test-drb August 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

215 participants
247 discussions

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Is there anyone here who understands 16-bit DOS coding well enough to help me make some 32-bit code work in 16-bit DOS? -- 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?

11 years, 10 months

3483

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Sorry for the noise, but just curious, anyone have an IBM 3483 terminal they'd be willing to part with for reasonable consideration?? Thanks! -Ben

11 years, 10 months

PDPs in the garage

by earl＠retrobits.com

Hi folks, I'm a little concerned about the load that my PDP-11 cabinet (rack mount, dual RL02 drives) is putting on the floor in my daylight basement. Also, I'm thinking that recovering the space might be nice, so I was considering moving the PDP-11 system back to the garage. If any of you have a PDP or other big-iron systems in the garage, how do you deal with temperature extremes (hot in summer, cold in winter)? Do you simply not operate the computer when it's too hot or cold? Do you think it's a risk to even store the system in the garage? My location is Portland, Oregon, so it doesn't really get super cold in the winter. I think the coldest I've measured in the garage is 50F. But summer can get pretty warm. It's scheduled to get 85F today, and we had 100F a week or two ago. Of course the garage doesn't get as hot as outside temps, but it can get up there. I realize heat can be a big enemy of computers/electronics. Also, since the RL02 drives are mechanical and precision devices, they might not take well to temperature shifts. Thoughts? - Earl

11 years, 10 months

need docs for Canon AS-100

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

And other lesser known lesser known intel boxes/pseudo compatibles

11 years, 10 months

Remaining S-100 board PCBs

by LYNCHAJ＠YAHOO.COM

Hi The last couple weeks have been pretty good. I can see the bottom of the stack of S-100 board PCBs and will be ordering some more new boards and additional reorders soon. There are two S-100 Serial IO board and five S-100 8088 CPU board PCBs left. They are $20 each plus $3 shipping in the US and $6 elsewhere. Please send a PayPal to LYNCHAJ at YAHOO.COM and I will send your boards right away! Thanks to John Monahan for all his dedication in making these PCBs possible for the S-100 hobbyist community. Both the S-100 Serial IO and S-100 8088 CPU board PCBs have been built and tested repeatedly and are known working units. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

11 years, 10 months

OT: Re: Hearing (was Re: HP3000 Marketing Collateral)

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

<Message: 6 <Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:47:43 -0700 <From: "Chuck Guzis" < cclist at sydex.com > < <snip> <So, does anyone know of any publicly-owned hearing aid manufacturers? <Looks like a growth industry... < <--Chuck <(with some ringing in his ears) The best manufacturers are German or Swiss: Phonak, ReSound and Siemens. I recently got hearing aids and find them both amazing and annoying. Amazing in how small they are (less than a cm^3 in volume, including the battery). The best now have digital equalizers that can adjust the amplification across a dozen or more frequency ranges and can automatically adjust to filter out background noise. They can also be controlled wirelessly -- mine even have an "airplane" mode the shuts off the wireless when you are flying in an airplane and electronic devices are banned. Annoying in that they are far from perfect and require a new set of batteries after every 75 hours or so of use. For any of you who live in the US, the least expensive place to get good hearing aids is Costco. Most insurance plans do not cover them, so my cost was $2600 for the pair, which is 30%-50% less than anywhere else charges for a similar model. Bob

11 years, 10 months

To all with interest in preservation

by cctech＠beyondthepale.ie

> >Every time I'be both seem an emulator of a chassic machine (runinng on a >friend's machine, obvious) and also run the rela hardware myself, I feel >the emultor doens't come close to the experinece of actually running the >classic computer. > Before I came across Hercules, I tended to dismiss emulators in the same terms. However, I find the experience of using Hercules or Simh remarkably close to the experience of using the actual machine in question. Many users of certain classic computers never saw or heard the actual machine they used and only interacted with it through a terminal (or even a terminal emulator). There are also other factors which prevent both emulators and real preserved hardware from recreating the original experience. Factors such as not having a real world workload to process and not having a realistic number of users working the machine hard (as opposed to a few museum visitors at a time trying to figure out valid commands). (I don't know why I am adding to this thread which looks destined to go on and on and achieve little except to demonstrate that different people have different ideas on how things should be preserved and that most are not going to change their minds.) Regards, Peter Coghlan.

