test-drb August 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

215 participants
247 discussions

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I got a call from a man who has been in the development business since the 70s. We got to talking about a whole lot of stuff (actually it was more listening on my part then anything else). On the topic of eyestrain (?) he said that different colors (primary?) have different focal depths, so at least for some people strain is caused when looking at a color monitor w/fine dot pitch. I have to at least take him at his word on that, but when I mentioned that staring at green phosphors for an extended length of time (>30 minutes say) caused white to appear pink. For instance the numbers on a cars speedometer. He said he never experienced that. Can anyone explain the reasons for that? It stands to reason that causing your eyes to focus on something small? and multichromatic would cause strain (you're forcing your eyes to focus on a single point that in essence appears to be at varying distances. I don't understand the pink eye effect though.

11 years, 10 months

To all with interest in preservation (more)

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

And I will add... > That is why simulators are so important. You can get most of the feel > of the machine from the comfort of your own home. ...and no vintage machines are harmed. -- Will

11 years, 10 months

Graphics programming on DOMAIN/OS (was: NeWS)

by legalize＠xmission.com

On Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:33:41 MDT, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > In article <50240091.9060108 at bitsavers.org>, > Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> writes: > > > On 8/9/12 10:21 AM, Richard wrote: > > > > > I have been attempting to find details on the Apollo DOMAIN/OS > > > windowing environment before they started running X11, but so far > > > haven't been able to find much of anything. > > > > > > > There wasn't anything in the Apollo documents on bitsavers? > > Looks like it was pre-2009 that I last looked, when you added a bunch > of stuff. I will have to dig into that pile! "Programming with Domain Graphics Primitives" (005808-01)[1] makes reference to "Programming with General System Calls" (005506) which explains pad calls that allow you to create pads and frames. If this manual could be made available, that would be a helpful addition. [1] <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/apollo/005808-01_Programming_With_Domain_Graphics_…> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

11 years, 10 months

HtG differential SCSI [was RE: To all with interest in IBM 7090]

by RichA＠vulcan.com

From: Dave McGuire Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 1:33 AM On 08/14/2012 04:06 AM, TeoZ wrote: >> There was a brief hop to just differential SCSI (higher voltage then >> LVD which is how LVD got its name). HVD and SE/LVD don't like each >> other while the other SCSI standards did with some tweeking. > This overlapped entirely with SE SCSI to the end, though. HVD was > used in very high-end machines (Tandem and Cray come to mind) for the > better noise immunity for longer cable runs. It really wasn't a hop > from SE to HVD then to LVD. Also the XKL Toad-1 System (4 x differential FASTWIDE SCSI-2 ports). An absolute bear to find drives for. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

11 years, 10 months

HP3000 Marketing Collateral

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:33:52 -0500 > Subject: Re: HP3000 Marketing Collateral > On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Lee Courtney > <charlesleecourtney at yahoo.com> wrote: >> I posted some 1980's vintage HP3000 marketing shots at Flicker: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjBmrAyC >> >> Enjoy! The Rhode Island Computer Museum has an HP3000 Series 70, just like in one of your pictures. Too bad we don't have that many disk drives to go with it. https://sites.google.com/a/ricomputermuseum.org/home/Home/equipment/hp3000-… -- Michael Thompson

11 years, 10 months

Fwd: [DatapointComputers] Datapoint 1560

by axelsson＠acc.umu.se

I thought this could be interesting for members on the list. Too bad it's too far away for me. /G?ran -------- Ursprungligt meddelande -------- ?mne: [DatapointComputers] Datapoint 1560 Datum: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:21:24 -0000 Fr?n: techiegabe <gabehabib at rogers.com> Svar till: DatapointComputers at yahoogroups.com Till: DatapointComputers at yahoogroups.com I finally got around to unpacking a Datapoint 1560 system that has been lying around in my basement crawl space since the late 80's gathering dust. After a good cleaning and resetting of boards and connectors it looks in great shape, BUT the Monitor "Sparked and Smoked" when I turned it on. I haven't turned on the disk subsubsystem yet. Anyways, I am able to take it with me when we head down to Wickenburg AZ, for the winter, and wondering if that Computer Museum (or anyone else) may want to give it a new home? I'm still looking for the Diskettes and Manuals. I also have a MINX Monitor. Gabe x-Datapoint Canada Inc.

