test-drb May 2004

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

244 participants
500 discussions

What's the weirdest thing that you've ever found inside a computer?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> > >At 12:45 PM 5/26/04 -0700, you wrote: >>Howzbout: >>the ivy growing up through the recent Castro Valley PDP-11/40 rescue? > > Naw. That's common here in Florida. I looked at the pictures and it >didn't look like they'd been sitting out more than a couple of months by >Florida standards. I ROUTINELY find birds nest, wasp nests, plants, animal >dens and other forms of wildlife in anything that's left outside around here. > Hi Joe Although not a computer, it was in Florida. When I was there, one of my lady friends talked me into working on he old Mercedes. We when out to start looking it over. On opening the driver door, there was a large black widow spider. A few moments later we'd gotten her into a soda cup from a fast food. I next started to move some of the stuff around so I could get in and do some more looking over. This is when the largest scorpion I'd ever seen ran across my lap. Still wanting to help out, we opened the hood to see what size battery it would require. That is when the rattle snake let us know that we were in his territory. At this point I told her that a dead boy friend was not to good and that I'd only consider working on the car if she got it fumigated. Dwight

20 years, 3 months

Pressed Particle Board Shelving Warning

by rdd＠rddavis.org

In case anyone else on this list is using steel shelving with particle board shelves that's been in use for over ten years, and hasn't given the shelving a careful looking over, it may be a good idea to do so. When looking for shelving to stack lots of equipment on in the early 1990's, I purchased some shelving from Sears Roebuck & Co. that was rated at least one ton per shelf. The steel framing is very heavy, but at the time, I was a little wary of the pressed particleboard shelves themselves, but was told that they would hold the rated weight. For the past ten years, I've been quite pleased with the shelving, until now. While there's nothing extremely heavy on the shelves - e.g., one shelf contains a Canon laser printer (the square one with a CX engine), about 40 full-height 5-1/4" hard drives, an 8" floppy drive and a few other things, I noticed that some of the items on some of the shelves appear to be leaning slightly. It turns out that the boards are sagging a bit towards the center, so it's just a matter of time before things begin to go crash. Not sure how soon that might happen, but this sagging has occurred fairly quickly, or so it seems. No other space to store some of these things, so, I'm just hoping for the best until I can make other arrangements, but 3/4" oak planks, which I'd prefer to use for adding some support, have become quite expensive. Replacing the particleboard would be a major pain, since the entire shelving assembly would have to be disassembled. So... in case anyone hasn't checked their shelves carefully lately... Note: part of this is most likely as much my fault as the manufacturers', since there is some occasional dampness near the shelves, but, for years, there was no apparent problem, and no obvious rust, mildew, etc. on any of the equipment. Not much I can do about the dampness, except hope that repainting a basement stone wall with some new waterproofing paint will help things... thanks to BG&E, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., for disturbing the wall, thus causing increased water leakage during heavy rains, when they pounded heavily on the wall while lining gas pipes in the area and installing a new meter a few years ago... I should have tried the aforementioned repainting a few years ago as well. Procrastination: not just a skill, a way of life! Procrastinators Anonymous web site: http://www.rddavis.org/rdd/procrastinators.html -- Copyright (C) 2004 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such 410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.

20 years, 3 months

Beige TI99

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Hi folks, Anyone come across a beige TI99/4A before? I'd previously thought all beige machines were early TI99/4s but last week I was sent a boxed 'Texas Instruments 99/4A' that's very beige and hopefully very working....not had a chance to test it yet. In other news I'm celebrating one month at my new job; it's great to be back in a fully equipped workshop with 'scope access and loads of DEC stuff amongst other things, so once I'm settled in my new weekday flat (I come home at weekends, a nice 500 mile round trip) I'll be able to take dead machines down for repair...... -- Adrian/Witchy Owner & Webmaster, Binary Dinosaurs www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - possibly the UK's biggest online computer museum www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - ex-monthly gothic shenanigans :o(

