Hi, Jason,
If nobody comes to claim your SA600, I would be interested in a few of
the SDI cables if you would take the time to remove them and drop them
in a box and mail them (just let me know what you'd want for postage
and time). I have a couple of RA70s and I'd love some intracabinet
cables to hook them up to a controller. I'd most likely be
installing them into a BA123 I have in the dining room - it came to me
empty, so I get to build it up however I want.
Of course, I hope you find a taker for the whole thing - it's a nice
cabinet but too far for me (and I'm more of an H960 guy anyway)
-ethan
Speaking of DEC racks,
What is the model number of the short rack that this 11/34 is shown
mounted in?
http://museum.dyne.org/index.php/File:P5182215.jpg
And then just below the RL02 and above the 11/34 is a filler panel.
How does that filler panel attach to the rack?
I have this same rack, with 11/34 and two RL02 in it and I have the
filler panel but no means to attach it to the rack. I can fabricate
something but am interested in The Right Way(tm) it was done originally.
There is a groved slot on the back of the filler panel that runs the
entire width. It appears that this snapped onto a bracket of some sort
that was bolted to the rack.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Chris
--
Chris Elmquist
I had root to K250 and L3000 PA-RISC systems back in the day (and a C3600
which the biology department used for visualization) and learned to
loathe HP/sUX, but I found my pack of 11i CDs in the closet and got nostalgic
for the old architecture (wonder what would have happened if Hombre had
actually succeeded). I've got a line on a couple C8000 systems at what I
consider to be a fair price, fully loaded. While I did a lot of work on the
big iron systems, I don't have a lot of knowledge about the workstations.
Anyone know any gotchas I should watch for?
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Let us live! Let us love! Let us share our darkest secrets! ... you first. -
On 6 March 2012 18:32, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote:
> Liam Proven wrote:
>> A friend of mine is selling another:
>> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230755691414
>
> Hi,
>
> ? It's not clear from your friend's auction page, is
> ? he willing to sell/ship to the United States?
I heard you the first time. ;?)
I've forwarded your personal mail on to him.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
I'm looking for a BA123 power supply. Anybody gots? I could also
use a handful of short AUI cables.
Thanks,
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
On 6 March 2012 18:32, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote:
> Liam Proven wrote:
>> A friend of mine is selling another:
>> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230755691414
>
> Hi,
>
> ? It's not clear from your friend's auction page, is
> ? he willing to sell/ship to the United States?
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
I don't know. Ask him! :?)
Probably - he's a smart, together chap and travels a lot. I don't see
it being a problem.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
Vexed that you didn't win mine a week ago? Or did it just go too high?
A friend of mine is selling another:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230755691414
Also, he's selling an MGT Sam Coup? that he bought off me a decade and
a half back:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230755730713
Lovely machine, the latter - one of the most sophisticated of the
8-bit home micros and I was sorry to see it go, but I really needed
the money at the time.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
Well, no luck on removing the lp driver et cetera under Ubuntu, so I am going to try reverting my Linux distribution, or going to NetBSD for the emulator instead.
Kevin
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 10:26:38 -0800
From: Kevin McQuiggin <mcquiggi at sfu.ca>
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Anyone Having Problems With CHD's RX01 Emulator and
Ubuntu 11.10?
Message-ID: <200AF799-973C-4E82-9AA9-1C4184B43B54 at sfu.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
A short update on this problem:
Further info, I am going to try to unload the kernel's "lp" and "parport" drivers to see if they are interfering with the emulator's access to the parallel port. "lsmod" shows them loaded, I recall that I can "rmmod" them (or some similarly-named command). I am not a native Linux person, BSD is much to my preference!
This was necessary for proper operation of a JTAG programmer that I was using to "unbrick" a dead router a few months ago. Ubuntu's (Debian's) "lp" drivers interfered with the utility's manipulation of the parallel port signals when talking to the router's JTAG port.
I am hoping that this will be a similar situation. I'm going to try it when I get home from work.
