test-drb April 2001

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251 participants
669 discussions

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Dectape TU58-k

by nenad.jambresic＠varian.com

Can anybody provide some Datacartridges " DECTAPE II " TU58-K ??????? mail to:nenad.jambresic@varian.com

24 years, 7 months

A few PDP11 questions and FREE Cipher tape drive

by kees.stravers＠iae.nl

>Would anybody have the dip switch and jumper settings for a M8190-AE, >that's a KDJ11-B from a 73 or 83. My 11 was upgraded from a 53. All I know is the console baud rate settings on the one dip switch at the front of the 11/83 cpu board. Switches 6-8 control the baud rate selected. All off lets the remote panel select work. 6 7 8 - - - 300 baud / remote switch select 1 1 1 38.4K " 1 1 - 19.2K " 1 - 1 9600 " 1 - - 4800 " - 1 1 2400 " - 1 - 1200 " - - 1 600 " where "1" is down/on and "-" is up/off. -- Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - kees.stravers(a)iae.nl http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/ My home page (old computers,music,photography) http://www.vaxarchive.org/ Info on old DEC VAX computers (Mirrors: http://vaxarchive.khubla.com/ and http://vaxarchive.sevensages.org/)

24 years, 7 months

classiccmp-digest V1 #577

by Alan.Pearson＠cramersystems.com

> Date: 21 Apr 2001 3:1:14 +0100 > From: "Iggy Drougge" <optimus(a)canit.se> > Subject: Odd old Xerox equipment > > computer equipment. Today, I happened to notice a very sexy > Xerox machine. It was a black, rather fat tower with a very > black front with relief stripes. On top of it sat an equally > black diskdrive, its front as black the computer. I > think it would fold down to reveal the actual slot. The back > featured a number > of very large blanking plates for graphics (I think a D15) and AUI. > What kind of system was it, when was it released, what OS did > it run? Can I marry it? What a find!! Snap it up right now! Sounds like an 1186 to me, since the company is an AI company. In their attempt to remarket the Star Xerox redesigned the 8010 hardware and came up with the "Dove", which was marketed as the 6085 "Documenter" or the 1186 "Artificial Intelligence Workstation". I think the only difference in the hardware was the 1186's processor board had a floating-point unit - other than that they were identical machines differing only in the microcode and software. The 6085 ran the "ViewPoint" system, originally know as "Star" and later renamed "GlobalView" :-) You don't have any access to the guts of the machine from ViewPoint, it's a closed system that's specifically designed to write documents, send email, all that boring "office" stuff - there was no development environment that you could access via ViewPoint, so it's not that much fun to play about with. When you've done one document you've done them all :-) The development environment was usually installed in a seperate volume on the machine, and went by the name of "Tajo" or "XDE" - this was another window-based environment with all the good stuff like a Mesa compiler, debugger, file browser etc (guess which environment I used the most!). If you knew the magic runes you could set up the debugger/development volume to "debug" the VP volume and be able to swap between the two, but it could be a bit of a pain because a clean VP boot would take around 15 minutes :-/ Xerox attempted to market VP standalone after it was clear they'd missed the boat as far as mass adoption of Star (another 914 it certainly wasn't) - they had a version running on Suns, my memory's a bit hazy now, I think the project was called "Salient" and involved the use of the "Portable Common Runtime" - basically a Mesa virtual machine(?). They also had a version for Windows - I think it originally ran on a separate Mesa processor card and then later they implemented a complete software Mesa VM to run VP/GV on. Unfortunately they still didn't get many sales, and the rest is (literally) history. Star RIP. [Incidentally I still use it on my laptop, Star still gives Word & co a good run for their money! There's at least one corner of England that is "forever Xerox" :-)] The 1186 was much more straightforward - the processor was microcoded for InterLISP-D, which took up the whole machine. Ran like a dog, but was very nice to play around in (assuming you could handle all the brackets) because of the GUI. Personally I liked Mesa way better. A bit of Xerox folklore for you :-) Aparrently the 6085/1186 case was designed to look like the Xerox Tower in Rochester, NY... can't see much resemblence myself, other than it's tall and thin(ish). What do I know though, I'm just a dumb programmer not an "artist" :-) Cheers Al. PS always on the lookout for old Xerox stuff myself - unfortunately I'm stuck in Bath (UK) and they're are hard to come by as Bill Gates fans on this list :-)

