test-drb April 2004

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

248 participants
481 discussions

IBM Engineers, subject turned into field service practices

by mpokorni2000＠yahoo.com

Isn't that where term 'board swappers' comes from? When I was looking for a job in Vancouver, B.C., back in 1976, I was told that Digital's (DEC) recently enacted policy was not to train service personel, they just sent them to customer site and serviceman was on his own. Rational was that few months after they finish training, CDC would hire them out. A year after that, I have seen one of those Digital servicemen trying to fix a PDP11 and that cofirmed the rumour.

20 years, 3 months

USPTO computer patent index

by hansp＠citem.org

A new resource : http://www.citem.org/Patents/Computers The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) maintains a giant database of patents dating back to the early 1800's. Patents issued after 1975 are stored as full text and are searchable. All earlier patents are available only as TIFF images and can be recovered only by knowing the patent number or by an arduous search system based on an unobvious (hence patentable ?) classification system. The data in these early patents is of immense interest to anyone interested in early computer history and I took it upon myself to begin indexing the computer related patents. My index currently holds 880 listings and many names familiar to the computer history buff can be found; though many remain to be discovered. There is a mass of fascinating documents to browse through. I have seen patents running to almost 1000 pages (check out patent number 3400371 issued exactly 40 years ago today) The complete index is downloaded as a single HTML page and I use JavaScript to provide searching, sorting and statistical functions. For those who cannot, or do not want to, enable Javascript, I will be implementing those features as PHP code in the near future. I will also set up a discussion forum so that as you discover interesting bits you can transmit them on to others. Many patents relate directly to actual commercial machines (see the one listed above) but rarely name those machines. It will be useful to know the relationship between patents and actual systems. As always your comments, suggestions and help are welcome. Best regards, -- HansP

20 years, 3 months

OT: mail server

by cb＠mythtech.net

>I still think we should make it legal to hunt spammers down with shotguns >(or RPGs for that matter). Maybe we can have Spam Season, open from July >1 through June 30 of the following year. > >Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting Spammas! I do like AOL's recent giveaway. They are giving away the BMW that belongs to a spammer that just successfully sued. They are doing a random drawing of all AOL members, someone gets the car. I guess if it isn't legal to post his head on a spike in front of AOL headquarters as a warning to all other spammers, giving away his car is the next best thing? -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 3 months

IBM 360 turns 40 today

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf(a)siconic.com> > >On Wed, 7 Apr 2004, Tony Duell wrote: > >> One thing puzzles me. What's so significant about 40 years? >> >> Why wasn't there a similar message on this list 8 years ago, saying that >> the 360 was 32 years old -- a nice round number ? > >Because 8 years ago this hobby was at a level that is a small fraction of >its current state. Way more people are cognizant today of the importance >of celebrating computer history than 8 years ago. > >-- > >Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Hi Sellam You missed the point, 40 is base 10, 32 is base 2. Dwight

20 years, 3 months

OT: mail server

by cb＠mythtech.net

This is actually off topic, but I can bring it on topic if I do this right (see further on). My mail server's hard drive has developed bad blocks. I could fix it, or I could take this as the sign that I need to get off my butt and move to a more advanced product. I'm currently running SIMS on an old Mac (eh eh, on topic!). But it lacks a key feature that I want... content filtering so I can block certain kinds of email. What do others recommend as a decent mail server that can handle content filtering, multiple domains, POP access, and is free or darn near it. And for the on topic nudge, I would like to be able to run it either on an old Mac (probably not possible), or on mac68k NetBSD (so I can still use my old Macs). Although I am not hard core on platform or OS, that's just a "I'd like" option. A web mail component would also be a nice thing if available. I'm looking into Postfix or qmail, but I've only just started the research, so I figured I'd see what others are using or recommend. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 3 months

IBM System/32 availabe in Spokane, Washington

by vcf＠siconic.com

A nice lady in Spokane, Washington has a nice IBM System/32 (working) with complete reference manual library and software that she would like to go to a good home. If interested, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with said nice lady. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

20 years, 3 months

Z80 disassembler for Linux

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "der Mouse" <mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca> > >> A disassembler includes comments, selecting data types, labeling >> branching and entry points and statistical cross referencing ( >> usually as comments in code ). This is often an interactive process. > >Try the disassembler I posted a link to a bit earlier today. (To save >bother: ftp.rodents.montreal.qc.ca:/mouse/disas/src/.) > >It's pretty close to a disassembler in this sense. (It doesn't do >"statistical cross referencing", whatever that is, but a text-save plus >a little sed/awk groveling could probably get it.) I wrote it >specifically to help people figure out what binaries of unknown >provenance were *really* doing. Hi When trying to figure is an entry lable in code is a main routine of just part of a conditional structure, it is nice to know how many time that location was references. If space permits, knowing the addresses that reference that location can help a lot as well. "statistical cross referencing" simply means keeping counts of the number of time a locating is referenced. Dwight

20 years, 3 months

IBM 360 turns 40 today

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Ben I ment a even power of 2. sorry for the confusion. The post about the packed decimal is actually quite correct. Most banks don't like binary and the really don't like floating point binary. Dwight >From: "ben franchuk" <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> >Vintage Computer Festival wrote: > >> Er, I think (or at least interpreted) Tony's point to be why we are >> celebrating this now at 40 (i.e. base 10) when 32 (base 2) is so much >> nerdier? > >How the heck do you get 32 from base 2? >Ben. > >

20 years, 3 months

mail server

by cb＠mythtech.net

>My setup with postfix, amavisd-new, and spamassassin works great. I run it >under Linux Fedora Core 1. I'm not sure if you can get it to work under >NetBSD or not. I don't have to stay with NetBSD, I just have a little more experience with it then with Linux or any other *nix. But generally, I learn more of an OS when I find a reason to use it (I only learned NetBSD because I had to replace Quid Pro Quo as my web server, and decided to go with Apache... and Dave on this list had previously peaked my interest in NetBSD on old Macs... since Apache ran on it, that was all the excuse I needed... if I need to learn a new OS to run a mail server that will fit my needs, then I will do so). Although I know Postfix is available for mac68k NetBSD... I just don't know about amavisd or spamassassin... but I would think as long as it works with any version of NetBSD, and I can get the source, I should be able to compile it for mac68k. Thanks! -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 3 months

IBM System/32 availabe in Spokane, Washington

by mross666＠hotmail.com

> > A nice lady in Spokane, Washington has a nice IBM System/32 (working) >with > > complete reference manual library and software that she would like to go > > to a good home. > > > > If interested, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with said >nice > > lady. > >That is a pretty rare machine. Someone get it. I'm on it, it will be saved. I'll have to have it shipped - Spokane is within easy range for me (NY) to drive and pick up a /360, but just a little too far for a /32 :-) Wierd this just showed up - I just picked up a System/32 from Canada last week, in *very* different condition... beware the possums! - http://www.corestore.org/32.htm William, perhaps we should do a joint 'Corestore - Federal Signal & Ironworks' IBM Midrange exhibit for VCF-East? You bring the S/3, I'll bring S/32, S/34, S/36, and S/38? I warned Sellam to reinforce the floors ;-) Mike _________________________________________________________________ MSN Toolbar provides one-click access to Hotmail from any Web page – FREE download! http://toolbar.msn.com/go/onm00200413ave/direct/01/

20 years, 3 months

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test-drb April 2004