test-drb March 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

233 participants
501 discussions

New Big Iron Acquisition - IBM Tabulating Equipment

by tony.eros＠machm.org

The Museum of Business History and Technology in Wilmington, DE is proud to announce the arrival of its latest little bundles of joy, an IBM 405 Accounting Machine and an IBM 513 Reproducing Punch. The 405 weighed in at a hefty 1000 lbs, while the 513 is a relatively svelte 400 or so. Pictures of the blessed event are available: http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul01.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul02.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul03.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul04.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul05.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul06.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul07.jpg http://www.ddmx.net/ibm405/ibmHaul08.jpg Birth announcement euphamisms aside, this was a pretty cool find. The systems came with 405 & 513 schematics -- blueprints, really; 405 & 513 service records and a 513 CE guide. The 405 also has five programmed plugboards (the system was originally owned by a liquor distributor in Madison, WI) with various sales reports, as well as a blank board. Both machines are in very rough condition, as you can see from the pictures. As it turns out, I spoke to a guy in Green Bay a while back (prompted by a mail list posting) whose brother was selling some property. On the property was a barn; and in the barn was, you guessed it, old IBM tabulating equipment. The plugboards even had hay on them! On the other hand, the wiring bundles actually look pretty un-nibbled by various critters, so go figure... What's next? Any retired IBM customer engineers out there with an interest in helping to restore these machines? Restoring the 405 looks to be an enormous task, but with a very high coolness factor. Does anyone know of another organization that has restored one of these?

18 years, 10 months

CatWeasel card (was: I guess I should have asked this before asking for a 5.25" floppy drive)

by CCTalk＠catcorner.org

> -----Original Message----- > From: Richard [mailto:legalize at xmission.com] > Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 6:51 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: CatWeasel card (was: I guess I should have asked this before > asking for a 5.25" floppy drive) > > > > In article <200603081539070889.3835C414 at 10.0.0.252>, > "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes: > > > Not written with plain old PC hardware, unless you count > the lash-up using > > the PC parallel port. The more conventional way to do this > is with a > > CopyIIPC option card, a Catweasel card or a MatchPoint card. > > If someone has a CatWeasel card they'd like to sell, I'd love one. > They're not currently being made (despite that the web site says it > would be available "Spring 2005") and I have need of one on a > semi-regular basis! > -- Where did you hear that they were not being made? I was able to purchase a brand new one from softhut.com in January. It was shipped over in a new batch then. Kelly

18 years, 10 months

CP/M sysgen question

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Sysgen neither copies nor doesn't copy any specific components. Basically, the DR standard Sysgen for CP/M 2.2 copies the contents of the first two tracks (52 sectors of 128-bytes each) to and from a buffer at 900H. It doesn't know or care what components are present in those tracks, it just does a blind copy: 52 sectors (128 bytes per sector, two tracks of 26 sectors each) to and from memory at address 900 hex. [This address was different [lower] in some earlier versions of CP/M]. Now that was the standard Digital Research SYSGEN. If you are dealing with an OEM system or any system that used any flavor of 5.25" media, then all bets are off. In such systems the entire methodology for system generation, booting and copying the boot code were entirely up to the OEM and could be extremely different from the DR standard (which was both simplistic and quite restrictive). On my own implementations for the Z-100, I put the OS and the BIOS onto the data area as files OS.SYS and BIOS.SYS (which did not have to be either contiguous or located in special areas). (For MP/M-86, the OS consisted of about a half-dozen different modules.) What I put into the system tracks was an OS loader program that could actually read files using the directory and FCBs. And for writing and copying that, I created a program called "WRITLDR" (write loader). The loader had a CP/M-like boot sector and bios of it's own, but since the loader itself was relatively small, the loader's bios could be relatively huge, allowing for the complexity required to deal with systems with a large number of bootable disk formats.

18 years, 10 months

Do not use hammer. :) (fwd)

by bpope＠wordstock.com

This was posted a few days ago on the TI-99/4A mailing list. I thought a few people on here might get a laugh out of it! :) Cheers, Bryan > > I found this, supposedly from an IBM manual. > > "All parts should go together without forcing. You > must remember that the parts you are reassembling were > disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them > together again, there must be a reason. By all means, > do not use hammer." > > -- IBM maintenance manual, 1975 > > Now what was the line from the TI Disk Memory System > controller manual? Something like "You can break off > this tab. Then you can throw away the card." > > It was something like that in the original manual I > had, > in the section on installing the card in the PEB. > > Whatever happened to a bit of dry humor in computer > hardware manuals? :) >

18 years, 10 months

Where's this from?

by cclist＠sydex.com

This has got to be a gag, but what's its origin? http://subjunctive.net/images/2004/rand-home-computer.jpg

