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

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 19, 12:08, Jarkko Teppo wrote: > Well, NeXT did a few things against unix traditions, NI didn't > probably work out well :-) > but objc, developing environment and the > windowing system certainly did. One really has to try those to see > how badly X11 sucks. I've heard good things about the development environment. I'm not overly impressed with the window manager, but I've seen much worse. And I can think of a few shortcomings of X11 (colour [mis]management for one) > If you end up with a corrupted NI db (badly corrupted) you can reset all > the NI information by booting single-user and > > cp -r /usr/template/client/etc/hostconfig /etc > cp -r /usr/template/client/etc/netinfo /etc/netinfo I did almost exactly that after poking about last week. Nice to know it was the right guess! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

More freebies in Michigan (PC based, mainly)

by fernande＠internet1.net

Hello Everyone, I have more free stuff here in Michigan, plus some that I didn't get rid of last time. As of now, everything that I have promised people has been shipped. If I promised you something and you haven't been told a shipping cost and that it is on its way, please email me. I did have one guy that I couldn't seem to get an email through to. I am advertising these items as free, but I ask that you would reimburse me for shipping. Also please reply off list, as this will be going out to 2 or 3 lists. This stuff probably won't interest Rescue very much, but I figured it couldn't hurt to send it anyway. -NEC IDE cd-rom model CDR-272 (4X, I think) -generic serial mouse (9pin) -paperwork for old Hercules Graphics Plus... looks brand new, has floppy disk too. I bought what was supposed to be the Hercules card on Ebay, turned out someone had simply stuck there old card in the Hercules box. Maybe someone with the card might want the manuals? -Sled for Optical drive for IBM 3510 external case, brand new -sound card/modem from Packard Bell computer. I don't know how fast the modem is, but I thought Linux or maybe even Win95 might detect the sound card chip set. Could be a real cheap way to add sound to your computer. I see Aztech and Crystal chips, if that means anything. -Teac 1.2 meg floppy drive, model FD-55GFR, These drives are great if you need to read and write to 360K floppies. I haven't had too much trouble doing that, and I have always attributed it to the quality of the Teac drives I use. -GraphiCard by Practical Peripherals for the Apple // series. I think it is some sort of parallel card. no documentation or cables, just the card. -3.5" 1.44meg floppy by Panasonic (white face, but whole thing could use a cleaning) -Astec PS/2 power supply, 150 watts, This is out of a Packard Bell, but the only thing I have heard these referred to is PS/2 style. I don't know why, as I have never seen real PS/2 use a power supply like this. It has a remote power switch and 4 drive power leads. Looks pretty standard for a newer, but not ATX, clone box. -white power cord -2 IDE cables, 40 pin, one long, one short, pretty generic -floppy cable, controller end is a header type connector as is the last floppy connector. The middle connector is the edge type. -AC adapter for US Robotics Courier modem, output is 20 volts! -external 3.5" drive for Apple //gs or I think Mac. Model# A9M0106 It's clean but a little beat up. -Digital (Yes, as in DEC) "Full Video Elite" 16-bit ISA card for Mpeg Playback practically new, in the original box has all software, manuals, etc. I bought this at a computer show when it was already "obsolete". I tried it out on my hoped up 386, but decided I didn't really want it. It tried about 3 times to sell it on Ebay, but nobody would bid. Then all of a sudden I saw a flood of them on Ebay going for next to nothing if at all. I'm just tired of it sitting around! While using it I did notice some interference in the video, I think the pass-through cable may need shielding or something. -black power cable -baby AT 286 motherboard, has Harris 20mhz chip, uses 30-pin simms, have 4megs installed, 8 ISA slots, AMI bios, PC Chips chip set, will include extra simms but am unsure of condition of extras. Board has never been installed, but I did test it before putting it on Ebay. Didn't sell obviously. I thought about making a little system out of it to use as a terminal for my MicroVax 3400, but decided I don't need another PC. -IBM serial/parallel board from IBM AT, uses 16450N uart chip, 8-bit ISA. This isn't a cheap generic board. It's real IBM hardware. -some sort of IBM memory board, has serial and parallel ports, 16-bit ISA, uses 30-pin simms. I never got it to work, I don't know exactly what kind of simms it uses either. I stuck some simms from a PS/2 Model 60 in it. It might need software too. Real IBM not generic -full height face plate for Seagate ST-225, I think -5.25" DD floppies, almost new or new. Not sure how many I'll let go, maybe 20 to 25. -springy contacts from the back of an Apple //e case, not sure exactly which case... they changed it over the years. It's 10.75 inches long, if that helps. -Microchannel MFM drive controller FRU 6127874B, I think it's the older one. It's from a Model 60 -Microchannel Adaptec 1640, I think this one is fried, I couldn't get it to work, but maybe you want the slot cover or bios chips? -SMC Microchannel Arcnet card -Arco Electronics Microchannel IDE card -2 Suncom Microchannel game cards. I bought these through Ebay, NIB. They don't seem to work with my Reply Corporation Planer, However. They don't use an ADF file either. -Seagate Cabo ST3541A (CFS541A) It's IDE, but some IDE controllers won't see it... don't know why. 540megs -2 Miniscribe Model 8425F RLL I believe. -uSpeed Fast88, I guess this is an accelerator of some sort for an 8088 system. I got it with a clone PC or XT system. Plugs into MB in relay socket. -STB video card, MVP2X, dual head card, Tseng Labs chip sets, 16-bit ISA -ISA IDE and I/O card, almost new, I bought it from Walmart for my first CD-ROM (32x, to give you an idea of it's age). It's in the box and has the instructions, 16-bit ISA. -3 Winchester drive controllers, RLL I think. 2 have floppy ports that can't be disabled, one has no floppy port. Neat cards, I have one in my socket 7 system because I blew the MB floppy controller out :-) 16-bit ISA, and I have an instruction sheet I can make copies of. -Still have the TIPC (Texas Instruments Professional Computer) No monitor, keyboard, or OS. -IBM PS/2 Model 9577, probably about 24megs of ram, 400meg HD, XGA2 card, both floppies, clean. -Adaptec 2742W EISA wide SCSI card, but has no slot cover. I bought a generic one, but it didn't have the hole in the correct spot. I have heard it isn't to hard to make one using a drill press and a file, with a blank cover. Please help me clean up my apartment :-) Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Another Amiga question

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Zane wrote: >There are MP3 players for 68k Amiga's?!?! That's either rather gutsy, or >pathetic, I'm not sure which. What do they do, decode them to another >format and then play them? There is an MP3 player for 68k NeXTs. See http://www.wizards.de/~frank/download.html to get it. The blurb says it runs realtime on Turbo, and 22kHz play on 25 MHz systems. - Mark - Mark

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

OT: Virii

by Alan.Pearson＠cramersystems.com

>How can I write a zero-byte program? How does NAV identify this virus if >it's zero bytes in length? What real threat to my PC is an e-mail-propagated >virus of length zero? Sounds like it patches an existing file. One method of checking for a virus is to scan files for a tell-tale set of bytes, I would guess that's how NAV found this one. I just did a Google search for "Magistr" - a whole load of sites all say the same thing - a month after infection the virus kicks in and nobbles hard disk sectors, then has a go at the BIOS too. It doesn't sound like it's that easy to fix :-( Moral 1: never open an attachment from anyone unless you've confirmed in advance what it is. It's not enough to say "never open attachments from people you don't know" because most of these mail virii are spread by using people's Outlook Address Books... if you're unlucky enough to have a mate who's got you in his address book and s/he opens a virus attachment you're going to get the virus delivered from a friendly source... I used to get some stick from the lads when we go out for beers for never opening the joke GIFs they mail me - one day I wrote a bit of VBA in a Word document and sent it to them - all it did was list the contents of C:\ into the document in the same style as the DIR command, then pop up a dialog saying "Do you want to delete these files?" with only a "Yes" button and the "X" box system button. Either way once the dialog was closed it then put up another dialog saying "Thanks for playing" at the same time as deleting each line in the document (not the actual files, of course!), one a second. The utter panic this caused amongst 4 supposedly experienced programmers was a revelation - 4 "what the **** was that?" phonecalls later was enough to convince me that a) never trust your mates emails, it might not be from them b) don't believe your eyes - Word isn't completely WYSIWYG, thankfully :-) Moral 2: use alternatives to Microsoft, they've lost the plot - as if I needed to say that on this list :-) Moral 3: just because it's technically possible doesn't mean it's particularly desirable. What possible justification can they have for including a programming language in a word processor? What did Chuck Thacker call it? Biggerism? On topic: once I've fixed the PERQ's monitor I'll be hacking clones of elm and lynx together. I'd like to see anyone infect that machine :-) -- al

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 19, 8:52, Jarkko Teppo wrote: [ NeXT documentation ] > If you install the whole shebang (at least on 3.3) you get the documentation > library in (I don't remember) /NextLibrary/something. It doesn't matter > because the bookshelf-files are in /NextLibrary/BookShelves/. Just double > click on SysAdmin.bshlf. Thanks, I'll look tonight. > > > Man-pages on niload and nidump might help too. Honestly, I never > > remember > > > how to do it so I just improvise and create a local NI hierarchy and > > > use DNS for name resolution. > > > > I read them, and realised they didn't tell me enough, mainly because I > > don't understand the rest of it. > > niload is just a helper for loading text-based configuration files into > the NetInfo DB. nidump does the same in reverse. I got that far from the man pages, but I need to know which files they handle and what to turn them into for a single NeXT (in a sea of UNIX varieties). > Misc. link: > http://enterprise.apple.com/NeXTanswers/HTMLFiles/1060.htmld/1060.html That looks useful. Thanks! > > No, NIS is *never* an option ;-) > > Heh :) I'm sometimes ready to put NI into same category but that's > probably just because I have one (or two, if you count white boxes) > NeXT(s). NI would probably kick ass in an installation with something > like 100 machines. Except that it breaks one of the golden UNIX rules; keep the config information human-readable. > I must admit that NetInfo can be quite confusing and I can screw up a > machine pretty easily with it. I did that too :-) By following the obvious option in the setup and telling the machine it should use the network. I didn't realise what I was telling it to use the network *for* :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

parcel post from U.K. to U.S.A. ?

by Alan.Pearson＠cramersystems.com

> From the UK (ParcelForce): I wouldn't use Parcel Force personally. Much better to use Amtrak, UPS, FedEx, anyone ...! They regularly dump stuff on my doorstep without waiting to see if anyone's in... doesn't matter if it's raining either (it often is!) }:-| I gave up complaining about it ages ago, and now just ask people to use Amtrak instead if possible. If Parcel Farce can't deliver something from Bristol to Bath without it getting damaged there's not much hope of them getting it across the Atlantic... use somebody else and do yourself a favour :-) -- al

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

DEC Haul!

