test-drb August 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
459 discussions

by silent700＠gmail.com

Not disk, but physical space. I broke down yesterday and did what I said I'd never do to support my habit: I've rented a storage unit. So now I've got ~1500 ft^3 to help take the pressure off my living space. I may soon see my floors again! Being in the midwest, where we expereince just about every temperature and humidity condition, what do I have to worry about with storing old systems, media, etc in near-outdoor conditions (the unit is not climate-controlled?) The unit will be dry, at least as far as rain, leaks and flooding go. I don't think cold is a big problem, as long as I don't run any equipment that was out in -20F weather without allowing it to assume room temp first. How about heat? I'm worried about floppies and tapes there. Humidity seems like it would be the killer. I'll be storing my magazines there for a while, and I plan to wrap them all in plastic before boxing them. Maybe the same for magnetic media. Ideally I'd have a raised-floor datacenter at 65F degrees and the humidity control of a humidor, but circumstances are what they are, and it's this or start throwing stuff out :) Any advice is appreciated! -- jht

16 years, 11 months

Shifting meanings: "Spaghetti Code"?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Chuck asks: > Nested "IF-THEN-ELSE" is now spaghetti code? IMHO it's worse in most cases now. #ifdefs up the wazoo in C source code are beyond imagination. They aren't even executed run-time but clutter up everything! Sure, gnu config helps mechanize the process but when a problem is so bad it results in new tools being created to mechanize the badness it's a sure sign that something's gone off the deep end. Computed gotos are really pretty nifty. Alternative returns (as in Fortran) are really just wonderful for bugging out of deeply nested errors, way way better than a bunch of if-then-elses. Don't forget: A good FORTRAN programmer can write spaghetti code in any language! Tim.

16 years, 11 months

Fluke Dos Question

by d-salafia1＠ti.com

Stan, I was looking for a copy of the operating system for a FLuke 1722. Where I work we had 3 copies and the night shift folks tried all 3 copies before realizing it was a bad drive. These disk each offer different symptoms but are all bad I suspect. How can I get you to get me a copy of this or help me figure out how to save these disks? Any and all help would be appreciated. David Salafia Texas Intruments

16 years, 11 months

The storage question

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 8:32 -0500 8/16/07, Jason wrote: >Not disk, but physical space. I broke down yesterday and did what I >said I'd never do to support my habit: I've rented a storage unit. So >now I've got ~1500 ft^3 to help take the pressure off my living space. > I may soon see my floors again! I echo what other list members have said. You will catch a brief glimpse of floor, before it gets buried in more classic computer gear. Might as well clean, vacuum, wax, or whatever, this week, since it'll be the last chance you ever get. Here's a suggestion. Make 3 prioritized lists (examples below >from my collection): 1) With which of the machines I have do I intend to do something? a) Mac Plus - port distributed.net to this b) HP 712 - port distributed.net to this c) Color Computer 3 - program pythagorean triplet search in assembler d) PB3400 - port distributed.net to this .... y) SE-30 - no projects in mind z) Rainbow - no projects in mind 2) Which of the machines I have is really unique or irreplaceable? a) Rainbow, with graphics, hard drive, and 8087 co-processor b) Mac Plus with Brainstorm Accelerator c) NeXT cube with Dimension card d) PDP-11/60 .... y) SE-30 - stock z) Color Computer 3 - stock 3) To which of my machines have I the strongest sentimental attachment? a) Mac Plus - *my* first computer, did my college and grad work on it b) Rainbow - my second computer, duplicate of first machine I assembled c) NeXT cube - my first workstation, totally rocks ... y) SE-30 - scavenged from bottom of closet at work z) PDP-11/60 - waiting for another list member to come pick up :-) Now identify any machine that's on the bottom half of all three lists. In my case, it'd be the SE-30. Put all such machines on Vintage Computer Marketplace *this weekend*. Charge something above "cost of shipping" (since stuff that is acquired free is often thrown away) to be sure the thing has value to its new owner. If no bids on VCM in 2 weeks, put it on eBay, no minimum bid. If no bids on eBay in 2 weeks, *lose it* the cheapest way you can. Goodwill Computerworks, Apple electronics recycling, donate to a local private school, donate to one of the existing or nascent computer museums, whatever. Make sure this process takes less than 2 weeks. If no takers for freebies within 2 weeks, dumpster it. Better a quick death and you don't have to pay for storage while it rusts/deteriorates/loses magnetization for the hard drive bits. If you keep it, it'll die eventually anyway and you'll pay for it (fiscally and emotionally) over the decades it takes to die. During the 2-week VCM and eBay bid periods, expend round tuits on the top end of list 1 above. Having accomplished what you intended, re-evaluate lists (systems will move down list 1 but probably simultaneously up list 3). Repeat process until you can get rid of the storage unit. I say this because "storage unit" == "garbage dump" in my experience, it just takes longer and costs more. Once put into a storage unit, most equipment is dead - it'll never serve or run again, because of the trouble to dig it out and the damage done to it by humidity, time, dust, rodents, and neglect. In my opinion, if you can't climate-control the sensitive parts of your collection and store all of it such that you can be using any part of it within about 10 minutes' of the impulse striking, the collection is too big for you. Of course, YMMV! FWIW, my (relatively small) collection is climate-controlled, with the exception of monitors and the PDP-11/60 (CPU and power supply only), which are in the attic (where it gets hot, but since there's wood flooring and decent ventilation, no obvious humidity/mold problems.) So no, you won't see the SE/30 on VCM this weekend. But there are some printers that I really should dispose of.... >Any advice is appreciated! Heh. Sure hope you meant that literally; apologies if not. -- - 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, 11 months

ROM preservation (Data I/O system 19)

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

> From: briandixson at tiscali.co.uk> > Hi Chris,> > > > I was looking at your thread relating to the Data I/O Manual and understand> you have the manuals.> > > > I picked a System19 unit up a couple of years ago and it came with the> Unipack & 001, 011 Adapters.> > > > The manual I have only relates to the Adapter Codes & I have no info on the> Unipack Codes for Programming Chips.> > > > Do you have a copy of the codes as Data I/O are no help at all.> > > > Many thanks> Hi Brian I thought Al had a chart on his pdf pages but all I see are manual. I have a wall chart with codes but it is two large to fit into a copier. I can try to copy a bit at a time. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ Messenger Caf? ? open for fun 24/7. Hot games, cool activities served daily. Visit now. http://cafemessenger.com?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_AugWLtagline

16 years, 11 months

shorter 19" racks (was Re: Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 8/14/07, Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> wrote: > All this talk has inspired me to get a rack. But do such things exist > as "personal" racks and/or half-height racks? Or should I be resigned > to just finding a full-height rack somewhere for $400 and find a place > to put it? (I have only about 10us of stuff to rack -- two scan > converters, two computers, that's it...) 6' and taller racks are the most common in my experience, but there were plenty of 4' and shorter racks made, too. I just picked up a really short DEC rack from Patrick at VCFmw. I'd quote the model number, but it's hundreds of miles away and I can't check the label. It was a semi-common item - it originally contained a PDP-11/03 and RX01 and has approx 21" of rack space (12 U) and a wood-grain Formica top. DEC also made a large number of 42" cabinets with a curved-top profile that was meant to be suitable for office or machine-room environments. They will hold 3 RL02s or a CPU and two drives or whatever (approx 18 U, plus room in the bottom-back for a 3 U power controller (with a kick-plate in the front). A bit older than those were some similar-height racks from the 11/34 and PDP-8/e era with 3"-ish-tall 45-degree bevel/bezel on the top-front-edge, but I think those might be a bit rarer. If you want just your "10 U" and not any more, the table-topped rack I described would work. If, OTOH, you would rather have things more than a few inches off the ground, you could use a 42" rack and load it >from the top down (and have room in the future for more toys ;-) -ethan

16 years, 11 months

The storage question

by marvin＠west.net

> If no takers for freebies within 2 weeks, dumpster it. Better > a quick death and you don't have to pay for storage while it > rusts/deteriorates/loses magnetization for the hard drive bits. If > you keep it, it'll die eventually anyway and you'll pay for it > (fiscally and emotionally) over the decades it takes to die. > - Mark, 210-379-4635 I will rarely dumpster anything computer related ... at least intact :). The motherboards and cards usually have enough gold to be of some interest to gold scrappers (Pax may have more to say about this!) Personally, I have a box that I toss old cards into and sell them every six months to a year. Depending on the gold content, I usually get somewhere around $0.50 - $1.00 per pound. No idea if this is good/bad/indifferent but it sure beats giving it away to the electronic recyclers (we can't through electronics into the dumpster here in Kalifornia.)

16 years, 11 months

3c509b cards to good home

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Some time ago I asked if anyone wants a pair of 3c509b ISA ethernet cards. Someone replied, but I lost the email. Who wants them? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

16 years, 11 months

My rescue mission

by cctech＠retro.co.za

Hi all Drove up to Johannesburg from Cape Town (about a thousand miles each way) to rescue stuff. Osborne Acorn RISC PC 2 x Archimedes (no keyboards) SAM Coupe Spectrum + DISCiple interface SGI Indy SGI Indigo SGI O2 SUN Ultra 1 I had to leave two of the four monitors behind, no space in the VW Fox, but I did get an Indy presenter. And five or six cameras. Left one SGI monitor (both the Indigo and the O2 can use VGA monitors) and the SUN monitor (I have one available here). Will fetch them some other day. Moral question : I have Solaris 2.5, Solaris 8 and Ubuntu Linux. The Ubuntu complains about not enough memory (there's only 64 megs in there). But I'm more of a Linux guy than a Solaris guy... I did get a few CDs with Irix stuff, including the development stuff, seems like, and Irix 6.2 "upgrade". I'm sure I'll need more than this to get the SGIs up? The Indy looks fine but the O2 only comes up now and then. Havn't tried any of the rest yet. So... tips, tricks, etc? And who has SDIMMs for me? Or for that matter SGI memory sticks, they look pretty weird... W

16 years, 11 months

Suggestions for rackmount floppy mounting

by cclist＠sydex.com

I need to mount some full-height and half-height 5.25" floppy drives as well as a few 3.5" units on a standard EIA rack. Does anyone have any ideas about the best way to go about this would be? Thanks, Chuck

16 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 2007