test-drb January 2017

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

198 participants
283 discussions

What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

by geremin＠iprimus.com.au

Greetings from Australia, 'Down Under' and the Australian Computer Museum Society Inc. Congratulations to Jay on his working HP-2000s. I bought my HP-2000f from Liverpool Hospital (NSW) in the early 1980s for either $5,000 or $10,000. A lot of money in those days - I had a crazy idea of setting up some sort of bureau. I got it home (in a terrace in Chippendale) in two trips. Plus heaps of doco. I re-assembled it, put in a switch for selectable baud rate on the console port. Later the power supply for the disk failed and has not been repaired. It now sits in the HP Museum in Melbourne, VIC. See www.HPmuseum.net home page. The HP Museum is a vast store of HP information and artefacts. Sadly, the curator/originator Jon Johnston died last year on Mt Everest. His memorial service will be held next month, contact me for details. Regards, John GEREMIN, info at acms.org.au >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2017 12:02:26 -0600 >From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> >To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Subject: RE: What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item > do you own? [Tek 4132] >Message-ID: <000201d26f59$87e1cb60$97a56220$(a)classiccmp.org> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > >I'd have to say my HP-2000 systems that are running are the rarest that >I'm aware of. I know of a few folks who have various bits and pieces >towards assembling one, but not complete. I know two collectors who (each) >have most if not all of the parts, but the systems are far from >operational and likely never will be. > >So I fairly strongly suspect that my running HP-2000's are the only ones >left, anywhere. I have one HP-2000/Access system using dual 2100A/S cpus >with HP paper tape readers and punches, another HP-2000/Access system >using dual 21MX/E's, and an HP-2000/E using one 21MX. Each of those have >their own 7900, 7906 disc drives and 7970 (not the 2000/E) tape units. > >I think the most I ever paid for a system at once was $1500 for a >"system", and about $2000 for a pallet of two incomplete systems. But in >order to get the 3 HP-2000 systems mentioned above and running, I'm sure >it's edged uncomfortably into the 5 digit range. > >All the other systems in my collection, while perhaps highly sought >after... there are tens if not hundreds of identical systems in other >collectors hands. > >J --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

7 years, 11 months

Origins of the term 'WYSIWYG?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG > As it relates to computing, there are multiple claims to first use of > the phrase: > In mid-1975, John W. Seybold .. and researchers at PARC, incorporated > Gypsy software into Bravo to create Bravo 3, which allowed text to be > printed as displayed. Charles Simonyi and the other engineers > appropriated Flip Wilson's popular phrase around that time. I looked in the Bravo section of the Alto User's Manual (September 1979), and in the "Look hardcopy" section (pg. 38), which describes how Bravo can put the text on the screen almost exactly as how it will appear when printed ("by positioning each character on the screen within one-half [pixel] of its position in the final hardcopy"), but I see no reference to WYSIWYG there. So it must have gotten that tag later. Probably the best way to track the etymology on this is to look in NewNews archives. > The phrase was coined in 1982 by Larry Sinclair, an engineer at > ... ("Triple I") to express the idea that what the user sees on the > screen is what the user gets on the printer This exact idea existed in Bravo some years before (see above), and was well known. > From: Tony Duell > a very similar phrase ('What you see, you get') was used by a camera > manufactuer some 15 years earlier (at least) Yes, but I'll bet Flip Wilson never read any of their ads! :-) (And I think one can be pretty safe in saying that it was his use of the phrase that made it popular - at least, in the US. Not sure if the FWS was picked up on any British channels.) Noel

7 years, 11 months

Close encounters of the CADR kind

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff >> like the Chess Machine, it was a special purpose CPU hung off the AI >> PDP-10. (Or maybe the Chess Machine was attached to MC? I forget.) It's also possible that it was connected to AI at one point, and MC later on. I have this bit set about being told that when it was competing in some chess tournament, they disabled logins (and I have this bit set that it was on MC, since it was the fastest machine) so that they'd get the best performance. But it's all foggy at this point. I'm pretty sure that CHEOPS and CONS were in the same room (not in the raised floor area of the 9th floor) at one point, but again, don't rely too heavily on that memory. And I think the first CADR was in there too, while they were debugging it - I remember one evening watching over Dave Moon's shoulder in the room next door, while they tried to get the first CADR running. > Would that Chess Machine be the one called CHEOPS? Yes, that's it. > I'll take this opportutity to ask what CAIOS was? It seems intimately > related to Chaosnet. Maybe an earlier name for Chaos Yeah, that rings a bell, vaguely. Where did you find a referece too it? I just did a Google search, no luck. Noel

7 years, 11 months

A compilation of PalmOS versions

by lproven＠gmail.com

This might be a bit new for some folk hereabouts, but I found it interesting. http://www.osnews.com/story/29602/The_elusive_Palm_OS_5_5_Garnet_emulator_f… Trying to collect and run every major version of PalmOS on modern PCs. There's a lot of interesting historic detail, and for once, _do_ read the comments! -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven ? Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053

7 years, 11 months

ISO Altos 686/886 documentation

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Worked on cleaning up and documenting the 686 and 886 I had over the weekend. Pics and firmware up now on bitsavers, but I don't have any documentation. I'm especially interested in the 8274 diagnostic serial port, which isn't installed on either of my boards. I'll have a hard disk image of Concurrent CP/M 4.1 for it up under bits/Altos/686 later today, just installing it now. Also, the Xenix image from a 886 will boot on a 686. Turns out the disk in the 686 had a bad head, which is a drag because the image I made of it is missing heads 4 and 5. I'm also still trying to figure out if there is any way to do an inital format since at least the CP/M tools expect a config block on disk before you can partition it, which optionally will format the disk (chicken and egg).