Kevin
Have a lot more to be added later when I find them like the RXV21,
etc. A few boards have a broken purple plastic handle and I can take
$5 off if anyone wants them.
M3106 DZQ11 $35
M3107 DHQ11 40
M7090 35
M7195-FA MXV11 125
M7270 11/03 CPU 45
M7504 DEQNA 35
M7546 TK50 25
M7552 RRD50 was listed as 7952- thanks for pointint it out
M7555 RQDX3 60 could be more typos
M7559 TQK70 50
M7651 DRV11-WA125
M7740 RC25?
M7818 90
M7940 DLV11 20
M7941 DRV11 100
M7944 MSV11-B 20
M7946 RXV11 45
M7949 LAV11 30
M8017 50
M8028 40
M8043 DLV11-J 85
M8044 MSV11-DD25
M8047-AA 100
M8047-CA 150
M8059 65
M8186 11/23 CPU 100
M8192 11/73 CPU 150
Option names may be off. I have some CPU?s without chip sets.
$10 s/h for up to 4 boards within US. Please contact me with mail codes
for overseas shipping quotes.
Please contact me off list. I am working on quad boards and hope to have
a list in a few weeks.
Thanks, Paul
All -
Wow, you guys are great - I already have someone who kindly volunteered to
dump the tapes for me. We're going to give it a try tomorrow.
Pontus, I'm in Seattle right now and the volunteer is quite close to where
I am. I'm not sure of the tape density - the label don't say and I'm not
really a 9 track tape guy (my realm is pretty much microcomputers).
Zane, if I can get the data off, and it's worth something, I'll likely
bundle it on a DVD with the book.
- Rick
Hi All -
I have some old DECsystem-20 9 track tapes that I'd very much like to get
dumped.
As I mentioned previously, I'm writing a book about Infocom. One of the
Infocommies kept some tapes from the early days of the company, circa 1981,
and I'd love to get a dump of what's on them. I realized there are
services that do this, but I hoping to avoid the cost (which, I suspect,
would be out of my reach).
Does anyone have a system that could read these tapes and dump the data (or
know someone that does)? I'd appreciate any help that you could give me on
this.
- Rick
Yeah, eBay seems to be full of this kind of thing. I won an auction
for some minor stuff a couple of months ago. Silence, then a note
>from the seller saying that he didn't notice that the auction had
closed--followed by a note saying that he dropped the item and the
plastic case had cracked. When I asked him to send the item anyway
(I wanted the guts, not the case), he said he'd thrown it away
already.
Funny thing is that the item had a metal case...
I tend to trust the Chinese sellers more than the domestic ones, all
things considered.
--Chuck
A short update on this problem:
Further info, I am going to try to unload the kernel's "lp" and "parport" drivers to see if they are interfering with the emulator's access to the parallel port. "lsmod" shows them loaded, I recall that I can "rmmod" them (or some similarly-named command). I am not a native Linux person, BSD is much to my preference!
This was necessary for proper operation of a JTAG programmer that I was using to "unbrick" a dead router a few months ago. Ubuntu's (Debian's) "lp" drivers interfered with the utility's manipulation of the parallel port signals when talking to the router's JTAG port.
I am hoping that this will be a similar situation. I'm going to try it when I get home from work.
Kevin
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:19:47 -0800
From: Kevin McQuiggin <mcquiggi at me.com>
To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Anyone Having Problems With CHD's RX01 Emulator and Ubuntu
11.10?
Message-ID: <F312C8E2-D262-48F8-B452-6576C4AAE4EE at me.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Hi All:
Since my upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, the excellent RX01 emulator from Charles Dickman that i have been using on my pdp-11 11/34 has stopped working. This interfaces to a PC using the PC's parallel port.
I gather from the rather confusing mass of Ubuntu support information that several parallel port printers stopped working and failed to be recognized after an upgrade to 11.10. I have checked some of the fixes quoted but they don't apply to my installation.
