test-drb April 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

203 participants
299 discussions

by fred＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

On Wed, 20 Apr 2016 cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 13:32:01 +0200 > From: Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: strangest systems I've sent email from > > Using something like "dtmail" on a Sparc 10 in 2016 on a daily basis, or > VMS MAIL on a MicroVax would be an anachronism equal to hooking up a KayPro > luggable to an acoustic coupler over a cellular modem in the 1980s in the > back of your A-Team van ;) Hey, I use PINE on OpenVMS daily. Sometimes I use good old MAIL if I'm not reading mailing list digests. (pine's viewer is easier to navigate long digests). I have MUSIC/SP running elsewhere (mainframe operating system) and I really wish I could get that communicating to the outside world, but despite on and off again attempts when I get the gumption to try some folks and I just can't make it work. That's why I want to get my own (small, if there is such a thing) 390 so I can *really* play. I also wouldn't mind a copy of PROFS, leaving out for the moment that it's licensed and IBM would probably Never(tm) hobbyist license a copy. One can dream. ;) Fred

10 years

Manual for DEC 433au

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Anyone got the following document: DIGITAL Personal Workstation System Reference and Maintenance Guide The link on Manx is broken. Thanks Rob

10 years

LSSM event announcement

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

[I'm sending this around to several mailing lists] Most of you have heard of the Large Scale Systems Museum, a public museum in the Pittsburgh area that is focused on minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers. LSSM opened its doors to the public for the first time in October of 2015, coinciding with a city-wide festival. We have been doing tours by appointment since then, averaging 3-4 tours per month. On April 30th, there will be another such festival here in town, called "New Kensington Better Block". It's a large block party that will encompass much of the downtown area. There will be more than sixty street vendors offering food, handmade crafts from local artists, and just about everything else you can think of. There will be two stages' worth of live music, games, a beer garden featuring great brews from the historic Penn Brewery, lots of kids' activities like face-painting and caricature artists, drawings and raffles, the grand openings of three new businesses, and lots of other great stuff. Another star of the show, Pittsburgh-based C/PMuseum, as a guest of LSSM, will also be returning to Better Block with a special exhibit this time covering the history of the world's largest technology company, Apple Computer. From the humble beginnings of two friends named Steve, through today, Apple's 40th anniversary. See running examples of the actual machines that launched Apple in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, the gaming wing of C/PMuseum will feature a display with running examples of game consoles from the earliest generations through the most modern 3D immersive virtual reality. Where else can you start out playing on a Magnavox Odyssey, and end up inside the VR world of an HTC Vive? The C/PMuseum pop-up at New Kensington Better Block, that's where! The LSSM will be participating in that event just as we did last October, by being open to the public all day. (I'm aware that this is very short notice; for that I apologize) Many of the Very Large Computers here will be running and demonstrated on a rotation throughout the day. Come and hack on DEC PDP-8, PDP-11, and VAX systems, IBM System/36s, and everything in between. See Cray supercomputers, DECsystem-20s, IBM System/370 and System/390 mainframes, and real rarities such as a Symbolics Lisp Machine, and minicomputers from the 1960s such as an HP 2116B (one of their first!) and a Varian 620-L. See a Heath H-1, a tube-based analog computer from 1956. See nearly all of the IBM "midrange" line. See how SSP, the operating system from the IBM System/36, can run in a virtual environment on an AS/400. See what an 800-pound hard drive looks like. All are invited! The LSSM is located at 924 4th Avenue, New Kensington, PA 15068, right in the middle of the block party area. New Kensington is about ten minutes' drive from the Allegheny Valley exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Exit 48. It's a very easy area to reach, and there are a number of decent and inexpensive hotels nearby. I hope you can make it. Once again I apologize for the short notice. And of course if you cannot make it, feel free to contact the LSSM via email to info at lssmuseum.org or on Facebook (search for "Large Scale Systems Museum") to set up a visit at your leisure. You can also see some photos of our first big public opening on that page. Please feel free to forward this message to anyone whom you think might be interested. Thanks, -Dave McGuire President/Curator, LSSM -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

10 years

High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 21 April 2016 at 05:10, Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> wrote: > Ok, this one's from the 70s, and it's a large, external unit rather than a > single board, but I have a Floating Point Systems AP-120B, essentially an > array processor for fast floating point operations. There's a bit of > information here: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPS_AP-120B > > I'd love to get it running one of these days, just need +5V at 100A and a > set of interface boards for a PDP-11... I remember that one, it was used with some Norsk Data ND100 (16bit) systems. I still have a power supply unit for the ND, it isn't physically very large but the +5V can provide 200A.. (there used to be a +5V 300A PSU in storage too but it went before i could grab it). The ND-5000 (32-bit) systems used an FPS 5000 unit and I'm a bit more familiar with that one.

