test-drb February 2014

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

191 participants
208 discussions

OT: Accessibility {WAS: "Re: contemporary XT software?"}

by captainkirk359＠gmail.com

On 4 February 2014 14:47, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > Okay, how about this proposal for bottom-posting? > > 1. No HTML posts. Everything is plaintext ASCII. > 2. Edit the post to which you're responding to the minimum relevant part > (as above). Quoted text to be signified by ">" in the first line position. > Yes, that works excellently. Though, the beginning line of ">" does help visually distinguish quote text. Which is important for those with low vision who don't rely on screen readers. It's all a balancing act between "good for the screen reader" and "good for the magnifier." A single level of quotes (which I tend to trim messages down to, occasionally leaving a second level for context), works well, all though the stream of "LESS THAN" can be a bit distracting. > I can sympathize with your frustration with screen readers; the last time I > tried to use one, I thought I'd go crazy. > Personally, I barely use screen readers; I work well with magnifiers, and at home I have a monitor roughly the size of Spain. I've also a ~40" LCD TV beside my desk, cavled up to my desktop; occasionally I put stuff on there. (Normally, I just use it for YouTube videos instead of watch the roughly 100 channels of commericals that is called cablet television.) I once put a terminal emulator on that screen, with irssi in a screen session... I think my conversations were visible from space. :P Hmm... I need to see what RSX-11/M+'s RMD looks like on a 40 inch screen... Onwards to other things. One of the major things that keeps me from jumping ship from the Wonderful World of Windows to free software (FreeBSD or Debian, I like both), is that from my experiences of the free software world, accessibility and ease of use features seem to have been implemented by a lobotomized rhesus monkey. The "proper" screen reading and screen magnification software, that which is sold commercially and used/vetted by organizations, tends to be stuck as Windows software only, with some companies finally going to Mac OSX. Trying to run software like ZoomText or Kurzweil on a Linux or BSD system is damn well near impossible, at least the last time I tried. The free software is buggy, like the one magnifier/reader which by defaults starts up as a reader only, no magnification; after configuring it, it promptly goes "LOLNOPE" to keeping its new config after exiting the config screen. To bring this slightly back on topic, what kind of accessibility accomodations and software was around in classic hardware? Being a DEC fanboy myself, with some interest in IBM mainframe systems, I'm wondering specifically about those two "worlds", the System/360 and System/370 kind of system, and the PDP-11. Cheers, Christian -- Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove STCKON08DS0 Contact information available upon request.

10 years, 10 months

Booting OS/8 on a PDP-8/E from a PC

by steve＠tronola.com

>In summary, anyone with a spare M8650, M8655, or other serial card can now >boot OS/8, even if you don't have an RK05, DECtape, RX01/02, etc.! --- Congratulations Kyle!!!! Having a PC emulate a disk drive via a serial port could be a huge help in getting PDP-8s going. For those of us who do have RK05s, etc., it's a great backup tool for when there are issues with the drive. Could also serve as a second drive with which to make backups and such. I really look forward to trying this out. Steve L.

10 years, 10 months

contemporary XT software?

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 4 February 2014 20:14, Jerry Kemp - other <other at oryx.cc> wrote: > I don't know if everything from vetusware got captured on the mirror site, > but I hope so, it would be a shame to have a lot of that stuff lost to time. >From what I can tell it's only a relatively small subset there. Nothing CP/M, for example. -Tor

10 years, 10 months

The final & "official" VCF East announcement

by evan＠snarc.net

The ninth ?annualish? Vintage Computer Festival East will be held April 4-6, 2014, at the InfoAge Science Center, in Wall, New Jersey. VCF East is a celebration of computer history from the 1940s-1980s. The schedule includes a hands-on exhibit hall, technical workshops, lectures, a marketplace, tours of the InfoAge museum complex, a dollar-per-pound book sale, prizes, more. This year's show will be bigger than ever. New attractions include Friday's ?VCF East University? which is a full day of technical classes. Friday attendees can win an oscilloscope courtesy of Tektronix! The main show on Saturday-Sunday will have lectures/workshops and dozens of exhibits. Keynotes include former IBM archivist Paul Lasewicz and IEEE 802 LAN/MAN committee founder Maris Graube. Other lectures topics include software preservation, the history of Franklin Computer Corp., and many more, all scheduled for the morning. In the workshops you can learn hands-on vintage computer repair skills or even build a working replica of something exotic. This year there will be two exhibit halls instead of one. Exhibits open in the afternoon ? imagine an antique car show, but instead of ?no touching? signs, everyone has to take you for a ride! Registered exhibits so far cover everything from a real Apple 1 to the M.I.T.S. Altair to DEC minicomputers. In addition, the event's main sponsor MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists) will debut its UNIVAC 1219-B military mainframe computer, circa 1965. Tickets for VCF East University are just $20 and include a pizza lunch. Tickets for the main show are $15/day and $25/both days. Saturday/Sunday tickets are free for ages 17 and younger. A three-day adult admission is $40. Proceeds benefit MARCH. Official sponsors include the InfoAge Science Center, VintageTech, Tektronix, the Trenton Computer Festival, Eli's Software Encyclopedia, and Vintage-computer.com. Archive.org, IBM, and the IEEE History Center are providing informal assistance. ? Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple: "Seeing the early equipment at VCF is an amazing experience. For many of us, it's better than a museum. It touches on all the hopes and dreams of the time and the many efforts to achieve what others thought would never happen. It brings back memories of a revolution in the making. ... The people you meet at the VCF are amazing." ? Lee Felsenstein, moderator of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and creator of the Osborne 1 portable computer: "In 35 years the personal computer grew from nothing into the most important device shaping everyday life. It should be part of everyone's education to see how it grew and to learn from the people who grew it in ways they wanted to see it grow. VCF is the place to be where not only the equipment can be seen and tried out but, perhaps more importantly, where the people who rose to the challenge offered by these machines can be met and heard from." ? Gordon Bell, top DEC engineer and co-founder of the Computer History Museum: "As a speaker at the first September 1998 VCF, I have been delighted to see it grow and flourish. The Vintage Computer Festival is an important institution for computing history simply by getting everyone together for collecting, sharing, and trading all form of bits. Having a forum, gathering, and market for old stuff a.k.a. vintage computers and the software that made them live is an essential way to preserve and expand the history of computing -- for some of us, the greatest invention." ? Dave Ahl, founder/editor, Creative Computing magazine: "Vintage Computer Festival East celebrates the hard work and vision of all the volunteers who have made the InfoAge Science Center ?- now a National Historic Landmark -- a place where one can learn from the past to live for the future. Oh, and it's great fun too!" Full details are online at http://www.vintage.org/2014/east/ and http://www.facebook.com/vcfeast. Contact: Evan Koblentz (President, MARCH; VCF East Producer): evan at snarc.net / (646) 546.9999 .... thank you and happy computing!