Anyone else have this problem?
I can downgrade my Ubuntu to an earlier version, but if there's someone else who has solved this problem, I therefore thought I'd ask on the list first!
Thanks in advance for any info,
Kevin
Sent from my iPad
----- Original Message:
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 00:54:49 -0800
From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca>
> Up here in the dastardly and dangerous foreign territory of Canada, I get
> this from ebay:
> Unfortunately, access to this particular item has been blocked due to
> legal restrictions...
----- Reply:
Guess they're worried about all the ex-pat Chinese and you rabble-rousing
anti-war ex-hippie trouble-makers out there on the left coast; no problem
accessing it from staid, conservative, trustworthy old Toronto...
----- Original Message:
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:59:47 -0800
From: DC <mc68010 at gmail.com>
> I would be more worried about Canada getting nuclear weapons than Iran any
> day.
Damn straight! And we doan need no steenkin' missiles to deliver 'em
neither!
> From:?DC <mc68010 at gmail.com>
> Date:?Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:16:00 -0800
> Subject:?NCR Computer ID M05?
> This poor thing is in really bad shape and full of dead spiders and dirt. Can anyone tell me what it is from and if it is worth saving ? It's really disgusting and not sure I want to put it in my car to drag home from it's current location. I don't mean like a couple dead bugs in it. There are thousands and physically it's pretty damaged.
>
> I can find a few references to NCR M05 cpu's but, no pictures of the actual guts. ? The label does say M05 on it anyway.
>
> It's bigger than the pictures make it look. Probably 3' x 2' or a bit larger.
>
> http://imgur.com/a/Cja2y
The boards look like the ones in the NCR 8250 at the RICM.
http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/ncr-8250
--
Michael Thompson
Hi All:
Since my upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, the excellent RX01 emulator from Charles Dickman that i have been using on my pdp-11 11/34 has stopped working. This interfaces to a PC using the PC's parallel port.
I gather from the rather confusing mass of Ubuntu support information that several parallel port printers stopped working and failed to be recognized after an upgrade to 11.10. I have checked some of the fixes quoted but they don't apply to my installation.
Anyone else have this problem?
I can downgrade my Ubuntu to an earlier version, but if there's someone else who has solved this problem, I therefore thought I'd ask on the list first!
Thanks in advance for any info,
Kevin
Sent from my iPad
Does anyone have a unwanted Sun CD drive for an SS5/20 or any Aurora
chassis box? The one in my SS20 seems to have died and I cant find one
on ebay... The P/N for my broken one is 590625-D0. email me off the list
if you have one! Many Thanks!
If there is interest, I can get to 5 or 6 H7100's and about 50 or so
boards soon. If no interest I will work around them.
I still have an 11/780 spares kit here and at least one backplane(
11/780 I think).
Thanks, Paul
Partial list of double height Q-bus boards
M3106
M3107 DHQ11 $40
M7090 35
M7195-FA MXV11
M7270 11/03 CPU
M7504 DEQNA 35
M7546 TK50 25
M7555 RQDX3
M7559 TQK70 50
M7651 DRV11-WA
M7740
M7818
M7940 DLV11 20
M7941 DRV11
M7944 MSV11-B 20
M7946 RXV11 45
M7949 LAV11 30
M7952 RRD50
M7954 50
M8043 DLV11-J 85
M8044 MSV11-DD 25
M8186 11/23 CPU
M8192 11/73 CPU
Option names may be off. I have some CPU?s without chip sets.
$10 s/h for up to 4 boards within US. Please contact me with mail codes
for overseas shipping quotes.
Please contact me off list. I am working on quad boards and hope to have
a list in a few weeks.
Thanks, Paul
Has anyone communicated with Al Kossow lately? I emailed him a couple
times a couple weeks ago about some scans I made for bitsavers.org and
never heard back from him.
--
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?
>> You can have a detailed doc for our ingestion STREAM format and the
>> complete source for the IPF decoder, including our high performance
>> bit accurate WD177x emulator. There are even third party tools
>> available working with it.
