- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

steering back on topic, now that I've gotten the back off...

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

seems my last attempt to reply to the thread was eaten by yahoo. What's the best way to gain access to the front of the tube (Rainbow mono monitor). Cut the tie wraps or use a skinny long phillips to detach the tube from the bezel. Apologies if someone answered this, problem is I just don't see the response.

14 years, 4 months

1
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75 in 1 Electronic Project Kit

by jgessling＠yahoo.com

I will check when I get home, which manual I actually have.? Last year when this topic came up I had offered to copy one of mine but when I requested some $ for the trouble, I never heard back again.? The pages are an odd size (at least to me) so copying was going to be a bit of a chore. On the sentimental trail...? It was about 4 years ago that I went to join my wife in Nigeria.? I was unemployed and she lived in her company's compound so I didn't figure to get out much.? So I took with me a 150 in 1 kit (with manual) that I had picked up at a flea market.? I threw in a handful of random components for variety and added a cheap multimeter and spent many an afternoon with my set and the "All About Circuits" online books. I've been a software guy my whole career and had always wondered how electronics actually worked.? I really enjoyed the whole experience, and the fact that I now I know a little something anyway.

14 years, 4 months

1
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Sun 1 Computer CRT repair, you help needed for parts - qty 2 of: BSX20 and BFW17A

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

I am putting out a call for help, I am looking to buy qty 2 of the following: BFW17A & BSX20 transistors. Anyone who has 2 of each of these in working condition please let me know, I am interested in trading/buying them from you. Nick

14 years, 4 months

1
1
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75 in 1 Electronic Project Kit

by bud7388＠yahoo.com

My son bought this kit from a yard sale... but there is no manual.? I read on the internet that you might have the manual for this kit? It is the 75 in 1 made by Tandy for Radio Shack. ? Thanks so much for any help. ? Wayne

14 years, 4 months

7
6
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KryoFlux and Commodore Disks

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> > You don't want to use a PC HD drive, Commodore disks are 40 track (OK, well, 35 track, but still), the narrower head of the 80 track PC drive will cause problems if you want to write. Well, about 80% of the games sold for the C64 were in fact written on industrial grade PC drives with Trace machines. Many titles use 80 track mechanics and heads. It in fact works when the drive is well aligned and you make sure the disk is empty, e.g. degaussed, before you do this, otherwise you would risk keeping garbage for disks that were previously formatted in a 40 track drive with wider heads. All games that do stepping tricks with so called fat tracks or half tracks can't be written with 40 track drives at all. > > An HD PC floppy drive will *NOT* read commodore 1541 disks.not a > chance in hell. PC drives are MFM, commodore are not. totally > incompatible. You are totally wrong. The drive will happily read the disk, but you need a controller that can make use of GRC coding and the special encoding tricks used by copy protections. As the 1541 is a separate computer, there is much freedom here. > I've heard of people using catweasel with 1541 drives, mounted in > their PC's also. Really? Afaik the 80 track drives with 40 track wide heads were custom made for Commodore and don't have a Shugart connector. > those are very different from commodore disks,someone already > mentioned commodore have up to 40 tracks,what about half-tracks, and > copy-protected disks? will they read v-max disks?commodore software > got heavily into copy protection,like rapidlok, and worse in the later > days Indeed. These will cause trouble when read with a 1541 for various reasons. Some protections work by using the index while recording (which the 1541 does not have...), later read a specific track and then step ahead to find some special data when reading a few tracks later. You can't write such protections with a standard 1541 as it lacks the index to aling your data to. Other protections vary bit cell density, which is ok for reading, but can't be written with an unmodified 1541, some make tracks so long and write them in one pass, so you need more ram in a 1541 and some will even trick the sync detection which is not very reliable in the 1541. What makes things worse is that the format used for storing such data, g64, is very badly implemented in most of the emulators out there. To our knowledge all emulators are working with a fixed track size of 7928 bytes per track, which will give trouble for e.g. V-MAX! style disk, at least everything before V3. We are working with Pete Rittwage (author of Nibtools) to find out if we can help enhance e.g. Vice to support properly imaged disks that have demanding protections. Currently some g64s need tampering with, some even need cracking the game, because the format can't properly store the protection (see e.g. Pirates! for fun invloved). See: http://c64preservation.com/dp.php?pg=bangui6 If anyone wants to take a look... we do have V-MAX disk images of Defender Of The Crown that are definitely beyond what emulators will accept at the moment. Let me know... > I'd say zoomfloppy, simply because of nibtools, which is the most > feature-rich for commodore disks I've found.especially where > copy-protection is involved. And, the fact it can write images back to > disk gives it a distinct advantage. this is only for commodore style > disks, other platforms would have their preferred tool(s). Dan. I would agree, at least if writing is important to the person using it. KryoFlux currently does not write g64 files, so it's for reading only (at the moment). We do have a preliminary STREAM to g64 converter, which spits out files that are correct in regard to what's on the disk (leaving out e.g. varying density in a track, which can't be stored by the file format itself), but fail in emulators, because, as written above, all of them work with a fixed track size and so forth. Some protections will fail if the track size is wrong. If you are going for an estimated 85% of things out there, can live with losing index information, don't fear messing with images, having e.g. three to four separate g64s for one game for different emulators, want to start tweaking the drive to alter rotation speed (therefore creating e.g. longer tracks at the cost of slightly wrong recording coercivity), and need a cheap solution, ZoomFloppy with a 1541 and Nibtools will work ok. I also have one for testing, it's very well executed and Jim Brain delivers quality. If you want to go beyond, KryoFlux might come handy. E.g. a 1541 will never show you recording tricks like varied bitcell width, "killer tracks" full of syncs etc. But it's work in progress, and won't be fully ready tomorrow. Modifying a drive to make it read flippy disks in one pass, like at the recording stage, is a pain. Just for the record. Enjoy. Chris

14 years, 4 months

2
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UTZOO Usenet archive - need file 124f1

by cstadler18＠hotmail.com

Is this email address still active? Need to speak to someone about usenet archives... -Craig

14 years, 4 months

2
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how do you crack (open) a Rainbow mono monitor?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

not going to be an issue in my case. Still cant get it open...if by screws the poster meant the hexagonal lugs or whatever in back then i guess its april 1 after all... ------------------------------ On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 4:16 PM EDT Tony Duell wrote: >> >> VR201? Remove screw under cover in the centre of the rear panel between >> plug and pots. Lower adjustment leg to fully out.=20 >> >> Screen blue spot?=20 >> >> a) Run a hot wire (Styrofoam cutter) between the outer screen and the fro= >> nt >> of the tube. >> >> Or =20 >> >> b) (only for CRT familiar persons) Remove the tube completely. Place in >> something to support it at the face end. Don goggles and gloves. Chip awa= >> y >> the outer faceplate bit by bit. Peel off the soft plastic. Polish up the >> tube front, rebuild the monitor and put spacers at the four corners then >> replace casing. Does wonders for the brightness as well. > >Look, I know what day it is, but practical jokes are supposed to be >funny, and not endager innocent bystnaders at som random future time. > >CRT implosions are not common, I agree. But they must be serious enough >tat even in the less safety-concious times of 50 years ago all TV sets >had some kind of implosion protection. > >Unless you have definiete infroamtion to the contrary, I will go by what >every CRT data sheet I've looked at says. That the twin-panel faceplate >acts like a laminated windscreen and supports te screen i nthe even of an >implosion, preventing the user from being showeed in fragments of glass. >Most CRT datasheets also say that no attempy must be made to remvoe the >outer layer, but I think it's popsible to do this safely _provided you >then re-bond the layers together properly_. LEaving off the outer layer, >or not bonding it to the frotn of the envelope is not acceptable IMHO. > >You don't know when the CRT could implode, or who might be in front of it >at the time. > >-tony

14 years, 4 months

2
3
0 0

Reading VMS backup tapes

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > > > > Well, I just timed it: Clean slate to running VMS system with a tape > image mounted on an emulated drive, under simh. 26 minutes. > That's because you know what you are doing. > But suit yourself. ;) > > >>> I don't know your level of expertise with VMS or simh, so please don't >>> take this the wrong way, but...if you want to do that and would like >>> some help, I'd be happy to help you out. I can put together a "canned" >>> simh VMS installation for something like this in a very short time. >>> >>> >> I got simh to teach my kids some machine language programming on the >> PDP-11. >> (We had a class last Sunday.) >> > > Nice!! How old are they? (if you don't mind my asking, I am just > curious) > Range from 12 to 22. > > Sweet!! > > Yeah, back in 1986 or so, this was a totally awesome system! Fooling around with these tape images on disk shows me (again) how far computers have come. I can scan a 30 MB file in a fraction of a second! I'm sure that would have taken 10 minutes or so on the KA-630. > Jon Elson wrote : >> If all else fails, I suppose I could go that way, but this vmsbackup >> program >> seems to try to work, it probably needs a little tweak. It detects the >> 80 byte >> header records and stops. All the VMS Backup tapes I've checked so far >> have two 80 byte headers, this program seems to want one 256-byte header. >> > > That doesn't sound too tough to deal with. Good luck! > I've finally established contact with the last guy who worked on the vmsbackup program, he suggested removing the offending tape headers with xxd, but if you cut the top lines off the file, it uses the address column on the left and you end up with zeros in their place. Anybody know a way to edit a tape container file to remove a few tape blocks >from the beginning? I know I could write a program that does this exactly, and my just do so tonight. Basically, it would extract the backup files verbatim from the tape image. Jon

14 years, 4 months

2
1
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Reading VMS backup tapes

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 11:16 AM 4/3/2012, Rob wrote: >getting to grips with simh, locating images and and working out how to >install it all etc. A ready-to-roll VM type thing would definitely >get a download off me, though! Please consider it.. I bit of googling showed a few people on the SimH mailing list were thinking about a virtual appliance version. I don't know if they did it. They were talking about a stripped-down Linux. So how would we connect a glass terminal or a DECwriter to it? - John

