test-drb March 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

215 participants
310 discussions

by evan＠snarc.net

I saw the following ad on Yahoo's homepage just now: http://www.snarc.net/falsealarm.jpg But as you can guess by the file name that I gave to the screen capture, it turned out to be lame -- just an advertisement for Yahoo Mail. Oh well.

15 years, 9 months

Whatever happened to MENTEC and the PDP-11?

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

The last I heard of them was a takeover by Calyx. in 2006 I can't see any reference to PDP-11 on the Calyx Website. So what happened ? Rod (Renovates Old Dec)

15 years, 9 months

1" paper tape buy ?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Fanfold would be of more interest than rolls. You can still buy rolls. There hasn't been a source for fanfold in a while. Western Numerical Controls had some interest in brokering with the paper company for fanfold if the quantity was high enough.

15 years, 9 months

Another classic-computer 'test'

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

On Sun, 1 Mar 2009 18:56:56 -0600 (CST), you wrote: >This one did the rounds of a system I was on aout 20 years ago. Some of >the questions are certainly classic-cmputer related... > >Enjoy.. I scored 000115 octal. Don't feel like a "Sage" though :) -Charles

15 years, 9 months

Halted

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Halted > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:21:58 -0800 (PST) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> > They died a really long time ago, probably by 1983. I grew up in >> > Wakefield, MA and remember them well. I used to raid their dumpster and >> > those around them. > >On Fri, 27 Feb 2009, Chuck Guzis wrote: >> Poly Paks actually had something left after sending their stuff out >> to put in a dumpster? The mind boggles! :) > >What would Poly Paks reject? Only totally nonfunctional parts without any metals value. Allison

15 years, 9 months

UNIX for the VAXstation or AlphaStation

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: UNIX for the VAXstation or AlphaStation > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:47:24 -0800 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >At 10:54 PM -0500 2/27/09, John Floren wrote: >>So, I've got both a VAXstation 4000-60 and an AlphaStation 250 here >>and after playing with it for a bit I've decided I don't really care >>for VMS so much that I want it on both of them. I'd like to find an >>interesting, preferably AT&T-style UNIX to run on one of them, so I'm >>hoping some of you can help me figure out my options. So far, I know I >>can run: >>-NetBSD >>-Probably some DEC/HP UNIXes (Tru64 on the Alpha?). >> >>I'd really appreciate perspectives on these different systems, >>user/admin experience, etc. I'm not looking to accomplish anything in >>particular here, I just want something to play around with on my DEC >>hardware while I wait for the PDP-11 :) > >UNIX is a waste of good DEC hardware! :-) DEC never sold a UNIX >variant that would run on a VAXstation 4000/60. I think NetBSD and >OpenBSD will both run on it. I'll confess that OpenBSD at least used >to rock on Alpha and can handle a machine with less RAM than OpenVMS >expects. Your choice of OS's are a lot wider for the Alpha. DEC sold Ultrix32 (unix BSD flavor) and it was installable on most VAXen. I have 4.2 running on a UVAX2000. >As for a PDP-11, I recommend RT-11, RSTS/E, or RSX-11M+, not UNIX. For low end PDP11 Unix up to V7 runs. If you have one of the I&D machines (11/44, or any of the J-11 cpus) then BSD2.11 is interesting. >For UNIX get a Sun or SGI system, in other words cool hardware that >only runs UNIX. I did buy a nice DECstation 5000/133 (a MIPS box) >years ago to run NetBSD. I wonder what happened to that machine... > All the DEC mips machines run unix (ultrix). Or find an Alpha and run true64. Allison >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/ |

15 years, 9 months

Another classic-computer 'test'

