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

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, Still happily rooting through my big pile of ju.. er, "Fine high quality vintage material". Hit upon a big box full of assorted parts, ICs, etc. found a couple of white-ceramic 8080s, some keyboard encoders (also white-ceramic), lots of ROMs, RAMs (some very old), lots of interface logic, some disk controllers (including several 1793s which I needed but never did get around to ordering), and lots of other oddball stuff, including: about a dozen interesting looking chips, which are labled: MK4116E-3 This appear to be a 9-pin DIP ceramic carrier with two smaller chips mounted on-top - each of the smaller chips has the MK4116E-3 designation. The smaller chips also have 9 pins, however they are not DIP but rather in a 4, 5, 4, 5 arrangement all the way around the device. Anyone recognize these? My guess is some sort of RAM (dynamic)? Clearly not the same as a standard 4116 DRAM. Don't recall having seen these before (although a fair bit of trivia has drained away from the memory array over the years) - anyone know what they were used in? Still inventorying the documenation but I should have a complete list soon. Lots of S-100 hardware, NorthStar software and TRS-80 documents. Did find an original of David Ahl's "101 Basic Computer Games" published by DEC in 1973 (this one is from the 1974 2nd printing). Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

5
5
0 0

Macintosh Performa 405

by jim.isbell＠gmail.com

Is this thing worth anything?? -- Jim Isbell W5JAI UltraVan #257 CAL - 27 #221

21 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

DEC version of "101 Basic Computer Games"

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 16:35 17/01/2005 -0500, you wrote: >> David Ahl's "101 Basic Computer Games" published by DEC >> in 1973 (this one is from the 1974 2nd printing). > >Does it have a DEC Order Number on it? Is it EB-04873-76? > >Ahl's DECUS submissions of these games are online at > > http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-013/index.html > http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-014/index.html > >Tim. I can't find a DEC order number - the cover has the little blocks "digital" logo in the lower right hand corner (as does the spine), and inside it says: 1st printing -- July 1973 2nd printing -- April 1974 Copyright (C) 1973, 1974 by: Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts 01754 But there is also a "box" which says: Additional copies of "101 BASIC Computer Games" are available for $7.50 plus .75 postage from: Creative Computing P.O. Box 789-M Morristown, N. J. 07960 So it doesn't look as though DEC actually offered the book through it's own sales channels - at least not in 1974. -- anyone know for sure? Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

DEC Consultant's Reference Guide

by classiccmp＠crash.com

[ I've been trying to organize the backlog of cctalk ] [ mail sitting unread on my server... ] Way back in September, Dan Veeneman wrote: > At a recent hamfest I picked up two volumes of > Digital Equipment Corporation's Consultant's Reference > Guide. > Does anyone have a full set of these? I might. I picked up a lot of them along with RT-11 docs when I picked up a VT103 and DSD disk/tape box many years ago. However some of the manuals fell victim to a large basement flood a few years back - over 15" of water in that section, when we got about 5" in 5 hours early one March. Frozen ground doesn't absorb much water, and I had *just* moved the home datacenter down there after watching for flooding for a couple years. Figures. Haven't had any flooding to speak of before or since. I haven't gone through them since the crisis, and I'm sorry to say some may have molded up so bad before I could deal with them that they may have been pitched. I'm gearing up for a cross-continent move, so don't look for any news on this other than an inventory of what's left as it gets packed. There was a bunch more stuff, going from memory, than the company history. In particular it included system configurations from the period in question. I recall seeing the first generation of VAXen, pdp-11s, and a number of DECSYSTEMs in there, along with software and whatnot. --Steve.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Nickel Metal Hydrids

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

> Jameco still shows a robust selection of NiCad cells and batteries. It's true that they have a lot listed, although I'm not sure if I'd apply the term "robust" when they don't name any manufacturers. I suppose that like any technology it gets dropped first by the big-name distributors, then the catalog houses, then the grey-market distributors like Jameco, then the surplus places. I may be anal about it but I've always been leery of buyng grey-market consumables like batteries. I guess I'll just have to lower my standards! Tim.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Nickel Metal Hydrids

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Jameco still shows a robust selection of NiCad cells and batteries. Dwight >From: shoppa_classiccmp(a)trailing-edge.com > >> Each battery technology has its own charging rules... > >That actually makes me feel better for taking the time to hunt down >real NiCads for my scopemeter. Everywhere I looked I found that >the NiCads had been discontinued, eventually I found a place >that still had the right physical size in stock, but even then they >only had a small quantity left and they told me that they weren't gonna >be getting any more. > >Tim. >

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Anyone recognize MK4116E ?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 16:33 17/01/2005 -0500, you wrote: >> labled: MK4116E-3 >> This appear to be a 9-pin DIP ceramic carrie > >9 pins? Surely you mean 16. Actually - I ment to say 18 --- But I only counted one side, and my brain failed to perform the x2 for DIP between my eyes and fingers ... Thats why I said these are obviously not standard 4116 DRAM's - they are 18 pin devices! regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Seiko RC-1000 wrist terminal software req?

by saanders＠bellsouth.net

Fred and Dave, I found this thread via an internet search. Did either of you find a copy of the IBM/MS-DOS software for the Seiko RC-1000 wrist terminal? I'm trying to revive mine but my computer can't read the floppy (I have a good 5.25 disk drive, the computer just can't read that particular disk.) Regards, Stuart Anderson Madison, Alabama, USA On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Dave Mitton wrote: > Does anyone have a copy of the host system software for the circa 1984 > Seiko RC-1000 watch terminal? > > I thought I had a copy that ran on DOS as a character mode app, but I > cannot find the original diskette. The original PC I used is long gone. I *used* to have one of those (actually, just threw out my broken watch a couple of weeks ago) but I do seem to remember I still have the box... that might still have the cable and the floppies. Will look for ya :) --f -- Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/ Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/ Email: waltje at pdp11.nl <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Nickel Metal Hydrids

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi I thought I'd pass on some info about these batteries. I received a laptop with a "dead" battery. The voltage as read from a meter was "0" volts. I mean dead! I first stuck it into the laptop but quickly noticed the smell of hot resistors ( bad idea ). I then connected it to a bench supply running at about 200ma. I watched the level of the voltage until it gradually came up to about 12v ( 14.4v pack ). I placed it back in the laptop and allowed it to charge until it indicated a full charge. I ran it down once to the battery low level and repeated the charge. That was last night. Leaving it for 8 hours, it seems to be maintaining its charge. Moral of the story, don't give up on these batteries. They are remarkably tough. Most NiCads batteries would not recover from such a level. Dwight

21 years, 7 months

5
5
0 0

On a tangential note concerning Panix and old Internet ISPs

by brain＠jbrain.com

//.: "Panix <http://www.panix.net/>, the oldest commercial Internet provider in New York, had its domain name 'panix.com' hijacked by persons unknown. The main effect on users is that mail sent to panix's customers is being routed to a bogus mail server run by the hijackers." / -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations brain(a)jbrain.com http://www.jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Nickel Metal Hydrids

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi My understanding is that NiMH's have a higher internal resistance when mostly discharged and should be charged slowly until the internal resistance drops. They are also suppose to be less tolorent to over charging than NiCad's. In general, I'd expect one to get poor battery life using a NiCad charger on NiMH's. 0.1C is not a trickle. 0.02-0.01C is. 0.1C will cause quite a bit of heating in a fully charged cell. 0.1C is only recommended for normal rate of charging NiCad's, not as a trickle level. Dwight >From: shoppa_classiccmp(a)trailing-edge.com > >> I have noticed that NiMH prices have gone down >> about half over the last 5 years. > >In many cases they are cheaper than NiCads now. > >This raises a question for refurbishing older equipment: is it always >OK to just drop a set of NiMH's in place of same-size NiCad's? Most >of the "stupid" NiCad battery chargers were just 0.1C trickle chargers, >but the "smart" ones that looked for the voltage rise at the end of charge >of a NiCad may not see this with a NiMH pack. Anyone have any experience? > >Last time I had to put some new Sub-C cells in my Fluke scopemeter I had >to look rather hard to find true NiCads as opposed to MiMH's. > >Tim. >

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Mac 128, was Re: Desktops then and now (book review)

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 1/17/05 12:28:29 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, mike(a)ambientdesign.com writes: I have a very nice one, as-new, with original carry bag, printer, external floppy, manuals, etc, but didn't think it was overly rare. I'll be happy enough if I'm wrong... A 128K Mac set like that is a nice collectable, especially with the docs and disks. It could make epay live up to its name. Condition is all important as are the original SW and docs. I don't know of it's rarity. Many were upgraded to 512K so there are not that many in existence. Paxton Astoria, OR

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Nickel Metal Hydrids

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi I would guess that your method is most likely the best. Keeping them at full charge tends to create those metal fingers inside that short them out. Discharging them as packs tends to reverse charge some of the cells causing out gassing and cell rupturing. I don't know if the NiMH I had was drained by load or just by sitting around. It is an old machine ( about 13 or 14 years old ). I would guess that these cells have a similar problem if fully discharged as a battery stack. The laptop had no normal signs of wear like a similar one that I had ( video is failing ). It may have only been used for a year or so and then just placed in storage. Most times when I come on NiCads that have zero volts, I find the cells to have an internal short. Either NiMH have something that keeps this from happening or I was real lucky. I do know that wet NiCads ( those with vents ) are usually shipped with a shorting bar. I would guess that if one individually drained the NiCad cells, they could be stored a long time. I'll let you guys know how things are after a couple more days. Hopefully the battery will remain useful. Dwight >From: "John Allain" <allain(a)panix.com> > >> Most NiCads batteries would not recover from such a level. > >How should NiCads be stored? >Sounds line 0v is a terrible idea. >I usually put them away at normal discharge, >about .8-1.0v and then charge a few hours before >next use. >All I really know is that: > o. 300 recharges is about all you can expect, and > o. topping off is no good > >My guess is that unused NiCads could reach 0v >after a year or two on the shelf. If you restore a >collectable and then shelve it for 10 years only >to find it's dead _again_ it won't be gratifying. > >It might not be worth sweating this detail, however. >I have noticed that NiMH prices have gone down >about half over the last 5 years. > >John A. >

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

DEC version of "101 Basic Computer Games"

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

> David Ahl's "101 Basic Computer Games" published by DEC > in 1973 (this one is from the 1974 2nd printing). Does it have a DEC Order Number on it? Is it EB-04873-76? Ahl's DECUS submissions of these games are online at http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-013/index.html http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-014/index.html Tim.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Slightly OT: world's smallest hard drive

by news＠computercollector.com

http://news.com.com/Disk+drives+to+stop+shrinking/2100-1004_3-5532612.html?… ===== Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter! -- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address -- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us -- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all -- W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news(a)computercollector.com -- 646 readers and counting!