11 years, 10 months

DEC Server 300

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, a friend of mine sent me an DEC Server 300 which he saved from the dumpster. There is a triangle in the bottom that some sharp metall edge must have made. This hit broke a 300mil 24pin DIL chip in the inside that must be related to the BNC network. The Chip is located next to the 20MHz Crystalnext to the poushbutton Switch, it is broken in two halves and the ceramic top plate of the chip is missing. It seems that the pcb survivied, so here comes the question: What was this for an (Network-)chip? Can please someone help? Kind Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

11 years, 10 months

PDPs in the garage

by saquinn624＠aol.com

I used to worry about things like racks and half racks and floor load limits, but consider the following: Think about how heavy a rack is. Probably about 500lbs or so for most of our stuff (I'm not talking maxed-out S/390s or VAX 9000 installations), and there's probably one or two in a room. For the area of the rack, the load/sqft is similar to a 250lb person, which the floor is hopefully specced for. A small piece of 3/4" plywood underneath to keep the carpet happy is nice, bigger one if you're going to be pulling the rack in and out for connections to the rear. n.b. I do put my heavy stuff near the bearing walls so things are more straightforward.

11 years, 10 months

PDPs in the garage (Earl Evans)

by pechter＠gmail.com

> Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:20:58 -0700 > From: Earl Evans <earl at retrobits.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: PDPs in the garage > Message-ID: > <CAMDAk4d3sfqET1Rj3Yw45ctgg+2BLHr=aSvyVqBxnGurveNhHA at mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi folks, > > I'm a little concerned about the load that my PDP-11 cabinet (rack mount, > dual RL02 drives) is putting on the floor in my daylight basement. Also, > I'm thinking that recovering the space might be nice, so I was considering > moving the PDP-11 system back to the garage. > > If any of you have a PDP or other big-iron systems in the garage, how do > you deal with temperature extremes (hot in summer, cold in winter)? Do you > simply not operate the computer when it's too hot or cold? Do you think > it's a risk to even store the system in the garage? > > My location is Portland, Oregon, so it doesn't really get super cold in the > winter. I think the coldest I've measured in the garage is 50F. But > summer can get pretty warm. It's scheduled to get 85F today, and we had > 100F a week or two ago. Of course the garage doesn't get as hot as outside > temps, but it can get up there. > > I realize heat can be a big enemy of computers/electronics. Also, since > the RL02 drives are mechanical and precision devices, they might not take > well to temperature shifts. > > Thoughts? > > - Earl I could tell you a story about an 11/780 at Fort Monmouth that ran without air conditioning and with the windows upen for 3 months. Serious intermittant problems sprung up. The humidity had rust on the TU45 tape drive motors. The problem isn't heat -- it's the rate of change. You get serious expansion cracks in the boards when the etches expand and contract. The faster the rate of change in temporature when running (both up and down) the worse the issue. The machine was flaky as hell. The thing would crash VAX/VMS about 5 times daily. I actually would boot the machine and hit each one with my little brass hammer. If it crashed... the board was replaced. Swapped about 6 boards in the data path and cache sections and the box was then stable for over three years. The 11/34's a lot lower in power draw and slower. It's probably less sensitive with some larger etches. I'd worry more about the peripherals. Disk drives with rusty parts in them are probably a bad thing. I know the tape drives would have a problem. The RL02's might even have a different flying height depending upon the temperature which could end in head crashes. If you kept the internal temp under 100 degrees you're probably ok... but if the outside temp's above 100... The real trick is to keep the temp as steady as possible. Perhaps strategic fan placement to keep it from getting too hot in certain places. Bill -- d|i|g|i|t|a|l had it THEN. Don't you wish you could still buy it now! pechter-at-gmail.com

11 years, 10 months

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test-drb August 2012