9-15 R-t-L. Is this correct? ! Question 3: I'm using an IBM Power17 display. Multisync, ! separate-sync, ! composite-sync and sync-on-green capable, I would think it would work ! with mono input on the green. It does work fine with the SPX adapter. ! Question 4: I also have a Digital VR160 display, but everything I've ! read implies that it won't do monochrome. Is that true? ! ! Has anybody been successful with a monochrome display on ! this box? Any ! help would be most welcome. ! ! Doc !

23 years, 7 months

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Cats around computers

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On December 13, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > Rodents *are* chewy... have you never had squirrel? > > NO. And I hope I NEVER get that hungry. Hey, it's not like I was playing Hannibal Lector to old Rocket J. himself... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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Wierd Things you've found inside... (was Smoking around compu ters)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > I've seen the brown recluse in my home, among several > > other species. Can't always tell which is which but I > > can tell that some are different from others. > > The brown recluse has a very clear fiddle mark on their body. You can't > mistake them for anything else. I've found them in camp showers (eeek). > They are unpleasantly fond of human company. Following up on my last remarks, then I was younger, I could see better, that's when I recalled seeing the fiddle in the house. Plus, I do seem to recall it being on the underside of the thingie... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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Need manual for Everex digital cassette drive

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> No problem, just file a notch in your "analog" cassette. ;) > > I'm not sure that would work, but given the improved resolution, etc, in > cassette tapes during the last several years, it just may. Actually, I remember reading an ancient article about how this wasn't the case; I'm sure someone less senile can recall the exact details, but dropouts in particular couldn't be tolerated by digital systems, where the ear (mind) will just ignore many audio inconsistencies... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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Cats around computers

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Eric Dittman wrote: > > > My wife sews (a lot!) and every now and then one of the cats will try to > > eat some thread. One day we heard one of them making strange noises at > > the litterbox. It turns out the cat had eaten a long thread, and it was > > making its way out. We had to pull it out (slowly, to avoid internal > > injuries to the cat and external injuries to us). There was at least a > > foot of thread in there. Eric- Been there, done that, with christmas ribbons... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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1GHz PDP-11 (Re: Prints for an 11/70)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Wright [mailto:dtwright@uiuc.edu] > The manual of the motherboard for the first PC I built had a > statement to the > following effect on the second page: > "This manual has been carefully for errors to make sure correct." It is also vaguely amusing when the author of some software documents in English (which I'm usually very thankful for, since it's my first language), but normally speaks another language. (German and French, (other Latin languages too) are exceptionally prone to this) For instance, I had an old 3d modeler for the POV raytracer whose documentation contained the following (more or less): "PV3D now is a freeware." There are also these from a (very good) Atari Lynx development page: "Thanks to a simple error Atari made. As you (maybe) know, all the Atari-carts have an encrypyed header and a check-sum over the complete rom-image. This checksum is so da?? good that changing a single-bit,the INSERT GAME message causes." (Care to guess the native language? :) >From the same page: "But 65C02-code is compact and even with C are good program possible." I've even in English noticed, that German-speakers tend to their verbs on the end of sentences put. :) (No offense, of course, I don't speak three words of German, myself...) 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, 7 months

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if you hadn't already known this about the PDP-8

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Chris Kennedy wrote: > were to do that or not have a machine at all. The big problem > is doing useful things in the absence of a memory mapping and > protection unit of some sort (the Nova grew one early on, but > I'm too ignorant of the PDP-8 family to know if such an option ever > existed). On an 8/e, I believe that'd be the Memory Extension and Timeshare Control board. Among other things it drives the three high-order address bits to go beyond 4KW of core, but if memory serves this is more of a bank-switching scheme than anything else. But hey, it works! :-) PDP8s are Good Food(tm). -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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1GHz PDP-11 (Re: Prints for an 11/70)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 12, Richard Erlacher wrote: > If it topped out at 7 MBps, it was probably because the bus handshake was > clocked with a CPU clock, in order to ensure the CPU would "see" the > transitions. I am reminded of my favorite piece of broken english, found in a Taiwanese PeeCee motherboard manual many years ago: "If use 387 coprocessor, the clocked by CPU clock." No, I made no typos there. :-) -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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1GHz PDP-11 (Re: Prints for an 11/70)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Dave McGuire [mailto:mcguire@neurotica.com] > I am reminded of my favorite piece of broken english, found in a > Taiwanese PeeCee motherboard manual many years ago: > "If use 387 coprocessor, the clocked by CPU clock." > No, I made no typos there. :-) I haven't had so much (documented) cheap imported hardware, but my favorite is from a sound board: "We make 100% sure that this is caused by a M/B bios bug. Please to update the bios of the mainboard with the M/B manufacturer." I was also amused once to see somebody who didn't speak English very well (nor, it appears, know what SCSI stands for) mark some SCSI controllers with a sign that said "SCASI." 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, 7 months

