----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoffrey Thomas" <geoffreythomas(a)onetel.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: Insect Conductivity - language?
> Me , I want to know what the ants said in reply. Translation anyone -
> looking for a babel fish.........
> I was up on the scaffolding outside my house today (we're having some
> cladding fitted ) fitting up my uhf aerial in a higher position when a
> squadron of flying ants descended on everything - from the park at the
back
> of the house. I'm afraid I outdid Sellam , and ,statistically speaking ,
you
> wouldn't expect that many ants to be illegitimate. They wouldn't go away
so
> I had to come inside , it's a bit dangerous when you're up high and ants
are
> exploring every part of your anatomy ; I've just had a shower and two came
> out of my hair- silly little buggers.
> What's this got to do with fucking computers anyway ? ...................
> Geoff.
>
Having decided to enter the debate I thought I might try out a bit of
allusion alongside an expletive - as above . I must say that I find it
distinctly uncomfortable to see the last line in print. I think I belong to
the school that believes that swearing is an art form ( not ark B ) and if
it is used indiscriminately it loses it's impact. I think this is true of
most things in life . I find that the allusion is a lot funnier as ,
obviously, it leaves the reader to visualise the word and the "scene" for
him/her/self. (P.C.)This is a bit like radio as opposed to tv , I suppose.
Swearing , in a conversational context, is probably easier to get away with
as you have inflexion, intonation etc. to convey meaning and any humour.
This is why it looks so bad in print , I think. I thought the beginning of "
Four weddings and a funeral " was poor in this respect -poor acting?- but
perhaps it's a generation gap effect. I certainly have no objections to
anyone writing such in an email , I merely express my own mild discomfort at
seeing my own word in print. I don't believe in any form of organised
religion with a deity , in case anyone is wondering. The only person I know
who has a magic wand is Sooty !
Izzy Wizzy .....................
Geoff.
I was walking out of the supermarket the other day with my corn and sour
cream and noticed that they were selling a DVD compilation of all the
School House Rock videos ever made, including unreleased and never before
seen episodes. The DVD was $19.99, and they also had a VHS tape at
$12.99.
Amazon listing it for a couple bucks more:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005JKTY/qid=1091393049/sr=…
For the uninitiated, School House Rock was a series of interludes shown
during Saturday morning cartoons[1] which put learning concepts (science,
history, mathematics, language, etc.) to rock music. It started in the
mid-1970s and they were shown through to at least the mid-1980s before
they apparently got too outdated to show any more. "Scooter Computer
and Mr. Chips" was a three part series that introduced computer concepts.
Apparently there's a newly(?) produced 4th episode on the DVD.
[1] An institution amongst American children during the 1980s, now defunct
due to the supplanting over time of all the good cartoons with absolute
crap starting with cocaine-induced dreck like The Smurfs and My Little
Pony.
--
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 ]
I have posted a smattering of pictures from the first day of VCF East here - http://home.comcast.net/~msmith6020/VCF.html. I had to leave mid-afternoon on Friday and wasn't able to get a clear shot of every exhibit due to the crowd.
-W
I found a great place that has archives of many various mailing lists,
including CCTALK and CCTECH:
http://archive.netbsd.se/
Seems to be duplicates of what's on ClassicCmp.org, but the interface
seems nicer.
Doesn't ANYONE have archives going back to the beginning? Whatever
happened to the old archives? They were so nice...
--
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 ]
>From: vrs <vrs(a)msn.com>
>
>> OK. I was thinking about the microcode ROMs in an HP9810 (somethign that
>> _I_ am working on, and those are most certainly 'hit' as soon as INIT is
>> deaseserted and the microocde program counter starts to change. I prefer
>> to think of general-purpose solutions (i.e. somethign that will replace
>> every 256*4 ROM), rather than soemthing that works only in specific
>> machines under specific circumstances.
>
>I must not be getting it, somehow.
>
>Why can't you just use a 45ns or 55ns 27c256 or 27c512 and swizzle the
>pinout? These are around $3 per chip, and seem to meet the requirements.
>
> Vince
>
>
Hi
I did some searching on the web but never found any
27c256's faster than 70ns. I did find 27c512's and 27c010's
at 45ns a couple of places.
