test-drb August 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

215 participants
247 discussions

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"Color and Black and White" - textbook

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

anyone familiar w/the 2nd edition? If so describe the cover for me. If you have a copy you don't need, let me know.

11 years, 9 months

Good article in Time on the TRS-80 Model 1

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Time Magazine sets the record straight on the microcomputer history forgot, the TRS-80 Model 1 <http://techland.time.com/2012/08/03/trs-80/>. I'm pleased to see my Dick Smith System 80 site linked to the article. One mistake though. You needed at least 32k for disk operations on a TRS-80 Model 1, not 16k (-: Tez

11 years, 9 months

Looking for DEC VT125 Maintenance print sheets (since VK100 MP is AWOL)

by jgevaryahu＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a copy of the DEC VT125 Maintenance print sheet set? The mp sheets are DEC part number #MP-01053-00 These should hopefully be slightly easier to find than the VK100 MP sheets. These are needed for repairing a VK100 and for a project reverse-engineering how the hardware worked, since it turns out the VT125 uses an almost but not exactly identical state machine "engine" for drawing vectors to the VK100. This VT125 information should be extrapolatable to the VK100 hardware which preceded it. The Tech manual for the VT125 is on bitsavers as part of the VT100 Tech manual revision 3 ( http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt100/EK-VT100-TM-003_VT100_Techn… starting on page 6-70, pdf page 316) I'd be more than willing to scan (at high quality) or photocopy the MP sheets if anyone has a copy they could lend me. A good quality 11x17 1:1 photocopy of the originals is better than nothing, as long as the tiny labels on the schematics are still readable. (If all you have is a poor photocopy, though, let me know! A poor copy is better than no copy at all!) I am fine paying for shipping, handling, finding/digging out of a pile, etc. P.S. Does anyone have a VT125 and the means to dump the three code roms on it? I'd love to get my hands on a copy of those as well. P.P.S. Does anyone have a VT125 and a desoldering station/know-how to remove and dump the ?five? proms on it? They're not immediately necessary but it would be convenient to have copies of their data for the future and to help with potential repairs. P.P.P.S. If anyone has a not-installed VT100->VT125 upgrade kit which they are willing to sell, let me know off-list. -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu at gmail.com jgevaryahu at hotmail.com

11 years, 9 months

Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara a.k.a. Solid State Music (SSM)

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Hey All! I was over at Anchor Electronics today getting some parts for a PDP-1 replica I'm finishing. I was reading the About page on their website and learned that Anchor Electronics was founded by the same guy who founded Solid State Music, maker of many fine S-100 boards and other personal computer products throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I thought it was interesting so I am passing it along. http://www.anchor-electronics.com/about_us/about_us.html -- Sellam Ismail VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap...The truth is always simple.

11 years, 9 months

List mod?

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I've sent two emails to the list since last week that appear to have been held in some sort of mod queue, and I'm not sure what to do. I tried sending Jay West an email and got no reply. Does anyone else know who might have mod access? The first time it happened I resent the email and it still didn't make it through. The second time (with a different email) I didn't bother to try to resend. The only thing the two emails have in common is that they both included links, but none of the links are related in any way, not even the domain names in the links.

11 years, 9 months

remaining S-100 PCBs on-hand

by LYNCHAJ＠yahoo.com

Hi! There are 8 S-100 Serial IO board, 10 S-100 8088 CPU board, and 6 S-100 backplane PCBs remaining in case anyone is looking. 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 PCBs right away! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

11 years, 9 months

See the ENIAC in person - well, part of it anyway.

