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

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

I finally got some terminals (VT525) and DEC MMJ cables for my MicroVAX 3100/85. I tuned it on expecting it to be dead and found a copy of OpenVMS V7.1 is installed on the MicroVAX (well after I tried both serial ports on the terminal and the screen came up at 9600 baud). I have never owned anything DEC or any computers that didn't have built in video, sound, keyboards so I have a few questions. What kind of reading material do I need to understand how these systems and software work? Is there a default login/password for OpenVMS V7.1 Is OpenVMS available for download? Is V 7.1 optimal for this old unit (I think it has the full 128MB but have to check, dual 2GB? drives and built in CDROM). I assume I can use some old PC or Mac software to login over the coax ethernet (does it do DHCP?) once I get some ethernet cables and I know what the heck I am doing. What kind of server was a MicroVAX 3100/85 anyway (files, applications, etc)? What are optimal setting for the VT525 to work with the MicroVAX (serial settings, color, lines, etc). Figured I would try some completely different systems last year and ended up finding the MicroVAX before it was turned into razorblades. Took me a while to get the other parts needed. TZ

15 years, 12 months

5
7
0 0

speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 8/23/10, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > But I've seen people ditch their desktop 2GHz P4 system for a new > desktop Core Duo box in the hope that it will make their dialup > connection faster. If you know any such people, they can ditch it at me. ;-) Personally, when I get asked "how can I make my computer go faster?", I tell people, "type faster. It's waiting on you." Then there's the old joke: How do you accelerate a Macintosh? Toss it out the window and it'll go 9.8m/s^2. -ethan

15 years, 12 months

21
42
0 0

Should you correct production mistakes?

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

When you are cleaning up and restoring a piece of classic computer hardware, would you correct any minor mistakes made in the original production? I have a particular exmaple in mind. In bits on myu bench at the moment is an HP2623 graphics terminal This was HP's response to the well-knwon Tektronix terminals, it is, however a raster scanned device. But it has a little state machine (or parhapes you could call it a very simple procesosr) to speed up line drawing. But wanyway... On the video monitor PCB (HP call it the 'Sweep' PCB), there is a 74LS221 dual monostable chip in the common HP horixontal drive circuit, The first half of the chip delays the sync pulse (and the delay time is controlled by the horizontal centering control), the second half is triggered from that and provides a pulse of known width to the horizontal drive transistor. But I digress. You don't need to know any of that... WHile cleaning the dirt off this PCB (HV attracts dust electrostatcally, of couse), I noticed that the ground pin of this IC never made it through the board. It's folded under the package, but has been effectively surface-mount soldered to the pad when the board was wave-soldered. It works, but I can't beeleive it's as good as a proper through-hole connection, and it's certian;y not what was intended. I could trivially desolder the IC, straighten the pin, and solder it back properly. But should I? What would others do? -tony

15 years, 12 months

13
30
0 0

The reconstruction of the Konrad Zuse computing machine Z3

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

Video link of the unit in operation at bottom of page: http://www.zib.de/zuse/Inhalt/Rep/Z3/Z3Rep/index.html Google translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.…

15 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

OT : The new Big Trak

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

This is off-tipic for 2 main reasons : (1) the device in question is not even 1 year old yet and (2) it's not a computer. But I suspect many people here rememebr the MB Big Trak programmable toy tank from the early 1980s, and may even rememebr the Circuit Cellar article that involved modifying one. So anyway... You can buy a modrn version of the Big Trak in the UK now. To the user it's much the same as the origianl version (I will mention differences) later. Inside it's very different. The cheapest I've found it in a shop is \pounds 34.00 in Hawkin's Bazaar. I've sene it for a few 10's of pence cheapr on the web, but then youy have to add shipping. Anyway, I am sure you know what I did to mine first, even before puttign the batteryies in and trying it out.Yes, I took it apart. Given that many people here are like me, I;ll explain how to do that. 1) Remove the battery cover (2 screws) and batteris if you have fitted them. 2) Next take off the plastic strips joining the front and rear axles. There are held on by 2 scres each (self-tapping screws with integral washers). If you have put the optional stickers on, you have to peel them off to get to these screws.. Then slide off the front and rear wheels. the centre 9driving) wheels are held on to the gearbox output shaftes hy a cetnre screw. Take these off next. 3) The next bit is non-obvious and had me puzzles for a minute or so. At he back of the lower body thre's a gey plastic part the only purpose of which is to hide a coupleof fixing screws. It's held in place by 4 plastic 'barbs', one each side and 2 along the rear endge. Carefully free it and slide it out downards. 4) Ondo the tiny screw thus revealed. Ths holds the kybaord bezel in plaec on top. Carefully unclip the bezel. On the underside of it is a little pCB carrying the power switch and the IR (?) LED for the trailer interfae. Undo the fixing screw, free the PCB amd set the bezel aside. 5) Back on the uinderside undo the dozen or so screws that hold the upper body in palce. Put the Big Trak the right way up and carfully lift off the upper bod. It's still linked by the flexiprint from the keybaord. This is not pluged in, it's clamped agianst the control PCB by a plastic clamp. Undo the 2 screws and lift of the clamp, then lift the kayboard tail over the pillers. The upper body is not free, 6) Undo the 2 screws holdign the LED holder for the 'photon cannon' in palce. This alos releases the loudspeaker which is lightly glued in place under it. Free that too. 7) I should have deoslderesd the battery wires next, otherwise you hve the lower body hanging on them, which is a bit of a pain. But I didn't. Anyway, undo th 4 screws on the bottom of the gearbox. Remove the gearbox complete with the control PCB downwards. The front axle is now free, don't loose it. 8) It appears that the PCB can be removed by desoldering the motor connectios (ML+, ML-, MR+. MR-) and then taking out the 4 corner screws. I have not done this. 9) The gearbox is held together by 5 screws on top (and can be dismantled with the PCB in palce). Take these out, turn the gearbox over, andlift off the cover. You can now see all the gearing. When reasbmbling note that there are several sies of selt-tapping screwn. Don't get them in the wrong holes... OK, diffeernces from the origianl version It runs everyting (logic and motors) off a single 4.5V supply (3 D cells in series) ratehr than +/-3V (4 D cells) and 9V (pp3) of the original version The 'photon cannon' is now an LED (blue I susepct) not a filament lamp The interface to the trailer is another LED (IR?) not a jack socket. The cotnroller bvoard is totrally redesigned. There are 2 ICs. These are epxoy-capped chip-on-board devices iwth a difference. They are not on the main PCB, they are on little daugherboards which are then soldered to the main PCB. The only think on the daughterboard is the epoxy-capped chip. So in theory they can be replaced. The larger IC is clearly a microcontroller (but not the TMS1000 of the origjnal one) in a package which looks to have the smae footprintas a PLCC device, I am not sure what the smaller IC is yet. Also on the PCB are a fair number of transsitors, R's and Cs, etc. Mostly SMD devices. The gearbox is redeisgned too. It's a lot easier to take apart and reassmeble than the orignal one. The magnetic clutch between the 2 motors is still there. The optical feedback from the gearbox is still there too. In fact there are now 2 IR light bariers, one for each motor, senmsing slots in the next-to-last gear in the train. I beelive the origianl version only had one light barrier. For a fairly cheap toy it's well made. It can be taken apart and put together again withut damage. Most of it is held together by self-tapping screws, but the battery cover (which the average owner has to remvoe and rrfit serveral times( is held on by machien screws going into tapped inserts in the lower body. Nice!. I may well do a Circuit Cellar style modification to mine (that is, a serial interfce thart simulates keypresses. Or maybe repaec the microcontroller totally. -tony

15 years, 12 months

5
8
0 0

Simulated telephone

by scheefj＠netscape.net

Hello all, I would like to play^H^H^H^H use some of my vintage portables the way they were intended. For example, the Radio Shack Model 100 and the HP 110 Portable have 300bps internal modems. I have several other modems thru which these machines could talk to a *NIX but I do not want to pay for multiple phone lines in my home. How can I simulate a POTS connection between these modems? I don't need a dial tone or ringing, etc., as I can just tell one machine to connect and the other to answer. Way back I heard that a few modems would work if the tip and ring wires of the modems were crossed and connected, but most need something more than that. Is there some simple circuit I could build? Surely I'm not the first to want to avoid phone bills for such play^H^H^H^H testing. Jim

16 years

18
33
0 0

Meet a Zuse Z23

by jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de

Hi. This week I had the pleasure to visit a Zuse Z23 on display in my city. The Z23 is a first generation, discrete transistor and diode logic, drum based machine with a small "cache" of core memory. It is hosted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering. Here is the Press release regarding the Zuse machine: http://www.iese.fraunhofer.de/de/presse/current_releases/PM-2010-16-210610z… Ohh, if you can't read german (at all we are talking about a german computer ;-) ) here is the english version: http://www.iese.fraunhofer.de/press/current_releases/PM-2010-16-210610z23.j… I took some pictures: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/bilder/Zuse_Z23/ The machine is in very good, but not working condition. I suspect it would be a huge task to make it operable again, like the PDP-1 restoration. But it could be done. There is a complete set of documentation, schematics, some spare parts, ... A former user of that machine from the local university explained the machine and its inner workings in detail to us. In one word: Fascinating! :-) BTW: There is a tube based Zuse Z22 in working condition on display in the ZKM museum in Karlsruhe (Germany). The Z23 is kind of a transistor reimplementation of the Z22: http://www.zkm.de/algorithmische-revolution/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAG… Pictures only in the german version: http://www.zkm.de/algorithmische-revolution/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAG… -- \end{Jochen} \ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}

16 years

2
2
0 0

Terminal servers (Xyplex 1600 series)

by tsw-cc＠johana.com

Help... I thought it would be "easy", just hook it up and let it go. I thought I had the proper load file (xpcsrv20.sys) in the /tftpboot directory. TCPDumps seemed to indicate that I should have a proper file with the last 6 digits of the MAC address. When I did that, I got the dump to indicate that something was transfering, but it looks like to petered out a ways through. It then goes into a silly arp sequence for a router in the 172.31... network while my network here is 192.168.0.. Questions: 1) What files should be in the /tftpboot directory? 2) Can I get access to the configuration through one of the serial ports (which one)? 3) Does anyone have one of these beasts "working" with a Linux host? I like to get it up and running. I seem to have LOTS of documents on this, but none seem to be of the "step-by step" variety using a Unix (Linux) as the RARP/TFTP host. I would prefer responses of list, but will read then here if you like. Yes, these things are a bit old. Nobody really uses terminal servers these days, and while 40 ports is a bit much, I do have a bunch of serial devices I'd like to connect to. It looked like this would be a nice thing to get working. Thanks, ...Tom Watson

16 years

2
1
0 0

Stan Viet passed away

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I look back with great fondness in how Stan was such a help in digging up historical ?facts? that I used in my book?He will truly be missed. All my blessings. Murray :)

16 years

1
0
0 0

Burroughs core memory module <-> machine

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

(I just mentioned this in the thread about Burroughs part numbers, but am putting it forth in a separate question in case it gets missed by some readers.) I have a core memory module from some Burroughs machine. It is a large plug-in PCB about 16 inches square containing address & inhibit drivers & such. Mounted to this is a near-same-size daughter-board containing the sense amplifiers and the folded planar array of cores underneath a metal shield. It is organised as 32 KWords, 20 bits wide. Any suggestions as to what machine this may have come from? The 20 bits is the raw-memory-word width, one could speculate that some of those bits were used for ECC and the machine-word-width is smaller, although I'm not sure off the top of my head whether 4 bits is enough for ECC on 16 bits (isn't it >log2(n) for 1-bit ECC on n bits?)

16 years

5
4
0 0

OS/8 FORTRAN IV saving?

