test-drb November 2011

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

178 participants
177 discussions

by halarewich＠gmail.com

like this http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html On Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > I wish I had a good idea. I'm typing this on an Apple Extended II ADB > keyboard plugged into a USB-to-ADB converter so I can use it on my Mac Pro. > On the PC I tend to use a no-name keyboard I got 20 years ago, but really > like the SGI PS/2 keyboard that came with my O2. I really wish someone > would make a good replica of the Apple keyboard, but as a USB keyboard. In > part because I love the shelf behind the function keys. This is also why I > like the IBM Model M keyboards. > > I seem to remember someone is making a keyboard like you're looking for, > but it isn't cheap. > > Zane > > > > > At 6:46 PM +0000 11/5/11, Mark Benson wrote: > >> I'm looking for a good action, high quality keyboard of the same >> action/type as an IBM Model M or the really great Cherry keyboards of 'the >> day' to use on modern machines to code with and work at a terminal. My >> Logitech G110 is fine for general work (it's a decent keyboard in it's own >> right) but the 12 macro keys on the end confuse the b-jebus out of me and >> also the key-spacing is designed for gamers no typists. >> >> I don't want to fudge an older PS/2 keyboard via a USB adapter as it >> generally doesn't work 100% right and I occasionally get keys dropped or >> doouble-typed. I also need the 'Windows' keys that a lot of older decent >> keyboards lack. >> >> I'm willing to drop decent money to get one, so anyone got any ideas? >> >> -- >> >> Mark Benson >> >> http://DECtec.info <http://dectec.info/> >> Twitter: @DECtecInfo >> HECnet: STAR69::MARK >> >> Online Resource & Mailing List for DEC Enthusiasts. >> > > > -- > | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | > | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | > | | Photographer | > +-----------------------------**-----+------------------------**----+ > | My flickr Photostream | > | http://www.flickr.com/photos/**33848088 at N03/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/> | >

12 years, 6 months

various S-100 PCBs for home brew projects

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi, I am getting ready to order some home brew S-100 8086 CPU PCBs. They'll be $20 each with $3 shipping in the US and $6 shipping elsewhere. Please let me know if you want to be in this batch. There is more information here: http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=S-100%208086%2… http://s100computers.com/My%20System%20Pages/8086%20Board/8086%20CPU%20Boar… There are plenty of other S-100 PCBs left too http://www.ebay.com/sch/lynchkl/m.html Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

12 years, 6 months

Market value of VAX 4000-96 - Re: Can anyone explain this to me ?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Four Ubuntu 11.11 machines in the past week, thanks, and that's even when it isn't my job. Please don't assume knowing something about VMS implies NOT knowing something about UNIX. -Dave -- Dave McGuire New Kensington, PA leaknoil <leaknoil at gmail.com> wrote: >On 11/4/2011 5:07 PM, Gene Buckle wrote: >> >> Hell, I'd offer up that VMS 5 was more secure than your average unix >> variant right out of the box. >> >> g. >> > >I get the feeling you guys haven't installed a current linux distro in a >very long time. Tell me how debian is less secure out of the box ? Oh >you can't. Right sorry.

12 years, 6 months

another weird pdp 11/70 color scheme

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Here's a variation of the pdp 11/70 with a chocolate-brown and white color > scheme: http://661.org/images/csis1170.jpg CSI was a computer typesetting company. Pretty much cradle-to-grave in terms of end user support. "Composition Systems Incorporated" I think. There was at least one other company that specialized in typesetting for classified ads that used PDP-11's for typesetting. Their name is not coming to mind at the moment but they were surprisingly common at metropolitan newspapers. I remember them using the 3270-like capabilities of VT-oh-something terminals. Tim.

