test-drb

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101090 discussions

Hitachi 2.8" (was Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-15 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :However, there are 2 things that spring to mind. Firstly Hitachi :were associated with the Compact Floppy disks which are normally :called 3" disks. I've just measured one and : :It's a black plastic case measuring 3+1/8" * 3+7/8" * 3/16" :I've attempted to measure the actual disk through holes in the case, :and it meassures 2.8" in diameter, or thereabouts those'll be the things amstrad used ad nauseam, yep? you can post them for special concessionary cassette rates in japan, we're told - it kept them alive a little while longer than they should have stayed... ;> :Secondly, I've heard of 2.75" disk drives. Some of them were :_sequential_ access - there was no separate head possitioner, it :was driven by the spindle motor. You had to start at the outside of :the disk and read all the data up to the point that you wanted. quick disks. msx used them, as did a few early samplers (roland s10, akai s612(?), etc) and a few other bits. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 5 months

Question for the Faq - If there is one.

by peacock＠simconv.com

How about initial procedures when you get some new treasure recently saved from the greedy jaws of the salvagers. Things like: blow out the dirt, check for burnt/obviously damaged components, frayed or pinched cables, reseat socketed parts and clean off any corrosion or "purple plague" on the IC pins, power supply outputs, loose screws dropped in the power supply or motherboard. And most important of all....make copies of the schematics and boot disks. Another idea for the FAQ: if it isn't restorable, at least pull all the socketed ICs (and put them in static foam) so someone else might be able to restore one. I keep a big box of old parts from boards I have tossed. Jack Peacock

28 years, 5 months

System names

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Be careful not jam the (diskette) magazines ;) > >[Kamikaze Pilot] > >Isn't that what's referred to as Shotgun Debugging? >------- > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 5 months

Robots again

by dwollmann＠ibmhelp.com

At 04:34 AM 3/16/98 -0600, you wrote: >Exactly. All of the useful ideas from AI that became mainstream are no >longer considered AI. Today, OCR, speach recognition, machine >translation, and predictive analysis are off-the-shell apps or embedded in >products like Microsoft Word to help catch your spelling and grammar >errors. What was once the stuff of science fiction epics is now mundane? > >There are still interesting problems, though. Machines can kick your >chess-playing butt, but you won't find one nearly coordinated enough to >hit a baseball and run around a few bases. IMHO, AI researchers have >overestimated the brainstuff and underestimated the sensor and actuator >stuff. Here's my theory of how you learn to speak, for example: > I have always thought that digital computers would never allow us to achieve the ultimate goal of replicting a learning organism. Aren't we just simple conceptual pattern recognition machines? It seems like an analog computer, capable of integration of raw percepts and conceptualization at high speeds, could actually learn and become better and faster than man at thinking and working. If a computer could search a text file for a pattern using the same method as humans, i.e. looking for a shape as the first indicator of a match, rather than a discreet chacter pattern, it would be able to process text much faster than a digital machine. I think it was Ayn Rand's "Objectivist Epistemology" that got me thinking along these lines. > >-- Doug > > -- David Wollmann | dwollmann(a)ibmhelp.com | Support for legacy IBM products. DST ibmhelp.com Technical Support | Data, document and file conversion for IBM http://www.ibmhelp.com/ | legacy file and media formats.

28 years, 5 months

Preserving software

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

If you are referring to the Computer museum on Boston Harbor, it's fine. I have no idea what they would do with anything anyone might give them, though. They don't have much space... > >Spring cleaning is approaching, and the storage bins are overflowing. I >have a lot of old PC applications, and I'd like to get rid of them, but >would prefer to see them preserved. Is the Boston museum still in >operation, and if so are they interested in preserving old PC apps? > >I'm hoping that I can find my Microport Unix while I'm at it--I want to >build one of my old ATs and install it, just for fun. > >-- >David Wollmann | >dwollmann(a)ibmhelp.com | Support for legacy IBM products. >DST ibmhelp.com Technical Support | Data, document and file conversion for >IBM http://www.ibmhelp.com/ | legacy file and media formats. > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 5 months

Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again....

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-15 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :FYI the Extended BASIC interpreter for CP/M-80 and the BASCOM :Compiler for CP/M-80 were excellent products. Neither were :bloatware by any standard. you know, we've heard it mooted that bill gates himself is not a bad programmer. we've also heard that the last thing he worked on in person was the software for the kyocera laptops of the mid 80s. perhaps this is the problem... we have a suspicion that bill gates uses macs - hence the cash investment ;> -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 5 months

Strange board

by pjoules＠enterprise.net

I have a board which came in a job lot from a bankruptcy sale about 10 years ago. I wonder if anyone can identify it. The only writing on it says 'SYKES' and '9000 MP CONTROLLER'. The most prominent chip is marked MCS6502. It has rows of small chips indexed along the edge of the board A..Y down one side and 1..9 along the short edge. It is about 6" X 10" and has a 12 contact edge connector and two sockets, one of 40 and one of 50 pins either side of the edge connector. There are 3 chips which are (obviously?) memory as they are labelled D1/FC00, F1/FA00 and K1/FE00. There is also a 16MHz crystal oscillator. Any ideas what it might be? Regards Pete

28 years, 5 months

Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again....

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I quote the FAQ 2.8 Can I type obscenities about Microsoft in ALL CAPS!?! (Or, in general, be unreasonable with reagard to advocacy posts?) Check your anti-MS baggage at the door, please. For that matter, drop any posts that serve only to perpetuate the holy wars. Please please guys and gals; Check your anti-MS baggage at the door. Talk Classic computers.... classic computers.... classic computers. Furthermore, classic computers... classic computers... get the idea? A

28 years, 5 months

Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-15 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :Can someone help Bill out? Anyone have a copy of the FAQ lying :around? can you make that two copies? we could use one. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 5 months

Robots again

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-16 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :Perhaps :incredibly, Turing _did_ believe that there was something special :about the brain (in particular he could/would not rule out ESP) and :so I don't think he would ever have claimed that a Turing Machine :could do anything that a human brain could. The TM was designed to :solve a specific problem in mathematical theory, rather than as a :theoretical ultimate brain. no, the brain/intelligence thing came with the "turing *test*" which is the idea that you could converse with a computer on one terminal, a human on another, and not be able to reliably identify which was which. (turing was a complex, fascinating, and very innocent human, and he was treated despicably by the british government after the second world war.) :But now you've got me trying to think of something that an :analog(ue) computer can do that a digital one can't. fuzzy logic...? ;> -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 5 months

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