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi, I seem to remember that it was possible to save a FORTRAN IV program together with the FRTS runtime system as a runnable .SV core image file. It seems that ADVENT does so... Any idea? (minor question: How does something like "R PROG ARGS" work?) Regards, Philipp -- http://www.hachti.de

16 years

3
3
0 0

Burroughs core memory module <-> machine

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------------Original Message: Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:30:24 -0700 From: Paxton Hoag <innfoclassics at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Burroughs core memory module <-> machine To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <AANLkTik=GrMyH34cMQahxmPcSYoraFQ5+7bS=e2a=7dD at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > I have a core memory module from some Burroughs machine. It is a large > plug-in PCB about 16 inches square containing address & inhibit drivers & > such. Mounted to this is a near-same-size daughter-board containing the > sense amplifiers and the folded planar array of cores underneath a metal > shield. > > It is organised as 32 KWords, 20 bits wide. > > Any suggestions as to what machine this may have come from? > Burroughs made several successful solid state accounting machines before branching to full computers. Some of these had core memory and were made in the 1970s. ... Paxton ------------------------Reply: Indeed, specifically a few models in the E series, but those memories were *much* smaller; I think I still have one somewhere. In the transition from mechanical base10 systems to solid state binary systems some early E models used an interesting device called a "core counter" which was effectively a non-volatile IC-sized solid state magnetic divide-by-ten counter that emitted a pulse for every ten pulses in, a logically direct replacement for the mechanical cams and 10-position gears that most adding and accounting machines had been built around up till then. 32K x 20 sounds like it'd be out of a Medium or Large system (B2xxx or greater).

16 years

3
3
0 0

Burroughs parts? (was Re: PROMS but from what ?)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 8/25/10, MikeS <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote: > Are you sure that they're PROMs? > > They might be Burroughs numbers, but not PROMs (at least not the ones I > looked up). > > For instance: > > 1447 3581 7438 4x2 NAND gate > 1447 3540 7410 3x3 NAND gate > 1447 3797 9322 4x2to1 MUX > 2600 1495 7404 6xINV Hey! I think I've got a tackle box full of stuff like this. One drawer is marked "3581 '38" for example. I picked up the tacklebox and the chips from a vendor at Dayton some years ago. It's loaded with the following part numbers (dates listed are representative): 1447-3532 SN7404N 7909 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/TI) 1447-3524 SN7408N 7650 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/ITT/TI) 1447-3540 7410F 7915 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/ITT) 1447-3565 7420 7907 (Signetics/ITT/TI) 1447-3607 SN7474N 7836 (TI/Fairchild/Signetics) 1447-3615 74107N 7912 (Nat'l Semi/Fairchild/Signetics) 1447-3557 74H11N 7738 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/Signetics) 1447-3581 7438N 7838 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/Signetics) 1447-3797 SN74157 7827 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/TI) 1447-3771 SN74161N 7701 (Nat'l Semi/TI/AMD) 1447-3755 74195 7644 (Signetics/TI/AMD) 1447-3722 74155 7709 (Signetics/TI) 1447-3714 SN74153 7832 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/TI) ... plus a mish-mash in a bin marked "misc"... part numbers include 1447-* * == 3599, 3706, 3623, 3698, 3789, 3649 and several more Until this thread, I had no idea the 1447-* numbers were Burroughs. Is anyone restoring such equipment and looking for spares? My own interest are such that if I used these anywhere, it'd be to replace parts gone bad in DEC M-series modules for my PDP-8/i and PDP-8/Ls. In particular, I'm always hunting for 7474s since those seem to be favored to fail in the gear I have (along with 7440s, statistically). Is there a list of these part numbers? The ones I gave happen to be listed with both the 1447-* numbers _and_ 74-series TTL numbers. The misc drawer has numerous ones with only 1447-* numbers, and I'd like to know what's what. Cheers, -ethan

16 years

2
4
0 0

Emulating a smart CRT display unit - ideas?

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > For a really nice VGA display, check out the PICASO from SparkFun. > Coupled with a low-end microcontroller, that should give you pretty > much everything that you need, save for the differential receivers. ...and quite a lot I don't need, like colo(u)r and graphical "primitives" which aren't (drawing rectangles and circles,...), at a somewhat steep price. > Google "VGA microcontroller" for other ideas. I'll go looking for "BAS" (VBS) "Microcontroller", too, since that's probably the way I'm wanting to go in the long run (using a cheap portable TV as display), if the controller turns out to be intact after all. Thanks, Arno Kletzander -- GRATIS f?r alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT! Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01

16 years

1
0
0 0

GET LAMP is here

by ragooman＠gmail.com

GET LAMP is here =Dan -- --http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ragooman/

16 years

27
121
0 0

In search of: DEC LP20 interface boards

by RichA＠vulcan.com

Folks, Does anyone on the list have any of the following DEC PDP-11 printer interface boards squirreled away? M8585 LP20 Translation RAM Module M8586 LP20 Line Printer Control Module M8587 LP20 Line Printer Data Paths Module or M8571 LP20 Line Printer Data Paths Module Please contact me if you have one or more of these. Thanks, Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.PDPplanet.org/ http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

16 years

1
0
0 0

PROMS but from what ?

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------------Original Message Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:06:37 +0200 From: "Rik Bos" <hp-fix at xs4all.nl> Subject: PROMS but from what ? I aquired a lot of small DIL14/16 PROMS ceramic package with a 8 digit number on it some of the numbers are : 2584 0821 2574 6975 2571 5418 2600 1529 1447 3581 1447 3540 2600 1495 1447 3797 2600 1487 2603 2623 2625 5562 2554 0888 2600 1495 I can't find any reference about them, so if some one recognizes the numbers or can use them let me know (I've a few hundreds of them) If no one wants them I'm going to archive them in the big metal bin. -Rik -------------------Reply: Are you sure that they're PROMs? They might be Burroughs numbers, but not PROMs (at least not the ones I looked up). For instance: 1447 3581 7438 4x2 NAND gate 1447 3540 7410 3x3 NAND gate 1447 3797 9322 4x2to1 MUX 2600 1495 7404 6xINV mike

16 years

5
5
0 0

Burroughs parts? (was Re: PROMS but from what ?)

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------------Original Message: Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:09:00 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Burroughs parts? (was Re: PROMS but from what ?) On 8/25/10, MikeS <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote: > Are you sure that they're PROMs? > > They might be Burroughs numbers, but not PROMs (at least not the ones I > looked up). > > For instance: > > 1447 3581 7438 4x2 NAND gate > 1447 3540 7410 3x3 NAND gate > 1447 3797 9322 4x2to1 MUX > 2600 1495 7404 6xINV Hey! I think I've got a tackle box full of stuff like this. One drawer is marked "3581 '38" for example. I picked up the tacklebox and the chips from a vendor at Dayton some years ago. It's loaded with the following part numbers (dates listed are representative): 1447-3532 SN7404N 7909 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/TI) 1447-3524 SN7408N 7650 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/ITT/TI) 1447-3540 7410F 7915 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/ITT) 1447-3565 7420 7907 (Signetics/ITT/TI) 1447-3607 SN7474N 7836 (TI/Fairchild/Signetics) 1447-3615 74107N 7912 (Nat'l Semi/Fairchild/Signetics) 1447-3557 74H11N 7738 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/Signetics) 1447-3581 7438N 7838 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/Signetics) 1447-3797 SN74157 7827 (Nat'l Semi/ITT/TI) 1447-3771 SN74161N 7701 (Nat'l Semi/TI/AMD) 1447-3755 74195 7644 (Signetics/TI/AMD) 1447-3722 74155 7709 (Signetics/TI) 1447-3714 SN74153 7832 (Nat'l Semi/Signetics/TI) ... plus a mish-mash in a bin marked "misc"... part numbers include 1447-* * == 3599, 3706, 3623, 3698, 3789, 3649 and several more Until this thread, I had no idea the 1447-* numbers were Burroughs. Is anyone restoring such equipment and looking for spares? My own interest are such that if I used these anywhere, it'd be to replace parts gone bad in DEC M-series modules for my PDP-8/i and PDP-8/Ls. In particular, I'm always hunting for 7474s since those seem to be favored to fail in the gear I have (along with 7440s, statistically). Is there a list of these part numbers? The ones I gave happen to be listed with both the 1447-* numbers _and_ 74-series TTL numbers. The misc drawer has numerous ones with only 1447-* numbers, and I'd like to know what's what. Cheers, -ethan ---------------------------Reply: Have a look at the cross-reference on Bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/icData/ and if there are any that you can't find, send me a PM and I'll see what I can find; I have another list or two but no idea where they came from, as well as some dead-tree stuff from my days at BBM. mike

16 years

2
1
0 0

Should you correct production mistakes?

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

Eric writes: > Tony Duell wrote: >> I could trivially desolder the IC, straighten the pin, and solder it back >> properly. But should I? What would others do? > Had we found any problem analogous to that in the PDP-1 restoration, > where the machine operated correctly despite a manufacturing defect, I'm > sure we would have had a debate on whether to fix it. I think my own > opinion in that case would be that we should leave it alone, but tag the > module (paper tag attached with a short loop of string) and document the > issue in the system logbook. > For something that isn't considered a museum artifact, I'd be more > inclined to fix it. Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? The ability of a robust assembly and QA process to result in working systems, despite small manufacturing errors, is remarkable. If the board passed QC and was released into the wild and is still working decades later, that is a fact worth noting but I see zero reason to correct it. I don't doubt anyone's soldering skill but there is still a small and nonzero chance that any attempted "fix" would result in hassles. When I was in college decades ago, I got to help a civil engineer who had tried to build a Heathkit maybe 10 years before that but never got it working. I looked inside, found a few diodes he had reversed, and said that was the reason. He looked at me incredulously: "You mean a couple of incorrectly assembled parts will stop the whole receiver from working?". Yep. "If we designed bridges that way, there wouldn't be a single bridge standing in the world!" Tim.

16 years

2
1
0 0

PROMS but from what ?

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------------Original Message: Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:38:45 +0200 From: "Rik Bos" <hp-fix at xs4all.nl> Subject: RE: PROMS but from what ? <snip> > I aquired a lot of small DIL14/16 PROMS ceramic package with > a 8 digit number on it some of the numbers are : > 2584 0821 ... > -Rik > > -------------------Reply: > > Are you sure that they're PROMs? > > They might be Burroughs numbers, but not PROMs (at least not > the ones I looked up). > > For instance: > > 1447 3581 7438 4x2 NAND gate > 1447 3540 7410 3x3 NAND gate > 1447 3797 9322 4x2to1 MUX > 2600 1495 7404 6xINV > > mike > > > Mike, Thanks, to be honest no I'm not sure. I was told it were proms and some of the ic's did have labels on them. When I removed on it was a 74S571J which is a 2K prom. Do you have a xref list for Burroughs parts or know where I can find one If any one needs one or more of those let me know. -Rik -------------------------Reply: As Al mentioned, there is a partial list at bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/icData/ There may also be more in some of the other manuals, and I have info on some more as well as a "parts catalogue" that I can't put my fingers on at the moment. If you do have some PROMs, I'd think that there's a good chance that they're already programmed and therefore not very useful (but worth checking JIC). mike

16 years

1
0
0 0

speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...)

