> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:36:23 -0500
> From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net>
> --- Michael Lee <mikelee at tdh.com> wrote:
>
>> so I took a look at the hard drive and there
>> seems to be some type
>> of goo oozing out of it. It's a Conner hard drive,
>> nothing too abnormal.
> -------------
> I've had that problem with a Conner drive in an Ogivar laptop; it was
> the gasket between the housing and cover decomposing the same
> way as drive rollers etc. My drive was still working though and, after
> removing the goo and wrapping a layer of tape around the perimeter,
> still is (at least so far).
I have had the same experience. I collect Conner 60 MB and 80 MB drives
(CP2064, CP2084, CP2088)for my old Outbound Model 125 Laptops (ca. 1990).
A few of them have goo issues and on those drives the gasket between the
metal case halves is missing.
Talk about a dust/impurities hazard. I was thinking about putting a
silicon seal around there. For some reason I never though of the simple
solution of tape. <bangs self in head with hand> I think I've spent too
long with aquariums. Every problem can be solved wtih silicon sealant.
Jeff Walther
Andrew Lynch wrote:
> Hi,
>
> <snip> It has a VG 1 case repainted and
> relabeled as a "No Name Computer" with all VG 5 components inside.
> Seriously, it is called NNC and that is not a joke. It is a very strange
> name.
>
There was a company called NNC located in Huntington Beach Ca in the
late 70's or early 80's that made basic S-100 hardware. I'll ask a
friend to get the names and history, but you may have an actual NNC box
and not a vector graphics system.
I don't recall VG's history but I think that a flood of their hardware
appeared on the junk market and someone may have built up a box from
parts using an NNC mainframe.
The NNC company built chassis with a backplane and power supply
initially and tried to do the entire system before collapsing. The
manufacturer was actually a guy who built components from sheet metal,
and found that building computer boxes was more profitable. I don't
know if there was a connection to VG but that would not be impossible.
Jim
-----REPLY-----
Hi Jim,
Wow, that is interesting. I thought with a name like NNC it had to be a
joke. Apparently someone had a sense of humor "back in the day"!
If you look at this set of photos of a Vector 1+ on Dave Dunfield's page:
http://classiccmp.org/dunfield/s100/index.htm#v1p
The case is almost exactly like the Vector 1 case with very minor exceptions
and a beige paint job.
It could be that NNC resold an S-100 box full of VG parts. I have heard
that VG did sell their boards as a set for VARs.
Maybe it is a custom job too, I don't know. It could go either way but I
think of the machine as a Vector Graphic. Technically you are correct and I
agree with you. It is not a real VG machine like an MZ but it has definite
VG heritage.
Thanks for finding out any information you can on NNC. I am certainly
interested in whatever history there is.
Here is some information on NNC from earlier CCTALK posts. Whatever they
have is definitely not related to my VG machine.
http://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2001-May/171711.html
I suspect NNC made S-100 chassis and motherboard. Then people populated
them with whatever they wanted. Of course, I don't know. It is just a
hunch. Maybe they were the OEM for the VG 1 cases?
Thanks!
Andrew Lynch
All,
As I try and rationalise some of my collection, I have a SGI that I
can see that I will never really have a use for and would like to give
to a good home.
I have the keyboard, screen and mouse to go with it. The machine is
complete and worked last time I powered it up - about 12 months ago or
there abouts. It is currently running some version of Irix. I don't
know how much memory or the size of the HDD, but I seem to remember
the HDD was somewhere between 200MB and 1GB - so not exactly huge.
>From the part numbers, it has an old 8 bit frame buffer and the CPU
is, "R4600PC -100mhz Primary Cache only".
Ideally, I would like it to be collected from Cheltenham UK. However I
work in Witney and I am up in the Milton Keynes area on weekends and
can deliver to these areas, or on my way to / from Cheltenham.
Bristol, Swindon and London are also deliverable when I am next in
those areas.
Thanks.
Simon
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to
philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is
the utility of the final product."
Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh
Hello,
a few interesting items in the U.K. have recently popped up here - and the VCFe (which usually attracts some visitors from North of the Channel) is getting closer, so I figured I might try organizing a transport once again.
I'm still in the process of contacting the current owners as I wanted to inform myself beforehand whether I can arrange transportation. Items may be coming from:
-Glasgow
-East London
-Dorset (this one is fairly critical, would have to be collected before Christmas)
and would have to be transported to southern Germany (Nuremberg area) for some compensation (meal, fuel money, etc).
Offers and suggestions welcome.
Thanks in advance, yours sincerely,
Arno Kletzander
--
Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger geh?rt?