14 years, 4 months

4
5
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PRIME NUMBERS

by drb＠msu.edu

I WAS LOOKING FOR A SMALL SOFTWARE PROJECT TO DO ON VINTAGE HARDWARE. THE HUNT DIDN'T GO ON LONG BEFORE IT HIT ME. ONLY ONE THING COULD POSSIBLY DO: CALCULATE PRIME NUMBERS ON MY TRUSTY PR1ME 5340 MINICOMPUTER. THE 5340 IS A SOPHISTICATED MACHINE, CMOS BASED, AND UTILIZING CUSTOM HIGH DENSITY GATE ARRAYS TO REDUCE THE PHYSICAL SIZE OF THE CPU AND MAIN MEMORY (16 MB) TO WELL UNDER 225 SQUARE INCHES. POWER CONSUMPTION IS WELL UNDER 10A, TOO, AND THE MACHINE CAN RUN WITHOUT HEAVY AIR CONDITIONING. JUST A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, EVEN A HIGH END ECL DESIGN COULD NOT PROVIDE THE SAME LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE IN SEVEN TIMES THE BOARD SPACE, AND IT STILL WOULD HAVE REQUIRED 30A TO 50A OF WALL POWER, PLUS SEVERAL THOUSAND BTU OF CHILLING. SINCE THE PR1ME ARCHITECTURE IS TARGETED AT SCIENTIFIC USERS, AN ARBITRARY PRECISION NUMBER PACKAGE IS NOT READILY AVAILABLE. AFTER A FEW TESTS, I CONCLUDED THAT THE HARDWARE QUAD PRECISION FLOATING POINT SUPPORT WAS A POOR CHOICE DUE TO THE SCALE OF THE ROUNDING ERRORS I WAS SEEING. THE PR1ME FLOATING POINT IMPLEMENTATION IS QUITE GOOD, BUT WHEN ALL OF THE SIGNIFICANT DIGITS ARE TO THE LEFT OF THE DECIMAL POINT, THERE IS VERY LITTLE IT CAN DO. BUT ALL WAS NOT LOST, AS HAS NO DOUBT BECOME OBVIOUS BY THE POSTING OF THIS MESSAGE. THE ARCHITECTURE ALSO SUPPORTS PACKED AND UNPACKED DECIMAL ARITHMETIC, WHICH CERTAINLY DOESN'T SUFFER FROM ROUNDING ERRORS. IT CAN EVEN STORE NUMBERS AS LARGE AS 63 DIGITS IN LENGTH. PERFECT! I WAS NOT WILLING TO SIMPLY CODE UP SOME MATHEMATICIAN'S DUBIOUS ALGORITHM -- I WANTED TO BE SURE NOT TO MISS ANY VALID PRIMES. INSTEAD, I CAREFULLY DESIGNED MY OWN, AND VALIDATED IT USING A LARGE CORPUS OF TEST DATA (ALL INTEGERS BETWEEN 1 AND 100). THE CODE USES A NUMBER OF ADVANCED TECHNIQUES FOR ACCURACY AND HIGH PERFORMANCE, INCLUDING: * SEQUENTIAL SEARCH FOR POSSIBLE FACTORS. * CYCLING TO THE NEXT POTENTIAL PRIME IMMEDIATELY UPON DISCOVERING AN INTEGRAL FACTOR, INSTEAD OF CONTINUING TO TEST ALL REMAINING POSSIBLE FACTORS. * TESTING ONLY FACTORS LESS THAN HALF OF THE CANDIDATE PRIME. * NOT TESTING FOR DIVISIBLENESS BY 1. * TESTING ONLY ODD CANDIDATE PRIMES. * HAND-CODED IN PR1ME ASSEMBLER. USING THESE METHODS, I WAS ABLE TO ACHIEVE REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE. IN TESTING, THE PROGRAM EXECUTED ABOUT 3,086,913,596 DECIMAL DIVISION OPERATIONS IN 11 HOURS AND 17 MINUTES, FINDING THE FIRST 10544 PRIME NUMBERS, AT A RATE OF ABOUT 75994 DIVISIONS PER SECOND, AND NEARLY 935 PRIMES PER HOUR. TRY _THAT_ IN BASIC ON YOUR IBM 5150! THE SOURCE PROGRAM, AND AN OUTPUT FILE WITH START AND END DATE STAMPS AND THE FOUND PRIMES, ARE AVAILABLE FOR PERUSAL AT http://yagi.h-net.msu.edu/primenumbers/. SUGGESTIONS FOR ENHANCEMENT OR CORRECTION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED BY THE AUTHOR. DE

14 years, 4 months

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Gates Bashing (*sigh* yet again..) Was Re: PRIME NUMBERS

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Honestly guys. This conversation sounds very bitchy. If it wasn't Bill Gates who dominated the OS area in the 1980s and 1990s someone of the same ilk would of. Regardless what you think of them survival in business is always the survival of the fittest. Gates was at the top of that game for a while. Anyone who gets beats off the competition at that level has got to be ruthless and clever. I don't condone it, but its a fact. At least he IS doing something good with his money. Let's move on from the constant Microsoft bashing, please! Tez On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Dennis Boone <drb at msu.edu> wrote: > > Very true; as this isn't a merit-based society. He was a damn good > > programmer "back in the day", though; pity he didn't stick to that. > > Some of the things I've heard about the early basic interpreter make me > wonder if he was really a good programmer. > > De >

14 years, 4 months

5
4
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Free HUGE LOT of TRS-80 Documentation & Magazines

by slandon＠centurylink.net

Im making this big carload of TRS-80 magazines/owners manuals free to someone who will take the time, scan it and put it online. Its free for pickup at my home in Flushing MI

14 years, 4 months

3
2
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Reading VMS backup tapes

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Now that I have read in a few archival tapes and unpacked the simple ones (ANSI-D) I am looking at extracting files from VMS BACKUP tapes. I found a program vmsbackup originally by John Carey at Monash University in AU. It actually seems to understand my tape container format, maybe because it is practically identical to some other formats. But, it is complaining that my tape has 80-byte header records, and it wants 256. My tapes start out with VOL1, HDR1 and HDR2 80-byte records, then a tape mark and then the backup save set follows. I get the message : Invalid header block size: expected 256 got 80 So, does anyone know whether there is a version of this program that will handle a backup tape with 80-byte header records, or is there another program for extracting files from a VMS backup tape or save set that will run on Linux? Thanks, Jon

14 years, 4 months

10
13
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For Sale: Tandy/Radio Shack Documentation & Hardware

by slandon＠centurylink.net

Im cleaning out the shed. I got tons of tandy radio shack documentation, Also got a Tandy 1400HD Laptop that wont power up, Along with a Tandy 386 and a Tandy 486 that work perfect. 2 Huge boxes full of Micro80 Magazine, and Microcomputer magazine Lots of Model 1, 3 and 4/4p Owners Manuals Lots of software manuals.. If anyones interested in the lot I can get a listing. Id like to sell this off in one lot to get my shed space back. Im thinking $200 for it all, and theres enough to fill the back of a car. Local Pickup is always welcome at my place in Flushing MI

14 years, 4 months

1
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how do you crack (open) a Rainbow mono monitor?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

There are no screws specific to keeping the back cover on. The only screw/s have to do with the orientation contraption. Do I remove that and use a case popper like a mac? ------------------------------ On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 3:04 PM EDT Tony Duell wrote: >> >> Dropping them from a high place usually does the trick ;-) > >While this is probably a quicker way of gettign the casing off, the time >taken to put it back on again is much longer than with the 'remove the >screw' method. And I think it's the total repair time that's important. > >-tony

14 years, 4 months

3
3
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Reading VMS backup tapes

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > > This may be a crazy idea, but...Why not do it with VMS? > Well, I have a real VAXstation here, with a tape interface that probably works, and I probably still have ESDI drives with VMS on them. But.... > You can install simh on your Linux box, get VMS up and running in > probably half an hour, complete with IP networking. Mount your tape > images via simh and extract your savesets with the software that they > were written to be extracted by. :) > I have great difficulty thinking it is that simple. > I don't know your level of expertise with VMS or simh, so please don't > take this the wrong way, but...if you want to do that and would like > some help, I'd be happy to help you out. I can put together a "canned" > simh VMS installation for something like this in a very short time. > I got simh to teach my kids some machine language programming on the PDP-11. (We had a class last Sunday.) I appreciate the offer, but this would be a last resort. I know VMS darn well, I was system manager and general developer on two VAX systems, and then on Alpha systems for a number of years. I ran a MicroVAX (KA-630) in my home from 1986 to 2007 when the hard drive broke. I upgraded it over the years, wrote my own driver for a 3rd party tape controller that never had a VMS driver, wrote a driver and built an interface for a Jupiter 7 graphics system, and interfaced a bunch of home energy monitoring stuff to it. Also attached a VCB-02 color graphics board set to it, which was never really supposed to work on a KA-630, but it did. Just the console wouldn't work right through the VCB-02, so sometimes I had to hook up a serial terminal. But, although I REALLY liked VMS 20+ years ago, I have moved on, and am now pretty comfortable in Linux. (Do miss the regularity of VMS, if you know how to specify the options of one command, then all similar commands will be the same.) The purpose of this exercise is to recover archival programs before the tapes turn into dust. If all else fails, I suppose I could go that way, but this vmsbackup program seems to try to work, it probably needs a little tweak. It detects the 80 byte header records and stops. All the VMS Backup tapes I've checked so far have two 80 byte headers, this program seems to want one 256-byte header. Jon

14 years, 4 months

2
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OT: Re: Gates Bashing ...

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 21:43 -0500 4/2/12, Terry wrote: >At least he IS doing something good with his money. Well said. Hear, hear! >Let's move on from the constant Microsoft bashing, please! I do make a distinction between Gates bashing and Microsoft bashing, and yet another distinction between unthinking Microsoft bashing (not meritorious in its own right) and bashing of specific destructive practices (somewhat meritorious in my view). And finally, another distinction between that and making constructive suggestions or contributions to correct damage done by destructive practices (highly meritorious in my view). I applaud the suggestion to move >from one end of that spectrum to the other. But I think I merely elaborate what Terry said first and more concisely. -- - 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.

