test-drb November 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

169 participants
223 discussions

by jason＠textfiles.com

I'm very disappointed this only flares up once every month or two, is there any chance we could make it once a week? The reality of perpetual and automatic copyright that extends past the death of all listed creators means that there are a lot of pieces of items that have no advocate, financial interest, or caretaker either legal or otherwise. It is a ridiculous situation. The arguments where the only two options are this "Zardoz" environment or water break down of the entire copyright machine, is old and bores me. The reality as I have experienced it is that there are a few white-hot pinpricks of interest and legitimacy by a vanishingly small amount of companies, and then there is a vast Black Sea of unwanted, uninteresting, forgotten items. This works for software as well as everything else. If there is a choice between oblivion and the dumpster, and sending it to the Internet Archive, I will ensure that our doors are open. That's all I can offer to everyone here. You can reach me at this address or by calling the archive directly if you don't want to deal with me. If all you have to offer is another 7 paragraphs of bloviating, that's why they make the mute button.

8 years, 7 months

Shipping help near Fresno, CA

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I've been trying to get a PDP-8/m out of Fresno, CA for a few months now; the person I'm getting it from is alternately unwilling and unable to prep the machine for transport (the latest excuse is that he can't find a suitable pallet). This is a single full-height rack, probably about 500lbs -- is there anyone on the list nearby (Fresno, CA) who might be able to prep the machine for transport (e.g. strap it to a pallet, maybe put some padding over the front panel to reduce the possibility of damage)? Then I can get a shipper to drop by and pick it up. I'll gladly compensate you for your time/effort. Thanks! Josh

8 years, 7 months

Rights vs Responsibilities (Was: To Al Kossow at bitsavers)

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

yes, I was impressed too! In a message dated 11/15/2015 12:53:26 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, bqt at update.uu.se writes: Upon reading all the discussion over the past three days, I am > extremely interested in the overall tone of the discourse. While > there has been rather passionate argument at times, there does > not seem to be any of the caustic comments that we have seen > on occasion in the past. Congratulations EVERYONE!!!!!!!

8 years, 7 months

To Al Kossow at bitsavers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: js > if they still wanted income from it, it'd still be for sale. If it's > not for sale, and I can find it, then I'll use it and be sure not to > profit from it. This ties in with something called 'fair use' under US IP law, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use for more. Basically, 'fair use' permits _limited_ use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the IP owners; there is a 4-part test which is applied to determine whether a non-licensed use meets 'fair use'. The parts are: "- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; - the nature of the copyrighted work; - the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and - the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work." ii) doesn't really apply here, and of course one would score poorly on iii), but since a) one's not making any money from it, that would score highly under i), and b) there is zero effect on the market, since the thing isn't even for sale, so scoring highly under iv). So use for vintage computer hobby puposes might well be (in the US at least) 'fair use', and not in fact infringing, even without a license. In other countries, it will depend on their copyright laws; e.g. in Israel and Poland, the same might be true. Noel

8 years, 7 months

x86/DOS system backup via rs232?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

< On Nov 13, 2015 4:47 AM, "Christian Corti" <cc at informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote: > > On Thu, 12 Nov 2015, Tom Moss wrote: >> >> I've never seen anything works on the sector level, but there are plenty of > > > There is DITU (Disk-Image Transfer Utility) for MS-DOS, and it's free including C source code. I use it e.g. to image the hard disk of a DOS PC into a file (either network or parallel ZIP drive). > ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc/Hardware/IBM/PCjr%20magazines%20and%20resou… > I've modified the program a bit to support retries and TurboC. > > Christian I used to use a program called Laplink, which came with special serial and parallel option cables to transfer files from one dos machine to another. It was useful to "image" DOS computers with it. I don't think these were straight through cables and you needed the laplink software to be running on both sides. I see the cables on ebay, I picked up a set a few years ago to move contents of similar MS DOS system. Serial is much slower than parallel obviously. If you must use Linux, you may find something that emulates dos, or you can rewrite the receiving - end Linux equivalent of laplink if it has not already been done. Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

8 years, 7 months

VT100 - FUN

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Going back to the days when I worked in marketing in DEC Park (Then new ,now demolished) I had a VT100 on my desk. We all did, email, word processing graphics and so on. Now there was one interesting but little known VT100 feature. On the back it had two BNC connectors. They were for video in and out. You could sync the VT100 to a feed of mono video and the overlaid picture would appear on the screen and at the video out connector. The only secret was you had to set it for 50Hz . One of my hobbies then (still is now) was Amateur TV (a branch of ham radio.) I had built my own TV camera (we all did). I'd made it small and light to go portable with. So I took it to the office early one morning hid it in my gray wall (VMS manuals) and got it going. I pointed it down the (very) open plan office and went off to my first meeting. It worked, when I got back there was a gaggle of very bemused people looking at the screen. Rod Smallwood

8 years, 7 months

Data I/O 120

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Does anyone on list have a copy of the schematics for the Data I/O 120 gang programmer? I'm willing to buy the schematics or pay for a copy to be made. Billy Pettit bpettitx at comcast.net

8 years, 7 months

Z8000 Assembler anyone?

by lehmann＠ans-netz.de

Hi, is someone on the list able to write Z8000 PLZ/ASM code? I have an the following source: u module $segmented $abs %3E00F600 global _u array [%572 byte] end u The problem is, that it is vital that _u has to be located absolute on the virtual memory address 0x3E00F600. The problem is now, that the while the object is compiled, _u is available on 0x0100f600 and I have no clue why.....

8 years, 7 months

x86/DOS system backup via rs232?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

As per subject line, does anyone know of any util that will back up an x86 PC running some variant of DOS (MS, Compaq etc.) via rs232 to a remote system? (Linux preferable on the remote, but other options exist) I'm not finding anything via Google, but it seems like the sort of thing that some of the folks here may have done for their systems in the past. I'm thinking something that will do a sector-by-sector transfer from a given partition (maybe only in-use sectors, implying some minor intelligence on the remote end to covert into a raw image, but "send everything" mentality is better than nothing) - extra points for retrying bad sectors. cheers Jules

8 years, 7 months

Compulog Two Intercole Systems PAC 16

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Anyone know more about this old 16 bit computer / controller? http://i.imgur.com/utUfMQe.jpg According to the current owner it is based on a 16 bit machine made by Computer Automation. It has core memory and is programmed in assembler and Fortran. It is from the late seventies. I found very little while searching the net. Intercole systems seems to still be in operation. PAC 16 could relate to Varisystems corp which I found in this document: ftp://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/topic/minicomputer/ComputerDesign_Apr71.pdf In any case the Varisystems PAC 16 seems to be a rather simple 16 bit machine. But is this the same? And is Varisystems related with Computer Automation somehow? Any information is appreciated. Is it worth rescuing it? Any software to look for? The current owner has loads of 8 inch floppies.

8 years, 7 months

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test-drb November 2015