test-drb June 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

224 participants
486 discussions

Diamond Rio PMP-300 (was Re: What didn't happen in the future)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 6/27/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 8:04 AM +0100 6/27/07, Rob wrote: > >Almost on topic(only a year to go), > > Actually I'm not sure what the stance is on > peripherals, but if it was a computer it likely > would be fully on topic. I would think there would be no difference made between peripherals and CPUs of a given vintage or "coolness". I think what's at issue here is that technically, the PMP300 is nine years old, so it has to squeeze in by nature of its place in history, not its mere age. > IIRC, it was the first > commercially available MP3 player, at least it > was the first widely available one. AFAIK, it was the second model to market, but the first widely available one. > I bought one new as well, though I paid $300 and > got it when it first came out. Ow! FLASH sure was expensive then... but so were all of Diamond's other products. > I actually had my Rio working with WinXP at one > point, and I believe I also had it working with > Linux. Here's what I've been using for years to pump and dump music on my Rio PMP300 (from the README) RIO utility v1.07 - The Snowblind Alliance (c) 1999 I did run into a parallel-port permissions issue with RedHat WS3 last year, but under RedHat 9, the ancient Rio utility worked perfectly. I think it's just a matter of tweaking the rio.cpp to open the parallel port with a more modern technique - the port banging code should work fine after that. If not, then there's a reason to stick with an "obsolete" version of Linux - to get unfettered I/O port access. :-/ > I still have the original box, and should have > everything that goes with it. My intention is > that one day it will be a museum exhibit along > with a lot of my other computer equipment, that > is the only thing it has ever been good for. > Personally I wish I'd never wasted the $300 on it. Your feelings about it reminds me that I'm glad I didn't get one when they were _totally_ new. I paid at least $100 for mine, since, ISTR, I was concerned that the RIAA lawsuit over potential violations of the 1992 Home Recording Act might make them unavailable. Fortunately for us all, that one was settled in favor of Diamond. I still use mine. I was given an iPod Shuffle that I don't use much because embedded non-user-replaceable Li-Ion batteries annoy me. I have a removable NiMH AA in my PMP300, which means it won't be dying of battery fatigue anytime soon (I use my Palm III in favor of my Palm V for the same reason). I do have a half-dead one, that I'd love to repair... it was free from the previous owner because as far as we can determine, one of the FLASH chips is defective. I think it stores songs, but not the full amount - there's a dead zone in the internal 32MB map. Simple fix once one identifies which chip it is, and locates a spare. -ethan

17 years, 5 months

Drum vs. Core

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> haven't checked into > when UNIVAC took up with it. 1103A (Williams Tubes in orig 1103) in MN UNIVAC II (UNIVAC I was mercury delay lines) in PA I'd have to dig a bit more for the Univac military systems.

17 years, 5 months

What are the really unusual or weird computers?

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

This thread has been a real disappointment. Almost all of the responses have been about computers using standard microprocessors - off the shelf components. Yes a few had non-vanilla flavored OS's, or idiotic I/O schemes. A few were even painted different colors from PC Beige. But nobody got into the really weird internals that have made the industry so fascinating. Go back to the real early days, like the Atlas, that let you build your instruction set from scratch using micro-code. Nobody seemed to remember that most of the late 50's and early 60's used 40 bits as a standard. What about the MicroData machines with a build your own instructions on the fly? And then there were the ultra-strange like the G-15 - 29 bit word size, all instructions were modified moves through arithmetic logic or I/O devices. The I/O devices were actually part of the internal logic - no channels. Burroughs had some fascinating ideas on virtual memory in the 5500 series. Seymour Cray lived weird and unusual in most of his designs. Several people have developed machines to run high level languages in native mode: ADA at Rational, APL on the Star 100, LISP, COBOL, etc. There's not much unusual about putting some glue logic around a $3 micro chip. We've all done it. How about the truly weird machines? Doesn't anyone remember when logic didn't come in million transistor packages? Come on people: there were computers long before there were microcomputers. And many of them were wonderfully different and creative. Billy

17 years, 5 months

Apricot F1 software needed

by legalize＠xmission.com

Speaking of Apricots... I've got an F1 I purchased from ebay and it came with a full set of manuals, but no software. Can anyone help me out? I've got manuals for: - Apricot Software GEM Desktop - Apricot Software GEM Paint - Apricot Software GEM Write - Apricot Async User Guide - Microsoft Pack (MS-DOS 2.00, apparently) Since this machine only has a floppy drive, its not very functional until I get the right OS for it... -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 5 months

HP7202A Schematics questions

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

I've taken some pictures of the inside of the plotter and close-ups of the interface assembly card, which is where most of the wires from the interface connector go to. Perhaps someone will see something that makes sense to them. I also opened up an ASR-33 teletype and looked at the connector where the plotter interface cable plugs in. It is a 9 pin molex connector, with 8 pins being used. I *can* find documentation on that somewhere in one of my teletype manuals. Pictures can be seen at the bottom of: http://www.woffordwitch.com/HP7202.asp Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

17 years, 5 months

C= LED watch on epay...