10 years, 10 months

Multia CD-ROM

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Hi there! Many Multia owners out there? Anyone ever come across a copy of the "Multia for System Administrators CD-ROM"? I think the final version for Alpha was 3.0. Thanks! -Ben

10 years, 10 months

7090 software: looking for SNOBOL3, found CTSS kit!

by phil＠ultimate.com

I'm a collector/maintainer of all things SNOBOL (www.snobol4.org), and was wondering if the original SNOBOL3 for the 7090 (submitted to SHARE) existed anywhere out there. I didn't find that; there is a collection of SHARE tapes (from YALE), but no information on what they contain.... BUT.... A pleasant surprise was finding a kit for booting CTSS (one of the mothers of all time sharing)! http://www.cozx.com/~dpitts/ibm7090.html ftp://www.cozx.com/pub/ibm709x/ctss-1.0.7.kit.tar.gz "WARNING: I've got limited bandwidth and large downloads during business hours, 8:00am to 5:00pm Mountain time, are likely to be terminated... "

10 years, 10 months

watch out for ebay buyer "a1compservices"

by starbase89＠gmail.com

Hi I am having a rather unpleasant experience with this buyer. He bought an item from me, but did not pay for two weeks, five days after I opened an unpaid item report. Looking at his feedback, this is apparently common for him. In addition, the person is asking me for special shipping considerations after he paid. Since ebay's feedback system is so heavily weighted toward the buyer, this will not end well. Just so you know... Joe

10 years, 10 months

DECnet or LAT terminal software?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Is there any sort of terminal software available for Mac OS X that speaks DECnet or LAT? I've spent the last couple days reviving my OpenVMS 8.3 and VAX/VMS 5.5-2 systems, and would like to be able to access the VAX without having the Alpha online. Next up, is my PDP-11/73, though cabling it is likely to be a bit of a challenge. If I had room in my office, I'd think about bringing a terminal in here. Zane -- healyzh at aracnet.com http://www.zanesphotography.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanes-photography/ https://www.facebook.com/ZanesPhotography

10 years, 10 months

beware of "andananautions"

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

Tucker 'teoutlet' did the same to me.. Won two HP2100 manuals and asked for a combined shipment, said I got them so cheap he wouldn't combine so they cancelled the buy. -Rik -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: "Al Kossow" <aek at bitsavers.org> Verzonden: ?2-?2-?2014 19:58 Aan: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Onderwerp: beware of "andananautions" wow won some manuals cheap, then sent a message to see if they would combine shipping. the seller canceled all of the auctions, and apparently there is no recourse from the buyer. read his reply for yourself. this is the first time in 5000+ ebay deals that someone backed out after asking for combined shipping. beware.. his 'justification' Dear al_kossow, 1. You won several items yesterday. 2. I sent you an invoice for the total amount. 3. You emailed your disagreement over the terms of your purchase. 4. Therefore, we do not agree over the terms of the transaction. 4. So I filed the appropriate request to cancel the transaction with ebay. Now, you have suddenly changed your mind and claim that your purchase was a "Binding Contract"? Sounds like you want your cake and eat it, too. First, you engage in feedback extortion to try coerce me to lower the purchase price. Then, when you did not get your way, you attempt to compel me to go through with the transaction. Unfortunately, when you expressed your disagreement over the terms of the sale, it was obvious that there was no meeting of the minds in this transaction. As such, there is no contract. We both agreed to cancel the transaction and that is ok. I am sorry you were disappointed in the terms. I have refunded your paypal payment. You are whole. I am just curious as to where else you can buy something and then negotiate the terms of the transaction. After you have filled up your gas tank, do you then ask the gas station for a discount?

10 years, 10 months

VMS microfiche set available

by elson＠pico-systems.com

I have a VMS 4.0 microfiche listing, with 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 updates, a total of 696 fiche sheets, about 3" thick. Anybody want this? How about $25 plus postage? Jon

10 years, 10 months

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test-drb February 2014