14 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

another hidden pdp11

by nierveze＠radio-astronomie.com

hello all, yesterday my wife and I emptied our garage(25 years of diverse things stocked inside).I found again my hp1000,I saw a vax8200,a a lot of things that suddenly made me rich :-))etc...and I found something I had totally forgotten ,bought a long time ago as a part of lot bought at the near army base:a Tektronix microprocessor emulation system,made of two (big!!!) racks a 8510 and a 8310.I opened them just to see ,and immediately I saw the two purple dec handles in the 8510.... A lsi 11/2 was here.I brought the rack inside ,removed the dust and spiders, connected to the terminal line labeled 'auxilliary' a VT320 and powered it up,after a few tests,I found the correct speed (2400 bauds) and got the odt, using the run/halt switch of the front panel. I has 32k of ram,the console is at correct place,but the fdc is not at 177170,so I doubt it can boot standart rt11.Unfortunately I found an error in the memory:bit 9 of the first 16k bank is stucked to 1,it may be only a ram chip (4116)to change,the 2nd bank is correct,a few test programs were ok. So if you see such a machine it can be useful. I'd like to find maintenance informations about the Tektronix boards. I'try to repair the mem board,and will continue to play with it. Best regards to all. Alain Nierveze 492 all?e Montesquieu 33290 Le Pian Medoc France nierveze at radio-astronomie.com www.radio-astronomie.com

14 years, 4 months

25
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FREE: "Electronics" magazines from 1973-1975

by tom94022＠comcast.net

Steven: I'll take them, u can ship them FedX Ground using my FedEx number System Surety Group 14469 Manuella Rd Los Altos CA 94022 Account # 104208657 You can take them to a FedEx Office store and have them pack them if u want. They'll probably wind up at the Computer History Museum if they want them. Tom (650) 941-5324 > Message: 27 > Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 18:33:47 -0700 (PDT) > From: steven stengel <tosteve at yahoo.com> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: FREE: "Electronics" magazines from 1973-1975 > Message-ID: > <1333416827.82454.YahooMailClassic at web110610.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > About 2 dozen old "Electronics" magazines - see photos here: > > http://66.147.242.85/~oldcompu/maine/electronics1.jpg > http://66.147.242.85/~oldcompu/maine/electronics2.jpg > > You pick-up or pay shipping from 92656 So Cal.

14 years, 4 months

1
0
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FREE: "Electronics" magazines from 1973-1975

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

About 2 dozen old "Electronics" magazines - see photos here: http://66.147.242.85/~oldcompu/maine/electronics1.jpg http://66.147.242.85/~oldcompu/maine/electronics2.jpg You pick-up or pay shipping from 92656 So Cal.

14 years, 4 months

2
1
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Wanted: Decision Data 6606 printer

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a big old Decision Data model 6606 line printer that is rusted, busted, done and dusted. I am considering sending to the grinder, because it would be a *lot* of work getting back and running. My mind would be really put at ease if someone on the East coast had a nicer DD 6606 that they would like to part with (which, when it comes to floor standing line printers, is not too much to ask). Anyone? -- Will

14 years, 4 months

1
0
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PRIME NUMBERS

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

In the UK thats not what they should teach. They are suppposed to teach primes have two distinct factors, 1 and the prime. As for 1 these are both the same number its not prime. On 2 Apr 2012 07:34, "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote: Derrik Walker wrote: > > Whats frakked up, is that they still teach one is a prime to this day. I wonder how much progress Bill Gates has made on the mathematical problem he pointed out in his book, of factoring very large prime numbers.

14 years, 4 months

5
4
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Re-inking plotter pens (Epson HI-80)

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I acquired a little Epson HI-80 plotter the other day - for a "consumer-grade" device with a small page size it looks to be quite a nice little unit. Of course the pens are all but dried up (there's a little life left in the red and blue, enough to see that the self-test is working). So... has anyone tried adding fresh ink to these? I assume the pens themselves haven't been sold in well over 20 years. It looks like it's probably possible to open the pens up, but I assume that any replacement ink needs to be just the right consistency for it to soak into the pen tips properly but not end up all over the place. cheers Jules

14 years, 4 months

2
1
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PDP-8 Switch Handles

by djg＠pdp8online.com

A company has made some replica 8/E handles and has excess they are willing to sell at $1.50 per handle. I think they have around 25 of each color left. Due to the company not wanting to deal with a bunch of small orders I may need to be an intermediary. Pictures of the switch handles next to my 8/E handles and two 8/M handles sitting on top at URL below. It also has a picture of the panel they made. They said ok to share the picture but I can't say why they made them. http://www.pdp8online.com/ftp/misc/switches/ The color of one matches my 8/E pretty well but the other doesn't. You can also see for one of the colors my 8/E doesn't match my 8/M that well either. If interested email me with how many you are wanting of which color.

14 years, 4 months

3
2
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BRU Tapes on Unix?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, Friends of mine have an old, not that much DEC compatible PDP11 like machine that they (and me) would get working again. The machine is located at the German Chemical Museum in Merseburg. http://www.robotrontechnik.de/index.htm?/html/computer/k1600.htm Scroll down to the K1630. The Machine was rescued from the old power plant in Thierbach before. It is an PDP11 build out of some east german 8 Bit Bitslice CPU's and has 248K Ram. They used an unusual BUS, an Z80 Sio for The console (this is really ugly) und Bus communication controllers on each peripheral board that must be configured before the first use of that board, this means the IO Adress, DMA Registers, Modes and Vector addresses are set in Software before the Processor can talk to them like in a PDP11, so every DEC-OS must be patched to work on this thing. It is a slow machine too :-) We now have some CPTP Dumps of BRU Backup Tapes of the Operating System OMOS for this machine (old version of RSX11) I have a copy here http://www.tiffe.de/Robotron/K1630 There are 2 Versions omos-sys.tape.gz is the original type file in CPTP Format, omossys.tap.gz is the same thing converted with taput to simh tape format. Same with the dok tape, the docs are in german... My friend Oleg told me that the tape files are broken, may be this is the fault of taput (http://www.mrynet.com/hp2000/taput/index.html). My question is if somebody can verify what is going on with the files and if an opensource utility exists that can read BRU files on unix (like my FreeBSD here).... I think the OMOS-SYS Tape is the only real chance to boot this thing sometime again.. Kind Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Pertec interface

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Message: 20 Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:29:09 -0700 From: Jeff Woolsey <jlw at jlw.com> To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Pertec interface Message-ID: <4F7803C5.1050404 at jlw.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 SimH also describes bad blocks, which have the high-bit set in the length but otherwise look normal. Except that most tape drives, without heroics, will not give you any data for an unrecoverable read error (both that and a tapemark read as 0-length blocks; some gymnastics are needed to tell them apart), except that such a block cannot be empty. So what to put in it, if we're noting them at all? I'm playing with ANSI-style labels for this. Some history is at: http://neil.franklin.ch/Usenet/alt.folklore.computers/20001209_New_Tape_Con… , though in there it is asserted that tape blocks cannot be longer than 64K, implying that only two bytes are required for the length. However, I have a tape someone else wrote (HDR2 even says so) with 65536-byte blocks (not every O/S today can handle that--16-bit signed comparisons). To represent that along with 0-byte tapemarks requires 17 bits. Elsewhere someone asserted that a tape block can be as long as the entire tape, which seems unlikely and wouldn't always fit in three bytes. I think most Pertec formatted drives will not give you the bad block, but I could be wrong. Of course if it is really bad, even the block length can't be determined. Most PDP-11 and VAX tape controllers, both DEC and third-party could handle 65536 byte blocks. Of course, on a PDP-11, that could be the entire memory in a single tape block! So, it really only made sense on Q-22 systems. Tapes with insanely long blocks are not a good idea, even on hardware that can handle it. I'm guessing 1401 and similar machines could do crazy stuff like that due to their stream of digits architecture. But, having an entire tape with only one LRCC and CRC byte would lead to undetected errors and difficult to recover files. The greatest feature of GCR is that the redundancy data is added periodically within the block, making the likelihood of recovering small dropouts much better. Jon

14 years, 4 months

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For sale: warehouse of IBM, WANG, DIGITAL, NCR in Maine

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Attention! For sale: Looks like a warehouse of IBM, WANG, DIGITAL, NCR in Bangor, Maine. See pics here: http://66.147.242.85/~oldcompu/maine/ Also some TRS-80, Apple, Compaq, etc. I have no connection, just passing on the info. Contact Penny at: peifen196 at yahoo.com Enjoy!

14 years, 4 months

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What's that TeK Box?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

http://www.tiffe.de/images/Unbenannt.JPG This is one of the things in Dortmund, anyone know what this could be? Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 4 months

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PIXAR Image Computer Panel Museum Display on Ebay

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

>Dave McGuire mcguire at neurotica.com >On 03/25/2012 02:50 PM, James Gessling wrote: >> Isn't this just a piece of plastic with a logo embossed in it? And >> why does anyone think Red's Dream is so great anyway? I'm not >> bidding. > > The whole computer would've been much more interesting. If the >starting price weren't so high, I'd have placed a bid just out of >sympathy for someone with such a wife. > > -Dave I thought that the RICM had one of these. It turns out that we have two PII-9 systems that they were made after the Viacom Systems buyout so it doesn't say Pixar on the die-cast front cover. I will add more pictures and details shortly. http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/pixar-image-computer -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 4 months

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Pertec interface

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Well, I did the bit reversal TWICE, so of course the end result was wrong! Fixed that, fixed up a little bug in resetting the file mark detection flag in the wrong place, and I now have a rough program that maps the files structure of a tape. here's a snip of what I got. VOL1RT1101 DD%% 1 HDR1SAMBR .CTL RT110100010001000100 00000 00000 000000RT11 file 0 had 2 blocks 0 errors 0 timeouts blocksize was 512 HDR1SAMBR .BAK RT110100010001000100 00000 00000 000000RT11 file 1 had 2 blocks 0 errors 0 timeouts blocksize was 512 HDR1SAMBR .FOR RT110100010001000100 00000 00000 000000RT11 file 2 had 4 blocks 0 errors 0 timeouts blocksize was 512 and so on. (Note the RT11 header labels above. I sort of thought this tape would have been >from RSX-11M, but it must have been made before we switched. Whew, that's going BACK a ways, about 1976 or 77 when we went to RSX. The actual tape I'm reading was a 6250 BPI copy of the original tape (probably 1600 BPI) from back then. This copy was probably made 15 years ago, though.) I'm now working on a program to move the entire tape to a single disk file with pretty much verbatim bytes from the tape. It will have a 32-bit header for each record of file mark, showing the record size or file mark. Then I can write programs at my leisure to extract files without having to listen to the wail of the Gast vane pump in the keystone tape drive. Oh, the performance seems to be pretty good. it was streaming fairly well at either 25 or 75 IPS in 6250, I suspect it will certainly stream at 75 IPS with a 1600 BPI tape. Jon