7 years, 11 months

Close encounters of the CADR kind

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > I assume that CONS ww panel we had on display in Boston was there > because it was wired by a robot they built. I don't know for sure about the CONS, but I'm pretty sure no CADR's were wired at the AI Lab; ISTR that some outside fabricator did them. (Probably a place with tape-controlled wire-wrap machines.) The robot that the AI Lab _did_ build, that was used in the production of CADR's, was a wire-wrap testing machine, used to verify the huge CPU panels immediately upon arrival. It was this large frame (made out of Dexion, IIRC) in which the CPU panel was laid horizontally. It had two 'test heads' (not sure of their exact name) which were moveable (details below), each of which had a little arm with a little round solid test probe sticking down. The test head would roll up to where the pin it wanted to continuity check was, and lower the little arm (it moved about 1/2", or so, IIRC). If the probe wasn't centered exactly on the pin, the test probe would slide off the pin, and go further down, and the machine could sense that. So it would raise the probe, and hunt around a bit in a trial-and-error process until it landed on the pin. Then the other test head did the same thing, and then it could do the test (dunno if it checked for shorts, as well as pin-pin continuity per the wire list); repeat ad nauseam. The two test heads were supported on beams (supported at both ends, IIRC) which could run back and forth on tracks, with the heads moving up and down the beams, all driven by a pair of plastic chains (which looked like miniature rope ladders), one each for X and Y axis motion. Those were driven off a couple of stepper motors attached to the frame, IIRC. I don't recall how it was done so that the two heads and their support beams didn't interfere with each other - possibly there was one on each end, and each had half of the panel to itself? (I think probably that, now that I think about it.) It was the most amazing Rube Goldberg device, and a blast to watch running, but it did the job. Noel

7 years, 11 months

Close encounters of the CADR kind

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Alfred M. Szmidt > How do you figure that? Umm, because I saw them every day, for several years? :-) (They were scattered all over the 9th floor at Tech Sq.) Admittedly, it's hard to tell a picture (from the front, where one can only see a giant wire-wrapped assembly) of the CONS machine from a picture of a CADR, but that one also has the CADR header-plate. Also, from a previous message: > these pictures are of a CONS, or a very early CADR prototype There were no CADR prototypes, other than the CONS. The first CADR built was, I am fairly certain, put into service as a general user machine; it likely had fixes applied during the bring-up process that were built in from the start on later machines, so they were all identical (i.e. no special software for that one machine), but there was no 'prototype CADR' left lying around gathering dust, unused. Noel

7 years, 11 months

Caldisk 8" drive (also ebay warning)

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I'm not sure I've heard of Caldisk, though it was in Anaheim apparently. Maybe a Calcomp brand or spinoff? Here is an ad also for the Matchdisk operation who pasted their info all over the drive. https://books.google.com/books?id=iD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT33&lpg=PT33&dq=caldisk+… 8" double sided drive, 479 bucks in the 1981 Infoworld ad. CalDisk-142M-17652-111-Pragmatix-I-8-Inch-Internal-Floppy-Disk-Drive-VINTAGE/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/192031318942 Also I'm wondering if the "Matchmakers match of the month" system which they can't tell you about is in fact NoName systems generic CPM system. I never heard of this operation in all the things going on in that time frame (Matchmaker) but they seemed to be marketing to people who were less skilled at fitting things like third party floppy drives to systems, yet this offering is clearly for someone with advanced skills at doing so. thanks Jim

7 years, 11 months

Close encounters of the CADR kind

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Alfred M. Szmidt > The closest to a picture of a CADR that I have seen The picture posted earlier of the machine in the MIT Archives: http://questier.com/Photos/200907_USA/20090731-150406_USA_Massachusetts_MIT… is _definitely_ a CADR. Noel

7 years, 11 months

SunoS 4.1.4 and Open Windows 3 on an IPX?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have installed SunoS 4.1.4 on a an IPX and then tried to start Open Windows 3 from the command line. I get a garbled screen that looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/jWcbqYO.jpg?1 It looks like there is a mismatch between what resolution Open WIndows is using and how the frame buffer is configured. My screen reports that the framebuffer is outputting 1280x1024 at 76Hz. How can this be adjusted? I have read this manual: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/sun/openWindows/Open_Windo… and various FAQs trying to modify EEPROM settings etc but it won't work. I understand that the 13W3 cable includes a number of sense lines so that the framebuffer can adjust to the monitor used. I haven't checked how 13W3 to VGA cable is configured but I assume it tells the FB to use 1280x1024 at 76Hz since it is what the screen reports. On the other hand, when SunOS boots it finds the cgsix0 and reports that the resolution is 1000x1022!? Any idea on how to set different resolutions in Open Windows? What I am not understanding here? The word resolution is not even mentioned in the Installation manual for Open Windows above... /Mattis

7 years, 11 months

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test-drb January 2017