test-drb September 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

200 participants
374 discussions

New computer nostalgia/history/collecting podcast . . .

by dgreelish＠mac.com

Hello everyone, what I once did in the print form, I am now starting as a "radio" show. If you are not familiar with podcasting, it is essentially an mp3 talk-show (usually). This can be downloaded to your iPod or mp3 player, or simply listened to online from the below link. All that is needed is QuickTime. http://web.mac.com/tgreelish/iWeb/ClassicComputingPodcast/Classic%20Computi… I hope my work can be an enjoyable and useful addition to the hobby/community. Thanks, David Greelish The Classic Computing Podcast classiccomputing.com The Home of Computer History Nostalgia

18 years, 2 months

360kB HH Floppy Drive

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: 360kB HH Floppy Drive > From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> > Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:08:35 -0400 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >Does anyone have an extra 360kB HH 5.25" PC-compatible floppy drive >lying around? Or maybe two? > >Peace... Sridhar Yes, a bunch. Are they rare around there? Allison

18 years, 2 months

Getting started with HP9000/200

by walkerpa＠ihug.co.nz

Tony > How much memory? My 9817 has 2 megabytes. Should be ample. > Of course the drive unit in the 9154 is very much HP custom, with a > _strange_ interface (parallel 8 bit data bus for head > positioning/control, and then the raw data lines for read/write). So no > real chance of using something else there. > > How useful is a hard drive? I know the previous owner of my 9817 ran it > from a 9122 floppy drive only. Convenience, I suppose, to eliminate disk swapping / floppy drive wear / grease problem. My 9153 continues to function, and I am religious about cleaning the floppy drive. And using new or newish floppy disks. Regards, Peter -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.9/456 - Release Date: 25-09-2006

18 years, 2 months

Commodore keyboards and PCs

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------------Original Message: Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:47:11 +0100 From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net> Subject: Re: Commodore keyboards and PCs >M H Stein wrote: >> Not to take any business away from Jim and they are a little expensive, >Erm... If you just wanted to encode switch presses to a PS/2 input, why >not just buy an el-cheapo keyboard for about ?2 from your friendly >neighbourhood computer shop and set about it? Bit better than the $100... >Gordon -------------Reply: True enough, but you don't have the look & feel or the C64 key labels & layout; I think the idea is to use a defunct C64 and use it as a keyboard for the emulator. In fact, since it's a snap to upload different conversion tables into it you could use it for several different emulators of systems using RS-232 or matrix (and probably ASCII as well) keyboards, all on the same computer; just plug in the appropriate keyboard, upload the matching table and it's just like the real thing but without the "real" hardware. Also I thought I'd mention it for the RS-232<>PC keyboard option, something I've found useful for several applications; interfacing to otherwise inaccessible systems and replacing terminal keyboards are two examples. Finally, the folks at Hagstrom have always been friendly & helpful and I thought I'd give 'em a plug :) m

18 years, 2 months

Dymo Labelwriter 330 Turbo (data)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi folks, I was wondering if anyone has any data on the Dymo Labelwriter 330 Turbo? I would like to use it with my Amiga 600, but alas Dymo haven't made a driver for it! I tried writing to them attempting to get some technical documents on the printer with no luck. Has anyone attempted to write (or written) a driver for it for retro computers? Does anyone have one and (sorry!) a PC/laptop? I nee d some kind person to intercept and retrieve the data sent from the PC to the printer when printing a blank label and a completely black label, so I can compare the data between the two. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

18 years, 2 months

RX02 Problem solved...

by gkaufman＠the-planet.org

Thanks to tremendous help from several folks I've isolated my formatting problem. Turns out to be a hardware issue with the DY1: drive. I've tried cleaning heads etc. The read/write boards are fine ( I swapped them with my Decmate I to check). So now I need a single drive for an RX02. Any idea's of a source? Many thanks! - Gary

18 years, 2 months

Fwd: [clue-tech] OT: Old equipment to give away / donate

by rtellason＠verizon.net

Found on another list... ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: [clue-tech] OT: Old equipment to give away / donate Date: Sunday 24 September 2006 03:19 pm From: "Chris N. Brown" <katanacb at comcast.net> To: "CLUE tech" <clue-tech at cluedenver.org> Sorry for the off-topic posting. I've got some old Sun and Intel-based equipment that I'd like to get rid of. I'm not sure if they are of value to anyone (if so, email me and I'll let you know what I've got) but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or information on places to dispose of it all. Things range from a Sun 17" monitor to misc peripherals to towers. I'm planning to put an ad up on, say, craigslist saying "if you want them come get them" but on the chance that no one does, was looking for some pointers on proper disposal. (recycling, donation, give 'em to Goodwill, etc). Cheers, Chris _______________________________________________ clue-tech mailing list clue-tech at cluedenver.org http://www.cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-tech ------------------------------------------------------- -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

