How can one not be impressed by L. Nimoy's portrayal of Mr. Spock?
His character was logical, almost computer-like, but was far more a
portrait of humanity than most care to admit to. Ancient/classic
computing was a hall-mark of Star Trek and Spock personified that
relationship.
Murray :)
On 02/27/2015 06:17 AM, John Foust wrote:
> At 06:45 PM 2/26/2015, you wrote:
> You're not concerned about the tolerance and re-centering issues?
> You think the cookie will fit back on the hub precisely enough
> that it'll be aligned with where tracks were before?
Not so much. A 3.5" floppy is recorded at 135 tpi, where an
80-cylinder 5.25" floppy at 96 tpi. On 5.25" Drivetec floppies, the
cylinder density is double that--192 tpi.
Now consider the hub-clamp mechanism of a 5.25" drive. I suspect that
with a bit of care, one can probably get things right most of the time.
--Chuck
I am delighted to report that after a long time, and with help from all
over the world, I have finally got my MV/2500DC up-and-running.
Some details are on my blog
http://www.stephenmerrony.co.uk/dg/2015/02/Disk-Replacement-Success.html
Now I am resurrecting my DG Assembler skills to bootstrap a file
transfer program onto the machine...
Thanks to everyone who has helped.
Steve
--
/Stephen Merrony
http://www.stephenmerrony.co.uk//dg
Brief clip from a 1966 documentary about von Neumann:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3vwMq_2xA
Goldstine presenting while standing in front of the IAS machine, which appears to be decommissioned and in storage.
Fuel for the eternal fire: Goldstine seems to be pretty definite in attributing the stored-program concept to Johnny.
So, in the course of tracking down the mentioned von Neumann papers, I ran
across this:
http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/MorozovQuixote.htm
which is utterly hilarious. (Note: it's even funnier if you're familiar with
the work of Borges.)
Noel
I want to sell a couple of MicroVaxes that I had installed the hobbyist
OpenVMS software on quite some time ago.
The OpenVMS Hobbyist website says I must delete the license PAKS before
I transfer the hardware to someone else.
How do you actually do this?
On 02/26/2015 03:13 PM, John Foust wrote:
>
> I tried it. Didn't seem to stick - apart from the potential
> for misalignment.
>
> I wonder what substance was used in the original manufacturing.
Well, there's always polyurethane glue (e.g. Gorilla glue), but it
wouldn't be my first choice. How about clear nail polish?
I've got some 3.5" "trash can disks". I man give it a try to see if it
can work. Are you confronted with a particular brand?
--Chuck
On 2/26/2015 1:42 PM, John Foust wrote:
> While reading old Amiga floppies with the SuperCard Pro, I have
> encountered several floppies where it seems the mag-media cookie
> is no longer attached to the metal hub.
I've never had luck reattaching the media to the hub when it becomes
detached. (I've used a dab of thin but sticky glue.) I chalked it up
to not being able to get the alignment perfect, but it could just be
coincidence that my media had failed at the same time.
