test-drb March 2012

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An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC,

by tom94022＠comcast.net

Anyone have any more information on the magnetic card and its reader? Tom

12 years, 5 months

Discferret Broken?

by jgevaryahu＠gmail.com

Christian Bartsch | Kryoflux LTD. (cb at kryoflux.com) wrote on Tue Mar 6 02:30:32 CST 2012: Hi Tony, ... >/ 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' if />/ somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? / Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here) would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? If they could get something better that would be completely free, why would they want to take the solution that needs to be paid for? How could I stop them from using publically available sources? Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already in violation of it. No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them >from even considering it. For reference: 2. LICENCE. I. LICENCE for IPF SUPPORT LIBRARY SPS hereby grants you (each licensee is addressed as "you") a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Technology, on the following terms and only for private, non-profit purposes (see Section 3 below). You may: ... c. inspect ("understand") the source code (if provided); and ... 3.LIMITATIONS ON LICENCE.The licence grantedin Section 2 is subject to the followingrestrictions: a.The Technology is to be used onlyfor non-profit purposesunless you obtain prior written consent fromSPS.Prohibited for-profit and commercial purposesinclude, but arenot limitedto: ... (v) Using the Technology to develop a similar application on any platform for commercial distribution, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law; or (vi) Using the Technology in any manner that is generally competitive with a SPS product as defined by SPS, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. ... d. You may not modify, combine commercial applications with the Technology. You may not prepare derivative works of the Technology, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Derivative works are defined as but not limited to: (i) Alternative support libraries. We are open to porting to other platforms, and so third parties doing such is unnecessary and violates the terms of this licence. If you want to port the library, please contact us. We will host it on our site and ensure that only the latest version is being distributed. (ii) Alternative tools that operate on files of the format as defined by the Technology. This includes but is not limited to: mastering tools(tools that enable Content to be written back to physical media like a floppy disk). Reproducing Content provided through or by the Technology to any other kind of media, such as alternative content provider technology(this also covers any kind of converter with the intention of extracting the Content to held by any other alternate media format that represents the same independently working Content). Additions, removals or other modification of data contained by the images. ... To anyone who wants to read further, the license text can be seen in full as "LICENCE.txt" in the "Download the latest software" archives at http://www.kryoflux.com/ -- Jonathan Gevaryahu AKA Lord Nightmare jgevaryahu at gmail.com jgevaryahu at hotmail.com

12 years, 5 months

Chips that changed the world

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: For those interested, IEEE has an article about the 25 chips that changed the world. The NE555 is #1 and the 6502 is #2. http://spectrum.ieee.org/may09/8747 Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://www.classiccmp.org/cini

12 years, 5 months

SPS licence (was: Re:Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please > explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. > Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential > for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by > 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? > 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an > IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a > general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. Jonathan, I think you misunderstood what this is about. Before I go into detail here, it does make sense to see how "the technology" is defined: "The program's object code, source code and documentation are collectively referred to as the "Technology"". Please note that there is no reference to the file format itself. It just clearly states one thing: You can not take a piece of our software and use it to make another piece of software, except for the exclusions listed. It does not say you can not invent something on our own or work with a CatFerret or DiskWeasel or whatever device comes to mind. It is also correct that you could not take the capsimg.dll and put it into a competing product. You can of course write your own code, or you could - if it's not a commercial thing - just take a look at our source distribution. It comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! Please take a look yourself: http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. The reasons for the tight restrictions of the original (old) licence were e.g. some companies selling game compilation CDs of questionable origin, which usually did not give credit or pay royalties to the legitimate copyright holders (=game devs). We did not want to support such things. Not being able to use IPF for these (or extract the data with our enabler) meant ADFs were used, which usually sported cracker intros or similar, making people aware of what they had bought. > This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top > preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost > totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product > defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products > Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, > since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already > in violation of it. No, you are not (I think). Unless you take parts of our product to enhance a competitive product, all is fine. In other (unpleasant) words: If you make your own and don't steal, I don't see any problem there. > No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want > anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them > from even considering it. Absolutely not. If they were using this very same licence (which they don't, as it excludes commercial use) they could of course use other products. They just could not put parts of our product into the other.

12 years, 5 months

An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962

by lproven＠gmail.com

The "Program 101": http://english.pravda.ru/history/07-03-2012/120702-Program_101_first_person… Thoughts? I've never even heard of this product before. -- 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

12 years, 5 months

Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> If this is how you think about others who are trying to preserve data and history, I don't think you should be involved in preservation at all. Thanks for making up my mind in regards to your product. Dave, to be honest, going back to your very first email... I really looks like you had made it up right from the beginning. I have no clue what preservation and the right to do it or not has to do with one's right to stand up against a competitive claim that has proven not to be an issue at all. I also don't know what either product has to do with preservation per definition apart from ingesting data. Preservation is much more than reading some bits, it's making sure the data you have is authentic and valid and can be recreated physically and in emulation any time.

12 years, 5 months

Put on the hip waders

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220970605899 This ICBM COMPUTER is one of ONLY 10 that were armed and ready to fire at Russia or anyone else if necessary during the cold war arms race. These are credited for stopping the soviet union from placing nuclear missiles in CUBA in 1960 to 1962. They were decommissioned by the strategic are command and the hard drive and memory banks were erased. This is the first personnel computer that could run with commands on its' own. The movie Dr. Strangelove was a scary horror comedy about these missiles and the people that might push the button, and not be able to stop if needed. -- This this is clearly a dangerous munition, so I've reported it to eBay. I would suggest others do the same, for the safely of our children and our precious bodily essence.

12 years, 5 months

On Programa P101

by bdamer＠digitalspace.com

In concurrence with Rick here, I was interviewed last year by some Italians making a documentary about the Olivetti P101 trying to shoehorn their claim it was the first "personal computer". I categorically stated that it was simply a programmable calculator and not a computer. I noted to them the features of the 1962 LINC (OS, languages, removable storage, interactive programming/display, peripherals) which was described by Alan Kay and Gordon Bell as "the first personal workstation" or "where the experience of personal computing was first possible". Seemed to fall on deaf ears. Did their documentary ever come out? bruce ever the CC lurker

12 years, 5 months

SPS licence (was: Re: Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

>> > You can't make 'competing products'. > ...no, you can't use "the Technology" to make competing products. > jgevaryahu didn't post enough for me to be sure what "the Technology" > means - and I would check if I cared - but I would expect it to refer > to KryoFlux's work and nothing more, in which case this strikes me as > eminently reasonable. > > In the stuff jgevaryahu posted, most the restrictions cited are of this > nature. I do see one glaring exception, that being 3.d(ii); if I were > doing data preservation any such clause in the license for a tool would > completely eliminate that tool from consideration for me. No, because the moment you would be able to put data into an IPF, you would also have the tool to extract it again, you would not use parts of the free distribution to do that. And you would of course have your original data in the first place. As outlined in another reply this mainly addresses companies releasing bogus compilation CDs which we did not intend to support. And apart from that: Our source distribution comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. > It most certainly would cause me to include them out of anything I > might do as an individual. Closed file formats - and this is an even > more egregious form of "closed" than most - are nonstarters for me. And for this reason, and many others, there source is out there.

12 years, 5 months

Wanted: TRS-80 8-Megabyte drive

by eric＠brouhaha.com

I have a TRS-80 Model 16 with an 8 Megabyte drive, but unfortunately the drive is a secondary, not a primary, so it doesn't contain a controller and I can't actually use it with the Model 16 at the moment. Does anyone have an extra 8MB primary drive they'd care to part with? Or the controller board from inside an 8MB primary drive? (Or, for that matter, another secondary?) The Model 16 (or Model II) with the original hard disk interface[*] will ONLY work with 8MB drives, and not with the later 5, 12, 35, or 70 MB drives. Similarly, the 8MB drives will only work on the Model II or 16 with that original interface, and not on the Model I, III, 4, etc. The pinout and signals of the cable between the interface card in the computer and the controller in the primary drive is different than all of the later ones. Both the old and new TRS-80 hard drive interfaces use a 50-pin cable with signals similar to those used by a WD1000 controller, but neither are actually directly compatible with the WD1000 or each other. Radio Shack added some functionality beyond what the standard WD1000 has, and changed the pinout. Thanks, Eric [*] The original Model II/16 hard disk interface can be recognized by the red power distribution strips under the DIP ICs.

12 years, 5 months

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test-drb March 2012