by gilcarrick＠gmail.com

The 3rd annual Vintage Computer Festival Southwest http://vintage.org/2012/southwest/ is this August 4th-5th. We will feature a tour of the Ross Perot collection http://mit-a.com/perotcollection.shtml of vintage computing, including several sections of the original ENIAC computer. ? We will also be adding a special tour of the Cowboy Stadium IT infrastructure. http://mit-a.com/CowboyStadiumTour.shtml The regular tour lasts an hour and a half - this one will run slightly longer. The group tours cost $20 and everyone says it is definitely worth it. We will need to have at least 15 or so people for this tour, and will need to sign up (and pay) in advance.? ? The VCF SW 3.0 will be at UT Arlington. http://www.uta.edu/uta/ More exhibitors, vendors, and speakers are registering frequently, so check the website. We are still looking for exhibitors, vendors, and volunteers (who get to attend free.) Gil -- A. G. (Gil) Carrick Director Museum of Information Technology at Arlington 1012 Portofino Drive Arlington, TX 76012 817-264-MITA (6482) - gil.carrick (Skype) http://MIT-A.com

11 years, 9 months

Microsoft licensing

by saquinn624＠aol.com

Richard writes: Wrong. As long as you have the certificate of authenticity for copies of MS-DOS, you can continue to ship product using that operating system. Medical device manufacturers are doing this because if they change the operating system, they have to requalify their devices which is a very expensive process. So they continue to buy NOS copies of MS-DOS, as long as they have the certificate of authenticity, and use those to ship their products. They will continue to do this as long as the cost of obtaining NOS MS-DOS product is less than the recertification process. Given the number of NOS copies still in the marketplace, they won't need to upgrade the OS for some time. There is a local guy who mostly deals in C=64 equipment that has been making quite a nice side business of finding NOS copies of MS-DOS for some time now. You would think so, wouldn't you, but as I said before Microsoft is being very creative. The software that you're talking about is unused, possibly retail or possibly OEM, but in any case the license has not been attached so it can be used on any device (for OEM, provided that the equipment is new). You would think that an OEM license, since it is attached permanently to the hardware, would transfer with the hardware, right? You would think that presenting the certificate of authenticity or other evidence that the hardware was licensed would be enough to show a license, right? Not so fast. A couple of years ago MS, upon a closer reading of the license agreement, noted the part that says that all copies must be transferred when the license transfers. Most people understood (and probably understand) this to mean that you can't keep any copies because there's only one license, but MS reinterpreted it to mean that if all copies are not transferred then it is not a valid license transfer and the license is invalidated, requiring a new license transfer. They set up a new "Refurbisher Program," whereby people selling used computers can give Microsoft more money to make sure nothing bad happens to their nice business. In an interesting twist, the now "meaningless" original "Certificate of Authenticity" must still be present, otherwise you need to cough up the full retail price should you want Windows - thus, per MS, the computer product the license is tied to is the mainboard (which cannot be replaced unless in cases of failure, when MS may choose to make an exemption if they really feel like it), the COA, and any manufacturer provided backup media, including the "recovery partition" of a disk which, if it is damaged, now appears to nuke your license for Windows. At this point they only seem to be targeting used computer stores selling machines with Windows, but until someone takes them to court and wins it could be anyone they want to squeeze. As noted, one copy of MS-DOS is probably not going to be a big deal, but MS appears to not be taking the "live and let live -after all we've already been paid" attitude and it might get worse. I found all of this out because of the good part of the program - MS will give really cheap upgrade licenses to qualifying nonprofits using used computers through the same program. Want to check it out? Search MS for "refurbisher program"

11 years, 9 months

emulating /dev/nrmt

by spectre＠floodgap.com

Since I'm getting more into early 90s workstations (the workstations of my undergraduate years), I'm finding a need to emulate a network tape device for installs and restores. It seems like there should be such a tool already that can mimic /dev/nrmt (TMSCP?). Is there? Some cursory Googling didn't turn up anything obvious, unless I'm looking in the wrong place. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Friends don't let friends use Windows. -------------------------------------

11 years, 9 months

oh and I am looking for an off topic SGI Fuel, on the cheap side

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

saw one on Queen's CL for 50$, no lie. I could do better though. I got this set of IRIX cds that are burning a hole in my pocket (?). Always wanted that big burly box.

11 years, 9 months

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test-drb August 2012