24 years, 7 months

Sellam Ismail the archaeologist? (fwd)

by vcf＠siconic.com

On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, you wrote: > I just noticed a story about you and your hobby in the new Archaeology > magazine. You're becoming more famous everyday. Yes, I look forward to reading it myself :) This was written by Christine Finn who has also written a book on the Silicon Valley from an archaeologist's perspective. She spoke at VCF 4.0 and will probably be at VCF 5.0 doing a book signing if it releases on time. The book is a really great read and focuses on the Silicon Valley beyond just talking about it's amazing high tech culture. Look for it this fall, called Artefacts: The Material Culture of the Silicon Valley. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

24 years, 7 months

(Fwd) Mother lode of donations in NJ

by lgwalker＠look.ca

This was on the Mac Evangelist. Anyone qualifies, respond to original post, not me. larry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [FYI] Macs to Donate From: "Steve Chambers" <schambers(a)sarnoff.com> Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 03:09:06 +1000 Folks, A while back I had posted a message here about some Macs that my company (Sarnoff Corp.) can donate to any registered non-profit organization. The person who was responsible for arranging for the physical transfer never followed up with the contacts I provided him. That person isn't with the company any more and I can now proceed with this donation. So if there are interested parties out there: 1. you MUST be in the local area (Princeton NJ) because you are picking this stuff up yourself 2. you MUST be a registered non-profit organization and be able to provide proof of that to me 3. You need to arrange pickup of the equipment ASAP. Preference will be given to people who can pick up the equipment the week of April 23-27. You will need a 12-foot u-haul (or equiv, perhaps larger) for all the equipment we have. We will bring it to our loading dock but it is up to you to get it in the truck. Below is a partial list of equipment to donate: a number of working and non working 6100/7100/8100/7500/8500 Macs. A few older ones as well. A number of PowerBooks in the 100 series. Several monitors of the 17" and 21" variety, all working as well as a couple of smaller ones. Note that there are not as many monitors as Macs by half. 3-4 Laserwriter-II printers all (presumably) in working order. A boatload of cables, keyboards, mice, transceivers, phonenet connectors, batteries, PowerBook ac adapters and the like to go with the aforementioned computers. *PLUS* A _Large_ inventory of Apple Service Parts to repair printers, desktop Macs and PowerBooks. All working Macs have an OS on them but nothing else. The OS is the one that was on it when it was last used and all that was done was our software and settings were removed, so the OS on these Macs is probably not complete, but is sufficient to boot the Mac. There is a *LOT* of stuff here folks. There also is the possibility that some more CPUs and monitors will come available at a later date. Please respond via email only (no calls please) with some info on your organization and how soon you can take this off our hands. On a personal note, I recently experienced a hard drive crash and have lost the email addresses of the people who have responded to the previous requests. So if you have contacted me before about this do so again as I don't have the contact info any more! cheers! Steve -- Steve Chambers, Systems Analyst Apple Certified Macintosh Technician Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet (MCP+I) Sarnoff Corporation Reply to: lgwalker(a)look.ca

24 years, 7 months

Sparc 2, HP730's and Decstation 5000/'s ...

by KenzieM＠sympatico.ca

" We still have Sparc Station 2, HP730's and Decstation 5000/'s colour and mono X-terms. The sale is over and the room is closed but if you're serious, make us an offer and we can arrange to meet. " I just received this in an email. I hate having to make a first offer on machines that I'm not real familiar with. They Came form a University Physics department. What would be a fair price for these machines? What should I look for? Which one is the most interesting?