Der kann`s mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger
"Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net> wrote:
> On Friday 23 November 2007 22:23, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> > There are many kinds of mechanical memory. In particular, I recall
> > an early TTY device that used a large rotating drum with cams
> > embedded in the surface. One could flip a cam one way or the other
> > and then read them out. I'm trying to remember what sort of machine
> > this was used on and its application, but my memory sadly fails me.
>
> This stirs a vague recollection of an old mechanical adding machine I
> once had, the kind that had a big rectangular array of buttons instead
> of just a "10-key" set of numbers. I have *no* idea how it stored a
> number in there, though.
Hmm, like, say, an old cash register? This design is called "Volltastaturmaschine" in German (would translate to "complete keyboard machine"). They have a latching mechanism that holds in one button per column of keys (0-9, representing one digit of a number). When a calculation is initiated, the protruding shaft of the latched key acts as a stop for a toothed rack or similar device which is used to advance the wheels of the accumulator register by as many teeth as the corresponding digit says. There are also designs which involve an arrangement of levers positioning an intermediate gear along the axis of a stepped drum, for example the Badenia VA-17/VARE-17.
The big advantage is that zeros need not be entered (to enter 100.00, you just press the "1" button in the fifth column from the right) and that operators could learn to "touch-type" on these keyboards, effectively entering all digits of a number in parallel and greatly reducing cycle times. Also, correction of mistypes is very fast and easy because you just have to latch the correct key in the respective column. I have a Diehl EVM series machine of that type, unfortunately the mechanism is about completely gummed up from old grease.
Most mechanical and electromechanical ten-key adders contain a "pin carriage", which essentially is such a keyboard in miniature. A set of push rods connected to the ten keys is suspended above this construction; upon entry of a digit, the corresponding pin (sticking out through the top of the carriage after a clear) is pushed through (now sticking out at the bottom) and the carriage is advanced one position by an escapement mechanism.
> Going back even earlier, I had the occasional chance to play with some
> mechanical calculators. These were about the size of an old typewriter,
> and there were a couple of different sets of readouts that consisted of
> digits that showed through small windows on the front of the machine.
> It had a "carriage" of sorts that would shift back and forth at times,
> though my fuzzy recollection isn't clear on when it did that. And when
> you told it to multiply, it'd really take off! :-)
Ah...I suppose these were Odhner / Facit electromechanical pinwheel calculators, or at least a similar construction. I got one of those not very long ago and I'm very fond of it! A wealth of information about them is to be found on James Redin's Facit Page, http://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/cmisc_facit_page.htm
The input register on those is a bank (or "drum") of pinwheel mechanisms which are actuated by the input keys - gears with an adjustable number of teeth, so to say. The "pins" are extended or retracted by rotating two parts of the gear against each other. For the calculation cycle, the adjustment is locked and the whole drum turns once, advancing the adjacent intermediate wheels (and thus the accumulator wheels) by the number of pins set.
Machines with keyboard entry had to use a "split pinwheel" design in order to reduce the key travel needed, involving four pins and a sector with five more. 1 - 4 steps UP from the zero position extended 1 - 4 pins; 1 - 5 steps DOWN extended the sector AND 0 - 4 pins. Mechanical Bi-Quinary.
Once a digit is set, the drum is advanced one step to the left and the next unset wheel is positioned in front of the setting mechanism.
So long,
--
Arno Kletzander
www.iser.uni-erlangen.de
Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten
Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser
Hi, all,
In the past, I've run real Amigas (from my 1986 A1000 to my 1997 A4000), and
I've run plenty of Amiga emulation ("Amiga Forever", etc.). Can anyone
recommend a good URL for running Amiga apps under my present platform of
MacOS 10.4?
I have apps, I have ROMs, etc. I just need a good Intel-Mac-based Amiga engine.
Thanks,
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 29-Nov-2007 at 10:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -29.0 F (-33.9 C) Windchill -44.3 F (-42.4 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 4.2 kts Grid 112 Barometer 682.8 mb (10523 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.govhttp://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
-------------Original Messages:
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:30:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
Subject: Re: Teaching kids about computers...
> > Here's a question - what
> > 8-bitters (or defunct 16-bitters, Atari, Amiga, you
> > know, the common stuff) had COBOL available?
> > What was SNOBOL? What about COBAL? I think I > have COBAL for the TI PC.
For a while, I had a binder on one of my office bookshelves labelled
"COBAL", due only to having a temporary worker who couldn't spell COBOL.
What is the model number for the EAM card interpreter?
At the college, I had a plugboard from one of them specifically set up for
putting the relevant fields of COBOL source files in handy locations on
the card (the interpreter did 60 columns of text, so it did not line up
with the columns on cards). That particular plugboard was clearly
labelled "COBOL Interpreter". So, yes, there was a COBOL interpreter :-)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
-----------Reply:
LOL!