> Cool, that sounds useful. I found the Stream Protocol page on your web
> site. Is the IPF decoder source on the site somewhere? If not, how do
> I get it?
>
> Thanks!
> Eric
Hi Eric,
yes, it's here: http://www.softpres.org/news:2011-10-15
Please also check the forums. There is even more code available for both the STREAM files as well as the IPF decoder: http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=365
Enjoy.
Tony,
>
> > Hi Dave, so do I. now I think I understand the issue. It's about the
> > (old) open source discussion and daring to ask for money. I really don't
> It's partly that, but actually I think there's more to it.
>
> Firstly, I think it is a very bad idea to archive someing in a format
> which is not fully docuemtned. The fact that there's somehign around
> _now_ that can read it does not mean there will be soemthing aroudn in 50
> years time that can read it. At least if you know the archive format
> then you have a chance of creatign somethign to make sense of it.
That's why I explained that it is. You can have a detailed doc for our
ingestion STREAM format and the complete source for the IPF decoder,
including our high performance bit accurate WD177x emulator. There are
even third party tools available working with it.
>
> Seocndly, these disk readers are, or at least should be, very verstile
> devices. I know that the FPGA code for the Diskferret is available, so if
> you want to modify it (at your own risk, of course) to read some other
> type of disk then you can do so.
That's why we store raw flux transitions. Even if no sector decoder
matches, you can still read it at the lowest level. You even don't have
to modify or change anything.
>
> And thirdly, there;'s the question of support. I've had_much_ better
> support -every time -- from the authors of free software than from
> commerical software companies. This may be becuase I am often talkign to
> the guy who wrote hte code in the former case. It may be becuase they
> genuinely care.
You obviously never worked with me or anyone else in our organisation.
But obviously the fact that we are commercial qualifies you to make any
assumption regarding my (our) work ethics. Would it be fair to say all
open source is crap because the tool I relied on has been discontinued?
Why would any assumption qualify you to criticize what we do? What you
say is: A green man cheated me. All green men will cheat. Note that
green was chosen on purpose. If anyone reading this is green please
accept my apologies.
Many customers work directly with our head of development for very
specific problems and usually we deliver solutions pretty quickly in a
couple of hours or days.
Apart from that we even publish the board schematics. You could build
your own board and use our software for free which means I don't get a
single cent from you yet I would still try to support you if possible.
How many companies would do that?
>> > feel like arguing against that. What I know is that people deliver good
>> > work when they are motivated. I see no evil in the fact that people get
>> > paid because this can be a very good motivation. It also enables you to
>> > spend money for things that make the product better.You also can spend
>> > the money to train programmers so they use latest techniques and don't
> I think that's one of the msot insulting things against all the excellent
> free software uthors that I have ever read. Are youy seriosuly claiming
> that a program like gcc is no good becuase it's free and that the
> programmers who wrote it are clueless and not motivated? [No, gcc is not
> perfect. But it's better than several commercial C compilers I've been
> forced to use].
Don't reverse my words! I said absolutely nothing about free software. I
do like free software. I only outlined why being commercial is good for
the path we've chosen. We can even afford sending someone over, like we
did several times in the past, to help with setup and give a
comprehensive hands-on lesson. We also can afford donating free boards
and software to certain institutions because others subsidise them.
What I said was that someone that gets paid will help you solve your
problem and try to add whatever awkward format is needed to make you
happy. I see nothing evil in that, because there aren't many volunteers
around that will do this.
> Quite simply if that's your attidude I do not wish to do business with you.
Again, you never worked with us. How insulted would you feel if someone
judged about you in public, without ever having worked with you?
I'm not sure how much variety there was in the plastics available in the
late '50s / early '60s, but I've got a plastic part here from that era[1]
which needs sticking back together - is there any particular type of glue
that I should be wary of? I just have memories of those plastic model
airplane kits way back, where certain types of glue would dissolve the
plastic, and I don't want to have that happen on an unobtanium part...