24 years, 7 months

Preventing users from loggin into a unix box

by rmeenaks＠olf.com

Hi, I have a Solaris 2.6 Ultra-10 at work and I want to prevent users from logging into my machine. I dont want to run in single-user mode. Is there a way to disable rlogin or telnet over to my machine? Ram

24 years, 7 months

Mac IIfx

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On April 22, jpero(a)sympatico.ca wrote: > Even '030/'8881 at blistering 40Mhz, full '040-25 trounces it due to > both built in cache w/ low losses and efficient CPU and FPU built in. > But that IIfx was out way earlier than '040 did. Another example, ...except for the fact that the IIfx has about a half dozen other processors in there doing all sorts of other stuff to offload that '030. It was the first Mac, for example, that could go about its business formatting a floppy disk and give its (then single-tasking) OS back to the user because the format was running on a separate processor. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 7 months

3Mb Ethernet

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 22, 14:54, Brian Chase wrote: > Under section 4 of the paper, it is explained that 3Mbps was used because > of the nature of their minicomputers. Some other sources around the web > say that the first implementation done at PARC was done in 1973. My guess > is that around that time, most minicomputers wouldn't be able to deal very > well with a firehose of data streaming in at 10Mbps. > > The IEEE 802.3 standard didn't come about until a number of years later. 1974-ish: Experimental Ethernet 3Mb/s 1980: DIX Ethernet 10Mb/s 1982: DIX Ethernet Version 2 10Mb/s 1983: IEEE 802.3 Ethernet 10Mb/s (10base5) 1985: IEEE 802.3a Thin Ethernet 10Mb/s (10base2) 1990: IEEE 802.3i 10baseT Ethernet 1995: IEEE 803.3u 100Mb/s Ethernet 100BaseTx, 100baseT4, 100baseFX 1998: IEEE 802.3z 1000Mb/s (Gigabit) Ethernet -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

24 years, 7 months

3Mb Ethernet

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 22, 15:18, ajp166 wrote: > From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > >AFAIK it is not backwards-compatible, at least in the sense that no > >10Mbps ethernet controller supports the 3Mbps data rate (at least, I've > >never seen one that does). > > Neither have I. Also Eithernet AKA 802.x was never that slow. The > 3 mb/s stuff I'd always called ARCNET. ARCnet is different, it's a proprietary system, not at all the same as the original 3Mb/s Ethernet, which is sometimes referred to as "Experimental Ethernet". BTW, ARCnet is 2.5Mb/s, not 3Mb/s. Instead of CSMA/CD access control, it uses a token-passing system, rather like Token Ring or FDDI, although it's a bus (like thick Ethernet) not a ring. Which is why its other name is Token Bus :-) The original Experimental Ethernet is very similar to 802.3 in many respects, including the topology, CSMA/CD, and several other things, but not in details like addressing, packet framing, packet length. I think it uses 75-ohm devices rather than 50-ohm, but I've never seen a live 3Mb/s system, so I can't be sure. It led directly to the DIX (DEC-Intel-Xerox) consortium's Ethernet specification, which in turn led to the 802.3 standard. If you want to read the original spec, the relevant paper is at http://www.acm.org/classics/apr96/ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

24 years, 7 months

Macintosh stuff for sale or trade

by vaxman＠qwest.net

Greetings all, I have the following Mac stuff for sale (no offer refused): 1 Macintosh II Video card Network card hard drive dual floppy case is unevenly discolored 1 Kinetics KFPS-4 ethernet to appletalk box (coax/AUI) 1 Kinetics KFPS-2 ethernet to appletalk box (AUI only) Shipping from Denver, CO 80020 clint

24 years, 7 months

3Mb Ethernet

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On April 22, Brian Chase wrote: > The IEEE 802.3 standard didn't come about until a number of years later. Oddly enough (have to toot my own horn here) when I was in my late teens/early wenties, I worked for a tiny (floated between 2-5 employees) desktop publishing and database application development firm called Princeton Desktop Systems, Inc., now based in Trenton, NJ. (see http://www.billtrak.com for what they're doing now) When I was with them, this company did everything from building custom PeeCees (the '386 had just come out) to refilling toner cartridges to producing camera-ready copy for newsletters and such. This company was founded by, and is owned & operated by, Gerald J. Clancy, Jr., the guy who chaired the IEEE 802.3 committee. A funny and cantakerous fellow, he's an absolutely brilliant programmer. Earlier in life Jerry was one of the principal developers of OS/360, and also spent some early time at Honeywell. I learned a tremendous amount from him during the 3 or so years I worked there. His "old school" computer science background affords him a depth of understanding of algorithms and data structures that no WhizBangCollegeBoyVisualBasic weenie could ever hope to achieve today. I count myself as extremly lucky for having had a mentor of such caliber. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 7 months