14 years, 4 months

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PRIME NUMBERS

by jgessling＠yahoo.com

In fact those guys at the LHC Were going to do just that. By directing the beam at a block of chrystilan silicon ( nice square latice) and then Stepping the beam deflection in integer increments. A physical Erathones sieve can be created for large numbers. Essentially blasting away nonprimes. Detecting the remaining primes is then A radiation problem similar to that used in Genetic screening. Regards, Jim

14 years, 4 months

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PDP-8 questions

by jgessling＠yahoo.com

Please don't use real rosewood for the side panels.?? Forests around the world are being destroyed for this increasingly rare commodity. Thanks, Jim

14 years, 4 months

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Arcturus Minicomputer

by jon.griver＠gmail.com

*Dear Rod,* ** *Feeling nostaligic, I googled 'Arcturus Minicomputer', and your letter below was the only reference I found. I know the letter is from 2007. I hope the email address is still in use.* ** *I programmed an Arcturus minicomputer at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon from 1973 to 1976. It was used to do image processing on pictures >from the first CT scanner in the world, which was located in that hospital.* ** *All the programming I did on the machine was in assembler. The computer did not have a disk operating system. Every action involved first loading the program you need from paper tape, then the data, etc.* ** *The first thing I did was to write a very rudimentary disk operating system. It took 6 weeks, but it worked.* ** *I knew that Arcturus had installed the monitor system in Gatwick.* ** *Best Wishes,* ** ** *Jon Griver* ** ** ** *Fri Mar 30 02:45:49 CDT 2007* - Previous message: On topic? Looking for old computer book <http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/037565.html> - Next message: NeXTstep: cloning a drive <http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/037495.html> - *Messages sorted by:* [ date ]<http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/date.html#37488> [ thread ]<http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/thread.html#37488> [ subject ]<http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/subject.html#37488> [ author ]<http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-March/author.html#37488> ------------------------------ Hi All Whilst sitting on the plane on the way back from Newcastle yesterday. It reminded me of a system I saw at Gatwick airport in the early 1970's. I'm pretty sure it was run by a mini computer called an 'Arcturus'. I can clearly remember the grey rack mounted box with its row of toggle switches and lamps. I was there to install a VDU (sometimes referred to as a glass teletype). The big teletype they drove it from made the whole place shake and the VDU I fitted of course did not. It drove the departure / arrival TV monitors. The way it generated the characters was curious to say the least. It had a large number of circuits which generated parts of characters. One did a vertical bar, another produced a whole circle whilst others output parts of a circle, forty-five degree bars and so on. For each character cell the component parts of the required character were selected summed and added to a TV raster. Does anybody remember the Arcturus? Rod Smallwood

14 years, 4 months

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New software for the Nintendo Entertainment System

by mwichary＠gmail.com

> > Isn't this a day early? You?re most likely in one of the late timezones. :?) Marcin

14 years, 4 months

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Tape Storage Formats (was: Pertec interface)

by cruff＠ruffspot.net

At work (National Center for Atmospheric Research), we commonly stored tape contents in the Cray COS blocked data set format. It is pretty reasonable as it contains record and block control words that allow you to seek both forward and backward within the dataset, and to retain tape marks as end of file or end of dataset marks. There were many tapes containing historical weather observations ingested and stored on the Mass Storage System (MSS) in this format. While the MSS has been replaced by an HPSS archive, most of the 2 PB of data were migrated into it, so undoubtedly there are still COS blocked data set tape images in the archive. If anyone has data stored in this format, I do have some C code that will read and write it.

14 years, 4 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 103, Issue 45

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Ric Barline <rbarline at mac.com> > To:?cctech at classiccmp.org > Date:?Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:26:27 -0700 > Subject:?help with H11 and H27 > Hi. Brand new to this list. I joined because based on your past posts I believe you guys might be able to help me with my problem. I just acquired an old Heathkit system consisting of an H19 terminal, an H11 computer, and an H27 disk drive. I have managed to get the H19 and H11 talking to each other (see my short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZ3HHd1V3o&feature=youtu.be but I don't have any documentation for the H27 so I don't know how to use it with the H11. ?I have two floppies that came with it (actually I have a bunch that came with it as shown in my photo gallery http://gallery.me.com/rbarline#100619), one titled "Softech UCSD H11 System Disk" and one titled "Softech UCSD System H11 Utilities". > > Can anyone help me figure out what to type on the terminal in order to get the disk drive to start the boot process? Thanks in advance. The Rhode Island Computer Museum has the same system, but no software. https://sites.google.com/a/ricomputermuseum.org/home/Home/equipment/heathki… It would be great if you could make images of the diskettes and send them to Al Kossow for archiving. -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 4 months

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New software for the Nintendo Entertainment System

by swtpc6800＠comcast.net

Google Maps will release a version for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. http://www.youtube.com/googlemaps It appears that the NES has a problem with the cartridge connector. Michael Holley

14 years, 4 months

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help with H11 and H27

by rbarline＠mac.com

Hi. Brand new to this list. I joined because based on your past posts I believe you guys might be able to help me with my problem. I just acquired an old Heathkit system consisting of an H19 terminal, an H11 computer, and an H27 disk drive. I have managed to get the H19 and H11 talking to each other (see my short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZ3HHd1V3o&feature=youtu.be but I don't have any documentation for the H27 so I don't know how to use it with the H11. I have two floppies that came with it (actually I have a bunch that came with it as shown in my photo gallery http://gallery.me.com/rbarline#100619), one titled "Softech UCSD H11 System Disk" and one titled "Softech UCSD System H11 Utilities". Can anyone help me figure out what to type on the terminal in order to get the disk drive to start the boot process? Thanks in advance.

14 years, 4 months

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Making music with computer hardware...

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Bohemian Rhapsody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4?

14 years, 4 months

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OSI boot disks

by dfnr2＠yahoo.com

I've got my OSI C2-4P into a basically working state, to the point where the boot code seeks to track 0 and tries to load the OS boot code.? I know I had a couple of plastic disk-boxes with my OSI boot disks and some software, but I cannot find it anywhere.? I do have some C1 Boot disks, but these won't work with a C2.? If anyone with a working OS65D boot disk (and hopefully the tutorial disks) for a C2/4/8 would be willing to make some copies for me, I'd be most grateful. I believe it's possible to reconstruct a boot disk over a serial port, but I'd rather keep that as a last resort.? That would be an exercise much like building a ship in a bottle. Thanks, Dave

14 years, 4 months

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TRS-80 Model II TRSDOS: paranoia strikes deep

by eric＠brouhaha.com

It looks like the developers of TRS-80 Model II TRSDOS were very paranoid that someone might be able to bypass the filesystem and access data on a floppy directly. I'm not sure if their primary concern was file password protection, or if they had other reasons. Obviously you could write a program that accesses the floppy directly, by talking to the FDC and DMAC chips yourself, and there's not really anything that can be done to prevent that. Oddly enough, this was exactly *opposite* to what Apple did in Apple DOS. Apple published the APIs to read and write sectors (RWTS), but never published the "File Manager" APIs that allowed access to the file system through means other than passing commands through the character output vector (e.g., the BASIC statement PRINT CHR$(4);"OPEN FOO"). I'll mostly describe how things work in Model II TRSDOS 1.2, the earliest version I've been able to obtain. I haven't studied 2.0 nearly as much yet. The TRSDOS 1.2 "kernel" consists of three parts, while later versions are more monolithic. The Model II boot ROM loads all of drive 0 track 0 (single density, 26 sectors of 128 bytes) into memory starting at 0e00. First it looks for the four characters "DIAG" at 1400 and "BOOT" at 1000. If either are missing, it refuses to proceed. It calls the code at 1404, which in TRSDOS is a simple hardware diagnostic. When that returns, it jumps to the first stage boot loader code at 1004. Some other operating systems don't bother with a diagnostic, and just start their boot code at 1404, never returning to the ROM. The first stage boot loader actually understands the TRSDOS filesystem enough to find the directory entries of files in TRSDOS load module format, and load them into memory. In 1.2, it loads "IODVRS/SYS" and then "TRSDOS/SYS", and jumps into the latter. The Model II TRSDOS filesystem is similar in many regards to that of Model I TRSDOS, but not enough to actually be compatible. Unsurprisingly, it looks like an intermediate step in the evolution from Model I TRSDOS to Model III TRSDOS. As in Model III TRSDOS, files can only have a single directory entry, with a limited number of extents. IODVRS/SYS contains, as the name implies, the low level I/O drivers for the system, including the keyboard, display, printer, and floppy drives, the dispatching for system (SVC) calls, and a few utility SVCs. However, it only contains the SVC handlers for services 0-28, the I/O functions and basic utility SVCs. Note in particular that it contains no file system code. IODVRS/SYS is conceptually similar to the CP/M BIOS, though lacking CP/Ms charming simplicity. IODVRS/SYS provides several undocumented SVCs for internal use by TRSDOS, including floppy subsystem initialization (13), floppy sector read (14), and floppy sector write (16). Note that at the time IODVRS/SYS is loaded, no call is made into it to initialize it. TRSDOS/SYS, however, is called after being loaded. It basically performs the TRSDOS initialization that only has to happen at boot time. It has another implementation of filesystem reading and load module format handling, very similar to what is present in the stage 1 boot, but now instead of talking to the FDC and DMAC directly, it uses the undocumented floppy SVCs described previously. After various initialization, it loads SYSRES/SYS and jumps into it. SYSRES/SYS contains the filesystem code and other relatively high-level TRSDOS infrastructure code. It generally relies on SVC calls into IODVRS/SYS to perform all I/O, and has very little other dependence on IODVRS/SYS internals. This is conceptually similar to the CP/M BDOS. It loads system overlays to handle some SVCs and user commands. Overlays SYS0/SYS through SYS9/SYS are small overlays, occupying one disk granule (five sectors) and loading into 2200-26ff. Other overlays may be larger, and load at 2800 or higher. Many of the overlays *do* depend on knowledge of the internals of SYSRES/SYS, directly accessing subroutines and data structures without the use of vector tables or the like. This means that SYSRES/SYS and the overlays must have been built at the same time, and would generally not be interchangeable with earlier or later releases. Anyhow, getting back to the paranoia part. Someone apparently decided that simply not documenting the SVCs that provide sector-level access to the floppy was not sufficient to thwart those that might want to bypass the filesystem. After TRSDOS/SYS uses those SVCs for its part in the boot process, it actually *removes* them from the SVC vector table, and sets up jumps to them at undocumented internal TRSDOS locations 1130 (read sector) and 1133 (write sector). In TRSDOS 1.2, access to all of the system files, including overlays, is done through the file system. The system files have normal file system entries. Unlike Model I TRSDOS, neither the system file directory entries nor the file contents need to be in any special location on the disk. In TRSDOS 2.0, things are much more monolithic. The stage 1 boot code only loads and jumps into a single file, SYSRES/SYS. The boot code does not care where this file is located, but other parts of the system do. All of the overlays, small and large, are stored in a single file, SYSTEM/SYS, which is required to start on the track after the primary directory. The first sector of SYSTEM/SYS contains a kind of overlay directory that gives the track and sector numbers at which each overlay starts. There is perhaps some advantage to putting all of the overlays in a single file, since the number of directory entries on the diskette is limited to 96. However, the need for a second, special directory mechanism for overlays is ugly, even if it is only a simple one. Requiring the system files to be at fixed locations on the disk (at least relative to the primary directory) might be a reasonable requirement if it yielded some performance gain, but it generally doesn't. (With 1.2, the system files are set up when the disk is formatted, so even though they *could* be anywhere, in practice they are grouped together.) TRSDOS 2.0 introduced changes to the disk organization, such that TRSDOS 1.2 and 2.0 diskettes are not interchangeable, except that the 2.0 XFERSYS utility can convert a 1.2 diskette to 2.0 format. The disk organization changes are basically gratuitous, and don't provide any benefit to the user, while obviously being a great inconvenience to users with TRSDOS 1.2. They mashed the GAT (granule allocation table) and HIT (hash index table), which were sectors 1 and 2 of the directory track in 1.2, into just sector 1 in 2.0. In 1.2, the directory occupied sectors 3-26, while in 2.0 it occupies sectors 2-25. The only apparent rationale for doing this is to free up sector 26 on the directory track. In TRSDOS 1.2, sector 26 was not used on any track but the directory track, for any purpose. In TRSDOS 2.0, sector 26 of *every* track is used to store five bytes of unique disk ID, to better detect disk changes. (it has been suggested that those bytes might also have been used for software copy protection.) However, rather than mashing the GAT and HIT together, which made it impossible to support larger disks such as double-sided disks, they easily could have special cased the directory track(s) and stored the disk ID in either the GAT or HIT sector. TRSDOS 4.0 introduced much larger changes to the disk organization, in order to support double-sided disks and hard disks. I haven't yet begun to dig into the 4.0 code. Eric