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:54:39 -0400 From: "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> Subject: Re: speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...) To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <4C75BB4F.7050409 at compsys.to> I have migrated from Netscape 4 email, all the way to Thunderbird3, and never had a problem with moving the mailfiles. I don't know the details, but the mailfile format hasn't changed. I've recently opened some mailfolder from Netscape 4 directly in TBird 2 without a hitch. I'd suggest going to 2.0.0.24 (or whatever is the most recent version of the 2 series). I tried TBird3 here at work, and didn't like it for the way I use it at work. The message folder search function to be specific. But TBird3 works good for me at home... -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "From there to here, From here to there, Funny things are everywhere." --- Dr. Seuss

16 years

1
0
0 0

Simulated telephone

by dm561＠torfree.net

-----------------Original Message: Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:16:11 -0700 From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> Subject: Re: Simulated telephone On 2010 Aug 25, at 9:02 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: > On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Brent Hilpert wrote: >> If both modems in a given connection are older ('80s), lower-speed >> (300-1200/2400) it will likely work by simply connecting them together >> and commanding one off-hook in answer mode (ATA ?), then the other >> off-hook in originate mode (ATD ? ATH1 ?). I have successfully done >> this with particular modems up to 14.4Kbps but might be forgetting the >> commands. > > Many of my older modems are from BEFORE "Hayes Compatible" became the > standard for giving commands to the modem. Well, I was thinking of adding in that if you have a really old modem you might have to flip the originate/answer switch appropriately if it has one, but I think the OP indicated he was dealing with later stuff. (I have a couple of pre-'smart' modems, too.) --------------------Reply: I was going to make the same point; the M100 he mentioned as an example *does* indeed have an originate/answer switch (as well as a direct connect/acoustic coupler switch). I usually don't have any problem just connecting modems together without any fancy line simulators, etc. mike

16 years

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ebay dec modules catalog

by legalize＠xmission.com

item # 280552484706 -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

16 years

1
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Collection reduction, DEC list

by binarydinosaurs＠gmail.com

Folks, OK, this is my DEC collection minus the machines I'm keeping, MINC shipping is going to be interesting should anyone want it, see also the DECwriter III. I should keep the DECmate III too really. Most of these machines I used at work in the 80s/90s and rescued them when I was made redundant in 2001, Grey Wall included. I'd hate to recycle this as I've dragged the entire thing around the country and would like to see it go to someone who hates reading docs online like me :) Will I even pick up my VAX programming skills again and need to know the params for the $QIOW routine :/ Anyhoo. This is listed as I went by them on the racks and is by no means complete... VR319 monitor Alpha 3000-400 w/PMAGB Alpha 3000-400 w/PMAGB SZ12 VAX 3100 M38, bits of SZ12 SZ12 DECpc AXP150 Alpha 2000-300 RZ55 RZ55 DECpc XL590 Alpha 3000-400 w/PMAGB DECstation 5000-240 VR262 for DECstations, mono, 17" DECmate III DECwriter IV/LA100 DECwriter III/LA180 MINC-11 w/RX02 MicroVAX 3100-30 MicroVAX 3100-40 (might be a 20) DECserver 250 SZ12 DEMSB-A multi-protocol router x2, 1 1-port and 1 4-port Infoserver 150VXT (bought to netboot the VXT2000s) MicroVAX 3100-30 DECstation 3100 MicroVAX 3100-20 (might be a 40) MDS Fiche set x2 with reader Grey wall, VMS 5.0 and 5.5 updates, some still sealed?! VXT2000 (might be 2) RWZ52 worm drive DEChub90 in DEHUX with 3x DECrepeater 90T-16 DNSES-AA, NOS DECnet/SNA x2 NOS boxed Alpha 3000-400 motherboard, boxed DESPR single port repeater VT420 boxed DECmate II or II DECserver 200/M 3000-300 x3 BA350 in pedestal BA356-JA on its own, single port 16bit pm, RZ74-VW DECserver 300-16 VT1200, no monitor R215F DSSI expansion, narrow box MicroVAX II, BA213 'world' box Alpha 2000 4/233, dual CPU VAX 4000-505A (nice machine! Spare PSUs) VAX 3400 R400X DSSI expansion x2 MicroVAX 2000 x2 cables, boards, 3000-300PSU, *stuff* VT420 VAX 4000-200 CDDS boxes from mid 90s to late 90s Cables, boards, docs. Yes, I'm a hoarder. -- adrian/witchy Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home? computer collection? www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

16 years

10
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Emulating a smart CRT display unit - ideas?

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hello listmembers, some of you will perhaps remember me being stuck with a problem regarding a Fujitsu FANUC "mate TG" CNC controller (rebadged as "Siemens Sinumerik"), of which I have the main unit but not the monitor. Thanks to a very nice guy living nearby, I was provided with some new information about the interface, which is rather uncommon in itself. I had already guessed that there is a significant amount of smarts in the monitor; the newly acquired documentation confirms this. The silicon brain (CRT controller) of the thing is called LSI HD46505. Integrated with a 12" monochrome CRT display, it features capabilities for a text mode with 64 columns * 24 lines (character size 7*9 dots in an 8*16 character cell), a magnified text mode with 16 columns * 14 lines (21*27 dots in a 32*27 cell) and a b&W bitmapped mode with a resolution of 512*384 dots. Text and graphics can be displayed alone or in combination. The supported character set seems to be a subset of ASCII from 0x20 to 0x5f. Text and raster graphics operations in absolute addressing are controlled by a unidirectional 12 bit parallel interface with strobe (AB0 - AB2, DB0-DB8, WP) in differential signalling, furthermore there are four more differential signals called +HP2, -HP2, +VP2, -VP2 that allow some kind of incremental (relative) graphics cursor positioning by pulse trains. The signalling diagrams indicate a minimum cycle time of 20 us for the parallel interface and 110 us for the counter channels. Does this ring any bells with anyone? Are there similar monitors out there that might be converted with little effort? Otherwise, the registers and instructions are described in enough detail so that making a replacement or some sort of emulation at least seems possible. What sort of hard- and/or software would one be looking at to accomplish this? I have some hazy memory of seeing a demonstration of a Pong game programmed in LabView(!) running on an FPGA based device which would directly generate VGA output, but that was a very expensive unit. For now I'm just looking for a cheap and simple way to give me some idea of what, if anything, the controller is trying to display. As I think the data will be coming in bursts (only e.g. when a new screen mask is displayed), a microcontroller with a suitable amount of buffer memory might be sufficient to translate the interface signals into serial data and send them to a PC, which would then generate and display the image. Thanks for your input, yours sincerely Arno Kletzander -- GRATIS f?r alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT! Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01

16 years

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PROMS but from what ?

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I aquired a lot of small DIL14/16 PROMS ceramic package with a 8 digit number on it some of the numbers are : 2584 0821 2574 6975 2571 5418 2600 1529 1447 3581 1447 3540 2600 1495 1447 3797 2600 1487 2603 2623 2625 5562 2554 0888 2600 1495 I can't find any reference about them, so if some one recognizes the numbers or can use them let me know (I've a few hundreds of them) If no one wants them I'm going to archive them in the big metal bin. -Rik

16 years

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Emulating a smart CRT display unit - ideas?

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hello guys, thanks for your quick replies! "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > why not post a note to this guy: > http://cncfanuc.blogspot.com/2009/04/fanuc-ac-servo-drive-system- > failure.html > Who seems to have a lot of information on his hands? You're joking, right? I don't even get what this guy is writing about in most of his half-finished malformed sentences. Even if he was willing to help, it might be quite a challenge to get anything useful out of him. > But you're going to need a fair level of detail on what actually goes > on over those 12 lines before you can get something going. That's provided in that latest manual I got, down to bit-level detail, e.g.: "Mode selection:" A A A D D D D D D D D D B B B B B B B B B B B B 2 1 0 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ----------------------- 0 0 1 1 x x 0 1 1 x x x Set bit mode* 0 0 1 1 x x 0 1 0 x x x Clear bit mode* 0 0 1 1 x x 1 1 1 x x x Enable drawing by +/- H/V inputs* 0 0 1 1 x x 1 0 1 x x x Clear screen (takes approx. 40 ms) Operations marked * are latching and clear upon next selection." Pages and pages of such codes. > If you want a dedicated unit, an FPGA might still be your best bet, > if you have the skills (VHDL or Verilog). No, I never learnt either of the above. OTOH, some LabView programming once again would be a nice change, and there is that FPGA toolkit for it that we were shown then. > Alternatively, many faster > microcontrollers can directly generate video using nothing but > software. Hey, that also sounds seriously interesting. Might be the cheapest and simplest approach since b&w doesn't need much of a DAC or anything. Alas the raster size doesn't map nicely to TV standards... I'm also still all ears for comments on the "uC preprocesses, PC displays" idea. Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > I have a vague memory of doing a hack to an IBM PC CGA card that > enabled interlacing for a huge improvement in the readability of > character-based output. It involved running a wire, and *I think* > replacing the 6845 with a 46505. Does anyone else know about this? This mode is not used here, the manual states that this display is non-interlacing. Yours sincerely, Arno Kletzander -- GRATIS f?r alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT! Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01

16 years

2
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What became of GRI Computer Corporation?

by t.holman808＠gmail.com

Googling online. Also have a share certificate. Did you find out any info. On GRI? Just want to know if I'm a millionaire and have been living life as a peasant Sent from my iPod

16 years

1
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NEC "Advanced Personal Computer"

by mikelee＠tdh.com

I recently got my hands on a NEC Advanced Personal Computer. From what I read, it's a MS-DOS and CP/M capable machine. It's got dual 8" drives and about the size of a terminal. With that said, anyone have any more information on this system? Anything to boot it perhaps, and of course, the unit I have didn't come with a keyboard, and the connector appears to be some type of centronics connector. Any suggestions on where to find such a beast?

16 years

2
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Terminals...

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:30:39 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Terminals... In general, the public is still working on the "newer is better" theory. Why anyone would want to sit at home and type on a laptop keyboard is beyond me. --Chuck ----------------- You've got the best of both worlds; put it beside your desk, plug in your desktop LCD and adapter for your wireless kbd & mouse and you've got a convenient desktop; unplug it and take it on the road. What's wrong with that? m

16 years

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Craigslist post of "Retro Computers" in VA

by mikelee＠tdh.com

Somewhere near DC appears to be someone selling a large collection of vintage micros. Not mine but in case people were interested and nearby: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/sys/1915650636.html

16 years

1
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Needed: Funny pdp8/e (plotter) demo software!

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, we'll have an event here in Kiel on Friday night ("Museumsnacht") where my bosses decided (to be fair... I steered into that direction as best I could) to present a snippet of the Kiel collection. I'll be standing around in a corner with a pdp8/e. Equipped with 2 RK05, TU56, VT05, PC04, and CalComp 565 (0.1mm/step variant). I'm still looking for funny stuff to present. I'm running short on time and would be very happy to get some hints to nice graphic programs and other toys. I have some BASIC games from the net. That's not too much. There *must* be funny software involving the plotter somewhere out in the world! The best would be something that allows me to create little souvenirs for the more interested people. And something that draws complex stuff and takes long time. I have no clue about BASIC plotter support. I can use PAL sources (if there's no need for extra plotter code), BASIC, and FORTRAN IV. I have the plotter routines installed and working. Everything is installed and working. BTW the local VT05 didn't come up today. No high voltage. I looked around a bit and gave it up. But I needed the VT05 to blindly command the 8/e while doing file transfers from my notebook. And after some two hours - it started. And is running stable since then - with better image than before. I really hope that this isn't the "clear mind before dead"... Best wishes, Philipp :-)

16 years

1
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OT - sort of

by csquared3＠tx.rr.com

Kind folks, I'm pretty sure that some here restore and use vintage computers at least in part in order to be able to play vintage computer games, which is the only thing that makes this post on topic at all. After a bit of research on the web, I find that I'm at least 5 or 6 years behind the times based on some forum discussions of something I just became aware of just yesterday! What triggered all this was that our daughter showed up at the house with this little game controller which she says was bought at WalMart for about USD $20.00. It says "namco" on the front, "PLUG it in & PLAY TV GAMES" on the back. Says 6VDC on the back too, so probably 4 AA batteries. It came with batteries, and I haven't opened it up to explore the insides at all - yet. On the bottom next to the list of games are copyright dates from 1960 to 1983, the best I can tell. There is also a copyright notice on the bottom dated 2004 for JAKKS Pacific, Inc. and a reference to www.jakkstvgames.com. This little gadget has a joystick, a few pushbutton switches, and composite video and a sound output. It allows one to play vintage Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Mappy, and Xavious by connecting it to a standard TV's video and audio inputs. I mention this here because I just thought it was really cool to be able to play these vintage games, and some might be in the same uninformed group with me. :-) FWIW, my daughter says there are a number of other similar units with different games, and the web seems to confirm this. Wanting to see if the web site is WOT approved, I googled jakkstvgames.com and it seems to only be referred to by other web sites. I finally got brave and typed it in to the Firefox URL entry and was rewarded with "403 Forbidden" and "You don't have permission to access / on this server." Sounds pretty scary to me. BTW, I have absolutely no connection with this company - whatever it is - Jakks Pacific? It says it is made in China, of course. The thing is plastic, but seems to be remarkably well made for something that only costs 20 bucks. Of course the possibility of hacking it for other purposes never crossed my mind. ;-) Later, Charlie C.