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Google and Usenet Archives from 15-May-1981

by CAA007216＠mail.ono.es

Hello. I take five minutes to review one thing that maybe somebody could clear me: I've checked the Usenet Oldnews Archive in http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News.Archive/ and I saw the time limit that appears in Google (15-May-1981) is applicable there too. But I'm lightly surprised because some Newsgroups like FA.arpa-bboard has MORE threads than the finally displayed in a search. By example, this Usenet Group has 333 Threads but it only show 297 in a search. Can be possible that could exists even more news before 1981-May-15 archived in Google but not available by the moment ? Thanks and Greetings Sergio

23 years, 7 months

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Cats around computers

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! From: Chad Fernandez [mailto:fernande@internet1.net] ! ....... ! ! My parents still have one cat that will eat/chew ribbon.... we have to ! be careful at Christmas. A cat of long ago would eat thread (for ! sewing). My mother pulled about a yard out of him one ! day...... he was ! eating it right off the spool and swallowing it!! Sounds familiar. We can't leave Christmas presents around with bows on them. Isabelle will rip them all off to play with them, and chew them to nothingness... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years, 7 months

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What's with this Lisa?

by Adrian.Graham＠corporatemicrosystems.com

> >I always wondered why the 2 existed in the first place, > since without a hard > >drive and only .5mb of memory it was useless for anything other than > >MacWorks. > > Once you take a look at your's, since you said it started > life as a '2' and you upgraded it to a 2/5, would you mind sending > me the model/serial/date numbers off of it? No problem - I'll check it tonight and mail you on-list since it might be of interest to others...... cheers -- Adrian Graham, Corporate Microsystems Ltd e: adrian.graham(a)corporatemicrosystems.com w: www.corporatemicrosystems.com w2: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk (Online Computer Museum)

23 years, 7 months

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Cats around computers

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On December 13, Chad Fernandez wrote: > > I had a cat lick pictures once. They'll eat/chew on the darndest things > > if you let them. I think it is the taste..... something about the > > chemicals must be salty tasting or something. It's not like cats are > > chewy like dogs or rodents. > > Did anyone beside me read this wrong and laugh hysterically? Rodents *are* chewy... have you never had squirrel? -dq

23 years, 7 months

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VAX 8650 want a good home ...

by gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org

Hi, I know where there are probably several VAX 8600s and 8650s and a good deal more stuff. My plan is to organize a treck that runs from south-central US through mid-west to NY. So, if you live along the way and dream of some big iron, here is your chance. The thing would not be for the taking, but presumably $200-$400 (just a bit above scrap value) would be it. regards, -Gunther -- Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org

23 years, 7 months

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What's with this Lisa?

by Adrian.Graham＠corporatemicrosystems.com

> >I'm going to have to check mine now, since it was originally > a stock Lisa 2 > >before I upgraded it to a 2/5 - it definitely has the drive > access light > >window, so maybe they were going to add in a LED on the floppy drive? > > The drive access light window is well above the floppy > though, more inline with where the Widget drive is normally mounted. > It would appear that they already had the 2/10 in the works when the > 2 and 2/5 were released, using them as just a modified stopgap > machine. I always wondered why the 2 existed in the first place, since without a hard drive and only .5mb of memory it was useless for anything other than MacWorks. -- Adrian Graham, Corporate Microsystems Ltd e: adrian.graham(a)corporatemicrosystems.com w: www.corporatemicrosystems.com w2: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk (Online Computer Museum)

23 years, 7 months

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Prints for an 11/70

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 12, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote: > > Are you wanting this to go in big, hex-width cards like old UNIBUS cards, > > or will you be defining a new form factor, connector (compact UNIBUS?), > > backplane, and card mounting system for your new UNIBUS (UNewBUS?)? > > Old style. Cool. Cards that you can actually FIT SOME COMPONENTS ON. What a concept. That's the only thing I don't like about sbus. You can fill up an sbus card with three good-sized chips. Ridiculous. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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USENET from 1981 to present on google