21 years, 7 months

13
20
0 0

email was Mac something something

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf(a)siconic.com> > >On Thu, 13 Jan 2005, Paul Koning wrote: > >> >>>>> "William" == William Donzelli <aw288(a)osfn.org> writes: >> >> William> .... Some of the things were >> William> pretty cool - a 400 cps (!) paper tape punch, ... >> >> Wow. I've love to see one of those. The fastest I have seen was, I >> think, a 120 cps punch. Listening to one of those running at full >> speed is pretty impressive. >> >> Paper tape readers can go much faster (I've seen 2000 cps) but those >> are optical readers, so the job is far easier. > >I don't suppose anyone ever manufactured a laser-based paper tape punch? >Is that even feasible? > Hi Sure, it could be done. The only reason it hasn't been done was that the medium was obsolete by the time the LASERs were ready. I used to have fun with a 20W CO2 LASER. I could control it well enough to remove 6 or 7 layers of paper. Each time I'd cut a little deeper. It would make a pop sound and some of the paper would just be disappear :) Dwight

21 years, 7 months

8
11
0 0

Linux and an old IBM PS/2 8570

by john_boffemmyer_iv＠boff-net.dhs.org

I recently got an old IBM PS/2 8570 (as mentioned to some earlier). Been thinking about putting Linux on it as the original owner put some company proprietary software on it for some unknown network monitoring via proprietary hardware (that has since been removed before I came into possession). The big thing is that it doesn't want to boot from SCSI. I have 4 cards and the adf disks for them. 1 is an IBM (supposedly Corvette) controller. 2 are Adaptec 1640's (different year manufacture and slightly different layout/revision). The final one is a Storage Dimensions 3211B (technically a compatible, yet rarer C/D). The other thing is that I've been told it has some sort of special boot partition on the 60MB ESDI drive. The SCSI drives I'm trying to use are all 1 and 2.2GB Seagates with an external Sun 611 enclosure (again, making the 10 year rule from what I've been told). If I can get the damned thing to take the SCSI drives and not the 60MB ESDI, that would be the ideal situation. If I have to use the 60MB ESDI as the boot drive, how could I get this to work as I've never tried Linux on an MCA before and everything I find out there seems not to pertain to my situation? The other cards in the machine are an IBM Long 16/4 (DB9 out) Token Ring card and I was thinking of using a Kingston 8000 Memory card (any info on this unique piece of hardware would be greatly appreciated as all I can find are the adf's for it). Anyone know what the max size and type memory was for that card and how it was implemented? Worst case scenario is that I simply don't use it, as the bigger goal is to get the damned thing working with Linux on SCSI and Token Ring. If people are hesitant on helping me, I have a bunch of spare MCA DB9 16/4 Token Ring cards (long and short), SCSI cards (as described above) and a couple XGA and XGA2 cards wthat I'm willing to offer for shipping in exchange for help. Hell, I've even willing to give up the odd Kingston memory card if it got me some help. Any takers? Please reply off-list, thanks. -John Boffemmyer IV john at boff dash net dot nospamdhs dot org (just drop the nospam) ---------------------------------------- Founder, Network Engineer, Tech Analyst and Web Designer Boff-Net Technologies http://boff-net.dhs.org/index.html ----------------------------------------

21 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Slightly OT: tips for fabricating with plexiglass?

by news＠computercollector.com

It's only "slightly" off-topic because what I'm building is a new case for my Apple 1 "Replica 1" board. I've heard some horror stories about whole (expensive!) sheets of plexiglass simply breaking in half when incorrectly drilled through. The guy at the plastic supply company tried selling me a special drill bit, but I'm hesitant about that. Does anyone has hands-on experience and tips (vs. just speculation) about working with this stuff? This computer will be on display as some public events, so the final appearance is very important. ===== Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter! -- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address -- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us -- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all -- W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news(a)computercollector.com -- 653 readers and counting!

21 years, 7 months

10
13
0 0

4 floppy disk drives on a PC?

by Innfogra＠aol.com

Western Digital made a 4 floppy controller for this. It is the 1002A-FOX F002 / 004 according to my 1996 CSC Hard Drive Bible. They say: F002 controls 4 floppys only. F004 has a BIOS on card which permits installation of 1.2 and 1.44 MB drives in XT machines that normally only support 360K or 720K drives. A note at the bottom: Uses WS-37C65 cchip, works well in 286/386 machines. You might look for one of those. Paxton Astoria, OR

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Slightly OT: tips for fabricating with plexiglass?

by bobcaar＠softhome.net

A circular saw can also be used to cut plexiglass easily. Just use a regular plywood blade, but put it on backwards and leave the protective film on/use tape where you make the cut. T.H.x. Devon

21 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Computer Education

by ICS＠Core.com

Anyone have experience or know for a factor of a Bachelor's degree program that teaches computer hardware and software in a logical order and comprehensively?

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 16 2005, 7:40, Vintage Computer Festival wrote: > The MS TCP/IP stack works surprisingly well. The setup program is easy to > use and fairly powerful, and the accessibility you get on a DOS box is > really good. It has support for a number of NICs (including the generic > NE1000 and NE2000). And most of the modules can be loaded high, saving > your main memory for applications. I can mount WinXP drives on my lowly > DOS box would full read/write access. You don't get long filenames, of > course, but you can still access any file because of the "stem" that MS > puts in the filesystem to convert long names to 8.3. Yes, that's pretty much how I set it up, except I don't publish shares on Windows machines; I use samba instead. The MS client does everything I want to do with DOS, and you can upgrade the support for NICs by adding drivers, too. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 16 2005, 7:18, Cameron Kaiser wrote: > > I built a similar setup a few months ago, but I used the Microsoft > > TCP/IP stuff on top of DOS 6.22. It was easy to set up, and now I have > > telnet, FTP, ICMP (some stacks don't support that), and the whole thing > > uses DHCP and mounts drives from my Samba server. > > Showoff. ;) > > Did you use LAN Mangler, er, Manager, or something else? Nope, I used the "Microsoft Network Client 3", which comes as a couple of DOS disks. I seem to remember having to update one of the files, and add a driver from a 3Com disk. Even so, it only took an hour or so to download and set up, including at least one false start, and some messing with HIMEM. I spent maybe an hour more messing with things to save as much space as possible. If anybody wants to try it, I bookmarked the webpage I found most helpful: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/j_helmig/dosclnt3.htm IPX/SPX are banned from my networks, so obviously I only installed the TCP/IP stuff. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 16 2005, 9:14, Stan Barr wrote: > Hi, > > Cameron Kaiser said: > > > Remember the joys of TCP/IP on MS-DOS in the late 1980s? > > > > Remember it? I live it. The 486 DOS laptop besides me took several days to > > piece everything together. It runs a 3Com packet driver on top of some > > crufted together Card/Socket Services TSRs, and then NCSA Telnet and FTP > > have their own TCP stacks that will talk to it. So does Arachne, it seems. > > I've just been doing much the same thing so I can ftp stuff over to my > headless 486 that thinks it's a PDP-11 - old NE2000 card, Crwnyr(sp?) > driver and NCSA telnet/ftp. I built a similar setup a few months ago, but I used the Microsoft TCP/IP stuff on top of DOS 6.22. It was easy to set up, and now I have telnet, FTP, ICMP (some stacks don't support that), and the whole thing uses DHCP and mounts drives from my Samba server. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Slightly OT: tips for fabricating with plexiglass?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 16 2005, 15:53, Stan Barr wrote: > > Question - is plexiglass the same as perspex, or is it a totally > > different animal? > > > > They're similar, both are trade names for a type of transparent synthetic > resin. Perspex is, I think, more similar to Lucite, or is that yet > another trade name for the same thing? > > Over the years I've used "Perspex", "Lucite" and "Plexiglass" (courtesy > of the US Air Force!) and they appear to be identical. They're all acrylic resins, but while in my possibly limited experience Perspex and Lucite seem to be trade names for much the same stuff, Plexiglass seems to be more brittle. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Slightly OT: tips for fabricating with plexiglass?

by news＠computercollector.com

Thanks to all for the good advice. I don't own a drill press, and I'm not certain about which type of plastic it is (lexan, plexi, etc.) -- I used the term 'plexiglass' generically -- and I'm storing it at my father's house so it is not handy for me to check right now. Avoiding fabrication during the cold weather will also be tough, as his workbench is in the garage, and it's very cold here in New Jersey (there is no space to work on projects like this here in my tiny apartment). Maybe I'll plug in a space heater in his garage before I start drilling and such. When the project is finished (hopefully in a couple of weeks) I will post a note about it here, photos on my web site, etc. Evan ===== Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter! -- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address -- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us -- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all -- W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news(a)computercollector.com -- 653 readers and counting!

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

another way to look for old stuff on the 'net

by mapleleafman＠gmail.com

There was a discussion here in the latter part of December about old sites on the web, someone asked about whether anyone had saved an old Google page. Anyway, here's a link to a site that has a massive archive of old web pages, they say they have 100 terabytes of material with 10 billion web pages saved : http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html Some of you will know about the site but others may not. I've done searches for the Apple site (now that I'm really into macs) as well as IBM and both Ebay and Google. The Ebay pages that come up still have all of the listings on them but when you try to click any individual link, you get a 'delisted' page. But the listings are still interesting. The Apple site dates back to when OS 8.6 was the cutting edge. Doesn't seem to be anything before 1996 but then there wasn't a whole lot out there before that anyway. Point of all this is that if you had an old site saved as a favorite, an owner's manual site for instance, you should be able to put in the url and get an archived copy of the old site. I know people who have been able to recoved lost/hijacked sites using this url and I hope some of you find it interesting. If something has disappeared on the modern web, it might still be at this site in the archives. BM

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

"Cold heat" soldering?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I'd seen the commercials for this instant-on battery-powered soldering iron and wondered if I should add it to my tool box. I saw this FAQ on Thinkgeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/files/FAQ040504.pdf which made me think twice: Q: What kind of soldering projects is this tool recommended for? A: Based on the specifications mentioned above, we recommend this tool for most electrical projects (such as wires 18-24 AWG), small jewelry repair, and larger electronic projects. We do not recommend it for soldering of large metallic components that require a lot of heat transfer or for soldering sensitive electronic components that may be damaged by fast-rising temperatures or high electrical current. (Momentary high-amperage current will be created during active soldering.) Q: What is the spark I see sometimes during soldering? A: The spark (arc) is caused by the passing of electrical current from one half of the tip to the other. Although in testing the tool’s spark did not damage any electrical or electronic components, we recommend caution when soldering sensitive components. Also, ensure that the tool is not used in flammable or explosive environments. - John