12 years, 6 months

Puzzling error message

by trestivo＠cfl.rr.com

When running OS8 on a PDP8/a system I get an error message that reads "ahain error". Has anyone ever seen or heard of this. I cannot find info anywhere on this. One thought we have is that maybe the message should read "chain error" and was mis-spelled in the program that generates it. Any thoughts? Thom

12 years, 6 months

KryoFlux - imaging of vintage floppy disks via USB

by robert.stek＠gmail.com

I am sure that I represent a very small number of the members of this list, the great majority of whom have more technical knowledge in their pinky than I have in my whole body. But I may represent those of us at whom the Kryo-Flux is at least partially aimed. I built my Sol-20 from a kit because I wanted a personal computer, could program in BASIC, FORTRAN, a little COBOL, a little C, and I knew which end of a soldering iron to hold on to. I am still a Heathkit/Dynaco kind of a hardware guy. I have a general understanding of maybe half of the technical concepts discussed on the list and can't contribute much beyond my 'power user' knowledge of S-100 machines and CP/M and what I remember from Sol Libes' S-100 Microcomputing, PC Tech Journal, BYTE, Interface Age, etc. I could patch a BIOS if necessary but my longest assembly language routine was about 13 bytes long. But I lurk here because I still have my Sol, some NorthStar drives, and even an 8" drive (which I once had Steve Ciarcia help me get working on my IBM AT!). My interest in the KryoFlux and the DiscFerret is both personal and potentially of use to the wider micro community in that I still have hundreds of 5.25" and 8" disks, many of them original, many more not. I simply enjoy tinkering with my machine and old software. I publicly give loud thanks to Jim Battle, Dave Dunfield, and others who have provided emulators, but I lack the determination (and space) (and my skills are VERY rusty) to set up my PC and Sol with both 5.25" and 8" drives under both NS-DOS and CP/M to read (and write?)and transfer the variety of hard and soft-sectored formatted software I have (with Kryo-Flux and DiscFerret in their present states). And I want to be able to preserve this software. Most of the big-name commercial software I have has already been preserved (but I may have a missing version). I was a software junkie back then and have more stuff than I can even recall. I am more than willing, nay, I am eager to save this stuff. I can offer my time and effort but I don't have the skills at the currently necessary levels to further the general effort. But what I need is a more semi-'turnkey' solution. I want something like Grumpy Ol' Fred's Xeno-Disk running under Windows or OSX or linux talking to a Kryoflux or DiscFerret attached to my still operating (for now) 5.25", 8" and plain vanilla 3.5" drives (and one at a time is fine). I want to be able to save my old programs in a format that can be used by the emulators available. I will send copies (and what documentation I have or can create) to any preservation society that wants it. This may not be much of a contribution but it is what I can do. And I suspect that there may be a whole lot more of 'me' out there. Whether we do it for fun, for nostalgia or for giving back to the micro community, it has got to be a 'plug 'n' play' type solution. I don't have and never expect to see some of the more exotic formats that some on this list deal with regularly. OTOH, I believe that I represent a mainstream portion of 'old geeks' who were the early adopters in the '70's and '80's and can still contribute something now if we have the tools. Maybe what I want will eventually happen. Maybe publicity efforts by libraries, preservation societies, etc. can make people aware that their cache of old disks has value and that they can contribute them directly or they can buy a device that easily connects their current computer to older drives so they can do it themselves. I don't mind paying $150 for the hardware AND software to do this. I hope that there are others (hopefully many others) like me out there. Are there? I don't know, but if you are reading this, please chime in. I applaud the people involved in these efforts. I have sent N* formatted disks and some technical docs to Phil (and have offered the same to KryoFlux). But that's about all I can do now. I'll just keep 'lurking' and hope that a solution which fits me will get here before I 'shuffle off this mortal coil.' Bob Stek Saver of lost Sols