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

This one did the rounds of a system I was on aout 20 years ago. Some of the questions are certainly classic-cmputer related... Enjoy.. -tony ---------------------------- ARD's Hacker Test. To remove the somewhat IBM and UNIX bias from the original Hackers test, here is one which is either non-biased, or DEC biased. Computer Usage -------------- 000000) Have you ever used a _dedicated_ computerised control system? (e.g. the syscon processor in a VCR, so having used a video would count here ) 000001) Have you ever used a computer (general-purpose programmable) 000002) ... For more than 30(8) Hours continuously 000003) Have you ever programmed a computer 000004) ...In assembler 000005) ...In machine code (binary/octal/decimal/hex/whatever) 000006) Has you use of computers ever caused you to miss an important event 000007) Do you work the hours 9-5? 000010) Are they the ones at night? Hardware -------- 000011) Have you ever built a computer 000012) Have you ever designed a computer 000013) ... 16 bit or more 000014) ... 32 bit (or more) 000015) Have you ever repaired a microcomputer 000016) Have you ever repaired a minicomputer 000017) Have you ever debugged an item of computer hardware with minimal test equipment (e.g. LED and resistor, Battery tester) 000020) Did that item contain >100 ic's, and have a logic fault 000021) Have you ever repaired a printer 000022) .... A laser printer 000023) .... A hard disk (demountable or winchester) 000024) .... A floppy disk 000025) .... A paper-tape punch/reader 000026) .... A card punch/reader Can you use : 000027) A logic probe 000030) A logic pulser 000031) A protocol analyser 000032) A manufacturer's maintenance unit (KM11 or whatever) 000033) Have you ever wire-wrapped a board or backplane 000034) .... Did it work first time? 000035) Ever found an undocumented feature in a piece of hardware? 000036) ... Did you exploit it? 000037) Did you complain when later versions/clones didn't have it? 000040) Ever written microcode? 000041) Ever reverse-engineered microcode? 000042) .... Did you find any undocumented features? 000043) .... Did you find any bugs? 000044) Ever linked 2 devices that were claimed to be incompatible 000045) ....Did it work? 000046) Have you ever voided the warranty on a piece of hardware 000047) ...Ever not (owned a piece of hardware for >30mins without voiding the warranty?) 000050) Can you wire an RS232 cable? 000051) ... And get it right first time? Operating systems ----------------- Which of the following OS's have you used: 000052) RT-11 000053) RSX (MCR) 000054) RSX (DCL) 000055) RSTS-E 000056) OS-8 000057) OS-9 000060) MS-DOS 000061) LDOS 000062) UCSD P-system 000063) Unix (Any version) 000064) VM/CMS 000065) MVS or TSO 000066) VMS 000067) TRS-DOS (any version <6.0. versions 6.0 and higher are LDOS!) 000070) CP/M 80 000071) CP/M 86 000072) CP/M 68 000073) Tripos 000074) XtalDOS 000075) XXDP+ 000076) Have you ever sysgened a Operating System (Note, the CPM sysgen program doesn't count, writing/hacking the CBIOS does) 000077) have you ever written a device driver? 000100) ... For a piece of you own-design hardware? 000101) Have you ever found an undocumented feature in an Operating system? 000102) ... Did you use it? 000103) ... Did you abuse it? Micros ------ Which of the following assemblers/machine codes do you know? 000104) 6502 000105) Z80 000106) Z8 000107) Saturn 000110) 6800 000111) 6809 000112) 8080 000113) 8085 000114) 680x0 000115) 80x86 000116) 1802 000117) SC/MP 000120) 32016 (or similar nat/semi processor) 000121) LSI-11 000122) Have you ever cracked a copy-protection scheme? 000123) .... Or created one? 000124) Have you ever created your own disk format? 000125) Have you ever read a disk for one machine on an incompatible machine 000126) ... with your own program? Calculators ------------ 000127) Do you own a programmable calculator? 000130) ... Is it RPN 000131) .....Is it RPL? 000132) Have you ever programmed a calculator in machine code? 000133) Have you ever found an undocumented command on a calculator? 