test-drb September 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

186 participants
241 discussions

Origins of term "laptop" computer was Re: Bill Moggridge

by evan＠snarc.net

>>>> On the Osborne 1, Lee Felsenstein designed in a connector for external battery power! When queried about how large the battery would be, Lee >>> Measuring mine (including case), it's about 155mm wide x 115mm deep x 190mm high Then it must be a prototype, or custom-made, or unauthorized, because Lee himself told me Osborne never made a battery, and that there was a deal in the works to authorize an aftermarket battery, but the deal fell through.

12 years, 3 months

Bill Moggridge died

by evan＠snarc.net

It's been in the news this weekend -- Bill Moggridge, credited as the designer of the "clamshell" shape for laptop computers, died. I agree that Moggridge did important work for the Grid Compass, circa 1982. His design may indeed have been the first of its kind, although I'd be curious to see any examples of prior art. But, I strongly disagree with all the reports calling the Compass a "laptop" computer. I don't mean that as mere semantics: a vital definition of a laptop isn't just a flat lap-sized computer, but rather a flat lap-sized computer with its own power source. Compass users had no choice but to plug into wall power. So the Compass may have been the first clamshell * computer * but it's not a laptop.

12 years, 3 months

Anyone have a copy of XXDP for the PDP-11/40?

by RichA＠vulcan.com

We are having an issue (a progressive issue, at that), with the PDP-11/40 front end in our DECSYSTEM-2065. There are no diagnostics for the front end on the diagnostics pack (KLAD), only a couple of programs for formatting an RP06 disk pack. All other PDP-11 programs on the KLAD are tests for the main processor's hardware prior to loading microcode and running PDP-10 programs to test it further. The PDP-11 diagnostic suite, collectively called XXDP, comes in different variants based on the actual processor (or processor family). We happen to have a set of XXDP diskettes for the 11/34, but that chokes (as one might imagine) on an 11/40. So. Does anyone on the list happen to have a copy of the 11/40 version of XXDP? We would very much like to borrow and duplicate it if you are willing to allow us to do so. Thanks, Rich 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/

12 years, 3 months

"RTTY Electronics" - Teletype Machines, Parts and Service

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Recently stumbled-upon this guys website who lives in El Sobrante, California (near San Francisco). He has "literally 100,000's of Teletype parts, some new, organized, indexed, and available for purchase by Teletype restorers, rescuers, and users of Teletype machines of yesteryear." http://www.johnwhitney.com/misc/paul-rtty.htm

12 years, 3 months

Anyone have a copy of XXDP for the PDP-11/40?

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

I think you could use SIM-H with the image on bitsavers to create floppy images with the files you need for your machine. Then maybe you could transfer the images to real floppies using VTserver... I did so with my 11/23... Andrea

12 years, 3 months

Regarding SATA vs. SAS/FibreChannel

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

As long as we're on the subject, here's an interesting article I saw just today about the performance and data safety aspects of SATA vs. SAS/FibreChannel/SCSI disks. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2367378 It's by Marshall McKusick, who is a man who ought to know his filesystem and disk stuff. For those who don't like going to web articles, it basically boils down to the fact that while SATA is perfectly capable of supporting proper tag queueing, most bottom-dollar drives don't and basically all other higher-end transports (including SAS, FibreChannel, and parallel SCSI) do. There's a lot of other neat stuff in the article, but I thought it might be interesting while we're bashing PATA and giving SATA a "meh" around these parts. - Dave

12 years, 3 months

ASR-33 on eBay in Melbourne

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Teletype-ASR33-/160878867797 $50 at the moment. Just a heads up. Alexis.

12 years, 3 months

Origins of term "laptop" computer was Re: Bill Moggridge

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 9 >Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:37:01 -0400 >From: Evan Koblentz < evan at snarc.net > > >Osborne never did ship a battery, though. Wrong! See my previous post (I have one). Bob

12 years, 3 months

Origins of term "laptop" computer was Re: Bill Moggridge

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 2 >Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:01:11 -0700 (PDT) >From: Fred Cisin < cisin at xenosoft.com > > >On the Osborne 1, Lee Felsenstein designed in a connector for external >battery power! ?When queried about how large the battery would be, Lee Measuring mine (including case) , it's a bout 155mm wide x 115mm deep x 190mm high, 3.6kg :-P Bob >answered, "How big is your CAR? ?It is not intended for portable use on >batteries." ? I thought that that interchange was on Computer Chronicles, >but I can't find it. >So, he wasn't competing for the "first ridiculous laptop" title. >(BTW, Lee was driving a 1977 Honda Accord) > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred ? ? ???????????????? cisin at xenosoft.com

12 years, 3 months

Netscape 7.2 Mirgration

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I am currently using Netscape 7.2 under Windows 98SE. Has anyone any experience migrating all of the files to a 32 bit Windows XP? I have over ten years worth of e-mails and posts from previous versions of Netscape as well as the current version that I very much wish to retain as is. In addition, I just tested the Win32 variant (a 32 bit program, of course) of V6.0 Ersatz-11 under a 64 bit Windows 7. It seemed to work very well running at about twice the speed of an older system which was running under Windows XP. Does anyone have any experience in a migration of Netscape 7.2 to a 64 bit Windows 7 system? If Netscape 7.2 and Ersatz-11 can work well using a 64 bit Windows 7 system, then I may skip all the in-between OSs from Microsoft and go directly to a 64 bit Windows 7. I know that there are many (and much better systems) than Microsoft, but at 74 years old, I don't feel like taking the time and effort to learn them well enough to set up. My son will set up a system for me and I can just do the migration. I would much rather stay with RT-11, but I don't believe that it can do a reasonable job with e-mail, if at all. PLUS, under that 64 bit Windows 7 system, RT-11 running under Ersatz-11 has a speed of about 150 times a PDP-11/93. Jerome Fine

12 years, 3 months

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test-drb September 2012