12 years, 6 months

KryoFlux - imaging of vintage floppy disks via USB

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hi all, I wanted to give a little update on our progress making our universal floppy controller KryoFlux even better. For those that have not heard of it - what does it do? - Reads all kinds of floppy disks with a "standard" PC drive (e.g. 3", 3.5", 5.25", 8") - Reads custom formats used by vintage computers like Acorn Electron, Apple, Amstrad CPC, Archimedes, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, MSX, IBM PC, PC-8801, Sam Coupe, Spectrum, E-MU Emulator & Emulator II, DEC RX01 & RX02 - Stores _all_ data present on disk, including custom formats and copy protection (e.g. for preservation / long term storage of original game disks) - Connects comfortably via USB - Track data visualisation built right into the GUI: http://softpres.org/kryoflux:ui:stream-plot - Host software available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.It's free for private use! - Hardware schematics are public as well and can be freely used in an private, non-commercial environment. That means the hardware is free as well, you don't have to buy anything to use it. - Pre-built hardware (only EUR 90.-) available for those that can't or don't want to build something on their own. - Already used by hundreds of users as well as archives, museums and libraries all around the globe: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/10/british-library-digital-arch… How did we make it better? - Now also writes images back to disk. Writing IPF files creates pristine clones of preserved disks long gone before. It also writes data other controllers refuse to write. - Now supports one-pass dumping of "flippy" disks with a modified 5.25" drive. The problem dumping these is explained here: http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3#p1991 <http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3#p1991> , comprehensive video tutorial explains how drives can be modified: http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=253#p2021 <http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=253#p2021> - We released the full source code to our own format, IPF, introduced over ten years ago, that stores original data as found on original disks, e.g. custom formats and copy protection. We spent over ten years on preserving games, now KryoFlux brings extended floppy imaging to home users as well. More information is available on our website: http://www.kryoflux.com Or check the trailer if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOtwq5eqeuA Can we do better? Please let us know! Best, Chris

12 years, 6 months

Puzzling error message

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 01:38 PM 11/4/2011, THOM RESTIVO wrote: >When running OS8 on a PDP8/a system I get an error message that reads >"ahain >error". Has anyone ever seen or heard of this. I cannot find info anywhere >on this. One thought we have is that maybe the message should read "chain >error" and was mis-spelled in the program that generates it. Any thoughts? The OS/8 USR (User Service Routine) has a CHAIN function that allows a program to exit and start up another program. For example, the FORTRAN compiler has multiple phases and chains from one phase to the next. CHAIN requires that the program being chained to be on the system boot device (SYS:), otherwise you'll get a CHAIN ERROR message from USR. What program are you using when you see this error? Are you running that from the SYS device? If not, that's the fix. As far as the "AHAIN" versus "CHAIN" - I don't know why it's spelled incorrectly, but it wouldn't surprise me that it's someone's idea for bumming a bit for some reason from an infrequent error message. -Rick

12 years, 6 months

4000 Series CMOS Parts?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> RCA had a bit-slice part in one of their 1970s COSMOS databooks, with an > app note in the back, but I've never been able to find that particular > COSMOS databook again I think... it was in the back of one of their memory databooks. I think that everybody except AMD really fell flat trying to fit bitslice parts into their marketing.

12 years, 6 months

KryoFlux - imaging of vintage floppy disks via USB

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> A meta-comment: I've been watching the KryoFlux discussion and, > whatever I may think of the hardware[1] or past management policies[2], > I'm very positively impressed with the people who are representing > KryoFlux[3] here. > [..] > > [1] What I've heard sounds good; I've never even seen it personally, so > I can't say much authoritatively.[4] > > > [4] Given that it hooks up to a stock drive (at least that's the > impression I've gotten) and is largely open and getting opener, I'm > tempted to get one against possible future need. (I'm not thrilled > by USB, but I've got enough USB-capable machines, and will likely > get more, that it's tolerable. And, while I currently have no real > use for it, it is not unlikely that will change someday, and I'd > hate to discover them gone when I do want their product.) Chuck has passed the offer of trying the board for free (ok, return postage, as I can't print a US or Canadian label from here). If you want to try it, please feel free to chime in. I just can't change the status of the software for now, so you would have to go with the binaries. Cheers!

12 years, 6 months

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test-drb November 2011