11 years, 10 months

Slight-OT: DynaText readers?

by wulfcub＠gmail.com

I'm trying to retrieve some old printer manuals from a 1999 CD-ROM, and they are supposedly DynaText. The problem I'm running into is that DynaText 4.1 doesn't recognize a valid collection. The installer on the CD looks for dynatext.ini and books.ini (which doesn't seem to exist anywhere, including on the CD). It wants these files to come >from Xerox\ODOC\ .The installer fails without both of those files present. If I point it to a valid dynatext.ini, and fake a books.ini or give it an empty file, the installer completes "successfully" having done nothing. The 'books' directory contains a subdirectory with the book name (41354635 in this case). This directory then contains four more directories, EBT, INDEX, STYLES, and FIGURES, as well as a Setup.ini file with a few lines of information on the collection. 'Figures' is a collection of TIFF's. 'Index' contains index.dat and vocab.dat. The EBT directory contains 5 files: 41354635, 41354635.edr, 41354635.tag, search.tdr, toc.tdr. Google turns up almost nothing on these file extensions. The 'Styles' directory has several .v and .rev files, carrying copyright information bearing the name Electronic Book Technologies (thus EBT). EBT as a company is long gone. Most of the various book files are encoded (that is, not plain text), though each has an ASCII header. 'EDIR DATA' 'EDIR EDIR' 'EDIR TDIR' and 'EDIR TAGS' (this file is plain text). Anyone have any clues on how to read these files? So far, I've tried so far: Adobe FrameMaker (trial), Adobe Acrobat Pro 9, Altova StyleVision (trial), DynaText 4.1. Thanks! --Shaun

11 years, 10 months

free book Voice Technology 1983

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

For shipping. Ill need a check.

11 years, 10 months

To all with interest in IBM 7090

by jonas＠otter.se

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:01:41 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > I am going to define 'London' as the area I can get to with a London bus > Pas (I do not mean the 'City of London', I mean an area about 30 miles by > 30 miles. In 'London' I know of preceisely_one_ shop tht sells a > reasoanble range of electronic components [1]. I know of no shops that > will sell me small-ish qunatiites of common engineering metals (say 1m of > 1/2" diamaeter CZ121 bras rodd, or similar free-machining mild steel). I > know of no shop that sells 'engineering' tools (lathe and mil lcutting > tools, individual sockets, spanenrs, etc). That sucks. I can get all of that in a town less than 1/10 the size of London (admittedly it is the second largest town in this country). The largest distributor in Sweden has a shop where you can get the most frequently ordered items from their catalogue over the counter, and the rest of what they have in stock next day. Not far from there, there is a shop that sells any machine tool or part you may want. None of them are cheap, but you can get what you need. Jonas

11 years, 10 months

rough Microvax II in NJ

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I never plugged it in. Really don't want to (but I could be coaxed, no pun intended though it would be a poor, spurious one). Judging by the prices I've seen these things go for on ePay, I would think anything is worth 100$, but I *may* decide to cut someone a break, especially if they picked it up. This unit is in rough shape, don't even know if it works. Some of the metal side and rear paneling has accumulated rust, one piece a lot of, but nothing a proper restoration couldn't remedy I don't think. The front bezel is all funky, a noticeable crack, though not too large, very brown. I have pictures somewhere. There appears to be a baby opossum living in mom's garage, so I was apprehensive about dragging the unit out for yet more pictures today. ?If I have to ship it, I'm going to tack something on (many thousands of dollars likely). ?Your thoughts are welcome :)

11 years, 10 months

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test-drb August 2012