000134) Have you ever logged on to a larger machine from your calculator 000135) Have you ever logged on to your calculator from a larger machine 000136) Have you ever written a significant application program for a pocket calculator 000137) Do you own a desktop calculator 000140) ... Is it mechanical (Monroematic etc)? 000141) ... Does it use core memory? 000142) Can you divide on a monroe, or similar machine? 000143) Have you ever built a peripheral device for a pocket calculator? 000144) Have you ever reverse-engineered the ROMs of a calculator? 000145) Have you ever met the designer of your calculator? Minicomputers ------------- 000146) Have you ever installed a minicomputer 000147) Have you ever upgraded/expanded a minicomputer using ready-made modules or peripherals? 000150) Have you ever annoyed the manufacturer of a minicomputer by making it out-perform the next model up in the range? 000151) Have you ever toggled in the bootstrap code for a minicomputer? 000152) ... For more than 1 type of machine? 000153) Have you ever toggled in a program for a minicomputer other than the bootstrap loader? 000154) Have you ever used a minicomputer other than one made by DEC or IBM? 000155) Have you ever mounted a disk pack? 000156) Or a magtape? 000157) Have you ever used paper tape 000160) Have you ever edited paper tape 000161) Can you read paper tape by eye? 000162) Have you ever used punched cards? 000163) Can you read punched cards by eye? 000164) Have you ever used a hand-punch (one of those with 12 keys - one for each row)? 000165) Have you ever seen/heard a disk crash? 000166) Have you ever rebuilt a crashed drive? 000167) Have you ever watched the flashing lights on a front-panel? 000170) ...for more than 1 hour? D.E.C. ------ 000171) Can you name and describe at least 4 models of PDP11? Can you identify the following (assume someone gave you a board. Could you work out what it is)? 000172) An SPC board 000173) A dual-height UNIBUS peripheral 000174) A MUD board 000175) A Q-Bus peripheral (Dual Height) 000176) A Q-bus peripheral using CD interconnect 000177) A Quad-Height Q-BUS board 000200) Can you tell an RL01 pack from an RL02 pack? 000201) ... At 20 feet? Can you expand these acronyms? 000202) SPC 000203) ODT 000204) RSX 000205) PDP 000206) PDT 000207) VAX What sort of device would your data be on if it's name was : (Ignore logical devices!) 000210) DX0: 000211) PP: 000212) DL0: 000213) DM0: 000214) CR: 000215) DD: 000216) PD: Can you identify these DEC boards? 000217) M7821 000220) M8100 000221) M7800 Can you find DCL equivalents for : 000222) PIP DM1:[*,*]*.MAC;*/LI 000223) SET /cli=tt3:dcl Can you find MCR equivalents for 000224) DEL DL3:[1,4]TEMP.TXT 000225) show queue Languages/Application software ------------------------------ Which of the following languages do you know? 000226) PL/M 000227) Lisp 000230) RPL 000231) FORTH 000232) APL 000233) ... Have you ever used an APL terminal? 000234) PL/Z 000235) Occam 000236) Postscript Which of the following have you written? 000237) Language Compiler 000240) Language Interpreter 000241) Assembler 000242) Disassembler 000243) Monitor (Rom preferably) 000244) Editor/Text processor 000245) Spreadsheet 000246) Database 000247) Data Aquisition system 000250) Real-time control system 000251) Have you ever found a bug in a commercial program? 000252) Do you never comment code? 000253) Do you prefer to find commands by disassembling the program, rather than reading the manual? 000254) Do you edit your programs by patching the Binary? 000255) Is TECO your favourite editor? General ------- There now follow a mixed lot of questions to test your knowledge of some of the obscure bits of computing and to see just how mad you are. 000256) Have you ever sent e-mail 000257) ... Internationally 000260) ... Between 2 sites in the same country, but going through a second country 000261) Do you read USEnet News? 000262) Do you post to USEnet News? 000263) Have you ever had a program of yours distributed by a mail-server? 