14 years, 4 months

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"Art"

by robert＠irrelevant.com

http://www.etsy.com/listing/95511758/vintage-1960s-ibm-disk-platter-aged-to *Sobs*

14 years, 4 months

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S-100 MS DOS Support board PCBs

by LYNCHAJ＠YAHOO.COM

Hi I have ten (10) remaining S-100 MS DOS Support board PCBs left in case anyone would like one or more. http://s100computers.com/My%20System%20Pages/MSDOS%20Board/MSDOS%20Board.htm This board should dramatically improve MS DOS compatibility on the S-100 bus using an S-100 8086 CPU board. It can be used by any 8 or 16 bit CPU. Basically it is the guts of a PC/AT motherboard minus the CPU, RAM, and ISA slots. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

14 years, 4 months

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FT: Data General Novas and Desktop Generation (revised from 3/22/12 post)

by js＠cimmeri.com

{revision of first CCTalk post on 3/22/12} Thanks to those who have been inquiring on these items, I can now render a more helpful post. Location: Washington, D.C., or near Frederick, Maryland. For trade (preferred) or best offers: - 1974 DG Nova 2 rackmount (untested, unrestored) top cover missing .Front panel (cosmetics very good condition) .Nova 2 CPU .Standard Memories 16k core .Basic I/O -- all electronics working condition unknown, but appear undamaged in very good condition. - 1971 DG Nova 1200 rackmount (untested, unrestored) w/ all covers. .Front panel (cosmetics -- fair condition) .Nova 1200 CPU .DG 4k core .Basic I/O -- all electronics working condition unknown, but appear undamaged in very good condition. - 1984 DG Desktop Generation R20 (untested, unrestored) w/ D461 terminal .dual power supply unit .R20 SPU unit with SPU, 256k ram, USAM, and asynch modules -- (note: no terminal cables or adapters.) .single drive diskette unit .hard drive unit .tape drive unit .manuals (setting up, testing, users in 2 encased binders) and 3 diskettes. -- all electronics working condition unknown, but appear undamaged in excellent condition. -- cosmetics, very good to excellent. PM me with trades, offers, questions, corrections. Looking for (in order of priority): - PDP 11/04 or 11/34 half-height (only) chassis, complete with PSU, covers, backplane, cables. No CPU or other logic boards needed. - HP 35721A monochrome monitor - Emulex TC12 tape controller or similar: Unibus->Pertec interface which emulates a "TS" device - ribbon cables for above -- controller -> Pertec-formatter tape drive. - Unibus ESDI controller - Pro/Venix docs (I'm using version 1.0 on a DEC Pro 350). - MFM drives: . CDC Wren II 9415-* . CMI CM-5412 . IMI 5012H . Maxstor XT-2085 . Micropolis 1324A . Priam V170 or V185 Thank you, John Singleton p.s. to check my reputation, see my ebay handle "MdntTrain".

14 years, 4 months

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another hidden pdp11

by jonas＠otter.se

On Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:57:58 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Which has just suggestesd a totally OT queestion to me. Some cultures > prohibit the drinking of alcohol. This is normally taken to mean drinks > containing ethanol. But how do they handle other -OH molecules in foods? Those cultures, and their rules prohibiting the drinking of alcohol, are quite old AFAIK. Without knowing any details of their history, it would seem logical to me to assume that they would not be aware of the presence of other -OH molecules, so they would have no special rules about them. I suppose the rules are religious? If so, some of them may well be reasonable for health reasons, but others would be illogical or based on misconceptions of physical facts. /Jonas

14 years, 4 months

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You should have senn this..

by holm＠freibergnet.de

So far as I know this is MIDI ofer an arduino board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_XaJ7gE4Q Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 4 months

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Machine to identify

by alberto＠a2sistemi.org

I've to identify this machine. No label, no data on it. http://www.fondazionegalileogalilei.it/museo/collezioni/calcolatori/mini _pc/img_mini_pc/57_patent_pending.jpg Someone know this machine ? Alberto ------------------------------------------------------ Alberto Rubinelli - Fondazione MUSEO DEL COMPUTER Onlus Via Costantino Perazzi 22 Tel 0321 1856032 28100 NOVARA (NO) - ITALY Fax 0321 2046034 Mobile +39 335 6026632 Sito web : http://www.museodelcomputer.org Mail : alberto at museodelcomputer.org Filiale di Torino : Tel 011 23415829 Filiale di Roma : Tel 06 98357066 ------------------------------------------------------ Le telefonate con numero nascosto sono filtrate Calls with no caller identifier are filtered ------------------------------------------------------

14 years, 4 months

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Pertec interface

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Well, I am chugging along on this project. After fixing a few bugs, I now have a program that will read single blocks off the tape. Somewhere the docs got confused, they say that bit zero is MSB and bit 7 is LSB, a la IBM 360. But, the data I am getting is clearly the opposite bit order, so I will reverse that. Also, I am not detecting file marks, but see a block with zero length. So, I need to look at that. Could easily be a wiring error. But, I manually reversed the bits and I get VOL1 and HDR1 records of 80 byte length, and then data records of 8192 length. So, with just a little bit more tinkering, I think this thing is going to work. It IS a nightmare, with a 44-pin TSOP memory chip glued upside down on a piece of perfboard with wire wrap wires soldered to it. It was the only suitable memory chip I could find. 64K x 16, I'm only using one byte worth. Jon

14 years, 4 months

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Rosewood

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Mouse > Sent: 29 March 2012 05:13 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: PDP-8 questions > > > cylindrical volume of about 50 cubic metres for one tree. Let's say > > that one person wants a piece of rosewood that is 50cm x 50cm x 1cm. > > That is 0.0025 cubic metres, so a single fully grown tree would > > satisfy 20,000 people once a year. > > That's assuming that (a) all the pieces can be fit into the tree's volume with > no waste, (b) nothing is lost in cutting them out, and (c) any part of the tree > is perfectly suitable for any use. Neither (a) nor (b) is likely to be true, and, > while I don't know rosewood, I know that with the woods I do know > something about, (c) is not true. > > I have nothing but wild guesses as to how much is wasted; for what it's > worth, my wild guess is that the wastage is at least half the volume. > > /~\ The ASCII Mouse > \ / Ribbon Campaign > X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org > / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B Yes, two people have challenged my assumptions. That is to be expected really as I am no expert on wood. It was just about getting an approximation to show that the "how can little old me really make a difference" attitude *can* make a difference when there are a lot of "little old me's". I am sure that the yield is far from perfect, but I was just trying to show that even with some fairly optimistic assumptions this attitude can have a big effect; if yield is 50% then the figures double etc.... Regards Rob

14 years, 4 months

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OT: Family health issues (was: Re: another hidden pdp11)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 1:13 -0500 3/29/12, Tony wrote: >s/pub/hospital/ I'm really sorry to hear that, Tony. You have our sympathy and best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery for your father. Is there anything else any of us can do? -- - 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.

14 years, 4 months

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PIXAR Image Computer Panel Museum Display on Ebay

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

PIXAR's first computer used to make portions of the 3d short (Red's Dream) is now on Ebay (wife refuses to let me keep it and hang it on our wall). Thought you might be interested in it, here is the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIXAR-Image-Computer-Panel-Framed-Museum-Piece-RARE… <http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIXAR-Image-Computer-Panel-Framed-Museum-Piece-RARE…>

14 years, 4 months

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twinax cards, linux, and hercules

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

A question for those of you who play with Hercules... Are twinax cards supported under Linux such that a 5250 terminal can be connected and work? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

14 years, 4 months

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PDP-8 questions

by djg＠pdp8online.com

Not sure how separate classicmp pdp8 readers are from alt.sys.pdp8/pdp8-lovers readers so trying here also. Nothing new if you saw it previously. Does anyone have 4k BASIC or Spacewar? Poly BASIC, DECUS 8-195 seems to be 4k. I think Edusystem 10/15 BASIC also ran in 4k. I think there also was a 4k Poly Spacewar. I have this one which is 4k but it doesn't have gravity etc. / SPACE WAR / / INTERPLANETARY DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ON YOUR / LAB-8 / / EVAN SUITS My desktop straight 8 is missing the wood side panels so I want to make some. I took pictures and measurements of MARCH's but I can't remember if they were real wood veneer or imitation laminate. Does anybody know more or can look closely at their's? Online seems to think it was rosewood but doesn't say if it was real wood. One reply on pdp8-lovers said the desktop panels were imitation and another said the rackmount were real. Did current stright 8 owners do margin checks and if so what margins are reasonable to shoot for? The manual doesn't seem to clearly say. The last is the DF32 with the straight 8 has modified W103 device selectors. It seems that they were modified from pulse amp outputs to DC coupled level outputs. Has anyone seen this done before? http://www.pdp8online.com/dfds32/pics/w103-mod.shtml?small (next picture is schematic). I'm still working on getting the drive running so haven't seen if they work ok.