16 years

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Troubleshooting a 5V Apple III

by mmaginnis＠gmail.com

I have a 5V Apple III that won't boot and could use some troubleshooting advice. When I power it up, the LED at CR7 on the motherboard and the keyboard lamp both light up and I get a brief flash on the internal floppy light and nothing else. No video or activity of any kind. When I hit CTRL-RESET, I do get the expected clicks from the internal speaker, so I know there's some life there. I've swapped out the floppy drive and cables, and the power supply with known good units, and reseated all the socketed ICs and get the same results. There are no expansion cards or other peripherals attached to the machine. Can anyone suggest a starting point for tracking this down? Thanks. - Mike

16 years

5
15
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speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...)

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:38:46 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...) >XPLite gets a big <shrug> from me. It fronts XP's control panel's >add/remove Windows components and settings, deletes update rollback >and temp files mostly. All of which can be accomplished manually. >What I wish it would do: Automate moving key files to other >partitions and prune the registry of unnecessary entries. >--Chuck ---------------Reply: Some good tips here: http://technical-issues-tips.blogspot.com/2007/08/tips-reduce-size-of-windo… Back up first and use at your own risk of course. m

16 years

1
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DEC "Prime to VAX tape/conv utilities"

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Dennis writes: > Stumbled across a reference to what looks like two old DEC products - > QS-HG1A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX TAPE UTILITIES > QS-HG0A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX CONV UTILITIES > while poking at MANX. I would very much like to find documentation > and/or the actual software. Anyone have further info? Nearby DEC part numbers seem to fall under QS-HFKA9-NZ "Migration Assistance Service". E.g. QS-HFKA9-NZ MIGRATION ASSISTANCE SERVICE QS-HFLA9-NZ SYSTEM/36 MIGRATION UTILITIES QS-HFMA9-NZ CDC/FORTRAN CONVERSION FILTER QS-HFNA9-NZ CDC/FORTRAN CONVERSION TOOL QS-HFPA9-NZ DG/COBOL CONVERSION FILTER QS-HFQA9-NZ HP/FORTRAN CONVERSION FILTER QS-HFRA9-NZ HP/BASIC CONVERSION FILTER QS-HFSA9-NZ HP VPLUS DECFORMS CONV FILTER QS-HFTA9-NZ HP IMAGE TO RDB CONV FILTER QS-HFUA9-NZ HP IMAGE TO RMS CONV FILTER QS-HFVA9-NZ HP/3000 TO VAX/VMS CONV UTILT QS-HFWA9-NZ WPP-WANG COBOL CONV FILTER QS-HFXA9-NZ WDE WANG DOCUM CONV TOOL QS-HFYA9-NZ VSTAPE WANG DOCUM CONV TOOL QS-HG0A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX CONV UTILITIES QS-HG1A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX TAPE UTILITIES QS-HG2A9-NZ PDP-11 BASIC CONV FILTER QS-HG3A9-NZ PDP-11 MACRO CONV FILTER QS-HG4A9-NZ HP/COBOL CONV FILTER It seems extremely likely that these were tools developed as part of migration assistance services, but companies have always struggled with the line between a "product" and a "service" so it wouldn't be surprising to see in-house tools get turned into products with part numbers etc. Tim.

16 years

1
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VAXstation 2000 video

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

Thanks you guys. I'll poke around and see what I can dig up, otherwise I'll use those pinouts and just make a video cable. It does not look too hard.

16 years

1
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speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...)

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:02:45 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> Subject: Re: speeding up computers (was Re: Terminals...) To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <4C72F005.9060602 at neurotica.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On 8/23/10 5:55 PM, Doc Shipley wrote: >> Microsoft is not the only company whose design policies are predicated >> on an assumption of Moore's law. But it is one of the most obvious. > > It's very odd to me that Apple's OS X needs at least as much CPU, RAM, > and disk as current Windows, but nobody beats on it for being bloated. It's not slow. =) -Dave --------- Well, you did show remarkable restraint up to this point... ;-) m

16 years

2
1
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DEC "Prime to VAX tape/conv utilities"

by drb＠msu.edu

Stumbled across a reference to what looks like two old DEC products - QS-HG1A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX TAPE UTILITIES QS-HG0A9-NZ PRIME TO VAX CONV UTILITIES while poking at MANX. I would very much like to find documentation and/or the actual software. Anyone have further info? De

16 years

1
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Collection reduction time, advice please

by binarydinosaurs＠gmail.com

Folks, First off, apologies to those who've asked me about the DSSI drive sleds etc I mentioned a while back, fret not, I still have them. Reason for the above not happening - my landlord wants his house back. This is a problem because I really fell on my feet when I found this place and managed to squirrel away my entire collection. 3.5 years later this town is home, my girlfriend is here, my friends are here so I don't want to up sticks and move the whole lot again. Also there's now no way I can afford a house with this much garage space. So. As much as it pains me I have to come to the realisation that I'll never actively use 90% of my DEC stuff, my CBM PET stuff, IBM PC compatibles or the 'middling' Apple stuff like LCs, Mac IIs, Quadras etc I haven't extensively catalogued anything for years, but given that I only have a month and a bit it's time to get my skates on. I'm guessing nobody will be interested in my SUN and Cisco kit, or Research Machines early PCs. Over the weekend I'll catalogue the big DEC and Apple stuff and post it here. Any advice or offers of collecting stuff from me gratefully received. I can ship big things from work on receipt of money, even on pallets. Cheers, -- adrian/witchy Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home?computer collection? www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

16 years

6
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Terminals...

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On 8/11/10 11:21 PM, William Donzelli wrote: >>> >> Of course, shipping for, say a hundred VT520s is significantly higher than for those modern replacements - even when you add in the (now LCD) screen. Oh that's right, you can just go down to Best Buy (which rarely is) to buy the screens.... >> > >> > I doubt shipping costs would be so much of an issue - VT520s, if they >> > are anything like VT420s, are not very heavy. If company X needs >> > several hundred dumb terminals spread around in their system, I bet >> > they would have enough of their own shipping going on, and the VTs >> > could hang on the sides of the trucks for free. >> > >>> >> That's not to say I don't have a personal preference for the originals - I have mostly VT420s at home, and we're refurbishing a bunch of VT100s and VT52s here at work. -- Ian >> > >> > OK, I will say it - VT420s suck. > > What don't you like about VT420s? They're my favorite of the line, > followed closely by VT320 then VT220. I don't like VT520s at all. I like the VT5xx series, just as I like all other VT-terminals. However, I've had problems with power supplies of VT320, and VT340 terminals, and have had problems with the displays going weak on VT420 terminals. In a way, I think the VT525 is pretty optimal. External screen with VGA connection, so I can use any PC screen, including flat screens. The fact that the VT5xx terminals use a PC keyboard connection sucks some, but I can live with that, since I atleast have proper DEC layout keyboards anyway. And color, in addition to that. The only thing missing is ReGIS and SIXBIT graphics. But, to make a comment on the original topic here - I don't really think that new VT terminals are more expensive than buying a PC. Yes, the initial cost is larger, but I definitely expect a VT520 to last way longer than a PC, and buying two or three PCs, and additionally to have to service, update, install, and work on the machines will make them cost way more than a new VT520 within just a year or two. 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

16 years

13
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VAXstation 2000 video

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

So I picked up both a MicroVAX 2000 with 120mb MFM drive and MMJ terminal adapter and a VAXstation 2000 with 40mb ST-251, keyboard, mouse, and some little breakout box for the latter two. Both systems power up and the drives don't make any nasty noises (though both are blank so they won't be booting anything until I get VMS on them) but in both cases I have no way to communicate with them. The MicroVAX I can't talk to simply because I lack an MMJ cable but the more interesting VAXstation with it's 4-bit framebuffer simply because I don't see how on earth you connect up a monitor to it. The keyboard and mouse break out box connect to the monitor port but the box itself has no connections for a monitor to be plugged in. How did this work and what types of monitor were compatible? I might have access to a VR201 if I want to pay shipping from MA to western canada.

16 years

3
2
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1970s TTL specs and prices

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------------Original Message: Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:21:49 -0700 From: John Robertson <pinball at telus.net> Subject: Re: 1970s TTL specs and prices MikeS wrote: <snippage> > ---------------- > FWIW, approx. Canadian 100-1000 prices in 1977: > Gates: .28 > F-F's etc: .48 > SRs, adders, etc: 1.50 > > 16Kx1 SRAM: $113.74 > > mike > I do have an Electrosonic catalog (Canada) from the mid 1960s. It is very handy as it covers things like CDS cells, Germanium items (ratings, etc) and other odds and ends of industrial electronics where there are no other sources of information. John :-#)# ----------------------------------- Umm, that's where I got the prices; as a matter of fact I used to work for Electrosonic in the 60s in industrial sales, still around after all these years... mike

16 years

2
1
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PDP-1 movies

by csquared3＠tx.rr.com

Kind folks, I was just wondering if anyone else is able to view the 3 movies near the bottom of http://pdp-1.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/index.php?f=theme&s=2 For me, each one runs for a bit and then just stops. Windows task manager shows no internet activity at that point. If I bring up some other page and then go back there, the video gets a bit further each time before seizing up again. Perhaps if I had infinite patience I could eventually see them all the way through. Any idea what might cause this? Thanks, Charlie C.

16 years

5
4
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Image of Digital van

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

Hi, Does anyone have an image of an Digital Equipment Corporation van? A friend and DEC fan wants his new white van to look as much as possible as original DEC vans. There seems to be an image of a large number of vans parked for a corporate building in some DEC brochure. Fred Jan

16 years

2
1
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SDK-85 ROM Image?

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hi, I have an Intel SDK-85 System Design Kit here (single board computer) which doesn't want to turn on. After some debugging, I'm fairly confident it's the ROM that's dead, but I can't find an image for it on the Internet. If someone has a copy of the ROM image, or is willing to dump it, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Alexis.

16 years

2
2
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cctalk Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41

by dm561＠torfree.net

Message: 13 Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:49:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: Origin of the term minicomputer (was Re: PDP-1 as minicomputer To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <20100821124828.V87695 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 21 Aug 2010, William Donzelli wrote: >> Pretty much, yes. I suppose the "youngest" mini architecture is the >> RS/6000, since it originally was made of multiple gate arrays (seven >> maybe?). >ISTR the RS/6000 (68000?) being called a microcomputer. But it was out of >my price range. ----------- Gee, I just offered a nice classic RS/6000-520 that you coulda had for free ;-) Lots o' 40-bit memory, 32 ports, SCSI HD & tape; really hated to see it go to the dump. m

16 years

2
1
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1970s TTL specs and prices

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:24:47 -0700 From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> Subject: Re: 1970s TTL specs and prices To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <17dbd76df89836d82320a900dd3576a1 at cs.ubc.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On 2010 Aug 20, at 11:23 AM, Tom Gardner wrote: > For some Computer History Museum work I need information on 7400 > series Flip > Flops (S and Normal, DIPs) circa 1973 (anything 1970-75). Anyone have > any > maximum clock speed and OEM volume pricing information on parts such > as 7473 > thru 79 or 74106-116? > > I must be getting old because I remember the 7474 well but I thru out > my > Yellow books years ago :-) Well, just to add to the list, I have the 1969, 1973 and 1981 TTL databooks from TI, as well as a 1965 TI component catalog listing some TTL devices (also various from Fairchild, National and Moto). As with others though, I haven't managed to dig up any prices. ... ---------------- FWIW, approx. Canadian 100-1000 prices in 1977: Gates: .28 F-F's etc: .48 SRs, adders, etc: 1.50 16Kx1 SRAM: $113.74 mike

16 years

2
1
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Racal (was: Terminals...)