10 years

cctech Digest, Vol 22, Issue 20

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:12:36 +0200 > From: Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com> > Subject: Re: Seeking immediate rescue of full-rack SGI ONYX near > Northbrook, IL > On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:04 AM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote: > > > Intel's effort at RISC. Didn't go so well for them, but did inspire > > the name of Windows NT and was the original host platform for the > > then-new OS. > > > > The i860 was a neat little bugger. There was an iPSC/860 done by Intel > which would be a fun box to save/rescue/run with its own variation of Unix. > I have a quad-860 VME board for Sun systems in my collection. -- Michael Thompson

10 years

Re: [OT] eBay tale (Was: Re: flea markets (was Re: Vintage Computer Festivals???))

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Well a online site or a fest no.matter what size requires legal advice.. set things up right from the start to protect yourself... anything that involves buying and selling invites fraud.. ? ?build it and they will come but... they are not all honest. ?Ed# Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Marvin Johnston <marvin at west.net> Date: 4/20/2016 10:57 AM (GMT-08:00) To: ClassicCmp <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: [OT] eBay tale (Was: Re: flea markets (was Re: Vintage Computer Festivals???)) > Mark J. Blair nf6x at nf6x.net > I would happily donate that kind of money to create something of > value to us. I don't think it would work out well, though, for one > reason: The thing that makes eBay the venue of choice is that it is > well-known as the place to sell oddball stuff that you might find in > your dear, departed uncle's attic. So, when folks outside of our > niche hobbies want to get rid of things that would interest us, eBay > is where they go because eBay is what they know. > > A private special-interest eBay-clone might still be worth > investigation as a convenient venue for those of us who are already > part of the club to swap our toys, but I don't think it'll replace > eBay as a place for new items to find their way back into the hands > of dedicated collectors any time soon. > > Thoughts? I have a LOT of thoughts! My experience? I sold a computer last year and the buyer said it wasn't what he wanted, filed a SNAD claim, eBay took the money from my PayPal account, and I STILL don't have that computer back. I was putting on the US ARDF Championships and was out of internet range at the time and wasn't aware until it was too late that there was a problem. The eBay customer service dept, AKA Fraud promotion department, said it was my problem. I haven't bought or sold there since then. (I was a power seller with a 100% positive feedback rating... the buyer had zero feedback at the time.) The primary problem (as I see it) is pretty much identical to the flood of new computer manufacturers back in the mid 1970's... too many people with a great idea but no/minimal business or marketing experience to create a long term entity. Taking on eBay for a specific market (i.e. classic computers and related categories) is not difficult (simple and not easy.)? But it would require an intense marketing effort that most of us are not qualified to do, i.e. we don't know what we don't know. In case some of the people here aren't aware, there was talk of a vintage computer festival some 15 years ago (guessing since I don't remember exactly.) Sellam DID something instead of just talking about it, and the first Vintage Computer Festival was held at the Fairgrounds in Pleasonton, CA. While I don't agree with all of the current VCF policies (i.e. flea market), I absolutely admire and support what Evan and his team have done with VCF over the past years. Like Sellam, they have replaced talking with doing. Eric saw a need and started the Vintage Computer marketplace some years ago, and I think it is still a great idea. The only problem to some extent was buyers... the site needed more in order to attract more people :). What would I do if it became a priority? First set up some goals with the objectives of what the outcome is to be. One of the major goals would be building a community (such as this listserver!) or trying to get a buy-in from existing communities. A second would be to set up a timeline with monthly, 1 year, 5 year, etc. goals (can't hit a target that doesn't exist.) Defining the goals could be really hard depending on who was involved. I somewhat equate this to trying to herd feral cats :). The mechanics of putting up a site to compete with eBay is relatively easy although the legal aspects would probably require a specialized attorney if it were to become a major site. From a marketing perspective, I'd want to see podcasts (or similar) with interviews of people active in our hobby. This kind of historical perspective has been lost in other areas (amateur radio comes to mind) and is worth saving for posterity. Another aspect would be working to involve youth. The primary thing would be to get something going... it will never be "right" on the first try. An interesting marketing book is "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson (a pseudonym for Mark Ford?) That is a good philosophy to have. And realize that most of the time, those people who can start such a venture are probably unable to grow it to a significant business. Thus I would want the involved people to take the Kolbe A Index test (about $50.00, I'm 6384) showing what peoples natural strengths are and is pretty much constant thought a persons life. Anyway, a FEW ideas on building our hobby :). Marvin

10 years

[OT] eBay tale (Was: Re: flea markets (was Re: Vintage Computer Festivals???))