14 years, 4 months

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HELP...please help to save something of this..

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hopefully for someone in Europe interesting. There is a storage Hall with some old computer content in Dortmund/Germany. Please look here: http://www.robotrontechnik.de/html/forum/thwb/showtopic.php?threadid=8155 and here: http://www.robotrontechnik.de/system/foto.php?dir=Computersammlung Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 5 months

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Complete "Amateur Computer Society" Newsletter Available Online

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

The Amateur Computer Society (ACS) was founded by Stephen B. Gray in May, 1966. The ACS was for those who "are building or operating a homemade computer from their home". An interesting requirement was that the computer had to at least perform "automatic multiplication and division". In practice, membership was open to anyone who had a "serious" digital computer operating from their home. In my case that included a RPC-4000 ;-) Since I had been a member of the ACS, I had searched everywhere online for the complete set of ACS Newsletters - and found only isolated copies of individual newsletters. I did find that Stephen Gray had donated his original complete set to the Babbage Institute. Subsequently, I did a detailed search of the Computer History Museum's (CHM) archives via their Collections Department. I was excited to find that the CHM also had a complete set of the ACS Newsletter. I requested that they scan and make a PDF copy (including OCR) of same - and for a modest scanning fee they did so. It is now available to the world (free) via CHM's website: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/102654910 Go to the bottom of the page where there is a link to the PDF. For those who would like to know the earliest history of "home computers", I think you'll find it a fascinating read... Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley, AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

14 years, 5 months

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Can you ID these modules?

by doug＠blinkenlights.com

Anybody know what these were from? Labled OS28, RS15, and TR57. One of them with the name "Collins."

14 years, 5 months

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PDP-8 questions

by mtapley＠swri.edu

All, an humble suggestion: 1) Use cheap pine with a nice stain to make some "temporary" panels 2) plant a rosewood tree 3) maintain the machine for ~100 years 4) cut down your rosewood tree, make "real" panels out of it, and sell the excess rosewood to pay for electricity to run the machine. 5) meantime and most important, get back to classic-computer discussions on this list PS: Philip H., you are absolutely positively the man! I thought nothing could change the currently sagging signal/noise ratio on the list and my heart sank when I saw the 87k archive ... but then! / SPACE WAR / / INTERPLANETARY DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ON YOUR / LAB-8/E .... Now *that* is the kind of post we need more of! Right on! -- - 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.

14 years, 5 months

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PDP-8 questions

by djg＠pdp8online.com

> You're looking for the spacewar you're citing above? > > I currently don't know where I have the original source - I modified it > to fit my LAB-8/e Real time clock and a pair of joysticks.... > Thanks for an on topic reply :-). I have the original of that version but its stripped down enough that its only sort of spacewar. I had heard there was a better 4k version and was hoping someone had it. I'm going with laminate, can we let the other thread die?

14 years, 5 months

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PDP-8 questions

by jgessling＠yahoo.com

Because when the environment has been destroyed and there's no place that the "damn" trees will grow then you can't plant them successfully. You guys are pathetic.? As I said before, is it so difficult to think about where materials come from? Regards, Jim

14 years, 5 months

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DEC PDP-8 PC8-E High Speed Reader Punch on ebay

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

duno if anyones interested there a DEC PDP-8 PC8-E High Speed Reader Punch on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-PDP-8-PC8-E-High-Speed-Reader-Punch-NO-RESERVE-…

14 years, 5 months

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RX01/RX02 rack slides needed

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Hey folks. Does anyone here have a set of rack slides of the sort used by DEC RX01 and RX02 drives that they might be willing to part with on short notice? I'm willing to pay for them of course, but I'd like to keep it reasonable. :) Thanks, -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

14 years, 5 months

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That festering sore in Germany

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> A bit hampered on that through lack of German and not wanting to sign up for > a German web site. ?Jim Austin http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/ was asking > who owns it? Any pointers any one. I have known about this pile for a few years now, and I have not been able to pin down who owns it, or if anything is being done to save it, past Computer History Museum's haul. At least they pulled some great stuff out. Most of it at this point looks like scrap, but I would like to see that CDC 841 disk system saved, even if it was a dog when new. Also the CDC tape and printer, and I suppose the comm unit. -- Will

14 years, 5 months

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PDP-8 C compiler

by v.slyngstad＠frontier.com

Rather than simply rekindle this annual discussion, I've decided to create a data point. So, you can read about (and download) an experimental PDP-8 C compiler at: http://www.so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/C/C.php I thought about delaying this notice until the first, but decided that since there really is a compiler of sorts there, that it would be more appropriate to do it now. Comments about the design decisions, improvements for the code, etc. are all welcome. Vince -- o< The ASCII Ribbon Campaign Against HTML Email!

14 years, 5 months

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IBM 083 maybe available

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a lead on an IBM 083 card sorter, located on the east coast. I do not know the condition. I had hoped it was an 084, but no such luck, and I already have two 083s. Any interest out there? -- Will

14 years, 5 months

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Edge Connector needed for HP 5036A Trainer HP 1251-2680 - Help please.....

by tomk4114＠yahoo.com

Anyone; I have an HP 5036A Microprocessor Trainer that I need two PC Edge connectors for. These are used to "Expand" the 8085 based trainer (without soldering right to the motherboard). The Gotcha is that these 44 pin, 22 position edge connectors are for thick, 3/32", .09375 boards. TRW?CINCH 251-22-30-341 ? Do you have any idea of a resource/lead where I could find these? ? I have tried CINCH, Mouser, DigiKey, Ebay, Electronic Surpuls sales, etc. with no luck. ? Thanks in advance for your kind response.?? Tom K.?

14 years, 5 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 103, Issue 36

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Date:?Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:21:06 -0600 > Subject:?Re: Computer Graphics Museum collection pics >> > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> >> > Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:24:15 -0600 >> >> > however. ?Do you have documentation on them? ?User manuals? Service >> > manuals? >> >> We have boxes and boxes and boxes of documentation and spares. > > Any chance those can be scanned and put online for me to look at? We know where the boxes of documentation are so we can look for manuals that describe the capabilities of the systems. If we have duplicate manuals we could send them to Al to be scanned. -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 5 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 103, Issue 36

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Nick Allen <nick.allen at comcast.net> > Date:?Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:15:02 -0500 > Subject:?PIXAR Image Computer Panel Museum Display on Ebay > PIXAR's first computer used to make portions of the 3d short (Red's Dream) is now on Ebay (wife refuses to let me keep it and hang it on our wall). > > Thought you might be interested in it, here is the link: > > http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIXAR-Image-Computer-Panel-Framed-Museum-Piece-RARE… <http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIXAR-Image-Computer-Panel-Framed-Museum-Piece-RARE…> We have a system with what I think is the same from panel at the RICM. I will take some pictures next weekend and put them on the RICM WWW page. -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 5 months

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PIXAR Image Computer Panel Museum Display on Ebay

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:42:15 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> >> Of course, nowadays well whales are very nearly extinct... > This is one of the most bizarrely obscure tidbits of information I've > ever seen come across this list. How do you come to know about this? I > am just curious. -Dave ----- So am I, and also pleasantly surprised; I was under the impression that well whales had been completely extinct for at least thirty years. m

14 years, 5 months

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Pixar chap docs?

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

And speaking of the Pixar processor --- has anyone ever seen documentation on the Chap? (outside of the well known paper in Siggraph)

14 years, 5 months

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VAXStation 4000/90, Reset Problems...

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, at the Weekend I've got an Vaxstation 4000/90 with 64MB RAM and a 2,1GB Disc from a friend. Powered it up today and found a Problem. The Machine doesn't start properly if it is switched on, the LEDs are all stuck on (0xff). If I switch it off then and on again in a short time, it starts up properly, is doing the diagnostics and tries to boot an (defective?) NetBSD 1.1 that is loading the kernel but is getting then in a ?54 RETRY loop. Pressing the HALT Switch brings up the chevron... havn't tried to install something jet... Is that Error with the Reset/Startup known to someone here? I think it could be an dead capacitor in the PSU... Kind Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 5 months

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Wang 2200 MVP

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> JC White <jcw1231 at pacbell.net> wrote: > >>Until a few years ago I had a Wang 2200 MVP.? When I was using it in my high school classroom an administrator had the room cleaned and moved the system outside.? A sudden storm destroyed the CPU and drives.? I have several working Wang 2236 terminals if somebody has a need for one.? Also, I would like to locate a 2200 MVP to play with again.? I am also looking for homes for a pair of Wang PCs from about 1990, two different models, one set up for networking. >> >>John We have a Wang 2200 VP, and another 2200 that I don't know the the version. Unfortunately, one of our members is always looking for more Wang equipment so we have lots of Wang equipment. http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/wang-computer-gallery-2/wang-gallery-models -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 5 months