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > Ethan- > > > > Are you telling me you came down here to Louisville, KY and > > grabbed a PDP-8 right out from underneath my nose? > > In 1986, yes, 3rd-party cabinet and all. Oh. Well, ok, in 1986, my consciousness hadn't risen the level it's on today. > > Way to go, dude! But let me have the next one, OK? > > NP Que?

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

OT: Virii

by cmurillo＠emtelsa.multi.net.co

Yes, but contiguous 0's are special and easy enough to detect, and, it would not be difficult for the assembler to include some initialization code. In the end, this is a difference in philosophy, asm vs. higher level languages. You don't expect an assembler to optimize that sort of thing, but rather, to do exactly as it is told. Now, I remember when g77 would actually include the image of a zero-initialized array within a common block in the executable.... at one point I had a 130MB executable :-) . This is the opposite case, a high-level language not optimizing that sort of thing. Carlos. At 06:37 PM 7/18/01 -0700, you wrote: >On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner wrote: >> some_buffer db 4096 dup(0) >> end segment > >That EXPLICITLY calls for 4K of 0's. >Virtually no assembler is clever enough to do a run-length compression. >OTOH, If you wrote > some_buffer db 4096 dup (?) >it would set up 4K of "UNINITIALIZED" space, which it COULD compress out >of the file, particularly if it is at the end. > >> . . . So it would be easy enough for a virus to scan the >> executable for a portion that is nothing but zeros, and hide in there. >It could always make space within the MICROS~1 copyright message. > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com > > -------------------------------------------------------------- Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez carlos_murillo(a)nospammers.ieee.org

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Superbrain and Altair

by KenzieM＠sympatico.ca

Today I have received a hint that there is a Superbrain available for the right price and another mentioning an altair, with modem and manuals. I've seen Altairs on E-bay but not a superbrain, what would be fair offers for these? Also, does anyone know of newer kits similar to the altair or mark-8. I found 1 advertised as a computer kit and it consisted of a mother board, video card, drives, PS and case and you put them together.

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

where did you happen to 'pick up' that heathkit Microprocessor training kit?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 18, Richard Erlacher wrote: > For about a year there was one sitting in the back room (surplus) at the Denver > Gateway Electronics store, overpriced at $40. Overpriced at $40? I had two, sold one on eBay for $200.00 a year or so ago. I'd pay $40 for one quite readily even if they didn't have such a high resale value...they're just *cool*. :-) > They show up from time to time. There's a Heathkit Logic Analyzer there now, > IIRC, not to mention an old HP model. Really? What models might they be? -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

OT: Virii

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

OT, yes (maybe some virii are >10 years old??) but related to programming in general. Plus, if no one on this list knows the answer, then there probably *isn't* an answer ;>) I received a virus in an e-mail attachment a few minutes ago. The sender is a wholesale supplier I'm acquainted with. NAV spotted the "W32.Magistr.corrupt" virus, could not repair the infected item, and asked for permission to delete the item, which I granted. I looked this virus up in the list of 50K+ virii that NAV currently claims to cover. No information was available, except that this virus is rare, it infects .exe files, and it is zero bytes in length. Now, I've cranked out a couple of boatloads of code over the last 19 years, and the smallest useful program I ever wrote was 3 bytes in length. It's easy enough to create a zero byte file, but as far as I can tell such a file can't *do* anything. How can I write a zero-byte program? How does NAV identify this virus if it's zero bytes in length? What real threat to my PC is an e-mail-propagated virus of length zero? WTF??? TIA, Glen 0/0

25 years, 1 month

6
5
0 0

parcel post from U.K. to U.S.A. ?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>I would very much appreciate the help of a U.K. resident in >calculating postage to ship an approx. fifteen pound box of >manuals (and floppies) from England to the U.S. We need to >do this without mortgaging the farm, so a slow boat across >the pond is preferred. The originating location is: The originating location is (I think) irrelevant as long as it is within the UK mainland (which yours is, unless Cheshire has been badly flooded lately ...). If noone else chips in first, I'll have a play on the scales tomorrow. That would give a price via Parcelforce (or whoever the Royal Mail use). I don't have much experience with shipping in either direction but I'll ask to see if anyone in the office can find out how DHL or UPS calculate their charges. As a very rough estimate, work out how much the reverse route (i.e. US->UK) would set you back. I would be surprised if there is more than a factor of two (but I bet UK->US costs more !) A 2kg manual cost about $20 US->UK about a year ago. Antonio

25 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Seeking Mark Gregory???

by claudew＠videotron.ca

I sent Mark Gregory a large quantity of Amiga Worlds about a month ago and he was to send me a Amiga 1200 for my collection. No news I a long while. He also offered some books on here IIRC. Anybody talked to this person recently? Thanks Claude http://computer_collector.tripod.com

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 18, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > The chapter did mention NIS (yp) so that *might* be an option. > > No, NIS is *never* an option ;-) BRAVO!! -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

where did you happen to 'pick up' that heathkit Microprocessor tr aining kit?

by ML_WOOD＠ColoradoCollege.edu

I'm interested, where did you happen to 'pick up' that heathkit Microprocessor training kit? Thanks if you can reply!

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

HP1000/A600 worth saving ?

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

The above might be avaliable ( with some peripherals ) : it is worth saving ? I could not find too much info in the net . Around 1980's I assume. I don't even know if it is a mini or if it is microprocessr based... Any comments ? ( BTW location Zurich, Switzerland ) Regards, Jos Dreesen

25 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Grey Wall in NYC

by allain＠panix.com

I have a lead on a DEC "Grey Wall" in NYC. Contact me off list if you're interested. There are about 20 vols on VMS and 8 vols on VAX-GKS. The owners will likely toss in one or more vt320's too if you want 'em. The owner has enough conscience not to just throw stuff out; I got him to wait another week or three. My cup runneth over. John A.

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Keyboard Cleaning Question

by vance＠ikickass.org

Anyone know a good way to thoroughly clean an IBM buckling-spring "clickety" keyboard? Peace... Sridhar

25 years, 1 month

4
5
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 13:24, r. 'bear' stricklin wrote: > On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > > What's special about the RAM for a Sparcstation 5 ? > > They're 5 volt, buffered, parity DIMMs. The only popular system that used > 5 volt buffered DIMMs were the old PowerMacs, which don't use parity. > > Even beyond that, there's something else about them. I tried using > SPARCstation 5 DIMMs in my Apple Network Server (also wanting 5 volt > buffered parity DIMMs) and the ANS completely refused to see them. That > was disappointing since SS5 RAM is infinitely more abundant, but oh well. > I haven't tried the reverse test yet (whether ANS RAM will work in the > SS5). Ah, I see. I had assumed they were SIMMS, but I'd never opened up a SS5. How many pins on the DIMMs? And I see there was some prolonged discussion about the right DIMMs to use in Sunblades, on the Sun newsgroups recently. They seem to be a bit of a minefield. I know the ones SGI use in, eg O2s, are "odd" as well. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video

by r_beaudry＠hotmail.com

{sorry for the delays in replying, but I only get the digest} Ok... I broke out the meter, and did a few checks.... Tony Duell suggested: >That's a nice, simple, circuit to start with. Carefully pull the >connector off the base of the CRT and check the heater continuity. If it >is a 7 pin CRT, it's a fair bet the heater pins are numbers 3 and 4. Well, it was a 7-pin connector, and I put an ohmmeter across pins 3 and 4. It measured 31.7 ohms. Is that reasonable? Robert Feldman suggested: >First thing to check is to make sure that you are getting +12V on contac1 14 >of the circuit board and pin 7 of the inline connector. I am getting +12V at both of these points (And by the way, thanks for the pinouts and other information!!)... Also, I suspect what I am referring to as a composite video output may not be that at all... It is an RCA jack that is attached to the front of the case, and is located just to the right of the connector marked "Battery". It has two wires attached, which go to a 2-pin plug on an "L" shaped circuit board. The "L" shaped board also contains the Z-80, some 6116 chips, and other stuff. It also contains the inline connector that Robert gave the pinout for (and in fact, the 2-pin plug is in very close physical proximity to the inline connector). I have seen several pictures of Osbornes, and now that I review them, none have this connector. It does not seem to be a hacked on modification, since the plug on the "L" shaped board was very obviously factory done. I will take Tony's advice and trace back to see if and where the 12V fails. Thanks! Rich B.

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 17, 20:22, Richard Erlacher wrote: > If the refresh memory is to support text and graphics, the pipeline must be > two-forked. Not necessarily. In a BBC Micro, for example, the 6845 is essentially generating a stream of pixel addresses, since what's stored in the screen memory is the bitmap of the character, not the character code. That's how you mix text and graphics on the same screen. When text is written to the screen, the OS looks up the bitmap(s) of the character(s) and writes the individual pixels to screen RAM. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 0:45, Tony Duell wrote: > > Yes, but the schmitt-triggered one has a different problem -- it's too > > slow! It's a long time ago, and the articles and my notes are buried near > > Right... It's generally recomend for BBC lightpens (See, for example, > the Advanced User Guide page 369). Are you saying none of these designs > work properly? Well, mine ended up having more in it than the one on p.369 (which has just a Sweet Spot phototransistor mounted in the barrel) - it had a transistor and bias resistor in there too, along with a CMOS chip to make a touch-sensitive switch. I can't remember what the Sweet Spot part number in the AUG is (schmitt or plain) so I can't tell you if that's the one I used. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

swordfish

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Saw this movie last night, and personally I found the use of "real" jargon to describe what they were doing jarring because it didn't work right. Much better to have the 'trek like' mishmash of terms that don't make any sense but sound good. The "mega system" that was supposed to be the wet dream of hackers everywhere was this thing with about 8 LCD screens set up in some sort of technotica holding unit. I thought about this and decided it doesn't work on a number of levels, not the least of which is that you can't read stuff on the top displays and you cant use them in parallel. Much cleaner to build somthing like a jumbotron with 9 screens to give you a 56" monitor with effectively 4K x 3K resolution. Then you could move things around and even if they spanned monitors they would be readable. In terms of classic hardware the multiheaded-ness of my SPARCStation was useful in that regard, and I do this on my laptop as well (when its docked). Clearly the BLIT kind of had the idea (Bell Labs Intelligent Terminal) and the VT340 is nice (like the VT420) in that you can swap screens easily. I _really_ like the idea of the VT525 on a big screen. I'm definitely going to have to try that. There was also an early hack done on Amigas that slaved three of them running 'Jet' to give you three views and thus a wraparound screen effect. So what is the ideal visual machine? Opinions? --Chuck

25 years, 1 month

9
8
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 17, 16:54, Richard Erlacher wrote: > Viewed from the 6845, is the block 1 scan line high? Yes. > Getting the horizontal location right, as you'd have to in order to do precise > drawing, might be a bit more complicated, don't you think? an 8-pixel extent of > uncertainty is quite a bit on a 640-pixel display. But it's usually less than 8 bits. For example, the pen I built (which had assorted other problems as per my other responses) was mostly used on a 4-bit-per-pixel display (16 colours) or a 2bpp (4 colour) display, so the resolution was usually 2 pixels or, at worst, 4. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

3
4
0 0

ZNR Varistor markings, Take 2.