It's probably one of those things where there's no way of knowing - but I
figure it doesn't hurt to ask, and it's the sort of thing where if there is
a right answer, I expect that someone on this list will know it :-)
[1] OT; actually the platen knob from an old Smith-Corona typewriter.
cheers
Jules
Cctalk'rs,
Here's a big update about all the things happening with the Vintage
Computer Festival East 8.0, May 5-6, at the InfoAge Science Center in
Wall, New Jersey.
So far we're up to three "celebrity" lectures: Dr. Thomas Kurtz, who
co-invented BASIC; Dan Kottke, of early Apple fame; and Bil Herd, of
Commodore 8-bit fame. There's also a lecture by Dr. Kent Lundford,
who'll teach us the history of analog computing, and there are two more
still to be announced.
This year we have ** SEVEN ** technical workshops: chiptunes music,
software restoration, intro to minicomputer care/feeding, intro to
Commodore 8-bit maintenance, into to Apple II maintenance, intro to
S-100 zen/innerworkings, and Build a Vector Graphics Kit (the latter is
a separate ticket.)
So far there are 14 exhibits. We expect around 25 total.
There will be a book sale, consignment, food, museum tours, prizes,
vendors, etc.
In addition, for the first time, we're having a few company sponsors
(beyond the usual ones: MARCH, VintageTech, InfoAge Science Center.) The
new sponsors are:
- Eli's Software Encyclopedia - sponsoring our t-shirts
- Western Design Center - that is MOS 6502 co-creator Bill Mensch's
company - they're donating 20 autographed chips, which we'll sell for a
modest price
- Trenton Computer Festival - distributing VCF East fliers to all of
their attendees
- Vintage Computer Forum (can I say that on cctalk?) - running banner ad
for us
Bottom line, this is going to be one of the best VCF East shows ever.
You'd all be fools to miss it. :)
Tickets, as always, are sold at the door for just $10/day, $15/weekend,
and free for kids.
Do any IBM RS/6000 emulators exist that are capable of something
around AIX v4.x?
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Photographer |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| My flickr Photostream |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ |
I'm divesting myself of most of my q-bus stuff, starting with the
uVax board sets.
M7169 - 4-plane video controller module
M7168 - 4-plane color bitmap module (x2)
M7622 - 16-Mbyte RAM for KA650 (MicroVAX III) (x2)
M7625 - MicroVAX III CPU (workstation license), 60nS
M7606-EF Microvax II CPU
M7609 - 8-Mbyte parity 36-bit RAM for KA630 (MicroVAX II) (x2)
I also have the cable for the video card, and a couple of those
switch panels for the CPU's
I just need to unload this, make me an offer; would prefer to
sell the lot. I could also be bribed to ship this internationally;
make me a good offer, and maybe we can cut a deal.
Shipping will be from STockton, CA 95212 (USA)
____________________________________________________________
Publish your photos in seconds for FREE
TRY IM TOOLPACK at http://www.imtoolpack.com/default.aspx?rc=if4
I have available a Fluke 9100A and a Fluke 9105A with lots of extra's Pods
deep memory probe keyboard etc..
The 9100A has the newest firmware and a 'new' HD.
The total has to be shipped in two or three boxes or picked up.
I'm located in the Netherlands,
-Rik
So, my UK101 sold for a healthy ?224, which I am very happy about indeed.
However, it's to a buyer in the USA and he wants me to split the
bundle and send just the computer - he does not want the monitor.
He claims that although the computer will run on a 240-to-120V
transformer, the monitor will not, as US DC is 60Hz and European is
50Hz.
Is this correct? It's news to me.