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TRS-80 Model II/16 hardware, and C cross-compilation

by eric＠brouhaha.com

After a lot of aggravation trying to get one working TRS-80 Model II, by cobbling together parts from three other machines, I've finally got one mostly working. I wanted to get my own programs running on it, cross-developed on a Linux system. Model II TRSDOS 2.0 and later have a built-in "receive" command that can receive Intel hex format from the serial port, which can then be saved to a disk file with the "dump" command. The serial port on my CPU card was broken. After swapping that card, which I intend to troubleshoot later, I found that the receive command won't work reliably above 2400 bps. (Maybe it would work at higher bit rates if the sending computer used a long inter-character delay.) I packaged up z80asm and z80dasm for Fedora Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, and submitted them to the repositories. After verifying that I can get cross-assembled code to run, I set my sights on cross-compiling C code. I had to hack up crt0.s, putchar.s, and a linker script to work for the Model II TRSDOS environment (which is almost entirely unlike TRSDOS for the Model I/III/4), but it is finally working. The machine I've got working is actually a Model 16, but I don't yet have the 68K subsystem working. When I try to load TRSDOS16, it says that it has loaded, but immediately gets an exception at address 0. Xenix just hangs with no output. I've got a diagnostic disk that purports to be for the Model II and 16, but it has a lot of bad tracks, so I can't actually run the Model 16 diagnostics. Does anyone have a good copy of the Model 16 diagnostic disk? The disk drives in the Model 16 don't work. The spindle speed of drive 0 seems to be way off, and I'm not sure what's wrong with drive 1. Right now I'm using two other drives sitting outside the case, because I haven't figured out how to get the drives out of the Model 16. It appears that the machine has to be taken apart much further than I'd hoped in order to remove the drives. :-( Eric

14 years, 5 months

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Cable for RX50

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I recently picked up an RX50 for my MicroVAX II. It does not have the cable with it to connect to the BA123 distribution board, however it seems to fit a traditional PC floppy disk cable, is that all it needs? Thanks Rob

14 years, 5 months

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Looking for Terak 8510/a Keyboard/Monitor

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Hi all -- Acquired a Terak 8510/a today in pieces, sans Keyboard and Monitor (but with external 8512 drive). Anyone have spares for this system that they'd be willing to part with? Thanks as always, Josh

14 years, 5 months

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DEC Rainbow spotted in RetroBites TV clip

by eric＠brouhaha.com

Or is it a Pro or DECmate? In any case, easily overlooked due to the antics of Penn & Teller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd8eOVUIogw

14 years, 5 months

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Anyone Have a DEC RX50 Manual?

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Does anyone have a scan of an RX50 manual? I powered on the RX50 I just got, without a cable attaching it to the RQDX3 though. It flashes two red lights for a moment and then nothing happens, the doors do not appear to be unlocked, or I don't remember how to open them. It could be because I have not connected a cable, but I don't know. There are two floppies in the drive at the moment too. Thanks Rob

14 years, 5 months

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Pertec interface tape drive

by elson＠pico-systems.com

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: From: Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> Subject: Re: need interface to CDC Keystone (92185) tape drive Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1203210749121.2392 at duo> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Tue, 20 Mar 2012, Jon Elson wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I was referred by a member, Peter Wallace. > > We are trying to recover some programs from 9-track backup tapes. > I have a 9-track drive that interfaces to an ISA bus PC through a proprietary card. It worked the last time I fired it up (about 10 years ago) and has been in dry storage. Questions: - What is the bpi density on those tapes? This thing will not read the highest density tapes. - Where are you located? Well, some are 1600 BPI, some are 6250. I have verified my drive is working at both densities (before the SCSI adapter died.) I am in St. Louis, MO. I am working on an FPGA interface to the Pertec formatted interface, it ought to work, but I don't know how much fooling around it will take to get reliable data transfers. Jon

14 years, 5 months

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Wang 2200mvp

by jcw1231＠pacbell.net

Until a few years ago I had a Wang 2200 MVP.? When I was using it in my high school classroom an administrator had the room cleaned and moved the system outside.? A sudden storm destroyed the CPU and drives.? I have several working Wang 2236 terminals if somebody has a need for one.? Also, I would like to locate a 2200 MVP to play with again.? I am also looking for homes for a pair of Wang PCs from about 1990, two different models, one set up for networking. ? John

14 years, 5 months

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Wang 2200mvp

by rickb＠bensene.com

Jim Battle wrote a great Wang 2200 emulator that runs the actual 2200 microcode, so it is a very faithful emulation. It might help bring back some memories until you can find the real thing. http://www.wang2200.org/emu.html Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com JC White <jcw1231 at pacbell.net> wrote: >Until a few years ago I had a Wang 2200 MVP.? When I was using it in my high school classroom an administrator had the room cleaned and moved the system outside.? A sudden storm destroyed the CPU and drives.? I have several working Wang 2236 terminals if somebody has a need for one.? Also, I would like to locate a 2200 MVP to play with again.? I am also looking for homes for a pair of Wang PCs from about 1990, two different models, one set up for networking. >? >John

14 years, 5 months

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Computer Graphics Museum collection pics

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Date:?Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:24:15 -0600 >> I am a volunteer at the RICM. The Calcomp systems are not in any >> danger of being scraped. > > heh heh, well I didn't expect you'd scrap them :). ?I just meant it > would be nice to hear of any progress made on getting them > functioning. > >> Maybe you should come for a visit and get some of them running? > > It's a long trip for me -- I'm in Salt Lake City. ?However, I'm likely > to be out on the east coast this summer and a side trip up to RICM > would be a good visit. ?I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to > start on these Calcomp System 25s in order to get them operational, > however. ?Do you have documentation on them? ?User manuals? Service > manuals? We have boxes and boxes and boxes of documentation and spares. -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 5 months

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FT: Data General Nova 2, Nova 1200, and DG terminal.

by js＠cimmeri.com

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> "js at cimmeri.com" <js at cimmeri.com> writes: >> >> >>> LOOKING FOR: >>> >>> other hardware: >>> - VT-201 or other DEC monochrome. >>> >> I think you mean VT-220. There is no VT-201. >> > > Or maybe VT102 (which did exist). > > -tony Oops. I meant, VR-201. - John Singleton

14 years, 5 months

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Pertec interface tape drive

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

Speaking of which, has anyone ever seen any documentation on the Computer Logics ISA Pertec card?

14 years, 5 months

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mockumentary?

by dennis_mailing_lists＠conus.info

Hi. Is there such thing as mockumentary? "A mockumentary (a portmanteau of the words mock and documentary), is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself.[1] They may be either comedic or dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more common. A dramatic mockumentary (sometimes referred to as docufiction) should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockumentary It could be a fake manual for non-existent computer/computer device or non-existent software written for fun.

14 years, 5 months

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FT: Data General Nova 2, Nova 1200, and DG terminal.

by js＠cimmeri.com

I've a Nova 2, a Nova 1200, and D461 terminal with keyboard I'd like to trade off to any DG collectors. Working condition unknown -- I've not attempted to power them on (which would be foolish without going through them first). Restorable condition (I could restore them, anyway). The terminal is nice and fairly clean -- not a disgusting P.O.S. like I often see. The two chassis units appear to be rackmount style. I don't know anything about these machines, so don't know how complete or incomplete they are, but they each have a front panel and boards in the cage. I'm hazarding a guess they're likely best considered as parts machines. Feel free to PM me with any ?'s since I'm not sure what data is useful to provide. Can be picked up either from Washington, D.C. (northern tip), or near Frederick, MD. LOOKING FOR: drives: - ST-406; ST-412; ST-419 - CDC-9415* - CMI CM-5412 - IMI 5012H - MAXSTOR XT-2085 - Micropolis 1324A - Priam V170 or V185 other hardware: - PDP-11/34 half-height chassis complete with PSU -- do not need any logic boards. - VT-201 or other DEC monochrome. software: - Coherent - Venix with docs for DEC Pro 350. Thanks, John Singleton

14 years, 5 months

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Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by alkopop79＠gmail.com

I wonder if anyone has experience with Cosmac Elf. I've been trying to build one on breadboard but have troubles with the input section. Please let me know if you have built one! Thanks Greg Lorincz

14 years, 5 months

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And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-23 08:20, Glen Slick<glen.slick at gmail.com> wrote: > Are you offering those up in return for something? I have an RA82 > here in the Seattle area that I have never been able to get to spin up > or do anything at all. I haven't been able to get anything out of the > diagnostic port. I have found the RA81 service manual online, but not > the RA82 service manual. It would be interesting to get it working > just to see it working. As far as I can remember or figure out, there is very little, if any differences between an RA81 and an RA82, so the service manual for the RA81 should work just fine. I hope you have removed the transport safeties if you try to spin it up. The diagnostics port is 300 bps, if I remember right. Hitting something like ^C should get its attention. You might also want/need to have both port selector buttons off to be allowed to play on the diagnostics port. I would think the details were in the service manual. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

14 years, 5 months

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And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks

by alanp＠snowmoose.com

On 3/21/12 10:00 AM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > >> > On 03/19/2012 11:53 AM, Kevin Reynolds wrote: >>> >> Anyone have working RA90 or RA92 disks that they would like to part with? >>> >> Send me a private response with pricing and availability. I'm in the US. >> > >> > I make the same request, in case someone has a bunch. =) I'm interested >> > in RA8x drives as well. >> > I have a couple of RA81s that were working when I got them 13 years ago (but haven't been powered on since). Located in the Seattle area. alan

14 years, 5 months

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SA72

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-22 08:01, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > I have a couple of bare RA70 drives that I'd like to put into service > on machines that already have SDI controllers and no SCSI. My present > plans involve a plain shelf but a properly-fitting enclosure would be > nice. The SA72 takes more room than the plan RA70, you know. And you also need a special cable to the SA72. But on the other hand, you need a power supply if you use the plain RA70. But otherwise easily doable. Pick your poison. :-) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

14 years, 5 months

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SA72

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-22 08:01, "Henk Gooijen"<henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote: > From: "Johnny Billquist"<bqt at softjar.se> > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:46 AM > To:<cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks > >> > Hum. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the SA72 the box that holds up to >> > 4 RA7x drives? Same physical size as one RA90? >> > >> > If so, then no, it don't hold 4 RA9x drives. Also, the RA70 works just >> > fine in it, as do all RA7x drives. RA70 is somewhat unique, though, in >> > that it was designed to also be usable without any front panel at all. So >> > there are dip switches on it that can be used to set the unit number. >> > >> > Johnny >> > >> > -- >> > Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus >> > || on a psychedelic trip >> > email:bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books >> > pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol > > You may very well be right Johnny. Of course I'm right. :-) Why do anyone even doubt that? :-) > I was just dumping my grey memory cells:-) I did not check the HW. > Isn't the SA72 a small slim long metal box with a power supply in the > middle and room for two RA[79]x drive at both ends? At the front side > at the top is a connector for the small front panel. The width of the front > is 0.5 of 19" so that two of these fit next to each other in a 19" rack. > If that's way off, I'd have to check what I actually have ... No, that's the thing. Yes, the PS is in the middle. It also have a rather special cable (or two if you want to use both ports) that come out. I don't know the right terminology here, but it's shaped like the standard D-sub, but is wider and higher, and have lots of pins. That cable splits into 4 SDI connectors at the other end. It only holds RA7x drives. One RA9x drive is the same size as the whole SA72. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

