test-drb March 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

291 participants
840 discussions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 4 2005, 21:54, Jules Richardson wrote: > On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 21:01 +0000, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > On Mar 4 2005, 10:56, Dwight K. Elvey wrote: > > > > > I think many don't realize the damage that can happen > > > when the group becomes a "Please fix my PC" group. > > > I watched this happen to a news group that had too many > > > people that tolerated such off topic post. From Jim's own > > > words, he thought that this was a general computer > > > group.> [ snip ] > > > > FWIW, I'm in complete agreement with Dwight, and well remember the > > newsgroup he means, having used it from 1994 until its eventual demise. > > Actually, it's still there - but has become an alt.fix.my.pc group. > > Not alt.comp.homebuilt? I think I looked there a while ago and gave up > when I saw how many PC posts there were. Actually it's alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt, and it started as a group for people interested in building or modifying hardware in the sense of using a soldering iron or perhaps VHDL, but gradually newbies started appearing and asking about PCs they had "built" in the sense of sticking their ISA cards on a new motherboard. At first they got politely asked to try elsewhere, but quite quickly, first one or two, then more, other newbies started saying "well, it was a polite question, with a simple answer, so why not just answer it?" and in quite a short space of time the please-help-me-fix-my-PC brigade outnumbered the on-topic posters by 100:1. Various solutions were tried but too late and all failed; eventually all the regulars moved elsewhere. Some started a new group called comp.arch.hobbyist; maybe not the best choice of name. It gets about one post a week. On a good week. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

19 years, 4 months

test

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

test -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

19 years, 4 months

Free Stuff (location specified now)

by Saquinn624＠aol.com

I'm in Renton, WA (Southeast of Seattle) so, unfortunately, it's probably uneconomical to ship to der Mouse. -Scott Quinn

19 years, 4 months

Age

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Well, I'm about to be 43, born June 21 1962 (exactly a year older than one of the other posters recently...). I first encountered Personal Computers in 1978 at a Star Trek Convention where I poured $20.00 into a .50 a game Star Trek Game hosted on a TRS-80 Model I. I asked the author for his address so I could buy a copy, but I guess he thought that a 17yo kid would never buy a $1000 computer. By January 1979, I was the proud owner of a TRS-80 Model I, Level I, 16k computer. The Manager of the store said I didn't need Level II. Turns out he was having problems moving Level I machines, and was stuck with this one.. LOL! Shortly thereafter, I upgraded to Level II and went to work for Radio Shack. I bought an expansion interface in 1980 and I think I have the singular honor of being the only person I know whose warranty was voided BEFORE I took the E/I home. Being that I worked in the store, I took it home BEFORE I had finished paying the layaway, installed the 32k of RAM I had bought mail-order, tested it... And brought the unit BACK to the store. I bought my first Floppy drive for $321.00 which was an MPI drive that ejected floppies like a toaster. We never got that drive to run... I then got a Wangtek Flippy Drive (Two sided by turning the floppy over, it had two sets of sector hole and write protect sensors) and a Percom Doubler. I worked for an LNW Dealer in NYC (Stoney Clove Computers) and coveted an LNW Model I for some time. I also worked for Lawrence S. Epstein Assoc. and sold Corvus Hard Drives for the Model I/II/III, etc... I almost bought a ZX-80 instead of the Flippy Drive at the Trenton Computer Festival in 1980... Over the years I've owned just about every American Micro Computer: Atari 400/800, Atari ST, Amiga 1000/500, Apple IIe, IIgs, IIc, Laser 128/128ex, MacPlus, Duo 230, PB 1400, Wallstreet G3, PowerComputing Power Center 132, Power 100, ZX-81 (built in an hour from the kit), TS1000, TS 1500, TS2068, ZX-Spectrum (American Prototype), Coco I, II & III, All sorts of PC Clones starting with an American XT (8mhz Turbo V20) and currently with a self-built P4 3.2ghz. I worked for Zebra Systems and Spectrum Projects and developed a lot of products for the Timex/Sinclair and Color Computer Community... At Zebra, I used and fell in love with an Imsai 8080 upgraded with a Z-80 board. I did a lot of "typesetting" with a program called "FancyFont" on CP/M using an FX-80 printer and eventually a Laserjet 500. I also co-authored the Coco Greeting Card Designer while at Zebra and worked on the SC-01 Votrax Speech Synthesiser implementation on the ZX-81/TS1000 and the TS-2068. Two of the dream computers I'd like to own is an Imsai and an LNW-80 Model II. I ran several BBS's in the mid 80's: Rainbow Magazine BBS (5 lines), Omni*Net BBS, Outpost-80 BBS, Computer Concepts BBS, Zebra Systems BBS using mostly TBBS on TRS-80's. I helped develop a fork of Connection-80 BBS in NYC called "Nybbles 80" BBS with Paul Oves and Stoney Clove Computers. I added threaded messaging, passwords, and color... I was a Novell CNE from 1989 - 1996 (I never upgraded to 4.0 and above). Today, I am a network engineer supporting MacOS X Servers... I can't imaging my life before I had computers in it... I still have my TRS-80 Model I which has been heavily modified using the TRS-80 and Other Mysteries Book by Dennis Kitsz. It has Lowercase, High Speed Mod, Alpha Joystick built in, Reset Switch, Internal speaker and Amp, Composite Video Out, better keyboard with keypad... It's not working right now, it won't recognize either of my E/I's. It was stolen twice and recovered due to all the mods. It was easily identifiable, and I got lucky to get it back twice when stolen. I just bought a Mac Mini to add to my collection, and am selling my G4 500 on eBay to fund it... I put $50 into the coupon for an AmigaONE, and may be getting one of those this year too. That's it! Al __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo

19 years, 4 months

Windows LFN's (HP NewWave)

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just found the following snippet in a 1990 document (someone's review of a GUI show which they'd attended). Just struck me as interesting in that I never knew there was an alternative to 8.3 filenames in the DOS/Windows world prior to Win95, nor have I ever heard of HP NewWave before... Apparently also included macros/activity recording, associations between data and application (e.g. double-click on a spreadsheet file and it opens in the spreadsheet app etc.), and context-sensitive help. Sounds like a winner, only I've never even heard of it... Apologies to the original author (who almost certainly isn't on this list!) for the cut & paste! (I do like that first line :-) ------- NewWave is a 'front end' to MSWindows to make them useable. It provides a Filer facility which tarts up the MS-DOS filing system to enable 30 character filenames with no obvious character set limitations (ie it'll accept a space in the filename) and a framework to interchange and combine multiple data types into one document. This framework manages dynamic links between the document and the original object which is contained in the document such that when the document is reconstructed any changes to, say the spreadsheet data, get reflected in, say, the report. Parts of foreign objects can also be imported with the same results, eg a few rows and columns of a spreadsheet can be imported to a word processed document.

19 years, 4 months

Calling PDP8 / OS8 /basic gurus!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 6 2005, 12:26, Tom Jennings wrote: > On Sat, 5 Mar 2005, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > > On Mar 5 2005, 10:06, Ron Hudson wrote: > >> I am running OS8 on a pdp8 simulator in my iBook. > > > >> it prints out the header, then prints > >> > >> ME 10 > >> > >> Well, it's a very simple BASIC statement, did I get > >> it wrong? (or is the simulate broken?) > > > The statement is fine, the program as a whole isn't. "ME" means > > "Missing END". > > > There's a way to coerce the BASIC interpreter to not need the > missing END statement. Change the program to read: > > > 10 PRINT "ME 10" > > Then there would be no problem. > > You're welcome. Invoice for services in the mail, NET 30. LOL! Yes, that'll produce the expected result! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

19 years, 4 months

picking locks

by cb＠mythtech.net

> Now that is weird. I read somewhere (or saw a survival show) that EVERYONE >should carry a center punch in their cars just in case you car gets >submerged in water. Use the center punch on you side windows to get out, >otherwise it would be impossible to open the door.... Although I can't dispute this idea, I've been curious exactly how hard it really would be to open a car door under water. You have air pressure inside the car trying to escape, and although the door would be slow, it shouldn't cease to open. But I admit, that is one of the few car accident scenarios in which I have not trained. (We don't really have deep enough water in my covered towns to be an issue... although we did have a car in a swimming pool not too long ago, but that was a first for us... a drunk guy drove down someone's driveway instead of the on ramp to the highway... when we got there, he still couldn't figure out where the highway was... and what a swimming pool was doing blocking the road.) I do laugh at those emergency tools that are now being sold for car owners (that thing that looks like a mutant hammer, it has a center punch, a seat belt cutter, and I'm not sure what else on it). With all the accidents I've seen, any that a person would have a need to use such a tool, they are either not in a position to use the tool, or not in a condition to use the tool (kind of hard to cut your seat belt if you are unconscious with the dashboard in your lap) Personally, I see those as just another sucker product. My same feeling would apply to anyone carrying a center punch specifically to break the window if you drive into water. How many times in the past HAVE you driven into water, and when you did, what was your condition at the time, and where was the location of the punch relative to you, and how long would it take you to get to it vs how much time do you have to escape. All in all, its kind of silly, because the only time you will need it, you likely won't be able to use it. (I carry one not for my benefit, but for that of others... mine is in my med kit in my trunk, so I couldn't access it for myself even if I wanted to) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

19 years, 4 months

FTGH: DEC H3104 serial line multiplexer breakout box & cable

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

Hi list, I have the above, plus its BC15D-25 cable here if anybody wants it. It goes from a Centronics-style connector to 8 MMJ sockets. I don't know which multiplexer it's for. Free, you pay shipping or collect. Contact me off-list if you're interested. Regards, Ed.

19 years, 4 months

Calling PDP8 / OS8 /basic gurus!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 5 2005, 10:06, Ron Hudson wrote: > I am running OS8 on a pdp8 simulator in my iBook. > it prints out the header, then prints > > ME 10 > > Well, it's a very simple BASIC statement, did I get > it wrong? (or is the simulate broken?) The statement is fine, the program as a whole isn't. "ME" means "Missing END". -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

19 years, 4 months

SGI Video Creator?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Anybody know where I can get a GOOD description of the (standalone) SGI Video Creator? I found lots of hits on Google but no real detail. Joe

19 years, 4 months

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test-drb March 2005