Most never accepted the validity of the concept.
"Just get an adequate computer. That's management's problem."
OK, another story. A friend of mine was a Physics student at
Rolla (University of MO sub-campus) and also very good at
programming/analysis. He had a roommate who was an ME student,
and just learning programming. He saw his professor fiddling
with one of those 15-tile puzzles, and said "Hey, I could
write a program to solve those". His prof said it would be a
good exercise, and gave him an account on the 370/168
at the main campus. He wrote it, and tried it, but it kept
running out of time. He assumed an infinite loop, and eventually
mentioned it to the Physics student. My friend sensed a
teachable moment and said, Hmm, you have 16 nested do loops
>from 1 to 16. Do you know how many total iterations that is?
The guy whips out his trusty HP45 and starts calculating.
My friend smiles, as he already knows that 16^^16 will not
be computable on the calculator. So, they trudge over to
the comp. Sci. building and he shows the guy the System/360
storage and timing estimates book, and they work out that
JUST the loops, themselves, will take something like
10 billion years to complete. He eventually chopped out
useless iterations and got a program that ran in a minute or
so.
So, the moral is that there are relatively modest problems
that can become TOTALLY un-computable with a poor
algorithm. No computer ever made could have finished
his poorly thought out program.
Jon
I have a large qty (1 entire 20x20 foot room) of early Apple/Mac stuff that
needs to leave the warehouse. We really don't deal in Apple products, and I
have sat on these for the past 16 years, hoping someone would appreciate
them.
The are a few Apple II, LCII and LCIII, PowerPro, Mac Classic, Mac 128, Mac
256, lsome newer towers (still 16+ years old), lots of monitors (from the
old tilt-screen to 17" multimedia and tall word processing screens) and
all-in one machines, some lasers, some extra cards for the Apple IIs, floppy
drives (single and double), a little bit of game software, some manuals,
some boot disks, some utilities and word processing, Claris, over 70
keyboards, etc. Also lots of modems, adapters, cables, etc.
We are bringing in laptops by the truckload, and I REALLY need the space.
The first person to offer $2000 will receive nicely boxed and palletized
merchandise.
Some of the all-in-ones have cracked housings; if you don't want those, I
will take them the recycle center.
If nobody claims these this week, the whole lot is likely to get recycled.
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
_____
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.3345 / Virus Database: 3204/6450 - Release Date: 06/29/13
I seem to recall having a conversation on the list not too long ago
about the difficulty of converting NeXT mono video to VGA.
At first I had thought this might need something as sophisticated as
digital conversion, but somebody said it was only an electrical matter.
What's the deal? What needs to be done - anyone know?
I have a Cube with the fading type of NeXT monitor, you see...
thanks,
--Toby
When the sailor gets into a battle station situation he could take the
terminal with him for either armor, or to use the keyboard to bash
someones brains out, or strangle them with the cable.
Looks appropriate for the USS Iowa, or any of the 4 Iowa class ships.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/0161020.jpg
page of photos is at if you want to see more BB-61
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/61g.htm
Thanks
Jim
Since I support the CBM crowd, I've had more than a few people send me
comments over the past few years, asking when I might consider offering
a replacement power supply for the home computing machines (VIC-20, 64,
128, +4)
Initially, I resisted for liability reasons and certification costs.
But, I decided earlier this year to put off those questions for a bit
and just see what might be technically and economically possible.
I've chased a few ultimately fruitless options, and I thought I'd see if
some fellow soul on this list might have some ideas.
Obviously, the first thought was a complete custom supply. My interest
was never in power design, so I am ill-equipped (and uncertain of my
abilities) to design such an item myself. Thus, I started looking for a
manufacturer that could design one.
Absolute requirements:
5VDC at 4.3A.
9VAC at 9VA unregulated
To this I added my requirements:
The 5VDC be a switching PSU output
ISO C13 input power jack (so I can support many areas without building
custom power cords
115/230 switchable design (or two very similar designs that can handle
the 2 voltages)
My cost under USD$30.00 per unit.
Enclosed finished case, or be able to fit in a commonly available case
design.
Someone put me in touch with Stontronics overseas, which worked on an
initial quote. But, I think the C13 and 115/230 requirements scared
them off.
