test-drb April 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

251 participants
669 discussions

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

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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.

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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.

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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

25 years, 1 month

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test-drb April 2001