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> The earliest post of mine in there is from late 1994. To be fair, I wasn't > around much earlier than that, but there are still gaps even after the > Renaming. *REplies* to my first posts are there, but not the posts themselves... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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tektronix phaser

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On December 12, Dan Wright wrote: > > I agree...it's a great print process. I think it has much nicer looking > > output then color laser, personally...more photo-like with the glossiness and > > all :) > > It's targeted at an entirely different market than color lasers, so > that's not really a valid comparison. But yes, the Phaser III output > is *really* impressive. And if you get hungry, it's the only printer on the market with edible inks... Plus, if you run out, all you have to do is run down to WallyWorld and get a box of Crayolas... Just kidding of course; we dumped a Phaser 550 that was a toner-based laserprinter this year in favor of two Phase 850s, which use the wax-based inks. The prints do not fair well, however, in *any* form of currently produced page protectors. Even those ones they came out with for toner-prints don't work, the wax just melts onto the plastic. Perhaps glassine envelopes? -dq

23 years, 7 months

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What's with this Lisa?

by Adrian.Graham＠corporatemicrosystems.com

> Mine has the 'PTA Prototype' markings on the inside of the > front cover as well. From talking with other's it would appear that > those markings aren't uncommon. The thing I always found interesting > was that even though earlier Lisa 2 and 2/5's weren't intended to use > the internal Widget hard disk due to the lack of internal connector > for it, the faceplate still has the drive access light window for it. I'm going to have to check mine now, since it was originally a stock Lisa 2 before I upgraded it to a 2/5 - it definitely has the drive access light window, so maybe they were going to add in a LED on the floppy drive? cheers -- Adrian Graham, Corporate Microsystems Ltd e: adrian.graham(a)corporatemicrosystems.com w: www.corporatemicrosystems.com w2: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk (Online Computer Museum)

23 years, 7 months

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Smoking around computers

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > > > I wouldn't want anybody smoking near my computers! > > I've been chain-smoking around computers of various sorts for 20 years, and > I've never seen any evidence of smoke-related problems. I prefer that > computers don't smoke around me, however ;>) > > OTOH, audio gear seems to be very susceptible to my smoke, and I have to > clean all the switches and pots every three months or so. The early CDC disk drives (like many others I'm sure) has so much room between platters you could stick your hand in there, and enough room between the flying heads and the platter that neither smoke nor dust was a problem. One CDC engineer remarked to me about how they usually be smoking a cigarette while they were *polishing* the platters (yes, I know about the stiction cure joke, Lemon Pledge and all that). Which reminds me of an MPEG that Elsa included with the Winner3000 drivers... you watch this video, you'll think it's cigarettes that they're selling... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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RIP: Betty Holberton

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Right. The speed of light is 30 cm/ns. The thing to remember is "one foot per nanosecond". Much easier not to forget that one! Antonio

23 years, 7 months

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What's with this Lisa?

by jhingber＠ix.netcom.com

Please see this item and read the description: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1309308140 I have a similar machine which I would call identical except for the green-screen. All the "prototype" markings that the auction makes mention of I have seen seen on my Lisa, as well as the only other one I've seen. I believe these markings to be common, and that the screen was a replacement job by a 3rd party. Is this guy misinformed or am I? Thanks, Jeffrey H. Ingber (jhingber _at_ ix.netcom.com)

23 years, 7 months

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List of HP-PB adapters ?

by jarkko.teppo＠er-grp.com

The subject says it all, does anyone have a handy list of HP-PB adapters supported in the Nova series ? (I realize this might be *just* short of the ten year rule). Looking to add some IO to my H50. btw. I love google. I love google. Google rocks. I'm busy downloading every single message with a mention of 9000/500-series. Did I mention that google rocks ? Thanks, -- jht

23 years, 7 months

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Cats around computers

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Chad Fernandez wrote: > I had a cat lick pictures once. They'll eat/chew on the darndest things > if you let them. I think it is the taste..... something about the > chemicals must be salty tasting or something. It's not like cats are > chewy like dogs or rodents. Did anyone beside me read this wrong and laugh hysterically? -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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pleH!

