test-drb

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101090 discussions

by starbase89＠gmail.com

I'm trying to find some info on the IBM 3633 Optical Disk Drive. I am selling things for infoage, and this is among the stuff. I have the drive, cable, MCA controller card, "IBM Binder Manual," and several blank disks. I haven't seen any sold on ebay. Joe

16 years, 2 months

WAY OT RE: Asbestos: (was: RE: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days)

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Trial lawyers are part of making case law. Legislators make statutory law. Case law is *usually* very narrowly targeted. Statutory law tends to be where you find the overbroad, overreaching and uninformed regulation of how we live our lives and do our business. Stakeholders are... us. I'm part of an advocacy group for a particular area of interest that has been very effective in our efforts to educate our legislators regarding our issues. We've been able to get good legislation introduced, heard and passed, and bad legislation killed. Next week, I am meeting (by invitation) with the head of one of the state regulatory agencies that impacts my interest area. She wants to know what I think. I know because she's asked before, and evidently included my input (on behalf of the stakeholder community) in her decision process. If you include in the concept of 'lobbyists' citizens who show up, unpaid, and speak to the issues with data, not just impassioned rhetoric (although we have some of that, too), then you are not incorrect. But I suspect you are repeating the oft-stated belief that only paid, high-powered lobbyists are really making a difference. My small, not-for-profit advocacy group has beat those people at their own game on more than one occasion. I don't get paid for the time I spend in the state capital, and I pay my own way when I visit D.C. I'm paid back when stupid things don't happen, and even more richly when good things DO happen. In my experience, at least at the state level, they're listening to the people who are talking: the decisions are made by the people who show up. Yes, sometimes the dragon wins, but in my experience the dragon loses often enough to well-informed and passionate citizen stakeholders that I keep going back. -- Ian ________________________________________ From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ken Seefried [ken at seefried.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:18 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Asbestos: (was: RE: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days) Dad was an executive and principle engineer at a hazardous waste abatement firm. Lots of asbestos and superfund site cleanups. I got a lot of collateral knowledge. From: Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com>>The primary metric is the 'friability' of the asbestosPrecisely. Not all asbestos is created equal; much is completely harmless, some is frighteningly damaging. Friability is a fancy way of saying how finely do the asbestos fiber shatter under stress. The finer the particles, the more dangerous. >I agree that a simple knee-jerk reaction to asbestos is >silly - but that's how legislators most often write laws. Well...not exactly (IMO). The legislation followed the trial lawyers making "asbestos" the equivalent of "plutonium" or "cyanide" in the minds of the public and therefore the jury pool. It's really tough to convince a jury that this asbestos is potentially lethal, but that form is harmless, especially when platiff is coughing his lungs up in the corner. P.S. - I am *not* saying there wasn't a cavalier attitude toward the stuff, and a lot of people were hurt without cause. >(Unless stakeholders are there to help them understand >the facts.)If you're refering to the legislators, the the stockholders are lobbyists, and you don't always get the desired outcome. KJ

16 years, 2 months

Anyone in Houston, TX?

by julian＠twinax.org

Hi all, Just moved to the Houston area, wondering if there are any classiccmp'ers down here. I'm up in Spring.

16 years, 2 months

Asbestos: (was: RE: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days)

by ken＠seefried.com

Dad was an executive and principle engineer at a hazardous waste abatement firm. Lots of asbestos and superfund site cleanups. I got a lot of collateral knowledge. From: Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com>>The primary metric is the 'friability' of the asbestosPrecisely. Not all asbestos is created equal; much is completely harmless, some is frighteningly damaging. Friability is a fancy way of saying how finely do the asbestos fiber shatter under stress. The finer the particles, the more dangerous. >I agree that a simple knee-jerk reaction to asbestos is >silly - but that's how legislators most often write laws. Well...not exactly (IMO). The legislation followed the trial lawyers making "asbestos" the equivalent of "plutonium" or "cyanide" in the minds of the public and therefore the jury pool. It's really tough to convince a jury that this asbestos is potentially lethal, but that form is harmless, especially when platiff is coughing his lungs up in the corner. P.S. - I am *not* saying there wasn't a cavalier attitude toward the stuff, and a lot of people were hurt without cause. >(Unless stakeholders are there to help them understand >the facts.)If you're refering to the legislators, the the stockholders are lobbyists, and you don't always get the desired outcome. KJ

16 years, 2 months

OT: white LEDs

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0600 2/23/10, Randy wrote: >If you look at one in the microscope, it looks like an LED with some >sort of phosphor painted over the semiconductor. Is that how these >things work, its really a high efficency IR LED, with a phosphor >doubler to bring the wavelength into visible? Just speculating... There are a few crystals that can double frequency (halve wavelength, thereby *increasing* the energy per photon). I think these are used in laser ranging, to bring a powerful IR laser beam up into the visible so it'll transmit better through the atmosphere. I think no phosphors can do that. They can bring frequency *down* (ie absorb an ultraviolet photon, emit 2 visible or one visible and one IR or some combination). In fact, I don't recall ever hearing of a device that can do that with non-coherent light (well, as direct conversion). The problem is trying to gather 2 low-energy photons into a single high-energy photon. That turns out to be tough to do in general. There are phosphors that can be "pumped" by blue or UV light, then stimulated to re-emit visible light when IR photons hit them. (I think the Germans made IR goggles this way in WWII.) -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