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

Hi all, (And Tony Duell :^) Repost of a previous msg, as for some wierd reason, I stopped getting list traffic for a couple of days. Investigations at our mail server are inconclusive, but it may be related to the fact we were using the ORBS database to aid spam control and this has been suddenly shut down. Or not. Anyway, I've missed a couple days traffic and probably some responses to this. Have a friends Decstation 5000 power supply with a violently blown fuse. (8A/250V) He is a developer of VMS Freeware (in fact the WASD web server) and has asked me to help. Culprit is 2 x ZNR 14K241U devices, which I believe are Metal Film Varistors Surge Absorbers. The numbering system seems to be obsolete as current ZNR Surge Absorbers use a quite different system, or I've guessed wrong and they are something else entirely, but I don't think so. These two gadgets are wired in series with each other, then connected across the output of the mains rectifier. 240vac in, so they are across around 300+ vdc. I could just leave them out and the supply will run, but would much rather replace them to keep the protection they offer. Their appear to be no other faults and the history of the incident is consistent with a switch on surge after an extended holiday (3 weeks) following daily useage of the machine, so it's possible the reservoir caps may be just a little leaky or the varistor was just getting tired. Anyone make sense of the device id so I can figure out what rating to replace them with. Device looks rather like a round ceramic capacitor, but gloss black in colour, marked with white lettering A Logo consisting of a small square box in top left with a capital M inside and ZNR in caps next to it then under it is 14K241U (or the 1's could be ell or i, hard to say). underneath at bottom left is an reversed italic capital R with a reversed italic capital L joined to the back main bar of the R. To the right of this is a small letter s raised above the baseline with the number 20 after it. Any help appreciated. Cheers Geoff in Oz

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

DEC Haul!

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Me, too. My furthest haul was Columbus to Louisville for a PDP-8/L with > high-speed punch/reader, ASR-33 and BM-08. It's what I show > off to visitors. Ethan- Are you telling me you came down here to Louisville, KY and grabbed a PDP-8 right out from underneath my nose? Way to go, dude! But let me have the next one, OK? ;-) -dq

25 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 17, 22:12, James L. Rice wrote: > Thanks to eBay and a couple of list members, I now have my Indy up and > running and on the 'net using my ISDN router as the gateway. I can also > ping my office network through the other router. I'm currently running > IRIX 6.5. It has a R4400SC 150mhz cpu, 192mb ram, a 24bit graphics > card, Granite kb, mouse and 20" Trinitron monitor, a 2gb hard drive and > an Indycam. I'm building an external SCSI box to house a DAT drive, the > CD-ROM, a CD-R drive and a 2gb option drive. Now I need to find a > Presenter, a Cosmo board, a 10/100 GIO ethernet card, the XZ graphics > board and floptical drive to have a fairly complete system. Good luck finding a Presenter and 10/100 GIO at reasonable prices! > It looks > good sitting on my desk next to the NeXT TC slab. On the subject of NeXTs, how do you get a NeXT to use standard files (/etc/hosts, et al) instead of the netinfo stuff? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

S-box KDA50 Panel

by dittman＠dittman.net

Does anyone know the part number for the KDA50 distribution panel that mounts on the S-box (the one that is a two-wide or three-wide cover plate) with the four SDI sockets? Does anyone have a spare they'd sell? I lucked into a set of four RA73 drives in the cage with the cable. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Rare Storageworks Find

by dittman＠dittman.net

I saw an odd-looking Storageworks shelf on eBay. The opening bid was $19.95, so I figured why not give it a try and see. The auction closed without any other bids, so I got the box. After it arrived I took it apart to see what I could find. It turns out this is an engineering evaluation shelf for the the next generation Storageworks product. The design was cancelled when Compaq bought Digital and they went with a completely new design (the "universal" shelf). This shelf is a copper FC storage cabinet with room for eight FC drives. There's a controller unit and two 8x4 FC switches. I'm now in the process of getting an FC controller. This should be interesting. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

The NeXT best thing...

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

Before I start, I suspect that I will catch some flak from some list members over this. If that be the case, then so be it. With that said, an earlier haul consisted of 115 NeXT machines, all mono, with roughly 90 slabs and the rest cubes. Also included some 80 monitors, and about a dozen laser printers. And that of course included keyboards, mice, cables, and boxes of other flotsam. These were literally days away from being put in the dumpster, so it was a big task just to rescue them before that happened. Then it took weeks just to get a decent inventory. From that I realized it would take months to test eveything. That made me realize that I am a hobbyist and have no desire to become a NeXT dealer. With the exception of a couple machines and some other stuff, I sent the inventory list to Rob at Blackhole. The machines are now in his capable hands. Back on 7/9 and under the title "Attention NeXT Owners", I asked if there were any list members in need of specific items to 'complete' their machines. I held back enough to probably fill most of those requests. After I have tested those items to make sure they work, I will contact those who responded then. After that, I will make available to the list anything that might still be available. So under the heading "Recent addition", I can now say that I have two complete working mono turbo slabs. Needless to say I maxed them out with the largest hard drives and the most memory I could find. It was not until I finished with the two machines did I realize somthing. So I will ask: Q: What is the the NeXT best thing to having a NeXT machine? A: Having two NEXT machines & WITH consecutive serial numbers. As I said, there are probably those that will give me some flak for 'selling out'. The machines had to be rescued, but I had no desire to test, pack, and ship that many machines. If you want to give me hell, go ahead. I use to say that I considered the day a total loss unless I caught hell from someone. The line "Make My Day" comes to mind at this point. On a good note. During my last phone call with Rob, he indicated he was contemplating a mono slab special. He mentioned the price of $99. All of this was in a 10x20 rental storage locker. Although the NeXT is gone (and I forgot to take pictures), there is still some other machines there. I will probably post a list of that and some other stuff shortly. Most of it will be free for the taking. Mike

25 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

DEC Haul!

by jss＠subatomix.com

Well, I've done it again. This time, I went all ~1400 miles to San Diego. I've been saving my money for this one, and it paid off nicely. I picked up: * PDP-11/20 -- According to the owner, this one worked last time it was booted (no idea when that was), and I should expect the monitor to still be loaded in the core. * PDP-11/20 -- Not known to be in working condition. Missing a few switches up front and maybe a few boards inside. Basicaly, a spares machine. The faceplate is the older one that just says "PDP11" instead of "PDP11/20", and I'll probably transplant it to the working machine for that reason. * PDP-11/05 chassis -- In great condition, but with no boards. Anybody have a set up for trade? * TU56 -- Looks to be in great condition. * TC11 -- Looks to be in great condition. * DECtapes -- About 100 of them. I think there's an operating system and a fortran compiler in there somewhere. * A few printsets. I'd like to find a couple of RK05 drives, maybe a PCxx paper tape reader/punch, and their controllers to round out this system. Anybody have any of these up for trade? Considering that all this was free to a good home and that it fit in the back of the Suburban I borrowed from my parents, this has turned out to the be least expensive haul this summer. All in all, I'd say that this summer has been very successful. -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)ou.edu

25 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 17, 20:47, Zane H. Healy wrote: > Um, I hope you got RAM with those systems. If not unless they're 5/110's or > 5/170's you're probably better off sticking them on eBay and putting the > money towards a Sparc 10 or 20. Simply put Sparc 5 RAM costs and arm and a > leg unless you get lucky! Only RAM I've found that's worse is > AlphaStation 500/333 RAM (I've got both a Sparc 5/70, and a AS500/333). What's special about the RAM for a Sparcstation 5 ? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

MicroVAX equipment

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

Jeffrey S. Sharp WROTE: > On Wed, 11 Jul 2001, Zane H. Healy wrote: > > In some ways he should be paying you to remove the RA81's! > > They're *that* common? Ticking time bomb. Someone decided to use a(n allegedly) cheaper glue even though the spec more or less said "do not substitute". The result was that a fair number of RA81s failed early in service. They have a bad reputation. Antonio

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Mountaingate RDR

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I found this on a web page from 1996. http://www.3dsite.com/3dsite/cgi/publications/daily-spectrum/issue226.html#M ountainGate MountainGate will manufacture, market and distribute the RCI line of Video Disk Recorders (VDR) and Real-time Disk Recorders (RDR) which provide large-capacity uncompressed storage solutions. Looks like MountainGate RDR is a real time video recorder. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

OT: DSL Woes (was RE: Plato terminal)

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

Or you can sign up for DSL service, wait 5 months to get the line brought into your house, during which time you have to be home for half a dozen service calls, then the Telco will run the test and tell you that you are too far away. That was my experience with Telocity and Ameritech in Chicago. :( -----Original Message----- From: McFadden, Mike [mailto:mmcfadden@cmh.edu] Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 3:53 PM To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' Subject: RE: Plato terminal I think you call up the telco and ask them the question and then they run some test and report back to you. >How do you find out the exact number of feet you're out from the CO? > >Peace.. Sridhar Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Virii

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

This virus is about 30KB of _assembler_ code: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/magistr.shtml -----Original Message----- From: Glenatacme(a)aol.com [mailto:Glenatacme@aol.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 10:36 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: OT: Virii OT, yes (maybe some virii are >10 years old??) but related to programming in general. Plus, if no one on this list knows the answer, then there probably *isn't* an answer ;>) I received a virus in an e-mail attachment a few minutes ago. The sender is a wholesale supplier I'm acquainted with. NAV spotted the "W32.Magistr.corrupt" virus, could not repair the infected item, and asked for permission to delete the item, which I granted. I looked this virus up in the list of 50K+ virii that NAV currently claims to cover. No information was available, except that this virus is rare, it infects .exe files, and it is zero bytes in length. Now, I've cranked out a couple of boatloads of code over the last 19 years, and the smallest useful program I ever wrote was 3 bytes in length. It's easy enough to create a zero byte file, but as far as I can tell such a file can't *do* anything. How can I write a zero-byte program? How does NAV identify this virus if it's zero bytes in length? What real threat to my PC is an e-mail-propagated virus of length zero? WTF??? TIA, Glen 0/0

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>Charles E. Fox wrote: > I would very much like to get a copy of the Osborne > 1 manual. I > have been searching the web, but haven't located anything so > far. If you > want to scan yours and post it, you would be doing a great service. Scanning is no problem - I can scan the user guide (or whatever the correct title is), always assuming the sheet feeder does not eat the bog roll it seems to be printed on :-) I doubt I could post more than a CD since previous experience leads me to believe that the FS manual will end up in the region of 50-100MB and the UG could easily top 200MB. I'll leave it up to some genereous hoster to make them generally available (and possibly split them up for those with narrow straws between them and the net). I have other commitments that mean this probably won't happen until mid-August. Give or take six months :-) Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by r_beaudry＠hotmail.com

Hello all, To answer the replies so far.... 1) There is a small black connector labeled "Do no remove when power is on" or something to that effect. I does indeed cover a card-edge style connector. I did remove it, power OFF, and I didn't recall it had anything conductive inside. It just looked like a plastic plug. I'll have to look again, when I go home this evening... 2) I did try the composite video output. Nothing there, either. 3) As I stated before, there was no light from the CRT at all, after taking the cover off and powering up. I will perform the ohmmeter test suggested by Dave McGuire tonight. - As for the composite video connector... Does anyone know if there is any magic keystroke or other setting to enable this? Perhaps if the internal monitor is dead, I can still use an external one...

