Michael Kerpan <mjkerpan at kerpan.com> wrote:
> I'd be interested to know what's out there vis a vis classic systems
> that are on the Internet offering public access. Currently, I know of
> twenex.org (emulated KL-10B DECSYSTEM-20 with Panda TOPS-20),
> pdpplanet.com (a TOAD-1 with TOPS-20, a DECSYSTEM-10 2065 and a VAX
> 780) and cray-cyber.org (an emulated CDC Cyber plus a rotating
> selection of historic super computers on weekends), but is there
> anything else? Is anybody running classic versions of UNIX (UCB-era
> BSD, AT&T-era System III/V, V6/V7, etc) Is anybody running a public
> IBM system? What about various lesser-known systems? Given that most
> people used these systems through remote terminals to begin with, a
> public access system would seem to be an ideal way to experience them,
> but how many of them are available in such a way?
A little surprised that people don't seem to know this, since it's been
online for about fifteen years now (and I have made public announcements
now and then all the time)...
Update, in Sweden, have a PDP-11/70, which runs RSX, and have guest
access. The machine is Magica.Update.UU.SE.
Because a budget limit, along with a problematic cooling system a few
years ago, we've had to restrict how much we can have that machine
running, so we migrated all accounts to an emulated PDP-11/74 instead,
called Mim.Update.UU.SE.
So, just telnet to Mim.Update.UU.SE, and login with guest/guest, and you
can play with RSX.
Oh, and yes, Magica is still around as well. It just takes a turn of the
key to get it online.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
I tinker with old laboratory equipment and got a Bio-Rad 3200
computer the other day that runs a spectrometer.
It is a 68030 based system that runs a version of Whitesmiths
unix. It came with a bunch of floppys dated 1992.
It runs just fine and I would like to get advice on how to preserve
the contents of the small SCSI disk inside the computer and the floppys.
As an aside, I didn't know any passwords to get me into the
system. My first try to log on as root using the password 'password'
worked, I had to laugh.
Doug
I'm assessing a pair of Nova 4/C chassis that I have had for a few months. One of the units has a CPU but no memory; the other has a MOS memory board but no battery backup unit.
Can anyone tell me whether older Nova core memory is compatible with the 4/C processor (I suspect not), and whether the battery backup unit is required for the memory to operate, or whether it was just sold as an option ? I think the wiring is there for it in the chassis.
My notes and some photographs are online at
http://comley.us/browse.php?&action=show&artefactID=1054
Thanks,
-Dave
Hi!? Some people have asked for more information about the S-100 prototyping
boards. They are available on VCGM, eBay (#270407288057) or from me
directly.
http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/auction_details.php?name=N8VEM-S100-
Prototyping-Board-PCB&auction_id=103791
My goal is to just recover the cost of the PCB manufacturing run -- not a
commercial "for profit" venture. There has proven to be significantly less
interest in S-100 home brew projects than I anticipated which is why I still
have these boards available.
If anyone would like to buy some please contact me by email.
Thanks and have a nice day!
Andrew Lynch
Well, big problem.
The /xenix kernel of one Altos 686 with Xenix 3.2f is corrupted, and the
security copy (as usual) don't recover.
Someone can provide me one bootable floppy or tape for this machine and OS ?
I shall try to recover the kernel, but in the worst case I should need to
install again from this backup. But my impression is that I should need one
floppy in all cases.
Thanks
Sergio
I'm running a couple of AT&T SVR4 machines and am thinking of doing an
SVR3. These are running on old Intel hardware, in text-only mode, etc.
Unfortunately I'm really worried about opening these to the public net
because they obviously have a ton of security holes. For instance,
it's really hard to get a modern ssh running on them, so I have to use
telnet. I have them set up on a private network with a modern linux
machine on both the public and private networks that I can ssh into
and telnet out of. It also acts as a mail relay for them.
SVR4 is not that old, so I'm not sure how many might be interested in
it, but if you really are, let me know, and I can set you up an
account and tell you how to get in. The machine has a bunch of the old
text mode software we used to use in those days: games, email clients,
and very soon, USENET. Even a curses-based menu system. It's basically
a rebuild of an old public access UNIX system I used to run.
I'm also interested to know if anyone out there with old systems is
interested in building a dark network for retro computing folks using
UUCP over tcp. I have this perverse urge to get pathalias running
again and build a little UUCP mapping project. Because my SVR4 box is
on a private network, I'll need to bounce through the linux box. I'd
like to implement a set of private USENET groups, and file transfer.
I am also considering completely blowing off net access for these
boxes and just using dialup. I was thinking of buying one of those
MagicJack thingies that give you a local number and unlimited voip
calling for $20 a year and setting up a modem on it. The downside is
that most folks don't have modems any more.
Ideas? Am I just nuts for even considering something like this?
-Tom
Message: 25
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:08:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu>
On Mon, 29 Jun 2009, Marvin Johnston wrote:
>>> > Happens more often than you'd think. ?Long ago, a friend decided to
>>> > call his company "Tripas" (a variant spelling of "Tri-pass"). ?After
>>> > the corporate name had been registered, the janitorial crew informed
>>> > him that they thought it was funny--apparently it's Spanish ?for
>>> > entriails ?(tripe).
>>
>> Up here in Canada, the Reform party briefly renamed itself the
>> "Conservative Reform Alliance" Party: CRAP
>>
>> That lasted all of two days, IIRC.
>
> Anyone remember the eBay marketing promotion, "Do It eBay"? I still love it
> ... Do It eBay, short for DIE!
Some years ago a shoe company came out with a shoe they named "The
Incubus". Said shoes were in the stores before management realized what
an incubus is. Now for something more modern, have any of you noticed the
rash of suggestive fast food adverts?
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
---------------Reply:
And of course there was a small problem with Commodore's VIC 20 in Germany
which led to its being renamed the "VC20 VolksComputer".
(hint: the V is pronounced F in German, and they use an 'I' where we use a 'U')
--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Tom Manos <tmanos at concursive.com> wrote:
> Will a Kaypro really play nice with a
> 3.5" floppy drive? It never occurred to me to try it. I
> thought the floppy drivers under CP/M only knew about DD
> drives, and the bios on the boot disk was different between
> the various Kaypro models among other things to support the
> different floppies they had (SS/SD, SS/DD, DS/DD).
A couple of tricks. For one, you won't be able to use high density drives - the controller can't handle the higher data rate without some hacking. But a 720k floppy drive is almost the same as a DS/DD 5 1/4" floppy drive. It just has 80 tracks instead of 40. So, if you use it without any special drivers, it will work, and the system won't know the difference - it will only use the first 40 tracks, and you'll get 360k of storage. I don't know about the Kaypro, but on the TRS-80, it's possible, with OS support, to use 720k f3 1/2" drives on unmodified hardware, and use the full capacity.
-Ian
Who was it that needed an Airport card for an iMac a couple of weeks ago?
A seller (no connection) in my area appears to have three for sale, with
iMac adapters:
http://provo.craigslist.org/sys/1238519912.html