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:51:32 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> Subject: Re: Terminals... On 8/22/10 9:52 AM, dwight elvey wrote: > There was a RACAL that I liked a lot as well ( can't recall the name > but I do recall almost being killed by one that I was tuning the > IF strip ). Mmm, just mentioning RACAL reminds me of (what was) my RA6790/GM. Sadly I had to sell it to pay the mortgage a couple of years ago, plus I felt kinda guilty having such a great receiver but not having much time to use it. Its CPU is a Mostek F8 as I recall, at least on the earlier ones (and mine). -Dave --------------- Speaking of Racal, I still have a Technical Manual for a model 9521 'Computing Counter'; is there a group/forum/site out there somewhere that would be interested (if it isn't already out there)? mike

16 years

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Coherent 3.1.0...

by mdavidson1963＠gmail.com

Woo-hoo! Just bought a copy (sealed, apparently) of Coherent 3.1.0 on EBay! That made my day... Mark

16 years

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ebay: uVax II in Austin, TX

by legalize＠xmission.com

item # 190433287669 -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

16 years

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rom dump of C64 Turtle graphics II

by rborsuk＠colourfull.com

Does anyone have the cartridge dump from the HES Turtle Graphics II cartridge for the C64? Thanks Rob

16 years

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Romania: complete PDP-11/93 on offer for $

by nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com

As I have a webpage (www.retroComputingTasmania.com<http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/>) describing my attempts to resurrect an PDP 11/93 I was contacted by a company from Resita, Romania who have just decommissioned an 11/93 in operation since 1993; it includes 5 DEC VT terminals and a non-functioning line printer. They describe it as a "PDP 11/93 193 QZ-D3, model HB9642- JB" They are inviting offers for this system, in their words "...for a fair price proposal.". Cellphone quality pictures sent to me are linked here: http://imgur.com/Hj6fR http://imgur.com/CJU3q http://imgur.com/docPG For my curiosity can anyone tell me what the cabinet on the right is likely to contain? is it disk expansion? Contact me off-list if you want to see the original emails. Please contact Zoltan Korka (zkorka AtThisDomain resitareductoare.com) www.resitareductoare.com

16 years

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Free Apple Mac LC, London

by lproven＠gmail.com

Anyone want to give this a home before I recycle it? Original Mac LC - 68020, MacOS 6-7.5. Doesn't boot, but that might be the dead battery. I've checked; all my spares are dead, too. 40MB SCSI hard disk & I suspect 2MB RAM / 256KB VRAM. http://lowendmac.com/lc/macintosh-lc.html I might even deliver if it's inside the greater London area. Ask me nicely! Keyboard & mouse can be supplied with it. You've very welcome to a monitor too, but if you want one of them, you'll have to collect it. -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

16 years

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Origin of the term minicomputer (was Re: PDP-1 as ...

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

It?s my understanding, and I stand to be corrected, that mini, hyphenated or otherwise, simply meant a small computer system that preceded the microcomputer era. Granted this, the term means different-things-to-different-people, the consensus seems to be that the term mini means smaller than a mainframe and matches comparable words from the 60?s, i.e., mini-skirt, et al. As a(n) historian I treat it as a cultural phenomena rather than just a purely technical or technological definition. Whether purists agree is indeed debatable! Murray--

16 years

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Mostly OT: Looking for Manual/Schematic for Wavetek 1901C

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Snagged a Wavetek 1901C last week. This is a 12" oscilloscope display (X/Y+intensity input), I was hoping to use it as a point-plotting/vector display for a couple of little computer projects of mine. (Or maybe just hooking an Asteroids board up to it... :). It's in pretty good shape (has more screen burn than I think I've ever seen in a few spots, though.) I fixed a couple of cold solder joints and it's now mostly working, except something appears to be going slightly wrong in the Y deflection or amplification (it's getting clipped/distorted depending on the gain and input intensity). Anyone have a service manual or schematic for this thing or know good sources for such things? Thanks as always... Josh

16 years

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Serial interfaces (was Re: Any former Psion 5 owners out there?)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 03:59 PM 7/24/2010, Liam Proven wrote: >The next jump will be more interesting: 32-bit OSs basically can't >usefully handle >4GB of RAM, nor can the main ones handle >2GB drives. >Both are becoming common. Sure you meant "terabyte" not "gigabyte". The 2 TB drives are certainly more popular and common because they're getting close to $100. - John

16 years

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interactive fiction via gopherspace

by spectre＠floodgap.com

gopher://gopher.thurman.org.uk/1/advent/ No explanation or even instructions should be needed. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- A battle avoided cannot be lost. -- Sun Tzu --------------------------------

16 years

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BOUNTY: HP/UX 11i driver development

by doc＠vaxen.net

This is a bit off topic, I guess, and a repeat, but ClassicCmp is still probably the best place to ask. My company runs a bunch of HP83000 mainframes (F330 models) in product testing. We're tied to Agilent SmarTest v5.x-6.03 running on HP/UX v10.20 for test vectors. SmarTest interfaces with the test frame via an Agilent-branded fiber optic PCI adapter. The card is marked E2777B, p/n A3850-0583. It's a buffered serial adapter on a PCI bridge and that's all we know about it. SmarTest will run on HP/UX 11i, but the interface drivers will not load. We don't have source to the drivers in question, the card itself is, as far as we can discover, entirely undocumented, and neither HP nor Agilent has any interest in maintenance or further development. My company will pay a fair boatload of cash for an 11i-compatible driver. If you're interested and have the background & skills to tackle this, contact me off-list. Doc Shipley

16 years

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Origin of the term minicomputer (was Re: PDP-1 as ...

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:25:34 -0700 > From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> > Subject: Origin of the term minicomputer (was Re: PDP-1 as > minicomputer [was RE: OT - sort of]) > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4C6C097E.8060908 at bitsavers.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > > > >> But it all depends on how you define "minicomputer" as to what > >> specifically falls in the category. > > > > Who originally created the term? marketing?? > > > > The earliest use of the term as we use it today was an ad in > Datamation announcing the (Varian) Data 520i in April, 1968. > <snip> Apparently as early as May 1987 the term minicomputer was used in the WHITE HOUSE executive offices and quoted in several newspapers, along the lines, "Without a minicomputer one really can't tell ..." Given the lack of technical expertise in Washington, this suggests a much earlier origin of the word. Tom

16 years

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How about Series/1?

by trebor77＠execpc.com

How about Series/1? The Series/1 was the first entry by IBM into the minicomputer market as such. I just happen to have one sitting in my Basement. Brought it home around 1992 but never got it up and running. Should have added a 110 Volt 30 AMP Circuit but didn't. Its a 4952/4953 Half Rack W/a 9Meg HD setup for 110 Volts. Plus I have a external Floppy drive that used to work. I had an IBM Guy convert a 4955 Model E to 110 volt but I also have to original 4952. I plan on firing up the individual components through my Lab-Volt with a variable 120 Volt 3.5 Ampere Output if that will work without blowing something. "Any Thoughts Anyone???" Anyone out there running a tape drive setup that could read 6250 10" reels. I have about a Dozen, mostly backup tapes from the Working system. One is an IBM Diagnostic Tape. Maybe I can get in running. Going out west for a couple of weeks to Pan out some Gold flakes. A couple of Ounces will give me some cash to work with. Been retired since 1996 so Income is sparse. Bob in Wisconsin

16 years

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need 35 P112 preorders

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

So far I've gotten only four P112 kits preordered. I need at least 35 of them preordered to get the thing rolling. Paypal will only allow me to do refunds and get the fees back within 60 days of a payment. 60 days after the first preorder is October 11. Because of that, I'm moving the preorder cutoff date to October 11. If I can't get enough preorders, all money will be refunded. -- 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?

16 years

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PDP-1 as minicomputer

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

The earliest use of the term "minicomputer" is about 1968 (Google news, other sources). FWIW, I also think relatively small physical size was a necessary condition for a computer to be characterized as a minicomputer at least thru the mid 70s. IMHO the IBM 1130 introduced in 1965 is an early if not the first minicomputer. To quote the 1965 IBM announcement: "The desk-sized 1130 is designed for individual use by engineers, scientists and mathematicians. But with its range of peripheral units, the 1130 also will be used in such fields as publishing, construction, finance, manufacturing and distribution." Tom > Message: 3 > Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:24:50 -0700 > From: Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> > Subject: PDP-1 as minicomputer [was RE: OT - sort of] > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CC28F43ED4708D489ABCF68D06D7F556040A5CC9EA at 505DENALI.corp.vnw.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > From: Tony Duell > Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 11:19 AM > > >> Yep, that makes a lot more sense. In 1960 I suppose about the only > >> thing to play a computer game on would have been either a mini or a > >> mainframe - actually I think it would have had to be a mainframe. <snip> > Arguing that anything before the PDP-8 was a "minicomputer" is > revisionism. > IMAO. > > > Rich Alderson <snip>

16 years

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KA640 + mem available

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

For the cost of postage, a KA640-CL 'Mayfair II' processor board (M7624) & 2 M7609 memoryboards. It's a pull from a working machine. Items are in The Netherlands. Contact me off list if interested. -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email.

16 years

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EPROM programming (27c160's)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Tony, At 19:37 -0500 8/13/10, Alexandre wrote: > I think I still have an image of the old site on my desktop, mail me if >you want that Alexandre's link, http://web.archive.org/web/20080621113020/http://www.willem.org/ points to a page which my machine loads only glacially, apparently because the server isn't responding fast. Meantime, my Googling for "willem programmer" produced this page: http://www.sivava.com/ which describes a commercially available EPROM programmer. Packages start at US$39. Many adaptors are available, prices $3 - $70. Driver software appears to be Windows only (9x - XP). The programmer looks like a single free-standing circuit board, ~9 IC's plus a lot of sockets including a DIP ZIF socket. USB power, "DB25" data cable (!). Ah, reading further, there's an AC/DC power adaptor as well, so I guess you don't need a PC with both USB and Serial. I think the two pages are talking about the same thing, or at least different versions of the same thing. I'm not sure about that. Hope this helps! -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

16 years

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Onyx2 cube

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:52:47 -0600 From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> Subject: Re: Onyx2 cube In article <BLU139-W25029DA6E84E88C266FB0AC99C0 at phx.gbl>, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> writes: > I have one sitting here for $75 plus shipping if anyone wants it. > or pickup if you liike > > in toronto Yeah. Shipping from Toronto is a lot more expensive than driving up to the University and loading it in the back of my car :-). ---------------- Well, for you maybe; unfortunately I'm not interested ;-) mike (in Toronto)

16 years

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Some DG 1200 progress

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I found some appropriate C&K switches (7101 and 7205) in a bin at the local surplus electronics scrap place, $1 each - so I have a usable front panel. This is good because I really didn't want to cannibalize another perfectly good front panel. I also got a jarring reminder when installing them that my soldering skills have degraded over time. Thank god for solder-wyck :) I cleaned up the backplane and all edge connectors with progold, tested out the power supplies, and the machine sprang to life. It would appear that all the bulbs except the LSbit in the address row work, which is good as the bulbs seem pretty unobtanium. I'll keep digging to find a source of spares for the 2176D. The bulbs have no markings on them, but they are fed via an 11v supply. It looks like they are tied to ground via a 1K resistor which I'm guessing is a warming circuit. I do find it rather odd that they are soldered in place instead of socketed, and since the bulbs have no metal at all - just two very thin leads coming right out of the glass - they seem pretty fragile. I can deposit and examine correctly to all 4 cpu registers, but memory is a different story. There are a few spots in memory that I tested (at 100o for the one 8K stack and at 20000o for the other 8K stack) where I can deposit and read back as expected. However, there are a fair number of spots where if I deposit a value, the machine goes into run mode when I hit the deposit switch. Doesn't that sound more like a cpu card issue than memory or front panel? Next task is to try and decipher the documentation for the backplane and the J & P connectors, so I can tell from the schematics where things are supposed to be and where they go. The fun begins! Best, J