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Feldman, Robert wrote: > >I have an Osborne I Technical Reference manual, ut it is a bit skimpy on the >video (no circuit diagrams, for example). It does provide a pinout for the My Osborne came with a folder (hand-)labelled "Field Service Manual" full of odds and ends ... including a bunch of schematics. At least two of the schematics have traces labelled VIDEO so I assume that for once I'm lucky and I actually have a reasonable amount of info about one of my machines :-) I can scan the schematics assuming a) someone wants them and b) someone has somewhere I can ftp them two. Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

UCI microscope

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 18, Mike Ford wrote: > An electron microscope, or sad to say all the bits for one, just showed up > at the UC Irvine (calif) salvage yard. What a mess. Any vacuum pumps intact? -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

European Postal Information (was Re: parcel post from U.K. to U.S.A. ?)

by AlistairMacDonald＠economist.com

=== michael.grigoni(a)cybertheque.org 17/07/2001 22:28:18 === >Thanks to those who replied; finding foreign postal information >on the 'net is not easy. >From the UK (ParcelForce): http://afis.postoffice.co.uk/Parcelforce/Internet/CustServGuide/calculator.… >From Europe (General Parcel - national carriers cooperative): http://www.generalparcel.com/moving/atyour.html (However, you might need to be able to read the local language)

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Trying to find correct 8" disk drive

by vcf＠siconic.com

Can someone tell me the specs on this 8" drive? Magnetic Peripherals Inc. (a subsidiary of Control Data Corp., CDC) Equipment Identification Number: BR8A5R Part Number: 75744087 Series Code: 09 Ideally, I need to know what its equivalents are. I'm sure it's a pretty standard DSDD 8" drive but I need to know for sure before I go off on a wild goose chase. Thanks!! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> Thanks to eBay and a couple of list members, I now have my Indy up and > running and on the 'net using my ISDN router as the gateway. I can also > ping my office network through the other router. I'm currently running > IRIX 6.5. It has a R4400SC 150mhz cpu, 192mb ram, a 24bit graphics > card, Granite kb, mouse and 20" Trinitron monitor, a 2gb hard drive and > an Indycam. I'm building an external SCSI box to house a DAT drive, the > CD-ROM, a CD-R drive and a 2gb option drive. Now I need to find a > Presenter, a Cosmo board, a 10/100 GIO ethernet card, the XZ graphics > board and floptical drive to have a fairly complete system. It looks > good sitting on my desk next to the NeXT TC slab. I'm more than a little green with envy! > Now for my next project, to get the Sparc Station 5's I bought the other > day up and running! Um, I hope you got RAM with those systems. If not unless they're 5/110's or 5/170's you're probably better off sticking them on eBay and putting the money towards a Sparc 10 or 20. Simply put Sparc 5 RAM costs and arm and a leg unless you get lucky! Only RAM I've found that's worse is AlphaStation 500/333 RAM (I've got both a Sparc 5/70, and a AS500/333). Zane

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

[win2x@hotmail.com: Vax 11/780 - Sun 3/470 w/ Mass storage]

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

A 11/780 and a Sun 3/470 up for grabs near Dallas. Bill ----- Forwarded message from Roger Garcia <win2x(a)hotmail.com> ----- From: "Roger Garcia" <win2x(a)hotmail.com> To: mrbill(a)decvax.org Subject: Vax 11/780 - Sun 3/470 w/ Mass storage Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 18:38:19 -0500 Bill, Hello, I emailed you previously about a rescue for a Sun 3/470 w/ Mass Storage. There is a Vax 11/780 in need of rescue in Richardson,Tx 75081. Very large but could be a "vaxbar project for someone", I saw on ebay where some boards from a 11/785 went for $100.00 we would like to recover some of our costs for picking it up,if possible. I also still have the 3/470 with mass storage unit still available. If you know anyone interested in these units please have them email me for contact information. Sincerely, Roger Garcia win2x inc. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Bill Bradford mrbill(a)mrbill.net Austin, TX

25 years, 1 month

6
5
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 0:45, Tony Duell wrote: > > Yes, but the schmitt-triggered one has a different problem -- it's too > > slow! It's a long time ago, and the articles and my notes are buried near > > Right... It's generally recomend for BBC lightpens (See, for example, > the Advanced User Guide page 369). Are you saying none of these designs > work properly? Well, mine ended up having more in it than the one on p.369 (which has just a Sweet Spot phototransistor mounted in the barrel) - it had a transistor and bias resistor in there too, along with a CMOS chip to make a touch-sensitive switch. I can't remember what the Sweet Spot part number in the AUG is (schmitt or plain) so I can't tell you if that's the one I used. I bought both types, and one other photodiode (or phototransistor?) >from the RS cat. I see that page also refers to a fudge factor to be subtracted from the register contents -- I remember having to do that too. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

THE COOLEST *MINI-BIKE'S* PRICE HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN !! :)

by choicescom＠163.com

GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!! THE COOLEST MINI-BIKE'S PRICE HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN !! :) THE U.PRICE IS BETWEEN USD15-23.00. PLEASE CONTACT WITH US FOR MORE DETAILS OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE! ** http://gafucom.ebigchina.com ** MINI- BIKE --- design fashionable, rubble wheels,front& back suspension .. It is a wonderful new product for body shape, very popular in USA, Japan, Europe, … Welcome to inquiry us . What's more, we can supply Trimmer Belt, Electric scooter, Pingpong TV Game,Pogo stick, AB Slide, Flying shoes, MP3&VCD,CD- 3in1 player, DDR., etc Shenzhen Choices Industry co.,ltd. > TEL :86 13823677077 3709573 3183037 Ms. Shirly Wang > Fax: 86 755 3183037 > E-mail: shirly887(a)963.net gafucom(a)alibaba.com http://gafucom.ebigchina.com 尊敬的客户：我们提供的瘦身车现已进行价格调整，价格在USD15~23之间，详情请和我们联系！生产供应迷你车（瘦身车）---MINI BIKE ，精心设计，它造型豪华美观，有前后避震，轮子采用实心橡胶轮，它是用于良好的瘦身运动，现流行于美，日，欧等多个国家。欢迎有意客商前来联系垂询！有图片并能立即提供样品！另还提供多款电动滑板车和娃娃跳，飞行鞋，健腹器，跳舞毯， MP3/VCD/CD 3合1便携式播放器，触摸屏万年历/计算器/名片夹3 合1，等等。详情请光临我们的网站http://gafucom.ebigchina.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 该邮件由《金锋邮件群发 2.0》发送，邮件内容与软件作者无关 --------------------------------------------------------------- 金锋软件，值得信赖的软件 http://www.jinfengnet.com

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDF file of Canon CAT instructions....

by paul＠orchard.wccnet.org

> Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 22:05:31 -0400 > From: "Curt Vendel" <curt(a)atari-history.com> > Subject: PDF file of Canon CAT instructions.... > > I know I'm a bit slow, but here is the link to the Adobe PDF file > of the handwritten instructions for using the Canon CAT, enjoy. > > http://www.atari-history.com/archives/pdf/misc/canon_cat.pdf Handwritten instructions for a word processor. Hmmm... Paul R. Santa-Maria Monroe, Michigan USA

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

thunderstorm damages!

by chomko＠greenbelt.com

I've been accumulating the damages from a recent thunderstorm. Wow! Originally I thought it was just a GFI breaker and the phones. But it turns out that a computer got hit (just a PC), and the cable box as well as a TV. I'm making a list (8 entries so far). Thank God my bro-in-law here in Maryland gave me a surge supressor that I put on my SWTPC. Makes me think I need more of those things. Anyone else have such an event happen? Also, take this as a warning to protect you most valuable possessions. I intend to get a few more surge suppressors to protect stuff. This is the one and only time that this has happened to me, and I'm felling lucky. Eric

25 years, 1 month

12
18
0 0

new scans

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hi all. I finally found some time to continue scanning doc. So far I scanned (at 600 dpi) the following manuals. Each chapter is a separate TIFF file. - PDP-11/34 system user manual - PDP-11/34 maintenance manual - PDP-11/34A power system description - KY11-LB SLU/RTC programmers console/interface operation & maintenance manual - DL11-W SLU/RTC operators manual Also the following Field Maintenance Print Sets (FMPS) and Engineering Drawings (ED) are scanned at 600 dpi. They are broken into several parts, though the files are still quite big. - 11/03 Engineering Drawings MP00049 & MP00050 KD11 MP00051 MMV11-A G653, H223 MP00052 EIS & FIS, backplane, power assy, H780 MP00055 DLV11 BA11-M, H9270-A, H780 - FMPS DD11-A - ED DD11-D - FMPS DRV11 MP00054 (M7941) - FMPS LA38 MP00754 - FMPS LA8 MP00075 - FMPS LAX35-CL MP00714 (20 mA current loop), MP00738 - FMPS LAxx MP00248 serial interface - FMPS MXV11-A MP00730 (M8047) The list above is 300 Mb. So still some 340 Mb to go to fill an other CD-ROM. Next I will scan the 11/34 FP processor and the cache, after that I will start on the 11/35 and core (MF11). Anyway, is there interest in these high quality (I think) scans? happy holidays, Henk.

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

(OT) Sgi Indy

by jrice＠texoma.net

Thanks to eBay and a couple of list members, I now have my Indy up and running and on the 'net using my ISDN router as the gateway. I can also ping my office network through the other router. I'm currently running IRIX 6.5. It has a R4400SC 150mhz cpu, 192mb ram, a 24bit graphics card, Granite kb, mouse and 20" Trinitron monitor, a 2gb hard drive and an Indycam. I'm building an external SCSI box to house a DAT drive, the CD-ROM, a CD-R drive and a 2gb option drive. Now I need to find a Presenter, a Cosmo board, a 10/100 GIO ethernet card, the XZ graphics board and floptical drive to have a fairly complete system. It looks good sitting on my desk next to the NeXT TC slab. Now for my next project, to get the Sparc Station 5's I bought the other day up and running!