First Color Portable Computer?

by foxnhare＠jps.net

Gosh, you have better memory then I do! Here's my source for that quote in the display, which I have found very detailed, and it made the claim about the color bit, it could have been on the Commodore Press release for all I know of it: Current web link to the chonology: http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/ - - - - - QUOTED FROM THE DOCUMENT I USED Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers Copyright (C) 1995-96 Ken Polsson internet e-mail: ken.polsson(a)bbc.org References are indicated in [brackets], which are listed at the end of this document. A [number.number] format gives the page within that reference. ... 1983 January... o Commodore introduces the SX-64, the first color portable computer. Weight is 10.5 kg. It incorporates a 5-inch color monitor and one or two 5.25 inch floppy drive. Price is US$1600. [190.81] [349.16] [444.496] ... - - - - - - > Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:18:16 -0700 > From: "Wayne M. Smith" <wmsmith(a)earthlink.net> > Subject: First Color Portable Computer? > > I know that a lot of you dislike "which was first" > discussions, but this one has been bothering me for a > while so here goes. > > At VCF 4.0, there was a nice Commodore display with a > timeline that had an entry under "1983" stating that > the Commodore SX-64 was released as the world's "first > color portable computer." If you search the net, > you'll find a number of sites that make the same claim, > although you'll find just as many sites that say it was > first sold in 1984. -- 01000011 01001111 01001101 01001101 01001111 01000100 01001111 01010010 01000101 Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (209) 754-1363 300-14.4k bps Classic Commodore pages at: http://www.jps.net/foxnhare/commodore.html 01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01010101 01010100 01000101 01010010 01010011

24 years, 7 months

Using a 1.44MB 3.5inch floppy on an old controller

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Michael Brutman <mbbrutman(a)chartermi.net> >I know that the drive senses the media and adjusts the write >current accordingly, to get around a bug in older drive >controllers. But I'm still confused about how the drive >talks to the controller. The PCjr will still try to format >a HD disk - it will just fail. 3.5" drives have no intelligence. There are signals that result from switches that the controller monitors and interprets. The media in place and media type switches are two such cases. They can be optical or mechanical but that's not a factor. >I'm not a hardware engineer, but it would seem reasonable to >me that the controller and the drive always talk at the 250KHz >rate, because the controller can't do anything else. For >double density media this is fine, and the 1.44MB drive looks >and smells just like a real 720KB drive. However, upon using >a high density disk, commands to read and write data fail >because the drive knows it has high density media, but it is >still talking to the floppy controller at 250KHz (instead of >500KHz). The controller or the drive does do some limited things based on media sensor switch and that is why you must block the hole to make it work. Allison > >Is this correct? Or does the drive sense that it has >high density media, adjust it's data transfer rate to 500KHz, >and then fail because the controller doesn't know what's >going on? > >While we're on the topic, what do people use for archiving >copy protected disks? I've tried older versions of TeleDisk, >but it really has a hard time with Sargon III which makes me >wonder if it is working reliably on my other titles. > > >Thanks, >Mike

24 years, 7 months

Amstrad PPC640 mains adapter

by daverogers90＠hotmail.com

Hi My name is Dave from NewZealand would u please have a copy of the start up disc for the ppc640 i do have a powerpac and will scan the lable that should tell you what the workings are but if u would like me to pull it apart and scan the inside i will.

24 years, 7 months

Converting MVII to PDP-11

by dittman＠dittman.net

I have a MicroVAX II in a BA23 cabinet. I'd like to convert this to a PDP-11. I know I'll need to replace the CPU and memory and remove the GPX boards, but what else do I need to replace? The disk is an RD54 on a RQDX3 controller and the tape is a TK50 on a TQK50. I've also got a DELQA Ethernet board. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 7 months

Odd old Xerox equipment

by optimus＠canit.se

I often walk by a company dealing with artificial intelligence, who have the good taste of decorating their offices with Rietveld chairs and vintage computer equipment. Today, I happened to notice a very sexy Xerox machine. It was a black, rather fat tower with a very black front with relief stripes. On top of it sat an equally black diskdrive, its front as black the computer. I think it would fold down to reveal the actual slot. The back featured a number of very large blanking plates for graphics (I think a D15) and AUI. What kind of system was it, when was it released, what OS did it run? Can I marry it? -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. Computer programmers know how to use their hardware.