I don't really want to split the package up, TBH - I am not sure that
the monitor is worth much on its own.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
Hey Sander,
> Pah, X-Copy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCDtnQiZlSc) .... D-Copy
> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUT-gnwpLJ0) FTW! :)
Yes, there were many of clones. But I think it's fair to say that many of them just copied the feature set of White Lightning and Fast Lightning which later became X-Copy. The beast of the package was always Cyclone, which with the help of the hardware adapter shifted the read line to the write line. The problem was the missing precomping and refreshing of bit cells, but this was the best you could get back in the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2T9qpE6Jhw
The inventor of Cyclone, Rich Aplin, actually invented KryoFlux in 2008, about 20 years after the original was made for the Amiga. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOiWGj3A6Eg
Enjoy.
Hi Jim,
> Not relevant to the archival media question. If I want to go out x # of
> years and work with what you are using a comparables, they certainly
> stand an excellent chance of being in the state of being useful (jpgs,
> pdfs, word files, (sorry word and MS are like cockroaches, they'll
> never go away).
This is not about the tools, the formats matter. You need to have well defined formats that are fully documented and open to make sure you can extract the data in the future. I don't know if I'll be using Photoshop in a decade, it matters if I can still open my JPEGs (problematic if you look at the reduction involved) or TIFFs or WAVs or FLACs.
It does not matter if you like MS or don't like them. The word format itself is documented, so as long as this documentation is preserved, all is fine. That's why the data we preserve is in containers that have proven to be suitable for over a decade now, they are documented and / or available with source, so people can see how the encoding works.
Chris
On 3/1/12, paisley at erols.com <paisley at erols.com> wrote:
>
> I was able to get two H960 racks (Thanks Doc!) and what I am looking for now
> are the brackets that connect 2 racks together. Does any one have any of
> these? Or have a photo of what one looks like? Thanks.
If you pull off the side panels where you want to do the join (lift up and out), 1/4" bolts and nuts will join the racks together at 4 places.
This lacks any beige fillers (which is I think maybe what you're asking for) but it makes two new side panels that maybe can be used elsewhere.
Tim.
Hi Fred!
>> We don't have anything to hide. We do have eleven years of field
>> experience in regard to preservation.
> Even "post-millenium" newcomers are very welcome!
>
> Glad to have y'all involved.
>
>
Thanks for the warm welcome. It's nice to see all the dinosaurs still
around. I didn't count in e.g. my years at Cachet (X-Copy, Amiga) in the
early 1990s as that was not preservation but banging bits from the
source to the target. So if we/I still qualify as newcomers... fine with
me. Enjoy!
Looking for early TRSDOS disks (pre-2.0) for the TRS-80 Model II.
This would be on 8-inch disks. This is NOT the same as any TRSDOS for
the Model I or Model III.
Thanks!
Eric
Hi Dave,
answers below. I must admit I was not expecting this in a thread with
this title, but I spotted it because I had replied the other day. I hope
I can address all your questions.
Best,
Chris
Am 29.02.2012 15:00, schrieb cctalk-request at classiccmp.org:
>
> I do have a Kryoflux board too ? I got it mainly for testing purposes.
> The Kryoflux team does not seem interested in working together with
> interested people at the same level as Phil ?
Are we? In fact many people working on KryoFlux are contributors.
Several people work with the source, and we recently even visited a KEEP
(http://www.keep-project.eu/ezpub2/index.php) workshop to discuss and
exchange with others, to name just one occasion. I never got a request
or proposal from you, but if you have ideas or comments, or whatever to
share... please let us know!
If you want to browse our website... there is a ton of information we
shared (and still do) over the last decade.
> their actually-useful
> analysis software is very expensive and even dongle protected,
> according to the FAQ at
> http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3#p1241 .
Yes it is, so are many products. It must admit I don't get how this is
related to KryoFlux, or us being interested?
I have several products from the same company, some are cheap, others
are more expensive. Some come with a dongle, others activate only
(yikes!). People that want it can contact us. Some did/do. And some use
the software as part of a special arrangement. I really don't see why
this is wrong.
> The basic DTC
> software is closed-source and can be rather temperamental, as is the
> firmware.