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

RS/6000 AIX boot floppy

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Anybody here have an AIX3 for RS/6000 boot floppy that they could send me an image of? Thanks, -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

DATA I/O ftp files

by mranalog＠home.com

Just for everyone's information About a year ago someone mention that DATA I/O had taken down the all the files of family/pinout codes for their old prom programmers. In response to a recent request for information. I checked again and it seems that most of them are back on their web site. What I found by looking through the files: Go to http://www.dataio.com/support/ftp.htm This is DATA I/O's FTP site Select "device lists" Then select ",archive" There is a file called "wallchrt.exe". This is a self-extracting archive file. Run it in an empty directory. After it has extracted it's files, click on "WC.BAT". Wallchart is a menu driven DOS program that seems to have lists of supported devices for most of their old programmers, along some "footnotes". (w54_pgm.exe looks like it MAYBE a newer version of wallchrt.exe) Family/pinout codes can be found in files like: device lists\29_fpo.txt - 2900 device lists\,archive\s1000.txt - Series 1000 device lists\,archive\unipak.txt - Unipak device lists\,archive\series22.txt - Series 22 device lists\,archive\logicpak.txt - Logicpak etc. Also look at device lists\,archive\README device lists\,archive\README old.html device lists\,archive\README.html for some more information on these files Regards, --Doug ========================================= Doug Coward @ home in Poulsbo, WA Analog Computer Online Museum and History Center http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog =========================================

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Another Amiga question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> The problem was termination. I opened it up again today and > sure enough, the previous owner had removed the terminating resistor > packs from the mainboard. It worked fine like this under the 2.X > ROMs but once the 3.1 ROMs went in it began having problems. Once I Cool! How about letting us know what you think of Amiga OS 3.9 once you get it loaded! I'm especially interested in the networking side of it. I don't suppose you've got a graphics card or network card in the system? Hmmm, I've now got some room under my main computer desk, so I could potentially fit the A3000 I've got stuffed into a Tower case under there, or de-tower it and set it up. I'd like to get it back up and running, but the question always seems to be, what am I going to do with it. Zane

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 17, 19:17, Tony Duell wrote: > [Lightpen over dark screen] > If that's the article I am thinking of, they made a mistake and suggested > the device you needed was the plain phototransistor. The next month they > publised a correction that said you needed the phototransistor + schmitt > trigger Sweet-Spot. Yes, but the schmitt-triggered one has a different problem -- it's too slow! It's a long time ago, and the articles and my notes are buried near the bottom of a heap of other stuff, but I seem to remember that the frequency response of the schmitt device was quite low. I didn't use it in the end; I built a custom amplifier with the front end in the pen tube. > > brightness was set so that black was *just* not visible, a suitably > > Yes, but as you imply, that's not truely a dark screen :-)... > > > adjusted lightpen on a short-persistence monitor could detect dark pixels. > > It was, however, *much* easier with lit pixels. > > And the adjustments (monitor brightness, light pen sensitivity/threshold) > are _very_ touchy! Indeed. If you're not careful, the detector that can "see" the spot on a "dark" screen gets dazzled by a lit pixel, or fooled if you tilt the pen so ambient light leaks past the tip. I gave it up. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 16, 14:01, Sellam Ismail wrote: > Ok, my mind is still blown. How does a light-pen drawing program work > then? (Or is a light-pen drawing program not possible?) It works by doing what Chuck described (flashing a frame or a line) or as Megan described (using a target). I've seen it done both ways. I've never seen a commercial lightpen do what I did, using the low light from "black" (which isn't quite black) to trigger a sensitive detector -- a detector that sensitive is just too prone to being swamped by ambient light, I discovered. It was fine when the pen was pressed against the tube, but goes haywire when lifted away. I fitted a touch switch to mine to prevent that, but it still took the amplifier a moment to settle. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

3
4
0 0

Quadra 650 for $6.95 at "junkyard" attn: Richard Erlacher

by jpero＠sympatico.ca

> From: jpero(a)sympatico.ca > To: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> > Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 18:13:28 +0000 > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > Subject: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors > Priority: normal > In-reply-to: <002601c10f0a$2e6efdc0$9cc762d8(a)idcomm.com> > X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.54) > > > From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick(a)idcomm.com> > > To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> > > Subject: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors > > Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 15:47:41 -0600 > > Organization: Erlacher Associates > > Reply-to: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > > BTW, I left a Quadra 650(?) costing $6.95 sitting there on account of this, not > that I wanted it, but it might have had useable parts. Dick, 7 dollars is worth getting that Mac for parts, 7 dollars plus shipping on the parts stripped from that Mac is what I can use. Quadra use full 68040, this 650 is blazing 33MHz. Cheers, Wizard PS: your email address bounced so this email is in public for anyone to see and I wish to contact you on this Quadra 650.

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

repairing a DEC VT420

by gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org

Hi, I bought a VT420 from a neighborhood garage sale ($5) that turned out not to work. Turn it on and I saw nothing happening. Only heared a faint "fip ... fip ... fip ..." kind of sound, you know that one "fip" when a screen comes on, just a little softer and repeated about 1 per second and no screen came on. Opened the box and powered on, the kathode in the tube didn't seem to glow. More inspection turned out that what seems like a ceramic capacitor was exploded or fried, all black and crummy, impossible for me to identify its specs. Can someone help me out with a schematics or databook or something? Again the terminal is DEC VT420 the blown-up capacitor is C621. What kind of collateral damage do I have to expect? I mean, does a fried capacitor normaly cut short? Here are some hints: - That C621 is in close proximity to C617, another sizeable capacitor. However there are no marks left on that one after cleaning the explosion site :-) - A diode D603 is also in that neighborhood, doesn't look bad, but I didn't test it yet. - I do see suspicious brown-coloration in an area farther off around D607 and R649. I wouldn't be surprized if R649 was fried. - R650 is in next to R649 but looks fine to me, though I didn't test it. It's always a problem to test components while in the circuit, don't know what I should expect. I appreciate any help. thanks, -Gunther -- Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

I have an Osborne I Technical Reference manual, ut it is a bit skimpy on the video (no circuit diagrams, for example). It does provide a pinout for the video connector. The signals come from the bottom and the shunt carries them to the top, where they go to a single inline connector that connects to the monitor. Looking at the edge connector from the front (numbered right to left, odd on top, even on the bottom), the signals are: 2 Ground 4 Brightness High 6 Brightness Low 8 Brightness Arm 10 Ground 12 Horizontal sync 14 +12V 16 Video out 18 Vertical sync 20 Ground The shunt just connects the top contact to its mate on the bottom: 1 to 2, 3 to 4, etc. The inline connector pinout is 1 Horizontal Ground 2 Brightness High 3 Brightness Low 4 Brightness Arm 5 Ground 6 Horizontal sync 7 +12V 8 Video out 9 Vertical sync 10 Video Ground First thing to check is to make sure that you are getting +12V on contac1 14 of the circuit board and pin 7 of the inline connector. The Brightness High, low and arm go to a 100K pot (arm to the wiper). Line 8 (video goes to a 500K pot connected to 10 (video ground). The manual notes: "Warning: The video connectors contain TTL-level signals along with +12 Volts, and are quite vulnerable to damage by accidental misconnections." As to the RCA socket, I had a Tan case Osborne I, and I do not remember that it had a composite video connector. You needed an adaptor (about 1.5"x1.5"x0.75" that plugged on the edge connector in place of the shunt. One brand was Exmon (sp?), as another poster mentioned. I saw something that looked like one at a surplus electronics website a few months ago. I don't recall which, but I will try to find it again. You should see the big Osborne "O" logo and ROM version info when you turn the computer on. There was no special keystroke combination to switch to external monitor. I forget what the 52/80/102 character display switch was, but I think that was through software. The higher video resolutions required a daughter board, which was a later addition on my tan-case O1. -----Original Message----- From: Rich Beaudry [mailto:r_beaudry@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 7:59 AM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: RE: Osborne One -- No video. Hello all, To answer the replies so far.... 1) There is a small black connector labeled "Do no remove when power is on" or something to that effect. I does indeed cover a card-edge style connector. I did remove it, power OFF, and I didn't recall it had anything conductive inside. It just looked like a plastic plug. I'll have to look again, when I go home this evening... 2) I did try the composite video output. Nothing there, either. 3) As I stated before, there was no light from the CRT at all, after taking the cover off and powering up. I will perform the ohmmeter test suggested by Dave McGuire tonight. - As for the composite video connector... Does anyone know if there is any magic keystroke or other setting to enable this? Perhaps if the internal monitor is dead, I can still use an external one...

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Macintosh Quadra

by vance＠ikickass.org

Hi. I'm not sure if it's ten years old yet, but here goes. I was wondering if it were possible to upgrade my Macintosh Quadra 800 to 68060? What are my options? I really don't want to go PowerPC. Peace... Sridhar

25 years, 1 month

11
16
0 0

vintage sdk-85 microcomputer trainer for sale

by optiplex＠larose.com

Hi, I have a sdk-85 trainer for sale at ebay. Please check it:(item number#1255923691) http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1255923691 thanks, optiplex(a)larose.com Ya Who?? Be Some Body Free Web Based Email at LAROSE.COM

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Kennedy 9100 tape drive info?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

I have the opportunity to pick up a Kennedy 9100 tape drive -- a vac column start/stop drive. (No, I don't NEED another tape drive, but.) Condition unknown. This is definitely not a Pertec-interface drive. Has two what looked like 36-conductor edge connectors, plus or minus. Not 50. Stuff I was able to find online said it emulates the TE-10 drive and uses a TC-11 Unibus controller. Is that correct? Are Unibus controllers plentiful? Does anyone know if there is a q-bus interface for this drive? If so, is it reasonably available? Could you cc me directly in any replies (brian(a)quarterbyte.com) if you know, as I will have to decide whether or not to take this before I'll see the digest. Thanks so much, Brian

25 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

parcel post from U.K. to U.S.A. ?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Kevin Murrell wrote: > >Parcelforce using airmail from the UK to the US is very quick - nearly >always less than one week. The cheaper alternative has taken over 7 weeks >the last two times I have used it. >1.0Kg Datapost 32.85 Standard 15.60 Economy 13.20 >8.0Kg 69.10 55.75 38.15 >Economy up to 20 days UK to US (I suspect a lot longer!) Given that the estimate is 15lbs, it might come in under 8kg. A six week slow boat saves 30UKP (about 45USD). I was willing to wait when my manual was shipped .... and it did indeed take the whole of the estimated six weeks! I suppose it depends how desperate you are to get the manuals and disks! Antonio

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

[win2x@hotmail.com: Vax 11/780 - Sun 3/470 w/ Mass storage]

by msell＠ontimesupport.com

Richard, Forgot about that transformer.... I removed two of the three fuses that feed power to the other phases of the transformer and checked the voltage of the power supply that operates the interlock system and also monitored the temperature of the components on the board as well as the transformer. After running it for about an hour with the main relay pulled in, it seemed that the transformer and power supply were handling the single phase feed okay. For everyone on the list: please keep in mind that these checks were not comprehensive and were just a simple test to see if a easy conversion from phase to single phase could be made with no internal modifications to the VAX. I intend to make a conversion box that the stock power plug mates with, with integral voltage and ammeters in the box to monitor the power supply to the VAX. If these conversions are successful, I'll make my notes, observations, and schematics available to all. I can't wait to get it all running....... : ) - Matt At 12:52 PM 7/17/01 -0500, you wrote: >On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Matthew Sell wrote: > > > As far as power goes for the 11/780, it looks like it may be possible to > > feed one with standard 115V, with three separate feeds. > >Yes it is, with one exception that I think you've found, from your >description. There is a 3-phase transformer and power supply that runs >the power distribution box relays and such. But the actual meat of the >thing is run off 115 (all phase-to-neutral when run on 120/208 Y). I was >planning to run mine from split-phase residential 240v, with maybe 4 >supplies on one side, 2 on the other, and the Unibus expansion cabinet and >some drives on the side with 2. > >Good luck in getting it running. > >Richard Schauer >rws(a)enteract.com "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler Many thanks for this tagline to a fellow RGVAC'er...