21 years, 7 months

11
18
0 0

Tandberg X-terminal software?

by toresbe＠ifi.uio.no

Hello! I just aquired not only a very cool TDV2200 (which is currently printing with its matrix printer the entire bash manpage, muahahaha, one hour and counting), but also a Tandberg X-terminal - this terminal needs a boot image that is to be served to it at startup. Apparently this came on a CD-ROM - does anyone have the boot files or the CDROM? TIA! -- Tore S Bekkedal <toresbe(a)ifi.uio.no>

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Slightly OT: tips for fabricating with plexiglass?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 15 2005, 18:51, Computer Collector Newsletter wrote: > I've heard some horror stories about whole (expensive!) sheets of plexiglass > simply breaking in half when incorrectly drilled through. The guy at the > plastic supply company tried selling me a special drill bit, but I'm hesitant > about that. Does anyone has hands-on experience and tips (vs. just > speculation) about working with this stuff? This computer will be on display > as some public events, so the final appearance is very important. The biggest problem is likely to be as the drill bit breaks through. If you look at the end of a twist drill you'll see that the centre doesn't cut in the same way as the edges, and it's the force of the centre distorting the plastic as it breaks through that causes cracks. The other problem is if you don't have enough control of the drill, and the bit "snatches". Tips: use a really sharp bit drill a small pilot hole first, and maybe enlarge that to some intermediate size so the pilot hole is a little larger than the point of the final drill put the plexiglass on a smooth block of wood or spare plexiglass, hold it down *firmly*, and drill through into the wood (make sure there's no swarf from earlier holes trapped between the plexiglass and the sacrificial material) run the drill slowly enough to avoid generating heat, but keep just enough pressure on it to ensure it keeps cutting, and doesn't rub use a drill press, not a hand-held drill practice on a piece of scrap first I drill lots of plastics, some very brittle, this way. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Sellam Ismail wrote: . > I can make a really good argument ... that e-mail could never have > gotten as big ... as it did without the modern (1990+) Internet, > which could not have gotten where it is today with Linux. I assume that was supposed to be "without Linux." I'll bet someone like Tom Jennings will have a totally different take on this than I do, too. [ Ah, there's his note... Clearly I've been editing this response too long. ] Where to start... I disagree about the growth of the Internet not being possible without Linux. It would have been different, perhaps, but I honestly don't think it would have changed enough to surprise someone who popped into a Linux-less parallel universe as regards email and the Internet. Might have changed a lot more regarding the popularity of open source software, but that's a different discussion. I think that the growth of email and the Internet in everyday life rode two big trends. One is the rise of CompuServe and AOL, which I'll leave for another discussion. The second was the rise of small scale ISPs in the 1993-1994 timeframe, at least in the Northeastern US, and that they were offering raw dialup IP connections. They'd give you a POP account, maybe shell access, and that set the stage to a great degree for non-corporate, non-academic participation in the Web when it came on-stage. Regular folk with Windows/Mac machines were signing up for these accounts, not just tech weenies, for all the reasons that email was popular. No long distance charges, asynchronous between sender and receiver, faster than the post, etc. I recall some who were downloading freeware and shareware like crazy, but the major thrust for this non-tech segment I observed appeared to be email, with some IRC/chat junkies. This led a gentle but steady ramp that was ready to explode with the advent of Web browsers. And the low-usage email customers were what supported the model, not the high-usage geeks who would try to nail up connections all the time for the low-ball prices. Why don't I think Linux was a major factor in this? Surely many of these ISPs used Linux? Well, maybe so. The ones I dealt with would use whatever they could get their hands on to provide the backend services they needed, and didn't care what they had to use to do it. No Linux? Hey, that free thing 386BSD works, or this 1993 fork called NetBSD. But to be honest, most of the time they very, very grudgingly spent the money for Sun gear, at least for the most critical machines/services. And then ran them without any service contract or spares on-hand, which always made me cringe... At least, this is what I ran across in my adventures, your mileage obviously varied. But again, I wouldn't give Sun credit for the spread of the 'Net and email either, for the same reason. If it hadn't been Sun, it would have been something else, and I ran into odd bits of DEC and SGI here and there. I think there were several factors coming to bear, like the NSF AUP changes, like the appearance of PCs with IP stakcs in many more homes, like falling prices for the low-end leased lines that the new ISPs depended would massively oversubscribe... ;^) You want a technical change to point to? I'd point to TCP/IP coming to Windows and the Mac. (Yes it had started much earlier, but it was now getting easier and more reliable.) I'd point to terminal servers getting good SLIP/PPP and connection accounting support. And whatever it was that prompted the Baby Bells to start providing DS0 lines and fractional T1 loops to anybody who could scratch up the cash, if that was in fact a technical change. Would many companies have done things differently without Linux? Sure. But even so, I think it would have happened at a slightly reduced pace with *BSD under the cloud of the USL/UCB lawsuit and the high price of a BSDI license -- which when I looked at it was closer to $1,000 per host, not $100 for a site license! (Might have been a built-in support cost, memory is fuzzy...) The hardware savings alone would have continued to make that a compelling combination versus $10-20k for Sun workstation. Okay, I've spouted off enough for now. I'm curious to see what other responses come in, and what others remember from that time, now as on-topic as anything else since it's more than 10 years ago. Gulp! --Steve.

21 years, 7 months

9
14
0 0

Fabricating with plastics

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Been following the discussion on fabbing HV assemblies with plexiglass. There's another type of plastic called 'Delrin' that's very hard, very durable, has high temperature resistance, and it machines, drills and cuts as easily and cleanly as aluminum (better, in many cases). I used Delrin blocks to fabricate the insulators for a high-current diode isolator bank. While that application was high-current/low-voltage, Delrin's dielectric strength is huge. It's rated for 380V/mil in that regard, and it has a resistivity rating of 1x10 to the 14th ohms per centimeter. I don't see any reason why it would be unsuitable for high-voltage insulator assemblies as well as high-current. Keep the peace(es). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Original TV Typewriter

by swtpc6800＠comcast.net

I have added more information on Don Lancaster's original TV Typewriter to my web site. http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/RadioElectronics/TV_Typewriter.htm I have put up the complete set of plans, the 24 page booklet you had to send away for. http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/TV_Typewriter/TV_Typewriter_Reprint.htm I have 300 dpi and 600 dpi tiff files but they are very large. Ask if you want them. There is a real copy on eBay now with a starting price of 1.95. (Item number: 5744207804.) I already have two copies so I won't be bidding. I also have some pictures of a real TV Typewriter build by Bob Rethemeyer. http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/TV_Typewriter/Rethemeyer.htm Michael Holley www.swtpc.com/mholley

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Data recovery on Toshiba T3100 laptop

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>Hello, cctech! > >I recently recieved a call from a friend of a friend regarding a laptop >that has come into her posession after a coworker of her died. She was >doing some sort of environmental research, and all her work is stored on >this computer. > >I tried taking the path of turning it on and just doing a copy that way. >No such luck - the plasma display has a garbled and not stable display - >text is garbled to the point that I can't read it, and it basically >looks like it's about to go straight to hell. It does boot from harddisk >- I feared that the plasma might be sensitive to power variations or >something like that, and thus tried getting the machine apart. > ... >Is the floppy drive 1.44M? If it's a T3100 (8Mhz), the floppy drive is 720k - if it's a T3100E (12Mhz), the floppy drive should be 1.44M. If it boots to DOS, or you can get to a DOS prompt (ALT-F4/Enter in Win 3.x), then you should be able to communicate with the DOS prompt via a terminal on the serial port: CTTY COM1 [I recall that the default speed is somewhat low, but it won't really matter as long as you can figure out what it is with your terminal emulator - if you like you can blind-type a MODE command first to set the serial parameters] Once you get to a DOS prompt, you can format diskettes and copy files to them - Don't try to run any non-command-line software! Another option would be to use INTERLNK - you can "blind type" the MODE and COPY CON: commands required for RCOPY and then run INTERSVR, or you can prepare a DOS boot disk that runs INTERSVR in the AUTOEXEC and boot the machine from floppy. You could also use the boot disk approach to get LAPLINK running on the machine etc... As long as the machine is still actually running, it shouldn't be that hard to get the data off - Enjoy the LSI-11. Regards, -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Troubleshooting an IBM 5155 - (portable personal computer)

by CCTalk＠catcorner.org

> From: Fred Cisin [mailto:cisin@xenosoft.com] > Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 2:59 PM > > > Now, by disassembling and cleaning the B: drive, I was able > > to get the machine booting off this drive (cabled as A:). > > However, the same cleaning procedure on the A: drive did > > not allow it to boot. I still have to clean > > the heads. Maybe that'll make a difference. If not, I think > > I may have other Qume drives without the IBM monniker on > > them that I can swap the bezels with. I just have to dig > > through the cabinent and see what'll fit. > > THe early, original Qumetrak 142 drives have my nomination > for the second > to worst drive ever, coming in right after the early versions > of the BASF 2/3 height drives. > The Qume drive was SO slow, that PC-DOS 2.10 had to extend > the times to prevent timeouts on normal disk I/O. Well, I just went through the "closet-o-drives" and I don't have any other Qumes laying around. Furthermore, the DS/DD drives I do have the card edge connector on the wrong side. The included cable is not long enough to plug one of these in and leave the one working original drive. Does anyone have the service manual online for this drive? I would really like to get the Qume drive working, but don't know where to go next. I guess I could swap the boards between the two units, but that'll only tell me if it is electronic or electro-mechanical. Other than that, any suggestions for figuring out if it is alignment, broken sensor, or something electrical? Here is what's happening with this drive: The computer goes through it's mem-test, then advances the head. The head retracts, then the system immediately dumps to cassette basic. It doesn't even seek again. I don't have an oscilloscope handy, and wouldn't know exactly what to look for anyway. Thanks for any help. Kelly