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi folks, An official C= LED watch is up for grabs. But with the current bid at ?20 I think I'll opt out. Just 20 hours to go though... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COMMODORE-LED-WATCH-RETRO-CLASSIC-AMIGA-C64_W0QQitemZ… >From the description: "The watch is brand new, never been worn, the leather strap has never been used. The strap is black on the upper side and tan on the reverse. I have seen this style watch on the web for upwards of ?150. There is a low no reserve auction. There is no box just the watch. The watch battery is dead, but that can be changed by any local shop it is not a specialist job. However the watch is sold as seen as i cannot guarantee it because of the age, however >from what i know it is in perfect working order. On the reverse of the watch is incribed: Commodore Hong Kong Case Stainless Steel Back Base Metal Bezel" Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

17 years, 5 months

Dialling up in 1982 (was Re: old modems (was Telephony switches))

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 6/28/07, Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> wrote: > On 6/28/07, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > > > I still have my bought-new-in-1982 VIC modem that I used to use to get > > on CompuServe when I was in High School... > > The second big mistake my parents made was signing up for CompuServe > with the offer found in the VicModem box. Ohh the credit card bills > that followed! I don't know why I was ever allowed near a computer > again. Oh, yeah. I'm not sure how I survived that summer. > (OK, there were those RLE weather maps on CIS. At 300bps, even!) Hmm... I know that RLE pictures existed (before GIF), and were monochrome, not color, but I don't recall experiencing them in 1982. I'm positive that my BASIC terminal program knew nothing about them. Perhaps the VidTex client I tested knew what to do with them, but I don't remember ever viewing any on a C-64. Does anyone have any RLE files or know more about when and in what context they appeared (besides, obviously, just "on CIS"). -ethan

17 years, 5 months

What are the really unusual or weird computers?

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > One possible input device was a pressure switch operated by >blowing or sucking. > Maybe the OP has to use such a device, in which case all power >to him ;-) 8-D TTFN - Pete.

17 years, 5 months

Linux PCB CAD software?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Linux PCB CAD software? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:25:56 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/28/07, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: >> ... The current incarnation of PCB bears no >> resemblance to the version that I first used about five years >> ago...it is *fantastic* now. > >Far out... I'll have to take another look at it - two years ago, it >looked promising, but not enough for me to switch. > >> To bring this at least slightly on-topic, I am midway through >> doing a board layout for Chuck Dickman's RX01/02<->parallel port >> interface in gschem and PCB. Where is this information on the net? Allison >Excellent. You beat me to it. I was just looking at that circuit >yesterday to see about cranking one out. > >> I did one layout for that circuit about >> a year ago, but with through-hole parts, and I'm nearing the point of >> swearing off through-hole...this board uses surface-mount components. > >Hmm... I still have enough through-hole parts to fill several >bathtubs, so I'm not sworn off, and I'm quite handy with manual SMT >work, but for overall cost to me, I'm still fond of through-hole where >possible. Commercial projects, of course, have different financial >parameters, but my own stuff, I frequently get 80% or more of the >parts right off my shelves. > >I'll be interested to see how your layout turns out, and, SMT or >through-hole, probably be interested in picking up one or two on a >group buy, presuming blank boards are an available option. I was >going to build at least one adapter on a perfboard, just to play with, >so a prefab PCB would be most welcome. > >-ethan

17 years, 5 months

HP7202A Schematics questions

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>The interface has a 15 pin male adapter, with >8 pins on top and 7 on bottom. > >I have added a link to the schematics at the bottom of >the HP7202A Plotter page on my web site. > >Go to: > >http://www.woffordwitch.com/HP7202A.asp > >and click on the link at the bottom of the page. Can someone help me understand these old HP schematics? I see the 15 adapter pins shown at the top right of the page, and see where one of the pins (# 5) appears to go to something labeled EIA IN on the "Logic Mother Board" section. Some pins (3, 4, and 6) appear to not be connected to anything. Most of the others seem to go to the Analog Mother Board, but I am not sure how to follow them from there. What would be nice is if I could get enough of an understanding from this schematic to figure out how to construct both a 20mA adapter and an EIA (RS232) adapter, or an adapter that has the 15 pin connector on one end, and two connectors on the other end (one for 20mA and one for EIA). Thanks, Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

17 years, 5 months

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test-drb June 2007