20 years, 3 months

Wanted: M9312 ROMs

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

> I don't know what spped the M9312 PROMs are rated at but I was just > looking at my notes about the Bipolar PROMs used in the HP 1000. > They're rated at 60nS. Can you get EPROMs that are that fast? No and yes. Worst case timing for a typical 256kbit EPROM is 150ns but if you know the address will be stable at least 150ns before the data is required then the delay from /OE to valid data can be as little as 40ns. Also if you know which address lines cause the greatest delay then you can avoid switching them and operate the with a worst case delay of about 75ns. I would guess that, with care, 120ns parts could work and that 90ns parts would work in place of 60ns bipolar PROMs. Lee. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

20 years, 3 months

ftp vs http vs scp

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

I recently had a discussion with our security advisor at work, about FTP being replaced by HTTP and SCP. Some people would like to replace "insecure" FTP with "modern" services like SCP and HTTP (something along the lines of "we don't do anonymous FTP, stick the file on a web page instead"), and argue that they're safer and there's no loss of functionality. I'm not so sure. For example, FTP understands the difference between a unix-style "stream of bytes" file, and a structured one such as might be found under VMS (or any of several other OSs) -- and can deal with the difference. I don't have an easy way to test this, so I don't know if web browsers or programs like wget can do the right thing, or indeed if servers such as Apache can, or what happens with SCP -- but it occurs to me that it might matter in the context of classic computing. Anyone? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 3 months

mostly Qbus stuff - equipment

by beclassic＠att.net

Amazing what one finds by browsing. This equipment sale is in mine and Ashley Carder's back yard. The company has been around for maybe 20 years and I heard good things about their system deployment and software in the early 80's. Not aware whether any of their sale items are hard-to-find but felt the list might want to be aware of this source. http://www.macro-inc.com/DECSale.html bill bailey

20 years, 3 months

Free: Bunch of Atari 800 stuff, Washington DC area pickup

by jdaviscctalk＠soupwizard.com

Hi all: I'm clearing out my storage unit and have finally gotten tired of dragging around my Atari 800 stuff. Here's what's available free (as a lot - take it all!) in the Washington DC area (Vienna, VA specifically): 3 - Atari 800 consoles, at least 2 work 1 - Atari 810 floppy drive, works iirc 2 - Atari 1050 floppy drives, work iirc 2 - Atari 850 interfaces 1 - 3rd party modem that doesn't need an 850 1 - Atari 410 data cassette recorder in box Plus cables and power supplies for all the above, and some disks and a couple of "how to use atari dos" type books. a couple of joysticks too. Email me if you'd like to drop by and pick up this collection. I'm in Vienna, Virginia. Anytime this weekend (including Monday) would be great. Thanks, Jeff Davis

20 years, 3 months

Austrailian Computer Museum call for help

by vcf＠siconic.com

Just got this: 1. Expressions Of Interest =+= DISPERSAL of Computer Museum Collection. ========================================================================= The Australian COMPUTER MUSEUM Society Inc has been actively collecting local artefacts for the past ten years. It now has amassed a collection that has been estimated at nearly 50,000 individual items. The ACMS has recently had to relocate from its sponsored stored space at Kennards at Homebush and cannot afford to pay the commercial rents required for the 1,000 square metres that the artefacts occupy. The ACMS collection consists mainly of electronic computing items with associated media, software and documentation, plus a lot of ancillary equipment related to office automation and communications. Expressions of interest are being sought from any Regional Museum or similar organisation who could store and/or display any of our duplicated items. Most of these would be from the 1970s and 1980s and are all systems that were in use in Australia. A typical set up would be a mainframe or mini-computer style system (with flashing lights on the front), storage devices (such as disk and/or tape drives), printers and visual display units; as would have been used for corporate record keeping and business management. Smaller systems that might have been used for word-processing in a small professional office are also available. Some specialised scientific, engineering and medical application systems are also available. The ACMS is not in a position to pay for freight to distant locations (but other grants may be available for such purposes); however we may be able to assist with historical notes and possible contacts with users. Any assistance with sourcing space for our repository would also be highly appreciated. Enquiries to: John GEREMIN, Collections Officer, ACMS Inc, geremin @ iprimus . com . au Initial Responses to: John GEREMIN, Treasurer, ACMS Inc, p. o. box s - 5, HOMEBUSH SOUTH, nsw, 2140. ================================== 2. Appeal for HELP =+=+= Computer Museum REPOSITORY space needed. =================================================================== The Australian COMPUTER MUSEUM Society Inc has been actively collecting local artefacts for the past ten years. It now has amassed a collection that has been estimated at nearly 50,000 individual items, in line with its objectives of being the primary source of materials re the impacts of the computer industry for future historians and sociologists. The ACMS has recently had to relocate from its sponsored space at Kennards at Homebush and cannot afford to pay the commercial rents required for the 1,000+ square metres that the artefacts now occupy. The ACMS collection consists mainly of electronic computing items with associated media, software and documentation, plus a lot of ancillary equipment related to office automation and communications. We are looking to share storage space with other organisations - any size will be considered - from 50 square metres upwards. Main requirements are that it is relatively clean and dry (we have lived with broken windows and a leaking roof in the past). Any assistance with sourcing possible display spaces for our ever-growing collection would also be highly appreciated. Enquiries to: John GEREMIN, Collections Officer, ACMS Inc, geremin @ iprimus . com . au Initial Responses to: John GEREMIN, Treasurer, ACMS Inc, p. o. box s - 5, HOMEBUSH SOUTH, nsw, 2140. ==================================