There were several different models - see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products
We did have one, but I don't recall which one (probably a 557 or 548);
machines that printed card contents on the card were indeed called
"interpreters."
They were used mainly for utility bills, etc. which were often printed on
punched cards to be returned with your payment for processing. We
didn't do that sort of work very often, and when the cards had to be easily
human-readable (such as your COBOL cards) they'd be punched on a
printing keypunch (026) in the first place.
BTW we also had a somewhat rare 047, which was a printing keypunch
that could also read (and convert) paper tape.
m
> I know you can program on the Amiga using the following languages:
> Assembler
> Amiga BASIC
> AMOS BASIC
> Blitz BASIC
> Rexx
> Arexx
> C
> Machine Code
> I don't think I missed any.
Ada, Smalltalk, Forth, Fortran, Pascal, Lua, Lisp, BCPL, Prolog,
Comal, C++, HeliOS, Intercal, J, Java, Visual Pascal, Brainfuck,
Logo, Malbolge, Cobol, Perl, Pilot, Scheme, Python, Perl, SML, Y
and many variations of same. And those are just the free ones.
For more go look here ..
http://aminet.net/search?f=2&path=dev/lang
Lee.
.
Hello,
I exhibited some of my Sage and Stride computers, manuals, datasheets, newsletters and software at the Vintage Computer Festival 10.0. It was an exciting and rewarding event and I'm looking forward to the next one. I took some pictures and video. I've uploaded the pictures, the video will follow soon.
VCF 10.0 pictures:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/561582429RvEsQG?vhost=entertainment
One of the Sage Computer Technology founders, Rod Coleman, gave a talk about the early days of Sage Computer Technology and some of the Stride Micro story. Sellam let me add one of his computers to my exhibit, a Stride 440 (http://www.sageandstride.org/html/stride_440.html). During the show a really interesting guy came to visit my exhibit and he told me about his experiences with Sage and Stride computers. He still has the original systems he used for development in the 80's. More on that interesting story later ...
He has a couple Sage IV's (in beautiful condition) and a Stride 460 tower!! (http://www.sageandstride.org/html/stride_460.html) I've been looking for a Stride tower for quite a while. Recently, he let me get my grubby hands on the Stride 460 tower and I've been restoring it. It was not in the best condition when I picked up the pieces. I've documented the process with tons of pictures that I've uploaded for others to enjoy. I'm not finished with the project. I'm hoping to get the system fully operational and then retrieve the data from the hard drive. I've pulled the hard drive from the system and substituted another MFM drive until I've figured out the safest method for retrieving the old data. I'll be asking for advice on that topic soon. I think the original drive has Idris installed.
Here are links to the pictures of the Stride 460 system:
Disassembly:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/561576298tAcFSb?vhost=entertainment
Cleaning:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/561577961QEgBvM?vhost=entertainment
Reassembly:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/561575340kcreuM?vhost=entertainment
Booting:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/561575350zNSULy?vhost=entertainment
Stride 460 datasheet:
http://www.sageandstride.org/html/stride_460.html
Any suggestions on how to carefully check if an old MFM drive is still operational, without damaging it, are appreciated. The drive has some oxidation on the exterior and it appears to have been stored in an occasionally damp location.
Regards,
david.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David W. Erhart
daviderhart at hotmail.com
daviderhart at oldzonian.comhttp://www.sageandstride.org
Hi,
I am working to restore an old Vector Graphic machine. I think it is a VG 5
series machine but sort of an odd hybrid. It has a VG 1 case repainted and
relabeled as a "No Name Computer" with all VG 5 components inside.
Seriously, it is called NNC and that is not a joke. It is a very strange
name.
It contains a ZCB (Z80 CPU board), 64K RAM, Flashwriter II (video and
parallel ASCII keyboard interface), and integrated FD/HD controller (aka
VEDMCS).
After working on this machine for weeks, I finally got it to boot CP/M 2.2
with a 56K TPA! YAHOO!
I am very happy and thought I would share the good news with the folks on
the VG and CCTALK mailing lists.
If anyone needs or wants a VG 5 series CP/M boot disk to restore their
machine, please send me an email and I will make you one. If you are
interested in discussing Vector Graphic, feel free to join us on the VG
mailing list.
Thanks!
Andrew Lynch
PS, Here is all the info on the mailing list:
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VECTOR-GRAPHIC
To post (send a message to all subscribers), address your e-mail to
vector-graphic at h-net.msu.edu. To unsubscribe, send the command
"unsub vector-graphic", without the quotes, in the BODY of the message, to
listserv at h-net.msu.edu. For other help, e-mail Dennis Boone <drb at msu.edu>.