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Troubleshooting an IBM 5155 - (portable personal computer)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>Other than that, any suggestions for figuring out if it is alignment, broken >sensor, or something electrical? IIRC, you mentioned that the other drive works, and you were able to boot DOS? If so, setup the faulty drive as drive B:, boot DOS, and try formatting a blank disk in the B: drive - if it works and you can read/write files to the drive, the it is probably just a little out of alignment (You will probably find that the disks it makes cannot be accessed on other drives). Assuming this doesn't work, what error message does DOS give whwn trying to access the drive? Also, normally the system will try much longer to access the drive if it is seeing sector pulses - if it behaves pretty much the same with the diskette in as with it out, then you may have an index sensor problem. With power off, manually move the head out some distance from track-0 - does it step back when the system starts - does it perform the "Seek test" at power- up and does it look and sound exactly like the other drive? - if no to any of these, perhaps there is a problem in stepping/track select, track-0 sensor. Also, "scopes are your friend" - of you have one, take a look at what is going on at the interface when you try and access the drive - you should see the select line go low, look for index pulese, step pulses, track-0 detect, data >from the drive etc. - it might be fairly obvious what the problem is. I assume you have already done this, but clean the head, and check all connectors for even a little corrosion (edge, head, steppers etc.), especially if it has been sitting around for a long time - same goes for config jumpers and option blocks A good cleaning often does wonders! Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Data recovery on Toshiba T3100 laptop

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>> Set it up on two working computers to get the cable and two boot >> floppies correctly configured. Not easy, but you'll never have to do it >> again -- just boot the floppies. > >Assuming INTERSVR configures one of the serial or parallel ports properly >upon booting... It should, as the T3100 ports I believe look like standard hardware (I can set it up and get it working if you want me to verify etc.). Worse case, you can set ports and serial speed on the command line, so it might take a few tries with the boot disk - but you should be able to get it working. Regards, DAve -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Troubleshooting an IBM 5155 - (portable personal computer)

by CCTalk＠catcorner.org

OK, for a little on topic. Before I go tearing the whole machine apart..... I am the proud new owner of a nice example of the IBM 5155. This thing is in pretty good shape. Turned it on, A: did a quick seek and the I was into BASIC. So far, so good. Now, I'm trying to boot DOS. I have several known good DOS 3.1 boot floppies on 360K disks. I keep an old 486 with a 360K drive just for this (and for creating disks for my Tandy model 4). Anyway, the original A: drive only gives a "boot failure". The B: drive (after a cable swap) boots sometimes. Taking out these drives looks to be a MAJOR undertaking. Not along the lines of multiple years, but they are pretty securly installed. However, I'd like to keep them because they have the IBM faceplate. Now, for the questions... Are these Qume drives subject to any known failure? Should I just dig in, remove these drives and give them a good cleaning and lubricating? I'm used to working with the big 8" drives, where everything is a bit larger. What is the best way to clean the heads? Lint free swab and 90% Isopropyl alchohol? Cleaning disk? Nail file ;-) What's the consensus? Any suggestions or comments in general about this machine? Thanks, Kelly

21 years, 7 months

5
5
0 0

Nova 4 system

by ICS＠Core.com

Anyone have any news about the fate of the Nova 4 system in Bakersfield? ,George

21 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

Troubleshooting an IBM 5155 - (portable personal computer)

by CCTalk＠catcorner.org

> From: John Allain [mailto:allain@panix.com] > Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:59 AM > > > Any suggestions or comments in general about this machine? > > I gave myself 30 minutes to get one of those going once. > I got access to just about all subsystems/components in that time. > The coolest thing that really made me like the machine was that the > video monitor was IIRC 5V,NTSC in, picture out. Very easy to use. You're correct about disassembly. It was much easier than I thought. The biggest problem was getting to the drive mounting bolts on the side by the expansion cards. After removing all the cards, there was just enough room for a socket and ratchet to fit in there. > - - - > You might want to try Rewriting fresh floppies on a true 360K drive, > heat,time, and 1.2M drives all can degrade the data to some degree. I do use a 360K drive in my 486 just for creating these discs. I guess I wasn't clear on this. Now, by disassembling and cleaning the B: drive, I was able to get the machine booting off this drive (cabled as A:). However, the same cleaning procedure on the A: drive did not allow it to boot. I still have to clean the heads. Maybe that'll make a difference. If not, I think I may have other Qume drives without the IBM monniker on them that I can swap the bezels with. I just have to dig through the cabinent and see what'll fit. > > John A. > Thanks, Kelly

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Good deal on DEC VT520 terminals

by vcf＠siconic.com

I've got a surplus of these DEC VT520 terminals that I'd like to clear out of here so I'm proposing what I think is a good deal. Normally I sell them for $25 each but I'll offer TWO for the low low price of only $35 plus shipping. Since the keyboard for these things is about 2.5 times the width of the terminal itself, and because the terminals don't weigh that much, shipping will not be too much more than shipping for just one. So you actually get a pretty good deal here. But you have to buy two ;) For more information on the DEC VT520, check out my VCM listing: http://marketplace.vintage.org/view.cfm?ad=1158 If you're interested, let me know and I'll setup the listing on the VCM so you can go nab it. I'll create the listings on an as-requested basis to save myself time. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Convex Meta Series Cabinet

by vcf＠siconic.com

I got in a Convex Meta Series 19" cabinet. It's in terrific condition and has a cool black and metallic silver color scheme. Unfortunately, the rest of the Convex has been gutted :( And not by me, BTW. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem terribly useful as a generic cabinet for non-Convex stuff. It doesn't have standard rails for mounting your basic rackmount type gear. It has a power supply at the base that used to power the Convex, and also has four power strips lining the back side. A very nice cabinet, but of limited use unless you're a Convex junkie. So if anyone wants it, it's yours. Because of its weight, I doubt you'd want to ship it, in case you're really after one for some ridiculous reason. If you do want me to ship it, e-mail me privately and we'll discuss. Otherwise, any local takers come and get it. If it isn't gone by next week, off to the scrapyard :( Photo available upon request. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Off-topic but On-topic (list stuff)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Is anyone aware of a *nix program to go through mailbox format mail files, and removing duplicate emails (I would guess by message id). In addition, I'd like to split up a single very large mbox file into separate chunks, say... 200mb each. Would be nice if the program would show the date ranges of emails in the chunk. Yes, I can write something like this, but before I spend the time on it I was wondering if anyone had, or knew of, a tool to do this. I'm trying to get the complete mailing list archives in order. There are definitely chunks of the archives missing (so if anyone has a complete set back to the start, just send them to me on CD *grin*). There's always been a few chunks missing, and I'd really like to get it all back together for the new server. Plus, set up some stuff to automate maintenance of the raw mbx's which are running "just a tad large" right now. Thanks for any help.... (off list please) Jay West

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

<< Nova 4/X rescue >>

by bkr＠WildHareComputers.com

G'day Latent "Nova-heads" - A "distress rescue situation" exists for a Nova 4/X system , dual 9-track tape drives, top-loader disk drive in a 3-bay rack, in Bakersfield, CA. I was told by a representative of the owner of this system that it will be trashed or "donated to a local charity" by Saturday. Please contact me off-list for more details if you can help save this nice system. Bruce Bruce Ray Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com ...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.com

21 years, 7 months

5
8
0 0

The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc.

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: aek(a)spies.com > > > > >> Remember 'the little garden'? > >Great little Chinese place on El Camino just before Arastradero. > >RIP > > Hi Some how, I am missing the context of the "The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc." messages. What the heck is all this about? Dwight

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Data recovery on Toshiba T3100 laptop

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 15 2005, 0:04, Tom Jennings wrote: > > [ Attachment (text/plain): 1058 bytes > Character set: X-UNKNOWN ^^^^^^^^^ Where did that come from? :-) > I assume this thing runs Windows? Any idea what version? It could easily be DOS. Frameworks was a DOS office applications suite. IIRC it included a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a basic database. Borland bought out Ashton Tate but they kept Frameworks as a DOS suite. I think Frameworks is still around, and it should run under windows, so if Tore can get the files off the machine they should be usable. Ah yes, I've just found www.framework.com (they seem to have dropped the "s"). Tore, I think you should ask around and see if anyone has an old copy you could borrow. > ??? isn't this an LCD laptop? I can't imagine the interface > to the screen is anything but proprietary. A lot of older Toshibas are plasma displays. Tore said this one is plasma, so it must be fairly old and probably runs DOS or Windows 3.1. I agree, Kermit might not be a bad way to get the files off. The .exe file from MS-Kermit will easily fit on a 720K floppy, and version 3.15 will also run under Win95 (and probably XP, I can't remember if I tried that last time I used it because I upgraded the old bench PC to Linux after a few days). You can get it from http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/mskermit.html -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

The start of PANIX, the NYC ISP

by classiccmp＠crash.com

John Allain and others mentioned PANIX recently on the 90's Internet Boom thread. I got a response from my friend David Spector, who helped out with Panix. At the time he was working as a UNIX system manager and senior systems programmer at NYU's business school. David identified the systems used as the Mac IIfx, but the IIfx wasn't introduced until 1990. The IIx was introduced in late 1988. Since he pegs the time as early 1988, the machines in question must be a Mac II with PMMU; David still has the receipts somewhere and might verify this sometime. This period would correspond with the announcement of A/UX in February of 1998. (These introduction dates are taken from the book Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen Linzmayer.) Here's what David had to say: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= With regard to PANIX... In a nutshell, I helped start PANIX, which was funded by my old friend Alexis Rosen, by supplying the developer discount that bought a couple of MacIIfx's. I provided the UNIX expertise to get everything up and running; they ran A/UX and we used nuBus-based serial cards (name escapes me at the moment... I'll surely remember it later). At the time I was the Senior Systems Programmer at NYU's Graduate School of Business (long before it was the "Stern School of Business." The original machines lived for a while on my dining room table in my 5th floor walkup on 18th St & 8th Ave in Chelsea and used my spare lines with a couple of Zyxcel 9600bps modems until we got the machines configured correctly and did all sorts of hacking on the serial drivers for those (at the time) very kool (now, they would be dreadful) serial boards. After the systems were set up we moved everything to Jim Baumbach's Brooklyn Height's basement where we had 16 phone lines brought in. The MacIIfx's lived on top of a hand-wired plexus UNIX machine that Jim had liberated from one of his past lives. At the time (late 80s) the only other interesting dial-up in NY was Echo (East Coast Hang Out) run by Stacey Horn; I mean there were lots of BBSes but nothing at all resembling either Echo or PANIX. Echo, by the way, was considered by most people to be the East Coast equiv. of TheWell. I had an account on echo for a zillion years... still have my panix account too, of course.. As an ex-Systems Programmer from Courant (the NYU Academic Computing Facility) I arranged for Panix to get mail and news from NYU via UUCP (Bill Russell, a great friend and mentor, was NYU's Network Manager); the path was ...ihnp4!{cmcl2,acf4}!panix. They didn't get a real Internet connection until the ARPAnet/NSFNet split happened and the rules loosened up which if I recall correctly was a UUNet connection in about 1990. ..ah! those were the days... feel free to pass on to whomever might be interested in such historical tidbits. David HM Spector =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Off-topic but On-topic (list stuff)

by aek＠spies.com

> Thanks for any help.... (off list please) -- actually, I'd be interested in this as well, since I have mail going back to the early 80's

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Hayes "Government model" MODEM?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I stopped at a surplus place today and found a NIB Hayes "Government Model" 2400 baud MODEM. The box says "Government Use Only". Does anybody know what the story is about that? Joe

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc.