16 years

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Biomation K100D Logic Analyzers (Was: Logic analyzer pods)

by technobug＠comcast.net

I have a Biomation K100D along with its parts buddy available for pickup at 85704 (or 85003 in the near future). The unit worked the last time I used it and has a TTL probe set (K100/32). The parts buddy has a sick power supply. Shipping is sort of out of the question... On ASun, 15 Aug 2010 02:08:47 -0700, jim s <jws at jwsss.com> wrote: > I know this may be a long stretch, but one almost never sees logic > analyzer pods on ebay, usually someone with the box who is way too proud > of it. > > Here is an auction for some K100D pods, and if you look at the other > auctions there are others, I think. > > Thought I'd pass it along for those interested, since older logic > analyzers are pretty useful for the people on the list. [...] The probe sets for this model are easy to build. I put together a set when I picked up my first box and used it with PICK micros when I was inflicted with that madness. Subsequently I was given the set that accompanies the above unit(s). CRC

16 years

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Datex floppy drive emulator - flash based replacement for magnetic

by bienvenue＠datex.fr

Dear Marcus, You talk about our product ..thank you ! But it will be better to contact us , and i can explain to you why our products are expensives .. Do you know really the price ? Do you remember also what was the price of the product we are replacing when they had been sold ? As examples :(and i can give to you a lot..) -The RD54 from DEC was a Maxtor XT2190 with DEC format. DEC price list , as formatted unit , was 9200 USD , 20 years ago !!! -The Shugart SA850 , 8 inches floppy drive ,price list through their resellers..2800 USD...30 years ago !! A lot of industries and "others" are still using them for differents reasons and they need to be replace as simple they want without changing any software , nothing !! just to unplug the drive ..and plug emulator , and then start again !!.. We also offer to copy "bit per bit" their data and format , because often they are no more able to do the format.. You can conatct me at glb at datex.fr Best regards. Guy LE BOUGEANT. President.

16 years

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Defcon 18

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

While not normally of interest, I wanted to let folks know that a friend of mine (and fellow classiccmp'er) was at DefCon again this year. He's been going and taking various classic computers to show off (and get hacked). I received a call from him a week or so before DefCon asking if there was something "interesting" he could take as he didn't want to take the same stuff as last year. I offered up my large PDP-11/40 (3 racks worth...he added a tape drive). It was a hit. He had booted BSD 2.9 and gave out a guest password. He parted with "If you want 'root' you'll have to do that yourself". It was after all a hackers convention. 5 minutes later someone came up with a note with the password on it (they used his ancient Sparc to do a dictionary attack). Pictures of the machines are on Wired site here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/gallery-defcon-18/13/ DefCon's gallery is here: https://pics.defcon.org//showphoto.php?photo=743&title=retro-computing-1&ca… TTFN - Guy

16 years

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Tons of tapes and diskpacks for TI-990 computer

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Allan Frogger in Central California writes: "" I have DS5 diskpacks (5 MB) and DS80 diskpacks (80MB) (heavy copper, 12"? platters, in polycarbonate shells) for a TI 990 computer, as well as extra terminals with screen and keyboards. I also have reel tapes for TI and many 8" floppies, many in original boxes - they are all functional as I used them on my TI990 system before I moved. "" See pictures here: http://popbottlecaps.com/temp/ti-990.html Contact Allen at <allanfrogger at yahoo.com> if interested

16 years

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NOS 33 ASR on eBay goes for $2358

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Forwarded from the Greenkeys list: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190427439755 - John

16 years

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[gopher] OT: Anyone interested in text editor programming? (fwd)

by spectre＠floodgap.com

I figured some people on this list would want to play with this. >From the gopher-project mailing list. ----- Forwarded message from N. Theodore Matavka ----- From: "N. Theodore Matavka" <... at gmail.com> To: gopher-project at lists.alioth.debian.org Subject: [gopher] OT: Anyone interested in text editor programming? Hello, world! I know this is a Gopher mailing list, but I know that there are some budding developers among you. Recently, I have rescued some software >from the bit bucket, and I am asking, if it is not too much, if there are any among you interested in bringing a great old editor back to the forefront. I am talking about TECO: the famously cryptic Text Editor and Corrector, now made far less cryptic due to the addition of a GUI. If you have ever done any amount of work on HP or DEC minis, you must know what I'm talking about. If not, here's a quick rundown: TECO was the first-ever programmer's editor to be written, in the tradition of vi and emacs. In fact, emacs is a direct descendant of TECO, having originally been called Editor Macros. It is included as system standard on all manner of VAXen and PDP-10s. Its one main drawback was that the buffer of text that was being worked on was not visible except on-demand, and one could completely mangle a document with just a few keystrokes, until someone managed to write a version of TECO that displayed the text buffer all the time. Video TECO is an attempt to re-create this great old editor in a version that any Tom, Dick, or Harry would understand. It was written by Paul Cantrell ten years ago; the files had been lost, until I discovered a snapshot of the source hiding in my e-mail inbox. I've even found a patch to make it run on Linux. So I've re-released it under the Sleepycat Licence, and I am currently enlisting developers to help me add new features and squash bugs. I've got plenty of documentation from DEC and HP as to how to work this editor; I've been using it for quite a while in its old version, and would surely appreciate video TECO. A version of video TECO already exists on VAX, and it is only by luck that I managed to find this version for PC. I have just put the files on SourceForge, and they are available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/newteco/. Please assist me in this great endeavour. Cordially, Nick Matavka. _______________________________________________ Gopher-Project mailing list Gopher-Project at lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/gopher-project ----- End of forwarded message from N. Theodore Matavka ----- -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- There are 10 kinds of people: those who read binary, and those who don't. --

16 years

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Since when are magazines so expensive?

by marvin＠west.net

curt at atarimuseum.com> wrote: > Been happening a lot lately, I'm even seeing common PC mags from > the 80's being offered for higher then they should prices... I was checking some pricing for the original PE Altair issues, and my eyes started to water when I saw them for about $1600 or so. I didn't check to see the number of bidders, but there were another batch of auctions after that where they were selling for $600 - $800 or so. Marvin

16 years

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looking for monitor and cable for DECmate II

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

I just acquired a nice DECMate II but it lacks monitor and cable. Can anyone help me with a VR201 monitor (shared with Rainbow and DEC Pro series) and/or the special DA-15 cable which provides both video and keyboard connection to the main box. Please reply directly offlist. Thanks, Jack

16 years

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Terminals...

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > Not at all, I just wanted to know what he didn't like about them. The > only thing I dislike about VT420s is the non-removable power cables. Huh? My VT420s have removable power cords... William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: > I do not like the VT420 due to MMJ, the relatively low reliability, > and that CRAP power switch on the front. The keyboards are nothing to > write home about either, but DEC keyboards rarely are. Interesting, how different peoples view can be. The VT420 have both DB25 and MMJ, so I can't see how that could annoy anyone. (As do all DEC terminals from the VT220 onwards.) However, MMJ is actually very nice. Too bad it didn't catch on outside of DEC. But I try to use it for everything I can at home. The power switch I can agree on. I don't fancy that slider. Keyboards... I know people have very different opinions on those, but I think the LK201 and LK402 keyboards are wonderful. I really dislike IBM PC keyboards. Way too long key presses, and to much klickety klack. And all the copies of them are even worse. The VT100 keyboard is not a favorite, though. That one also have too much travel when pressing a key. No, I can't honestly think of a keyboard I like better than the LK201 and LK401. And I really think they layout is way better than what IBM dreamt up. The reliability of the VT420 seems to be pretty decent. I've had many more VT320 fail on me. But we have to remember that we're talking about 20+ year old equipment now... 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

16 years

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Logic analyzer pods

by jws＠jwsss.com

I know this may be a long stretch, but one almost never sees logic analyzer pods on ebay, usually someone with the box who is way too proud of it. Here is an auction for some K100D pods, and if you look at the other auctions there are others, I think. Thought I'd pass it along for those interested, since older logic analyzers are pretty useful for the people on the list. 130410451946 They are also "Buy it now" so first come first served if the price isn't too high for you. Jim

16 years

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Since when are magazines so expensive?

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/MacWorld-First-Issue-1984_W0QQitemZ110571651570

16 years

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IMSAI 8080 power supply ratings...

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Hi all -- So the recent discussion of static RAM and the power consumption thereof has lead me to figure out what the approximate rating for my IMSAI's power supply is, before I inadvertently overload it. I have an IMSAI manual that describes the PS-28U as having a rating of 28A on the 7V supply, and 4.5 on the +/-13.5V supplies. Unfortunately, the PS-28U does not appear to be the supply I have fitted in my IMSAI, based on the component descriptions, schematics, and pictures in the manual. I'm unable to find schematics or a manual for any other IMSAI 8080 power supply other than the PS-28U. I have a picture of my IMSAI's power supply at: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/imsai/IMG_0244.JPG. It contains a 17,000uF, a 12,000uF, and a 95,000uF capacitor. (And a very large transformer as well.) Any IMSAI experts out there familiar with this particular variant? (And thanks again for all the help with the static RAM. I have been offered some 2147s locally and with those, hopefully I'll be able to get the 32K board running again...) Thanks, Josh

16 years

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Greetings fellow classiccmp'ers

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

Jay writes: > My jwest at classiccmp.org email address went unopened though, and I've > just started plowing through 22K (that's a count, not a size) of email. In the case of mailing lists I run, the spam making it through to the moderator and admin addresses (me in several instances) was truly out of control. See below for solution. > I'd like to update the classiccmp server (OS, apache, mysql, & mailman) > soon. To aid in that transition, I will probably temporarily migrate > all the sites & list to one of our clusters, load the classiccmp > server from scratch, and then migrate everything back. I'll > keep the list posted when I start down that path. Having recently migrated all the stuff on *.trailing-edge.com to a 2010 era server (as opposed to the 2000 era server it was on - previous to that it had been on an Alpha with VMS, and previous to that it had been on a VAX with VMS) with fresh installs of all the software I was pleasantly surprised with the advances that have been made in apache and mailman configuration over time especially with respect to virtual domains etc. In particular the Ubuntu distribution was very straightforward to deal with... after I had adopted to the more modern configuration techniques. And spamassassin can be better integrated with postfix and mailman than in the past, to the point where the obvious spams never have to make it to a moderator's mailbox or turn up as a bogus request to the admin address. I'm not sure you need to stage through an intermediate platform, BTW. Just bite the bullet and go to the final platform. Unless you really enjoy installing and configuring everything twice. Although I was pleasantly surprised with the new Apache etc. configuration methods I still wouldn't want to do it twice. Tim.

16 years

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Static RAM chip source (& S-100 related questions...)

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Hi all -- I finally have procured enough hardware to get my IMSAI 8080 running again, albeit in a very barebones state. I currently have only 16K of working (and compatible) memory and am trying to get an additional 32K static RAM board working again (It's an IMS board, see: http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Folder/IMS/32K%20Static%20RAM/32K%2…) Mine is missing a number of memory chips; these are 5257 4Kx1 (I believe >from my research the TMS4044 is equivalent). Can anyone suggest a reputable place to pick up half a dozen or so of these for a reasonable price? There are a few on ebay for $6 each, which seems a little steep (but perhaps my expectations are out of order...) I'm also looking for a manual for a PSS RAM65. I believe this is a 16K DRAM board. It's the only S-100 board in my collection that I haven't managed to find a manual or schematic for... Once I get the memory situation resolved I hope to get a floppy disk system working. I currently have a Tarbell 1011D in unknown condition -- is this a decent card to work with (and can it be made to work with 5.25" drives?), or would I be better off finding something else? Thanks as always, Josh

16 years

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transistor replacements

by dgari＠msn.com

Assuming they are complementary, these oughta work: http://www.nteinc.com/specs/100to199/pdf/nte188.pdf _

16 years

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Terminals...