14 years, 5 months

1
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mockumentary?

by a50mhzham＠gmail.com

Spinal Tap? At 09:16 AM 3/22/2012, you wrote: >On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Dennis Yurichev ><dennis_mailing_lists at conus.info> wrote: > > Hi. > > > > Is there such thing as mockumentary? > > > > "A mockumentary (a portmanteau of the words mock and documentary), is a > > type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented > > in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or > > comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or > > to parody the documentary form itself.[1] They may be either comedic or > > dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more common. A > > dramatic mockumentary (sometimes referred to as docufiction) should not > > be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic > > techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events." > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockumentary > > > > It could be a fake manual for non-existent computer/computer device or > > non-existent software written for fun. > > >sure. Anyone remember the Rutles? > >Kelly 726 . [Temper] Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act according with the dictates of reason. --Oscar Wilde NEW: a50mhzham at gmail.com ? N9QQB (amateur radio) "HEY YOU" (loud shouting) ? Second Tops (Set Dancing) ? FIND ME ON FACEBOOK 43? 7' 17.2" N by 88? 6' 28.9" W ? Elevation 815' ? Grid Square EN53wc LAN/Telecom Analyst ? Open-source Dude ? Musician ? Registered Linux User 385531

14 years, 5 months

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Pertec interface tape drive

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> > Pertec is a pretty simple interface with handshake lines. I would > imagine you shouldn't have much trouble. An FPGA may be overkill > (certainly harder to work with 5v); you may find it even easier to > just use a microcontroller. My Cipher F880 runs on just a Z80 > internally, nothing fancier than that. > My understanding of the protocol is the drive sets the speed it spits out bytes, and that it can be up to 1 Mbyte/sec. There is no handshaking, the read data is just clocked out as the feels like. I don't see how a Z80 can keep up with that unless your formatter runs a lot slower. In theory, GCR data coming off the drive at 75 IPS can flow in bursts up to 480,000 byte/sec. (GCR actually records 6400 9-bit characters/inch, the 6250 refers to the equivalent data byte density after the ECC redundancy data is removed.) Your F880 is of course a slower drive and maybe 800/1600 only, so the data rate can be much lower. I have a product that uses a Xilinx FPGA connected through the PC parallel port in EPP mode, and have used it as a development board for several oddball projects, and so a good deal of code reuse makes this an easier path for me. The only extra job is I have to add a buffer SRAM to my board as the on-FPGA memory is not enough to hold the largest tape block permitted. Jon

14 years, 5 months

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Computer Graphics Museum collection pics

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From:?Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Date:?Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:46:57 -0600 > Subject:?Re: Computer Graphics Museum collection pics > > In article <CAH1BU=_x5QzbjxP5__ZROP2xyAx6Nqmyjm=UMD37cn9YRAavQA at mail.gmail.com>, > ? ?Michael Thompson <michael.99.thompson at gmail.com> writes: > >> >> I didn't see any Calcomp System 25 Workstations in your collection. >> >> The RICM has LOTS of them. > >> > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> >> > I wasn't aware of these systems. [...] >> > This seems to be a workstation introduced in 1984. ?What kind of >> > graphics environment did it have? ?1984 is too early for X11 and also >> > I think too early for X10. >> >> The page for the Calcomps is here: >> http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/calcomp-system-25 >> >> The RICM has LOTs of documentation on the systems, but have not >> powered one on yet. > > It seems the graphics was on a dedicated display peripheral and a text > screen was used for input and program interaction. > > Are you involved with the RICM? ?I'd be interested to know what > happens to these systems. I am a volunteer at the RICM. The Calcomp systems are not in any danger of being scraped. Maybe you should come for a visit and get some of them running? -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 5 months

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still seeking RL01/02 unit select plug

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Does anyone have a unit select plug for an RL01/02 drive, for unit 2, that they can spare? -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

14 years, 5 months

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UK HAM Radio and Computer Exhibition :- The 50th Norbreck Amateur Radio, Electronics and Computing Exhibition

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

The 50th Norbreck Amateur Radio, Electronics and Computing Exhibition will be held at the Norbreck Castle Hotel Exhibition Centre on Queens Promenade, North Shore, Blackpool, FY2 9AA. Doors will open at 10.30 and 10:15 for those with disabilities. Admission will be ?5 (under 14s free). http://www.narsa.org.uk/ As NARSA is an association of clubs any Computer Club is welcome to affiliate @ ?15 for which they get two tables at the exhibition, three exhibitors tickets and a share in any profits. A few trade tables still available, see http://www.narsa.org.uk/blackpool-rally/trade-bookings/ for details. (note if you get in quick you can still be squeezed into the stand list) It is mainly a radio show but there is always lots of computer gear on sale, much of it Vintage. Last year there were MAC Classics and BBC "B"s for sale. Dave Wade G4UGM Illegitimi Non Carborundum

14 years, 5 months

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PDP8/e help finding parts

by trestivo＠cfl.rr.com

I've got a pdp8/e that I'm getting ready to sell but first I need to replace 3 of the toggles on the front. (not the actual switch, just the plastic.) Does anyone know where I can get some of these? I have the 3 pieces that need to replaced, it's just that the "nibs" are broken. Thomas Restivo Technical Assurance Resources, Inc.

14 years, 5 months

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And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 8:34 PM To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks > On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 2:46 PM, Henk Gooijen <henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> > wrote: >> I was just dumping my grey memory cells :-) I did not check the HW. >> Isn't the SA72 a small slim long metal box with a power supply in the >> middle and room for two RA[79]x drive at both ends? > > Pictures? > > I have a couple of bare RA70 drives that I'd like to put into service > on machines that already have SDI controllers and no SCSI. My present > plans involve a plain shelf but a properly-fitting enclosure would be > nice. > > -ethan I can take a few pictures this weekend. Just got to find a good host for the pictures. My web space is near its limit. Any suggestions? The rack that holds the TU81+ tape drive has underneath the space for an RA8x drive. I had it that way, but one year ago I removed the RA82 and installed two of these SA72's. It is intended to be hooked up to the VAX-11/750, but the VAX has PSU "issues". I am pretty sure I have two more SA72 without drives, but contains the PSU is in it IIRC. However, even without any drives installed these things are good if you want to hurt your back :-/ So, shipping one is not an option. I even have a plate that is mounted in the rack ... If you wonder how the SA72 is mounted in a rack, given that its width is just half the width of the rack, well it just "hangs" on one side! The SA72 at the right side hangs on a plate mounted in the rack at the right side, and the SA72 at the left ... on a plate at the left side. Even such a plate is good for a few kilos on the scales! - Henk

14 years, 5 months

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And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

From: "Johnny Billquist" <bqt at softjar.se> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:46 AM To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks > On 2012-03-20 18:00, "Henk Gooijen"<henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote: >> From: "Dave McGuire"<mcguire at neurotica.com> >> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:58 AM >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >> Subject: And RA8x too, was Re: RA90 or RA92 disks >> >>> > On 03/19/2012 11:53 AM, Kevin Reynolds wrote: >>>> >> Anyone have working RA90 or RA92 disks that they would like to part >>>> >> with? >>>> >> Send me a private response with pricing and availability. I'm in >>>> >> the US. >>> > >>> > I make the same request, in case someone has a bunch. =) I'm >>> > interested >>> > in RA8x drives as well. >>> > >>> > -Dave >>> > >>> > -- >>> > Dave McGuire, AK4HZ >>> > New Kensington, PA >> >> Haha, I have at least 5 RA82 compete drives, but I really am*not* >> considering shipping them. Pick up only, but this time the chaps >> in the USA are at the wrong side of the big splash. > > RA drives, except the RA7x ones, are probably way too expensive to ship > longer distance. > >> I also have a few RA90 and RA70 IIRC, I'd have to check. >> I might be willing to sell one or two, but shipping from The Netherlands >> to anywhere will certainly be costly! And My testing will be very >> limited. >> I have an SA72 which can hold 4 RA9x drives, but I can not test them >> beyond power up to the "READY" state (IIRC). AFAICR, you can not >> simply install the RA70 in the SA72. > > Hum. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the SA72 the box that holds up to > 4 RA7x drives? Same physical size as one RA90? > > If so, then no, it don't hold 4 RA9x drives. Also, the RA70 works just > fine in it, as do all RA7x drives. RA70 is somewhat unique, though, in > that it was designed to also be usable without any front panel at all. So > there are dip switches on it that can be used to set the unit number. > > Johnny > > -- > Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus > || on a psychedelic trip > email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books > pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol You may very well be right Johnny. I was just dumping my grey memory cells :-) I did not check the HW. Isn't the SA72 a small slim long metal box with a power supply in the middle and room for two RA[79]x drive at both ends? At the front side at the top is a connector for the small front panel. The width of the front is 0.5 of 19" so that two of these fit next to each other in a 19" rack. If that's way off, I'd have to check what I actually have ... - Henk.

14 years, 5 months

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Preferred image format for HP single-sided 3.5" floppies?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I have a small stack of single-sided disks that I need to image, and didn't realize that they are 18 sector with 0-16 256 bytes and 17 128 bytes, so Imagedisk won't work. What is the preferred container format? Looks like the Australian museum uses .td0

14 years, 5 months

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OT: Google AdWords and Yahoo/Bing adCenter

by arkaxow＠gmail.com

I just started using Google Adwords and I?m trying to figure out how they charge. I just finished the free first time allotment of $75, now I have to add more money. Does anyone have any experience with this ? Also I?m looking into the Yahoo/Bing adcenter.microsoft.com. They don?t seem to offer a free first time allotment. Does anyone know of any way to get a free startup allotment ? Jeff Brace

14 years, 5 months

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Free: Hughes Personal Earth Station

by devonstopps＠gmail.com

Not sure if anyone has any interest in a Hughes Personal Earth Station circa 1989 - was in use up until early 2011. I also have 3x serial interface breakout boxes with 4 ports each for it. Looks similar to: http://www.mebstore.com/items/item_display.aspx?iid=61910 http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Equipment/Hughes/PES_and_CODECs.JPG Free for pickup, item is in Toronto, ON, otherwise will be scrapped next week.

14 years, 5 months

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