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I really enjoyed the history and reading the minutes. Glad you saved them. Older than 10 years also. Thanks, Paxton Astoria, OR

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Troubleshooting an IBM 5155 - (portable personal computer)

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I, too, am interested in the question of how to lube and maintain the floppies. I need to go through a several 5 1/4 in full height floppy drives myself. And the first has IBM on the front also. Thanks for the help, Paxton Astoria, OR

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Minc-11 available in Minneapolis

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

If someone is interested in obtaining a minc-11 setup on its stand with a RX02, and including a VT105 terminal, this is available at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. -Larry LeMay lemay(a)cs.umn.edu

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Subject: apple's internet connectivity

by aek＠spies.com

For yucks, I did a google groups search for the earliest news posting I made from apple. My sig had: UUCP: {mtxinu,sun,nsc,voder}!apple!aek ARPA: aek(a)apple.apple.com This was mid-1988, so that was our uucp connectivity at the time. I also noticed that my previous posting about MacTCP and Gopher would have been incorrect, since Gopher servers didn't appear til '91 or so.

21 years, 7 months

5
6
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Sellam Ismail wrote: > Well, if I'd made such a bold claim ("not possible") I would be > on shaky ground. Okay, I took your original post to mean something more than you had intended. Sorry. I'd be far more interested in getting people's recollections of that period on the record, so to speak, than being "right." It's a big world, other people would have seen/remembered different things out there... Hell, maybe I was stuck in a backwater and missed all the action, who knows? > But was not Linux another major driving influence behind FOSS? As I said, or meant, open source would have changed a lot more than the spread of the Internet in a Linux-less universe. So I don't really disagree with you here. And I think we could have a really long discussion of the rise of FOSS and Linux separately >from email and the Internet. At least that's my opinion, that even with a very different FOSS movement we still would have seen much the same spread of email and the 'Net. I am content to be viewed as an isolated crackpot if need be -- that was in fact a career goal of a friend of mine in college. ;^) >Steven M Jones wrote: >> One is the rise of CompuServe and AOL, which I'll leave for >> another discussion. >> > And which were closed, proprietary online services which > eventually transformed into Internet gateways only after the > Internet had "arrived" at the mainstream. Well, that would be the "other discussion." ;^) But while they were proprietary and so on, they were recognized and acceptable to a very large population. I don't say this to take anything away from the BBSes, which were still cruising along in this period; it would be interesting to see if anyone can dig up some contemporary statistics about users in the two categories. But the point was that since these services were popular, they did introduce a significant user segment to the online world including email, and they did allow email addressed to external users, all of which increased what we'd now call the network effect of Internet and email adoption. > Again, TCP/IP only came to Windows and the Mac because it became > necessary to offer this due to the rising popularity of Internet > access. Maybe yes, maybe no. This is also the era where "open systems" were being deployed on a large scale in the corporate world, and access to these systems via TCP/IP from the desktop was a key requirement. And that trend was independent of whether or not the corporation had external IP network connections, though by this period they were sprouting up all over the place too. In that world in New York and Boston if we had to use a PC, we made sure there was an IP stack and if at all possible X Windows on it. For the home users I was talking about earlier there were packages like Trumpet Winsock and Russ Nelson's Crynwr packet drivers. I seem to recall Mac fans taunting me about how easy MacTCP was to setup, but I'm not clear on the timing for that... All I mean to point out is that there were other strong factors behind TCP/IP coming to the Windows/Mac platform. And while the corporate users would pay, the realities of the academic budget ensured that something cheap/free would be available to meet the same needs. Anyways, I hope that at some point you get a chance to write up what you saw happening around that time with the small ISPs and Linux, and share it with us. That goes for the other list members too; I was hoping for a wider response, and especially views from outside the US. I've been focusing on the 1993-4 period because of the way it set the stage for growth once the Web caught on, but feel free to roll forward or backward too. Then again, maybe this is the wrong forum. I'll let the silence be my guide... --Steve.

21 years, 7 months

10
18
0 0

The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc.

by aek＠spies.com

Some how, I am missing the context of the "The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc." messages. What the heck is all this about -- "The Little Garden" was one of the earliest ISPs on the mid-peninsula. There were a few others, like meernet, who are still around. I have been told it was named for a the resturant by the same name. Tom could probably give more details. This was around the same time that spies.com moved from Apple to General Magic then later to what became WebTV. Spies was also the home of rotten.com. When what became ebay.com was just starting, he asked Andy to put the auction service on spies. Andy didn't want to, so he used a domain he had for the 'east bay'.

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Computer Museum of America closing -- article posted

by news＠computercollector.com

As promised... an article about the museum's status and future is now posted on my homepage, http://news.computercollector.com. The link is below the "About us" heading. ===== Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter! -- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address -- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us -- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all -- W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news(a)computercollector.com -- 647 readers and counting!

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

FW: [Fwd: Old Teletype Paper]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14 2005, 16:03, Tom Jennings wrote: > On Fri, 14 Jan 2005, Tom Jennings wrote: > > >> Your guys took good care of me last time...again, I'm in need > >> of yellow-ish, old teletype paper...prefer one box for our boss. > >> Any suggestions? Thanks for your time. > > > > www.wetnc.com > > OH CRAP, it's > > www.WESTNC.com You beat me to it. Trybus and wncsupply also sell 1" tape (now mainly for CNC machines but I think they mostly do mylar or laminated tape. BTW, you really want oiled tape for a teletype. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Heads Up - VAX 750, 785, 8550 etc. plus Kaypros IIs

by Innfogra＠aol.com

Plus two Kaypro IIs in lot 286. Quite the mix of stuff in the lot. It will be a fun auction. Can you give some feedback afterwards how things went for those of us that can't attend?

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

FW: [Fwd: Old Teletype Paper]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 14 2005, 15:09, Tom Jennings wrote: > On Thu, 13 Jan 2005, Dresner, Steve (NBC Universal) wrote: > > > Your guys took good care of me last time...again, I'm in need > > of yellow-ish, old teletype paper...prefer one box for our boss. > > Any suggestions? Thanks for your time. > > www.wetnc.com www.westnc.com ^ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

FW: [Fwd: Old Teletype Paper]

by steve.dresner＠nbcuni.com

Erik: Your guys took good care of me last time...again, I'm in need of yellow-ish, old teletype paper...prefer one box for our boss. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time. Steve Dresner/Producer "The George Michael SportsMachine" WRC-TV Sports 4001 Nebraska Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20016 202.885.4127

21 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

ANSWER (dumping)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Answer to "why did I get dumped" "what did I do wrong" "what gives" etc. etc. short answer: No one was actually unsubscribed. Ignore it. long answer: I'm spending a lot of time to get the new classiccmp server up. Actually, I put the new mirrored drives into a different machine... and I'm moving all services to that machine one at a time (theres more than just the list to move). Once I get everything moved and working, I will then just moved the mirrored drives and controller to the new (old) system. So while I was moving the subscriber lists I was subbing and unsubsubbing "en-masse", but not to the current list server (huey), but to the new (hidden) list server (dewey) that is not in production yet and not running the list. I specifically put a command line option on the unsub en-masse command that was supposed to prevent sub/unsub notices from going out (-a n -w n). Obviously there is a bug and it sends out the messages anyways. But if you look at the unsub message headers carefully, you'll see that they are from dewey, not huey, so no one was actually affected (the list is still on huey for now). Jay

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc.

by aek＠spies.com

> Remember 'the little garden'? Great little Chinese place on El Camino just before Arastradero. RIP

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Computer Museum of America closing?

by aek＠spies.com

> This would be the only extant copy of LGP-21 software in the > world. I would really like a copy (emphasis on copy). Any ideas? This seems very odd. Paul Pierce doesn't have any in the LGP User's Group collection? Either way, it would be a good thing to get the CMA paper tapes read and verified.