I solicited information from Bear Power Supplies in the US, but they did
not seem too keen on continuing the discussion, so I have nothing from them.
I've also tried overseas suppliers, but I have not yielded fruit yet.
I've asked all the PSU suppliers on globalsources.com and alibaba.com
I have struggled to find a custom PSU manufacturer that can handle a
suitable design.
Being frustrated with the direct approach, I thought I'd try a different
path, and find a 9VAC or 5VDC single output power supply. I found a
single output large amperage 5VDC supply, but then I got stumped on
finding a way to synthesize a 9VAC isolated output from the 5VDC. A
simplistic approach would involve creating a harsh +-9V square wave, but
it needs to be at least .5A (to run the cassette deck on the 64/128),
and I worry that the noise on a square wave @ 1A would wreck the audio
and video noise level in the machine, which is not the best to start
with. Even ignoring that, I need to double or quadruple the voltage to
get the 18V rail to rail voltages I need.
On the 9VAC front, I had little luck finding a suitable 9VAC supply that
is 45VA or 63VA to support a 5VDC at 5A draw while leaving enough for the
5A 5VDC output. As well, I am not sure I am equipped to design a
switching 5V PSU from a 9VAC source.
With the old power bricks getting more brittle and prone to failure each
day, I feel some sense of urgency to find some solution for folks.
For liability reasons and because 5VDC is the more important voltage in
the units, I myself lean towards a small box that turns 5VDC into 5VDC
and 9VAC, but designing a voltage doubler/sine wave generator/isolation
transformer solution is far beyond my comfort zone. If this is not a
complicated task, I am wondering if someone on-list is up for a small
freelancing effort to design such a unit. It needs to contend with the
issues outlined in this PDF (http://www.ide64.org/power_des.pdf) in that
the noted design won't work as is since I think people need to be free
to use the power switch on their machine.
There might not be a reasonable solution, but I thought I'd share in
case I am missing an option.
Jim
--
Jim Brain
brain at jbrain.comwww.jbrain.com
I dismantled my MO drive years ago and photographed it. After you take it
apart for the first time you learn that the top and bottom covers can pivot
and the drive becomes more easier to work on. I have it all in my
Photobucket Album
(http://s11.photobucket.com/user/ballsandy/library/Computer%20related/NeXT%2
0MO?sort=3&page=1)
I was /one of/ the first to notice the leaking caps. It stemmed from my
drive spinning uncontrollably and was assumed that the caps on the motor
control had gone. This was just before we began to realize that the reason
that systems like the Macintosh Portable and the IIci weere dropping like
flies was because the surface mount capacitors and reached a point in their
life where they had begun to leak. We now know that just because one might
of failed, they all probably have and they will do some REALLY weird things
as they die. The small radials that are used on the motor control are
present elsewhere on the drive as well. I have plenty of reason and
speculation that these are what has caused the massive 99% failure rate of
the MO drives and that a full replacement will bring back the drives.
As Mr. Strickland said the SCSI bridge causes translation problems but other
than that, the Canofile and the two OEM variants made by Mass Microsystems
and some other company for the Mac market are otherwise identical.
DEC LNO3, qty 2
Genicom 7170
HPII
HPIII
HPIV
HPVI
Okidata 810 and similar
Brother HL10h
Various others
Probably 3-4 pallets total. None tested recently, some may be missing
parts, all will probably need new pickup rollers after sitting so long.
Somebody make offer, or by Thurday these go to scrapper.
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
_____
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.3345 / Virus Database: 3204/6450 - Release Date: 06/29/13
Was the MO drive used on the NeXT cubes a standard 650MB unit, or was
there something special about it? (e.g. sector size, encoding, format,
etc.)?
Anyone have an extra to spare?
--Chuck
On Cory's suggestion, I tried just one stick of memory. Still no video.
Tried the other 2 sticks, and it boots to question mark on either stick, but
not both together.
Pulled 2 sticks 265MB PC100 with same specs from drawer, it now boots to ?.
Still will not boot the Live Debian 3.0.6 i386CD.
Somebody give this guy a new home?
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
_____
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.3345 / Virus Database: 3204/6450 - Release Date: 06/29/13