000264) Do you prefer meeting computers to meeting people? 000265) Do you count on your fingers in Binary? 000266) Do you own a talking door? 000267) Have you ever logged on to a talking door? 000270) Do you know the ASCII code table? 000271) ... In Octal? 000272) Do you use 8" disks? 000273) ... Do you carry them in your pocket? 000274) Do you own a computer? 000275) ...more than 4? 000276) ...more than 10(8)? 000277) ...more than 40(8)? 000300) Have you ever eaten a floppy disk? 000301) ...paper tape? 000302) ...Punched cards? 000303) Do you carry a computer (or advanced pocket calculator) around with you? 000304) Do/Did you take your lecture notes on a computer? 000305) Do you know more computer phone numbers than people's phone numbers? 000306) Do you use VMS phone, Broadcast or similar to communicate with the chap sitting next to you? 000307) Have you ever transmitted software on an IR beam? 000310) Are you a member of a User Group? 000311) ...Have you founded a user group? 000312) Is your first question on meeting a person 'What computer do you use?'? 000313) Do you think that a mouse is 'a filthy creature that squeaks and spreads disease'? 000314) Do you wish your brain had an RS232 port? 000315) Do you wish that 'Caps lock' keys were remote controllable? 000316) Can you expand the expression 'FUBAR'? 000317) ...SNAFU? 000320) ...RYFM? 000321) Do you have a collection of old bits of computer? 000322) Do you have core memory? 000323) ... Delay line memory? 000324) ... Demountable hard disk? 000325) ... High-speed paper tape? 000326) Does your brain ever crash? 000327) ... Get interrupt-bound? 000330) ... Loose context? 000331) Have you ever repaired a teletype? 000332) Have you ever removed that screw in the ASR33 that causes various bits to become airborne? 000333) ...Did you get them back together again? 000334) Do you type random commands 'just to see what happens'? 000335) ... In TECO? 000336) Have you ever cut a computer in half? 000337) Did it work afterwards? 000340) Have you ever aligned a floppy disk head? 000341) ...A hard disk head? 000342) ...A print head? 000343) Do you have any line printer pictures (TTYpics)? 000344) Do you draw circuit diagrams as TTYpics? 000345) ... Do you then submit them to USEnet News? 000346) Do you know any computer jokes? 000347) Do you have to explain them to people? 000350) Do you know about (DEC) flip-chip? 000351) Have you ever used flip-chip? 000352) On what machine is 207F the opcode for HALT? 000353) Where would you use synthetic programming? 000354) Do you own the circuit diagrams of your computer? 000355) ...The Microcode source? 000356) ...The OS source? 000357) ...The diagnostic source? 000360) Have you ever found bugs in any of the above? 000361) Have you ever punched dot-matrix characters on paper tape (or cards)? 000362) ... Have you projected the image with an OHP? 000363) Have you used/do you own a vector graphics unit? 000364) If asked 'Do you want <A> or <B>?' do you often reply 'Yes'? 000365) Can you write a (mathematical) routine quicker than it takes to find the documentation, and understand it, for the one in the standard library? 000366) Have you ever named your computer? 000367) In what number system does: 1+1=110 and 110+110=100? 000370) Do you ever build hardware just to get round the need of writing a program? 000371) Do you write 'Do Not fold,spindle or mutilate' on items to be sent by snail-mail 000372) Do you wish to be buried 'Face down, nine edge first'? 000373) Do you ever 'push buttons, just to see what happens'? 000374) Have you ever filled a printer with water? 000375) ... Did it work better at the end? 000376) Have you ever run a multi-user machine? 000377) Do you have a collection of computer trivia (e.g. Nutworks). Scoring. ------- Count 1 point for each yes, or question answered correctly. If your score is between: You are: 000000 and 000010 Naive User 000011 and 000040 User 000041 and 000100 Hacker 000101 and 000200 Sage 000201 and 000300 Guru 000301 and 000377 Wizard