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

the little garden / TLGnet Inc 3 and last

by tomj＠fiche.wps.com

>From admin(a)tlg.org Mon Jan 31 12:41:58 1994 Received: from relay1.UU.NET by fnord.tlg.org (8.3/wps.com-hackery) id MAA02194; Mon, 31 Jan 1994 12:41:41 -0800 Received: from cygnus.com by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AAwbgs08709; Mon, 31 Jan 94 15:42:49 -0500 Received: from fenchurch.MIT.EDU by cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA17472; Mon, 31 Jan 94 12:42:42 PST Received: from localhost by fenchurch.MIT.EDU id PAA13164; Mon, 31 Jan 1994 15:40:49 -0500 Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 15:40:47 EST From: "M. Strata Rose" <strata(a)fenchurch.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: strata(a)fenchurch.MIT.EDU To: private-garden(a)cygnus.com Cc: strata(a)fenchurch.MIT.EDU X-Tlg-Info: The Little Garden Network-- affordable Internet today! X-Tlg-Info: Finger info(a)tlg.org for info, speeds from 14400 to 56K & T1 X-Tlg-Info: San Francisco - Santa Cruz - Berkeley - San Jose areas Subject: meeting notes Message-Id: <CMM.0.90.0.760048847.strata@fenchurch> Status: OR I feel officially silly-- after typing in the meeting minutes a few days ago, I realized I hadn't actually *posted* them. Luckily I remembered this before calling Tom and asking what was wrong with the mailing list....anyway, here they are, I apologize for the delay. Tim, John, Tom, and others, feel free to correct or clarify my summations and/or paraphrasings of what you actually said, I was taking brief notes and trying to keep up with the flow of conversation and topic-jumping. This also makes them somewhat disjoint topically, but I felt that keeping the meeting flow in the transcript was more important than trying to group topics after the fact. Pull up the message with the posted agenda in another buffer and you can see what we were trying to stick to... Notes from TLG Meeting at 444 Market St. POP, 1/19/94 Tim Pozar, TomJ, & John G. suggest $800/mo as T1 colocation. Hubbub, folks start talking about IP redirect services. TomJ runs mini-service ("scamatron") for IP-redirect stuff via telnet. John Hargin [Harkins?] is TLG customer who is doing colocation, has own rate structure. Discussion as to saving space in crowded POP. Strata offers possible second POP location in Sunnyvale. Mark from WIRED mentions their expansion plans, have budgeted space for colocation facilities. Tim & co point out that physical site of 444 Market is very security conscious and that colocation would have access problems regardless of space, only very few people on access list now and they don't have time to babysit colocated machines. Various arguments on topic of "I want to colocate for reliability and won't use the full bandwidth, shouldn't I be able to pay less". Metering/analysis software need brought up by various. John mentions HNMS, Hierarchical Network Mgmt System, could do metering we need. Company is negotiating with Cygnus for support of HNMS, it will be released to public if they work out a contract. John will file FOIA to get it otherwise (assuming it looks interesting enough). WRT wider pipes and response from Toad POP folks, John offers to widen pipe to T1 to Toad for better latency if he can get Toad POP community to help with the $500/mo difference. Response from Toad folks present is enthusiastic, looks like it will happen. Given that, there is some amount of space w/TLG member physical access for colocation on T1 ether, talk to John for details as to how that's progressing and what the availability is. T1 colocation rate still applies, BTW. Offical thanks to KKSF (Tim Pozar's employers) for donating ~$3K of vital wiring & etc Stuff to the setup at 444 Market; they will have SLIP connection with fees waived for some considerable time approximating their donation to the cause. TLG info business cards passed out, Rich Morin donated his extra cardstock from his business printing and had his printer do up all his extra sheets with the card design. Contact him to get a handfull to give out to interested parties, still has sheets that haven't been cut to card-size yet. NNTP servers: newsfeeds are our primary traffic on TLG in the opinion of those who've been watching our traffic, lots of it going down skinny pipes. John Harkins has NNTP service for nominal fee to TLG members, much less than UUNET. Possible Cygnus donation of Sparc 1+ for NNTP server mentioned, John G. is upgrading hoptoad. Edward Elhauge is interested in setting up Garden-wide NNTP on a fee basis. General agreement that having an NNTP server on each POP would be desirable to keep traffic of leaf sites local to POP. Bill Custer agrees to organize 814 University NNTP server, Edward E. & Fen will organize Toad NNTP server. People in either of those POP communities should get in touch with those folks to see what they can do to help or donate in the way of time/materials-- they're organizing a volunteer effort, not committing to doing it singlehandedly. The 814 University POP is now moving to the TLG "pay your own POP" model; it has been subsidized for a while now. Basic arrangement similar to Toad's-- leased line is paid by TLG, 56K rate of $325/mo is paid by POP Responsible Party/Group, TLG gives them $10 kickback for each 14400 connection at POP. Dollar amounts paid by individuals at 814 will not differ by more than a few bucks per person after conversion says TomJ. John G. asks assembled members for support for conversion, general assent. Bandwidth issues for usage-based rates comes up yet again, from discussion of whether 814 University folks are using more than their "fair share" since they have multiple machines on POP-local ethernet. Various folks draw formal attention to "are we growth-based or do we parcel out bits grudgingly?"-- ie do we assume we will keep adding T1 connectivity from the outside if we need the bandwidth? [yes] We need to set some baseline rates for "measured rate", ie you should be able to get a wide pipe and not use the full width, but be charged for a combination of bit usage and latency. More discussion of whether or not measuring will put noticeable drag on the net, nothing conclusive. Coming up with the abovementioned charging model would also facilitate POP startup, since folks could pay to have a wider pipe than they would use put in for future expansion, grow more slowly and need a smaller group to spawn a POP. Various pricing models proposed, ranging from John G. 64K steps to latency baserate + stepped usage. Issue needs more exploration, dropped for this meeting. POP Security-- right now anyone could compromise a single host and sniff passwords for anyone elseon TLG net, this is Not Good. Stu, TomJ, Tim, John G are setting up router ring topology and bridging POP-local traffic so that the routers don't touch cross-POP hosts, each router touches only other routers who in turn talk to local POP hosts. Good idea, general kudos to them. Now a WWW (World Wide Web) server on TLG.ORG, PC-based BSD unix box; TLG members running Web servers can put a pointer URL on TLG.ORG "Member Web Servers" page, contact TomJ or Tim P about this. March issue of WIRED will carry TLG ad, will run every other month. TLG.ORG is mostly DNS, admin info, the mailing lists. Stu, TomJ, Tim, and Tom's new intern Flesh have accounts, tlg-ops. Dave Sharnoff mentions he gateways his email to newsgroup format on his machine, talk about need for downstream/POP based mailing lists, hard to contact neighbors on local POP when TLG.ORG is out if that's where all the mailing lists are! Kee points out that TomJ has made sublists but we still need per-POP access lists so people can offload local POP maint and make POPS more independent. John G mentioned Randy Bush is doing profiles/lists of toasternets, contact him (Randy) if you want info or have listings. Will be published in paper and HTML/Web served. Tim Pozar needs 300M drive & Adaptec controller for 444 Market, spontaneous hat passing nets $350. Nice work & a good feeling... Tim P. is working with McGraw-Hill on a pending 56K connection in San Mateo to TLG. He has asked them about colocation of TLG equipment to make a San Mateo POP but they are wary. Peter & Tim will investigate if Frame Relay makes sense for this pipe, McGraw is apparently in or near a building loaded with net-goodies. Various folk point out that random closet rental can bridge TLG service gap between Palo Alto and SF. There is concern about McGraw & another potential TLG customer sucking down "too much" bandwidth. John G talks a little about how you buy latency with a T1, not stricly bandwith, but still there are no guarantees on speed. We [TLG] have never guaranteed constant bandwidth, ie 56K pushed to 56K 7x24, but instead worked out varying rates so that we approximate bandwidth by steps (14400, 56K, T1) with rates that let the bigger connections take a bigger share of the cost. Dave Sharnoff mentions WRT latency, he chunks his NNTP data down to the smallest packet size he can to keep decent latency on simultaneous typing/telnet access on his link, suggests it as a technique to improve 14400 connection performance. John G & Tim suggest that he is dragging down overall network performance by doing this, don't recommend it but no clear consensus on what the effect would be if more folks were doing it. TomJ talks about statistical multiplexing briefly. TomJ: wants help by skillset. Fen suggests mailing list for potential helpers. Tim P offers gopher list for helpers skills. Peter suggest finger account for help(a)tlg.org w/contact list, also setup a help mailback of info using the vacation program. Tim P mentions SJ POP, send potentials to TomJ, we would like to start one. NOS boxes-- only one left, TomJ praises the Livingston boxes for running smoothly once set up, notes that the documentation was hell though. More general discussion of problem solving-- several people brought up a suggestion that we should do PacBell-like cost recovery on troubleshooting. If the problem turns out to be on your end, charge time and materials for looking into it. Need more discussion on how to implement this. Trouble tickets: we need some kind of system; Cygnus has one that we could adapt, and NEARNET has a free FTP-able one as well. Roger Klorese commits to looking into various systems on our behalf. Thanks Roger! TomJ does virtual intro of Randy Mills aka Flesh, his new "intern" (Flesh couldn't make it due to a last-minute schedule conflict). Tom has budgeted $100/mo at first, and mentions that both his and Flesh's stipends should go up as TLG starts breaking even/getting ahead. Flesh has been educating himself in PC tech and BBS stuff, is sharp and interested. TomJ has set him up with a connection on the maintainance port of the 444 Market router w/2400 baud TCP/IP, will upgrade to 9600 when he can scrounge modems. Fen donates pair of 9600 baud modems on the spot, cool. TomJ comments as an aside that he's enthused about getting more folks like Flesh involved with TLG, people from the non-techy side of the world, punks, artists and the like. The Spreadsheet: Tom has new estimates, so spreadsheet at meeting is gloomier than real picture. He observes that we seem to be growing by approx $500/mo. We have to spend $2400 to start up new T1's, $600 for new 14400 (TLG buying ports for new customers to connect to). TomJ has done approximations of a step-up curve where cost/resources/new members are tied into steps where we have to expand. Tom T mentions that we should encourage folks to upgrade their SLIP/PPP connections when the new modem chipsets are widely available in May, as it leverages our current ports into higher revenue without additional cost to us. More grumbling/concerns over large customers (corporations, network services) potentially "sucking dry" the pipe. TomJ points out that all of TLG averaged less than 56K over 5 min spikes in September. John G points out that the entire Internet was on T1 in 1993, w/many 56K interconnects, and that the arpanet/Internet was on 56K for years. Slight digression into T1 costs of our competition, Tim P says Barrnet is cheapest, $600+/month for T1 but (gotcha) no resale. Mini-history review of Barrnet decision, went to no resale because of "predatory" ANS routing pricing for downstream resellers (figure of $55K/year/service provider-reseller was mentioned). Tom's salary: nothing really decided except that TomJ deserves more money and less hours, and that Flesh's presence and a help-list will alleviate the latter complaint but that we need more members and to start running more in the black to work on the $$ issue. John G reminds folks that there's also the matter of eventually repaying his $10K TLG starter loan at more than $40/month, too. WRT TomJ's hours and offloading, we will try to formalize some of the written docs that he has done and put them where they are easier to get to. TomJ has already set up some docs on tlg.org for FTP, we will put up HTML (Web) and probably gopher stuff too. Strata volunteers to edit and otherwise help assemble docs. TimP has partial book/manual, as does TomJ. Rich suggests monthly open house/class for TLG newbies. General enthusiasm for this idea. Peter says have them bring in their machine and just *set it up* as part of the class/workshop, and/or put together a kit like the one the WELL sells for new members, sales of the kit can help with TLG cash problem as well. Robert points out that SW developers and the phone company slam folks for asking questions and taking tech time if the answers are in the manuals/provided docs, maybe we need to do this too (cost recovery again). Will Kreth mentions BAIL (Bay Area Internet Literacy?) and their toasternet classes, they have a committed space reservation that they don't fully use and may be open to letting TLG host/cohost classes in the space. Will will post BAIL info to TLG list, also bail-list-request(a)well.sf.ca.us for info on their classes. Send mail to strata(a)fenchurch.mit.edu re: skills you have that might be helpful to TLG members getting connected and/or maintaining their connection. List ones you are comfortable with volunteering to newbies as well as more experienced folks, and don't list things you know that you consider a potential waste of your limited time, ie for a routing expert to be spending an hour on the phone telling someone how to configure their modem. Strata will collate and post a list, as well as periodic updates as we get new members. That's basically it, folks... ************************************************************************* M. Strata Rose Unix & Network Consultant, SysAdmin & Internet Information Virtual City Network (tm) strata(a)virtual.net | strata(a)hybrid.com | strata(a)fenchurch.mit.edu

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Switcher PS temperature...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

In the ongoing saga of my OSI C4P-MF that had a PS melt down at VCF east, I determined that the whole thing, in operation, draws 7.2 amps at 5 volts. The two stock 5V supplies are rated for 3 amps each. They are obviously being over stressed. I can't point my finger at any particular "bad" component... everything seems to work just fine when given sufficient current and nothing seems to be drawing more than a few percent out of spec. Anyway, being tired of running it belly up with a large fan blowing on the PSs, I identified a small switcher that would nicely fit in some spare space near the original supplies. You can't actually remove the original supplies, their frames are integral to the structure of the machine. The supply is a Power-One MAP42-1005 available used (and cheap) from WeirdStuff (note URL broken across lines): http:www.weirdstuff.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp ?product_id=4158&czuid=1104890632078 spec sheet here: http://xtronics.com/stock/pdf/map40.pdf It's rated for 8 amps with no significant airflow (if I understand the specs correctly) so, I'm not even pushing it to its limit. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of operation with the case open and the new PS sitting off to one side (clear all around), the two heat sinks are too hot to touch. Is that normal operation for this kind of supply? Maybe I got a bad one from WeirdStuff? Or could this be some additional clue as to something wrong somewhere else in the computer? According to my meter, the voltage is spot on 5 volts and the current is 7.2 amps. Any suggestions appreciated.

