test-drb October 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

228 participants
467 discussions

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0500 9/29/07, Dan wrote: > What about Alphaservers? Alphaserver 1000A 4/266 Alphaserver 2100A 4/275 (3 CPU's) Alpha 3000/300x Gotta find some tuits in my circular file and get VMS and distributed.net running on those. The honor of VMS is being sadly neglected in the distributed.net standings! -- - Mark, 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

16 years, 7 months

ALERT, WA State: Boeing Surplus Closing...

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

This is directed primarily at those in or near the Puget Sound region. Fellow techies, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I have learned that Boeing Surplus's retail store will be closing permanently at the end of this year. The last day for retail operations will be Friday, December 21st. This decision was revealed to the employees on July 13th. Boeing has, for unknown reasons, made no apparent effort to publicize it. The news left me in shock when I first heard. Boeing's been operating that store for at least 30 years, and it has become something of a local icon for the region. I have spoken with some contacts I still have inside the company, and have been told that the "official" word is that it was costing more to run the store than it was bringing in. I'm not at all certain I believe this -- If true, I think it would have happened a lot earlier on, and certainly with more frequency. The surplus store is cyclical, just like the manufacturing side, and I don't see how its possible that they could run into a perpetual downward trend. The excuse was also made that the volume and variety of equipment going through the retail level was falling too far off to justify maintaining the store. There is, to my mind, a simple answer for that -- Simply route more equipment through retail, rather than selling it off in bulk to the big-dollar wholesalers! This is especially true where test gear is concerned. In short: I don't believe that this is a smart move by Boeing. Quite the contrary! I think it's the dumbest stunt they've pulled since selling off their commercial avionics unit to BAE.They have a very loyal customer base, and a large core of 'regulars' for the surplus store, myself included, and I for one do not intend to let this issue simply die off without a fight. If you agree, and you want to make your voice heard on this issue, I ask that you do two things. (1) SPREAD THE WORD!!!! I have no clue why Boeing hasn't made this more public, but my speculation is that they know, full well, how loyal a following the store has and they're trying to avoid a public backlash. If that is the case, I would like nothing better than to see that plan backfire! (2) Make a POLITE contact with the office of Mr. Tim Copes, president of Boeing's Shared Services Group (they're in charge of all surplus programs, companywide), and ask that the decision to close the store be reversed. Mr. Copes' office can be contacted at: (425) 865-7501 If you wish to mail a letter, you can do so to this address: Mr. Tim Copes Boeing Shared Services Group Mailstop 6R7-01 PO Box 3707 Seattle, WA 98124 Will it work, if enough noise is made? Who knows? Honestly, I don't think there's much chance of saving the current store in its current form, given the time it has left. HOWEVER -- If enough voices are raised, it may convince the company to provide a meaningful alternative, or perhaps even open another store down the road a stretch. Thanks for reading. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

16 years, 7 months

Easily Amused...

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

On 9/29/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > How cool is this domain name? > > http://ami.ga/ It's not quite as cool as this one: http://atari.st ;) Ed.

16 years, 7 months

IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their deposit?

by robert.stek＠gmail.com

I don't think he had any bad intentions in the beginning (some 6 years ago), as I said in a related comp.os.cpm post, "Never assume malice when incompetence will suffice." But his actions over the last two years suggest a lot about his integrity now. I have now heard from four individuals (in 24 hours), two of whom paid in full in advance, with the same basic story: after politely asking for updates, we are ignored despite repeated attempts at communication - no updates, no explanation, no 'good faith' offer of partial shipment (Howard Harte's super I/O board was produced, though apparently by Howard directly), no 'good faith' offer of anything, and certainly no offer of refund. I am sure that the project has been a personal nightmare for him. It is a shame to see someone who contributed so much to the development of the microcomputer industry in its early days end up trying to sweep his recent mistakes (and our money) under the rug while still pretending to offer an IMSAI II (and other items) for sale on his website - it's not only unethical but very probably fraudulent as well. I've screwed up in my life (just ask my ex-wife!). But IMHO it's far better to admit defeat and offer whatever atonement you can, than to continue in the self-delusion that the IMSAI II will ever be built and that a bunch of 'cry-babies' (my projection, not his words) who want their money back are stopping forward progress by reducing working capital. rant := off So, any there any others out there who are willing to admit that they lost their front money? Or anyone who actually received any of his other hardware offerings? Or who received a refund? Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols >From: Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com> >Subject: RE: IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their > deposit? >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <0JP900ENKGIGSQ80 at msgmmp-1.gci.net> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > >I've talked to him several times. Before the Altair kit and >after. Very nice guy. I don't think he has any bad intentions at >all. I will buy one the second they become available. I have no >idea what the situation with them is, but I'd have a hard time >thinking he was trying to defraud people or lie (of course, I have >all my money). He has told me of the money, engineering, and time he >has spent. > >Possibly he just isn't a "business" man. That's not a bad thing at >all, we all have our strengths! Engineers aren't good with making >their own due dates... ; ) The Kenbak kit was supposed to be done >by March. I just shipped the first 8 kits a week ago today. ; ) > >When I started selling kits I decided in the beginning not to collect >money until stuff was ready to ship. I wasn't worried too much about >getting lazy, but it made me look forward to shipping and work >towards that goal. > >Grant

