test-drb February 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

293 participants
1043 discussions

BBS systems on PDP-11s (was: Original Searchlight bbs...)

by timwa＠snowgoons.fsnet.co.uk

rdd(a)rddavis.org wrote... > Were most others here sysops of BBSs at one time as well? This brings > back memories of BBSing back when I was in college Indeed... Happy days :-). I was sysop of Protocol BBS in lovely Horsham, Sussex, UK up until late 1993 or so. Frankly, Fidonet was more enjoyable than most stuff on the internet if you ask me :-). The phone bills were a killer though (I was zone gatewaying for Amiganet, between zone 1 and 4 IIRC (US and Europe, anyway,) so nightly international phone calls were fairly scary...) That ran on the Amiga - I forget the name of the software I used, although writing my own was my first big project in C, so in the latter days it ran on my homebrew "Panorama BBS" software... If I ever get to recover the Miggy it's probably all still on there... To drag slightly back on topic, before that I had been a great user of Compunet, Prestel & Telecom Gold (BT's X.25 network,) all via the good old Commodore modem for the C64... A roaring 300 baud half duplex, or breaking the sound barrier at 1200/75 full :-). I really hope that modem is still in the loft somewhere... Anyway... Re. the suggestions of a sort of classic private network, I'd love to be involved somehow. I've always wanted to do something like that with packet radio, but never got round to it... Cheers, Tim. -- Tim Walls at home in Croydon - Reply to tim(a)snowgoons.fsnet.co.uk

22 years, 10 months

No one likes Otronas?

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Well, for one thing, this guy didn't list it under classic computers category: He used 'Other Antiques' and "PC's:Other'. NG. Secondly, judging by his opening bids amounts (and the likelihood of *very* high reserves), I would say that the seller is a crack addict looking to pay for his next fix. Either that or he's on acid . . . . Jeff On Sat, 9 Feb 2002 17:04:59 -0500 "John Chris Wren" <jcwren(a)jcwren.com> writes: > Just curious if anyone has an opinion on why this didn't > move. > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2001112267 > While I > don't know what his minimum is, seems like anything in this family > should be > worth about $100 or so, based on what Kaypros and a few others go > for. He > had it up once before, and it didn't sell. > > And I'm not interested in the merits or demerits of eBay, > reputations, yada > yada yada. I just want to know what someone thinks why a classic > like this > didn't even get bid on, except by one guy (me). > > --John > > ________________________________________________________________ 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/web/.

22 years, 10 months

Classic Comp UUCP network.

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Why do it? Because it's there. We run old computers, why shouldn't some of us be into old protocols as well? [only a 1/2 ;^) here] I've been thinking I want to see what if anything of Usenet (versus NetNews, remember?) was left in the area and hook into it. The first reason that comes to mind is the way non-Bell DSL providers were dropping like flies. Add to that the ever-tightening restrictions on cablemodem terms of service. I'd just like to make sure I've got a back door that'll let me get mail in and out vs. a shell account someplace. The second reason is, admittedly, conspiracy theory type stuff -- I want to be ready to set up an ad hoc net that's a little more resistant to interception and resilient in the event of disruptions. Of course the latter means I should dust off my ham radio license and look and AMPRnet as well... The third and final reason is just because it might be fun to do. Perhaps for an unusual value of "fun" I grant you -- I do seem to rememeber having a heck of a time getting my first feed up and running and I came to the party way, way late -- 1990, as I recall, with a Telebit Trailblazer (Plus?) and a Sun 3/140... Anyway, I'm up for it. Next steps? --Steve. Steve Jones smj(a)spamfree.crash.com (think about it) Aspiring Curmudgeon old: ...!think!liable!steve Crash Computing, Inc. older: steve (at) yoyodyne.mit.edu

22 years, 10 months

What's your specialty?

by thilo.schmidt＠unix-ag.org

On 09-Feb-2002 Tothwolf wrote: > On Sat, 9 Feb 2002, Thilo Schmidt wrote: >> On 09-Feb-2002 Tothwolf wrote: >> >> > I've used a dremel tool to cut/grind away carbonized areas of boards >> > and replace it with new material or wire jumpers. >> >> Good point, when I'm at the university next week, I'll try to remove >> the charred areas around the diode. > > Well, unless you know for sure that the area is indeed carbonized, and > that is causing a problem, you should leave it alone. Usually this only > causes problems for high voltage or highly sensitive parts of circuits. Of course I don't think the charred area is responsible for the PSU failure ... it wasn't even there when it failed ;-) But it may become a problem later, so I'll check if the resistance is way below a few mega Ohms and clean it if necessary. > I imagine something else took out that diode, which is still causing your > problems with the supply. Maybe that's true, but maybe the diode was there to protect something that got damaged when the diode died. Or even worse the HP9000 got damaged... But the beast is old, there are a lot of possible points of failure inside and I don't even know how the PSU behaved when it was still operational. If I could figure out if and how the PSU interacts with the computer I could put another PSU in the case. But without that knowledge I'm stuck :-( bye -- The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..." -- Isaac Asimov

