test-drb March 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
239 discussions

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Does anyone here collect HP calculators? -- 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, 9 months

Movie of ETH Lilith Comdex demo

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

I put op a movie of the demo that Diser displayed at Comdex to advertise the Lilith. It give a decent display of its capabilities. Too bad I don't know which year's Comdex it was.... Find the movie LilithComdexDemo.mpg at ftp://jdreesen.dyndns.org/ Its a 30MB download, 5 min long, and created with my Lilith emulator. A complete and compilable Medos V4.2 should be available in a few weeks time. Enjoy, Jos

12 years, 9 months

Apple II convention "KansasFest" opens for registration

by pr＠kansasfest.org

KANSAS CITY, MO -- March 7, 2012 -- KansasFest, the 23rd annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer, is now open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. The week kicks off with a keynote speech John Romero, co-founder of id Software and creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, and nearly a hundred other popular computer and video games. Romero will be available immediately afterward for a Q&A and autograph session. The week then offers a variety of presentations and workshops, including but not limited to: * The history of AppleWorks, presented by Randy Brandt * Andy Molloy looks at the best of the Apple II demo scene * Apple II Road Show -- Tony Diaz shows you how to tell authentic hardware from a fake * Build your own Apple II WordPress site with Ken Gagne * Learn to program interactive fiction in Inform 7 with Carrington Vanston * A Kickstarter brainstorming session * HackFest, an annual programming challenge open to coders of all skill levels * A vendor fair and exhibit hall for attendees and the general public to show off, play with, and buy and sell new or unusual hardware and software Attendees are encouraged to share their knowledge by presenting their own hardware and software sessions, especially of the Apple II but including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, iOS, and others. All KansasFest sessions are presented by the attendees, who are known for unscheduled events and debuts, too. Whether it's a behind-the-scenes look at new software, preorder opportunities for new hardware, a live-action text adventure, a podcast recording session, GShisen and Dueltris tournaments, or an athletic round of Bite the Bag, there are experiences to be had and memories made at KansasFest that aren't possible except in the company of surprising, brilliant, diehard Apple II fans. Register before June 1 to guarantee a price of $375 for a double room or $445 for a single, which includes admission to all sessions as well as most meals. Official KansasFest shirts are extra and optional and must be ordered by May 31; registration for staying on-site closes July 8. Veterans of the event are invited to bring a first-time attendee; if each indicates the other's name on the registration form, both will receive a $25 referral rebate at the event. To register, please visit the official Web site at http://www.kansasfest.org/ KansasFest sponsor 16 Sector invites any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends to attend the world's only annual Apple II conference. For photos, videos, schedules, and presentations from past year's events, to sign up for the email list and for inquiries, please visit the event's Web site. CONTACT: Email: http://www.kansasfest.org/contact/ Register: http://www.kansasfest.org/register/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/kansasfest Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/382225585123061/

12 years, 9 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, 9 months

PDP 11/04 w/RX01 and spares available, Cambs UK

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Folks, I know a few people who'll be interested in this, given my recent need to find a new home (again) for me and my collection I need to shift more DEC stuff, in this case a PDP 11/04 with boxes of spare core etc and a complete RX01 floppy drive. The machine's PSU is toast (and set to 110V, beware!) which is why we got it at work in the first place, but that's all that's wrong with it. Shipping isn't an option unless you've got deep pockets I guess, so collection from Cambs in the UK, postcode CB6 please. Cheers! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