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

pathways for vms setup

by cureau＠lycos.com

I'm trying to find some information on configuring pathways tcpip for my vaxserver. Might anyone out there be able to help me? Cheers, Chris --- I for one, was glad when Congressman John Glenn went back into space. I was a bit disappointed when he returned, however. Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Light Pens ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 16, 18:39, Tony Duell wrote: > > So here's a trick question .. what happens when a person holds > > a lightpen to a dark section of the screen. Is the lightpen > > Nothing happens (literally). The light pen never sees any light, so it > can't send a signal to the video card, so the CRT controller can never > report the position. > > > completely blind unless come pixel is lit up? > > Yes. That's not necessarily *quite* true. I built a lightpen for my Beeb years and years ago, based on an article in a magazine. It used one of the RS "Sweet Spot" devices and at first I had some trouble making it work. The following month the magazine published a followup indicating that not all Sweet Spot devices worked, and suggesting alternatives, but by then I'd figured out that there was a speed-of-response problem and also a sensitivity issue and had played with other detectors. I found that if the brightness was set so that black was *just* not visible, a suitably adjusted lightpen on a short-persistence monitor could detect dark pixels. It was, however, *much* easier with lit pixels. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

BBC Micro (was: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 16, 18:35, Tony Duell wrote: > > Yes, I they do (mine has it, and it's shown on all the diagrams) and now > > you mention it, it sounds familiar. Or more accurately, I remember seeing > > soething about converting US machines back to UK spec (or UK-usable spec, > > Preumably that involves moving the link, replacing the colour subcarrier > crystal amd replacing the BASIC (and MOS?) ROM? Yes, and changing the link in the PSU. > > at least). One Acorn dealer re-imported a lot of unsold US and German > > Beebs some years ago. > > What's a German Beeb? Does it have the QWERTZ keyboard layout and German > messages in the ROM ? Is that the only difference? I never actually saw one, but as far as I know, the differences -- if any -- were very small. I'm not even sure they translated all the messages. There was a problem with selling Beebs in Germany -- the safety and emissions regs were tighter at the time than in the UK, and at one point Acorn wouldn't sanction sales to Germany. > One thing to emphasise here is that the A and B machines both used the > same PCB, so upgrading was a matter of adding the extra chips and moving > various links (for example to enable the ROM select circuitry rather than > always having the BASIC ROM selected). Absolutely. And as you point out, you only had to add the things you wanted, though if you added all the "missing" chips, sockets, and set the links, there was no way to tell (other than the serial number) that the machine had started as an "A". > Real hackers just got the circuit diagram and went off to buy the chips :-) Yup. Which is how I discovered that Watfraud's "A to B Upgrade Kit" was incomplete -- it looked cheaper than the sum of the parts, and when I looked at the contents I realised why. They had started from the premise of adding a printer, serial port, RAM, etc; and hadn't realised they needed little things like the 74LS161 that latches the ROM bank select. I suspect they'd never looked at the diagram and certainly not been on any of the Acorn courses, but merely copied parts lists from some other vendors individual upgrades. > > Then came the B+. This looked similar from the outside, but had a > > redesigned PCB with 64K of RAM, some of which was used to "shadow" the > > The circuitry was very different in some places, with more ULAs > (Uncommitted Logic Array chips, basically mask-programmed ASICs). The > original BBC micro had 2 ULAs, one for the serial/cassette ports > (included the baud rate generator, cassette modulator/demodulator, etc) > and one for video (colour lookup table, etc). The B+ had at least one for > memory control as well. Actually, that one is a PAL. > I thought the B+ schematic showed an 8271 disk controller. Or are you > saying that all B+'s shipped with a 1770 kludgeboard in them. Not a board; the main PCB has places to fit either a 1770 or an 8271. Both upgrades (you could buy a B+ without the interface) included a few extra chips (buffers, etc) but there were a couple in the 8271 kit not required in the 1770 kit (74LS123, IIRC, and I think one other). The service manual lists the whys and wherefores; I'll dig it out if you're interested. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

VAXserver 3100 question

by vance＠ikickass.org

Hi. I seem to find this connector with 50 pins in three rows in a D-shell on my VAXservers and VAXstations. I even have one or two on my DECsystem 5840. Could someone tell me what they are? Three rows. 17 - 16 - 17. Peace... Sridhar

25 years, 1 month

12
18
0 0

MountainGate RDR

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 16, 23:54, Rob Lion wrote: > I recently acquired a MountainGate RDR storage system > controller cards (I think, they are entirely unlabeled) -- the most > prominent/relevant chips are 2x Western Digital WD33C93 and a TI TMS320C25. The WD33C93 is a SCSI controller, and the TMS320 family are DSPs (often used as fast RISC processors). More than that, I don't know, I'm afraid. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Video ram

by rhblake＠bigfoot.com

Got video ram from a list member today, 44256-80's, and I now have 1mb video on the builtin S3 card for my Dell 4066/XE server. If anyone has more on it's way I can still use it as I have another Dell machine that also upgrades the same way.

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Wanted items

by Demon02554＠aol.com

ok...i need to know if anyone has any twinaxial cable m/m and m/f about 6 feet long (the kind that would connect a monitor to an IBM Sys 36) also i was curious if anyone had an EGA monitor or a VM-1 monitor if anyone is willing to sell me any of these then please email me personally to let me know thanks Robert Cobbins

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

parcel post from U.K. to U.S.A. ?

by michael.grigoni＠cybertheque.org

Greetings: I would very much appreciate the help of a U.K. resident in calculating postage to ship an approx. fifteen pound box of manuals (and floppies) from England to the U.S. We need to do this without mortgaging the farm, so a slow boat across the pond is preferred. The originating location is: Tushingham Cheshire SY13 4QR and the destination is Duluth, MN, USA. Please reply to <msg(a)cybertheque.org> All help is _VERY_ much appreciated. Michael Grigoni Cybertheque Museum

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Light Pens ...

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> >By putting up some sort of target which does provide the light-pen > >with a light signal. The target is designed in such a way that you > >cannot move the pen without hitting some part of it, and the software > >sees a light-pen hit and *re-centers* the target on that point, > >effectively moving it to where the pen is now pointing. > > I think the technical term for that is a "cursor". :-) There was an article in an early issue of Byte that described how to build a lightpen and rudimentary code to drive it. I believe it was for the Processor technology VDM-1 (and so you could do it with a SOL too). The full-matrix block cursor was just one of many characters stored in the character generator chip. You'd have to calibrate the pen interface so that only a cursor block would put out enough light to trigger the interface to have a hit available. So you'd write out a row of cursors, starting at the top row, looking for a signal from the pen. Once you find the row, you'd repeat the sequence colmun-by-column until you again got a hit. Now you know the X,Y coordinates of then pen, and you can do whatever you want at that point. Select the object under the pen, repeat the depositing of some character sequence, etc. To draw with this particular display, of course, you'd have to draw using some pre-defined screen character as the "nib". I never got that far- I build the pen, still have it, and I put quite a bit of effort into re-writing the code, all on paper.. then I moved out, forgot it, and the girlfriend threw my code away. but I digress... -dq

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

M212 Transputer Disk Controller

by rmeenaks＠olf.com

Hi, Does anyone have a spare M212 transputer??? Ram -- ,,,, /'^'\ ( o o ) -oOOO--(_)--OOOo------------------------------------- | Ram Meenakshisundaram | | Senior Software Engineer | | OpenLink Financial Inc | | .oooO Phone: (516) 227-6600 x267 | | ( ) Oooo. Email: rmeenaks(a)olf.com | ---\ (----( )-------------------------------------- \_) ) / (_/

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Philips XT with 768K

by marek＠czernohous.de

hmm you said, that you admin a network with NMS9100 in it. I have the same computer at home but its missing his BIOS Disk. Do you have still one of these or know where to get it? thanx, Marek Czernohous -- marek(a)czernohous.de

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Light Pens ...

by mbg＠world.std.com

>Ok, my mind is still blown. How does a light-pen drawing program work >then? (Or is a light-pen drawing program not possible?) By putting up some sort of target which does provide the light-pen with a light signal. The target is designed in such a way that you cannot move the pen without hitting some part of it, and the software sees a light-pen hit and *re-centers* the target on that point, effectively moving it to where the pen is now pointing. Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Scaling Supercomputers With Linux

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Since at least discussing Supercomputers is on-topic, I guess we can proceed... It's an interesting sales point, but as those who are even more in the know than I have said, a large cluster of computers is *not* a supercomputer; there are (see comp.sys.super for more details) classes of problem that each lends itself to, and that the other does not. But of course, any computer can be used to do what any other computer can do, so it may be a moot point. -dq

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

MountainGate RDR

by rnlion＠its.caltech.edu

I recently acquired a MountainGate RDR storage system of some kind. I don't know much about it or how it would be used, but the price was right... Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this sytem. What I have are 3 large rackmount cases, Units 0, 1, and 2, each with an ISA backplane and 8x Quantum Grand Prix 4.3GB drives. Unit 0 is the controller, with a 486 SBC, 420MB boot drive, parallel/CGA? card, and 10baseT ethernet. It also has a pair of "Acces I/O Products" model LT2-AT cards, with 100-pin connectors on the back panel. It then has 4x RAID controller cards (I think, they are entirely unlabeled) -- the most prominent/relevant chips are 2x Western Digital WD33C93 and a TI TMS320C25. Finally, there is some sort of master controller card that sasys MountainGate on it, with a DB-37 connector on the back panel. The 5 controller cards are connected with a 50 pin ribbon cable bus, and the 4 drive controllers have a pair of 10 pin ribbon cables bussing them together, one of which goes to a pair of DB9s on the back panel. Unit 1 and Unit 2 are similarly configured, but with only the 4 drive controllers and the master controller, and 1 LT2-AT each. I have tried to power the whole system up, but the only CGA screen I have is really flaky, so I can tell that _something's_ going on on the screen, but I can't read it. Hopefully I'll be able to track down an ISA VGA video card soon; I had one but loaned it to a friend. If anyone knows anything about this system, please let me know. Thanks a lot, Rob Lion