16 years, 7 months

Intel MSD 225 value

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

As I was driving north from the Los Angeles area with, among other things, an Intel MDS 225, I was struck from the rear by someone who was driving on a suspended license. I'm fine, but the MSD appears to have been destroyed. Picture rolling one down a steep staircase. So, to get a figure on how much monetary damage was done, I'd like some help. What's a guestimate of the value of an Intel MDS with integral CRT and 8-inch floppy drive? If you want one, how much would you be willing to spend? If you have one, how much would you want to sell it? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu

16 years, 7 months

80s video game markets...

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Random mutterings... I was just thinking earlier how huge the UK computer game market was in the 80s - and yet most of the titles were produced by UK people for the UK market, and presumably never exported elsewhere. Other countries presumably followed the same pattern - and there must be games which were huge in one country and relatively unheard of anywhere else. Which sort-of raised the question of whether anyone's ever tried to 'map' the 80s video game industry by popularity in each country? Like I said, random mutterings. I'm just curious what was going on elsewhere while us UK lot were playing Frak, Manic Miner, Repton, Monty Mole etc... :-)

16 years, 7 months

PDP-11/84 availability (multiple)

by jwest＠ezwind.net

A gentleman contacted me who is working at a facility where there are eight PDP-11/84-AA's in use. Six are working, two are spares. Whenever they are decomissioned (he didn't say how long it would be, but I got the impression "not several years"), he would like to have people lined up to take them. He seemed quite interested in making sure they went to people who would appreciate them rather than scrappers/dealers. That sounds like us! If interested, I suggest you open a dialog with him now. His name is Mike Kinslow, and his email address is first initial, last name, at netstorm.net I know of no other information, nor where they are located. Please direct all inquiries to Mike. Jay West