22 years, 10 months

semi ot: cardreader connected to a PC

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

This question might be somewhat OT. I'm currently making a little interface comprised of 4 TTL IC's to let my punchcard reader work with a PC (Linux). I think I have the interface made as much close as possible with regards to the signals generated by the card reader, but I need some info on the parallel port itself. I have searched the web, but not all my question are answerd with regards to the possible usage of the control and status signals. What I need to know is if all the control signals can be controlled from a program (not sure if it will be a kernel device driver or a user driver). If so, I have better control over the reader, if not, it may make the interface a bit more complicated. BTW, the program will most likely use the parallel port in EPP mode, not in ECP mode. The reader is a CR11 aka the Documentation M200, and I found the user manual with very usable schematics on www.pdp8.net. I was also fortunately to find a supplier for the connector at the back, so I didn't have to change anything of it's orginality. Thanks, Ed --

22 years, 10 months

eBay: WOW L@@K R4R3 (no, really)

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I watched it close. No Bidders. Seems to me that he doesn't want to sell them very much. He indicated they will show up individually. We shall see. Paxton Astoria, OR

22 years, 10 months

10Base-FL

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 9, 8:20, Robert Schaefer wrote: > What are all the different fiber dialects of 10Mbit ethernet? 10bFL, > 10bFOILR, any others? FOIRL (it's not called 10baseFOIRL) is Fibre Optic Inter-Repeater Link, and as the name implies was originally used to links hubs (repeaters) or bridges. One of it's chief advantages was length, FOIRL lines can be up to 1km, whereas 10base2 is limited to 185m and 10base5 to 500m. The transceivers (with AUI connectors) came a little later, and can also be used on individual machines, of course, though they're not strictly part of the standard. 10baseFL is the successor, same speed, completely backwards compatible, but enhanced range (2km). There are two other 10baseF standards. 10baseFB is for backbones, and allows more than the usual number of repeaters. It uses different signaling protocols, isn't compatible with anything else, and I've never seen any, so I assume it wasn't common. 10baseFP is mentioned in the standard as a passive method of interconnecting computers without repeaters (hubs) but I never even heard of anyone implementing it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 10 months

ANN: Altair32 version 2.20.02 Released!

by rcini＠msn.com

Hello, all: Another busy two months has resulted in version 2.20.02 of the Altair32 Emulator. There were a few bug fixes (now BASIC 3.2 works -- an uninitialized local variable, if you're interested) and with the diligent work of Scott LaBombard, we now have several workable ways of moving programs and data into and out of the CP/M OS space. Scott is also in the process of creating some pre-made "applications" disk images to go along with the "programmer's disk" that's included with the distribution. I will probably take a short vacation from working on the emulator pending some ideas for enhancements from the user community and to catch up on other projects (Z180 SBC, in-house MP3 server, a MAME cabinet, and a KIM-1 emulator for the Palm Pilot -- working name "The Kimulator"). As always, questions and comments are welcome, and here's a direct link to the project page: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Altair32.htm Enjoy! Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

22 years, 10 months

What's your specialty?

by thilo.schmidt＠unix-ag.org

On 08-Feb-2002 Tony Duell wrote: >> > > I don't have access to a "HP Apollo 725/50" because the PSU died >> > > and is beyond repair :-( >> > >> > If it uses the same PSU as a 720, I might be able to get you one very >> > cheaply. >> Thanks for the offer :-) >> I don't know if the PSU is the same, the HP P/N is 0950-2701 >> it's an ASTEC Model AA16510. >> HP wants 251$ for a new PSU (IMHO more than the machine is worth) :-( > > Why do you think the original PSU is beyond repair? Unless it's > physically broken in half or something. Most SMPSU faults can be repaired > relatively easily (at least compared to logic board problems where there > are custom chips to worry about). OK, lets say the PSU is beyond repair for me and everyone else I asked. This isn't one of those nice handfull-of-components PeeCee-PSUs. This beast is about 40*15*15cm^3 and stuffed to the limit with components, daughterboards and custom coils. Even with a schematic it would be a pain to identify all the control circuits. And I don't even know what input and output voltages are supposed to be on the connectors... :-( I'm sure it's repairable with a lot of time and many years of experience. But neither I nor my fellow students have that experience. > I'm assuming you're getting no output at all? Is the fuse OK (and if not, > did it fail violently, shattered or blackened)? Any obviously burnt > componnents on the PCB? The fuse is OK, it's not that easy. There is a charred diode, which most probably took some of the control circuits with it. We replaced the diode and the PSU starts up but shuts down again after a few seconds. There is also a resistor inside, that obviously got to hot for years (the area around is colored from the heat). Therefore I suppose this PSU isn't the perfect fit for the machine anyway. bye -- Sanity is the trademark of a weak mind. -- Mark Harrold

22 years, 10 months

eBay: WOW L@@K R4R3 (no, really)

by jss＠subatomix.com

I almost soiled my pants when I saw this. I am not affiliated with the seller. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2000676134 -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)subatomix.com

22 years, 10 months

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test-drb February 2002