Is it? I'd be happy to hear about quirks. I in fact have many posts and
mails that report the opposite. People are in fact happy it works so
well. If anything is broken, please send in a bug report. I haven't seen
one and I really wonder about the firmware. How would one notice that
it's currently "temperamental"?
I wonder what this has to do with the status of the source. I'd say it
does say nothing about quality. I in fact know many quality products
that are not open but I think they are very well executed. Does that
mean being open but flawed would be more desireable?
> Though Christian says the Kryoflux "never had such a
> problem," I have never seen an independent analysis or source code or
> anything confirming that.
We don't have anything to hide. We do have eleven years of field
experience in regard to preservation. The problem outlined by Johannes
was a design fault, it's not a glitch. You must not have ambiguity in
encoding. Apparently it was fixed lately, a year after release.
> I may end up doing this myself. Without
> source it's definitely more work to verify it.
Let me know how we can help you.
It feels a bit odd to read the above when in fact you never asked for
anything of the above. How should we know you would want to audit it?
> An overview of the engineering of the Kryoflux board indicates it was
> designed mainly with low cost in mind. The level buffers on it are
> very ESD-sensitive and are not designed for cables (so a long floppy
> cable may cause issues), and there's lack of protection overall,
> especially in the power supply.
I think this is very easy to explain... it was made to be as cheap as
possible without sacrificing ingestion quality. We like to make it
affordable, and we'd even make it cheaper if we could. We don't want it
to be more expensive. The buffers work very well, and we haven't had a
single dead one in more than 600 units sold. In regard to protection:
One dead board in 600 units supplied, the PSU was broken and just fried
the board. We exchanged it. Should I have made all 600 more expensive to
cover that one case? That's 599 vs 1. And again: We don't have to hide
anything - so I am telling you here in public.
> There's no way the current Kryoflux design ever will be able
> to image high-RPM media.
That's correct. The software could, but the hardware defnitely can't. We
never targeted harddrives. We focussed on one specific field of use. And
it's working very well. If we'd want to do harddrives or other high-RPM
media, we would do another model or product.
If these things were cars... we wanted to make something that drives,
not something that floats or flies. Just one thing... but very well
executed.
> As for Linux support: I've seen several complaints lately on the
> Kryoflux forums about libusb and glibc issues.
Right, you did not want to mention that this is more or less a
"theoretical problem"? We offer 32bit and 64bit builds. The 32bit worked
for all users (as far as I know, and also on 64bit systems), the 64bit
version needed to be refined to make it work on as many distributions as
possible. That's just the way it is with binaries on Linux. I am not
really happy with that.
But on the other hand it satisfies many customers. Just install the
software, attach the board - have fun. Buying a bread instead of always
baking your own isn't that bad.
I wonder how many users will be able to compile a source on Windows or
Mac, just to shed some light on the other side of the coin. It's not all
black and white.
> Take a look:
> http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewforum.php?f=3 . Even though they're
> somewhat responsive, it's still relying on them for support.
I don't get the meaning of this but... if you mean we need a bug report
to remove a bug... yes, we do. The wording "somewhat responsive" makes
me wonder... people usually get replies the next working day, and even
fixes come along pretty quickly. What is wrong with that? To make it
better, we have to listen. We do.
> There's also the issue of the Kryoflux software lagging behind.
> Currently the Mac version (which is what I use) is a few months old,
> and lacks many of the features I would like.
That is true, you would have to use Windows or Linux. Today.
> When I asked about this,
> I got brushed away, saying that the person who usually builds that
> version is busy.
Excuse me, would you mind publishing the answer I gave you as well? I
wonder where I did brush you away. I think I was very polite and
explained that the Mac port was being worked on. And yes, it's true, our
Mac devs are very busy, which is why the team was expanded and a new
release is near completion.
We welcome everyone that needs an earlier port to step forward and help.
Sometimes it's just diffing some files and applying a few platform
specific changes. Still, it needs to be done with care and by someone
who knows what he's doing. We take quality very serious.