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On 8/13/10 4:27 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >>> >> Not at all, I just wanted to know what he didn't like about them. The >>> >> only thing I dislike about VT420s is the non-removable power cables. >> > >> > Huh? My VT420s have removable power cords... > > Mine do not. This is interesting. I know there was a variation of > the VT320 (yes 320) that had a removable power cord, but they're not > terribly common. Apparently there's a removable-cord version of the > VT420 as well. Interesting! Hmm. Unfortunately I don't have any VT320 around anymore, since all of them have broken down (flybacks mostly). But I've had atleast five of them over time, and all have had removable cords. I wonder if this might be more of a european thing. Since different countries in Europe use different power plugs, it makes sense to have the power cord detachable. There is more or less a standard format plug that goes into any kind of computer equipment, but the wall plug differs between countries. So you usually don't use a fixed power cord, but instead the standard equipment power connector on your equipment, and then ship whatever power cord is used in that country. >> > The VT420 have both DB25 and MMJ, so I can't see how that could annoy >> > anyone. (As do all DEC terminals from the VT220 onwards.) > > Now waitaminute. I am staring at the back of both a VT420 and VT320 > right now, on the table opposite my desk. Neither of them have DB25s, > only MMJs. The VT420 has what looks like a knock-out that's about the > right size for a DB25. > > Apparently versions with and without DB25s exist as well! Apparently so. :-) > That same (rare-to-me) VT320 I mentioned above that has a removable > power cord also has a DB25. Out of a few hundred VT320s that have gone > through my hands, it's the only one I've ever seen that has either a > removable power cord or a DB25. I've never seen a VT420 with either of > those, and until now, I haven't even heard of their existence. Well, I have four VT420 at home right now, and they all have both a DB25 and detachable power cord. Since I was feeling creative tonight, I even took pictures of the back side of all terminals I have at home. So here is a link to where you can see the backside of: VT-330, VT-420, VT-510, VT-520 and VT-525. All of them have DB25 and all of them have detachable power cords. http://www.update.uu.se/~bqt/vt (Argh, I just realized I missed the VT-240 I have, but oh well...) William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: >> > Huh? My VT420s have removable power cords... > > Some do, some do not. Yup. I just learned. All I've ever seen have been with detachable cords. But as I wrote above, I bet this is a european thing. >> > The VT420 have both DB25 and MMJ, > > Some do, some do not. Of the fifty or so I had recently, I think only > one had the DB25 in addition to MMJ. All mine do, and I have four right here. >> > However, MMJ is actually very nice. Too bad it didn't catch on outside of >> > DEC. But I try to use it for everything I can at home. > > MMJ "fixed" a problem that really was no big deal - people confusing > RJ45 serial with ethernet. I think the real reason was to lock people > into MMJ by doing the old lets-violate-the-standard trick. In my book, > DEC is guilty as anyone else here. Huh? That is totally backwards in more than one way. Yes, MMJ "fixed" one thing. It has nothing to do with ethernet, but all to do with people (and companies) who couldn't figure out how to wire a DB25. Almost all companies got the gender wrong on their equipment. In addition to that, many couldn't figure out what a DTE and DCE was. Now, that is called standard violation. Causing people to have cables they think they can connect, but which don't work. DEC is one of the two companies that did get it right (the other one being HP). To this day, it totally amaze me how so many companies couldn't get this right. And >from that perspective it don't surprise me when people around here don't get it either (there was a long thread not long ago, which I declined to even participate in). RS-232 is so simple that it's hard to get wrong. There is only two things you can mess up with. Connector gender, and DTE vs DCE. How can people find that so difficult??? And if people and companies had actually stayed with the standard, you wouldn't even had been able to mix those to parameters up. A DTE *should* have a *male* DB25. A DCE *should* have a female DB25. A male-male cable should be crossed, a female-female cable should be crossed, a male-female cable should be straight. There is nothing more to it. All terminals and computers are DTEs. Modems are DCEs. But it you absolutely wanted to, feel free to wire a modem up as a DTE. It will work just fine, just as long as you fit the right DB25 to it, and wire it up accordingly. But no. Companies just loved putting female DB25 on their terminals, and wire them up as DTEs. Or put male DB25 on their computers, and wire them up as DCEs. *Idiots* That is called violating the standards. And to make matters ridiculously worse, we have IBM. Who simply put just raped the RS-232 standard by using a DE9, moving one or two pins in a totally non-logical way, changing the gender, *and* sortof wiring it as a DCE. They should be taken out to the back and shot. IBM have caused more damage to the computer world than all other companies put together. Here is a simple tip for the next time you wire a RS-232 up. Measure pin 2 and 3 on the equipment. One should at around -12V, while the other is around 0. Do this on both sides. Then wire the -12V from one side to the 0V on the other for both 2 and 3. And run pin 7 straight through. And that's it. You now have a correct RS-232 cable, albeit just the data leads. You can wire the rest up if it amuse you. The most important ones are DCD, DTR, DSR, RTS, CTS. For a DTE-DTE, you should wire CTS to RTS and DCD+DSR to DTR. Very simple. And if I remember right, we're talking about pines 4,5,6,8 and 20. But I'd usually check the RS-232 DB25 connector layout before I try to wire a full cable up. Most of the time I'm happy with just 2,3 and 7 anyway, since I don't do hardware flow control (another RS-232 standards violation, by the way, and which DEC did not do). But having the DSR signal is useful to detect if someone gets disconnected. What DEC did with MMJ was in no way violating any standard. Noone in his right mind would think that an MMJ was an RS-232. So what standard did they violate (if I may ask?). Hmm, I seem to remember that the signalling in the MMJ is even called DEC-423, but I might be remembering wrong. It is pretty much compatible with RS-423 anyway (might be equivalent), and you can usually get away with connecting that directly with RS-232, but they are not really the same thing. (Hmm, looking at RS-423, it would appear that DEC-423 is a superset, since DEC-423 don't actually use a common ground for everything, but use one ground for all transmitted signals, and one ground for all received signals). So, the signalling in the MMJ connector is only claimed to be communicating using DEC-423. How would that violate any standard? If DEC had said that it was an RS-232 port, then they would have violated the RS-232 standard. (I guess I'm confused at your definition of violating a standard.) What MMJ solved was that they removed the gender issues, and they simplified the DTE/DCE issues. Your cable is either straight or crossed (either flat or turned 180? looking from one end to the other). They also simplified the assembly of the cables compared to RS-232. The fact that MMJ Ethernet vs. RS-232 on a RJ45? Give me a break. None of that even existed when the MMJ came about. And the idea of putting RS-252 on an RJ45 is something I'd call violating a standard, if anything. But it comes with the one-connector-for-everything that some people are so fond of. So you also have telephony on RJ45, to make life really interesting... And all running through one patch panel. >> > The reliability of the VT420 seems to be pretty decent. I've had many more >> > VT320 fail on me. But we have to remember that we're talking about 20+ year >> > old equipment now... > > Yes, but these were built well towards the end of the monochrome CRT era. I don't know. When was the end of the monochrome CRT era? Has it ended yet? Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On 8/13/10 5:51 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >>> >> AFAIK the VT420 supports Sixel, but not ReGIS. >> > >> > No. The last graphic terminal was the VT340. >> > The VT420 don't support any graphics, unless you count the user defined >> > font as graphics. >> > >> > Graphics implies either SIXEL, ReGIS or both. Actually, I've never seen >> > any terminal that supports sixel but not ReGIS, however, several >> > printers is of that inclination. >> > >> > (Although I'm sure someone will now recall some terminal that do sixel >> > but not ReGIS just because I wrote the above... :-) ). > > I've never *used* Sixel graphics on a VT420, but the manual clearly > states that it supports the Sixel format. > > (flip flip) > > Ok, I just went back and re-read it. It "supports Sixel format" as a > way to encode user-definable character sets. So you're right I suppose, > it ALMOST supports Sixel graphics! ;) I said "unless you count the used defined font". :-) All that said, I know some crazy person wrote a GIF viewer for the VT320, using the user defined font to pull it off. Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: On 8/13/10 8:49 PM, William Donzelli wrote: >>> >> However, MMJ is actually very nice. Too bad it didn't catch on outside of >>> >> DEC. But I try to use it for everything I can at home. >> > >> > MMJ "fixed" a problem that really was no big deal - people confusing >> > RJ45 serial with ethernet. > > Huh? I don't see how that can be. The 802.3i standard which defined > 10baseT Ethernet on RJ45 connectors came out in 1990, while the first > terminal to implement MMJ was the VT320, which predates that by three years. Ouch. You're right. For some reason I was thinking that the VT220 also had MMJ, but it didn't. That only came with the VT320... But I can't see the relevance of MMJ vs. RJ45 either, for various reasons mentioned above. 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

16 years

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Osborne 1 microcomputer + software available

by biblioamy＠gmail.com

I have an Osborne 1 Microcomputer with software available, as described below, for free or just pay shipping if it needs to be shipped. I was informed I could post a listing on the Classiccmp site by just sending this email. I need to find an interested home for it! Thanks in advance for your help if you can. Osborne 1 computer + software pay shipping only Osborne 1 Computer, 1981, the "first commercially successful portable microcomputer" (Wikipedia). We are the second owners. Last we checked, several years ago, it runs perfectly. Software included: CP/M tm V2.2 System & Utility copyright 1981 by Digital Research Wordstar/Mailmerge Version 2.26 copyright 1981 by MicroPro Int. CBasic/MBasic copyright 1981 by Microsoft Supercalc v1.12 copyright 1982 by Sorcim Corp. Personal Pearl copyright 1982 Relational Systems version 1.02 (all 7 diskettes, Disk 2 Design Reports, Disk 3 Install Forms and Reports, Disk 4 Enter Data, Disk 5 Produce Reports, Disk 6 File Maintenance, Disk 7 Startup Disk) AMCALL copyright MicroCALL Services version 2.06 ~ Amy (Longmont, Colorado)

16 years

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transistor replacements

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm playing around with an old gizmo that calls for mps-u05 and mps-u55 transistors. They're obsolete, but easy enough to find on Ebay. I would rather use something more modern, particularly because these are in a power supply. Can someone suggest substitutes in a TO-220 case? I'm not coming up with anything satisfying with Mouser's select-o-matic. -- 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?