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Problems installing Solaris 2.4 on SPARCstation LX

by cryhavoc_q＠hotmail.com

Hi folks! I'm a newbie - I just subscribed. ;-) I'm having some difficulty with a SPARCstation LX I rescued from the dumpster at work. It's got SunOS 4.1.3_UI installed on it, but it expects to find a server on a network. I can boot to the "#" prompt with "boot -s" but with autoboot the machine tries to find a server called "scanlab" on the TPE. It reports le0: No Carrier... and retries ad infinity. But what I really want to do is just install a fresh copy of Solaris 2.4. I've got a CD marked "Solaris 2.4 Hardware: 11/94" but I don't know if it is really the solaris install cd. Also, when i boot from the cdrom ("boot cdrom"), the system starts loading SunOS 5.4. But I get a warning immediately after the copyright appears. "Data transfer overrun" and it prints out "current esp states:" and lists several esp states.... (whatever those are)... The LX reboots from the default boot directory. I'm sorry that I'm such a newbie. This is my very first Sun machine and I'm very excited about getting it up and running, but I know nthing about it :-( I'm open to any suggestions that you folks might give me... Here's my setup: Sun SPARCstation LX, 48MB RAM, 450MB internal hd, external 411 hd (ID 1) - not sure of the capacity but I think it's ~500MB, and a Matsushita (LaCie rebranded) CD-R at ID 6. Thanks for being patient with me! Peace, Drew _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

25 years, 1 month

16
27
0 0

It's Alive, ALIVE!

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 16, R. D. Davis wrote: > Out of curiosity, how many others here have Dynabyte systems or > components? I've a Dynabyte 5100 system running MP/M, lots of serial > ports, two 8" Shugart floppy drives and a 10" Micropolis (IIRC) hard > drive. *drool* I've wanted one for years...does that count? ;) -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Collecting vs. My Wife

by healyzh＠shell1.aracnet.com

> My wife has grumbled a bit about my collecting, esp. > when I use the loft in our house as a staging area. > Most of the stuff is either in the computer room or > the garage, but nothing beats being able to spread > a system out on the floor and coffee table to either > repair or build the system. Before I asked my wife to marry me, I gave her a tour of my storage units, and the computers I had at my folks (especially the ones in the garage). Plus I'm the one that came up with the rule that computers are only in the computer room in our apartment. Although at times there are computers, or computer related stuff in the entryway or hall. > I've recently decided to limit myself to VAX, PDP-11, > and Alpha systems. I'm going to be selling off my > CP/M and TRS-80 collection (except for my Cyzern > System 7000 and possibly my very rare Norcom clone). > When I mentioned this to my wife, I was extremely > surprised when she said I should keep the stuff! > > I guess that's one of the reasons I love her so > much; she supports my computing habit (she even > bought me my first Alpha). In my case I'm trimming my collection down to being primarily DEC because that's what I find myself the most interested in, and spending what time I have for the hobby on. The most shocking hobby/wife event happened about a month ago when she told me that she really wanted to go big swap meet. It wasn't just me that left with stuff either, she found about as much stuff to bring home as I did (it just weighed less). OTOH, a certain part of my interest in collecting classic computers has shifted over to collecting old video game systems and games, as that's something we can enjoy together. The scary thing with that is she's encouraging me to get a Neo Geo arcade machine! Anyone know of any cheap ones in the Portland, OR area? Zane

25 years, 1 month

13
42
0 0

QBUS Board Identification

by dittman＠dittman.net

I found some QBUS boards that I can't identify from the field guide. The numbers are: M8950 M8951 M8952 M8953 M8955 M8958 M8970 M8971 M8972 M8973 I believe some of them are parts of a tape controller, and one of the boards had an i8085 along with some ROMs. There's also a board with a bunch of ROMs that has the notation "8085 ROM BOARD". I have no idea of the origin of the boards. I found them in a cabinet while I was looking for some documentation. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

QBUS Board Identification

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I believe these are a board set from a TU78 or TA78 tape drive. -Dave McGuire On July 16, Eric Dittman wrote: > I found some QBUS boards that I can't identify from the field > guide. The numbers are: > > M8950 > M8951 > M8952 > M8953 > M8955 > M8958 > M8970 > M8971 > M8972 > M8973 > > I believe some of them are parts of a tape controller, and > one of the boards had an i8085 along with some ROMs. There's > also a board with a bunch of ROMs that has the notation "8085 > ROM BOARD". > > I have no idea of the origin of the boards. I found them in > a cabinet while I was looking for some documentation. > -- > Eric Dittman > dittman(a)dittman.net

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Light Pen for PCjr or PC?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 09:44 PM 7/14/01 -0700, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: >When the computer hears from the lightpen that it sees the light, it knows >(I promised over-simplification!) where the light is at that instant, and >therefore, now knows where the lightpen is. It's all about light detection and horizontal and vertical scan timing. There were light pens for the Amiga that worked at a distance and with projection televisions, for example. The same principle is used in old console games for the "gun" that knows what you're pointing at on-screen. - John

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Test - List working?

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

Don't seem to have seen any traffic here for a while. Geoff in Oz

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Another Amiga question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> For Iggy or whoever else might know... > > Ok, after about 4 years, I now have another Amiga 3000. > Cool! The only thing is, after I've popped a set of 3.1 ROMs into > it, gotten new from Sotware Hut, it's having SCSI problems. It's > giving data errors from the internal drive. I vaguely remember > having the same problem with my other 3000 but do not remember the > fix. Other than the ROMs, nothing else was changed. I plan on > putting the 2.0 ROMs back in just to recheck everything. Anyone? The first thought that comes to mind are you running with the newest revision of the SCSI chip? I've got two A3000's, one is near pristine, sitting in the box as a spare (got it from a guy locally who had taken beautiful care of it and a A2000. The other is a *major* dog, BUT, I've upgraded all the chips to the latest Rev, added a DIP to SIMM board with 16MB RAM, added a Picasso IV video board, 10Base2 Ethernet, and a Catweasel. The only thing it needs is an accelerator and a way to add more RAM :^) Downside being I've not used it in 2-3 years. However, I've had major problems with the internal HD getting corrupted. In my case thank goodness for having had a Exabyte 8500 hooked up to it. This was with 3.1 ROMS and OS. I've never run any other version on it except for the few days it took to get 3.1 from Softhut. BTW, what version of the OS are you running? I've been wanting to get the system back out of storage and buy a copy of Amiga OS V3.9 and try that out. Zane

25 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by r_beaudry＠hotmail.com

Hello all, I recently acquired an Osborne One, but it seems to be having a video problem -- as in no video at all. I did the obvious - played with the brightness and contrast -- but still nothing. If I press a key on the keyboard, the floppy starts seeking, so I assume the rest of the computer is at least partially working, but I get no video output at all. I have NO docs or schematics, so it's a bit hard for me to test stuff out. The CRT make no noise at all when power is either turned off or on (no static or hum, or anything else). Also, I took the cover off, and carefully looked inside while turning the power on, and the CRT didn't light up, or have any other response. After powering down, a very careful disassembly showed no physical damage signs -- no burn spots, missing components, broken wires, etc. Any clues? This is the blue case, with the modem, and a composite video jack (female RCA jack) in the bottom right.... Rich B.

25 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Rich Beaudry" <r_beaudry(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > I recently acquired an Osborne One, but it seems to be having a video > problem -- as in no video at all. I did the obvious - played with the The O1 has a card-edge out the front that carries video signals. If you were using the Osborne external monitor, it would have a cable to mate with this connector. If you are using the internal monitor, there's supposed to be a loopback connector plugged into this (covering the card-edge). Sometimes the loopback connector gets separated from the O1, though, in which case you get no video on the internal monitor. -Frank McConnell

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 16, Rich Beaudry wrote: > I recently acquired an Osborne One, but it seems to be having a video > problem -- as in no video at all. I did the obvious - played with the > brightness and contrast -- but still nothing. If I press a key on the > keyboard, the floppy starts seeking, so I assume the rest of the computer is > at least partially working, but I get no video output at all. I have NO > docs or schematics, so it's a bit hard for me to test stuff out. The CRT > make no noise at all when power is either turned off or on (no static or > hum, or anything else). Also, I took the cover off, and carefully looked > inside while turning the power on, and the CRT didn't light up, or have any > other response. No light from the CRT's filament? That's a bad sign. If there's enough room in there, it might be a good idea to look carefully at the neck of the CRT and try to identify the filament pins, then check between them with an ohmmeter to see if the filament is open. I have an operational Osborne One here, with the manual...if you want me to look anything up for you, or do any probing, let me know. -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: > >YOU just came up with the first clue. Connect a composite monitor and see >if there is video reaching the external jack. >is there any software/magic keystrokes, etc. required to activate the >external video? Do you need that funny little connector to use external video? (Small black thing, marked EXMON). I vaguely remember some warning about ensuring that the box is powered off when inserting or removing the little beastire. (Oh, for a technical manual ...) Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Osborne One -- No video.

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

There must be a shunt on the video edge connector that comes out at the front middle of the case. It just connects the contact on the bottom with the contact on the top of the circuit board. I can email you more info tomorrow if you need it...got to run now. Bob Feldman -----Original Message----- From: Rich Beaudry [mailto:r_beaudry@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 3:49 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Osborne One -- No video. Hello all, I recently acquired an Osborne One, but it seems to be having a video problem -- as in no video at all. I did the obvious - played with the brightness and contrast -- but still nothing. If I press a key on the keyboard, the floppy starts seeking, so I assume the rest of the computer is at least partially working, but I get no video output at all. I have NO docs or schematics, so it's a bit hard for me to test stuff out. The CRT make no noise at all when power is either turned off or on (no static or hum, or anything else). Also, I took the cover off, and carefully looked inside while turning the power on, and the CRT didn't light up, or have any other response. After powering down, a very careful disassembly showed no physical damage signs -- no burn spots, missing components, broken wires, etc. Any clues? This is the blue case, with the modem, and a composite video jack (female RCA jack) in the bottom right.... Rich B.

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

It's Alive, ALIVE!

