test-drb

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101090 discussions

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Howdy gents, Working away on the recently acquired Osborne 1. Seems there's something wrong with the KB - and if I didn't know better, I'd say it's a case of shorted contacts. The KB connector is 24 pins, double row header like a short floppy or IDE header. On the KB side, there are two "shorted" groups of pins. Group one is 2X shortred pins, group two is 5X shorted pins. Thing is, this KB is not really built to be serviced, best as I can tell. The switch matrix is made of two layered flexible circuits, and the key assys are 'riveted' in place, by melting over the plastic pins. So I see no way to disassemble it and give it a clean.. and then, even so. With such limited access, I don't see many avenues other than flushing with solvent(s) and hoping for the best. What's to be done? Is this one.. done already?

10 years, 9 months

Altair BASIC copyright [was RE: Larry Niven's Altair]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: Paul Koning Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 7:48 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Larry Niven's Altair > On Aug 20, 2015, at 10:30 AM, Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> wrote: >> On 8/20/2015 3:32 AM, Randy Dawson wrote: >>> I assume all the 8K, 4K BASICs are in public domain by now. The >>> demo for the kids will be the 15 minutes of paper tape, followed by >>> READY. >> Bad assumption. Things that were actually registered even if there >> was no notice, or published with a copyright notice would still be >> protected under U.S. copyright. > Depending on when. If it was published without notice, the key > question is whether publication occurred before Jan 1, 1978, or after. > After, notice does not matter; before, lack of notice means no > copyright. Sorry to take so long to chime in on all the rampant speculation, but I've had real work to attend to. The following is excerpted from the main source file of BASIC for the Altair, by Gates, Allen, and Davidoff. I have no further comment. 00100 MCSSIM(START) 00120 00140 TITLE BASIC MCS 8080 GATES/ALLEN/DAVIDOFF 00160 IFNDEF LENGTH,<PRINTX !!! MUST HAVE COM !! 00180 END> 00200 IF1,< 00220 IFE LENGTH,<PRINTX /SMALL/ > 00240 IFE LENGTH-1,<PRINTX /MEDIUM/ > 00260 IFE LENGTH-2,<PRINTX /BIG/ > 00280 IFE STRING,<PRINTX /NO $$/ > 00300 IFN STRING,<PRINTX /$$ $$/ > 00320 > 00340 SUBTTL VERSION 1.1 -- MORE FEATURES TO COME 00360 COMMENT * 00380 00400 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00420 COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN 00440 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00460 00480 00500 WRITTEN ORIGINALLY ON THE PDP-10 AT HARVARD FROM 00520 FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 27 00540 00560 PAUL ALLEN WROTE THE NON-RUNTIME STUFF. 00580 BILL GATES WROTE THE RUNTIME STUFF. 00600 MONTE DAVIDOFF WROTE THE MATH PACKAGE. 00620 00640 THINGS TO DO: 00641 SYNTAX PROBLEMS (OR) 00642 NICE ERRORS 00643 ALLOW ^W AND ^C IN LIST COMMAND 00646 TAPE I/O 00648 BUFFER I/O 00650 USR ?? 00652 ELSE 00660 USER DEFINED FUNCTIONS(MULTI-ARG,MULTI-LINE,STRINGS) 00680 MAKE STACK BOUNDARY STUFF EXACT 00700 (FOUT 24 FIN 14) 00720 PUNCH,DELETE,,, 00740 INLINE CONSTANT CONVERSION--MAKE IT WORK 00750 SIMPLE STRINGS 00760 * Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 9 months

Naval COBOL Audit tests

by cclist＠sydex.com

Well, so much for catalog listings. One can only wonder about other government documents--this was an important one historically. I am not surprised. NTIS's response: Dear Sir, I have checked our databases and we no longer have this item available. Thank you, Mary Brisbois Customer Contact Representative National Technical Information Service US Dept of Commerce P: 800-553-6847 or direct 703-605-6071 F: 703-605-6900 www.ntis.gov

10 years, 9 months

Side issue Bevatron PDP-8 Classic & teletype control? and great print/scan cheap

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Any Northern Calif folk (current or Ex) that might have been around the BEVATRON - Ok this thing had pdp-8 computers ( the classic first model rack mounted) and teletypes hooked to it I am finding very little info on it... Just scanning stuff on Crocker's Cracker (the 60 incher) here tonight and putting together blueprints. if you want a from the store solution try the hp 7612 scans and prints in excess of 11x17 on sale less then 200 bucks! I highly recommend the Microsoft labs stitcher program. I have had some scans with some pretty crappy alignment and I made one giant beauty of a blueprint. The 7612 also prints beautiful 11x17 color prints to go in displays here for the museum.

10 years, 9 months

FYI gmane cctalk group

by aek＠bitsavers.org

just noticed this http://article.gmane.org/gmane.announce/23246/match=gmane+comp+hardware+vin… From: Mailing List Manager <admin <at> gmane.org> Subject: New group gmane.comp.hardware.vintage Newsgroups: gmane.announce Date: 2015-05-19 10:57:19 GMT (13 weeks, 6 days, 3 hours and 39 minutes ago) The newsgroup gmane.comp.hardware.vintage has been created. The subject of the first message posted was Subject: Re: EPROM dumps for HP Draftmaster II 7596A This newsgroup corresponds to the cctalk mailing list. Description: Classic Computing Talk (non-public). <URL: http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.vintage> <URL: nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.vintage>

10 years, 9 months

Front Panel Progress - 8/e (type A & B) e/f and 8/m Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys! I now have the (hopefully) final artwork for all four PDP-8 front panel variations. I have made up a display file. The file shows the combined black positive master for white lines, white text and logos for all four designs. There can be up to five layers and hence screens for each panel. The file is in .svg format because I use Inkscape to do most of the work. Let me know who would like a copy Regards Rod