by marvin＠west.net

> Mark J. Blair nf6x at nf6x.net > I would happily donate that kind of money to create something of > value to us. I don't think it would work out well, though, for one > reason: The thing that makes eBay the venue of choice is that it is > well-known as the place to sell oddball stuff that you might find in > your dear, departed uncle's attic. So, when folks outside of our > niche hobbies want to get rid of things that would interest us, eBay > is where they go because eBay is what they know. > > A private special-interest eBay-clone might still be worth > investigation as a convenient venue for those of us who are already > part of the club to swap our toys, but I don't think it'll replace > eBay as a place for new items to find their way back into the hands > of dedicated collectors any time soon. > > Thoughts? I have a LOT of thoughts! My experience? I sold a computer last year and the buyer said it wasn't what he wanted, filed a SNAD claim, eBay took the money from my PayPal account, and I STILL don't have that computer back. I was putting on the US ARDF Championships and was out of internet range at the time and wasn't aware until it was too late that there was a problem. The eBay customer service dept, AKA Fraud promotion department, said it was my problem. I haven't bought or sold there since then. (I was a power seller with a 100% positive feedback rating... the buyer had zero feedback at the time.) The primary problem (as I see it) is pretty much identical to the flood of new computer manufacturers back in the mid 1970's... too many people with a great idea but no/minimal business or marketing experience to create a long term entity. Taking on eBay for a specific market (i.e. classic computers and related categories) is not difficult (simple and not easy.) But it would require an intense marketing effort that most of us are not qualified to do, i.e. we don't know what we don't know. In case some of the people here aren't aware, there was talk of a vintage computer festival some 15 years ago (guessing since I don't remember exactly.) Sellam DID something instead of just talking about it, and the first Vintage Computer Festival was held at the Fairgrounds in Pleasonton, CA. While I don't agree with all of the current VCF policies (i.e. flea market), I absolutely admire and support what Evan and his team have done with VCF over the past years. Like Sellam, they have replaced talking with doing. Eric saw a need and started the Vintage Computer marketplace some years ago, and I think it is still a great idea. The only problem to some extent was buyers... the site needed more in order to attract more people :). What would I do if it became a priority? First set up some goals with the objectives of what the outcome is to be. One of the major goals would be building a community (such as this listserver!) or trying to get a buy-in from existing communities. A second would be to set up a timeline with monthly, 1 year, 5 year, etc. goals (can't hit a target that doesn't exist.) Defining the goals could be really hard depending on who was involved. I somewhat equate this to trying to herd feral cats :). The mechanics of putting up a site to compete with eBay is relatively easy although the legal aspects would probably require a specialized attorney if it were to become a major site. From a marketing perspective, I'd want to see podcasts (or similar) with interviews of people active in our hobby. This kind of historical perspective has been lost in other areas (amateur radio comes to mind) and is worth saving for posterity. Another aspect would be working to involve youth. The primary thing would be to get something going... it will never be "right" on the first try. An interesting marketing book is "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson (a pseudonym for Mark Ford?) That is a good philosophy to have. And realize that most of the time, those people who can start such a venture are probably unable to grow it to a significant business. Thus I would want the involved people to take the Kolbe A Index test (about $50.00, I'm 6384) showing what peoples natural strengths are and is pretty much constant thought a persons life. Anyway, a FEW ideas on building our hobby :). Marvin

10 years

Vintage Computer Festivals???

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Is there ever any Vintage Computer Festivals in Oklahoma? If not How would I go about setting one up in Tulsa? I can have use of any of the buildings at the fairgrounds...? -- * *

10 years

ISO: Fujitsu M228x power supply (Josh Dersch)

by earl＠baugh.org

> > Another weekend acquisition is a Fujitsu M2284 SMD drive (14" platters > under a transparent cover, what's not to love?). It's in good shape and > was properly locked down for shipping so there's a good chance it'll > still work with some coaxing. I'm missing the power supply, however. I > believe this is the Fujitsu Denso B14L-0300-0018A. Anyone have one > going spare, in any condition? If this is the same drive as the Sun 1's, I actually have 2 spares right this min. (I am waiting to find out about someone locally who has some Fujitsu drives, which I haven't gotten model #'s from, but from description sound similar... so was keeping them for those drives... ) Mine are NOS, were spares from someone who used to do field engineering repairs on early Sun equipment. I might be persuaded to part with one, contact me off line.. Earl

10 years

Vintage computer ads...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T1IYdjOpYE The video is an hour long, but you can skip around. It includes ads for machines like the ITT Xtra, IBM PC Jr, etc. The Hayes Smartmodem ad is just atrocious. :) There's even ads for IOMega drives and the Promethus Pro Modem... g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

10 years

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test-drb April 2016