20 years, 3 months

TI-74 manual

by rcini＠optonline.net

Hi: Does anyone have a PDF copy (or an original I can scan) of the user's manual for the TI-74 BASICalc calculator? I just lost an auction on eBay for one. Please contact me off-list if anyone has one. If someone has more than just this manual, let me know, too. Maybe I can start a small TI-74 manuals archive on my Web site. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

20 years, 3 months

Midi soundblaster direct connect?

by melamy＠earthlink.net

to add my comments, if you are concerned about compatibility, you are probably listening to a saleman that wants to sell you a USB to MIDI adapter. I walked into a music store a few months back and was asking about such things. The salesman proceeded to tell me that computers don't have midi interfaces anymore and that I would need to buy something from him. I have put together many systems over the years and I had yet to hear of a MPU401 problem and I had thought they had basically become standard because of the Creative Labs SoundBlaster. I have a ASUS 4C800 MB (800mhz FSB, 1.8G cpu, sound, & ethernet on board). I went home, checked the ASUS site and all I needed to get was a game port adapter for it to bring the midi out. That cost me around $12 on eBay, I installed it, pulled out my handy game port to midi cable adapter (same one you can get on eBay for around $18), connected up my Panasonic keyboard, and ran the software that I had bought called ("Instant Play Piano" at Costco. Everything worked perfectly... best regards, Steve Thatcher >--- Original Message --- >From: "R. D. Davis" <rdd(a)rddavis.org> >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Date: 5/28/04 7:15:01 PM > Quothe Tony Duell, from writings of Fri, May 28, 2004 at 11:20:52PM +0100: >> It's not exactly complicated, the only thing you'd need would be a spec >> of what the Soundblaster was expecting. > >Somewhere, I read that some of the newer sound cards don't match the >original Soundblaster spec properly and some of the older MIDI adapter >circuits won't work... a current related issue, IIRC. Can anyone >comment on this? > >> Raid one from an old SMPSU (they're often used in the voltage regulation >> feebcak circuit)? > >Those old PSUs are a source of many useful parts. :-) 4N35s appeared >to be rather inexpensive, so I ordered ten of them and am going to >have a go at building a couple of circuits around them for Mac and PC >MIDI interfaces. > >> It may not apply here, but I've seen cheap cables and adapters that are >> so poorly soldered that you have to completely rebuild them. In which >> case it's probably less hassle to make it yourself in the first place. > >Besides, one can modify one's circuitry at a later point in time for >whatever reason, more easily than hacking on one of those cables. > >> > Besides, by the time you add in mounting and housing, the cost for the >> > homebrew has probably at least doubled, in money and time both. >> >> I used to estimate {Cost of main components} * 3. > >All Electronics sells some inexpensive cases and connectors. Mouser >stocks much nicer connectors, but not perf board (darn that's become >expensive!) and inexpensive cases. > >> Anyway, if you just want a quick-n-dirty hack why bother to house it? >> Mount the board ont he DA15 plug or something. > >That's good for uses when cabling isn't going to get disturbed much, >but in cases where it will, I'd go with a cheap project box, >connectors, etc. > >-- >Copyright (C) 2004 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: >All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & >www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such >410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty

20 years, 3 months

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test-drb May 2004