10 years, 9 months

[GreenKeys] Somewhat OT: RIP Robert "Bob" Hall, Jr. (Jan 5th 1957 - July ...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

sad to lose a good person at a young age.... Ed# In a message dated 8/24/2015 9:47:50 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, vbiersch at gmail.com writes: I've got his stuff here at Keep America At Work. I knew he was bad, but I had NOT heard this and I'm very sorry to hear this. http://keepamericaatwork.com/category/bob-hall/ I never had the opportunity to meet him, but we exchanged emails frequently and I wish I had been able to meet him. Virgil Keep America At Work On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 9:33 PM, drlegendre . <drlegendre at gmail.com> wrote: > Friends, > > I know some of us knew Bob Hall, an amazing character, who spent the last > decade of his life crusading for the restoration of US manufacturing and > railing against the perils of the Giant in the East - among other things. > > Sadly, I learned only today that Bob passed away on July 28th, 2015, due > to intractable pancreatic cancer. Our friend was a tender 61 years in age. > > You can find a page, with an obit here: http://tinyurl.com/paspfax > > Rest in Peace, Bob.. your 'dispatches from the front' will be missed. We > need more voices like we had known in Bob hall. > > (It seems all of his content has been removed from FB and YT. Might still > remain in archive.org) > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > GreenKeys mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net > > 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: > http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/ > 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: > http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html > Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: > http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >

10 years, 9 months

Somewhat OT: RIP Robert "Bob" Hall, Jr. (Jan 5th 1957 - July 28th 2015)

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Friends, I know some of us knew Bob Hall, an amazing character, who spent the last decade of his life crusading for the restoration of US manufacturing and railing against the perils of the Giant in the East - among other things. Sadly, I learned only today that Bob passed away on July 28th, 2015, due to intractable pancreatic cancer. Our friend was a tender 61 years in age. You can find a page, with an obit here: http://tinyurl.com/paspfax Rest in Peace, Bob.. your 'dispatches from the front' will be missed. We need more voices like we had known in Bob hall. (It seems all of his content has been removed from FB and YT. Might still remain in archive.org)

10 years, 9 months

9-Track 1/2" Tape Drive Recommendations?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Hello All, Recently I came across a complete Pertec interface (card, manual, software, and, cables) thanks to list-member Shaun. Of course what is the point of having an interface if you have nothing to interface it to! So I've been looking at, and learning a bit, about 1/2" tape drives. I've also looked into acquiring one. But before going down this path I wanted to see what pitfalls, warning signs, etc. I should be on the lookout for. I am looking for a unit mostly to experience the tech and to play around with. I do not plan on recovering data from any particular system or format. However, it would be nice if I could setup a system that actually worked for backups of say an IBM AT for demonstration purposes. Having read some old InfoWorld and PC Mag articles I can see there were a number of tape drive manufacturers well into the early 90s. Based on the reviews the Cipher and Qualstar units seem to be well suited for my purposes. Any other brand/models I should keep an eye out for. I know IBM also had some 1/2" 9 track tape drives (9437 and 9438) but neither was a Pertec interface from what I have gleaned. The 9347 used a proprietary interface and the 9348 used HVD SCSI which is atypical. There was apparently a 9348-012 model which used narrow SCSI so should interface with a standard Adaptec card. However, I have not been able to determine if it used standard SCSI commands and could be accessed say with a tape backup program under Windows 9x/NT or DOS. Of course the biggest problem is finding one locally in the LA area. Unfortunately my only resource is eBay and prices there are definitely not hobbyist friendly (not to mention shipping). If anyone has a line on a working drive in the LA area (to save on S&H and avoid the dangers of shipping) or a reasonably priced one elsewhere I'd appreciate it. TIA for any help.

10 years, 9 months

(OT?) Copyright and IP

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hi List, This relates to the ongoing discussion about vintage computer software copyright. A year or so ago I did some Beta videotape backups for the Australian Computer Society. They're of keynote speeches at the 10th Australian Computer Conference in 1983. One that I'd like to mention is by Tania Amochev from (then) Control Data Corporation, titled Information Services of the Future. In it, things we now call data mining and Google AdSense are discussed, and the potential of data services in general (this is in 1983). One thing that struck me was the contrast between traditional copyright of material items, and how such ideas don't apply very well to non-material information. I was left with the impression that the idea of "Intellectual Property" is in some ways an attempt to force information to be treated like materials, which is an easy way to put a value information, but also allows it to be hoarded. This goes directly against how information behaves, which is to flow freely. This free-flow of information allows more information to be derived or generated, enhancing productivity and overall knowledge. To quote: "Information is diffusive - it leaks. The more it leaks, the more of it there is. Information is aggressive, even imperialistic. It simply breaks out of its unnatural bonds, the bonds of secrecy in which 'thing minded' people try to lock it. So secrecy, property rights, confidentiality, all enshrined in Western thought and law, are not particularly effective restraints on information." This is not a cry to abolish copyright and intellectual property laws, but to highlight some of the inadequacies of the thought process behind these laws when dealing with high speed, global information. Does anyone have any thoughts? If there was a massive shift in the fundamental philosophy of how information should be valued, where would you like that shift to go? For example, is there a way to pay programmers and similar professions by the quality of their work, rather than just the number of lines of code they write. How do you measure the quality of information? I'll see if I can get permission to have the six keynote addresses put online, because they're all fascinating. Cheers, Alexis. P.S., if this is way off topic, my apologies.

10 years, 9 months

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