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote: > !07/11 PDP a ni deppart m'I !pleH Go to sleep, Sridhar. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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pleH!

by vance＠ikickass.org

!07/11 PDP a ni deppart m'I !pleH Peace... Sridhar

23 years, 7 months

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CPT 9000

by csmith＠amdocs.com

Hi everybody, I remember somebody mentioning the CPT 9000 on this list recently. Since I just happen to be working on one, I thought I'd post this question here. Does anyone know where I can get some of the original software that might take advantage of the full screen-height? I have a copy of ventura publisher that was pre-installed, but I assume that its CPT9000 driver is corrupt. It works with the Herc ega driver, but with the CPT9000 driver, I just get some strange text-mode blocks. I also wonder whether anyone's tried Minix on it, and whether that might address the whole monitor? 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, 7 months

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1GHz PDP-11 (Re: Prints for an 11/70)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 12, Jeffrey S. Sharp wrote: > What little I've read about UNIBUS told me that UNIBUS has no set clock > rate, and that the speed of communication between two devices would be the > the highest rate that both devices could handle. If you've got nothing > but Sridhar-made fast devices on the bus, what stops you from having a > UNIBUS operating at say, 33MHz to 100MHz on average? I don't recall the specifics of Unibus...but its bandwidth is commonly stated as being about 7MB/sec. If that's the case, then it's unlikely that it's asynchronous. But perhaps it is asynchronous, and 7MB/sec was just the maximum. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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Nanoseconds per foot (RE: RIP: Betty Holberton)

by CLeyson＠aol.com

For coax or twisted pair the delay per unit length is given by:- Delay (Secs/unit length) = Root( (C/unit length)*(L/unit length) ) Example: For RG58-U coax, C=100pF/m and L=250nH/m Delay = root(250E-9*100E-12) = 5E-9 sec/m or 5ns/m A pulse will travel 66% slower in RG-58 cable than free space. If anyone needs to lay out high speed PCB's the following book is highly recommended: "High Speed Digital Design - A Handbook of Black Magic" Howard W Johnson and Martin Graham ISBN 0-13-395724-1 Chris Leyson

23 years, 7 months

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Smoking around computers

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: charles hobbs [mailto:chobbs@socal.rr.com] > Speaking of which, ever open a machine formerly owned by a > dog/cat owner? I have. Being a cat owner, I find that I need to clean my systems of cat-hair on a regular basis. 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, 7 months

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I've discovered a new pleasure.

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 11, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote: > > > I am pretty sure that I will be bringing one of my IBM S/390 G1's to VCF > > > East next year with VM, MVS, and Linux running. If anyone else brings > > > machines capable of SNA, FDDI, Ethernet or ATM, you'll be welcome to hook > > > up to me. > > > > Eh? The G1 isn't 10 years old, is it? > > It is indeed. Both of mine have manufacture dates in 1991. Ahh, I thought the G1 came out in 1994 or so. I stand corrected. :-) -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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Burroughs - any information?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> This is a page about a B205. I'll eventually get a page up about my > G20M/200. Oh shit he's got the Jupter II helm! Talk about your unobtainium... -dq

23 years, 7 months

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if you hadn't already known this about the PDP-8

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Cameron Kaiser wrote: > > But yes, I agree...Linux can be made to work well on machines with > > small quantities of memory. It's actually pretty good at it. > > Hey! Don't forget about ... *waves NetBSD flag frantically* Oh yes, most definitely...I run NetBSD in production at a number of sites, and it's wonderful. I only mentioned Linux specifically because we were specifically discussing Linux. While I like Linux a LOT, I don't consider it production-ready enough to bet my dinner on it. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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if you hadn't already known this about the PDP-8

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> But I ask the question is bigger always better? I am the guy who still > uses 640x480 cause this way he can read the screen and the menus at > the same time. I suspect the wheel of computer design will turn again > towards 'smaller' CISC (pdp8-style?) machines as the interconnect > in chips between modules is becoming larger compared to the the gate > speeds. I never understand this- why not kick it up to 1027x768 and use the Windows Appearance controls to make the menus and screen fonts larger? That way graphics look nice and text is still readable and things you have to click on (buttons can be made bigger too) are bigger targets... It's the best of both worlds, instead of being limited to one... Regards, -dq

23 years, 7 months

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Tape drives (which one to look for?)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