12 years, 9 months

Moving DEC racks (was Re: Free DEC SA600 Rack - Illinois)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 1:23 PM, Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote: > On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:59:21 -0500 > Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > >> In the end I did succeed, but had the rack slipped (which it almost >> did do!) I would probably have severely regretted the consequences. > > Well. Remove everything that you can remove easyly so that only the > four posts, bottom and top are left over. Lay the rack on its left or > right side. Step _into_ the rack so that you look at the bottom. Pick > it up, so that the posts stay horizontal. You have to try a bit to find > the right position to grab to have the whole thing in balance. Now > walk. Surprisingly easy. I even got a rack upstairs that way. I understand the technique, and for a straight stairway, I think it would work just fine. In the 100-year-old house I was doing this in, there's a landing and a 90 degree turn to the left in the middle. The top of the rack would hit the wall while the bottom of the rack was still 3-4 stairs from the landing. Oh... and there was a stained-glass window at the landing as well (not broken by me, but later, when someone was moving a mattress, the window did not fare well). The rack had to go up the stairs nearly perfectly upright, except for the middle of the stairs, when it had to be tipped back about 10 degrees to clear the sloped ceiling. Again... I will never repeat that experience solo. I almost ended up at the bottom of the stairs under the rack. >> Is there clearance between the side of the H960 and the grey sides for >> the M6 bolt heads, or does your rack lack the hang-on metal sides? > There is plenty of space. The rivertrs aren't that small too. > > Ohhh, sorry. I just noticed that my racks are not H960. They look much > more than the aforementioned SA600 rack. That confused me. So they may > be of the H9612 / H9613 variety. Actually the H960 is welded. My > PDP-11/34A came in a H960. I had to leave the rack behind as I could > not dismount it. It didn't fit my car... :-( Gotcha. I remembered that some racks had the cluster of large pop rivets and some were welded but I wasn't sure which were which by model number. I spend more time in front of the machines than figuring out how to move the empty racks up impossible inclines or into impossibly small automobiles. A VW Microbus, BTW, can haul two H960s if you drop the rear seat and remove the middle seat - you just slide them in one at a time and load the middle area where the bench seat used to be with all the CPUs and disks you just removed from the racks. Easiest time ever. *That* works solo. Second easiest move was a VAX-11/750 in an Astro Minivan with no middle seats. The only hitch was the swivel chair mounts were taller than the casters, so the bottom of the VAX hung up on insertion and removal. Even so, it was still possible (and safe) solo. An 11/750 is mostly air and not as heavy as some things of similar size (like tape drives). -ethan

12 years, 9 months

Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hi Brian, > * I do cost reduce solutions. However, I feel designs should "do no > harm". In other words, the cost reduction might create units that > do not function, but they should never adversely affect the target > vintage equipment. I can assure you that our choice of parts does not harm anything. Unless you actively want to damage the unit (try hot plugging the drive; I still do this all the time), I don't see an issue here. Ask ten architects about how to build a house and I am sure you will get varying results. I would really like to avoid the impression something is broken. It's not, it's working. > * As a fellow enthusiast, I share David's concern over the closed and > guarded nature of the KryoFlux Analyzer. I don't buy the arguments > in the FAQ. I see no issue with letting anyone creating IPFs, as I > feel the community will self select the people who do it well. As > well, it's been my experience that there are lots of very > intelligent people in this community, and one delude themselves > thinking a "complex" solution is not useful to others without > extensive training/education. We have two separate products for this, one is KryoFlux with DTC (the disk tool console) that will completely satisfy many private users. The other is our Analyser that will aid a preservationist to verify authenticity and integrity of data ingested. This is aimed at institutions. We might change that in the future due to many requests, however, we still have to figure out to make sure it's understood as an IDE and that you need to understand how disk coding works, otherwise it's useless. Someone not familiar with C++ also won't have much fun with an IDE for that. If you would have to handle all the feedback and questions, you might see this in a different light. It helps discouraging those that have no serious interest, users that really want it usually just contact us and we arrange for something. As a side note: Everyone is free to come up with their own format or do their own Analyser, no one is forced buying into our solution. > * I disagree with Christian's "audit" response. I don't think the OP > was lamenting the fact that he/she could not audit the source, but > that a closed source product can never be truly "audited", as the > author can always doctor the version provided for audit. And, even > if I am wrong and it can, it creates a perception problem. I can't argue against that. However, it would require criminal energy to pimp or change a version meant for audit. And I don't see why we'd break something in the official version that would only work in the audit version. > * The legal concerns about "conflict of interest" do concern me. > There are precious few people in this area of expertise, I think > it's the responsibility of hardware and software vendors to ensure > such a product or offering does not fragment the group. Christian's > response did not clear things up. I don't understand how " > > What I find interesting is that several of my UK, European and Japanese > contacts (at various computer museums in those countries) were scared > off of working with the DiscFerret. Nearly every one of them cited the > same reason: "conflicts of interest" between assisting with DiscFerret > and using commercial versions of the Kryoflux analysis software (which I > suspect would be CTA or a variant thereof). > > " would get one "thrown out of the 'house'". While it's an unsavory > topic, it's one that demands some type of response. If someone said > that to me, I believe I would send a note to the individual and > request he/she forward it on, assuring them that they can work on > both projects without fear of litigation. There's nothing to clear up, and it does not demand a response. I am not aware of any issues, except what I heard via a mailing list from a competitive developer. To me this is not a trusted source of information. I am in contact with our customers directly. As I said in another reply: There is no NDA involved, no contract, nothing. If someone is scared working with a competitive product that maybe has to do with the quality of the product or the demeanour of the person representing it. If I was to damage a project's reputation in public, such created scenario would for sure fit pretty well. > * I agree that you're paying someone not to develop a solution, but to > *NOT* do something else. I'm a good example. I give up weeknights > and weekends to develop products because I get paid to do so. I > could enjoy another hobby if I was so inclined. That's very well worded and hits the nail on the head. It happens that our "hobby", preserving software, is very costly because it's hard to find a game (or application) in good shape for a decent price these days.