18 years, 10 months

archival cd-r - really true?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> > >Barry Watzman wrote: >> On recordable CDs, the data is on the label side and scratches can remove >> the data. On DVDs, the data is inside the media, between two layers of >> plastic. Scratches cannot permanently destroy the data proper as they can >> with CDs. The risk is that DVDs can delaminate, which will destroy them. >> Also, air getting in between the two plastic layers laminated together (with >> the data between them) can destroy the data by oxidizing the dye layer. >> This form of failure occurs from the outside in. > >I've certainly seem the same thing on data (rather than video) laserdiscs too, >although on 20 year old discs the damage doesn't seem to extend in more than a >centimetre or so. > >> I don't buy the "spiral track" argument that was made against optical media. >> These are "random access" media, not sequential access. > >Don't the drives work by some sort of successive approximation when seeking? >So in theory, sprial recording or not, an error could affect a fairly large >chunk of the disc... I have a vague memory of reading something like that once >somewhere. > Hi For files, I believe it gets the location from the directory and then calculates about how many tracks to skip. Once there it looks for the headers ( just like soft sectored ). I don't think it spends too much time doing this. Even not knowing the track spacing, a couple of header reads on a few tracks would determine the rate of change relative to the disk diameter. It is relatively easy to calculate the data block location from that ( linear equation ). No need to do a truly random search unless one doesn't know the byte/bit offset into the disk. Dwight >cheers > >Jules >

18 years, 10 months

Z-100, was Re: Heathkit H8 (new unbuilt) on ebay

by marvin＠rain.org

I think I have several Z-100s, and one of them was given to me by someone who was moving out of town. In checking it out, it had a Pickles & Trout S-100 board in it (HPIB I think.) The docs didn't have any info on this board, so I called Dana Trout to ask him what this thing was. He was a bit puzzled for a bit because it didn't have a serial number on it and all of their boards were serialized. As the pieces came together, it turned out he gave this computer to the person who gave it to me with the understanding he would never see it again :). > > The Z-100/H-100? That wasn't much of a "clone", was it? So many > > differences from the original! > > > > Cheers, > > Chuck > > Yes, and so much cooler!!! Love my Z-100! CP/M-86 rocks! > > Glen > 0/0 >

18 years, 10 months

SPAM-LOW: Re: New Big Iron Acquisition - IBM Tabulating Equipment

by tony.eros＠machm.org

Those are the systems -- Larry's brother was the guy with the barn. -- Tony ---------------------------------------- Return-Path: <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> Wed Mar 15 09:50:43 2006 Received: from dewey.classiccmp.org [209.145.140.57] by mail34.safesecureweb.com with SMTP; Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:50:43 -0500 Received: from dewey.classiccmp.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dewey.classiccmp.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k2FErBx0070946; Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:53:12 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org) Received: from keith.ezwind.net (keith.ezwind.net [209.145.140.15]) by dewey.classiccmp.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k2FEr7Nu070940 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:53:07 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from jfoust at threedee.com) Received: from pc.threedee.com (mail.threedee.com [66.84.209.228]) by keith.ezwind.net (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k2FF1IJ1016254 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:01:18 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from jfoust at threedee.com) Received: from gerber.threedee.com (gerber [192.168.5.21]) by pc.threedee.com (8.11.0/8.11.0) with ESMTP id k2FF2BW27432 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:02:11 -0600 Message-Id: <6.2.3.4.2.20060315083259.04ce80a8 at mail> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.3.4 Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:48:46 -0600 To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> From: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> In-Reply-To: <53eb31c8211149c98e76b7bac20c1023 at machm.org> References: <53eb31c8211149c98e76b7bac20c1023 at machm.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-6BB17CA6 X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 0.86.2, clamav-milter version 0.86 on keith.ezwind.net X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=4.0 tests=none autolearn=failed version=3.0.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.2 (2004-11-16) on keith.ezwind.net Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: New Big Iron Acquisition - IBM Tabulating Equipment X-BeenThere: cctalk at classiccmp.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> List-Id: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk.classiccmp.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk>, <mailto:cctalk-request at classiccmp.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk> List-Post: <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org> List-Help: <mailto:cctalk-request at classiccmp.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk>, <mailto:cctalk-request at classiccmp.org?subject=subscribe> Sender: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org Errors-To: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org X-SmarterMail-Spam: BAYESIAN FILTERING, SPF_None X-Rcpt-To: <tony.eros at machm.org> At 07:19 AM 3/15/2006, Anthony L.Eros wrote: >Does anyone know of another organization that has restored one of these? There was an April post by Evan regarding a rescue from a Larry Metzler of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who had an IBM 513 reproducer and a 405 accounting machine. For a moment, I thought Sellam was helping to acquire it to the CHM. Is this that system? Or a different one? Sadly, it looks so corroded that it will never tabulate again... When it comes to barns in this part of the country, just because it's not getting rained on doesn't mean it's not going to rust. - John

18 years, 10 months

Telling (MS)DOS about a second floppy drive...

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Re: > >Assuming that the FDC will work with two (I've never heard of an FDC that >won't?) > Some late-model Asus motherboards support only a single floppy drive, period, no way around it. An example is my Asus P4T533 ... one floppy drive, neither hardware nor software support for a 2nd one. Stupid. Incredibly stupid, but that's what they did.

18 years, 10 months

FA: Synertek KTM-2 & KTM-2/80 Term Reference Manual

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Ebay Item number: 8777670955

18 years, 10 months

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test-drb March 2006