21 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

Switcher PS temperature...

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Eric Smith" <eric(a)brouhaha.com> > >Bill wrote: >> Anyway, after about 10 minutes of >> operation with the case open and the new PS sitting off >> to one side (clear all around), the two heat sinks are too >> hot to touch. Is that normal operation for this kind of >> supply? > >No. They're expected to be hot, but you should be able to >keep your fingers on them for a couple of seconds. > >WARNING: The heat sinks on open-frame switchers may be >electrically hot as well as thermally. Yes, like 400+ VDC with an ampere or 2 of capacity. Dwight > >Eric > >

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

interak

by ap007h5122＠blueyonder.co.uk

Hi Errol I have just seen your message on the web, while searching for some other stuff. I expect by now I am too late but I have a working Interak which I still use quite a bit. I like making up new cards + interfaces for it. I have also modified the cpm bios to enable an 80 character screen. (The original monitor card could only display 64 characters as you probably know.) If you still have any related items - hardware, software or documentation - I would be very interested. I live in Hilperton, Trowbridge Wiltshire. Hopefully, Alan --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.642 / Virus Database: 410 - Release Date: 24/03/2004

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Computer Museum of America closing?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

"The museum will be closed to the public beginning January 15, 2005 due to a lack of funding. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. For further information or to help financially, call David Weil at (619) 464-8220 or email dweil(a)computer-museum.org". http://www.computer-museum.org This also included the North American Datacomm Dept., http://www.nadcomm.com/ , as run by Greenkeys member Don House: "The museum is closing tomorrrow. I got the call about an hour ago. The college is no longer able to fund it. David is looking for someone to take over funding and provide a new location in the San Diego area. Anyone with some connections, for God's sake help us. I am very depressed." - John

21 years, 7 months

5
5
0 0

You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list

by jhfinexgs2＠compsys.to

Anyone else get this message?

21 years, 7 months

12
11
0 0

Are there any Zenith Minisport owners in the house?

by netsurfer_x1＠fastmailbox.net

Hi all, I was just wondering if we had any Zenith Minisport owners in the house. David M. Vohs Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64, 1802, 1541, Indus GT, FDD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801. "Leela": Original Apple Macintosh, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer III. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. "Butterfly": Tandy 200, PDD-2. "Shapeshifter": Epson QX-10, Comrex HDD, Titan graphics/MS-DOS board. "Scout": Otrona Attache. (prospective) "Pioneer": Apple LISA II. "TMA-1": Atari Portfolio, Memory Expander + "Centaur": Commodore Amiga 2000.

21 years, 7 months

4
10
0 0

Switcher PS temperature...

by melamy＠earthlink.net

one of the key specs for power transistors is operating temperature. When near the top end of dissipation, the case can be past the temerpature of boiling water and still be able to dissipate 60% of what its top rating is (typical for 2N3055 power transistor anyway). If you want to make absolutely sure, then get the part number and find the specs on it. Measure the case temperature and then the emitter and collector voltages. The difference between the two times the output current of 7.2 amps will give you the wattage it is trying to dissipate. Refer to the specs to see if the temperature vs dissipation is within spec. A simpler solution is just run it and see if it eventually blows up... (it is probably okay) best regards, Steve Thatcher -----Original Message----- From: Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink(a)verizon.net> hot to touch. Is that normal operation for this kind of supply? Maybe I got a bad one from WeirdStuff? Or could this be some additional clue as to something wrong somewhere else in the computer? According to my meter, the voltage is spot on 5 volts and the current is 7.2 amps. Any suggestions appreciated.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

DNS history? (fwd)

by tomj＠wps.com

I asked my friend Randy who has done a lot of DNS work. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 18:06:15 -0800 From: Randy Bush Subject: Re: DNS history? > Anything written? i googled. the first entry seems written by someone who could read rfcs and then add political spin. <http://www.byte.org/one-history-of-dns.pdf> <http://www.ahref.com/guides/industry/199903/0323piouprintable.html> is far too terse and short. nothing else looks interesting i would ask on inter-hist list randy

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by classiccmp＠crash.com

John Allain wrote: > First home ISP: Public Access Networks (Panix NY) > running on Suns. A friend of mine was involved in the startup of Panix and has said several times that the original platform was A/UX, of all things. He's been on and off the list from time to time, maybe I can get him to tell the tale... --Steve.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

ebay HP book

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Item # 5156451806 This is one of the best books to have for HP collectors. It pulls together many different manuals into one reference book. It's got a lot of hardware info, but you can almost think of this book being to the HP software what the CE handbook is to HP software. Lots of good stuff :) Jay

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

What is this RK05 style pack?

by wacarder＠usit.net

A couple months ago I acquired a new, still in the plastic wrap, still in the box, never opened disk pack that at first glance appeared to be an RK05. I finally decided to look further at it to see if it was a 12 sector or 16 sector RK05 pack, since it had no identifying label or markings. Upon further inspection, I found that it did not have the usual rim on the hub, where normally you would be able to count the thin notches to determine whether it was a 16 sector or 12 sector RK05. Instead, it has a short, rounded, unnotched rim where normally it would have the tall thin rim with notches. Otherwise it looks just like an RK05. The case is interchangeable. I actually took it apart so I could use the case on another RK05 pack that had a decent platter but a bad outer case. What is this thing? RK03? Ashley

21 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Wanted: Used electronic / Computer resellers

by ICS＠Core.com

Anyone know of Used or Salvage Electronic / Computer equipment resellers in the Maryland, Virginia area? or of a Mr. Wilson Drummond that buys from the NASA auctions?

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Any one remember...?

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Wow Eric! That was QUICK! Thanks! I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with this board. Do you like it? My original Model I is not working properly at this time. My friend Tom and I will have to take a look at it more closely. It powers up, and will work stand-alone, but when attached to my E/I or an LNW E/I I have, it does not see the RAM in the E/I or access the floppies. I may simply have to resolder the gold plug on the expansion connector, OR something more insidious is wrong. This particular Model I has the Dennis Kitsz LowerCase Mod from his book (very similar to the Electric Pencil Mod), Dennis's High Speed Upgrade (4mhz if I remember correctly) with a special circuit that slows down the Mod for Cassette or Disk Access (along with a Tri-Color LED that goes Red for normal, Green for High Speed, and Orange for Auto Switch). We also built in an Audio Amplifier, Composite Video Out (for an Amber Monitor OR a TV through an RF Modulator), AND an Alpha Joystick Connector one can attach ANY Atari-Style Joystick to. I miss those days... Al > From: dittman(a)dittman.net (Eric Dittman) > > > All this talk of TRS-80's on the list (Those two > S-100 > > Systems sound COOL!!!), prompts me to ask if > anyone > > remembers a garage project called "The Trash > > Compactor". > > > > Basically, some guy (a REALLY SMART guy!) > > reimplemented the entire Model III logic Board on > a > > board that would fit inside a Model I case. > > > > It also incorporated the E/I and the RS-232 port, > and > > did some other cool things. > > > > I lost the literature I used to have on this > board. > > > > Anyone remember it? > > I have a board that sounds like what you described. > The company > silkscreened on the board is "Norcom". > > The Model I case has part of the back plastic hacked > out for the > additional connectors. The keyboard is one of the > later-model > Model I keyboards with keypad. > > It works with the exception of one column of keys, > which should be > easy to fix when I get a chance. > -- > Eric Dittman > dittman(a)dittman.net __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Any one remember...?

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

All this talk of TRS-80's on the list (Those two S-100 Systems sound COOL!!!), prompts me to ask if anyone remembers a garage project called "The Trash Compactor". Basically, some guy (a REALLY SMART guy!) reimplemented the entire Model III logic Board on a board that would fit inside a Model I case. It also incorporated the E/I and the RS-232 port, and did some other cool things. I lost the literature I used to have on this board. Anyone remember it? I wish I'd bought one, way back when... I'm STILL looking for an LNW-80 Model II.. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

"Cold heat" soldering?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj(a)wps.com> > >On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, Ron Hudson wrote: > >> What kind of screwdriver is a "greenie" screwdriver? > >I thought they were universal!!!! :-) > >about 4" long, thin flat blade, 3/32" or so, green translucent hex >handle, by xcelite. Trimpots, prying chips, cutting PCB traces, >punching holes in your pocket. Fancy models come with a pocket >clip. Decent quality, cheap. Just knowing I own one (actually, >three) makes life better. > I always referred to them as being a "tweak". A small piece of shrink tubing to slide up when doing trim pots. Dwight

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Thorn EMI Proton Detection System Commodore PET (UK)

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

A friend of mine who works for a large local organisation rescued this fascinating piece of kit from being thrown in a dumpster. It is a modified PET (the later series without the cassette drive) with the "Commodore" name strip replaced with a "Thorn EMI" one. It is internally modified with one or several? more boards mounted in it, and there are several ports which have been added to the right hand side - these include two BNCs which IIRC were Analogue In and Analogue Out, a 25-pin D RS232, and several others I don't recall. The machine also has new ROMs in it - however the original ones are stored within it in a small perspex box attached to the baseplace (how thoughtful is that?). I didn't get to see it run. There is also a Commodore dual floppy drive for the unit with it (using half-height drives). Another contact I have at this place is a collector of old computers so I suspect he will have his eye on this, however he has a PET in his collection already, so if this unit is of particular historical importance and someone wants it for their museum where it will go on display (Witchy? Jules?) I might be able to get it for you on this basis. I could certainly try. Is anyone interested?