12 years, 9 months

In defense of wire-wrap; was: Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by technobug＠comcast.net

On 6 Mar 2012 at 20:15, David Riley wrote: > I should also point out that all of the original Macintosh > prototypes were wire-wrapped, which should probably indicate that it's > a pretty sound methodology for assembling microcomputers. It worked > well enough in '83, anyway. In the latter half of the '70s, I ran a Modcomp II that was mounted in a trailer. The computer, with the exception of the power supplies, was entirely wire-wrapped. During the 10k miles that we put on the beast, the only failures were the capacitors in the power supplies coming unscrewed and a bad lot of 74S172s. That computer was the easiest machine I have ever worked on to maintain. -> CRC

12 years, 9 months

John Many Jars <john@yoyodyne-propulsion.net>

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-06 12.45, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 7:36 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote: >> > I know they had at least Zork I. ?I sold a command summary card for it a >> > while ago. ?I probably shouldn't have done that. > I have an image of a PDP 11 RSTS/E with Dungeon (zork 1 -3) installed. > > It's also available to play online... on a "real" emulated PDP 11... Well, that is technically a reimplementation of the original Zork for the PDP-10. It is not the same as Zork 1-3, although there are similarities. The original Zork was way too big, when Infocom was founded and they wanted to release Zork for microcomputers. So they split Zork into three parts. Zork 1 is pretty much most of the original Zork, but without parts on the other side of the river (if I remember right). Zork 2 is parts of the other side of the river, and then lots of totally new stuff that does not exist in PDP-10 Zork. Zork 3 is more new stuff that don't exist in PDP-10 Zork, and then also the endgame, which I remember as being pretty much straight off the same. Johnny

12 years, 9 months

Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by jonas＠otter.se

> I wonder, which one is more reliable, wire-wrapping or soldering on a > vero/stripboard? I fancy learning wire wrapping but it's expensive. IIRC wire wrapping is supposed to be more reliable. I certainly remember that it is supposed to be easier to see whether a wrapped joint is good or bad than it is to see whether a soldered joint is good or bad. For a soldered joint to have maximum reliability, among other things the parts to be soldered must be solidly joined before soldering, and not held together by the solder. It is not hard to learn to wire wrap, certainly not with an electrical tool. You more or less just do it. I have never tried wrapping with an unpowered tool. I doubt that would be much more difficult, just harder on your hands. /Jonas

12 years, 9 months

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test-drb March 2012