15 years, 9 months

DEC AXP 3000/800 Parts Available (UK)

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Hi List, I have a DEC 3000/800 AXP that I've not been able to get working fully, so I'm providing the opportunity for parts before the rest goes for recycling. The box was complete, and has the following items of note: Motherboard Processor I/O board Power supply (good output rails) 3.3V VRM Module All wiring Harnesses Audio IO support board with diagnostics seven segment displays. Memory carriers (I'm keeping the memory as it's compatible with the 3000/600 I have) Fans It was complete, so anything that you might expect can be supplied. All I'm asking is the cost of postage, paid via paypal or cheque. Clearly there is an issue with the box as it stands that I've not been able to isolate, which would point to either the I/O board or the motherboard, but you might get lucky with either. Please contact me off list. Regards, Mark.

15 years, 9 months

5.25" drives free for shipping from austin, tx

by frustum＠pacbell.net

I found a box of drives that I had been given years ago and had forgotten about. All are used and pulled from working systems (TRS-80s mostly). All have black face plates. half height: TEAC FD-55FV-35-U (80 track, 720KB) Matsushita SA455 (40 trk, ds) yes I know sa455 is a shugart designation, but that is what the label says Toshiba (40 track, ds) (part of the label is missing) ... 02 REV A Mitsubishi M4854 double sided; web search says "1.2MB" Mitsubishi M4854 double sided; web search says "1.2MB" Shugart SA465 "720K 5.25 Double Sided, Quad Density" written in pencil: "OK 4-90" full height: tandon, relabeled "texas perhipherals" type unknown, but probably 40 track, ss tandon tm100-1A (ss, 40 trk, 180K), bezel says "MTI 140 / MOD III PLUS" MPI Model 52 This might be crap; there is a hand written note on the side, written in sharpie, saying "Head #1 read only" Request one, any combination, or all. Local pickup gets priority. Otherwise, if there are multiple requests for the same drive, the random number generator of a Wang 2200 will decide the winner. I reserve the right to skew the results to minimize the number of boxes I need to ship. None of these drives have protective cardboard inserts. The drives will be bubble wrapped for shipment.

15 years, 9 months

(Montreal) DEC and Sun junk, Dell workstation, personal request

by alexandre.laguejacques＠gmail.com

Hello all, Five items for local pickup that may interest the members of the list. The first three items are basically junk and will be thrown out because I'm moving. The parts may be useful to someone. Everything is free except the last item. 1. DEC AlphaServer 1000A Fans turn but no boot. Had already asked here for advice but can't seem to fix it. May be a power supply issue but can't find a replacement at a reasonable price. Includes memory (appears good), PCI ethernet card, video card. 2. Sun GDM-1604-15 Fixed frequency colour monitor, 4xBNC input. Missing pedestal. Works but there is no vertical control and the image is slightly strechted beyond the top and bottom borders of the screen. Was given to me by a generous list member and has served me well when I need a console on a Sun. 3. DEC LK461-A2 Looks like an English (UK?) layout with a PS/2 connector. Verified PC compatible, but with a VMS layout. Missing both feet at the back. Had bought the French Canadian version on eBay and they sent this instead. Go figure. 4. Linksys EtherFast PC Card PCM100-CA No dongle! Good for old laptops (16 bit PCMCIA). 5. Dell Precision 220 - 100$ Pentium III 733 MHz (single but dual possible), 512 MB (2x256 MB) RDRAM, Matrox dual display card, 9.2 GB Ultra3 60 pin SCSI hard drive, recent Netgear wireless card with Atheros chipset (WG311T), PCI ethernet card. Worked great as a server running FreeBSD. IMHO worth the price alone for the RDRAM and the wireless card. I'll probably post more messages between now and the month of June as I sort through my stuff. ***REQUEST *** If anyone knows a source for a cheap but more modern (and working) Alpha, please drop me a line. I'd also love a VMS compatible Integrity but I'm dreaming. Or some cheap SGI kit. Thanks! - Alex

15 years, 9 months

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test-drb March 2009