Hi everybody, For those of you who've read my notes on the MIPS RISComputers I'm trying to get going, I ask this because I may want to replace the QIC-120 drive that's missing from one of them with a different model. I'd like some opinions on tape drives. The drive would need to plug into a SCSI interface, and I'd like it to fit in a 5.25" half-height bay. That's pretty much all I'd require from it. It would be nice if the drive held at least as much as a QIC-120 (about 120MB, it so happens ;), and was inexpensive and easy to get used. Any suggestions? What's the going price on DDS-1 these days? 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, 7 months

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RIP: Betty Holberton

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 12, Eric J. Korpela wrote: > Not to disparage the Admiral, but I'm fairly sure the term "bug" referring > to problems with a mechanism was in general use well before electronic > computers existed. Most literature that I've seen gives Hopper that distinction...however John Lawson mentioned a book that seems to prove otherwise. Scans of that would be very cool to have. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL

23 years, 7 months

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OT: tektronix phaser

by dtwright＠uiuc.edu

I have a tektronix phaser 340 (which I think is rather less then 10 years old, but I'm not certain...) that has started saying "Fault 05,000.42:8178". I was wondering if anyone here is familiar with these printers and/or knows where I can get a fault code reference for them, because I really don't want to pay xerox to fix my printer. I have a feeling this is something pretty simple -- the printer was off for a while (like about 3 months) and then just started doing this last night. any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Dan - Dan Wright (dtwright(a)uiuc.edu) (http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright) -] ------------------------------ [-] -------------------------------- [- ``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.'' Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

23 years, 7 months

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Need manual for Everex digital cassette drive

by vcf＠vintage.org

Does anyone have a manual, or know how to operate, an Everex digital cassette drive? The one I have is all black, and has a DC-37 connector on the back that I assume connects to an old-style IBM PC drive interface. If this is the case, I assume I still need drivers to run this thing? And maybe some operating software? Does anyone know what the hell I'm talking about? Please help if you can. Many brownie points await ye. 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, 7 months

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Need Xpress Librarian software

by vcf＠vintage.org

Ok, after a quick web search, it looks like I may be able to use a program called Xpress Librarian to access this drive. Anybody got it? 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, 7 months

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Terminal Server

by pat＠purdueriots.com

I just picked up an Encore Corp. Annex Terminal server from my university's salvage. It seems to power up ok and I can get it to have a link to my network. I can even set an ip address to it. However I can't ping it. It seems to want to net boot (as far as i can tell). Anyone have the boot software for these or have a resource to point me towards? The manufacturer's site seems to be of no help, and neither is google. Here's the specifics: Encore Computer Corp. Annex Model # ANN-01 (Cant really read first char, can be different) >From starting it with the switch in 'diag mode' i can get it to spit out the following: Board ID 11 - Serial Number 87 REV ROM: Maj Rev 3 Min Rev 1 ROM Software Rev # 0305 Thanks to anyone that has any ideas. -- Pat

23 years, 7 months

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Free Stuff fo pickup in SF bay area

by pcw＠mesanet.com

2 Tektronix 4051 manual 1 Tektronix 4051 ROM expansion unit (W binary loader ROM and GPIO) 1 4051 ROM expansion unit manual 1 Morrow MicroDecision computer W/manuals and disks 1 DEC Alpha 2100 4 misc HP700 HPPA series (720,735) Peter Wallace Mesa Electronics

23 years, 7 months

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Smoking around computers

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Ok, I give up -- how do you train a cat? :) Water spray bottle works wonders. 3 spritz later and one of my cats has stopped popping the hampster cage open and carrying the hampster around the house. Some people say tape works well to keep them off things (sticky side up), but both my cats seem to rather like it, and I find they stand on it padding at the tape purring happily. -c

23 years, 7 months

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Hardrive.sys for HardCard ?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

> Thanks but Arlen Michaels send me the files. They were for a 40 Mb hard >card but the driver (Plusdrv.sys) seems to work fine. Any chance you can forward those drivers my way? I have a 40mb HardCard that I would like to see if I can get working. Thanks -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 7 months

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USENET from 1981 to present on google

by jpdavis＠gorge.net

Google claims to have recovered the USENET archives from 1981 to present. Makes for some really fun reading. Birth of the web, linux, all the old machines we love. Jim Davis.

23 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 2001