test-drb January 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

201 participants
274 discussions

by david＠classiccomputing.com

>> At 5 minutes the guest has still not had chance to say anything the >> interviewer needs to get the guest to speak After the long introduction, I almost don't speak at all! The interview isn't just for hard core computer history enthusiasts, but also for a mainstream audience. > I got as far as when he started with "all I thought you ever did was fire Steve Jobs and ruin Apple" > > I don't care what you think of the guy, but that was just insulting. It was a joke, and John laughed at it. I then made sure to say to both the audience and John that I was joking. If you had listened to the introduction then you would have heard where I made it clear that I was a fan of John Sculley's and etc. Also, that I thought he was getting a bad rap. These are exactly the two main misconceptions which the interview addresses. Best, David Greelish, Computer Historian President, Atlanta Historical Computing Society Classic Computing The Home of Computer History Nostalgia http://www.classiccomputing.com Classic Computing Blog Retro Computing Roundtable podcast "Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer" audiobook podcast Classic Computing Show video podcast

12 years, 10 months

Debugging CRT monitors (Philips CM8833 Mk2 / Acorn AKF17)

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

I've got an Acorn AKF-17 on my workbench, serving duty as a test monitor and the display for my Acorn A3000. For those not in the know, it's essentially a Philips CM8833 Mk.II chassis with most of the inputs blanked off. It's actually quite a nice monitor, except the power switch is on the back (I prefer front-mounted power switches) and it's not quite as nice looking as the metal-case Microvitec Cub (which has a nice industrial look going for it). Here's the catch. It seems to have a bit of a problem in the video synchronisation department. Specifically, the picture rolls vertically (from bottom to top), and seems to move to the right as it does so. In other words, a vertical line turns into a forward-slash. Has anyone worked on one of these "fine" monitors (CM8833, CM8833 Mk2, AKF17 or one of the many re-brands e.g. Atari SC1435) before? What should I be staring daggers at first? Does anyone know where I might be able to get a service manual (or at least a schematic set)? I've got the Mk1 schematics and service manual, but not the Mk2. Apparently someone posted them to Rapidshare last year but the link is now rather dead :( Also, does anyone know where I might be able to get a new power switch? Apparently it's an ITT ME5A, Philips 12NC number 4822 276 11504 though I can't confirm this (I don't have an AKF17 or CM8833mk2 service manual). I've ruled out the A3000 -- MonitorType is 0 (TV-rate monitor) and Sync is 0 too (composite sync). If I switch to Separate Sync (MT0/SYNC1), my LCD monitor (an NEC EA231WMi) will lock on and display video... Cheers, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

12 years, 10 months

Who wants a nice monitor (UK)?

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

I've had to have a bit of a tidy up, and I have to part with the nice Sony monitor off one of my SGI INdys. Sony GDM-17E21 17" CRT, colour "granite" grey, to match an Indy or O2 keyboard. Dual inputs: HD15 "VGA" connector and 5 BNC (R/G/B/HS/VS). Not used for a few years but should be in good order. I can't ship this because I can't find a box and packing large enough, so it will have to be collected from York, UK. It also can't stay here long; it was going to the electrical waste this weekend before I put my foot down. But it might stay a few extra days if someone guarantees to collect it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

12 years, 10 months

Nokia terminals (Was: Apple ][ disk/game server)

by tingox＠gmail.com

2012/1/28 G?ran Axelsson <axelsson at acc.umu.se> > I've got a 12 80186 in purple ceramic with sockets. If anyone needs or > want one, let me know. > Pulled from working VT-220 compatible Nokia terminals (rebranded as Norsk > data Notis terminals). > > I was offered $5 per piece from a gold refiner, but I rather sell them to > collectors. > > ... and before anyone start harassing me about scrapping working > terminals. I announced it here on the list two years ago when I helped a > friend clean out a storage. Of the close to 200 terminals I still have > 60-70 left but I need to get it down to 20 in the end. So, they are also > available. > Which terminals are those? Models? -- Regards, Torfinn Ingolfsen, Oslo, Norway

12 years, 10 months

TRS-80 Model 2/Model 16 ROMs

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

There are at least five different boot ROMs for the Model II. I posted them with some disassemblies and comment at: http://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/trs80m2/. If someone has knowledge of another version, please let me know. Fred Jan

12 years, 10 months

VCF East t-shirt news ....

by evan＠snarc.net

Here's something neat: the VCF East 8.0 t-shirt art is being designed by George Beker, who did all the robot art for Creative Computing magazine and their "BASIC Computer Games" books. He's drawing a special "VCF Bot" for us -- and the ONLY way to get one is to attend the show.