16 years

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cctech Digest, Vol 84, Issue 16

by jonas＠otter.se

Use alkaline or silver oxide. Any small error in exposure caused by the difference in voltage is compensated for by the exposure latitude of the film. I had my OM-1 modified with the Schottky diode setup, works perfectly. I believe it would probably work just as well without the diode. And as far as the diode goes, I have heard one person claim that it is entirely pointless because the voltage drop over the diode varies so much with the ambient temperature that the compensating effect is essentially nullified. Don't waste your money on any fancy adapters, or expensive zinc-air batteries either. Alkalines work perfectly well enough. /Jonas On 8/13/2010, somebody and Tony Duell wrote: >> battery: that's a problem with my Minolta SRT series SLRs, where the > >I think that's unlikey. The voltage is not too critical (it needs to be >between 3-ish ance 5V, I think). I have had success using a couple of AA >cells in series (normal 1.5V Duracells) as a replaemeent for a backup >coil cell in some systems. No, they don't last as long (shelf life is >lower), but they are avaialble _anywhere_. > >> excellent TTL metering doesn't work anymore because it was designed to >> be powered by mercury cells that I can't buy anymore. > > >While you can, alas, no longer get mercury batteries, there are plenty of >work-arounds for this. If the STT101 I've just picked up from my pile of >odd cameras is anythign to go by, it takes a single PX13/PX625 cell. >There is an alkaline equivelent that's the same size, but highter >voltage, and I susepct, alas, the Mimnolta meter woudl care about that. >Often connecting a single shottky diode in sereis with the cell will do >the teick, if there's space inside the camera (sorry, I've not pulled the >bottm plate to check), then it's easy to add it. If there isn't space, >then there's a fairly expensive adapterwhich takes a smaller alkanline >cell and includes a series diode. Or you could make soemthing like that. >Or a new battrey cover containing contacts with wires leading to an >external PSU of the right voltage. >

16 years

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Pronouncing acronyms (was Re: DEC acronyms)

by jonas＠otter.se

Sorry about being so unclear, I thought you might be a member of the group in question. Actually, it is quite the opposite, he keeps saying that you shouldn't take a lens apart without having sophisticated equipment to collimate the lens when putting it together again, as well as considerable experience using the equipment, unless you want to have a clean but expensive paperweight. He thinks that if you just put it back together again the optical performance will be terrible. I wouldn't know, I haven't tried. I'm not sure I believe that companies like Minolta who made thousands of lenses wouldn't have worked out a way to make the optical elements self-aligning or something. It sounds like a lot of expense for a manufacturing process for consumer items. Anyway he claims to have years of experience designing stuff for spy satellites or something, however that might relate to commercial camera manufacturing. /Jonas On 8/13/2010, ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > >Well, if he's suggesting spaying soemthing into the lens (yes, I have >seen that suggested!), I certainly disapprove. If he;'s suggesting >removing the optical elemenets and applyuing solvent/lubricantmix to the >mount, then that's slightly better, but IMHO that's a method used by >people who can't handle tools and small parts properly, and if you're not >careful, it simply shifts the gummy lubricant, etc, elsewhere where it >will cause toruble lateer. I really do prefer to clean each part separately. > >-tony >

16 years

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Some DEC stuff on Ebay

by dave＠mitton.com

FYI: I have listed the following on eBay: Seller name: olebgamer - VT320 Terminal - VT220 Terminal - DECmodem V32 DF-296DA - 2 LK250 Keyboards Dave.

16 years

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Terminals.

by bqt＠softjar.se

Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > On 8/12/10 9:39 PM, Richard wrote: >>> >> DEC's terminal business was a shell of its former self back when the >>> >> VT420 was introduced, so it may be true. >> > >> > Maybe I'm thinking of the 240 instead? Does the 420 do graphics? > > AFAIK the VT420 supports Sixel, but not ReGIS. No. The last graphic terminal was the VT340. The VT420 don't support any graphics, unless you count the user defined font as graphics. Graphics implies either SIXEL, ReGIS or both. Actually, I've never seen any terminal that supports sixel but not ReGIS, however, several printers is of that inclination. (Although I'm sure someone will now recall some terminal that do sixel but not ReGIS just because I wrote the above... :-) ). 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

16 years

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NEC parallel to scsi host adapter

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

part # is CDINT339 it allows you to plug in a SCSI device, and use your (parallel port) printer at the same time. Are drivers required? I remember Mike Brutman had one or something similar. He used it to drive a zip drive on a Peanut IIRC. Can anyone inform? Thank you kindly. The possibilities this item opens up are truly infinite. I can barely contain myself.

16 years

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CAMAC Crate Available Cheltenham UK

by fryers＠gmail.com

G'Day, I have accumulated a CAMAC crate that, despite my best intentions, I am never going to use. I have a whole load of cards for it. If anyone is interested I'll produce a list of cards. The crate and cards have spent some time at CERN and looking at the stickers on it, at other laboratories around the UK. As usual, I am happy to deliver in the UK if it is not too far from where I may be passing - which can be a lot of the UK. Otherwise it is collect from Cheltenham. I may consider posting if anyone is serious enough - weighs well in excess of 20kg, and quite possibly 30+kg. Thanks. Simon -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is the utility of the final product." Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh

16 years

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free pdp stuff in Lima OH

by shumaker＠att.net

2 11/44s, some disks and misc looks to be in quite good condition - at least cosmetically FREE to good home according to the ad Craigs List http://limaohio.craigslist.org/sys/1895340054.html steve

16 years

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SUN Equipment Available in Cheltenham UK

by fryers＠gmail.com

G'Day, I am in the process of cleaning out my collection of systems pending a move to Australia. I have the following SUN systems I would like to pass onto collectors: SUN E450 (unsure if it has memory, no disks, I was given a SCSI controller for it but I think the controller is HVD). SUN SPARCstation 2. It has memory (I forget what amount). 2 x 200MB Disks, NVRAM hack with external battery. SUN 411 disk enclosure with disk. I forget what size the disk is. I am also parting out a SUN IPC if anyone wants parts - power supply went (was swapped into a machine that I want to take with me.) I also have a couple of 50 pin SE SCSI HDD with capacities in the range of a couple of hundred MBs. Collect from Cheltenham UK or anywhere I might pass in the UK - which for work means a lot of the UK. I am also happy to ship anything except the E450. Thanks. Simon -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is the utility of the final product." Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh

16 years

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Pronouncing acronyms (was Re: DEC acronyms)

by jonas＠otter.se

Concerning dismantling lenses in order to clean helicoids, diaphragm blades etc. you might be interested in Chuck Cole's opinions as expressed in the ManualMinoltaFree Yahoo group. Somehow I imagine you might disagree with him, or else you might explain your method of dealing with the issues he feels so strongly about... /Jonas On Sun, 8 Aug 2010 18:54:37 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > >Fortuately all that goers wrong with the lenses for my cameras is that >the grease goes rock-hard in the focussing helical threads (a pain to >clean out, but possible), and occasionally oil migrates onto the >diaphagm blades and causes them to stick (ditto). No electronics to go >wrong, of course... > >-tony >

16 years

4
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GET LAMP is here

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:35:44 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> Subject: Re: GET LAMP is here On 8/11/10 3:12 PM, MikeS wrote: > Give it up. No point in arguing with folks who have a need to tell us at > every opportunity that they're smarter, better, whatever, than all those > Windows lusers out there; just smile tolerantly and ignore them. Oh, never once have I asserted that. Again the fanboys choose to twist my words in an effort to marginalize any statement disparaging Windows. This isn't about ME, it's about Microsoft fanboys who pipe up and deny the existence of the troubles that damn near everyone has with that product line. This doesn't make ME any better, either in reality or in my own mind. So, envision yourself as someone who has personally cared very much for cars and car technology all your life, has seen such fads come and go, and has a fiscal and professional responsibility to use and sell what works. Now, if you knew of a group of near-religious devotees to a particular brand of car that was widely known to regularly catch fire while driving down the street in nearly all situations, so blind in their devotion that they loudly assert that these failures don't exist when the whole world sees them, how would you react? I poke fun at the Microsoft-can-do-no-wrong crowd (which I was doing at the start of this thread, because Will Donzelli amusingly suggested that UNIX guys don't get laid) because they're very entertaining when they keep pointing at the blue sky screaming that it's red, over and over and over again, ad infinitum, ad nausem. So, no, this is not about me, and I'm sorry, I'm not going to allow you to label it as such. I'm trying to explain myself here, not justify my position...I have no need to do the latter, while doing the former seems necessary when people try to dismiss an argument by restating it incorrectly. In the interest of on-topicness (topicicity?) I will drop this thread if you guys will. I like and respect most everyone here, and I don't really enjoy pooping in my own yard. I regret that this has gone this far, but I could not let certain statements stand. -Dave ------------ <snip> >Again the fanboys choose to twist my words in an effort to marginalize any >statement disparaging Windows. <snip> You really are tooooo funny... You talk about "fanboys" (presumably a derogatory term that includes Richard and me) twisting your words? I think Richard (and I) just said that we're getting a little tired of your endless "Windows is crap" remarks; I didn't hear anyone say that Microsoft can do no wrong, that there aren't any problems with the product line (as there are with pretty well any software), or even that the sky is blue (or red). To use your analogy, if for whatever reason I owned one of those cars you mentioned and had perhaps even made the necessary modifications to prevent it from catching fire, I'd also get pretty tired of your telling me what a PoS it is every time you saw me driving it. What I do read over and over again, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, are your puerile criticisms of MS and dismissive insults of anyone who suggests that their products are perhaps not the complete and total PoS that you keep insisting, not to mention your recurring mention of those 'converts' whom you've shown the true and only way to the light... ;-) Now that *does* sound like a fanboy... >This isn't about ME... Yeah, actually it is, at least it's about these tiresome posts and insults of yours. But it's all in fun, right? mike

16 years

10
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Possible OT: not your normal price for an old dry cell

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

For those who want to have a laugh ebay item 300449402961 I'm still wondering if it is a type or not. Ed -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email.

16 years

2
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AS/400e 9401-150 server needs a home - metro west Boston, MA

by jpeterson＠chinalake.com

Not really classic in this model, however: I have an AS/400e 9401-150 server and associated hardware that needs a new home. I obtained it last year and do not have the bandwidth to do anything with it. I have not powered the server up, but I was told it works. The front appears to have taken a hit in the lower left (dented grate behind and screw mount snapped--reglued) and the face shows some scrapes. The back half-round cover is missing. I believe the previous owner obtained it 2nd hand for dev work. 2-32 meg mem modules, 2-4.x gig drives (59H7001) se scsi, CD, QIC 4/8 DL SLR5 tape drive, 90H9241 twinax card. IBM 3477 InfoWindow terminal w/ 122 key kb. Found that the power button needs to be pressed down a bit when released (for ON) to have it catch. IBM 3197 terminal sans keyboard--never got it. Term powers up with 0A00 and 'k' on the bottom center. Two lexmark 4028 AS1 laser printers. I have a note on one from last year that the pickup roller is toast. The other says OK, but I will check again. Box of cables. Mostly T adapters or 9 and 15 pin D-subs, one twinax cable, one MAU (really), two terms, one 8-port fan-out (21F5093), and second 8-port fanout (mod# ?), plus a few baluns and odd pieces. There are plenty of Ts, but you will probably need more cable to hook up more than one or two devices. A few misc docs. CD/Floppies: V4 OS, Client Access for 95/NT, LanStreamer PCI diags Images: www.flickr.com/photos/31439100 at N05/sets/72157624713623016/ I don't want to part it out if I can help it--goes as one group. I'll keep the printer with the toasted roller for parts if it isn't wanted. Metro-west Boston, MA. Pick-up, or I'll deliver inside the 495 area on my schedule. I will store for a while, if you are really going to collect it, or relay it. --Jim jtp at chinalake.com

16 years

1
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P112 kit pre-orders

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

You've asked me again and again "When will you have more P112 kits?". The answer is "very soon". I'm now taking pre-orders. The kits are $150 for shipping in the US and $160 outside the US. You can place your order at using Paypal http://661.org/p112. If you'd rather not use Paypal, email me and we'll get something worked out. -- 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?

16 years

1
0
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HP 9825A

by marvin＠west.net

I've got several HP 9825A calculator/computers that I don't need. In checking out the first one, I get an error code 30 which according to the quick reference means special function not defined. Anyone know what this actually means? As soon as I get them checked out and to a known condition, I'll go ahead and put them up on the VCGM, and start them at around $50 - $75 depending on condition. I've just got WAY too much stuff around here, and I don't expect to ever really want to play with these. BTW, I only get the digest, so I'll see any response(s) on the next digest. Thanks! Marvin

16 years

1
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3278s

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> Truely boat anchors, but well built boat anchors. There is a variant called 3277 mod 1. It is a small 3270 terminal, with a squished very rectangular tube that can only display 12 lines of text. These were used as consoles on S/3, and are very rare today. Save them if you get them! -- Will

16 years

1
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