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 16, Rich Beaudry wrote: > Just wanted to share a very tiny, but nonetheless important moment for me. > Took a homebrewed S-100 power supply, connected it to a nice Wameco > motherboard (thanks ajp!), threw in a Cromemco SCC (thanks Mike for the > monitor and Control Basic), and was greeted by a wonderful "OK >" prompt on > my terminal. "QUIT" out to the monitor prompt (":"), and fooled around a > bit, then a "B" back into Control Basic. > > Not much I admit, but a working SCC, good EPROMs, and a working > PS/motherboard... It felt really good. > > Next up, I added a Cromemco 8K ByteSaver II, and read out some 2708s. I > tried to program a couple, but got stymied. I think I just need to do more > "R"ing of TFM. Neat to finally be able to at least read them out. > > All I need to do is throw in a couple of 16K Static RAM cards, and either a > Cromemco TUART or a Godbout Interfacer, and I'll be rocking a bit! Final > test is the Dynabyte floppy controller! > > Baby steps, I admit, but still felt cool.... Sounds like an extremely gratifying victory. Very cool! Congrats! -Dave McGuire

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

It's Alive, ALIVE!

by r_beaudry＠hotmail.com

Hello to all, Just wanted to share a very tiny, but nonetheless important moment for me. Took a homebrewed S-100 power supply, connected it to a nice Wameco motherboard (thanks ajp!), threw in a Cromemco SCC (thanks Mike for the monitor and Control Basic), and was greeted by a wonderful "OK >" prompt on my terminal. "QUIT" out to the monitor prompt (":"), and fooled around a bit, then a "B" back into Control Basic. Not much I admit, but a working SCC, good EPROMs, and a working PS/motherboard... It felt really good. Next up, I added a Cromemco 8K ByteSaver II, and read out some 2708s. I tried to program a couple, but got stymied. I think I just need to do more "R"ing of TFM. Neat to finally be able to at least read them out. All I need to do is throw in a couple of 16K Static RAM cards, and either a Cromemco TUART or a Godbout Interfacer, and I'll be rocking a bit! Final test is the Dynabyte floppy controller! Baby steps, I admit, but still felt cool.... Rich B.

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Kennedy 9100 tape drive info?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> This is definitely not a Pertec-interface drive. > Has two what looked like 36-conductor edge > connectors, plus or minus. Not 50. I'm guessing it might be a StorageTek interface... -dq

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

BBC Micro (was: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

John Allain wrote: > > > I always 'megger' old transformers and most of them are as good as > > the day they were made. > > -tony > > Tony you lost me here. Kegger I heard of. Megger? A "megger" is a meter so he means he checks the winding resistance ... what's a kegger? Antonio arcarlini(a)iee.org

25 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Subject: Light Pen for PCjr or PC?

by kapteynr＠cboe.com

You might not believe it, but I actually have a light pen on my Altair 8800. There was an article in one of the old hobbyist magazines how to do it, and we did it. (my little brother and I) We have a Processor Technology VDM-1 "video display module" in the Altair. This was a very popular add-on module. The VDM-1 allows software to read the current horizontal and vertical sync registers. To make a light pen, we simply put a phototransistor in the end of an empty pen and strung some wires from it to a prototyping card in the Altair. We have a simple circuit that triggers an interrupt whenever a certain threshold is hit The interupt processing software then reads the current horizontal and vertical scan positions from the VDM-1 card. The VDM-1 only has character-level black&white graphics, but we could still draw on the screen by reversing the background of the character blocks. We had never heard of the "mouse" when we did this, so it seemed really high-tech and was quite fun. The mouse is better though :-) -Rob -----Original Message----- From: McFadden, Mike [SMTP:mmcfadden@cmh.edu] Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 11:40 AM To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' Subject: RE: Subject: Light Pen for PCjr or PC? >From: Michael Brutman <mbbrutman(a)chartermi.net> > > >I've never seen a light pen in use on any machine ... I've >only seen them in pictures. How do these things work? >Does anybody know how to obtain one or have information >on how to build on? > > >Thanks, >Mike As I understand it the light pen detects the electron beam on the CRT display as it passes the end of the pen and can decode from the timing where the pen is located. Somewhere I have a light pen kit that was used to emulate certain types of IBM terminals. Many hospitals used light pens to move through the menus for patient registration and order entry. Pointer to some more information http://www.ftgdata.com/products/lightpennav.html Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

BBC Micro (was: Re: Apple II for into to microprocessors

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 15, 20:13, Tony Duell wrote: > Hmmm... I have the US Beeb schematic somewhere.... OK, found it. > > The US version of the Beeb can output NTSC video. > Having found the US Beeb schematic, that's what they did, almost. The > cystal is 14.318MHz, and there are a couple of other capacitor changes in > the oscillator circuit. The flip-flops are re-numbered (IC46 -> IC96 and > IC44 -> IC97) but the circuit is unchaged electrically. And the output of > IC97b goes to one side of link S32. The centre pin of the link goes to > the xor gate input (now IC99d), the other outside pin is grounded. Set > the link one way and you have PAL, set it the other way and you get NTSC. > I think all BBC B+ machines have this link as standard (even the UK ones). Yes, I they do (mine has it, and it's shown on all the diagrams) and now you mention it, it sounds familiar. Or more accurately, I remember seeing soething about converting US machines back to UK spec (or UK-usable spec, at least). One Acorn dealer re-imported a lot of unsold US and German Beebs some years ago. For readers unfamiliar with the BBC family, the original machines were the Model A and Model B; the A lacking certain components present in the B to provide multiple-ROM support, printer port, user port, serial port, analogue port, 1MHz bus or Tube (2nd Processor) ports, and only having 16KB RAM instead of 32KB. However, upgrading was easy (and both official and unofficial kits were readily available) and there was no difference at all between a B and a fully-upgraded A. Both could be further extended with a disk interface, proprietary network interface, and various third-party addons. Then came the B+. This looked similar from the outside, but had a redesigned PCB with 64K of RAM, some of which was used to "shadow" the screen and OS workspace. There was a 64K upgrade for it, which made it a 128K machine (though you couldn't actually do much with the extra RAM except put BASIC and it's variable space in it). It also used a 1770 or 1772 disk controller rather than the 8271 in the B (though you could fit an 8271 to a B+ or a 1770 to a B). That was succeeded by the Master 128 -- externally as well as internally different. It had a numeric keypad added, used double density disks by default, had two ROM cartridge slots, more comprehensive MOS (machine operating system), several utility ROMs that would be extras for a B/B+ were built in, and it used a CMOS 65C02. It also used more custom chips :-( There were some coprocessor addons for the 128 and other members of the family launched shortly after it, like the Master Compact (a two-box solution) and the ill-fated Econet Terminal (terminal and network software only, no BASIC and no extra interfaces, didn't sell well and was quietly dropped). After that, in 1987, came the Archimedes range, based on the ARM processor. Initially the A310 with 1MB, which still had red function keys to denote its standing as a BBC Microcomputer, then the A440 (grey keys, not a BBC Micro). And after that, the A3000 and its successor the A3010, which were the last with BBC endorsement and once again were single-box systems (like an Apple ][ or Amiga 500, etc). There were many other models in the ARM-based range, ending with the RISC PC, but none were BBC Micros. Despite all this, when someone refers to "a Beeb" they usually mean a Model A or Model B, not a B+ or later. Acorn trivia: the plastic case of the A3000 was deemed not strong enough to support the weight of a multisync monitor, so a sheet-metal stand was devised. The front of it sat on the strong edges of the A3000 case, the rear was supported on a bent-over section. Because it clung to the case, and from the front looked like the outline of a Klingon warbird, it became known as "the klingon". -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

25 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

thunderstorm damages!

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Many times it's not the surge through the power line but through the phone line that gets you. I've lost two modems that way, one of my friends lost his motherboard with a built-in modem because of lightning. I knew the lightning would be a problem when I saw the power transformer and the pole burning and then I found part of my phone wiring was toasted. My UPS warbles all the time from voltage and line variations. I've got both my router and cable modem plugged in to it. Maybe I'm paranoid, of course I live on a lake in Missouri where trees fall on the power lines all the time, we have thunderstorms and the occasional tornado and the all too common fried squirrel on the transformer. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Subject: Light Pen for PCjr or PC?

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

>From: Michael Brutman <mbbrutman(a)chartermi.net> > > >I've never seen a light pen in use on any machine ... I've >only seen them in pictures. How do these things work? >Does anybody know how to obtain one or have information >on how to build on? > > >Thanks, >Mike As I understand it the light pen detects the electron beam on the CRT display as it passes the end of the pen and can decode from the timing where the pen is located. Somewhere I have a light pen kit that was used to emulate certain types of IBM terminals. Many hospitals used light pens to move through the menus for patient registration and order entry. Pointer to some more information http://www.ftgdata.com/products/lightpennav.html Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Starting the GUI in Solaris 2.4

by cryhavoc_q＠hotmail.com

Bill, I tried that. I navigated to /usr/openwin/bin/ and typed openwin at the # prompt. The OS returned the message "openwin: not found" :-( Ideas? Thanks, Drew p.s. - I'm logged in as root if that makes a difference. I'd also like to set up a seperate user account... I'm going to try to look around for a way to set up a user account. >/usr/openwin/bin/openwin should work... if you didn't install CDE. >CDE is usually on an additional CDROM IIRC... been a long time since >I've seen Solaris 2.4. >Bill _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

25 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Recent transputer finds...

by rmeenaks＠olf.com

Well, I am back from my trip to London and picked up my 3 boxes. There are *a lot* of vintage documentation on the transputer including but not limited to: full 3L compilers (Pascal, C, & Fortran) with TBug debugger IMSD100 Occam compiler IMSD705B Occam compiler A nearly complete collection of Occam Users Group newsletters A nearly complete inmos tech notes whitepapers, product info on various transputer vendors user guides for various inmos & transtech boards and boxes and boxes of floppy disks contains various transputer programs and support software. Unfortunately, I didnt have enough space to take the floppy disks, so I had to leave it behind in our London office. I got to pick it up later on when I get back there. As for boards, I am the proud owner of: 2 IMSB012 16-slot transputer tram boards 1 IMSB004-4 evaluation board 1 IMSB001 evaluation board 4 TTG1 graphics tram 1 TTM110 T805 + i860 Vector processor tram and 1 M212 disk controller of some sort. Most of the ICs are missing including the M212. Seems to be some prototype or unfinished board. I'll start sorting out these and start scanning a lot of the documentation. The nice thing about these is it is not in book format, so making it a lot easier to scan. Now, I just need some time to actual do the scanning :-( Cheers, Ram PS: Still looking for an IMSB000 - must be quite rare..... -- ,,,, /'^'\ ( o o ) -oOOO--(_)--OOOo------------------------------------- | Ram Meenakshisundaram | | Senior Software Engineer | | OpenLink Financial Inc | | .oooO Phone: (516) 227-6600 x267 | | ( ) Oooo. Email: rmeenaks(a)olf.com | ---\ (----( )-------------------------------------- \_) ) / (_/

25 years, 1 month

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