16 years, 2 months

Tubes & Computers of Olden Days

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 22 Feb 2010, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 19 > Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:45:19 +0000 > From: Colin Eby <ceby2 at csc.com> > Subject: Re: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: > <OF71E503B7.7C3067C5-ON802576D2.003F9F40-802576D2.00409310 at csc.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > > I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't brought up what has to be the most > complete, working order, and fully programmable of the remaining tube > machines. There are a couple of interesting systems in the process of > restoration, but for my money, the best of the running examples is the > Science Museum's (London's) Ferranti Pegasus. Unlike the Collosus replica, > this is an actual relic, and recognizably a programmable computer in the > modern sense. The Colossus and most of the later small systems are > pegboard programmed and therefore cannot alter their instructions in > flight. That Ferranti is demo'd regularly (though I never seem to be around > on the right day). I'm sure everyone can do their own Googling, but it a > pretty complete setup. I keep a loving photo of it in my office cubicle. > > Thanks, > Colin Eby > Technical Architect > NR Performance Engineering > CSC > I think you were right, and I hope you will be again, but last thing I heard was there had been an incident and it was shut down awaiting a health and safety review. If my memory serves me right some twit reported the blown fuse had asbestos in it. I expect most of the steam boilers in the building do too. We've gone health and safety mad, but when I reported someone had fly tipped a load of asbestos on a country verge the council collected 75% of it and left the rest behind and now some of it has got driven over and is being pulverised into the mud. Roger Holmes, Computer Conservation Society and 1301 working party member

16 years, 2 months

BBC S.E. news classic computer feature

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 21 Feb 2010, at 07:45, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 26 > Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:46:08 +0000 > From: Nigel Bailey <nig.bailey at virgin.net> > Subject: Re: BBC S.E. news classic computer feature > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <4B7EDC70.7020407 at virgin.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Presumeably that's "Flossie" > I watched the local BBC news, but we're in the Anglia region. Did you > "youtube" the clip? I think the BBC would not like me putting their copyright programmes up on U-tube.

16 years, 2 months

DEC RT-11 MU BASIC V2.00R installation guide?

by nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com

Having found the RK05 image for MU BASIC V2: http://www.shiresoft.com/downloads/disk-images/rk05/rt11v4-mubasicv2.rk.gz I made a quick attempt at getting it to install on simh but without success as it throws an error "CONFIGURATION ERROR -- NOT ENOUGH MEMORY" when entering .R MUBAS and answering with 1USER.CNF Does anyone have the V2 Installation Guide? it may have a DEC part number close to or similar to the V1 guide which was: DEC-11-LIBMA-A-D which you can see here: http://www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/RT-11/DEC-11-LIBMA-A-D%20MU%20BASIC&RT… thanks. www.retroComputingTasmania.com

16 years, 2 months

Looking for a VT100 advanced video option board

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I'm looking for a VT100 advanced video option board. Or, failing that, if anyone has a .100 spacing, 50 pin dual row female connector so I can makes one... The circuit is really simple, it's just a plug-in board that gives the VT100 some extra RAM so it can display 24 lines of text in 132 column mode, and do some extra character attributes. I cooked up plans to build my own based on the schematics in the printset (and using some newer SRAMs), but when I actually pulled the logic board out of the terminal I realized that the header connector it plugs into is a stupid spacing - .1 instead of the usual .156. -Ian

16 years, 2 months

OT: SawStop saws (was Re: Soldering)

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

I have a SawStop Contractor's saw and am pleased with it, even though I have not had the need to test its stopping feature. I did see one demonstrated with a hot dog at a trade show, though. The maker of the electronics (National Semi, IIRC) was doing the demo. The stop works by slamming a block of aluminum into the blade, so if it fires, you have to replace both the blade and the stop mechanism, which I consider a trivial cost compared to replacing one or more fingers! The electronics do have a POST, but you are right that there is no way to fully test the unit without destroying it. If you do not have a spare brake unit, there is a keyed over-ride. I think some of the reasoning in having to replace the whole brake unit is that (1) the electronics are a small part of the unit so the added cost is minor, and (2) there is much less chance of someone incorrectly installing the unit. While I would be willing to use a unit re-assembled by Tony, there too many incompetents out there who I would not trust to even plug in the unit correctly, much less reassemble one from parts. Bob ----- Original Message ----- Message: 6 Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:19:53 +0000 (GMT) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: Soldering (Was: Re: HP-IB, Amigo/cs80 ... ) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <m1Niurz-000J3xC at p850ug1> Content-Type: text/plain > This is a pretty cool design for table saws: > > http://www.sawstop.com/ > > "We're passionate about preventing saw accidents. > That=92s why SawStop=AE saws are equipped with a safety > system to stop the blade within 5 milliseconds of > detecting contact with skin." I am not convinced. My main moan is that you have to replace the complete safety device if it trips? Why? I am darn sure you could make something as quick-acting that was resetable. Due to this, if it trips in the middle of a job and you don't have a spare one to hand, you are going to find some way to disable it. Which means you have no protection, but subconciously you will think you do and won't take as much care. Also, since you have to replace all the driver electronics every time (why not just the fuse wire?) how do you know it's going to work? If it was resetable, you could test it every month or som wy touching the side of a the blade with a soft metal rod. If it trips, fine, if not, you fix it. Better than that it not work when you need it. ?Of ocurse even if you're prepared to waste a safety module every month to do that test, it doesn't tell you anything. You don;t know the new one you've fitted is going to work. -tony

16 years, 2 months

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