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

How the Mac was born... supposedly...

by aek＠spies.com

>Interesting story, but I find it hard to believe that emailing outside >of academic and military circles was done much at all back in 1985. You obviously weren't around then, were you? The tough part was finding shell accounts you could get. The Well was one of the first. I know that's what I had an account on in '85. And Apple most certainly was exchanging email. The original 'apple vax' (apple.com later) was a 780 that lived in the top floor of Mariani 1. I got my first job at Apple from a posting on ba.jobs that came through that machine.

21 years, 7 months

16
22
0 0

How the Mac was born... supposedly...

by aek＠spies.com

What we're trying to find out, on two threads now, is how life was before registered domain names. -- In the unix world, uucp and netnews, both using bang separated pathnames. Tom could explain the details of FIDOnet, which had gateways. Then there were all the other corparate/educational nets with their own naming rules (bitnet,decnet and dec's internal networks). Most people had slow point-point links at the periphery.

21 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

Linux and growth of Internet

by aek＠spies.com

I seem to recall Mac fans taunting me about how easy MacTCP was to setup, but I'm not clear on the timing for that... -- Apple introduced MacTCP in Oct, 1988. NCSA, UofM, and Stanford packages were available before that. Primary applications were Telnet, FTP, Mail of various flavors and Gopher.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

"Cold heat" soldering?

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Tom Jennings wrote: > Ron Hudson wrote: >> What kind of screwdriver is a "greenie" screwdriver? >> > I thought they were universal!!!! :-) The yahoo's running airport security in Columbus or Des Moines confiscated my only greenie sometime before the TSA took over airport screening, but well after 9/11. It had remained in my carry-on for several trips shortly before this, but this time when they did a complete hand-check of my bag, they decided this was an Instrument of Terror. I thought it was the only way to tighten up the screws in my glasses, but didn't argue with the nice (ahem) man. I could buy another one, but this was the one given to me when I took a work-study job in the Engineering department at college and learned to solder random serial cables... --Steve.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Anyone remember Coherent Unix?

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I am interested in it's history. Could you summarize it a little. I still have a couple sets of their SW although I have never run it. Paxton

21 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

"Cold heat" soldering?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Philip Pemberton" <philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com> > >In message <S.0000412101(a)mythtech.net> > chris <cb(a)mythtech.net> wrote: > >> >the attraction is to all the people that burn themselves WHENEVER they >> >pick up a soldering iron... >> >> I thought those burns where a right of passage in using an iron!?! > >Yep - picking up the hot end of a soldering iron is another one. Yes, I've >done that once. That was reason I went out and bought a proper stand for the >iron. > Hi It is mostly learning to not reach for it when it is falling. You should jsut let it fall. Dwight

21 years, 7 months

6
8
0 0

Reading Atari 800 floppies?

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

Havent tried this, but: http://www.emulators.com/xformer.htm Cheers, Ram -----Original Message----- From: Tom Hudson [mailto:tomhudson@execpc.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 3:42 PM To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Reading Atari 800 floppies? Anybody know if it's possible to read old Atari 8-bit 5.25" floppies with some sort of PC-based software? I used to develop software for the Ataris and some co-workers just dredged up some floppies with source code from projects I did for Atari that were never released. We're trying to dig up a functional 800 system to read them but it would save a lot of hassle if it was possible to read them directly into a PC, where we have a good emulator. -Tom -- Thomas Hudson http://portdistrict5.org -- 5th District Aldermanic Website http://portev.org -- Electric Vehicles, Solar Power & More http://portgardenclub.org -- Port Washington Garden Club http://portlightstation.org -- Light Station Restoration http://klanky.com -- Animation Projects (c) 2005 OpenLink Financial Copyright in this message and any attachments remains with us. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If this message is not intended for you it must not be read, copied or used by you or disclosed to anyone else. Please advise the sender immediately if you have received this message in error. Although this message and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Open Link Financial, Inc. for any loss or damage in any way arising from its use.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Reading Atari 800 floppies?

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

Havent tried this, but: -----Original Message----- From: Tom Hudson [mailto:tomhudson@execpc.com] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 3:42 PM To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Reading Atari 800 floppies? Anybody know if it's possible to read old Atari 8-bit 5.25" floppies with some sort of PC-based software? I used to develop software for the Ataris and some co-workers just dredged up some floppies with source code from projects I did for Atari that were never released. We're trying to dig up a functional 800 system to read them but it would save a lot of hassle if it was possible to read them directly into a PC, where we have a good emulator. -Tom -- Thomas Hudson http://portdistrict5.org -- 5th District Aldermanic Website http://portev.org -- Electric Vehicles, Solar Power & More http://portgardenclub.org -- Port Washington Garden Club http://portlightstation.org -- Light Station Restoration http://klanky.com -- Animation Projects (c) 2005 OpenLink Financial Copyright in this message and any attachments remains with us. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If this message is not intended for you it must not be read, copied or used by you or disclosed to anyone else. Please advise the sender immediately if you have received this message in error. Although this message and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Open Link Financial, Inc. for any loss or damage in any way arising from its use.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list

by tbilby＠rave.com

Hi Jay, Any reason why I was automagically _un_subscribed from cctalk? Thanks, Tad cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org wrote: <nothing> -- ---- Tad *******************************

21 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Tom Hudson <tomhudson(a)execpc.com> wrote: > I got TWO of 'em! I WIN!!! > >-Tom > >P.S. One at 9:07PM, one at 9:23PM Also got it twice (with exactly the same time stamps as you). If there is somebody playing games, s/he should better be careful or might be sued if shocked list members suffer heart attacks due to these bad news! -- Arno Kletzander Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de +++ Sparen Sie mit GMX DSL +++ http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl AKTION für Wechsler: DSL-Tarife ab 3,99 EUR/Monat + Startguthaben

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

"Cold heat" soldering?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk > >> That was Bob Vila, and actually he was employing one of those gripper >> wrenches that automatically adjust to any nut size. They work pretty >> well. > >... for rounding thr corners off the nuts. > I agree with Tony. If I saw teeth marks on a axle nut, I'd replace it. Even if the corners were not rounded, it wouldn't take a proper wrench correctly after it had plier jaws on it. Use the proper size and type of tool for each job. Such pliers should only be used for nuts in emergencies, with the understanding that that nut will need to be replaced. Dwight

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

This just in...

by jpl15＠panix.com

>Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 21:07:35 -0600 >From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org >To: jpl15(a)panix.com >Subject: You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list And that was it - no body message, and of course, t'ain't true... Interesting... Cheers Not Unsubbed

21 years, 7 months

12
11
0 0

This just in...

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I got one, too. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 11:01 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: This just in... On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:44:36 -0500 (EST), John Lawson <jpl15(a)panix.com> wrote: > > >Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 21:07:35 -0600 > >From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > >To: jpl15(a)panix.com > >Subject: You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list > > And that was it - no body message, and of course, t'ain't true... I got one too... -ethan

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Hey people

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Chill Out

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

Same here?? Ram -----Original Message----- From: Tothwolf [mailto:tothwolf@concentric.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 11:06 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, Jerome H. Fine wrote: > Anyone else get this message? I just got it. -Toth (c) 2005 OpenLink Financial Copyright in this message and any attachments remains with us. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If this message is not intended for you it must not be read, copied or used by you or disclosed to anyone else. Please advise the sender immediately if you have received this message in error. Although this message and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Open Link Financial, Inc. for any loss or damage in any way arising from its use.

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Message 34 - unsubscribed

by cmurray＠eagle.ca

Message: 34 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:08:16 -0500 From: 9000 VAX <vax9000(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <ddc584f505011220086eeb24c2(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII me On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:02:56 -0500, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinexgs2(a)compsys.to> wrote: >> Anyone else get this message? I got this message TWICE, within 1/2 hr and midnight to boot!!!

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Hitachi 4Drive CD enclosure and controller

by CCTalk＠catcorner.org

I have available for the picking, an external cabinet with 4 Hitachi interface CD-ROM drives (TCDR-4000). I also have the TCD-IF8P interface card (from Todd engineering), the install and driver disks and connecting cable. THESE ARE NOT SCSI DRIVES. It also comes with a bunch of the cadies for the CD's. Copyright and dates codes are from 1992 so this is on topic. According to what I can find, none of this is supported in any of the current PC environment, and it doesn't run on any of the classic stuff I collect. Well, I guess I could get it running in one of the DOS machines I use for emulating and testing, but I have no real desire to do so. If anyone has any need for this unit, please let me know off list. It is VERY HEAVY (about 20+ pounds). Whoever wants it would have to pay for shipping from New Jersey, or come pick it up. That's all I'm asking for, but if you have any old Tandy/TRS-80 stuff (not the PC stuff, the older units), please let me know. If you're just gonna gut it, please don't ask. I can do that myself and install a bunch of SCSI drives if I so desired. All of this is "AS IS", but I would hate to trash it if anyone has a need for it. Kelly

21 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list

by GOOI＠oce.nl

No, it's a draw. For the real #1 :~), I got the first at 4:15, the second at 6:32 (both "West-Europe" time, during the winter that's UTC-2). - Henk, PA8PDP. > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Tom Hudson > Sent: donderdag 13 januari 2005 6:04 > To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: You have been unsubscribed from the cctalk mailing list > > > I got TWO of 'em! I WIN!!! > > -Tom > > P.S. One at 9:07PM, one at 9:23PM > > -- > Thomas Hudson > http://portdistrict5.org -- 5th District Aldermanic Website > http://portev.org -- Electric Vehicles, Solar Power & More > http://portgardenclub.org -- Port Washington Garden Club > http://portlightstation.org -- Light Station Restoration > http://klanky.com -- Animation Projects > > > Jerome H. Fine wrote: > > > Anyone else get this message?

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

server names

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

too many have asked.... Huey was (and for a few days more at least 'is') the real hostname of the classiccmp server, because that was the system name for our HP2000/Access system in high school. But since I got my own real HP2000/Access system running at home... well... in the words of the highlander "there can be only one". So the new classicmp server is named Dewey, after the DEC PDP-11/03 running RT-11/TSX+ in my high school. Yes, my home system is named louie.classiccmp.org, after the third computer my high school had, a EC-1 analog computer :) Jay

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

so....

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I guess the suprise is out (to those who inspected the headers)... The new machine has spamassassin and clamAV on it... primarily so that the moderator won't have to moderate spam. This will make my job (and the other list moderator helpers jobs) infinitely more bearable. It'll be nice to moderate about 150 emails a day instead of a thousand+. Also, when it's all done... look for some nice enhancements to the list archives. Jay

21 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb