I've tried to make a couple of points which seem to have sunk unnoticed.
While you're all happily arguing about the comparative virtues of
various models of generator, I have pointed out that there are already
very large-scale computer shows happening in the UK on a regular
basis: the commercial LAN parties.
If a venue can handle a thousand plus PCs, it can handle a few hundred
vintage computers. These places would seem to me to naturally be high
on the list of candidate venues. I asked for commentary about the
venue for the largest of these, Multiplay.
http://www.multiplay.co.uk/
There is one this coming weekend. Perhaps someone in the area -
Newbury - could pop over and check it out briefly and report back?
Are listers even /aware/ that there are multiple such events every
year in this country with literally *thousands* of gamers attending,
the majority bringing their own hand-built high-end customised PCs to
play on? The custom PC building fraternity is probably the biggest
computer enthusiast scene or group in the world today. It's relevant
to us. Highly relevant, I submit; their attendees could be some of
ours, for a start, and their organizers could potentially tell or
teach us a lot.
Secondly, there is an existing UK retrocomputing event, although it's
not that regular. It's CGE-UK. Here are a couple of reports from past
ones:
http://www.ukretro.co.uk/cge2004.htmhttp://www.consolepassion.co.uk/cge-show-report.htmhttp://www.acornelectron.co.uk/eug/revs/misc/r-cge.html
I was at one of these - I don't remember now if it was '04 or '05. It
was good fun. Strong games emphasis, which is of little interest to
me, but a vast amount of fascinating hardware - all manner of 1980s
exotica and obscurities, plus stuff from the '50s, '60s and '70s. For
instance, as a child of the (computing) 1980s, I punched my first ever
punch card and I handled some core store for the first time in my
life. Several list members were there exhibiting.
Care to stop debating generators and start making some constructive
suggestions, folks? :?)
For what it's worth, I was (somewhat peripherally) involved in the
running of the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. I
know a lot of people involved in running SF cons and have some useful
contacts from that field; I attend up to half a dozen such events a
year. This may not sound terribly relevant, but the Worldcon is the
largest amateur-run event of any kind in the world and it happens
without fail every single year and it's been running for more than 60
years now. There is much we could potentially learn from them. They
know how to put on a big event for hundreds or thousands of attendees
with no professional help or involvement and a starting budget of zero
or close to it.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com
Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508
Roger Holmes wrote:
To which the answers (so far) are (including someone else's very
valid question of where they are):
[snip]
So we have 23 people interested, very few exhibitors and a large
geographic spread but with clusters in Yorkshire(5), Manchester(3)
and London(2 plus 2 nearby).
------------------------------
Please add me to the list. If it is held during the 5 or 6 months we spend
in England every year, I will go to the show wherever it is held. Our house
is in Colchester.
Billy Pettit
Wow, Chuck, that was some great sleuthing there! Thanks.
I'm still wondering how on earth that demonstration
snippet ended up on a T-shirt, but the owner really wasn't
interested in talking about it. First off I don't think
he spoke much English, second, I speak hardly any Spanish,
and third, I think he found it impossible to imagine that
someone was really that interested in the shirt. He probably
thought I was hitting on him. (I have to admit, it's one of my
more tired pickup lines: "Hey, is that FORTRAN on your shirt?")
In any case he kind of squirmed around and wouldn't stand still
long enough for me to really read it carefully. I had a second,
third and fourth glance at it as we snaked through the check-in
line at the airport.
Interesting that the last word of that "STATEMENT NOT IN LANGUAGE"
was missing from the shirt.
Anyway -- thanks for solving the "Where did it come from?" half
of the mystery. The "How did it get here?" part I'm afraid is
unanswerable.
Brian
> The source is easy to recognize--and I'm surprised that more folks
> didn't recognize it--IBM QUICKTRAN. It took quite a bit of digging
> just to find a reference on the web, however:
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/149/3683.pdf
>
> The article (page 497) appears to be the source of your T-shirt.
>
> Cheers,
> Chuck
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
_| _| _| Brian Knittel
_| _| _| Quarterbyte Systems, Inc.
_| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930
_| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com
My attempts to boot the MicroVax continue:
After much digging around at the house, I finally
found another TK50 cartridge. This one is in good
condition. I cleaned my SCSI TK50 drive, and mounted
the tape. It read fine, I was able to dd the contents
(one ~70mb VMS data file, with header and trailer) off
the tape and onto my PC. So far so good. I erased the
tape, and tried to write the NetBSD boot.fs to it.
dd if=boot.fs of=/dev/nst0 bs=512
And the drive whirred to life, shoeshining tape back
and forth,but actually making progress through the
media (it was accumulating on the take-up reel,
anyway). So I let it run. Eventually it failed with an
I/O error at a point where most of the tape was out of
the cartridge. It took over an hour to get there, and
only made it through one length of tape (no track
change/reverse) Rewind, erase tape again.
So, I tried just plain 'dd if=boot.fs of=/dev/nst0'
without specifying the block size (although from what
I've read, NetBSD wants a block size of 512 to boot)
That shoeshined like crazy too, so I stopped it.
Try again, with a block size of 16k (the same block
size I used to read in the tape). Still no go, it
still shoeshines, but not quite as much (barely).
What do I need to do here? How long should it take to
write two and a half megabytes of data to tape?
Thanks!
-Ian
Hi,
I've connected a 68661 EPCI (Enhanced Programmable Comms Interface) chip to
an 8085A system. It is the "C" variant, so it requires the 5.0688Mhz Xtal.
It's all connected right, and I checked with the CRO and it is being
selected and the 5.0688Mhz TTL signal is accurate and clean.
However, the terminal it connects to just gets garbage or sometimes doesn't
show anything at all. I put a CRO on the Tx line and the signal is RS232
compliant and data is going out. I tried the terminal with a working system
and it works fine.
I think I may be programming the chip wrong. I assume, according to the
literature, that I set up the Mode register for Internal clock x1 internal
clock for async comms. I then program the necessary 4-bit code for the speed
I want. However, the datasheet shows the speeds with x16 clock. So, I tried
programming it with x16 internal clock, but still no luck. Also, the data
sheet says when using async that you use the x1 clock - which I did
originally - yet the sheet shows the speeds with x16 clock. I'm very
confused.
All I want is 2400bps, 7data, no parity, one stop bit async.
Has anyone used the 68661?
Seeyuzz
River
I'm trying to recover data from an old Conner CFS420A (420MB) Hard
Drive for someone.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/ata/cfs420a.html
I've tried hooking it up to my two IDE-to-USB cables, I can't see it
on my Mac when connected to either. I can see it on my WinXP system
when connected to the older cable (which oddly enough doesn't like
most HD's I've plugged into it). However, I don't see any sign of
partitions.
When I plugged it directly into the motherboard, the BIOS complained
and seemed to indicate 0MB.
Do modern PC's have a problem with really old HD's? I'm told that
either Win95 or Win98 was on the drive. Will a HD report info about
itself, even if it is dead?
Thanks,
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
woodelf wrote:
Unicorn Electronics has 1702's still* listed for $4.99.
---------------
My only order ever to Unicorn was for some TTL parts back on 22nd of June.
I tweaked them a month later and got a reply that parts were back ordered,
would ship in a week or so. Last I heard from them.
What is your experience with Unicorn? Did they actually ship parts to you?
Their prices are good, but I would pay a little more to get parts I need.
Or at least an "out of stock" notice after 7 weeks of waiting.
Billy
All,
another update on my Mac Plus - previously, I've had trouble
with getting the +5V supply adjusted right, and noticed that
reseating the power cable connectors helped.
This time, I actually took some measurements. Looking from
the solder pad on the far side of the power board, through the
connector, the cable, and the connectors on the digital board, to the
solder pad on the far side of that board, I saw anywhere from 1 to *5
Ohms* through that cable. No wonder it was not reliable! I'm
astonished it ever ran long enough to get through the RAM checks!
Pulled off both connectors, ran a VOM probe back and forth
through each slot on both ends of the cable a few times. Got some
400-grit sandpaper and lightly sanded the pins on the board
connectors, swabbed them off with Q-tips and isopropyl alcohol, then
swabbed on a trace amount of silicone oil (in hopes that it'll be a
while before I have to do this again). Resistance measurements, after
reassembly, went down near enough 0 that I would not attempt to put a
number on them other than << 0.2 Ohms.
Pulled out all of the SIMMS, scrubbed their contacts with
Q-tips and isopropyl, and re-installed. Reseated the CPU (Brainpower
Accelerator daughterboard).
Tuned the +5V supply back *down* a little, to about midway
between where it would crowbar and where it wouldn't start (This
looked on my ancient VOM to be around 4.95 V).
System has been running solidly for several days now, through
multiple power cycles and multiple extended play sessions. My
6-year-old is getting reacquainted with Dark Castle and Sim City.
Hope this is useful; questions welcome!
--
- 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.
This from today's New York Times story at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/technology/11novell.html about SCO
losing its claims to ownership of Unix:
"The Unix operating system, which has become popular with some
independent-minded PC users as well as in the corporate world, was
developed by AT&T researchers at Bell Labs beginning in 1969. During
the 1970s, the operating system became highly influential in academic
computing and in computer science departments.
In the ?80s, it had a significant impact in the computer workstation
and minicomputer markets, although it never gained a significant
foothold in the personal computer business until Steven P. Jobs
brought a version of Unix with him when he returned to Apple Computer
in 1997. Some PC makers have begun to offer versions of Linux instead
of Microsoft?s Windows operating systems."
What does Apple and Steve Jobs have to do with Unix?
Cheers,
Chuck
Hi
Thanks..
Yes I knew about the feed another monitor with comp video idea (I do
a bit of amateur television)
However, a real VT201 has turned up in the UK.
This is going to be really nice, I have a huge heap of software all
specifically for the Rainbow.
Or will it be "How much have I forgotten in 25 years"
Next task = find the colour graphics adapter that goes with the
Rainbow (after making sure this one has not got one)
Regards
Rod.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks
Sent: 13 August 2007 13:24
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus
On 8/10/07, Rod Smallwood <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi
> I am now the owner of a DEC Rainbow 100 Plus....
> The bad news is the tube in the VR201 monitor is shot.
>
> So...
> I need:
>
> a) A replacement tube.
>
> or
>
> b) a Digital VR201-A , -B or -C
>
> or
>
> d) A colour graphics card for a DEC Rainbow. 100+
>
>
> Anybody knowing the whereabouts any of the above please contact me.
You have another option... the video input to a VR201 is NTSC "composite
video", also called RS-170. I see you are in the UK, so an NTSC monitor
might not be as easy to find as a VR201, but will work if you have one
handy.
I made a DA15-RCA cable years ago to hook a VR201 to an Amiga 2000 that
I used as a hardware test platform (so I didn't care about a lack of
color). I have to admit that I haven't "gone the other way" and used a
non-DEC monitor on a Rainbow, but there's no reason to expect it won't
work.
I recently saw my Amiga cable, but the VR201, unfortunately, fell off
the workbench some years ago, and the tube bit the dust. I pitched the
plastic housing and saved the analog board, IIRC.
-ethan