18 years, 2 months

Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11)

by bqt＠softjar.se

Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote: >>Subject: Re: Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11) >> From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> >> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:30:40 -0700 >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, >>cctech at classiccmp.org >> >>At 7:09 AM -0400 9/19/06, Allison wrote: >> >>> > >>> >>>>Subject: Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11) >>>> From: Julian Wolfe <fireflyst at earthlink.net> >>>> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:07:49 -0500 >>>> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >>>><cctalk at classiccmp.org> >>>> >>>>As of September 30, 2006, the last PDP-11 that rolled off the line >>>>will finally be 10 years old. >>>> >>>>The PDP-11 EOL was actually September 30,1996. >>> >>>Mentec continued it and you can still buy new 11 based boards. >>> >>>Allison >> >>Is Mentec still selling them? From the last time I looked at the >>website, it looked like they were only reselling emulators instead of >>real hardware now. >> >>Still up until recently they were selling new boards. >> >> Zane > > > They may well have stopped cpu production but only recently.The only CPUs > that have been around near as long in production are: > > PDP-8 (cmos 6100 and 6120) > 1802 > Z80 Well, you can maybe still buy Quckware PDP-11 boards, so there are still new PDP-11 systems shipped. http://www.quickware.com/ Also, I'm not sure what I would call Strobe Data's Osprey systems... (http://www.strobedata.com/) But yeah, I think Mentec have stopped selling hardware. None of the CPUs mentioned above comes near the PDP-11 in longevity, even though they are long runners. The best candidate is maybe the Z80, since it's still in production and going strong. Not sure if the 1802 still is around, both the 1802 and Z80 came years after the PDP-11. The PDP-8 systems stopped manufacturing quite a while ago, and while they started before the PDP-11, I think the PDP-11 have passed them now. Johnny

18 years, 2 months

RX02 drives / RT11

by gkaufman＠the-planet.org

I'm relearning RT-11 on an 11/23 I was kindly given (thanks David!). I'm having trouble with the RX02 drives. I can boot RT11, and .format DY1: About 1/3rd of the time I get an error while formatting, this is on known good 8" SS/DD media that has been extensively tested on a CP/M system in both SD and DD modes. On media which does format fine, I get gobs of bad blocks using .initialize/badblocks DY1: The only media that seems to work fine is "real" RX02 media. Is the RX02 incapable of formatting it's own media? Is there a common hardware problem that I should look for? Filter caps? Clean the stepper motor? Many thanks. - Gary

18 years, 2 months

Getting started with HP9000/200

by walkerpa＠ihug.co.nz

Hi Tony > 1) What softwware do people recomend? HP BASIC looks reasonable, > actually, it does at least support named procedures with formal > parameters. Anything else reocmended? HP BASIC is quick to put together and powerful. The documentation is good and available (as you've seen, or got). I think the documentation was one of HP's strong points with these machines. HP Pascal gives you the speed, but you'll definitely need more memory ... > 2) How much RAM do I reasonably need. If I pulled one of the 256K cards > from the 9816 so I could add a DIO I/O card, would the machine still be > useful? My programming career started with HP9816s' with only the 256K on-board RAM; that was using Basic 2 originally, then Basic 3. And we got by - the company didn't want to spend any more than it had too! That was in civil engineering & construction where we were able to put together costing, critical path planning, and some envelope & pre-stress design software. Whilst it is certainly constraining, so you'll probably be ok with one add-on RAM card for a lot of things. Later on, I got involved with a land surveying package, which besides being able to do a multitude of cadastral calculations, included a fairly comprehensive CAD facility. That definitely needed more RAM, and was standardised with a 1MB add-on card. For all above software, the only IO we did was RS232 for HPGL plotting, so only needed the built-in port. > 3) I've been reading the 9836 service manual [2]. I makes reference to > the 'Developer's Documentation' or some such, which apparently contains > information for people who want to design DIO cards and/or port OS's to > the machines. Does anyone have this (it's not on bitsavers or the > Australian museum that I can see). It certainly sounds like something I > should read if I can. Haven't seen or heard of this. > 4) Anything elase I need, or should keep an active lookout for? Probably 913x/915x spare hard drives, unless you're able to get the drives at http://www.bering.com/main.htm Regards, Peter Walker --HP9000/200 tinkerer, and still looking for Pascal 3.1! -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.8/455 - Release Date: 22-09-2006

18 years, 2 months

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test-drb September 2006