12 years, 10 months

SuperBrain Disks

by dave12＠dunfield.com

Hi everybody, I've had delivery turned off for a long time - seems I'm no longer subscribed as my password does not work ... hopefully this will make it to the list, however I will not receive replies sent to the list except by checking the archives (which I don't do very often). I checked the archives today to see if a chap I had directed to the list got help with SuperBrain disks. I see several comments that I "should have them". I've never been able to read the diskettes from my original SuperBrain. I can read the first two tracks, then errors on every track - missing address marks. I cannot read them with ImageDisk nor TeleDisk. I've tried multiple different drives and types of drives - I simply cannot read the SuperBrain disks on anything except the SuperBrain. Every so often this comes up, and several people say "but SuperBrain disks are bog standard and easy to read" - so apparently I am the only one on the planet who can't read them. After explaining the above (that I simply cannot read them, and that I have in fact tried really hard) - I always get several offers to send me images or disks that can be read ... but nobody has every followed through, which is why I do not have SuperBrain disks on my site. I do have another system called a "CompuStar" which is a rebadged SuperBrain - and most of the disk from that system ARE readable on a PC ... BUT... the guy who owned it really liked APL, and created his own character generator ROM and custom BIOS to support APL characters on the machine ... All of his disks are "hand made" (not originals) and although his disks boot, they display incomprehensible garbage on a normal SuperBrain. Therefore I see little point in posting them as SuperBrain disks. I've only found one disk from his collection which boots and displays on the normal Brain - and it has the missing address mark problem. I've tried booting the Compustar disks on the SuperBrain and blind- formatting a disk --- but the created disk is still unreadable. I am assuming that the Z80 based disk controller in my SuperBrain makes disks which are not readable on a PC (the SB reads them fine). It can boot and read the CompuStar disks, however it does not appear to be able to format a readable disk. Unfortunately the Compustar is not currently working, and will need significant work to repair - so I cannot try formatting disks on it. And I am unable to create anything on the SuperBrain which I can read on the PC. Which is why I cannot provide disk images for the SuperBrain. I've tried - I simply cannot make it happen. Dave -- dave12 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/

12 years, 10 months

C compilers and non-ASCII systems

by spc＠conman.org

A friend recently raised an issue with some code I wrote (a hex dump routine) saying it depended upon ASCII and thus, would break on non-ASCII based systems (and proposed a solution, but that's beside the issue here). I wrote back, saying the code in question was non-portable to begin with (since it depended upon read() and write()---it was targetted at Posix based systems) and besides, I've never encountered a non-ASCII system in the nearly 30 years I've been using computers. So now I'm wondering---besides Baudot, 6-bit BCD and EBCDIC, is there any other encoding scheme used? And of Baudot, 6-bit BCD and EBCDIC, are there any systems using those encoding schemes *AND* have a C compiler available? -spc (Or can I safely assume ASCII and derivatives these days?)

12 years, 10 months

OT: HP signature analyzer

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Hey folks. I have a short-term need for an HP signature analyzer. I don't need one of these very often, so I'm not really keen on buying one. (I know...those here who have seen my lab may be astonished to learn that there's a piece of test equipment that I do not have...but this particular one is rather boring, and not one of HP's better ideas) Does anyone in the US have one that I'd be able to borrow for a few days? Thanks, -Dave -- Dave McGuire New Kensington, PA

12 years, 10 months

cobalt qube

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

It might not be THAT old, but it certainly is a cute little oddity. I'm thinking that maybe HP used the Cobalt Qube for inspiration for the new Proliant Microserver. Though... needs an LCD panel with buttons. -- 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?

12 years, 10 months

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test-drb January 2012