16 years, 7 months

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:33 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hmmm > Time for a quick 'We are not worthy' ^00^ Consider my leg pulled. :) > >What did you do? >Raid the Mill with a fleet of trucks? No. I did get some small amounts of odd items from DEC salvage before it was shut down. Mostly things like H751A power controllers, power supplies and TU58 drives and boards. The one uVII (BA123 VIDSYS::) was a parting gift(I paid 100$ for it with DOCS and licenses) during the days of blood. For those that don't understand the post 1991 sell off of parts of DEC, that's when the DIGITAL logo went from blue to burgandy. The other was built from scrounge. VIDSYS:: is still setup for DECnet area 56.920 (one area in OGO was 56) and HIPPY:: was area 63.390 (hidden area for DECnet overflow). My 11T03 which is now the 11/73 was a gift from my boss at DEC. I kept it in the lab area for years for those odd projects but by late 80s it was obvious it was getting used less and less. He suggested "when are you going to scrap that thing?" I bring it home (on property pass) which I did. A year later when it was time to confirm and renew the property pass his answer was "what 11?". The remainder were mostly rescues. The bulk of the uVAX3100s came from UV Waterloo over 10 years ago on a if you take one you take them all and I was the only one willing to take a huge pile of uVAX3100s plus cables, VT320s VS2000s, TK50s, several TLZ04s.. Took two seperate 400mile round trips with a pickup truck filled to capacity. A fair number of those got redistributed to others as sixteen uVax3100s take a bit of space. The rest are also rescues from various seperate trips. Usually if the system is incomplete I jump on it and clean it up and restore it to life from spares. The few pending systems are due to my activities in amateur radio this year and now that I'm done with the bigger projects it's back to machines. I don't do Ubus-11s, big VAX (780s and the like) and unfortunately PDP-10/20s as most are too large to handle or power here. Also I've reached the point where excess do get passed on to others as I don't store any large number of systems either. I try to manage my collection. Those excess sometimes get cleaned up board added and moved along so they are operable and don't end up in the trash or worse. I like to power them up and play and that's incompatable with storage. There are a few small items like extra VT320s (white, green and amber), VT100s, H19, DECMate-IIIs I keep in the garage on rotation but I can and do run them there as well as it's warm enough in the winter and very dry. I keep those out there mostly to make it easier to move other stuff around in the room. What seperates me from museum is I use them, reconfigure and expand them them to suit my wishes or for fun. However, junking them is out of the questionas even basket cases are salvaged for any and all usable parts. FYI: if anyone needs parts for PDT11/1xx systems I have many CPU, memory and IO boards I'm not ever going to use. Someone took a bunch apart and then later gave me the box of boards. (ugly mutter mutter cuss cuss.) I mostly do DEC and CP/M based systems (s100, totables, SBCs) but I do have a few oddballs. For some reason the MIPS based DEC hardware never got my attention nor have the PC/clone(intel) based systems like Rainbow and VAXmate. I did have PROs (350s and 380s) but gave those away to concentrate on Qbus. Allison > >Rod > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org >[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison >Sent: 01 October 2007 15:47 >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > >> >>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? >> From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> >> Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:00:44 +0100 >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" >><cctech at classiccmp.org> >> >> >>My list >> pdp11/94 x 4 R >> >> DEC Rainbow 100+ * >> >> VAX 300 * >> VAX 400 * >> VAX 500 R >> VAXStation 3100 * >> >> DEC 3000 * >> >> Multia * >> >>* = Working >>R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts) >> >>Rod Smallwood > > >A more detailed list of DEC systems here. :) > > >Collection of operational hardware: > >PDP-8 based machines: >==================== > PDP-8f, 20k core and 2 serial 8650 and 8652 >2 Decmate-IIIs OS/278 > Intersil sampler (6100 chipset) extended to 3k ram > 6120 based board, homebrew 32kram 8k rom > >PDP-11 based machines: >===================== >1 LSI-11/03 rx02 >2 PDP11/23 BA11S boxes, > 1MB, RQDX2 and RD52 > 1MB, RQDX2 and RD31, RX50 >1 pdp11/73 50" RACK SYSTEM (4MB, DLVJ11, DEQNA, RQDX3>> RX02, RD52, >RX33, RL02). >1 BA11va with 11/23 +tu58 RT-11 >1 BA11va with 11/23 +Viking RX02 equivilent RT-11 > PDT11/130 11/03 with tu58 dectapeII > OSs in use: RT-11, XXDP-11 and unix V6 > >VAX based machines: >=================== > Microvax-II (ba23 based) 12mb, RQDX3, RD53, RX33 > This one lived as HIPSS:: during my days at DEC. > Microvax-II/GPX (Ba123 based, TK50 and SCSI disks) > This one was know as VIDSYS:: inside DEC. >3 Microvax2000 all with 2 RD53, 1 RD54 drive, one with ultrix >1 Microvax2000 as hard disk formatter and MOP bootable system. >2 Microvax3100/m76/gpx 32mb 2 each 1gb scsi internal >3 Microvax3100/server (not M10e) (filled with 400mb and 1gb disks) >4 BA42 SCSI disk farm for the 3100s populated with RZ56s > OSs in use VMSv5.4-4,V5.54, V7.2, Ultrix 4.2 > >Terminal for the uVAX systems is usually VT1200 via thinnet and the >PDP-11s the usual terminal is either VT340, VT320 or VT180 in terminal >mode. > >DEC CP/M speaking machines: >=========================== >1 Vt180 complete (dual RX180s) >2 Vt180 CP/M board built up as standalone one modded for 6mhz >1 Vt185 Thats a Vt125 + Vt180. > >In the non operational list: > >11/23B uPDP-11 in a BA23 pedestal that while complete with 11/23B, >M8057 memory, DHV11, RQDX2 and RD52, RX50 it requries cleaning and >testing. > >H11 Backplane complete with LSI-11 CPU, 16k of ram, two serial cards and >a parallel card of heath origin. Some day I'll find the case/power >supply for it. All parts are tested as working. > >Small 11/23 system using a H9281-BC (12x2 slots) filled with: > M8186 1/23 (Overclocked CPU mod) > 4 M8059 MSV11 ram > DLV11j, > RQDX3 with M9058 distribution board. (for RX33 and RD31) > MRV-11 Eprom card with MSCP boot. > VK170 with matching LK02 keyboard and a monitor. The VK170 > is a minimal VT52 on a dual width card for packaged systems > that communicates via RS232 to system and the bus use is > power only. >This is waiting on being packed in a reasonable nonDEC box with a DEC PS >and fans. The boards are known working and the backplane is already >jumpered as Q22. > >Generally in my house operational means I can actually turn it on and >play and it has a permanent spot that is easily accessable. > >One project that is in process is a H9800 desk/rack that will replace >the existing standard steel office desk. the system to be installed >there will be 11/23B in BA11s with a hand made Disk box for RX33 and >RD52s. > >I have two boxes (Xerox Paper sized) of tested boards enough to build >another few 11/23s and a few uVAXII as my spares. Failed boards get >repaird when I feel like it so I have good boards around. > >Who was it that has the SIG of > "DEC had then what you wish you could buy now." ? > >Allison > > > >

16 years, 7 months

DX10 (was TI-99/4A Floppies)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Since the 990/4 Mini was based on a TMS9900, Probably not much. Dont know if > its enough to run DX10 though. DX10 requires the memory management of the 990/10 or /12 or a 99000 A simulation of the 990/10 that can run DX10 is present in MESS. TX990 could run on the 990/4 or /5 http://bitsavers.org/bits/TI/990/TX990_TXDS_2.0/ http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/990/txds/

16 years, 7 months

Epson QX-10 Emulator

by cclist＠sydex.com

Has anyone tried Toshiya Takeda's Epson QX-10 emulator at http://www1.interq.or.jp/~t-takeda/top.html ? >From what I can gather, one needs at least the boot rom image to get the thing to run. Anyone know where I can get one? Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 7 months

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test-drb October 2007