Dwight
>From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org>
>
---snip---
>
>And lastly, I'm confused about FFP. I am guessing that FFP required FP,
>which is supposed to be standard on E series. But a few lines in various
>docs make me think that perhaps older rev E series didn't have FP built in.
>Some docs mention that when ordering FFP, you can specify option -100 to get
>some additional roms, necessary for E series machines with a serial number
>less than 21XX (co-incidence on the rev number). I'm guessing that the
>additional roms are FP? The roms in question are:
Hi again
My understanding is that for the E series, the only difference
between the E and the F is the additional firmware ROMs. My
understanding is that you'd need the ROM expansion board.
I hope you are going to make some binary files of all these ROMs.
Maybe Al can make a directory to hold ROM images.
Dwight
>From: "Bob Shannon" <bshannon(a)tiac.net>
>
>
>
>Jay West wrote:
>
>><snip>
>>
>>1816-0420 No clue
>>
>
>Paper tape. This is the 'fastest' easy way to bootstrap an HP 1000.
>
>Use this with a 12566 microcircuit I/O board, and you can load a 31K word
>boot image in less than 2 seconds, faster than many stock HP disk drives.
What data source are you using? I was thinking of connecting
this board to the parallel port of my PC to make the PC look like
an external drive.
Dwight
>
>Use this boot rom with the emulator I'm building for you. I'll supply a
>cable and jumper settings for the I/O card (gnd true).
>
>
Ok, I don't know if this is possible, but it would be handy so I'll throw
the idea out and see if the more electrically inclined have any ideas.
My specific issue is the HP2100A, 2100S, and 21MX M/E/F systems. However, I
suspect this problem is present in other machines... DEC, DG, etc.
The loader roms and microcode roms (two different chips) for each system are
pretty much impossible to find. I'd like to make copies of them both for
myself to use in other systems I currently have, and also to have a set of
spares around. In addition, I'd like to make copies for other classiccmp'ers
who may have systems that want/need a particular firmware or loader rom
option. Finally, there are some roms that people have posted images for
online that I'd like to burn myself because I don't have those particular
roms.
Since the blank chips are nigh impossible to find anymore... is it possible
to use something like a PIC chip on a small DIP carrier card, that could be
plugged into an existing loader rom or microcode rom socket and function
just like the "real thing" to the system? Would this be something terribly
difficult to build? A cute twist on this.... extending the idea further....
Put a bunch of NVram or an EEprom on the little carrier card. In the NVram
could be stored multiple ROM images. Then via a switch on the card (when the
system is powered off of course), you could select if the chip was a mag
tape loader rom, or a paper tape loader rom, etc. For the microcode roms you
could switch between FFP and IOP for example. When you wanted to change the
set of rom images in the DIP package, you just hook it up to a serial port
and download to change the available sets on it.
The WCS card for HP boxes comes close to this, but there's no battery
backup, and you can't program it easily with a PC. WCS cards probably aren't
terribly easy to find anyways.
Is this a pipedream? It would allow DEC'ies to have more loader roms they
dont currently have by exchanging images via the net, etc. Not just an HP
thing - but I realize it would have to be a different design electrically to
work on the other machines. I'm thinking of a universal rom with different
electrical interfaces on the carriers perhaps?
Everyone talks about preserving ROM/PROM contents. But if the blank roms are
unobtainium, we need to take the next step.
Any thoughts?
Jay West
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
I just located a PDP 11/23 Plus that is going to be scrapped soon if no one is interested in it. I told the owners that I would check to see if there was any interest in the unit from a chat site I am part of. This is a rack mounted unit with 2 RL02 drives and several disks for the RL02 units also in the rack. It also has the air conditioning attached to the back of the rack. It is sitting outside (come rain or shine) so it may be vandalized at some point in time or the weather may get to it. The owners are interested in getting rid of it, but of course want a payment of some amount. They did not give me a number of what they wanted for it.
Is there any interest here on the board? I can go back and get more information on the item if needed. Just let me know what you'd like to know about it. I was going to get the SN, but couldn't find it.
I'm willing to work with anyone who is interested.....
Bill Machacek
Colo. Springs, CO