24 years, 7 months

Who collects (reads the mailing list...?) vintage computers in Quebec

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

Claude <claudew(a)sprint.ca> wrote: > Sometimes I think I may be the only vintage computer collector in > Quebec, Canada. Look on the bright side, at least the competition is slim. Some guy here locally had overheard me talking to someone else about a stash I knew of and had already contacted the organization. He went there pretending to be me and made arrangements to haul some stuff off. By coincidence I called the place later the same day as his initial visit. My contact was all confused until she realized that she was being duped by this person. I ended up telling her to let him have the first stash (old intel boxes) to which she replied she would and save the other (and better) stash for me. She let him load the junk and then gave him a piece of her mind and sent him packing. In a sense he did me a favor, saved me from having to haul the junk along with the good stuff. > When I mention I collect vintage computers, people look at me like I am > due for a trip in the "wacko wagon"... Hey, they thought the same thing of the dude who collected bottlecaps, now they wished they had picked them up off the ground themselves. > Those who feel sad for me can send me their Lisa's, TRS model IIIs and > Next boxes ;-> NeXT: You want Cube or Slab, Plain or Turbo? Mike

24 years, 7 months

FS: PDP-8/i, again

by aw288＠osfn.org

The high bidder of the PDP-8/i I had for sale has backed out. His bid was $1200, for what its worth. Anyway, a fair number of you interested people put bids in for $500. Anyone want to put another bid in? William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org

24 years, 7 months

Sun monitors for FREE!!!! (shipping and handling extra)

by vaxman＠qwest.net

I've got five Sun 16" color monitors (GDM-1604): 2 - 13W3 connector, look to work good 1 - 13W3 connector, seems to have a bad solder connection (thumping it makes the color change) 1 - 13W3 connector, no display 1 - 4 BNC, looks to work good 1 - 4 BNC to 4 BNC cable (not free, make offer) More specs: RGB fixed frequency with composite sync. I was able to get XFree86 to display on them by tweaking the numbers to get a stable display (no vsync). I bought them to get the DEC VR297 monitor off the pallet, and they will end up in a landfill if no one wants them... Location Denver, CO (80020). No offer refused. I'll take one in to work for weighing if someone asks. clint

24 years, 7 months

RFO: HP 85/Rocky Mountain BASIC replacement

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On April 20, John Ott wrote: > My HP 85 is growing long in the tooth. I want to replace it with > something more modern BUT just as reliable/dependable (e.g. doesn't > crash). I'm afraid when it does break I won't be able to find parts to > repair it. It's being used in a working research lab. I use it to > control a rack of electronic gear (e.g. frequency synthesizer, dynamic > signal analyzer, network analyzer, etc.) so I don't need anything fancy > just bullet proof and reliable. This means windows and macs are out. > > What's your opinion. If you want something just as reliable I'd stick with the HP85. Pick up a few more at hamfests or on eBay to use as spares in case you cook one. In my opinion, nothing made today can touch the stability or reliability of that platform by a longshot. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 7 months

What's a Mag Card II?

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Hell, I'd pay them twice that for it... I've wanted one of those for a loooong time... Will J _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

24 years, 7 months

SOmebody needed an SMD cable?

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

I have a couple of the 60-wire control (twisted pair) cable about three feet long. If you need the data cable, LMK, and I'll try to get one for you. I can also get *REALLY* long 60-wire cables, also. Jeff ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

24 years, 7 months

DEC PRO-300 P/OS Floppies

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Version 1.7. Looks like a complete set. Anybody want these? They are original. Reply via private e-mail. Jeff ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

24 years, 7 months

Xerox ViewPoint Font pack

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

I have a box of about 12 8" floppies, which appear to be screen fonts for ViewPoint 2.0. Anybody need these? Make me an offer . . . Jeff ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

24 years, 7 months

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test-drb April 2001